The statue stands in a shaded place, an angel girl with an upturned face. A name is written on the polished rock, an angel girl that the world forgot. 

Through the wind and the rain, she stands hard as a stone, in a word that she can't can't rise above. 

- Concrete Angel by Martina McBride 

Φ

When they saw eachother for the first time, Doyeon was just eight years old. It was a simple meeting of their eyes across the playground before the tiny, meek girl looked back down at her shoes and tried her hardest to fade back into the background. Such an event would not have usually stuck in the mind of one so young but, for some reason, she'd not been able to clear the down-trodden and lonely expression from her memory and she sought to know more about the girl whom she'd never notied before.

Asking around with the other students didn't lend her much information, but that the quiet girls name was Choi Yoojung and that she was a bit strange and didn't ever want to join in with the games that the other kids played. For that reason, they now chose to leave her to herself instead of trying to include her.

With only her childish reasoning, Doyeon found it terribly sad that nobody was making the effort. Didn't they see the longing or the dejection that was so clear, now still, in her minds eye? Didn't they see that is wasn't that she ddn't want to be included, but that something was clearly holding her back? Then and there, she resolved that she would never ever give up on Choi Yoojung. Everybody needed somebody to have their back, and if she wasn't going to ask somebody to protect her then somebody was going to have to volunteer. 

However, the next day, the seat at the far right corner of the classroom had been empty. All day Doyeon had waited for the timid girl to show up but the seat had remained vacant and by the time everyone was going out to lunch, she gave up hope that the seat would be filled. She was probably just sick. She would probably be  back tomorrow.

Yoojung did not show up the next day. Days stretched into weeks, which stretched into months and by the time December rolled around, Doyeon had almost forgotten about the meek girl that nobody payed attention to.

Until her memory as stirred by the seat once again being filled a week before they would have Christmas break. At first, Doyeon had thought that it was a trick of her eyes, that she was seeing things, but when she turned in her seat she was met by the sight of Choi Yoojung sitting up straight in her seat and staring attentively at the board.

She looked pale and washed out but she was smiling, and although Doyeon wasn't quite sure why somebody would smile like that at school, she was overrjoyed to see that the girl was back and in seemingly good health.

At breaktime, she decided that she would finally introduce herself. It must have been unbearably lonely to have nobody that you could consider a friend and for one so innocent and undeserving, she wouldn't wish that upon anyone but least of all this girl.

It wasn't difficult to find her, sitting alone by the flower patch as she always was when the sun was shining, seemingly taking joy in the way that the array of flowers swayed in the gentle breeze. Doyeon couldn't help but wonder why the girl always seemed so sad when she was able to take pleasure in such simple things.

"Choi Yoojung, mind if I sit here?" she asked, causing the smaller girl to jump and stumble from her crouched position. The look on her face reminded Doyeon of the way her little sister looked whenever their mother was angry, as if she was expecting to be punished. Her stumble had caused her skirt to ride up slightly, exposing the mottled bruise that decorated the inside of her knee.

In her simple mind, she thought nothing of it at the time, aside from a small amount of worry for the girls health and if she had injured herelf in the fall.

The small girl shook her head furiously, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her cheek atop them. "Go ahead," she stuttered, although it seemed more likean automatic response to the situation that an actual allowence.

Doyeon took a seat, mimicking the meak girl and pulling her legs up, choosing to thread her arms under her knees instead of around them. She wondered if Yoojung would speak, but she doubted it given the her track record of reclusion and anonymity.

"Why don't you come and play with us?" She offerred, already knowing what the answer would be but still deciding to try to see if the outcome would be different from what she expected. Just as she predicted, Yoojung's eyes grew wide, with a look of more horror than surprise and she began shaking her head furiously. Her aim hadn't been to upset the girl with the request and she quickly withdrew the offer, hoping that it would help the girl to calm down faster.

"Sorry," she muttered, tilting her head downwards in a show that she meant absolutely no harm. "I could just sit here with you? I was a bit tired of tag anyway." Her offer was sincere and she hoped that Yoojung didn't turn her down. She wanted to be friends and that was going to be much more difficult to achieve if the small girl cut her off at every corner.

A small nod was all the she recieved by way of a reply, but it was more than enough for Doyeon who let a large smile overtake her features, hoping that the expression would be infectious and lighten the mood at least a little.

Yoojung let out a small smile of her own, before beginning to explain about why she loved the flowers so much. The only indication that everything was quite right was the small winces that Yoojung would give when she moved from position to position.

That was the start of a very fruitful but immensely difficult friendship. Doyeon only wished that she'd been able to notice the warning signs earlier. Maybe she could have cut out some of the hardest and most dfficult moments.

Φ

When they were twelve, Doyeon went to Yoojung's house for the first time.

She didn't know what to expect after the small girl almost tried to prohibit the visit completely when it was first brought up. She wasn't sure what had caused the drastic reaction but it meant that she was now on guard for anything that could be out of the ordinary.

The house was moderately sized and at first glance, she would think that Yoojung had an ideal upbringing in an ideal setting. However, it didn't feel like a home. Everything was too perfect and there was absolutely nothing out of place and although it looked nice, it felt like a show home, not somewhere wherein anybody could be comfortable.

"Nobodies home right now," Yoojung spoke, explaining the quiet and still atmosphere inside the house.

The smaller girl had always been admittedly wary whenever the topic of her family was brought up. Despite having know her for four years already, Doyeon could count the amount of things she knew about Yoojung's family on one hand and still have fingers to spare. It wasn't that there was something explicitly wrong as far as she was aware, she'd always just assumed the the other to be a very private person who didn't like sharing information about herself with anybody that she didn'