The alarm started beeping. Jiyeong groaned and opened her eyes. She nearly screamed when she saw a face just mere inches away from hers.

It was Jungkook’s sleeping face. Jiyeong frowned. Where were the pillows? Then she realized that one of each his arms and legs were over her and their bodies were literally an inch apart. Without thinking, she shoved Jungkook away with all her strength.

From the sudden impact, the boy toppled to the floor. “Ouch!” She heard a curse word follow that. Jungkook’s angry face lifted to meet Jiyeong’s. “What was that for?”

The girl was startled because of the fact that she had actually managed to wake him up. “Um, err…” Then remembering the position they were in when she woke up, she glared at him. “What happened to the pillow wall?” Her voice had become deathly quiet.

Jungkook glanced at the bed and then at the floor. “Oh.” He sheepishly scratched his head. “I must’ve kicked them away in my sleep. I don’t snore much, but I do have a bad habit of moving around in my sleep.”

Jiyeong just rolled her eyes. “That’s it. One of us is sleeping on the floor tonight.” She reached over and slammed her hand on the clock, silencing the alarm. Jungkook winced.

“I’m really sorry. I won’t do that again,” he promised. “Also, it’s not healthy to sleep on the floor. Last time I tried, I had massive back pain. Couldn’t even walk.”

The girl sighed heavily. Just then, her stomach grumbled. Jungkook chuckled and stood up. "Follow me."

Jungkook led Jiyeong to the dining room. Jin was placing dishes of croissants and loaves of raisins-and-nuts bread on the large table. Jiyeong’s eyes widened when she smelled the aroma of freshly baked bread. “Did you bake this all by yourself?” she asked, raising her head to meet eyes with Jin.

The older boy smiled warmly and nodded. “I like cooking.”

“You must’ve woken up at the crack of dawn,” Jiyeong murmured in wonder.

“He’s only doing this because it’s your first day,” Jungkook laughed. “On normal days, it’s just toast.”

The other two sat down and began eating the baked goods. Jin sat down in front of Jiyeong. While they were having breakfast, Jiyeong felt Jin’s eyes piercing her the whole time. She tried not to squirm in her seat. Why was he staring so intently at her? It was really uncomfortable. Just then, Hoseok walked into the room.

“Would you like some breakfast, Hoseok?” Jin called out.

“No.” With that cold word, Hoseok opened the front door and left.

“He’s always like that,” Jungkook whispered to Jiyeong. She frowned, unimpressed by the cold boy’s manners.

Then Jimin came into the dining room. “Hey, look, it’s our new resident.” Smirking, he picked up a croissant. The boy leaned over the table next to the girl as if to get a good look of her face. “Good morning, Jiyeong,” he drawled.

“Morning,” Jiyeong muttered curtly. Jimin put his face closer to hers, as if inspecting an unusual specimen.

“You know, you look like a girl,” Jimin commented. Three people in the room froze.

“Stop teasing him, Jimin,” Jin spoke out. Jiyeong gave him a look of gratitude.

Jimin rolled his eyes. “Why are you taking the new kid’s side, Hyung?” He walked to the door, still holding the croissant. “See you at school, Jiyeong.”

“And he’s always like that, too,” Jungkook muttered.

“Um, I’m Jiyeong. Nice to meet you.” Jiyeong wanted to face-palm herself. She knew that the first day of school would exactly be like this.

To her utter misfortune, her homeroom class consisted of twenty boys including Jimin and Taehyung and excluding Jungkook. Well, Taehyung was kind of okay, but Jimin was going to be a pest.

“Okay, why don’t you go sit down next to Taehyung?” Her new homeroom teacher, who was a pretty, young lady, motioned towards the empty seat in the back next to the said boy. Jiyeong decided to be grateful that at least Jimin sat in the front.

As soon as Jiyeong sat in her new seat, Taehyung turned to face her. “Would you like to eat lunch with us today?” he asked.

Jiyeong gaped at him. Lunch was four hours later. Also, wasn’t he supposed to mind his own business? But then, the rule was to mind one’s own business, not to keep to oneself. “Okay,” she said with a forced smile. “But who’s ‘us?’”

After first period ended, Jiyeong followed the rest of the class out of the classroom. How was she supposed to search for her brother when she was a junior and he was probably a senior? She sighed, finally realizing the immensity of the task ahead of her.

In the hallway, she bumped into another boy. “Sorry,” she automatically said.

“Look where you’re going,” a familiar voice snarled. Jiyeong looked up in surprise to see Hoseok.

“Sorry, Sunbae.” She bowed to the older boy. Hoseok glared at her before rushing to his next class.

“Jerk,” Jiyeong mumbled under her breath.

When Jiyeong walked into the cafeteria with Jungkook, she immediately spotted Taehyung waving excitedly at her. She glanced up at Jungkook. He was nodding in the other boy’s direction. “Come on,” he said, pulling her towards Taehyung’s table.

Jin and Namjoon were already sitting at the circular table. Taehyung patted the seat next to him. “Sit down, Jiyeong,” he said. The girl was surprised at the friendliness of his tone. Uncertainly, she sat on the seat, as stiff as a block of wood. As Jungkook seated himself next to her, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Jin was staring at her as intensely as he did that morning.

“Well, this is awkward,” she finally said. “I thought none of you really hang out with each other.”

“We don’t,” Jin automatically explained. “We just eat lunch together in order to prevent other people from bothering us. Also, we sometimes eat breakfast and dinner together to save food.” Jiyeong tried not to wince at his emotionless voice, which was so unlike him.

Namjoon laughed at the girl’s expression. “He’s exaggerating. Sometimes we hang out. It’s not as often as normal friends because of our separate schedules, but as long as we don’t pry into each other’s lives, we’re free to talk to each other.”

“However, Jimin and Hoseok Hyung are different. They like hanging out by themselves,” Taehyung added.

“Someone say my name?” Jimin strolled to the table. With a smirk, he seated himself in front of Jiyeong. The others gaped at him.

“What?” he said nonchalantly. “Starting today, I’ve decided to sit with you guys.” He smiled mischievously and leaned over the table.

“You know, you’re really small,” Jimin announced loudly. Jiyeong rolled her eyes. She had a feeling this boy came to the table just to annoy her. He seemed to have a grudge against her for being the “unannounced new resident.”

“I thought I was pretty short since I was the shortest in the House of Secrets, but you’re like 165 centimeters. Do you even reach 170?” he added. Jungkook’s hands tightened into fists.

“No, I’m 167 centimeters,” Jiyeong replied flatly. She began to eat her sandwich, although her appetite was sorely affected by the boy’s presence. As a girl, she would’ve been considered to be pretty tall.

“Stop it, Jimin. You know, there’re lots of boys who don’t reach 170,” Namjoon muttered. “It’s not like you’re way above that line either.” He shoved a slice of pizza into the younger boy’s mouth so he wouldn’t retort back.

Jungkook nudged Jiyeong. “Did you see anyone you think is your brother?” he whispered into her ear.

Jiyeong shook her head slightly. She had already scanned the cafeteria with her eyes. No one stood out to her. Her brother wouldn’t look anything like the cute four-year-old years ago, and even that image from her memory was fuzzy. She knew that he didn’t resemble her; when she was young, the employees at the orphanage had always labeled her brother “handsome” and “adorable” while she went ignored. It was kind of sad.

Jungkook reached over to hold her hand under the table. He pressed it comfortingly.

Please comment on the story so far!! :D