The heels of her school shoes dragged against the cement as she finally slowed until she stopped in her place on the sidewalk. Somi's lips parted. They trembled with an ache for words to be shared. But she didn't know what those words were that wanted to be said and could only breathe through her parted lips.

Amusement, Somi could solely see that one emotion within the eyes of this new person that caught her attention, even through the tears that clouded her vision. She struggled to identify why this one stare out of the many she had received so far latched on to her and refused to let her move on to more important things, like finding Changkyun, who she had been crying for all this time. The thought of him still burned away at her mind, guilt plaguing her as she stayed planted with her feet stuck to the cement. But she couldn't get her legs to move.

"What's a girl like you doing out here when the suns went down? And without anyone accompanying her for that matter," The stranger commented as her uniform was examined with his scrutinising eyes, "where are your butler's, little lady? Hm?" She was asked, and Somi swallowed, the action thick and hard to produce, knowing that meant words had to follow afterwards. But the stranger's awareness for her school uniform and its secrets only grew a hard lump in for her to swallow, feeling anything but safe.

Butlers? He must be a student, too, possibly.

"I need to find Changkyun" Despite her, the words came tumbling out from her lips. Somi's body jittered, distressed at being halted in her search for Changkyun by the stranger who looked as though they had all the time in the world to spare. It itched at Somi's nerves irritatingly, knowing that, unlike him, she did not have all the time in the world spare to discuss her currents problem.

"Changkyun?" The stranger voiced back, and Somi's head rattled like a bobblehead in response, sniffing with the sleeves of her sweater threatening to make the skin of her eyelids go raw under their rough touch they couldn't catch a break from as she wiped at them continuously.

"Yes, he and Hyunwoo broke out in an argument-" A sharp breath was into her lungs; "-Hyunwoo's been discriminating against him for his ranking, and he's distraught, but I don't know where he's gone, and I need to find him I'm so worried that something has happened to-"

"Your cards?" The verbalised assumption stopped Somi in her tracks. Taking in a big breath once again, Somi nodded to confirm that the hypothesis was correct.

"Yes, my cards" The pitch of her voice couldn't be controlled, jumping up into a whine. It cracked in dismay, rugged and uncontrolled. She quivered and trembled as if there was ice in the air surrounding her, unable to control the way her body moved with the anxiety bouncing around within.

"I need to go and find him" With a hiccup and a shaky hand that she pushed the hair away from her face, Somi wobbly legs to keep running towards her desperation to find Changkyun.

"Just call him back" Cutting her movements off with his words, he halted Somi in her place stubbornly with his piercing stare when her eyes snapped back to him, making her caught on the spot all over again.

"What?" The word felt painful in like it was far more forced than she realised it to be once it was finally out.

"Put him back in his card. After all, that's what the thing is to be used for, right? Use it. If you need him so much, to drag him back to you to end your search," Stuffing his hands in his pockets, the stranger's foot scuffed against the ground. He shrugged his shoulders as if the answer was so simple, and Somi's puffy eyes narrowed into red slits with black pupils pinning onto the young man several feet away from her.

"What's your name?" Questioned Somi without sniffling. She gave a tick of her head in his direction. The stranger mulled over the question for a moment, deciding whether or not he wanted to answer her and tell her his name. The silence sparked within Somi, it made her fingers twitch, and her lips purse in the smallest act of irritation that only a sharp eye would have been able to catch. She pulled in a deep breath through her nose, blinking away the watery substance that hung to the lines of her eyes and obstructed her vision.

"Lee Jooheon", Answered the stranger finally, beating Somi before she could burst.

"Lee Jooheon," She tested the stranger's name on her tongue and steeled her nerves, "Well, Lee Jooheon. I don't know who you think you are to even suggest such a course of action out of me as if it is such a simple answer." Somi huffed and forced her hair out of her face.

"It's beyond the capabilities of my mind how you could even imply that Changkyun or his card is a mere 'thing'  or 'it' for beckoning at my own selfish desire. Never will I be that cruel" Somi's tongue lashed out at Jooheon, her twitching fingers curled into tight fists at her side, and her jaw stiffened whilst her fists shook, showing her unwillingness to budge from her point of view to Jooheon's. She took a step back and shook her head, disappointed in the stranger that she had only known for a mere minute, shimmering eyes scaling the figure of Jooheon with a look identical to disgust for the male that had appeared and snowballed.

"To make such assumptions," Her tongue clucked. She couldn't even finish her sentence, the taste on her tongue too bitter to handle. Somi spun and dashed away, lips ripping open again to scream for Changkyun as if his name was the only word she truly knew the meaning of. 

The time that could have been dotted down to mere single-digit minutes of running to escape the stranger dragged on like there was a rope tied to Somi's wrist, the other end connected to a boulder unwilling to move no matter how hard she ran. She passed store of after store, making it three blocks down with the rope still holding her wrist back. She would have bypassed the lone book store with its lights on like she had with all the other empty stores if it weren't for her scouring eyes missing the way the path jutted in a messy clump of unfinished paving. Her knees were the first thing to hit the ground and rip open on the cement. Her hands crash-landed heavily and seared with the pain of being split open over the ripples in the pavement.

The fall put her whole body on the ground in an embarrassing shamble. A scream and a cry shook through Somi's throat and out of , stunned and pained by the sudden trip to the street flooring. Her body tremored and shook, lips baring her teeth with hate for the pain pulsing through her body and straight to the open parts of her skin with an extra pang. Somi's squinted eyes looked up at the flashing sign on the library window that danced with the enticing word of 'open'. She couldn't stop herself from sighing, intending to dust her hands clean, but only causing herself pain that made her hiss as her open skin rubbed together.

"Damn it!" She hissed to herself. Wasting no more time sitting around, Somi encouraged her body back onto its feet. Carefully, she picked away stray bits of dirt from her red knees, wincing at the sickening feeling swimming through her as she moved the wounded area. Once again, her eyes looked into the library, the lighting casting a reflection of herself that she could see in the window. She looked like a mess, a miserable mess. 

That fact didn't hold her attention for long. Her body sparked to life as her eyes were snagged by the attention of another moving figure a distance away in the reflection of the mirror. There were no doubts, no reasons for Somi to contemplate. His name was on the tip of her tongue again, and it jumped out of as she spun on tired feet that were suddenly invigorated with life.

"Changkyun!" There was no mistaking, the sullen figure walking the distance wearing a uniform that matched her own. It had to be Changkyun that was aimlessly wandering.

"Im Changkyun" She ran, with adrenaline shooting her forward. Somi forgot about her sore hands and knees for the moment because she had finally found him.

"Changkyun, wait!"

------------

With the key in the hole, the door handle turned, and the door pushed open. Somi roughly exhaled, hand tightly clasping Changkyun's, pulling him back into their home.

"Where have you been? You said you would return before sundown for safeties sake, Somi" Somi couldn't answer; instead, she could only sniffle through the last few tears that needed to run down her cheeks with a desire for freedom. Her sleeve roughly wiped at her eyes, skin stinging when contact was made, her other hand clasped tightly around shaking fingers that didn't belong to her like they were the most prized possession that she wouldn't be sharing with anyone who asked.

Hyungwon rose at the sight of Somi entering the dorm, much later than she had promised to return home. He was instantly heading for the door, intending to meet the