Drip.

Something landed on her forehead. Jin Ae’s hand furiously swatted the air before her in annoyance as she rolled around on her new mattress. She let out a breath of air before she settled back in.

Drip.

She groaned as another cold droplet of water collided with her skin. A hand shot out from underneath her warm blankets towards her nightstand before she drowsily felt her way to the tissue box. As soon as her hand met with a thin sheet of something rough and cheap---

Drip.

“AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Jin Ae yelled in irritation as she hastily threw her bed covers off of her in a fit of rage. It landed in a messy heap on the floor, but she could care less as another drop of water stained her pillow. She stared at the hole in her ceiling, huffing and puffing and glaring before she stomped loudly to the door of her room, nearly yanking the piece of wood off its hinges.

“Appa,” she called out as she dragged herself to her dad’s room. The only thing that could be heard as she made her way through the narrow hallway was the loud sound of her dad’s snores.

The cheap wood under her feet creaked with every step she made and the walls were so close together she was nearly shoulder-to-wall on each side. The paint on the walls was peeling off and she really, really hoped she didn’t just see a bug crawling up the wall beside her head.

“Appaaaaaaaaa!” she repeated as she finally reached the master bedroom. She balled her right hand into a fist and pounded on the door. “Hello?!”

She already half knew he wasn’t going to wake up. When her dad slept, he slept like the dead. He could sleep through an earthquake. After another few minutes of banging the poor life out of the cheap wood, she threw her hands up in the air and gave up.

She was about to head to the kitchen to sleep when she passed by the only window in the hallway. It had a good view of the neighbouring house, complete with a sturdy iron gate surrounding the property, four white garage doors, a balcony emerging from the third story of the house and a lamp that softly illuminated both the swimming pool and tennis court at the back at the house.

The familiar sound of rainwater colliding with a puddle on her bed made its way from her bedroom all the way to her ears. She glanced back at the open door of her bedroom, then at the multiple empty boxes piled up at the front door, then back at the window with a view of her neighbour’s house.

A lightbulb lit up in her head.

She snickered as she tiptoed to the front door to slip on her shoes.

I don’t have a ladder, but I bet my neighbours do.

As soon as she opened the door, a blast of cold wind hit her, and it probably didn’t help that she was wearing a t-shirt and long sweats. Still undeterred, she darted her way off her own property and onto her neighbour’s until she reached the tall iron gates that led to their backyard.

“Let’s do this!” she cheered quietly to herself, not exactly realizing what a bad idea this was.

Grabbing a hold of the horizontal bar at the top of the gate, she was able to hoist herself up until she could swing her left leg right over. But with too much force, she ended up spiralling downwards.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” She yelled as she fell before colliding with something hard.

“Oomph!” An unfamiliar voice called out and the two of them went tumbling on the ground, rolling around in pain before they stopped in the middle of a garden of daisies.

Jin Ae immediately sat up and spit out a handful of flowers. When her vision stopped spinning, her eyes finally landed on a figure not too far from herself. Since it was dark, she could only make out the fact that it was a person and the person had his back turned to her. She gasped and scrambled backwards until her back hit the fence.

“,” she whispered. “, , .”

She looked around, hoping to find a tree or something that was big enough to hide her but all there was in this dumb place was that darn swimming pool and tennis court. She immediately flopped back down on to the garden of daisies and played dead.

Jin Ae squeezed her eyes shut tighter when she heard the guy beside her groan and roll over.

“What the hell was that,” the guy exclaimed tiredly as he got up. His voice was deep and had some sort of weird pronunciation that she couldn’t really put her finger on. She heard him mumble a string of curse words before he suddenly fell quiet.

She felt something poke her shoulder. The alarm in her head rang loudly and she panicked.

A big hand clasped her shoulder this time and shook her lightly. “Hey! Who are you?”

When she didn’t answer, it suddenly got silent. Jin Ae hoped the boy thought she was a murderer and decided to get his back in the house to safety and leave her here. But just in case, she decided to play dead for 10 more minutes.

“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttt” Jin Ae chanted like a mantra in her head. “Go away, please go away---AH!”

Suddenly, she felt her body being lifted by a strong set of hands. Her thoughts went crazy and she nearly flailed in his arms, “WHAT THE HELL.”
 

Jin Ae pondered her options. She could:

1) Rip a cobblestone out of the garden floor and smash his nose into his face

2) Continue to play dead

Jin Ae chose the second option because honestly, she didn’t know how tight those cobblestones were embedded into the floor and whether or not this dude had some weird and crazy kung fu moves.

She gulped as she heard a door creak open. It was probably the door that led back inside the house.

After 5 minutes, she was still in the guy’s arms and since she had her eyes closed, she had no idea where on Earth they were going.

Damn, she probably should have smashed a cobblestone into his nose while she had the chance.

A minute or two later and after hearing many doors open and close, she felt the guy let go of her body. Her back hit a silk soft surface and she felt her body just sink into a mattress. She almost let out a sigh of content but remembered where she was and that she definitely did not know who this house belonged to.

Jin Ae stiffened when she felt the covers being pulled back and contemplated smashing her own fist into his face if he got into bed with her. Instead, she felt the covers being tugged over her own body before hearing the door to the room being shut.

She was alone.

She breathed a sigh of relief and tugged the covers closer to her.

Forget the ladder. She would sneak her way out of here in 15 minutes. For sure.

When Jin Ae woke up, it was morning.

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