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I’m so sick of living thoughtlessly like a robot doll --- CNBLUE, Run

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1.

A tall chubby twelve year old girl laughed out loud, running up the hill. She was panting heavily but still beat her companion. “Come on Jong-Jong!” she giggled, looking down at the small, pale, skinned boy. He was clutching a notebook to his chest like his life depended on it.

“I…told you…stop…calling me…that,” the boy panted, collapsing as soon as he reached the hill. His back was on the ground and he looked up at the girl and blurted out, “You really look like a boy at this angle.”

The girl frowned and turned away, tucking a strand of her short brown hair away. “You’re such a meanie, Jong-Jong,” she retaliated, sticking her tongue out, resisting urge to cry. She knew it was better to make fun of him then actually tell him that his words hurt.

The boy sat up and sighed, noticing that she was about to cry. “You know I didn’t mean that…I think you’re the most beautiful girl ever.”

She sniffled, and shyly looked at him. “Really?”

He grinned, his dimples showing. He knew she loved receiving his attention, and he happily gave it to her. “Of course! You’re even more beautiful than my okaasan!”

The girl smiled slightly, shoving his shoulder roughly to hide her embarrassment. “No way, your okaasan is beautiful! She’d cry if she heard you right now!”

He sighed with relief. At least she was smiling. “Well that’s too bad because I think you’re really beautiful.” 

The smile on his face reassured her that he wasn’t lying. She blushed and looked away. She looked over the hill and down at the river. She wished that time could stop and that the two of them would always be together.

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She sat at the top of the hill, overlooking the river bank below. There was a feeling of melancholy as she stared at the sudden stillness of the river. She knew this place. This was the place where she said her final goodbye—the place where she last saw him.

A feeling of strange, depressing dread overtook her and she took off in the opposite direction. Images of the small, fragile looking boy flashed inside her mind as she continued running, her eyes closed tightly. The last image imprinted inside her head; the boy was looking at her with a wistful smile, his tiny dimples and shaggy hair framing his face, holding out a piece of paper, begging her without words to look at it.

She slowed down, panting and resting her hands on her thighs. She was drained physically and emotionally. She was suddenly extremely tired.

A few moments passed with her trying to catch her breath. But there was something that was nagging her to open her eyes. Like there was a feeling she needed to see something in front of her. She hesitantly opened her eyes.

The little boy locked eyes with her, silently asking her to read his letter.

SooYoung's eyes snapped open, gasping in shock. She placed one hand over her heart to try and ease the beating in her chest as she lay quietly, underneath half the covers in her bed. She stared at the ceiling in a trance for a couple of minutes in silence. The only sound she heard was that of her heartbeat.

"Unnie, are you up yet?" a knock at SooYoung's door broke the young woman from her daze.

She glanced at the digital alarm clock that sat messily on a stack of sketch books on her nightstand. She squinted, her eyes locking on the flashing red numbers. 7:18AM.

She shot up like a bullet, her long dark brown hair sticking up in all directions as an ear splitting scream escaped her lips.

Choi JinRi heard her older sister's scream and sighed, adjusting the ribbon on her school uniform. She heard SooYoung’s struggling around in her room, and in a matter of seconds, flung open the door. JinRi stared at SooYoung for a brief moment; she was dressed in a plain white T-shirt and paint covered overalls (in her haste, one of the shoulder straps was ed) that rolled up to her knees. Her hair was styled in a messy bun, her bangs falling in front of her eyes. She was holding a large canvas for painting and her brown leather satchel in one arm and a pair of black dirty (and paint covered) beat down converse in another.

SooYoung bolted past JinRi and headed to the small kitchen to grab a piece of toast for breakfast. 

The apartment the siblings lived in was one bedroom with a small kitchen and living room. They didn't even have their own bathroom. The place was really for one person, but ever since JinRi came to live with the art student the two had to make do.

SooYoung hopped on one foot, struggling to put on her shoes as her toast popped out of the toaster. She could smell a strong scent of Chinese food from the restaurant below and nearly drooled.

“No, SooYoung, you’re running late already.”

JinRi watched as her sister holding the toast in , shrugging her satchel over her shoulder. She laughed, rolling her eyes. SooYoung may be the older sister, but sometimes she didn’t act like one.

"I'll see you later, Sulli!" she shouted to the younger girl, (toast in ) shutting the door. 

The warm spring breeze lightly hit her face the moment SooYoung stepped outside. The cerulean sky didn’t have a cloud in site. On any other day, SooYoung would have appreciated the beauty, maybe even paint it, but if she didn’t get to the bus stop soon, she’d be late for class.

SooYoung haphazardly sprinted to the direction of the bus stop, struggling to hold the large canvas (which was just about her size). The area where she lived was crowded to say the least; the streets were always full despite the time of the day.

“Sorry!” she yelled over her shoulder to a couple she accidently smacked with the canvas. The guy glared at her while the girl smiled and nodded. SooYoung cringed to herself. She really needed to move out of this area.

Suddenly, as if he appeared out of nowhere, SooYoung collided into a young man. She stumbled back, dropping the canvas along with a couple of her painting supplies that slipped out of her satchel. She cursed loudly, immediately bending down to check on the canvas. It was fairly expensive and she hoped that it was still in one piece.

She sighed with relief once she realized that everything was fine. She looked down and noticed a mop of reddish black hair, gathering a couple of papers and her paint supplies. She couldn’t see his face, but SooYoung noticed he was wearing a faded olive green shirt folded to his elbows and a guitar strung behind his back.

Embarrassedly, SooYoung bent down to help him. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she apologized, her head bent down, grabbing a paint brush and a piece of paper.

She briefly scanned the paper. It was sheet music with handwritten notes and lyrics. SooYoung was always impressed at other peoples’ abilities and seeing that this man was able to write his own music extremely impressed her.

She read the title and her eyes widened slightly. Kimio 君を. The lyrics were in Japanese. She was about to ask the man if he was from Japan, but the paper was snatched out of her hands before she could even speak. His head was bent down as he shoved the paper inside his jacket. He gently pushed the rest of her painting supplies neatly into her arms and muttered, “Its fine,” quietly.

He awkwardly grabbed the canvas that was lying on the floor and handed it to her as she slowly stood up. He gave her a crooked half smile (one that showed off his dimples, SooYoung noticed) and bowed politely before walking off in the direction she came from. 

SooYoung turned around, watching his retreating figure and blinked, “What a strange guy…”  She shook her head and heard a quiet beep of her watch on her wrist. Her eyes widened in horror as she quickly shoved her painting supplies in her satchel. “ the bus!”

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“No, no, no, no, no, no…” SooYoung chanted as she sprinted across the university’s campus. “The only class I have in the morning and it’s on the far side of the campus,” she muttered to herself, as she entered a small building at the far end of the campus. She pushed past people milling inside, ran up a flight of stairs and dashed to the far end of the long hallway.

Without skipping a beat, SooYoung slammed opened the door. Her eyes were shut waiting for the stares and scolding from her professor, but none of it came. She slowly opened her eyes and sighed with exasperation. The classroom was empty. She let out a soundless scream, ruffling her hair.

“And it’s my hardest class too…” She groaned and spun around, slowly dragging her feet. It was SooYoung’s only class that was early and it was over. She shut the door and leaned against the wall. “Might as well stop at the art room to drop this off.”

A loud buzz caused SooYoung to jump. She reached into the pocket of her overalls and answered her cell phone without checking the caller ID. “Yeah?” she sighed with exasperation.

“Is that anyway to greet one of your best friends?” 

SooYoung let out a tired chuckle. “Hey YoonA, what’s up?”

“Oh nothing much, just waiting for the rest of the girls to show up for a late breakfast. I was wondering if you wanted to come.”

SooYoung pursed her lips and stood up. “Are you treating?”

“I guess I don’t have a choice now, do I?” She could practically hear YoonA rolling her eyes over the phone.

SooYoung grinned from ear to ear. “Of course. Where are you guys meeting?”

“The usual place. Come by soon, I have some important news I need to share.”

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“Hey guys!” SooYoung waved cheerfully at the group of girls sitting at the back of the small café. 

A woman with long brown hair dressed in a simple white dress, waved back. Beside her was a blonde haired girl in a red sweetheart top and skinny jeans, a girl in a gray sweater, light blue skirt and a purple headband, and a woman in a gray business suit. 

 “What the hell are you wearing?” the blonde haired girl laughed, as the woman in the business moved over so SooYoung could sit down. “It looks like you got hit with a truck this morning.”

SooYoung huffed. “I was running late. Why didn’t you call me about class this morning, HyunA?” she pouted, grabbing a bagel that was already sitting on the table.

HyunA gave SooYoung a disbelieving look. “I did. Didn’t you check your phone?”

SooYoung blinked and slowly took out her cellphone. She checked her text messages first and noticed there was a fair amount from the younger girl. She then checked her missed calls and notice there were ten of them from her. “Woops?” she grinned sheepishly as HyunA sighed, rolling her eyes playfully.

“Aish, you’re hair’s a mess!” SooYoung was about to turn around but stopped when she heard the scolding from the woman in the business suit. She released SooYoung’s messy bun down and began brushing her hair with a comb she produced out of nowhere.

 “Thank you Vic-umma!” SooYoung cooed gratefully, happily munching on her bagel.

“You baby her too much, Victoria,” the girl in the white dress giggled.

“I baby all of you too much,” she retorted, jokingly rolling her eyes. “So what’s this important news you’ve been meaning to tell us, YoonA?”

YoonA’s eyes began to sparkle. “He’ll be coming soon.”

“He?” the four girls at the table chorused. Even JooHyun, the quietest one of the bunch was confused. The closest people to Im YoonA, the ‘ideal girl on campus’ were the four girls sitting at the table; Kim HyunA, the crazy fashion designer, Seo JooHyun, the academic and innocent biology major, Song Qian, the successful daughter of CEO working as the head of a branch in South Korea, and Choi SooYoung, the friendly, and always cheerful artist. They didn’t know that their own friend had a boyfriend.

As if he knew they were talking, the door at the front opened and YoonA’s smile widened. She stood up and motioned to the young man to come over. He noticed and gave her a small smile and walked over.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Lee SeungGi,” YoonA introduced happily. The man in question smiled at the group of girls shyly.

“Hello,” he said quietly, bowing his head. The girls bowed their heads in response. 

SeungGi, as YoonA explained, was a young photojournalist she met one time at the park near the university. He was assigned to photograph a small festival when he randomly snapped a photo of her. He was flustered when she approached him and slipped out that he thought she was beautiful. YoonA, who never really had a boy be straight with his feelings for her, thought his personality was adorable and asked him out. They had been dating for three months since that time.

“How come you never told us?” Victoria asked, looking in between the couple.

YoonA shrugged. “I just never found the time to tell you guys…” She smiled guiltily at the girls and folded her hands together in a pleading motion. “Sorry!”

“Ah, YoonA-sshi,” SeungGi asked, looking down at his watch. “I really don’t want to ruin your time with your friends, but my flight—”

“Oh! Right!” YoonA looked at the group and smiled sadly. “SeungGi has a story to work on in Taiwan. He’s leaving today…” 

He stood up ready to leave when he noticed her looking down. He sighed and gave her a half smile. “Do you want to come see me off?” he asked smiling gently. It was adorable, SooYoung thought in envy as YoonA’s smiled brightened instantly.

“Really?” He nodded and she stood up and grabbed his hand. “I’ll call you guys later, okay?” A chorus of ‘have fun’, ‘okay’, and ‘don’t worry about us’ signaled YoonA and SeungGi to leave.

SeungGi bowed one more time while YoonA held his hand before leaving the restaurant. After they were out of sight, Victoria sighed in shock. “I didn’t expect YoonA to have a boyfriend.”

SooYoung nodded. “Yeah, it’s weird.”

“I want a boyfriend,” HyunA whined, folding her arms across her chest, pouting.

“Don’t you have one?” JooHyun asked innocently, tilting her head.

HyunA scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I broke up with the guy. He wanted to go to the next level, but I didn’t let him.” She started to mumble under her breath.

“At least we know you aren’t a ,” SooYoung snickered watching the girl’s appalled face.

“Yah! Just because I date doesn’t make me a !” she retorted. “And just because you haven’t dated means you have to be a downer for me.”

“It’s because I’m waiting,” SooYoung said dignifiedly, sticking her nose in the air.

“For you first love?” Victoria giggled.

SooYoung pouted. “He’ll come eventually.” Her eyes looked determined with a hit of wistfulness. “I know he will.”

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Lee JongHyun read the piece of paper his friend scribbled in haste. He was standing in front of a large, one-story studio apartment building that had a large SOLD sign on the window. This was the address his friend had mentioned they were going to be living in for now on. He liked how it looked on the outside, despite the dismal gray color.

He entered the building, hitching his guitar bag over his shoulder. Before going to Seoul, JongHyun visited his parents who were still living in Japan. His friends had packed his belonging in Busan and sent them over. The only thing he had was his guitar and the clothes off his back.

“JongHyun!” He walked inside the spacious building and looked up at the source of the voice. His three friends were standing above a large platform, leaning against the railing. A small woman was standing across from them. 

He jogged up the metal staircase and joined the group. “Hey,” he said simply greeting everyone.

The shortest of the guys signaled to the woman in front of them. “This is GaIn, JoKwon’s girlfriend. She’s the one who owns the place.” JongHyun bowed in greeting.

“I was just telling YongHwa, JungShin, and MinHyuk here that this place is practically yours,” GaIn looked at the shortest guy pointedly. “As long as you keep your end of the deal and preform at my club for free, right YongHwa.”

YongHwa held his hands up and laughed. “I don’t know what JoKwon’s told you, but I always keep my end of deals pretty well.”

GaIn rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Remember; tonight be there at seven for set up. You’re on at eight and again at eleven.” She brushed past JongHyun and sauntered down the stairs.

“She seems scary,” mumbled and childish looking boy. 

YongHwa laughed, patting his back. “Don’t worry, MinHyuk. She only acted that way because she knows me too well,” he chuckled to himself as if he knew an inside joke. JongHyun decided he didn’t want to know what. “She’s normally nice to others.”

“Well look at the bright side,” the tallest of the group, JungShin, said. “We have a place to live and a place to perform.”

“We don’t get money though,” JongHyun added. He sighed. “That means we need to find jobs.”

The four boys stood in silence at the thought before YongHwa spoke. “…well I didn’t think that through…”

The three others groaned at their leader’s (it was partially their fault too) lack of a plan.

YongHwa clapped his hands trying to make the mood better. “Well we’re finally in Seoul! Any plans?”

MinHyuk’s phone rang loudly with an obnoxious ringtone causing him to blush. He cleared his throat and smiled upon seeing his caller ID. “Um …it’s…you know…” he stuttered, pointing to his phone as it continued to ring. The red was slowly spreading to his neck. The three boys looked at him expectedly. “I’ll…just…go…” He spun around and walked towards the kitchen area.

“Well we know what he’s doing,” YongHwa smirked while JongHyun and JungShin rolled their eyes.

“I’ll just set up our stuff,” JungShin said walking off.

“I’ll help,” JongHyun added following him down the stairs, leaving YongHwa alone.

He sighed, looking at his watch. It was only ten AM; they still had eight hours to go. He shrugged. “Might as well check the city out…”

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A/N: Woop! Here's the next chapter. I changed a few things in the character stuff (and the summary) so check it out.

The first chapter was just establishing the characters. It’s pretty long, sorry if it was too boring though. I just wanted to show you the relationships of the characters.

I want to hear your thoughts about what you think is going to happen! And more reviews please!

Preview to next chapter:

SooYoung: "GaIn please, please, please! I need to move out of that place!"

GaIn: "Alright, I have to talk to the guys who are currently living there first."

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Sulli: "Unnie, this is my boyfriend, MinHyuk."

SooYoung: "What do you do for a living?"

MinHyuk: "I'm a musician, miss"

SooYoung: "...and you think you can provide to my precious little dongsaeng?"

Sulli: "Unnie!"

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YongHwa: "I don't know, there's something about her. I just felt this instant connection..."

JongHyun: "Do you even know her name?"

YongHwa: "...No..."

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SooYoung: "As a token of gratitude, I invite you and the others living below us to eat dinner here tonight."

~

List of awesome: danisme, magarettafura, ampalaya, and randomyetlovelypairs 

P.S. SooYoung's cameo in A Gentleman's Dignity? I literally died because it was so funny. Too bad she and JongHyun didn’t have any scenes together ;)