Yawning, I reached my arms toward the sky as I stretched out my tired muscles. Today had been a long day at my school. There had been the typical fights that broke out in the halls and during lunch. However, contrast to what the television portrayed, American high schools were not "ruled" by the football team and cheerleading squad. Well, at least my school wasn't. 

I have to admit, there are the cliques: the basketball kids sit together at lunch, the band kids, the cheer squad, the choir group, the orchestra… But I mean, it's pretty explainable. People are bound to become closer to those with whom they spend the most time with, and when the extracurricular activities, those become a person's groupie at school. 

But uh, no. The cheer squad does NOT parade down the halls at my school acting like queens and the football team does NOT shove others out of their way or into lockers. 

And right now, I'm exhausted. My volleyball team and I had practice before, during, and after school today as punishment for "playing horribly" during our previous game, which by the way, we won. And it happened to be our last game, which meant that today's practice was kinda useless. 

Rolling my neck to relieve the stress, I locked my car and entered my house. 

Something was different. 

"Mom?" I tentatively called out. There was a chance that she was home; sometimes she was out with friends, shopping, or doing whatever, while sometimes she was at home… doing whatever. Dad was always at work, though. 

Footsteps padded through the hall. "Welcome home!" 

It was a tradition within my family to say that whenever someone returned back to the house. After slipping off my shoes, I bounded up the stairs, entered into my room, and tossed my backpack to the ground beside my desk. Flopping onto my bed, I rolled over to stare at my bare ceiling. 

I couldn't shake off the feeling that something had changed in my house while I was gone. 

Before I could keep musing over the change, the doorbell rang. 

I bounced off my bed and hurried past the guest room, which was adjacent to my room and also connected to my room through a shared bathroom. Pausing, I backtracked. The room had been decked out during the ten hours that I had been at school. I'll have to ask my parents about that later. It's like we're expecting someone to live with us, or more like, they're expecting someone while I'm just completely confused. 

"Jessica!" 

My best friend tackled me the moment I unlocked the door. 

She's the reason why I knew the cheerleaders at my school weren't annoying brats; she was part of their team and was anything but bratty. 

We both looked toward the kitchen as a delicious aroma hit our noses. Following the mouth-watering scent, we found my mom cooking in the kitchen along side a young man. 

"Mom?" 

They turned around at the sound of my voice. 

I couldn't help but stare at the stranger; he was extremely, drop-dead, model-like, drool worthy, handsome. My mom came forward and hugged me with a silly smile plastered across her face. 

"Honey! And Jessica!" 

"Hi, Mrs. Park," Jessica hugged my mom while her eyes were still glued to the stranger. 

"Girls, this is Jaehyung. Jaehyung, this is my daughter Kaina," my mom gestured toward me, "and her best friend Jessica," my mom pointed at Jess. 

"Uh, hi…?" I hesitatingly waved at Jaehyung. My mom's introduced us, but… what is he doing in my house? 

"Hi." He nodded his head. 

Jessica leaped forward and grabbed his hand to shake it with enthusiasm. "Hi! Sorry about Kaina there, she can be shy. Nice to meet you!" 

"I'm not being shy," I raised my eyebrow, "I'm wondering why he's here…"

"That's rude!" Jess pouted as she turned to face him again. "Sorry, she can be rude sometimes too."

"No, I'm not trying to be rude," I sighed. "It's just that the guest room upstairs has been remade. Today. While I was at school. And Bam! Suddenly there's a super good looking guy standing in my kitchen."

I walked around Jess to grab a glass of water. 

"Oh! And don't forget about that threat letter you received today," Jess chirped. "That was weird." 

"THREAT?" My mom's eyes bulged out. 

Shooting Jess a glare, I sipped on my glass of water before replying to my mom. "No mom. It was nothing. Just a stupid prank." But in reality, it was anything but a stupid prank. Someone has been messing with me for the past few weeks; in the beginning, it was small stuff. Now however, it was starting to become serious. 

"Are you kidding me? Did you read the letter?! That person was threatening to-" 

I rushed forward and wrapped my hand around Jess's mouth. 

"Kaina, darling. Is there something you're not telling me?" My mom was filled with concern. 

"Um, actually, yeah. Someone's been stealing my stuff, framing me for crap I didn't do, tripping me in the halls, throwing food at me during lunch, following me around after school, and now that person is threatening me," I said with a casual shrug. "No biggie." 

"What?" My mom's arms folded across her chest in an aggressive manner. "Someone's messing with my darling?" 

"Bet you it's either an obsessive fanboy or a jealous girl," Jess grinned as she bit down on a piece of ice. 

"It's whatever, Mom."

"Honey, that is not 'whatever'. I should go report this to the school this very moment!" 

"Mom," I rolled my eyes. 

"Just kidding honey. I'll let you take care of this person. BUT, if you need help, feel free to ask me, okay? I'll gladly beat this kid up for you," my mom smiled sweetly. 

Man, I gotta love my mom. 

Meanwhile, Jaehyung was still leaning against the counter. During the conversation, I had felt his eyes flicker over to me several times. He was either trying to check me out, or trying to figure me out. Hopefully it was the latter.

"Oh! And if you need help, don't forget Jaehyung is here now too!" My mom's smile widened. "I asked him to help keep an eye on you at school." 

I coughed as water slid down my windpipe. Setting the glass down, I eyed my mom with skepticism and disbelief. "Keep an eye on me?" 

"Yup!" Her reply was cheerful. "Can you please show him around tomorrow? I managed to get him into all of your classes at school!" 

Using my hand to support my head, I looked at her with disbelief again. "What?" 

My mom began fretting. "Jaehyung is in all of your classes. Is that okay? I totally forgot to ask you!" 

"Yeah, that's… fine. I don't mind. Well, I kinda do. I just… wait. What is going on here?" I was so confused. 

"That room upstairs," Jaehyung said softly, "is my new room." 

"You're moving in? Oh. Okay. That makes things a lot clearer, but," I held up a finger, "why are you moving in?" 

"I'm uh…" He paused and looked at my mom. 

She looked at me with wide, pleading eyes. I could almost hear her telling me to accept him. "He's your new brother!"

She's got to be kidding me.