As days gone by, the threat was getting worse. It didn’t stop at black mail. As much as she tried to ignore it, bad things started happening at her. Someone locked the toilet door from outside, books disappearing from the library in her duty day, her coat suddenly went missing, someone messed up with her lunch, her books got scribbled on it, and many more. But she tried to endure it, and ignore it.

This is childish, she thought. As long as this doesn’t hurt anybody.

She said nothing to her friends, not even to the girls. And even though they noticed something was terribly wrong, like at one day Sina suddenly walked to the classroom, drenched from head to toe, they couldn’t take any conclusion since Sina said nothing about it. When they asked, Sina said there was no problem at all and that they shouldn’t worry about it.

Niel noticed too, as Sina didn’t smile as much as she did before and she seemed to grow distant from all of them. She didn’t actually avoid them, but she kept a good distance.

The truth was, Sina didn’t want to involve her friends in this problem. If whoever-this-person-bully-her didn’t show up, she couldn’t do anything about it. She didn’t even care about those and kept hanging out with the boys, especially Niel, who she actually grew fond of and thought of him as a little brother, similar to Changhyun and Jonghyun.

Sina just finished her library duty that day and walked out of the school building to the club room. On her way, she saw Niel walking with Jonghyun and Changhyun.

“Niel!” she called, almost casually, like it was her habit to do it. And she actually did.

The three of them stopped and turned. Sina shouted them to wait for her as she ran closer. Suddenly Niel looked at her in horror and screamed.

“Noona! Above you!”

Sina only have a second to automatically look up and almost in reflex raised her hands to protect her head. She couldn’t see what it was, but something fell right at her.

Almost suddenly she felt arms wrapped around her. Time seemed to move a second slower as she looked up and saw familiar hair color of straight light brown right in front of her eyes. Niel. She was only two or three centimeters away from Niel’s close up side profile.

Sina was practically buried in his arms. She is a lot smaller than him, despite their . But it made it easier for him to protect her.

She could feel her body pressed against his. At times, she always thought he was a fragile young man, just look at those skinny legs! But up close, held close, she had to admit that it wasn’t like that at all. His arms were definitely bigger and stronger than hers. She felt his one hand on her shoulder and other pressed her head to his chest.

She could hear his heart beating, or was it hers? She felt her own heart beat faster and faster.

She froze there, unable to say or to do anything. His hug felt different to Changhyun’s or Jonghyun’s. She didn’t know how to express it in words, but… it felt… different.

Some minutes later—which felt like years for Sina—Niel pulled away. He looked at Sina with worried look, checking every inch of her with his eyes before finally said, “Noona, are you okay?”

Sina gasped and realized what just happened. She saw three hard-cover encyclopedias lying on the ground. Niel took a blow for her. “Are you okay?! Oh my God!” she shrieked. Her hands flew to Niel’s head, checking for wound or something.

Niel smiled as he put down Sina’s hand. “I’m okay, noona…”

Students flocked around them. It was after school already, so there weren’t many students, and they didn’t become a show for them to see. They asked about the same thing and talked about it, without even bothering to really wait for them to answer. When Changhyun and Jonghyun arrived, they spoke together asking whether they were okay. They claimed that they saw someone dropped the books from the third floor. Sina suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

Could it be…?

“It might be just an accident,” she quickly said.

Changhyun frowned and placed his finger on his temple—a habit when he acted like he was thinking. He made serious expression, which was actually cute. “If it’s an accident, that person will come down or at least look down from the window in panic. But no one did. Maybe this is a case…”

“True. True. Maybe it was intended to you, noona,” Jonghyun added, making the same pose as Changhyun.

“Stop playing detective, you two,” Sina simply replied, smacking Changhyun’s arm.

“Noona, are you… ouch!” Niel shrieked, holding his shoulder.

Sina turned in worry. “Are you okay? Set that problem aside, we’ll go to the clinic to check. You two tell the others about Niel. Please,” Sina said by stressing her last word.

Having no other choice, Changhyun and Jonghyun shrugged and walked to the club room, while Sina and Niel walked to the school clinic.

“How can you get such a bruise?” Han sonsaengnim exclaimed, looking at the bruise in Niel’s wing bone. He told him to move his arms back and forth. Confirming that there wasn’t any fracture, Han sonsaengnim took out a pack of something from the fridge. He placed it in Niel’s wing bone.

Sina could seem refreshing fragrant from it.

“He will be okay. Don’t worry, it’s just a bruise. A bad one, that is. Kids today really like to hurt themselves. You got this from dancing? That one… you call… uhh… breakdance?”

“Uhh… kind of…?” Niel mumbled.

“This pack will reduce the bruise and prevent inflammation,” Han sonsaengnim explained, noticing Sina’s concerned face.

Suddenly a student barged into the room, panting hard.

“Sonsaengnim! This is emergency! Please come with me!”

Instructing Sina to keep the pack in Niel’s shoulder for at least ten minutes, he rushed out of the clinic.

Now Sina stood like an idiot behind Niel’s back, staring at Niel’s and his strands of hair in his neck. She had to force herself to divert her eyes whenever her heart started pounding faster. She felt weird and guilty. She told no one about her condition, yet someone already suffered for it. If only Niel didn’t protect her, she would have been the one lying in the hospital. Three hard-cover encyclopedias were no joke.

“I’m sorry, Niel…” Sina mumbled, forcing herself to speak. “This is my fault. If only…”

“Noona,” Niel cut her off. He turned a bit, looking straight in her eyes, with a look she never saw before. Gentle and caring. “I’d prefer you say thank you rather than sorry.”

Her apology stuck in and tears choked her. But she tried to hold it in. “Thank you, Ahn Daniel-ssi,” she said, in a sweeter voice than she imagined.

Niel smiled as his response and quickly looked away to hide his flushed cheeks.

“Umm… noona, do you have something to say to me?” he asked, still couldn’t turn.

“Something,” Sina replied teasingly. It was a joke the boys often played, whether it’s a pun or something like this.

Niel chuckled. “No, really. Something? Anything?”

Sina was about to speak up but she reconsidered it and shook her head. Realizing Niel wouldn’t see it, she quietly said, “No….”