I took a deep breath and walked through the bile green doors into the cafeteria. As expected the conversation hushed- the swarm of heads rippling as eyes turned towards me pinched with pity and sharpened with curiosity.

Holding my breath still I walked briskly across the dirty floor, grabbed an apple for lunch… and didn’t go sit down at my accustomed table where my girlfriends waited tensely. Instead I let my feet carry me out of the back doors of the wide, rectangular hall, up the rickety staircase to the eaves. I was expecting the nondescript door to the roof to be padlocked shut as it had been every other time I was up there, to find a quiet place to escape into the book in my bag. Instead there was a fresh breeze flowed through the sliver of bright blue. Before, I might have ignored the opportunity because of my respect for the rules but now such things seemed flimsy and unimportant.

Leaving my possessions behind me I pushed through into the biting autumn air, I had reached a point where obeying such trivial rules was meaningless. Moving along the walkway tracing the spine of the school I felt the clear autumn sun pressing down on my back and face. It was a relief that I could still feel anything at all. It was comforting and eased some of the icy pressure clasping my ribcage.

The news had spread arounf the school like wildfire. "Danahs family is bankrupt." "Danahs father is going to prison." "Danahs homeless." "Danahs father owes money to mobsters." "Danahs dad was killed by a loan shark." 

None of them knew the truth, and I refused to give it to them. I knew now that my time at this preppy school for the rich was coming to an end. The headmaster who used to be so kind to me and ask after my father had called me into his office earlier and coldly told me that if I couldn't pay the school fees I had to leave the academy. That bastard, always up to the rich kids and then stabbing them in the back.

By next week I would have left this pretty school with the perfect gardens and studious pupils, and be enrolled in the cheapest school I could find that would let me in so late in the year.

My name is Song Danah and as of two days ago, I'm all alone in the world. 

My Father was a successful businessman, running a small chain of cafes. They were pretty popular and I worked there part time, since it was better than being alone at home. When I was 11 years old my mother died of cancer and it's been just me and dad ever since. We were a team.

I don't really have any friends of my own age since boys always have some sort of ulterior motive when it comes to talking to me, these rich kids think that flashing around how much wealth you have is a great way to get girls to go out with them. Maybe it works on those other girls who live for money but honestly it just pisses me off. 

The girls in my class never really got too close to me after some boy left his girlfriend to ask me out. Obviously I turned him down but it didn't stop the other girls fro keeping their distance in case their boyfriends thought I was prettier or something. If they were so scared of their boyfriends being unfaithful then how do they like them? I've never even been kissed so I don't really understand all this love stuff.

But then my dad got this new business partner, Kim Sukhyun. At first everything seemed to be going great, he was always talking about what a great guy Sukhyun was, and how he had all these plans for expanding the business.

Then things changed- Dad began to get thinner and more anxious. He told me to stop helping out at the afe and only ever came home after the sun had gone down. I sort of guessed something was wrong but not to what extent. Oh no. 

I don't know what happened even now, dad wouldn't tell me but I could guess (I'm smart, in the top five in every exam). Two days ago a bunch of gangsters came to our house, just walked straight up to the front door and began kicking it in. We were both in the kitchen at the time and I have never seen my dad look so frightened since the day my mother went to the hospital.

He jumped up and grabbed a bunch of stuff from the cupboard, I couldn't see what it was but then I realised that he had two backpacks already packed. Did he know this would happen? Why didn't he tell me?

Suddenly the door crashed open and I could here them "YAH! SONG MINSEOK WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE!!! HOW ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTER COMES AND HELPS YOU PAY SOME OF YOUR DEBTS HUH?!!!"

Dad turned red with anger, he's always been protective of me. "Run!! Danah! I'll kill them before they lay a finger on you!"

He grabbed a frying pan and turned to face the door. "But Dad-!"

"GO!" with tears in my eyes I grabbed the backpacks and scrambled out of the window and ran as fast as I could. I've always been athletic and I'm almost certain I broke all of my own records that day by the time I arrived at a house on the other side of town, a tearful and scared mess and collapsed outside an empty convenience store. 

It was the worst day of my life since my mother died. I didn't know if my dad was dead or alive, and I couldn't go to the police in case they put my dad in jail for being involved with gangsters. I had no idea what to do and it was getting colder and colder now I had stopped running.

As it got darker I saw some shady looking guys hanging around and moved inside. I saw the stores clerk giving me strange looks but went to the bathrooms and opened the backpacks. They had cash, instant ramen and clothes for us both as well as a few other things. It looked like dad had wanted to come with me. "Dad..." a tear rolled down my cheek and I hunched over the bags trying to stop myself crying.

I don't know how long I was like that but eventually I straightened up and looked at myself in the mirror and tried to think of what to do. I couldn't go anywhere near my home and I didn't have anywhere to stay for the night. It was dangerous for a girl to stay out on the streets at night and I knew that my light school uniform would only attract the wrong sort of attention.

Looking down at the bags I had an idea. Grabbing my dads clothes I disguised myself as a boy, and used the bandages from the med kit to make myself look a bit more *ahem* masculine. I still looked skinny and much too pretty for a boy but with my hair under a hood it was a pretty good disguise.

I left the store again and started to look around for a subway station or something to sleep in. Eventually I found an underpass which seemed fairly secluded and sat hunched against the wall with the bags beside me. I kept getting colder and colder  but I didn't want to waste any of the money dad gave me on hot food- who knew how much a place to stay would cost when I went looking tomorrow? I just had to endure one night...

I jerked awake. I must have fallen asleep! God, it was so cold I could barely move a muscle except to violently shiver. 

"I said are you okay?! Kid you can't sleep here!" I was shocked and gasped when I saw a tall boy standing over me. He must've been the one who woke me up. I tried to tell him to leave me alone but all that came out was the sound of my chattering teeth. He frowned and then bent down and grabbed my bags. "N-no-" He looked at me and sighed. I couldn't really see his face in the dark tunnel but he didn't seem much older than me. "I'm not robbing you- come with me. I'll give you a place to stay the night  okay bro?" I still wasn't sure whether to trust him. "If you stay out here you'll free to death." He had a point. I couldn't even feel my feet anymore.

Bending down he grabbed my arm and pulled me up "Woah, you're so light!" I still couldn't speak properly so I just glared at him. He ignored me and hooked an arm around my waist and helped me walk about five blocks away. I could feel his hard body and strong arm around my waist and metally kicked myself for blushing at a time like this. Eventually we got to some graffitied doors, which the boy unlocked and brought us through. We went down some steps to a basement lined with mirrors, old sofas and speakers.

"You can sleep here." I kept my head down and thanked him quietly when he handed me some blankets. I curled up on one of the sofas and covered myself with the blankets. I heard him settle down on the other side of the room. Despite my best efforts tears fell from my eyes again and I fell asleep crying.

The next morning I woke up before dawn panicking, before I remembered what had happened. I decided to skip school and see if I could find somewhere to live with the cash dad had left me, and a part time job to pay the rent and school fees. Quietly I got up and dressed in my own clothes before I looked across at the boy on the sofa. He didn't look any older than I was, and was sleeping peacefully but the thing that made me gasp was how handsome he was. It wasn't a classic beauty but even when sleeping you could see his striking good looks. It was as if he had fallen out of a comic book.

I felt bad for leaving without saying thankyou but I didn't want to explain myself to him. Instead I took out a few packets of the instant ramen from my bags and wrote a message on the foil packaging.

"Goodbye..." I whispered before I turned around and left the warm basement.

The rest of the day I spent finding a tiny rooftop room to live in and a job as a waitress at a diner. It was themed so I had to wear a different uniform depending on the concept of the day but the pay was good and I passed the interview with flying colours thanks to my experience.

By the end of the day I was settled in the middle of an empty room with nothing but the two bags of clothes and my school uniform to my name, and hoping desperately that my dad was okay.

And today I woke up shivering and made ramen for breakfast, before coming into school and discovering that the whole student body had apparently already found out. Or they had just got bored and decided to spread rumours about my fall from grace, I wish my prince Charming had been around to save me then but I guess I'll never see him again.

Tomorrow will be my last day at this damn prison for rich kids and then I'll be gone forever. So even if their gossip hurts me I have to keep my head up. Dad always said that you should make sure you're hand are clean before you point fingers, but it's still hard to here whispers about me wherever I go.

On monday I start at BigHit High, which is close to where I live nowadays in that little rooftop room. Apparently it's where all the bad kids go, and because it used to be an all boys school there are barely any girls. But it's a good place to hide from those guys who came after my dad while I try to figure out what happened to him and why.

I heard the bell ring and went back inside, still thinking about the mystery of what happened to my dad and why those men were after him.

To be continued...