It hit you. He was the other flawless boy that sat on the left side of you in class and now, he's only a metre away. 

You stood still, trying to make out what was reality and your imagination but yes, he was definitely coming towards you. 

As he came closer, you began to see his real height. The length of his legs made it easy for him to walk a metre in one step, and so that last step he took...

"Excuse me." came out of his mouth as he walked around you and out of the complex himself.

Right, that's right. You were just about to leave the complex when he caught your eye so you were still standing at the main entrance. Right, he's just trying to get out as well, makes sense.

Of course, for a second you were lost, completely lost in your train of thought that seemed to have tracks that never stopped. Did he recognise you, oh no, he can't have, he shouldn't have, he mustn't have. Whether you thought he was going to do something bad to you or whether you thought he was going to do something good to you, you expected him to at least do something. What were you thinking..

You hardly even knew him so..

Nonetheless, you put that all behind you and continued out on the quest to have a good night alone. 

You came across a ddoekbokki stall that was packed with people. It was only 8 000won for a bowl so you made a mental note to come back later when the customers died down. 
 
You weren't really a shopping kind of girl. Well, actually, you liked looking for clothes but you never bought any. You don't really need to buy anything other then hoodies and sweatpants now anyway although, you did spot some casual, black sunglasses. Cheap enough for you to buy, good enough for you to hide behind
 
That was the only non-food related thing you purchased, and in your mind, it was worth it. You wore these sunglasses everywhere, even tonight. You had the ability to look into someone's eyes without them knowing. 

It wasn't until about 10pm where you really began to get hungry after walking around the malls and street stalls so you decided to go back to the ddoekbokki stand. 

You quickly ordered a spicy bowl, paid and went back to one of the seats to wait for it. This was a great time to take some pictures of the nightlife here. Usually, in your parents house, you weren't allowed out and you hardly ever went shopping so starting from today, everything was so different to you. After taking a few snapshots, your bowl was already in front of you, steaming hot, waiting to be eaten. 

 

 

 

 

 

-----
It had taken you almost 10minutes to get through your bowl and you had not even completely finished yet. It was so spicy but, you loved it. Still trying to finish your bowl, you looked up, still in your sunglasses, to see a group of girls.
 
'One, two, three...four, five, six, seven.....eight.....nine.' You silently counted each and every one of the girls in your head whilst your tongue was trying to get rid of the spicy after taste in your mouth. 

These nine girls were the ones in your form class, you recognised them instantly compared to the boy that sat on your left that you saw an hour ago at the apartment complex, there was some sort of bubble around them that made you feel uncomfortable just looking at them. You didn't hate them, you hardly even knew them but at the moment, you didn't like them either. They all wore high heels and short skirts and goodness did they have a lot of make up on. They didn't look this overwhelming at school. 

"Ddeokbokki!! Let's eat some!!" You heard one of the girls chant.

They all sat down in the three tables around you, taking up.. who knows how much space they took up. You knew they hadn't noticed you, let alone recognise you because you were completely covered up, head to toe, with only your lower face showing. You realised the girl at your parents house before was sitting amongst the girls. She saw you run out of the house with Woobin in the same outfit so you made sure she didn't notice you. It's funny cause, she never did.

After only a minute or two, you couldn't stand it, you had to leave the stall now. The nine girls, you'd think they'd try to be quiet in a public place but no, you heard every single word they said. You tried to block out their conversation but that resulted in failure. They had mentioned EXO and how each of them were trying to marry themselves off to the members of EXO. Is EXO like, a kpop group or what? Were these girls just fangirling? They also mentioned your brother and the girl, whose name you discovered, for the second time since hearing it from your mother, was Jessica and how she failed to marry off to him; "Great job my brother, you survived the night." You whispered to yourself.

The girls went quiet as if they had heard you so you just lowered your head more into your bowl. Luckily though, they continued on with their conversation. You were about to leave until you heard your name. 

"You know the new Sandrah chick, do you guys like her?" 

"Of course not, I don't even know why she's in our form class. Isn't our class only for the famous rich people. You know, like us."

"I don't know, at the moment I don't mind her."

"What, stop bluffing, she's ugly as f**k."

"Stop with the swearing Jessica."

"Has she done something to you Jessica?"

"I think she's Woobin's fiancé."

"SH*T REALLY?"

"How the hell do you f**king know that ?"

In your mind, you were laughing. These mean words didn't hurt you anymore, what, with countless years of hearing the same adjectives describing you over and over again, they've lost their full effect on you. What made you laugh inside was the fact that she thought you were going to marry Woobin. Hahaha, this Jessica girl is funny.

"I know because Woobinnie and his mother had different stories to explain why she was in their house."

Wow, she's calling your brother Woobinnie. That's a first.

"SHE WAS F**KING IN WOOBIN's HOUSE?"

"Stop swearing you guys! People will hear us-"

"Shh Yoona. His mother said she was a house maid, he said she was his sister. See?"

"Woooow that girl is dead meat."

"What's her name again?"

"Sandrah."

You were already back on the streets when they mentioned your name again. Now you know you were in a class full of rich and famous people, that explains the beauty standards in that class. Now you know these girls think you're your brother's fiancé. Now you know two girls from this nine girl group, Jessica, the one who wants your brother and Yoona, the one who seemingly doesn't like swearing. Right, this year is going to be tough, already, you have made enemies, and you didn't have to even do anything, great. 

 

 

-----
Saturday night was a blur but you remembered having a good night sleep in your new house with a double bed. You had texted Woobin that night to tell him about what you heard from Jessica at the ddoekbokki stand and also bid him good night. 

It was now Sunday night and you were ready to snuggle into bed. All day you've been unpacking, rearranged the furniture to your liking and you also managed to clean the house a bit. You had gone out once today to the convenience store to stock up on ramen for the week to come. Somehow, all that took a whole day. 

You hadn't had dinner yet so you thought this was a great time to try the mini food court downstairs on ground floor. Just to get your body pumped up for food, you ran down the 19 flight of stairs, making it to ground floor, huffing and puffing. That sure did pump you up.

The food court was empty, it was almost always empty so you didn't bother wearing a hoody. You still wore your sweatpants out of comfort and your sunglasses hanging off the neck hole of your T-shirt just in case someone did come. 

The menu was vague but, good enough.

You were craving some black bean noodles and that was also the cheapest on the menu, Assah!

You ate, and ate, you felt like this was the perfect life. Living by yourself, with a lovely brother to love and a wonderful home surrounded with food. This was the life. 

 

 

"The usual please." You heard.

You looked over at the food court checkout to see the same guy you saw yesterday at the sitting lounge, the boy who sits to the left of you in class.

Almost automatically, you grabbed your sunglasses from your shirt and put them on and admiringly, you felt like you slipped them onto your ears like a model, yes, you were that happy about life. You knew it wouldn't make much of a difference to if he would recognise you or not but, it was worth the effort. 

With your sunglasses on, you could see he ordered his "usual" which was the same dish as what you were eating. Hahaha what a coincidence. What was more of a coincidence is that he was also wearing sweatpants and a tshirt. You suddenly remembered Jessica saying your form class was famous and rich people, does that mean this boy sitting a few tables away from you was rich and famous as well? Well, you didn't know him, he couldn't be thhhhatt famous.. could he? If he was rich, wouldn't he be with his parents as well then, especially if he's the son? Or was he just like yourself, the unfavourable sibling. He can't be. So many questions about this one person that you didn't even know. Was he mean and stuck up like what Jessica's group seemed like as well? 

You thought to yourself, 'distance is advantageous, stay away for what is unknown can be dangerous.' 

At that, you decided to enjoy the rest of your food upstairs, in the comfort of your own apartment, even if it means you have to go back downstairs later to return the bowl. 

 

 

-----
The sun shone right into your eye. Your body began to loosen up and your mind started to unfog as you slowly but surely woke up. 

It's Monday, the start of a new week. You were obviously not looking forward to it. Yes, on the inside you were partially immune to verbal insults but on the outside, you were always seen as weak and fragile. Was it because you hardly ever smiled besides when you're with your brother? Or was it because when someone ever physically or verbally hurt you, your face would remain the same..? Over many years of.. what, experience, you have realised if you were to be strong and stand up for yourself when you get bullied, you'll just gain more attention and most of the time, you just gain more bullies. The reverse effect. It's better to stay low.

You had showered, brushed your teeth, packed your bag and changed into your uniform when you heard a knock on the door.

"WOOhoo-trashBIN here for the breakfast delivery service."

You let out a good laugh and went to open the door for the familiar voice. 
Your brother, whilst still holding onto a bag full of food, greeted you with a warm hug.

"Did you sleep? Did you explore yet?"

"Yes, and yes. Anything about Jessica?"

"Mother and father are having a fight with her parents, it's been going on forever. Talking about that, I'm going to be out of the city for a few weeks so I brought you some fresh food for you to keep in the fridge. I can only see ramen in here. "

"What? When? Where? Why? And.. ramen in cheap." You asked, half laughing, half worried.

"I need to go meet an old friend before all this family stuff gets worse. I'm leaving tonight in my own car, mother and father don't know I'm going, I'm basically running away from them for a while like you. Where? Busan. Take of yourself yeah?"

"Who is this friend of yours .." You asked, no longer worried for your brother because he knows what he's doing but more curious. 

"Just a friend I used to go to university with. " Woobin answered, a bit annoyed with your nosiness. 

"Hahhaha, male or female?"

"FEMALE. NOW STOP ASKING QUESTIONS. HAHAH SO NOSY."

With that, the two of you had breakfast together at the table and to make up for his sudden leave, he drove you to school and made your final goodbyes 'till the next time you'd see him.

--
Ten minutes before class, you were already in class, in your desk, once again, trying to catch up on your sleep. In many peoples eyes, you looked the weakest and most fragile when sleeping, as if someone could just nudge you to make you fall off the desk and die. 

This time though, you were awoken by someone different, not a teacher, but a girl. You felt a finger nudge the crown of your head while you where digging your head into your arms on the table. You didn't move, or talk. You felt the whole class begin to stare and the room became quiet. 

"Yah, aren't you going to move?"

You looked up to find, of course, Jessica. You noticed she was leaning over the front of your desk staring down at you. Uncomfortable much. 

"M..move?" You said, in your half awake voice that sounded more like a nervous, shaky, scared voice that toootaalllllllly worked to your advantage, not. 

"You're sitting in my desk! Get off!" She said. 

You began to wonder why this desk would be hers, what value does this desk have. Right, the two boys that occupied the seats beside it, makes sense. Or maybe she was just trying to find something to pick on you for. You guessed you would soon find out, this desk wasn't any worth to you, you didn't need to be next to these two boys in class.

"Oh..ohkay, I'll move." You said, still half awake as you made your way to a spare seat at the back corner. The whole back row of the class was empty so you chose to sit behind the boys instead of the girls since they seemed to be harmless at this point. 

Jessica, stunned at your willingness to give in, was shocked. Trying to go on with her "plan", she hesitantly sat in the seat you used to occupy. She looked to her right that had the boy that went on the same bus as you the other day, the boy had turned his back on her to talk to his friend. She then turned to her left with the tall boy from your complex's sitting lounge, to find him staring straight ahead as if trying to avoid her eye contact. What relationship did she have with these boys you wondered. 

Jessica was embarrassed, you could tell. She seemingly had enough and stood up to go back to her usual desk. You quietly returned to your desk, yawning and continued with your nap as if nothing had happened. 

 

 

-----
The bell rang for lunch as everyone in your class stood up to head for the cafeteria.  You stayed back a few minutes after everyone to finish writing down all the class notes before thanking the teacher and also leaving to the cafeteria. You were out late, and it showed because everyone was already in tables with their lunch trays, socialising and what not. You went of to the canteen and got your tray and food, thinking in your head of where to eat in this busy and loud cafeteria. You needed somewhere quiet, distanced from people, where you could stay low and have nobody notice you. Of course, the bathroom. As you were walking towards the bathroom though..

*****
"Ouchh... sorr-" came out of your mouth as someone's body knocked into your left shoulder. In turn, the tray that you were holding with two hands fell, scattering food all over the ground. The knock was worse than you thought because you immediately felt your left arm,shoulder and left collarbone beginning to get numb. Worrying more about your food than the person that hit you, you kneeled down to pick up what was still edible and clean. The cafeteria went silent for a second as you were picking up your food. You could feel the eeriness that filled the room. Wondering why this was such a big deal, you looked up to see who the person was. He looked down at you with a face that was so unreadable. It wasn't angry, it was sorry, it wasn't fear, it was just.. plain. 

It was the boy from the sitting lounge, the exact boy, your were sure of it. At that moment, you didn't know if he had did this on purpose or if in fact it was accidental.

You then saw him look around the room at the people that were staring, and then he looked back down at you. That eye contact he gave you made you even more confused. He then left the cafeteria, just like that. And the room began to get back to it's loud self again.