I fled the school premises as soon as the last bell rang. Slipping out of class, barely avoiding an elbow to the ribs, I went out the back door of the school. Even though it required me going through the parking lot, I still chose it to get out of the swarm of idiotic, inconsiderate students.

Needless to say, I had ended up eating lunch in the locker room with only about sixty seconds to spare before my teacher would’ve sent me out if I had tried to come into class. I was just thankful my medication bottle had rolled to where neither Sehun nor Tao saw them under a bin of dirty towels. The shirt I had been so desperately looking for was lying on the bench in front of my locker after I had thrown it over my shoulder during my frantic search for my pills.

Mulling over how my Monday went, it was unusual how my Tuesday passed. Besides the scene with the coach scolding Tao and Baekhyun for stealing his underwear and taping it to the canteen doors the day before (because of Tao, Sehun had gotten dragged into the mess which ended them up hiding in the locker room: when the coach caught them, Baekhyun went one way and the dynamic duo went the other), I managed to avoid any run-ins with any of the goons. That was both a blessing and an eerie surprise. But I chose not to question it and moved on.

“But you just stayed at your friends,” my mom protested as soon as I proposed the idea of me sleeping at my grandma’s on Wednesday morning. I was getting sick of my bedroom, the place I stayed the whole time I wasn’t at school: those four walls were suffocating and I swore I could still smell cigarette smoke.

Mom slid a few dishes into the sink full of water before turning back to face to me. “Plus, it’s the middle of the week. You’ve got school,” she said.

I shrugged. “I take the bus anyway, so twenty minutes less sleep wouldn’t be that big a deal,” I countered. The fact that my grandma lived a bit further away from my school wasn’t that important: I just wanted to get out of my own house.

Heaving a sigh, the woman in front of me approved and told me to hurry up before I was late for school. To avoid reptition of bus rides, I took an extra backpack with a change of clothes with me. As soon as my classes let out, I was on a bus to the only peaceful place I could think of going at the moment.

That was until I walked in the door and heard loud screaming. Kicking off my shoes in a hurry, I ran for the living room and came to an abrupt stop.

“Grandma . . .”

I gawked, seeing the old woman sitting on the couch, knitting needles pointing dangerously at the TV, her slipper-clad feet kicked up on the coffee table, which was full of knitted items and magazines.

“Eunhui, how do you watch these shows? I’m going to march into Gangnam and kill that Jooyoung boy. Why doesn’t he just confess?” she asked exasperatedly as she looked back at the drama playing on the TV screen.

I stood motionlessly for a few more seconds before chuckling and making my way over to sit by her.

“You crazy old lady, you scared me,” I murmured, slinking out of the way just in time when she swung her needles at me. Grabbing the remote and turning off the credits, I plopped down and held a decorative pillow in my lap, trying to mask my pain-filled wince.

“Did Mom call you?” I asked.

She nodded. “Your dad rang and said you wanted to stay over. I already fixed the spare room,” she said.

I nodded, remembering the room I had helped her clean out a few weeks before. Even though I had been beyond annoyed with the tip it had previously been, now I was glad I had a decent place to sleep instead of the couch. I really would’ve been in pain if I’d slept on that old creaky couch with my still healing bruises.

Eyes concentrating on her knitting, Grandma struck up a conversation. A conversation that made me groan and flopped backwards, almost throwing my pillow.

“Did you give that boy his scarf?” she asked.

I shook my head, getting over my tantrum. “He doesn’t want it—”

“Did you ask him?” she asked, raising a brow and peering at me over her glasses.

I blankly stared at her before slowly shaking my head again. “But I assure you—”

She huffed loudly, sticking her nose in the air and averting her eyes . I eyed her skeptically. Was she really about to pretend she wasn’t listening to me because I hadn’t given Sehun that darn scarf?

“Grandma,” I whined, kicking my feet.

She waggled her knitting needle at me threateningly. “You go right on ahead. Don’t come here, fussing about how he’s so mean to you and he’s sick and needs care and all because you wouldn’t give him a scarf to wear when it’s cold outside,” she clucked, turning back to her knitting.

My eyes narrowed as I stared at her. Crazy bat