“Hey Mark!” Jinhee called out as she arrived to school.

“Hmm?” Mark turned around, surprised that Jinhee had ran up to him. “What’s up short stuff?”

She glared at him for the nickname but quickly shook it off, “You know Soori’s birthday is coming up, right?”

“Oh, yeah she told me it was in January…”

“What are you going to get her?”

“Hmm… Well you guys threw me a surprise birthday party so-”

“That won’t work.”

“Huh?”

“Trust me, Mark. Knowing Soori, she’d prefer if you didn’t do that…” Jinhee frowned a little.

Mark frowned a little bit at that but then grinned widely as he thought of something. “She really likes bracelets right? Maybe I’ll add on to her collection.”

~

“Yo Soori,” Mark tapped her shoulder during their math class. At that moment, they were given a worksheet and everyone was ‘working’ together as they tried to finish it.

“Yeah?” Soori replied without looking back, she was busy helping Krystal with one of the problems their teacher had assigned them.

“Jinhee already told me this would be a bad idea, but I still wanna ask. Since your birthday is coming up, is it okay if-”

“No surprise parties under any circumstances,” Soori cut him off.

Krystal let out a low whistle and chuckled as she shook her head. “Wow… You have the school’s player wrapped around your finger and that’s how you treat him.”

Soori shot a glare at Krystal, “Because having this guy wrapped around my finger is such a treat. You know Jessica’s been giving me nothing but glares ever since winter break ended? In fact, most girls do… And even guys for some reason? What does this have to do with the guys??”

“Because guys are interested in you too, don’t you know that? Not to mention they’re all annoyed with how the girls do nothing but complain about you wasting Mark’s time,” Krystal chuckled.

Soori let out a small whine before resting her head on the table. “Whatever… Anyway, Mark, I appreciate the thought but really, no surprise parties… Or any parties for that matter. I don’t like when my family gets too caught up with my friends.”

“Is it because you’re embarrassed? When I met your family they seemed fine…”

“No I’m not embarrassed I just don’t want to involve my friends with my family… There’s a lot about my family that my friends don’t know, and I’d prefer if you didn’t find out.”

“Is it about that uncle that-”

“Mark,” her voice was now filled with venom as she stared back at him. “Don’t talk about him.”

~

In study hall that day, it was another counseling day. Throughout the whole year, Soori was able to pass by without having to say much about her life. She felt bad as she heard the crazy stories that her classmates would say, and she knew that she didn’t want anyone feeling bad for her if she ever revealed one of her family stories. Unfortunately, that day she wouldn’t be able to escape it.

“Hey, Ms. Jeon, I don’t mean to throw her under the bus, but a lot of us have already shared a lot of stories about ourselves… And we all practically know each other inside out, but we barely know that much about Soori…” a girl called out.

Soori’s eyes widened and she looked back at the girl who spoke up. As expected, it was one of the girls that Mark used to make out with right after class.

“Oh, Haena, we really shouldn’t call people out like that; however, I guess… Soori, maybe you would like to share some more stories with us?”

“N-No I’d really rather not…” Soori spoke shyly.

“Hey, we’re all a family here,” Mark called out, “Come on Soori… Trust us… We’ve all said our share, we all know the worst about each other… It’s not fair if you keep to yourself all the time.”

Soori let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes for a moment before looking up at her teacher. “What do you want to know about?”

“How about… Your parents? That’s a good place to start, right?”

Soori smiled softly then nodded. “Okay. My mom… Is one of the best. She thinks she’s the worst, she thinks she’s done nothing for us, and she continuously doubts herself. She has a bit of an addiction, and so she feels like she’s always wasting our money and that she’s burdening us. But her addiction can sometimes bring money back to us, so it’s not always bad… I really love her.”

“…How about your dad?” Ms. Jeon questioned.

Soori’s expression hardened and her lips pursed into a straight line, “…What about him?” she asked coldly. Everyone in the class felt shivers go down their spines when they heard the hostility in Soori’s voice. They all knew that since middle school, Soori had changed to be a little colder than usual, but no one has ever heard her voice become like that.

“Well, it is counseling time. Tell us about your dad,” the teacher pressed on in a gentle voice.

Soori sighed, “There’s not much to tell. He left us. I barely know who he is. I didn’t meet him until I was old enough to just believe that I didn’t have a father. My family tells me that when I met my father all I did was cry and say ‘He’s not my dad’ and to this day I still want to say that. I didn’t recognize that man to be my father until I was six. My mother was just another affair for him. My mom was in love with him, though… Enough to let him play with her three times… Enough to let him impregnate her three times before she finally saw the light. Unfortunately, we still have to lean on him for support… Most of his flings do. I once eavesdropped on my brothers and heard them say that the only reason our father sends us money for support is because we’re legally his children and he’d get in trouble for letting us starve and live in the streets. He lives in Japan, I haven’t seen him since I was eight.”

When she finished, everyone in the room was quiet. No one knew her father was like that.

“How many affairs did he have?” Ms. Jeon questioned.

“…Mark, in a standard year, how many girls would you have played with?”

Everyone in class already knew Mark used to be a player, so he wasn’t embarrassed at all by how blunt Soori’s question was. “I’d say… Somewhere around fifty?”

“Then my father must have had around a hundred affairs. I don’t know how many of them were impregnated.”

“Your father was a player? Even at such a mature age?”

Soori said nothing but just nodded.

Everything makes so much more sense…

“What about your uncle?” Mark dared to ask.

Might as well keep going now, this is the only time I’ll get to learn about her.

“Her uncle…?” Ms. Jeon asked before looking at Soori.

She sighed once again, “My uncle… Also had a lot of affairs… I mean… He is currently, having a lot of affairs. It’s possible that he’s having one right now.”

“What?”

“His wife lives in the Philippines with their children… My uncle lives here, in my house. He’s been having a lot of different affairs ever since he settled into South Korea. He’s also a player.”

“Wow…” everyone in the class started whispering as they gave pitiful looks to Soori. There were people in that class who wanted to hate her because of the situation with Mark, but even they couldn’t help but to feel bad for her.

“I don’t want anyone to know about this,” she spoke up after a while. “Everyone in this room… I hope you guys will be the only ones to ever know about my father and uncle… Please… Don’t mention it to anyone else…” her head hung low as she stared down at her lap.

A quiet murmur of agreement spread through the class, and Soori was just glad when the bell finally rang. She quickly grabbed all of her stuff and made her way to third period.

All throughout theater, Soori wouldn’t say a single word to anyone. It was obvious how much study hall had affected her. She was just glad that theater was a class where no one cared about her relationship with Mark. With how study hall was making her feel at that moment, the last thing she needed was immature girls and boys glaring at her.

“Freshman!” Daniel yelled out while wrapping his arm around Soori’s shoulder. She said nothing and brushed him off. He gave her a questioning look and she just shook her head before walking up to join Heesung in the light booth.

“Did you do something?” Daniel immediately turned to Mark.

“Huh? No! I didn’t!” Mark quickly put his hands up in mock surrender.

“Why won’t she talk, huh? You must have done something!” Tao joined Daniel in the interrogation.

“She was just fine during lunch, did something happen during study hall?” Jinyoung prompted. Soon, a majority of the theater class was pushing Mark up to a corner.

“Maybe you should help him,” Heesung chuckled as she watched her classmates corner Mark.

Soori remained silent. In fact, Heesung’s words weren’t even registering in her mind. All she could think about was how many people now knew about her life. And one of them was Mark Tuan.

Heesung finally shook her out of her trance. “Soori… Soori… Soori!” she yelled. Soori finally snapped back to life as she looked up at Heesung with wide eyes. A gentle smile came across the senior’s lips, “You should talk to Mark. I don’t know if he did something wrong, but I take it that he knows something… Talk to him, okay? And hurry up and date, would you?”

~

When class ended, Soori had quickly walked out of the school and out of the school gates without bothering to wait for the usual group. Mark noticed this and bid Jinyoung a quick goodbye before he ran to catch up with Soori.

“Soori!” he yelled as he got closer to her.

Her body grew stiff before she turned back to face him. “What?” she asked in a small whisper.

“…I-I’ll walk you home…”

“You don’t have to…”

“Let me.”

Soori didn’t have a choice as Mark was already walking in the direction of her house. The two walked in silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward for either of them. Mark nearly wanted to be there to let Soori know he was there for her, and Soori was too lost in thought of her father and uncle to have anything fully register in her mind.

It wasn’t until she was finally home that she was once again torn away from her thoughts. The main reasoning for that was because of her cousin’s loud voice.

“Soori! Babysit Rose for us, will you?” Her cousin quickly said before pushing his wife into the car.

“Huh? Wait! What?”

“Your brother’s already watching her, but she won’t stop screaming! Go help him! We have important things to do, I’m sorry it’s last minute but no one else could do it! Your boyfriend can help!”  And with that, her cousin was gone.

Soori looked up at Mark and frowned. He just smiled in return and ruffled her hair, “I don’t have to be home yet.”

She sighed and started walking into her house while Mark followed from behind. “Rose is one of the most difficult nieces I have,” she spoke while closing the door behind them, “You don’t have to help babysit.”

“I want to… I feel bad about what happened in study hall so I want to stay,” he said firmly.

Soori sighed and made her way to the living room where she found her brother struggling with Rose. “Oppa…” she spoke up.

Hyuk immediately stood up and sighed in relief at the sight of the two teenagers. “Thank God. Well at least… Thank God for you, Soori. Mark… Yeah, okay.”

Mark chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck before whispering to Soori, “He still likes me, right?”

Soori said nothing and bent over to pick Rose up. She tried calming her down but it was all in vain until Rose caught sight of Mark’s hair. It was blonde, nearly white, so it immediately distracted Rose. When Soori realized that she gave Mark a small smile for the first time since study hall. “Nice, your hair is actually doing some good.”

“…What, you don’t like my hair?” Mark frowned.

Again, she said nothing and just shrugged as she cradled Rose in her arms.

“Soori, I have to go to work. Mark… Do you want a ride home?” Hyuk asked.

“No it’s okay, I’ll stay here with Soori for a little bit, if that’s okay with you.”

Hyuk seemed hesitant, but finally agreed to it. “Alright, don’t stay too long though.” Then, Hyuk left the house, leaving Soori and Mark all alone with Rose.

After a while, Rose finally rested her head down on Soori’s shoulder, slowly starting to fall asleep. Soori’s eyes closed as she thanked the lords for letting Rose be easy on her.

“I thought you said she was difficult…” Mark whispered as he took a seat on the couch, watching for when Rose was finally asleep.

“She normally is, you saw how she was crying when you first came in here,” Soori whispered back before walking out of the living room and towards her own room.

As this was only Mark’s second time in her house, and the first time he was only in the living room, he followed Soori around like a lost dog and looked around at all the decorations. Everything in her house was rather plain and simple. Nothing really stood out to him.

Soori finally reached her room and opened the door. After entering, she carefully laid Rose down on her bed before taking a seat on the couch in her room.

“So… Is this your room?” Mark asked, walking inside and taking a seat beside Soori. The girl nodded in response as she looked over at him. “…Nice, it’s cozy.”

Soori raised an eyebrow, “That’s all you have to say about it?” she was genuinely surprised. Knowing Mark, she was expecting some weird flirtatious line about her room. But instead, it was just that it was cozy.

“Well… I’d say something about wanting to test out your bed or whatever but… I know today was a little rough since study hall, and with Rose on the bed I don’t think we can test it out too well,” he chuckled.

Soori stayed silent and nodded, “Yeah…”

Mark let the silence linger for a moment before he scooted closer and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m not your dad or your uncle. I know that your opinion of players is bad because of them and that’s why you really don’t trust me but I promise I would never do anything like what they do, okay?”

She remained silent a little while longer before looking up at him. For the first time since Mark has met her, she almost looked vulnerable. “Can I trust you?” she whispered softly.

“Of course,” Mark replied with no hesitation. 

~~~~~~

So tonight I figured out that my laptop has a bit of a virus on it... My brother is going to take it to get a system reboot which means everything wiped off, as if I had just bought a new laptop. So I'm updating really quick tonight and then I'll have to start trying to work on updates through my phone until my brother has time to do the system reboot. So uh... Yeah.

Also I went back to the 'Home' chapter and changed a few things, specifically about Soori's uncle. I was originally going to do stuff with him being a offender but then the story got too complicated so I changed it so he was a player like her father. So yeah...

Comment Replies~

MIDNIGHTMYSTERY - Hehe. Blonde Mark. 

tbikxng7 - Here's an update~! I'm sorry you had to wait so long!

thelillcat - Hehe your comments really make my day better~ Please do not harm pillows because of the feels though! They cuddle you at night <3

secretreader - I'm not sure if I quite included a lot of scenes with psycho girls but we'll see c;

epikdark - He's becoming quite the sweetheart isn't he~

BestfriendsAngelBABY - I know right? :D

eithazin97 - It's my pleasure c: I'm hoping to update quickly too honestly xD

DerpMia0413 - Nope the story wouldn't quite end once Mark gets Soori... Remember I'm thinking about sequels~

Irasabree - Updated~! <3 Thank you for reading! :3

stephv92 - It looks like I'll be posting the sequels then~ I hope you enjoyed the chapters :3