Haerin sighs, dreading the idea of going home, as always.  She closes her locker door and jumps when an amused Kyungsoo is leaning on the locker beside hers.  Her eyes glance to her left and right, noticing that people are already staring at her. 

“Were you freaked out?” She whispers, avoiding everyone’s gazes and getting to the point.  “If you were, it’s okay, I understand, I’m sorry, which is why-“

“You introduced yourself to me in front of my whole class, in the middle of my English lesson, yes,” Kyungsoo cuts her off this time and chuckles.  “3 times,”

Again, she realizes how senseless she had been.  Barging into someone else’s class like that.  “Idiot,” She presses her forehead on her locker, sighing. 

“Did your friend get the note?” He asks and Haerin brightens.

“She did, she did,” She nods.  “She’s pumped up for the exams now.  I have to thank you properly.  I’ll buy you a drink tomorrow, that’s a deal,” Her hand reaches out to shake Kyungsoo’s without his consent.  She drops it as quickly as she grabbed it, already turning to walk home. 

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Kyungsoo trots after her, snapping out of his shocked daze.

Haerin stares at him like he just spoke in a language she didn’t understand and glances at their surroundings again.  “You, me, this,” She refers to the both of them, pointing at herself and at Kyungsoo.  “Not normal.  People staring, not good,”

Kyungsoo follows her gestures.  “But we’re friends,”

Haerin blinks.  “We know each other’s names,”

“You know that I like to skip class and sit around on the roof.  I know you have a friend named Sohyun and that she has her college entrance exams around the corner.  We know something about each other.  That makes us friends,”

Haerin scrunches her nose, knowing that she is completely unable to escape this argument and simply sighs.  “You know about Sohyun, not me,” She quietly points out.

“Your locker number is 307.  You’re in 3-C,” Kyungsoo glances at the label on the notebooks Haerin is carrying with her.  “There.  Something about you,”

“Fine,” She huffs. 

At that moment, the alarm on Kyungsoo’s phone rings, and he glances at the screen to see ‘Work’ popping up.  “Haerin,” He hesitates, switching off the alarm.  “Can I call you Haerin?”

“Sure,”

“I gotta go,” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder.  “I’ve got work,”

“Well, Kyungsoo, err, can I call you that?” She follows his words and gives herself a mental pat on the back for being polite. 

He grins.  “Sure,”

“I gotta go, too.  Home, that is,” She smiles back.  “If I don’t show up tomorrow for that drink I promised, ask 3-C’s Lee Sohyun for it, because there’s a possibility that somewhere on my way home, I’d be murdered by your fangirls,”

Kyungsoo laughs at her effortless joke and waves, trotting away.  “I’ll see you tomorrow,”

Haerin waves back.  “Yeah,”

Well, Haerin thinks.  He’s pretty nice.

***

On her way home, Haerin decided to buy her little brother’s favorite japchae, along with some kimbap and sweet cakes.  She shares a room with him, so that means sharing whatever she’s got with him.  Except for clothes.  Her hands hover over the buttons on her phone and she sends a quick text to him, asking for him to get the food from her at the door.

“I’m home,” Haerin announces quietly, the grip she has on the plastic bag in her hand tightening unconsciously.  Yunjae comes padding down the stairs and grins at her after glancing into the plastic bag. 

A flirty giggle and a man’s teasing voice comes through the other side of the house and as Haerin turns to look, her uncle comes forth with his arms around the waist of a voluptuous woman. 

The woman blinks, smile frozen.  “Who’s this?”

“My brother’s kids,” Her uncle shrugs, his tone slurred.

“If they’re home, does that mean that we can’t-?” The woman asks again, her hand trailing along Haerin’s uncle’s belt.

“No, babe, I’m sorry, but you gotta go.  Maybe next time,” He says, planting a kiss on her lips. 

The woman walks out with an evident pout on her lips, throwing a steely gaze upon Haerin who is still standing there awkwardly, doing nothing.

He’s drunk.  It’s never pretty when he’s drunk. 

Haerin looks straight into Yunjae’s eyes.  “Get upstairs, Yunjae,”

His eyes flit back and forth between his sister and their uncle and again, Haerin repeats her command.  Reluctantly, he pads back upstairs.

Her uncle looks at her lazily, as if revolted by her very presence. “You’re home, huh,”

“Sorry for disturbing your, err, time with her,” Haerin quietly apologizes, bowing.

“Is that a mocking tone I hear, girl?” Her uncle asks, making her lift her head up to meet his eyes.  His middle-aged, handsome features contort angrily.

“No, it isn’t,” She shakes her head.  “I’m sorry for coming home at the wrong ti-“

“You should be,” He snarls.  “I was about to have a great time and then you came along,”

Haerin, unable to hold back her tongue, lets the words slip out of her lips with a light scoff.  “Great , you mean,”

Haerin never learns her lesson.  She knows what’s coming, but she never learns. 

Her uncle boils down with anger.  “What did you say?”

“With some woman whose name you don’t even know,” Haerin steps back in contrary to her arrogance as her uncle strides towards her.  “You’re disgu-“

A loud crack resonated throughout the hall as the back of his hand came in contact with her cheekbones.  “I’m what?” He asks, jaw clenched. 

“In front of Yunjae, too,” Haerin backs up again and trips over her own foot, falling back onto the floor.  “Shameless,”

A hard pang of pain hits her side as her uncle swings his leg to kick her.  He steps on her hand before throwing another kick, making Haerin shout in agony.  “Why can’t you just shut up like your little brother, huh?” He says with each kick at the girl by his feet, glaring at him with anger. 

“Don’t you dare mention Yunjae,”

He kneels by her side and pulls her by her hair, ignoring her pained cry, his alcohol breath stinging her nose.  “Don’t go all gutsy on me, girl, if you know that you’re going to end up losing,” He drops her roughly, leaving her sprawled there as he grabs another bottle of beer.

Breath hitching, Haerin staggers to stand up and she takes the stairs, entering the room and facing Yunjae.  The smile he had on his face, the one about to greet his sister, disappeared as he rushed over to help her, gently helping her lie down on the mattress by the bed. 

‘You must have said something, again,’ Yunjae gestures with his hands.

Haerin simply looks away.

Yes.  Her brother can’t speak.  He got terribly sick when he was in the 1^st grade.  He had an immune system so weak it couldn’t prevent him from losing his vocal chords to a severe throat illness.  That’s why she always tells him to stay in his room, whenever she’s not home.  Because even though he was only 2 years younger than her, there is no way he could ever handle their uncle.  He couldn’t snap back at him, and the words their uncle could use on him were too much.  If it were too much for her, what would it do to him?

“He said something about you, too,” Haerin says, hissing when Yunjae dabs ointment on the darkening bruise over her cheek. 

‘Stop talking back, noona, you know he’s never gonna stop,’ He answers, frowning.  His hands gently treat his sister’s knuckles, scraped and bruised.

“Easy for you to say” She snaps, immediately regretting it.  “Sorry, I’m sorry,”

Yunjae simply sighs.  ‘I can’t talk some sense into you, can’t I?’

“No, you can’t,” She grins and sits up with a pained grunt.  “Let’s eat, I’m hungry,”

Yunjae eyes her for a moment before handing her a serving of kimbap.  His sister had been always like that, so hardheaded and so very protective over him.  He hated it, sometimes, because it made him feel like a total wuss.  But at the same time, he’s grateful, because he knows that she’s the only one he’s got and she’s not going anywhere.

He taps her knee and she looks up.  “Hm?”

‘I love you a lot, okay? So please, take care of yourself and don’t get hurt anymore,’ He signs.

Haerin smiles, nodding.  “I’ll try,”

omo omo omona

second chapter second chapter!

come on guys where are your comments!!