A box. That’s what would best describe what you lived in. Ever since you were little your single mother had been seriously overprotective of you, never letting you get the experience that kids years younger were getting. To top it off, you had been homeschooled. Any bit of culture you might have gotten from that short experience was washed down the drain and it took a great toll on you.

Fashion sense? Nearly non-existent. Sweatpants, baggy shirts, and sneakers made up the majority of your wardrobe. Sure there were some nice clothes but why sacrifice comfort for looks? Makeup was a foreign substance that had been forbidden when you were 7 and never mentioned again. You could barely handle chap stick anyway. Music? Forget buying albums off of iTunes. The only music you got was illegally downloaded from your friend… your only friend.

This was the world you lived in. It was small, sheltered, and was getting cramped. Who would’ve thought that one boy would be able to turn the whole thing upside down? Not you. You weren’t happy, but you were satisfied… and you were completely unprepared.

The morning it all began started with you falling out of bed. Great. As you rubbed your pounding head and attempted to untangle yourself from the bed sheets you took a look outside. Rain. A hard, summer rain was pouring out of the sky and pounding the streets of Seoul below. You smiled. Perfect.

After a few minutes of fighting a losing battle with the sheets you were finally able to stand and stretch. You sighed in contentment as your joints popped and settled back into place. Your mom always said that cracking your joints would give you arthritis but here you were, nearly 20 years old, and you felt perfectly fine.

“______!” your mom’s screech startled you out of your trance. She was in a bad mood. “______,” she repeated, “get in here!”

You sighed and walked out of the protection of your room into the warzone that was the rest of your house.

“Morning,” you muttered, sarcasm slightly evident in your voice.

Not one for pleasantries, your mom got straight to the point. “The House needs to be cleaned one last time,” she instructed as she slipped on her shoes. “The new owners are moving in early tomorrow and I don’t want them to get a bad first impression.”

Ah yes. The House. It’s a huge three story house next to mine that’s been empty for as long as you could remember. Your mom, a realtor, refused to sell it for cheap and had only just found a buyer that was willing to pay the outrageous price she was asking for. Besides, once you were old enough, she passed the upkeep of The House on to you.

You poured yourself a bowl of some kind of tasteless, whole grain, organic cereal and sat down at the kitchen table. “So I’m assuming you want me to do the same exact thing I did yesterday?” you guessed.

Your mom made a face at you, not amused. “Don’t get smart with me, young lady,” she said. “I need this job to go well and I don’t need you to be the reason for it falling through.”

You rolled your eyes. “It’s not like I’m gonna purposely mess this up, mom,” you defended yourself.

“You don’t need to try,” your mom shot back, “you just do it anyway.” Then she picked her purse and headed towards the door. “I’ll be back late,” she said before walking out of the house. You ran a hand through your hair. Typical mom. When she said late it meant early morning the next day.

You finished your boring excuse for cereal in silence and thought about all you had to get done today. Cleaning The House would take all day, leaving no room for anything else until much later. You pouted. This was the first rainy day in a long time and now you weren’t going to be able to spend it the way you wanted to; lazing around.

All of a sudden you phone buzzed with a text.

Yuna- Are you up yet?

It was your one and only friend Yuna. The two of you had met a few years ago and, when your mom actually let you go out and do human things, you were inseparable. She was the one who gave you your music.

• Just. My legal guardian just left.

You replied.

Yuna- Free day for you?

• Nope. She gave me a job to do before she left… I have to clean The House.

Yuna- Ew. That’s gross.

• Tell me about it. But at least I have the day to myself.

Yuna- True. Anywho, I have a new song for you. It is literally perfection and if you don’t like it you are a heartless cyborg. You can listen to it while cleaning!

You made a face at this. Not exactly comforting but you were excited for the new song. – That’s great! Send it to me as soon as you can!

Yuna- Gotcha. I have to go to work now. Have fun cleaning!

You rolled your eyes. – Sure….

You set your phone back on the table and stared at your soggy cereal. You had two options; either continue to stall and then be working until the wee hours of the morning, or leave now and get the job done before midnight. Maybe. You decided, with dragging feet, to get the job done.

Leaving your half empty cereal bowl on the table you walked to your room to get dressed. And by dressed you actually just pulled a shirt over your tank top and slipped on some sneakers. Your sweatpants would work just fine for a day of cleaning. With your hair piled precariously on top of your head in a messy bun you slipped out of your house and into the pouring rain for the few short steps it took to reach The House. Once inside you shook yourself off, splattering rain droplets all over the huge entryway but you didn’t care. You were going to have to clean it anyway. Standing in the foyer, you took a big look around. If only your mom took as much pride in your house as she did in The House.

Shaking yourself out of your self-pity you walked into the huge kitchen and found the long list of cleaning chores your mom had left for you the first time you cleaned The House.

1. Clean the floors
   1. Sweep the hardwood
   2. Vacuum the carpets
   3. Mop the vinyl
2. Dust all surfaces
3. Wash windows & other glass surfaces
4. Vacuum couches and chairs
5. Water plants
6. Remake beds
7. Air out all extra blankets & sheets
   1. Put them away better than how you found them
8. Lawn work
   1. Pick up fallen branches
   2. Trim hedges and bushes
   3. Sweep off patio & driveway
9. Clean the closets
10. Don’t mess up

In a normal house this list wouldn’t take more than maybe a few hours but The House was the closest to a mansion you could get without actually being a legitimate mansion.

You got to work right away. The first thing you did was dust all the surfaces. It was harder than it probably should’ve been but height wasn’t necessarily one of your strong points. Then you remade all the beds and aired out the extra blankets and sheets, which were very numerous. You worked and worked, refusing to break, unaware that your mom was furiously trying to get ahold of you.

It was around 2 in the afternoon when you first noticed you didn’t have your phone. You had wanted to listen to the new song Yuna had sent you and when you went to grab it from your pocket you realized you had left it on the kitchen table. Oh well, you shrugged, and got back to work.

An hour and a half later you were almost finished. All that was left to do was clean the floors and fix up the lawn.

“Time to go back into the rain,” you muttered as you slipped your shoes back on. You reached for the doorknob and noticed something peculiar; the doorknob was already turning. It took you a second to realize what was happening and, when you did, you dashed away from the door just before it opened and the new owners of the house stepped into the space where you had just been standing.

“So this is it?” you heard one of them say. He had a really deep voice and it kinda scared you.

“I guess so,” said a softer voice. Another guy.

Meanwhile you were freaking out. You didn’t want to be caught here when you were specifically told to be out of there before the owners got there. Speaking of which, they weren’t supposed to get here until tomorrow! Spinning around, you looked for a good hiding spot and saw the door to one of the closets half opened. Without thinking twice, you slipped inside and shut the door mere seconds before the new owners walked into the room.

“It’s pretty clean,” a third, male voice remarked.

“The landlady said there’s a maid,” the first voice said, “I think the maid is supposed to come once a week.”

You glared in the dark of the closet at this statement and you felt your ears burn. Maid, huh? ‘Thanks for telling me, mom,” you thought, clenching your fists in anger.

“I’m hungry,” a fourth voice stated. “Let’s eat before we explore more.”

You panicked at this statement. They would sit down to eat in the kitchen while you were still stuck hiding inside the kitchen closet!

“Let’s get out of our wet clothes first,” the first voice said again. You guessed he was some sort of an authority figure for the rest of the guys by the way he had been talking. You mentally thanked God for his suggestion. While they were changing you would be able to slip out unnoticed.

“Good idea,” a fifth voice said. How many guys were there?!? You didn’t dwell on it long because you heard them shuffle out of the kitchen in search of rooms to change in. Once you were sure they were gone you opened the door of the closet and tip toed out, shutting it behind you. You continued to walk as quietly as you could out of the kitchen until the worst possible thing happened.

“Who the heck are you?!”

Startled, you spun around towards the voice and slipped on the water the new owner’s shoes had tracked in, sending you crashing face first into the floor. The second your body made contact with the hard vinyl flooring the wind was knocked out of you leaving you gasping for air.

It took a second, but you got your breath back and, when you did, you looked up at the person who had spoken.

He was, without a doubt, one of the most handsome men you had ever laid eyes on. His hair was a messy brown that covered the tips of his ears and covered his. His plump lips were slightly parted. His gorgeous, dark eyes were deep and endless. And they were looking right at you.

“I said, ‘who are you’?” he asked again, revealing himself to the the third voice.

You thought about the question. It wouldn’t matter to this guy, whoever he was, who you were. You name meant nothing so what should you say? As soon as you wondered that, the answer became clear… and it made you mad.

You picked yourself up, ignoring the pain from the fall, and glared at the man in front of you. “Ask your landlady,” you said simply, the anger evident in your voice, and spun around on your heel. It was a stupid answer and you knew you were being unreasonable but you were too mad to think clearly.

“What kind of an answer is that?” the man called after you.

You ignored him and continued walking to the front door. You had opened the door and were about to walk out when a tanned arm shot out in front of you and slammed the door shut, the arm blocking your escape.

In any other situation you might have been flustered at the closeness of the handsome man but you were too upset to think about it.

“How did you find us?” he asked, as upset as you were.

You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion. “What?”

“Did you tell anybody else?”

“What are you talking about?” you almost yelled, you were so confused. “Are you in the witness protection program or something?”

The man stared at you. “You don’t recognize me?”

Now it was your turn to stare. “Should I?”

“Yah! Kai!” another voice, the fifth voice, called from another room.

The man dragged his gaze from your face to the direction the voice was coming from and was distracted long enough for you to make your escape. Using your height to your advantage, you ducked under the arm and slipped out the door.

“Hey!” the man called as you walked across the patio in the rain.

Still feeling mad, you spun around and faced the man, who was now standing in the doorway, and yelled back. “I’m the maid!” and with rain soaking through your clothes and running through your hair, you spun around and stalked to your house, taking care to slam the door behind you.

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You sat down at your kitchen table and picked up your phone, looking to call you mom and confront her, and saw that you had 6 missed calls and a text. The text was from Yuna. She had sent you the song. The calls were from your mom. Great.

Before you could even think about calling her back the front door slammed open and your mom stormed in.

“I thought you said you were gonna be back late,” you stated.

“Don’t you start with me,” your mom snapped. “Why didn’t you pick up?”

You sighed. “I left my phone here on accident,” you said.

“So they didn’t see you?” your mom asked.

“Why is that so important?” you stood up, mad. “Am I really so ugly that I’ll scare off your customers?” you asked, sarcastically.

“You said it, not me,” your mom replied.

Ignoring the way your heart clenched at those words you decided to get to the bottom of the maid business. “So when were you going to tell me that I’m an indentured servant?”

Your mom’s eyes narrowed. “What on earth are you talking about, young lady?”

“You basically forced me into servitude with the maid thing,” you responded. “Don’t try to deny it. We both know you can’t afford to hire someone you have to pay. I’m cheap labor to you.”

“Don’t you dare make me the bad guy in this scenario,” your mom ordered, her voice raising, “you know I’m doing this for both of us.”

“Oh please,” you scoffed, “nothing you do is ever for me.” Your voice was raised now too. “I’m just a problem to you, a mistake that never should’ve happened.”

A dark look covered your mom’s face. “It took you almost 20 years to figure that out?” she asked in a low, scary voice.

A pain that you could only describe as a knife piercing your heart filled you. This woman standing in front of you was your mother. At least, that’s what she was supposed to be. “What kind of mother are you?” you asked through your teeth.

That was enough to set your mother off. Before you could blink she was standing in front of you and sending you to the floor with a powerful strike to the face.

You looked up at her, holding your stinging cheek, and glared.

“If you don’t clean that house,” your mom started, straightening her work jacket, “you better start looking for new housing.” And with that, your mom her heel and walked out of the room.

Do you know what it’s like to be so utterly furious that you can’t even think? Nothing makes sense in your mind and you can’t even see properly. That’s what you were feeling right now and you knew that if you didn’t let off some steam you were probably going to explode. You picked yourself up from the kitchen floor and stormed out of the house, back into the pouring rain. Then you screamed. You screamed for all you were worth. You screamed because of your mom. You screamed because of what you were being forced into. You screamed to scream. And it felt good.

You turned around and faced the brick wall of your house behind you and began punching it. Over and over and over again you punched the wall, expelling the anger that was swelling inside you, not even noticing that you were cutting up your hands and blood was mixing with the rain.

“If you’re trying to dent the wall, it’s not gonna work,” a voice behind you said, causing you to whirl around.

It was the gorgeous man who caught you hiding earlier. He was standing behind you with an umbrella over his head. You glared at him and turned back to the wall. “Shut up, I don’t want to talk to you.”

The man shrugged. “Well too bad because I think you owe me some sort of explanation after what happened earlier,” he said.

You rolled your eyes and turned around. “Look, you already ruined my life so just please, leave me alone,” you snapped.

The man scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “How did I ruin your life?” he asked. “We don’t even know each other.”

“And I don’t WANT to know you either! So leave me alone!” you yelled. The man blinked, taken aback, and obviously hurt to some extent. It made you feel bad. You had no right to go around screaming at people you didn’t know just because you were having a bad day. “I’m sorry,” you apologized in a softer voice. “I just… It’s been a really bad day. I don’t normally freak out at complete strangers.” You ran a hand through your wet hair.

The man, or the boy you were beginning to think of him, smiled softly. “How about punching walls?” he asked, “Is that normal either?”

You gave a soft laugh. “No, this is a first for me.”

The boy laughed too, giving his eyes a beautiful eye smile. Then his gaze dropped and the smile disappeared. “Oh my gosh, your hands!” he exclaimed.

“Huh?” you looked down confused. Then you saw how cut up and bleeding they were. “Oh… well that happened.”

The boy took a step closer. “You need to take care of those,” he insisted.

“Well I don’t exactly feel like going back inside right now. My mom is…”

“I heard,” the boy replied sadly. He must’ve heard your mom and you yelling back and forth and then you screaming. That’s embarrassing. You didn’t have time to dwell on it though because the boy gestured back to his house with his head. “Come on,” he said.

You cocked your head to the side. “What?”

“Let me help,” he insisted, “Let’s say it’s my way of apologizing for ruining your life.”

You gave him a look. “I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”

He gave you that adorable, soft smile again. “But you shouldn’t have to,” he said, “Come on, trust me.”

You didn’t know why you did. You didn’t even know this kid and here he was, inviting you over so he could take care of your hurts. But you trusted him. So you agreed. “Ok.”

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“Wow, you really cut up your hands good,” the boy remarked as he dabbed a warm, wet cloth on your hands to remove the blood.

You winced at the sting. “I didn’t even feel it until you mentioned them,” you admitted.

“Bad?” the boy asked, noticing your wince.

“I’ve had worse.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

You made a face. “That’s life, genius.”

The boy had led you out of the rain and into the large, lower-level bathroom, where he had you sit on the edge of the bathtub while he knelt in front of you to clean your hands. Now he had finished cleaning them off and was beginning to gently rub ointment on them.

“So I know you still don’t want to talk about this but I’m just really confused,” he said apprehensively, not sure how you were going to respond.   

You looked down. “It’s ok,” you assured him, “I was rude and you deserve a legitimate explanation.” You took a deep breath and delved into the whole story. “So, my mom is your landlady. She owns this property, however she doesn’t have enough money to get the hired help she needs for the upkeep, so she forces me to. I thought it was just until the new owners, you guys, moved in but nope. She says that if I don’t do it she’ll kick me out.”

The boy looked at you in disbelief. “Can she do that? I mean, you’re her daughter.”

You scoffed at that. “Yeah but I’m old enough to live on my own. She started collecting rent from me after I turned 18.”

“Seriously?” the boy asked, eyebrows raised.

“Welcome to my world,” you said with a fake smile.

“Is that why you were so mad?” he asked softly.

You bit your lip and nodded, still looking down, “Yeah. I found out from complete strangers what my mom should have told me way before; I’m basically an indentured servant to her.”

“Oh come on, I bet that’s not true.”

You scoffed again. “You don’t have to live with her.”

“I guess,” the boy admitted. The two of you sat in silence for the next few minutes. The boy carefully and gently applied ointment to your cuts and then wrapped them up, his large, warm hands dwarfing yours in a protective kind of way. After a bit he was finished and he sat back on his heels. “Well, there you go,” he said

“Thanks,” you replied, fully meaning it, and looked at your bandaged hands.

“Listen,” the boy ran a hand through his already messy hair, “I know it’s none of my business but, if you need to get away, feel free to hang here. The rest of the guys and I won’t be around too often and when we are we wouldn’t mind the company.”

You blinked, taken aback. “Really?”

“Really,” the boy nodded in confirmation.

You didn’t know what to say. This boy was basically offering you an escape from your awful life, and he didn’t even know your name. Come to think of it he had listened to your problems, gave you the benefit of the doubt, took care of your hurts, and he didn’t know who you were. You thought it was time to change that. Holding out one of your bandaged hands you offered him your name. “______,” you said with a soft smile.

The boy reached over and shook your hand and smiled back. “Kai,” he said.

And he didn’t let go of your hand. 

A.N.

This is for the lovely pretty_rania1 and I hope you like it!

Continue to comment and give me ideas and subscribe! Love to all!! *blows kisses*