Chapter One. 

She's Different

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There are two things in this world that Kim Hanbin finds great pleasure in: his girlfriend and his sleep.

And with today being a Saturday, Hanbin had the luxury of sleeping in until noon with the beautiful Kim Jennie by his side.

One would think that he, in his current situation, would be drowning in an immense amount of pleasure right now. He didn’t have to get up so early for the horror that was school, and his girlfriend of nine months was literally inches away from his grasp. The boy should have been ing thrilled, but he was far from it.

Hanbin restlessly tossed and turned, attempting to block out the excessive noise coming from outside his bedroom door, but to no avail.

“What the hell,” he muttered.

He was positive his parents were supposed to be out of town on some business trip this weekend, and he even went as far as making sure he had the house all to himself and his girlfriend by giving the maid the day off. So the fact that there was so much as a footstep coming from outside his door meant that either there was an amateur burglar in his house right now or his parents were still home for some reason unbeknownst to him.

Groaning, Hanbin angrily threw his sheets aside and forced himself off his bed to see who and what the hell was disturbing his peace and quiet.

“Replace all the furniture and put in different ones.” A woman in her forties ordered. “No, Minju, I told you to get rid of all the pink. She’s seventeen now, I doubt she still likes rainbows and unicorns. Now go!”

Rubbing his eyes, Hanbin looked to see his mother across the hall with a girl who, for some reason, seemed awfully familiar but at the same time, not at all. She was dressed in casual clothes, denim jeans and a loose white t-shirt, and her hair was light brown with the ends dyed a light pink. She looked young, but Hanbin was almost sure the girl had to be older than him. Almost.

“You didn’t have to do all of this for me, Mom. The guest room would have been just fine,” said the girl.

Mom?

Oh.

Now it all made sense to Hanbin.

This was a dream.

You see, this definitely had to be a dream, because Hanbin was pretty sure that voice sounded like Saeyeon and there was no way Saeyeon was here in the house. No, Saeyeon was in America, California to be exact, and he was in Korea. The two were miles and miles apart (thankfully), so it was absolutely impossible.

His mother scoffed. “Nonsense, Saeyeon. You’re my daughter, not a guest. You’re getting your old room back, and that’s final. It’ll take a couple of days to redecorate, but you’ll be back in your old room in no time. I promise.”

Convinced that he was still asleep, Hanbin turned around to head back to bed when a voice stopped him.

“Hanbin? Is that you?”

Every single bone in Hanbin’s body turned absolutely rigid, and he froze. To hear that wretched voice once was alarming enough; to hear it twice? Someone truly wanted to torture him.

“Hey sleepyhead, looks like you’re finally awake.”

Time, space, the whole world seemed to stop when Hanbin looked to see the last person he thought he would ever see again in a very long time.

Kim Saeyeon.

In the flesh.

Except she didn’t look like Kim Saeyeon. At all.

“Hanbin, aren’t you going to greet your sister?” his mother asked expectantly.

Sister?

So this wasn’t a dream?

Saeyeon enthusiastically waved. “Hey, oppa. Did you miss me?”

Hanbin simply stared at her, unresponsive, because truthfully, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have anything to say to her.

“Are you okay, sweetie? You’re not saying anything,” his mother worriedly said.

Hanbin watched Saeyeon glance right past him before returning her eyes and furrowing her brows in concern. “Yeah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Did you have a nightmare, oppa?”

Taking a step back, Hanbin gritted his teeth. “I’m fine,” he retorted. “What is she doing here?”

Saeyeon smiled despite the hostile undertone. “I’ve decided to come back and finish my school year here.”

And before Hanbin could outwardly display his disgust of his sister’s return, he was interrupted by Saeyeon herself.

“Oh. I didn’t know you had a guest over so early. Did we disturb you guys?” she asked.

His mother frowned. “Guest? What guest?”

“The one in his bed,” Saeyeon gestured, tilting her head. “And why… does she look like she just woke up?”

Confused, his mother stepped forward to get a better look.

Hanbin’s eyes widened in alarm, because it was in that moment that he realized… he was ed. His mother already wasn’t particularly fond of his girlfriend, and finding her in his bed half would only make matters worse. He watched the realization dawn on his mother’s face and flinched when she screeched his name in absolute fury.

“Kim Hanbin!”

“Wait, Mom, I can explain,” he panicked, attempting to the block the doorway.

“Explain what? That you snuck in a girl into my house without me knowing? And kept her overnight? Under my roof?” his mother venomously hissed with both hands on her hip.

“Well if you put it that way, it just sounds awful,” he joked with a nervous laugh.

Unimpressed, she narrowed her eyes. “No, what’s awful is that you think it’s okay to go behind my back, Hanbin. I suggest you get out of the way if you know what’s good for you.”

Without much of a choice, Hanbin lowered his head and quietly stepped aside.

His mother looked at him with evident distaste. “When your father finds out about this….”

Hanbin cursed under his breath at the thought of his uptight father getting involved, and immediately he glared at Saeyeon, the person who, to no surprise, was the cause of all of this. He would have thought she’d mouth an a