Bae Joohyun was out on a walk. She was 14, freshly enrolled in high school, and frequently took such walks to clear her head of stress. It was her main form of relaxation and letting loose—she forbade herself from playing games of any kind. It rotted her brain, and wasted her time.

Loosely striding around the corner, the same one she’s passed since childhood, she saw a tiny girl crouching down and resting her back against the old yew tree in the children’s playground. She used to play there when she was young, but stopped after she got herself cut trying to stupidly climb the yew tree when she was 10.

Curious, Joohyun approached her. She swore that she hadn’t seen the girl around her neighbourhood before—who could miss anyone with distinct orange ombre hair and kiddy overalls? As Joohyun stepped closer, she swore she heard quiet sobbing. Mystery girl was crying.

“Hey…um, you okay?” inquired Joohyun kindly, bending down to reach mystery girl’s eye level. To her surprise, she felt mystery girl nudge at her shin, and her crying interjected with “umma, please leave me alone for once!”

“I’m not umma,” replied Joohyun gently, smoothing mystery girl’s hair. “I’m Bae Joohyun, aged 14, and am currently living around here. What’s your name?”

Joohyun heard the sobbing cease a second time, but this time it was succeeded by mystery girl slightly lifting her head from her elbows, and seeing for herself who this “Bae Joohyun” was. “I…my name is Kkang….Seulgi,” mystery girl replied, her voice trembling from her sobs just now.

“How old are you?” continued Joohyun, gently. She had volunteered at a nearby orphanage before, and she knew exactly how to converse with kids, and connect with them. “And why are you here?”

“I’m…I’m turning 11 this year,” Seulgi replied, loosening her elbows and stumbling into a standing position. “And I’m kind of running away from my umma.”

Joohyun let out a light gasp in surprise—she had seen scores of children run away from their families, but never one as young as Seulgi. “What did your umma to do you, Seulgi?” Joohyun continued, cooing.

“She…she is putting too much pressure on me! She makes me study all the time, and never lets me take a break,” Seulgi revealed, bashfully. “And I can’t take it anymore.”

Joohyun sighed internally to herself. Of course. The Korean education system that drove scores of stressed out teenagers to suicide. And the tiger moms that perpetuated it. “What would you like to drink?” Joohyun asked, an idea coming to her mind.

“Hot chocolate!” Seulgi replied, a smile creeping onto her tear-stained face.

“Alright then!” Joohyun chirped, offering her hand to Seulgi. “Come over to unnie’s house, and unnie will make you hot chocolate, okay?”

Seulgi grinned widely, and took Joohyun’s hand, following her back to her house.

-----

15 year old Bae Joohyun was burying her head in a pile of biology revision notes, trying her best to rescue her biology grade (she had flunked the first test because she was sick) when she heard the door bell ringing. “Coming~” she sang while jogging towards the door. Opening it wide, she was shocked to see that it was Seulgi; they hadn’t met at all since Joohyun brought her home for hot chocolate that day.

“Surprised to see me?” greeted Seulgi, playfully.

“Shouldn’t you be busy convincing me why you, a stranger, should be let into my house?” Joohyun retorted, grinning.

“So you consider me a stranger?” Seulgi replied, pouting.

“Nah,” Joohyun shrugged. “Anyway, why are you here?”

“I’m here because I kinda…felt like running away again,” Seulgi admitted bashfully. “And I’m hoping if you could let me crash here for at least a few hours.”

“That demon-ness, huh,” comforted Joohyun knowingly, the witch-like fire-breathing imagery that Seulgi had painted a year back still fresh and poignant in her mind. “Come in then,” Joohyun motioned towards Seulgi, who was still standing awkwardly at the door.

“Just make yourself comfortable. Would you like some hot chocolate?” asked Joohyun, walking towards to the kitchen.

“That’d be lovely,” she heard the response from behind her.

Suddenly, her day of boring revision didn’t seem so boring anymore.

-----

17 year old Bae Joohyun was clutching her World History material firmly in her arms—she had an assortment of textbooks, notebooks and worksheets, all which she forced herself to go through before she headed back home. Finals were coming, and a point could be the difference between her dreams to become a lawyer in the future and working at McDs. Well, maybe it wasn’t that drastic. But you get the point.

She trudged up the stairs to the second floor of the library, and headed to the West corner of the library. Most of the students were congregated at the East wing, where most of the study carrels were. What most people didn’t know of, however, was the smattering of tables and chairs hidden behind some bookshelves in the West corner. And there was where Joohyun had been a regular over the past few years.

That day, however, she noted that her corner wasn’t occupied by her alone anymore—she heard the faint shuffling of papers, and as she drew closer faintly made out the hair of the occupant. Orange coloured ombre.

“Hey,” greeted Joohyun, sliding into the bench opposite the one she usually sat on. It shouldn’t have felt weird changing seats when they all looked the same, but some of Joohyun’s friends had charged her with OCD before (in jest, of course) and she was beginning to believe that there was some merit to that.

Orange ombre girl raised her head slightly, before breaking into a smile. “Joohyun unnie!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Why are you here?” Joohyun whispered. “Do you study here?”

Seulgi nodded excitedly. “I can’t believe that you’re here in this school too! You must be a senior now, right?”

Joohyun nodded, the word senior recalling to mind the exams that she had come to study for.

“Awesome! Let’s study together well!” Seulgi exclaimed jubilantly, before a hush from the roaming librarian silenced her.

Unconsciously, Joohyun let a small smile form on her lips.

-----

“Unnie, how do you do this math problem?”

“Unnie, what is so important about the second law of thermodynamics?”

“Unnie, why is my Latin grammar so bad?”

“Seulgi, didn’t I promise to tutor you once my finals ended?” Joohyun exhaled in exasperation.

“Right…sorry unnie,” apologised Seulgi softly, drooping her head down in guilt. Silence, lasting a total of 5 minutes, cascaded over them.

“Unnie, how do you apply the cosine rule here?”

And Joohyun would sigh, get up from her revision, and show Seulgi how it’s done.

-----

“So you cross multiply here, then substitute in the value of x to find the length of the unknown side, okay?” Joohyun taught, pointing out where Seulgi had made a mistake in her working.

They were in Seulgi’s study, the day after Joohyun’s finals had concluded. While her classmates immediately went back to playing Overwatch, the study-holic Joohyun felt that tutoring was what suited her best.

Seulgi nodded dumbly, kind of following what Joohyun said.

“Say, has anyone said before that you look like a bear when you’re spacing out?” asked Joohyun, snapping Seulgi back into reality. Seulgi shrugged in the negative.

“Well then, Seulgi-bear, congratulations. You won yourself a new nickname.”

As Joohyun sat comfortably on Seulgi’s bed, watching Seulgi diligently do problems that she just taught her, she felt some unquellable, unquantifiable feeling of warmth rising up her chest. It must be the feeling of triumph, of having successfully imparted knowledge to someone.

“Unnie!” Joohyun heard Seulgi scream, before turning around to see her bear bounding energetically towards her. “I got an A+ for algebra 2!”

“Congratulations!” exclaimed Joohyun, genuinely