“So where are we going?”

Hayi asks, holding herself against her seat as Hanbin bumps his truck down the road. Hayi wonders if she’s going to get concussion by riding in the car with the boy for too long. Seriously, who gives him a permission to drive anyway?

“To my house!” Hanbin says cheerfully before spinning his wheel abruptly to avoid a big bump on the road.

Hayi almost bangs her head against the window at the sudden turn, but luckily she manages to hold herself. She glances at the boy with a frown, but decides to stay quiet about his driving manner. After all, Hanbin was the one who helped her in the forest and drove her to the house this morning.

“What are we going to do at your house?” Hayi hums questioningly.

“To eat dinner, of course. I mean…you haven’t prepared dinner for your own right?” Hanbin asks, his voice sounding careful suddenly as if afraid that Hayi had prepared dinner on her own.

“Um no… I don’t really eat dinner… I don’t really eat much to begin with so it’s okay.” Hayi shakes her head.

“You don’t eat??” Hanbin turns his head and scans the girl from head to toe, still in the middle of driving. “No wonder you got washed away in the stream, you’re all bones.”

“I’m not all bones, geez, if you saw some girls in the city, you’d see me as a fat pig.” Hayi chuckles softly and points her finger to the front. “Please keep your eyes on the road.”

“Fat pig? Seriously? How are the girls in the city surviving if they’re even skinnier than you?” Hanbin sighs and turns his eyes back on the road.

“Well, they do.”

“What a bunch of scary people…” Hanbin shakes his head in disbelief before suddenly breaking into a big grin. “Well then, you’re going to eat lots at my house, okay? It’s a big dinner!”

“I can’t eat much, I’d gain weight and once I went back to the city I would—“ Hayi trails off and her face falters suddenly.

Go back to the city?

Does she even want that?

To face those judging eyes of her classmates, the tears of her mother, the pitiful look from the teachers, and all those mocking remarks that were thrown to her face…

Would she even want to face those things again?

“Once you went back to the city you would…? What? What would you do?” Hanbin perks up curiously.

“N-Nothing, I’m not coming back to the city.” Hayi shakes her head.

“What? Why not?”

“I’m just not coming back.”

“Yeah, but why? What’s the reason?”

“No reason.”

“No way, there must be a reason.”

“I said it’s nothing!”

Hayi gasps and places a hand over when she realizes that she has raised her voice. She carefully looks up to Hanbin who’s staring at her with a surprised look on his face. She feels so bad to raise her voice at Hanbin who has been helping her throughout the day, but she just doesn’t like to be asked about it, she doesn’t want to be reminded about what happened before she decided to come here.

“Hanbin, I—“

“I’m sorry.” Hanbin cuts her off and turns his head back to the road. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked so much. I let curiosity takes over me.”

“No, it’s not your fault… I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to talk about it, but I shouldn’t have raised my voice at you.” Hayi blurts out.

“Hey, it’s okay. I mean my sister often yelled at me because I annoyed her sometimes, it’s fine, really.” Hanbin flashes her a short smile before taking a right turn in the middle of the road.

“I’m sorry though, really, I am…”

“Is that a habit?”

“What?”

“Apologizing over and over again when people said it’s okay.” Hanbin says and glances over at her. “Is that a habit?”

Hayi opens to answer, but then closes it again and starts to think back. She has never been the type of girl who has plenty of friends or surrounded by many people as if she’s under the spotlight. She doesn’t talk much in school or in anywhere, she’s pretty much a definition of boring person.

But even so, she still wants to have a place in the world, she still wants to be accepted by people. She’d smile when she has to, thank someone when they’ve helped him, and apologize if she had done something wrong.

She doesn’t realize that her will of wanting to be accepted has become part of her life, her habit.

“Sorry, I guess I should just shut my mouth for real.” Hanbin says, snapping Hayi out of her little trance. It seems that the boy takes Hayi’s quiet response as a negative behavior.

“No Hanbin, it’s—“

“We’ve arrived!” Hanbin beams as he hits the brake, almost making Hayi fly to the front window.

Hayi leans back against her seat with a sigh and looks out to see a fairly large house outside the mini truck. She leans closer to the window and stares at the lights coming from the small windows. She can see shadows of people walking inside the house and judging from the amount of shadows she’s seeing, there are more than five people in the house.

What a nice family, the house must be so loud and cheery every day. Hayi smiles to herself at the thought until Hanbin opens the door for her. She blinks at Hanbin’s smiling face before hopping down the car and stares at the house. Even from outside, she can hear a murmur of laugher coming from inside the house.

“Come on, the dinner is starting soon.” Hanbin gestures a hand before walking towards the house, followed by the girl.

“You have a big family.” Hayi says as she waits for Hanbin to open the door.

“You can say so.” Hanbin says before pushing the door open.

The laughter stops immediately and Hayi blinks at the sight of boys who are sitting on the floor, surrounding a short table full of dishes. She scans their faces one by one before stopping at a longhaired girl who are putting a dish onto the table. She takes a quick scan of the six boys once again and realizes that there’s only one girl among the group.

“It’s a girl!” One of the boys shouts suddenly, surprising Hayi a little.

“Holy , it’s really a girl!” The other boy starts to clap his hand as if applauding Hanbin for an achievement.

The other boys then break into a howl of laughter and Hanbin strides inside to shut them up. Hayi blinks dumbly as he stares at Hanbin who’s trying to wrestle one of his friends to make him stop laughing.

“Ignore them, they’re just being boys.”

Hayi turns her head to see the longhaired girl smiling at her. She quickly smiles back and bows her head politely.

“Hello, I’m Lee Hayi, I just arrived here this morning. Nice to meet you.”

“Grandma Lee’s granddaughter right? Hanbin has told me earlier in the day.” The girl chuckles softly before bowing back at Hayi. “I’m Kim Jennie, Hanbin’s older sister. Nice to meet you too. Now can you help me in the kitchen for a while?”

“Sure.” Hayi nods happily and follows Jennie into the house, passing by the boys who are starting to wrestle each other.

“If you spill any of the food, I’m going to have you all eat outside!” Jennie yells from the kitchen before turning the stove off. “Hayi, can you help me put the dirty pan on the sink?”

Hayi does like what she’s asked too and helps Jennie to clean the kitchen counter. Jennie stirs the soup and watches Hayi’s movement with attentive eyes.

“You seem good at cooking. You cook a lot in the city? Are you studying in a cooking school?” Jennie asks.

“No, I study in normal school, but my mom is busy so I always take care of the house alone.” Hayi shakes her head.

“Ahh… Just like our dad, though Hanbin doesn’t really take care of the house, but at least he takes care of other stuff.” Jennie chuckles softly.

“What about the others?”

“Others who?”

“Um… the other guys…? There are a lot of guys, are you all siblings?”

“Oh my God, no!” Jennie laughs loudly and waves her hand. “Not all of them, some of them are Hanbin’s good friends. There are only the three of us living in this house, well, aside from our dad who comes home once in a while.”

“I see…” Hayi nods, briefly wondering about where their mother is, but she doesn’t think she’s close enough to ask Jennie about her personal life.

Three siblings. Must be fun living in the house with so many siblings, unlike Hayi who’s the only child.

Once Jennie is done with her kimchi soup, she lifts the pot and places it in the middle of the table. The boys have stopped wrestling each other and now waiting for the dinner to start. Jennie gestures Hayi to sit beside her and gives her a bowl of rice and the pair of chopstick.

Hayi can feel the boys staring at her, probably not used to have a stranger like her joining the dinner. She glances over at Hanbin who seems to be drooling over the food in front of him.

“Alright, let’s enjoy the food.” Jennie claps her hands and as if on cue, the guys start to lean over and devour the food.

“Don’t take my meat! I’ve had my eyes on that piece!”

“You’re too slow, Yunhyeong!”

“Hey! That’s mine! Chanwoo, give it back before I stab your nose with my chopsticks!”

“I don’t see your name written on this so it’s not yours!”

Hayi stares at the little chaos in front of her until Jennie taps her shoulder and gestures at the smaller plate of meat in front of them.

“I always spare a little for myself since you can’t fight against the guys over the food.” Jennie whispers before taking a piece of meat.

Hayi giggles lightly and takes a piece of meat too, enjoying her dinner as she watches the guys fight over the food. She never had such a loud dinner before. She mostly eats dinner alone in the house while watching TV. When she’s feeling like eating outside, she’d sit alone in the corner of the restaurant and play with her phone while eating.

Sometimes, she’d eat with Suhyun, her only best friend in school, but Suhyun usually has her dinner with her family. Suhyun would ask her to join her family dinner, but Hayi always refuses. She’s an outsider after all and it’s not like she doesn’t have her own family; her mother is just…very busy.

Maybe that’s why she doesn’t eat a lot. Eating alone is boring and lonely, so she always tries to finish her dinner as fast as possible, resulting her in eating small portion of food. Right now, she doesn’t realize that she has finished the entire bowl of rice just by watching the boys’ silly behavior.

“You want another bowl?” Jennie asks and points at her empty bowl of rice.

Hayi quickly shakes her head. “It’s enough. I’m full already.”

“Wow, you eat so little.” Jennie raises a brow before standing on her feet. “I’ll get another bowl for myself. Who wants more rice?”

“Me!” All the boys answer at the same time and lift their bowls, but Jennie scoffs in response.

“Then get them by your own.” Jennie flips her hair before heading to the kitchen to get more rice to herself.

The boys immediately stand up and follow Jennie to the kitchen. When Hayi turns her head, there’s only one boy who’s sitting across the table, his bowl is already empty but he seems to be full already, unlike the other boys.

Perhaps noticing the eyes on him, the boy perks up and Hayi quickly turns her eyes away. She slowly turns her eyes back to the boy after a second and sees that he’s still staring at her. They end up staring at each other awkwardly and Hayi has no idea what to say. She has never been that good with boys after all.

“Jinhwan.” The boy suddenly speaks.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m Jinhwan.” The boy says and places a hand on his own chest. “Kim Jinhwan, the oldest brother.”

Hayi makes an o face as she recalls Jennie’s words about the three of them who are living in the house. This boy is their oldest brother, even though he looks rather small compared to the other boys.

“I-I’m Lee Hayi, um, Grandma Lee’s granddaughter.” Hayi nods her head in greeting.

“You grow up so fast, I almost didn’t recognize you.” Jinhwan chuckles softly.

“…Wait, have we met each other before?” Hayi tilts her head and furrows her brows.

Before Jinhwan can answer, another boy suddenly flops down next to him with his newly filled bowl of rice.

“What are you two talking about, huh?” The boy asks with a big grin. It seems like he’s the cheerful and energetic type. Hayi remembers that he’s the first guy that Hanbin wrestled when they stepped into the house.

“Nothing you should know.” Jinhwan rolls his eyes.

“No fun.” The guy scoffs before whipping his head to Hayi. “Hey Hayi, I’m Kim Jiwon, but please call be Bobby! I’m Hanbin’s best buddy.” The guy who claims to be Bobby pounds his fist against his chest.

“Bobby?” Hayi blinks and turns to Jinhwan.

“He’s jealous because Jennie has a cool name, so he makes one for his own. Just call him Bobby so he’d shut up about his name.” Jinhwan says.

“Hey!” Bobby protests.

The others then come back with their bowls of rice and resume their eating again. By this time, Hayi merely watches them finish the food until there’s not even a piece left on the plate.

The guys start lazing around after getting stuffed full while Jennie stands up to take the dirty dishes to the kitchen. Seeing that, Hayi immediately stands up to follow the other girl. She peeks her head to see Jennie rinsing the dishes in the sink. She quickly steps over and helps Jennie washing the dishes.

Jennie perks up when another hand joins her and sees Hayi rubbing the sponge on a plate.

“Thanks,” Jennie smiles softly.

“You’ve done a lot for me. This is the least I can do.” Hayi smiles. “Why don’t you sit with the others? I can wash them by myself.”

“There are a lot of them, it’s faster if we both do it.” Jennie shakes her head and takes the plate from Hayi’s hand to rinse the soap away.

As they wash the dishes in silence, Hayi can hear the noise coming from the living room where the boys seem to be playing around. It really feels so lively and comparing to the days she spent in her house makes her feel so lonely. She has always been surrounded with silence.

“So, how does living in a big city feel like?” Jennie hums questioningly as she places the plate on drying rack.

“Well, nothing special, just doing the daily routine every day.” Hayi chuckles and shakes her head. “Have you ever been to a city before?”

“Yeah, once. But it was long time ago when our mother was still alive.” Jennie says casually.

Hayi freezes immediately at the words and looks at Jennie in shock. The other girl is still washing the dishes casually until she notices that Hayi has stopped moving. She perks up to see Hayi staring at her with sad eyes.

“I’m sorry…” Hayi whispers softly.

“It’s okay. It was long time ago.” Jennia smiles reassuringly and takes the plate from Hayi’s hand.

“What…happened?” Hayi asks carefully, hoping that she didn’t cross the line.

“Mom doesn’t have a very healthy body to begin with. Dad took her to the city for better hospital but she still didn’t make it. We moved back here while he stayed there for work. We have relatives and neighbors taking care of us so everything was pretty good.” Jennie says as he puts the last plate on the drying rack. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Hayi blinks.

“You know, your parents, your siblings, your home in the city.” Jennie shrugs.

“Oh, well… I stay with my mother and I’m the only child.” Hayi smiles sheepishly and scratches the back of her head.

“Where’s your Dad? He’s working somewhere?” Jennie asks as she makes her way back to the living room where the boys are.

“They’re divorced.” Hayi says and follows after Jennie, only to bump into her back when the girl stops suddenly. “Jennie?”

Jennie turns around and stares at Hayi with wide eyes, completely shocked. Hayi blinks rapidly at the sight, wondering what’s going on with the sudden change of atmosphere.

“I’m…so sorry…” Jennie says almost breathlessly and brings a hand to .

Hayi blinks couple of times to register everything before shaking her head quickly. “It’s okay! It was long time ago and I’ve always known they’d divorce soon or later.”

“But still, it must be painful for you…” Jennie bites her lip.

Was it painful?

Hayi doesn’t remember how it felt honestly.

She grew up seeing her parents screaming on each other’s face. She woke up countless times in the middle of the night hearing her parents fight in the living room. She sneaked to her parents’ bedroom seeing her mother crying silently over her breaking heart.

Everything was so painful that Hayi didn’t really feel anything when they told her about the divorce.

They’re both her parents; they hold the same weight in her heart and Hayi knew that from the moment her parents signed the divorce paper her heart would break in two.

They promised that she would still meet both of them in regular basis. They promised that she would stay with her mother on weekdays and then stayed with her father on weekends and holidays. It was okay for a while until they got busier with life and she was stuck in the empty house all by herself.

She has grown numb to the pain of loneliness.

“It wasn’t painful.” Hayi says with a tight smile and walks to the living room.

Jennie stares at her back for a while before following along. When they step into the living room, the boys are lazing around with Jinhwan and Yunhyeong owning the couch. Hanbin seems to be tuning a guitar with Bobby next to him while the other boys seem to be playing with their phones.

Talking about phone, her own phone is dead by now and she wonders if she has caused any trouble with her sudden disappearance.

Well, it doesn’t matter, her mother is on business trip and nobody in school would care about her, not after what happened.

“Hayi?”

She snaps out of her trance and blinks at Jennie. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, Hanbin should drive you back to Grandma Lee’s house right now, how about it?” Jennie repeats her question.

“Oh, uh, sure.” Hayi nods quickly and flicks her eyes to Hanbin who’s raising his brows at her.

Hanbin hands his guitar to Bobby and motions for Hayi to follow him. “Come on, Thumbelina!”

“I have a name!” Hayi frowns at the boy before turning to Jennie. “Thank you so much for the dinner.” She bows politely.

“Oh stop it, Hayi. There’s no need to be formal here, I mean just look at these silly boys.” Jennie laughs and gestures a hand to the boys, earning small protests from them.

Hayi giggles lightly and turns to the boys, bowing at them too. “Thank you for having me here.”

The boys, seeing Hayi bowing politely at them, quickly scramble up to their feet and bow back at her, except Jinhwan who is the most composed among the boys – probably because he’s the eldest.

“It’s a pleasure!”

“Thank you for eating with us!”

“Come back again!”

All the boys are shouting different words, but Hayi can catch them all. She waves her hand goodbye to them before walking out of the house to follow Hanbin. The boys follow her with their eyes until she disappears behind the door.

“So, who’s that girl?” Bobby is the first one to speak after the long silence.

“Grandma Lee’s granddaughter.” Jinhwan answers and flops down the couch again. “I didn’t think she would come back again after what happened last time…”

“Why? What happened?” Chanwoo asks, obviously curious.

Jinhwan flicks his eyes to his sister and the girl sighs in response. She slowly makes her way to the couch and sits on the armrest.

“Well, the three of us used to play with her when she was visiting Grandma Lee here. We were playing by the river when a small accident happened. She fell into the river and hit her head against a rock…” Jennie bites her lip and fumbles with her thumbs. A look of guilt plastered across her face.

“Holy , what happened after that?” Bobby gasps.

“Her family brought her back to the city on the same day and we only knew from Grandma Lee that she was alright, but after what happened, we knew she wouldn’t come back.” Jennie sighs and shakes her head. “Hanbin said she didn’t recognize him and it seems like she didn’t recognize any of us.” She says to Jinhwan, giving her brother a sad look.

“She hit her head, it might cause a little memory loss, you never know. We were still kids back then and it was our fault she fell into the river.” Jinhwan sighs heavily and leans back against the couch.

“So, why is she here right now?” Junho, who has been silent most of the time, finally asks.

Jennie and Jinhwan stare at him before shrugging their shoulders at the same time.

Meanwhile, Hayi is sitting quietly on the passenger seat for the first time. She didn’t know Hanbin is capable of driving slowly and calmly like this, but she’s glad, at least there’s no risk of her puking out the nice dinner she had an hour ago. The sky is dark and there are only few streetlights down the road, maybe that’s why Hanbin is driving more carefully right now.

Hayi turns to the window and looks at the stars in the sky. They look so pretty like diamond dust scattering over the sky. In the city, she can barely see any stars due to the smoke and pollution. When her grandmother passed away, her mother told her that she turned into a star and went back to the sky, but when she looked up to the sky, there wasn’t even a single star up there.

But now, she can see everything, she can see her beloved grandma too. 

“What did grandma do to spend her days?” Hayi asks, still gazing the stars.

Hanbin flicks his eyes to him before looking at the road ahead again. “She took a walk around the village, helped some families with their cooking or laundry or feeding animals – everything. Grandma Lee spent her days helping everybody in this village.”

“That sounds just like grandma.” Hayi chuckles softly, remembering her grandmother’s gentle smile. She remembers how much she loved her and her warm hugs. She was so happy every time she went to the village, but the last time she went, her parents forbid her to come here anymore for whatever the reason was.

She remembers waking up in a hospital and there were her parents talking about how she fell even though she didn’t remember a thing, but she remembered that she had promised her grandmother to bake some traditional cookies. She remembers begging her mother to visit the village again, but her mother refused.

She remembers sending her grandmother some letters and promised her that she’s going to sneak out of the house and came back to the village once she’s old enough, but before she could fulfill her promise, her beloved grandmother passed away.

Hayi doesn’t realize she’s crying until she feels the tears trickling down her cheeks. She blinks rapidly and brings a hand to wipe her tears, but they’re not stopping. She doesn’t want to cry right now, not when she’s in the car with Hanbin – they boy he just met less than twenty-four hours. She doesn’t want to look melodramatic right now.

Hanbin doesn’t say anything, either he doesn’t realize Hayi is crying or he’s ignoring her. Whatever the reason is, Hayi is glad she doesn’t create a fuss with her sudden tears.

“You know, Hayi. Grandma Lee said it to me once; nothing loved is ever lost.” Habin suddenly speaks and when Hayi perks up, she notices that he is still looking at the road ahead.

“She said that if I truly loved that person, then they would never leave for real. Even when their heart had stopped beating, but they would live forever in here,” Hanbin lifts a hand and pats at his own chest. “They would live in our hearts, forever. Just like my mother, she’s still here.”

Hayi can feel a twinge of pain in her chest, recalling Jennie’s story about their mother who passed away. She can’t imagine how sad Hanbin was when his mother passed away, but right now, he is smiling.

“They don’t go away. They’re with us every day. We can’t see or hear them, but they’re still loved…still missed…” Hanbin says with a small smile and Hayi can see his eyes getting wet.

“They are.” Hayi sniffs and looks at the stars again. “I can see your mother from here. She’s the brightest star up there.”

“Where? Where?” Hanbin whips his head and peeks at Hayi’s window.

“Oh my God, keep your eyes on the road! Pull over if you want to look at something else!” Hayi screeches in panic. Despite having nobody walking on the road right now, but she still fears that Hanbin would run over someone.

Then Hanbin laughs, the sound so warm and so endearing that Hayi forgets she was crying just a minute ago. She looks at Hanbin’s face, seeing his mouth stretched wide and eyes scrunched up in glee, and something inside her starts to flutter, eliciting a laugh from her own throat.

They spend the rest of the ride laughing at each other before Hanbin pulls his car over in front of the small pathway that leads to the house. Hayi hops down from the truck and so does Hanbin.

“Come on, I’ll take you inside.” Hanbin gestures his hand and walks down the pathway.

“It’s okay, I can take it from here.” Hayi says, following the boy.

“Are you not scared? The house is dark and you’re going to sleep alone.” Hanbin raises a teasing brow.

“I often sleep alone in my house.” Hayi rolls her eyes and walks down the pathway with Hanbin, only to stop when she looks at the house.

In her memory, her grandmother’s house is always warm and comfortable even at night, but right now, it looks pretty…eerie. Maybe it’s because the house stands alone and there aren’t any lights from the inside, or maybe it’s because the house is rather old, or maybe it’s because her grandmother’s house looks nothing like the penthouse she is living with her mother in the city.

“Scared?” Hanbin asks, obviously biting back a laugh.

“I can take it from here.” Hayi takes a deep breath and walks into the house. She slides the door open and gulps when she notices how dark it is inside, she can’t even see anything, she wouldn’t even know if there was someone or something inside the house.

“Boo!”

“Eeeek!!” Hayi shrieks and covers her ears, hunching her back as if wanting to curl into a ball.

“Don’t worry, come with me.” Hanbin laughs and casually steps into the dark house.

“Hanbin!” Hayi, still taken aback by the scare, reached a hand and holds onto the edge of Hanbin’s shirt.

Hanbin pauses and looks down at her. Hayi, realizing what she’s doing, quickly removes her hand from the other’s shirt, only to feel a warm hand holding her own.

“Don’t be scared. Come on.” Hanbin tugs her hand and guides her into the house.

Even though it’s still dark and Hayi still can’t see a thing, but she doesn’t feel so scared anymore. She can hear the pounding sound of her heart in her ears, but she tries to ignore it. She stops when Hanbin stops his step and despite the darkness, Hayi can hear Hanbin moving around.

Then the living room’s light is on.

Hanbin lets out a small victorious cry and Hayi stares at the light switch on the wall.

“I think I should introduce you to all the light switch in this house, hm?” Hanbin laughs and guides Hayi through the house.

Hayi tries to remember all the light switches as much as she can. She can just keep the lights on for the whole day, but it would be a waste of electricity and she knows this is not her penthouse; her mother is not going to pay for the electricity.

After the short guide around the house, they finally reach the bedroom, their final destination. She fell asleep on the floor earlier, but she knows she’s going to wake up with aching body if she slept on the floor through the night. She makes her way to the cabinet at the corner of the room and pulls out a futon mattress.

She struggles to get it out of the cabinet and Hanbin is next to her in a blink of an eye. He lifts the mattress easily and lays it on the floor in the middle of the room. Hayi shoots the boy a thankful smile before taking out a pillow and a blanket. She puts everything down before looking up to Hanbin.

“Thank you very much for your help. I’m going to sleep now. Have a good night, Hanbin.” Hayi smiles and bows her head slightly.

“Why are you bowing at me?” Hanbin asks with wide eyes, utterly surprised.

“Well, you helped me a lot today…” Hayi gestures a hand sheepishly.

“Nevermind that, I owe you a lot of things.”

“Owe me?” Hayi frowns and tilts her head. “What do you mean?”

Hanbin stares at her for a second before shaking his head with a smile. “Nah, nothing. Just go to sleep. I’ll accompany you.”

“Okay—wait, what?” Hayi whips her head and stares at the boy.

“I’ll accompany you until you fall asleep. You know it’s hard to sleep on the first night especially when you’re alone in this house.” Hanbin shrugs and sits on the floor next to the futon.

“But—“ Hayi is about to protest when she hears the wind blowing outside her window, causing the tree to rustle with the creepiest noise. She shudders a little and sits on the futon.

“See?” Hanbin laughs and points at the light switch. “Do you sleep with lights on or off?”

“Usually off, but…” Hayi mumbles and glances at the window, feeling unsure.

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Hanbin shakes his head with a chuckle and stands up, flicking the light off.

Hayi immediately curls under the blanket and covers her face, hiding from the darkness. She hears a soft chuckling coming from Hanbin and peeks her head to see the male sitting next to the futon. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Hayi frowns.

“Um, I don’t think I can sleep with you staring at me like this…” Hayi mumbles softly.

“Oh, yeah, right.” Hanbin scratches his head and lays on the floor next to the futon. “Okay, I’m not staring at you right now.”

“You’ll get cold, you know.” Hayi chuckles softly.

“Nah, this is nothing.” Hanbin shakes his head and looks up to the ceiling. “What do you usually think of before you fall asleep?”

“Me? I think about…what should I do the next day, mostly about school, homework, exams, and all those stuff.”

“Meh, that’s so stressful.” Hanbin snorts. “Let’s just think about happier things, like food or a nice place. That way, you will get nice dreams.”

“Alright then.” Hayi huffs out a laugh and closes her eyes.

It may not be a very smart idea to let a guy stay here while she’s trying to fall asleep, but then again, Hanbin seems so harmless. It’s silly to trust someone this easily, a guy on top of that, but there’s something about Hanbin that reminds her of something from the past, though she can’t really point her finger.

It feels like Hanbin is a part of the memory she had forgotten.

Kim Hanbin, who are you?

After a long silence ticks by, Hanbin slowly props his body up with elbows and looks at Hayi who’s deep asleep under her blanket. He shifts closer and stares at her sleeping face, absently bringing a hand to brush some strands of hair away from her face.

“Goodnight, Hayi.” He whispers with a smile before getting up on his feet and leaving the house.

A/N

Whoa this chapter is pretty long, I didn't realize until I finished writing it hahahaha

I know you got so many questions but don't worry, it would be revealed slowly!

Thanks for reading and sorry for any mistakes ;;