Gikwang, Mino, and I walk home, with the two trying to support me as I walk. My legs are battered from all that kicking that bastard Jiyong gave me, and we stop walking when we heard running from behind us.

We turn around, Gikwang ready to attack, while Mino holding and covering me like the weakling I am, and all three of us expecting danger.

Instead, we came face to face with the girl who saved me.

“Thank you.” I immediately mutter, and she smiles. “I didn’t get your name… miss…” Mino says, and she speaks up. “It’s Seo Inhyeon. But you guys can call me Hyeon. Or Inhyeon, whichever you prefer.” “Ah, we’re glad to meet you Inhyeon. I’m Mino, this is Gikwang, and you’ve met Seunghyun.” Both Gikwang and Mino extended their arms, and she laughed as she shook both of their hands. “You guys should be heading home. It’s getting dark.” She mutters, and we gave her a curious glance. “Aren’t we the ones supposed to be saying that since you’re the girl?” She slightly frowns but smiles again. “That’s kinda ist, but I suppose. Besides, I can handle myself. You’ve seen me fight, Mino, right?” “Well, that was more like self defense, but your choice Inhyeon. Why not come along so we can walk you to your place?” I say, and the two knowingly gave me a side eye glance. She nods, and we walk all the way home, with me limping pitifully.

We arrive at what would probably be the biggest and most modern house in the neighbourhood, from what I’ve seen.

“This is your place?” We ask, and she eagerly nodded.

Isn’t she cute?

I shake off those thoughts and we then say our greetings as we leave.

As we kept walking, I then realized it was a few houses from where I lived. We reached the crossroad of the neighbourhood, and that’s where the three of us separated ways.

Reaching the house, I put down my bag and heard the television , so I then announce I’m home. Soohyun pops out of their room, and looks at me. “Oppa,” she says, “Can Chanhyuk oppa get his own room? Like, maybe the empty guestroom, or your room? Please don’t tell him I asked you.” I looked at her curiously. “Why’d you want him to move to another room?” She looks down and shyly speaks up. “He’s in that… puberty phase, and I feel awkward after my teacher and my friends talked about puberty.” I cough awkwardly, and nod. “Yeah, sure, tell him to move his things to the room opposite mine.”

I entered my room and nearly fainted after the sight that is sitting in my bed.

“Inhyeon? But why are you here?” She chuckles, and she no longer wore the school uniform. She was back to her idol-like clothes. “Well, I couldn’t quite tell you since your friends were there, but, you probably get the point why I’m here. As you can tell, I am your doll to keep you company… so…” She looks down, and then looks up at me again. “And besides, the house I went to was a friend of mine.” I gaped at her in shock. “Dolls have human friends?”

She laughed. Loud enough to make me panic at the thought of Soohyun discovering I technically brought a girl to my room.

“Shush! People will hear you.” I covered , and she forces my hand off. “I’m not stupid,” she retorts, “I wouldn’t be this loud if I knew people who didn’t know me were here.”

Mental breakdown.

“Are you saying the siblings know?” My mouth hung open.

“They’re the ones who brought me here, so yes.” She says nonchalantly, and I immediately lie in bed.

This is too much to take in. This is definitely a dream. Tomorrow, I’ll be sad again, and I’ll be talking to an inanimate doll. Everything will be as horrible when I wake up, none of this is real-

“Your panic attacks are really bad. Good thing I’m here.” She sighs, and pats my head as she calls for Soohyun.

“Unnie- “ Soohyun gets cut off by Inhyeon as she tells Soohyun to bring paper bags and to turn on the air conditioning unit.

“Breathe. Okay. Breathe. Slowly, everything will be okay. I’m real, I’m here, like you want me to, okay slowly, slowly, there.” She lowers and softens her voice, and ran her fingers through my hair to the point that I fell asleep.

I’m silently thanking the siblings for holding a little party for me first thing in the morning, because if they did it now, I’m legit tired, and so done with this day alone. I slow down and drift into a calm state.

It was faint, but I heard her. “Goodnight, dear.”

I woke up by the sound of dogs barking, and as I got up, I frantically looked around, and sighed in relief when Inhyeon was just an inanimate doll, sitting on my desk. I stood up, and realized I forgot to change into something more comfortable, as I slept with my uniform on. “Oh, great.” I mumble under my breath and hissed in pain when I stumble upon my weak legs. As I started to remove my pants, I could feel the soreness of it whenever I tried to walk. Sighing even more, I reached out for my box of medicated patches and took them out. I then took a towel and headed for the bathroom when I heard someone open the door.

I turned around as fast as I could and nearly fainted, once more.

Christ, I am such a weakling.

I guess it wasn’t a dream then.

I saw Inhyeon trying to tiptoe her way out of the room, and when she had realized I saw her, she bows apologetically. “I swear I didn’t see anything,” she mumbles, while blushing really hard.

Awkward…

“Why can’t you get your own room?” I hated mornings and I definitely didn’t want to deal with this now. She shakes her head. “I can’t. I’ve got a responsibility to watch over you 24/7.” “Well, okay, whatever. Don’t talk to me now, I hate mornings.” I mentally groan at myself for being so mean to her when all she did was care, but whatever.

As I finished taking a bath and started to get dressed, I heard Inhyeon asking Soohyun if I really did hate mornings. I hear Soohyun sigh, really loudly. “Yeah, he hates mornings, to the point where he’d even skip school and sleep in. Chanhyuk oppa and I were worried for him so we decided to stay here, since… he’s more likely to go to school if there were people here.” My mood became even more foul, because who was she to ask about my life?

Right.

According to Mino, she’s God’s answer to our prayers; basically, all I have been praying for since God knows when was for protection.

But anyway, Jiyong.

And thank Soohyun later for not spilling anything else.

I reach out for the medicated patches and stuck them to the points where my legs were extremely sore when touched. I groan at the pain, but also at the relief I’m getting.

“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING SO EARLY IN THE MORNING, HYUNG?” A series of loud knocks followed by Chanhyuk’s rather teasing yell startled me.

OH.

OHHH.

“HEY, PUNK!” I scream as I hurriedly change into my uniform, and flung the door open, just to catch a Chanhyuk scrambling to run back to his room. I yell again. “WHATEVER YOU’RE THINKING IS EXTREMELY INAPPROPRIATE! Not to mention the fact that we only have a three year ,” I mumble, “BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER. Get your over here, LEE. CHAN. HYUK.” I can hear laughter echoing in the house, and what I can definitely conclude from this morning is that I will never have my normal silent mornings ever again.

“Isn’t that a good thing, though?” Someone says from behind me, and I came face to face with Inhyeon. My eyes go wide at the thought of her able to read minds. “First off, I can’t read minds, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I gape at her even more, slightly taken aback that she somehow knows what I’m thinking. But I soon laugh after hearing her next words. “It’s just plain obvious, and you sometimes mumble to yourself.” Embarrassed, I ask. “Do I seriously mumble to myself?” She nods. “You do. It’s like you’re writing a fanfiction of yourself. That’s just outright creepy and cringey! Also, second, I’m not the one who reads minds. It’s one of the two.”

Wait, what?

A/N: I tried. :> I hope someone sees this haha