“Please take this” Dabin continued to hand out a piece of paper to anyone who passed by her at the pavement. On the paper was a picture of Dawon and the word ‘Missing Girl’ written big and bold above it. Some of them received it but crumpled it before threw it away. Dabin went over with a sigh. *I had been doing this for days. Please just let someone find Dawoni* she prayed in silence.

“Looks who’s here” a familiar female voice could be heard. Dabin sighed before looked up. “Naeun”

Naeun looked down at her. Arms crossed to her chest. Bomi beside her continued to enjoy the soft drink in her grip. Naeun snatched one of the paper from Dabin’s hand.

“So you lost your sister?” she rolled her eyes. “Looks like you’re irresponsible enough to let her went missing”

Dabin stood and glared at her. “If you don’t know the whole story, I suggest you to shut up”

“Tsk” Naeun smirked. “I see you want more beating than the other time” she raised her arm. Dabin doubled over in panic. Naeun snicked. “Coward”

“Yah, Naeun” a guy approached her. Naeun turned to the voice. “Hey” she smiled widely.

Jaehyun pulled her waist closer to him. He played with her hair. “How are you, babe? I’m sorry I couldn’t see you last night. My parent was home”

“It’s okay I understand” Naeun giggled. She glanced at Dabin who was witnessing their chat. “What are you looking at? Go away!”

Dabin picked up the rest of the paper when a cold liquid rained down onto her. Both Naeun and Bomi laughed at her. “Good job, Bomi!” Naeun high-fived her bestie. Bomi threw the paper cup onto Dabin’s head. Dabin bit onto her lips, still keeping her head low. Her lips trembled as she tried to keep herself from crying.

“Yah!” a female stormed to them. Dabin looked up. “Boram-ah”

Naeun rolled her eyes. “You dare shout at me!”

“Babe” Jaehyun held onto her arm before Naeun could take another step forward. Naeun rolled her eyes and nodded. “Alright I let it slide this time. But I’ll make sure to crush your face if we met again”

“I’ll be waiting for that moment, ” Boram whispered.

“Yah!” Naeun snarled that caught most passerbyer attention. “Naeun, let just go” Bomi suggested. Naeun sighed with a smirk. She glared at Boram as Jaehyun and Bomi pulled her away.

“Dabin-ah” Boram helped her to stand. Dabin didn’t lift her head. “Yah” Boram searched her face. Tears fell down Dabin’s cheeks. Boram pulled her to get her hair wash.

“Here” Boram held out a canned drink to Dabin who was waiting in the florist. “Thanks” Dabin received it and drank it. “You sure it’s okay for me to stay here?”

“Yeah. My aunt said it’s okay. Since I told her what had happened” “Thank you, Boram”

Boram smiled. “That’s what friend should do, right? Helping each other out” She took a sip of the drink in her grip. “Looks like you have some problem with your new school? I knew we should have meet up. I couldn’t get to you lately”

“I couldn’t pay for the bills. Sorry” “I see” Boram put her drinks down and faced her. “So tell me what had happened to you in your new school?”

“I was bullied. That’s what happened”

Boram sighed. “I can’t believe this is happening. Yah, transfer back, will ya?”

“You know I can’t afford to pay for the school fee” “Right” Boram sighed.

“But at this new school, I able to pay for the fee with the money our parents left and from my part-time job. But at home it was a total mess” Dabin smirked. “Now that Dawon is missing, I feel lonelier. I tried to look for her everywhere and even talk to the police. But none of it is helpful”

Boram pulled her into embrace. “Aigo, Dabin. I wish I can help you find Dawon. I know you miss her” “A lot” Dabin smiled but a tear slid down her cheek. “I wish I can be a police officer and help you look for Dawon” “Thank you, Boram. That’s so nice of you”

“You know what?” Dabin voiced. “What?” Boram broke the hug. “At least something works out for me lately” “What is it? What happen?” “The water and electric bills are paid. But I never pay them” “You mean someone else paid it for you?” “Yes. I called the office and they said a lady came and helped settle it” “Who could it be? That’s so nice of her” “They didn’t want to tell me who she was but I’m sure owe her” Dabin sighed. “I wish I can see her too and thank her personally”

“Hey, do you think you can leave some of the flyer here at our store?” Boram asked. “What do you want to do with it?” Dabin asked. “I can give some to our customer later” “Sure. Thank you very much, Boram” Dabin patted her shoulder. Boram smiled at her.

“Look who’s here” Woojin approached them. He took the drink in Boram’s hand and drank it. “Yah, Park Woojin!” Boram tried to take it back but he ran off around the store. Dabin giggled at them.

* * *

Dawon stared up to the roof as some workers were repairing the roof of the school building.

“Thank you very much, miss Wendy” Principal Yoon bowed to her. Dawon bowed again. “It’s my pleasure to provide the best facility to this school”

“If you excuse me, I have some work to do” “Nae. I will walk around the school for a bit” “I’m sorry I couldn’t come with you” “No it’s okay, sir” Dawon bowed as he walked away.

A cap wore on her head. Dawon turned around and smiled. “Taedong”

“Hi” Taedong smiled. He looked around. “Where are the others?”

“They went to buy some refreshments” they sat at nearby bench.

Dawon took off the cap. “Baseball?”

“Yea that’s the baseball cap from this school team. I joined them once and they gave me that” “You sure try many new things here” “Yes. Maybe because I’m curious about the sport” he took it and wore it on her head again. “Protect yourself from the heat, Dawon”

“I’m okay, Taedong” Dawon smiled. Sweat trailed down her forehead. Taedong smiled. “Watch this” he waved his hand and cool breeze blown towards her.

“Woah!” her face lit up. “How can you do that?” Dawon was excited as she enjoyed the breeze brushed against her face.

Taedong smiled as he stared at her. “I’m glad you can smile now” Dawon smiled and nodded. “I must have made everyone worry. Wendy eonni’s also must be worried. I’m sorry for locking myself up in my room for days. Wendy eonni must not like what I had been doing to her body. I should take care of her health always” “Dawon-ah” he caressed her head. Her eyes widened. “Don’t worry about anything. While you’re alive, just enjoy it. Okay, Dawon?”

Dawon smiled and nodded. “I think you need to know something about us” Taedong glanced at her. “Why are we here? Why we exist? What’s our purpose? Why do we meet?”

There was a tick-tock silence between them. Dawon waited for him to gather his courage to speak up.

“Yah!” Moonbok appeared beside her that Dawon jolted. “Moonbok!” Dawon screamed in annoyance. Moonbok held onto his stomach as he laughed hard.

“You’re here too” Hyunbin sat beside Taedong. Taedong received the canned drink from Hyunbin. “Why isn’t it cold?”

“The machine broke I guess” Donghyun replied as he held out two canned drink to Taedong. “That’s why it’s your job to chill it for us”

Taedong smirked. “Now I see how much I’m needed” he held two canned drink in each hands. The can slowly started to freeze. “For you, Dawon” he held one to Dawon. “Woah! It’s chill already! Thanks” she enjoyed the drink. “Actually I’m here to ask you about my eonni”

“She’s fine. Don’t worry. I take good care of her” Taedong replied. “Just like Sunghyuk who keep an eye on Wendy’s parent, I do my work diligently. Trust me”

“But I want to ask about the other day” “The other day?” “Yes. When eonni was bullied” “Oh that” Taedong sipped some of the drink before continued. “Everything settled already. But the school was unable to take any charges against the bullies”

“Why so?” “How can I put this? Well” Taedong bit his lips. “They’re from rich family so you know, they want to protect their children”

“I knew it” Dawon sighed. “Just because we have no money, they step on us like this. I can’t let my eonni being like that. She suffered enough because of me”

“But you know there is nothing we can do with people like that” Donghyun replied. Dawon looked away and swallowed the lump. “If I can’t help her with that, I want to help her with other thing”

Taedong nodded with a smile. “We’ll help you, Dawon”

“Dawon, we have something important to tell you” Hyunbin voiced. Dawon turned to him. “What is it?”

Hyunbin glanced at everyone and she followed his gaze.

“I’m afraid someone is going after Wendy” Donghyun announced. “What? Wait. I don’t get it” “Well, I saw the message from unknown number in Wendy’s phone” Hyunbin confessed. “While I was scrolling through messages from Eric the other day. I saw the message”

“Oh” Dawon replied. “I thought it just spam message so I don’t read it. What does it say?”

“It doesn’t say anything bad but the message sound like a threat to Wendy” Moonbok stated. “Do you think Wendy eonni have an enemy?” “As far that we know” he shook his head.

“So who could do it?” “We’re still looking into it” Taedong replied.

“About the person who hit Wendy eonni” Dawon looked at them one after another. “What happened to the person? Did the driver intentionally hit her or not?”

They looked at each other.

“All we know that the driver was forgiven by Wendy’s parents” Moonbok answered. “But now that you mentioned about the accident, the person who sent the message could be the same person”

“You mean it could be an intentional accident?” Donghyun asked. “Don’t you think so?” “Sounds logic but we should look into it again”

Taedong looked to his watch and stood. “I’m sorry, guys. I have a class to attend” he waved. “See you at tutor later”

“Bye. Good luck with teaching” Dawon waved back.

“Donghyun-ah” Dawon called. “Nae?” Donghyun sat at Taedong’s place. She took out the phone. “I tried to call Dabin eonni but it seems that I couldn’t get through to her. Does this phone break or something?”

“Oh” Donghyun smirked. “It may be because Dabin’s phone couldn’t be contact for the time being”

“Is it because she didn’t pay the bill again?” “I guess so”

“Do you think I can help her somehow?” “Of course you can. But think about how to make it not too obvious. I don’t want your eonni to freak out at some stranger suddenly want to help her”

“Nae I will think about it. Thank you, all of you” Dawon smiled to them. “You had been a great help to me and my eonni”

“You’re welcome. In fact, we’re here to help you” Donghyun stood. “We’re your guardian after all”

* * *

Dabin was pushed to the wall behind a building in the school. She glared at the guy before her. “What do you want, Jaehyun?”

Jaehyun chuckled. “What a dumb question. Let me tell you what happen. From this day onwards, you’ll see this face” he pointed to his face. “Instead of Naeun. Because she was caught last time, so her parents had their eyes on her for the time being”

“You should keep an eye on your girlfriend too instead of me. Who know she might go savage with someone else”

He punched the wall beside her face. Dabin froze. “Keep that mouth of yours close. Get it?” Jaehyun warned. Dabin bit her lips and looked away. He threw his books at her feet. “You know you still need to do our homework, right? If you want to survive here” he smirked. “I’ll make sure you regret for transferring to this school” he walked away.

Dawon was about to go after Jaehyun when Moonbok and Hyunbin held onto her. Moonbok shook his head. She sighed. They continued to watch Dabin from rooftop of the building.

Dabin flopped onto the ground. Her hand touched the exercise books. Tears fell onto her skirt. “Why is this happening to me?”

Dawon bit her lips, keeping herself from shouting in anger. “How can they do that to her?” Donghyun sighed. She yanked her arms back and left them in shock. “She must be extremely angry” Moonbok ran to her. And so did Donghyun and Hyunbin.

* * *

Donghan glanced back at Dawon at the back seat. They were silent for more than 5 minutes now. “Something happen, right?” Dawon didn’t reply and kept her furrowed eyebrows. “Even if you didn’t tell me, I can read what had happened from your mind”

She remained silence and turned to the other side.

“If I were you, I would just stay silent” Donghan voiced. “If I beat the guy up, who knows what he’ll do to me. Since I just borrow someone else’s body, I need to take care of it”

“But that will make you look like a loser, right?” she asked. “No. I’m just a not-yet-a-winner. I’ll get to him back the other time when I learnt about his weakness so that I don’t embarrass myself and people around me”

Dawon stared outside and heaved a sigh. “I’m just furious because I can’t protect my eonni just like I wanted. Even after I have a body of an adult”

“You know whenever we get something we wish for, there must be a flaw to it no matter how perfect it seems to us. That’s life, Dawon. I know it because I was once like you”

Dawon turned to him.

“A human” he voiced. “All of us were once a human just like you. But things happen and here we are, beside you”

“So you mean you’ll turn into human again?”

He shook his head. “All of us died already. And we’re born again into puppet to help you. Neither living as human or ghost. We’re just this. Puppet to human then to puppet again whenever we want” His smiles sadden. “But that doesn’t keep us from giving up in this new life. Or be sad about it for the rest of our life. Because we have one quest that is to help you”

“Donghan” she called him. “I don’t mean to make you tell me about your deepest secret. I’m sorry”

“Nah I heard that Taedong was about to tell you about it. But Donghyun though that you’re too young to hear about this. But man, he’s wrong. Dawon, you’re grown up. And I believe you can understand what I tell you. In my opinion, you need to know more about us and you must be curious about us too. At least that’s what I think”

“But you said you were a human. Don’t you want to meet your family again now that you have a second chance? Maybe you want to help them?” “I had been lying if I say I don’t want to meet and help them. But I don’t think they’ll recognise me if they ever see me. And I believe they are doing just fine” he smiled faintly.

Dawon stared to the sky. She had been thinking for a while. “You guys are amazing people. I want to be like you. And I will start by being calm and control my temper. I will not give up and make sure to do my best in what I want in this new life”