Sung Cheol gently pushed through the door, the high chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a Chestnut Wood flight of staircases leading up from the entrance to the second floor. Sung Cheol looked around with discretion, ready to head up the stairs to his room.

"Kim Sung Cheol,"

Sung Cheol gritted his teeth, clenching his jaws after placing one foot on the first step of the stairs.

"It wasn't So Min. The school called."

Sung Cheol huffed and turned around.

"What are we going to do with you? One more time and you'll be expelled. Expelled."

Sung Cheol leaned on the side of the stairs, resting his chin in his palm as he listened.

"So be it. I don't want to be in a school with your daughter."

The woman closed her eyes and sighed, her hand on her hip. Her hair was shoulder length -- like her daughter's. Her fringe was messily pinned up, sweat on her forehead from the heat since she had been preparing dinner.

"Sung Cheol, I know it's hard. I just need you to--"

"To? Happily accept you and So Min? Just because my dad married you doesn't mean I need to accept you. You shouldn't even be standing there." Sung Cheol straightened his back, turning and resuming his way up the stairs without once turning back. The woman sighed heavily and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, closing her eyes and feeling sorry for her daughter more than for herself.

 

The music in So Min's room was too loud for her to hear anything else other than what was inside it. She had it soundproofed and installed with coomunication devices so that if anybody downstairs or outside the room could hear it, they could have her turn it down. The walls of So Min's room were beige, and too far apart for it to be even called a room. It was massive. Her bed was situated in the middle of a circular rug, with a 2 seater sofa seat next to it where her bag and notes were messily thrown onto. On the floor were aesthetic baskets with lights in them, the dotted rays of light on the floor like polka dots. The television mounted on the wall was right above some 4 cabinets, inside stashed her bags and sports equipment. To the right was a nice study area, with cupboards and shelves shaped like a large "n", her desk placed in the cave beneath the cabinets. To the left of the bed was the balcony that looked out over the mansion's fountain, where there was a hammock and unlit candles on a small coffee table next to it. She sat up from her bed, bathed and washed up in a purple cardigan and shorts. She looked at the photoframe next to the television, above the cabinets, a photo of her, her mother and the person who used to be her father in a distant memory she preferred not to remember.

"How could you?" She muttered under her breath, folding her arms across her chest, eyes refusing to leave the photoframe.

The dinner was awkward. So Min sat across Sung Cheol and her mother across his father. Nobody spoke about Sung Cheol causing a fuss in school.

"So," Sung Cheol's father began. "How was school today?" He chewed on the braised pork, his tie loose around his collar and glistening strands of grey hair shining under the light.

"It was fine," So Min answered first, knowing that Sung Cheol wouldn't budge. "Some kids got beaten up at school today." She casually announced. Her mother frowned and glared at her. Her husband paused, his cutlery being placed back onto the plate.

"Was it you, Sung Cheol?"

Sung Cheol dropped his utensils, the loud clanking sound only intensifying the situation.

"We don't need to do this--" So Min's mother looked at the man.

"Uh, yeah. We do." Sung Cheol leaned back in his seat and glared at his father first, then his stepmother. "I'm going to make this clear for both of you -- no, the three of you," He looked at the adults first then So Min. "The moment you signed those marriage papers was the moment I knew that my life would be ruined forever. I can't believe you chose to just forget mom like she never happened--"

"Kim Sung Cheol, I never forgot your mother--"

"Really? Did you really? You married this woman within 2 years after mom died." His eyes were tearing up. So Min tightened her temples and looked at her plate, barely touched.

"Your husband cheating on you was not our responsibility. You didn't have to waltz into our lives and marry my dad--"

"Sung Cheol, that's enough--"

"No, I'm going to say my piece for the first and last time. The two of you never made sure I approved your marriage, and you made me live in the same house and two other strangers while they feed off your income?"

So Min looked up from the table, angry. She was angry and hurt, because whatever he had said about her father was true. He cheated on her mother, on her, her family, and she could understand the hate Sung Cheol had for her mother for seemingly intruding on theirs and replacing his own mother, but saying that she and her mother feeds off the monetary provisions his father could offer?

"Watch it, Sung Cheol. I know why you're angry about us living in the same house. Trust me, I lost my father, not even to death but to another woman. You think I don't know how it feels to be lied to?" So Min stood up tears already rolling down her cheeks. "But saying that we feed off the money your dad offers us, that's the last straw. We are not money-hungry, Sung Cheol. If we were, I promise you, I would've stolen every single expensive artefact this house openly displays."

"Go ahead and steal everything. There is nothing left worth to me under this roof anymore anyway." Sung Cheol stood up and leaned over the table toward her, seething through his teeth and nearly spitting on her. So Min tightened her teeth more, feeling her jaws buckle against one another as her entire head swelled up with confusion, hurt and anger. Her tears didn't stop, and for some reason, she took off out of the dining room and up to her room. 

"So Min!" Her mother shouted for her, beginning to chase for her but stopped at the foot of the stairs. Sung Cheol took in a deep breath, sinking back into his seat and pushing his food around. 

So Min was bawling. Her vision was blur from all the tears that continuously formed, down her cheeks and eventually dripping off her chin onto the circular rug. She grabbed her long coat and didn't bother changing out of her shorts. Didn't matter if she froze out in the cold autumn wind anyway. She pulled on a pair of thigh high boots and grabbed a small bag with only about twenty bucks in it with her phone and her earpiece.

"So Min! Where are you going?" Her mother asked, rushing toward her once she realised her daughter was not dressed for the autumn cold.

"Anywhere but here." She croaked, pulling open the door harshly and slamming it shut. Her mother stood behind the wooden wall, her thumb and pointer on her temples as her face turned sour. 

"Hey!" Jeno yelled loud enough for his voice to be heard throughout the entire dorm house. "You guys need anything? I'm heading to the mart to get some stuff."

"What?" Renjun yelled back. In a few moments, he was out of his room and leaning over the arm rest, looking down at Jeno who was dressed in a large hoodie with track pants. "Mart's 45 minutes from here and the sun's halfway past down the mountains."

"I could use the personal time, Renjun." Jeno looked up and blinked at him through his hair. Renjun sighed and his shoulders slumped. 

"Me!" Dong Hyuk hopped out of his and Jeno's room, hurriedly pulling a pair of pants over his .

"Ew, gross." Renjun looked away.

"Could you get me some of those-- those yoghurts?"

"'Those yoghurts'? Sure, I'm supposed to know which goddamn brand you're talking about." Jeno frowned.

"I'll send you a picture while you're on the way."

"If I don't find it, it's not my fault." Jeno his heels and opened the door.

"If you don't mind," Renjun called out. "Get some fruits. The boys need it." 

Jeno nodded and smiled, turning and stepping out of the house and into the chilly autumn wind.

 

So Min took the volleyball of the circular rack in the sports corner of the store. She hit it once against the ground and dribbled it twice, her fingers grazing the round sides of the ball. She did a perfect set, and let it bounce off the ground before doing an upward receive. Tiptoe-ing, she let the ball roll back into the circular grove of the rack. She strolled around the mart, looking at the slightly more expensive but rare things they sold here. 

"Excuse me, could you help me find this brand of yoghurt?" 

So Min looked up from a basket of lemons, realising that voice was ever so familiar.

"Yeah sure, its in the refrigerators by the fruit baskets." 

So Min hurriedly looked around, running up the nearest isle and away from those voices.

What the Hell is Jeno doing on this side of town at this hour?

She was about to leave the mart, when she remembered what she had come here for. The only mart in town that sold Courvoisier cognac and didn't need an ID for it as long as you had a family card.

"Hey," She U-turned and whispered to the nearest cashier. "Do you happen to have any stock for Courvoisier cognac?" She squinted her eyes. The male cashier scanned her, obviously below 18, in a beige purple cardigan and mismatched worn out spandex shorts with thigh high boots and a black long co--

"Dude, stop checking me out. If you don't have it, just say it." So Min hissed. The male cashier was obviously embarrassed, hurriedly pushing his way out of the cashier's cubicle and toward their liquor cabinet. So Min stayed as close to the door as possible, inching her way to the exit. The male cashier was scanning a round bottle and walking toward the counter, looking up and showing her the item. She nodded, her eyes eager to pay as she opened her bag and flipped out 2 cards, one family card and one credit card. The male cashier carefully but quickly scanned the bottle, slid the card through the PDQ machine and flipped it towards her. She was nearly through with it until--

"Cognac," The familiar voice commented. So Min closed her eyes in resignation.

"Why are you looking to drink? At 16?" Jeno raised a brow, gently placing the basketful of fruits and yoghurt cartons on the conveyor belt of the cashier's. So Min couldn't answer because there wasn't one.

"Needed the personal space and time. Away from myself." She replied nonchalently, taking the box containing the bottle of liquor with her. 

"Plastic bag?" The cashier lifted one.

"No, it's fine. I'm finishing it tonight anyway."

"What?" Jeno turned and frowned at her. 

"What?" She responded, her tone completely confused. 

"Come on. Whatever problems you've got, drinking's not the way to go." Jeno pulled out his wallet when the cashier began scanning his items.

"Maybe it is for me." She comfortably carried the box in her arms and pushed herself out the mart.

She was 100 metres up the route of the park track next to the mart, her fingers fumbling to open the box and pull out the liquor bottle.

"Hey!" That familiar voice called out again. She rolled her eyes and tried picking up her pace.

"So Min!" Jeno called out louder, the sound of his footsteps quickening.

"God help me, Jeno, leave me alone." She turned around and nearly screamed at him, her eyes welling up with tears again. Jeno was first taken aback by her tone, then began to panic once he noticed the tears that threatened to roll over her lids. 

"Hey," Jeno quietly muttered,