Like any other day, Joohyun was just going home after school, through her normal route. Nothing seemed different, nothing is different. She has already done this route so many times that, if she wanted, she could already do it with her eyes closed. She was listening to music but still looking and being careful with the cars and with the few people she come across with. The loud music coming from her earphones was putting her in her own world, not listening to the people talk around her or even noticing them looking her way.

Suddenly she felt a hand touching her shoulder followed by an arm being placed in her shoulder and a hand covering . She immediately looked at to whom that arm could belong to while taking her earphones out. She was really nervous and afraid cause she really had no idea who it could be. She saw a girl with long brown hair and a little taller than her. She had never seen this girl before. She wanted to scream but the hand on and the girl hushing her made her not do it.

While looking at this girl right in the eyes, the girl spoke her first words.

“Just pretend you know me! It’s important that you do that.” The girl said in a soft and low tone, almost as a whisper, that made Joohyun do it.

“What?” she didn’t really know why she was doing it, but she did. It could have been the girl’s peaceful yet strong voice. Could have been the fact that she felt safe with the girl’s arm around her. Or maybe she was so scared that she couldn’t even think straight or react at all.

While all these thoughts came into her mind she realised that she needs to do something. It is not normal to be this close and personal with a girl she had never seen before.

“Who is y-you? And why do you ha-have your arm around m-me?” Joohyun said trying to look to the girl’s eyes while trying to speak not showing her fear and lack of confidence in that moment. But the look in her eyes and the crack in her voice do give everything she is feeling away

“I’m your saviour!” Joohyun stopped walking confused with what she had just heard.

“W-what? What do you mean?” She didn't understand what the girl meant by that.

“Continue to walk and I will explain it to you.” The girl whispered to her ear.

Joohyun did what she was told again even though she was more scared now. Why would a random person just do this when they don’t know her? And why would they say they are her saviour? Why would they put their arm around her not knowing how she would react to that?

“Don’t be scared, I’m not going to hurt you or anything close. I promise.” The girl spoke putting an end to Joohyun’s train of thoughts. Her smile made Joohyun believe her and it also did help to tranquilise her.

“There was a guy following you” The girl made a small pause to check behind. “He still is.”

Joohyun didn’t process the information she had just receive right way. When she finally did she got scared. Definitely more than when a dog was running her way last week and she scratched herself. More than her friends made her do bungee jumping. Definitely more.

The other girl sensed Joohyun’s fear and took her hand from her shoulder to hold her hand. She placed their hands in her pocket and kept massing Joohyun’s hand trying to calm her.

“Don’t be scared. I will be with you until he stops following you.” Those words did help Joohyun. She didn’t want to be alone now or even go home. The house was empty since her parents would both be working until late and if the guy wanted to do something to her, he would know where she lived.

“Do you want to go that café?” The girl pointed to a café that was close to their current position. The girl suggested for them to go there to pass the time and maybe the guy got tired of following them.

Joohyun nodded as her response and they start going. She was still in shock with everything. Why was a guy following her? What did he wanted to do to her? What would have happened to her if this girl hadn’t been there? If the girl didn’t come to help her? She would have been robbed? Or even worst? She was definitely scared now, and these thoughts weren’t helping at all.

They arrive at the coffee place and sit at the last table at the back. They sit facing each other, the girl puts her hand on top of Joohyun’s instead of letting go on top of the table. Joohyun couldn’t look away from it.

“It’s all good now! That person didn’t follow us here.” The girl gave Joohyun a little smile trying to calm her. “I’m sorry if I scared you when I suddenly put my arm around you. That must have been unexpected.”

“No! Don’t apologise! I’m very thankful for you and what you did” Joohyun squeezed the girls hand trying to make her believe in her. “If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what that guy could have done to me.”

“I did what anyone would have done if they saw the guy following you.”

“That is not true, and you know it. Most people would just pretend they did saw anything and simply ignore it.” The other girl smile got bigger, making her eyes smaller looking almost as if they were closed which Joohyun found it very cute.

The waitress came, and both girls ordered what they wanted to eat and drink. The waitress left right way with their request.

“I’m Seulgi by the way.” The girl finally introduced herself with the smile still on her face.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Joohyun.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

They don’t talk until their food arrives. Joohyun starts thinking if she has ever heard of this girl that had just saved her life. The name was not that new to her, she knows she has heard about her name before.

The food arrives before she can recall where does she knows the other girl’s name. They both start eating right way. Seulgi ordered toasts, pancakes, a cake, waffles and orange juice. Joohyun couldn’t ordered that much, she ordered just some pancakes and apple juice.

 “But I hope I didn’t scare you when I suddenly put my arm around you.” The other girl breaks the awkward silence.

“You did scare me, but I’m glad it was you who did it, and not some creepy guy.”

“So, I’m not creepy?” She says it showcasing a smirk in her face.

“No, you are not.” Joohyun makes a small pause looking Seulgi in the eyes before continuing with what she was about to say. “You are nice. You helped me, thank you once again.” She admits it still feeling a little shy about it, making her look away.

“That is very sweet of you to say. Thank you.” She shows her, in Joohyun’s opinion, cute smile with her eyes almost closed. “And stop thanking me.” A small giggle from both girls is heard.

They continue eating and talking with each other. They start to talk about their ages, Joohyun being only one year older than Seulgi, which makes Seulgi 18. They found out that Seulgi doesn’t go to Joohyun’s old school, but she does intent next year to go to Joohyun’s university. They then move on to talk about their favourite hobbies, their favourite colours, their favourite movies, their favourite songs, their favourite . After they are done talking about their favourite things, they move on to more random information about each other. And in that part of the conversation, Sooyoung’s name comes out and then Joohyun finally understands why the name Seulgi didn’t seem new to her.

Sooyoung is Seulgi’s best friend. They have been friends since they were little kids, their parents were high school classmates and also best friends. The small age difference didn’t bother them, after all it was of just 2 years. They could still talk about anything and everything. They were together every day, they would do almost everything together. They were that type of best friends.

But Sooyoung also happens to be Joohyun’s neighbour. And the sister of the girl, Yerim, who she babysits from time to time. She doesn’t talk that much with Sooyoung, but she has heard her talk a lot of times on the phone with Seulgi. She did get curious who was the girl that Sooyoung talked all the time, they would talk for hours.

After they both finish eating, they asked for the bill and waited for it to arrive. When it arrives Seulgi immediately takes her wallet from her backpack.

“What are you doing?” Joohyun asks the other girl seeing her taking her money out.

“Paying.” Seulgi answers not thinking twice about what she was about to do.

“Why? I’m the one who should pay.” That come out almost has a scream, a demand.

And it did surprise Seulgi, that was probably the loudest sentence Joohyun had said all afternoon. “Why? I want to pay. And besides, I ate more than you. I should pay.” Seulgi lets a little giggle escape.

Joohyun talks in a lower tone this time, maybe because she was still embarrassed. “But you saved my life, let me at least pay for your meal.”

Seulgi realises that Joohyun was serious about wanting to pay and she lets her, not wanting to argue more about the issue. “Alright, you can pay.”

“Do you want me to take you home?” Seulgi asks when they both get up and are walking towards the door.

“Yes.” Joohyun takes a small moment to reply, she looks at the floor and finally says, in a lower tone almost whispering. “I do. I’m still afraid.”

Seulgi is quick to grab Joohyun’s hand and putting them in her pocket to keep them warm. They both leave the coffee shop. To their surprise it was already night time. The must have talked so much that they lost the notion of the sun going down. Seulgi looks around to see if she can spot the guy. After looking around for a while checking every face that was outside, she is sure that he isn’t there anymore.

“All is safe now.” Seulgi says smiling and look at Joohyun, who was still looking afraid and cautions. “Are you ready to go?” Seulgi tries to make Joohyun’s mind shift from her own thoughts.

“Yes, I am, we can go.” She tries to show the other girl a smile.

They immediately start walking in direction to Joohyun’s house. Joohyun couldn’t really look up, not even to see the beautiful flowers she always pays some attention to. Their colours are unique, like she has never seen before. But today she can’t look at them. She can’t take her eyes from the floor. She just wants to get home as fast as possible.

Which they do get there fast. Joohyun opens the door and gets inside turning around to face the other girl.

“Are you going to walk home alone?” Joohyun questions looking straight into Seulgi’s eyes.

“Yes I am.” Seulgi notices the worried tone on Joohyun’s voice. “I don’t live that far from here, don’t worry.” She shows her a smile to tranquilize the other girl.

“Then please give me your phone.” Joohyun extends her hand in between them waiting for Seulgi to put her phone there.

“Why?” Seulgi doesn’t understand the sudden request but she does take her phone from her pocket.

“So that you can text me when you get home. I want to make sure that you get there save.” She picks the phone that was just placed in her hand and types her number in the phone. “If you sense some danger or something isn’t right, please call me right way.” She gives the phone back to the owner of it.

“You didn’t have to do this. Also, you don’t need to worry.”

“But I do, so please do what I am asking you.” Joohyun says with a small pout in her face.

“Alright.” Seulgi gives in “I will call you if I sense some danger or if something isn’t right. And if nothing feels wrong, I will just text you when I get home.”

Seulgi leaves short after. She arrived home fast and as she expected, nothing felt dangerous. She texted Joohyun as soon as she stepped inside. Even before taking her backpack from her back.

“I arrived safely at home. No need to worry any longer.”

She placed her phone on her bed and finally took her backpack putting it on the usual place. She went to take a shower and finally put on some comfy clothes before checking her phone again.

She could see that she had five new texts messages and 3 lost phone calls, 1 from Joohyun and the rest from Sooyoung. She saw the time of when they were all sent, and it seemed like Sooyoung had tried all afternoon to get in touch with her, but she didn’t even hear her phone.

She prefers to reply to Joohyun first, because she knows that Sooyoung will want her to explain why she didn’t reply back all afternoon.

“I’m glad. Now rest. And thank you once again for saving me. Also, for a great afternoon.”

The message left a smile on Seulgi’s face without her even noticing. She was fast to start writing her reply.

“Again, stop thanking me! I also had a great afternoon, thank you.”

She then decides to see what Sooyoung texted her. The first one was asking her if she wanted to hang out. The others were asking why she wasn’t replying. The last one was already in caps lock. She was getting impatient Seulgi thought, so she decided to tell Sooyoung what had happening that made her not reply back. They talked for a long time as Sooyoung made Seulgi explain everything with all the little details.

Thank you to everyone you read this! I really do hope everyone enjoyed this short fic.

Comments are very appreciated. Should I perhaps write a second chapter?