I was bopping my head to sad music, tears streaming down my cheeks. It had been 40 minutes and I saw Jeno walk towards the car, the male opening the door and sitting down at the drivers’ seat. I sniffed, Jeno sneaking a glance at me, a hand going to start the car silently.

“Why are you listening to sad music when you’re sad?” he finally asked and my bottom lip trembled as “Lemon tree” came on the radio.

“I wonder how? I wonder why?” I sang under my breath, Jeno pressing his finger against the button and the music stopped. “It helps indulge me in my emotions, Jeno!”

Jeno chuckled, a hand going to ruffle my head, the male backing the car up. His hand naturally came to mine, cupping them gently and I frowned at them, Jeno squeezing my fingers. I blinked, looking at him to see that he was focusing on the street.

“What happened?” I asked Jeno. “What did you do to them?”

“Just gave them a talk,” he replied, flashing me a tightlipped smile and I leaned forward to poke his cheek. He swatted my hand away, telling me that he was driving. “Where’s your phone?”

“Here,” I said, placing my stuff on my lap. “I didn’t lose it.”

Jeno nodded, his hand still on my lap. I wondered if it was because he thought that I would feel better if he was holding me and I would be lying if I said it didn’t give me any comfort at all. We neared my house and Jeno slowly parked my car in the driveway just when my phone dinged.

“Check it,” he told me and I went to glance at the screen to see that I got a text. I opened the text up and saw a long text message from Suzy, clicking on it.

“Hello, Kim Bunny.

My name is Suzy and I am here to apologize for my actions this afternoon. I am very ashamed of what I did and I will repent for the rest of my life. You are you and I was wrong to imply that you are nothing without your brother because that is not true. You are an amazing person and you bring joy to people around you with your energy and I think I was just envious of the amount of happiness you bring—”

And the text message went on and on.

“Wow,” I said and felt Jeno shift closer, the male reading it by my shoulder. He looked satisfied.“Is this why it took you forty minutes to come?”

“Was watching them type it down,” he told me.

“You know…” my voice trailed. “There wasn’t only Suzy there—”

“Wait for it,” he clipped and another ding sounded. I looked down to see another text message. “There it is.”

“My name is Amanda and I was with Suzy this afternoon. I am sorry for being a bystander to her being a bully and I swear it won’t happen again. Being a bystander is just as bad as being a bully and I am utterly embarrassed at my lack of courage to stand up to them as a person…”

“WOW!” I exclaimed and Jeno chuckled, moving to get out of the car. I mirrored his actions, grabbing my bag and exiting the car. “What did you say to her?”

“Just stuff. Come here, your brother will be home a bit late tonight.” Jeno told me and I bounded up after him, the male climbing up the stairs to my house like it was his own.

“Can I bully them then?”

“Bunny, two wrongs don’t make a right,” Jeno told me, grabbing my bag from my arms and pushing me to the room. “Besides, what are you going to do? Bare your teeth at them menacingly?”

“Exactly,” I said, following Jeno into the room. Jeno looked around and I sat on the bed. “What are you looking for?”

“Where are your pajamas?” he asked and I blinked, shrugging.

“I don’t know.”

He frowned at me. “Well, what do you wear when you go to sleep?”

“Pajamas,” I told him and Jeno tilted his head at me. “Doyoung Oppa prepares it for me. I come home and it’s on the bed.”

“Really? How about laundry?” he asked and I shook my head. “You don’t know how to do your laundry?”

“I mean… there is a laundry basket. And sometimes I put it in and in the morning it disappears. Like magic, Jeno.” I said, waving my hands in front of him. “And then it comes back… empty!”

Jeno blinked at me. “Where is your closet?”

I pointed at the walk-in closet in the room and Jeno motioned me to follow him so I did, Jeno sighing as he opened the door and walked in. My clothes were divided by color and I couldn’t remember the last time I went inside my closet, Jeno trying to find my pajamas.

“How do you choose your clothes?” Jeno asked and I wow-ed at the number of clothes I actually had.

“Doyoung Oppa chooses it for me according to the weather and when I wake up it’s by the desk and I shower and change,” I told him, Jeno finding the pajama cabinet and telling me that it’s where the pajamas are. “Okay.”

“And these would be your clothes,” he told me, taking out his phone to check the weather. “It’ll rain tomorrow. Hoodie?”

I shrugged, Jeno taking the initiative to grab a black hoodie and normal jeans. He showed it to me and I shrugged again, turning to inspect my closet. There were so many things!

“Bunny,” Jeno said, motioning to one of the cabinets and when I didn’t respond, he reached over to tilt my chin to look at him. “Go get your undergarments and get ready to shower and go to bed.”

“Undergarments?” I asked, blinking.

“Your… underwear and bra,” he said, blinking back at me, his face turning red. Understanding flitted through my features and I looked down on my chest, shaking my head.

“I don’t wear a bra to sleep,” I told him honestly and his cheeks flushed, clearing his throat.

“O-Okay…” He turned away. “Then just go and get your underwear, here’s the towel.” He threw a towel to me and I caught it, trying to find the drawer when he told me that it was by the door.

“I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just taken it for me,” I grumbled and he crossed his arms across his chest.

“I’m a guy, Bunny. Besides, when you go to England for six months, you need to learn how to take care of yourself,” he told me and I looked at him, flinging the underwear over my shoulder, Jeno looking away.

“Why are you talking like you won’t take the scholarship exam?” I asked, walking out of the closet to shower. Jeno followed me, closing the door behind him and sitting down on the bed to wait. He didn’t answer my question and I went into the bathroom to take a shower.

When I was done, I came out, rubbing my hair with the towel. I saw Jeno opening up cabinets and placing items into them and I realized that he was cleaning my desk. He saw me and I sat on the bed, watching him.

“Where’s the hairdryer?” he asked and I shrugged. He sighed, finally seeing the hairdryer in one of the cabinets, taking it out. “Do you know how to do it on your own?”

“Doyoung Oppa does it for me while I cover my ears,” I told him.

“Why do you cover your ears?”

“I don’t like the sound.”

Jeno unwound the wires and plugged them in. I automatically covered my ears and he put the setting to low, drying my hair for me as I scrunched my nose up. After fifteen minutes of drying my hair, he felt the strands and decided that it was enough, Jeno finally keeping it.

“What do you usually do now?”

“I drink my bedtime milk,” I told him and he scratched his head, gathering my clothes and placing them in the laundry basket before telling me to follow him. “Where are we going?”

“I need to show you how to do the laundry,” he told me and with that, he brought me to the laundry room. I watched as he told me that I always had to divide the clothes between colored and white. “If the white clothes are stained, you need to bleach it.”

He said and I nodded, watching the clothes whirr in awe from between my legs. I had demanded Jeno put me up on the washing machine and I could hear it move back and forth while Jeno watched me nervously from the side.

“Bunny—”

“What if I go inside?” I asked excitedly. “Round and round—”

There was a sound from the entrance of the laundry room and we both looked up to see Doyoung peek into the room. He looked surprised that I was already changed and I hopped off to run and give him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

“Oh, you’re changed.”

“Yes,” I told him, Doyoung rubbing his back.

“Milk?”

“In a bit,” I told him and he said he’ll go and tell the housekeeper to warm it up for me. I then proceeded to tell him what happened today and whipped out my phone to show him the text, Doyoung shaking his head at how mean Suzy and Amanda were.

“You look tired, Hyung,” Jeno said, taking the clothes out and placing them in the dryer.

“Yeah, Jeno. The learning curving is high in the internship place. I slept only for 3 hours last night. Bunny—”

“I got it, Hyung,” Jeno said, Doyoung nodding. “You should wind down.”

“Alright, thanks, Jeno,” Doyoung said and I went back to stare at the clothes in the dryer. Doyoung went out and a beat passed, Doyoung walking back in. “Uh, Jeno. Don’t forget to fix her bag for her classes tomorrow.”

“Sure, Hyung.”

Doyoung went out again before popping back in again. “And ask her what she wants for breakfast.”

“Okay, Hyung. I’ll tell the housekeeper when I do.”

“Thanks, Jeno.” Doyoung breathed and I heard him walk up the stairs. The clothes were done and Jeno told me that dryers only took the moisture out and sometimes they don’t actually go fully dry.

“Why do they call it dryers if it’s not fully dry?” I grumbled, Jeno showing me which ones we had to hang up. Once we finished, he told me to go back up and I reached my room, falling back onto the bed. Jeno came back from the kitchen, the male putting on the T.V for me.

“What do you usually watch?”

“Secret Life of Pets,” I told him. “They are pets but they talk, Jeno. There is always a bunny and it’s so—”

My voice droned on, Jeno fixing my bag. He had pulled my schedule up and finally packed my bag according to the subjects that I had the next day, Doyoung coming in to check on him. I held the glass of milk in my hand, drinking it and Doyoung telling me to brush my teeth and I nodded, eyes glued to the screen. Once I was done, I finally brushed my teeth and walked back to the bed, seeing Jeno give the car keys to Doyoung.

“Is the driver coming tomorrow?” I asked, Doyoung nodding.

“Tomorrow is Jeno’s last day,” he said and I blinked, frowning. “I’ll drive to school and we’ll pick him up on the way.”

“Oh,” I mumbled, jumping onto the bed. “So, after tomorrow I won’t see Jeno anymore?”

“You’ll see me in the café.,” he told me and I pursed my lips, Doyoung patting Jeno on the back and moving away to go back to his room. Jeno began to finish up with my desk and I stared at him, feeling my heart go heavy. “I’m done, you should go to sleep.”

“Okay,” I mumbled. “Thank you for today.”

“You’re welcome,” he said a little bit too kindly before I shot up, Jeno jumping at my movement. “What?”

“Bedtime story?”

Jeno visibly relaxed, nodding. “You mean you tell me a bedtime story or I tell you a bedtime story?”

“Do I look like I know bedtime stories?”

“And there was a RAWR! And the lion jumped out from the cave and screamed—”

“How does a lion scream?” Jeno asked. He was settled beside me on the bed, frowning.

“It sounds like a whine, like an ing..ing… trust me, I’m going to be a vet.” I beamed at him, finishing up the story. By the time I finished the story, my eyes were heavy but I didn’t want him to leave. “Jeno.”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you staying in Haechan’s house?” I asked.

“My mother works there.” he finally said. “She’s a single mother so the Lee’s took me in. Funded me for my education.”

“Oh. Your dad left? Why would he leave? That’s so… mean.”

“Bunny, not everyone in the world cares. Just because you’re loved does not mean others are too,” he said to me and I blinked, feeling irked by the fact that his father left. “As I said, I owe my life to the Lee’s. One day, I’ll have to find a way to pay them back, and to do that I need to work hard.”

“But isn’t the fact that your mother works for them already means you’re paying them back?”

“Well, she gets a monthly salary.” He shrugged. “Besides, they are paying for my tuition fee and giving her a salary. Just seems like too much.”

“Is that why you didn’t want to go to the outing? Because you feel like you don’t have time to slack?”

Jeno fell quiet, shaking his head. “No, that’s not why. I just have things to do.”

“What things?”

“Just things,” he told me and I chewed on my bottom lip, nodding. “Go to sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And he sat up, giving my cheek a final pat before walking out the door.

It’s funny how the thing you initially wanted would be something you dreaded to happen.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day came a bit too fast and I greeted Jeno with a wave as Doyoung sat in the front seat. Today was the final day and I found myself a bit sullen but then I told myself that I would be able to see Jeno anytime I wanted. I went to class as per usual, Jeno staying with Doyoung to discuss details of their contract. I sat in class, Doctor Onew finally telling us to dissect a frog and I froze.

No, a live frog?

What a horrible thing to do