Sulli slowly ate the groceries she bought one by one when dusk soon fell. Now where am I going to sleep...? 

Sulli looked down streets and found no hotels or motels or anything she could afford, at least. She pouted and blew her bangs out of her face. Nice going, Sulli, way to mess everything up...

"This was bound to happen," a familiar voice creeped up behind her, making her flinch a bit.

"Kai? Is that you?" she tried making his face out in the darkness of the night.

"No, I'm a robber who just robbed a bank. Who else would I- OW!" he tried joking, but was cut off when Sulli whacked him in the face.

"What was that for?" he growled at her.

"Oh, it really is you; I thought you were actually a robber. Whoops," she laughed it off. Kai rolled his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Sulli asked him.

"You need a place to stay? You can crash at my house," he offered.

"Crash what at your house? I can't drive," Sulli tilted her head to the side. Kai face palmed.

"I mean you can stay at my house until you get figured out," he explained so she could understand better. She made an "ohhhhh" face and smiled.

"That would be nice, but what about your parents?" 

"They saw me talking to you at the supermarket, I told them you ran away, and now they want me to ask you to stay over," Kai looked down.

"Awww, thanks!" she beamed at him.

"Yeah, thank my parents, not me," he muttered.

***

Once they got to Kai's house, his parents showed Sulli the room she would be staying in. It was a lot smaller than her room, but it was manageable.

"Kansamnida, Mr. and Mrs. Kim," she bowed politely.

"No problem. You can stay here as long as you like until you get everything sorted out," Mrs.Kim acknowledged her thank. Sulli was a bit surprised about how they treated her. They acted like she was their own daughter already, and they didn't mind that she ran away from home or anything.

As Sulli was unpacking her things, she changed into her pajamas and plopped down on the bed she was going to sleep on. It was bouncier than hers. She laughed as she kept on bouncing up and down. Little did she know, Kai was standing at the doorway watching her with a smirk on his face.

"You know, the more you do that, the better chance of the bedbugs coming out," Kai joked. Sulli's eyes widened as she jumped off of the bed and stared at it. 

"R-Really? What are those?" she shivered.

"Monsters that can eat you in one gulp. If they get too annoyed, they will," he laughed evilly.

"Kai, be nice. He's just kidding, sweetie, there aren't any bedbugs, and if there were, they would not be monsters," Mrs. Kim sent Kai a glare and nodded at Sulli.

Sulli stuck her tongue out at him and teased. "Yeah Kai, be nice." Kai rolled his eyes as Sulli kept on looking around the room.

"This place is so.... different than my home," she said as she ran her hand over the painted walls of the unfamiliar lounge.

"How?" Kai challenged.

"Well for one thing, mine is so much bigger," she started. The sentence made Kai frown upon it. "But, it's more homey and nice, very comfy," she finished.

"This is a normal sized bedroom. What, do you live in a mansion?" Kai scoffed. To his surprise, Sulli nodded.

"Yeah, my father is Kim Jonghyun," she giggled, remembering her father who was quite popular from his singing voice.

"Really? My mom loves him!" Kai laughed along with Sulli when Sulli came across something she has never seen before. It was round and orange with black stripes all around it. She picked it up and dropped it, catching it when she saw that is bounced.

"Does everything bounce around here?" her eyes widened in surprise. She set the sphere down and observed it from the ground, poking it. "What is this?"

"Um... a basketball?" Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tomorrow, I'm showing you things you've probably never have seen before, if you thought that was cool, just wait."

***

"Are you sure you can't find her?" Song Hee confirmed with her husband who was teary eyed as well.

"I'm sure. I still can't believe she ran away. She got that from your side of the family, you know," Jonghyun accused, remembering the past memories.

"When are you gonna let that go? It was more than 15 years ago! And don't try putting this off on me, you're just as much to blame," Song Hee yelled back. Soon, a whole argument broke out between the couple on how their daughter could come to such a thing and who was at fault.

"YAH!" Krystal shouted over them, making them stop in their tracks. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is, the matter is that we find her before something else does. She could be hurt, and we don't even know where she's gonna sleep. Can you please put your matters aside for just one minute?!" Krystal blew here top at the couple's endless arguing. "She could be in Ha Yoong's arms right now and we won't even know."

"Krystal's right," Minho encouraged. "You guys can't keep on arguing, or it'll get in the way of everything."

The two looked sadly at each other and shrugged before Song Hee stormed up the stairs without another word.

***

"Where are we going?" Sulli asked for the umpteenth time. Kai had been dragging her for almost 10 minutes, and the tired girl didn't even know there was a place like this in Korea.

"You'll see!" he teased.

"Don't you have school?" Sulli asked, making Kai stop in his tracks.

"It's summer! You don't know what summer means?!" he surprisingly asked.

"Oh! I've heard of that, every time it comes, I go to another school until it ends," she shrugged in thought.

Summer school? No wonder why she doesn't know what anything is...

"We're here!" Kai shouted, opening his arms out to a street vendor.

"Jong In-ah?" a voice emerged from behind the decent sized cart, followed by a short elderly woman.

"Ne, ahjumma," Kai sang.

"Oh? Who is this? Your girlfriend?" the lady eyed Sulli sweetly, and Sulli bowed, introducing herself.

"No, not my girlfriend. I think I'd die if she were," Kai whispered the last part, but still audible enough for Sulli to hear.

"YAH!" she smacked his arm.

"Then why are you two holding hands?" she looked at their locked fingers. The two didn't realize that Kai never let go while he was dragging here all the while. Sulli shyly yanked her hand away and awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

"Trust me, ahjumma, we aren't dating," Sulli assured.

The lady laughed. "Arasso. So what would you like today, Jong In-ah?" 

"Two of your finest dukbokkis, please!" Kai grinned from ear to ear as the two dishes were exchanged for a few paper bills. Sulli reached out to pay for hers, but Kai slapped her hand away. "I'm paying, don't worry."

Sulli looked at him gratefully. "Gomawo." She pouted at remembrance that it was her birthday and she had nobody to celebrate with. She wished she could just go back home to celebrate for a day, then go back, but she would definitely be held back by her clingy parents.

"Here. Eat it, it's good," Kai handed her the paper bowl and a toothpick. Sulli poked the small rice cake with it once, then looked at Kai who was already joyfully slurping it down. Sulli cautiously took a small bite, and was amazed by how good it was. Before she knew it, she already devoured her whole serving. Kai laughed at how much she enjoyed it.

When they finished, Kai took her to the same park that they met each other at. 

"What are we doing here?" Sulli asked, checking her watch. 8:13. I usually don't get up until now...

"You're climbing monkey bars," Kai gestured at the large rings hanging from the structure.

"You expect me... to climb those? Where are the monkeys?" Sulli looked around hopelessly. Kai face palmed.

"Just get on...." he helped her on her first bar, then set her off to climb the rest. Kai felt so old, like a father who's helping his daughter do things. He watched as Sulli slowly made her way across, then landed on the other platform. She looked at her hands in disgust.

"Ow, that hurt.... And look how dirty it must be! Hand sanitizer," she clapped her hands and left one out. Kai raised his eyebrow until he realized what she meant.

"Okay, I know you're all into servants and all of that, but this is the real world where you have to do things yourself. Here," Kai chucked the small bottle at her feet.

The duo spent the whole day together doing things she's never done before: do cartwheels, play soccer, and climb trees. At the end of all of that, it was still only noon. They lay in the grass, tired from all the climbing, when Sulli sat up and spoke.

"This, by far, has been the best birthday ever. No large cakes, no tight dresses, no big elegant parties, I can just be.... myself." Hearing this, Kai sat up as well.

"It's your birthday today?" he furrowed his eyebrows.

She nodded. "But this is all I need." she lay back down while Kai looked up in the clouds in deep thought.

"Since it's your birthday... why don't we do something really fun?"