Sori was in the cafeteria with her friends at their usual table. She stared at the door, waiting for Joojin to come in. She could already imagine Joojin falling face first into her lunch tray in front of everybody there. She giggled to herself and locked eyes on the entrance, only to have her smirk falter as she saw Joojin on the back of a tall male she had never seen before. ‘Who is that? And why is he carrying Kim Joojin?!’

Tao bent down and placed her down. She hopped onto her good foot and Tao quickly caught her waist “You okay?” Joojin nodded her head and they both walked towards the line to get lunch (with Tao as her pillar as she had hopped there.)

Sori’s friends glanced at the queenka as she began to boil with anger. ‘How the heck did Kim Joojin get help from a hot guy like him?!’

After getting lunch, Tao carried Joojin on his back while she held their trays of lunch. Once back to their classroom, they both began to eat and chat. Joojin slowly opened up to the new boy as he wasn’t that scary anymore. In fact, he was actually a dork. An adorable dork that does such irresistible aegyo that could make you squeal uncontrollably.

As the end of school approached, Joojin was still without her crutches. Tao looked at her, “Are you able to go home? I could walk you home. And by walk, I mean I piggyback you there.” He chuckled.

Joojin joined in to his laughter and gave him a small smile, “Aniyo Zi Tao shi.”

“It’s Tao.” He corrected.

“…Tao shi.” She corrected herself. “My umma’s boyfriend is going to pick me up from school. You don’t have to worry.” She began to pack her bag.

Tao did a thinking pose, “That wasn’t your appa at the hospital?” he muttered softly to himself.

Joojin turned to look at him, “Did you say something?”

“A-Aniya.” Tao shook his head. As they both began their way towards the school gates, Sori and her friends were there along with Joojin’s crutches. Tao quickly caught eye of the crutches. He glared their way, ‘So they have her crutches.’

Sori saw them, “Yah! Kim Joojin!”

Joojin looked her way and narrowed her eyes, “I knew my crutches couldn’t have disappeared without an explanatory reason. I should’ve known it was Sori.” She said.

Tao and Joojin walked towards Sori. As they got close, one of Sori’s friends held out the crutches towards Joojin, “Here. You can have it back.” Joojin suspiciously looked at the crutches and back at them. Sori rolled her eyes, “Just take them. You already ruined my day at not seeing you embarrass yourself today.”

As Joojin was going to grab hold of the crutches, Sori’s friend let it drop to the ground. “Oops. Sorry~” They laughed.

Joojin was about to bend down to retrieve, but Tao quickly grabbed them for her, “Here Joojin ah.”

Sori raised as eyebrow, “Wah Kim Joojin. I finally see a trait you picked up from your umma.”

Joojin raised an eyebrow at her, “What is it?”

“That you and her know how to get guys to do what you want. Just like you with this new boy here and your -of-a-mother with that poor man she’s going out with.” Sori smirked.

“Shut your mouth Sori!!!” Joojin hissed.

Sori scoffed, “Why should I? It’s not like your umma actually loves that man? Every month…no. Every week she has a different man. Why is that now Kim Joojin? Is he wealthy? Or is he just good in bed?” Her and her friends cackled.

Joojin’s fist tightened, “I SAID SHUT UP!!!” Tao piercingly glared at the trio.

Before he could do something, a man caught his eye. It was Mr. Choi walking towards them. ‘Oh . This isn’t good.’ He thought.

Mr. Choi caught sight of Joojin and smiled. This was his first time picking Joojin up from school. He paused as he saw Joojin looking upset. “What’s going on?” he asked himself and started his way towards his girlfriend’s daughter and ‘friends’.

Tao grasped Joojin’s wrist, “Ignore them. Let’s just go. NOW.” He said while trying to drag herself. As he successfully did, what Sori said next was just down –right heartbreaking.

“You’ll never have a happy ending Kim Joojin. With your social life, love life, and family life. You will always be a loner in my eyes with nothing to lose. That new boy will leave you. You will always be an outcast at this school. And especially, that man that’s currently your umma’s boyfriend will always be her play thing. Using him for a good night and/or for his money.” Sori snickered.

Just as Joojin turned around to yell at Sori again, she caught sight of Mr. Choi. He had his head down and quietly turned around and walked off. Her eyes widened, ‘Omo! Did he hear our conversation?!’ She reached out, “Chakkaman! Ahjusshi!!!” But Mr. Choi was long gone.

Sori turned her head towards where Joojin was looking at and smirked, “Aww… Did your umma’s boyfriend hear our conversation? He had to find out the truth sooner or la-“ But Sori couldn’t finish as Joojin slapped her across the face, causing her to fall onto the grassy floor.

Shocked by her action, Sori hesitantly stared up at the angry girl. Joojin’s eyes were overflowing with anger, “You know what Sori? I am sick and tired of you picking on me and my umma. I just held it all in, but what you just did now was just the last damn straw.”

Joojin grabbed her crutches and lifted them both up in the air. Sori’s eyes widened in fear as well as her friends. Before Joojin could commit something she regretted, which she didn’t mind at all, Tao quickly took the crutches. Joojin ah. That’s enough.”

Joojin roughly got out of Tao’s grip and walked away. She didn’t stop until she got tired after walking for about 3 blocks. She finally got home after catching the bus. As she got there, she heard her umma talking on the phone.

“You’re not going to come for dinner? But you always come over.” Joojin’s umma said.

Joojin stood by the doorway to hear more. ‘Is that Mr. Choi? He’s not coming over?’

“Oh okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then? Huh? Y-You’re not coming tomorrow as well? The whole weekend? Oh Arasoyo. Bye.”

Joojin quietly entered the dining room, “Umma, I’m home.” Mrs. Kim smiled at her daughter. “Is ahjusshi not coming over today?”

She sadly nodded her head, “Ne. He said that he needs to go out of town for a little. He said he needed to do some thinking over the weekend. I hope he’s okay.”

After hearing that, Joojin sprinted up to her bedroom, ignoring the pain in her foot and puzzling her umma, “What’s wrong with her?”

Joojin collapsed onto her bed and hugged her pillow as she drenched it with her tears. ‘Oh no. It’s all my fault. Ahjusshi is going to leave umma because of what Sori said.’

During dinner, Joojin didn’t have an appetite and decided to excuse herself from the table and told her umma that she was going to take a walk at the park. Gripping onto the handles of the crutches, she breathed out as she saw her breath in the cold air. The sun was starting to set, but she still saw children playing around in the playground as they were at a small party there, possibly for a child’s birthday party. She took a seat on a bench as she watched the children play tag.

As she enjoyed watching them run around but her attention turned to a black furry hand holding onto a string. Joojin looked up to see someone dressed up in a panda suit holding out a balloon to her. She pointed to herself, “Is this for me?” The panda nodded its head and took Joojin’s hand and placed the string into it. Joojin smiled, “Komaowo.” She then looked at the panda again, “You seem familiar.”

The panda tried talking, but its words were muffled. Instead the panda pointed to itself and then to her broken leg. Then the panda got onto its knees and bowed to her. Her eyes widened, “You were that panda from the martial arts class?!” The panda nodded its head while still in a bowing position.

Joojin quietly laughed, “It’s okay panda. You didn’t mean to hurt me. I was too foolish to even try to go against you.” She grabbed the panda’s hand and let them sit on the bench next to her. “Do you mind keeping me company? I really need someone to talk to.”

The panda nodded its head and motioned for her to go on. So Joojin spilled out her feelings and problems she went through the past couple of weeks. The panda obediently nodded its head and listened well. Joojin let out a sigh, “And there’s this really cute guy at school, a new boy that started attending my school. He may look like a scary person, but he’s actually a really sweet, aegyo-ful guy.”

As she continued to list things she liked about Tao, the panda pulled off its head, revealing the human underneath the suit. He shook his head, somehow trying to fix his hair. He then called out her name, “Kim Joojin.”

Joojin paused her talking after hearing a familiar voice calling her name. She turned her head to look at the exact person she was actually talking about. “T-TAO?!?!” she said with widened eyes and was about to fall off the bench.

He laughed, “Yeah, it’s me.”

She couldn’t help but blush as she told him in person about things she liked about him; she just wanted to beat herself up for even trying to let out her feelings for once. “So, you were the person that hurt my leg.”

“Ne. Mianhae about that. I didn’t know you were that fragile…until you told me a couple of minutes ago.” He said. They continued to sit in silence until Tao spoke up, “So, what happened to that man at school? Is everything okay?”

Joojin couldn’t help but let her frown resurface on her face, “Mollayo. Ahjusshi never came to dinner because he had to go somewhere for a while. But he must’ve left my umma because of what Sori said. Damn I really hate her guts!” she gritted her teeth.

Tao placed a hand on her shoulder, “Just ignore her. Heck, today you stood up to that girl. She looked really scared when you were going to hit her with your crutches.”

She crossed her arms across her chest, “Well, I really would’ve hit her if you didn’t stop her.”

“But in martial arts, you don’t do the art for violence, but for self-defense. You should never result in violence, no matter how angry you get. You’ll regret what you did later in life.”

She knew Tao was right. Then she stood up, “Well, I should get going now. It was nice seeing you and knowing that you were that panda that-“

“That broke your leg.” Tao finished.

“..yeah.” Joojin giggled.

He then ped the panda suit, slipping his arms out of the sleeves and trying it around his waist. (The panda suit is a one-piece so he’s in a tank top while the top half is off, so he tied the arms around his waist.) “I’ll walk you home. It’s dark and I can’t let you go home all by yourself. You need a martial artist to protect you since you’re using crutches.”

They both laughed and went their way to her house. As they arrived at the gate, they saw Joojin’s mom and her boyfriend talking at the porch. As Joojin was about to announce that she was home, Tao gently told her to keep quiet. Then she saw Mr. Choi get down on one knee and held up a small jewelry box that revealed a ring. Joojin and her umma couldn’t help but gasp.

“I know that you and Joojin are going through a tough time, but I love both of you  and I would like to take care of both of you..as my wife and daughter. So, will you marry me?” Mr. Choi proposed.

Joojin’s umma couldn’t help but cry out tears of joy, “Yes. I’ll marry you.” After Mr. Choi slipped the ring on his now fiancé’s left hand, he pulled her up into a stance as he crashed his lips ono hers, to which she obliged to.

Tao glanced to his side to see Joojin’s reaction. She too was crying tears of joy. “I guess you’ll be having a stepdad soon.”

“Ne. I’m lucky to have ahjusshi as my son-to-be stepdad.” Then she glanced back at Tao, “I’m glad to have a crush on a caring panda like you.”

He smiled, “Well, this panda would like to ask you out on a date for tomorrow. Will you accept?”

Joojin playfully shook her head, “No way! You gave me a broken leg! How could I even go on a date with you?”

“Because a panda was the one that hurt you, not a human.” He stated.

“Tao!” she slapped his chest. Joojin then smiled, “Ne, I will go on a date with you Mr. Kung Fu Panda.” She tiptoed to place a kiss on his cheek.

Kim Joojin had a miserable life until a panda crossed her path. Luckily for her, that panda has done nothing but help her gain happiness, get a future stepdad, gain confidence to face a bully, and can’t forget about her broken leg, making her gain a soon-to-be boyfriend (even though he is the panda).

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Firstly, I would like to apologize for not completing this oneshot loooooooooooong ago.

It was just that this college semester was really taking a toll on my stories xP

Again, I'm really sorry for updating this oneshot soooooo late.

I'll try to start on the sequel oneshots. Depdning on how busy (or maybe lazy) I am.

Well, that's for reading. Comments are loved ^^ <3333