Onew saw her back stiffen when she realized she wasn’t alone, her hands flying to her face to wipe off what Onew guessed were tears. Sitting himself down on the ground next to her, he dared to push aside the curtain of loose hair that blocked her face, just catching the expression of despair before it vanished in the next split second to be covered by a forced smile. “What’re you doing here?” she asked.

“You were crying.” He stated, ignoring her question. He could see her battling with herself as her eyebrows came together in a frown. She was wondering whether to lie or simply come clean, Onew guessed. “You might as well tell me…”

Sighing, she hung her head in resignation. “I might’ve been crying a little bit…” she mumbled.

“Why?” Onew’s fingers were still in her hair. By all means, this should have been the most awkward thing he had ever experienced, but strangely he found the intimacy very far from awkward. On the contrary, he found himself fighting the urge to run his fingers through the very strands of hair he was tucking behind her ear.

“You don’t want to know, believe me.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”

Yun Mi watched him with a scrutinizing gaze for what seemed like minutes before she seemed to reach a decision. “You’re not allowed to judge me. Okay?” Onew chuckled and agreed. “I… my mother wants me to wear a hanbok to tomorrow’s wedding and I really, really don’t want to. And it’s not just about that; it’s about everything else. She thinks she knows me but she really doesn’t. She has no idea about what I want, she doesn’t know how I feel. And most of the times, I don’t think she cares about how I feel. Like those stupid extra credit algebra classes she’s making me take. Why would she make me do that when I’m already finding it hard to pass my exams? And why would she put my name in for the volleyball team without even asking me when I can’t even stand on my two feet without falling on my face? And why can’t she understand that I do not, for the love of me, want to wear a stupid hanbok and look like an ahjumma?!”

She exhaled loudly, out of breath from having ranted so much. “I must seem like such a typical teenager right now…” she looked up at him shyly through her eyelashes, her embarrassment tainting her cheeks red.

“A little bit.” Onew nodded, chuckling when she pouted. “How old are you?”

She muttered something and Onew had to ask her to repeat herself. “I’m sixteen” she said, sounding disappointed for some reason. “But I will be seventeen in four months!” She added, looking at him with big eyes.

So young… Two words hyung, jail bait. Taemin’s words came back to him like a ghost, haunting him.

“You?” Yun Mi’s question didn’t quite help the situation.

“Twenty five.” He told her bluntly. There was silence for a while before Onew broke it when an idea struck him. “Listen, I don’t know about the other things, but would it make you feel less like an ahjumma if I wear traditional clothes too?”

“Really?!” her whole face lit up, eyes widening. Onew decided he liked that. “Will you really do that for me?!” He only smiled in response, when she suddenly pouted. “How will that help though? You’re an ahjussi yourself.” She stuck her tongue out at him and Onew pretended to be angry.

“I’m not an ahjussi!” he scoffed.

“Are too! Onew ahjussi.”

“I’m not!” Onew jumped to his feet for effect. Yun Mi laughed and then grabbed onto his arm, intending to pull him down but making him stumble instead. One thing lead to another and Onew was almost falling on top of her. With a yelp of surprise, Yun Mi slipped off the bank of the lake and landed right in the water, pulling along an already imbalanced Onew.

“Are you alright?!” Onew spluttered, wiping water off his face and trying to steady a very shaken up Yun Mi. “Yun Mi?”

“Onew-ssi”

“Yes Yun Mi are you okay?”

“We fell into the lake.”

“Yes we did… I think we should –”

Yun Mi suddenly burst out laughing, surprising Onew into silence. She did not stop laughing until they had stepped out of the lake and were as far away from it as they could be. “Don’t you think you should go back to your room?” he asked her as they stood there, shivering in the cold.

“I can’t…” she muttered, almost inaudibly, “my mother’s staying in my room tonight and I fought with her before I came here. If I go back to her like this, I don’t think I could bear with the humiliation of walking in and looking like the reckless teenager she thinks I am.”

“I thought you had your own room?” Onew noted the sad look that filled her eyes at his question and mentally kicked himself for being so tactless.

It took her a while to answer. “My parents fought…” she said, hesitation evident in her small voice. She was looking down and purposely not meeting his eyes. So this was why she had really been crying, Onew realized. He watched the young girl in front of him while she tried holding back the fresh wave of tears that were ready to flow. For the first time, he saw beyond her fragile exterior and youthful age, at the girl who was tougher than she looked. “So I’m just going to wait till I’m all dry and then go back. Hopefully she will be asleep by then.”

“You’re going to catch a cold.” Onew told her.

“No I won’t.”

“Trust me, I’m a doctor.”

“Well then doctor ahjussi, I’ll be fine. You go on ahead.”

“Again with the ahjussi!” Onew frowned. “Either way, if it’s really impossible for you to go back to your room then you can come to mine.”

Only when he saw her eyes widen at the suggestion did it strike him that his idea wasn’t exactly appropriate. “I mean – that’s not what I meant… I mean…” Flustered and rather annoyed with himself, Onew cursed. This really was out of character. Lee Jinki was not an idiot.

“That would be nice Onew ahjussi,” Yun Mi giggled, “you can stop blushing now.”

Still laughing to herself, she turned around and started walking away.

“Wait, where are you going?” Onew asked her.

“Aren’t the rooms that way?”