She swayed back and forth until a crowd of people came rushing inside the already packed train. She held onto the metal bar tightly, afraid to get caught in the sea of people. The doors closed and they began moving again. She bit her lips as she felt a hand brush against her thigh. She scooted closer to the pole, shutting her eyes tightly, hoping the hand would withdraw. Fifteen minutes passed, and although it seemed impossible, more people crammed into the small space. She lost her grip on the bar when an elderly woman roughly pushed against her, but she did not complain, seeing as it would be stupid to argue with the elderly. She lightly crashed into another male, bowing with repeated apologies. He chuckled and waved it off, and she smiled at him lightly. She grew uncomfortable at the closeness between them, as she kept tumbling into him as the train jerked to a stop every so often. He had one hand in his pocket, the other tightly gripping the railing above him. He saw the discomfort in her face and tried to pull away, but was pushed back by those surrounding him.

He looked down with sorry eyes and she sheepishly shrugged with a small smile. Her smile faded as she felt the same rough hands move up her thighs. She bit her lower lip harder, attempting to squeeze her legs closer together. The hand pulled away only to drag itself across the side of her legs. Unintentionally, she scooted closer to the boy in front of her, almost making him fall over.

“W-woah. You okay there?” He squinter his eyes at her name tag and read it softly,

“Seori..?” She looked up with a tilt of her head, but he just pointed to her nametag. formed an ‘o’ and she looked down, mumbling quietly that she was okay.

The train suddenly jerked to a stop and the hand on her running down her thighs was quick to grasp her . Panicking, she let out a small yelp and buried her face into the boy’s chest. She gripped his shirt tightly, confusing him even more. Only then did he realize she was shaking, trying to dig deeper into his chest. Carfeully, he wrapped his arms around her before seeing a hand securely on her backside.

Furious, he spun her around, grabbing the hand and twisting it roughly until a faint crack and loud yelp was heard inside the noisy train. People around hushed the owner of the hand, as he screamed cuss words out loud. Only then did the boy turn around with you still buried into his chest. He wrapped her in his comforting arms, whispering words of reassurance, that everything was okay.

A voice in the intercom announced their stop, and she quickly rushed outside, unknowingly pulling him along.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you—“ She bowed in repletion, uttering words of gratefulness mixed with a few apologies like she didn’t mean to invade his personal space and such. He put his hands up, saying everything is okay, chuckling as she continued with her thank you’s and sorries.

He grew a little embarrassed as a crowd started forming around the two. He then placed his hands on her shoulders, putting her to a complete stop.

“It’s okay, really. You don’t need to thank me. People like him don’t deserve their hands.” His eyes glowered dark for a second, but was quickly replaced with a big smile.

“I’m Minseok, but my friends call me Xiumin. You can too, if you treat me to lunch?”

“Seori. My friends call me Seori and I’d love to, Xiumin.”

She smiled brightly and stood at his side, tilting her head and pointing it to food stalls a few blocks away.

“I eat a lot, just telling you ahead of time.” He chirped.

“Well good thing I brought my wallet, huh?”

“Shall we?” He held his arm out,

“Hmm..” She pretended to think about it, “We shall.”