Whoo, I finally got a chapter up! Thank you so much to AiikoxRunaway and ZzatulELF1803 for subscribing to my story even though I hadn't posted a chapter up yet!!! I really hope I get more subscribers and comments soon! I would really love to hear what you people think of my story~

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I hate my job.

Well, not really, but I hate it today. I work late and people don’t tip much anymore. It’s hard being a waitress, but I need the money to pay for college and bills, so I’ll deal with it. I’m just happy we have enough money to at least pay for Jae Sun’s school fees and food.

My parents aren’t really around a lot. They usually have some sort of business trip or gallery opening of some sort. Our dad’s a businessman and our mom’s a museum curator at the Guggenheim. They’re usually in New York, so that just leaves me and my little brother back at home in Korea alone.

They send money home on occasion, but I think they forget that I’m not in high school anymore. They give us the same amount of money as when I was in high school. It was more than enough back then, but now we need more to get by. Hence, my waitressing job.

“I’m home!” I yelled as I pushed the door open. I kicked the door closed behind me as I heard footsteps coming from the living room and slipped out of my shoes.

“Noona, you’re home!” my little brother shouted happily as he barreled into me. I gave a grunt as I patted his spiky head of hair. His hair is growing out just as unruly as Dad’s does.

“Hey kiddo,” I said affectionately as I pried him off me and made my way into the kitchen. It’s big and perfect for a family of our size, but its way too big for two kids to be living in. It gets lonely. Mom won’t even get us a dog or anything, which is a little unfair in my opinion.

“Have you done your homework?” I asked him as I looked in the fridge for some leftovers. I’m sure we have some pizza from last night’s dinner… unless Jae ate it. Ah, the woes of living with a growing teenage boy.

I heard him scoff and heard a chair being dragged out as he sat down. “Of course,” he answered proudly. “I even did the laundry!”

I stuck my head out of the fridge, giving him the ‘mom’ look, as everyone likes to tell me. We had a mini stare down until he suddenly gave me a sheepish grin. “Okay, so I stuffed my dirty clothes into the washing machine,” he amended and I gave him a nod.

“Much better. Aha!” I grabbed the pizza and stuck it in the microwave to heat it up.

“You look tired,” Jae commented.

“Can’t be helped,” I yawned out, leaning against the counter. “Look on the bright side! It’s a weekend tomorrow! How about we go to the park?”

He face brightened as he asked, “Really? We can really go?”

I ruffled his hair, giving him a smile. “Of course we can. We can play some hoops, and play at the playground – “

“I’m too old for the playground,” he whined as his face scrunched up. I gave him a light swat n the head.

“I like going to the playground,” I defended.

“Are you sure you’re my noona then?” he teased.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “I’m going up to get changed. Watch my pizza and do not eat it, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t be cheeky.”

“Okay, noona.”

I dragged my tired body up the stairs (I should have gotten the downstairs bedroom, ugh) and made my way into my room. It’s not much. It has a bed, a dresser and a big closet. I don’t know why, but it’s always messy, no matter how often I clean it. There are always music sheets lying crumpled on the floor and my books are everywhere. I’m just glad I’m not a klutz or –

“Oof,” I grunted as I hit the floor. Never mind what I said about not being a klutz.

“Did you fall again, noona?” I heard Jae’s voice faintly calling out from downstairs.

“I’m okay, thanks for asking,” I answered sarcastically as I got up the floor. Hey, I found that bracelet I thought I lost!

I can’t believe I actually lost it. It was a birthday present from my grandpa right before he passed away. I love it. It has a pendant of what I think is a tree, but I can’t really be sure.

I came down a few minutes in sweatpants and a big t-shirt, my hair tied up in a loose bun. It’s good to be in comfy clothes after a long day.

Our evenings usually go like this. We go to school in the morning and since Jae Sun finishes a lot earlier than I do, he usually ends up spending some time at our grandma’s house. After school, I go to work and drag my tired and sore body back home at the end of my shift. Then, it’s dinner and a night in front of the TV before I march his twelve year old self to bed at nine.

As you can see, I don’t have much of a social life. I could have one (yes, I do have friends) but that would mean I’d be leaving Jae all alone, and I can’t do that to him. I think being neglected by Mom and Dad is bad enough. He doesn’t need to be neglected by his older sister too.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand why they work so hard. Sometimes though, it wouldn’t hurt to spend time with their children. A phone call thrice a year on Chuseok and our birthdays (which they get wrong) isn’t enough.

Maybe I’m asking for too much, but I’d like to have a conversation with my parents that lasts longer than five minutes.

“Noona, why don’t you go out with your friends?” Jae asked once our pizza was heated up and we were seated in front of the TV with a tacky movie playing.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I sat down next to him, putting our drinks next to our plates. “I go out with Jae Hwa and Hana all the time.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Going out with them every Sunday while I’m at soccer practice doesn’t count.”

“It does to me. We eat, go shopping and talk about girl stuff. That’s generally what us girls do.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He picked at his pepperoni pizza and shifted so he was facing me. I abandoned my pizza and turned so I could look him in the eye. “Dae Jung was telling me the other day that his sister was going on about her date with a guy. How come you don’t do that?”

“Go on dates?” I blinked at him. “What does going on dates have to do with anything?”

“I feel like I’m holding you back,” he mumbled, looking at the floor and picking at the carpet. “You don’t do what other older sisters do to their little brothers or… you know, all that other stuff.”

I laughed a little, ruffling his hair. “Kid, you’re twelve. You shouldn’t be worrying about stuff like this.” I tipped his chin up. “Besides, it was my choice not to date. You had nothing to do with it, so don’t try to take all the blame on yourself. It’s not your fault guys my age still act like they’re in elementary school.”

“You sure, noona?” he asked. He looked so worried, but he shouldn’t be. He’s twelve! He should be worrying about not failing his math test and getting cooties from girls.

“I’m sure,” I answered, flicking the tip of his nose lightly. “Now eat your pizza and watch the movie. I think your favorite part is coming up soon!”

So there you go. A typical Friday night for the both of us.

Who knew it’d turn out to be not so typical after all?

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I shot up in bed. Immediately, I turned to my nightstand and flopped back down on my bed with a sigh of disgust. Ugh, it’s two in the morning! What am I doing awake?

Wait, I think I just heard a crash downstairs. Could it be Jae? But he’s never this noisy…

I crept out of bed and cracked my door open. I slipped out and looked over the banister to the hallway. There wasn’t anything there. There was the single lamp in the living room that I always left on and the kitchen light was on, but that was normal. Maybe it was just my imagination –

I heard a crash from the kitchen and a figure moved in the kitchen, the shadow creating a black space in the wall before disappearing. My eyes widened and I quickly rushed into my brother’s bedroom. I’m pretty sure he has a baseball bat by his bedside.

I quickly slipped in just as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. “Noona – “

“Shhh,” I whispered, shushing him immediately. “There might be robbers so I’m going down to try and scare them off. Stay here and if I don’t come up in fifteen minutes, call the police and hide under your bed.”

“I should come with you!” he exclaimed quietly, climbing out of bed. I gave him the ‘mom’ stare and he crawled back into bed.

“Do not, under any circumstance come downstairs or I will ground you for two months,” I threatened as I reached for his baseball bat. “Do you have your cell phone?”

He nodded and I patted his head. “Good. Now stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

“Be careful noona,” he muttered, looking away.

“You got it.”

I slipped out of his room and slowly crept down the stairs. Ha, I kind of feel like James Bond now! Right, not the time to be making jokes.

I skipped the second last step that creaked and tip toed my way near the doorway of the kitchen. I could hear soft murmurings coming from the kitchen and pressed myself against the wall.

Okay, Cho Hee, it’s no big deal, I told myself. Just act fierce and maybe they’re a bunch of cowards and they’ll get scared off. You can do this!

… Yeah, I still don’t feel that convinced. Well, it’s now or never.

Taking a deep breath, I raised the bat and burst into the kitchen, screaming, “AHHHHHH!!!!!”

I didn’t expect to see a boy around my age to scream back and fall off the chair, nor a gust of wind to shoot towards me and knock the bat out of my hand. Oh, shoot.

“Who are you?” one of them asked harshly, his hands held out in front of him as if he was going to shoot something out of his hands. I took a moment to take in the scene before me. The guy who shouted was still on the floor, looking at me in fright while another boy was crouched protectively over him. There were three other boys in tattered clothes filling up the kitchen. Actually, all of them were in tattered clothes. What the heck is going on here?

“Who am I?” I repeated incredulously. “Who are you? This is my house!”

“Maybe we should all calm down,” a different man, who looked the oldest, suggested.

I grabbed a broom nearby and held it up threateningly, causing him to back away slightly. “Calm down? You want me to calm down?” I asked shrilly. “I have six weird guys in my house and – wait, how the heck did you even get in my house? I know I locked the doors and windows. I swear, if you don’t clear out in two seconds, I am going to call the police!”

“Don’t call the police!” the other four guys yelled, giving me fierce glares.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” I yelled back, glaring back at them.

“Noona, what’s going on?” I heard Jae ask as he came up behind me holding up the bat that I… dropped? I still don’t know what happened. “Don’t hurt my noona!”

“Jae Sun, go back upstairs,” I commanded, not keeping my eyes off the weird guys that are still in my kitchen.

“I told you we shouldn’t have come here,” one of the guys behind who seemed to be the leader muttered, slapping another guy on the back of the head.

“How was I supposed to know they would wake up?” he protested, scowling as he rubbed his head. “If Baekhyun hyung hadn’t dropped that pot – “

“Don’t put the blame on me!” the guy who I assumed was Baekhyun barked, slapping the guy on the back of the head again. “We could have gone – “

“There’s nowhere else to go,” the guy growled.

“Hey!” I yelled, causing them to stop arguing. “What the heck is going on here?”

Simultaneously, the guy received another three slaps to the back of his head.

“Stop hitting me!”

“If I don’t get an answer in three seconds,” I warned, “I am going to – “

“What can you do, huh?” the guy who kept getting hit challenged, stepping forward. “You’re just a weak mortal.”

“Who are you calling weak?” I yelled, raising the broom to hit him.

“Noona, wait!” I heard Jae Sun cry out. “He’s hurt!”

I whipped around and followed his gaze to where the guy who had fallen off the chair was still on the floor, except I noticed the blood dripping from the wound on his leg.

I put the broom down, staring at each of the six guys individually. “Okay, seriously, what the heck is going on here?”

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There you go, the first chapter! I hope it hasn't been a disappointment to you , my darling subbies.

Please subscribe! EXO is beginning to whine at me wondering why their story isn't getting any subbies :(

~Alex