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As Ahreum walked through the stubborn piles of cold, hard snow along the sidewalk, she realized that she currently had no sense of direction. She didn't know where she wanted to go. She didn't know what to do on a walk by herself. She wasn't even sure why she walked out of the house so quickly without reason. Perhaps it was because she had wanted to procrastinate and avoid school work , or run away from her insanity. After all, she had thought that she had seen hallucinations of her childhood plush toy talking to her as though it were a real person, but she brushed away the thoughts only to decide that it was merely a dream and continued walking to God knows where.

The frost-bit wind grew much more harsh as she continued her way towards the bus stop. She shivered and pulled her thick Nordic cardigan closer to her body to provide more heat. The wind blew harder now. Ahreum cursed to herself mentally before jogging to catch the bus. 

On the bus ride, Ahreum looked out the window. She saw children playing in the snow with flushed cheeks. She watched as couples held hands while strolling through. She gazed longingly at how carefree her classmates looked as they made their way through the snow, laughing with arms hooked together. She was so focused on how freely the group of friends were bonding that she had not realized that she was at the bus' last stop until the bus driver told her so.

"This is the last destination, miss." The bus driver glanced at her from the rear view mirror. Ahreum nodded once before bowing. She hopped off the watch and watched it speed away. Her feet crunched against the snow as she walked towards the nearby book store.  

Reading was one of Ahreum's favorite things to do. She loved becoming trapped within a story that wasn't her own and reading words that formed images in her head. Reading happened to be one of the many ways that helped her escape reality whenever she wanted to. Ahreum liked to think that reading was the same as daydreaming, except it wasn't your own daydream; it was someone else's.

The fresh smell of books flew through the air as Ahreum quietly entered. She grinned to herself as she saw that there was barely anyone else in the store. 

Of course. Because kids my age these days love going to the book store during their free time.

For a while, Luhan had slept peacefully on Ahreum's bed, but his slumber was disturbed by the voices of children playing outside in the snow. Several times he had tried to go back to sleep. On the seventh trial, he figured that it was completely useless. He silently cursed at the children outside and groggily sat up with scowl. "Can't these kids have the least bit of consideration for others?" He grumbled, not the least bit amused.

Since Luhan had always been a curious person, it was only natural for him to snoop around in Ahreum's room. His beady eyes soon began to scan the room. As he continued to scan her room, there was only one thing that caught his eye - the heart collage.

He noticed how the heart collage above her fancy cream couch contained no recent pictures of herself with friends. Within the collage were photographs of numerous cities Luhan assumed she had visited with her family, astonishing bokeh photos of light, family pictures during the winter holidays, and many other photographs. However, one in particular stood out to Luhan. Right in the middle of the heart collage was a Polaroid photo of Ahreum as a child with a boy at the beach. The sunset in the photo had cast a luminous glow from behind them and they had their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. Underneath in script handwriting were the words summer of 97'.

"That boy..." Luhan muttered to himself, standing up on the bed now. "He looks so familiar." He finished before hopping on Ahreum's bedside table. Accidentally, he knocked over a framed photo of Ahreum in her ballet attire and jumped at the sound of it shattering to the hardwood floor. Startled, Luhan jumped back and made a tiny gasp. Meekly, Luhan rubbed his nose and glanced around before mumbling, "She won't know who's done it, and it was just a picture frame. I'm sure this measly thing wasn't all that special."

He glanced around the room once more for he was a man who was very observant and took note of the little things in his surroundings.

Judging from the absence of pictures of friends and such, Luhan figured that Ahreum was a women who kept to herself. The elegance and classic theme of her room suggested - well, from Luhan's opinion anyway - that she was neat, mature and possessed an unusual, although beautiful, personality that many lacked.

Luhan huffed and breathed through his nose. Her room was scented of warm vanilla with a hint of spicy cinnamon. The vanilla scent was inviting, warm and welcoming, but the spiciness of the cinnamon had a strange power of allowing visitors to retreat and never return. He chuckled to himself, figuring that that was exactly how Ahreum's personality was.

Finally, after an hour of analyzing Ahreum's room to get a slight whiff of her personality, Luhan laid on her bed with his four legs spread out from beneath him. He glanced at the fancy engravings on the ceiling that was carved on the edges and began to wonder what he had done to be stuck in some stuffed animal's body. Sure, he was rude, inconsiderate and a little mean to others and took advantage of many things in life, but were those factors really that bad for him to trade in his life to live in a stuffed animal? Luhan wasn't sure anymore. He shrugged his thoughts and attempted to fall asleep once again.

Ahreum sighed happily as she read the last passage of her book and leaned back on the coach, blissfully sipping on her salted caramel latte. "That was such a good book," she mumbled, gazing out the window. 

Outside the window, snowflakes of all shapes and sizes twirled in the soft wind. A look of awe blossomed on Ahreum's features. Although this was obviously not her first time watching the grace of snowflakes dancing in the air, Ahreum couldn't help but feel fascinated each time they appeared at her window. Being so engrossed with watching the beauty of the snowfall, she had failed to notice a chilling presence from behind.

"Excuse me," a familiar voice pulled her attention away from the window. Ahreum turned around only to almost drop both the book and cup of coffee in her hands from the sudden appearance. It was Oh Sehun - the person she would least expect to see on a weekend.

"O-oh! I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were behind me." She spoke in a quiet voice as she averted her eyes elsewhere. "It's fine." Sehun muttered before slipping past her to go to the section of the bookstore with informational text.

Once Sehun was finally out of sight, further into the nonfiction section, Ahreum placed her both her hands where her heart was and breathed out in relief. It was strange. Usually when he would bump into her accidentally, he wouldn't say a thing - not an apology, not anything in acknowledgement that he knew she was there. So why was today different? Was it because they were out of school? Ahreum ran her hand through her wavy ebony hair in annoyance of her own thoughts before she put back her cream woolen beanie on top of head.

"I really should stop caring about him now," she whispered to herself once she left the bookstore with (even though she hated to admit) a heavy heart.

The winter breeze whirled around. Ahreum shivered and brought her cardigan even closer to her petite body. Mentally, she cursed herself for being so underdressed under these conditions of the weather. How careless was she.

Her feet brought brought her back home, disregarding the bus to walk home instead. After all, she barely got exercise, not unless if it was from doing ballet or participating in gym class. 

Her hands shakily reached for her house keys. From walking a total of three miles, Ahreum's hands had become completely numb and she could no longer feel them. But after a minute she finally managed to open the front door.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Her voice echoed through the hall. She walked in the kitchen to fetch herself some cookies and a mug of hot chocolate when a neatly written post-it note on the fridge caught her attention. She tilted her head to the side and tore it off the surface of the fridge before scanning her warm-brown almond eyes across the note.

Your father and I were called at the last minute for an important business trip. Unfortunately, this time we won't arrive home until the beginning of April. As for your brother, today was his departure to Switzerland with Min Seo in celebration of their five year anniversary. He won't be returning until mid-June.

We're sorry for leaving you, Ahreum-ah. But you understand, right? I trust that once we all arrive back home everything will be fine. We love you very much. Don't forget that. I promise that once your father and I are finally done with attending business trips, we shall venture of to Europe together - just the three of us. No Jaehyun, promise! 

I love you, Ahreum. We will try to return as soon as possible to come back home. Please wait for us.

Love,

Mom

Even though Ahreum was very well used to being home alone for the most part, she couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt and anger whenever she read one her mother's 'goodbye' notes. It almost felt like she wanted to say goodbye. She shook away all the negative thoughts and tried to smile, but she couldn't. The muscles around were already tired and could no longer put up with her fake smiles.

With a weak heart, Ahreum walked around the house, mentally deciding to head off to the grocery. Usually there were maids bustling about, but oddly enough, they had abandoned her as well, leaving her to tend to the house herself.

As soon as Ahreum had her mini snack of cookies and hot chocolate, Ahreum headed off to her room. She didn't want to see how empty her house was even though she knew it very much was.

She buried her face in her pillows and screamed heavily in it, forgetting that the velveteen deer was being crushed beneath her. 

Luhan, whom was soundly asleep, had woken up due to the weight that was pressed against him. He gasped and desperately tried to heave Ahreum off, but it was no use. His plush front legs and back legs were no use. "Could you please get off me?" He asked. His voice was muffled against Ahreum's stomach, but she heard him loud and clear as day. Warily, she obliged and lifted her weak form.

Luhan scrambled away and placed himself on her pillows, staring at her with curiosity. Judging from her appearance, he could tell that she was troubled and had been heavily crying. He wondered what had made a girl like her - someone who seemed to live a perfect life with perfect parents, a perfect house and a perfect lifestyle - cry so much without shame. He wanted to ask her, but he knew that asking would only make things go worse, and seeing that he was a plush, it would make things more stranger than things already were. But Luhan couldn't help himself.

"Why... are you crying so much?" He asked carefully, unconsciously inching away up the headboard of the bed. Ahreum gave him a look. Her eyes widened momentarily before returning to its natural doe like appearance. Sharply, she responded, "It is none of your concern." 

Shocked with the sudden hostility Ahreum shot, Luhan nodded slowly, dropping conversation as he eyed her carefully. The pain was evident in her eyes, but he could tell that she was trying her best to hide it. 

Why?