Luhan smiled as he shook my hand. Damn, this boy is cute. I looked at my watch and cursed.

"Luhan, it was so nice meeting you, but I gotta bolt. Umm...see you soon?"

"Definitely," He smiled, his eyes twinkling. I waved goodbye and ran as fast as I could…to home. As soon as I got home, I quickly changed out of my clothes and put on clean ones. I threw the dirty clothes into the washing machine and turned it on. I sprinted back to school just as the final bell rang.

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"I'm home," I muttered as I opened the front door.

"Ah, welcome home!" Mari, my stepmother, peeked out from the kitchen. stretched and curled up into a smile. I weakly smiled back. She smiled even more and dropped the fork she was washing.

"I'll help you with the dishes," I put my bag down and went to help the poor klutz. I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. The front door flew open, ten minutes later. A big, burly man walked through the door.

"Welcome home, Jihoon," Mari ran over and planted a big kiss on my father's cheek. He smiled.

"Where's our angel?" He looked around.

"Oh she's in the kitchen," my heart quickened.

"Honey-" His facial expression changed as he took in the sight of me.

"Hey, dad," I smiled. He scowled.

"Not this, the other one," he said as he walked back to Mari, not even turning back to return his own daughter's greeting. I felt like my heart was torn to shreds and shoved back in my face. He didn't even bother to acknowledge my existence and referred to me as 'it.' Mari looked at me with empathy...or was it pity?

"She's at cheerleading, honey. Beni made snacks, would you like some?" She offered the cookies I made in cooking class I had today. He growled and slapped the tray out of her hands. A small choked cry, escaped my lips. I looked down and picked up the dirtied cookies from the floor. Tears fell as I picked up each one.

"Oh my, I'm such a klutz," Mari bent down, as she pinned the blame on her.

"Leave it,"

"But-"

"I said leave it," She looked at me with apologetic eyes and followed my dad out of the room. The doorbell rang and I wiped my tears away.

"Yes?" I swung open the door. A middle-aged woman was standing there, her white hair in a bun. Her wrinkles creased as she curled her lips up into a smile at the sight of me.

"Beni!" I giggled as she enveloped me in a hug.

"And good afternoon to you too, Ms. Kim," I hugged back my next door neighbor who was also like my second mom. I've known her my whole life. When my dad changed for the worst, I would always take refuge in her house and poured my troubles as she lent me her ear. I stepped in the familiar kitchen of her house. Cookies of all sorts and tea decorated her table.

"I made your favourite," she gestured towards the triple chocolate cookies. I smiled as I took a cookie from the tray. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking. As the sun set, I helped her clean up.

"Beni, dear, come here," she gestured me back towards the table. I shot her a confused look. “My family has been nagging for me to go back to Korea lately," I looked down, I knew where this was going. "Haha, they don't think that I can take care of myself...funny thing is I've been taking care of myself for 70 years now," she laughed her hearty laugh.

"....go," A single choked word came out. She looked at me with sad eyes.

"Why can't I just stuff you in my suitcase and drag you away from all these madness?" She let out a small laugh as tears escaped her eyes.

"Haha, sounds great," I said. We looked at each other and cried. It must have been a funny sight to outsiders.

"When are you leaving?" I said in between cries.

"...tomorrow," I looked at her in shock.

"That soon?" She nodded.

"Don't worry, I met the family who was going to move in. They are nice people and they have a son around your age."

"It just won't be the same without you,"

"I know, honey," we hugged each other once more.

"What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"Don't come...please. This alone is already hard enough," she took out a peice of paper out of her pocket. "Here, if you ever need to talk to me...heck if you need to take a breather, come on over," I laughed between tears.

"I'll miss you," she tightened the hug and let go. I left without looking back. I felt a small empty-like feeling in my heart.

   Another one of my allies...gone.

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   I sighed as I put the tray down. Morning classes went by so slowly. I looked at my salad, famished.

"Hey," I looked up, half a leaf of lettuce sticking out of my mouth. Luhan chuckled.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he sat down across from me.

"...eating with a friend," I choked on another piece of lettuce.

"What?" I said, coughing. He shot a hurt glance at me.

"You don't want to be friends?"

"No, I honestly do want to become friends but...sticking with me would get you in rather...unpleasant situations."

"So?" I raised an eyebrow. Doesn't he get it?

"You'll become a target," as soon as I said the word 'target' an orange peel came flying out of nowhere and landed perfectly on top of Luhan's head. I made a muffled choked laugh. Luhan took the peel off his head and looked at it. His eyes widened like a lost puppy that had never ever seen an orange peel in his entire life. I bursted out laughing. He looked at me confused and then laughed along. What a sight I must have been.

"Stop laughing...pwahahaha," I told Luhan.

"No, you stop," Luhan clutched his stomach. Boy, his laughter sure was contagious. I held out a hand, calming myself down.

   I looked up and met Luhan's grin. Everything was quiet. I looked around, only to meet every single pair of eyes in the room. Everyone had dropped their forks, mouth hanging wide open. Oh...that's right. It's been years since the last time I laughed out loud. I looked at Luhan. He made me laugh over an orange peel...what a weird guy. We sat there chatting...but it was so quiet. Everyone was still looking at me like I'm an alien of sorts. I couldn't take the tension anymore and stuff everything in my mouth. I then dashed to the library, with Luhan scrambling after me.

"Where are we going?" He asked as soon he was beside me. I smiled.

"To my refuge, the library. Race you there?" I said, already running ahead of him.

"No fair, I don't know where it is," I stopped. That's right, he's new...but it felt like I already knew him for a long time. Oh dear lord, when did I become so cheesy? "Just kidding!" He said as he sprinted past me.

"You cheater!" I ran after him laughing. It's been a while since I had this much fun in school.

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"I'm home," I mumbled as I swung open the front door. No one answered back. Sweet, no one's home. I went to the kitchen and fixed some cupcakes for snacks. We're out of eggs already? I'll have to stop by the market later. I heard a truck pull up outside the house. I peeked outside. The new neighbors were moving in. I took some of the finished cupcakes and went to greet them. I walked up to a tall, beautiful woman.

"....Hi," she looked away from the movers and smiled.

"Oh hi, do you live next door?" I nodded.

"Yup, my name is Beni," I took her hand and shook it.

"Hi Beni, I'm Karin,"

"Here's some cupcakes I made," I held out the cupcakes.

"Oh my, that was very thoughtful of you. I was just thinking of stopping by the market for snacks." She smiled.

"Is there anything you want from the market? I was just about to go there," she clasped her hands together.

"Bring my son with you, so that I can force him to buy groceries next time," she chuckled.

"Hmmm...Speaking of my son, he's about your age, you might have already seen him," she turned towards the house. "HONEY!" She motioned for me to wait.

"Yes?"

 

 

--------------------Author's Note----------------

Yay Chapter 2 is finally up~

Too much homework lately D':

Please bear with me as I go through my gigantic piles of homework

lolwut