Zico’s POV

“Sunbae?” I heard a girl saying behind me.

I stopped talking and turned to see Kasumi standing behind me. “Oh, hey, what’s up?” I asked, a little confused of why she was here. I looked at her properly and saw that she looked a little nervous.

“Um, can I talk to you? In private?” she added hesitantly, glancing back and forth between me and my friends.

U-Kwon automatically pushed me over to her, causing me to stagger forward a bit. “Sure, he’ll talk to you,” he eagerly said, nodding vigorously.

Bewildered, I just nodded stupidly and led her away from my friends as they hysterically howled like hyenas. Well, everyone except Kyung and Jaehyo, that is.

“Sorry about my friends,” I apologized on their behalf. “They can be a little . . .” I used my index finger to point to my head and made mini circles.

She nodded, giving them a fleeting look.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

“Um.” Kasumi shifted her gaze back to me. She looked down and scuffled her feet.

I was getting uneasy. I didn’t know why.

“I just want you to know that I don’t blame you for what your dad did.”

I wasn’t sure if I had heard her correctly. “What?”

She nodded. “It was your dad, not you, who killed my mom. And I remember the look on your face that day. You looked shocked, like you had no idea that your dad was a killer,” she went on. She looked down nervously. “And I hope that you’d still want to be my tutor after all of this.” She chewed on her bottom lip.

I closed my eyes and took a breather. Am I imagining this? I opened my eyes, thinking that Kasumi wasn’t there, but there she was. I pinched myself. It hurt. Okay, I was definitely not dreaming this.

I smiled at her. “Sure, I’d like that.” Kasumi gave me a small, tentative smile. “So I guess that tutoring resumes today?” I asked her. “I mean, it is Tuesday.”

She nodded. “I’ll wait for you by the school gates,” she said. “And . . . thanks, for taking me back as a tutor.”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I’m just very relieved that you don’t hate me.”

“I don’t, sunbae-nim.” She walked away, back to class.

I walked back to my idiotic friends, who were all grinning from ear-to-ear when they saw I was coming back.

“So, Jiho-yah, what did Little-Miss-Shy wanted to talk to you about?” U-Kwon wanted to know with that silly smirk on his face.

“Not you,” I shot back.

“Oooh, so much burn,” everyone chorused together in perfect unison. They cracked up, but U-Kwon remained totally unfazed.

“But, seriously, what did she want to talk to you about?” Kyung asked me curiously. “Did she ask if you could be her tutor again?”

I nodded and they all burst into laughter. I watched, amused, as Taeil, B-Bomb and P.O took their wallets out before paying two thousand won each over to Jaehyo, Kyung and U-Kwon. I just shook my head. “Why am I not surprised?” I said sarcastically.

Kyung smirked as he put the money inside his own wallet before slipping it back inside his own pocket. “We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t bet among ourselves,” he pointed out and everyone agreed with him.

I made a face. “Let’s just get to class,” I said.

After school, Kasumi was where she promised she would be. I smiled brightly at her when we walked off from the school building to her house. She had her dog Botan following her again. She smiled shyly and looked down most of the time.

Was she really that shy?

“So, tell me about the orphanage,” I spoke up.

I was trying to ease the tension as well as the major awkwardness between us.

She glanced over at me and thought about my question for a bit. “Well, Oppas are really protective of me, so are the unnies. They usually defend me whenever the other idiots make fun of me or whatever. Some of them are okay and tolerable. Some, I like. Then the younger ones, like Yoogeun, are actually a bit hard to handle because they’re really small and they don’t really understand why they don’t have parents like the rest of the kids in their schools do.”

“What about the older?”

“Well, they’re mostly bitter because they’ve either been abandoned at an age where they’re starting to grow up, or the ones abandoned at young age are starting to realize that their parents don’t want them anymore.”

I winced. “That’s a bit harsh.”

“It is. Some of them just refused to interact with us. They’re usually the troubled kids that got abandoned but not all of them are like that. Some actually are mature enough to accept the fact that they don’t really have a biological family. So we pretty much stick together, until we’re all like one big happy family.”

“How does one end up there?”

“Well, like I said earlier, we’re either abandoned by our parents — it doesn’t really matter what age — or our parents are dead, like me.” Kasumi had a sad look in her eyes. “It’s really sad. Each of us has our own story to tell and each isn’t any better than the last.”

“Who runs the place?”

“It’s run by this lady we all call Halmeoni. She’s really nice and also really laid-back. She’s more in charge of the treatment schedules, like the psychology schedules for those who really needs it. But other than that, the older ones like Kris or Taeyeon are usually in charge, making sure everything’s organized and in place. But we all take turns.” She laughed. “We’re kinda like that show, Cheaper By A Dozen, only bigger and wackier.”

“How on earth does your ‘grandma’ manage to find funds for all of you?”

I was throwing a lot of questions, but I was really curious.

“Well, that’s another sad part. Even though the government funds our needs, it doesn’t fund for all that we need, and since we have so many of us, some worked really hard to earn a good scholarship, then they would get a good education and a good job to help pay. Some of us, however, actually drop out of high school to find work,” she explained. She looked at me. “Amber unnie dropped out of school last year, right? That wasn’t because she was joining a gang. She actually works. But she didn’t bother correcting the rumors because we actually don’t want people to look down on us.”

I choked on my own saliva. “Amber is an orphan?” I spat out in utter disbelief. We had reached her house.

She nodded. “Don’t tell her you know or she’ll kill me,” she replied. She opened the door and we were greeted by hyper kids rushing out. “Be careful where you walk; you’ll never know if you accidentally step on the kids.”

I gaped at her but followed her in just as one tall dude — I think his name was Kris if I remembered correctly from my last visit here — came up to us and seized me up. “What is he doing here?” he hissed.

Kasumi just rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Leeteuk Oppa said he could be here to tutor me, don’t you remember?” she replied casually.

“Do it in the kitchen.”

Just then a bunch of kids zoomed by into the kitchen, giggling really loudly before we heard a guy saying, “I baked cookies!”

Kasumi raised an eyebrow at Kris. “I guess Kyungsoo Oppa finished baking. You know those rugrats won’t leave the kitchen now.”

“In the living room then,” he changed his mind.

“Chanyeol Oppa and Jonghyun Oppa are fighting over who gets the remote.” She smiled dryly at him. “I guess the only place left with some peace and quietness will be my room.” She pointed up the stairs.

“Don’t lock the door!” Suho called as he walked down the stairs, passing Kasumi and I by.

I honestly felt nervous as I climbed up the stairs to her room. I had never been to a girl’s room before. Kasumi led me up the stairs to the first floor . . . no, up the stairs to the second floor. I followed her down the hall where I noticed that on each door was a plaque to state whose room was whose. I noticed that this floor was mainly the girls’ floor.

Finally we stopped at the second last door on the right. It was sky blue in color and on the plaque, it read SUMI.

Once