Kasumi’s POV

I was walking to my class when I realized that I was blocked. I looked up and noticed that Seven Heaven was standing right in front of me.

Joy.

Seohyun smirked at me. “I bet you don’t get to see Woohyun Oppa as much now that I’m spending time with him, right?” she gloated.

I shrugged, not sure of what to say to him.

Jungah tittered. “I can’t believe he has a stupid girlfriend,” she scoffed. “He deserves so much better than this.” She gave me a scornful look and shook her head in disgust.

“She can’t even speak Korean properly.” Hara laughed unkindly.

I frowned. I’m so used to conversing with Halmeoni in Japanese that I know I have an accent when I speak. It’s not that I can’t speak Korean properly; it’s just that sometimes people often misunderstood my accent. But was that necessary to point it out and make it seem like I’m a blabbering idiot?

“I seriously think she is mute,” Eun Jong declared. “She hardly ever says anything.”

“Excuse me, but I think you should go before I bite.”

We all looked up and saw Zico standing next to us. He was glaring at them. They all yelped, remembering what he had threatened them before, and ran away.

Zico turned to me and sighed heavily.

“What did I do?” I asked, bewildered.

“Nothing, that’s the point,” he shot back.

I furrowed my eyebrows together. “I don’t want to create any trouble,” I reasoned. “The more you keep quiet, the more they are going to attack you because staying silent is like an open invitation for them to ridicule you.”

“I don’t know. I just think that it’s better if nothing is spoken,” I replied.

“I’m saying you should insult them back. I am saying for you to stand up to those es. Show them that they can’t insult you that easily,” he said exasperatedly.

I looked at him. “Why do you care, huh?”

“I hate bullies. You, of all people, should know that.”

Oh, right. His dad.

“I didn’t have a chance to stand up for myself to my dad but you still have that chance so take it,” he replied.

I bit my bottom lip as he walked me to my class as he continued to tell me why I should defend myself and what not. Finally we reached my class. Sung Jong was actually waiting for me. When he saw that I was with Zico, he gave me a look.

I shrugged at him and turned to Zico. “Thank you, for walking me to my class.”

Zico shrugged. “I had to make sure that no one else insults you. I also hope you actually learnt something from what I said.” He gave me a pointed look before he walked to his class.

“Why were you with him?” Sung Jong wanted to know once we were alone.

I shook my head as I walked into class. He followed me inside. “It’s got to do with work and tutoring and all those stuff,” I lied.

“Oh. Okay, then.” He was so gullible.

We went inside class and sat down on our tables as our teacher walked inside with a deep frown plastered on his face. He looked really troubled.

“Class, I have very sad news to tell you today,” he said. “You may have had noticed that Yoo Youngjae is not here with us today.”

I looked around the class and sure enough, the table where Youngjae, the class’s nerd, was empty. I wonder what happened to him.

“I’m sad to say that his parents died in a car accident last night. It was a tragic death and Youngjae is excused from school for a week to grief. I hope that when he comes back, you should be careful of how you act around him and to be sympathetic and show your support,” he went on.

“Where will he be living now?” a student asked the teacher.

“Possibly in an orphanage since none of his parents have any siblings,” our teacher replied gravely.

I felt terrible. He was very smart and his parents were known to be loving and very caring for their son. I knew how he felt, to suddenly not have any parents anymore. But I disagreed with the part where we should be sympathetic toward him. I mean, of course we should support him, but if we all show our sympathy, things can get really awkward.

The best way is to usually treat him the same. I wanted to say that but I didn’t really want to explain why and how I knew all this. Poor Yoo Youngjae.

“That’s terrible news, isn’t it?” Sung Jong murmured. He turned to me. “At least you have your grandmother, right, Kasumi?”

I grimaced when he turned back in front of to the teacher and put my best my poker face. If only he knew the truth . . .

The whole day I was thinking about what our teacher told us about Yoo Youngjae. During lunch, I was still thinking about it. I wonder how people would’ve reacted if I told them that I lived in an orphanage.

Woohyun kissed my forehead. “What’s making my girlfriend distracted today?” he asked after he noticed I was being distracted.

Sung Jong frowned and I knew that he was thinking the same thing. “Youngjae’s parents died last night,” he told them.

Everyone gasped. “Oh, wow, that’s terrible,” they all said.

“He’s possibly going to live in an orphanage now,” he went on.

“Oh, wow, that’s bad. A lot of people who wounded up in the orphanage come out really bad. Orphanages aren’t really good these days,” Woohyun spoke up, crinkling his nose with disdain and I felt my heart dropping.

“Like, a lot of them are either very dirty or the people in charge aren’t doing a very good job in making sure the kids are being taken cared off and everything,” Myungsoo agreed. “Most of the times the kids are rowdy and not disciplined.”

I opened my mouth to defend them.

“Man, it must to live with so many other children,” Hoya chimed in, nodding.

“Coming from an orphanage because they don’t have any biological relatives left or those who want them is sad,” Sungyeol mused thoughtfully.

Both Dongwoo and Sunggyu nodded.

“What do you think, Kasumi?” Sung Jong wanted to know.

All eyes turned to me and I smiled meekly, not knowing what to say. But I just shrugged, having no idea what I should say. I mean, I live in an orphanage. And they were saying all these kind of stuff about it.

As the others went on about why it’s so bad to live in an orphanage, I stayed silent, stirring my bowl of soup.

I kept my mouth shut.

The next day, I was at home. I stayed home because I didn’t really want to go to school. I was busy feeding Baby Mason when I heard the doorbell. I rushed to answer it.

Zico smiled. “Just because you weren’t in school today didn’t mean you could skip out on tutoring,” he said, coming inside the house. “Cute baby. What’s his nam