The sun shining from the window woke me up – a little earlier than what I expected, but I haven’t been able to sleep that peacefully in a while. I turned to the side to find that Kikwang already woke up and left the room.

“Ugh...Who wakes up that early...” I groaned, rolling over on the floor. I took the alarm the clock from the drawer above me and sighed, “6:00am?! You must be joking...”

“Hyosung, are you—Oh, sorry dear, I thought you were already out of bed,” Mrs. Lee said, poking her head through the door. “Are you alright? Did you fall off the bed?”

“No, I’m fine,” I replied.

“Then why are you on the floor?” she asked, raising her brow. “Did Kikwang make you sleep on that floor? That boy...”

“No, no, no, we both slept on the floor,” I assured her.

“But there’s a bed right there,” she replied.

“Yeah...it was um...an odd decision,” I chuckled, scratching the back of my head.

“Well, whatever makes you comfortable,” she smiled. “Anyways, when you’re done freshening up, you can come to the kitchen for some breakfast.”

She gave me one last smile and left the room. To be honest, I felt more at home at Kikwang’s house rather my own. It’s like this heavy burden and all of the pressures to be someone my mom would approve of were all gone.

“I wish I could just live here,” I sighed. I closed my eyes again and leaned back, but accidentally hit my head against the drawer. “AGH!”

“Hyosung-ah, did you hurt yourself again?” Kikwang called, I was assuming from the bathroom.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied, rubbing the back of my head. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

I opened my eyes again to find Kikwang standing in front of me with a towel wrapped around his waist. I could feel my cheeks burning up, so I pulled the blanket over half of my face and averted my gaze.

“Are you okay? Did you hit your face or something?” he asked, walking towards me.

“Don’t go near me!” I replied. “Just...stay right there.”

“Why, do I smell?” he frowned. “I just took a shower.”

“I can see that...” I murmured.

“Let me see it,” he sighed.

“Nope.”

“Hyosung, remove the blanket,” he demanded.

“Go put some clothes on first,” I replied.

“Aw, I see what this is,” he smirked. “You’re blushing underneath that blanket, aren’t you?”

“No!”

“Then remove it,” he chuckled. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

Before I even had a chance to hide under the blanket, Kikwang pounced over and pulled the blanket away from my hands.

“Aw, that’s cute,” he chuckled. “You look like a tomato.”

“Shut up, you were like this yesterday,” I pouted. “I’m going to the bathroom – Don’t follow me.”

“Are you always this cranky in the morning?” he asked, hugging me from behind.

“Ew, you’re still wet!” I shrieked.

“Kids, is everything alright?” Mrs. Lee said, walking in the room. “Oh...um...sorry for interrupting.”

I coughed awkwardly and squirmed out of Kikwang’s grasp. “Sorry...”

“It’s alright,” Mrs. Lee said. “Just hurry before your breakfast gets cold.” She left the room again, leaving Kikwang and I by ourselves.

“Great, now you’re mom thinks I’m a ,” I sighed.

“No, don’t worry,” Kikwang smiled. “She’s actually happy that I finally have a girlfriend.”

“That’s how my mom would have reacted before she made that deal with Joon’s parents,” I grunted.

“I thought you would be able to keep your mind off of that for at least a day,” he sighed.

“I can’t just forget about reality, Kikwang,” I frowned. “What am I going to do about this?”

“Can we at least have some breakfast? I’m starving,” he chuckled.

“Are you going to change first?” I asked.

“Hm, I don’t know. I kind of like letting it all hang loose,” he smirked.

“You’re so gross,” I scoffed, shoving him aside. I ran inside the bathroom and locked the door before he had the chance to follow me inside. After splashing my face with water a couple of times, I brushed my teeth and headed to the kitchen, where Kikwang was already sitting – fully clothed, thank goodness – with a plate of eggs and toast in front of him.

“Good morning, Hyosung,” Mr. Lee greeted.

“Good morning,” I said, letting out a long yawn. “Mrs. Lee, I’m so sorry about what happened earlier.”

“Don’t worry about it, dear,” she said with a bright smile. “I’m just glad to see that Kikwang is going back to his happy and playful side. Sometimes I wonder if all of the work he is doing every day is stripping him of his cheerful personality, but seeing him smile around you has made me re-think that.”

“Oh, I’m really happy to hear that,” I chirped, taking a seat at the table.

“So Hyosung, tell us about your family. What’s it like at your house?” Mr. Lee asked before sliding a spoonful or scrambled eggs in his mouth.

“Um...Things are kind of tense right now,” I mumbled. “I’m kind of stuck in the middle of a big situation with my family and Joon’s family.”

“Ah, I see...” Mr. Lee nodded. “Yes, we ran into some problems with Joon’s family at one point too.”

“You did?” I asked, suddenly interested in where this conversation was heading. I stuffed a slice of toast in my mouth and waited eagerly for his reply.

“Well, with us being at a lower social status than Joon’s family, Joon’s parents grew suspicious of Kikwang and assumed-”

“He was using Joon for money,” I muttered. “Oops, sorry for interrupting.”

“It’s fine,” he smiled. “Anyways, you’re right. They even tried paying us to keep Kikwang away from Joon because they thought we were only after the money in the first place. Of course, we didn’t accept the offer because we cared about Kikwang’s happiness more than anything. He even insisted that he would work even harder to help with the bills if it meant that he could keep one of his closest friends. As frustrated as he can get with Joon’s carefree personality and different views on life, one can’t deny how much Kikwang cares about his friendship Joon.”

“You never told me that,” I whispered to Kikwang. “You seemed to get easily angered with Joon.”

“It’s true, he does get easily upset, but Kikwang always ends up forgiving Joon for whatever he did, or even blames himself for the whole thing,” Mrs. Lee explained.

“Wow, I never knew that,” I smiled. “So, how do Joon’s parents feel about all of this now?”

“Well, we never really talk to them so it’s hard to say,” Mr. Lee said. “So, what’s the situation with your family?”

“She’s being forced into a marriage with Joon,” Kikwang grumbled. I quickly nudged his arm and glared at him. “What? It’s true.”

“It’s not exactly marriage,” I replied. “Joon’s parents paid my parents to set me up with Joon. It’s like I’m being used in order to break him and his girlfriend up. My parents didn’t really care about my opinion on it, so that’s why I came here – to run away from it all. I was getting tired of all the stress I was dealing with.”

“I’m so sorry, Hyosung,” Mrs. Lee frowned. “No one should be forced to do things like that.”

“Mrs. Lee, how do you do it? How do you manage to still stay content even in harsh times?” I asked.

“Well it’s not easy, believe me,” she replied. “But when you live most of your life like this, you have to learn to accept things and just move on. I’m pretty sure Kikwang has told you something along those lines.”

“Yeah, he has,” I nodded. “I guess I just finder easier to listen to rather than actually do.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Mr. Lee asked.

“Can Hyosung live with us?” Kikwang blurted out.

“Kikwang!” I hissed.

“Oh...well...how do you feel about that, Hyosung?” Mrs. Lee asked.

“Look, I don’t want to make things troubling for you,” I replied. “It’s true, I planned on running away, but I don’t want to live here – I mean, it’s already crowded enough for the three of you, I really don’t want to intrude or anything.”

“Hyosung, we understand the situation you’re in,” Mrs. Lee said. “You’re always welcome here, and if you feel this is the best way to deal with things, we’re okay with it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well I’m sure that Kikwang would love seeing you more often,” Mr. Lee chuckled.

“But you’ll need to pitch in a little bit if you’re going to stay here. Do you have a job?” Mrs. Lee asked. I kind of knew things were too good to be true, but after everything that has been going on, being forced to get a job was the least of my worries.

“No, not yet,” I mumbled. “But I can get one.”

“We’re not rushing you, but it would be great if you got a job,” Mrs. Lee replied.

“I’ll start looking for one as soon as I bring some of my other clothes and stuff here,” I replied. “Wait...How am I going to do that, Kikwang?”

“Oh...I didn’t really think this through,” he sighed. “We’re going to have to sneak you in somehow.”

“Ugh, seriously,” I frowned. “I feel like a criminal.”

“Is there any time where your parents are not home?” Mrs. Lee asked.

“Yeah, they should be leaving for work in about an hour,” I replied.

“Well then, you better hurry and dress up if you want to get there in time,” Mr. Lee said.

“You know something’s weird when your parents start helping you with spy missions,” Kikwang chuckled. “Come on, let’s get ready.”

I followed Kikwang back to the room to start preparing for what now seemed like a special government operation. After changing out of my sleepwear, we headed outside and started walking through the ghetto area.

“So, how are we supposed to carry all of this stuff?” Kikwang asked.

“I’ll just have to call my husband,” I chuckled.

“Yah, are you really going to tease me at a time like this?” he snapped. I smiled cheekily at him as I took out my phone.

Waiting for Joon to pick up was agonizing. I couldn’t waste any time with this – I was already in over my head, and screwing up this plan wasn’t going to make things any better.

“Hello?”

“Joon, I need your help.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah, so guess what? Today was boring T_T Anyways, I haven't decided yet whether to include or not, so I made a poll for it. The votes won't decide it, but they might help influence my decision.. it's just that I'm not that comfortable writing xD

Thanks for all the support~!

- Liana