“We love you, never doubt that.” Hana looked up at her parents who looked at her with tears in their eyes. Hana was confused, why was her parents acting so strange. “Mom, Dad, what’s going on? You have been acting so strange lately.” Hana said also tearing up from seeing her parents crying. “We just want you to know that, for whatever happens in the future we have and always will love you.” Hana’s dad said her head.

That was the last words from her parents.

The next day when she was coming home from school, she noticed something was going on inside of her family’s house. She silently and slowly went into the house and saw the destruction of most furniture, evidence of a brutal fight had taken place. She got a shock when she heard screams from the backyard. She ran to the window and saw two men dressed in black suits pointing guns towards her parents, who were already beaten up badly. She couldn’t see the faces of the two men from the window, as they were standing with their backs towards her.

After a couple of seconds standing by the window, not knowing what to do as her mind had went blank, she got eye contact with her mother. As soon as she had eye contact with her mother she could see the horror spreading in the eyes of her mother. It didn’t take long before her father saw her too, and he too got horror stricken. She could tell that they wanted her to run, and run as fast as she could before the men would notice her, yet her body was stiff with fear. She couldn’t move. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she saw her parents get liquidated. She stepped back and wanted to run when she unfortunately made a sound and the men saw her. She had to run. She turned around fast and fled out the house, she could hear them behind her. Her tears were affecting her vision and it became difficult to see everything in detail.

How she wished that she were able to turn back time…

Hana was sitting on the plane by the window, staring outside the small window onto the clouds. There was still some time before they would get under the clouds, so that she would be able to see the country below. She could feel the stares of the three Japanese undercover detectives, who were travelling with her to South Korea, in order to assure her safety. As soon as she would arrive in Seoul she would meet up with a Korean detective. She sighed to herself, how she wished they would stop staring at her. She felt weird enough with the false wig she had to wear so people wouldn’t recognize her. After staring out the window for another ten minutes she was finally able to see more and more of the ground as the airplane was descending down under the clouds and towards the airport. 

As she came into the arrival area, surrounded by the Japanese undercover detectives, they where met by a tall handsome man, with a small sign in his hands saying ‘Welcome to Korea, Kang Ji Hyuk’. As they got over to the man the Japanese men bit their farewell and went off, leaving her with a man she didn’t know. The man looked at her showing no emotion making her unsure about how to react or if she was supposed to say something first. Suddenly the man chuckled to himself over her reaction and then bowed respectfully to her.

“Hello, my name is Kang Ji Hwan. I will from now on be your older brother.” She looked at him for a bit before returning the polite gesture of bowing. No more was said before Ji Hwan took her backpack and gestured for them to leave. She followed but felt too shy to say anything at all.

The whole trip home, to where Ji Hwan lived and what she now had to call home, was silent. She didn’t say anything because of her shyness and he didn’t say anything since he thought she might be tired after the flight, despite the relatively short journey from Japan.

When they stepped into the apartment Hana immediately looked around taking in all the things, what it looked like and what it smelled like. Even though he was a single man living in an apartment alone and had a time consuming job, the apartment was really clean and smelled nice. It reminded her of her childhood when she and her family had lived in Seoul, before her parents had to move to Tokyo due to their jobs. After she had turned to the police for help to hide from her parent’s murders, she had been informed that her parents actually was agents and that it might be the reason of the murder.

“This is from now on your home. Come with me, then I will show you your room.” Ji Hwan said kindly giving Hana a reassuring smile. She was grateful that he showed her sincere kindness and wasn’t all annoying with all different questions, like the detectives back in Japan had been. He seemed to understand her well enough to give her some space. It hadn’t even been a week since the murder, yet she had been so stressed all the time because of annoying questions she wasn’t even ready to answer. She was happy to finally get away from that for as long as it would last, and hoped she would be able to get at least a few hours’ sleep at night.

She followed him further into the apartment and went down a small hall to a room with a small sign saying ‘Kang Ji Hyuk’. She slowly opened the door and was welcomed into a stylish room with a king size bed, a small desk, a closet and a shelf where some school books were neatly put in order. She smirked to herself; Ji Hwan really was a neat freak. “Hope it is to your likeness.” Hana looked towards Ji Hwan and nodded with a small smile on her face. “Behind that door beside the dresser, there is your own bathroom. My bedroom is just across the hall.” He said before leaving to go to the kitchen and start cooking some dinner. Hana stood still for a moment before smiling to herself and walking over to sit on the soft bed.

Later that evening as Hana had made herself ready for bed, she went over to her bed and took a photo from under the pillow. It was a photo of her and her parents, they were all happy. She kissed the photo and said goodnight before lying down on the bed and turning off the light. She was trying hard to fall asleep, yet whenever she closed her eyes she would remember what had happened the day she saw her parents getting killed. She twisted and turned in bed, trying to get some sleep before she would start at a new school the coming day. She sat up and stretched out to take her mp3, which was in her bag beside her bed. She lied down again and some soothing classical music and closed her eyes. After a little while she finally fell asleep.

 The next morning Hana was woken by the sound of the alarm on her phone that was ringing an annoying tune, which would wake anybody up no matter how tired they where. She slowly opened her eyes and grabbed her phone to turn off the alarm. Slowly she got out of bed and went to the bathroom to get ready. She took a shower before taking on a chest binder and dressing in her new school uniform, taking on her wig and contact lenses. Normally she had long light brown hair and dark green eyes but with the wig and contact lenses she now had dark brown short hair and dark brown eyes. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, how she wished every thing would turn back to how it was before the murder case.

As Hana had packed her bag with the needed books and a pencil case she headed out of her room and noticed the third door that was next to her room.

“I wonder what’s behind that door.” Hana mumbled to herself. Ji Hwan chuckled, startling Hana who turned to look at him. “You know it isn’t very polite to just show up like that!” Hana said flustered still getting over the little shock she got. 

“Sorry.” Ji Hwan said smiling to Hana. “You where wondering what’s behind that door right?” Ji Hwan then said pointing to the door besides Hana’s room. Hana slowly nodded.

“It’s my daughters room.” Ji Hwan then said before returning to the kitchen. Hana followed him to the kitchen confused. “You have a daughter?” Hana then asked after contemplating whether to ask or not for a couple of minutes.

“Yes, I have a 4 year old daughter named Sarang. She’s currently on a two day trip with her kindergarten and will first be home later today.” Ji Hwan said as he finished up packing Hana’s lunchbox. Hana just nodded while she was being impressed with Ji Hwan’s cooking skills. She smirked to herself, not only was he being a neat freak, he also seemed like a housemother walking around cooking and cleaning.

“I’ll drive you to school since it’s your first day, then I’ll also be sure that you won’t get lost.” Ji Hwan said as he sipped to his coffee, while Hana was eating some toast for breakfast. “Thanks” Hana said looking at Ji Hwan smiling. Somehow Hana felt Ji Hwan already had become like an older brother to her despite only knowing him for less than a day. He seemed to be very easy-going and he didn’t make her feel so alone or unwanted.

As Ji Hwan parked the car outside the school, Hana looked around very interested. She could see all the students walking through the gate into the school ground. She got out of the car and she could feel in her stomach that she was beginning to get nervous. Ji Hwan noticed her nervousness and smiled.

“Don’t worry everything will go smoothly, Kang Ji Hyuk…” Ji Hwan said smiling to Hana. Hana looked at him and smiled. “Thanks.” She now had to get used to getting called Kang Ji Hyuk outside of her new home. She really hoped she could pull off acting as a guy.

Hana made her way through the gate to the school and was so busy looking at the building and the different things that she didn’t see the person in front of her had stopped walking, and she bumped right into him. She stumbled a bit after bumping into the guy in front of her, who seemed to be very well built. She hurriedly bowed down to apologize. “I’m so very sorry for bumping into you.” She said sincerely. She waited a bit, expecting an answer, yet none came. She slowly looked up and saw the guy she had bumped into just looking at her. He was very handsome and looked quite tough. He still said nothing, and suddenly just turned around and continued walking towards the school building where he joined up with 5 other guys. They all looked like some rowdy guys, yet they where all very handsome. Hana sighed to herself. What a way to start her first day. She began walking towards the school building again.

As she entered the school building two guys met her. A small fat guy, and a tall slender guy. The tall one looked rather annoying and full of himself. She slowly bowed though she didn’t really feel like it. “Hello, I’m Kang Ji Hyuk, the new student who will be joining class 3-D.” She said after bowing. The tall guy looked disgusted by the mention of 3-D. “Go down the hall to the right and you will be met by your new home room teacher by the stairs.” The small one said. “Oh, and if there will be any problems with you in the future you better expect punishment.” The tall guy said disgusted before leaving. Hana was left by the entrance, dumbfounded. She had never thought that there would be such a horrific person at the school. The tall guy seemed like he hated coming to the school and that he didn’t care about his students, or at least the ones in Hana’s new class.

She silently followed the instructions she had been given. By the stairs stood a woman dressed in a tacky jumpsuit. “Must be the homeroom teacher…” Hana mumbled to herself and sighed. The woman turned towards Hana when she saw her and smiled welcomingly.

“You must be Kang Ji Hyuk, the new transfer student, right?!” The woman said with a very happy and exciting voice, Hana just nodded. “I’ll be your new homeroom teacher. My name is Kim HaNeul. It’s a pleasure meeting you.” Hana didn’t say anything but just made a small bow to her new homeroom teacher. They walked together down the stairs and down a small hall filled with graffiti, unlike the rest of the school, which was rather clean and tidy. In the background she could hear a lot of noise. Hana looked at some of the things that were written in graffiti, a lot of it being rather rude things. They stopped in front of a white door with a sign over the door reading 3-D. This was it.

Hana was very nervous and had an urge to just turn around and run for it, but restrained herself to stay put and get through with it. She had no choice. “Wait here for a second.” HaNeul said to Hana before opening the door and going in. Immediately as HaNeul had entered the room, the noises from the room became a lot louder than before. Suddenly HaNeul opened the door and gestured for Hana to enter the classroom. “Act manly and normal” was all that went through the head of Hana as she slowly entered the classroom. She became more nervous as everyone in the class was staring at her as she entered.

“Everyone this is our new transfer student, Kang Ji Hyuk. You better behave and be nice to him.” HaNeul said happily, while most of the students didn’t even hear her words but just stared at Hana. Hana looked around the classroom and didn’t say anything. She then noticed that the guy she bumped into earlier was sitting in the far back of the room sleeping while his friends was sitting by the desks around him. She had heard rumours that this class was rather unruly and very rude. They would rather fight than study, yet she wasn’t prepared for the sight she was met with. The whole classroom was filled with flower boys.