The torturesome behavior didn't end with James. 

He was trying to be a good friend to me. I knew it, and I could see it. But whenever Zico came around, he was rude, and mean. Or he just left. 

"AISH" I smashed my head on the library desk as Zico and i were spending lunch there with Rina. James wasn't joining us. 

"He'll come around." Rina said and patted my hand. Zico cast her a wondering glance, but she too wasn't too fond of him. I saw the look she cast him and I stood up to walk away. I had had enough of unsupportive people. Zico came after and stood in front of me once we had reached the hallway. 

"what's wrong." he said searching for my eyes. I was avoiding his glance. 

"Do you wanna just... stop this?" I said, looking up at him. His facial expression looked like that of someone who was crushed. 

"W-what?" He stuttered and grab my hands. "We haven't even been together for a week, and you want to just.. break up?" 

"I don't want to but... everybody. My two best friends don't approve, and I'm taking you away from your friends." He leaned down to kiss me to stop my talking. 

"Why would you want to end something for other people's benefit?" his stare cut a whole in my heart. 

"You're right, I'm just being stupid." I said and smiled. The bell rang and we walked towards P.E. After a long hour of running and sweating, I was about to go into the locker room with the rest of the girls, when the coach called me to help him carry the ball bags. I did my deed and rushed to the locker room for fear of being late. I started undressing the second I stepped in. No one was in there and I figured it would be faster. I regretted it. I walked to my locker and it had been broken into. My clothes were gone.

"Its okay, I'll just dress in my P.E clothes again." I looked down and those had disappeared too. What was I gonna do? I was already late and my clothes had disappear. I did the only thing I could. I grabbed my bag and tried to cover as much of my body as possible until I could reach the nurses office. When I stepped out of the locker room none other than Eunjung was there, holding my clothes. 

"Looking for these" She said smiling, while a crowd laughed and tried taking pictures. To my great relief, James stepped from withing the crowd in front of me. He wrapped me in his school blazer and took my uniform from their hands. 

"Be more careful next time." he whispered in my ear and pushed me into the locker room again. After school, Zico came to meet me. 

"Yah, I heard what happened." He mentioned as we were walking home. 

"Oh. " was all I said and I looked down. "How'd you hear?" He pulled out his cell phone and showed me a picture he had recieved of me holding my bag over my underclothed body.

"You should've done something" He said coldly. "Do you know how many people have seen this?" 

"Do something?" I said, sounding appalled. "I'm not you Zico. I can't do anything about it. It would be great if you were sensitive of it too." I said, walking a little faster and away. 

"Yah. I didn't mean it like that." He said, catching up to me. 

"I know." I sighed. "I'm just stressed." He hugged me from behind. I smiled. "Yah, we're close to home. Don't let my mom see." He smiled and let go.

"I'll see you tomorrow SunMi" He lightly kissed my cheek and walked off. 

The torment continued for the next few days. The next day in particular had left an impact on me. 

"Good morning" I said brightly when Zico and I met before school. He didn't turn his face towards me. "What's wrong." He didn't respond. I turned his head by force and I gasped. Someone had hit Zico so hard they had given him a black eye. 

I was horrorsticken. "..Who..Who did this?" I stuttered.

"I don't know." was all he said, lamely. 

"What do you mean you don't know? You have to." I said, preventing him to go inside the building. 

"I SAID I DON'T KNOW." He yelled at me and pushed me aside. Naturally, I'm clumsy, so I stumbled over my own two feet and fell on the floor. Zico must've heard the thud, because he rushed over to help me up. "I'm sorry" he kept whispering. "I just. I really don't know. All I remember was I was walking home after spending some time with Kyung. It was dark and someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me into an alley way. It was too dark to see who it was. They kept demanding I break up with you. I yelled at them no. I tried to fight my way out. So they just... hit me." 

"is that the only place they hit you?" I said, with a blank stare in my face. He shook his head. He dragged me to the side of the building where nobody was and lifted up his shirt. His chest was stained with purple and black bruises. I gasped. He turned around, and his back had not only bruises, but cuts. I was speechless. A tear fell from my eye. 

"That's not why I'm mad. I know who's doing this." he grabbed my shoulders. "And if she does anything to hurt you. If anyone does anything to hurt you... I'll kill them. Every single one of them." I pulled Zico into a tight hug. 

"I don't want you to get hurt anymore." I whispered. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me." Zico pulled away and dragged me past the gate. 

"Where are we going?" I demanded. 

"My house. You'll be safe there. With what they did to me yesterday, she'll eat you up today."

After walking in silence for a while, we finally arrived to the familiar house. The one from the night of the party. Except in the daylight and without hundreds of intoxicated kids on the lawn, it looked far nicer. He reached into a plant for the key, and we entered his home. Again, it looked much nicer.

"HYUNG!" He yelled. A boy who seemed a few years older than Zico came from downstairs.

"What're you doing home? Don't you have school?" He then looked at me. "oh." He muttered.

"It's not like that hyung." He said, giving his older brother a look. "We just.. need a place to lay low today. We'll be down here if you need us." he nodded and left back upstairs.

"Are you tired?" Zico's expression softened a bit when he turned to me.

"No." I said, looking distracted. He led me to their couch.

"Then what do you want to do?" he asked. I shrugged. I was suddenly feeling very lousy. His older brother didn't look surprised. How many times had he done this? And I doubt every time it was to "lay low" with someone. I looked up and he was staring at me. I looked at him, confused, but he was already half way up the stairs and he came back with that book he was writing in the day of the party.

" Ijen naege gidae gidae gidae" he whispered. He then looked up at me and smiled. "Beautiful ma love love love" he muttered again. Out of nowhere, before I was about to ask, he began to sing the words he had written in a beautiful melody. I smiled and scooted closer to him, so that my head was on his shoulder. His older brother came downstairs again. 

"I'll be back later, Zico. And miss ?" he said, looking at me. 

"SunMi, P-" 

"Woo SunMi." Zico interrupted me. I fought the urge to smile extremely brightly. He nodded and smiled at Zico. As if this was a first time thing for him. I wanted to hug Zico once the door was closed, but I remembered his bruises. 

"Yah, does it.. hurt?" I said, pointing at his chest. He nodded. "well, luckily I'm a very good nurse. Do you have a first aid kit?" He nodded. 

"In my room." I dropped my head slightly. I was suddenly very nervous. "We don't have to go up there if you don't want to, SunMi." I shook my head. 

"Your wounds need treating." I said that brightly, but I found myself holding my breath as we walked up the stairs. We finally arrived to his room, and he rummaged through his closet and found the tiny box. He handed it to me. "uh.. take off your shirt and go lay down." I said, in a small voice. he did as I ordered and I noticed how ....great his body was. 

"Nurse?" He questioned as I had been stationed there for a while. 

"A-ah. yes." I slowly walked to his bed, and said down beside him. "We should treat your back first." he nodded and turned around. I put some disinfectant on his cuts, and bandaged them up. "Okay. turn around." He did as I ordered. I slowly began to put soothing lotion on him bruises and he caught my hand. 

"SunMi." He whispered, piercing my heart with his eyes. 

"W-What?" He said nothing but began kissing me. He urged me onto the bed and rolled on top of me. It wasn't until he tried to take off my blazer that I noticed what was happening. 

"Zico." I whispered. He pulled away and looked at me. 

"You don't want to?" He said, with complete understanding in his voice. 

"Its not that, just, won't it hurt?" I said, looking at his bruises. 

"Pain can wait." He smiled and continued. 

"SunMi, wake up." Zico shook me awake. I woke up laying on his chest, with his arm around me. "It's time to walk you home." He kissed the top of my head and began dressing again, handing me my clothes at the same time. It was a short walk home, so there wasn't much time to talk. 

"I'm home" I said sheepishly when I entered home. 

"How was school today honey?" My mom smiled at me. I felt bad. She knew nothing. 

"Fine." I muttered. My stomach growled. 

"Are you hungry?" She said, laughing.

"Mm. I skipped lunch." She went to the kitchen and made me food. The whole time I was wondering if I should tell her. It ranged on until the evening too. After I had showered and was getting ready to go to sleep, I decided I would tell them. 

"Umma. Appa. I have something to say." I said, shyly. They both looked at me, but before I said anything, my phone rang. Before I even said hello, Rina's older brother, Junho began talking fast, and panicked. 

"SunMi. Come quick. It's Rina." He said. His voice was husky, almost as if he had been crying. 

"What about Rina?" I was scared now. 

"She's been... ." I dropped my phone and sprinted towards the door. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That day was the most bittersweet day of my memory. 

Expressing your love to someone for the first time, and then finding out your friend would be deprived of that right.. forever. 

If I had known that this pain would be caused for a few seconds of happiness, I would have never been selfish in the first place

18 cranes to go. 

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I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN"T BEEN UPDATING JDKJDLKAJDLKDJA 

....things came up. But everything's all good now, SO PLEASE DON'T HATE ME. 

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