Chapter 2

Seoul is nothing like Jinki had imagined it to be. He's extremely annoyed about the whole moving into the city thing. It feels totally different from the village. It's been one week since he has started living with his Uncle's family and God he hates it. The house is incredibly large and Jinki can't seem to figure out why Uncle Max had insisted on buying such a big house when there was only him and his wife living in it. 


He missed his beloved books. Uncle Max had forced him to leave them in their old house when they were moving out since they didn't have enough space in the van. Don't get him wrong, he loves his uncle and stuff, but if there's one thing about him that gets on Jinki's nerves is his stinginess. He's rich as hell, but he would try to save every single penny however he can, whatever way possible. Which is why he only brings one mid-sized van to collect their stuff. 

When Jinki asks if they'll have a second trip since most of his stuff are still not been moved, Max laughed saying “We have everything available there Jinki. No need to worry” But I want my own stuff, Jinki wants to say. 

“What about all my books then?” He asks instead, so that he don't sound like a whiny child. 

“It's not like we haven't got any libraries there Jinki. City is very faraway from here. You have any idea how much a litre of petrol cost nowadays? Now come on, help me out with this” He winks at him and Jinki grits his teeth. 

Uncle Max and Dad are not that similar, after all. 


Jinki's room looks as big as two of the rooms in his previous house combined together and he doesn't like it. He doesn't like it because he's not used to it. But when he sees how Eunsook is skipping around the house, astonished by all the new things she has discovered, he can't help but smile. 

“Homagod!! Oppa oppa, Aunt Yoona told me that she's going to get me a new phone! She said she'd let me choose. Which one shall I choose Oppa? Hmm... oh oh I know! I want a touch screen phone. I've never even touched one of those before” She decides, her fist hitting the palm of her hand. 

Jinki nods in agreement and says, “But Eunsookie, try to stop being too clingy to Aunt Yoona okay? Remember this is not our own house. Try to show some manners.” 

“But it is! Aunt Yoona said so. She said from now on me, you and Mum will be living here together with them happily ever after. And they love me anyway so what's the problem.” Eunsook says, her eyes looking all hopeful.

“You don't even pay enough attention to me and Mum any more. You're practically glued to them” Jinki pouts. 

There's a short pause before Eunsook starts speaking.

“That's not it Oppa. I...I tried my best to cheer Mum up. I really did.” A solitary drop of tear started rolling down her cheeks. “But whenever I talk to her, she ignores me completely. It's like....it's like she can't even sense my presence. That's why I'm trying to distract myself with other things.” 


Jinki feels guilty. Jinki's mother has refused to come out of the room since day 1 of their arrival. She sits in the dark, staring at one spot, occasionally getting up to drink some water or to take a shower. He knows how terrible Eunsook must be feeling so he touches her head and pats it softly. “Eunsookie, she just needs some time to get herself together kay? Then she'll come running to you so don't worry about it too much.” 

Eunsook wipes her tear streaked face and nods. 

“Now give me a smile” And she does. Jinki loved her smile . Mum used to say that he and Eunsook had their Dad's exact smile. Eusook's smile is like a rainbow, Jinki thinks as he automatically smiles back at her.


“Eunsook honeyyyy!!” Comes Yoona's voice. “Where have you been sweet heart? You had me worrying there. Come, let's go shopping. Oh and Jinki you're coming with us and I won't take no as an answer because it wasn't a question in the first place. I'll get you whatever you want” 

Jinki isn't going to protest because he's thankful to them for what they're doing. Yoona grabs his wrist , dragging him out of the room, asking him what he wants and Jinki wonders if he would ever be able to repay their kindness. 


When they are walking to the market, Jinki's shocked by the number of cars and other vehicles screeching through the road. 

“Do they realise that they're polluting the environment by this?” Jinki frowns. 

Yoona smiles at him and pinches one of his cheek. “Even if they do, I don't think that'll stop them from driving their cars sweetie. Now lets get you some chicken” 

Jinki embarrassed by this, looks around to see if anyone saw the whole scene. “Aunt, what're you doing? Stop embarrassing me” Jinki whispers, still sounding annoyed.

Yoona has been babying him and Eunsook from the moment he started living with them and he just wants it to stop. He's nearly seventeen dammit! 


Yoona, on the other hand brings her fingers to both of his cheeks and pinches quite harshly and Jinki shrieks, his cheeks turning bright red instantly because of the action.

“Dawww” Yoona coos. 

Jinki doesn't have to look around this time to find out if people were watching them because he can practically feel the stares pierce though his body. Eunsook is giggling like a piggy, a hand on her stomach rubbing it cutely. Jinki glares at his Aunt. She isn't affected at all by this as she simply replies, “What? It's cute”, and continues to walk as if she hasn't just embarrassed Jinki in front of a whole bunch of people, with a gleeful Eunsook trailing behind her.


Jinki feels stupid. He don't know what the heck he's been thinking when he decided to help these two with the shopping. Not like he was given a choice in the first place. Uncle Max and Aunt Yoona makes a perfect couple, he thinks. 

While he is struggling to deicide if he should follow them or not, he hears Yoona calling out, before entering a chicken shop. “Jinki daaaaaahlin, don't you want your chicken? Come and get it quickly before it goes inside Aunt's mouth.” 

He grunts in annoyance. People were probably thinking that he's some kind of mentally undeveloped kid by the way Yoona is treating him. He doesn't waste a second before running towards the shop. He didn't want to face more embarrassment so he's simply going to agree with whatever his Aunt says because right now, he just want to make it to home. 


By the time he reaches in front of the shop though, his stomach starts rumbling. The smell of chicken is tickling the tip of his nose and his mouth waters. He fumbles with the door hurriedly and successfully embarrasses himself one more time when he repeatedly pushes the door which clearly had the word pull written on it in large, bold letters. After earning some more strange looks from people and seeing how Yoona and Eunsook bursts out laughing, he secretly wishes he was a mole so that he could dig a hole right then and there and hide under the ground.

                                                                           **********************

Days passed and Mum's beginning to act like herself again. Jinki, though, is dying out of boredom. Max had forced Jinki to apply to the most prestigious school in Seoul. SM Academy for Gifted and Talented, or something like that. He doesn't understand why his uncle thought it was a good idea to let him apply to an elite school, and wait until their phone call comes when there were lots of other schools he could have got into easily by this time. 

“You don't need to apply to any other schools Jinki. You deserve the best. I'm sure they'll contact you by next week.” is what Max says when Jinki asks why he can't apply to any other schools in the mean time while he waits for their response. 

Jinki really do appreciate that his uncle has full faith in him but time's running out. He's almost missed half of this semester already and he can't afford to miss any more. He's going to have a lot to catch up, Jinki sighs. 


“Jinki, you'll make me proud right?” Jinki's Dad had been asking him this question ever since he was little, to which he always replies instantly “Yes Dad. I will” and his Dad would smile. 

Since then he's been working hard, achieving straight A's in every subject, so that he don't disappoint his Dad. However he, who was too busy studying all the time, forgets about the things other kids in his age would be interested in doing. Like making friends, playing games, watching SpongeBob. Eventually, he started to love studying, to the point that he declared it as his best friend. 


At that time, if someone asked little Jinki to name his friends, his reply would probably have been something like “My closest friend is Science b'cause he's so cool. He even knows magic! He taught me how to turn water into ice today at school. Maths is fun too. But no one in my class likes him and I don't know why. English is from a different country but that's okay, I know what he's try to say most of the time.” He used to be weird kid. 


As he entered his teenage years though, things changed. He was as socially awkward as ever but he began to realise that there are also other stuff he still has to learn about. Stuff that are beyond Science, Maths and English. Stuff like responsibility, care, love. The first two, he's familiar with since he was the one who looked after his family when Dad was desperately looking for a job. But he just can't seem to find the third one anywhere in his dictionary. 


He is sitting in the living room, thinking about all these things, hand under the chin, elbow on the side of the couch when suddenly the phone that was right next to his ears, starts ringing. He jumps and falls off the couch, his hitting the floor hard. He quickly recovers and hurries to get the phone. He stills for a moment. Why is his tongue feeling numb all of a sudden? Then he tastes copper in his mouth. Oh. He's bitten his tongue. Things like this happens on a daily basis so he's not really surprised. So he ignores the numbness and picks up the phone. 

“Haaoo” He tries to speak. Argh, it hurts. 

“Hello? Could I speak to Mr. Jinki Lee?” It a woman, probably middle aged. He pokes his tongue out.

“iths ee junki sthpeekin” God, he's bleeding badly.

“I beg your pardon?” 

Great. Now the woman thinks that he's abnormal. He takes a deep sigh and swallows all the blood in one go. Ew. The taste wasn't pleasant but he definitely don't want to sound stupid through the phone, especially when they are asking for him. He clears his throat. 

“Sorry about that. This is Lee Jinki speaking” His tongue hurts like hell so he sticks it out again. He feels like blowing on it.

“Oh okay. I'm calling from SM Academy for Gifted and Talented. I just wanted to let you know that you've been accepted to our Academy as you've been getting A's in every subject in all your semester exams last year, topping all the other students in the school and also getting a great reference from the teachers from your previous school. As you may already know that we'll be providing you with accommodation and food so you may as well want to start packing your bag. All the other information regarding when you'll be starting and what house you'll be in would be sent to you as a letter shortly.” She lets out a deep breath that she's been holding. “ Pheww erm..Any questions or queries?” 

What. The. . 

Jinki's tongue is still out of his mouth and he isn't quite sure if this is all reality or not. He wants to know why they haven't asked to interview him and put him on the waiting list. Isn't that what they normally should do?

“noadonth” Oh, his tongue. “I mean no, I don't have any questions or queries. Thank you.” 

“Well then congratulations and good luck. Hope you enjoy your time here. Buh-byee” He hears a click.

He should be feeling happy. But he's not. He don't want to leave his mother or sister. That's one of his reasons. There's also the fact he's going to have to meet people and he's terrible at that. 

He then thinks about what his Dad would have said if he was alive. “Go and make me proud son.” Probably something like that. 

So he'll be studying in a private school with people around his age and even worse, living with them, for a whole year. There will be all kinds of them. He wonders how he's going to survive through this. He's sure that it would be nothing like his previous school. 

And now that he think about it, what was that woman saying about houses and stuff? Would it be like Hogwarts? He sighs. He don't want to think about this right now. Let's just wait for the letter to come, he decides. 

He leaves the room to let everyone else know about the news. Aunt Yoona humming some random song loudly in the kitchen can be heard. 

They'll be happy, he smiles. 




A/N: I know that this chapter is sort of lame. I honestly thought I could make Jjong appear in this chapter but I couldn't, I'm sorry. It's because I really wanted to get into Jinki's character, if you know what I mean. But the others will be coming soon so doworry. Just wait till Jinki enters the Academy. ;)
And please be kind enough to leave a comment or else I wouldn't know if people are actually interested in my fan fiction. Plus I'm new to writing so I obvs need some encouragement from you guys :P 
And I was thinking may be I should make like a character guide or something. :/