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"Minjee."

"Minjee..."

"God darn it, Kang Minjee, get your off the bed!"

"What? I'm up! I'm up!" Minjee cried in astonishment as the booming voice echoed through her room. Her eyes were forced to open wide and see her "dear" brother standing on the end of her bed, arms crossed and his brows scowled. "What is it early in the morning, oppa? You ruined my dream."

"I believe ten in the morning is not early, young lassie." Haewon sighed as he pointed at Minjee's wall clock. "If I were you, I'd get off the bed and shower."

"Fine, fine. You're not mom, okay? Stop acting like one." Minjee sighed and playfully threw a pillow at her older brother before darting off her room, sending Haewon furious and chasing her out. Like toddlers, early in the morning, the step siblings played happily, throwing pillows at each other and playfully hitting each other. Oh, how they missed childhood where they had nothing to worry but what game to play and whom to meet in another wonderous day!

Now? Ugh, almost everything around you is a problem. Stress is quite typical. For Minjee, it's a part of her too normal and uninteresting life. Stress here and there, yup, she had learned to accept them already. She knew that she can't escape such horrible part of life. It's not always ups but also downs.

"Oppa!" Minjee cried out as Haewon threw a last pillow at her. "Stop it! No more." she laughed and threw her last pillow straight to her brother's face. She then headed to the kitchen were a attracting aroma attracted her sense of smell, and her eyes quickly saw the mouth watering breakfast her brother prepared. She hurried and sat down, noticing she only had her plate set on the table. Must've ate before me. She thought and began eating. Haewon, meanwhile, hurried to his room and dressed up.

A couple of minutes passed and Haewon came out neatly dressed, his hair fixed and a suitcase on his hand. "Minjee, I'm off to work." Haewon said as he fixed his tie. Minjee simply looked how her brother helplessly tried fixing his tie, and finally, driven by pity, she decided to take a move and help her clumsy, awfully cute older brother with his tie. "You should learn this sooner, oppa. Once I get a family, I won't be by your side to fix your darn tie anymore!" Minjee sighed with a smile.

"I bet my wife will tend me." Haewon laughed.

"Like you'd get one!" With that, Minjee got a soft nudge from her brother before pulling her for a tight hug. With that, he bid farewell and promised to be home early for Minjee. The young lady had no work schedules today and luckily, it's just her and her alone for the day. She sat boringly on the couch and grabbed hold of the remote, switching on the LCD T.V in front of her. She watched some dramas and shows that she would watch for the sake of killing time.

How ordinary. Minjee thought as she sighed by the sights of the typcial scenes acted out by the actors and actresses. Yes, they were physically attractive but for Minjee's perspective, the plots and storylines were always the same. Main casts get in love, they get break ups or complications and then, they fall in love with another person, but end up with the original ones in the end. Then, someone dies due to love reasons and everything. It always goes on and the drama was way to acted out. Too typical. Same ol' same.

Well, at least their love lives were perfect. They have a great man who loves them back. Their lives are always interesting and perfect, and oh, how Minjee envied them.

Despite the conflicts, they solve it within a short period of time. She was not convinced by the reality of such acting, but she found it amusing. It was like any fairytale a young girl dreams of!

Like those once dreams she had when she was little... before they were crushed down.

"Boring, boring day." Minjee yawned as she walked around the house. She found some things to do with some colorful papers and some scissors.

Origami.

She and her step mom used to do them together when she was sixteen or seventeen. Sometimes, her Haewon-oppa would join in and make some creative paper arts with them. They used to make some paper cranes all day and gift them to their beloved mother. Once, they even did a hundred and placed them inside a shoe box and gave it to their mom as a memorable birthday gift. Oh, how can she clearly recall how their mother shed a lot of tears.

I should mail mom a few of those paper cranes again. Minjee smiled and grabbed a few colored papers. She sat quietly on the couch with the music channel on and began to fold several parts of the paper. She folded this and that and finally, in such a short period of time, made one paper crane successfully. She smiled on how petite the little origami looked like and carefully on the glass table. She grabbed another paper and began folding with the same pattern yet again.

Soon, unexpectedly, she heard a knock on the door. She tilted her head and hurried to the door and carefully turned the doorknob. A silver haired guy greeted her, a smile carved on his face. "Good morning!" Sehun greeted, waving at Minjee happily. "Sehun? What are you here for?" Minjee asked in confusion. "And most of all, alone?"

"He's not alone, he's being accompanied by the most trustworthy persons here!" Kai said, popping out of no where as he showed a sunny smile at Minjee.

"Kai? Wait- what do you mean persons? You're just one." Minjee asked.

"What-? Oh-! Hey, come out of there already and quit being shy already!" Kai cried as he pulled Tao over him. A shy smile bloomed out of his face as he shyly waved at Minjee. "H-hi." Tao nervously greeted.

"Hey." Minjee happily answered. "Again, why are you here?"

"We were bored at home. Our hyungs kept scolding and nagging at us!" Sehun whined as he showed a pitiful face at Minjee. "We thought we could spend some time here with our favorite noona!"

"Idiot, she's our only noona." Kai laughed as he imitated Sehun's infamous expression of rolling his eyes.

"Quit it, you two." Tao sighed. "It seems like we bothered you, eh?" he questioned, looking straight at Minjee's eyes. Minjee shook her head and opened the door more for the three. "Not exactly, I'm pretty bored here too. Glad you dropped by!" she giggled. "Come in! There's no one at home but me."

"What about your older brother?" Kai asked.

"He's off to work. He wouldn't be home by nine I guess."

"Good! He creeps the living lights out of me!" Sehun cried as he happily entered the house and quickly spotting a few folded paper on the center table. "Noona, what're these?"

"Some products of boredom." Minjee chuckled softly. "Those are origamis, haven't you seen them before?" she questioned, just to be answered by Sehun shaking his head shyly. It sent a small laugh escaping Minjee's lips as she sat beside the silver-headed boy and patted his shoulder. "Want noona to teach you how to make these?"

"Would you?"

"Of course!"

"Hey, hey, can you teach me too?" Kai asked as he clung onto Sehun.

"Why on earth not? Come and sit here and grab any color of your desire. Follow my ways, got it? So you won't get lost within the process." Minjee sweetly smiled as she grabbed a pink colored paper. The three began folding their own papers while Tao simply watched, eyes glued on Minjee's smile and her lips moving as she uttered words. He smiled on how cute she looked, and his heart began beating fast. He secretly grabbed a paper earlier and from a far, he followed Minjee's steps.

"And that's how you make cranes!" Minjee said, proudly showing a cute paper crane on her hands. On Sehun's hand was a light blue colored paper crane and on Kai's hand was a navy-blue colored crane. They were kind of wrinkled, but as what she said, practice makes perfect. "You guys learn fast!" Minjee smiled.

"We're making more!" Sehun announced and this time, grabbed an olive-green colored paper and began folding. Kai, meanwhile, was busy admiring his first origami before grabbing a white paper and folding them in a particular. Minjee walked to the kitchen and had her eyes popping out when she saw some stored food had gone missing. That bastard Haewon. she sighed as she clenched and teeth and headed to the door. "Hey, I'm off to buy some stuff, stay here, okay?" she said as she faced the three.

"Oh, let me accompany you." Tao said and stood up the moment her heard Minjee was going off. "I can't let you go out alone."

"It's daylight, nothing can possibly be out there that's dangerous." the female snickered.

"I might agree with Tao-hyung. Let him accompany you!" Kai said, nodding his head. He obviously knew what Tao had in mind and so does Sehun, and both of them agree with such. "Go on. You two can spend some quality time together!"

"What does that mean-"

"These kids, if Minjee doesn't want to, I respect that."

"No, no, it's okay. You can come with me. I'd love that." Minjee blushed and gestured Tao to follow her. "Come on, Tao!"

"... Coming!" Tao cried and ran after Minjee, leaving Kai and Sehun smiling like idiots behind before averting their attention back into folding paper cranes.

Outside, Tao and Minjee walked side by side, having an awkward silence shrouding them. Footsteps were the only ones heard as the duo walked around. Minjee and Tao refused to start a converstaion and simply look around in silence. How awkward was it. And finally, after gathering all his courage, Tao finally looked at Minjee and had his mouth ajar, words wanting to fall out his lips. "Um, Minjee." he nervously started.

"Yes?" Minjee blinked, turning around to the taller male.

"Um... w-what are we going to buy and where are we going to buy?" Tao questioned, his voice stuttering faintly. Minjee looked around and pointed at a convenience store a few meters away from them. "Over there! I bet we can find the stuff I need there." she answered and ran. Tao, being behind, hurried and ran along with her, making sure his eyes were on her and his guard up.

The two shopped for a few typical things. Some spices, some snacks and others. She even bought a few drinks she and her brother love to drink. The pale-yellow haired Tao meanwhile, stood near her and simply observed what she bought. Afterwards, the two headed to the counter, out the store and headed home. Unfortunately, the two ran over some girls which soon turned out to be Minjee's classmates. "Oh, hey there Minjee!" one of the girls greeted mockingly. Minjee simply let out a fake smile and waved at them casually.

"Is he your boyfriend? Never knew you had one!" one of them laughed. "Never even thought you can get one!" she chuckled under her breath. Minjee rolled her eyes and smirked. "He's not my boyfriend. I don't have a boyfriend."

"Of course you don't. Who on earth would like a nerd like you?" another snickered.

"At least my brains are big. Physical appearance won't get you anywhere anyway." Minjee answered back intelligently. The group was struck with astonishment before one countered. "Hey, yellow headed dude, you better stay off Minjee while it's early. She ain't the fun one."

"Yeah! If you're planning on making her your girlfriend, ha, think again!" another cried.

Minjee simply glared at the girls and was about to counter back when Tao stepped forward and held Minjee's hand. Out of astonishment, Minjee was held back and forgot the words she desired to let out. The touch of Tao's hand on hers, it was... nice. "Excuse me, but it's not nice to talk to someone like that." Tao said courageously, as if he is standing out for Minjee. "She's a person like you, and you are in no right to say such words!"

My is my heart beating like this? What's going on? "Have you entirely loss your respect to her? She was just walking down the streets when you girls came and mocked her. What evil deed has she done to you, eh? Can I ask?"

Silence. Why is he being like this? What's with him? "It's not good. I've entirely loss respect for you. I thought Minjee had well classmates, yet I seem to be wrong. How pathetic." Stop it, Tao. Enough.

His grip got tighter, and it made Minjee jolt a bit. It made some butterflies begin fluttering inside her stomach, and she hated it. Her heart beat like crazy as if there is no tomorrow! And more when Tao uttered some unexpected words. "She's my girlfriend by the way, so I hate it when someone judges her like that." Tao glared and pulled Minjee along with him, vanishing to the horizon. Oh, how Minjee wanted to faint already!

"Hey! Hey-! Huang Zitao, can you please stop race walking for a while?" Minjee continuously cried out as she tried pulling herself back. When Tao noticed the grip on his wrist, he decided to turn around finally and look at Minjee, who was blushing bright pink already. "Is something wrong?" he innocently asked, smiling.

"Of course there is, idiot! Why'd you say I am your girlfriend? Those were my classmates and worse, gossipers!" she cried out loudly. "And why your girlfriend of all reasons?!"

"I had none in mind. I had a mental breakdown and I began saying stuff. I didn't notice I called you my girlfriend." Tao frowned and seemingly in the verge of tears. "S-sorry. Please forgive me." By the sight of tears pooling on the rim of his eyes, Minjee calmed herself down and nodded, sighing. "Fine, fine. Don't repeat it again, understood?" she warned. "I will bear that in mind." Tao slowly smiled. The two walked home finally. Despite knowing it, the two continued to walk down the streets.

Holding each other's hand casually.

"Oh, I nearly forgot." Tao said and grabbed something in his jacket's pocket with his free right hand. He pulled out a box-like object and gave it to Minjee. "Here. I did it lately." Minjee, filled with curiousity, grabbed it and slowly opened the object. To her surprise, the objects inside made her smile and look at Tao. "Thank you." she blushed. "They're beautiful."

"I'm glad you liked them." Tao nodded happily and continued walking home. Once they were there, the four spent some quality time together and obviously, Tao and Minjee is getting closer inch by inch. The way Tao held Minjee's hand made Minjee feel a lot more comfortable around the guy, and Tao? He has gotten over his shyness and has gotten a lot more normal around the female, not even worrying anymore!

The gift?

Oh, it was the first thing that interested Minjee after some time now. It was one of the most beautiful thing she has seen and it literally made her heart skip a beat. It made an honest smile creep up on her face. It made her blush into a light shade of pink, which she never expected to happen once she sees what's inside.

Despite the plain wrapping, the inside was definitely precious.

Ten colored paper cranes.

Tao did them himself while Minjee was busy teaching Sehun and Kai how to make paper cranes. Oh, it was her first time of receiving paper cranes from someone, especially a guy she kind of likes. It was really precious.

And as she feared and liked.

She fell more and more in love with the guy. Her infatuation slowly grew bigger and bigger.

And much bigger when he held her hand.

And gave her paper cranes.

"That idiot Tao." she blushed.