"You don't need parents."

The taller, black-haired boy with charming, sparkly eyes smiled warmly.

"You have me."

 

Maybe the story would've been different if Yeseul hadn't woke up from her dream that one morning.

That one morning... The morning flooded with orange warmth, crackling with deadly red beauty and the strange scent of heat.

Lee Yeseul woke up to the scent of ashes and hot flickering flames.

Fire.

"OPPA!"

The door of her room collapsed to the floor. Yeseul let out a terrified scream at the deadly orange flames dancing before her eyes. The scent of ashes and debris flooded and eyes as she struggled to see through the thick, black dust.

"Oppa--" She coughed for her life, not finding air to breath in. Her hands reached for anything they felt, desperately trying to find an exit from the flame-infested room.

She heard another object collapse inside of her room. The idea that it might have been part of the roof gave her panic, and she scrambled through the room while coughing out the ash in .

The sound of fire trucks reached her ears. It was distant, and barely gave her any hope in the terrifying place she was stuck in.

"OPPA!"

The sound of objects crumbling was the only answer she received.

Yeseul kicked through a loose pile of the debris from the building, finally seeing an ounce of light from outside. Sweat and tears poured down her face as she pushed through the opening, using every bit of strength she had. Her back was feeling warmer and warmer, and all of her senses screamed of the horrifying flame behind her.

"UGHHR." With a grunt, she collapsed onto the ground through the hole she had formed through the living room. But the tiniest bit of relief she formed quickly disappeared when a piece of the roof collapsed right in front of her, five centimeters away. Yeseul let out a piercing scream, her tips of her hair burned and her ankle bleeding with heat from the block of wood that fell down.

She let out a pained, desperate cry.

"OPPA!"

Flames attacked the spot in front of her.

"OPPA!"

"YESEUL."

All her worries went away with that one voice. A familiar pair of arms wrapped around her frail body protectively.

"I'm here." The tall, black-haired owner of the husky, worn out voice comforted the girl from the terrifying flames in front of her eyes, picking her up over his back and guiding the two of them to safety from the fire.

The two made way through the house full of flames, both panting and sweating from the heat and ashes. Yoonmi soon began to make out voices from outside. The fire trucks were here, and she heard kids crying. There was a woman crying out, "Someone is still in there!"

Her vision became even more blurry by the second, and all the strength was slowing seeping out of the young girl as they passed through the flames. But Yeseul refused to give into the fatigue, for she knew the sweating guy below her was experiencing a much greater pain and tire carrying a girl behind his back.

It seemed like forever until the first light from outside was seen. When Yeseul saw it, she let out a small breath of relief. Finally.

The girl closed her eyes, waiting for the welcoming, morning sunlight to shine upon her.

A pile of the roof did instead.

No.

Yeseul never got a chance to scream before meeting the hot ground scattered with debris. She froze in shock, unable to feel the numb pain that she was supposed to feel. A loud, painful ringing took over her ears and mind, blocking out the sounds of other people rushing to her side and the siren of trucks.

"Retrieve the girl!"

Oppa..

Yeseul slowly began to turn her head, a terrible feeling creeping up her heart. But before she could get any sight of the young man, a pair of strong hands turned her head back to stop her from seeing.

"This is the least I can do for you, sweetie. You don't want to hold such a bad image in your memories."

The next thing she knew, she was lying limply on a mat, surrounded by men in orange suits that were carrying her to a white truck. A strange mask was over her face, and she slowly felt the last bit of strength and energy seep out of her. Yeseul only looked on, tears falling down her cheeks and then welling up again.

The last thing she saw before the truck's door closed was the bright, orange sky, carrying a thick layer of ash and debris flying along with the eerie wind.

 

Yeseul's unrelated guardian lost his life that day.

The owner of the life lost was Kim Myungsoo.

His brother was Byun Baekhyun.

So from then on, Byun Baekhyun became Yeseul's guardian.

 

---------------------------------

 

December 1, 2013

 

"You call that a story?!"

A young, brown-haired policeman scoffed at the high school girl in front of him with crossed arms. The girl just looked back at him with wide eyes, surprised at his reaction to her explanation.

"But it's true, Officer Han! You asked me to tell you about Lee Yeseul's background. And so I told you the truth: She was an orphan that lost her only guardian in a fire."

Luhan only looked at her with doubt.

"Go ahead and ask the other kids! They'll all repeat the same story--no--event. It's an actual event that happened in rea life. Shouldn't you as a policeman know to trust civilians?!" The student accused the older guy.

Luhan sighed. This was getting nowhere.

"Alright. Thanks, anyways, haksaeng. Do you mind telling me the address of Lee Yeseul?"

The girl nodded, but looked up at the policeman in suspicion as she wrote the address down on a piece of paper.

"Why are you so interested in Lee Yeseul anyways? Shouldn't you be out chasing and handcuffing robbers?"

Luhan quickly grabbed the paper with the address before giving her a look.

"That's none of your business. Police work is confidential. Now go back in to your classroom and study."

The girl made a face. "But school's over."

"Then go back home and study."

 

Lee Yeseul.

Luhan stared at the address in his hands thoughtfully as he got into the police car.

The quiet, secretive girl had first caught his eye a few days back at this very highschool. It had been during a lecture his friend, also a policeman, was giving to the students. He had reluctantly followed along, although finding something like giving lectures to high schoolers the boringest thing one could ever do.

It was during the very beginning of the lecture when he saw the student.

A thin, pale girl with emotionless eyes... neither sad or happy. She had long, raven-black hair that fell in small waves down her shoulders and cherry-red lips that told neither a smile or a frown.

If it hadn't been for the observations that followed next, Luhan would've simply thought of her as a 'young, pretty girl' and waved it off in less than a second.

But his eyes lingered on her a bit longer, and it took his friend's voice at the beginning of the lecture to finally cut the stare off.

"Nice to meet you, students. My name is Kris, and I'm a police officer at Seoul Mindan Police Department."

Luhan saw that the girl made no move to clap when the other students did. She instead looked a bit distant, as if thinking about something entirely different from whatever Kris was talking about.

As time passed, Luhan began to assume that maybe she wasn't thinking about anything at all.

"There are many police academies available in this region--"

Although there were a lot of beautiful girls in the room, this girl had a beauty to her in a mature way. She didn't belong here, Luhan thought. She wasn't like the  other highschool girls that gossiped of the latest fashion trends and giggled about hot guys. She seemed much, much different.

"Now, I'd like to address the topic of the 2001 fire a few blocks away from this school."

Luhan blinked in surprise when he saw a sudden change in the girl's face. It was small, but still noticeable. Her eyes had narrowed, and it was as if she was recalling a bad thought or memory.

"Our police department took a huge role in the incident. For the fire had been caused by an arsonist--"

Luhan widened his eyes when a glassy layer formed in the girl's eyes. Okay. Maybe a very bad thought or memory.

"The criminal has been found, and the damage has been recovered. But there were many who lost their lives that day--"

The girl's watery eyes left as quickly as it came, and Luhan almost asked out loud how a person could do that: Have so much control. Hadn't she been close to crying earlier? Why had she been crying? Was she having a hard time in her life? Depression? Did she need help?

"Thank you for listening."

The last four words of Kris's lecture was the only part of the speech Luhan heard, and the appluading following after it told him his work here at this school was finished.

Luhan ignored the fact.

 

"Haksaeng."

The girl turned around, showing no sign of surprise or concern when she saw the unknown policeman looking back at her in the empty courtyard.

Luhan cleared his throat. He honestly forgot why he had even called out to her. What was there to say?

"May I ask your name?"

The girl was silent. Instead of answering, she eyed him up and down, almost as if she was judging him. Luhan hadn't expected that, and shifted around uncomfortably.

Why the heck was this happening to him with a random, little high school girl.

"I'm not interested." She suddenly said bluntly.

.... Huh..?

Luhan widened his eyes when he realized how he had just came out as, and quickly tried to regain his actual position.

"No--I... I have a girlfriend!" He blurted out.

The girl blinked once without a change of expression.

"That's even stranger."

He mentally slapped himself. This was going as smooth as butter.

"Nevermind. I'm not what you think I am. I'm just a policeman interested in the... mental state of our community's adolescents, if that makes any sense."

"It doesn't."

Well she's one bright sweetie.

Luhan sighed.

"Alright, then. If you don't want to cooperate, then I understand. But... if you ever need my help or anything--"

"I won't." She softly muttered. Luhan pretended to not hear.

"--then contact me." He handed her a small card that she made no movement to recieve. Luhan rolled his eyes as he took her hand forcibly and put the card in it.

And that was how Officer Han's interest in Lee Yeseul and her situation had first started. It really had been no big deal. But now with the sudden fire story he heard, he was eager to learn more about this mysterious life she had.

Because he didn't know why, but there was definitely something fishy and suspicious about this whole thing.

Something very suspicious.

--------------------------------------------

Hey~ I put everything in Luhan's perspective to make the intro more interesting in a third-person point of view :)
I hope you found it fun~