Saehee hung up the phone after Jonguk said that he'll come to pick her up. She sighed, remaining on the cold tiled restroom floor. The noises from earlier were still buzzing around in her ears.

Slowly, she stood up to make her way to the main office for Jonguk to get her. Before exiting the restroom Saehee took a look in the mirror and noticed her appearance of the aftermath of crying. She went to the sink and dabbed some water on her face to cool her face down.

A few girls abruptly slammed the restroom door open. They talked obnoxiously loud and didn’t even look in Saehee’s direction as they set their belongings on the floor.

“I should’ve just stayed home. School is serious a waste of time,” one of the girls snobbishly complained. Her hair was dyed a jet black (was possibly another color before since the school dress code doesn’t allow unnatural hair color) and her uniform was wrinkled.

“I wanted to sleep in, but my mom forced me to come,” another girl said. She had a lip piercing and several other piercings covering her ears that she had refused to take off earlier when a teacher scolded her. They each began conversing about their dislikes relating to school. Saehee thought that she would be able to leave without bothering them, but one of them spoke up.

“Hey you, shouldn’t you be in class?” A girl asked upon seeing Saehee just standing there next to the sink. Saehee remained silent, avoiding her gaze as if she didn’t know they were speaking to her.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you,” the girl added as if hearing Saehee’s thoughts; impatience was clearly heard in her voice.

Saehee froze. No, she wasn’t scared because of their behavior or their frightening appearances, but she was scared because they were talking to her. Their intimidating stares pierced into her, and they made her sick to her stomach. There were too many complete strangers at once for her to confront; especially since the buzzing in ears were still present. went dry, causing no sound to come out when opening to answer.

Saehee turned away and fast walked out of the restroom before all of her negative thoughts and anxiety could burst into tears.

Tao—being in the sophomore building—nonchalantly walked down the hallway on his way to the boys' restroom. Up ahead he saw a girl who looked really similar to Saehee. She was walking slowly and her head was hung low with her right hand holding her left arm. As their distance lessened he realized that it was really her. "Oh Saehee, what are you doing here with your bag? Shouldn't you be in class—“

He paused mid-sentence when Saehee walked right pass him without acknowledging his presence. Tao paused. Huh? He turned around to call out to her.

"Saehee, where are you going?" He fast walked to catch up with her.

"Home," she simply answered. He examined her face. Her eyes were red and puffy; he realized that she had been crying. "Why are you going home already?" She didn't respond. Tao stopped talking, not knowing what to say in this kind of situation. When she began picking up her pace to leave him, he grabbed onto her wrist without thinking. Saehee roughly pulled away from his hold. “Don’t,” she bit tongue, trying to not completing the sentence, “Touch me.”

She clenched her dainty hands into a tight fist. Tao frowned for a second at her actions, but his expression quickly softened after realizing his mistake. But Saehee didn’t do it out of anger for Tao touching her, but that she blew up on him out of bad habit. It reminded of her of the time that she said that to Minseok and the hurt expression he gave her. Just go away please, Saehee mentally pleaded.

Tao sensed the mood of the situation of her wanting to be alone, so he stopped himself from following her any further. "Ah, I have to go back to class before my teacher becomes suspicious! Saehee, just go home and relax, okay? We'll talk tomorrow." He sprinted back to his original destination.

Saehee didn't look at him the entire time. She was too ashamed to do so. They put in so much effort and time to help her adjust into the school setting, but she failed them. She yelled at Tao for no reason. She gave up too easily.

---

Lunch time finally arrived and Minseok made a dash to the area where they all promised to meet up in order to eat together. He was anxious to see Saehee and check on her. The two classes after math he wasn’t able to fully concentrate because his mind was somewhere else.

One by one the group met up. But the one person Minseok was waiting for didn’t come.

"Saehee went home!" Tao announced, out of breath after running to go find them to tell them the news.

"What?" Minseok was the first to question him. "Why? When? How do you know?"

"I don't know why, but I saw her in the hallway on my way to the restroom and she looked like she had been crying."

Minseok gaped at the news. Should he leave school to go see her? Or give her some space? He didn't know.

“Hyung, don’t worry so much. I walked with her to the main office so she definitely made it home safely,” Tao reassured him.

“Try giving her call,” Luhan suggested. Minseok slightly brightened up, taking his cell phone out of his front pants pocket.

“Ah—“ Minseok face-palmed after realizing that he never asked for her number. Sorry I wasn’t there for you Saehee. Minseok’s mood was down for the rest of the school day.

---

Saehee stumbled into the house. The comfort of her bedroom was so close. She took one step up the stairs before spotting an unknown man calmly walking around in the living room. The man was tall and lean and he looked to be around the same age as Jonguk.

"Dongjun come out here. This is my niece; introduce yourself," Jonguk told Saehee. The man named Dongjun came towards the niece and uncle with a delightful grin plastered on his face.

"Hello, I'm Saehee. Nice to meet you," she said with her body half facing him out of habit.

"Such great manners; you've definitely grown since the last time I saw you," he chuckled, "Well, the last time I saw you was when you were a baby. I'm Dongjun, your uncle's good friend."

Saehee nodded, not wanting to continue the conversation any longer so that she could retreat to her room. Dongjun, knowing of her schizophrenia, noticed how she fidgeted in discomfort. “Well go along upstairs. Your uncle and I are just going to chat.”

Saehee thanked him with a slight bow before racing upstairs. Saehee sat in her room, at the same corner where she stayed the last time something awful happened to her. Minseok, she thought. She knew he was probably worrying about her, since she would also worry about him if he unexpectedly left school early.

After an hour of peaceful silence Saehee decided to get up to get a drink of water to cure her parched throat. Forgetting that a guest was over, she stopped before entering the dining room which leads into the kitchen. Saehee made crept backward to not disturb their chat.

"Saehee’s really grown,” Dongjun mentioned. Saehee stopped moving after hearing her name. She pressed her side against the wall so that they won’t see her. Her curiousness took over and she wanted to know why they were talking about her.

"Yes, she has...I regret so much, Dongjun. I wish I can go back,” Jonguk's voice was filled with melancholy.

"How are you and Eunjung doing? Does she still work here?"

"Yes, nothing's changed. I asked her if she wanted to move and try and go into a different career path because staying here isn’t healthy for her, but she insisted to stay."

"Same stubborn Eunjung…do you think it's because of Saehee?"

"Probably, but I'm not going to force her to leave. I don't want the past to repeat itself."

A/N: Ahhhh! Finally updated! I don't know if it was just me, but it feels like I haven't updated in forever. Sorry about the mistakes in here. I just wanted to update quickly before going to sleep c: will edit later. On another note: (this is late) Happy New Year! :DD <3

(updated: 1-4-14)