Jieun was still warmly protected in Lay’s embrace when she woke up in the morning. She could smell his scent, a mixture of vanilla and mint, and it never fails to make her feel calm and safe. Lay had always been her shield since forever, they’ve always been each other’s shield since forever and that’s one thing that she is always grateful about. Everything will feel a little bit better as long as they are together.

Jieun lifted her head and her eyes met the familiar pair that was also looking at hers.

“Morning.” Jieun smiled.

“Morning.” The other mirrored. “Ready for school?”

“Hum.” She nodded. “Will you get up or are you going to keep holding me here and make both of us late?” She asked playfully, Lay chuckled, glad that just as what Jieun had promised last night, now she is back being the girl that he knows. Of course he was aware that the scar is still there, but at least now her eyes are shining again.

Moments later Lay walked out from Jieun’s room to go to his own that basically is the room next door. And if you are wondering, yes, they live together. Lee mansion is located in the heart of Seoul while Lay’s house is located in a more reserved area. Jieun started living in Lay’s house since she was twelve, after something happened and Jieun’s grandpa had to tell the public that his only granddaughter is studying in America. Just some close family and trustable people know the truth and they would never tell the public for the sake of Jieun’s safety.

Jieun’s grandpa, Mr. Lee, is the founder of Lee Corp. and had succeeded to make his company as the biggest company in South Korea after just two years of operation. In the fourth year, Mr. Lee decided to make a partnership with Zhang Corp. one of the biggest companies in China and changed the company’s name to LZ Corp that operates in both Korea and China. Jieun’s grandpa and Lay’s met in college and had become best friend since then, after they graduated, grandpa Zhang came back to his motherland, China, and built Zhang Corp there. Their friendship continues despite the distance even until now that they are practically had become one big family. Jieun’s and Lay’s mom automatically become best friend since childhood and they’ve become even closer when Lay’s mom moved to Korea to study when they are in high school. She lived in Lee’s mansion and just like that they had become sisters, some people even thought that they are related by blood because somehow their faces also slightly resemble each other. The two beautiful women met two men that later would be their husbands in college where the four of them become the best of friends. They were married some years after graduation on the same day, at the same place, and both of their first children born with just six months apart. Their lives were perfect until an accident that took Jieun’s parents’ life happened on Jieun’s tenth birthday. The accident made breaking news because it was just some weeks after Jieun’s dad had been appointed to be the new CEO of LZ Corp. And it was such a big changing point in Lee’s family, especially for Jieun. That day, not only her parents were gone but also the cheerful girl with sparkling eyes that everyone loves. Jieun was never been the same since then. She would still smile, she would still laugh, but everyone that knew her before could notice the differences, she speaks less, she prefers to be alone when she was the most outgoing person before, she stopped singing alone at the bathroom, and sometimes you would notice when she would just staring at nothingness as if her body is here but her mind is somewhere else. And before everyone could try to fix her, life decided to break her even more. It was one normal day when Jieun suddenly fall unconscious in the middle of PE at school. She was taken to the hospital and the doctor diagnosed her with brain tumor. Jieun underwent surgery to remove some of the tumor and then continued with the treatment for almost two years until her doctor decided that it was okay for her to stop but he also told Jieun that there’s still a little chance that the tumor will come back and if it does maybe it will be harder to recover completely. But one year, two years, then five years passed and nothing happened, and Jieun was slowly come back to be the cheerful girl that she was, and everything was slowly becoming perfect again, but now the nightmare had come true and it tore everything apart one more time.

Half an hour later Jieun, Lay, and his mom were sitting on the dinner table, ready to have their breakfast.

“Are you sure you don’t need more time to rest, sweetie?” Lay’s mom asked with eyes filled with concern.

“It’s alright, eomeoni. I’ve already slept too much people maybe will start wondering if I’m a bear in hibernation.” Jieun said with humor.

Lay’s mom chuckled, “You must be the most beautiful bear then.” She said with a wink. Jieun just smiled shyly.

“Appa will come back tonight, right, eomma?” Lay asked. His father was in China since two days ago for business matter.

“Yep. He will arrive before dinner so we can finally have dinner together again.” His mom answered, smiling happily.

Soon they started to eat and some minutes later Lay and Jieun were ready to go to school.

“Xingie,” His mother called him after he got back to take something from his room. Jieun was already waiting inside the car.

“Ne, eomma?”

“Take care of Jieunnie, alright?”

Lay smiled, “Always, eomma.”

His mother his hair gently, “Take care of yourself too.” She said before she gave her son a peck on the cheek.

“I’ll go then. See you later, eomma.” Lay said then walked out to join Jieun in the car.

Ten minutes later they arrived in front of their school gate.

“Thanks Changmin Oppa. See you later!” Jieun said before she walked out from the car.

Jieun were just going to walk to the other side of car where Lay was standing but then suddenly she lost her balance and fell down, she could hear Lay’s and her driver’s voice but they sounded so distant.

“Jieun!” Lay shook her shoulder and finally she snapped back to reality.

“What...happened?” She asked, confused. Why am I sitting on the ground?

“You fell.” Lay’s voice was filled with concern, “are you alright?”

Jieun nodded absentmindedly.

“Let’s just go back to home, yeah? I-I don’t think you are fine enough to attend school today.”

Jieun looked at Lay who looked back at her with slightly wet eyes. She brought up her hand to caress his cheek softly and Lay leaned into the touch.

“It’s alright. It’s just the medicine effect, you know it will be like this again from now on.” Jieun smiled, trying to calm her best friend.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Jieun nodded, smiling reassuringly at him. Then Lay helped her to get up and just then she realized that they had made a little scene because some students stopped walking to look at them, Jieun’s cheeks began to blush, she would never get used to the attention although basically she got it almost every day when she walks with Lay. That’s the price that she had to pay for being the best friend of one of the most wanted men in school, unwanted attention and hate. Jieun knows a lot of girls here don’t like her simply because they are jealous of how close she is with Lay and how protective he is of her, but she never really feel bothered by that because they never really do something that harm her directly.

They walked to the nurse office first because Jieun’s knee was bleeding. Lay put his hand around Jieun’s waist to help her walk. Normally Jieun would ask him to let her go because the gesture just made more eyes stare at them, but right now she needed him to support her because she was still dizzy and she felt like falling again if he let go.

The nurse, Ms. Seohyun, was just arrived when Jieun and Lay walked in to the office. She helped Jieun to clean the scratches then she applied some ointment and finally put a bandage on it.

“It’s just scratches, it will heal in no time.” Ms. Seohyun smiled warmly.

The two students said their thanks before walked out from the office.

“See you at lunch.” Jieun said after they arrived in front of her class. Lay nodded but didn’t move, still standing in front of her.

“I’m okay, Yixing. You need to go, there’s not much time before the bell will ring.”

Lay heaved a sigh then he gave Jieun a smile before turning around and was going to walk but then Jieun held his hand, he turned back with questioning eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Jieun said, “I’m sorry for scaring you. I’ll be more careful, don’t worry.”