“Ah!” Yoona gasped as her bare feet harshly padded along the rough pavement. Yoona risked a glance at the policeman that was chasing her. He was going to catch her if she didn’t hurry. Yoona tightened her grip on the shoes she was holding in her right hand and fastened her pace. She saw an alley in front of her and dashed through it. She then pressed her back against the wall at the end of the alley and tried to steady her breathing. The alley was dark. If you looked straight ahead, you wouldn't be able to see anything unless you walked forward. There were a few stray cats sitting on the side. A few minutes passed and she saw no signs of an angry policeman chasing after her. She sneaked a peek at the open alley, there was no one there. Yoona let out the long breath she was holding. Yoona bent down and grazed her right arm over the gash on her knee. She winced.

Great. I won’t be able to walk around for a week or so with this wound on my leg. Yoona thought.

Yoona took her time walking out of the alley and slowly limped back to her apartment. Her house was just a few steps in front of her, she was about to take another step when she crashed into something. More like someone. Yoona shut her eyes tight, waiting for the pain of falling face first on the rough, hard pavement to take over her.

Her heart thumped wildly against her chest.

It came, and the pain was 100x worse when you have a gash on your knee. Yoona let out a loose string of curse words under her breathe and glared at the person she bumped into. Yoona groaned and rubbed her forehead, trying to get the tiny little remains of gravel away from her now slightly dirty face.

“Idiot!" She shouted, unconsciously raising her voice in anger.  "Watch where you’re going! You have eyes, use them! !” Yoona shouted and mustered up the deadliest glare she could give. It wasn’t that scary, considering her position right now. She looked like a cat. A kitten to be exact.

The guy she bumped into spluttered out an apology. “I-I’m sorry! I d-d-didn’t m-mean to bump into you! I-I wasn’t looking! I’m sorry!” The stranger scanned her body for any damages before gasping, “You’re hurt!”

Yoona rolled her eyes and glared at the man. “No , Sherlock. Now help me up.”

The man she bumped into hastily got up averted his eyes away from her leg and helped her up. Yoona picked up her shoes, glanced at him and huffed, harshly shoving him aside to make way for her to limp back to her apartment.

“M-m-may I take you home?” The guy she bumped into asked with a hesitant look on his face.

Yoona’s brown eyes doubled in size. “What?!” Yoona shouted, outraged. “Who do you think I am?What do you take me for?Do you think of me as an easy girl, huh!? Do you really think I would go sleep with a man I just met a few seconds ago? Well, sorry grandpa but I think you're talking to the wrong person. Didn’t your mama ever teach you how to respect women?! What would she think if she saw you asking a girl if you could take her home after you just met? Gosh, men these days." She scoffed. "Did you actually think I would go home with you? Do I look like a hooker to you?! Go to a club if you want those kinds of girls cause there ain’t any here!” Yoona stopped to take a deep breath and glared at the man before continuing, “and I have a gash on my leg! Have you no shame?! Shame on you, mister! That tree over there right now is judging you!” Yoona pointed at the tree beside her and proceeded to point at her leg, “Look at my leg now! With blood and all! And-“ Yoona stopped her rant halfway.

The man fainted.

Yoona widened her eyes. “Grandpa? “Yoona slowly limped forward, careful not to hurt her injured knee. She nudged him with her finger. “Are you dead?” Yoona nudged him with her arm.

No reply.

'I still have so much things to say, old man! You’re lucky you fainted or I would have chewed your ear off!' She thought fumingly.

Yoona glanced at him. Should I just leave him here? Feeling frustrated, Yoona groaned and ruffled her hair. Why do bad things always happen to me?! She thought to herself. She stood up and put her shoes back on. She swept her shoulder length hair to the side, and took his arm and looped it around her neck. She slowly limped towards her house. Luckily, her house was just a few steps away by now. Yoona unlocked the door, set her shoes beside the door and quickly dragged him by his leg to the couch on her living room since he was too heavy for her to carry.

Yoona shrugged. He won’t be awake to feel the pain anyway.

After she set him down on the couch, she quickly limped to the bathroom and grabbed a first aid kit and a bucket of water along with a towel. Already used to it, Yoona hurriedly tended her wounds and grabbed the bucket of water and towel for the stranger she brought to her house.

She dipped the towel in the bucket filled with lukewarm water and wringed it. She then placed it on the man’s forehead and left it there. Yoona headed to her room and took out the bills she stole earlier from her pocket and threw it on a jar that had the big letters ‘SAVINGS’ in it. Of course, Yoona felt guilty sometimes for stealing people’s hard earned money, she always tried to avoid doing it by taking up multiple part time jobs, but sometimes it just wasn’t enough for her to live on her own. Having to work several jobs a day often made her late for her other jobs, causing her to get fired. Yoona was always busy, trying to find opportunities that would give her a sufficient amount of payment to be able to provide her needs and help her survive this cold, hard world, but it wasn’t that easy. Yoona just hoped that the jar of savings would pile up faster so that she didn't need to steal other people's earning.

 Yoona shook her head, trying to shake off the guilt piling up inside of her. She then hurriedly changed to her home clothes and limped back to the living room to check on the stranger.

Surprisingly, the man was not yet awake. He was sleeping soundly, with the occasional loud snores coming from his mouth. The stranger was extremely tall, he wouldn't fit in the couch so there was a part of his legs that were awkwardly dangling off the couch. Although he was tall, he seemed a bit lanky. He didn't have those big muscles a guy usually had, but Yoona thought his lanky figure suited him just fine.

She scanned his features and labelled him as decent. He had short, dark brown hair that perfectly framed his face and his eyelashes were long, making his eyes look a bit feminine. If she had to rate him, he would be an 8.

But then a loud snore erupted from his mouth, making Yoona scrunch her nose at the unpleasant sight in front of her. Make that a 5.

She was nice enough to bring a guy who bumped into her home and here he is drooling all over her couch pillows. Is this supposed to be his way of paying me back?, she thought to herself.

Yoona soon grew annoyed at the sight of the man drooling and harshly nudged him with her arm.

“Ya.” Yoona called the stranger.

The man slightly shifted his position. But other than that, he showed no signs of waking from his deep slumber. Yoona heaved out a sigh of frustration. Yoona shook him, harder this time.

“Hey! Wake up!” She shouted near his ear.

“5 more minutes, mom.” The stranger mumbled.

Yoona’s face fumed red. Mom?! Did he just call me mom?!

 This guy was really getting on her nerves. Yoona resorted to the last thing she thought that could wake him up. She tilted the couch upwards with her man strength and the stranger fell off the couch with a loud thud.

“H-huh?Wha?!” The stranger looked around, confused with his unfamiliar surroundings. Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked up only to find a slim woman who seemed to be in her early 20's with shoulder length brunette hair and milky white skin, pouty lips and doe eyes that perfectly suited her features. She would be beautiful if she didn't have annoyance and a hint of anger written on her face. She seemed creepy if she did that. The brown haired man squinted his eyes and managed to squeak out a low,

“W-who are you?”

Yoona glared at him and looked at him from head to toe, scrutinizing him. Feeling uncomfortable, the stranger timidly looked down and tightened his hold around the blanket that he found wrapped around him when he woke up, not feeling a bit welcome at the woman’s house. After a few minutes of the poor man being perused by Yoona, she finally spoke.

“I brought you home after you fainted in front of me.” Her voice sent shivers through his spine. “O-oh. Thank you.” The man spoke quietly. He felt his body ache all over. I fainted? Why does my body hurt so much? Especially my leg. I feel like my leg has been dragged through a tunnel, he thought to himself.

“M-my name is-“ He tried to introduce himself after a few moments of silence, but was abruptly cut off by Yoona.

“You know, you’re lucky I had mercy on you and brought you home after you tried to take me to your place. You’re lucky that I was such a nice person, because if I had left you there, who knows, a hyena or a wolf would have eaten you.”

The man furrowed his eyebrows.  Hyenas? Wolves? What in the world is this lady saying?, he thought. The male looked up and met her eyes, “H-hyenas?” He asked, not having a slight idea of what nonsense the strange lady in front of him was saying. Yoona rolled her eyes.

“Yeah. You never know, a hyena might come out of nowhere and eat you up. Those guys are vicious. I walked past a shop before, and I saw a video of a bunch of hyenas eating a poor zebra.” Yoona frowned and stared blankly at the wall as she remembered how vicious and the way the scavenger had mercilesslytore the zebra’s skin apart.

He looked at her weirdly. “Okay?” He replied, not knowing what to say, before choosing to ignore her and continued his introduction. “My name is Cho Kyuhyun. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for not leaving me there on the streets. You see, I have hemophobia and I tend to faint whenever I see blood. I’m truly sorry for troubling you.” He bowed his head as an apology.

“My name is Im Yoona.” She spoke, disregarding his apology as she was still slightly mad at the fact that he tried to take her home.

“Do you remember what happened?” Yoona then asked. The stranger, whom Yoona learned was named Kyuhyun, furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he tried to remember how he ended up in her apartment.

He widened his eyes when remembered what took place an hour ago. He looked at Yoona, his eyes wide. Yoona shook her head disapprovingly. “Do you remember?” She asked once again. Kyuhyun nodded before he tried to defend himself, “I-I wasn’t trying to take you home! I swear! I-“ Yoona huffed, “Yeah right.”

Kyuhyun frantically waved his hands. “I wasn’t! I just asked you that to tend to your wounds! I noticed that you had a wound on your leg! That was all! I didn’t have any other intentions!” Yoona nodded a few times, “Right," she said sarcastically, nodding a few times. Kyuhyun huffed at how adamant she was and wondered if she was always like this. “It’s the truth!” He exclaimed. "Plus, you’re not my type," he unconsciously voiced his thought.

Yoona narrowed her eyes, “excuse me?” Kyuhyun looked up, his expression saying what? Yoona rolled her eyes.

Why does she keep rolling her eyes? Is there something wrong with her? Kyuhyun asked himself.

Yoona didn’t know why she felt offended when Kyuhyun said she wasn’t his type, she just did. “You’re not my type, either! I have high standards, okay?! I don’t date weak guys who faint at the sight of blood! I like manly men!” Kyuhyun was about to tell the lady in front of him that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but he realized that he might have said what he was thinking out loud. He was just about to retort to the lady that it wasn’t his fault that he fainted whenever he saw blood and that everyone had fears. Also, he was about to tell her just how manly he was but decided against it when he felt that this conversation would be getting them nowhere. Kyuhyun decided to just drop the subject, despite the fact that his pride was hurt when his masculinity was questioned. Kyuhun shut his mouth, deciding to settle for spitting a bunch of insults at her inside his mind. Yoona smiled in victory, thinking that she had won.

Kyuhyun looked left and right, hoping to ease the awkwardness that filled the air. “It’s nice to meet you. You have a lovely place.” Yoona raised her eyebrows at the sudden change of topic but decided to keep quiet and looked around to see what ‘lovely place’ he was talking about.

Yoona wasn’t able to afford high-quality place so she settled for a simple, decent-looking apartment. She liked it that way, she was a simple girl. Plus, she wasn’t able to afford a high-class apartment, but Yoona decided to go with the other reason as to why she has chosen this apartment.

Her living room had an old looking brown couch, with a few throw pillows lying around, and an old, small wooden table placed in front. The room strangely smelled a bit like vanilla and it was slightly noisy, there was a construction sight nearby. Positioned at the back of the couch was her kitchen, with a few dirty dishes placed at the sink and situated beside the living room was Yoona’s way-too-small-sized room and just beside her room was her bathroom. There were no posters, or stickers or such things stuck on her plain, white wall. Only a simple heavy, wooden frame stowed atop her coffee table. In it was a picture of small boy, who looked about 6 years old, smiling to the camera, his eyes were shaped into tiny little moon crescents and his two front teeth were missing. The picture was black and white and was slightly crumpled; the edges were jagged and slightly uneven. Kyuhyun’s eyes were glued to the picture, curious as to who he was and why he didn’t see him. If he was her brother, then why didn’t he see him anywhere?

Yoona followed his gaze and sadly gazed at the picture before hastily flipping the frame over. “Thank you. It’s getting late. I think you better head home.” Kyuhyun nodded, understanding that the picture was somehow a sensitive topic to her and it would be rude to ask. “Yes, I should really get going. Once again, thank you for bringing me to your home. I hope to repay your kindness someday.” Kyuhyun bowed in gratitude. “I’ll be leaving now.” Yoona shortly nodded. When she finally heard the door shut, she let herself fall back to the couch and let out a deep sigh before letting a small, tiny tear freely trickle down her cheek.

Jinho-yah, I miss you. I wish you were here with me right now.