Chapter 1

          I had a lonely childhood. He was my only friend. He always made me angry by joking around. But also made me happy.

          [Sulli’s POV]

          It was break time at school. A usual, I went to the playground, alone, without anybody accompanying me, to have lunch that my mom and dad packed for me. I neared the playground, and saw a bunch of kids were busy chattering at the swings. I thought it would be a good idea to join them, so I did. But the nearer I got, they got scared, and quickly ran away. In the end, I had to sit there all by myself, again.

          I don’t quite get it why other kids didn’t want to play with me. Am I that cruel? I even thought I was pretty enough, to join the cool kids. Maybe they didn’t want to be friends with me because.. Well.. My parents were always arguing, whenever they had some kind of misunderstanding, or the fact that I got into trouble. And when they argue that night, the next morning, my mother won’t be bothered to make any lunch at all for me, or breakfast, and I always asked my mother why. And then, she would just shout back at me, and told me to get to school, before she lost her temper. She already did, by the way.

          I opened my lunchbox. Thank god yesterday everything went perfectly well. It has been a long time since my mother prepared something luxurious for me. She usually eats this only for herself and my father or made it for me on my birthday. Wait, is today my birthday? My birthday’s on March 29^th, and today isn’t anywhere at all near March 29^th. The lunch box contained some rice and also my all time favorite, kimchi. Together with that, she put on top was a sunny side up egg, which perfected the dish. I shaked it hard, and got my chopsticks ready to eat.

          “BOO!” suddenly, someone shouted from the back.

          “Aah!” my girly scream went out, and I almost jumped, almost made my lunch spilled. It was a really close one. If I opened my lunchbox, for sure I won’t have any lunch today.

          “YAH! Who was that?!” I put down my lunchbox, turning to find the mischievous person who purposely did that to me. He is going to GET IT!

          “Sulli!” I turned again, only to find out that somebody pinched my cheeks. It was that rich kid again.

          Sulli’s actually not my real name, my real name is Choi Jin Ri. Somehow, this kid managed to think up of a name, and then, he called me Sulli. He’s here to bother me again. I always hated that known fact.

          “Taemin oppa! Stop it!” I pushed down his hands from my face. He didn’t get mad, instead, he giggled.

          “Soo cute, today too! Hi! I didn’t see you in class today, when I passed by!” he waved at me, flashing a big smile, showing off his bright and white teeth. He must’ve gone to the dentist yesterday. As far as I remembered, his teeth wasn’t this bright.

          “Oppa.. Do you have to do that? You shocked me, you know? And I almost had my lunch spilled!” I pouted at him. Being angry with him was something common, yet something I love to do.

          “Sorry, Sulli-ah.. I just had that sudden idea when I saw you at the swings!” he exclaimed. “Where are your friends?”

          “Oppa, don’t joke around with me. You know I don’t have any friends.”

          “What do you mean you don’t have any? Am I not your friend?”

          “Well..”

          “You don’t need to answer that, Sulli. I’m just joking around!” again, that cheeky smile appeared.

          “Oppa, how many times must I tell you that my real name’s Choi Jin Ri? And people call me Jinri, if you haven’t notice.”

          “I don’t need to call you that now, you’re always Sulli to me. Bear with it, okay?”

          “So.. What are you having for lunch?” he said, as he sat next to me by the swings.

          “I’m having kimchi with rice and a sunny side up egg. You know that I almost can’t have this luxurious meal because of you.. If I opened it up and was eating when you shocked me, I couldn’t even have lunch. And umma would be angry at me for spilling my one only lunch.”

          “This is what you call luxurious? I have this everyday at home. I’m getting quite bored at it, actually.” He snickered.

          “Oppa, don’t you remember? I’m not as wealthy as you are. My father is the only one who works, and my mother is a housewife. We don’t gain that much money from my grandparents too, and it was only lucky that I’m the only child in my family. Or else I don’t think I can even eat regularly.” I responded back. His eyes widened, almost pretending like he was shocked at the fact, that he didn’t know that I already told him that before.

          “Mianhe, Sulli-ah,” he lowered his voice and face, avoiding embarrassment. I nodded, and proceed to opening my so called luxurious lunchbox. I had a bite, and it was extremely delicious, as always. I looked to my side, and Taemin oppa was still sulking. I don’t know it was either because of the sympathy he had, or that he didn’t have lunch yet. Whatever. As long as I’m having my lunch properly, I don’t really care.

          Brr~~

          “Ah.. My stomach..”he suddenly said, when I was taking my tenth bite.

          “You haven’t had your lunch yet?”

          “No.. I forgot to bring it today. My.. butler awoke late, and he didn’t have time to pack my lunch for me.”

          “Well..” I took a glance at his poor yet cute face, and stared back at my own food.

          “I know it isn’t much, but.. Would you like some?” Argh. That was hard to come out, even from my mouth.

          “Really? For sure?” his face gleamed, and he flashed again, his bright smile.

          “Yes.. You can have ½ of the share. I’m not that hungry anyway,” I passed my chopsticks to his hands, and he delightedly took them, without any hesitation.

          “I’ll enjoy this!” and with that, he quickly gobbled up the kimchi. I waited, for about a minute, to let him take time to eat. Somehow, I felt pleased at watching him eat so peacefully.

          “Are you done yet? It’s my turn to eat..” I said slowly. He looked up at me, from the food, and since there was only one pair of chopsticks,

          “Come closer. Aahh~”

          “Taemin oppa! Don’t, please! It’s embarrassing! “

          “Do you want to eat or not?”

          “Well.. Fine.” I brought myself closer, and he put the food into my mouth. I don’t know why, but somehow it felt tastier with him feeding me.

          “Ah.. Now I can continue eating!” he continued eating, and I continued my chewing. Until at one point, when I was ready to receive another spoonful of kimchi mixed with egg and rice, he already the lunchbox. Gosh, I didn’t know he was that hungry.

          “Taemin oppa.. Did you finish it already?” I gasped at watching the really clean lunchbox. One thing I could get from this, I don’t need to wash it that much anymore. It would’ve used a lot of soap, you know?

          “Yup! Thanks, Sulli! That was really yummy.. I didn’t know your mother was a great chef!” he rubbed his belly.

          “My mother did inherited my grandmother’s golden hands at cooking. She did want to become a chef at first, but her intentions was hold back because she got married, and had me,” I explained.

          “Ah..”

          Brr~

          “Oh. That wasn’t me, I swear!”

          “It was me.” This time, I clinged onto my stomach, as if it ached. Now, I’m hungry. I only had a few bites, and it wasn’t that big of a mouthful.

          “Sorry, Sulli.. I ate too much, did I?”

          “Yeah.. Now I’m hungry..”

          “How about this.. I’ll treat you after school. What do you think about that? Come with me, after school, okay?”

          “That’s okay with me, but what about umma?”

          “I’ll ask my butler to call your umma. Where do you want to go?”

          “I want to go to..” I thought hard. Harder and harder, I tried to think. But I guess because I wasn’t exposed that much to the neighborhood, I don’t really know places. I only could remember them by looking, not by their names.

          “You haven’t explored the neighborhood yet?”

          “I don’t think so. My mother won’t allow it, because there’s nobody who would take me there. And take care of me.”

          “I see. Then, shall we go exploring after this?”

          “Okay!”

          The bell rang, I said goodbye to oppa, and went back to my class. As usual, everybody ignored me, even my teachers. It was pretty good, because I forgot to do my math homework today, and I didn’t get punished because the teacher didn’t notice me. Classes ended, and I went out, to go fetch Taemin oppa at his class. It was the first time for me, watching him in class. I wonder if it was true at the fact that he was an intelligent boy, and girls all swoon over him. To me, he isn’t the type for the girls to be swoonin’ for except for the fact that his looks are pretty decent. And even I think that I might be prettier than him. I’ve heard too, somebody mistaking him for a girl. Gosh, oppa. You need to get rid of that long hair.

          I peeked through the window, and saw Taemin oppa standing up instead of sitting down. I guess he probably didn’t do his homework too.

*****

          [Taemin’s POV]

          Aish. I forgot to bring my math book again. And Ms. Lim is coming near. I have to find out a way out of this.. Come on, Taemin, think! The only choice left, is to do my aegyo. This is going to be embarrassing.. I hope Sulli’s not watching. If she did, ahh.. How am I going to get through it?

          “Taemin! You didn’t bring the book again?” Ms Lim came, and quickly, her temper went up as high as the hills.

          “Mianhe, samseongnim..” I looked at Ms Lim and did my big puppy eyes look. Well, that completely worked.

          “Ah.. That’s okay, Taemin-ah. You sit down, and just listen to what I say, okay?” samseongnim smiled at me, and went back to the front of the class. I looked at my watch. It had been 10 minutes past 3. Sulli must be waiting outside. I tried to look for her, and there she was, standing by the window, cheekily watching me did my aegyo. Huh.

          I completely ignored what the teacher said, and turned my attention towards Sulli. She was completely mocking me, by the actions she did. One moment, she was looking sulky, and the next, she did the puppy eyes look like I did. Then, she laughed terribly and looked like she was going to puke. Great, Sulli. Wonderful.

          “Class is dismissed, and remember what I told you to do, okay?” Ah.. Great, now I missed what the teacher just said. It’s quite enough that I forgot to bring my maths workbook, and now she told us all something, and I missed it.

          Sulli, you’re soo going to get it from me.