The years passed. I continued to be avoided and hated because of my scar.

And every day, I watched Aecha move further and further away from me, until I didn't know who she was anymore, and I didn't know who I was anymore.

I hated Aecha. I hated my bastard father. I hated the hole I lived in. And, more than anything, I hated myself. My ugly, scarred, unlovable self.

I became cold, hard, and unbreakable. My face became a stone mask to the world, showing them that I didn't care whether they stared at my scar or not. They can all themselves.

Of course, on the inside, I would sometimes break down and cry. But more often, I would just hate everything and everyone.

One day, I came home to find the usual sight. My dad lounging on the couch in the living room, watching TV with a bag of chips and a pack of beer on the floor next to him.

I rolled my eyes and continued on my way to the stairs to seek refuge in my room. People on the street made fun of my scar again, throwing rocks at me and calling me an ugly . I needed to hide somewhere and have a good long cry before reappearing as the cold monster again.

Usually, dad just ignores me. In fact, I'm pretty sure he barely knew me and my sister existed.

However, today he suddenly grunted out, "Yer aunt's comin today."

I froze, one foot on the steps, before walking back into the living room. "What?"

"I said...." he took a long swig of beer and burped, "Yer aunt's comin."

"Aunt?" I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice. What aunt? I had an aunt? "Why?"

"Dunno. Pickin you up, she said. Takin you away, good riddance."

I felt a curious mixture of elation, anger, and curiosity at his words.

Elation because that meant I could finally leave this place, finally leave this hell-on-earth and live in a normal society.

Anger because, if I really did have an aunt, why didn't she come find me sooner? Why did she wait until I was seventeen to find me? Why did she leave me here with an indifferent bastard father and a cold, unfeeling sister?

Finally, curiosity. Why just me? Why isn't she picking up Aecha too? Although -- and the cold hate seeped back into me again -- why should I care? Aecha can go live her for the rest of her miserable life, for all I cared. I was leaving, anyway.

I headed upstairs and closed the door to my bedroom, before grabbing a suitcase and neatly placing all my clothes inside.

About an hour or so later, I heard stomping feet coming closer and closer to my room, before the door was flung open and a furious Aecha burst in.

"You're leaving?" She demanded. "Why is it just you? Why not me? How come this auntie isn't taking me?" I almost felt bad. I could hear the desperation in her voice.

But then the hate came back, and I shrugged coldly. "How should I know?" I snapped at her. "Maybe she already has a dog in the house."

Aecha scowled at me and flashed me the middle finger. "Ugly, hated ," she spat, before stomping away.

I continued the packing and headed downstairs, where I sat on the bottom step and waited impatiently for this so-called aunt to arrive.

At exactly half past five, the doorbell rang. I jumped up to get it.

When I opened the door, my eyes widened and almost filled with tears. I thought I was staring at my mother again. My REAL mother.

She was older, with more lines, and shorter. But she had the same heart-shaped face, small nose, bright eyes.

When he said aunt, I never expected it to be from my mother's side.

"Are you Aeyoung?" She asked, gathering me into a hug before I could answer. "Of course you are, you look exactly like your mother."

No, I don't. I thought despairingly, stiff from the hug. Nobody has given me a hug in years. I don't look like my mother. I am ugly, and I have a scar on my face. I have nothing but negative emotions inside of me. I am not my mother at all.

"You look skinny, have you been eating well?" This aunt studied me closely, I noticed she didn't say anything about my scar. In fact, she barely looked at it. "Well, I couldn't expect much with a father like yours --" here, she stopped talking and pursed her lips, as though she didn't want to say anything bad about anybody.

I liked her immediately. And it's been a long time since I've ever liked anything.

"Don't worry, a few solid meals at my house will fill you up nicely." She smiled and patted my cheek. "I have the car running, shall we go?"

There was no goodbye. When we drove away, I could have sworn I saw Aecha's head peeking out from her bedroom window to watch us as we rolled out of sight, but I wasn't sure.

Her name was Bongcha. Aunt Bongcha. She explained to me that she only found the proper documents now to officially adopt us, but she didn't have the money to adopt both.

"Because you are the eldest and more independent, you can take better care of yourself while I'm earning more money to adopt your sister," she explained kindly. "Poor thing, I bet you must be so worried about her."

"Not at all," I said coldly, surprising even myself at how cold I sounded. "I don't give a damn about her."

I instantly felt bad when I saw the shocked look on her kind old face, so I turned away and stared out the window for the rest of the drive.

I couldn't help but gawk when we stepped out of the car. I have never been inside such a beautiful, clean place before. This neighbourhood was normal, but in my eyes it was heaven.

My bedroom was small, but more beautiful than anything I've ever seen. The air smelled clean, the grass was green and sparkling, the skies seemed wide and free.

It turns out, this wasn't the place I'll be staying at. Aunt Bongcha wanted me to go to a good school, so she sent me to Seoul High's district.

"You'll be staying with a friend of mine, alright, Aeyoung?" Aunt Boncha said gently to me. She already knew how I handled strangers. "She is a very good friend, although they're often flying all around the world for their work."

"so I'll have the house to myself?" That didn't sound so bad.

"No, their daughter is staying there. Park Mihi." When she saw the look on my face, she quickly added, "She is a smart, sweet, gentle girl. You'll like her, Aeyoung, I'm sure of it."

Fat chance. She'll probably avoid me because of my scar, like everyone else. Make sure no one knows we know each other when we go to school. It was hell all over again.

The house itself was pretty enough. When Aunt Boncha opened the door, I heard a squeak of surprise. Bongcha said slowly, "Mihi-ah.....who's this?"

I heard a shaky little voice say, "Um.....Bongcha.....t-this is....um....."

Then another voice, this one's a man's, say smoothly, "Hello, Bongcha-sshi. My name is Yong Junhyung. I am Mihi-ah's boyfriend. Nice to meet you."

I almost snorted. She was caught making out with her boyfriend and is now trying to explain it or something? Bull.

"I've heard of your name before....." Aunt Bongcha said suspiciously.

"Bongcha, this is my boyfriend," the girl's sweet voice said earnestly. "I really, really like him, and we're very happy together. He's a very sweet boy, really."

Yeah, right.

My blood ran cold slightly when Auntie continued to say, "Speaking of which, Mihi-ah.......you'll be having a roommate from now on. That's why I'm here."

"Who?"

"Well, actually, it's my niece, Kim Aeyoung. She's the same age as you, and since my sister -- her umma -- is moving to a new job, she's being put into my care."

I barely heard the rest of her sentence. I had looked up, my heart pounding all the way into my head. Did she just say.....my umma? My umma was still alive? Still happy? And she never bothered to find me? I stared at the ground hard.

Aunt Bongcha reappeared. "Shall we take your suitcases?" She said kindly.

"Auntie.....where is my umma?" I felt my voice choke slightly. "Where is she? She's still alive? Does she know I'm here?"

Auntie looked at me sadly. "Your umma is alive, Aeyoung. But she.......that's only an excuse I'm giving Mihi-ah. Her current situation is much worse."

"Why?" I could hear tears in my voice more than I could feel them burning in my eyes. "Why hasn't she tried to find me yet? Why? If she just came for us.....then I wouldn't be like this, and Aecha wouldn't be a monster, and........"

"Oh, honey, it's not her fault. You see, eight years ago.......she got into a serious car accident and went into a coma for a year. When she awoke......oh, sweetheart......she lost her memories."

I felt like the world was falling from underneath me. "All of them?"

"All of them. Now, she's happily married to a doctor she met at the hospital. They have a daughter, a four-year-old girl. They don't.........she doesn't know you exist anymore. Nor your sister."

This was too much. I could have forgiven her if she came to see me just once. But to actually have forgotten I exist, the beautiful, loving mother of my memories and dreams, was too cruel.

There was a moment where Auntie let me collect myself, before taking my suitcase up to the guest room. I gasped down the tears threatening to fall from my face, and this feeling of betrayal and pain probably gave me an extra-vindictive mood when I followed her upstairs. I barely noticed the house, although I could tell it was very nice.

Bongcha disappeared as I was folding out clothes from the suitcase, then came back again. "Aeyoung! Aeyoung! This is Mihi, the girl who lives here."

I loooked up at her with a glare, and watched as the girl's eyes visibly widened at the sight of my face. Then she blushed and quickly bowed. "Nice to meet you, Aeyoung. My name is Mihi. I hope we can be friends."

Friends, my . She's just faking in front of my aunt. All the same, she was an exceptionally cute girl, even with those nerdy glasses. Her hair was long and straight, and she had big, bright eyes and a sweet smile. In a way, her words were almost sincere, but I wouldn't believe it. Who would want to be friends with me? Never trust a pretty one, that's for certain.

So I glared at her and resumed packing.

"Aeyoung, be nice," Auntie warned me, before turning to the pretty girl and saying, "Mihi-ah, I have to go now. Aeyoung will also be going to the same school as you."

Then, giving me one last kind smile, my only friend and caretaker left, leaving me alone awkwardly with this girl, who seemed to feel the awkwardness as well.

Finally, she started to babble out something about eating. I had enough. No more playing games. I glared at her and snapped, "Okay, let's get one thing straight. I'm not your friend, okay? Stop talking to me."

"Hey! What the hell did you just say?"

A handsome, but intimidating boy wearing skulls and ripped clothes appeared from behind the cute girl. Oooh, protective boyfriend. Probably a gangster, too. "You better apologize right now!" Che.

"Why?"

He wrapped an arm around the girl. "For being mean to my girlfriend."

"No thanks," I snorted. I don't EVER apologize to anybody. EVER.

"Now, listen here, scarface........"

Okay, THAT did it. Nobody talks about my scar. EVER. In order to stop myself from punching his lights out, I stood up and snapped "I'm going out now." I pushed past them -- noting the girl's shocked face and feeling kind of bad about it -- and threw my shoes on, before opening the door and slamming it behind me.

What was the point of going outside? I didn't know the area. If anything, I'll just get lost and die of pneumonia. Save the trouble of dying by loneliness, anyway. I could already tell that girl and I won't get along, based on her boyfriend alone.

*********************************************

The next day, I went to school. As usual, everyone avoided me and whispered behind my back. Typical. Looks like THIS didn't change anywhere, no matter what.

I sighed heavily when it came to lunchtime. I already heard about the 'Loner Table' where only the loners and people with no friends sat. Looks like that's where I'll be eating my lunch.

Suddenly, someone sat down next to me. I looked up in shock to see the cute girl, Mihi. She smiled at me, firmly meeting my eyes and not wavering towards my scar every few seconds like most people do. I kind of liked that. The way she only looked into my eyes. "Hi."

I noticed the people sitting at the table with her, and I couldn't help but note they were all VERY handsome. I recognized her angry-looking boyfriend amongst them, but they were all exceptionally gorgeous, especially the tall one with the dark hair and intense stare. I immediately felt uncomfortable. Back before the scar, I was always hanging around in a crowd of people like this. But they made fun of me the most once the scar came. I never trusted beautiful people.

Not even for a girl who might actually be kind to me and not just faking it. "What are YOU doing here?" I ended up saying anyway. "I don't want your pity. Go back." Just go, go, go, and leave me to myself. Don't bring this crowd of handsome boys to make fun of me. Just don't. Please.

She smiled at me kindly, and for some reason I was forcibly reminded of my mother's old smiles, or the way Aecha used to smile at me before. "Aeyoung, you've already met my boyfriend, Yong Junhyung. These our our friends: Yoon Doojoon, Yang Yoseob, Jang Hyunseung, Lee Kikwang, and Son Dongwoon."

The boy I think she called Dongwoon stared at me hard and said, "Hey, Aeyoung, what happened to your......." Mihi turned to him and glared, harder than I thought for someone so sweet. Dongwoon wilted. "Never mind....."

I couldn't take it. I knew this would happen. "Look. just leave me alone," I said, standing up and walking away quickly.

I left the cafeteria and went down the halls. Before I knew it, three queenkas suddenly grabbed me and pushed me against the lockers. "You little !" They screeched. "Don't act so damn cocky, just because Beast decided to be nice and sit with you!"

Beast? Oh, must be those hot guys. Knew they were a gang, just knew it.

"I'm not trying --" I started to say wearily, but they broke me off. "Enough excuses! We already have that stupid mousey four-eyed nerd hanging around Krystal's Junhyung-sshi every day, we don't need an ugly scarface like you in it as well!"

I couldn't help the white-hot anger pusling inside of me. How dare they say that, these es! Sure, I barely know this Mihi girl, but I knew her well enough now to admit I made a mistake judging her before. It's impossible not to see the sincerity in her heart when she looked at me and smiled at me. She genuinely wanted to be my friend, and I was an idiot for pushing her away.

"Don't you dare call Mihi that!" I snapped hotly back at them before I could stop myself. "She's pretty, sweet, cute, innocent, and the nicest girl I've ever met. She's the complete opposite of you ers!" The words were pouring out, and I couldn't do anything about it. "Don't insult her like that when you're just jealous! Maybe if YOU acted more like her, you'd GET guys like Junhyung!"

The girl I think was called Krystal raised her hand. "! Nobody talkes to US this way! We're the queenkas of Seoul High!"

I refused to cower or cry. Go ahead and hit me, like the es you are. I've had wors. I've had a ing knife on my face. Go ahead, do your worst.

Suddenly, a girl appeared in front of me and took the vicious slap. I cringed at the sound, then stared in shock at the girl in front of me. "Mihi!" I gasped. She took the slap for me? Why?

"Mihi!" I repeated in panic when she fell to her knees. Looks like the pain really hurt. Damn, her whole cheek was red.

Junhyung ran over, his face contorted with grief and worry, and immediately fell to her side and began to comfort her. I decided he wasn't that big of an after all.

Krystal began to whine and complain, and he glared at her with so much hate and anger I could feel a chill in the air. "Shut UP!" He roared. "I've had to deal with this bull for too long already. Just get lost already. And this is for all of you, if Mihi-ah says Aeyoung is her friend, then Aeyoung is her friend. If you DARE touch ANY of them, you'll have BEAST to answer to."

Okay. So maybe he wasn't an at all. To be fair, I was rude to his girlfriend, and he seems like the over-protective type anyway.

The handsome boy with the piercing eyes suddenly came up and hissed, "Also, if I hear you mention Aeyoung's scar EVER, I'll KILL you, got that?" The students scattered, and he gave me a little smile. I felt myself start to heat up and quickly looked away.

"Mihi......." I said slowly to the girl, my face turning red anyway. "T.....t-th.......thank you.........." I haven't used that word in so long, it felt weird in my mouth. But it was worth it seeing the huge smile on her face. "It wasn't a problem at all, Aeyoung! Let's be friends, okay?"

"Friends?" She really wanted to be MY friend? A girl like me?

"Yeah! Let's be BFFs! I've always wanted a BFF!" She pulled me up and linked arms with me naturally, as though we've been friends for years.

I couldn't help but break into a smile -- the first smile I've had in years. I let her pull me away.

"You know, I used to be really shy and quiet and I just read all the time. People called me mousey girl," she said seriously, before giving me another one of her sweet smiles. "But then I met Junhyung oppa, and people don't call me that anymore. Well, except for the queenkas.....but anyway! We're going to have lots of fun! I've honestly never had a friend before. Well, I mean, I used to, but I'm so shy around other people I can't say anything to make friends! But you, Aeyoung......I feel like I've known you forever. That's why I knew I wanted you to be my BFF."

I just nodded along with her words. "Yeah...." I said quietly. "Me too.....friends, I mean....."

She beamed. "Yay! So you want to be my BFF too! I'm so happy! We can go shopping together, and there's this great ice cream place nearby, we can go visit there later. And maybe we can get a job together, I've always wanted one but I was too scared to do it myself. There's just so many things you can have fun doing with a friend than with a boyfriend or by yourself."

*************************************

My life changed when I became friends with Mihi. Even now, I could vividly remember every single adventure we've had as though it was only yesterday.

Saving her from the SHINee gang.

Baking treats with Beast.

Falling in love with Doojoon.

Becoming his girlfriend.

Helping them study for exams.

Mihi's drama with Hyunseung and the accident.

Meeting Haruhi and matchmaking her with Yoseob.

Meeting Teen Top.

Celebrating the new year together.

Giving them Valentine's day chocolates.

Celebrating Mihi's birthday.

Allying with SHINee and making more friends.

Battling the other gangs.

I became a new person. It was all because of Mihi. I am happy, happier than I've ever been before. But there was still something missing.

I still wanted my sister. Not the Aecha I knew now, but the Aecha I knew then. The sister who cried and held on my hand and pinky-promised that we'd be together forever and always.