Chapter One

"Can uh, somebody help me...please?" Taeyeon's voice echoed in the metal cylindrical bin. Of her upper body the only thing she could manage to move was her hands as they stuck out from the rim. She kicked her legs. "Please?!" She winced as her voice rebounded off the metal and struck her ears. I'm doomed. She thought, trying to not breathe in too deep the not so appetizing stench of the bin. They could have at least tipped it out before shoving me into it.

"So that's where you'd gotten to." Taeyeon heard a familiar voice and strong hands grip and pull her from the bin.

"Ah good god! Fresh air!" Taeyeon in breath.

"Geez, you were stuck so tight I half expected there to be a popping noise when I pulled you out." Taeyeon scoffed.

"And I'm surprised that there isn't a hollow whistling emitting from your empty skull every time there's a light breeze."

"I resent that. You seen Yoong? I was originally looking for her when I recognised those short legs of yours sticking out of the bin." Yuri peeked over into the bin and scrunched up her face. "They could have at least emptied it out before throwing you into it." Yuri turned to take Taeyeon's arm. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up...and maybe get you some deodorant too.."

~

"But isn't that interesting?" Taeyeon asked excitedly as Yuri picked out an orange peel from the formers hair.

"Sure Taeng. You know what else is interesting? My nana's method for cleaning her dentures. Now, hold still and close your eyes, you're about to get a deodorant bombing." Yuri and Taeyeon simultaneously took deep breaths. Yuri held out her can and started spraying as soon as she saw Taeyeon close her eyes. Once Yuri had used up about half of her can the two quickly grabbed their bags and ran for the exit. Bursting out into the fresh air of the hall way they started towards their usual spot for lunch, they only had half an hour left to finish eating.

"Going somewhere?" Yuri and Taeyeon froze mid-step, turning around simultaneously to see a familiar face. An unfortunately familiar face.

"Hey...sir." Taeyeon said nervously while Yuri sported a lopsided and anxious grin.

"You two weren't smoking on school property were you?"

"What?" Taeyeon was confused but she could see why he'd think that. Considering he had it out for them, mainly Taeyeon herself, for some reason.

"Actually-" Yuri started but was cut off.

"Empty your bags."

"No, you have no right and not enough proof against us to warrant a bag search." Taeyeon challenged.

"Oh, is that so? How about I take you two to the principal's office then?"

"You could do that, but that would simply be a waste of your time and not to mention mine and Yuri's considering we have less than half of our lunch left before we have to continue our boorish and tedious classes." Yuri stole a glance at Taeyeon, this would either get them off or get them in more trouble. Yuri fiddled with her bag straps anxiously.

Taeyeon had a habit of arguing with everyone over pretty much anything. This caused her to get picked on a lot. It was hardly the girls fault for having educated opinions and a flaring temper. She did tend to get on people's nerves though and the people who were deemed popular in this school would have none of her crap. But Taeyeon stood her ground, she was not one to be bullied by anyone without putting up a fight. And boy was she bullied.

"Principal's office! Now!" Mr Kang yelled over the top of Taeyeon. She changed her argument and continued on.

"On the pretence of what? 'Because I said so'? That's not good enough."

"Why you annoying, disobedient little...person." He spat the last part. Yuri tried to hold in her laughter. Taeyeon had this effect on a lot of people, not many knew how to deal with her in a way that enables them to get anywhere with her. Mr Kang was one of those ignorant, lost souls amongst the many. "I'm calling your parents!" He exclaimed.

"Go ahead." Taeyeon challenged. Taeyeon had no parents. She lived with her grandmother in her one bedroom house. Technically she didn't live in  the house per se. She lived in the garage out the back of the house. Plus her grandmother had no land line.

"Mr Kang? Is there a problem here?" A gentle voice came from behind Mr Kang's large frame. He turned around.

"Ah, Ms Ahn. There's no problem here." He faked a smile. Ms Ahn was pretty. Really pretty. Taeyeon deduced that he probably had a thing for the other teacher.

"Taeyeon's being argumentative again?"

"..Yeah. Just a tad." Taeyeon and Yuri noticed his jaw clench and unclench.

"I can deal with her if you want. You can go and enjoy the rest of your lunch." She smiled sweetly, Mr Kang started babbling.

"Oh, well. Uh, um. Yeah, okay. Very sweet, that's very kind of you Ms Ahn, thank you." He finally managed to get his words out and walked away. Ms Ahn turned back to Yuri and Taeyeon, her smile falling from her lips.

"What did you do now?" She questioned exasperatedly, folding her arms.

"He thought we were smoking. In reality this one got dumped into a bin. Again." Yuri explained. Ms Ahn clicked her tongue.

"Get on the nerves of those cheerleaders again huh?" She chuckled.

"Yeah. Just a tad." Taeyeon scratched the back of her head sheepishly. Ms Ahn was one of the very few who knew how to get past Taeyeon's sardonic walls. Taeyeon found herself admiring Ms Ahn for that.

"What truth did you confront them with this time?" She asked. Taeyeon also admired her because she seemed to have a sick, sadistic fascination with verbally thrashing someone. Who knows, maybe Taeyeon was looking into her future as she talked to Miss Ahn.

"I heard one of them raving about how her boyfriend supposedly loved her. I thought I should try and show her the light. Her and her friends didn't take it too well." Ms Ahn let out a cackle.

"Good work. I'm sure she's still as ignorant as ever. Anyway, I'll let you get back to lunch, I'll see you in  class later."

"Bye!" Yuri and Taeyeon said simultaneously as they turned around to leave. Now they only had around ten minutes of lunch left. Taeyeon frowned as she checked her watch.

"And there's still no sign of Yoong?" She murmured, glancing at Yuri.

"Nope. I swear that kid is like a lost animal half the time."

"Well she's got them thin bandy legs and large eyes, she could be a baby deer."

"Like Bambi!" Yuri exclaimed with a chuckle.

"Bambi's parents die." A voice from behind them grumbled.

"Oh hey Yoong, where have you been all lunch?" Taeyeon snickered nervously.

"Not attending the funeral of my parents." She said as she pushed between Yuri and Taeyeon slowing down to their pace.

"I haven't seen you all day!" Yuri exclaimed, wrapping her arm around Yoona's neck and pulling her in for an uncomfortable and crushing hug.

"Yeah, I came late, my bad." Yoona said and Yuri released her.

"How come, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just...had a dentists appointment."

"Ah.." Yuri mumbled. It was common knowledge amongst Yoona's friends - and the dentist's office - that Yoona didn't like dentists at all.

"Did you stay for more than five minutes?" Taeyeon asked, looking up at her tall friend.

"Yeah actually. I saw someone from school and I ended up talking to them for a bit so I lasted around ten minutes. Then she got called in. So I fled."

"Wow, who was it that you talked to? They must be pretty amazing to have you of all people distracted enough to last more than five minutes in the waiting room." Taeyeon chuckled.

Yoona went quiet.

"Yoong?" Yuri prodded. A smirk came to her lips. "Yoooongiie. Who was it you were talking to?" Yuri crouched down a little so she was shorter than Yoona and looking up at her like a puppy, she jutted out her bottom lip. "Yooongie!" Yuri continued her usually heart melting displays of aegyo until Yoona pushed her face away.

"No one okay?" She grumbled and walked a bit faster. Taeyeon looked from Yuri to Yoona and back again. Well, first off Yoona was in a weird mood and secondly she didn't cave in to Yuri's cuteness. This was a strange day.

As Yuri chased after a disgruntled Yoona, calling out in her aegyo filled voice she failed to notice she'd caught someone's attention. Taeyeon noticed though. Jessica Jung; the most popular person who wasn't on the cheerleading team.

She wasn't on the cheerleading team for a few reasons. She outwardly maintained that it was because she was too lazy to do that kind of thing. But in reality she secretly despised the fact that you had to push around pom poms, kick your legs up so high that you showed beyond your skirt and have to date a person on the football team fitting for you status on the cheer squad. Hell, she didn't even like men in that way, there was no way she was going to let one of those unintelligible baboons touch her. Of course, if her 'friends' knew the real answer then she'd be pretty much shunned. Well if they knew the real Jessica at all she'd be shunned. So for a fleeting second Jessica let herself stare at a girl she truly admired and let her mind wander to the possibilities. In that fleeting second she did something that was really rare. She smiled. And Taeyeon saw it all. She scoffed cynically. Was she planning something? Was she going to hurt Yuri? Taeyeon thought back to when she was being dumped head first into the trash can. Jessica hadn't done anything, she just sat back and watched, an uninterested expression on her face. Maybe she wasn't planning to harm Yuri, but Taeyeon made a mental note to keep her eye out for her. Just in case.

~

Upon returning home Taeyeon realised it was Thursday as her grandmother wasn't at home. She'd be out pretty late. The woman sure loved her bingo. Taeyeon went into the back door of the house first, to check that Moo had food and water. Moo was her grandmother's cat. He was called Moo because he had a black, almost too perfect, stereotypically French moustache right under his nose. He was a completely white cat other than that. Taeyeon wondered if her grandmother dyed the cats fur to keep it that way. But that'd be too much effort probably.

Taeyeon went to get more biscuits for Moo. She opened the cupboard and was descended on by an ethereal white blur. She screamed and fell back, landing hard on her tailbone.

"God damn it Moo!" She exclaimed as the cat jumped up on the table, perching itself above Taeyeon and looking down at her expectantly. "Can I at least get pats?" Taeyeon asked as she stood up and reached for Moo. Moo leant his head away, an indignant look on his face. Taeyeon sighed and rummaged through the cupboard looking for the cats biscuits. His tail swayed and curled in anticipation as Taeyeon poured the biscuits into the container.

"There, you jerk. Least you could do is let me pat you." She grumbled as she put away the box of food and made her way out back to the garage.

She opened the roller door wide, letting natural light and fresh air in. It tended to get a bit hot during the summer but it was better than sleeping on the couch in her grandmothers lounge room.

The garage was like her own apartment. It had everything except a kitchen. Though she did have a pretty big mini fridge in there. When you walked in the roller door straight ahead was her grandparents old Volkswagen Kombi van from the 70's. It was dark blue and white, the boot was constantly opened and Taeyeon had put her mattress in the back to save room putting an actual bed in the garage. In the second part of the garage next to the Kombi van (her bedroom); was the lounge room area. She'd set up a television, gaming consoles and her computer, she even had a desk for studying in the corner, though she usually just used the couch. There was a renovated bathroom behind the lounge room, it used to only have a toilet and a sink but Taeyeon's grandmother had paid to install a shower in there as well. Also a few extra windows around the garage so it wasn't so dank and musty.

Taeyeon dumped her bag on the couch and kicked off her shoes. She decided she'd play some games before studying. She was still ecstatic that she'd found her old Nintendo 64 in her grandmothers attic. It was a bit temperamental but in her opinion it was worth the effort. She decided to play a few rounds of Super Mario Smash Bro's. But it wasn't as much fun as when she played it with Yoona and Yuri. She figured she could get some practice in though so she could beat them next time they all played.

"God damn it!" Taeyeon exclaimed with a pout, tossing the controller onto the couch next to her. "Stupid master hand douchbag jerk." She grumbled.

An odd noise took her from her displeased thoughts. It was..what was it? Taeyeon got up and stood out in the backyard, trying to pin point where the noise was coming from. It sounded so sweet and perfect. It seemed to be coming from beyond her back fence. The closer she got to the fence the louder the noise was. It sounded like someone was singing. Taeyeon smiled, their voice was amazing.

 She jumped up, grabbing onto the top of the fence, she pushed up with her feet, groaning with the immense effort. Taeyeon wasn't heavy, but she wasn't that strong either. She panted as she hooked her arms over the top, the wood jutted into her armpits uncomfortably.

Taeyeon managed to see -through her short sightedness- a girl sitting on the back porch. Her legs dangled above what seemed like a small pond and she rested her head on second rung of the railing. She didn't seem to be trying to sing too loud, perhaps her voice was just naturally that way. Taeyeon squinted, trying to see the girl better. She looked about the same age as Taeyeon was, but she'd never seen her before. Taeyeon struggled to keep herself up, the pain in her arms was searing and her muscles were getting weaker each passing second. She felt herself slipping. She tried to crane her neck as much as she could to see the girl some more. Then she saw the sky. She landed on a fallen branch, it snapped loudly, she cried out in pain. The singing stopped.

"Is..someone there?" A gentle voice called out. Crap! Taeyeon thought as she scrambled to her feet. I've been had! She hobbled around the front of the garage so she wouldn't be seen, holding her lower back in pain.

"Honey! Can you come finishing unpacking the things from your room!" Taeyeon heard a mature female voice call out faintly from the house.

"Coming!" The girl called out, the back door closed a few moments later.

Taeyeon caught her breath. That was a close one, she made a mental note to be more stealthy next time. Wait? Next time? She shook her head. Since when did I contemplate stalking people? She smacked herself on the forehead and walked back into her garage.

Taeyeon found herself missing the voice she'd heard singing. She couldn't even concentrate on study. She went through her iPod hoping that the song the girl was singing was on there. It was a sad song, in English. Which she was topping the class in at school but she wasn't perfect. She decided to Google the lyrics she'd heard.

She'd finally found them, as she read she heard the girls voice clear as day in her head.

I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing.

Taeyeon started translating the lyrics the best she could from the top of her head.

Just prayin' to a god that I don't believe in.

'Cause I got time while she got freedom.

Taeyeon frowned. This was a really sad song. It sort of suited the solemn look about the girl though.

'Cause when a heart breaks no it don't break even.