"Oppa, I didn't see you afterwards." Suji pouted into Hyorin's phone, having lost hers in the debris. She leaned against the front gate where everyone was waiting for their parents to pick them up, wheeling their bicycles out or walking home.Minhyun had never broken a promise to her before and she was going to make sure he didn't start now, having been taught by her father that excessive leniency bred bad habits.

"I know. Abeoji felt the quake and sent people to pick me up. I tried to find you but they forced me to go."

"What did he say?" Suji's brows knitted together in concern. Minhyun had been feeling pressured by his father about their company affairs lately and Suji felt the need to stand up for her boyfriend, despite his father being the CEO of one of the largest conglomerates in the world.If she hadn't been sure of the man's approval, she would never have dared raise a brow against him.

"Nothing much. He just wanted to make sure I was alright. I heard about your friend, Minah. Is she alright?"

"Minah?" Her brows twitched even further together, "She's not really my friend, but she's fine. She just passed out from shock and blood loss."

"Alright."

"Will you pick me up?" Suji flashed Hyorin a quick smile as she looked on and turned away, hand covering over the receiver, words accusing yet her tone a cute whine, "You promised. You promised you'd walk me home. What if something happens on my way home?" She could almost hear him fall apart on the other end of the receiver, the short pause signifying the heavy burden placed upon his shoulders.

Of course he would cave. Her aegyo was her iron hold over the boy.

"Wait a second." His voice broke off in a burst of static and Suji frowned at the cellphone in annoyance. It was an old model, hardly worth anything these days.

She tossed it back to Hyorin and looked her up and down nonchalantly, "I need to get you a new phone Hyorin-ah. Yours has been outdated for several years."

The shorter girl looked up at her in a mixture of disbelief and excitement, "You're joking right? Seriously?"

Suji scoffed and rounded on her, hands on hips, "Of course! I'm Kim Suji! It's not like it's any trouble for me to get a new phone for you."

She felt a light tap on her shoulder and sighed before turning around. She was really getting quite sick of all these boys always getting in her- She blinked, unsure for a moment whether she was imagining the figure before her but the tall handsome boy grinning before her was so realistic and so utterly Minhyun that she couldn't believe she didn't recognise him from his touch alone.

"Oppa!" Suji threw her arms around his neck and felt his wrap around her waist and hold her tightly against him. She breathed in deeply, the light smell of his cologne mixed with the lingering fruity scent of his shampoo so distinctly familiar that it felt as though the day had never happened and they were simply about to go home together after another ordinary school day, "When did you get here? Were you here the whole time?"

"I was watching close by." She felt his chin move against her hair and knew that he was probably smiling, basking in her attention.

"I knew you wouldn't leave me." She patted his shoulder gently and pulled away.

Minhyun took her hand an interlinked her fingers with his before finally turning to their star struck company, "Have a nice day Hyomin-sshi."

He shot the girl a grin before leading Suji away, missing Hyorin's whisper of "That's not my name…"

The walk home from school was always a moment of joy for Suji since being able to walk beside Minhyun like an ordinary couple in public would change once Minho officially worked for the company. A reporter had once trailed them from school, taken pictures of them together and attempted to blackmail Minhyun's father by threatening to release them to the public. Within the hour, that reporter was charged with blackmail, child harassment, illegal distribution of personal information as well as a whole string of other offenses, some of which may or may not be true.

Since that time, not a single member of the paparazzi dared to touch Shin Corp's golden boy and his girl. At least, not until the new CEO, Minho, is crowned in a few weeks, in the light of their father's illness.

Despite Minhyun's popularity at school, he has never been noticed much throughout elementary and middle school, having been a late bloomer up till the age of fifteen. Throughout that time, he had been Suji's shadow, known only as Kim Suji's childhood friend.

A weed in her garden; a waste of her time.

He was sickly looking, as though a puff of air could blow him away. Nobody ever understood why Suji defended him, sat with him, turned to him whenever she was happy or sad, at any time of the day. It made no sense that a girl who had everything going for her would pay any attention to a nobody half a head shorter than her, let alone treat him like something that mattered. What nobody had even considered was that he did matter to her.

He was her whole world.