Inguk’s brows rose in surprise, his eyes widening ever so slightly as he stared at Yoonhye. “You know each other?”

Yoonhye gave him a small smile as she said, “We went to school together, isn’t that right Aerin-ah?” The smile on her lips was innocent enough, to anyone else anyway. I took a step back, fear stabbing in my gut.

“Really? Wow, small world,” Inguk said, obviously astonished, as he pushed his hands into his pockets. “So why didn’t you tell me when I showed you her picture?” the eldest asked, his gaze focused on Yoonhye. I finally managed to pull my eyes from the small woman.

She tucked a lock of her curled hair behind her ear. “I wanted it to be a surprise. Is it a surprise?” Yoonhye asked, looking at me with an expectant look. I swallowed thickly, taking another step back.

“Yoonhye –” a voice from behind me started, but stopped when I collided with a firm chest. Warm hands settled on my shoulders as a gentle voice said a soft ‘sorry’. I jumped, quickly taking two steps to the side and out of the other’s grasp. I leaned against the refreshment table and pressed a hand to my pounding heart.

This was a bad idea. I screwed my eyes closed, taking a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart. I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder again. I jumped, turning to face Inguk with large and frightened eyes.

He placed both of his hands on my shoulders. “Take a deep breath,” Inguk commanded. I followed his instructions and slowly exhaled after a moment. Inguk my hair. “Good, just calm down. I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered. I nodded, closing my eyes to calm myself.

“Omo, are you okay Aerin-ah?” Yoonhye asked, standing at Inguk’s side.

“Aerin?” The voice from only moments ago spoke up. A voice that was, now, all too familiar as it called my name. My heart flew into my throat, choking the breath from my lungs. I struggled to breathe as I looked to the owner of that voice. My shocked and wide eyes met his and, before I even realized it, all of the memories I locked away flooded into my mind as we stared at one another.

2005

My parents always told me that if you're nice to others they will be nice back. It was the typical ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’ philosophy. My entire life I have been a good girl, never doing the wrong thing and always keeping my head down. Most people thought me to be extremely shy and lonely, but in all honesty I was happy by myself; or at least I thought I was.

I was born in Seoul, but my parents moved to America when I was seven. During the six years we lived in Los Angeles I didn’t make one friend. I didn’t think I needed one. Aside from the language barrier, which was very hard for me to overcome, I also had Kibum back in Korea; a friend I’ve had since we were in diapers.

My twin, on the other hand, didn’t have any problems fitting in with the other kids and exercised his lacking English skills unabashedly. Haeyun and I have always been opposites. He’s loud, exuberant and fun while I’m quiet and pretty much the stereotypical recluse. While he wasn’t afraid to make mistakes or look foolish, I always felt like I would die from embarrassment if I said even the tiniest thing wrong.

I was never as relieved, or excited, as I was when I found out we were moving back to Korea. My parents told me it was my chance to have a new start, to make friends and finally start acting like a kid. At the precipice of my childhood, going into puberty, I really believed them. After moving back to Seoul my twin decided to go to an all-boys school with Kibum while my parents enrolled me in a private school. It was one of those escalator schools with an associated high school and college. However, things didn’t get better. In fact, they got a lot worse.

Have you ever had someone who hated you for no apparent reason, other than the fact that you existed? That someone, for me, was named Kim Yoonhye. She was queen bee and the most popular girl of all the first year middle schoolers. I don’t even know what I did to make her loath the mere sight of me the way she did. Nonetheless, she abused me every chance she got. And, though it started out as her, it soon turned into her friends, then a three desk radius around me until eventually it was the entire first year class.

I can’t say that I didn’t care how I was treated, but I didn’t let it dictate how I lived my life either. I went to school, I studied, I ate lunch with my homeroom teacher, I went home, and I studied more. Of course there was the occasional time when someone would lock me in the bathrooms or in a closet. Even though I was terrified there wasn't much I could do. I was afraid that if I told anyone the bullying would get worse and if I told my parents would they think of me differently? Would I become even more pathetic and damaged in their eyes? Even if I told someone, there was no guarantee that things would change if I went to a different school. Instead, it would just be someone else.

At a certain point Yoonhye and her group of terrorists became predictable, always trying to catch me alone, and because they were predictable I wasn’t as scared of them. I could avoid being alone by staying in the classroom or staying with teachers. Of course it didn’t always work, especially when she managed to form a mob to harass me, but for the most part I was safe.

My little world became a little bigger in autumn of my second year in middle school. However, because my world involved more than just me, when I was the only person left again I realized just how alone I really was.

“Class, this is Kang Minhyuk. He just transferred from Jeongbal Middle School in Ilsan. Please introduce yourself,” the homeroom teacher, best known as Hara sem, set her gaze on the new boy and motioned toward the class.

“Ah, yeah…” He bowed and when he straightened he had a small smile. “I’m Kang Minhyuk. I just moved to this area for my father’s work. Please take care of me.”

Hara sem nodded, looking down at the roster. “Class rep,” she called. Slowly I raised my arm and stood up.

“Y-yes?” I stammered.

“Aerin-ah, show Minhyuk-ssi around during lunch,” Hana sem stated, not giving me a chance to refuse before she turned to the new student. “You can take the empty seat in the back,” Hara sem stated and the boy nodded, pulling the strap of his backpack tighter on his shoulder as he made his way to his seat.

Slowly I sat back down, my mind reeling. I tried my best to pay attention to the morning lectures, but with lunch quickly approaching my nerves were becoming increasingly rattled. When the chime sounded, signaling it was lunch time, my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach and my mouth suddenly felt like it was full of sand.

“Hi,” the gentle timbre of a masculine voice greeted from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin, not expecting him to come to me so soon. I bit my lip, turning in my seat. Silently I nodded a greeting. I walked to the cubbies at the back of the class and grabbed the lunch box I packed this morning. When I turned around I was surprised to see the new guy standing only a foot or so away.

“Um… d-do you want to eat lunch b-before I show you around?” I stuttered, mentally kicking myself for being so nervous.

“I guess,” he shrugged.

“Hi, Minhyuk right?” a sickeningly sweet voice floated through the air, a voice that caused my heart to leap into my throat and unease to twist in my gut. Yoonhye stood behind Minhyuk, one hand lifted to twirl a strand of her curled black hair around her index finger. Minhyuk turned to her, giving her a once over. “I’m Kim Yoonhye,” she gave him a gentle smile. “I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with my friends and I.”

Minhyuk glanced over at me before looking back to Yoonhye. “I think we were just about to go on a tour of the school. Maybe some other time,” Minhyuk replied.

“If that’s the case, then why don’t I show you around instead?” Yoonhye offered. “You wouldn’t mind, would you Aerin-ah?” she had a sweet smile on her face, but I could tell from the slight tilt of her eyebrow that she expected me to comply.

“I-it’s – ” I started my shaky reply before the new guy jumped in.

“I don’t want to get Aerin-ssi here in trouble, so I’ll just have her take me around the school. Thanks for the offer though,” Minhyuk gave her a smile before turning to me and motioning for me to start the tour.

I gulped before stiffly walking toward the door. When I looked over my shoulder, Yoonhye’s eyes were narrowed as she shot daggers at me with her gaze. I shivered and snapped my attention to the front.

“Is she always like that?” Minhyuk asked, running his fingers through his hair.

“I-I guess…” I didn’t know how to answer. It’s not like Yoonhye and I were friends, so I didn’t know how she acted around guys she just met.

Minhyuk sighed, looking at the signs hanging above the doors. “So, where are the important locations?”

“Um… the art class room is at the end of this hall,” I stated, pointing down the corridor and officially beginning my explanation of all the locations. I lead him upstairs and showed him the science, home economics and music class rooms then took him down to the first floor to guide him to the cafeteria and ended the tour at the gymnasium.

“What clubs does this school have?”

I bit my lip, going over the list of clubs in my head. “W-well there are academic clubs like the math, science, and literature clubs. But we have art club, music club, an anime club, and even some sports and martial arts clubs,” I explained, venturing a glance at him. “D-do you want to join a club?”

“Well I was in the music club at my old school,” Minhyuk replied.

“W-we can go t-talk to the p-president if you want,” I mumbled.

“It’s okay, I can talk to them later. You’re probably hungry,” Minhyuk declined, offering me a small smile. My face felt hot and I looked down at my toes. I found it hard to believe that a boy just smiled at me. “I’ll see you in the classroom I guess,” he said, turning to leave. With his back to me, I had enough courage to finally look at him. I stood watching his retreating form, slightly dazed, until he disappeared through the glass doors of the school.

I quickly composed myself, reaching into the pocket of my blazer for my phone. There was still a long time before lunch period was over. With a heavy sigh, I made my way to the teacher’s office to eat lunch, like I did every day.

The rest of the school day passed without any problems. When the school day was over I led Minhyuk to the music room, where the music club was having a meeting. Minhyuk thanked me for all of my help before I left for the day.

An hour after school I sat in my room, book in my lap with blank pages staring at me temptingly. My brother and best friend trudged in half an hour after me, dropping their bags on the floor and jumped onto Haeyun’s bed, groaning in unison. After relaxing for a few minutes they both went to change into casual clothes.

My mother poked her head in at some point and gave a plate of fruits to Haeyun. As I started transposing the image in my head onto the paper Haeyun and Kibum started blabbering about their school day. Apparently there was a lot of gossip going around, for an all-boys school. Normally I absently listened to their conversations, never really having anything to add. However, when they looked at me to ask me if anything new happened at school I told them that there was a new boy in my class.

“A new guy in your class?” Kibum asked, sitting on my twin’s pink comforter.

“Is he cute?” Haeyun asked, plopping down next to our best friend after preening himself at the vanity. I shrugged noncommittally.

“What kind of reaction is that?” Kibum raised an eyebrow at me, grabbing a strawberry off the plate that was placed on the nightstand. “Is he nice to look at?”

“I guess… he seems pretty nice,” I responded, idly doodling in my sketchbook. “He plays percussion instruments and joined the music club today,” I stated, which was pretty much the only thing that I knew about Minhyuk.

“You’re seriously no help,” Kibum pouted. I bit back a smile as I continued to draw.

The next day at school there weren’t many issues. Yoonhye did catch me on my way into school, obviously displeased with what happened yesterday. Before she had a chance to get too riled up I was saved by Hana sem who told me that she needed help with some homework sheets. I followed the teacher without any complaints, instead I silently sang my praise to my homeroom teacher.

Up until lunch, the rest of my day went smoothly. Minhyuk arrived a few minutes before homeroom and so was busy pulling his books out of his bag. Yoonhye, whom I’m assuming had been chatting with her friends in the hall, took her seat only moments before the bell sounded and Hana sem entered.

When lunch finally arrived I made my way to the back of the class to get my lunch and was just heading out the door when it slammed open. I took a step back in surprise. Haeyun and Kibum stood, clad in my school’s uniform, looking strangely passable as students. The only thing that made them noticeable was the fact that everyone was whispering and staring. If there was one thing to know about my twin and best friend, they never were the kinds of people you can ignore. No matter where they go, they always draw attention. And here they were, looking like the pretties flower boys this school had ever seen.

“Rin-ah, just who we were looking for,” Kibum said, his lips turned into a bright smile. I vaguely noted girls sighing behind me and was convinced that if this was a manga these two would have flowers and stars behind them.

Kibum took a step forward and draped his arm around my shoulders, leaning close to my ear. “So, which one of these guys is the new kid?” he asked. I blushed, feeling all eyes on us. I looked over to Haeyun, who was scanning all the faces in the class. When Haeyun’s eyes locked onto something behind me I knew he must have figured out who it was. He moved to walk past Kibum and I but was intercepted by Yoonhye.

She shyly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Hi, you two must be new here. I’m Kim Yoonhye,” she greeted. “What are your names?”

I stiffened, Kibum and I both having followed Haeyun with our eyes. Haeyun looked at me and I just pressed my lips into a thin line, my throat felt tight. Oh god, what would she say when she found out that he was my brother? I could already tell from the slight setting of her jaw as she sent a look toward me and Kibum that she wasn’t happy with how affectionate he was being with me.

“Uh… we’re just here to find someone,” Haeyun replied, avoiding her question.

“Who are you looking for? Maybe I could help?” she offered, taking a small step toward my brother.

“We want to know who has stolen our innocent Rinnie’s heart from us,” Kibum spoke up, placing his hands on my cheeks. “Rin-ah, how could you let someone else steal your gaze so quickly?” Kibum breathed, leaning close to my face, causing me to blush. In a split second he pulled me against his chest and looked at Haeyun. “Yunnie, find the scoundrel so we can take back our princess’s heart,” his words were obviously over exaggerated.

“Don’t worry Bum-ah, I’ve spotted the culprit!” Haeyun replied with his own acting overdone. I seriously just wan