Seryung felt anger bubble up inside her. They were all so fake, more so than she pretended to be. Could they read her too? Did they pretend they didn't notice when they did? Did they see how her brother suffered on his own? What did they really think? What did everyone think? Or did people ever just stop to think? It vexed her more than she liked and frustration colored her face.

“I don’t like her!” Seryung declared pouting her full lips causing them to plump further. The principal's intentions were wrong. Sehun was being reprimanded for helping them. He’d done wrong the day before but this time he'd been right to do what he’d done.

“It’s actually your fault for hanging out with Hana!” Her brother retorted diplomatically. Sehun recalled the depth of the principal's eyes and shuddered. He’d like to think it wasn’t because he’d indirectly sided with Hana who was now a weed spoiling the garden.

“She’s going to become your wife one day. You can’t talk about her like that Oh Sehun.” Seryung quipped cheekily.

“Why did they do that? Am I their step child?” Sehun blurted.

Hana paced slowly behind them. Where were they going? She had no destination of her own and reckoned it was safer to follow them rather than venture on her own. The two of them were indestructible and they'd both helped her. She was flattered yet she said nothing because she didn't want to thank them. She didn't know of their intention. What if they were worse> She gazed at the back of Sehun's dark head. He was taller than his sister by half a foot. He was taller than her by slightly more.

She wondered what it would be like to have a real brother. Her 'brother,' was too far out of reach to help her. Regardless Zihua would come to her aid. All she had to do was say the word and he would appear. A wave of nostalgia swept through her. She missed him, her ‘brother.’

She longed to tell him what was happening. He would be upset and perhaps he might even take the next plane from China, but she didn't want to worry him like that. He was reckless in the face of turbulence. He lost his rational when he wanted to protect someone and Hana didn't want to make a social outcast out of him too.

She folded her arms and considered Sehun. Ever since he’d rescued her she felt self conscious around him. A queer feeling that made her stomach flip. She wondered what he really thought of her. Was she only a stranger he would have to marry? Did she ignite his curiosity? Could she be called attractive in his eyes?

Hana stopped there. She wasn't the least bit attractive with her long unkempt hair and uncomfortably awkward nature. Was that why her friends had taken to ostracizing her? Had she not won their hearts? They certainly never won hers. How did someone win a heart? Could she win Sehun's?

She paused in her step before she could bump into Sehun's back. A waft of lavender invaded her senses and sped her pulse. She stopped thinking and began blinking, fluttering her lashes rapidly. It was only then that she noticed the siblings mention her name. They were discussing her as if she weren’t there. Her cheeks reddened. Maybe, she was just invisible to them.

As if she’d read stray thoughts, Seryung turned to look at Hana who was now standing a good distance away from them with eyes visibly upset. She darted her gaze away from them and Seryung was reminded of someone from a distant past.

“Aren’t you coming?” She asked gently.

Sehun stiffened. His gaze flitted in search of something unnatural. To him she came as a gradient of light and at other times he imagined he could see her. However there was no ghost, only Hana in whom Seryung was seeing someone else.

He tilted his head to look at the girl who he'd never noticed before. Granted he'd never noticed many people but it was unacceptable that he'd failed to recall her face from class. His memory needed to step up.

“Yo loser, hurry up! We haven’t got all day. I have a ridiculous punishment to look after.”

Three sentences in total; the most he’d spoken to a fellow student that day. Hana cringed slightly and nodded. He watched her appear at his side like some kind of innocent doll. It made him step away in ire. He didn’t need her to play timorous as she walked alongside him.

The Angel of Healing revoked darkness. Upon appearance he seemed lazy however he was apt in duty. Appearing in multiple places at once, he cleansed minds of evil thoughts as Seryung slipped into her class quietly.

She felt her classmate’s stares on her as she headed to her seat. The whole school had bore witness to her open kindness towards Hana. They were at a loss for everything except words. She heard them whisper about it, pointing when they thought she couldn’t see them.

It was almost unheard of to side with a bullied student. No one wanted that scrub of bad luck. To help a recluse meant becoming one with it and who would want that?

Seryung ignored it and flipped open a textbook to distract herself. Becoming the victim never occurred to her. She imagined what it would be like however there was no picture to match. Would anyone isolate her? She was a force to be reckoned with; she wouldn’t take them lightly and might even fight back. They were no match for her, in her opinion.

-

Hana twiddled her fingers wondering if it was okay to speak to Sehun. She felt shy walking next to him. There were questions she wanted to ask related to the marriage but she was afraid that she might evoke his anger like last time.

Sehun was too deep in thought to notice Hana peeping at him curiously. He was thinking about ‘her’ again. Then he thought about her boyfriend. From there his thoughts diverged to his sister and himself. After which he turned his neck to lock eyes with Hana. She gulped. They were so close she could see her reflection in brooding dark realms.

"What is it?" He inquired tilting his head. His tone was stoic and matched his appearance. Hana blinked and lowered her head. "Nothing," she muttered and bit her lip. The chance she'd wanted had just arrived yet she was pushing it away like a coward.

"Wait!" She held his sleeve as he turned to leave. Sehun paused and flicked her fingers off his blazer. He dusted it in disgust and turned to her once more. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you about the m-"

"There's nothing to talk about. It won't be happening."

"Why not?"

Sehun chuckled sarcastically and eyed her from head to toe. She was different to the normal lot in appearance. Her skirt was neither rolled up nor was it cut short. Her dark hair wasn’t dyed and was tied back instead of floating around her waist. Sehun paused his inspection and glanced into her dark chocolate gaze once more. There was a pertaining innocence about them that Sehun didn't like. "Because," he replied crossing his arms to give her a condescending glare at her.

Hana bobbed her head, unsure under his hostile gaze. He seemed to want to shoot lasers at her. If his eyes had that ability she would have been a molten puddle sitting on the floor. She didn't understand this unfound aggression. However she forced a smile allowing her eyes to form crescents.

 "I didn't know that," she stated and emitted a strained laugh. She felt utterly flake and wondered how people did this. Quickly pressed her lips together and lowered her head once Sehun's gaze became increasingly disapproving.

 "Just what are you trying to prove?"

Hana shook her head vehemently causing short locks to fall astray. "Nothing. I just wanted to get to know you. Since we are- we’re going to get m-"

His hand muffled and the glare intensified into a frightening glower. "It's not going to happen so don't go putting your eggs in the wrong basket. I don't know how you did it but I'm going to stop it. That word, don’t ever try to use it again. That thing- I would never do that thing with you, understand! There is nothing between us and there never will be. If you want to survive school then you have to promise to drop that idea from your tiny brain."

Hana's eyes grew in her face. He was towering inches away from her. She felt his soft breath tickle her cheeks. He was trying to scare her but her heart was reacting the wrong way.

He pulled his hand from and stared at it before declaring that he needed to wash it leaving behind a stunned Hana whose thoughts were glued to Sehun and whose feet were glued to the floor.

-

Sehun considered his life choices with every of the cleaning brush. He’d just fathomed how large each classroom was. Each one of them came equipped with approximately thirty sets of desks and chairs much to his discontent. This excluded the teachers’ obnoxious desk that was pesky to wipe under.

In their school there was no such thing as ‘tidy up.’ They were the children of government officials and inheritors of large-scale businesses. ‘Cleaning’ was not a term in their dictionary. The maids and housekeepers always did it and in school there were cleaners. However when being punished one was required to exert effort the commoner way.

Sehun might not have minded as much if it were only a few rooms alas there were many. His period of reflection was concluding that it’d been a mistake to help Hana from her bind. Getting involved with her only brought trouble. It was a bother.

His task consisted of sweeping. It might have been a hassle had the rooms not already been fairly tidy. Unlike the pigs who shared his classroom, the other students were tidy people. It was strange to think that way. It might have been more believable to imagine he had a fairy godmother frolicking around somewhere. Whether it was the work of his fan club or some other entity he didn’t care to find out.

The sticky notes pasted to the windows damped his mood. Sehun groaned at the prospect of an increased workload. He tried to gather as many as possible with a swing of his fist. He recognized the fancy scrawl. It was similar to someone he once knew. ‘Yoon Raemi.’ For a second he felt his heart plummet to the ground. Carefully he smoothed the paper he’d crushed.

Upon closer inspection it wasn’t her writing. It was a cheap imitation that’d been practiced with immense care. So brilliant was the impersonation that each of the pen reminded Sehun of Yoon Raemi.

Memories of her flooded the plains of his mind so strongly that he could almost smell the familiar scent of the lavender that hung around her courtesy of the plant she cherished so much.

Although she was gone, he’d salvaged the plant that she took great pains to care for. It sat on his windowsill, wilting, sorrowfully almost as if it were mourning for its owner. 

Sehun oppa! Good luck!^^

Oppa I cleaned a little on my way home! Good luck <3

Oppa I love you!

Oppa is suffering because of the loser right? Oppa have strength! The loser kid will get what she deserves!

Oppa when will you make me your girlfriend?^_<

  ‘Oppa. Oppa. Oppa…. Am I your older brother?’  Sehun grimaced at the notes and scrunched them within his fist. Those fanatic girls had given him more work to do!

He proceeded to tear the notes apart. No cheap imitation of Raemi could possibly take her place in his heart. He hated it! He hated being reminded of her. She was everything he’d wanted. Yoon Raemi had been perfect! He shuddered to think of her frigid body buried deep under the ground.

She wasn’t someone he could forget. Yoon Raemi’s inscription on Sehun’s heart remained strong. They say time heals but time doesn’t erase memories. Time will try to weaken them but can’t destroy bonds associated with them.

Sehun had persistently spent much of his youth chasing after Raemi and she had continuously refused all his advances. The older girl was perplexed with her situation and threatened to cut off all communication with him if he, once again, dared to meddle with her boyfriend. Sehun had been young and immature back then. He would follow Raemi and her boyfriend on their dates and keeping them under cryptic surveillance. He'd also had his fair share of arguments with her boyfriend and had compared himself against the guy more than once. If he were to go back in time, he probably would have done the same because in his mind no one deserved Raemi as much as he did.

Sehun had just entered middle school when it had happened and Raemi didn’t have a chance to enter high school. She’d passed just a few days before. Since then he’d hardened his heart from everyone. He'd mourned a great deal and done things that frightened his parents and made his sister cry. His heart still grieved for her.

On the day of Raemi's death Sehun had argued with her. She had been trying to negotiate with him but Sehun had been stubborn. They had separated on unfavorable terms. The next he'd heard of her was that she'd passed away in a horrific accident, one that involved gangsters and a blind car. After that Sehun had closed up. He never wanted love after he'd lost his only love and for Sehun there was no other. Hence he stayed away from the female population and their irritating ways.

How terrified must she have been when they closed in on her? Or when the hammer had come in contact with her smooth cheeks, crunching those pearly white teeth and staining her porcelain skin with her own blood? How desperate must she have been when she ran away from them in cold fear only to be hit by a car?

He’d wanted to strangle the driver in court. How could that man so simply state that he’d forgotten to turn on his headlights? He hadn’t seen the girl. And the girl hadn’t seen him. How could he smile sheepishly and have the nerve to feel embarrassed? He was a murderer! Sehun shook with anger.

The courtroom scene, the man’s indifferent shrug as he was sentenced; it was all so vivid! The perpetrators with the hammer had escaped into the darkness and still had not been caught! The driver was sentenced to prison but was later released early due to ‘good behavior.’

Sehun let out an estranged shriek. He hated being reminded of her so cruelly. Eyes b with tears he unlocked the window and allowed the cremated remains of paper to disperse. He watched them go keeping his grip tight on the ledge and allowed himself to silently cry for her. 

Fans? He didn’t need them. He didn’t need sticky notes, he didn’t need chocolates, he didn’t need gifts and he most certainly didn’t need confessions. He hated confessions the most!

Those overly social girls with their annoying laughter never accepted his rejections. So what else could he do except pretend to 'date' them? Date was just a term. Nothing had ever come out of it. Sehun had never even held hands with the girls he'd 'dated.' They would take selfies and pretend they were an ideal couple but reality was different. Still, the girls were always content to know that Sehun had acknowledged them as 'date worthy' because Oh Sehun didn't date just anyone. He was very elusive and that quality made him all the more desirable.

 To them he was a trophy to hang around their arms; a symbol of grandeur and neither party was serious. No. The girls that tried to be serious were worse! They wanted devotion. They were needy and troublesome. They wanted him wrapped around their finger with a smile and they wanted adherence to their every demand. He hated them all.