I was dumbfounded.

She looks exactly the same with that girl in my nightmare. Except that she doesn’t have cat ears, and her eyes were pretty normal.

‘Then why did I have that effect when I saw her?’ I thought.

Maybe I was just tired. We cleaned Granny’s apartment and it was a tiring work. And maybe I was just adjusting to the new atmosphere. Maybe I’m not that used to the pollution of the city yet. And maybe I stayed indoors too much. Tsk, I should’ve at least toured Seoul.

Right. That’s it is. How can I possibly think of that way? Am I hallucinating or something of that sort? I’m just thinking too much. It was a nightmare, just a bad dream. It can’t be true tsch. And besides, shape shifters aren’t real either.

“Shut your mouth and you lose.”

I was thinking too much I didn’t realized that my mouth was hanging open. And my brother just made me realize that so reflexively, I shut my mouth immediately. But that’s before I fully digested the whole sentence in my mind. Ugh I hate this. I lost again.

“Aigoo! Stop with your silly games oppa! It’s getting dead sick!” I whined but he didn’t mind and just laughed, humming a humorous song while shifting his shoulders as he dances.

I turned to face him, putting away my bangs over my forehead. Hovering myself in front of him I shut my eyes closed, preparing for the punishment execution. I seriously think this is unfair. Coz if ever I’ll win (though I never did won) these silly games, it’ll be useless. Coz I’m just a little 16 year old girl and I don’t have that much strength to give him the punishment. While on the other hand, this guy here, my brother is a bulky muscle babo, and he’s strong enough to dig a hole into my forehead with his forefinger.

I don’t even know why I still comply with the rules of these silly games, when I think it’s unfair. Maybe because it’s our father who started it, and we grew up doing these games until now. it has a sentimental value to us siblings. Sure enough we’ll be teaching our own kids these games. Like a tradition.

‘DdakBbam!’

A quick Korean style of flicking hits my forehead. I winced as the stingy feeling spreads throughout the spot. I once again felt his hellish ‘DdakBbam’ and his mercilessness. I’m starting to doubt if he really loves me as his younger sister. To reduce the pain, I rubbed my palm over the spot. Pouting.

“You’re a loser.” He mocked.

“And you’re evil!” I mocked back glaring at his amused face.

“Yes I am!” he replied, proudly. His smile was ranging from his left ear to his right ear. I know I can’t resist it so I just let it out. Slowly, I smiled and soon enough we we’re laughing together.

“I’ll certainly win next time.” I swore.

“Oh I’ll wait for that. And I’ll take a bath 3 times a day for a week if that happens. Haha!”

We started laughing again.

“That girl... what was her name again?” I asked curiously remembering about her. He tried pocketing his smiles first before answering.

“Keke… Suzy.”

“Oh… Suji.”

He laughed again. He’s not done laughing yet?

“What? Suji? Haha! Suzy, c’mon SU-ZY.” He emphasized every syllable of the word.

“Suji.” I followed. He bursted out laughing again.

“Ya wae? So what? I’m Korean. You should deal with that. Lucky for you, you studied English Literature!”

“Suji… suji. Keuhahaha! You should really hurry up to college so you can study English Literature. You sound ridiculously funny!” he continued laughing on.

“Oh yah… speaking of studying, the enrollments’ just 2 weeks away. You better prepare. Buy the things you need. New school bag, whatever.”

“Just me?”

He looked at me first with an annoyed/confused/shocked/what-the-hell face. But I used my aegyo and I know he can’t resist that. With a sigh he gave in.

“Fine. With me. Ok?”

I gave him thumbs up and said “Okie!” with a lot of aegyo.

~~

[First Day of school]

This is actually making me worried. Like, I can’t even feel my feet walking the hallways of the school premises. My eyes were awkwardly shifting side by side as I bit my lower due to sever nervousness. I just finally concluded. I am allergic to humans. This feeling just occurred since we moved here in Seoul. But nah… maybe I’m just hallucinating, because everyone’s faces isn’t familiar to me. I wasn’t even able to bow at the teacher who just passed by us.

Yes. I’m with Suji. Unlike me, she looks very enthusiastic, smiling at everyone and I bet everyone in this school likes her already. Suji looks friendly. We walked straight to the school’s bulletin board to know which class we’re in. There we’re a lot of papers plastered on the board. Each paper has a list of students belonging to that class. Fortunately, me and Suji belong to class A-C. That means we’ll be in the same class. Cool, at least.

Not wanting to immediately go to my class, I continued on scanning the list. I realized that Dongdeok isn’t just a female school. There’s another compound of this campus exclusively for males, just beside the female compound. And this here is the main Bulletin board for both compounds. Yes it’s legit, the Bulletin plastered names of male students. I’ve read few names from High School like, Park Sanghyun and Lee Hongki, and from Junior high like Lee Chanhee, and Cha Sunwoo. Hmm... Not interesting at all.

“Oh! Unnie! There’s actually a Deongdok male exclusive school!” Suji noticed it too. “It’s just over there! Just a wall away. “

“Yeah… then what’s the point of separating females and males?” I mumbled.

Ignoring me, as if she didn’t asked me just 2 seconds ago. She clasped her hands dreamily saying, “Aigoo! How I wish I can meet some cute guys from over there.”

~~

Since today is the first day of class, regular classes didn’t started yet. Of course there goes the “Introduce Yourself” part in every class. It went on like that, and when the bell rang signaling lunch break, groups of students huddled their desks, arranging it into a bigger table with their friends. Everyone wanted to eat with Suji. Probably because they were interested about her life in the States. So I was quite left out alone on my desk, opening my lunch box.

Just as I was about to eat my first spoon of rice, a girl suddenly placed her lunch on my desk.

“Mind if I eat with you?” she asked.

Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked up to see her face. I don’t know this girl. But I still allowed her to arrange her desk in front of me. I just continued on eating, but she was looking at me, smiling. This girl gives me the creeps. I just ignored her though and just went on eating. Few seconds later, her smile faltered into an annoyed one.

“Ya! Flat nose!”

What the!? FLAT NOSE? How dare you! Only Jiyeon unnie calls me that! Horrified at the name this girl just called me, I was gritting my teeth as I gazed through her height and, and, I can recognize those pretty eyes. Those milky pink skin and shiny brown hair. My horrified face was now more horrified. ‘HOOOMAYGHAAD!’

“Jiyeon unnie!!” I squealed it’s her! She scoffed. Probably, disappointed that I didn’t recognized her the first place.

I thought she’s back at Jangseong? What the hell is she doing here? And I am such a total idiot for not recognizing her. Probably because her hair is much longer now. she changed a lot physically.

“Why are you here!?” I asked. My smile was the widest ever.

“Wae?” she answered coolly, sitting and opening her lunch “Am I not allowed to?” she scooped a big bunch of rice and swallowed it.

“No~! I mean, what happened to your… father?” my smile faltered. This is a sensitive question so I initiatively lowered my voice enough for just the two of us to hear it. “Did you… ran away?” I asked furthermore.

She eyed me first before answering “You didn’t miss me.”

 “Huk! No! I missed you!”

“Liar.”

“I’ll treat you to ice cream later!” I know ice cream is your weakness unnie. Hahaha! Soon enough, she smiled. Yes success!

~~

I was too happy that I met Jiyeon unnie again; I forgot we were in Seoul. For that period of time, I assumed we were still in Jangseong and that the nearest ice cream shop was just half a kilometer away. I don’t know what place this is already. This street is creepy and I was having Goosebumps all over. And mind you, it’s getting dark which didn’t help in calming my nervous system. But Jiyeon unnie was leading the way. I can trust her.

“Uhm… unnie, are you sure of this way?” I asked with trembling lips.

“Actually…” she stopped in her steps and turned around to face me “…no.”

No. Forget about trusting her. I’m about to faint now. This was the thing I was avoiding why I never went out of the apartment the whole summer. Getting lost in the big city of Seoul. And she knows I’m scared of the dark! She’s seriously taking me to my grave.

“We can just take a taxi you know.” She confidently suggested.

I was still dead worried and scared, but her suggestion somehow loosened my breathing.

“Taxi? You can afford a taxi?”

“You got money right? You’re supposed to treat me. I assume you have money coz I don’t have any.” she reprimanded.

“I do have money. But it’s just enough for 2 cones of ice cream. Not for a whole fare in a taxi.” Ottoke?

The surrounding was dead silent except for some crickets and whatever creature sleeping and snoring around here. And the darkness wasn’t making me calm any more. I can’t close my eyes either, it’ll be darker. A loud crashing sound from somewhere startled me making me sprint a few steps and hugged Jiyeon unnie.

“Unnie are we lost? Unnie I’m scared!” my voice was shaking and my eyes stings. My vision was slightly blurred by the fluid forming on my eye.

---------

A/N:

xD lol guys sorry this chapter was pretty boring... xD wee! Park Jiyeon's appearance! teehee!

comments, compliments, corrections are loved. keep them coming! ^^