“Huh why did oppa make me go out and buy him milk in the middle of the night? It’s not fair, doesn’t he know how dangerous it is at night?”

I continued walking home after getting the banana milk for him. Shatter! What was that? Huff. Huff. I heard come from behind me. I quickened my pace as I walked, still hearing that huffing from behind me. As I walked under a lamp post I saw the shadow of the mysterious follower. They seemed to be wearing a cap and only a bit taller than me.

Only a few blocks away from home and they were still following me. I rounded the corner to an alley way, the only shortcut to get home. The alley way was dark and colder even without the fall September chilly air. Shatter! I heard from behind me, as I turned around to inspect the sound I saw that the stranger was nowhere in sight. I probably lost them when I rounded that corner into the alley way.

Screech crash! Came out from the way I entered followed by yelling and loud thumping footsteps. I started running towards the exit of the alley way, just a few yards away from the exit something or someone pinned me up the wall of a dead end in the alley way. News screens flashed across my mind of the mysterious serial killer in Seoul over the past few days. Panic overtook me as I muffled a scream. With one hand over my mouth and their left elbow just at my right shoulder they place their index finger over the black mask they were wearing just where their lips should be. It was that capped stranger following me.

As we stood there in silence I inspected them. Judging from the rough feeling of their hand over my mouth I inferred it was a boy. Majority of his face was covered by the mask and hat, as for the skin that wasn’t it seemed ashy and charcoaled like he was just in a fire. I reached out to touch his temple, catching him off guard, black charcoal rubbed off his temple and onto my fingers. His eyes darted towards me revealing his dark chocolate brown eyes. We held eye contact for about a minute until we heard another crash coming from the alley way followed by grunting.

He turned his head towards the alley way breaking eye contact but showing more of his side profile. He had brownish hair that fell down to just a bit past his ear that was damped with what seemed like sweat.

The tension between us grew as the minutes passed by. After what seemed like hours the stranger in the alley way finally left. After a few more minutes pasted the boy finally let go of me. I gasped as the cold air hit my lips. The stranger turned to leave.

“W-wait! W-who are you?” I stuttered as he was about to leave but he just ignored me and continued on his way.

Once I was out of the dead end he was already nowhere in sight. I continued my way home more cautious of my surroundings.

I soon reached the dorms that I’ve been living in with my brother for who knows how long. I walked past the sleeping police officer and his dog on shift towards the elevator. I reached the sixth floor of the dorm about a minute later and exited the elevator starting my way to the dorm. Only a few feet away and I could already hear the racket inside.

As soon as I entered and was just about to close the door an item was thrown right at the door shutting it for me followed by more yelling.

“YAH! Who told you that you could throw DolDol across the room like that?” yelled Nakta.

“I’m home.” I mumbled taking off my shoes.

“It’s not my fault you ate my food!” Yano stuck his tongue out at Nakta.

I sighed as I walked towards the kitchen to put away the milk.

“Oh Sanghee, you’re back,” Hansol grinned as he took a banana milk that I was just about to put in the fridge, “Thank you.” He said in English.

“YAH~! If you were going to drink one you could have at least went with me to buy it!” I shouted at him.

Hansol just poked a straw through it and started sipping on it, “Mianhae Sangie, maybe next time okay?” He gave me a pout, ruffled my hair, kissed my forehead and turned to head off.

“Not so fast there Hansol,” Sangdo growled as he turned Hansol’s head towards me forcing his body to turn as well, “Where’d you get that banana milk?” Sangdo glowered hand still on Hansol’s head.

“This one?” Hansol took a glance at the banana milk in his hands.

“What other one have you taken?”

“Oh well, I got this one from Sanghee,” Hansol pointed towards me. “Bye!” Hansol ducked and managed to escape from Sangdo’s hand.

I sighed, “Here Oppa I could only buy two.” I handed him the banana milk left.

“Thank you Sangie,” he replied in English, “I’ll make sure to get Hansol to go with you next time okay?” he nodded as he took off.

I sighed as I walked off to the room I shared with Sangdo and Jenissi oppa, taking off my coat I got ready for bed. I settled in my futon right next to Sangdo’s bed.

So tired, who was that guy earlier? He seemed handsome but still mysterious, he didn’t even tell me his name. I wonder if he goes to my school. Eh I’ll find out next week when we come back from break.

“Sanghee a letter from school came today.” Jenissi came in and through an envelope at my face. It hit me right in the face before I could catch it. “I hope you don’t mind but I opened it on accident.” Jenissi quickly scurried up to his bunk as if the floor was lava.

The envelope’s seal was torn open as if someone had used a knife. I glanced at Jenissi on top of his bunk to find him abruptly turn away. I glared at him waiting just until he turned my way only to have him wave and try to smile innocently.

As I took the papers out of the envelope I looked it over to see it was my new schedule, I sighed out loud.

“Something wrong Sanghee?” Sangdo walked in. He continued on his business and searched for clothes to wear tomorrow as he waited for my reply.

I sighed, “I got Mrs. Park for home economics this semester.”

“What’s wrong with having Mrs. Park? She sounds like a nice teacher.” Sangdo answered with his back still turned.

“Are you kidding me? Nice? That’s all you have to say?” How dare he insult me like that? He’s supposed to be my brother and understand these things.

“Calm down your teenage mood swings Sanghee and tell me what’s wrong with Mrs. Park.” He sighed.

“She’s known for pairing up her students by gender,” I let out a long breath, “as in the girl’s get paired up with the boys and vice versa. I heard from the unnies that you’d be lucky to get paired up with another girl and pass her class. Everyone else who’s passed her class barely passed and that was because she bumped up their test scores.” I buried my head into my pillow crying. “I’m going to fail.”

“Look what you did Sangdo, you made Sanghee cry,” Jenissi jumped down from his bunk and started rubbing my back “there there Sanghee, don’t cry, it can’t be that bad.” He cooed in a soothing voice.

“Yes it is and you know it is.”

“I still don’t see the problem but if you want I can teach you some tips on how to cook so you won’t fail.” Sangdo grinned.

“That’s worse,” I wailed, “you burned my cooking play set when we were kids when you were trying to give me tips on how to flip the toy pancake.”

“Is that even possible?” Jenissi looked up at Sangdo.

“No it was just her imagination.” Sangdo looked away.

“It wasn’t my imagination! Oppa nearly burned down the kitchen too!” I cried into my pillow.

“No worries, who knows there could be more girls than boys in your class,” Jenissi sighed, “you really do make things worse don’t you Sangdo?”

“It’s not my fault she has an active imagination.” Sangdo rolled his eyes.

“You’re not helping the situation,” Jenissi continued rubbing my back, “you know what if things really seem bad I’ll help you, I can give you some tips myself or I could find someone to give you extra lessons. What’d you say?”

“As long as Oppa doesn’t burn anything else I guess.” I looked up from my pillow.

“Not like there’s anything to burn.” Sangdo said with wide eyes as he looked away.

“You should get some sleep,” Jenissi patted my head, “school starts in a week for you so that means getting up early, you’ll be needing all the sleep you can get now. Night Sangie.” Jenissi proceeded and turned off the lights.

“I wasn’t done yet.” Sangdo complained in the darkness.

“Just use your phone or the light from the hallway.” I could hear Jenissi climbing onto his bunk.