“Well, this is where I’ll leave you. I’m sure your brother shouldn’t be too long.” She distantly heard herself saying, knowing that her eyes are probably glazing over from lack of focus. The ebony haired girl shifted an uneasy expression in response, evidently distrust in her eyes from other students walking in all directions around the pair.

“…Do you have to go?” Lee Hi had to ask the girl to repeat herself, this time she mustered up the energy to strain her ears until she managed to pick up the meek question.

The auburn haired girl blinked slowly, her mind registering the sudden wave of fatigue.  “I have class starting in a few minutes, I’m afraid. You can just sit in the reception area until your brother comes, if not you can just ask one of the ladies to notify my teacher so I can try contacting him again if needed.”

Nothing she could have said would have fully placated the girl. But that was the least of her worries now. She had already fulfilled her part of bringing the girl to the school, not to mention being an uncooperative recipient as the latter droned continuously as if she didn’t need any air to breathe from the moment they got on the bus until the pair got onto the school grounds.

What on earth the girl was talking about, Lee Hi didn’t have the foggiest. In her sleep deprived state, it seemed that anything that anybody would say to her, would ultimately go through one ear and out the other.

With a half-hearted wave and a few words exchanged in farewell, she pivoted on her heel towards her first class of the day, her mind no longer clouded by the young girl she had been approached by that morning.

Lee Hi didn’t know whether she felt grateful for not having any siblings, note younger siblings, after leaving the young girl at the main reception area at the school.

The girl in question seemed reluctant to separate from her, even though the pair had only spent a short period of time, the younger one of the two didn’t give the impression of being happy at being reunited with her brother.

Though, she didn’t focus too much attention on that in comparison to the matter at hand, as she wandered aimlessly through the hallways until she eventually found herself at her classroom. The auburn haired girl never felt more regretful of not getting a wink of sleep last night.

At the door, she spotted Suhyun as if she was waiting for someone, though there was something off about her. There wasn’t a smile adoring her face, she was jittery and kept fidgeting. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things. The auburn haired girl brushed off the sudden sensation of paranoia which flooded her mind as she continued to walk forward.

“Suhyun-ssi, isn’t your classroom on the other side of the building?” She made the inquiry when she got close enough, though the other seemed to jump in surprise upon hearing her voice. Perhaps if Lee Hi was a bit more awake, she would have taken note of the bizarre reaction.

She looked around a few times before leaning forward. “I need to speak to you.”

“What’s going on? Has something happened to your brother?” Somehow her brain managed to kick itself into functioning properly, even if it was just for a moment or two, her eyebrows furrowed in evident worry.

Suhyun bit her lip, her eyes flickering anxiously between her and the hallway behind her. “I don’t have much time to tell you everything and I don’t think I’ll have to chance to tell you everything in detail, but you should watch yourself.”

The auburn haired girl’s eyes narrowed. “Watch myself? Why would I need to do that—“

“Trust me, please. Don’t do anything that will get you in trouble.” It was not spoken verbally, but Lee Hi was more than aware of the fact the group of people she was referring to.

“It’s not as if I try to.” She scoffed lightly before shooting a meaningful look towards the younger girl. “If you can’t tell me what’s going on, that’s fine. But if it’s serious, let someone know. It doesn’t have to be me, okay?”

Suhyun looked unsure of herself, most likely wanting to spill everything she knew. Within a few seconds, she went to open but stopped when the teachers came walking around the corner. With a hurried whisper of a goodbye, she walked away leaving behind the girl to watch her back in suspicion.

I don’t like the feeling I’m getting from this.

-

-

“Hanbyul-ah, you can’t go running off like that.” After attacking the girl with a flurry of relief induced hugs, he folded his arms over his chest with a firm stern look etched on his face. She merely glanced at him before looking away.

“I didn’t want to go to school today.” Was the only answer she provided.

The snapback clad boy dragged a hand down his face in frustration. “Sis, you don’t have a choice in this matter. Come on, I’ll drop you off so I know you aren’t ditching.”

The black haired girl backed away as much as she could, a scowl deeply carved on her lips. “I said I don’t want to go. Can you just let me have this one day off?”

“Tell me the reason and then I’ll decide whether or not you can.”

“You’re going to force me to go no matter what. What’s the point of explaining anything to you?” She sneered.

“Come on guys, calm down.” Bobby, his trademark smile nowhere in sight, as he shifted his eyes from his friend to the girl before crouching before her.  “Hanbyul-ah, we’ll make a compromise, if you spend the first half of the day in school, we’ll come pick you up at lunch and you don’t have to go back. We’ll even treat you, how does that sound?”

Hanbyul didn’t seem convinced. She averted her eyes, her mind processing through her options carefully. It was clear that she wasn’t going to get a better deal, at least not from her brother anyway. She released a resigned exhale before slowly nodding her head.

“Great! Now we have that all sorted out, let’s go drop you off at school.” With that, he slung an arm around the reluctant girl’s shoulders with his casual smile curled around his lips. Hanbin shook his head in disbelief, but nevertheless a small smile crept up on his face, but as soon as it came about it disappeared as he followed the pair out.  

-

-

That was most possibly the longest class she had ever experienced in her life.

Or at least, in her condition, it felt that way anyway.

She could feel herself closing her eyes every so often, each moment made it harder to stay awake and force herself to keep her eyes open just to keep up the image that she was paying attention so that the teacher wouldn’t notice her slowly drifting off.

The fact that she had an impending headache made it all the more harder to concentrate on anything, it physically hurt to even make an effort to think.  It didn’t help that her injury sustained from the volleyball incident yesterday was further wounded by her lack of observation earlier this morning, she winced slightly as she slowly collected her personal belongings to put into her bag before going to walk out the door to her next lesson.

The auburn haired girl wished for nothing more than to take some headache reliving medication and sleep for the rest of the day. She released a dejected sigh. As if that was going to happen anytime soon.

She never thought the idea of Jackson would ever come to mind willing, he would most likely bug the hell of her, but he would have at least done something to help her. Lee Hi’s mind wandered back over to Suhyun, about her weird behaviour from earlier.  Something wasn’t right but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was exactly.

Perhaps it would be best to think about it another time, when the simple action of thinking didn’t hurt so much.

With that final thought, she trudged through the hallway—probably looking like death warmed up—trying to muster up the small pocket of energy she had left to get where she needed to go. In a split second, her vision suddenly shifted directions. She was no longer walking in the direction of her next class, but she could just about make out the blurry figure walking just before her, dragging her along.

“—What are you doing?—“  She weakly struggled, not having the spirit to fight back as she normally would have. By this point she would have ripped her arm back, but she didn’t have it in her to do so.

“Shut up and be quiet for once.” It was gruff sounding, most definitely a masculine tone. She couldn’t quite pinpoint who it was exactly, but she didn’t have to think long about it, as before she knew it they were already walking through into the nurse’s office. The woman in question’s eyes snapped to attention to the pair as she was tending to a student, after a brief moment to take in what was going on she looked as if she was going to intervene but suddenly stopped and returned her attention to the young boy instead.

Lee Hi shifted her focus back onto the male, his grip on her wrist loosened ever so slightly but still firm enough to pull her forward until she felt herself being carefully pushed onto a bed. She glanced upwards to get a better look at his face, but by the time she looked he had already turned around. She inwardly cursed her bad vision at a time like this, but nevertheless made herself more comfortable on the bed and pulled the thin white bed covers over her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could just make out the blurred image of the guy conversing with the school nurse, in hushed tones by the looks of it. She just assumed that he was just telling her to let her rest for a while and the woman didn’t seem to put up much of an argument. Then, he suddenly walks out of the room, as if he was ever there at all. But that wasn’t her main concern right now, as she snuggled her head further into the pillow feeling herself quickly drifting to sleep, the moment her eyelids dropped which left darkness to consume her vision, she was already out like a light.

-

-

By the time she came to, it was already past lunch. She blinked a few times, the sensation of feeling groggy hit her instantly as she slowly returned back to full consciousness.

Lee Hi rose until she was sitting on the bed, no longer distracted by the stubborn pain from her head that didn’t seem to want to go away this earlier on in the day, she was able to focus on the hunger pangs rearing its ugly head once more—a reminder that she skipped breakfast that morning. She scowled deeply, chiding herself for not bothering to throw in a snack in her backpack, even if it was only a small treat it was better than eating nothing.

It was only when she turned her head to the side out of chance did she see a brown bag sitting beside her bed on the table. She frowned, her eyebrows furrowed together in thought. Could it have been Suhyun that left it there? Surely she would have left some kind of sticky note on the side, but she didn’t know that she was even here in the first place. The auburn haired girl went to check her phone, there were no missed calls or new text messages as her phone screen lit up to life, so it couldn’t have been her.

She didn’t know why she felt a tinge of disappointment. The younger girl must have made some new friends by now, she was most certainly a bright person—there was no way she couldn’t have befriended someone in her class. Maybe Lee Hi was getting too comfortable with her being around before, which in turn made her low expectations raise slightly.

But, if Suhyun wanted to spend more time with her newly acquired friends, who was she to stop that? She was a young girl and didn’t have such a good start to her new school life, with the events with her brother and all, now that was all behind her she could finally meet and hang out with people her own age.

There was something that didn’t sit right with her though. It just didn’t make any sense about her warning before, telling her to watch herself? What was it that Suhyun knew that she obviously didn’t?

“You’ve got quite a few admirers,” She was swiftly knocked out of her thoughts when the nurse came in, a teasing smile arched on her lips. In a matter of seconds, she was rendered speechless. Who on earth was this woman talking about? What admirers did she have? The statement was absolutely ridiculous.

“The second one came in when you were fast asleep, he brought in some food for you. If you’re still feeling poorly, I can give you some mediation and I will make arrangements with your teachers so that you can go home otherwise you can go back to class after you finish your lunch.” The auburn haired girl didn’t feel as bad as she did this morning, the pounding headache had been reduced to a tolerable pain. But she could always just make up the work tomorrow, she didn’t want to risk anything so she picked the former option of the two. The nurse complied with her request completed with a customary smile, making the appropriate arrangements as she prepared the medication and notes for her as she stared around the room for the umpteenth time in pure awkwardness.  

The moment she left the nurse’s room, the hallways were completely deserted. She walked through, completing forgetting about her brief conversation with the nurse. It wasn’t all that important anyway.

Lee Hi strolled through with an absentminded look casted across her face, her mind wandered but none of the thoughts were really standing out. Well on the bright side, at least she didn’t feel like a zombie anymore. It was only when she feel her phone vibrating from her blazer pocket that she blinked back into focus.

-

From: Unknown Number

To: Finder of Lost Girl

I forget to thank you for looking after my sister today, she won’t stop going on about you.

So…thanks for that. It shouldn’t happen again.

-

She felt a smile creep onto her face. Although he’s a careless brother, I’m glad that they’re reunited. There wasn’t any point in allowing her imagination play mercilessly in her mind, the young girl was found safe and sound, and that was all that really mattered.

-

From: Finder of Lost Girl

To: Brother of Lost Girl

That’s okay. Glad to know she’s safe.

-

Other than the answer she sent, she didn’t really know what else to say. What was she supposed to talk about with a complete stranger? He could be a creep for all she knew. And even though she disapproved of his senseless nature before, it wasn’t her place to tell him off. It was his own responsibility to learn from his own mistakes, if he didn’t then he would just have to face the consequences.

Now that was taken care of, she was closer to the side exit of the school, not wanting to accidently bump into any of her teachers along the way. The auburn haired girl was halfway to the exit when she could make out a few silhouettes from the transparent door windows. She never felt more relived that her blurry vision was disappeared, she could tell who they were from a mile off.

The snapback on one of the approaching figures was a clear indication, but he was rarely alone. Although he was a fraction of the gang he often roamed around with, there was always that one person he was with. As if a ton of bricks suddenly hit her, she froze for a split second. Wait, if he sees me, it will remind him that we live in the same building.

Of all the people she could be living in close proximity to, fate had to pick one of one of them. She cursed her poor luck as she quickly took a left and checked she wouldn’t be suddenly barging into a classroom, when she noticed it was one of the cleaning closets—she inwardly prayed that no one was currently occupying the room as she rushed in, trying not to trip over anything in the cramped sized space as she made an attempt at closing the door was quietly as she could which instantly left her in darkness and with her heartbeat hampering within her ribcage. She wouldn’t be surprised if anyone walking by somehow overheard it.

Lee Hi held her breath in anticipation, as the voices of the boys grew louder before they eventually died the further away they walked into the hallway. It was only when she was certain that she could no longer hear them that she let out a deep exhaled. She slowly opened the door, making sure the coast was clear before she made an immediate beeline for the exit.

She couldn’t suppress the urge to release a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumped down from the tension as she walked quickly from the school premise to avoid being seen. The auburn haired girl placed a hand on her heart, slowly bit by bit the pace slowed down until it returned to its normal speed.  

“—So this is where you’ve been hiding, huh?”

To say that Lee Hi was startled from the sudden call was a vast understatement.

Gayoon stood by her car with a wolf-like grin etched on her face, a pair of sunglasses sitting on the top of her head as she waved the girl over. The auburn haired girl blinked in confusion as she noted the lack of school attire which was instead replaced with washed out blue ripped jeans and a black crop top.

“Aren’t you meant to be in lessons right now?” When she got closer, she made the inquiry with a worried look.

The strawberry blonde girl flourished her hand around, not at all looking in the least bit bothered. “Nope. I got suspended for a good week or so.”   

“Suspended?” Lee Hi couldn’t help her stunned reaction, slightly agape. “But why? You weren’t the one who did anything.” She paused for a moment. “Didn’t the teacher say anything? He witnessed it all himself, he should know who the real culprits are.”

“Those girls were punished, but they just had afterschool detention for a few days.” She shrugged her shoulders, her lips pulling into a scowl.

The petite girl was left baffled. “Well…that’s good that they were given consequences for their actions, but why were you suspended?”

Gayoon spared a glance at the school building for a moment before she went to open her car door. “It’s probably best we continue this conversation elsewhere, I’m not really meant to be here right now.” It didn’t take long before Lee Hi found herself in the passenger seat and in the span of under a minute, they were already speeding away from the school. The auburn haired girl didn’t even have to open to prod further into the conversation.

“I know you didn’t want me to do anything, but I couldn’t just stand by and watch those girls hide their smirks behind their hands.” Was what she had stated, her eyes were calm however the grip on the steering wheel said otherwise. “Besides, you took a hit for me, you didn’t have to do that either.”

And with that, silence eluded into the atmosphere, a comfortable one at that. Lee Hi didn’t have anything to combat with that, she couldn’t take a self-righteous stance with her by trying to tell her off for using violence as a means of matching their equally vehement motives.

Even if she didn’t move in at the right time to inhibit Gayoon from sustaining any potential injuries, it would have been most likely that Hyuna or Jihyun would have easily stepped in and fought her corner for her. Then having thought that thoroughly, that would have been much uglier than if she didn’t step in at all.

“The moment I noticed that those girls saw a golden moment when you were distracted, a part of me didn’t want to help you.” She expressed her views openly. It was true, she wasn’t even remotely close with Gayoon or the others girls. Maybe if it was Suhyun or Chanhyuk instead, there would have been no hesitation whatsoever—though, with recent events she was beginning to doubt whether her relations with the former were good. If the other woman was displeased upon hearing the statement, she didn’t show it.

“I can’t really explain what my mind was thinking when I moved in front of the ball’s shot, it was just all purely instinct.” After a moment to try to phrase the words she wanted to say, this is what came out of in the end. Every time she went to speak, sentences that made her want to cringe internally as well as externally prevented her from doing so. She wasn’t the sort of person to have deep heart to heart conversations with, it just felt strange to her.

Gayoon chuckled under her breath as she turned a corner. “I didn’t really know why Hyuna wanted to help you out, I still don’t. I could never understand what the goes on in that mind of hers, nor do I think I ever want to know.”

“Well if we’re on the topic of honesty, I thought you guys were going to rip me to pieces that day.” The blonde woman didn’t hold back on her laughter, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Do we really come across some kind of clingy, annoying fan girls of those idiots that the girls in our school seem to idolise?”

“No. You seemed like the badass kind that got annoyed at anyone that looked at them in the wrong way.” The woman driving seemed to smirk upon that as she pulled into a car park in the town centre, which wasn’t far from where Lee Hi lived.  

“Maybe Hyuna was on to something when she chose you, let’s go get some lunch—my treat.” Without giving the auburn haired girl much time to response, she was already getting out of the car. She scrambled out of her own seat, making sure she didn’t drop anything in her haste.

“There’s really no need, I’ve already got some lunch.” She held up the brown bag, which by this point looked slightly rumpled, but Lee Hi wasn’t going to complain. She didn’t waste perfectly good food.

Gayoon rolled her eyes good-naturedly, seemingly not going to take rejection for an answer as she dragged the younger girl along. “Seeing that red mark on your forehead makes me guilty, that’s all. I’m not always going to be this generous, so don’t get used to it.” Lee Hi stared at the back of her head, not bothering to put up much of a fight—it would just be futile in the long run anyway. She allowed herself to discard her worries for now, there was no point in spoiling her appetite over trivial matters.