“I want her here the moment classes are over. Don’t even think of going anywhere else.” She winced inwardly as her mother continued to throw commands at the man, running back and forth as she got her ready for school. Her mother had given her a school uniform, something she had only seen other kids wear when they passed by the window, and a backpack, filled with all kinds of stuff she’s supposed to use. She wasn’t sure how, but she was sure the man would explain how. She glanced over at the man to see him dressed in a uniform too, though his was very different from hers. She could only guess it was because he was a boy.

Her mother dragged the two of them to the table as she laid out a couple bowls of rice for them, that being the only thing she had time making. “Make sure you eat before going to school,” she said, giving them both a pair of chopsticks. “You’re not allowed to leave until you finish everything.” The man glanced at her before tiredly grabbing his pair, eating silently. She stared at him apologetically before eating, knowing he was annoyed with how her mother continued to yell at him.

“You can buy something on the way for lunch. Here’s some money. If I find out you made my daughter starve, I’ll skin you alive.” Neither moved as she placed a couple thousand won on the table. “And you. Make sure you bring the doll with you.” She nodded obediently, only then noticing the man staring at her. Embarrassed, she looked away.

Not even two minutes later her mother was shoving her out the door, saying she couldn’t be late for the bus. She winced at the blast of cold wind that hit her face the moment the door opened, shivering; the cold air outside was much worse than inside. But she held fast when her mother pushed her, the first time ever hesitating from doing what her mother said, when she saw the front porch overlooking the street. Her fingers on the doorframe tightened, her legs turning to blocks of lead as her heart raced. She had never stepped out before. Her mother shouted something at her, but she couldn’t hear her. She was so lost that she didn’t see the man walk right past her and stand right in front of her, sighing.

“Come on.” She jumped at the voice, and looked up to see him standing in front of her, holding a hand out. She looked back from his hand to his face a few times before drawing the courage to take it, her hand still trembling. Her mother looked on approvingly, running a hand down her head.

“Be a good girl and do well. I’ll be waiting here.” Her mother smiled, her eyes never leaving her, as she slowly backed back into the house, taking her time closing the door.

It was when that door closed that the weight of everything happening finally hit her, and she realized that she was standing outside of her house. The man had already started walking, and while she wanted to follow him, her only anchor outside, she couldn’t bear to move her legs. She grabbed a handful of her new skirt, her sweaty hands shaking. She probably should have practiced earlier walking outside so this time she wouldn’t be so scared.

“Don’t be scared.” She watched the man walk up to her, reaching out and taking her hand in his and gently pulling her along. While she trembled and shook, she felt her body relax at the touch of the man, and was finally able to start walking. He sent her a small smile as he helped her walk down the stairs, all the while firmly holding her hand. When they reached the bottom, he laughed. “See? It wasn’t so bad.”

She smiled to please him, though her eyes constantly roved over the area. While still holding her hand, he stepped around her and held her shoulder, in a way stopping her from running back inside. He gently pushed her forward, pulling her away to wherever her school was. She was glad he was here; she couldn’t imagine doing this without him. Eventually, after a few minutes show as able to relax enough to walk normally, only having to glance at the men every once in a while to calm her.

She tensed at the sound of voices, and when she turned the corner could see a group of people huddled together. She gasped at the mere sight of them, the confidence she had built up vanishing.

“Don’t run away,” he said, his hand squeezing hers tight. “That’s a bus stop. They’re all waiting for the bus.”

“Are…are they all going to school?”

“No, most look like they’re going to work. You only go to school for a while, and then you go to work.” It took some effort, but he was eventually able to drag her to the group, albeit standing a ways away. She made sure to stand behind him.

“Ah, I probably should teach you how to use the bus.” She stared at him blankly for a second and he sighed as he held his hand out. “Let me see your wallet.” It took her a bit to realize what he wanted, and reached into her new bag to pull out her new wallet. He ped it and pulled out a small piece of paper, waving it at her. “This is a bus pass. In order to ride the bus, you need this. Without it, they won’t let you on.”

“Why not? That’s mean of them.”

He sighed. “You have to pay in order to use it. Your mom already paid, so you can use it.” She wrinkled her nose at such an idea, not understanding what paying meant, but just nodded her head anyway. She wasn’t going to say anything bad when the man was standing here to help her. “When the bus comes, you’re going to step inside, and when you do, you’ll see a machine. With this part facing down, you’re going to swipe it across, like this.”

He handed her the piece of paper and motioned for her to try practicing. Focusing only on what he asked her, she tried doing the strange motion, not sure how this was supposed to allow her on the bus. He seemed to notice, taking it back. “Just watch me. I’ll go first, okay?” She pouted when he slid her piece of paper back into her wallet, his fingers pausing before whipping something out, shoving it in her face in shock.

“You’re thirteen?”

She wasn’t sure what he was so surprised about, and just nodded her head curiously. She had never been really sure about how old she was; they had celebrated her birthday every year but she never tried to remember how old she was. It was something that never seemed important. But her mother must have been keeping count, since that was what was on that paper. The man was still shocked at it, looking back from the paper to her. “How can you be thirteen?”

“Why? Am I not?”

“No…it’s just you don’t look thirteen at all. I thought you were only nine.” He eventually handed over the wallet and paper back to her, to which she quickly glanced at it to see that it did indeed say she was thirteen. The man didn’t say anything after that, though she did notice how he kept looking at her, and now she wished he hadn’t seen her card. She didn’t like that he was acting differently.

She jumped when she heard a loud, squealing noise, looking up to see what she could only imagine as a bus. The man motioned his head to it. “That’s the bus.”

“It’s big…” she muttered, wincing again when the door shrieked as it opened. The people wasted no time stepping into the big machine, and she whimpered when the man grabbed her hand and pulled her towards it. “Wait! I’m not ready!”

“The bus won’t wait for you. Here, watch me first.” He climbed the couple stairs, she wondered briefly on how strange that seemed, and pulled his card out. He glanced back at her, waving the card at her. “Just swipe it like this.” He turned the card like he had earlier and stuck it into a strange box, swiping it across. He took a step to the side and motioned for her to do the same.

She hesitated, suddenly scared to be leaving the only place she knew. “Hurry up!” the driver snapped, scaring her.

“Don’t snap at her,” the man said,” this is her first time.” The driver huffed, annoyed, and the man sent her a hurried look.

“If you don’t hurry, I’m leaving!” She panicked at the idea of being separated from the man, and quickly climbed the stairs. She fumbled with her wallet and pulled out the card he showed, swiping.

It beeped and she looked at the man for help. “You did it upside down.” He guided her hand to swipe again, this time correctly. The bus driver shook his head at them as he shut the door and started driving, and she lurched forward when the bus suddenly moved. She grabbed the man’s waist and held tight, following him as he started walking. She peeked out from behind him to see everyone on the bus staring at them, and she could feel her whole body shake uncontrollably at the sight. She had never been this close to people before, let alone this many, and was absolutely frightened.

The man finally stopped, grabbing a hook-like thing hanging from the top of the bus, glancing down at her nearly digging her nails into his side. “Calm down, the worst is over.” She just shook her head, her voice suddenly gone. He nodded his head behind her. “Do you want to sit down?” She rolled her head over to see an empty chair next to them, though she immediately focused on the fact that someone was also sitting there. She vehemently shook her head, squeezing herself to him even tighter.

“You can sit here if you like.” They both looked over to see the man sitting get up, ignoring the man’s protests and motioning for them to sit down. The man thanked the other before nudging her to sit down, letting her sit next to window. When he sat next to her, she felt herself relax; his body a barrier between her and the rest of the staring people.

“Are you doing okay?” She glanced over to the man looking at her, and she nodded her head sheepishly. “You’ll get used to it. It’s scary the first time.”

“Do I have to do this every day?” She spoke at a whisper, frightened that someone else would be listening to her. She could almost feel the woman sitting behind her’s eyes on her, watching her every move. She couldn’t stand this.

“Only during the week. You don’t have to go to school on the weekend.”

“Thank goodness,” she said tiredly, leaning over against his arm.

The bus was silent after that, the only sound being the noise the bus made. She was thankful for the silence, being able to just lean against the man’s arm and listen to him breathing. At first, she would jump and stiffen whenever the bus stopped and someone new got on. But eventually she relaxed enough that it didn’t bother her anymore; the people wouldn’t look at her and they would pass right by her since the man was sitting next to her.

She reached over and tugged on the man’s coat, pulling him down so she could whisper in his ear, “How long are we on the bus for?”

He took a deep breath before slumping in his seat. “About two and a half hours. In other words, a very long time.” She pouted. “So, you can go ahead and take a nap if you want.”

“And I have to do this every day?”

“Yes,” he said again. “We have to do this every time. All because she’s trying to avoid anyone seeing me.” She frowned, having heard what clearly she wasn’t meant to hear, and quickly grabbed his arm and hugged it tight. She knew how much he hated her mother, something that no matter what she said could not convince him otherwise. She hoped that by her constantly showering him in love and being as kind as possible to him would keep him from hating her too.

She at some point had fallen asleep, only being jolted awake when the bus bounced hard. She bit back a squeal as her fingers dug into the man’s arm, blearily looking around while trying to regain her bearings. He pat her head with a sigh, attempting to push her back to sleep, when she caught sight outside the window, her heart leaping into at the sight. She pulled away from him as she pressed her face against the glass, in complete awe at the sight of the biggest houses she had ever seen and the vast amount of people walking. Her hands shaking, she reached back to grab his with her eyes glued to the scene, unable to look away.

“This is where you’ll be going to school every day,” he whispered into her ear, not helping in any way to quell her fears. She looked back at him shaking.

“Does…does Seoul have a lot of people?”

He snorted. “Seoul is the biggest city in Korea. Of course they’re a lot of people.”

Looking back, she wondered miserably why her mother would send her to someplace so big and scary to go to school. Were there no schools back at home? She wouldn’t have sent her so far away here just so the man could go too. Her mother may not be as loving as the man kept hinting at her to be, but she wouldn’t do something as awful as to send her to the one place she feared, right?

Finally, the bus stopped and she suddenly wasn’t ready to get off. The man stood up along with everybody else, stretching, and grabbed his bag before looking at her expectantly. She honestly didn’t want to move, didn’t want to go anywhere; but the man wouldn’t give her that option as he just reached down and grabbed her hand, yanking her to her feet. “Come on, we don’t have time to sit here.”

She held onto his hand tightly as they walked down the street, sticking to his side to avoid brushing against other people. It was so loud; so many loud buses riding around making so much noise. At some point the man pulled his hand away and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “We’re almost there,” he said kindly.

Eventually, she started to notice more and more people wearing the same school uniform as her, all going the same way they were. With growing curiosity, she started to crane her neck for a chance to see what her school was supposed to look like. The man laughed. “It’s not for a couple more minutes. You won’t see anything from here.”

She sighed defeatedly. “Have you ever been here before?”

“I’ve been to Seoul a couple times.”

“Then have you seen our school before?”

He laughed again. “No. I went to school back at home.”

“Then is this going to be your first day too?”

“Technically, yes– Ah! There’s your new school.” She snapped her head excitedly towards where he was pointing and felt her heart drop, the grin fading from her lips. The school was big; it looked like it was a million times bigger than her home. There were so many windows and it was so tall, she felt she could so easily get lost in it. She yelped and nearly jumped into the man’s arms when a boy pushed past her, yelping again when a girl subsequently pushed past her too. She looked around to see so many other kids, all heading straight into the school. How many people went to school?

The man had to peel her off of him, holding her at arm’s length. “You need to calm down. No one here’s going to hurt you.”

“I know…I just…just stay close to me, okay?” He nodded and made sure to keep her right at his side as he led her inside. She couldn’t help but notice how some of the people would stare at them as they walked by, and she couldn’t help but marvel at how the man seemed to ignore them. She wished she could. She followed him into a large room where a couple of women sat at desks, both of them looking up in surprise at the sight of them.

She hid behind him as he walked up to the desk, watching as he calmly leaned over the counter with a bright smile. She had never seen him smile like that, and peeked out from the edge of his coat just to stare at it. “I’m here to pick up the schedule for Yoon Saet-byul.” The woman nodded as she moved to her computer, typing away for a while before she pulled out a sheet of paper.

“Here it is,” the woman interrupted, handing him the paper. “If you want, we can have a classmate show her around-”

“That’s alright,” the man said quickly, cutting her off. “She’ll be more comfortable if I bring her.” The woman didn’t seem particularly happy with his answer, but didn’t say anything. She, on the other hand, couldn’t have been happier. He led her out by the hand, continuously glancing back at the paper as he led her down multiple hallways. He finally stopped by one room with the door open, other children’s shouts echoing in the already loud hallway. He pulled her close to the wall before handing the sheet of paper to her.

“This is your schedule; you’ll need this to know what classes to go to.”

She frowned in confusion, watching as the man continued to give her instructions on what to do as if he was leaving. “Aren’t you staying here with me?”

He shook his head and gave her a look that showed he thought what she said was ridiculous. “Of course not. I’m a lot older than you, so obviously I’m going to be in a different class than you.”

“Where’s your room then? I want to know where it is so I can find you-”

“This isn’t my school, Saet-byul.” Her heart dropped like a block of lead, the paper slipping from her fingers.

“You’re…you’re not even going to be here with me? I’m going to be here alone?”

He silently bent down and picked the schedule back up, forcing it back in her hand. “I’ll be back here the moment classes are done. Just wait for me right in this room and I’ll pick you up, okay?”

“Ah, you must be Yoon Saet-byul.” She jumped when she felt a hand brush her arm, and whirled around to see another woman staring down at her. She hurriedly ran into the man’s arms. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m your teacher, Teacher Jung. I’ll be the one to help you fit right into class.” Her mind was still whirling from the fact the man wouldn’t be joining her; this woman’s words were making no sense in her brain other than she’ll be the person sending the man away. “Are you her older brother?”

“No, I’m a…a family friend. But be careful with her, she’s been homeschooled and hasn’t-”

“Don’t worry, I was informed of her circumstances. Our class is very friendly, so she shouldn’t have a problem.” The man nodded as he pried her off and pushed her toward the teacher, tousling her hair with a smile.

“Remember, I’ll back the moment classes are done. Just wait here, okay?” She was still feeling the sting of betrayal and refused to look him in the face. But not only that, she knew that if she looked at him she would start crying again. He waited a few seconds to see if she would respond, and when she didn’t, just gave a wave goodbye and left. She looked back just in time to see him turn the corner, that last sight preoccupying her mind as the teacher ushered her inside.

“Just stand up here,” the teacher said, pointing to a spot next to a podium. “When class starts, I’ll introduce you to the class.” She stood as close to the podium as possible, fiddling with her bag’s strap as more and more children started coming into the room. They all would look at her strangely before sitting down at the many tables, whispering to each other with their eyes focused solely on her. She didn’t like this one bit, and just wanted to be at home in her room in the man’s hug. She missed him.

“Alright, we’re starting,” the teacher whispered into her ear, surprising her when she looked up to see all the desks full with their eyes all on her. She stopped breathing. “Class, before we start, I want to introduce you to a new student who’ll be joining us.” She looked over at her expectantly and she only stared back, unsure of what she wanted her to do. “Er, her name is Yoon Saet-byul. She’s had a lot of health issues so she’s been privately tutored until now. So please be kind to her and help her get situated in our school. Okay?”

“Yes!” the students all chorused, their curious eyes on her, and she drew in on herself even more.

“Saet-byul,” the teacher turned to her, her smile bigger than before. “Why don’t you sit in the seat next to Sang-hyuk?” She pointed somewhere, and when she didn’t move, a boy near the back of the room raised his hand. She hesitated, her feet glued to the ground, but moved only when the teacher gave her a slight push on the back. She tried to ignore the others’ eyes as she slowly walked through the rows of tables to climb into the chair next to the boy. She kept her head down, knowing the boy was looking at her.

“Hello,” he said, and she felt all the hairs on the back of her neck rise up. She gave him a quick nod, and that seemed to appease him. She sighed with relief when he turned away, though that was short-lived when he suddenly leaned over, his lips inches from her face. “Class is starting. You should get your books out.” She lifted her face up a little bit to see him waving his own books at her, and she scrambled to pull her bag off her back. She searched through her bag until she pulled out the books identical to his, laying them on her desk the exact same way he did. He laughed. “Do you have a pencil?” Some more searching and she finally found a pencil, showing it to him. He nodded.

“We’re already on chapter three, so you’ll have to skip to there.” She stared at him confusedly, so he just reached over and opened her book for her, pointing at a certain page. “We start here.”

Throughout the entire class, she could only stare at the teacher, having no idea what was going on or what she was even saying. This math was much more complicated than anything her mother had taught her; she’d never heard of things like multiplying or dividing, let alone letters.

Was this what the man had meant when he was surprised at what she had been learning? He must have known that this would be too hard for her.

She was snapped out of her reverie when the students erupted into loud noise, everyone closing their books and turning to talk to each other. She looked over to the boy to see him close his book too, his eyes trailing over to her. “You didn’t write anything down?” She quickly slammed her book shut and shoved it back in her bag. “Do you want to copy my notes?” She luckily was saved from answering him when a man came into the room, announcing himself the teacher of something.

The entire day was torture for her; she had no idea of anything the teachers were teaching, everything much more advanced than what she knew. Not only that, but the boy kept asking her questions. But the torture only increased when it was time to eat, everyone pulling food out of their bags. It was then she realized that she and the man had forgotten to buy food. She wondered if N was starving as much as she was.

“Do you have anything to eat?” She flinched when the boy leaned over again, and he pulled back immediately. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just saw you didn’t have anything to eat.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a small box. “Would you like some of mine?”

“Hey! You’re the new girl, right?” The boy quickly shoved his box back in his bag when three girls suddenly jumped into the seats in front of her desk, leaning extremely close. The girl in the middle scooted closer, smiling widely. “What was your name again?”

She didn’t answer, still startled by the sudden shouting, so the boy kindly stepped in. “Her name is Yoon Saet-byul-”

“I didn’t ask you Hyukkie,” the girl snapped viciously, the boy quickly shutting his mouth. She turned back to her. “So your name is Saet-byul? Where do you live? You must be so smart since you were privately tutored. Why did you come here?” She panicked at the sheer amount of questions the girl threw at her, her mind reeling as she tried not to cry. The girl’s smile slowly slipped off her face when she didn’t answer, scaring half the room when she slammed her hand on the table. “I asked you a question!”

She noticed with a feeling of dread how the entire room fell silent, everyone watching her and the girl. The boy next to her tried to say something again but was quickly shot down, another one of the girl’s snapping at him.

“What, are you mute?”

“You know, I sit pretty close to her and I don’t think she’s said a single word. She might be mute.” The first girl snickered at her, pushing off her table and standing up.

“Maybe you got sent here because you were so dumb your tutor quit. I’d have quit just from looking at your face.” She stared at the girl confusedly, not understanding why the girl was so angry now and insulting her. She hadn’t said anything that could have offended her; why was she so angry? She glanced at the boy to see if he knew but he too was looking away. When she continued to not say anything, the girl got even angrier, shoving her table into her stomach.

She shrieked as she tuned everyone out completely, ripping her bag open to check on the doll. She caressed its face with her thumb, hoping it hadn’t been hurt. “She must be stupid; she can’t even talk.” The girl glared at her before stalking out of the room, the other two girls following right behind her. Eventually, the others went back to eating, and she finally was able to let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you okay? Don’t worry about her, she’s always like that.”

This place was scary.

--

She felt like the whole world lifted from her shoulders the moment N poked his head into the doorway, shoving her chair back as she sprinted to him. Laughing, she jumped into his arms, burying her face into his chest and holding him as tightly as she could. She could feel him put a hand on her head, waiting patiently for her to let go, something she wished she never had to do. “Your first day couldn’t have been that bad, could it?”

“I really wish you were with me,” she said miserably, shoving her face closer into his side. He winced and pulled slightly away, and she realized she had been pushing against his healing wound. She shifted her hug and squeezed tighter. “It was so scary.”

“You’re exaggerating. How bad could it have been?”

She broke out of his hug as she gave him the biggest pout she could. “They were getting mad at me when I didn’t even say anything. One of them even pushed my table and it hit your doll.”

“Ah,” he said, nodding his head thoughtfully. “Was that why my side hurt all day?”

“I’m sorry, I’ll keep better care of it from now. I promise.” He ruffled her hair again, smiling his nice smile.

“It’s alright. It didn’t hurt that bad. Are you ready to go home?”

“Yes!” she shouted, never having wanted to be home so badly before. Laughing, he took her hand in his and led her out of the scary room. This time, even when people stared at her as they walked, she didn’t mind them one bit. After what she went through today, nothing could scare her when N was standing by her side.

Her mother was all over her the moment she opened the door, smothering her in hugs and asking her a million questions per minute. She found her tongue tied as she stared at her mother amidst it all, wondering why her mother was acting so strangely. Never before had her mother held her so lovingly and asking so many questions. She waited until her mother calmed down before giving her mother smiles that assured her everything had been fine. She didn’t want to upset her by telling how much she hated school. Her mother brushed the hair from her face one last time before turning to the man, her smile vanishing.

“You bought her food, didn’t you? You better not have let her starve.”

She could see all the color drain out of N’s face, realizing with horror that they had forgotten to buy lunch. Before her mother had a chance to hit him, she ran in between them and held her hands out, stopping her mother’s hand mid-air. Her mother’s face tightened. “What are you doing?”

“He…he bought me lunch.” She missed the man’s surprised face behind her, her attention focused wholly on her mother. Her mother seemed just as surprised, lowering her hand.

“You’re not lying for him, are you?” She shook her head. “What did he buy you?”

dried as she realized she had no idea what kinds of food one would buy on the way to school. But she didn’t have time to think. “Rice,” she said quickly.

“Rice? You bought her just rice?”

“I-I was so nervous…I didn’t want to eat…” She trailed off and stared at her feet, intimidated by the vicious stare of her mother.

“I can tell you didn’t feed her. You’re very lucky she’s covering for you. If this happens again, I’ll kill you.” She felt him start to move behind her and swiftly grabbed his arm, holding him still. Her mother turned back to her, all smiles again. “I’ll make you something warm to eat. In the meantime you should get to work on your homework.” She didn’t wait to try and figure out what that meant, just pulling on the man’s arm and running straight to her room. She let out a sigh of relief as she leaned against the door and slid to the floor.

“Are you alright?” N asked concernedly, throwing his bag onto the bed and moving to her side.

“I’m okay,” she said, rubbing her eyes and sighing again. “I’m just not used to Mommy acting so happy to me. It was strange.”

“Why did you say I bought you lunch? You know I didn’t-”

“You’re my doll. I don’t want you to get hurt.” She meant that nicely, smiling, though he didn’t seem to take it the same way as his mouth formed a thin line. She didn’t like seeing that expression on his face, so she jumped to her feet and grabbed his hand, running to the bed. She had been waiting for this all day. Without waiting for his response, she sat him down and nestled herself in his lap; he snorted as he just wrapped his arms around her, knowing exactly what she wanted. She relaxed in the embrace of his arms, resting her head in the crook of his elbow.

“You were waiting for this, weren’t you?”

“I wanted to do this all day.”

“I should start charging you. I could be rich.”

“What does that mean?”

He shifted her so she sat up, his arms falling loosely by her sides. “It means you have to give me money every time you want to hug me.”

“But I don’t have money.”

“I didn’t mean it literally. It’s just a figure of speech.”

“What does that mean?” She could tell he was getting exasperated with all her questions, so she just shut , not wanting to annoy him. She went back to just hugging him, feeling so warm and comforted by just the sound of his heartbeat. Everything would be better if he was just in class with her. He could sit where that boy sits and tell her anything that she didn’t understand.

Both of them snapped to attention as they jumped out of each other’s arms, sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed when the door creaked open. “I brought you your food.” She got to her feet and padded over as she took the tray from her mother’s hands, avoiding looking her in the eyes. She still wasn’t used to her speaking so sweetly to her; it didn’t sit well with her. “Don’t share any with him, understand?” She paused before nodding, staying stock still as her mother rustled her hair one last time before leaving her alone.

She turned to the man with a bright smile, running over and placing the tray on his lap. She had no intention of keeping food from him.

“Saet-byul-”

“You’re hungry too. I wouldn’t let you go hungry.” She grabbed a piece of bread and broke a chunk off, smiling as she held it in front of his face. He hesitated, glancing at the door before sighing, taking it out of her hands and shoving it in . She gagged and he laughed, the mere sound bringing a smile to her face.

Hello!

I don't normally put A/N's in my chapters, but I felt like I had to thank everyone that's subscribed and commented on my story. It really does help, and encourages me to keep writing. So as a present I did a double update ^-^

I hope to update soon and live up to all of your expectations~