"I feel terrible for troubling you like this." Dad said, bowing to our new neighbours. I looked up at the house as they spoke, and sighed. I didn't want to move, but...doctor's orders...

"It's no trouble." came the response, and he smiled and took the box from the elder woman.

"Thank you very much." he said softly to her. She smiled kindly at him and went off to try pick something else up, no doubt. Coming back with a box, she ignored Dad's protests, so I went over and took it from her gently. Oh, this was pretty light.

"Thank you, but I can take it from here." I said. She put a hand on my cheek, and pinched. Ow.

"Cute." she said, then went back-again- to try help out as I set down the box.

"Out the way, GD." Dad said, nudging me out of the way as he came by with a heavy looking box. I went over and picked up two more boxes stacked on top of each other. They were both really light.

"Yah, this kid. GD, put that down, you should be resting." Dad said, and I sighed.

"These are the lightest things to carry, I'll be fine from here to the door." I replied, moving towards the house. 

"Just those two then." he said strictly, and I nodded as I set them down.

"What a nice house!" I sighed, feeling suddenly tired as the voice came over to me. JiTae.

"What do you think? Plenty of fresh air, the house isn't all that bad either. My summer house is in the area, too. The fence was too high, so I got rid of it." he continued.

"Thank you, I am forever in yout debt." Dad said, bowing slightly as he helped haul a cupboard into the house.

"Stop, Dad." I muttered, annoyed. He blinked.

"What's the matter?" he asked, and I sighed, shaking my head.

"Nothing." I replied.

"Well, that's everything, then. Why don't you go inside, GD?" Dad ushered me into the house. 

"If it wasn't for you, we'd have taken an eternity." Dad said with a grin, then looked to Seungri and I.

"Guys, did you day 'thank you'?" he asked. Seungri looked up at them and smiled.

"Thank you." he said. I bowed my head to them.

"Thank you." I said as well, though I couldn't help but notice it didn't quite sound like Seungri's. His was...happier. But that's fine; he was always overjoyed at everything.

Deongsok and Dongmi, did you thank Mr. Kwon for the food?" Mrs. Jeong asked.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you Mr. Kwon!"

"Halfway through the meal, you thank him?" Mr. Jeong laughed.

"Mrs. Kwon is... out of town?" Mr Jeong asked, and I looked to the table, fingers tracing the patterns the wood grains made.

"She...passed away, two years ago." Dad said, then upon noticing the tense atmosphere, he smiled. "I do some proofreading to look after these two." he said, putting a hand on Seungri's shoulder and smiling at me.

"And what does this one do? At his age, he could be doing so many things!" Mrs. Jeong smiled at me. Dad coughed.

"Ah... our Jiyong used to be an idol, known by all of Korea as GDragon. He's a fantastic singer and rapper." Dad said.

"And producer and songwriter." Seungri piped in, and I clenched my fist.

Yeah... 'used to be'

"Omo! We have a superstar in the village!" Mrs. Jeong smiled.

"Son, can I have some more soup?" Mr. Jeong asked me kindly. I nodded and took his bowl, then moved to the kitchen. As I picked up the ladle, I heard a laugh in the room, and sighed. This place... is boring. I miss Seoul. I miss being on stage. I miss everyone.

Aish! I spilt soup on my hand. Ugh, I never liked this stuff. Vegetables...evil things. 

As I cleaned it off of my hands, I heard them talking about the person who lived here before us. Apparently, he used to keep wolves or coyotes in the barn outside, doing some sort of study on them (No, not for the meat, Dad)

"What handsome boys you have!" Mrs. Jeong said as I came out of the kitchen and gave him his bowl. He took it with a 'thank you, son'.

"What schools to they go to?" she continued, "Ah...the little one...Seungri, right? He goes to... Taeryeong Elementary School?" Dad nodded with a smile, and I bowed to the table.

"I'm going to get something from outside." I said, walking over to the door. Dad nodded.

"It's chilly out, don't take too long!" he said, and I nodded, closing the door behind me. I didn't want to hear them talk about schooling. I haven't been to school for such a long time... Now, even if I wasn't an idol... I still wouldn't be able to; my lungs wouldn't let me.

"Only two families in the entire village!" Dad said as he opened the window of my room. I sighed.

"Hey, you're sleepy too. Get some rest." I said, and he shook his head.

"I will, later on; I'm going to unpack some more-"

"Sleep." I said, and he smiled, then nodded.

"Alright, I will. Medicine?" he asked. I nodded.

"Just took it." I replied, and he 'okay'ed, ruffled my hair, covered me properly with the blanket, and left, closing the door soundlessly behind him. I never understood how he did that; no matter what kind of door it was, especially this kind; horribly old and creaky, he never made a sound. After I rolled around a few more times, I sighed. I couldn't sleep.

Pulling out a book from under my pillow, I opened it and turned the light on near my futon, pulling the pencil from between the last pages I was at. I 'hmm'ed and wrote something else down, stopped, erased, and thought. Writing songs has always come naturally to me, now it seems I'm having trouble. I groaned and raked a hand through  my hair a few times befre giving up and rolling over, leaving the book to rest on my face. Then, after a few seconds of deafening silence, I heard a sound. I sat up, the book falling from my face and onto my lap long forgotten as I clambered out of the futon, untangling the sheets from my legs.

I crept into Seungri's room and shook him.

"Wake up! Seungri, wake up, there's something outside." I said, but he ignored me, glaring angrily as I shook him again.

"Seungri." I whined, and he huffed, sitting up.

"DAD, JIYONG WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted, then flopped back down to sleep again. I narrowed my eyes at his sleeping form and kicked him lightly, then went to peek into Dad's room. He was still asleep. I couldn't wake him up now; he's been working nonstop for the past week to get us here, and if this turned out to be nothing, he'd never fall asleep again, so I ventured outside on my own. Well, with a shovel, just in case.

The sound was made again, this time I heard it from the barn. I nudged the door open with my fot, and stepping inside. Walking slowly, so as to not startle anyone into knowing I was there, I went up to the door straight in front of me, and gripped my shovel tighter with one hand, the other reaching out to the door's rusty handle. Swallowing nervously, I steeled my nerves to look fearless, and opened the door swiftly, though with an ear aching creak. I peered inside the dark room and coughed, the stench overpowering any other senses I may have hoped to rely on. Then I saw it, through watery eyes, the dark figure in the middle of the room, staring up at me with burnt golden eyes, almost bordering red. I gasped, a hand coming up to cover my mouth to stay quiet. The figure crept towards me, and I...freaked out, and screamed. 

It dashed forwards, going around me (quite kindly; thank you for that, instead of knocking me over) and out the barn. I stood there, frozen, as I panted, already feeling the pain in my lungs. The lights of the house , and Dad and Seungri came out, looking for me.

"Seungri, where's your brother?" he asked.

"I'm...I'm in here!" I called as loud as I could. Seungri heard, it seemed, and called our father over.

"Dad! Dad, he's in the barn!" Footsteps came towards the barn, and I willed my limbs to move, the shovel forgotten somewhere on the floor; it was too dark to see it.

"Jiyong!" Dad used my name, he must be really worried. "God, what are you doing out here at this time?" he asked, pulling me into a hug. Seungri then came, and the two practically held my by my arms and legs and hauled me into the house.

"How horrifying!" Mrs Jeong said. Dad nodded.

"You should have called us, we'd have helped!" Mr Jeong added, making his wife nod.

"Must have been a stray wolf." Dad said. Mrs Jeong nodded, then handed him a basket.

"Here, I boiled some potatoes." she said. Dad smiled.

"You really didn't have to." he said, taking it with a bow.

"It's nothing," came the response. "Well, I'm sure it won't come back. Have a good day!" they said, then departed. Dad came oveer and sighed.

"You really shouldn't be doing that, GD." he said, eyeing the sheets I was hanging. "I'd rather you do some studying, if you want to go to America..." I stopped listening as I noticed a shadow crouched near to the rubble of part of our house, and blinked.

"Dad..." I started, and he 'hmm'ed.

"Look." I mumbled, eyes fixed on the...whatever it was. He cursed under his breath.

"Good Lord." he said, then picked up a...thing. I have no idea what that stick thing was called. "Sty still. Do you think it's what you saw last night?" he asked, and I shrugged.

"I don't know, it could be, but it was too dark to see anything last night." I replied, and he 'hm'ed.

"Go away!" he said, brandishing  his stick thing threateningly at it. "Shoo! Shoo!" he tried again, but the thing stayed where it was. He gave up, and tried another tactic.

"Come here, come on out." he said, holding a hand out to it. It crept out from the shadows, to reveal...

"It's...a guy." I said, and Dad sighed.

"Don't go around calling strangers 'this guy'!" he said, and I rolled my eyes.

"Sorry." I mumbled as he continued to coax THE GUY out of his hiding place.

"Who are you?" he asked, and THE GUY'S eyes darted to the basket of potatoes from Mrs Jeong.

"You want this?" Dad asked, taking one and holding it out.

"Dad!" I scolded. Why was he feeding THIS GUY?

"Jesus Christ, he stinks." I muttered, looking away.

"You want more? Yes?" Dad asked, taking the basket and holding it out.

"What are you doing, Dad?" I asked, ready to facepalm any minute now. Dad glared at me, without heat, just a 'stop being silly' glare, and turned back to THE GUY, who was looking at the baslet intently. I sighed.

"Fine, just... Just give it to him." I said.He did, and THE GUY ate happily...and like a dog.

Soon, all the laundry was hung up.

"...Why isn't he going?"

"He can't talk?" the police officer asked. Dad shook his head.

"No, but he seems to understand though." I said.

"He's just some tramp, send him away!" JiTae said, and i closed my eyes, annoyed by his voice alone. We all ignored him, and the officer wrote some things down.

"Name unknown...Age undetermined...Ah, damn!" his point broke.

"Do you have a pencil sharpener?" he asked, and Dad rolled his eyes.

"What are you going to do about him?" Dad asked, and the officer sighed.

"To be honest, there's not much we can do about him. They say there are about 60,000 kids orphaned by the war. He looks t be about 17 or 18. He's too old for an orphanage; they would never take in an adolescent." he said, then leaned forward to see the boy more clearly. 

"Is that a cut on his face?" he asked, reaching out, but the boy recoiled violently.

"Jeez! Was he abused or something?" the officer asked, and Dad sighed.

"Shouldn't you take him in and look into the matter?" he asked, and the officed nodded.

"That's my job alright, but my captain will blow his lid!" he replied.

"Just throw him out!" JiTae said from his place in the corner of the room, looking on at everything.

"I'll see what I can do." the officer said, and Dad nodded, then saw them out.

Dinner was a catastrophy.

"Poor guy must have starved..." Dad mumbled under his breath as we all stared.

"What are you gonna do about him?" I asked angrily as the guy practically inhaled our dinner from the table.

"I talked to the county office today, they said they'd contact us."

"Until then?" I asked, and he shuffled.

"It shouldn't take long, the officer has a lot of connections. How about we just take care of him until then?" Dad asked tentatively, and I looked up at him, tearing my gaze from the thing at our table.

"What?"

"Only for a few days, maybe a few weeks at most, I promise." he said. I groaned and stood, noticing the guy give me an odd look as I left. I sighed as he continued to stare at me until I was out of the room.

"Weird..." I muttered, but shook my head and went looking for my books.

I apologise. I know I literally JUST came out with another book, while the first one isn't even done yet, but I. Can't. Deal. With shizz like this in my head. 

Tell me whatcha think?

~Anna