“May I know where is the patient in room 208? Karls Roo Ji Hyun” ChanWoo who went to the hospital in the evening, panicked after not seeing the said girl in her ward, even her belongings could not be seen.

“Karls Roo, She’s discharged this morning”

“By Whom?”

“By herself?” She stated as if it was the obvious.

“Alright thank you” ChanWoo exited the hospital, taking out his phone, he dialled Roo’s number.

Sorry, the number you’ve dialled, is unavailable. Please tr- Even after his 15^th attempt, she did not pick up. All sorts of wild imaginations were running through his mind, he was convincing himself that nothing will happen to her. She’s a strong girl. He travelled to her rented apartment near the school to find it empty as well. He was getting anxious. Where could she go?

“Ahjumma, do you know if Roo dropped by?” He asked the tenant politely, who happened to stay at the apartment beside the rented one.

“Oh I haven’t seen you in a while ChanWoo. Ji Hyun came by and left a few hours ago.” The old lady in her 70’s patted ChanWoo’s back while she speaks. She’s the only one that called Roo by her actually last name. She insisted that she likes JiHyun more than Roo. She was like a mother in Seoul to Roo. She would cook for her when she doesn’t have extra cash for food, or when she’s exhausted from trainings. She would celebrate her victory with her, and sometimes ChanWoo would join them. Roo was definitely glad to have her as a tenant.

“Did she say where she’s going?”

“She didn’t mention anything, well, she took her suitcases with her and all she said was she will be leaving this place. I did tell her not to go but she just apologised to me and said she had something important to attend to. By the way, what happened to her leg? That poor girl has a cast.” She sadly explained.

“She hurt her leg in the previous competition. Don’t worry ahjumma, I guess she’s just having a breather because of her injury. She will return soon, hopefully” he whispered the last word, not wanting to let the old lady hear it.

Where could she have gone to? She had never mentioned anything about her families, nor did she ever mention anywhere that ChanWoo could think of. He took out his phone, wanting to call people that knows Roo, to check whether they have seen her. But the moment he tapped on his contact book in the phone, he realised, that Roo didn’t have any real friends that actually cares about her. Guilt gush through him, if he cares about he a little bit more, he might’ve been with her right now. She had done so much for him, she knew him inside out, but he knew nothing about her. He asked in his team’s group chat but to no avail. Most of them were concerned, but no one really knows where she went. It was like she disappeared in to the thin air. While some was just plain curious.

She has a step brother, who was 3 years older than her, Song Joong Ki. Yes, you read it right, step. They shared the same dad, and her mom was his second wife. Her dad remarried to her mom after his first wife passed away after she gave birth to JoongKi. However, their dad too, perished when she was 9 years old. She had moved to Seoul with her heartless goodbye, leaving her mom and her step brother at home. They did not disapprove her from going, but she could tell that they would prefer her to stay. She trusted her brother that he will take good care of her, and he did. Her brother was a very well loved Surgeon in TongYeong, they had a very close relationship before she left to study in Seoul. Things got busier and they stopped contacting each other, as long as she knew they were doing great. JoongKi does update her about their life once in a while, and that was enough for Roo. Roo took over their dad’s surname while JoongKi kept his mom’s surname, to remind him of her.

She had asked them to move to Seoul with her but they refused saying that they prefer TongYeong although deep down, she knew that because at that time, they were in no condition to move. Her dad was gone for barely 3years, and her mom had worked hard to raise them. Fortunately, JoongKi did not run away because they were his step family, in fact, he treated them very well, and he did not disappoint the family, he had gotten scholarships to further his studies, and never once did her stick out his hands to get money from his step mom.

No one in Seoul knows that her family was in TongYeong, heck, no one in Seoul knows that she has a family.

“Oppa! Omma!” She knocked on the door. She figured they would be having their lunch at this timing, and she was starving. As expected, her brother came to open the door with shocked plastered all over his face. After 5 years of not seeing each other in person, she could only say her brother had turned gorgeous.

“What’s taking you so long- oh Hyun?!” Her mom came out with a confused face, thinking if she had seen correctly or was she imagining things. “Is that you Hyun?” She reached out to cup Roo’s face, and she examined her daughter, her happiness was indescribable. She had smiles all over her face, in contrast to her brother’s expression. He still hasn’t got over the fact that his sister was back. He was staring at them exchanging words. “Hey, what happened to your leg?! Come in my girl. Joong-ah, help your sister to carry her suitcase in alright?”

“Yeah Omma”

“I injured myself during training, it’s no big deal.” She lied

“What brings you back home?” Her mom was caressing her back, as if she couldn’t get enough of her.

“Why? Can I not come back?”

“Of course you can, you know that not what I meant” She gave Roo a pointed look.

“Well, they decided to give me a few days off because of my injury. So I took the chance to visit you guys” She didn’t care about what she had said, and she was going to think of more excuse when the time arrive, but not now. She was just going to enjoy her moment now.

JoongKi had done putting her stuff into her room and was now sitting beside her while her mom had gone to cook up a meal for her. She insisted that her first meal back home must be a feast.

“How are you little sis?” He was sitting opposite of Roo, looking at her leg.

“Not enough to die yet big bro” She joked emotionlessly.

“Well, that doesn’t look like ‘no big deal’ to me.” It almost slipped off her mind that her brother was a surgeon, a doctor for goodness sake. How could he not see through her, how could she lie through.

“I think it’s a ‘no big deal’ for me though” She avoided his eyes, but speaks confidently.

“We will go for a walk tomorrow after my shift, and you,” he pointed his index finger at his Roo, “Will tell me what happened.”

“A walk? When I said it’s a ‘no big deal’ for me, I did not say I could walk with this” She pointed at her cast.

“Hey sis, wake up. I need to leave for work now.” He slapped Roo’s thigh lightly, gaining a groan from her. She waved him off, telling him to go away, giving him no respond other than that.

“Are you going to be okay?” He shook his sister, moving her injured leg carefully, and placed it on top of a pillow to support it, making her comfortable. “Yeah” she mumbled.

He strolled to her bedroom door to leave but he thought for a minute before returning to her bed, and sat down beside her sleeping figure. He pulled her in to a sitting position forcefully.

“What are you doing! I want to sleep!” She protested, eyes still not opening.

“I can’t just leave you like this without anyone taking care of you.”

“Then what are you going to do? Stay home and skip work? Just go already big bro. I will just sleep in a little bit more” She peeked at him through her left eye lazily.

JoongKi sighed, pondered for a minute before standing up. “I know you are hiding something Roo Ji Hyun, better get ready to explain to me after dinner. Take care of yourself, and eat your break-well, I meant lunch” He glanced at his watch and saw that it was already 11am. “I am calling home to check up on you later, expect my call.”

After her brother left, she sat up. She was awake when her brother had woken her up the first time. She just didn’t want to deal with any of his question, yet. Half a day off from everything seems like a right thing for her. She needed to clear her mind. She limped her way to the toilet to wash up and headed to the dining table to have her breakfast. She tied her hair up in to a pony tail and went back to her room to un pack her suitcase. Since she had decided to stay for good, technically.

As promised, her brother called her to check on her. She thought he was lame to do that, however she couldn’t help but feel warm. Someone actually cares about her. She assured him that she was going to be good before she hung up his call.

Holding her crutches, she limped slowly to the door. She still had sometime before her mom is going to return home at 6pm. Time check, 4.45pm.

She roamed around the familiar neighbourhood that she had grew up from. Other than modernizing, she realised that it didn’t change much. Except for the few shops that had been replaced. Heading towards the direction of the street basketball court that she remembered so clearly, she spotted students everywhere of the same uniform. It must be Richmond.

Stopping outside the fence, she stood there watching groups of people playing basketball. It was a huge street court that contains 3 basketball courts in the fenced area. What caught her attention was the court at the far end from where she was standing. They seemed to be having a little competition with many audiences watching the game. Avoiding all the people that were in the first two courts, she walks her way to the bench nearest to the happening court.

The game was going smoothly and it was getting interesting for her. She could clearly differentiate the different teams as one of the team were wearing casual clothes and seemed like they were too old for high school. On the other hand, the team was wearing Richmond’s uniform and they look around her age.

As the game was getting more intense, there were a lot more obvious violent play showing up. It was street basketball anyway, so no one could say anything to the ‘no rules’ game. Everyone would just sit by and watch. It seems like Richmond was leading and they had a number of supporters – fangirls. They grew cockier as their points keep increasing, and Roo was amused. She had played basketball for many years, but it was all legal play. She didn’t really have any chance to play street basketball. While she was still thinking about the skills the opposite team had used or could use against Richmond, she suddenly saw everyone in the court gathered at the side of it. She stretched her neck to see what was the loud commotion about to realise that they had gotten into fights. It wasn’t uncommon, but Roo didn’t like fights. She just couldn’t understand, she had seen whimoon’s male team fired up when they played with other schools, she just doesn’t get it, why do guys fight every time, when they could just talk things out.

She continued to sit at the bench, watching them grew heated as other audience left. Soon after, the noise level got softer and slowly, many of the opposite team was pulled away by others, assuming it was their friends. She took a look at her watch, 5.26pm. An idea popped up in her mind, and that idea, was what her brother and her mom will not like it.

One by one, Whimoon’s player started leaving the scene. She limped over to the person that caught her eye. He was tall, had a no.10 Jersey and she had been observing him since the fight blew up, because he was the only one from the team, not doing anything, other than standing there.

“How much does your passion cost?” She asked out of the blue, making the guy turned him attention to her. Looking down at her, confused. Who is she?

“Excuse me?” He didn’t understand her question. Why would she ask him that? Her phone rang, as he watched her decline the caller as she slides her phone back in her back pocket before walking away. He didn’t even get her reply when she just limped away without any respond. He furrowed his eyebrows, What a weird girl.