Taemin woke up to the chirping of birds and the warmth of sunlight coming from the window near the couch he laid on.
“Where am I?” he thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes. He stayed on the couch in uncertainty. His eyes traveled to scan his surroundings. Surely he wasn’t in Sel Inn. The place looked like a simple yet beautiful average home. It was like their old dorm but prettier. Parallel to the couch he was on was a small wooden table with a flower vase in the middle and a television on the wall. The walls were beautifully painted with different colors. The walls were cream white designed with birds painted in 5 different pastel colors: pink, green, purple, tangerine and blue. There was an electric fan by his foot that blew over him from head to toe. The touch of the cool breeze made him realize that his clothes were different. He was in comfortable white pajamas and it had him thinking how he got in those. His head was bare and he realized his beanie wasn’t on anymore. It felt funny like something was hugging it. He raised his hand to feel what was around his head. He slowly the sides of his head with his fingers and felt a bandage wrapped around his head. There was a beaten up feeling on the right side of his head. He slowly pressed on it and felt a stinging pain.
 

“Agh!!” groaned Taemin as his head began to hurt.

“Omo, please don’t touch your head, it’s still healing!” exclaimed a soft voice coming from behind. Taemin was startled by the voice. He tried to get up but two small warm hands gently stopped him from doing so.
“Aniya aniya , you must continue to rest. Just lie down please..” insisted the soft voice.
“Wh---”
“Shhh, shhh. Just rest..” whispered the voice. Taemin couldn’t recognize the voice he was hearing. But he was sure it was a girl’s. What he couldn’t decipher was the age of the voice. She sounded young. Her voice was so soft and gentle, that it soothed him and had him stay put, flat on his back. Taemin didn’t know where he was or whom he was with, but he felt comfort and safety. The lady walked towards the window in front of him to shut its curtains. He saw what she looked like from behind. She was petit. Her hair was dark and long that it covered most of her back. She was wearing an oversized cotton shirt and pastel pink shorts that looked comfortable. She glowed as the faint sunlight touched the bare parts of her pale skin.

“Wow….am I dead?...” Taemin thought to himself. He was unsure of what happened last night and how he got in this house but he was sure it wasn’t such a pretty happening. He felt so much security in that house and the presence of this stranger that the thought of that doesn’t even bother him anymore. The girl turned to face him.
“How are you feeling, sir?” she gently asked with a concerned look on her face. Taemin gasped. His heart stopped and his feet grew cold. He couldn’t move. He panicked as he saw the girl’s face through his misty vision.

She looked like someone who used to be special to him but he couldn’t remember who it was. The sight of her ran chills up his spine, it bothered him that he couldn’t remember who she reminded him of. He set aside that thought for a while.
“Is there anything wrong?” softly asked the girl as she went over the couch to check on Taemin. She kneeled in front of the couch, by Taemin’s head. She went closer to him to adjust his bandage and Taemin got a clearer view of her face; and he got stuck staring at it. She looked like an angel. Her face was glowing. Her eyes were big, sharp and beautiful like a dessert fox’s. Though she was pale, her cheeks were rosy and soft. Her lips were pink, plump and moist like a berry and she smelled like flowers. It fascinated Taemin how she was so focused on checking on his head with uttermost care and concern like a nurse who was passionate about her job. But he still wasn’t sure if she’s a 5 year old or a 13 year old. She looked ageless like a cherubim. As he watched her fix his bandage, Taemin had second thoughts if he was still alive.

 “Is she a Welcome to Heaven staff? Will I see the Lord soon?” thought Taemin. As funny as this may sound, he was actually serious about thinking that he was in the afterflife. The moment was just so surreal, not only because it all happened out of nowhere but also because of the girl’s peaceful, gentle and caring aura. He hasn’t been taken care of by a girl in a long time since his own mother. It was a feeling he never knew he missed. She then unwrapped his bloody bandage to check the condition of Taemin’s injury. She smiled as she saw that his huge head wound is now starting to dry up.
“Why are you smiling?” Taemin couldn’t help but ask.
“I’m happy that I was able to heal your head. The wound is now drying up. It's still pretty fresh and it's not gonna close up that quickly but there's no more blood. Just blood stains on your hair and on the ” replied the girl gladly.
“W-wound?? Blood? But how--”
“I don’t know really. But I’m pretty sure you were hit on the head with a bottle. I found you lying down in front of my house with pieces of broken glass after hearing a loud crash” she replied. “What was your last memory of last night?”
Taemin tried to recall where he last was and what he was up to.
“Well….I was headed to this inn named ‘Sel Inn’ and passed by a dark street. I came across two drunk ajhussis and one of them had a bottle--”
“—and it seems that one ajhussi hit you with his bottle?”
“I don’t recall….i just remember walking past them and then everything out completely, that’s it..”
“They attacked from behind, let’s assume. What’s important is, there seems to be no serious injury. The thick beanie you were wearing must’ve cushioned the impact. I also examined the glass this morning and it wasn’t so thick. That and you still remember what happened last night. There are still chances that you have memory loss but we’ll see as you recover” replied the girl. She grabben an ointment tube on top of the table, squeezed out some on her finger and carefully applied it on Taemin’s wound.
“AGH!!”
“Omo! Mianhae mianhae!” the girl bit her lips as she panicked and rewrapped the bandage around Taemin’s head.
“Are you a nurse or something?” asked Taemin.
“No but my mom was. She taught me a thing or two. Back then when she got home from work, she always shared some of the things she learned so I grew up to be very cautious. So don’t worry, you won’t die by hand” said the girl as she finished wrapping Taemin’s bandage.
“Don’t touch you head again, araso?” she said and Taemin replied with a nod.
“Sorry for touching it though...i had to reapply the ointment..”
“Um….hey…uh..kid..?—“
“…I-I’m not a kid” replied the girl softly then looked down on the floor while biting her lips. She felt embarrassed by what Taemin called her.
“I’m sorry….you just look so young..”
“Gwenchanayo, I get that a whole lot...”
Seeing how embarrassed the girl was, Taemin tried to come up with something that would cheer her up.
“I used to get that a lot also”
Taemin got her attention and she looked right back at him.
“J-jinjja?...” asked the girl.
“Neh. And it was more than just that..”
“What?”
“I was also mistaken as girl a lot. I struggled because I was a guy, but girls who look younger are cute. Just think that when you grow old, you will still look younger than everyone”
Hearing this from Taemin, the girl started to smile slowly until her teeth showed.
She didn’t seem to be the kind of girl that didn’t smile a lot so it made him happy to see that she was getting a bit giggly.
“Ya…what’s so funny”
“N-nothing” said the girl looking away pressing her lips together, trying not to laugh.
“I know I look like a girl, okay. You even think I look like a granny because of my hair don’t you? Don’t you dare call me halmeoni..” Taemin jokingly threatened her. The girl looked back at him and shook her head. Taemin thought she would laugh even more but he didn’t expect her to respond that way.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You sort of look like a girl but….I don’t think you look like a halmeoni..” shyly replied the girl. 
This sort of surprised Taemin, usually the average person will greet him and say his hair was like a granny’s but not this girl.
“Jinjja?..” asked Taemin.
“Neh. I actually think your hair looks cool, How do you get it to look like that?” asked the girl.
 Taemin was delighted by the fact that she was that kind of girl who didn’t find him weird for choosing to look like that. But what’s surprising is that even though she was simple, something as “bizarre” as his hair didn’t disgust her. It quickly made him more comfortable to be around her. Taemin felt like he was finally making a friend not as an idol but just as himself. He was about to tell her that he had a stylist who takes care of his hair for him but it seems like she didn’t know that he was an idol. He thought that telling her that would blow up the simple life he aimed for. He didn’t want the girl to know who he was back in Seoul and what he does for a living, he liked things just the way it was at that moment where he was just casually talking to a stranger as a regular person. He felt like he successfully escaped back in time when he just an average boy but with a twist.

“Uh….um…I uh, saved up for it…it’s really expensive and needs extra care” replied Taemin nervously.
“I really like it. You look like a Final Fantasy character..”
“Well thanks….that’s how I wanted it to look like..” replied Taemin, feeling great that somebody got the idea.

“Um….miss….where did you put my clothes?...” said Taemin as he traveled his hands across his pajamas.
“Oh um…I washed them this morning. I’ll iron them for you later when it dries up”
“And my luggage?..”
“It’s just there in the other room”
“Wait how did I get in these pajamas again?...”
“O-oh please don’t get any wrong ideas….I had to remove your tight clothes because it could get in the way of your rest….your whole body needed to breathe. D-don’t worry I only removed your jacket, pants and shoes..” she explained. Taemin then peeked in hid pajamas and inside he saw that he was still wearing the same shirt from last night. Taemin placed his hands by his thighs and felt that he was still wearing his boxers inside. Taemin let out a deep breath of relief. The sight of Taemin slightly panicking about his clothes got the girl to grow more timid.

“Joseonghamnida...” she bowed, stood up and headed to the kitchen to wash a few dishes to hide her embarrassment. Taemin saw the uneasy expression on her face and he felt bad that she had to feel uncomfortable; after all, she did remove his clothes out of genuine care. As she washed the dishes, Taemin stretched out his limbs on the couch to warm himself up then got up to follow the girl in the kitchen. Taemin walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. opened in shock. He didn’t expect him to be up on his feet. So she turned off the running faucet to face him.
“Ya…I’m sorry if you had to go through all these inconvenience. I’ll pay you back someday”
“O-oh....you're up….g-gwenchanayo..” she muttered then shyly bowed while her eyes kept blinking.
“I’ll get going to Sel Inn. I’ll be back to repay you oka--”
“Aniya! Please stay here, I still have to fully treat your injury...You might strain yourself if you go out alone...” insisted the girl. Something tells Taemin that she asked him to stay not only because of his injury. He felt loneliness in the tone of her voice. He looked around the house and it seems like there was no one else living with her. Knowing the dangerous thing that happened to him the previous night, he couldn’t just leave such a delicate young girl alone. Sure it may be awkward to stay alone in a house with a girl he just met but he knew he had to. After all, this girl did take great care of him and she seemed to care genuinely about nursing him. He felt burdened to bless her the same way she did with him and he thought that staying would somehow repay her kind heart.
“A-araso….I will stay until I get better..” said Taemin as he leaned by one of the walls of the kitchen.
The girl gave him a soft smile and Taemin nodded back, smiling with his eyes. She grew shyer compared to how she was when she was when they first spoke to each other. Seems like she was more confident when taking care of someone; something she might’ve gotten from her mom.
“Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, mianhaeyo. Annyeonghasseyo, Bae Juhyeon imnida” she timidly introduced herself with a bow.
“Annyeonghasseyo, Lee Taemin imnida” responded Taemin. She smiled softly, nodded at Taemin and went back to washing the dishes.
“I’ll be cooking brunch in a while so please hold on. Are you hungry?”
“I can wait, komawo..”
All this wasn’t part of Taemin’s getaway plan. It wasn’t expected. A few bumps happened along the way. He lost his phone and got hit with a bottle by an alcoholic but it led to meeting Juhyeon. Staying alone in an inn started to seem boring for Taemin. At least now he wasn’t going to be alone in this escape trip; she wasn’t going to be alone either.