LULU

His mother often helped him get over it. She would normally sit on the edge of the bed and whisper soothing words into her son's ear while he told her about his dream over a cup of tea. 

Mrs. Kim was very aware of the Banshee gift, as the gene had been passed down in the family for thousands of years. It mostly affected the females of the bloodline, with some showing only mild banshee abilities, others being plagued by the full banshee curse, but Sunoo was the first male Kim to inherit this rare full-blown banshee gene.   

Most of the time, Sunoo's mother tried to help Sunoo with all her might, but often she couldn't really put herself in the boy's position because the gene was not particularly pronounced in her, but she still knew a lot about it and tried to make life easier for Sunoo, about which Sunoo  was very grateful because he was aware that he could never have endured it alone without help.   

On really bad days, when Sunoo couldn't stop screaming and the loud, almost screaming voices begged and cried at him, the whole family went to his grandmother's large country house for a while. It was far away from the city surrounded by fields and pastures, no forests, because his grandmother knew what dangerous things lurked there at night.   

Sunoo's grandmother was a smart old but fit woman who was also a banshee and had been for many years, which gave her some tips and tricks to calm the banshee's abilities, which kept her from going insane. She was the person that all the banshees in the family would come to for advice, so there were usually several people in her house for varying periods of time. 

While Sunoo was staying with his grandma trying to calm down, the school was told that he couldn't attend classes due to health reasons, but this was beginning to feel strange to some students as the poor boy was absent almost every month at least once and so rumors formed. Rumors nobody dared to say out loud.   

Sunoo was often aware of the rumors himself. Some people kept giving him wry, accusatory sideways glances as he walked the school corridors but rarely lowered his head to them. Well, the boy wasn't really unpopular though it seemed like it, of course, some students found him odd but most still found him sweet and friendly. 

But that night, Sunoo noticed that his mother wasn't sitting on the edge of the bed today and calming him down because she had taken sunoo's father and his sister to the sea on vacation, and had left Sunoo, quite involuntarily, at home. But now he regretted that he didn't go with them and was alone at home.

Sunoo looked around his moonlit room and finally caught sight of the glowing digits of his alarm clock, which was standing on a small bedside table next to his bed. The dark-haired boy groaned loudly and was annoyed when he saw the time.  

4:00am. 

He had three hours left until his alarm clock usually went off, and Sunoo would get up and get ready for school. But what should Sunoo do in the three hours now? If he couldn't sleep again now, he knew he would probably be tired all day. However, Sunoo was aware that he would not be able to fall asleep again. 

And so Sunoo pushed the white blanket off his body and stood up. When his warm feet touched the cold floor, the boy felt a chill run down his spine, and, now wide awaked, he padded into the living room. 

Once there, the young banshee turned on the TV and zipped through the various channels, hanging on one of the many news channels for a little too long when another death had just been reported. The victim had several scratches and bite marks exhibited.

Sunoo let out an ironic snort and rolled his eyes, knowing, of course, that this was the work of a bloodthirsty vampire, but the humans and reporters were ignorant and stupid. They saw the marks, and almost everyone thought the same thing, yet they didn't believe in the supernatural, so such cases were always labeled as regular murders.

Sunoo finally got himself back to zipping through the channels and got stuck again on another tv channel that played an episode of the famous teenage series Teen Wolf.

Sunoo had to chuckle. It was ironic. First, the news of the murder by supernatural beings, and now Teen Wolf, where just the same thing happened as in the real world. The boy found it really amusing how the fictional TV series about teenagers for teenagers resembled the real world so much. It truly felt like the producers knew about the other side of the world.

On the screen, Lydia was just seen playing the record player in the Martin Lake House and hearing the password for the list. Sunoo truly liked Lydia Martin and was a bit jealous of her specific skills, but a bunch of the things were made up of her banshee features.

And so the three hours of waiting passed, and the boy slowly began to get ready for school.

Sunoo was right the day was really hell. The whole time Sunoo tried not to close his eyes and doze off. It almost happened to the poor boy in writing class with Ms. Choo when he laid his head on the cold tabletop and slowly fell asleep, but luckily for him, his seatmate woke him up before he could doze off.

Embarrassed, Sunoo thanked her and apologized when he was embarrassed because the seatmate was actually the class president and his crush of almost two years. y/l/n y/n, which happened to be you.

Sunoo found you fascinating when you first walked through the big school doors and rattled into the classroom two years ago. With your hair tied in two high pigtails and your notepad clutched to your chest, you immediately caught the boy's attention. So Sunoo's crush on you went on for years, but the poor banshee never dared to confess to you, and so he just adored you from afar. Maybe it was because he was afraid you would think he was weird like some other classmates and you would reject him, or maybe it was because you were class president and also stuco president with Yang Jungwon. Either way, the boy couldn't bring himself to talk to you.

However, to Sunoo's regret, the dark-haired boy did not go unnoticed by you. You knew the rumors about your classmate all too well, but you only believed a few of them. Nevertheless, you had never exchanged a single word with Sunoo, although as stuco president, you had already had a conversation with almost every student. Sunoo was also your seatmate, but you never really talked to each other other than maybe a few apologies or hellos.

However, there were still a few odd moments when you couldn't help but believe the rumors a little more and found the boy's behavior strange. Like, for example, just in history class, when you noticed how the boy next to you slowly let his head fall down on the table and landed on your notes of all places. You were truly wondering why Sunoo would just fall asleep in one of the more fascinating classes. Maybe he'd had a tough or busy day, and you really didn't want to interfere in his business, so you just woke sunoo up before he could actually get to sleep and didn't mention it again.

After that lesson, Sunoo immediately went to his friends Yang Jungwon, said stuco president, Nishimura Riki, and Watanabe Haruto in the canteen and told them about his embarrassing experience.

"There's no way you fell asleep next to y/n." Haruto said, hands on his stomach while he was laughing. Sunoo just buried his head in his hands and nodded, slightly embarrassed. He really thought he could never show his face in front of you again.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad. At least it was y/n, you know she's too kind and understanding and won't tell anyone.” Jungwon said, picking some rice from his lunch box with his chopsticks. Now niki interfered in the conversation and didn't help Sunoo at all with it. “But imagine you fall asleep next to your crush and class president. I would change schools."

Jungwon just shook his head at the younger and smiled reassuringly at Sunoo. “Was there any reason why you fell asleep in the middle of class? You usually pay attention and work so well in class.”

“I don't know it myself. I just woke up last night and couldn't go back to sleep. I was probably just too tired. I guess it won't be like that tomorrow.” Sunoo smiled at the worried boy and tried to convince him, as well as himself, that everything was going to be alright.

However, sunoo was completely wrong, this behavior was going on for several weeks now and you were starting to worry about the boy because it really seemed like he was having trouble sleeping and not getting enough sleep at night.

Sunoo, on the other hand, really had trouble sleeping, every time he closed his eyes, he saw the same person dying in front of his eyes, killed by the claws of a beast, but he could never see the victim's face. She always stood with her back turned to him, and when she finally lay dead on the floor, her face was half torn, and blood flowed from every pore. Besides, his family still hadn't returned from vacation, and Sunoo had no one to help him. At times like this, he would drive to his grandma and try to relax, but he couldn't make such a long trip alone. So, he was all on his own.

It was one of those many more nights when Sunoo dreamed of that particular person again, but this time he was able to see her face directly. He saw her lifeless, dead eyes, heard her cries begging for mercy, and even imagined her perfume smell. And that's when Sunoo woke up all sweaty and screaming because the person he saw in his predictive dreams was none other than you.

Sunoo wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, he liked you and wanted to tell you as soon as possible that you were about to die, no matter what you would think of him just so you wouldn't die. On the other hand, he knew the rules. He wasn't allowed to tell anyone about their imminent death. However, it was also the first time he had such a prediction in his dream before that person died, so Sunoo wasn't too sure if it really was the banshee in him that had made that prediction or if it was just a nightmare his brain had made up in his sleep.

But then Sunoo wondered why the hell he shouldn't prevent the death of an innocent person when he had the chance to. He was tired of seeing so much news about murders and missing people. It would also save him some suffering, so sunoo decided to go to you on Monday and tell you about your fate and wished that nothing would happen to you.

“Maybe Monday is already too late. What if she died today or tomorrow? I should tell her right away." the boy murmured to himself and jumped out of bed without hesitation, simply pulled his heavy jacket over his pajamas, which consisted of sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt, and made his way to you in the middle of the night hoping that you were neither asleep nor dead.

Sunoo walked, or somewhat ran, down the street to your neighborhood. Every now and then, a car would drive past the trembling boy and blast him with its bright lights.

It felt like an eternity for the boy when he finally got closer to your house─he knew where you lived because he was with you once in second grade for a school project─and let out a sigh of relief when he finally stood in front of your front door. Now all he had to do was to get you out of the house somehow to talk to you.

Luckily for him, he saw a bright light burning on the first floor of your gray house and hoped very much that it was coming from your room and that he wouldn't have to wake you up from your sleep.

So now all Sunoo had to do was ring the doorbell and wait, but coming to think of it, that probably wasn't a good idea because what would he say if your parents opened the door for him? He couldn't tell them why he was standing in front of their house in his pajamas, and they'd probably think he was crazy for ringing on their doorbell just after midnight─ it's not like you wouldn't think he was crazy anyway.

The banshee took a quick look around the front yard of your house when his eyes landed on a rock in the lawn and went to pick it up, and throw it at the window, which was leaking the light out onto the street. If this was your parent's room and not yours, sunoo knew he was probably fucked.

But now, it was too late because the stone already hit the glass of the window with a loud noise.

At that moment, you were about to fill out the final forms from yesterday's stuco meeting with the council and were more than happy that you shared the papers with Jungwon. So, you only had to fill out half of them and Jungwon the rest. This saved you some work and hopefully gave you some more sleep, but when you heard something hit your window, you jumped up in fright. 

It was probably just a bird, wasn't it? What else would crash against your window at night?  

Still a bit anxious, you threw your attention back to your forms and tried to get the scary thoughts out of your head. You were about to put your pen down on the paper again when something slammed against your window for the second time. Well, you were terrified, to say the least, but you were a little curious and wanted to know what crashed into your window, even if it meant you could eventually get killed 

And so, you got up from your desk at the other end of the room and took careful steps towards your window. When you opened it, the cold night air immediately rushed into your face and infiltrated your warm room, this was the reason why you started to tremble slightly all over your body. 

You had to squint your eyes to see something in the darkness but couldn't see anything particularly striking until your gaze fell on a figure in your front yard. However, they didn't really look like a killer to you though, so you were somewhat reassured.

"Who is there?" you yelled into the cold night and immediately started to regret it again because it probably wasn't the smartest thing to shout to a possible killer. After all, that was part of every halfway good horror movie, and most of the time, they never answered anyway.

"Y/n? This is Sunoo from writing class. Can we maybe talk?” Sunoo yelled up at you in a whisper, careful not to wake your parents since he was now reasonably sure that they were asleep and hoped that you would come down to him and talk to him without protest.

On the other hand, you couldn't believe your ears. Why on earth would Kim Sunoo, from your writing class, be standing in front of your house in the middle of the night to want to talk to you. Couldn't he discuss this with you in class on Monday?

You started to think for a moment and answered the boy, "Uhh yes I think so. Hold on, I'm coming out.” Maybe this still wasn't a good idea, but what could Sunoo do to you?

You left your room and snuck barefoot down the long flight of stairs connecting the two floors, careful not to wake anyone up or get yourself into trouble.

When you got outside, you zipped up your jacket because it was colder than you thought and took quick steps toward Sunoo. As you approached him, despite the darkness, you were able to consider him more closely; his black hair was tousled and messy, he was probably what it looked like to you in his pajamas, and he seemed like he hadn't slept in a while.

"Why the hell do you want to talk to me in the middle of the night?" You might have asked the poor boy in front of you a bit too harshly, but you only realized this after you had thrown the words at Sunoo's head, but it didn't impress him really and he started to answer you.

"I'm happy to explain all that to you, but I would find it better if we couldn't talk about that right in front of your front door and instead could go to the park on the other side of the street and sit on a park bench there."

"Are you insane? Want to go to a park in the middle of the night? Aren't you scared of what might be walking around there at that time?” You started to feel fooled, maybe Sunoo wanted to kidnap you and then kill you after all.

Sunoo rolled his fox-like eyes in annoyance and let out a long, annoyed sigh through his pink lips. "Look y/n, normally I would be the first to fear something like this because I know exactly what goes on in places like this at night and what creatures lurk there, but it's really important that I tell you everything in an undisturbed place and I can promise you that nothing will happen to you."

"How do I know you won't kill me?"

Now Sunoo had enough of your questions and just pulled you by your wrist to the park across the street and sat with you on one of the many benches. You knew there was no point in arguing, so you just let yourself be dragged along with him without protest.

"Please listen and promise me you won't freak out when I'm done," Sunoo paused for a moment, seeking approval, which you gave him with a nod, "So, um, where do I start?"

"Maybe in the beginning?"

"Um yeah, maybe that would be for the best," Sunoo nodded, scratching his neck in embarrassment. “You have to know, in our world, there are not only normal people. Among us live vampires, werewolves, and many other mystical creatures you can imagine, you've probably heard about the many murders in the news right? Most of them were vampires or werewolves.” Sunoo stopped talking again and looked at you again to make sure you could follow him.

But there was just too much information for you to process in your head. Of course, you'd heard about the murders, but there weren't any vampires or anything like that, at least, your fantasy stopped working at that point. And why should Sunoo know all this?

As if Sunoo could read your mind, he immediately answered your question, "You must be wondering how I know all this. My family has been a part of these supernaturals for millennia. I don't know if you've ever heard of banshees, but this gene has been inherited in my family for a long time and I got it. So that means I can somehow predict the deaths of others and know where someone just died because the victims tell me.”

You were kind of surprised by the long confession he just told you. A few owls hooted in the trees above you and made the story seem even more believable.

"If all of this is true, why would you tell me all this? After all, I hardly know you.”

"I know, and I shouldn't even tell you all this. I could really get in trouble because of it, after all. But I saw you in one of my dreams the other day, to be honest, I didn't even know I was capable of something like that until that point. Yet you were there, I could see you, hear you and even smell you, and then you died, actually, you were killed by the claws of a werewolf."

"So you're telling me now that I'm going to die soon?" You started to giggle slightly at that thought. You really expected everything from this conversation, but saying you're going to die was really a bit too ironic, and all you wanted to know was if Sunoo was mentally ok because it didn't seem to you? Well, you definitely couldn't shake the rumors that he was crazy. But somehow, you felt sorry for the boy.

"I know this sounds crazy, but you have to believe me. I'm telling the truth." Sunoo tried desperately to save the situation, but he failed miserably, and he noticed that himself.

"I'm sorry, Sunoo, but this sounds like a story that my grandma would tell me before bed to keep me from getting up in the night and wandering around at night" You gave the boy an apologetic look and got up off the bench, your legs feeling a little wobbly from the lengthy sit and stormed out of the little park.

"Y/n, please wait!" the boy begged and ran after you, passing the small lake and the many bushes.

"Please stop."

Luckily for Sunoo, you stopped short on the road and let him catch up with you. But when you made sure there were no cars, your legs almost automatically moved across the street.

But before you knew it, a relatively large silver car was speeding towards you at full speed and didn't look like it was about to slow down. You already saw the car drive into you, and for a short time, you regretted all the bad things you had done in your life. You knew that it was too late for you and that nothing could help you out of this situation.

Sunoo, who was still standing on the sidewalk, saw the car speeding toward you as well, and without thinking twice, he sprinted in your direction and threw you sideways, landing lightly on you and holding you in that position for a short while. Your faces slowly began to move toward each other. But before anything else could happen, you cleared your throat, and Sunoo remembered why you were in this position and slowly rolled off you.

The adrenaline was still pumping through your veins as you tried to piece the event together in your head. It was clear that the car was after you and wanted to kill you, but you couldn't explain why.

"Are you alright?" Sunoo asked you concerned, examining your face a little more closely, checking for injuries. You giggled slightly at Sunoo's worried expression, but you were still shocked and afraid for your life.

"Thank you, Sunoo. You really saved my life, who knows what would have happened if you hadn't been there. Maybe you're right after all with your funny predictions because it really seemed like the driver just wanted to kill me” You thanked the boy next to you and got up from your lying position.

Sunoo started to smile even though you almost got killed and started to get up too. "I'm really glad you believe me, but that wasn't the reason why you died in my dream. I think someone still has plans to harm you."

"What if you tell me more about everything inside? You can sleep here overnight.” You nodded your head towards your door and started walking toward it, Sunoo following you inside gratefully.

As the weeks slowly passed by, Sunoo and you were practically stuck together at school and at home. Of course, your friends noticed this too and wondered what had happened that you were now sitting and giggling together every break because there was rarely a moment when you weren't seen together.

Your parents were also surprised, somewhat shocked, to see a boy your age entering the house who was not Jungwon, who was often in your house because of stuco matters. Still, they were kind of proud of you for making new friends and hanging out with other people. Your parents still loved your friends with their whole hearts, though.

"How the fuck did you, Kim Sunoo, get with y/n y/l/n?" Niki questioned, the boy one day, his hands buried deep in his black baggy jeans, when they were waiting for you together in front of the school so that Sunoo could go home with you.

"Maybe he's just blackmailing her, so she has to hang out with him." hissed Haruto and leaned against the cold stone wall behind him, sighing. He really didn't understand why they were waiting for you here with Sunoo when he could have been home long ago.

“First of all, y/n and I are just friends. Second, what do you even mean by that? Why should I blackmail y/n? We just get along well." Sunoo tried to explain it to his friends and sounded a little too offended for his friends.

"Oh come on, you couldn't even get a single word out in front of her without stuttering a few weeks ago and now you're just clinging to her."

The questions from the two boys continued for a few more minutes, and sunoo was slowly getting impatient that you didn't come out to relieve him. At that moment, he was glad that Jungwon wasn't also taking part in the conversation and just tried to stop the boy from teasing Sunoo. But of course, Jungwon was curious too and wanted to know where the sudden change came from.

"Okay, maybe I told her I'm a banshee." Sunoo finally gave in and told the truth, but before the words left Sunoo's mouth entirely, the boys let out shocked gasps and widened their eyes at Sunoo's confession.

"I think I didn't quite get it - you did what?!" Jungwon almost yelled his question as he nearly dropped the school books he held in his hands until then, but he could stop them just in time from sliding through his hands.

"I told her I'm a Banshee."

Now, this definitely came as a shock to the three boys as they knew that no human was supposed to know about the supernatural, and until now, they had managed to hide it as best they could from their classmates, but they never thought it would be Sunoo telling a human about the supernaturals. To be honest, everyone thought it would be Niki who would be the first to blurt out the secret, well, it had slipped out of the boy at least once before, though.

Both Niki and Jungwon were equally supernatural, with Niki being a witch and Jungwon being a former angel. Just Haruto was the only human in the friend group, as Haruto found out about the three when he accidentally saw Niki practicing magic in one of the classrooms after school in front of Sunoo and Jungwon.

When Sunoo and Jungwon found out that Haruto knew about them, they first had to stop Niki from using a spell on the poor boy that would make him forget everything, and instead, they took him into their group.

But now Sunoo had told another human and none of the three knew why and they were sure that Sunoo wouldn't tell them so easily.

Before the group could ponder further and pepper Sunoo with questions, Sunoo noticed you in front of the big school entrance and quickly let himself be taken with big steps, leaving his friends alone behind him.

You could already see how Sunoo approached you when you left school with your best friend. This probably wasn't too difficult either because the smiling boy stood out in the crowd so much that you couldn't take your eyes off him.

"Hey y/n, are you ready to go?" Sunoo stopped in front of you as he approached you and gave both you and your girlfriend one of his famous heart-melting smiles.

"Uhm yeah, let's go!" You replied to the boy as you tried to ignore your friend's teasing look and dragged Sunoo behind you as you started walking away but not before saying goodbye to your friend.

On your way home you often stopped by different shops and perused the various delicacies at the bakery while talking about your day.

"Would you like to do anything special today?" the black-haired boy asked you as he pulled you away from one of the shop windows, slowly getting a little impatient but appreciating the beaming look you had in your eyes, so he didn't say anything

You jerked your head off the different colored flowers when you heard the boy's question and shook your head slightly when you answered him. "No, I don't think so. I just want to lie in bed and maybe watch some Netflix."

"Okay then let's go home."

With these words the boy intertwined his fingers with your own, thereby drawing you closer to him and silently walking with you down the crowded streets to your house.  

His parents owned one of the largest companies in Korea, so they were super rich. The Nishimura family lived in the city's most expensive area, in a 3-story house with many servants. They had a big garden, a big pool, and rumor have it they had their own zoo at the back of the property.

You, on the other hand, came from the simple middle class. Your family didn't have much but made ends meet, and you didn't complain because you knew how hard your parents worked. You lived a simple life. You had your small circle of friends, and you were happy.

Although you came from a poorer background, you caught Enji's attention. He found you fascinating and exciting, and after a few dates, you finally became his girlfriend. Everyone wondered how you did it.

After about two years of dating, you finally found out that the good student was just a facade and behind his nice mask was a real monster. But almost his whole family had such a mask.

The first time you noticed was when you and your boyfriend were at one of his parents' infamous Christmas parties. Every Christmas, the Nishimuras hosted a Christmas brunch for the city's elite, closely followed by the party that Enji threw on New Year's for the school's elite. Everyone was looking forward to these two events at the end of the year, and everyone wanted to hold one of the infamous invitations in their hand.

It was at this party that you met his parents for the first time. You were really looking forward to meeting your wonderful boyfriend's parents, but when you stood in front of them and offered them your hand to shake, which they only looked at with disapproval, you wanted to sink into the ground weeping. They had explained to you for several hours that you are not good enough for their son and that you are worthless.

But if you think it couldn't have been worse, you're dead wrong.

Less than an hour later, you finally found someone to talk to who didn't downgrade you because of your background. His name was kim sunoo, and you thought he was really friendly. You guys had some good topics to talk about, and his manner made you smile and feel happy.

Of course, Enji noticed this, so he made his way to the both of you. When he finally stopped in front of you two and interrupted your conversation, he roughly griped you on the wrist and dragged you up the stairs into one of the many rooms without apologizing to sunoo.

As he roughly pushed you into the room and slammed the door behind him, you finally got to see his face. His dark eyebrows were furrowed with anger, his eyes got darker and were filled with anger, and his face was slowly turning bright red.

"What do you think you're doing?" Enji started yelling at you “Do you think I like seeing you all over kim sunoo and watching you almost eat each other's faces up in front of my parents?"

You couldn't believe his words, you just had a simple conversation with sunoo and now you didn't understand why he made such a fuss out of it.  

"We just talked, Enji, nothing else happened," you tried to calm the big man, who was holding you between the wall and him, down. But your attempts were unsuccessful. 

"Shut up bitch. I don't want to hear your excuses. You belong to Me!" Enji continued to yell and began to raise his right hand. Your eyes shot up. This was definitely not the nice boyfriend that you loved so much.

Enji swung his hand and a few seconds later it landed flat on your face. Now you couldn't stop the tears threatening to rise in your eyes any longer and they slowly began to run down your face. A few sobs escaped your lips as you pushed him aside and made your way out of the bedroom. 

Little did you know that this argument did not go unnoticed. Riki could hear everything through the door as he walked past the room and witnessed his brother's violence towards you. 

Nishimura Riki. Riki was Enji's younger brother, and unlike him, he was completely different. Rather than being popular, he preferred to stay away from the public eye and only had his circle of friends to hang out with and Konon, his older sister, who was really nice (you could attest to that). Riki also didn't have particularly good grades and was never actively involved in class, if he was there at all.

Another difference between Riki and Enji was that his parents practically worshiped Enji while Riki was just there. But this didn't really matter to the younger one, he actually didn't care about anything.

You had only met Riki a few times since the Christmas party, and at those few times, he didn't really talk much and was just busy on his phone, so you couldn't say more about him.

Riki, on the other hand, could say a lot about you. He knew your favorite order from the little cafe you loved to go to and your favorite place in the furthest corner where you loved to sit and study, usually with your friend.

He knew every little quirk of yours, how you clapped your hands while you laughed, and your habit of having to smell on everything. Riki adored everything about you, but he knew that nobody was allowed to find out, especially not his brother.

Although the two were siblings, Riki knew about his brother's possessiveness, and he was certain that Enji would beat him to death if he found out that Riki was into his girlfriend.

It made him sad and gnawed at him that he knew he could never have you and love you the way he wanted to. He hated that he knew how his brother treated you, and there was nothing he could do about it. No one could help the young boy, not even Konon, and it made her sad to see her younger brother in such a condition.

Riki was just as scared of his brother as you were, although he didn't like to admit it, and he knew that you could never stand up to Enij and even break up with him. You're way too shy and friendly for that, so Riki thought about taking this into his own hands.

It was just another day of many tedious days at school when the bell rang for lunch. The class sighed in relief as all the students quickly packed up their things and ran outside for freedom because no one wanted to spend another minute in a room with Mr. Baek than was necessary.

Everyone at the school had a certain fear of this man, who often gave bad grades for class disruption, and lots of homework. He was a bitter old man who made his students memorize PI. No one wanted to attend his math class and they were glad they didn't have his name on their schedule.

Now, most of the students had disappeared from the classroom, leaving only Mr. Baek, a few isolated students who were still packing their things, and finally you.

You had never liked the lunch break. The many people who streamed through the corridors to get to the canteen, plus the long queue in front of the food distribution, were never your thing. You'd rather skip eating in the canteen and sit outside at one of the tables under a tree and eat your homemade lunch, but instead, you had to enjoy it in the cafeteria next to your boyfriend. It probably wasn't the best idea anyway, as it was still mid-December, and it was snowing outside.

Slowly you finally began to pack your things comfortably and left the spacious classroom after you said bye to Mr. Baek, who actually said goodbye to you too, and made your way to the cafeteria.

When you stepped through the large double doors, you immediately went in search of Enji, or rather in search of your best friend Minjiu, but you found it difficult to admit that to your boyfriend.

You had to bite back your laughter as you let your gaze wander through the large hall. It really was like every single American high school movie you've ever seen. Many different groups had formed and were sitting at the tables. The nerds, the "outsiders", the football team, the different clubs, and last but not least, the rich and popular at which table you could also spot Minjiu and, of course, your boyfriend.

It was clear to you that your best friend was only sitting at this table because she knew that you would sit down with Enji at this place, of course, she didn't know about the things Enji actually did to you.

So you made your way to the table, which was relatively far in the middle. When Minjiu lifted her head, and you fell into her view, she immediately started calling your name and waved at you.

When you finally got to her, you sat down across from her on one of the dark blue chairs next to your boyfriend, who immediately kissed you on your with strawberry chapstick cowered pink lips, and you really had to resist gagging.

Riki was already watching you from the other side and rolled his eyes at the act of love that was played for others. He was jealous again and wanted to feel your lips on his and not watch as Enji pressed his torn lips onto yours.

Next to him, Jungwon was very aware of the younger man's gaze and lightly rammed his elbows into his side to draw Riki's attention to him, when he finally looked at Jungwon, he shook his head to make it clear to Riki that he was staring too conspicuously, but the younger boy just shrugged his shoulders and looked back in your direction.

You could feel a pair of eyes digging into the back of your head, and since you were too curious and wanted to know who it was staring at you, you slowly and unobtrusively turned your head back just to look directly into Riki's dark eyes. The boy smiled shyly at you when he felt your gaze on him and averted his gaze to talk to his friend.

Later, when the bell rang again at the end of the break and you made your way back through the long corridors to your next lesson, you just couldn't get riki out of your head. You thought of his raven locks falling so easily on his forehead, the small birthmarks on his face and his soft smile as he looked at you-

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" you jumped at the loud female voice you could hear next to you and let out a slight squeak. When you looked to your right, you could see the knowing face of Minjiu. She must have caught up with you from the canteen because you were trying to escape from it as quickly as possible, and now she ran alongside you through the hallways of the school to your classroom because you had the last hour of the day together.

"About nothing," you lied to your best friend straight in the face as you looked ahead again, but minjiu was clever and didn't buy your answer.

"You think about Enji, don't you? You always have this expression on your face when you think about him," she said, smiling dreamily, but she couldn't be more wrong. You forced a slight smile onto your face and just nodded your head. As said, Minjiu still thought that Enji Nishimura was the perfect loving boyfriend who adored you to the end. And you wanted her to believe that this was true at first because you weren't sure if you were ready to tell her, and you were aware of what Enji might do if he found out that you had told anyone about your true relationship.

In the end, Enji Nishimura's reputation was more important than his relationship with you.

"Have you been invited to the Nishimura Christmas party again this year?" Minjiu asked, probably already knowing your answer anyway. "Yes, I was. I think I also go to Enji's New Year's Eve party,” you answered with a slight sigh. "Oh, I would do anything to go to one of those parties," she said and really envied you for going to such an elite party.

"I can ask enji if you can come with me."

"That would be great!" your best friend said, and you could see how her brown eyes literally started to shine, like a child in front of a candy store.

But to be honest, you couldn't understand their joy. Why was it so great to go to such a party? You might sound conceited at this moment, but there were clearly things you'd rather be doing on New Year's Eve, like partying with your parents and family or just watching a simple movie with Minjiu and then counting down before midnight, rather than spend the night with a bunch of drunk imaginary snobby teenagers.

A few hours later school was finally over, which you were very glad about, but unfortunately, you couldn't be much excited about it because you were in your boyfriend's probably overpriced black Aston Martin. One of your favorite songs was blaring through the loudspeakers at maximum volume throughout the car.

You really had to bring yourself to raise your ring-studded hand to slowly reach for the radio and turn the music down. That seemed to bother Enji, so he let out an annoyed sigh, rolled his eyes, and then threw a brief sideways glance in your direction.

You thought carefully about the next words you were going to say to him, careful not to upset him. "Uh, maybe Minjiu can come to your party?" "No." You looked at him without understanding and were still processing these words. "Why not?"

Enji clenched his fingers tightly on the steering wheel and his knuckles slowly turned white as he replied, “I don't like her and besides, I want your undivided attention. What would my parents think of me if I invited her. They would surely be disappointed and would think I was friends with her." Enji finished his sentence with a disgusted look.

"What would be so bad about that? She's really ni-” “I said no! Stop asking questions like that or there will be consequences.”, Enji had raised his voice in the meantime and was now yelling at you through the relatively small sport car.

You quickly bowed your head in embarrassment, tears threatening to fall from your eyes, and you bit your lip until you felt a faint coppery taste on your tongue as you mumbled a few incoherent words and uttered a small sorry.

A few more minutes had passed when you decided to look out the window and gaze at the city outside the car. The colorful street signs flashed by you in milliseconds, and you could see the different shops with people pouring in and out. You had to smile when you saw a little boy pull his mother's hand and show her something in the shop window - he seemed so carefree, far from the stresses of growing up.

Finally, you could make out the now familiar area of ​​Enji's neighborhood. Everywhere there were large, multi-story houses with a large driveway and probably an even larger garden. You could tell that only the rich lived here.

Enji turned into the cobbled driveway of his house in his black Aston Martin, and you were relieved not to see any more expensive cars parked there, because that meant that his parents were probably not home yet and that saved you a little trouble for now.

The car stopped, and you started packing your things to finally get out of the car, but Enji quickly grabbed your arm with his big hand and held you back when you tried to open the car door. That made you turn back to him and look him in the eye willingly. 

"We go to my room. Riki is probably at home,” Enji said, finally letting go of your arm and then getting out of his car. You nodded at him and followed him out of the black car to the front door of the Nishimura house. 

The relatively tall boy, his brother was probably taller than him anyway, opened the white front door and immediately rushed up the stairs to his room, presumably not having to contend with any family members that were at home. He always said it wasn't worth his precious time to talk to them. 

Arrived in his room, Enji sat down directly at his desk and took out his laptop to start his homework, as you suspected. “You can sit on the bed or something. Please don't interrupt or disturb me." You did what you were told and sat down on Enji's big king-size bed, not in the mood to get in trouble and to contradict.

However, over time you got bored, and you decided to look for something to drink from the kitchen, carefully not to disturb your boyfriend, and so you sneaked out of his room down the stairs into the spacious white kitchen.

You always wondered why the Nishimura family had such a giant kitchen because you never saw a single person in that room except for maybe a few employees. The kitchen area was brightly lit by the large window front leading to the large green and manicured garden. The kitchen had a large kitchen island in the center, stone slabs throughout, and a huge living room adjoined the kitchen.

By now, you knew where the glasses were, so you opened the cupboard only to find out that it was way too high up for you to reach and take out a glass.

You had to think for a moment and looked around the kitchen for a moment before an idea that was probably not too clever came to your mind, but you were thirsty and you didn't care much about the consequences until now. So you took one of the chairs from the kitchen island, pushed it in front of the cupboard with the glasses, and quickly climbed onto it.

"If my parents could see you right now, they would definitely kick you out" an unfamiliar voice startled you, and you were afraid of being caught. Unfortunately for you, this voice startled you so much that shortly afterward, you lost your balance and almost fell off your chair if two strong arms hadn't caught you just before and saved you from your fall.

You looked up and were greeted by the dark pair of eyes of Enji's younger brother Riki, and you were relieved to see him instead of anyone else. However, you still hadn't regained your sense of balance, so you stumbled slightly when Riki let go of your tackle but quickly grabbed it again when he noticed that you were about to fall again. 

"Hey, hey, calm down, it's just me. You don't have to get on your knees for me right away,” Riki said teasingly as he made sure that you wouldn't fall again this time and finally let go of your tackle.  

Slightly rolling your eyes at his last sentence, you thanked the boy who was almost the same age because Enji was actually a year older than you both, bowed briefly, and turned your back to him to try to reach one of the glasses again, like you did, before Riki scared you so hard.

Yet, you didn't grow a bit in the few seconds, and so you failed again in your attempt to reach for a glass, although you were already standing on your tiptoes.

Riki saw your miserable failure, and before you knew it, you could make out his huge presence behind you. His chest pressed against your back, and one of his arms grabbed your waist while the other reached over you, to finally give you your wanted glass. You had to swallow hard, and you felt your heart start beating faster because you had never been so close to the younger Nishimura boy.

This must have crossed Riki's mind too because his hands suddenly started to sweat uncomfortably, but before he could get used to being near you, he suddenly realized in a flash what he was actually doing with his brother's girlfriend, and he quickly pulled away from you back, leaving a certain distance between you.

"What are you actually doing here?" Riki cleared his throat and tried to loosen the awkward silence with his question. Somehow he succeeded, and you actually had to hold back a smile because it was actually quite obvious, but you found his try quite cute, so you held up your now water-filled glass to demonstrate to him why you were in the kitchen.

The black-haired boy nodded in understanding and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Is Enji at home?" Riki asked the next question but wasn't expecting much and probably knew your answer anyway. "Oh yes, he's in his room studying," you mumbled and took a sip of your water.

"So he actually lets you out of his room." Riki scoffed and wasn't aware of the mistake he was making. You choked on your water and had to start coughing loudly "I don't know what you're talking about," you somehow tried to save the situation, but this only made Riki scoff even more, and he let out a small giggle.

“Oh is that so. I think we both know how my brother treats you behind closed doors." Now Riki had clearly crossed the line, and you couldn't stop yourself from getting angry and raising your voice against him. “You don't know anything Riki! You shouldn't meddle in other people's relationships and take care of yourself for once!" you started yelling at the bigger boy.

"I think I should go now." You turned on your heels and literally ran away from Riki up the stairs. You couldn't believe what Riki had just said. Maybe he was right, but how did he know about it. But however, he still had no right to interfere in your relationship.

In the meantime, Riki finally realized his mistake, but from his side, he was totally right with what he said, and someone had to address it. After all, you couldn't live like this forever, and the boy just wanted to show you how much he cared for you.

Riki was angry at himself, but he was even angrier at his brother, after all, he was somehow to blame for Riki's current situation. The boy grew increasingly frustrated and angrily ran his fingers through his hair, pulling hard at the roots of his hair as he kicked his foot against the kitchen island. He was aware that things couldn't go on like this.

It's been 2 weeks since that incident with Riki, and you haven't seen or spoken to Riki once since then.

It's been 2 weeks since that incident with Riki, and you haven't seen or spoken to Riki once since then. It's been 2 weeks since that incident with Riki, and you haven't seen or spoken to Riki once since then and now you soon had to face the Nishimura Christmas party. 

Well, actually, that day was tomorrow, and you were truly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but lucky for you, it was already Christmas holidays. 

"And Enji really said that I can't come with you?" Minjiu was pouting, sitting on your bed, and crossing her arms. You two were in your room right now because you wanted to try on Enji's dress, which he had given you for the occasion, and you wanted Minjiu's honest opinion while you told her about your conversation with your boyfriend. 

"Yeah, he said so, but I think you should come with me anyway. I mean he probably won't even notice you're there."  

Minjiu let out a chuckle and got up to zip up your dress and ordered you to turn around before looking you up and down and you could make out her eyes getting bigger and bigger.  

"You look beautiful."  

"I look like a nun-" 

"Have you ever seen a nun? That's anything but nun-like” Minjiu started to defend the dress with everything she had and lightly scolded you “besides, did you see the brand? This is fucking Versace! The price of the dress must be around 7,979,772₩ or so.” 

At her words, you looked at yourself again in the mirror, and you had to admit that this dress looked really high quality. The black dress had a square neck and reached just above your knees. Gold brooches ran down the front and black sleeves covered your arms. Enji had also given you a pair of high-heeled tight black over-knee shoes for the dress, which really matched it. 

But you knew that Enji hadn't given you all this out of kindness, but only because he didn't want you to stand out with your usual clothes from the crowd, which probably also only wore branded clothes, and he didn't want the others to think he was with a poor middle-class girl. 

"Okay, maybe you're right. It doesn't look too bad, but I still don't want to go there alone and eat any tastes that are too small,” you admitted, slightly desperate as you sulked at Minjiu.

"Ahh, if you absolutely want me there, then, of course, I can't refuse your request, but I don't get in trouble with your loving boyfriend." Minjiu was defeated but you knew that she wanted to be there a lot more than you wanted. And you were also aware that you would have to pay for it with Enji.

"But I don't have anything suitable to wear, and I don't want to walk home again" "Just grab something from my closet." Minjiu squeaked at your words and made her way to your closet to choose one of the clothes that Enji had given you some time ago.

Not even two hours later, you were both in front of the front door of the Nishimura household. Many expensive cars were already parked in the driveway or at the curb down the street.

"Can't we just go again?" You mumbled because you got a queasy feeling, but your wish was probably overheard by Minjiu because before you knew it, she rang the bell, and the door was thrown open. Now there was no turning back for you.

When the door opened fully, you faced the one and only Mrs. Nishimura in person. She eyed you both disapprovingly, and you got flashbacks to when you first met her because she gave you the exact same look back then.

"Oh, Yn and-" she paused for a moment. "Minjiu ma'am," your best friend finished her sentence and gave the Nishimura woman one of her best smiles, which didn't do much. Now Mrs. Nshimura also forced a smile on her face, but it looked more like a grimace, and reluctantly stepped aside to let the two of you in.

Once inside, you looked around and spotted a few familiar faces from among the elite. Fortunately, none of them belonged to your boyfriend, but somehow you were surprised where he was because he was usually the center of such events.

When you looked to the side and wanted to talk to Minjiu, you noticed that Miniju had already disappeared and had mingled with the crowd and so you also tried talking to some of the people, but in the end, you found yourself at the buffet in front of the punch.

Suddenly a hand roughly grabbed your wrist, stopping you from pouring yourself another glass punch. "I think you should stop drinking so much of that stuff," Enji's deep voice whispered in your ear, and a shiver ran down your spine as he stood so close behind you.

It felt very different when you were standing so close to Riki. You felt much more comfortable and secure, but being so close to Enji scared you, to say the least.

“Also, I saw Minjiu earlier. She seemed slightly drunk. What should our guests think of us now? Underage drinking at a Nishimura party what a shame. Didn't I specifically tell you that she's not allowed to come? And yet you defied me. I don't think you should get away with it like that, what am I going to do with you now?"

Enji didn't stop talking for a few minutes straight, and he didn't let you speak and explain for one time. And so he grabbed you just like last time and pulled you into one of the rooms upstairs.

It felt like a fever dream. The same scenario played out exactly in the room from last time. But this time, you knew you wouldn't get away with just a few small slaps.

At the other end of the room, Riki was standing and talking to his friends Sunoo and Jungwon.

“Heeseung is throwing a party next week. Everyone will be there. I even think yeona,” Jungwon said and looked at Riki particularly during the last sentence, because he knew about the crush Riki had on his brother's girlfriend and wanted to help him by bringing him together with yeona but the younger boy always refused it.

Yeona was in the same class as Jungwon and was relatively popular. Just like the other three boys she was part of the elite and if you were to look for her you would probably find her somewhere at this party.

But just as Jungwon wanted to continue talking, he glanced your way on the steps, drawing the attention of the other two boys to you as well.

“Isn't that Yn and your brother over there? She looks kind of uncomfortable." said the cat-eyed boy and pointed to both of you with his hand.

When Riki followed Jungwon's gaze and saw your small wrist in his brother's big hand, he already knew where this was going and tried to run after you both, followed by Jungwon and Sunoo.

When the boys arrived at the stairs, they encountered the still tipsy Minjiu. Riki, who recognized Minjiu as your best friend, ran to her and quickly began to tell her about your situation, but since she couldn't quite follow him and started to laugh easily, he simply pulled her with himself and the other two.

Arriving at the top, the now four people could hear loud screaming from one of the rooms and followed the voice to the door.

“Is that Enji? I think I should record that,” Minjiu murmured, still tipsy. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she staggered slightly toward the door. Before she could record, Riki snatched the cell phone from her hand.

"I swear to God Minjiu if you're recording that –" Riki started to speak while holding up the small cell phone, because although he didn't care much about his family, he still didn't want people to see you in such a weak moment, but he did he soon stopped when he noticed that Minjiu was once again not listening to him and gave her back her phone.

Since Minjiu hadn't really listened to the black-haired boy, she pressed the record button when she got her cell phone back a short time later. "I'll upload that on Twitter later," the girl said, and was glad when no one else in the group seemed to have heard her plan.

Riki opened the door a crack, too scared to open it completely, and peered inside. A gasp escaped his full lips when he opened the door completely at the sight.

You were curled up on the floor. One eye was already black and swollen, your lip was cut and bleeding, and you had bruises and red handprints all over your body. Enji stood above you in full size and continued to yell at you, your condition didn't matter to him.

“What's wrong with you Enji? What are you doing?" Riki screamed at his older brother, lunged at him and threw him to the ground.

"I don't think you should care, Riki."

At that, Riki raised his fist and started punching Enji until said boy started spitting up blood and his nose was probably broken. How could Enji do and say such a thing, of course Riki was interested in what his older brother did to you.

Riki kept hitting his brother before Jungwon and Sunoo finally got over their shock and tried to get the youngest boy off of enji.

Meanwhile, Minjiu ran towards your crouched form and squatted beside you. She took in your hurt self before she pulled you tight in her arms and you started crying into her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Yn. Has it been like this for a long time? Oh I'm so so sorry." Minjiu apologized to you for thinking and telling you that Enji was such a good boyfriend and that she should have known better while rocking you in her arms.

At her question you just nodded your head, too tired to answer her with your words, your throat was dry and your voice was probably scratchy.

When Riki calmed down and stopped hitting his brother, Jungwon and Sunoo decided to take Enji outside, and Minjiu also reluctantly decided after a protest to let you go and give you and Riki some time alone.

Riki stood up from his current position and walked towards you with slow steps, sat down next to you and hugged you tightly like Minjiu had done before.

After a few moments of silence, Riki gently pulled away from you only to take your face in his hands and examine it more closely. He gently ran his thumb over your split lower lip and then over the large bruise that had already formed around your eye, careful not to hurt you any more.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Riki asked you with a very concerned look and continued to stroke your injuries with his fingers.

“It's fine. It's gone down a bit." You locked eyes with the Nishimura boy as you forced a wry smile onto your face. But Riki didn't believe you at all and hugged you tightly again before he murmured into your hair how sorry he was about all this.

"I shouldn't have let something like that happen to you. I like you very much, Yn" The boy confessed, probably not really paying attention to his words when he told you that he was in love with you and regretted his words a short time later.

But before he could take his words back, he could already feel your lips pressing against his own and after a moment's hesitation, he began to move his lips onto yours as well.

As you pulled apart, you couldn't miss the big smiles on both of your faces and you started to giggle slightly.

"I like you too Riki."

"I know this is probably not the right time to ask you to be my girlfriend because you just got out of a toxic relationship, and I know this is all just too much for you, and I understand if you're not in want of a new one. So I want you to take your time and think about it. I will wait for you."

"Thank you Riki. I probably need time for myself first and have to think about some things, but when I'm ready I'd like to be your girlfriend, but now is really just not the right time.

In the meantime, Minjiu already uploaded the audio file to her Twitter account, the post got over thousands of likes in a few minutes and people in the comments were shocked by the behavior of their favorite student. When the message also reached enji's parents a short time later, they decided after some time of considering sending Enji to a boarding school in Japan next month, to not cause any more damage to the Nishimura family.

Exactly one month later you were in Riki's room after the incident. You had become closer to him during this time and you slowly overcame the time with Enji who has been in Japan since last week and could therefore no longer cause you any damage.

"Riki" you called the boy next to you, hands clasped and eyes closed he hummed questioningly.

"I think I'm ready"

Now the boy's eyes opened and looked at you questioningly. With the best will in the world he couldn't imagine what you were ready for.

"Would you like to be my boyfriend?"