SɪYᴇᴏɴ PᴏV

"I have to talk to my parents about something," Minji said. "You can... try to make friends with Cherry or something." She smiled at me. I nodded and she left the room.

As soon as she did that, the little white dog started jumping up my leg, which gave me quite a fright at first.

I looked down at her, she was wagging her tail and had her tongue out. To be honest, that was pretty sweet. A small giggle escaped me, but it quickly disappeared when I remembered why I was actually here.

I sighed, pulling my legs up to my body and wrapping my arms around them.

I didn't want to do anything else. Who knows what would happen if I broke something?

At home I would get a beating for that. Minji didn't look like she could beat anyone up, but I didn't know what her parents were up to.

So I was better off doing nothing than doing something wrong.

Cherry didn't seem to like me ignoring her now as she started barking again, which only made me scoot further towards the middle of the bed and start staring at the door, hoping Minji would come back soon.

I hated being alone in a room with a dog, size and breed didn't matter here. I had had bad experiences with dogs before and I didn't want to repeat that.

A few minutes passed, but they dragged on like chewing gum.

Cherry had also stopped barking and curled up next to the door.

However, when footsteps sounded from outside, she jumped up again, tail wagging. Luckily she didn't bark.

Minji entered the room and the little dog started scurrying around her legs. She ignored Cherry and looked at me.

"Did something happen or why are you sitting there like that?"

I just answered by shaking my head.

"Come down. Dinner's ready." She said, winking.

I looked at her in shock.

"What? Aren't you hungry?" She asked.

Hunger? Of course I had. But I didn't want to cause any problems for her or her parents.

I actually didn't even want to be here, even though someone was here who wanted to take care of me. I bit my lower lip.

"Come on." She came over and grabbed my hand, which was quite unexpected and made me flinch again.

I looked up at her but she just smiled. "I can see it's going to be hard to get all of that out of you."

What?

With these words, she pulled me off the bed, through the hallway, down the stairs, which already smelled of food, which made me a little nauseous, to the dining room.

Her parents were already sitting at the table and looked at me expectantly. The table was full of some food, at least half of which I didn't recognize.

I stopped in the doorway, causing Minji to stop too as she was holding my hand.

"What's wrong?"

I just shook my head and Minji cocked her head at me.

"I-I can't c-accept that." I blurted out.

The sight of so much food made me even more dizzy and I didn't know why.

"Siyeon, everything is fine." Minji said.

Her mother looked back and forth between us skeptically.

I shook my head again.

"Seems you picked up someone difficult," Minji's father remarked to her. However, she just ignored him.

"Listen, I don't want to force you to eat, but I think that's the best thing you can do right now."

I kept shaking my head.

"Please, Siyeon."

"Good. Maybe I'll eat something. But first you explain to me why you're trying so hard for me. You practically don't even know me." Oh God. Did I really just say that much.

She didn't seem to have an answer to that, because she was silent and silence fell over us.

"I - I think I'll explain later but... Please eat something. At least something small, maybe an apple?" Minji sounded like she'd already given up on the situation.

But I shook my head again.

She sighed. "Do you really have to make such a drama out of it? If you don't want to eat anything, feel free to go back upstairs. I'm not forcing you," she said, releasing my hand to sit down at the table herself.

Now three pairs of eyes stared at me.

Why was this whole situation so uncomfortable for me? Why did all this happen here? Wouldn't I be here if I had tried somewhere else? Would I be with my mother then? I would feel much better there, I had the feeling. Why was life so unfair?

I jumped when a key rattled from the front door and someone unlocked the door.

I took a few steps back out of reflex. I knew that was stupid since he probably couldn't find me here and didn't have a key to this house, but I did it anyway.

A red-haired boy a little younger than me entered the house.

"I'm ba-" he started, but then stopped when he saw me.

I flinched again at his call. At home, shouts never meant anything good so I couldn't control that, it was always when something unexpected happened.

And believe me, on no other day had I flinched as often as today. It was really bad, even I knew that.

He just kept staring at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

After a while I looked away.

I felt like I couldn't stand him already. Just to avoid his gaze, I walked into the dining room and sat down. I still had no intention of eating anything. But the situation here was more pleasant than being stared at by a strange boy in the hallway.

I only looked at my hands and tried to block out the world around me, which didn't work, because the next moment I heard heavy footsteps, which made me look up in panic.

Realizing it was just the boy entering the dining room, I looked down again.

The others started eating. As I heard the chewing sounds, I clenched my fists.

"Minji? What's wrong?" I heard the boy say.

"If you'll excuse me," she said and got up, "I have homework to do." With that she left the room.

I knew she was lying because we didn't have any homework since today was Friday.

"What's the matter with her?" Her father asked confused.

"She's getting over it," her mother said. "Go on eating." That was the end of it for her.

I got up too and her parents and the boy looked at me. I was pretty sure by now that he must be her brother.

Without saying a word, I left the room and slowly walked up the stairs towards Minji's room, hoping the dog wouldn't start barking again.

I tried to be as quiet as possible and didn't know why myself.

I stopped at the end of the hallway. I knew that listening was disrespectful, but I couldn't help but hear a soft, "I'm sorry."

She seemed to be talking to someone.

"C-can we still be friends?" Short silence. Then a "thank you" followed, then a hoot.

Then silence again. I waited a moment before knocking cautiously, which caused a bark from inside that startled me again.

"Who's there?" Minji called out, sounding harsh.

I bit my lower lip again. I didn't want to disturb her, but I didn't want to sit downstairs either.

"It's me," I said quietly, soft enough for her to hear me.

There was a moment of silence before she allowed me to come in. I carefully opened the door and entered.

Minji was sitting on her bed with her chin in her hands. She sat facing away from the door and stared out the window.

I stood indecisively in the room and once again didn't know what to do.

Minji looked at me briefly, turned around and then patted the bed next to her.

"Come here," she said when I didn't respond.

I hesitantly moved towards the bed and then took my seat next to her while she reflected an arm around my shoulder.

There it was again. The feeling of trust. The feeling of meaning to someone. It was new to me.

Something I hadn't felt in years. I know that sounded more dramatic than it is, but it was true.

I leaned my head on her shoulder and sighed.

Maybe fate wasn't as bad for me as I had always thought. Maybe everything would be fine again.