Chapter 1
All alone, once again. Tired and cold, bored and lonely. Those were the words that described Han Cho-a’s mental state. She didn’t know what to do: her parents had disappeared to somewhere unknown and she was just there, watching the moving trucks slowly disappear into the early South Korean sun. Now, her phone lit up with a message that should’ve shown up hours ago.
Mom~ Honey, we need you to live somewhere else! Me and Appa are living in Aunt Sun’s house, but we told her that you had your own house!~ Have fun, honey!~
It was irritating, with Cho-a’s mom abandoning her for someone who wasn’t Cho-a’s father or her mother’s husband. Aunt Sun was even worse than her mother, the more that she would talk, the more she would hit with an old broom that always seemed to be in every room that Cho-a was in. Even considering all that, how could her mother tell her to ‘find a house’? Exactly what type of bad parenting was this? Cho-a sighed before opening the door to her house to find an empty cardboard box. She took the Sharpie beside it and wrote 4 words, “Please Take Me Home”.
Cho-a laid the box next to the grocery store and sighed. Hopefully, no creepy guy would pick her up, right? Cho-a wasn’t what South Koreans would describe as ugly, but she wasn’t the prettiest girl you could find, either. She sat near the box for a while, watching as passerbys gave her a glance before turning away and going back to their business. As minutes began to turn into hours, Cho-a slowly drifted off to sleep, the cold breeze lulling her to a deep sleep that she hadn’t experienced for a long time: more accurately speaking, since her dad had passed away. She was in the middle of dreaming about her favorite ramyun when a big, fat raindrop plopped down onto her head. It had stirred her to wake up, and soon enough, it was raining. With no house or shelter, Cho-a just sat there, the rain mixing well with the tears streaming down her face. After about thirty minutes, the rain seemed to stop. A shadow was cast down on her as the rain continued to splatter down on the patch of concrete beside her. She looked up to see a boy with bleached blonde hair and a red and white bandanna keeping his long hair out of his humongous, kind, black eyes. He seemed to be worried as the umbrella covered more of the lonely girl than the pretty boy.
“Are you alright? How long have you been sitting out here?” He asked, his eyes glancing over the ‘Please Take Me Home’ box and her clothing and personal belongings within the box. He picked the box up with his un-occupied hand and handed the umbrella to Cho-a, making her grab onto it before taking her hand in his.
“What are you doing?” Cho-a asked curiously, but the boy refused to answer. She wanted to hear his voice again, it was melodic in a rough way. It was weird for her, especially because she usually never conversed with boys. She tried grabbing her stuff back, but the boy was taller than her, which already put her at a disadvantage.
“I’m taking you to my house, is that a problem?” He asked with so much attitude that it didn’t sound like a question at all. Cho-a nodded her head, but he openly ignored the girl beside him. “I have a lot of people living with me...so...behave.”
“Who said that I agreed to live with you?” She asked, clearly challenging the older, and much taller and stronger boy. He turned to look at her before putting the box on the ground and pushing her to the nearest brick surface.
“I don’t think that you have a choice, now do you? You...don’t have a house, do you?” He asked, his face so close to her neck that she could his breath. Cho-a looked down, unable to answer to the closeness of the by to her face. He only smirked before grabbing the box again before walking to one of the fanciest villas on the street before opening the gate and ringing the doorbell.
“Hello?”
“Hyung, this is Kangmin. Let me in!” He shouted at the voice system. He readjusted the box in his grip as the door opened to reveal a red-headed boy in a hoodie. Kangmin walked inside and tilted his head so to tell Cho-a to follow. The boy in the hoodie bowed politely before closing the door behind them.
“Kangmin...” The red-head said before giving Cho-a a toothy smile and grabbing the umbrella. “I’m Siwoo, welcome to TRCNG’s humble abode!” Cho-a hadn’t head anybody who seemed this young ever use such old words as ‘Humble Abode’, so she was bound to laugh. Siwoo frowned before looking at her curiously. “Did I say something funny?”
“It’s just that you seem so young...but you use such old terms such as ‘Humble Abode’.” Cho-a explained as she followed Knagmin, making Siwoo follow her. Siwoo grinned before putting the umbrella near the door and following suit. Kangmin opened a door, and put the box that Cho-a had come with in the room.
“You can stay here, I’ll explain,” Kangmin said, stopping to give Siwoo a look. “Why you’re here later to everyone else in the house. Come on, Hyung. You can talk to her later.” Siwoo nodded as he followed Kangmin out of Cho-a’s new room. Cho-a sighed before taking off her shoes and socks, throwing them aside before sliding into her bed. It was comfortable, more comfortable than she had ever felt in a bed before.
“Ah~ I could get used to this!~” Cho-a sighed to herself as a door opened to her left. Out came...
A very under dressed boy. His hair was a bluish-purplish shade, and he was wearing nothing but his boxers and a towel around his shoulders. Another second went by, just for them to acknowledge that a member of the opposite sex was in the same room as them, and they both screamed. Another boy ran in, this time, with hair as pale as his skin and just so I might add, very well dressed.
“Hohyeon, why are you- Oh... uh...excuse me...who are you?” The mysterious boy asked with a face that showed absolutely no emotion. If it wasn’t for the light pink brushing his cheeks, nobody would’ve known that he was embarrassed. And exactly at that moment, Kangmin entered the room. He sighed before grabbing onto Cho-a’s forearm and bowing, pulling Cho-a down to bow as well.
“Hyung, this is Cho-a, she’ll be staying with us for a while...please forgive her.” He said, stepping on Cho- a’s foot to get her to play along.
“Yes, I’m sorry.” She said, a small groan leaving her lips as she rolled her eyes at him.
“Why...exactly is she living with us, you know that we’re an all-boy gang. We don’t take random girls off of the street...” He said as Cho-a looked up at Kangmin to see what he would say. He only gave a small smirk before saying something that she didn’t expect to hear.
“Let’s cut off her hair and make her a boy then.”
