THE STRANGER

I live with my twin brother Han Yun Ki and my mother Ms. Da Hye who runs a noddle shop.

My dad left my mom when my brother and I were just six for another rich high class woman.

Unfair right, well you haven't heard it all yet.

Those high class families are the most respected, followed by the middle class families and with us the lower class ones, well we are always treated like trash. It's such an unfair society where only the rich gets all they want and keeps on getting richer.

One day, I'm going to end this messed up order and everyone will be treated equally. I promise you that.

Well after high school, my mom didn't have enough to send both my brother and I to college but that was when favor cane in. My brother and I did really well in our final year exams that we got scholarship to attend the university of royals. Only the rich and a few middle class people are able to afford that University and you have no idea the joy it brought to my mom after discovering about our scholarship. My brother and I both had to go to school for free and she wouldn't be having troubles paying the fees.

It has been really tough on her, raising my brother and I, one day when I get a very good job, I'll make her really proud.

My brother and I help her run the Noddle shop.

I jumped over a small pool of water and nearly splashed mud all over me.

"Ya! When will you stop acting like a child." That's Sandra my best friend since childhood as she smacked the back of my head.

"When will you ever stop smacking my head?' I asked turning her.

"Will only stop when you give your cute, handsome and sexy brother to me." She said flicking her hair dramatically.

"What's so good about him. He's not that good looking anyway, I don't know why you are always all over him." I said and immediately clasp my right hand over my moment she glared at me.

"You little… how can you say that about my love. Aish you are so blind." She said adding another smacking.

"Ya! It hurts. How won't I be blind when you keep smacking the back of my head." I cried holding the back of my head.

"Eehh stop playing the victim. When you get me you don't spare me…" She said handing over the unwrapped popsicle and I sucked on it.

" Well that's true too." I said thoughtfully and we both giggled.

We both rushed into the kitchen and placed the groceries on the table. Yeah we went for grocery shopping.

"We are home!." We both said with a chorus and my mom came rushing out if wherever she was, passed me by and straight to hug Sandra.

"Hurry and arrange the groceries into the refrigerator." She instructed me as she disengaged the hug.

"Oh my, how has my sweet Sandara being?" my mom asked.

"Mom… it's not Sandara, it's Sandra." I corrected and she snapped at me.

" Don't pay any attention to her Ajumma(Auntie)… she's just jealous. Well I've been fine and yourself?" Sandra replied and I shook my head as I headed for the refrigerator.

" Oh well, I've been good too." My mom replied.

"That's good to hear. I must admit you look stunning these days, have you gotten a new …you know." Sandra said in a low tone.

"Oh dear, of course not, not yet." My mom said blushing and I scoffed with disbelieve. When those two meet, they are inseparable. Only God knows what they talk about.

I was arranging the groceries when someone threw an apple at me. I looked up and behold, my annoying twin, I took the apple and threw it back at him which he caught in mid air, took a bite and made fun of me. How do these girls see such an amateur as a cute handsome guy.

That evening, Sandra helped us cook and clean up the shop for the evening sales before she left for home.

Sandra is from a middle class family and they will be hitting the high class very soon. She was the first person to threat my family and I as human on the first day we met. She's so different and pays no attention to that order or whatever. She's all the friend that I've got and I'm always grateful that we are friends. She's one in a million. Even though people sometimes criticize her for being friends with a lower class girl, she pays no attention and moves on.

I sat beside my brother who had his eyes glued to his phone and watched the happy faces of the customers. It was around eight pm and mom had left to get some flour from a friend of hers.

I sat behind the counter with my hands supporting my chin and looking around as I sighed.

Two well built men walked into the shop, one with trimmed hair and in a black jacket and trousers while the other had a mark on his right eye brow and was wearing a brown shirt with black leather jacket matching his black pants. They walked and sat at the far right corner of the shop and pointed a finger in our direction.

"Me?" Yun Ki asked placing a hand on his chest but then the man in brown pointed to me and signaled me to come over. I nodded and walked to their table.

"Give us two bowls of black noodle and two bottles of soju…oh and add one plate of Korean beef." He ordered and I nodded.

" Okay sir, will be right back with it." I said with a slight bow as I turned to leave the table, I felt one of them brush a finger on my leg but I said nothing and went for their food and brought it to their table with two glass cups for the soju.

"Wow, you've got such round ass and smooth long legs, you should wear this more often and you'll get a lot of customers." The one in a black shirt said as he held my hand.

I took in a deep breathe and turned to him… " Can you please let me go Ajushi?" I said politely but then he chuckled.

"Did you just call me Ajushi?" he asked with a chuckle and I was quiet.

" Can you please let go of me? I have other customers to attend to." I said trying to hold back my anger. But then he went "Hey you brat!!" drawing the attention of the other customers and everyone turned towards our direction.

Yun Ki tried to approach us but then I signaled him to stay out of it.

"How dare you tell me to let you go you little twerp!! No one tells me what to do so will you be silent and let me do what I want to do, besides…haven't you heard of good customer service?" He asked and I chuckled.

"And does that involve you being a perverted jerk?" I asked with a slight anger in my voice.

"Did you just call him a pervert?!" The one in brown asked as he pulled me and turned over the table causing everything on the table to pour on the floor. The one in black got hold of my hair and lifted up a hand to slap me when someone caught it in mid air causing him to throw me to the floor. Some of the customers came rushing to my aid and so did Yun Ki.

"Are you alright?" Yun Ki asked as he helped me up.

Before I could see the one who caught the man's hand, he was already at the exit of the shop and both men were crawling out of the shop. How…how… how did he beat them both up in such a short period of time and is already at the exit of the shop.

I looked at him from where I stood, with his back facing me, he turned his head slightly but I could barely see his profile because he wore one of those hoodies with a cap on it but I saw a silver strands of hair hang out of the cap and he turned back, exiting the door before I could say anything.

"Daebak… he's so cool." I heard a young girl say excitedly as she clicked something on her phone. Wait did she just upload what happened on the internet?

"Hope you are alright?" one of the customers asked and I nodded as I straightened my skirt and apologized for the inconvenience caused.

"Oh my, Hoo Nan are you alright?" That was my mom, she rushed into the shop and hugged me.

"Are you hurt anywhere? I heard noises from outside. Where are those bastards who tried to harm you!!" She said angrily.

"Mom… I said I'm fine, besides we have customers to attend to." I said pulling her along with me to the kitchen as Yun Ki followed.

"And you, what did you do when they tried to take advantage of your sister?" She asked Yun Ki who bit his lower lip.

"I tried to do something but she signaled me to stop." He replied and my mom hit him a little too hard on his back.

"Mom!!... It hurts." He cried and I held my mom's hand before she hit him more.

" Why hit him when he would've only gotten beaten up by those people. " I said sitting her down.

"That's why I said he should take those defensing lessons but he's too focused on his face and won't do it all in the name of not ending up with a scar on his face. I don't know why he took after your father so much." Mom cried out and we both hugged her as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Fine … fine, I'll take the lessons. Now you're going to make us cry too." Yun Ki said hugging her tighter.

That evening wasn't that fun anymore and we closed earlier than the usual. Mom wasn't in a very bright mood throughout that night but we did our best to cheer her up.

I couldn't get that stranger out of my mind, I couldn't even get a chance to say thank you.

I brought out my phone as I kept on receiving text messages from Sandra.

💬

"Girl have you seen the new video on the internet?"

"The dude is so cool!"

" He's in a nose mask so his face wasn't visible but I bet he's cute!!"

"wait that girl in

"Oh my God is that girl you?"

"Where are you?

"Hoo Nan!!!!"

"Han Hoo Nan!!"

The messages were so many and I just scrolled it to the button and replied.

💬💬

"Yeah big head, what's your problem?"

💬💬

"Fish, you're now replying my messages"

"What happened today at your shop? Who were those two jerks?"

💬💬

"I have no idea who they are."

💬💬

"What of the tall cool guy who saved you?"

💬💬🕳️

"I have no idea either."

💬💬

"Aish!! Why didn't you go after him?"

💬💬

"Do you like him too?"

💬💬

"I'm just asking you because he might be interested in you. Maybe your secret admirer from high school. That stranger who kept on writing you love notes everyday but we never got to see or know who he was. Could it be him… oh wait could he be an alien or a super hero because he really beat those guys up really quick and badly 🤔"

💬💬

"Sandra please come back to reality and stop being so you."

💬💬

"Eish lemme be.."

💬💬

"Just be normal this once."

💬💬

"No I can't be normal. Normal is too boring."

💬💬

"Okay Ma'am, whatever you say. On a serious note, are you ready for tomorrow? Our first day at college."

💬💬

"Hell yeah, I am!! I can't believe we got to attend the same college 💃💃💃"

💬💬

"Me too…can't wait."

💬💬

"Then let's get some rest and we can talk about that cute stranger all day tomorrow."

💬💬

"Okay sure… How did you know he was cute?"

💬💬

" That's my instinct girl, and you know they are always right. Night night baby girl."

💬💬

"Sweet nightmares boo😘"

💬💬

😘😘😴

I tossed my phone to the other side of the bed and turned around as thoughts of that stranger crawled into my head. Who could he be and how come he was able to beat them up so fast and so hard?

Well I just hope I get to meet him and say "Thank you."

I rushed to Oh Yeon So's coffee shop for some coffee for the morning.

"Welcome wild orchid. I wanted to congratulate you and your brother so badly on your scholarship, you have no idea how happy I an for you!!" Yeon So screamed happily.

"Thanks a lot. Well I'll have some two cups of latté and one Americano." I ordered a d she quickly prepared it for me.

"Here you go…(turns to bring out something from her drawer) before I forget, give this to my darling Prince Charming." She said happily as she handed over a box of cookies with a small note attached to it.

I looked at it and chuckled as I shook my head sideways. I have no idea what they see in that dumb ass brother of mine.

" I'm not going to give any comment before you say I'm blind. Thanks just for the cookies even though I'm not included." I said as I parked everything into the take away bag and headed for the door.

"Don't worry, come for yours after school, it's a surprise!!" She said after me.

"Whatever!! Goodbye, see you later." I said as I laughed and opened the door.

I bumped into someone who was also walking out of the shop and nearly spilled the latté on him but then I held it firmly preventing it from spilling.

" I'm so sorry." I apologized with a slight bow. But then he was already out the door and entering a car. I lifted up my head and saw something familiar. He wore the same hoodie as the stranger from yesterday. He opened the car's door and I saw a strand of silver hair sneaking out of the cap. Oh my…it's him!

I run to the car and called out for the car to stop but then the engine was started.

I handed over my package to a Yeon So's younger brother who was seated outside the shop and chased the car. The car's speed increased as I chased it further. It got onto the main road where you only hear car horns everywhere, I turned only to see a big truck headed towards my direction. Before I knew it, someone had grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to his chest. It was a guy, his chest was so broad, firm and his warm breath ghosting against my cheeks. My heart was racing faster and I had no idea if it was because a truck nearly ran over me or because I was in the arms of this strange guy. I opened my closed eyes and noticed it was him, silver strand of hair and his neck was so smooth and long and white, he had a very strange but nice smell like a mixture of mint, rose and sunflower.

" Why be so careless about everything. Get your head straight." I heard him say, it was more like a whisper.

He let go of me and had already turned towards the opposite direction and backing me. I then realized we were on the pavement, in front of a convenience shop.

" At least tell me your name." I said to him and he paused.

" There's no need to know my name. Besides you won't ever see me again." He said to me with his voice as cold as ice but then there was some sense of warmth with the way he talked.

" Well if you say so(I lowered my head and stared at the ground) I just wanted to say tha-…" I lifted up my head but then he was already gone.

What is he? Here this second and gone the next second. He didn't even allow me to say thank you.

Humph, I guess this is goodbye and I never got to know who he was.

Oh the coffee!! I'm going to be damn late for school.

I took a short cut and when I arrived Yeon So told me Yun Ki came by and her brother had given the things to him instead so I rushed home.

"Where did you go?" That was my mother's first question when I walked into the house.

"Umm… I … I… I went to check something." I said scratching the back of my neck.

"Hurry, Mr. Park(Sandra's dad) is on his way here." She said as she helped Yun Ki button his shirt.

Mr. Park offered to drop us at school today, together with Sandra.

Few minutes later, we heard a car horn and I rushed outside with Yun Ki, it was Mr. Park and Sandra. Mom waved at us as we sat in the car, me beside Sandra at the backseat and Yun Ki at the front seat.

"Oh my God I'm so excited!!" Sandra's scream got me out of my dream world.

"Why what's wrong?" She asked and I smiled faintly.

"I saw him today…"

" The cute stranger?"

"Yeah… he saved me again and this time around I got this from him." I said as I brought out a well knitted white handkerchief with a crown surrounded by lotus flowers design on it. It had the initial "PY" at each edge.

" Isn't that the symbol of Royal Steward University ?" Sandra observed.

"Wow yeah it is… could he be a student from there?" I asked and Sandra nodded.

"There's a high possibility and I think the PY must be the initial of his name." She added.

Oh my God!

"That means we can finally find who that stranger is since we will be in the same college with him."

" Exactly!! I feel like I'm a secret agent on a mission oh my, I should have brought my sun glasses along." Sandra said with excitement and I hit my palm on my forehead.

"Aish… I should be used to this craziness already." I said and she stuck her tongue out at me.

"We are here." Mr. Park said as he pulled over in front of the schools gate after the gates to the school automatically opened and he drove inside.

My jaw dropped at the sight of the buildings and environment. "Oh my God!!" Sandra, Yun Ki and I said with a chorus, looking absolutely stunned. It's even much more astonishing than on TV. Dear Mr. Hoodie stranger… I'm going to find you soon.