Yuki

A few weeks later..

Lua helped to teach me how to speak better over the span of the past few weeks.

It was hard at first, learning how much pressure to put on my vocal cords or how to change the sounds of letters and make the words flow together. 

I'm sure that I spoke quite well before ever coming here, but I still haven't been able to remember anything from before Taehyung found me that night. 

My mood saddened when I recalled how rude I had been to him the last time I was with him, the time I slapped his girlfriend and told him to leave me alone. 

Come to think of it, Taehyung had never been rude to me at all. He only stood by and watched as his girlfriend did it for him. 

To me, that's just as bad as him doing it himself. I had even more red streaks in my hair now, reminding me of a candy cane, but new ones haven't appeared in a few days. 

I haven't tried to dye them, I don't even think I want to. I kind of like the way it makes me look, as if I'm not so timid and shy. 

Now that I had the ability to form words and speak to people, I was gaining friends. Not too many, but more than just Lua. 

It's like people were afraid to speak to me before now, almost like they thought I would shatter right before their eyes, but no one really held back anymore. 

I liked it. However, the stares didn't stop. 

In fact, they came even more often than before. I was just walking towards my second class of today, which it was a Wednesday and that meant I had Statistics.

Lua was off to my side and she rolled her eyes at the attention I was getting. It was mainly guys, I had already noticed as much. 

It didn't really affect me in any way but I've learned that I'm not a big fan of male attention. I felt like a piece of meat. 

It seemed as though when I found my voice, people realized that I was an actual person and not a doll made for them to find curiosity in. 

I stopped in the middle of the hallway as an unfamiliar blonde-haired teenage boy cut across my path, quickly shooting me a smile before he tried moving close to me. 

I instinctively moved back a bit and saw as he turned to look at a group of guys behind him, then back to me. "Yuki, right?" he asked, and I nodded. 

"Go out with me Friday," he murmured, reaching down to grab my free hand that dangled to my side. I snatched it out of the way and placed it on my other hand that was holding my books. 

"I have plans." I told him slowly, making sure to keep our gazes locked to tell him I was serious. 

"Really? Who with?" He asked, suddenly getting defensive. "Don't act like you have someone better than me to be with." 

I reached down and grabbed Lua's hand tightly with my own, rolling my eyes as I looked at him, "Look kid, I don't know your name, but my girlfriend and I have somewhere we need to be."

I brought our hands to my mouth and kissed the back of Lua's hand before dragging her past who-ever-he-was and down the hall. 

After we were a safe distance away, Lua yanked her hand out of my grasp and glared angrily at me, "What the hell was that? He was cute!" she hissed. 

I sighed and brought up the books I was holding to shield my face, "I don't want to be a toy just because people finally realized I'm a real person." I muttered. 

When I brought my books down, I turned side to side to see if everyone from before was still in the hall. 

When my head turned the way we had come from, I hadn't expected Taehyung to be already watching me. 

My eyes narrowed a bit at him and he tilted his head to the side, his lower lip catching between his teeth. 

My breath hitched and I knew my cheeks heated with the blood that rushed to them before I snapped my gaze back to Lua. 

She was looking down with her hands wrung together, "I know, I know.. I'm sorry.. It's just that- nevermind." She quickly said, nearly running away from me and heading to her class. I was puzzled, truly, wondering what I did that was so bad. 

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose to wash away the oncoming headache I felt. 

~*~ 

After Statistics class and Colonial history next, I found myself situated between Lua and one of our newest friends Hyei at the center table of the cafeteria. 

I felt nervous and constantly shook my knees under the table when more and more people sat with us. I glanced at Lua and bit my lip but she just turned her head away from me and greeted everyone. 

What was her problem?, I thought to myself for the tenth time today. She hadn't bothered to make any effort to talk to me after the events of this morning. 

I sighed and when yet another person walked up to our table, grunting at not having a spot to sit, I quickly grabbed my bag and my books and walked out of the lunch room. 

I made my way to the library, about to sit at one of the round tables when I felt a warm sensation wash over specific areas of my body. 

I smiled at how nice it felt, glad that it didn't burn like it usually did. This happened more often now, I barely ever felt the intense scalding pain that I used to. 

I closed my eyes and leaned back to sit in the big oval chair placed at the table I came to, breathing in a sigh of relief at the peacefulness I felt. 

"Enjoying yourself?" a voice murmured, catching me off guard and causing me to jump in my seat. "T-Taehyung?" I gasped out, sitting up straight in my seat. 

I opened my eyes and saw him about ten feet from me, leaned against one of the bookshelves with a hardback book clutched in both of his hands. 

I averted my gaze to the table and sighed, biting my lower lip. I heard his feet shuffling across the carpeted floor before he pulled out a chair and sat in the one closest to me. 

"I know you want me to leave you alone," he half-whispered, considering we were in a library, "but I really need help understanding the different phrases in different dialects." 

He gazed at me, willing me to meet his eyes but I just took the book from him and opened it to the first page I found. I exhaled slowly and raised my eyes to meet his, turning slightly in my chair so that we could face each other easily. 

"Okay, repeat after me..."

~*~

"But why does the Busan dialect and Daegu dialect have to be so similar with standard Korean being the most sophisticated dialect?!" he huffed, slamming the book shut. 

I flinched a little but couldn't help laughing a little at him. 

I bit my lower lip in attempt to keep my snickers quiet but the librarian came over to us and glowered, "Mr. Kim and Ms. Yuki, please quiet down or I will have no choice but to remove you!" she whispered angrily at us, pointing between the two of us. 

I nodded and looked down, snorting a bit but managing to cover it with a cough as I placed my hand over my mouth. 

Taehyung reached up and lightly pat my back, apologizing to Mrs. Loai while rubbing small circles into my spine. 

I closed my eyes at the sensation of his fingertips, humming softly to myself before hearing him chuckle. 

"Don't worry, I like it more than you do.." I opened my eyes to question him on why he said that, what did he mean, but he was already getting out of his seat and putting the book we had been using back on the shelf. 

He disappeared before I could grab my things and get up, leaving me utterly confused as to why I had been the one to help him when I knew he had the highest grade in our Literature class. 

~*~ 

Just as I was preparing to enter my dorm, our Dean stopped me and asked me to accompany him to the main office. 

I nodded and followed him, tensing as I noticed several other people in the room when he went to sit behind his desk. 

He opened one of his drawers and rustled through it before grabbing a taped manila folder, opening the metal prongs and pulling out the documents inside. 

"Ms. Yuki, we've found what we've been looking for."

I gazed at him in confusion, moving closer to look at the documents he held in his hand. 

He flipped open the first page of several that were stapled together, and read off the first line, "Birth Certificate of Yuki Aria, born December 21 of 1996. Born to Yuki Jungai and Uni. White-blond hair, black eyes, 7 pounds..." he kept reading and I felt myself become lightheaded as tears clouded my vision. 

Was this my file? 

How did they get it, and from where? 

I had parents? 

Yuki wasn't my first name? 

I dropped the books I was holding and lunged towards the desk the Dean was sitting it, grabbing the files from his hands and flipping through them as quickly as I could. 

The second to last page stopped me, causing me to hold my breath.

Yuki Jungai & Yuki Uni, killed in severe accident

2 dead, 1 left missing

Small child (boy) left unharmed in back seat- unnamed

Missing: Yuki Aria as pictured. 7 years old.

I glanced at the foreign little girl staring back at me from the printed pages, before looking at the date printed at the bottom.

 December 21st, 2004. 

My 7th birthday, I went missing? I kept reading down, my eyes widening,

April 7th, 2005. Kim Taehyung, pictured, finds stranded young girl. Says she won't speak to anyone but him, girl has been identified as Yuki Aria, whose parents were tragically murdered on the eve of her birthday last year. Whereabouts of the younger brother are still confidential.

I was still so confused, so heartbroken at finding the truth that I ran from the office and crashed into the group of people at the bottom of the stairs. 

Hyei, Lua, some other people they became friends with, along with Taehyung who was just walking to them looked at me confused as I kneeled on the floor before them, tears rolling down my cheeks. 

"Yu-yu, what is it?" Lua whispered, reaching down to caress my cheek. 

I looked up at her with my clouded vision, then allowed my gaze to dance around the group of people surrounding us before looking at Taehyung.

 "My name is Aria." I whispered.