The Squirrel and The Tree (Nako x Male Reader)

Prologue

At a local elementary school in Seoul, where students get to enjoy the company of their friends and have fun.

In contrast to how the school was described however, there was a little girl who was crying her eyes out. Her clothes were ragged, her knees were scraped, and her Sky Blue bag was torn brutally.

The bullies standing in front of her began laughing. Some threw insults while some spat beside and on her.

"Look at this little weirdo," The group's supposed leader slapped the little girl's head. "She's like a fucking dwarf."

The little girl started crying harder, feeling the pain setting in her head from the slap. She doesn't know why they treat her like this, she just wanted to have friends like all the other kids.

But here she was, getting humiliated and bullied instead. She's not sure if it was because she's new to town or simply because of her short stature, either way, she knows for sure that they don't like her presence around them.

"Why did you even come to Korea?" One of the bullies asked sassily. "It would've been better if your short self stayed in Japan."

The bullies continued to laugh at the little girl. She cried like there's no tomorrow as they continued physically hurting her and calling her names.

"Please... stop..." The girl spoke with an accent. She is Japanese, after all.

"Shut up, dwarf!" The leader slapped her face. "You don't get to tell us what to do-"

The leader suddenly stopped talking, causing the little girl to take a little peek as to why he stopped. Even his goons seemed to stop, they looked... scared.

She got curious as well and turned her head to what or who they were staring at. And there he was, a boy who looked like he was there to save her from the bullies.

There was one factor about him that stood out though. He's so tall, and he was gripping the bullies' leader by his dome.

'He must be a senpai,' The little girl thought.

"Oi... What are you doing to her?" He asked in a lazy yet angry tone.

"L-let go!!" He struggled to get out of the tall boy's tight grip.

"I don't wanna... Not unless you apologize to that girl," The tall boy pointed at the little girl on the floor.

"Never in a million years!" The bully he had a hold of screamed, but he received an excruciating squeeze on his head as soon as he did.

"Apologize or I'll crush your head right here, right now," The tall boy threatened, gripping the bully's head even harder as he began to scream and wail in pain.

"Okay okay okay! I'll do it! Just please let me go!" The bully said, his tears started flowing down his cheeks. His goons couldn't do anything but stare in horror as their leader was getting humiliated by the tall boy.

"Tell her you and your little buddies that you're sorry and that all of you won't do it ever again," He then let go of the bully's head.

"W-we're sorry for bullying you!" The bully apologized. "We're not going to do it again! I swear!"

"Good, now leave her alone!" The tall boy yelled, causing the bullies to run away as fast as possible like the cowards they are.

After they were gone, the tall boy sighed and yawned.

"They sure were a pain in the ass..." He muttered and knelt down in front of the little girl. "Hey, can you stand?"

The little girl shook her head. While she was getting hurt by the bullies, one of them stomped on her ankle.

"Hold on," The tall boy said as he gathered all her stuff and put it in her badly conditioned bag.

The little girl stared at him in awe. She couldn't believe someone actually stood up for her.

"There we go~" He smiled. "Now onto helping you."

He slung the little girl's thrashed, sky blue carrier on his shoulder before picking the little girl up princess style.

"Eep," The girl squeaked at the sudden lift.

"Oops, sorry, but I kinda have to. I'm not letting you walk if your ankle's busted," The tall boy sheepishly chuckled as he started walking. "I'm taking you to the clinic so we can treat your bruises, is that okay?"

"Y-yeah," The girl smiled warmly at him. "Thank you..."

"Oh, don't mention it~"

The two arrived at the nurse's office. At first, the nurse was shocked to see the little girl covered in bruises and was about to scold the tall boy, but after a little explaining, the nurse turned calm and assisted to an available hospital bed for the little girl to rest on.

The nurse aided the girl while the boy waited behind the curtain. After a few minutes, the nurse was already done and called the boy to accompany the girl while they waited for her parents to pick her up.

"U-uhm... You must be my senpa- sunbaenim, right? You have to be at least 6th grade." She asked him, breaking the silence.

"Eh~? Why would you think that?" He tilted his head at her.

"I mean, you're so tall. You towered over the bullies and even gripped their leader's head like a tennis ball with only one hand."

"Hm~... What grade are you in?"

"3rd grade," The little girl replied.

"Huh~? then we're on the same grade," The tall boy smiled.

"Eh!?! Why are you so tall!?"

"I dunno~ Why are you so short?"

"This is so unfair..."

"Aw, don't feel so down~ By the way, I don't know your name yet," He said lazily. "What's your name?"

The little girl sighed heavily.

"My name is Yabuki Nako. What's yours?"

"I'm Ki Yongrae."

They both shook each other's hands and unbeknownst to them, it was already the beginning of their dynamic friendship.