Sooyoung was still missing during school, and Jessica had been even edgier and worried as time passed. Tiffany noticed this, and could only wait until after the lesson before she could comfort her best friend. On the other hand, their teacher was impressed that the Jessica Jung managed to stay awake throughout the entire hour, unaware that Jessica was a wreck. Yuri was still a touchy topic for her and she would snap at anyone who mentioned the jerk’s name. She avoided him all day, even walking away from the school’s heartthrob when he approached her at lunch. Nonetheless, stories of their breakup spread throughout the whole school like wildfire and Jessica was still the target of unwavering girls. Still, Jessica couldn’t care less. Her mind was occupied by Sooyoung and Sooyoung alone. She wondered if he had eaten, if he was in control, if he was in pain, if he was thinking of her…

“Jessica Jung…the who broke Yuri oppa’s heart,” a harsh voice snarled, snapping her off her thoughts.

Her head snapped up from her desk, looking around and realising that she had fallen asleep after her last class and nobody came to wake her up. Her heart ached, knowing that no one really cared. Tiffany probably would have thought that she was out looking for Sooyoung, and would have gone home already. Slowly looking up into the faces of her haters, she noticed that they were the same people who had beaten her up some time ago. The cold wind bit at her cheeks and she hid the shiver that went through her body. The leader was smirking at her, and the others followed suit, although a small girl at the back was cowering away from them, as if she was afraid. She was beautiful and apparently their junior, whom they had forced into this. Jessica didn’t exactly see her as a white flag of peace either. They cornered her, pressing onto Jessica until she barely had space to breathe.

“What’s this here?” their leader spoke up and jabbed at the bandage Jessica had concealed under her long sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, their sharp leader didn’t miss anything out.

Jessica let out a hiss of pain and withdrew her arm from the leader. “Get away from me.”

“Is that so?” she grabbed Jessica’s arm, her nails digging into Jessica’s flesh.

Jessica cried out in pain and tried to retrieve her arm from her attacker, but she only ended up raking her nails against the soft fabric that shielded her wound from the group.

“Unnie, don’t you think we should stop?” the small, frightened junior stuttered, but nobody paid attention to her.

“Maybe we should make things clear,” the leader stepped back and gestured for them to hold Jessica’s arm across the table while the others held Jessica in a death grip.

Jessica could only watch as the leader revealed a glinting blade that she had hidden in her socks. Some of them grinned in sick excitement while some wrinkled their noses in disgust at the removal of the blade from their leader’s sock.

“Roll it back,” she ordered them to roll back the struggling Jessica’s sleeves, revealing the bloodstained gauze on Jessica’s arm. “Don’t want blood on your clothes, now do you?”

“Let me go,” Jessica said, her voice raised in desperation.

“Not likely,” the leader tightened her grip on the hilt and lowered it to Jessica’s wounded arm.

She tore off the bandage, tearing at the scab that had formed over Jessica’s wound. As fresh blood began to flow, Jessica bit her lips to prevent her from yelling out in pain.

“Let’s get started. I’ll make the first cut, then you do the rest, got it?” the leader instructed the junior.

The junior was trembling. “But, unnie, I don’t want to.”

“Don’t be a , SeoHyun. Either you do this, or we will do god-knows-what to you,” the leader growled.

SeoHyun kept quiet, and watched their leader with terrified eyes. The leader lowered the blade on Jessica’s arm, so that she could feel the cold metal of the blade.

“Stop, please don’t do this,” Jessica struggled some more, but stopped when it was pointless against the group of eager girls who were clearly anticipating crimson red blood to spill from Jessica’s body.

With the tip of the butterfly knife, the leader dug into Jessica’s wound. Jessica screamed, writhing in constraint agony. SeoHyun clasped her hands over her ears at Jessica’s screaming, her eyes watering. Fresh blood dripped to the floor and the group of girls muttered praises for their fearless leader. The leader then, with crazed gleaming eyes, handed the bloodied knife to SeoHyun, who hesitantly accepted it with shaking hands. The leader nodded towards Jessica, who had her head bowed to hide her tears.

“Unnie…I…I don’t think I can,” SeoHyun held the knife at an awkward angle, holding the tip away from herself and Jessica.

“Seo JuHyun, do it!” the others chanted while the leader pushed her towards Jessica.

As SeoHyun slowly approached Jessica, eyes wet with tears, Jessica knew that this was the end for her. God knows what they would do to her after their little session of ‘fun’. Suddenly, the door slammed shut. The wind howled and the dried leaves scattered all over the place, producing a scraping sound over the concrete floor. Dimly, Jessica wondered as how they could be so loud.

“Let go of her, now,” a smooth, arrogant voice snarled.

For a moment, Jessica thought that Sooyoung had come to the rescue again. That was until she saw the lithe, shadowy figure that sauntered lazily towards the slowly retreating girls.

“Who are you?” the leader spoke up bravely.

Similar blue eyes shone in the darkness. The leader gasped and fell back.

“Choi…Choi Sooyoung?”

The figure made a loud sound that indicated that the leader was wrong. The girl released Jessica, leaving her slumped on the table while taking peeks at her unknown saviour. Jessica had been with Sooyoung enough to know that that wasn’t Sooyoung’s voice and that their heights were different. Sooyoung was taller and the dark figure now was shorter, but boasted a leaner figure. Sooyoung’s irises were darker in colour and his blue eyes had always been pale blue, not the dark blue the stranger’s were.

“Hurt her again, and my eyes will be the last thing you will ever see.”

Readers’ Note:

Hahaha! Another cliffhanger! I’ve grown so used to this. I think it’s pretty obvious who the mysterious ‘saviour’ is. If you don’t know who it is, then you’re kind of dumb. Just kidding! Well, if you really don’t, then look back at the previous chapters. I’m sure the stranger have said this somewhere before! Sorry for the wait, guys. By the way, Tiffany's kiss at the musical, Fame. I just wanted to know. It's not real, isn't it?

Thank you for reading!

Yours Faithfully
Jazzign