Yerim never considered herself a particularly popular person. Sure, she had a good amount of acquaintances at school, and she didn’t have any conflict with the other students, but her only real friend was Sae-ron. She more or less was on good terms with everyone, having some pleasant conversation in class, going to the occasional party when she felt like it, or hanging out with Sae-ron and whoever the younger girl wanted to invite. Yerim had no concern for her lack of good friends, and preferred the company of her sisters and best friend over everyone else. That is, until the day after the incident with Jungkook.

    It started off like any normal Tuesday would at school, with Yerim going about her regular morning routine (making sure to leave her necklace locked away in a box beneath her bed) and then picking a half-asleep Sae-ron up from her house and driving them both to class. The blonde had spent the previous night explaining her whole story to her mother and sisters, and then explaining it all to Sae-ron over the phone. Of course, she’d left out the supernatural details, making sure to highlight how crazy Jungkook had seemed. Her mother had suggested that perhaps the boy had some sort of mental illness, something which Yerim vehemently argued against; seizures could happen spontaneously from a variety of factors, not just mental disorder. The entire exchange was, like many of Yerim’s exchanges with her mother, fraught with miscommunications and frustration. They never escalated to flat out arguing (likely for Yerim’s young siblings’ sake) and usually fizzled out with a mutual agreement to simply drop the subject at hand. And that’s exactly what happened. Both Yerim and her mother were far too exhausted anyway, so it had ended with the older woman assuring her daughter that it wasn’t her fault, and that she should just ignore any mean comments she garnered as a result of the incident. The typical cookie-cutter parental reaction to a situation that she didn’t know anything about.

    The entire interaction had left her drained and depressed. Mainly because it was filled with lies. She wanted to tell the truth to her mother, but she knew that doing so would literally be the worst option possible. Her poor, overworked mother certainly did not need more stress in her life; stress that came in the form of reality-shattering, shock-inducing truths regarding the existence of god-like witches trapped in a house in the woods.

    Sae-ron received a similar to story to Yerim’s family, thankfully without any resistance, merely reacting with nervous uncertainty regarding Jungkook’s explosive reaction to his former muse’s presence. The younger girl seemed more concerned with Yerim’s well-being rather than the actual victim in the situation, which was both flattering and worrying at the same time. The blonde contemplated admitting the truth to her best friend, as she would have done in normal circumstances, but she hadn’t decided whether Sae-ron could really take that sort of information yet. The younger girl was decidedly fragile when it came to issues, even those that involved trivialities such as what the latest fashion trend happened to be at the time. Still, Yerim felt that she needed to speak with someone about the whole situation, and that perhaps, if the right opportunity presented itself, she could reveal her dark secrets to Sae-ron. What that opportunity entailed wasn’t clear, but as usual, Yerim decided to go with her gut. For the time being, she remained silent.

    And so, the soul-burdened girl went about her morning routine, mind preoccupied with mad thoughts that threatened to burst from her skull, thoughts that buzzed around incessantly, thoughts that made her moody and irritable. Irritable enough to snap at poor little Chae-eun, causing the preschooler to cry, leading to fifteen minutes of Yerim cradling her sister, rocking her back and forth and apologizing as she fought back her own tears.

    Luckily, the car ride to school with Sae-ron had been relatively quiet, as the younger girl was drifting in and out of sleep, leaving Yerim to sit and enjoy the , tortured lyrics of King Krule as she sat in rush hour traffic.

    Once they entered the school, pushing aside those stereotypically heavy metal doors as they went, something immediately felt off.

    The students, scattered across the hallway, animatedly chattering amongst themselves in little packs, became quiet as Yerim and Sae-ron passed by. They stared and pointed brazenly, eyes wide, whispering to one another behind cupped palms.

    Yerim felt a flood of anxiety welling up in her at each step, and she glanced over at Sae-ron to see how the younger girl was doing.

    Sae-ron’s eyes were darting back-and-forth between the groups of people around them. She clutched her books to her chest, as if trying to make herself seem as small as possible. Occasionally, she would attempt to wave at someone she knew, only to be rebuked by either a half-hearted response or no acknowledgement at all.

    Yerim reached her locker and began working on opening it, putting all of her mental effort into ignoring the sensation of eyes boring into her. Sae-ron leaned up against the locker beside her, looking worried and deflated.

“I knew this would happen,” Yerim muttered, “Just try to ignore them, okay?”

“But some of them are my friends…”

The blonde was about to respond when she noticed three girls approaching them.

To Yerim’s dismay, it was Krystal, Amber, and Luna. They were the “popular” girls, ones that everyone seemed to want to befriend for no other reason besides their looks, which consisted of ridiculous amounts of makeup and the most revealing outfits possible. It couldn’t have been their personalities, as they were hands down the least pleasant people to interact with, in Yerim’s opinion.

“So, we heard what you did to Jungkook,” Krystal said bitingly, glaring at Yerim.

“I didn’t do to him,” the brunette replied as evenly as she could manage, slamming her locker shut, “And it’s awfully rude of you to imply that I tried to hurt him.”

Amber stepped forward, smirking deviously. Although the older girl was by no means a tall person, she nonetheless towered over the diminutive Yerim. However, given the hell that the shorter girl had experienced lately, she found herself more than willing to fight the preppy bully in front of her.

“That’s not what he said,” Amber said in a low voice, “He said you did something. Maybe you poisoned him?”

“Shut the up.” Yerim growled through gritted teeth, her anger spiking in intensity at the accusatory look on Amber’s face.

Unbeknownst to Yerim, a crowd of onlookers were beginning to gather.

“Hey, guys,” Sae-ron said nervously, futilely trying to shimmy herself between the two girls, “Cut it out, you’re making a scene. Yeri would never-”

“And you believe her lies?” Krystal asked, turning her steely gaze on Sae-ron, who cowered in fear, “We all know she hates Jungkook. It’s not a secret.”

“What do you mean?” Yerim demanded, momentarily taken aback by the odd declaration.

Krystal rolled her eyes, and her two cronies giggled.

“We all know you’re a , Yerim. It’s so obv-”

    To Yerim’s shock, Krystal was cut off by a fist meeting the side of her jaw. To the crowd’s shock, it wasn’t Yerim’s fist: it was Sae-ron’s.

    Krystal doubled back, clutching her face but still aware enough to respond. Amber and Luna immediately lunged forward at Sae-ron, but Yerim’s brain had caught up with the unbelievable events that were unfolding and she reacted, shoving Luna as hard as she could into the lockers beside them before tackling Amber to the ground.

    Above them, Yerim could hear the sound of Sae-ron and Krystal continuing their fight. Amber struggled to pull the blonde into a grapple, but was met with a swift elbow to the face, one that disoriented her enough for Yerim to detach and stand up, just in time for Luna to grab her by the front of her shirt, reaching out in an attempt to pull her hair. Yerim drew her head back as if she was evading the hair grab, and then whipped her neck forward, slamming her forehead against Luna’s, hard. Both girls fell to the ground, though Yerim was still cognizant enough to kick Amber away from her. The blonde then turned, her vision slightly obscured by her own blood, to see Sae-ron being utterly pummeled by Krystal, who had her in a headlock and was delivering quick punches to the back of her head. Yerim stood up, shaking off Luna’s arms, simultaneously drawing her fist back as far as she could and slamming it into the same spot that Krystal had previously been hit. The taller girl relinquished her grasp on Sae-ron and stepped back, clutching her face in pain.

    It was only when two much larger, much stronger bodies joined the fray, accompanied by shouted demands to “Break it up” and “Back off”, a pair of arms locking themselves around the blonde and restraining her, that Yerim realized what had occurred. To start with, the entire area appeared as if it were the scene of a massacre. There was blood smeared across the lockers and tiled floor, topped off by the unconscious form of Luna, still dazed from the prior headbutt. Amber was crouched over, clutching her bloody mouth (the main source of the copious amounts of iron-smelling fluid). Krystal and Sae-ron were still standing, the former girl being held back by a rather frail, elderly teacher named Mr. Morris, the latter standing off to the side, looking winded but relatively unharmed. The crowd around them was beginning to disperse, mainly due to the two other teachers who had arrived on the scene and were ordering them to get to class.

    Yerim allowed the teacher who had grabbed her (Mr. Szilagyi, if she was remembering correctly) to usher her along, her mind still covered in post-adrenaline fog. It took her a few minutes to realize that the warm, sticky substance dripping from her forehead was in fact her own blood. A few days ago, this would have made her gag in disgust, but a lot had happened in the past few days; enough to make her fully nonchalant about the stinging, oozing wound on her face. Before she was steered down the hall and away, Yerim performed one final scan of the scene she’d left behind. Of the two teachers tending to the girls that she had (almost) single-handedly disposed of herself, of the crimson that was so messily splashed about the area, of the tears that she could see pouring from Krystal’s indignant, horrified eyes as they locked with Yerim’s. The blonde smiled to herself. Joohyun would be proud.

***

    Things at the school went pretty much as Yerim expected them to. She visited the nurse’s office first, where she was provided some antiseptic sprays for her knuckle and head wounds, along with bandages and a stern talking-to regarding her “unladylike” behavior. Krystal and Luna were brought in next, both now able to stand on their own but still looking utterly confused. They actively shrank from Yerim’s presence, and the blonde found herself smirking as they averted their eyes. Sae-ron wasn’t even damaged enough to be sent to the nurse, instead being escorted straight to the principal’s office. This was Yerim’s next stop. She entered the room as Sae-ron exited, offering the younger girl a comforting pat on the shoulder as she went, trying to disregard the fact that it looked as though her best friend had been bawling her eyes out.

Mrs. O’Donnell’s reaction was one of aghast disappointment. She seemed to understand why the girls had gotten into the argument they had, but her main issue was with Yerim’s frank savagery. Sae-ron had refused to speak about anything Yerim may or may not have done (and Yerim truly loved her to death for that), but the teachers that had witnessed the fight had recounted the tale with accurate (albeit slightly exaggerated) detail. Yerim made no attempt to excuse her actions, instead constantly repeating that she was merely defending herself and her friend (pointing out that they’d first been bullied and then ganged up on) and emphasizing the fact that she’d been “lost in the moment”. In the end, Mrs. O’Donnell merely punished Yerim with a week’s worth of detention and a phone call home, citing her excellent grades and previously unmarred behavioral record as reasons why. She then sent Yerim home for the day, dismissing the blonde with an expression that reflected a mixture of pity, confusion, frustration, and a small tinge of fear.

Yerim found Sae-ron standing beside her car, staring out into the distance as she leaned up against the old red Toyota. Her clothes were wrinkled and disheveled, though she seemed to have taken the time to fix her hair up while waiting for her best friend.

When Sae-ron noticed Yerim approaching, she snapped out of her reverie, she ran to meet Yerim, wrapping her arms around the older girl in a tight hug that was clearly more for herself than the older girl.

“Yerim,” Sae-ron whispered tearfully, “Wh-what was that?”

“You tell me,” Yerim joked, striding past Sae-ron and heading to the driver’s side of her vehicle, “You’re the one who struck first. I didn’t expect that.”

“Well...” Sae-ron’s tone took on one of shame as she followed, “She called you a ‘’. That was too far. I couldn’t just let her get away with it. But what I mean is, where’d you learn to fight like that? You ing wrecked those girls.”

“So what if I’m a ?” Yerim asked, starting the car, “She might have just been stating facts, you know?”

“Wait,” Sae-ron turned slowly to face Yerim, giving up on buckling her seatbelt and staring at the blonde in awe, “Are you actually gay? Since when? And why didn’t you tell me-”

“Sae-ron,” Yerim interjected, holding a hand up to cease the ramble that was about to follow, “It’s a joke.”

“Sure,” the younger girl said in disbelief, “Anyway, yeah, what you did back there… it was kinda scary, to be honest. You notice how the other kids stopped cheering after a while? Like, the moment you headbutted Luna, there was just silence. It was… gruesome.”

“We won, didn’t we? That’s all that m-”

Yerim was cut off as her phone began to ring, and even though she was pulling out of the school parking lot, she checked the caller ID. It was her mother. She muted the phone and placed it face-down in her cupholder. Sae-ron chose not to comment on this.

“I guess,” Sae-ron continued, looking out the passenger window, “But you looked like you were nuts. Just absolutely focused on nothing but hurting those girls as much as possible. If those teachers hadn’t stepped in-”

“I wouldn’t have killed them, Sae-ron,” Yerim said in disgust, “I was just defending myself. And you, too.”

“I’m just worried about you, is all,” Sae-ron said forlornly, “You’ve been acting really odd lately.”

Yerim sighed and remained quiet. She knew it was true. Her behavior as of late was probably very disconcerting, especially to someone who knew exactly what her normal personality was like. And now, Yerim’s actions had negatively affected Sae-ron’s life, though the younger girl was none the wiser of the root cause. Things were rapidly becoming a tangled mess, one that Yerim wouldn’t likely be able to unravel on her own, despite her adamancy regarding keeping the entire thing a secret. So, she decided to come clean.

“Sae-ron…” she began as they sat in silence at a red light, “Do you remember a couple of days ago on the news how they mentioned a serial killer- in our area?”

“Yeah,” Sae-ron said perplexedly, “He’s still at large, isn’t he?”

“He’s not.”

“But the news said-”

“I know he’s not, because I saw him die. Or… well, heard it.”

For a second, there was no noise but the hum of the old car’s engine.

“What do you mean?” Sae-ron inquired, her tone low and flat.

“Remember when I was walking home from your house a few night ago?” Sae-ron nodded in affirmation, “Well, I decided to take a shortcut through the woods. And, as it turns out, that’s where he was hiding out, waiting for young girls to come through.”

“N-no…” Sae-ron gasped.

“Yeah,” the older girl continued, her eyes glazing over in pained reminiscence, “He chased me for a long time. Almost caught me a few times. I had to fight him off once. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I can still hear his voice, calling out to me, trying to lure me into stopping… and it was tempting, because I wanted all the fear to be over already. I was so ing scared, and I was ready to give up… but then, I came to a house. An abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. And I knocked on the door. I know, this sounds like a really ty horror story plot. But it happened. A woman came out. And… long story short, she saved my life. I didn’t see what exactly she did to him, but he’s dead. Without a doubt.”

“Who… who was it? And why didn’t you tell the police? Or anyone, for that matter? Did the woman make you keep quiet about it?”

“No… she didn’t make me,” Yerim frowned when she realized that she was crying now, “Everything that happened after the killer died is probably easier to show you rather than tell you.”

“Show me?” Sae-ron inquired, still in a state of disbelief, “What do you mean?”

Yerim pulled into her own driveway, shutting the car off before turning and regarding Sae-ron’s frightened eyes with a mix of resignation and resolution.

“If you’re alright with it, I’m going to show you the house that I found in the woods that night.”

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Sorry for the long wait, but here's Chapter 10! Hope you're looking forward to what happens next (:

Thanks for reading<3