Joohyun did not expect to be greeted at the Academy entrance with a giant tackle from her best friend. Amber’s momentum knocked the two of them over, and they went sprawling across the marble floor.

It certainly shook Joohyun up from her tired stupor. Not getting any sleep as a result of last night’s events was expected, but sleeping through her alarm clock and getting to school two hours late was not.

“Wow, I didn’t know you were this excited to see my beautiful face,” she blinked, yawning. “It’s only been — what, less than 18 hours?”

Amber raised an eyebrow.

Oops. It dawned on her that she had completely misread the situation. Seeing worry in Amber’s eyes and confusion in her eyebrows, it finally occurred to her that her friend was nervous seeing her at school.

“Oh.” Amber let out a chuckle at that and pulled her upright. Dusting off her cargo shorts, she straightened her jacket and ran her fingers through her short, blonde hair.

“Joohyun,” she asked, hesitating, “when was the last time you spoke to Taehyung?”

Of course. The person she wanted to see most was talking about the person she wanted to see least.

“Last night. Why?”

“He’s been looking for you all morning. Krystal told me that he barged into your calculus class to see if you were there, but you weren’t. Thank god I found you before anyone else did. Knowing him, he probably has some awful prank up his sleeve. You didn’t do anything bad to him, did you? You didn’t do anything like punching him in the face or attacking him, right?”

“Well, not exactly —”

“Joohyun, what the f**k did you do?”

Joohyun bit her lip and glanced at the ground. “Well, I might have had a messy encounter with him last night.”

“Oh god,” Amber moaned, covering her face with her hands. “Why? Why? There’s practically a witch hunt for you now.” Glancing down at her watch, she sighed. “I have to get to class soon. I'd stay out of sight, at least for today.”

Nodding, Joohyun bid her friend goodbye and sneaked into the Academy library. It was an enormous room filled with books upon books that lined the mahogany shelves. Each shelf was almost twelve feet tall, connected to an intricate pulley system used to reach the books at the very top. Despite the architectural marvels of the machine, it was the books that captivated her. 

Book had always captivated her. She had grown up in the poorer section of the East, in the midst of the war-zone. There wasn’t much to do with the booms of explosions in the background, so she spent her time reading about physics, sociology, and most importantly, chess. When she entered her first chess tournament at age eight, she wasn’t planning on winning, but she received the regional title before placing third at the national level. She received a call from the Academy a day later and was soon enrolled in the most prestigious school in Massachusetts, the capital of the East.

The library, full of magical stories that transcend time and enlighten the mind, was more than just a refuge from the terrors of the world to her; it was a symbol of her home and where she came from. 

Books were where she began her journey, and she wanted them to lead her to a better life — to to university, to safety, to freedom. In the northeastern part of the country, the Academy was not exposed to the horrors of the war. Neither were the surrounding universities, only miles from the Academy.

She felt safe here. As she snuggled up in her favorite corner of the library, she gazed up at the countless stories above her. It didn’t matter to her that she was the school’s “nerd queen” or the grade-obsessed perfectionist. Education was what was going to get her to university. After university, she would make money and do great things. She would be powerful; she would be rich; and most importantly, she would be able to escape the war.

The war was tearing a rip in the fabric of peace in the country. To describe the current situation of the United States as a “sh*tstorm" would be an understatement. A few years ago, the political tension that had existed for decades between the Left and Right caused the rubber band of the country to snap. Fighting broke out between the East and West (it was more like Mid-America vs. the East Coast and California, but nobody cared too much about the details). California and the Atlantic states were far from the violence, but her hometown of Indiana had recently been conquered by the Western forces.

She always tried hard to smother the burning sensation of guilt and worry whenever she thought of her mother. She knew her mother wanted her to be far away from the fighting and was ecstatic when she received a call from the Academy, but it always hurt to realize that her mother was struggling to survive while she herself was indulging in the peace of the northeast. Her father had been drafted into the war years ago and disappeared, and her mother was the one thing inspiring her to continue. Family was the last thing she had.

She hadn’t spoken to her mother in almost a week. She tried calling her three times each day, but none of the calls were successful. Joohyun tried not to think too hard, but she couldn’t restrain herself from worrying. She pulled out her cellphone and punched in her mother’s number, praying that someone would answer the phone.

“Hello, this is the Lee household. We are unfortunately unable to come to the phone right now. Please leave a message —”

She ended the call and chucked the device a few feet to her right. She felt a few tears trickle down her cheeks and curled up into a ball. Placing her head on her backpack, the world around her began to blur as she drifted to sleep.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see this!” An obnoxious voice in Joohyun’s left ear caused her to jerk upright, stubbing her toe and hitting her head in the process. A burst of male laughter exploded at her reaction, and by the time her eyes opened, she could see a group of four boys squatting next to her.

“Awww, wittle Joo is ditching class and sleeping?” The one on the left (probably the guy that woke her up) moved closer to her. “This isn’t very studious of you,” he taunted. He yanked her backpack out from under her body and dug his hands into it. She groaned as her head hit the floor and rolled over dazed.

“Physics notes, math tests, English paper,” he recited as he tossed them behind him. A second boy behind him gathered everything he was throwing into a pile.

“Pencils, erasers, chemistry textbook.” 

Backpack boy suddenly grinned as he dug out something else. “A photograph of baby Joo? And is that her mother?” He cackled and pointed at her before glancing at his friends. “No wonder she looks so ugly.”

“Stop it,” Joohyun growled, lunging at him. He held the photograph high above her reach, beckoning her to try again. She stood upright and waited for her eyes to adjust to her surroundings before realizing that she had a few problems on her hands.

Firstly, she had, actually, ditched class and would need to provide explanations to her teachers and make up the work she missed.

Secondly, the boys before her were Taehyung’s friends, meaning that they weren’t exactly the friendly type.

Thirdly, the boy who had been collecting the contents of her backpack held them all in a nice neat pile in his arms, and his hands were hovering over the trashcan. 

Fourthly, Backpack boy was holding the photograph above his head, his fingers positioned so that they were ready to rip it.

Lastly, because they were here, it also meant that Taehyung was probably nearby and that she would have to deal with him soon.

A loud ripping sound reverberated in the library, interrupting her thoughts, and to her horror, she saw Backpack boy holding half a photograph in each hand. At the same time, Trashcan boy dropped everything into the trashcan.

Not again.

Tears of rage prickled at the corners of her eyes. That was the last picture she had of her mother, and those were the notes she furiously rewrote after the same thing happened to her previous notes a week ago. She snatched the two halves of the photograph from Backpack boy’s hands and brought them close to her body. With a bit of tape, she figured she could try to piece them back together.

“Aww, boohoo Joo,” Backpack boy whispered as he stood face-to-face with her. “Next time, be a good little charity-case. Do as you’re told and don’t bother Taehyung.”

A familiar low voice cleared his throat behind her, and Joohyun scowled internally before whirling around to meet his eyes.

Taehyung leaned against the bookshelf, his hands gliding down the back of a book with a gold spine. His brown hair was tousled, as usual, and he wore a black sweater with dark pants held up by a giant belt. He carried himself with his usual narcissistic aura, a blend of eye rolls and scoffs sprinkled with the occasional smirk. Joohyun really didn’t want to admit it, but he had a rockstar-gangster-boy-band-member look that made him mildly attractive.

“I’d like to speak to Joohyun alone.”

Scrambling to pick up her belongings, she muttered, “Actually, I have to get going —”

“Joo.” His voice was cautious and steady, making her tense up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other four boys scampering away. She really didn’t want to deal with this right now, especially after last night’s incident. Taehyung didn’t look furious, but his composed tone reminded her of a predator lying in the grass, waiting for the right time to pounce.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.

“Fine. Joohyun —”

“What do you want —”

“Joohyun —”

“Is this about last night? I know you said this, but I didn’t kill her —”

“Oh my god!” Taehyung threw his arms up in the air in frustration. “I’m trying to apologize, d*mnit!”

“Oh.”

He shot her an annoyed look and exhaled. “Look. I know I wasn’t exactly in the best state when you saw me last night, so I didn’t mean to say anything that I said. I’m sorry about that outburst.”

“Fine. But if you were truly sorry, you wouldn’t have sent your friends after me,” she snarled.

“What?”

“Take a look at this.” She showed him the ripped photograph. “Take a look in the trashcan too.”

His faced paled. “I — I didn’t tell them to do anything.”

“Well, they told me to stay away from you, and it’s not like I disagree with that.” With that, she stepped away and towards the direction of the exit.

“I’m serious,” he called. “I didn’t know they were going to do this.”

She turned around to glare at him. “I’m assuming you also didn’t know about that time you hit me in the head with a basketball during gym? You didn’t know about the time you broke every string on my cello? Or that time you nearly ran me over? I haven’t even started on what your friends have done.”

Taehyung looked down at his feet, and it almost looked like he felt bad.

“Sorry,” he mumbled quietly.

“Whatever.”

“Also,” he continued, this time loudly, “I have a request for you.” His voice made her stop in her tracks and look back at him.

“Why?”

He strode forward until he was standing right before her. “Meet me in front of the city library at 11 p.m. tonight. Don’t bring anyone with you.”

“Why should I?” Furrowing her eyebrows, she eyed him warily. “After all this? You aren’t exactly in a position to be friendly to me. Telling me to meet you late at night somewhere in the city? That’s dangerous. You can kill me if you wanted to.”

He shrugged. “I would have killed you long ago if I wanted you dead. It’s up to you, Joohyun. Do you want to find out what happened to Taeyeon or not?”

Joohyun was starting to regret agreeing to the appointment with Taehyung. She didn’t exactly want to see him more than she had to, but her curiosity won out. She had seen what happened with Taeyeon, but Taehyung’s words seemed to imply that there was something more to her death than a simple alley murder.

A nighttime breeze billowed by, causing her to shiver. The streetlights flickered on and off, sending shadows pirouetting across the walls. Leaves rustled all around her, creating a hauntingly beautiful and peaceful moment that reeked with eeriness.

Joohyun had done so many stupid things this week that it was nearly impossible for her to do even more, but here she stood alone, freezing, in the middle of the night, only a few blocks from where a girl was recently murdered.

That realization made her tremble at her very core. The stupidity of meeting Taehyung here made her cringe. (To be fair, he had been the one who suggested this, so it wasn’t completely her fault).

She feared that the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” would soon apply to her. Literally.

The stars twinkled brightly above her, and for a moment, everything was calm and as it should be.

Glancing, down at her watch, she read 10:59 and began to glance around. Taehyung should be arriving soon, and she really didn’t want to wait outside longer than she had.

A beep signaled that it was eleven. She heard a pair of footsteps approaching from her left and turned around. Assuming it was Taehyung, she shoved her hands in her pockets and wandered in that direction.

She barely got a glimpse of a figure in all black before something hit her head hard, and the world turned dark.

*cues dramatic music*

I think I should probably try to make a cover for this story....any suggestions as to which programs I should use?