I fail to find any strength to move, and I hear sounds of two? Three? People running to me, and the nearest one is shouting my name. Kim Jongin’s voice.

          "Joo Dana! Joo Dana!"

          A bright source of light is nearing, and I try to turn my head to where the people are coming. A pair of legs covered in skinny jeans... Kim Jongin. The flashlight bearer is wearing long, loose pants... A security officer. I don't recognize the other one, but it's a male.

          "Joo Dana!"

          "Oh God, is she bleeding?"

          "What exactly was happening?! Aren’t you my students?"

          The third voice... Oh God, it's Professor Han. Out of all people... My legs feel sore from falling, and I can only move my left arm. Jongin kneels beside me, and lifts my head. "Joo Dana, are you okay?"

          Well... Surely I'm not. I can't bring myself to talk, but I let out a deep sigh, and glance to my right arm.

          "She's bleeding! I can't see how deep, but she must go to the hospital." The security officer directs the light to my body. “Another officer is trying to chase the one who did it.” he wraps my arm in a piece of cloth and tells me to keep pressing the wound.

          "Good thing I was passing by with my car... Okay, let's go now, be careful with her injury." Professor Han says.

          The security officer starts to help me up, but Jongin lifts me in one go. "I'll do it."

          I have my head pressed to Jongin’s shoulder, and the scent of his body fills the cold air around me.

          After trying to find the nearest stairs that connected the sidewalk and the field, Jongin carefully put me on the backseat. I stretch my neck as soon as I sit, trying not to look at my arm. Jongin sits beside me, and I can feel him staring at me. I have one hand pressing the wrapped cloth, and it feels damp. My heart is beating faster than usual and the pain still lingers.

          The car starts moving, and I close my eyes. The inside smells like cheap perfume and cigarette smoke. 

          "What the hell was happening anyway? Tell me." Professor Han half-shouted from the driver's seat.

          "I was walking, and suddenly Joo Dana screamed.” Jongin starts explaining. “I turned around, and I saw a man dashing to her direction, but he ran past her. She fell... As for the blood..."

          "Knife." I breathe out. "He was bringing a knife... Towards you..."

          "Crazy... In the middle of the campus... So when did you notice? Did—wait, I shouldn’t ask too much, silly me—You, watch out for her."

          I feel Jongin moving beside me, and he touches my shoulder. "How do you feel?"

          I’m wide awake, and use all the strength remaining to shake off his hand. I shake my head, unable to say anything.

          Jongin still looks at me, at my face then my arm, taking turns many times. “Don’t be tense… You’ll bleed more. Loosen up your arm.”

          I realize how firm I’m being with my entire body, and slowly exhale as I calm myself down. Jongin touches my arm, and I tense up in an instant. “Don’t.” I mouth silently.

          Jongin gets silent, and he faces the front. I close my eyes, and my head blanks out, as if I stand up too quickly after lying down. That sensation. I’m very conscious about my bleeding arm, and get anxious. Am I going to be okay?

          The hospital is fortunately only two blocks away, and I’m rushed to the ER. The irritatingly bright surroundings make me uncomfortable, and I keep my eyes closed most of the time.

          I’m just lying there helpless as three people stand around my bedside, and I have nowhere to look. The lamp is blinding. Looking at the paramedics is awkward. I try looking at a chair beside the bed—but someone walks and stops in front of it.

          The black coat is all I see, but then the person takes a few steps back and I’m now looking right at him. Jongin looks at me with his big eyes, which screams exhaustion and concern at the same time. I notice my blood smeared on some parts of his clothes.

          “Go home.” I gather my remaining power to say that, plus still looking at him.

          “How can I?” he replies right away. My jaw tightens, and I turn my head away.

          “I’m going to give you an injection, please focus on me.” one of the paramedics says.

          I don’t know what she put in me, but after that I start to feel really sleepy, and in the end the white emergency room turns dark for me.

*

                I wake up to see a dim ceiling, and I look around. I’m in a single hospital room, alone. Sunlight softly leaks through the curtain. The first thing I physically felt was the tightly wrapped bandage around my right arm. I can still feel pain from the inside. The hospital blanket is heavy. I’m also wearing a hospital gown now—well they cut my coat yesterday in the ER, and it’d be bloody anyway.

                I hear the toilet flushing from the bathroom on the left side of the room, and I grow anxious. Who could that be? I shudder when the door opens, and Mom appears.

                “Oh dear.” she hurriedly approaches the bed. “Dana, how are you feeling?”

                I just nod. Just then I noticed her bag on the sofa beside the bed.

                “I’m not going to ask you much, let’s do this quickly… So I heard you spotted a mugger, but he attacked you instead?”

                “Well… I was walking behind someone… And suddenly someone crossed the road. I think he didn’t see me. He was taking out a knife, and I screamed.”

                “Who was the other one? The one who was walking in front of you initially?”

                I open my mouth, and my throat goes dry. “A… A classmate.”

                “Okay, then?”

                “The mugger turned around and ran towards me… He wasn’t looking at me so I thought he was just going to pass me by… But he hit my shoulders, and… This happened.” I glance at my arm.

                “You fell too!”

                “Yeah… There was no border to the field next to the sidewalk I walked on.”

                Mom rubs her face, and sits down on a chair. “The cut is luckily not that deep, but it isn’t a simple scratch either. It’s quite lengthy and will leave a scar… Gosh.”

          I sigh. The bandage feels so heavy, and it feels painful and uncomfortable.

          The door opens, and a nurse appears. “Oh, Miss Joo is awake. May I run a few checks on her?”

          Mom lets the nurse in, and I stay still. I want to go home.

          I get reminded of something. “Did you meet anyone last night?”

          “Yeah, your professor. He said there was someone too but I haven’t seen anyone until now.”

          I swallow. Jongin probably went home. Well, I told him to anyway.

*

                Mom left after lunch to take some stuff for me, and I’m emptily looking around the hollow room, thoughts filling my head. The whole thing just feels like a bad imagination, until stinging pains come from my arm.

                Nearing the evening, the snow is falling, decorating the grey sky. I’m still in contemplation mode, sitting down when someone opens the door, and my heart sinks when I see who it is. Kim Jongin.

                He’s wearing a long dark brown coat, the same color as his hair. Black turtleneck covers his body, and blue jeans on his long legs. I still can remember how his eyes looked last night, but now his gaze is alert and firm.

          He sits on the chair beside the bed without a word, and I stare at the blanket.

          “Are you okay?”

          “I’m fine. You can go.”

          He audibly heaves a sigh.

          "Are you still going to pretend that you don't know me? In this condition?"

          Here it starts. I look at the falling snow through the window, knowing bitterly that this would not end well.