Eunmi’s POV

I was sleeping peacefully, with no thoughts of the present or future. Stuck in a dreamy state, resting myself from the past couple days. People discovering what I swore to keep secret and then them wanting to help me in the process. How could I have let myself get weak in front of others? Now I have to deal with countless, persistent comments and persuading to get myself cured.

Amy and Henry got to learn when to not stick their nose in other’s business.

Groaning a little, I got up from bed. The noise coming from outside the window ruined my sleep, it was lightly drizzling. The rain cascaded down and made everything have a blur-like appearance. Taking a peek at the clock, it read 4:00am. Oh great. I could have got a few more hours of sleep, no point in sleeping now when I was wide awake.

Yawning, I raised my right hand to ruffle my hair. Tired, yes, but completely obvious to my surroundings now. Then I spotted my glasses, the faint light coming from inside my room glinting off the glass side shone like a beacon in a hazy fog. The sight of them perched on top of my desk made me realize my ‘delusion’ of hearing someone enter my room last night was real, which meant my sight was indeed back. I mentally hit myself, of course I had my sight back; how would I have been able to read the time then without it? I got to do something about my door, maybe put a lock on it. That Nichkhun or anyone else will not be able to step into my room ever again.

My pills, I almost forgot about them. Rewinding my memory, I checked to see if the guys had any looks of unease when I confronted them about their little adventure into my room. Not noticing a spark of suspicion, I concluded that none of them had taken it. Otherwise they would have given it back, knowing not to add more fuel to the trouble already burning. Someone else took it, just who did? When I get my hands on them…

Slowly opening my door, I cautiously tiptoed my way to the bathroom; trying not to wake the others up. They deserved a good night sleep, what with Jay making them run everywhere looking for me. When I was done brushing my teeth, I contemplated whether I should take a shower or not. But then an idea struck me. Silently going back into my room, I changed into a pair of black shorts that went up to my knees. I was going to change into a hoodie, only to realize they were either 1) Dirty and in the laundry hamper or 2) Not wearable outside. It was 3) All of the above.

Not giving up, I looked at the back of my closet, digging deeper into the pile of rubbish ‘girly’ clothes Jay bought me the first time I came into his house here in South Seoul. I never wore them before; I knew I could still fit them though. As I was reaching and grabbing for a possible upper outerwear, my hand brushed against a soft material. Dragging it out, I could see it had a G-Market logo on its tag at the back. Then the smell hit me.

It was Sungyeol’s sweater. Remembering the incident when I smelled it, a light tint of red crept onto my face. Shaking my head, I shook that moment away from my mind. What was I thinking? Staring a bit longer at it, I thought ‘I can always wash it again and then give it back to him.’

Seeing as there were no sweaters available at the moment, I pulled it on.

It of course being a size too big, it went over my shorts making it look like I was wearing nothing under. Taking a hair-tie from my dresser, I scrunched up a portion of the hoodie and tied it up. Arranging some things, it now went only to my hips. Wonderful what a single hair-tie can do. Grabbing an extra one, I tied up my hair. I decided not to wear my glasses, there was no point. Nobody was going to be up this early in the morning, and the glasses would slip during the run.

Grabbing my iPod, I made my way to the kitchen. No sounds were made; I silently crept into the living room to peek through the curtains if it was still raining. The sound of slight, snoring caught my attention. I diverted my eyes to the figure on the couch. It was Jay, still in his clothes from outside, and his cell phone clutched in his hands.

My eyes soften at the sight.

He must have been so tired from worrying so much about his rude sister. Sighing from a guilty heart, I lightly shook him and softy spoke his name. Gangsters have a deadly reflex when they’re caught off guarded. “Jay, let go of the cell phone.” He stirred a bit, and was about to react until he heard my voice, “Wha..? Is that you Eunmi?” He sleepily asked. I swatted away his front bangs to the side, “I’m safe. I’m okay. I was at a friend’s house. So rest, change and go upstairs to sleep.”

Opening his eyes a bit, the fuzzy image of me came into focus. Eyes fully wide now, Jay jumped off the couch and pulled me in a tight hug. “Thank god you’re alright. I was so worried.” He whispered, on the brink of tears. I have not seen my brother cry before. Great, my guilt was increasing with every second. Without a second thought, I wrapped my arms around him; it was a little awkward since I haven’t hugged anyone in years. Plus this was my first time hugging Jay in a long time.  

The gesture surprised both Jay and I. No words were needed, the action said it all.

“Rest, I’m going to go take a jog.” Releasing out of the brother-sisterly moment, I guided Jay from the couch to the stairs by the sleeve of his jacket and gently pushed him on the back to go upstairs. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

I left him there to go put on my shoes, once done I turned back to see if Jay had listen to what I said. He didn’t, he just stood there looking at me. His face etched with relief and happiness that I was found. If he knew I was not going to be around in a few months… I could not bear the thought. I force myself a small, sad smile, “You’re a great big brother.” I said in English.

Then I went out the door, leaving Jay, who was still at the bottom of the staircase to absorb the words I uttered out. It was the closest thing in me saying, ‘I care and love about you’. It was the first time ever since I moved in the house with him that I said words like that and smiled. I gave out a bunch of firsts in only a couple of minutes, outstanding.

Breaking into a wide grin, Jay sauntered up the stairs, heart filled with giddiness from his dear little, sister words.

-

It was chilly; I had left the house without an umbrella and forgetting to check the weather. Thank god it stopped raining, the air outside smelled damp. The crunch of the gravel beneath my feet sounded soothing to my ears as I walked up the street to the corners that lead to the park. Once I got there, I placed the ear buds in my ear, my iPod and B2ST’s new album ‘Fiction and Fact’ came on. I clicked the first song, ‘The Fact’ and started jogging after putting the music player inside my pocket.

The park I was jogging through was special; it was what connected all of Seoul together, North, South, East, and West. The park was made to surround the four parts, basically, I was running around Seoul. It was a long trial, I did not mind, I liked running in the morning. It refreshed my mind. The one problem, it lately causes damage to my windpipes and brings on extra headaches just because of the lack of air and breathing I do while jogging.

In other words, because of the tumor growing, I had to refrain myself from excess activities, such as jogging.

Fiction started playing in my ears, the sound of Junhyung’s rap made me smile, I enjoyed his rapping. He was my bias in B2ST if I had to choose. Humming to myself, I increased my pace. I wanted to see how far I could go until the pain arrived, knowing not to over-exert myself because I did not have any pills on me to reduce my limit.

50 minutes into the run and I was almost back at South Seoul, I was passing alongside East Seoul’s area. Just when I thought I could kick it up a notch, my brain started buzzing, real badly. I instantly placed both hands on the side of my head and swatted down. Curled up into a ball with my feet still firmly placed on the ground, I waited till the pain went away. Sweat began forming on my forehead.

It wasn’t until a few seconds longer that I noticed I had company with me.

Someone had swatted beside my tensed self and was patting my shoulder for my attention. I slowly released from my curled-up position and looked at the person. He had brown, sandy hair, was wearing a white wife beater and gray sweatpants, he had a tattoo printed on his right shoulder, and was looking at me with a face full of concern. From what I saw of the tattoo, I could only see Be and 1.

I tuned into the moment just when he was saying something. “What’s a cute girl like you doing out here in this part of Seoul?” East Seoul was the worst part of the neighborhood, worse than West Seoul. East had a reputation of being dangerous, with a capitol D. Hardly any police did anything, they were just as bad as the people who lived in there. There were no rules in East. They had one of the horrendous gangs, but not the badass or number one like 2pm is. The problem, no one knew who they are.

I did not answer. A wave as powerful as a tsunami came crashing down and flooded my head with static and fireworks. I clearly over-worked myself. Seeing me in pain, he instantly scooped me up bridal styled, and ran. To where? I do not know, I had out.

I had to work on knowing my limit.

-

I woke up a few minutes later; it felt like hours in my mind. I was still in the stranger’s arms; he was trying to hurry his speed yet avoiding making me uncomfortable. I slowly moved my head, which was rested on the side of his neck. The sound of my breathing on his skin sent shivers down his spine; it averted his attention to me.

“Let me down.” I muttered, still dizzy with explosions. He stopped running and hesitated, instead of putting me down he offered to bring me back home. More like he used force. “I’ll bring you. And that’s a command. Now tell me which direction you live in.” I tried struggling to get out of his hold, but he tightened his grip. “Nu-uh, I’m bringing you. I don’t trust you getting home safely.”

“Let me down.” I said again, in a clearer voice than before. I started to glare at him, not liking his personality and the fact that everything was beginning to get blurry. Now was not the time for me to get into one of my blind spells. Removing my head from his neck, I looked at him. “Let me down,” I said for the third time, I pushed his chest away but failed because his fit body was solid against my hands. I cannot believe I thought that.

The guy felt a blush wash over him, ‘Cute’ ran over and over in his mind as he stared down at the girl in his arms that was struggling for escape. ‘She smells like vanilla’. Oblivious to the guy’s thoughts, my head decided to put upon another show of fireworks display. Making me cringe and fall back down onto his neck.

“See that, you need me.” He smugly grinned, “Or else you want to go to my house which is fine with me.” Oh god, this early in the morning and I have to deal with this cocky guy. I had enough. With my utmost blank face, I said in a scary and emotionless tone, “Put me down.”

Surprised by my change of attitude, he slowly removed me from his grasp and placed me down by a bench that was near. I looked around to get a sense of my surroundings, still somewhere in East Seoul. Getting my iPod out, I checked the time. Oddly, my earphones were still in my ear the whole time yet it was on low volume, I must have lowered it halfway through the trail or something. It was almost 6:00am; I had to get home to get ready for school. 

During all that, the guy was busy analyzing me. ‘Whoa, I didn’t expect her to be like that. I still have the chills remembering her face.’ Shivering a little, he erased that image, ‘I need something cute,’ and replaced it with my sleeping face when I fainted for a few minutes. ‘There, that’s better.’

I noticed the guy smiling a bit creepily, what the hell? Just when I was about to ask him to wipe that smile off, his cell phone rang. He picked it up and just listened to the other person on the end, his expression went from playfulness to hard like a snap of a finger. Without saying anything, he snapped the phone shut and ran a hand through his hair.

“Look, I got to jet. Sorry my fair maiden but this knight can’t take you home,” he said. I mentally scoffed. “Like I would want you to, goodbye.” I dashed right out of there, making a quick getaway to the right. I did not like being near him.

“YAH FAIR MAIDEN!” I turned around hearing his loud voice, “I’m assuming you’re not from around here, the park trial is on the left, that’ll take you back to wherever you were before.” I turned away ignoring him, but listened to his directions. Just when I’m about to get out of view from him, he yelled out again, “And the name’s Jinyoung! Blood type A!”

Why did he yell out his blood type? Stupid guy. Following the trail, I made it back to the spot where I encountered him and continued my way to South Seoul. Home was only 25 minutes away; I jumped into the shower first thing, cleansing myself of that guy’s cologne.

In my skirt that went past my knees, long black socks and a size too large navy blue t-shirt, I was ready for school. My glasses on and wet hair in my face, all was well. After setting the bowls and cereal boxes on the table, it was 7:30am. Not brushing a comb through my hair, I went to school with messed up, showered wet hair.

-

Same old, same old, it was like any other ordinary day. The four demons unleashed hell upon me as soon as I was within school grounds, only 3 more months of school. C’mon Eunmi, you can do this. Not doing anything to defend myself as usual, I made it through the day until last period.

Apparently, there was a big unit test in science today, on biology. How did I not remember that? About 30 minutes into class, I was already done. The test was surprisingly easy. Slouching a bit in my seat, I waited for the bell to ring signaling the end of school, that was an hour away. I doodled a bit on a scarp piece of paper; I was not that bad of a drawer. Okay I lied. My dog ended up looking like a blob of nothing.

“This class is currently in a test, I have to ask you to leave.” I was so immersed in my artwork that I hardly notice the loud creak of the door being pushed open. Not paying attention I went back to my sad, poorly drawn dog.

“Come with me, now.” I looked up seeing Woohyun beside my desk. What the hell was he doing here? He was not in this school anymore and I had no intention of going with him anywhere. I mutely returned to doodling. Not taking my ‘no’ for an answer and silencing the teacher with glare, he roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Dragging me god knows where.

Min was in my science class and when she saw Woohyun pick me, she broke her pencil in half. ‘Who does she think she is?! I got to tell the others.’ I was in for more harassing tomorrow.

I was annoyed when he dragged me to the rooftop, his grip could be gentler. Releasing me, he ruffled his hair in an impatient way. “Goddamnit,” he muttered, glaring at the floor. Then his glare turned towards me, I blankly stared at him. “What do you want.” I could not bother adding the question mark.

Woohyun let a few seconds tick by; he then pulled up something from his pocket. He held the something in front of my face; I registered what it was instantly. “Explain.” He dangerously hissed. “A container.” I said in a ‘duh’ tone. “And?” “And pills.” I responded. His left eye twitched, not liking my simple, obvious answers.

“What. Kind. Of. Pills. Are. They.” He enunciated each word. “Medical pills.” Whoops that did it, next thing I knew I was pushed onto the wall; the shade shielded us from stray eyes. My body was lifeless underneath Woohyun, his breath cascaded onto me in short, angry huffs. I was that close to him

“Move.” I did not find skin ship thrilling like most people do. Woohyun did not budge, “Move.” I repeated myself, in a slightly louder tone. Again, nothing. He had me trapped under him with his arms on both sides of my head. Fed up with his strange attitude I snapped, “Damn it Woohyun, what the hell do you want?!”

He answered.

It was not what I expected.

I felt his lips hungrily attacking mine. I could not pull away, his hands made sure of that by pinning me onto the wall. I was pissed. Beyond angry, he just took away my first kiss. Not feeling me kissing him back, he increased his speed, biting on my bottom lip to get it to open. His tongue slipped into my mouth. I frantically tried to get out of his barrier.

It was useless. He was out of his mind, I was weak against him.

“WOOHYUN STOP IT.” I screamed in between the pauses Woohyun took to get his breath back. Upon hearing my outraged and shaking voice, he immediately stopped and pulled away. My heart was pounding; it was racing at an incredible rate. I stopped it before I went into hyperventilating mode. How I wanted to bash Woohyun’s head open at that moment.

Greedily taking in the air, I managed to slow my heartbeat. I glared at Woohyun with such fury that it made him flinch and take a step back, my emotionless mask broke. “What are you doing Nam Woohyun.” When I say a person’s full name, that indicates how mad I am. I was so pissed off to the point of bursting; no one forces things like that on me. No one.

“I-I’m sorry Eunmi,” he stuttered, completely abashed at his actions a few minutes ago. “I-I was just so angry.” “Angry about what?” I menacingly said through gritted teeth. Calm down Eunmi, let him talk first to explain himself and then rip off his head.

Woohyun stared at the ground, burning holes through the concrete. He didn’t want to say what he was angry about. I took a step forward. “What. Is. It.” This time, I was the one who was the predator, not the prey.

A tiny whisper, soft like a light feather floating in the air, just three words escaping from Woohyun’s lips.

“That you’re dying.”

I was a fool to think he did not search the web for the strange and long words on the label of the container he still clutched in his hands. A fool I was to think he leave me alone thereafter. A fool that thought today, would be like any other, ordinary day. 

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Author's Corner. 

Sorry for the long wait ! Culminating projects are no joke.