31^st January 2017, 8.12PM

The night was supposed to chill her just like it used to back then. The cold air was supposed to make her shiver just like it used to back then. But then, everything had changed, hadn’t it? That was why she could not feel the cold air anymore.

She continued to stand at the edge of the observation tower. She was observing them; stalking them. When the couple that she had been stalking entered the car, she immediately took out her cell phone and dialed a number.

“Follow them now,” she ordered briefly before hanging up, knowing that the person at the other line would do as she said.

Her lips were curled into a smirk. Her smirk was filled with malice and evil. Her smirk could scare even ghosts away. Her smirk could even send chills running down people’s spines. Not that she cared, anyway.

The ache in the spot where her heart was supposed to be was a constant reminder to her for what those ten graduates from Seoul Boarding School had done to her.

Very soon, she promised herself.

Very soon, the ache inside her heart would be filled up.

She threw her head back and laughed. Her laughter echoed throughout the sky, waking up the birds that had been sleeping and making them fly away.

The birds had never heard a laughter as evil as hers.

Not that she cared, anyway.

She never did care about anything.

31^st January 2017, 10.00PM

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Kim,” the young doctor said sympathetically. “Your daughter, Kim Hyoyeon, is dead. We couldn’t do anything to save her young life. She was injured badly and lost too much blood.”

The young nurse watched as tears ran down the mother of the deceased’s cheeks. Im Yoona watched as the mother of the deceased fell down to the ground. She continued to watch as the mother of the deceased’s body began to shake. Ugly sobs could be heard throughout the corridor.

Even though a patient’s death did not happen almost all the time at Seoul Hospital, it happened often enough to make Yoona not feel anything at all when she saw the relatives of the deceased burst into tears. To her, it was normal. Death happens all the time anyway, she thought to herself. It’s inevitable.

Growing up under the perception that the world is a cruel place, Im Yoona was definitely getting heartless day by day. She began to shut down her feelings. She began to bury her feelings deep inside of her. She stopped caring. However, it was ironic how she wanted to be a nurse when she tried so hard not to care about others.

For being a nurse had to show concern for others.

The young woman with doe eyes and milky-white skin was different. The only reason why she became a nurse was because it paid her well. She needed the money. Besides, getting a bonus at the end of the year was definitely a good deal. She only needed to send medication at the allocated time to the patients, assist them to the toilet and feed them.

It was nothing difficult.

It did not annoy her.

What annoyed her were people who wailed in such an ugly manner when they found out that their loved one was dead. What annoyed her were people who-

“All of this is your fault!” the mother of the deceased accused the doctor. “Dr. Lee Sungmin, if only you’re more professional, my daughter would still be alive!”

-blamed the doctors for the death of their loved one.

Mrs. Kim stood up and started to yell at Yoona’s colleague. She yelled profanities and cursed him. Then, she even started to hit him. “Your fault,” she insisted. “If the ambulance had arrived on time, my Hyoyeon would still be alive!”

Yoona watched as Sungmin continued to let the woman hit him.

She would never get how Sungmin could be so patient. If she were Sungmin, she would have snapped at the woman.

Sungmin did not even utter a single word to defend himself. It was always like that, anyway. He just stood there like a statue.

But Im Yoona had had enough.

She had enough of Sungmin’s chivalry. She had enough of his gentleness. She had enough of his unlimited patience. She had enough of his kindness. She had enough of his stupid endurance.

No wonder Sunny unnie falls in love with him, she thought to herself.

Annoyed, she walked up to the mother of the deceased. “Excuse me, Mrs. Kim, you do know that we can sue you for assaulting one of our doctors, don’t you?” she asked cynically. “Stop hitting my colleague. He did nothing wrong. He was only doing his job.”

But the woman did not heed Yoona’s warning. She continued to hit Sungmin.

Knowing that she could get into trouble for this, she continued, “Even if the ambulance had arrived on time, Mrs. Kim, it would still be impossible to save Kim Hyoyeon-sshi. Someone had cut out her heart.”

As soon as she finished talking, everybody went silent. Everyone was staring at her in horror. It was then she realized that her voice was too loud. She mentally slapped herself for being too loud.

“Is that true?” Mrs. Kim croaked out after a few moments of silence. “But she was breathing! The witness told me that she was still breathing! You’re lying!”

Dr. Lee Sungmin sighed quietly. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kim, but it is true.”

Im Yoona knew that the world had crashed for the mother of the deceased. But she did not care. She walked away, holding her head high, towards the nurse station.

She knew that people were gossiping about her and saying that she was being a , as usual. Honestly, she thought that she had done the right thing. Okay, maybe she should have told the mother in a more polite way but she could not help herself.

“Yoona-ah, why did you do that?” Sunny asked as soon as Yoona entered the nurse station.

Yoona just shrugged nonchalantly. It was not a surprise that Sunny had heard about it. Gossips spread fast like wildfire at Seoul Hospital. “I just can’t stand it when Sungmin oppa let the relatives of the deceased put the blame on him. It’s unfair,” she replied.

“Does that mean you care about Sungmin oppa?” Sunny asked cheekily.

“No!” she cried out quickly. Too quickly, she realized. “I don’t care about anyone else but me, remember?” she amended her sentence.

Sunny smirked slightly. “Liar,” she teased. “I know you care about him and me.”

Yoona rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, unnie,” she replied. “I’m in no mood to argue with you.”

Sunny chuckled. “Is that a yes?” she asked, receiving a glare from the younger woman. “Okay, okay, I won’t ask anymore. By the way, a letter comes for you.” She handed Yoona an envelope.

Yoona took the envelope from her colleague. The envelope was red in color. It was blood red in color. The envelope was soft and it smelled like rose perfume. “What is this?” she asked, raising her eyebrow. “Who sent this?”

Sunny shrugged. “I found it on the table and it has your name on top of it so I assume that it’s meant for you,” she replied.

Yoona pursed her lips as she tore open the envelope.

1^st February 2017, 9.00AM

“Damn him.” Those were the first few words that she said. Luhan looked at his new patient in amusement. He looked through his files once again briefly. Her name was Park Sunyoung and it was stated that she had bipolar depression. Even though it was unnecessary for the young lady to stay in Seoul Mental Hospital, her family insisted on it for the safety of others, according to them.

But the deer-eyed man suspected that the family was just trying to get rid of Park Sunyoung. It was his first appointment with Sunyoung and the young lady was already getting comfortable.

“Damn who, Sunyoung-sshi?” he asked, raising his eyebrow inquisitively.

“Just call me Luna,” the young lady replied. “Damn my father for sending me here. He really shouldn’t have done that. I hate it here. It’s so horrible.”

Luhan gave her a small smile. “You’ll get used to it soon, Luna-sshi,” he assured. “It’s not that bad, actually. You see, others call the people here as ‘crazy’ but that’s not true at all. They are not crazy. They are just sick except that they have a mental illness instead of a physical one.”

Luna shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t care,” she spat. “This place is just creepy. I hate it here. I want to get out. I want to live in my own bedroom in my own apartment. Why did my damned father have to ruin it all for me?”

As a psychologist, Luhan should have just listened to what Luna was saying but he could not help but flinch when the young lady used such word to describe her father. He wanted to open his mouth to correct her but then he realized that he was not a teacher. He was just a psychologist that listened to people’s troubles.

“What do you want to talk about today, Luna-sshi?” he asked gently, at last. “Do you have anything you want to share with me?”

Luna did not respond.

“Okay, then,” he replied. “Let’s talk about why you hate it here.” The young lady just nodded in agreement. “Why do you hate it here?” he asked.

“This place is so creepy,” she started to say. “Besides, it’s so cold during the night and I couldn’t even get a wink of sleep. The atmosphere is absolutely terrifying and I always have this feeling that I’m being watched.”

She took in a deep breath before continuing, “I told myself that I was being paranoid but I couldn’t shake off that feeling. I’ve never felt so insecure before. Even though I used to live alone in my apartment, I was not even scared. But I feel so terrified in this hellhole.”

Once again, Luhan flinched at Luna’s choice of word. Can’t she use a more appropriate word? He wondered. “Why do you feel that someone is watching you?” he asked.

“How should I know?” the patient snapped. “I want to get out of here quickly. I’m not even dangerous but why did my father send me here?”

Luhan looked at his file briefly again. “It was written here that you almost hurt someone physically for making you angry,” he pointed out.

The young lady rolled her eyes in annoyance. She let out a tired sigh. She took in a deep breath to calm her and stop her from clawing at the psychologist’s face. “Hello, mister? It said, almost. Get it? Almost hurt someone physically,” she replied, emphasizing at the word ‘almost’.

The young psychologist leaned against his seat and looked directly into her eyes. “That still means you’re dangerous. If someone hadn’t stopped you from hurting others, you’d have hurt them, wouldn’t you?” he rebutted wittily.

Luna looked down at her hands in response. Her lower lips were trembling. “Fine,” she gave in, at last. “I’m a potential threat to everyone. I pose a threat to others. I’m so damn dangerous that I have to be locked up in an asylum.”

Then, she looked up, meeting Luhan’s gaze. Luhan could see that her eyes were b with unshed tears. For a moment, he felt sympathy towards his new patient. He had this sudden urge to hold her and comfort her by telling her that everything would be all right and she would get out of this ‘hellhole’ soon.

But Luhan was a professional.

A psychologist could not have any physical contact with his or her patient.

That was why he just handed her a box of tissues. “Do you want to talk about the incident?” he asked gently; the only way he could comfort her.

Tears from her eyes soon spilled onto her cheeks. She quickly took a piece of tissue to wipe the salty water from her eyes. “Will you… will you really listen to my side of the story?” she stuttered as her lips trembled with uncertainty.

Luhan nodded reassuringly. “Of course I will,” he responded. That’s my job, after all, he added silently inside his head.

Luna sniffed. The tears from her eyes had stopped flowing. She looked at her psychologist’s face, trying to find any sincerity in his words.

She could find none.

Once again, her eyes were filled with tears. “Liar,” she whispered hoarsely. “You’re lying. You won’t listen to my side of story.”

“I told you that I will,” he replied as patiently as possible.

“Liar!” she yelled as she stood up. Her hands slammed down on the table, producing a loud sound. “You don’t give a ”-Luhan flinched again at her choice of word-“about me at all! You just want to listen to my side of story because it’s your job to do that! You blame me too, don’t you? Don’t lie to me!”

“Luna-sshi, calm down,” he said, trying to cool down the furious young lady. “I don’t blame you for almost hurting the person physically. Everybody does something for a reason. I’m sure you have a reason, too.”

“Lies,” she said, ignoring his earlier statements. “What you said are all lies! Everybody lies to me! Everybody blames me! Everybody hates me!” Tears of anger were already spilled onto her cheeks again.

Luhan, knowing that the situation was out of his control, immediately pressed the emergency button under the table to call in the nurses to inject some sedatives inside his patient so that she would remain calm. He pressed it repeatedly in order to let them know that it was an urgent situation.

“I don’t tell lies, Luna-sshi. I didn’t lie to-”

His words were cut off as soon as Luna pulled his collar from across the table, choking him. She pulled harder and Luhan felt that his vision was blurred but he continued to press the emergency button repeatedly.

“Stop spouting lies, you !” Luna yelled. “Guys always tell lies!”

Luhan knew that Luna had said something else but he could barely hear her as he struggled to breathe. He desperately needed air. He could not think anymore. The only thing he could do was press the button below his table.

Just as he saw purple spots right in front of his eyes, the door to his office swung open. A group of nurses entered and one of them immediately injected the patient with a sedative to make her fall asleep.

Luna had let go of his collar but the medicine had not taken its full effect yet.

“You’ve changed, Xi Luhan. You’ve changed too much.” Those were her last words before she fell into unconsciousness.

The nurses brought her away from his office, leaving him to ponder about what Luna had said. Had he met her before? But he had no memory of it. He frowned as he tried his best to remember.

All he got was blank.

He tried to shake it off, thinking nothing of it.

It was then when his secretary, Zhang Yixing, knocked on his door. Yixing, or Lay as he liked to be called as, entered Luhan’s office. The secretary handed him a soft blood red envelope that had ‘Luhan’ written on top of it before leaving the room.

Luhan looked at the envelope in his hand, puzzled. Then, he tore open the envelope.

1^st February 2017, 12.30 PM

It was at this time when the sun was shining directly on top of her head. She scowled as she could not see anything clearly due to the sunlight that was directed at her eyes. The cries of a baby that she was holding in her arm could be heard clearly.

The young lady was wearing a normal pair of tight jeans and a long-sleeved shirt that reached her thighs. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail so that it would not be a nuisance to her. As always, she looked gorgeous.

She, and her friend, Byun Baekhyun, were social workers at Seoul Orphanage. They came to talk to the orphans, help with the staff and handle the matters that concerned the orphans from the orphanage. Right now, they were at the garden of the orphanage. Someone had sent them an envelope each. The envelope was red in color. Unfortunately, they could not open the envelope now as they were busy at the moment.

Krystal Jung looked at Baekhyun. She could see that Baekhyun was playing with a kid named Lee Hyeri. They looked so happy and were clearly having so much fun. How she envied them. She was stuck with a baby who had been crying non-stop from just now.

Her patience was definitely running thin.

“Hush, YunHee-ah,” she said softly and gently. “Why are you crying? Are you hungry? Or did you just finish doing your business and you’re feeling uncomfortable?” She tried so hard to pacify the little baby but the infant just would not stop crying.

Frustrated, she tried another method. “YunHee-ah, be a good girl and stop crying, okay? If you won’t stop crying, I’ll lock you up in a closet,” she threatened. “You wouldn’t want that, would you? So please stop crying.”

Baekhyun looked up as soon as he heard Krystal’s words. “What the hell, Krystal? That’s not the way to pacify a baby!” he exclaimed, astonished. “You should talk to her in a calm and gentle manner!”

Krystal rolled her eyes at him. “Do you think I haven’t done that?” she snapped immediately. “I’ve been doing that for the past thirty minutes, Baekhyun oppa.”

“You must be patient when you’re dealing with a child, Krystal-ah,” Baekhyun replied gently. “Patience is very important in one’s life.”

“Apparently, I lack of patience,” she said curtly. “Why don’t you calm YunHee down?”

“Wait for awhile, okay, Hyeri-ah?” Baekhyun said gently to the kid that he was playing with. “Go and play with the others first.”

The little girl nodded and ran to join in with her other friends that were playing hide-and-seek.

Baekhyun stood up and walked closer to Krystal. “Hand her to me,” he ordered. Krystal obliged. She immediately handed YunHee to Baekhyun’s arms as gently as possible.

“YunHee-ah, I know that you miss your parents very much,” Baekhyun said softly to the baby in his arms. “I’m sure they miss you too. They wouldn’t like to see you cry. You survived the accident for a reason, YunHee-ah. Don’t cry, little baby.”

Then, he started to sing, “Now hush little baby, don’t you cry. Everything’s gonna be all right…” He continued singing and the cries of the baby gradually decreased until YunHee fell asleep in his arms. He sighed softly.

Krystal watched in awe as Baekhyun managed to get the baby to stop crying. Her colleague entered the orphanage to place YunHee in her baby cot. A few moments later, he went out again.

“How did you do that?” she asked curiously. “I can never do that.”

Baekhyun smiled bashfully. “The heart plays a very important role. You have to be sincere in showing your concern,” he explained.

She scoffed. “Yeah, sure,” she replied dismissively. “Anyway, speaking of hearts, have you heard about Seoul’s recent case?”

“About Kim Hyoyeon?” he asked for confirmation. Krystal nodded. “Of course, I have heard of it. The news reported that her heart had been taken out of her body. The police are searching for the heart, right now.”

Krystal shuddered visibly. “That’s so gross. Who would take out someone’s heart?” she replied, obviously disgusted.

“This case is similar to the case ten years ago in our school,” Baekhyun pointed out.

“But the murderer had gotten a death sentence,” she replied. “It couldn’t be the same person, could it?”

“Obviously not,” the guy said, rolling his eyes in response. “It must be a copycat, then.”

Krystal shrugged. “Perhaps,” she said. “Anyway, just wondering, if I were to kill someone, what would you do?”

Baekhyun looked at her. He was searching for anything that showed that she was just joking. He had found none. He took in a deep breath.

“Then, I would hide and protect you with all my life.”

Because I’m in love with you, after all, he added silently inside his head.

Dear Graduate of Seoul Boarding School,

Girls and boys, congratulations for being one of the lucky ten! The love that you have for your school has finally paid off. You’re invited to Seoul Amusement Park on 4^th February 2013, 8.30 PM.

Hear this no payment is needed as the entrance fee is free!

Criminals, doctors, teachers or whatsoever, we don’t care. We will still invite you here and pay the fees for you. You will not decline this offer, will you? Please say ‘I do want to come’!

You will like it, I promise.

Meet you there!

From,

Anonymous

Author’s Note:

Hello everyone! I hope that you’ve been looking forward to my update! At last, my exams are over. But there will be more exams to come but it’s my holiday, right now, so I’m allowed to enjoy my time, right? Anyway, I know that I said that I would not be writing any author’s notes throughout the story. Well, I would be writing author’s note if there is something I’d like to clarify or announce.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know that it’s still boring but it’ll get better, I promise.

One more thing, the ending has already been decided. Whether a particular couple will end up together or not is my choice. Whether somebody ends up dying or living will be my choice. Please respect my decision as an author. Thank you.

Thank you for reading, commenting and subscribing! Do comment and subscribe! Enjoy reading the next chapter! :)