Twenty Three     Please prepare yourself.  That's all I can say.

Jiyong’s POV

Knock Knock.

I knocked on Jinhee’s door. A faint voice said ‘Come in’ and I pushed open the door. I had a bad memory 3 years back when I didn’t knock and went straight in, and a half dressed Jinhee threw me out. I never want to make that mistake again. No thank you.

“Uh, hey.” I said, and she smiled from where she was sitting on the bed, reading some text book.

I smiled back. But it wavered, and she noticed. Her smile disappeared again and she shook her head. “I’m fine Jiyong. Please don’t worry anymore.”

I nodded and sat down on the side of her bed. I sighed.

It’s been a week since that incident happened. Jinhee didn’t have any major injuries on her, except some scratches and small gashes. Hana was in the hospital, sporting a cast for her broken wrist. Seungri kept visiting her every morning and day with flowers and from what Taeyang says; it’s making her laugh again.

No. Neither of them had any real major injuries. But they were mentally injured.

Ah, no, not like that. Some mental guilt… over what happened. A little trauma. That’s all. Jinhee had more or less recovered and today she’d even come down to watch TV. She called Hana and they talked every day, so I presume that Hana is pretty fine too. Even if she isn’t, Seungri will probably make her fine. Haha.

What had actually happened that day… it was an unexpected shock to me and the other boys after we found out.

Hana had gone out for what she thought would be a happy date with her boyfriend. At first it went all fine but then he drove her to some lonely deserted shack and tried to harass her. He was only half sane; he’d smoked too much and had drunk considerably. He reeked and she was horrified and scared. And then he called all his other drunken friends and tried to harass her again, but then our headstrong Jinhee entered the crime scene and tried to help Hana… but she was caught too. After a while of struggling, a siren’s sound was heard and all the culprits disappeared.

Ah, it wasn’t a police van.

It was an ambulance.

They were simply too drunken to realize.

But Hana was severely traumatized because, she ended up stabbing her boyfriend in the arm out of defense. He was thoroughly bleeding by the time they made the run but she was terrified out of her wits.

But it’s been a week now, and after the initial trauma and after my mother’s constant reassurance, she was now fine. If anything, she was being totally pampered from head to toe by our Seungri. She wouldn’t need anything else.

“What’re you studying?” I peered over her shoulder; she was sitting on the bed, facing the wall, and I was right behind her. She sighed tiredly.

“Physics. It’s horrible Jiyong. I can’t understand.” She rubbed her eyes. It was 12.30am already, so I decided to keep her company. The others were downstairs watching a horror movie. After every 15 seconds, loud screams could be heard.

“You should sleep Jinhee-ah. Look, it’s this late.” I placed my hands on her shoulders and shook her back and forth. She laughed.

“Aniya… I have an exam tomorrow.” She explained and I blew out my cheeks. Darn. Damn. Damnit.

“Skip it.” I said glibly and she turned around to stare at me like I’d grown two heads.