After school, Namjoo walked all over the school to search for Ilhoon. She went to his classroom, but no one spoke a word of him. In fact, when she asked them where he was, they would shrug their shoulders, smirk, or ask who Ilhoon was. This drove Namjoo nuts, but she didn't dare to step up and pick a fight on those who knew where he was. 

After an hour of searching, Namjoo ended up at the boy's bathroom. She bit her bottom lip, and glanced to her side. When she believed that no one was around here, she quickly ran inside the empty bathroom.

"Ilhoon?" she whispered. "You here?"

When she opened the big stall, she gasped in horror. Ilhoon was tied to the toilet lever. His face was inside the dirty boil, but only the tip of his nose touched the water. Seeing how damp his hair was, Namjoo figured that his head was dumped into the toilet several times.

"Oh my gosh," she mumbled. She quickly ran over to Ilhoon and stared at the thick knot. "U-Um, I'll try to get this out. Stay still--"

"No," Ilhoon muttered. "Just leave it. If you try to unwrap it, the toilet will flush and my head gets dunked in again."

"I can't just leave you here!"

"The world already did."

Namjoo pressed her lips. "Okay, fine. I think I have a pair of scissors in my bag. Let me check--"

"What the freak is wrong with you, woman?" a voice cried out loud. Namjoo held her breath and widened her eyes. Ilhoon stood still, then motioned her to stand behind him so that she would be hidden from anyone's view. Namjoo obeyed and quietly hid her feet behind Ilhoon's tired knees.

"I told you, it was for a special purpose...You can't do this to me! I'm already in high school--No, but she's fine on her own...Well, if you think she needs help, send her to the damn hospital! That's where everyone goes to if they're sick, right?..."

From the angry tone, Namjoo knew that it was Kai.

"No money? Ha, how funny. You know, why don't you go and find a job to make money? I'm tired of living in that house and Grandma giving me all those boring lectures about life. I'm sick of you nagging me and everything..."

There was a loud pound. Namjoo quietly gasped, believing that Kai had punched a wall or something hard.

"You," Kai hissed quietly, "will never replace my mother's place. Just because I have no parents, that doesn't mean that you can come to me and claim that you're my 'new mother.'"

With that, Kai hung up the phone. Ilhoon and Namjoo continued to remain quiet, and they heard another footstep.

"What's up, Kai?" a rather high voice asked.

"Nothing, Niel," Kai said, shaking his head. "It was that woman."

There was a pause, and a quiet mumble. "That woman... You mean the person who adopted you?"

"She asked me when I was going back. Then she got ridiculous."

"How?"

"She said that when I do come back, I'll be grounded for not telling her where I was."

"Are you even planning to go back?"

Kai kept quiet, then sighed. "You know what? I was, until some matters came up."

"Matters?"

"Yeah. Problems. Situation. Those stuff."

"Alright, then. Hey, our class is going to a nearby café to discuss about Namjoo. Want to join us?" Niel offered. Namjoo squinted her eyes and glared at the door.

"Sure. Are you paying?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah, for you only I guess," the hesitating boy said uncomfortably.

Namjoo and Ilhoon waited until they believed that both were gone. She quickly pulled out a pair of scissors and began to cut the rope. After several minutes of trying to snap the rope, she cried in frustration and almost pulled her hair.

"Sorry, Ilhoon," Namjoo apologized, blowing away a strand of hair from her face. "This might take a while."

"That's fine with me," he said calmly. "I've been through this quite often. I'm just thankful that, at the least, you're helping me out."

Once those words escaped his lips, Namjoo didn't understand why her cheeks began to burn in the cold, solitary bathroom.

This was supposed to be life. Hanging out with friends, eating delicious junk food, working on homework together, and just wasting their breaths with laughter and smiles. To L, this was supposed to be life. Peaceful, quiet, and nothing but a bright future. No drama, no guilt, and no reminders of Krystal.

That was, until a college student from a different school walked over to him. When L looked up, he clicked his tongue and clenched his jaws. He avoided the man's eye-contact.

"Hello, Minho. What are you doing here?" L asked him as he stared down at the fries. Get out, you annoying frog-eye.

"We need to talk," Minho said calmly, putting his hands in his pocket. "It's about her, and the sister is here."

"Didn't I say that I didn't want to get involved--"

"We brought Suzy, too," Minho added. A girl who sat next to L stared at him.

"Suzy? Isn't she that freak?" the girl asked. L shot her a dirty glare, but got up anyways. He stood next to Minho with a bitter expression.

"So where are they?" L asked.

"Over there," Minho said, pointing at the table with two girls. He was just about to guide L over until his large eyes met the stranger's. "Oh, by the way, Suzy isn't a freak." Minho grabbed a french fry and flicked it to the girl, who gasped and knocked over her drink. Seeing this, Minho smirked. "You're the freak."

L was given a hard stare by the girl, but he looked away and just followed Minho's lead. He never got involved with dramas or scandal. He never liked getting into sticky situations.

Like now.

The handsome lad politely bowed at Jessica as if she was a stranger. Suzy forced a small smile and waved, but when L saw his friends giving him a suspicious look, he decided to nod his head. Minho sat down, and L decided to sit across from L and next to Jessica. Heaving a sigh, L began to rub his fingers nervously.

"So..." L started off. "We're talking about Krystal, again?"

"Unfortunately," Jessica answered, shrugging her shoulders.

L turned to Minho. "Didn't we agree on a little something?"

"And I'm planning to tell them about what really happened to Krystal," Minho replied. L widened his eyes while Suzy raised her head and gave him an anxious look. Seeing this, Minho sighed and tried to reason with the terrified boy. "Look, what Jessica and Suzy saw was Krystal falling from several stories high. What did we see?"

Kai. You. Krystal. Everything, L answered in his head. "But I don't want to tell them--"

"What's the point in hiding this? They should know," Minho said firmly. "Think about the benefits if we tell them. Jessica will be more eased without questioning herself, and Suzy will be able to move on and live a normal life."

"So it isn't my fault?" Suzy asked, grabbing L's wrist. "It isn't my fault, right?"

L's eyes rolled over to his friend, who gave him a freaked-out look. L pulled his hand away and turned to Jessica. He shot her a look of disbelief.

"Do you really want to know? Is this why we're all here? Are we really going to bring this back up?" he cried out.

"Myungsoo--"

"It's L, Jessica," he corrected.

"--L, listen. You got to understand. What Suzy and I saw--what the entire school saw--was Krystal committing suicide--"

"Then let's just keep it like that!" L shouted. His heart was thumping loudly, and he wasn't sure if he was even thinking. Harsh words continued to slip out of his mouth as he tried to suppress the truth from coming out. "Why do we have to talk about Krystal? She's dead, right? Let's just leave her as the dead girl who had an unlucky life--"

All of the sudden, Jessica reached over and grabbed L's collar. Minho quickly stood up to pull them apart, while Suzy gasped and back away. L stared in her teary eyes, clearly knowing that he had hurt her feelings. However, his pride swallowed him in whole and he didn't dare to apologize for his poor actions.

"Don't you ever talk about Krystal like that," she hissed. "She never wanted this, and neither did you!"

"Besides, L," Minho, who finally managed to pry off Jessica's hand, continued, "why are you so against this?"

L fixed his shirt and gave all three of them a disgusted glare.

"Why am I against this? Here's what's going to happen: Whatever we built in our lives is going to fall apart. Not only is this truth going to come out, but the deeper truths. After the truths, questions will come up, history will reappear, and this town is going to be a big mess. Look, I already moved on and I'm in college. I already made plenty of friends, and I don't need them to think that I'm some kind of friend who lacks loyalty and trust. Plus, if we let the cat out of the bag, it's not just the town who's getting involved. Remember that little kid? That kid who treated Krystal so cruelly? Yeah, Kai. That's who I'm talking about. He'll get involved, and there's so many things that he can do, I can't even list them!"

After hearing all this, Suzy finally gathered up her courage and stood up. She threw her used napkin on L's face. L stared at her in shock, not expecting Suzy to get up and become violent.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why I loved you in the first place," Suzy began, scoffing. "It's so amazing how you can take up half of my thoughts when I'm sitting at that hospital, lonely and thinking about my actions from two years ago. But you? You're the exact opposite of me: A part of your brain never thought about me, you're outside being free and happy, and never thinking twice about what happened to Krystal. Honestly, did you even care to think about anyone? I know this is your world, but having a world to yourself will make you more lonely than someone who's in solitude at a populated world. Why do you even live, Kim Myungsoo?"

Not liking being addressed by his full name, L stood up. "Why do you even think about me, huh? We broke up two years ago, and we have nothing to do with each other. You hated Krystal just like any other student. Why blame me for your current situation? What if I told you that the reason Krystal committed suicide was your fault?"

"L, the cat is already coming out of the bag," Suzy muttered. "This isn't your quiet, isolated world anymore. Did you not see Namjoo, my childhood friend who appeared out of nowhere? She's getting involved in this, and so is her friend, Ilhoon. Are you really going to walk away like this isn't your problem? Life isn't just about you--it never will be. The more we keep quiet, the more those two will try to dig up the truth. Eventually, I'll find out what happened to Krystal, and the rest of this community will find out."

"So you're saying that no matter which path we choose, the secret is going to come out--"

"No, that's not what I'm saying! I'm saying that it already came out. It's too late to keep it in. If you really wanted to keep it a secret, you were supposed to say it two years ago!"

"Two years ago? Ha! How ridiculous! Minho, you know how ridiculous that sounds, right? If we wanted to say what happened two years ago, we had get evidence. It was only me and Minho who witnessed the truth. Who do you expect to believe in the truth?"

"Minho!" Suzy screamed. Silence filled the conversation. Loud clangs of plates filled the conversation, and small mutters echoed in the room. Suzy took a shaky breath, and a tear slipped out of her eyes. "Even if I wasn't there...and Krystal wasn't there...and even though it seemed like there was a slim chance of people believing in the truth... There was still Minho. I told you, this world isn't only for you. It's a world where we share views, stories, and almost everything. Sometimes, you need to open your eyes and understand that people are around here to help you. The more you isolate yourself from others and distrust them, then you just become a coward in an empty world. After that, you just become pathetic. Like now."

Suzy wiped away her tears and grabbed out a green bill.

"I'm paying for food today. Here. I'll be going back to the hospital first."

Suzy walked out out of the fast food restaurant. After waiting for a few seconds, Jessica stood up. She grabbed her purse and pulled her sunglasses closer to her chest.

"I'm disappointed in you, Myungsoo," Jessica said, shaking her head. "I know people tell you to live your life in the present, but that's your major flaw. You never think twice about the future, and you never go to the past to learn from your mistake. We're humans, not robots. We don't know what's going to help us or ruin us. We can only assume and be on our guard, but you don't even do either of them."

Her heels clicked against the ground, and she marched away with her head held up high. Minho finally got up. He grabbed his jacket and swung it over his shoulder.

"Let's talk about this next time in private. Just between you and me," Minho suggested. Just like Suzy and Jessica, Minho left the restaurant. After standing still for a few minutes, L finally gathered up the strength to walk to his friends. The same girl who offended Suzy gave L a strange look.

"So what was all that about?" she asked.

L forced a smile. "Nothing. Just child play."

Then, the socializing began again. His friends shared jokes, laughed, and ate their delicious junk food without a care in the world. This was supposed to be L's life.

But, as he glanced at the table he was just at, this wasn't his life at all.