Darkness.
That was the only thing around you. You looked left and right, still nothing was in sight.
"V... X....." Echoed through the empty space.

Vx? What does that mean?

"V...i...x...x"

"Is someone there?" Your voice echoed through the empty space.

"VIXX" Echoed from behind you.

You turned around, to meet a pair of bright yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness. You could hear heavy breaths coming from the beast like eyes. You started to approach the eyes, when a monstrous mouth lunged at you.

~

-BEEP BEEP BEEP-

You awoke in a cold sweat. Sitting under the thin sheets as the alarm blared on. You sighed in relief when you realized the mouth was only in your dream.

Thank God...

You glanced over at your alarm clock. 6:30AM. You slammed your palm down on the snooze button and rose from the bed.

6:30... Time for school...
You sighed once again. You entered the washroom and did your usual morning routine - wash up, brush your teeth, etc... You changed into your uniform and left before anyone else could awake and see you leave.

"I'm off." you whispered, so you wouldn't disturb anyone.

~

You rode to school on the bus early because you hated being stuck in crowded buses. You got off on the 5th stop and walked up to the school gates. As you walked across the field some teachers arrived in their cars. You bowed to them and they nodded. The teachers were used to seeing you this early. You were always the first student at school.

You made your way to your classroom and took a seat. No one else was there like usual. You knew you had about 30 minutes before people would start piling up the classroom, so you decided to take a nap.

"Lee Jinhee... Lee Jinhee... JINHEE!" You awoke to your teacher yelling your name.

"Yes?" you answered half awake.

"Thank you for sleeping through half of my class. Now, just because you have top marks, it does not mean you are allowed to sleep in my class." Your first period teacher crossed his arms from his podium.

"I'm sorry." you apologized to the teacher and the (now) full classroom. Your classmates laughed and you buried your face into your textbook.

Song Minae, the school's queenka scoffed at you. Minae hated you, you didn't know why she did, but she had spent the past two years of highschool tormenting you.

Minae, hate you. She hated you with a burning passion. She was always second place compared to you, in everything: marks; athletics; and you beat her in the run for class president, when she was the one who entered you for the election in the first place (to annoy you).

Minae turned to her friends - who sat behind her. They started chucking bits of erasers at the back of your head to gain your attention. You lifted your head slightly to check what was hitting you, as soon as you did, you heard Minae and her friend’s annoying voices.

"I bet she did that to get attention"

"what a loser."

"she should just go home and stay there."

At lunch you sat by yourself in the classroom and stared out the windows. You never brought lunch with you because Minae would always order your classmates to throw it into the boy's washroom.

As you watched the clouds roll over the soccer court, your started to get a migraine.
This was bad.
Whenever you would have an migraine, it would rain. Today the migraine was extremely bad. You cursed yourself as you took a deep breath.

I didn’t even bring an umbrella today

~

The day passed by, now 5 minutes before the bell. It was raining cats and dogs outside.
As you put your shoes away a couple of boys were running around with pails of rainwater. Minae saw this as an opportunity and called the boys over to her. She payed the three boys each to pour the pails over you.

You finished fitting your feet into your shoes when, SPLASH. You felt the cold water drip down your whole body. You stood with water dripping from you skirt in shock. You weren’t too surprised by the water, but by the coldness of it. You wiped the water away from your face and shut your locker door. You quickly ran over to the exit before anyone could see you. There, Minae was waiting for you. She laughed in her high pitched laugh when you approached the doors.

“HAHAHA! NICE LOOK LOSER!” Her obnoxious voice rang down the hallways.

This caught everyone’s attention. They all turned to your direction and laughed. Your eyes started to brim with tears. You weren’t too sure why, perhaps it was because the water was cold, or because you were embarrassed. No, that wasn’t it. You started tearing up because of your uniform. You looked at Minae with despise.

“When are you going to grow up Minae?” You asked her and ran out of the school.

~

You didn’t take the bus home. You were already wet, why would it matter if you walked in the rain now?

Great, now I have to ask aunt to wash my uniform

You didn’t mind living with your aunt. She had done more than anyone else had ever done for you, especially your parents, who abandoned you with your aunt. You were grateful towards your aunt, but you didn’t want to impose on her, or her family. You had always stayed out of trouble and followed all the rules so you wouldn’t become a burden towards her. Anytime you needed something done, you’d usually do it by yourself, somehow.

You walked along the wet sidewalk, no longer caring about your appearance. As you walked, you approached the Hankang (Han-River). You walked over to the side of the river. The river flowed violently with the rain pouring down. You seat yourself on the river bank and picked up smooth pebbles. You started to skip them in the raging river.

“1...2...” You counted the jumps. “1....” “1... 2...”

~

“Hello there, young lady.” You heard a voice over your shoulder.

You turned around to be greeted by a stranger standing above you. He was tall and wearing a dark trench coat. His face was covered by the shadow of his hat and the rain clouds.

“Sitting on the river bank, she was skipping a stone~” He sang and chuckled to himself.

You stood up and distanced yourself from the man. You quickly sidestepped away from the man.

“She was skipping pebbles by herself and she met a man.~” The man started to approach you.

You backing up, too scared to take your eyes off the man.

“She had fear in her eyes, her legs trembled at the sight~” He sang joyously.

You tried to step back again but, you had reach the side of the bridge and had nowhere to go now. You watched the man as he walked even closer to you. With the little light coming from the light above you, you could see his bandaged face.

“Little did she know, today would be her last day at the river ~” He started to giggle.

You couldn’t move. You were paralysed. You could now see the crazed look in his eyes through the bandages. His face inched closer and closer. He breathed heavily and his breath fogged up. His monstrous mouth was right in front of your face.

You tried to scream, hoping someone, anyone would hear you. But nothing. Nothing came out of your mouth. You watched in horror as his jagged teeth came closer. You could feel his beast-like breath on your face.

You forced your eyes shut, you did not want to watch this scene anymore. His lips met the nape of your neck, but before you could feel his sharp teeth, a blood boiling shriek came from him. You opened your eyes and watched as the patches of light shined through the shadows. He was burning, in the sunlight. You could see smoke coming from the slivers of skin showing through his bandages. He fell to his knees as he cried. You took this as a chance to get away from him. You climbed up the stairs of the bridge and looked down onto the river bank. He was gone. Too scared to see him again, you quickly took your leave.