Numb was the title of her day. Minzy went through the motions of her usual day at school, but her mind was elsewhere. She was like a walking zombie, unaware of what was going on around her and writing notes but not really listening. She was just too out of it by lunch time to notice Jiyong and his crew there. "Minzy," Jiyong called after her, but she seemed unfazed as she kept walking. "Minzy," he called her again before catching up to walk alongside her. She still didn't answer and he gazed over at her to see that she seemed a bit off. Not saying another word, he only fell into step with her curious as to where she was going. She had made her way out of the school and to her car. He was startled when she abruptly stopped and stared at him.

"What do you want," she asked as she realized she was being followed. 

"Umm...I just..." his intentions were to come to the school and argue with her about the whole prom deal and what Fei had told him of what she said. But the look in her eyes were different. They seemed empty and hazy. He had never seen her look so down. He had lost all resolve to fight with her and instead found hiself taking her in his arms for a strong embrace.

"Let go," she mumbled not really trying to put up a fight.

He shook his head and held her tighter, "No." It was all that took to feel her fall into his embrace. Feeling her body tremble against his very own, he felt many mixed emotions as they stood in a tight embrace, "Who did this to you?"

Biting her lower lip, she couldn't help the tears that escaped her eyes. Pressing her face close to his hard chest, she held onto Jiyong as if her life depended on it. " my life," she mumbled against his chest as the weight of the world seemed to come crashing down on her. When Minzy was able to pull herself together, she asked Jiyong to text Seunghyun that she couldn't come to tutoring. "Thanks," she grinned as she took her phone from him.

"Sure," he shrugged. "Did you need me to drive you home?"

She shook her head and folded her arms over her chest, "I'm good. But uh...sorry I've been avoiding your calls. I just can't talk to you knowing how Fei feels about you."

He sighed in understanding, "I know."

"You know but you keep stringing her along," she asked a bit irritated as the thoughts of Seunghyun came into her mind.

"Whoa I'm sorry okay? I ed up," he raised his hands up seeing the fierce Minzy come out.

She raised her hand to stop his excuses, "Jiyong she is one of my best friends. If you can't be honest to her for yourself at least do it for me. Or you're going to be like every other guy in my life...full of ty excuses." Jumping in her car she drove off, looking at the time she figured she could go grab a few drinks before heading home.

Minzy held her shot glass high in the air as she danced alongside the jukebox machine. She had put in enough money for all her favorite hits to last her her stay. Downing her shot in one go, she continued to dance to the music blasting. " all guys," she cheered as she laughed at the faces being made at her. As she kept listening to the music and twirling she didn't realize the familiar face that walked into the bar. Turning, she was caught off guard by Se7en standing before her.

"Oh ," she stumbled back in surprise. "What are you doing here? I thought you were long gone?"

"I'm good, still under going some training but I thought I'd come back home to surprise my family. And before hand I wanted to grab a drink to find you here," he grinned. "Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

"I...needed the rest of the day off. It's been a long one," she shrugged.

"Do you mind if I join you," he asked as he took one of her shots.

"I guess," she said as she took the nearest seat.

"So my mom tells me you haven't been over in a while and that there's been a new girl my little brother has been hanging out with," he said to start a conversation.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes, "I hate that , but not as much as I'm hating your little brother right now."

"Uh-oh, you guys are still fighting? What did he do," he frowned.

She sighed and shook her head. If anyone knew the ups and downs to Minzy's and Seunghyun's relationship it was Se7en. He was like the middle man between the two of them, "It's not what did he do, it's what he didn't do."

"And what didn't he do?"

"He didn't trust me," she finally said the words she dreaded.

Se7en went quiet as he thought about what Minzy said. He could sense there were multiple meanings behind that one sentence and seeing how wasted she was mid-day it was eating at her, "Minzy you can't blame yourself for how other people feel about you. Yes you can have some influence, but at the end of the day people will feel or believe in whatever they believe in."

She sat quietly letting his words sink in. She didn't know what to say to that, "I..."

"Though I would love to talk more, I have to tell you that Seunghyun is going to meet me here in a little and..."

"You don't have to tell me twice," she stood to her feet taking one more shot before hugging Se7en. "Thanks for the quick chat. It's good seeing you."

"You too, stay strong Minzy my brother can be really slow sometimes," he teased as he waved goodbye.

Minzy went straight to Zelo's room, relieving her mother. She grinned at Zelo before she pulled out her laptop and began to search for scholariships. She felt more motivated than ever to find ways to pay for college, even if she was a bit tipsy.

Minzy jumped hitting her head against her laptop when she heard a loud bang with screaming to follow suit. "," she hissed as she rubbed her head as it began to pulse from the intake of alchol she had earlier. Trying to drown it out, she plugged her ears with her fingers. "I'm not in the mood to deal with this now," she mumbled as she could still hear things breaking and screaming escalating. She heard running and doors slamming before it went completely silent. Sitting up and unplugging her ears it was strange and an uneasy silence. Something wasn't right. Opening the window, she then crept to Zelo's door and pressed her ear to the door. It was still quiet. "What the is going on," she whispered to herself as she slowly unlocked the door and cracked it opened. She couldn't see anyone and the silence in the house made her very nervous. Opening the door wide enough to poke her head out, there still was no sign of her parents. Locking the door behind her, she tip toed out curiously peeking around to find out just what the silence was all about. As she walked further out to see the disaster that was normally there, she heard her parents talking in the room. This wasn't like them at all. Their arguements usally took the whole house and then some for them to interact, since talking wasn't quite the word to use when it came to her parents. Minzy made her way through the hall and heard her mother softly sobbing, which was normal. But as she glanced into her parents room she was shocked to see her mother pointing a gun at her father. "Mom what the are you doing," she asked as she pushed the door wide open.

" you don't have the guts to shoot me," her drunken father egged his wife on. Stumbling closer to her, Minzy's mom got ready to pull the trigger.

"I'll make you pay for all you've done to me," her mother said through gritted teeth.

"Mom stop," Minzy cautiously inched towards her. "Don't do this."

But her father caught hold of the tip of the gun and pressed it against his chest. Leaning against it, he gave her mom a smug look, "Do it. ing pull the trigger."

"You don't think I'd do it," her mother spat right back she pushed in the gun further into him.

Minzy gently placed her hands on top of her mother's hands as she softly spoke, "Mom please, don't do this. Please don't."

"Are you gonna let that little tell you what to do?! Just shoot me already," her father roared before gripping onto the handle and pulling both Minzy and his wife tumbling down on the ground with him. Minzy bit her father's arm as hard as she could. Watching as he yelped and released the gun, she lunged for it.Gripping onto the gun, she was caught off guard as her mom rammed right into her. The shove left Minzy unbalanced, she lost grip of the gun and tried to catch it as her dad pulled at her ankle making her tumble with her mom. In the midst of the tumbling, Minzy's mom tried catching the gun and caught the trigger. The loud bang rang in all of their ears and Minzy fell still in shock. Somewhat in a daze, she felt moisture pooling beneath her. Pushing herself up, her eye's widened at the sight of blood smeared on her chest and hands. Minzy questioned if she had been shot when she heard a groan of pain. She gazed over to see her father holding his side.There was tugging, biting, and scratching from left and right as they fought for the gun. Each fighting with all their strength to get ahold of the gun. Then suddenly there was a loud bang and a quick flash of light as the trigger was accidently pulled. This quickly made the group come to a complete stop. Panic filled the room as blood pooled quickly on the ground and Minzy held out trembling bloody hands in shock as to what just happened. "You ing shot me," her father groaned as he continued to lose blood by the second.

She gazed over to her mom who sat in shock as she held the gun with trembling hands, frozen in place. Slowly moving towards her mom to not scare her, gently pulling the gun out of her hands and placing it onto the bed, she then reached for one of her parent's pillows and pulled off the pillow case before tossing it towards her dad. "Press that over your wound. Can you walk," Minzy asked calmly though her heart was pounding from all the adrenaline pumping in her veins.

", I don't know. I just got shot," her father growled.

"You didn't get shot in your leg. So just try," Minzy said as she put her hand out for him to take.

Biting his lower lip, he reached for her hand and pulled himself up through the pain, "!"

Drapping his arm over her shoulders for support, she glanced over to see her mother still frozen in place, "Mom let's get him to the hospital. Mom!" Her mom was able to snap out of it enough to move and open the doors and jump in the car. After helping her father in the car, she went back inside and grabbed her phone and the keys. Pulling out of the drive way, she dialed her phone and held it to her ear, "C'mon pick up..." she said to herself as she sped down the road.

"Hello," Seunghyun answered in a groggy voice.

"Seunghyun I need a huge favor from you. Are you listening," she asked.

"What?"

"Could you please go to my house and jump through Zelo's window and stay with him for a bit," she asked.

"Why? What's going on?"

"I'll answer your questions later. Please can you do this for me?" He sighed before the line went quiet, "Seunghyun? Seunghyun are you there," she asked somewhat worried.

"Yeah, I'm getting ready to head there in a bit..."

"No Seunghyun listen to me. I need you to go there now. Do you hear me?"

"Alright," he answered.

"Thanks I'll try to be back as fast as I can," she said before hanging up.

Minzy was able to help her mother fill out paper work as her father was being attended to. He had lost a lot of blood and needed to undergo an emergency surgery. As the doctors quickly went to work, Minzy tried her best to comfort her mother. By the time that Minzy was able to calm her mother down, the doctor approached the pair. "Looks like your father will be just fine. We'll have to keep him for the rest of the morning to monitor him, but he should be able to head home by tonigh," the doctor said to ease Minzy and her mother's anxiety. 

Minzy sighed in relief as she thanked the doctor. She then looked at the time and saw that it was four in the morning. "Great, I better head home to relieve Seunghyun."

"I can't believe he didn't die," her mother said.

Minzy placed her hand on top of her mother's to reassure her, "But he didn't, he'll be okay."

Her mother looked to her with tear filled eyes and shook her head, "Then I won't be okay. He should've died!" Minzy went quiet as her mother pulled away from her. Pulling herself in a pity embrace, she cried, "Why is he still alive?! He should've died." She didn't know what to say as her mother continued to rant on, "Look at me! He did this to me! He made me ing crazy! I can't believe I've become this...murderer!"

"But you're not," Minzy softly spoke.

"I should be! I was ready to pull the trigger. I was ready to close this chapter in my life," her mother truthfully admitted.

This confession angered Minzy, "So killing someone is the way to solve your problems?!"

Minzy's mother rolled her eyes at her and hissed, "Then what do you suggest?"

"How about counciling? Or better yet getting a divorce," Minzy snapped.

"That doesn't sound reasonable," her mother replied.

"You killing my father is far from reasonable. But even so, did you even consider what would happen to me or Zelo?"

Her mother went quiet as she looked away from her, "You're...strong enough."

"I'm strong enough?! Are you ing kidding me?! I've had to be strong enough all my life. When will you ever take the role as my mother and be the strong one," Minzy nearly shouted at her mother. "If you were planning on killing my father and being sent to prison then let me tell you something, you'd be worse than dad because at least he hasn't walked out on us."

"I'm still here," her mother cried angrily.

"Good, let's see if you'll still be here when dad is done with recovery," Minzy said as she stood up to leave. Before she walked away she turned to glance back at her mom, "If you had any decency you'd at least be strong enough to wait until I come back."

"Wait for what," her mother asked in frustration.

"Wait," Minzy repeated before she turned to leave.

Minzy huffed as she looked at her phone to see that it was five in the morning. Shuffling around the shattered dishes all around the floor, she made her way to Zelo'a door and knocked. "Seunghyun? Seunghyun," Minzy called as she continued to knock on the door.

"," he was surprised to see blood smeared all over her. "What the happened," he asked in a panic.

She shrugged indifferent to his reaction as she walked in to see her brother sleeping in the same spot she had left him. "My parents got into it tonight," was all she said as she plopped down on Zelo's bed. "Hey thanks for staying with him. I really appreciate it."

He shrugged as he stretched his arms out, "No worries, I just slept the entire time."

"That's good. You're good to go if you need to," she grinned. "Just...uh, don't mind the mess," her grin faltered apologetically in advance.

"No biggie, you've seen how my room can get," he teased to help lighten the mood.

She chuckled as she nodded to agree, "True."

"Well I'm gonna get going," he nodded towards the door.

She waved and gave him a grateful smile, "Thanks again." When he disappeared down the hall, she slowly exhaled as her gaze dropped to her dried blood stained hands. Listening to the humming of the heart monitor, she looked to see how the blood molded to the very cracks and lines of her hands. Closing her eyes, she clenched her fists as she pushed herself up and to her room. Walking into her bathroom, she flipped on her light before turning on the water in her shower. Not even thinking, she climbed into the shower fully dressed and curled up in a ball. Letting the cold water fall on her, she cried as she unclenched her hands to let the blood wash away.

School was out of the question as Minzy went about cleaning her house. She was able to take a quick nap before she forced herself to scrub the blood that stained the house. She was close to finishing in time to pick up her parents when the door bell rang. She paused what she was doing before she went to go answer the door. "Seunghyun what are you doing here," she asked surprised by his visit.

"Just thought that I would come over to tutor you here since you weren't able to make it to school and all," he shrugged.

She sighed and grinned at his kind gesture, "I'd love to but right now isn't a good time. I have to go pick my parents up from the hospital..."

"Okay, I can wait here with Zelo," he said as he invited himself in.

"Uh...no that's okay. I'll be quick and..."

"It's fine, really," he honestly said.

Minzy couldn't help but smile, "Are you sure?"

He nodded as he waved to her, "Yeah go grab them and when you get back we can study."

"You must really want that recommendation," she grinned as she turned to leave.

Minzy pulled up to see her mother standing next to her father who sat in a wheelchair with a nurse. As her father was being helped into the car, Minzy noticed that her mother stayed standing in place. She looked different, something about her seemed a bit off. "Mom c'mon let's go," Minzy called out to her.

Her mom was able to refocus and jump in the car before they were able to drive off. The drive was quiet as the three of them seemed to be in their own respective worlds. "Seunghyun is at the house so I need you two to keep your together," she warned her parents as they pulled up to the house. As the three of them walked into the house, Minzy went straight to Zelo's room to find Seunghyun with all his materials out and ready for studying.

"Are you ready to study," he chimed happily.

She nodded as she locked the door before siting next to him, "Sure."

As much as Minzy wanted to stay focused to study, she couldn't do it for much longer. "Can we take a break? Or even better be done for the day?"

"I guess so. If that's what you want," he said without putting up a fight. "I'm tired too. I have an idea, why don't we follow Zelo's example and take a nappy nap!"

"That doesn't sound like to bad of an idea," Minzy said as she tossed him a pillow and then grabbed one for herself. "Maybe this nappy nap will give me the energy to focus."

"Maybe, but let's set a timer on our phones so we don't over sleep," he suggested as he set his timer.

"No such thing as over sleeping," she corrected him as she snugged against the pillow.

Minzy quietly stood leaning against the bathroom door way, watching the girl in the tub cry her eyes out. She felt sorry for the little girl and she wanted to know why she was soaking herself in the tub with all her clothing on, especially since she was wearing a cute pink dress. Walking into the bathroom, she knelt down by the tub and could see her small body trembling underneath the cold water. "Hey are you okay," she called out to her not wanting to frighten the poor fragile thing if she reached in to touch her. But the girl seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as the girl continued to sob before she craddled herself to shield her face. Reaching over, Minzy turned off the water and frowned, "Hey you okay?" The girl hugged herself tighter and shook her head as she kept crying. She thought as to what to say to help the little girl before her, "That's a pretty dress you have on. Would you like me to help you dry it off so it doesn't get ruined?" The girl only shook her head as she continued to cry. "Why not? I want to help you," she cooed softly.

"I...I can't," the little girl mumbled.

"You can't what?"

"I...have...have to be strong enough," the little girl cried before she looked up at her. Minzy gasped as the little girl was the spitting image of her when she was a little girl. She even remembered the pink dress the girl was wearing and sat in awe. "Minzy I need to be strong enough," the little girl cried as blood began to seep through the cute pink dress. Minzy was at loss for words as she reached in to scoop the fragile little girl in her arms. Pulling her into a tight embrace, she felt the small body trembling against her. Hearing the girl repeatedly cry about having to be strong, she closed her eyes and cried with her. 

"Minzy...Minzy..." the girl's voice faded and changed. "Minzy," Seunghyun called waking her up.

Minzy quickly sat up opening her eyes to see that she was in Zelo's room. Letting her surroundings sink in, she was a bit confused as Seunghyun reached out to wipe something off of her face. "What," she asked as she pushed his hand away from her face. Feeling her cheeks, it was then that she noticed she was crying. "," she hissed as she wiped her tears away.

"Are you alright," he asked concerned for her.

But she nodded and brushed it off to keep him from asking more questions, "I'm good, just had a bad dream."

"Oh okay, well I gotta go. I'll catch you at school tomorrow," he said as he stood to his feet.

"Yeah sure thing," she waved to him as he jumped out the window. 

Turning to look over at the unconscious brother of hers, she sighed as she cuddled up against him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she burried her head into his chest as she held him tight. The thoughts of her recent dream flooded her mind and as much as she wanted to be strong enough she just couldn't do that at the moment. Letting her sorrow and pain overwhelm her, she began crying out to her hearts content, letting the weakness flow freely down her cheeks.

Author's Notes:

Whoa I think it's been a while since I've been able to update as much as I have. I blame the heat, it's been too hot to sleep! But on the flip side thanks to Tori Kelly's Should've Been Us song, it's helped motivate and direct me in the past three chapters. Also thank you for all the encouraging comments, they are all appreciated feedback!