Luck was on my side. Yongguk wasn’t home when I arrived. Himchan pulled open the door and started with one of his usual witty quips but then stopped when he saw that part of my hair was several inches shorter than the rest of it.

“What the hell happened to you?” he demanded, face twisted into an expression of shock.

“It’s a long story,” I grumbled. “Can I come in?”

“Only if you tell me what happened,” Himchan said, standing aside so I could come into the apartment.

So Himchan made me a cup of tea and I told him about my female attacker following me home and attacking me with a pair of scissors, and about how I had cut my own hair to get away. Himchan opened and closed his mouth several times, but it seemed like he didn’t know quite what the appropriate response to my story was.

“I’m pretty sure I know who it is,” I admitted glumly. “And I don’t think it’ll happen again soon. But I need your help.”

Himchan looked wary then. “With what?”

“Well, first off, you can’t tell Yongguk,” I began.

My old friend spluttered. “You can’t expect me to keep this from him, Narae. He’ll go ballistic when he finds out. And he’d probably kill me for keeping it from him. I’d be a dead man.”

“You can’t tell him,” I repeated firmly. “Seriously Himchan. He’ll probably get me kicked out of school or something. You can’t tell him.”

Himchan swallowed nervously. Keeping things from Yongguk had never been his forte. “What’s the other thing you need me to do?”

“Cut my hair so it looks normal,” I said with a sigh. “I can’t show up at school with a chunk of hair missing.”

Himchan let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that at least I can promise to do with certainty.”

So he set me up in one of the kitchen chairs with a towel draped around my shoulders to keep me clean. He was halfway through cutting my hair when Yongguk came in.

“Narae,” he beamed. “What are you doing here?”

“I figured I needed a change of style,” I lied casually. “It’s too hot this summer for long hair, so I asked Himchan to change it for me.” I gave Himchan a long look as if to remind him not to mention anything about the attack to Yongguk.

Himchan busied himself with my hair and didn’t say anything. I suppose that was the best he could do.

Thankfully Yongguk didn’t seem suspicious. “That’ll be interesting to see. I don’t think you’ve had short hair since you were in elementary school. It’ll be like seeing a whole new person.”

I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the end product. Despite my lie to Yongguk, I loved my long hair. I’d kept it long for so many years because it looked good long. I didn’t like short hair. But Himchan had done the best he could with what he’d had to work with, and I could only hope that it would grow out quickly.

My friends at school were less accepting of my explanation for my new hairstyle.

“But I thought you said you liked long hair,” Amber pointed out when I had spouted off my excuse about wanting a change.

“And why didn’t you tell me?” Jonghyun pouted. “I could’ve taken you to a really nice salon.”

But I could only roll my eyes. It wasn’t like I could tell them the truth about why I had cut my hair.

It wasn’t until lunchtime that I realized Jinri wasn’t there, but that wasn’t exactly surprising considering my suspicions. I brought her up casually when their was a lull in our usual lunchroom table conversation. “Where’s Jinri today?”

“Who cares?” Jonghyun muttered shortly.

It was Sunyoung who answered me. “Ah, she’s sick. Her mom called me last night and asked me to bring her books by tonight so she can do her homework. Apparently she’s so sick she can’t even talk on the phone.”

“If she’s that sick, maybe you shouldn’t go,” Krystal pointed out. “You don’t want to catch whatever she’s got, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Sunyoung agreed with a laugh. “I’m just going to drop her books off with the doorman. I don’t want to catch it.”

So no one was seeing or speaking to Jinri for the moment. How convenient, I thought to myself.

She still hadn’t returned to school by the following day. I wondered how many days she would skip because of her “illness.”

Amber cornered me in the bathroom during one of our breaks. There was no one else in the bathroom besides us and I was busy washing my hands so I didn’t notice her looking at my hair until she started playing with the ends of it.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know,” she pointed out.

I jumped. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Give me some credit, Narae,” Amber said, rolling her eyes. “I know you didn’t cut your hair just because you wanted a change of style. What really happened?”

I didn’t say anything.

“Was it because of your bully?” She had this scary habit of knowing exactly what I was thinking sometimes. “Did they cut your hair?”

“No, I cut my hair,” I finally admitted with a sigh. “They attacked me with scissors, and I cut my own hair so I could run away.”

Amber cursed under her breath. “Dammit, Narae, you have to tell us these things! I could get one of the guys that works for my family to be your bodyguard.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need a bodyguard, Amber.”

“Like hell you don’t,” she retorted. “Just wait until Jonghyun hears about this!”

I panicked at once. “No! You can’t tell Jonghyun! He’ll go ballistic!”

But Amber just stormed out of the bathroom, leaving me no choice but to follow after her, begging pathetically.

Like I had predicted, Jonghyun was incredibly upset when Amber told him what had happened. Actually, that might have been an understatement. He got so angry that he punched the nearest locker, leaving a small dent in it.

And then the lecture started. “Why didn’t you tell us, Narae?” he fumed, grabbing my shoulders and shaking them. “For ’s sake, you could’ve been really hurt! This isn’t just bullying! You need to go to the police! Hell, I’m going to go to the police!”

“Jonghyun, don’t!” I said quickly. “I’m pretty sure it’s over now. I fought back, and trust me, I gave worse than I got. I swear.”

“You said you thought it was over before,” Jonghyun pointed out, but he did seem a little placated since I had fought back. He sighed heavily. “I’m assuming your friend Yongguk wants to beat the out of me for not protecting you.”

“He doesn’t know,” I said shortly. “And it better stay that way.”

“Like I’m going to say anything to him,” Jonghyun retorted. Then he sighed again. “After school, we’ll swing by your place to pick up your clothes and stuff, and then you can come back with me to my house. I don’t want you staying at your place by yourself.”

I rolled my eyes. Jonghyun was both sweet and exasperating at the same time. “=I won’t be alone. My dad will be there. At some point. Probably.”

Jonghyun just gave me a level look. He knew that my dad was around about as much as his was – aka not very often. “I mean it, Narae. I don’t like the idea of you being there by yourself. What if your stalker knows where you live? They’ve followed you home several times now. It’s dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine, Jonghyun,” I repeated. “And I’m not moving into your house.”

“You can stay in one of the guest rooms,” Jonghyun said, as if my worry for my reputation was what was holding me back from accepting his offer. “And besides, everybody has already assumed that we’re sleeping together.”

This earned him another eye roll from me. “That’s not why I’m saying no, you idiot,” I said. “I’ll be fine at my own place. You can still drive me to and from school. That way I won’t be alone. Okay?”

Jonghyun didn’t like that I wasn’t agreeing to his plan, but he had learned that he had to compromise with me sometimes. So he sighed and nodded. “Fine.”