But Jonghyun’s worry was apparently misplaced. Jinri stayed away from school – still sick, according to Sunyoung – and my stalker had been conspiculously absent.

Everyone except me seemed to buy Jinri’s illness – according to Amber, she was a bit of a hypochondriac and seemed to think she was sick every other day or so. But on Friday, Krystal came to our usual lunch table with a big grin on her face – the grin that meant she had a bit of juicy gossip to share.

“So guess who I saw yesterday,” she said, sitting down heavily in her chair.

No one seemed all that interested in her gossip, but Sunyoung took the bait. “Who did you see?”

“Jinri,” Krystal announced. “I went over to her house to bring her the homework she’s missed. And guess what! She’s not even sick at all!”

“She’s not?” Qian asked curiosly.

“Nope,” Krystal replied gleefully. “Get this: she got a nose job! That’s why she’s missing school! She doesn’t want everyone to see the bandages! She looks a mess, too. I wonder what surgeon she went to? Her face is all bruised and everything.”

If I had had any lingering doubts, they were officially gone now. That was sort of the final piece of evidence. Jinri was my stalker. I knew it without a doubt now.

I chewed on my lower lip. I had always known that she didn’t like me. She was like the Bimbo Brigade in that appearances mattered a great deal to her – and I certainly didn’t fit into her mold. On top of that, everyone knew that she had a massive crush on Jonghyun, and me dating him had probably just pushed her over the edge. Still, as much as she hated me, it was difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that she could actually attack me, presumably with the intention of seriously injuring me or – and I shuddered to think about it – killing me. She was just a kid, like all of us. And instead of hating her for what she’d done, I felt sorry for her.

But what was I supposed to do? Would she keep attacking me once her nose healed and she returned to school? Was I still in danger? I rather doubted it. I don’t think Jinri had ever thought about what would happen if I fought back. It was obvious that I could take her; I’d already done it once and could do it again if I needed to.

It was still bothering me the next day. Jonghyun had wanted to hang out but I found it hard to pretend like I didn’t know anything, so I told him to stay home and that I would be fine with my friends from the neighborhood. As usual, he wasn’t pleased with my open defiance of his wishes, but he was getting used to me being stubborn. And he made me call him so he could talk to Youngjae to prove that I was with my friends – who, truth be told, could probably protect me better than Jonghyun anyway.

“What’s up, Narae?” Youngjae asked. It was the middle of the afternoon and he, Daehyun, Zelo, and I had gone over to the park to play a game of basketball. Zelo was kicking all our asses, as per usual, but my head wasn’t really in the game. “You seem distracted.”

Part of me wanted to keep what I knew to myself, but the other part of me realized I needed to talk through my dilemma with someone. And Youngjae always gave pretty good advice.

So I sighed. “Do you remember my stalker?”

He chuckled, but it was completely mirthless. “How could I forget? They haven’t been bothering you again, have they?”

I shook my head. “No, not after the last time. I haven’t seen her since I broke her nose.”

“That’s good-” Youngjae started to say, but then he stopped. “Wait, did you say her?”

I nodded glumly. “Yeah. I know who it is now.”

At first Youngjae was enraged. Unlike Jonghyun, whose first response would be to go to the police, people from my neighborhood didn’t really trust cops all that much. Youngjae went a different route. “Do you know where she lives? Let’s go tonight! We can teach her a real lesson.”

I put my hand over his mouth to stop him. “I think she’s learned her lesson pretty well already,” I muttered. “And I don’t start fights; I only finish them.”

He sighed, but he was probably the most logical of all my friends so he understood my reasoning. “Okay, okay. I get it.” I sat down on the bench and he sat beside me. “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I don’t hate her though. I mean, she put me through all that but I can’t bring myself to hate her. I don’t stand by her methods, but I guess I understand why she did it. She’s insecure and hurt and the last thing she needs is someone else hating her.”

Youngjae took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “So what are you going to do?”

“Who the hell knows,” I grumbled, resting my head on his shoulder.

“Hey! What are you to nerds doing over there?” Zelo shouted with a grin, his face flushed from the hot sun and our game. “I’m kicking Daehyun’s over here! He needs some backup, pronto!”

This resulted in Daehyun upending his water bottle over Zelo’s curly head – no mean feat considering how much taller Zelo was than him.

Youngjae gave my hand another squeeze. “I’ll support you no matter what you do, Narae. But don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation, okay?”

I kissed him on the cheek. “No worries. I’ll be safe, whatever I decide to do.” 

Okay, so I'm going to apologize for how long it took me to update AND for how short this chapter was. Things have been really hectic in my life lately. There's work, studying, my friends, my fiance, vacation, etc. So I haven't had as much time to write as I'd like. Sorry guys! 

Also, yes, everyone already knew it was Jinri. It was pretty obvious haha