34

Sohyun woke up with the sun rays shining through her curtains. She rubbed her eyes and smiled, taking in a deep breath and sat up, leaning against the headboard of the bed. She sighed softly and patted her bed sheets.

When she looked at her clock, it was 7.30am. It then dawned upon her that she took a week's leave.

She got out of the washroom and walked down the stairs.

Food's in the refrigerator. Heat it up and eat it :) study hard too ^^ I'll be at the park exercising with the elders and later I'll going to visit Black Head Lee. I'll be back before six.
-BT

She smiled and pasted the note on the refrigerator then took out the food, heating it up.

She shoved a scoop into as she flipped a page of her book, then flipping whenever each scoop enters . Then, her phone rang beside her. "Hello," Kris' voice could be heard and Sohyun immediately sat up straight, gulping. "Oh, hi," she said and bit her lip.

"I was just wondering how you're doing at home," Kris said, biting back his smile. Sohyun blinked and smiled. "Just doing some chores and studying," she replied.

There was a long pause of silence before Kris cleared his throat. "I.. I have to go to court now, I'll be coming for dinner so, leave a seat for me," he said, scratching his head while Sohyun nodded and quickly replied, "Sure. Bye."

"Bye."

Their awkward conversation ended and Sohyun sighed, groaning.

Then, she went to the living room and lay down on the sofa, flipping the thick pages of her book.

She washed, cleaned and mopped the floor, doing almost every single chore she could do, and she found out she did everything in less than an hour. Because every chore she did didn't last for more than five minutes.

The floors were already cleaned, the clothes were already tidy, there wasn't anything to pack or any dirty filthy clothes to wash, BT had done everything for her.

She groaned and lay on the sofa, burying her face into her two palms. "I shouldn't have taken a week off, now I have nothing to do for a week," she groaned, her words muffled in her palms.

She shot up and smiled. "Shopping."

She quickly ran into her bedroom and opened the closet, then frowned, shaking her head. She don't even like shopping.

The clothes in her closet didn't take more than tree quarter of the space, and she sighed softly.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she thought of her fear.

She took in a deep breath, and climbed into her closet slowly. She sat down, cramped with the clothes beside her, as she closed the doors of the closet peeking out with gaps in between.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath calmly. She imagined herself in a dark place, that exact moment when she was held captive when she was young. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried not to think about it. Try not to think about the unhappy memories. "Happy memories, think," she reminded herself as she took in another deep breath, calming herself down as she slowly smiled.

Happy memories washed over her and she smiled again. How she celebrated her birthday with her sister and her grandfather every year, she found it happy. How she played and how childish BT was, she felt like laughing.

Her eyebrows were no longer knitted together and she relaxed her body. She imagined herself watching herself growing up.

Maturing into a teenager, then a university student, which then the nightmare happened again.

She imagined herself being ditched by her boyfriend for her best friend, and that scene replayed in her mind again and again.

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, clutching onto her head, trying to focus, but the more she force herself, the scene just continued to replay in her mind.

Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead as the next nightmare reappears.

Rats, that woman, that old shack, that old closet.
Her mind was thinking of rats, and slowly she hallucinated, having her to imagine rats out there, squeaking as she cried.

She opened her eyes with a gasp, as her imagination went even wider.

She saw rats, squeaking and running around outside of the closet. A shadow slowly loomed over as the shadow slowly came nearer to Sohyun and a pair of hands opened the door of the closet. Sohyun immediately shut her eyes and hugged her knees, screaming.

"Sohyun!" BT cried as he ran up stairs and opened the closet, to see Sohyun cramped into her closet. "Sohyun! What happened?"

She looked up at BT and heaved a sigh of relief. She swallowed and wiped the tears and beads of perspiration away as she scrambled out and took in a deep breath. Cold wind blew against her and she took in a deep breath.
It felt so much better than in her stuffy closet. "Sohyun, why are you hiding in your closet?" BT asked worriedly. He bit his lip and asked again, "Did you think about what happened when you were young?"

She nodded her head slowly and breathed in slowly. Her voice was shaky and weak. "I saw rats, I saw the shadow, that woman who kidnapped me, I saw everything. But.."

"But what?"

"Last time when I tried this, I left the closet within a minute, and from then on I would never get in. But this time, I lasted for five minutes. Even though I still thought about the bad memories, I thought about the good memories too. The memories when you and Unnie were always beside me," she said and weakly smiled, while BT smiled back, sighing contently. "Who told you to try this?"

"Kris," she replied. "He really thought me a lot, and he's right. I shouldn't dwell on the past. The past is already the past, I have a bright future to look for, and have two family members that cares for me twenty four hours, why can't I just let go?" she said, asking both BT and herself. He nodded his head. "Good that you can think of that. I've been trying to tell you this since you were young and you never listen, only when Kris comes into the picture then would you listen to him and let go." He scoffed and smiled while SoHyun rolled her eyes and smiled.

Then at that moment she stopped and her eyes widened in surprise. Wait. What?

Kris.

It was Kris.

It was Kris that made her smile. She shook that thought away. She can't be in love with him. She's not ready. 

----

"SoHyun?"

"HyoMin?" she asked and smiled over the phone. "Is there something wrong?" she asked while flipping the pages in her book.

"Oh nothing. Just informing you that I got my scholarship. I'll be going overseas to study for two years, and I won't be seeing you for these two years, so I guess I wanna meet up with you before I leave, when would you be free?" she asked as she tilted her head, balancing her phone between her head and shoulder, her two hands filled with groceries.

"Sure."

HyoMin frowned and thought then shook her head. "I'll be doing volunteer work tomorrow, what about the next day? You'll still be on leave, right?"

"Alright. Why don't we ask Tao out?" Sohyun asked and Hyomin frowned. "Don't talk about him. He's mental," she hissed while Sohyun stifled a laugh. "What did he do to you?"

"He's crazy. We planned to have hotpot yesterday but I stood him up because I had volunteer work to do and he's ignoring me since yesterday. I don't get it. He always does that and I'm not even angry with him. Don't you think he's petty or what?" she said and Sohyun smiled, chuckling. "Alright let's change the subject.What kind of volunteer work are you doing?" Sohyun asked. "Sending groceries to some elderly people who live near the community centre. They're really poor, and I just met this man who was also interested in giving out food. But today's he's sick."

"You're visiting the elderly now?"

"Nope. I've finished giving out food. Now visiting the volunteer worker. He worked so hard and he's sick, so I guess I'll just be giving him some food. Even though he's poor like other elderly, he still wants to do volunteer work for them although he knows volunteer work doesn't make money. I really appreciate such graciousness in him." HyoMin smiled. "Ah yes, I'll catch up with you later, bye."

"Bye." Sohyun hung up and sighed softly in her seat, smiling.

HyoMin knocked on his door and waited, but he wasn't there. "Strange.."

"Hello?" she called out and knocked on the door. Still no response. She shrugged her shoulders. "He may be going to the doctor, I'll see him tomorrow," she murmured and walked towards the lift when she groaned. "What? Lift under maintenance? I just took it a few minutes ago.." she groaned and pouted, using the back staircase and walked down.

As she walked to the last level, she heard a voice, and burning of papers.

"Heejung. How are you? Although you're not dead, I still don't have the chance to meet you. You told me never to meet you, never to visit you, but I miss you. Those people who landed you into this state, I will never forget them. They would be getting their retribution for framing you," he murmured, but loud enough for HyoMin to hear. "You wasn't even the one who killed. You're so silly, why did you take the blame?" he softened and burned even more papers.

"I won't let that lawyer get away with this. No one can stop me. You're getting appeal, I'm happy, but also afraid. What if you fail to appeal? What if you are discriminated like me when you get out? I can't let you suffer so much. I promise you, once I kill them, I'll get you out."

HyoMin's eyes widened in shock as she took in a deep breath. As she slowly walked away, the plastic bag broke and the fruits dropped.

His ears perked up at the noise and he whipped his head up to see HyoMin.

"Uh oh."


Baekhyun was with Tao in his room. They were discussing on the case, or maybe more like Baekhyun talking to himself. Tao wasn't even listening. Baekhyun sometimes felt so annoyed with Tao that he just wished he could knock Tao out with his gun.

"Tao, can you stop rolling your chair or swinging your chair and just concentrate?" Baekhyun hissed, and swore that would be the last time he would be hissing. The next thing that would happen to Tao would he be knocked out in his seat.

"Fine fine," he muttered and pouted. Then, his phone rang and he looked at the caller ID. He frowned and end the call looking at Baekhyun. "Will you concentrate Baekhyun," Tao hissed while Baekhyun gawked at him and frowned. "It seems like you were the one who wasn't concentrating a few seconds ago," he retorted and folded his arms, leaning back as he glanced at Tao and smirked. "Who called you? Your girlfriend?" Baekhyun asked while Tao scoffed. "Well.. not really.. Just that.. urgh forget it," he groaned.

Baekhyun's phone buzzed on the desk and he picked it up. He nodded his head and quickly went out. "I have a case on, contact you later."

Tao immediately rushed out to stop him, and frowned. "Yah! Don't need to be so petty!"

Just then, his own phone buzzed in his pocket again.

"Hello, Tao," Sohyun's voice could be heard and he smiled. "Hey Sohyun."

"Tao, promise me you'll be calm when you hear this news," Sohyun said and gulped, holding back her tears.

Tao smiled and nodded. "Alright, I will."

Sohyun bit her lip and choke back her tears. "Hyomin's..."

He swallowed, and he shakily placed his phone in his pocket. Kris saw how pale Tao was as he patted his shoulder. "Tao, what's wrong?"

Tao slowly turned his head towards Kris, his hands were cold and he took in a deep breath shakily. "HyoMin's, dead."

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