Special thanks to LulusGurL for the beautiful poster ^^

Chapter 2 || Our Life

Jaeyun’s eyes lay cinched to the blank screen of her smart phone, her reflection staring back at her with a look of forlorn and expectancy. Rubbing the side of her thumb across her fingerprint sullied screen, she her phone for about the fiftieth time in counting now.

It read 10:22 in a bold, white text across the screen which only earned a sharp sigh from Jaeyun in return. Allowing the phone to slip out from between her digits onto the bed, Jaeyun hugged her blanket closer to her body. Feeling the soothing sensation of her crisp and brand new comforter warmly wrapped around her body as she laid in her cushiony twin sized bed did undeniably relax all of her tense muscles. It was almost enough to make her fall asleep.

But then again, that was probably the last thing she wanted to do.

A long yawn pushed past her lips with the squeeze of her eyes, earning a tear from both. “Where is she anyways?” Jaeyun grumbled. “I know Bomi said she was going to go check on Baekhyun to see if he was alright, but it’s almost 10:30 at night and she still hasn’t gotten back yet.” Impatience and slight irritation stung in Jaeyun’s hushed tone. She wasn’t the type of person who’d let things get to her too easily nor was she the impatient type, but right now she couldn’t help but  feel a tiny bit annoyed by the fact that Bomi has been gone for hours now at this time of day, leaving her completely alone.

But maybe she was just being selfish right now…

Jaeyun, now gazing up at the white ceiling looming above her, could feel her eyes getting unbelievably heavy and it felt as though keeping her eyes even halfway open was becoming an unbearable battle of will power. She mostly blames herself for her current state—she hadn’t slept at all last night after all.

And that’s when flashes of her nightmare the night before flickered through her mind. Unconsciously, Jaeyun tugged her covers up closer to her face—almost completely covering her face but allowing her eyes to stay exposed. She could still feel the breathlessness squeeze at her lungs from when she had been drowning in her dream. Jaeyun admits she had never gone swimming and therefore had no idea how to, but it did seem strange for her to have such a nightmare like that when drowning was never something that had ever crossed her mind. But now that she’s somewhat subconsciously experienced it, it really was a scary way to die…

Jaeyun’s skin began to crawl when the recollection of Luhan in her dream began to surface as well. His gaze and that wide, spine-tingling grin—that in itself had to be far more terrifying than anything else Jaeyun could ever think of. How on earth could he have worn such a genuinely amused smile as he watched her dying right before his eyes? But more importantly, why was he even there to begin with? And his voice earlier, how in the world could she have heard it? It was so clear-cut, so coherent. She’s heard that voice one too many times to identify it as his in a snap.

But… he’s gone. It was plain and simple as that. Luhan was gone forever.

A whole year had past since that final stand-off with him had happened and in that time, there were absolutely no signs of him left. Jaeyun had finally felt free from his clutches and was beginning to feel like a normal person, because in that brief time it was like he truly vanished.

All she really had left was that foreboding text message that she had finally deleted the night before. In hindsight, it was just an anonymous message that could have been sent by anyone. But she always had this unnerving sense that perhaps there was so much more to it that met the eye. Could her permanently erasing it have set something off that’s far beyond her control? No… no it’ can’t be— I’m sure deleting it has nothing to do with any of the things that had happened today. It was nothing after all. She halfheartedly reassured herself.

Thump.

Instead of jolting up, Jaeyun squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled a deep breath. She’s been hearing that sound all day long. And no matter how thoroughly she searched within her room, she couldn’t find a single thing that could have caused the strange noise alienating her dorm room. She even went so far as to asking the girls next door if they were doing anything that could have created a noise loud enough to echo into her room, but was only given a shake of the head and odd looks in return.

So what could have been making that thumping sound?

Thump… thump… thump…

Jaeyun let out a soft sigh, both annoyance and a dying curiosity ardently hanging above her head, and to her side to face the wall. “I’m so sleepy…” She whispered. Was it possible for someone’s eyes to actually hurt out of pure sleepiness? Because it was beginning to get to that exact point of no return for her. “I can’t sleep though. I absolutely won’t.” If it weren’t for the fact that her back and legs had been hurting her so much from all that pacing back and forth, she wouldn’t have even considered lying down in the first place. But she had no other choice, and had to force herself to rest in bed which only reinforced her drowsiness even more.

With her eyes secured onto a small blemish upon her eggshell-colored wall, her breathing began to lower in speed and she could feel her eyelids just seconds away from giving out.  

Just then, the lights in her room briefly dimmed for a split second.

Jaeyun’s eyes flew up for a moment and she peered over her shoulder to look up at her ceiling light in the middle of the room. Giving it a hard stare for a couple more seconds, she turned her attention back to the wall after seeing nothing wrong with the light. Must be my imagination. She thought, rubbing at her eyes.

A few minutes ticked away before her lights did the exact same thing. Before Jaeyun could even think about looking over again, her lights now began to uncontrollably flicker over and over and the sound of an electrical buzz now reverberated around the entire room.

It was all happening in a matter of seconds, way faster than Jaeyun could even process, until finally with a violent pop, the light bulb shattered; sparks and tiny shards sprinkling down onto the ground against the carpeted floor.

And now, Jaeyun was left in a black sea of darkness in her own room.

After all the commotion when a silence now sat atop of the room, Jaeyun realized that she was left fastened in her spot now clutching onto her blanket for dear life. Her eyes hung wide open now and her breath stuck at the very top of her lungs. Swallowing hard, she bravely propped herself up on her elbows and frantically darted her eyes around the room. However, everywhere she turned her eyes she was only met with thick shadows. She couldn’t even make out the comforter resting on her own legs. She was now utterly suffocated in an endless expanse of blinding darkness.

It was then that she realized her own panicked and petrified breaths were now beating against her eardrums. A terrible feeling was now bubbling over inside of her. The murkiness around her was beginning to make her feel especially claustrophobic and she knew she absolutely had to get out of this room as soon as possible.

BANG

Jaeyun recoiled back into her bed and slammed her hands against her ears with a loud yelp.

BANG BANG BANG

Jaeyun couldn’t tell if her eyes were actually open or not but she could instantly recognize the sound of her door being beaten into with tremendous force—enough to send a vibration all the way from the door to the ground beneath her own bed. The thunderous bangs were constant and relentless, not even stopping for one moment. With each second that would past by, the banging would seem to get more violent; needier even. And just behind those bangs Jaeyun could hear it all too well— savage scratches clawing away at the door with just as much impatience.

All Jaeyun could do, all that she could even manage, was to remain curled up in her bed with her hands clamped tightly against her ringing ears and her eyes clutched shut to render any fear-stricken tears from rushing down her cheeks. What was she even supposed to do anyways when her only means of escape was the very thing that was causing this real life nightmare?

And just like that, the banging and scratching stopped and in its place was a new sound. A long, seemingly endless creak.

The door was opening, despite being locked.

Jaeyun’s eyes now held wide open and her breaths suspended in her lungs. The creak stopped for a moment before the wail of the door’s hinges scratched against Jaeyun’s eardrums once more, followed by a contrasting and calm click. The door must have been shut closed once again.

It was quiet now and time stood still. But taking refugee in this suspension of time was a heaviness in the air— a heaviness that settled densely upon Jaeyun’s entire body but mostly on her mind, seeping right through into the deepest and most personal regions of her sanity and consciousness. A single word now sat unyieldingly in her mind as if all of her senses and every fiber in her body were pointing right at it so she could fully acknowledge it.

And that one word… was eyes.

She was being watched.

Jaeyun could feel her back that faced towards the room, practically exposed to everything inside of it, caught onto a strong, penetrating gaze from a heavy presence standing just behind her. Seconds were trickling by at a snail’s pace. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, a whole minute—the wait just kept going on for a never-ending eternity. She felt completely exposed beneath this sick scrutiny right down to her very bones. Surely it must have been as plain as day to this onlooker that her whole body was trembling out of control.

A part of her just wanted this agonizing waiting game to stop and for something to just happen already, but another was grateful that she was still unscathed in the safety beneath her own blanket. Either way, she couldn’t keep her conflicting feelings from meeting each other half way without one overpowering the other.

And that’s when Jaeyun became conscious of the fact that her blanket, her one and only source of security and protection in this dire moment, was now beginning to slowly slide off her body.

She remained frozen in horror as her covers, inch by inch with absolutely no means of haste at all, slipped right off her shoulder, down her sides, past her legs and feet until she heard the thud of the blanket now lying lifelessly on the carpet at the end of bed.

Now, she truly was exposed.

Jaeyun caught a gasp in when a sudden foreign sensation made contact with her lower back. There was no denying it. It was fingers—she now felt icy cold fingertips now settled on her lower back.

Though the touch didn’t exert much pressure and was almost air-like, it didn’t stop Jaeyun from feeling every nerve in her body going numb in terror. The fingers slowly glided up her backside, tracing along her spine. Jaeyun tensed up when the fingertips eventually found its way to the back of her exposed neck where she felt the true coldness of this entity’s touch. There was no warmth in their touch, just a pure iciness.

Goosebumps arose all across Jaeyun’s body as the fingers lingered in their place a little while longer. Why was this waiting game still continuing on like this? Jaeyun’s momentary prayers went unheard when, despite her wishes, the fingers now started to migrate past the back of her neck to the front of it where it once again rested just beneath her chin.

It was so close to her right now. So very close.

It was too late to run away and it was too late to cry or scream. It was too late to do anything. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen whether she wanted it or not.

Going on a whim and hesitantly swallowing her saliva, Jaeyun was startled when a hand unexpectedly clamp tightly against and nose. Now regaining control of her body and sense, Jaeyun wasted no time when she began frantically struggling against the hard grip over and screaming at the top of her lungs. But her wriggling didn't do a thing to help her and her cries were only muffled to absolutely nothing behind the rigid hand.

Now feeling herself getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen going into her body, Jaeyun’s useless struggling slowly began to die down along with her screams.

Jaeyun was pulled out of her exhaustion filled daze when a breeze blew against the crook of her neck. It was breathing. Something was breathing on her neck.

The slow, relaxed breath gradually rose up to brush against her tear stained cheeks where it turned to puff right against her ear.

“Jaeyun.”

Electricity shot right up Jaeyun body and her eyes shot up wider than ever before. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, she couldn’t even breathe. All she could feel was her heart painfully stopping in mid-beat and a scalding hot tear trickling down her face.

It was Luhan.

“You thought you could leave me, right…? So easily—just like that…? You thought you could but you couldn’t… you can’t.”

She could feel a smile form across his face.

“You can’t run away from the truth in your heart my beautiful Jaeyun… After everything we’ve been through, I can never leave you and you can never leave me… not until you and I can be together as we were before… Not until I can permanently make you mine once more.”

And just like that, Jaeyun felt not only the hand against but the entire ominous weight plaguing the entire room get lifted away in the blink of an eye. She was now left by herself, lifelessly laid across on her bed, uncovered and expression as vacant as the inside of her mind.

What was supposed to happen now? What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to think?

All she could do was lay there and not do a thing at all. Was he going to come back, she didn’t know. Was she supposed to just get up and scream and cry her lungs out, she didn’t know either. There was too much that could have been done and too much that could have been said.

But instead of doing anything else, she laid there and felt her tears drip down from the corner of her eyes and one by one, run down her cheeks and plummet down against her pillow with a thud.

Would it be pathetic to admit that she didn’t know what to do anymore?

A thought suddenly emerged in her head through the thick, empty void clouding her mind. I thought it was done and over with. I thought I was finally… free. Free to become a brand new person who could withstand all odds. But after what had just happened… the unnerving uneasiness all day and whatever the hell just happened just a second ago, it’s all clear to me now. I don’t know why or how it’s even possible but there’s one thing I know for sure right now. He’s back. Luhan has returned.

It’s no longer my life anymore. Now… it’s our life once again.  

Ok so I'm not THAT evil of an author to leave you guys hanging for weeks with a cliffhanger like that right from the beginning hohoho

I am still going away for a week or two but I wanted to be nice and post the second chapter with NO cliffhanger too!!! See, I have a heart lol But guys, I literally have to head off in an hour so I’m rushing to post this!

Uhhh what did I have to say? Oh yeah, some of you guys are suspicious of Bomi—honestly not sure why though lol I really do think it’s because I've made you guys develope trust issues with EVERYONE in this story since it’s so damn unpredictable which is totally understandable. So yeah, maybe your hunches or theories about someone could be true. We’ll never know until the end *wriggles fingers*

So yeah, while I embark on a hour car ride I hope you all have a good night’s sleep after reading this. You'll all be in my thoughts!