CHAPTER ONE: The presence

"I'll always protect you..." 

"I'll always be here for you..." 

"I'm always behind you, watching..." 

The faint husky voice whispered into the pitch black surrounding. Nari was lost. She didn't know where she was, but she knew she was in her dreams. She was lost in her own dream. Everything felt so vivid. The faint whispers. The eerie surroundings. Everything. She looked around hastily as she tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. 

"W-Who are you?" Nari whispered back, confused. 

Silence. 

All she could hear were her deep breaths every second she intakes the oxygen. She kept on looking around, looking for a sign, a small blur, light, or even a shadow; though it was already pitch black. All she wanted was a presence. She wanted to confirm that she's not only hallucinating the whispers. 

The whispers that she's been hearing for the past ten years. 

Every time she slept after a bad day, everytime she slept after getting home from daily bullying, ever since the bullying started and ever since she started living alone.

"Wake up, gongju..."

Then she gasped awake. 

---

Nari was sitting at the far left corner of the classroom, writing apprehensively on her notebook as she listened to what the teacher was saying. However, she could feel the students' stares on her back. It felt like daggers were being stabbed at her back as she heard mocks and devious laughters coming from her classmates. 

She clenched her fists, almost crushing the pen she was holding. Sometimes, she couldn't understand what she felt. 

There was one point she thought that she had bipolar disorder for feeling all kinds of emotions in one moment. She felt anger, resentment, sadness, and emptiness. Although she wanted every single one of her classmates to feel what she's feeling through actions, she couldn't bring herself to act violent. She held it in. She had to, or else they would just endlessly. 

So she stayed mum. 

She never spoke a single word, even to the teachers. She would just nod and shake her head. 

Suddenly, she could feel a cold breeze that has passed her left shoulder. She looked over the window and frowned at the sight of it being closed. She's been having these experiences since ten years ago, especially when she feels uncomfortable or any inconvenient emotions. At first, it soothed her but now... it made her wonder what it could possibly be? 

There it was again. That same cold breeze. 

She closed her eyes and wished that class would end. 

Fortunately for her, the bell rung just as she thought about it. Her eyes popped open, her pupils dilating as it showed how black her eyes were. Pure black. She gathered all her things and placed it on her bag, but as she was doing so, someone had pumped into her table causing her pencil and other stuff to fall off. She let out a hiss before letting the people laugh at her. 

She clenched her fists once again and waited for the people to get out of the room. 

Once the last person had exited the room, she stood up from her chair and crouched down on the floor to pick up the things that had fallen. She threw her utensils inside her pencil case angrily and stayed mum. No matter how angry she was, she couldn't help but stay quiet. She couldn't do anything anyway. 

She sighed heavily before shoving her notebooks and pencil case inside her bag and slid one strap of her backpack to her shoulder. Not looking back to her permanent spot, she walked out of the classroom. Welcoming the student body's stares, she looked down and clenched her fists as she felt everyone's stare. Whispering bad things about her, spreading malicious comments about her.

"I heard she lives alone. I bet her parents abandoned her after learning she can't talk." 

"She's so ugly. Ugh, I wish she dies." 

"Have you ever heard her talk? Why is she even here? She should go back to preschool." 

Although she was angry, she held it in. She just clenched her fists, but as usual, a voice at the back of her head had always told her, "I'll