To describe in one word how Jumie was the following days would be abnormal. And she was already strange as it was! Instead of watching and reminiscing scenes from her favored horror films, she’d plant herself outside of her apartment or on the corridor between her classes, muttering mantras and chants under her breath. During the night, she didn’t sleep; she wandered her school ground, being unnoticed by the old caretaker despite his regular check-ups.

Her crazy antics were getting out of hand, and as results, so were her peers’ reactions to this.

She was on her toilet break one day when Lee Sanbyul managed to corner her.

“Oh, lookie who we got here, boys. How long has it been since you graced us with your presence, loser?” Sanbyul ruffled her hair, a toothpick in place between his teeth.

“Are you doing well without us?”

389674. she certainly is more feisty.” remarked the youngest, Hyuk as he restrained her struggling arms.

Jaewoon shrugged apathetically, not wanting to be anywhere near the ink-haired girl, who had unconditionally bitten him in the ear; to this day, his ear still bored the so-called ‘battle scar’. “Who wouldn’t when they have a student body president for backup?”

Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say in front of Sanbyul because he now was looking at his same-aged friend like he wanted nothing more than to break his nose. Noticing this, Jaewoon merely averted his eyes. “That’s an interesting thought, Jaewoon,” mused Sanbyul, a dangerous look settling in his eyes, and he turned to the squirming girl. “Want to test it out?”

Jumie froze in Hyuk’s arms as she watched the hand closing in on her. It was then a quiet, yet testy voice whispered inside her head.

“…what makes it easier is that you willingly let him.”

At the voice of the very scumbag that recently invaded her mind in some form of an annoying conscience, she zoned out, going limp against Hyuk. She surprised them as her knee suddenly jolted up, hitting an unmistakable bull’s-eye on Sanbyul’s nuts. Hyuk immediately released her and tried in vain to alleviate his curling upperclassman.

The girl, however, made a mad dash out of there, sprinting as a yell of promising revenge was directed at her back. Despite her fear, she briefly wondered whether she should bleach her knee for having made contact with her bully’s male reproductive organ.

“Hyung, calm down. Breath in. Like this—hee…huh”

Sanbyul gave the younger boy a satisfying smack on the face before resuming to howl his heart out, ignorant to the curious chattering of the other students as they glanced out of the classroom at the commotion.

“Didn’t I tell you guys that the girl was bad news?” drawled Jaewoon.

“Wow.”

A poker-faced student body president, who seemed to be in deliberation with his arms crossed, interrupted their small brawl. For a brief moment, they were having a hard time recognizing him, for his hair was now back to its former, curly black, but Min Yoongi’s scrutinizing gaze was irreplaceable by any other.

Later, vulgar profanities could be heard from the hallway as the three boys were forced to detention.

Chanmi noisily slammed a plastic container of banana milk before Yoongi’s drowsy form, although he remained still in his arms, appearing to be asleep. He practically dozed off as soon as his forehead hit the table. When being interrogated by Namjoon, the eldest merely responded with something along the lines of stupid trial tests and fudging life.

But Chanmi wasn’t having it as she scowled down at the ungrateful skunk. He was pushing away the milk but nevertheless gratefully accepted a heating pad from Namjoon.

The vice-president laughed at the incredulous look on the girl’s face, and that earned him a rather irritated glare from her. “What’re you laughing at, -maniac?”

There it was again. She had started calling him that after finding his relations with her childhood friend, that, and along with the stack of illegal magazines for his age that she discovered under his mattress. Namjoon suspected that it was from jealousy but that didn’t mean he was going to treat her all saint and dainty.

“Your face.” he gave her a charming smile, knuckles propping his chin but he was roughly pulled from his comfortable position as Chanmi grabbed his collar, wrath blazing in the amber hues of her eyes.

A fistfight would’ve ensued if not for the arrival of Jimin, who unceremoniously threw his bag at them, separating them. Ignoring their heated glare, he shamelessly snatched the abandoned banana milk and gulped it down. “Anyone seen Jumie-noona? I can’t find her anywhere these days.”

“Who wouldn’t when you’re trying on your mom’s bra?” mumbled Namjoon under his breath, but everyone at the table heard him all the same.

The firsthand embarrassment caused Jimin to sputter milk all over Chanmi, who only had time to close her eyes.

“That was only once—agh!”

Now Chanmi was vigorously shaking Jimin. With the way his head was shaking, Namjoon wouldn’t be surprised if it tumbled off. He tried to appease both sides but only received a half-filled container of milk on the head. The pandemonium at the table attracted everyone’s attention at the cafeteria until Yoongi finally put a stop to it.

An ink-haired girl could be seen sitting on the side of a sidewalk. Everything else was quiet, as it was during the part of day where the inhabitants of this town either were at school or at work. She supposedly was one of them but prior to the event that had occurred, she simply didn’t have the energy to face more taunts.

Jumie was so lost in thought that she didn’t realize the presence of a stranger tripping not too far from where she was. The young man muttered out a curse, for now his belongings were messily sprawled on the ground. He looked up at the unnoticed teenager and called her.

“Hey, kid.”

The girl didn’t even glance at him as she continued nibbling on her thumb.

“Hey,” he inserted more dominance in his tone. That worked, as the girl finally raised her black orbs at him, her eyebrows raised slightly when the young man didn’t flinch as he took in her appearance.

“Are you not going to help me?” he gave a not-so-obvious cough, motioning with his eyes to the mess.

Jumie stayed unresponsive as she only looked at the man, slightly fascinated by the plumpness of his lips; she wondered if they would pop if she pricked them.

“Yah! Get off your and help me out!” his voice raised a pitch, unable to believe how disrespectful and inconsiderate youngsters these days were. Not that he was any older than them but still…

It took a while for the teen to understand his message and walked up to him, helping picking up his things. Her eyebrows curled in confusion at the weird ritual symbols that occupied his paperwork. She recognized most of them, being a supernatural fan herself, but what would this pretty man be doing with them?

Before she could ask him about it, he snatched them from her grasp and stuffed them in his satchel bag, along with a list of other weird junks that Jumie was sure no one would possess these days.

“Thank you for helping me out of your pure will, for that—

“I didn’t.” Jumie corrected quietly. “…You’re going to hit me if I don’t.”

He continued, though, the slight twitch on his eyebrow told her that he was already annoyed. “And for that I will reward you with this,” he pulled out a humanoid figure of tied up hays, handing it out to her.

It wasn’t everyday that anyone would be handing out a free voodoo doll, but she already loved it. She would’ve accepted it without a second blink, if it weren’t for…

“It’s too girly.” She blurted, retracting her hand back. “I-I want another one that would be suitable for my boy victim.”

He stared at her for a second.

It took a while for them to find the perfect voodoo doll for her but she finally found it, though much to the young man’s annoyance, it’s the very first poppet that she had turned down. The man left in a foul mood afterwards. She didn’t get a chance to say her thanks or even ask for his name.

Looking down at the little thing in her hand, it was still very girly-looking with the thin, red line of a mouth on its head but it looked surprisingly similar to the very boy she had ill will for. It was as if it was made for him.

“Horror girl.”

Jumie gave a small jump. For a minute there, she thought that it was her conscience again but it turned out to be the real thing as now what stood before her was a black-haired Min Yoongi.

At her shock, she dropped the doll, leading to Yoongi approaching her and picking it up. He raised a brow when he realized what it was.

“Do I even have to ask what this is?”

“Well, it’s a—

“Save it.” he let out a weary sigh, ruffling the mess of his hair and pining her with a serious look. “I’ll cut to the chase here.”

Before he could even begin, Jumie beat him to it, rambling excuses non-stop as if she plucked them out of her brain. “I’m not going to kill Sanbyul with this, I swear! A weird, pretty guy gave it to me after threatening me to help him pick his things, and you know, I just find this thing cute. Not that I want to harm people with this….Ha. Ha. Ha.”

Yoongi had to admit that he was slightly weirded out by her sudden speech. He couldn’t care less whatever agenda she was planning with the pathetic excuse of a doll but it was amusing to see how worked up she was.

“Who knew you can talk this much, Jang Jumie.”

Unbeknownst to the pessimistic boy, he paid her more attention than anyone else outside of his peer groups, thus the reason as to how he found her so easily.

He actually was planning to ask her something else but for now, seeing her flustered expressions was more than enough to the graduating student.

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates for who knows how long. School isn’t exactly being nice to me and I’m already pessimist as heck! I can’t promise you guys frequent updates nor can I promise that this story will be finished anytime soon. But for now, this is all I can do…

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!