Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth
Kim Jongin didn't believe in God

         Genesis crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently outside the music room door. She could faintly hear the melody of a guitar coming out from the room in front of her. Every Friday was the same routine, and frankly she was getting sick of it. 

         She glanced impatiently at the silver watch ticking at her wrist. It was 4:31 and she would be merciful and give him an extra 10 more seconds. She would instead take this time to look at the music arrangements for the gospel ensemble on Sunday. 

         After leafing momentarily though her sheet music, she lunged towards the doorknob, only to find herself face to face with her archenemy.

         "Chanyeol" Genesis greeted frostily.

         "Genesis" He answered back with just as much malice.

         It was safe to say that Chanyeol and Genesis didn't care much for each other, although this was the closest thing to an exchange of pleasantries the two ever had. Ever since Chanyeol kept hijacking the music room time slot right before her's, her time to practice had been drastically cut short, and he was likely doing it just to spite her.

         Looking up at the boy who was almost a foot taller than herself, she stood back to let Chanyeol exit the room. His look of disgust was a bit more palpable than usual. 

         "Well?" Genesis said with a hint of exasperation. "Are you going to move? You're in my way."

         Chanyeol wasn't budging.

         She put a hand on her hip. She didn't have time to play these games, and her time in the practice room, and her patience, was dwindling fast.

         Still glaring at her, Chanyeol reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver chain. He held it out in front of her between two pinched fingers as if it were contaminated.

         "Here" Chanyeol muttered. 

         Genesis' hand flew to her collarbone area. Sure enough, the necklace that she made sure to wear everyday was absent. Her moment of panic was calmed by the sight of her necklace dangling in front of her.

         Chanyeol let the chain fall into the flustered girl's open palm. Her eyes widened in relief.

         "Where did you find this?" Genesis looked up at Chanyeol, her eyes furrowed in a mixture of confusion and gratitude.

         Chanyeol seemed to be uncomfortable with the change in their conversation's dynamic. In a matter of seconds, he had successfully defrosted an ice queen, and he wasn't sure if he liked it.

         "You dropped it in homeroom" He said curtly before picking up his guitar case and brushing quickly past her.

         Genesis rolled her eyes after him, but quickly broke into a smile when she saw her friend, Melanie coming towards her from the opposite direction.

         "Hey Gen, sorry I'm late something came up" Melanie took a quick look behind her, jerking her thumb in Chanyeol's direction. "Was he harassing you again?"

         Melanie had a slight accent, one of her many endearing qualities. Another quirk to their friendship was related to their parents' occupations. Genesis' father was a preacher, whereas Melanie's mother ran a soup kitchen. Because of that Genesis found herself volunteering at the soup kitchen most of the time.

         Genesis shook her head with a small smile. "No, he was actually pretty civil this time."

         "Civil?" Melanie asked in disbelief. "We're talking about the same guy right?"

         Genesis scoffed and dragged her friend into the music room.

         It was a rather narrow space, seeing as the grand piano took up much of the room. Genesis could never understand why Chanyeol felt the need to even use the space if he was just going to be playing the guitar. Melanie plopped onto the chair in front of the piano, dropping her book bag between her legs.

         "So let me get this straight" Melanie began.

         She pulled out her graphic calculator from her backpack and began to punch in numbers at random.

         "You're telling me that the guy who made your life a living hell in the 4th grade was being 'civil'?" Melanie outstretched her arm to show the calculator to Genesis. The calculator read: Error.

         "It just doesn't add up."

         Melanie had a penchant for the dramatic.

         Genesis snorted. "We're not in elementary school anymore, Mel. We've grown up. We're practically adults."

         "Young adults" Melanie corrected.

         Genesis rolled her eyes and arranged her sheet music onto the music stand. As she was arranging, a piece of notebook paper slipped off the the stand and fluttered to her feet. She picked up the sheet and examined it.

         The lazy scrawl of blue pen was suspiciously familiar. It read: Genesis is a loser.

         Melanie stood up and moved closer to look at the paper over Genesis' shoulder.

          "That's more like it" Melanie nodded her head emphatically. 

         Genesis crumpled the sheet of paper in her hands and calmly disposed of it in the trashcan. 

          "Whatever, lets just practice"

         Friday afternoons were her favorite time of day. After she had parted ways with Melanie, Genesis opted to take the long way home.The flowering trees that lined the pathways filled the air with sweet scents.

         She picked up her pace as the brown colonial house that came into view. When they first moved in, Genesis hated everything about it. From the rickety stairs to the floral wallpaper, the house didn't have any redeeming qualities that she could speak of. After a few years in the house, however, everything was familiar. She learned to avoid the wooden planks that creaked the most.

         When she opened the door, she could see that her father hadn't come home yet. His leather loafers were nowhere to be seen, and the house was eerily quiet. He was currently away at a two-day conference in the neighboring city.

         Her father being away meant that she would be home alone. Genesis supposed that meant that her father had implicit trust that she wouldn't throw a wild party with raging hormone driven teenagers.

          He was right to trust her, for the most part. She was content in staying home alone. If she ever needed anything, she could always make her way to Melanie's place anyway.

         Genesis looked down her father's to-do list on the refrigerator. Most of what was written down was church related, but she half-suspected that he wrote them down just to keep her busy.

         Her father's church had open hours until 6:30pm on Fridays, at which the Church doors would close and wouldn't reopen again until the next mass on Sunday. 

         One of her "special" tasks was to close the church after open hours ended. She and her father lived about 20 minutes from the church on foot. It was only a little after 6pm now, which meant that Genesis would have to start to make her way downtown.

         She tossed her school bag into her room, pulled on a light jumper, and headed out the door.

         Pastor Copeland's church, named "Redeemer of Grace", was small hole-in-the wall located downtown. Despite it's size, it had a decent following, and for that reason Genesis was rather well known in that part of town. She could rarely walk a few blocks without seeing a member of her church. 

         Opening the heavy double doors, she entered the empty church. The last remnants of daylight were beaming through the tall stained glass windows. It painted the wooden pews with a myriad of colors. After turning on the lights in the electrical room, Genesis walked the pews.

         She always liked spending a few minutes walking down the aisles of pews before finally closing the church for the night, partially to check for any lost items, and partially as her own form of meditation. If she was feeling particularly inspired that day she would stop for a few minutes to pray at a pew.

         Her prayers at the moment were directly related to the future of their church. The church itself was losing money, and their loyal parishioners wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat. Genesis surmised that her father had significantly reduced the church's open hours to compensate.

         She gave a small bow to the altar before collecting herself again. From the windows she could see that it was getting late. Genesis returned to the electrical room and watched as the church became dark again. Behind her she could faintly hear the heavy creak of the church's double doors opening.

         Likely it was one of the church members who would come for a time of prayer. Every once in a while, she would find people in the church past closing time, and she would have to turn them away.

         Checking her watch, she could see it was now 7:15, and she had already spent too much time locking up. The sun had already gone down, and now the church lights seemed dim in comparison. 

         She took a careful step towards the main chapel area, looking around for a stray member of her church. She could see a figure slouching in one of the pews at the front row.

         Their congregation was predominantly African American,  save for a few Hispanic people. She could usually tell which member was which from the back, but this person was unfamiliar to her. Rather, this person didn't look like a member of the church at all. 

         Genesis made her way to the front of the room. Coming closer, she could see from the person's build that he was a boy, and not much older than her. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. Hopefully, she could politely tell him and leave and that would be the end of it. 

         His shoulder was slightly damp.

         She peered curiously at her fingertips, now red with blood. Genesis flinched away in horror, immediately wiping her hands on one of the pews. The boy slowly got to his feet, supporting himself with the arm of a wooden pew. His other arm gripped at his rib cage. Her eyes widened when she locked eyes with the boy.

         "J-Jongin?"

         Were her eyes betraying her? She knew who Kim Jongin was, but she never thought she would ever see him again. Everyone in school said that he moved away due to his father's business, and when he disappeared from school that was the last time she'd heard anything about him. But now that his family was all over the headlines, that's all anyone ever talked about. 

         Headlines like, "Kim Corporation CEO murders wife in cold blood." or "Heir to the Kim Corp Legacy Orphaned" flashed across Genesis' mind.

         "What happened? Are you ok?" She searched her pockets frantically for her cellphone "I should call an ambulance--"

         She felt a hand grab at her wrist.

         "Don't" Jongin warned.

         "But you're bleeding!" 

         "I'm fine." His breaths were jagged.

         "N-no you're not" she tried to twist her wrist out of his grip, but it was only hurting her more.

         Jongin gave her a weary look. 

         "Please" he seethed.

         Genesis couldn't seem to bring herself to look at Jongin in the eyes. 

         Jongin took her silence as compliance and released his hold on her. Her arm slackened limply at her side. Genesis tried to find words to say but chose to keep quiet. What could you say to someone who had basically lost his family?

         Jongin took out a folded slip of paper from his pocket. It had the official seal of the district court on the front of it. 

         "I need to see Pastor Copeland" He said finally before collapsing to the floor.