Taeyeon’s POV

“Wake up, Taeyeon! Come on and get ready or we’re going to be late!”

“Five more minutes…” I grumbled, rolling to my stomach and putting a pillow over my head to drown out the annoying voice nagging at me.

“No, I already gave you five minutes! Get your up! If we get points taken off because we’re late, I’m going to kill you!”

My head was killing me and she was not helping with it at all. “Alright, alright. I’m up.” I groaned, slowly and lazily sliding off the bed. “I hope you made me some coffee or something…”

“I made me some coffee, but you can have some. Hurry up and get ready. I left some aspirin on the nightstand for you.” She said. I opened my eyes and caught sight of the pill bottle on the nightstand beside a glass of water.

“Lee Soonkyu, you are my queen.” I said as I spilled two white pills into my open palm. I tossed them into my mouth and washed them down with the water before looking at my roommate. “I’ve got a killer headache…”

“Well maybe if you didn’t get so drunk the night before our presentation, you would have been able to sleep in.” Sunny scolded me.

“I was having some fun.” I said. “Sue me, damn.”

“Well you know that I stopped smoking but you took me a stoner’s party anyway, Taeng.” Sunny said, sighing in irritation and turning to look at me.

I shrugged. “You didn’t have to come.”

“If I didn’t come, you’d have gotten your kicked I bet.” Sunny shook her head. “What were you thinking, screwing Tiffany with her ing boyfriend at the party??? Are you looking for a death wish??”

“He was passed out on the couch!” I said in defense. “He had no idea! We could have ed on top of his body and he wouldn’t have known!”

“God, Taeyeon. You’re ing ridiculous.” Sunny couldn’t help but laugh a little at me. I mean, I’m pretty damn funny. “Get ready so we can go now.”

Leaving the dorm, we walked to our English class. Sunny was reciting the presentation most of the way, making sure she was pronouncing words right and using the grammar the correctly.

“Sunny, you’re going to be fine, man. Chill out, you’ve been studying for this English thing nonstop for a week.” I said.

“Oh, I know I’ll be fine. I’m saying it for you. You’re the one that’s going to up since you didn’t practice at all this whole time.”

“I had better things to do.” I said.

“Yeah? Like what?” Sunny challenged.

“Seolhyun, Gayoung, Jisoo, Tiffany—”

“You’re so gross, Taeyeon.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m kidding! Kind of. But seriously, NamJoon had like three parties and I couldn’t say no to them! He’s got the best ones out of everyone. He has the best Kush out of everyone. gets you ed up in minutes.”

Sunny sighed. “When are you going to get your together, Taeng?”

“I’ve got it together, what are you talking about?”

“Have you figured out what you’re going to major in yet?” Sunny asked. I rolled my eyes.

“No, Mother. Sheesh, don’t start with that. It’s too early in the morning.”

In the classroom, we sat down in our seats near the back. There was a lot of talking going on today; more than usual. Girls were in larger groups gossiping and gasping. I remarked it as nothing I cared about.

“Did you hear?” Taehyung was suddenly sitting beside us. His eyes were a little glazed over; this guy was high.

“Yo, you got any left?” I asked. “My head is ing killing me, I need a fix.”

“Are you kidding me right now, Taeyeon?” Sunny scowled beside me. “Class is about to start.

“All out, Kid.” Taehyung said. “It was left over from last night. Anyway, did you hear what happened?”

“With what?” I asked.

“A student from here tried to kill themselves last night.” He said.

“What???” Sunny said. “Who??”

“No clue.” He shrugged. “All I know is that it’s a girl. But she had taken like, a ton of pills or something and her family found her in her room. They took her to the hospital and she got her stomach pumped out.”

“That’s some crazy , man.” I said. “Why?”

Taehyung shrugged. “Don’t know. I just heard about it from some group of girls gossiping down the hall. Thought I’d help spread the word, ya know? I’m out though.”

“Out? What the hell, Taehyung?” Sunny exclaimed. “Class is about to start!”

“I’ve gotta buy a dime from Key in a bit.” And with that he was gone.

 

Jessica’s POV

The steady beep beeping of the machine beside me slowly carried me out of my sleep. I woke up in a hospital bed to find Krystal sitting beside me and my parents and Yuri in the visiting chairs against the walls. Krystal looked up to see me looking back at her.

“Unnie!” She cried. Her eyes were rimmed red as though she’d been crying all night long. At the sudden cry for me, Mom and Dad looked up to see I was awake as well and stood from their chairs along with Yuri. Everyone looked like hell with red eyes and colorless faces. Even my dad didn’t look so tough right now. Just the sight of them had me in tears.

“I—” I tried to say I was sorry, but I couldn’t speak. My throat was in so much pain. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say to the people I loved and it killed me to see the pain in their eyes… The tears that came were inevitable. It was an ugly cry, I was sure of it. I could feel my face distort into a hardcore cry face.

Krystal and Mom were crying with me now; they came to give me a hug. The warmth of my family’s arms around me just made me cry more. I did what I did even with a family that loves me so much like this? What kind of a daughter am I? Dad joined the hug and we stayed like that for a bit. When they pulled away, Dad spoke.

“We’re so glad you’re alright… We thought we had lost you for good…” A tear slid down his bearded face.

“Why?” Mom said. “Why would you do such a thing?”

I opened my mouth again to explain, but all that came out was a whimper that pained my throat.

“Don’t speak, sweetie.” Dad said. “Don’t talk. I’ll get a nurse.” He left for a moment and came back with an elderly woman holding a clipboard.

“Good afternoon, Miss Jung.” She smiled gingerly at me. “How are you feeling today?” I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out of course. “Ah yes, your throat may be a little sore for a few days. They had to pump your stomach a lot.” She clicked her tongue disapprovingly but didn’t say anything else. She checked the machines and the half empty bag hanging beside me. “Well your vitals are good, Miss Jung. I’ll bring the doctor in to talk to you in just a moment.” She smiled again and walked out, bowing slightly at my parents.

“Jessica…” My mom whispered from her spot above me. I couldn’t dare look at her; I was so ashamed to look at anyone…

The door opened again and a man probably around the same age as my father looked at my parents and motioned for them to join him outside. They followed and I was left with Krystal and Yuri.

“Jessi, I’m so glad you’re okay…” Krystal wept, gripping my hand tightly. I couldn’t force the tears to stay in.

“You should have told me…” Yuri mumbled in a tight voice. “You should have called me or something… You should have talked to someone…”

I shook my head and closed my eyes, refusing to meet either of their eyes. God, I was so dumb… I really should have told someone. Instead I thought overdosing was a better idea. I wasn’t going to screw that up again. I was going to tell them everything. Well, maybe not everything… I wasn’t going to tell them about what happened when I died; the minutes I was in the so-called “In-Between”. I wasn’t even sure it was real. Was it just a dream? I looked down at my hands to find that winged tattoo on my wrist. It wasn’t a dream… I hid the tattoo from them. This wasn’t something I could tell them. They’d think I was crazy.

The door opened and my parents and the doctor came in. “Hello, Miss Jung.” He said. “My name is Doctor Young. How are you feeling?”

“She can’t talk.” My mom said.

“Ah yes, that is understandable. We had to make sure we got everything out. There was a lot.” He walked toward the same machines the nurse looked at. “Vitals are normal, that’s great to see. You seem to be healthy internally again. Your throat is going to be pretty sore for a bit. It’s probably best to talk as little as you can until it’s healed up all right. You’re really lucky to be alive right now. Your heart stopped for three minutes before we brought you back.” He sighed as though he were preparing himself for a big discussion. “Now, Miss Jung. Your parents say you intentionally overdosed on your prescription medication. By the look of you, there is definitely something going on. Do we need to call the police?”

The police?? Because I had tried to kill myself??? I shook my head in panic. I’m not going to try it again, I swear! God, I wished I could speak but it just hurt so much…

“Honey, this is very serious.” My mom said in near tears again. “Please, we need to report this!”

I was on the verge of crying again too. Were they going to arrest me for trying to kill myself?? Since when was that illegal??? I opened my mouth to beg but of course, nothing came out. Doctor Young pulled a notepad and pen out of his pocket and passed them to me. I thanked him with a nod of my head and wrote my message before handing it to my father.

“Please don’t, I promise I won’t do it again.” He read out loud. He gave me a questioning look. “We’re not talking about what you did, Sweetheart… We’re talking about whoever it was that… That…” He couldn’t say it.

“We discussed this earlier, Mister Jung.” Doctor Young said. “We checked and there was no sign of . But there is definitely enough to say an encounter did occur.”

I understood what this was about now. Did I show signs of being attacked? Was that hand mark still there? I waved to my dad to give me the notepad back and wrote again before handing it back to him.

“I was attacked by a man after work. He violated me but a man stopped him before anything else happened…” He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it to the corner. “Who did it?? He growled. “I’m going to ing find him and kill him.”

“Sir.” Doctor Young said calmly. “We will get to the bottom of this. First, we need Miss Jung to tell us if she wants to report it.”

“Of course she wants to report it!!!!!” Dad bellowed. “We’re going to report it!!!!”

“Honey…” Mom grabbed his arm soothingly.

“Miss Jung,” Doctor Young said, looking down at me. “Would you like for the police to be involved?”

I didn’t know what to say… I wanted this guy arrested and locked up! I found myself rubbing the new tattoo on my wrist and looked down at it. The blonde had told me my life was no longer mine; I was to live for whoever I was taking care of. Calling for an investigation would mean I would take up so much of my time talking with the police and going to court. As much as I wanted to say yes, I had to focus on other people’s problems, right?

I shook my head slowly. “What????” My dad shouted. “You’re not serious!!!???”

“Honey!” Mom pulled Dad to sit down now. “This is her decision. Let her make it! This is a big thing! She probably doesn’t want to be reminded of it ever again!” I nodded in agreement, thanking my mother for taking my side somewhat.

After a few minutes of my father mumbling complaints, Doctor Young spoke again. “Very well, Miss Jung. Now to another matter. I have contacted a psychiatrist to speak with you.” I looked at him in horror. “We cannot ignore the fact that you tried to commit suicide, Miss. I know just said you were not going to do it again, but we need to keep an eye on you. The psychiatrist will diagnose you after a few checkups and decide whether you need more attention. I hope you understand this.”

I knew I couldn’t object. Especially if I can’t even talk to object. Doctor Young smiled at me before speaking again. “You’ll be free to go later today. Your first appointment with Doctor Seo will be tomorrow. The nurse will give you the address. I hope I don’t see you soon, Miss Jung.” And then he left.

*****

I didn’t get any time alone when we got home. I tried to get Yuri to go back to school, but she skipped swim practice to keep me company and talk. She didn’t want to keep up the conversation about last night, so we avoided it. Well, she avoided it; I didn’t talk much at all. She was there when the doctor said I shouldn’t talk for a few days, so she totally understood. I love my best friend and my family.

Now, however, it was late and it was time to sleep. I wasn’t going to school or work tomorrow, but Krystal was and she made it clear that she was sleeping with me for who knows how long.

Krystal and I were hanging out in my bedroom watching TV. She was laying on her stomach with her feet by my head and her head closer to the TV. What I loved the most about my little sister was that we weren’t just sisters; we were best friends. She was the one person I could rely on. She was my rock. At that moment, she turned her head and caught me looking at her. She smiled at me and I nudged her with my bare foot.

“Am I that beautiful, Unnie?” She asked. I wanted to make a snarky remark, but I had grown used to the fact that I had to stay quiet and so did she. She sighed dramatically and flipped her hair. “I know, you’re jealous your little sis is more attractive.” I kicked her harder and laughed hoarsely. I readied myself to fire a comeback at her despite the throat pain.

“Hey girls.” Dad’s voice came from the doorway along with a soft knock on the door. “Mind if we come in?” Mom stepped into view behind him. I nodded and they walked in. “How are you feeling, Sweetheart?” He asked me as he sat on the bed. He pushed a lock of my hair out of my face and cupped my cheek. I nodded my head yes and he smiled down at me. He leaned in and kissed my forehead lovingly. “Don’t scare us like that again.”

“I’m sorry.” I whispered. Whispering was the only thing I could do that didn’t hurt. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“We should have turned around and seen you.” Mom said, taking my hand. She covered and turned her face away and I knew she was on the verge of crying again.

“Mom…” I whispered, squeezing her hand. “Please don’t cry… I’m so sorry…”

“I love you, Sooyeon.” She said, dropping onto the bed and hugging me tight. “I love you so much. Please, don’t ever do that again…”

“I won’t, I promise.” I said in her ear.

“We just wanted to come in and say goodnight.” Dad said, leaning down to kiss Krystal’s forehead. “We love you two so much.” He kissed me again and got up. Mom kissed Krystal and said her goodnights as well before leaving. Dad stopped at the doorway and ran his hand over the door.

“Oh, and we’re going to take down your door tomorrow.” He said. “Goodnight girls.” And he closed the door.

Take my door down? I’ll have no more privacy? I guess it makes sense for them to be cautious after last night.

A few minutes later, Krystal was ready to go lights out. She slid under the covers and turned the lights out. “Goodnight, Unnie.”

I turned to my side and wrapped my arm around her and squeezed. She held my arm so I wouldn’t let go.

“I love you, Unnie…” She whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here anymore…” Hearing Krystal’s heartbroken and cracking voice in the dark and quiet room got to me the most as I wiped my eyes dry quickly. “If you ever feel that way again, please just talk to me or someone else.”

“I promise.” I whispered. “I love you.”

I woke up with a tingly sensation down my body; I felt light. I let my eyes adjust to the dark before I got out of bed. I turned around to see my body still there with one arm above my head as usual. I’m not dead again am I? There’s no way I could be dead, I just went to sleep!

“You’re not dead.” A voice from behind me came. I turned around and the same blonde from before stepped forward. “You’re in the In-Between again.”

“Why am I in the In-Between again?” I asked. I had my voice back. Talking didn’t hurt and I could talk with my normal voice volume.

“What, did you expect me to leave you alone after the last time? You don’t even have your person.”

“Oh…” I forgot about that. “Okay, yeah.”

“So let’s go.”

“Go?” I asked. “Go where?”

“For a walk, calm down.” She stretched her hand out to me and winked. “I’m going to show you a little.”

I eyed her hand and then her face. “You know who I am, but I know nothing about you.”

She smiled at me. “My name is Kim Hyoyeon. I have been a Guardian for six years now. I had gotten pregnant in middle school and had an abortion and when everyone found out, I was so embarrassed that I hung myself. My mom found me and when I got better, we moved and I went to a different school and then I was assigned my first person.”

I was speechless. I wasn’t even and I thought it was the worst thing ever. This girl went through much worse…

“This isn’t a competition.” Hyoyeon said, shrugging. “People do what they do for different reasons but it all makes us better in the end, doesn’t it? Especially now. Can we go on that walk now?”

I nodded and she smiled at me then we were outside. No walking had been involved in this trip to the streets, just one second we were both in my bedroom and the next… we weren’t.

“How did you do that?” I asked, spinning around to take in my surroundings. We were in the road of some neighborhood I’d never been to before.

“There’s a lot of things you’ll soon find out us Guardians can do.” Hyoyeon said. She nudged her head forward and started walking. I caught up with her and kept her pace. “When you’re in the In-Between, you can do a lot with a little practice. Think of where you need to go or who you need to go to and you’ll get there.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” Hyoyeon said. “But remember that it’s just your spirit going, not you. If you need to go somewhere and do something really physical then you gotta go in the real world, not in the In-Between.”

“What do you mean by really physical?”

“You’ll figure that out.” Hyoyeon smirked.

The walk was quiet for a bit as I thought about that. We turned a corner on the road and walked down a road lined with small businesses now. “Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to your first person.” Hyoyeon said, searching the dark street.

“Already?” I asked. “But I can’t even talk right now. How am I supposed to help someone when I’m still recovering?”

“I’m not telling you to start now.” Hyoyeon said. “I’m just showing you who you’ll be working with. To give you some time to see what you’re dealing with and how to deal with it.”

“How to deal with it?” I questioned.

“Some people you have to help differently. Sometimes it’s best to deal with them as a friend, sometimes like a sister or a mother, and sometimes you have to just take care of them from a distance. Like right now, I’m assisting an older guy who’s been down on his luck for a while already from a distance. I’m staying a stranger to him and occasionally I’ll make an insignificant appearance in his life to give him a little… push. You know what I mean?” I had no clue what she meant, but I nodded. “Ah, here we are!” Hyoyeon exclaimed, clapping her hands together in relief and looking further in front of us.

I looked ahead of us to see a dark figure on the sidewalk. I couldn’t see anything and the figure was getting further away from us. But then we were right beside them. Hyoyeon must have jumped us closer. The person wore a blue plaid jacket with a hoodie covering their face, a black graphic t-shirt, and black skinny jeans. They were riding a skateboard and pushed off from the ground, gaining speed and flying past us. Hyoyeon started jogging to keep up and I figured I should do the same.

“Who is this?” I asked as I caught up with Hyoyeon and the stranger.

“You’ll see!” Hyoyeon said.

It was a couple of minutes of jogging by this hooded figure until they stopped and kicked the board’s end up before lifting it into their arms. They turned into an alleyway and I stopped cold when Hyoyeon turned to join. She stopped and turned around to look at me.

She raised her hand up toward me and smiled. “It’s okay, Jessica. You’re safe.”

I hesitated, watching the figure walk deeper into the alley.

“I said shut up, !”

I took a step away from the alley, the memory of the night before still clear in my head.

“You’re safe.” Hyoyeon said soothingly. “I promise.”

I looked down at her hand and back up at her understanding expression. She actually understood what I was going through right now. No one else would, but she did. And she was telling me it was okay.

I took a deep breath and grabbed her hand. She led me into the dark alleyway slowly, following the figure who had stopped farther in. We watched as the person jumped onto the garbage can and pull the fire escape ladder down before they climbed it and knocked on the window at the top. The window slid open and a voice came from inside.

“Kid, I thought you weren’t gonna make it!”

“When do I ever miss a party, Key?” It was a girl’s voice that came from the hooded person. She climbed in and they closed the window.

I turned to eye Hyoyeon questioningly and she just raised an eyebrow at me. And then we were in a room. The girl in the plaid jacket was sitting in the middle of a couch with two scrawny looking guys on either side of her and a few other guys were sitting on the floor or recliner. The room was smoky looking and smelled strongly of weed.

“Damn, you guys started without me??” The girl said, reaching her hand toward the guy on the recliner who was blowing out a bunch of smoke.

“We didn’t think you were coming.” He said as he passed the joint to her.

“You know I am always down for a smoke.” She put the joint in . She was very young looking, maybe around seventeen or eighteen years old with very light brown long hair.

“This is Kim Taeyeon.” Hyoyeon said beside me. “She’s twenty years old and goes to the same university as you. As you can see, she’s not exactly the cleanest girl in the school. She’s high almost every day, drinks every week, and has recently started taking ecstasy during big parties. Obviously, that’s already bad.” I nodded, watching her in more smoke. This girl looked so innocent, it was weird seeing her smoking. “Now the bigger problem now and why we need to hurry up and have someone looking after her is that her clock changed a couple of days ago and it now says she’s going to try at some point the near future.”

I swirled my head to look at Hyoyeon. “??” She nodded. “What do you mean by her clock changed?”

“Everyone has a clock on them. It tells of the events in a person’s life. What they did, what they are going to do, stuff like that. But it changes all the time depending on the choices they make or whatever happens to them and sometimes those things drastically change whether or not they need a Guardian Angel to pay more attention to them. Taeyeon, for example, has made a huge decision sometime in the past week that has caused her to want to try and that has made her clock a lot shorter.”

“So it’s saying she’s going to die sooner?” I asked.

“It doesn’t exactly mean dying sooner, but it does mean her life will be screwed.” Hyoyeon said. “That’s why we need you to be her Guardian. We need that clock to go back to saying she won’t do the drug.”

“Wouldn’t you want to get someone else more… experienced than me to do this one? This one seems like a job for someone more qualified…”

“It’s not like she’s going to take it tomorrow.” Hyoyeon said. “Plus, why not start you off with a hard one? It’ll help you get into the groove faster, I say?”

A door behind the smoking group opened and a dark brown haired girl walked in. “Taeyeon?” She said, looking at the back of the Taeyeon’s head. Taeyeon turned around and saw her and smiled.

“Hey, hot stuff.” She said as the girl wrapped her arms around Taeyeon from behind. “I didn’t know you were coming.” She pulled the joint out of Taeyeon’s hand and put it to . When she pulled it out of , she leaned down closer to Taeyeon’s face and lightly pressed her lips to hers. I watched as thick white smoke trickled out from the small gaps between their mouth and they started kissing.

“Great, so I’m being assigned a lesbian.” I sighed. “How ironic. I took those pills because of all the crap I get from being accused of being a lesbian, and now I have to take care of one.”

“It’s fitting, don’t you think?” Hyoyeon hummed, smiling amusedly. I watched as the two kissed a little longer before the dark haired girl pulled away and climbed over the couch to grab a slice of pizza from the coffee table.

“Well that’s pretty much it for now.” Hyoyeon sighed and we were back in my room with me and Krystal still sleeping. “Now you know what you’re working with. So watch her, study her, figure out what you should do while you’re still recovering, and then take action, got it?” I nodded slowly. “Any questions?”

“If there’s a clock on everyone, why was no one watching over me? Didn’t you see my death coming?”

Hyoyeon let out a long breath. “Jessica, I did check up on you every once in a while; it was my job to do so. But your suicide wasn’t on your clock until the moment you left that café. And when I saw it, there was nothing I could do; it was already too late. You didn’t get my full attention because you were always perfectly fine on the clock. You were bullied, yeah, but your life was good and your clock was clean. Like I said, some things drastically change the clock.”

She grabbed my shoulder and squeezed tightly and comfortingly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to help you, but you’re here now, right? And now you get to help people not make stupid decisions and ruin their life.”

“Yeah… Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I said, looking down at the two figures on the bed. Krystal had moved to sleep on her stomach with one arm draped over my body and the other hanging from the bed.

“Go ahead and sleep peacefully now. You’ve got long days ahead of you. Play around with your new abilities, it’s fun as hell. You’ve got a couple of hours of moonlight left.”

“A couple???” I exclaimed, looking at the clock which read 5:00 AM. “We were only gone for like an hour!”

Hyoyeon had a big and stupid grin on her face when she spoke this time. “Time is very flexible in the In-Between. Sleep tight, Jessica.” She started to turn around but stopped to look at me again. “And don’t stress out over the counselor tomorrow. Doctor Young knows what he’s doing.” And then she was gone again.

 

 

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I'm late on this update because I have been really busy lately. I will be able to announce the reason soonish so look forward to the blog about it XD Not to mention I have two jobs at the moment and I just turned 21 a few days ago!!! Haha So exciting huh?? I'm old!! XD

What'd you think of this chapter? Jessica knows who Taeyeon is now! Sunny is the friend that pulled Taeyeon away from Tiffany in the first chapter and now you know the blonde is Hyoyeon! It was kind of half and half between my readers with some of you thinking it was Hyoyeon and others thinking it was Yoona. Fear not, Yoona will in fact be in this story! I'll try and add all SNSD members but I'm definitely going to have other idols from other groups too! Any certain people you want to make a cameo??? Obviously, TOP is in there and I've already added some male idols. But to be honest, I don't even know most of these male idols. I really only listen to Big Bang and 2PM when it comes to boy groups XD

What do you think of Taeyeon's troubling future??? Better yet, what do you think of the plot? Hopefully Jessica can keep Taeyeon from making the biggest mistake of her life!

Shout out to Jisoo for being a lesbian! I thought her cameo was just absolutely perfect XD Maybe you'll see her again except physically? Haha! I'm horrible... XD No hate though <3

Captain out! <3

8/23/2015