Nam Eun Kyung camped out in her favorite café, her text books spread out before her. She drank her chocolatey drink in gulps, scratching the nape of her neck every so often, a tic that had been developed while studying.

She kept one earbud in, her favorite SPEED songs on replay. They kept her sane while she attempted to get ahead on her studies.

A body fell into the chair before her. Eun Kyung choked on her drink, coughing. She gawked at the woman sitting before her.

The woman had dyed black hair cropped short. So short, in fact, that Eun Kyung could see her scalp clearly in some parts. It stuck up in a thousand different directions as if someone had taken an angry pair of scissors to them.

Her eyes were wide, wild, with dark purple bags underneath and haphazardly applied eyeliner on her lids. Her lips were bright red, contrasting with her pasty, yellowing skin. Her nails were bitten short, cuticles showing glaring signs of abuse. She dressed baggy, her clothes several sizes too big for her wiry frame.

“B-Blood Rose unnie?”

“Shh!” the woman hissed. She tried Eun Kyung with her gaze. Something in it made her skin prickle nervously.

“Are you still doing it?” she asked. When Eun Kyung didn’t reply, she pounded the table with an angry fist. “Hey! Did you give up so soon? What happened to your so called love? Huh!”

Eun Kyung felt her cheeks heat up, the shame consuming her alive. Slowly, eyes fixed on them, she gathered up her notebooks.

“Hey! Did you really give up?”

“I couldn’t do it,” Eun Kyung whispered.

She reached out, snatching her notebook out of her hand. “Did you get caught? If you don’t get caught there’s no problem!”

Eun Kyung reclaimed her notebook with some difficulty, shoving it in her bag. “What you do is wrong. I must have lost my senses when I listened to you.”

“I do it out of love!”

“Love?” Eun Kyung sneered. “That’s not love. Intruding in their lives the way you do, following them every minute of every day, waiting for them outside their homes, all while letting your own life fall to pieces, that’s not love.”

Blood Rose glared. “Who do you think you are to be talking to me this way? You’re nothing but a snotty high school kid! Without me, you would still be nothing! All those moments in which Zico’s hyung noticed you, I’m the one responsible for them!”

“His name is Woo Taewoon! And I don’t need to stalk him to be noticed!”

People were starting to give them strange looks now, muttering amongst themselves. Eun Kyung, still in her school uniform, wished to avoid unwanted attention. She’d been in enough trouble for the solitary month in which she’d attempted to intrude in Taewoon’s personal life.

Her grades had slipped terribly, dropping from the top ten students to the last fifty. Her mother always yelled at her for it, as if grades were the most important thing in the world, as if being the top student would make her happy. It had become especially bad once she started skipping school altogether.

Eun Kyung had achieved being noticed only once by Taewoon. He spent so much time inside the company, his studio, or home that she never really did manage to accomplish anything. The one time Taewoon had noticed her was when he sent her home.

The preoccupation on his face had so broken her heart, Eun Kyung had abandoned such unhealthy foolishness. She could not bring herself to continue knowing that she could be contributing to his hardships.

She’d become a healthy fan, started everything properly and supported him from afar. She’d blocked Blood Rose’s number, and when she’d found different ways to get to her, she’d changed her number and KakaoTalk ID completely.

Eun Kyung felt ashamed and foolish for ever having listened to Blood Rose. She should have known better from how her fansite had been boycotted and her name blacklisted. There had been so many telling aspects that should have made Eun Kyung turn tail and run. But she had been desperately crushing on Taewoon, so she had listened and allowed Blood Rose to egg her on.

“I have to go.”

“Why? Do you have an exam? Is that what you’re doing now?” Blood Rose cackled. “Have you gone back to being the good daughter your parents wanted? What ever will you accomplish like that? You need to place yourself front and center!”

Blood Rose took her by the wrist, pulling her arm hard. “You think he will notice you if you’re a good kid?”

Eun Kyung snatched her hand away, stepping away, afraid by the crazed glaze that clouded her eyes. “What I do with my life is none of your business. Leave me alone. Leave him alone. Leave all of us alone. Worry about your own life.

“Just look at you. Do you even have a place to stay? I bet you’re bumming off others. If you came to ask for money, I won’t give you anything.”

“This !”

Blood Rose slammed the table as she stood. Eun Kyung felt the damp, icy stickiness of her drink splash against her face, drenching her white uniform, running down her grey skirt. People gasped, some raised their phones to take photographs.

“Don’t take pictures,” Eun Kyung warned, her voice steely. “I’m underage and a student. I will be sure to sue anyone that posts videos or pictures online.”

“Bragging about your affluent background, are you?” Blood Rose said. “It’s because of rich s like you that the rest of us are looked down upon. What good is all that money if you don’t use it properly? If I had that much money—”

“You would do what? Buy expensive cameras? Hire better cabs to tailgate? One of these days, you will get in so much trouble, unnie,” she spat the word, making it more of an insult than a term of endearing respect. “You’ll cause him more harm than anyone else. And I hope you regret it for the rest of your life. People like you, you have no humanity left in you.”

Blood Rose screamed. She dug her hands in her hair, pulling chunks out. The craziness that Eun Kyung had noticed before became undeniable. An evil, dark premonition prickled her mind, ran chillingly down her spine.

She turned.

“Just you wait! I’ll prove all of you wrong! He will notice me!”

Eun Kyung gulped. She kept walking, leaving the crazy ex-fansite master behind. Somehow, she felt the need to warn them. But, as only a fan, there was not much she could do. Worry chewed at her stomach.

She had to warn them. She had to say something. She had to.

Eun Kyung wondered if the police would listen. Changing direction, she hurried down to the nearest station. It was worth a shot.

Right?