10

He’d rather kill himself than to hurt one of his friends ever again. And what was even worst… this was the second time he hurt one of them.

“I’m going to leave town…” he said in a shaking voice and turned away.

“No you can’t!” Taeyang’s voice stopped him.

“Why not?” he asked without even looking at him.

“You did this to me… you’re responsible!” Taeyang muttered passing by him in a low confidence.

Although this couldn’t be read as a friendship gesture, Daesung felt like he just had received back his wings; a sudden warmth covered his body making him smile shyly, but he choked it down when Taeyang’s eyes met his.

***

Senseless whispers tickled her ears but the unfamiliar smell forced her to keep her eyes shut at least until she could understand them.

Seunghyun stared at her while playing with the red ruby necklace. He detached the ruby from it and put out the cigarette he was smoking.

“Where did you get this from?” he asked all of a sudden.

Jiyong looked at him with big eyes, then he checked on the girl who hadn’t moved move at all.

“Who you’re talking to?” he asked in a low voice.

Seunghyun locked the ruby in his palm and walked up to the bed.

“I asked you a question” he said again, but the girl wouldn’t move.

“Hyung…” Ji said reaching for Seunghyun’s sleeve, but before he could touch it, Seunghyun pushed him away creating a one foot gap between them where the white blanket flew in with the girl following it. They both loudly landed on the floor. Some reedy dishonoring words quickly made their way up. In less than a blink of an eye, the girl caught the really big, expensive vase from the nightstand near the bed.

“If you get any closer…” she shouted but couldn’t find something as menacing as she would’ve wanted. “… I’ll hit you!” was all she could’ve come up with.

Seunghyun calmly stretched to reach something.

“I’ll scream!” she shouted taking a step back. “Don’t come any closer!...”

“Ok” Seunghyun said, “but first put this on…” he waved her blouse.

“Huh??” she quickly said. A short look down made her drop the vase in an instant and catch the blouse Seunghyun threw with a soft smile. She got dressed   sooner than one second, but when she had to get it over her wounded shoulder she whined and puffed never knowing it could hurt so bad.

The boys waited silently for her. When she was done zipping up, she took a deep breath and without any other warnings she started screaming from the top of her lungs.

“Miss, please! Miss…” Ji tried to make her stop, but she would just scream louder and louder with any movement he made. This didn’t last for long. She just got to scream twice or third times before Seunghyun caught her face in his palms. His big black eyes returned her back to last night with the pain becoming even greater.

Her hands mechanically got over his, ready to take action.

“Where do you have this from?” he asked  calmly, but firmly.

He was waiting for another out of the blue reaction, when she simply fainted, gliding away slowly.

“Watch it!” Ji said rushing to catch her, but instead she caught him. She quickly grabbed his arm, twisted it at his back and one kick in his bottom sent him flying towards Seunghyun. She ran to the door. Right before she would touch the handle she yelled again when she almost touched Seunghyun’s hand.

“How the…” she would’ve ask if she could’ve find the words. She rolled her eyes a little just to see one Jiyong as surprised as she was.

“Please, you must understand it’s really dangerous to carry this around” Seunghyun said opening up his left palm to reveal the ruby.

“Oh my God… It was you…” she barely whispered.

“M… me?” he shuddered so badly that he couldn’t react anymore, not even when she pushed him away and ran out the door.

“Hyung, are you ok?” Ji rushed to help him stand.