“Donghae? What are you doing here?”

Ryeowook wandered over to Donghae who was sitting on the steps of Sungmin’s porch. Donghae tensed when he saw Ryeowook, faking a smile and although Ryeowook noticed his friend’s weird behaviour, he pretended to act indifferent about it.

“I… Uh… I wanted to talk to Sungmin.” Donghae admitted to Ryeowook, “But his mum said that he wasn’t in. What… What about you?”

“Me too.” Ryeowook answered, “Do you know what time he’ll be back?”

“Yeah, I just called him. He’s on his way back.” Donghae then scooted and gestured for Ryeowook to take a seat next to him.

Ryeowook obliged and the both of them fell into an awkward silence. Ryeowook found it weird since ever since Ryeowook got back from New York, Donghae had been always so talkative and friendly, always being the first one to start a conversation with Ryeowook every time they came across each other. Now, Donghae was just acting… Weird. He looked distracted and his dark eyes were darting everywhere except Ryeowook.

“I know who stole Eunhyuk’s wallet.” Ryeowook blurted out, wanting to get rid of the awkward silence.

At the mention of Eunhyuk’s name, Donghae went poker-faced and asked in a flat tone, “Who is it?”

“H.” Ryeowook replied and then continued, “I… I went to The Busy Bean and I asked Ahra, Kyuhyun's sister, if I could look at the CCTV footages.”

This seemed to finally attracted Donghae’s full attention as he turned to look at Ryeowook curiously and Ryeowook continued, “I saw you and Eunhyuk entering and when you guys were about to leave, Eunhyuk left his wallet on the table. H walked into the café a few minutes later and it was wearing a black hoodie and it took Eunhyuk’s wallet. When it was about to leave… I don’t know how but… It had a mask that looked like Heechul’s face. It was creepy and…”

“Heechul’s face? That’s strange…”

Ryeowook then continued, “I think H knew that one of us would look into the CCTV footages.”

“Why did you say that?”

Ryeowook then told Donghae how H looked right into the camera and then drew the letter H in the air. Donghae then told Ryeowook of everything that had happened earlier on in the day from his and Sungmin’s unfortunate bump into Jessica and Krystal and how he and Sungmin tried to chase H at the bakery earlier. Ryeowook’s body shook as he listened to Donghae recalling how H tried to hurt Sungmin and how Sungmin mentioned that H had on a mask that looked exactly like Heechul too.

“Do you think it was the same person?” Ryeowook shuddered, just thinking of how creep that mask looked.

“It had to be.” Donghae responded and then pulled out something from his pocket. He handed it to Ryeowook and pointed at Heechul who was wearing a red coat in the picture and making silly faces at the camera in the rain. “That’s not all. Look at this. Heechul was wearing a red coat. It looks like the same red coat the one who saved Sungmin was wearing.”

Ryeowook’s mouth fell open, “What do you mean? That… That… it could have been… Heechul?”

“But Donghae…. Heechul’s… Dead.”

“I know! I.. I just found it weird… Maybe it was just a coincidence but what if it’s not? What if it was really Heechul?”

“Hae… Heechul’s dead body was found at the back of his house.” Ryeowook reminded, “It… The person in red coat couldn’t have been him.”

Donghae looked like he was about to argue back but then sighed and ran his hands over his face. “You’re right. It couldn’t have been Heechul. I just… I just thought that maybe… He could still be… Alive.”

Ryeowook brought his hands up and rubbed the back of Donghae’s shoulders. Ryeowook swallowed roughly, understanding perfectly how Donghae was feeling at the moment. There were so many times that he had the same thought as well, still in doubt of Heechul’s death and waiting for that very moment for Heechul to barge in back into his life.

“Ryeowook,” Donghae called, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to change the subject. “You… You weren’t in school today… Are you… Are you okay?”

 “Oh… Yeah.”  Ryeowook answered, eyes suddenly glistering at the thought of having to return home later to face his parents.

“Were you… Were you feeling unwell?”

“Kind of.” Ryeowook lied.

Donghae stared at Ryeowook for a long time, his eyes gleaming with so many different uncertain emotions. “Wookie… I… There’s something… I’ve to tell-”

“Hey Donghae, sorry for making you wait for long.”

Ryeowook and Donghae shifted their heads to Sungmin, heading towards them. Sungmin tilted his head in confusion at Ryeowook but smiled at him nonetheless. For someone who had just been attacked by a total stranger, Sungmin kind of looked… Fine and even a little cheerful? And… Ryeowook could have sworn, something about Sungmin made him looked like he was kind of glowing?

“Hey Ryeowook, how are you?” Sungmin asked, worriedly. “Are you still sick?”

Ryeowook shook his head. “I heard about what happened earlier with H… Are you okay?”

Sungmin gave Ryeowook a reassuring nod, “I’m better now.”

“That’s good.” Ryeowook sighed a breath of relief. “I… Uh… Actually, I came here to talk to you about H.”

“Me too.” Donghae added.

Sungmin strongly nodded, his eyes travelling from Ryeowook to Donghae as he gave them a determined look. “I think it’s time we really sat down together and try to figure out who this H really is before H ruin our lives for good.”

 “This is Heechul’s handwriting.”

Ryeowook and Sungmin both said at the same time, confirming that the letter Donghae had found was indeed written by Heechul. Both of them however had no clue to whose handwriting the other one belonged to. After Ryeowook had told everything about what he had seen from the CCTV footages and Donghae’s suspicion about the red coat being similar to Heechul’s, Donghae showed both Sungmin and Ryeowook the note he had found.

“Was it H? Could it be that Heechul received messages from H before he died?” Ryeowook suggested timidly.

“And what the hell is N.E.W? Tell you in N.E.W? And who was he writing this to?” Sungmin frowned, forehead creasing.

“Do you think… Do you think whoever the person was… He or she was trying to tell Heechul to tell us about H?” Donghae asked and then read out a sentence in the letter, “I think it’s time you tell the others.”

“And Heechul didn’t want to because H