« chapter five »

•••

“Oh my god.” The initial disbelief soon became fear, and Lisa was petrified in her spot. She whimpered with terror. “Junhwe.”

Her brain was working at a thousand miles an hour, her mind processing too many things at once, but it was only when Junhwe started walking forward, the smile disappearing ominously, that her body finally began to respond.

“Come on, come on, come on!” she whispered urgently, dragging Chaeyoung back from the door where she had also been frozen. With a fearful glance toward the street, she realized that Junhwe had sped up and—and he was almost at the door.

Lisa slammed the door shut and hurriedly began clicking the locks into place, her heart hammering in her chest, and jumped only when there was a thud against the door. Not giving herself time to think what that meant, she sprinted around the living room, making sure the windows were locked.

There was a knock at the door, suddenly, and Lisa stopped in spite of herself. There was something off about knocking in this situation. More banging against the door—that was expected. Formal, respectful knocking—not so expected.

“Rosé?” The voice was low, smooth, and calm, and it was completely out of place in the situation. Lisa suddenly preferred the way he had entered in her nightmare—as terrifying and unfavorable as it was, at least he had been direct, none of this uncomfortable formality and calmness.

“Rosé, I’m here.” More knocking. “Sweetheart, didn’t you miss me?” he crooned.

Lisa felt like she was going to be sick, so she jumped back into action, locking down the last few windows.

“Don’t worry, that old isn’t here anymore, she won’t be able keep us apart now ...”

There was a loud crack behind her, and Lisa whipped around, a pang of panic hitting her. She only saw that Chaeyoung had backed away from the door, though, and suddenly Lisa didn’t want to find out what had caused the sound.

“You’re still there, aren’t you?” Junhwe called. “Why don’t you come out?” He stopped suddenly, as if coming to a realization. “Is your friend stopping you?” His voice was deathly smooth, and a shiver ran down Lisa’s spine. Suddenly, there was a loud bang as Junhwe slammed his fist against the door. “Let her out!”

Lisa, now sure that all the windows were locked, reached Chaeyoung, who turned to Lisa in panic. “What can we—what do we do?” she whispered. “He wants to—he will ki—”

There was another bang against the door, and they both jumped. “Jisoo’s room,” Lisa said quietly after a moment’s thought. That was the farthest room in the house—it was only after reaching Lisa’s room that the hallway to Jisoo’s became visible.

But before they had even passed the kitchen, the lights went out, and the house became unnaturally quiet, the only sound being their own heartbeats.

Uneasily, Lisa glanced at the digital clock on the oven, and it confirmed Lisa’s fear—the power had been cut. They ran the rest of the way to Jisoo’s room, and Lisa turned the lock on the bedroom door just as something shattered. A window.

A strange feeling washed over her, as if she had known this was going to happen, and suddenly a memory flashed through her mind—the memory that had, subconsciously, made Lisa confirm that the windows were all locked.

“I was at a friend’s house for a party, but when I came home all the windows were shattered, and the door was wide open.”

Quickly pushing it out of her mind, Lisa locked the bedroom door behind them, knowing that it would buy them only minimal time. Junhwe was already in the house, and there weren’t that many rooms once he realized they weren’t in the living room or kitchen.

They backed away to the far side of the room, sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the bed so that they weren’t visible from the doorway. Peeking out from where they were hiding, Lisa caught sight of Jisoo’s dresser, and a more alarming realization dawned upon her.

“The phones won’t work,” she breathed out, not willing to believe it. The wireless phone was in its usual spot on Jisoo’s dresser; it was one of the four in the house, but it was the only one they would have been able to use at the moment.

Next to her, she heard Chaeyoung gasp. “I dropped my cell phone by the door ... what about—”

“No,” Lisa cut her off. She sighed. “I didn’t bring mine out of my room.”

A sudden crash captured their attention again, and Lisa guessed that he was in the process of trashing the house. She was slightly comforted that he was wasting time in doing so—then she realized that they had no way of contacting help, so more time was useless.

“Lalisa?” Junhwe suddenly called out. Lisa stiffened. “You’re the one keeping me from Rosé?”

Lisa noticed that his voice was still faint and unclear, and took hope from the fact that he was still far from Jisoo’s room.

A few minutes passed in an uneasy silence, neither Lisa nor Chaeyoung willing to move even a muscle. Suddenly, there was another loud crash, and Lisa could only guess what had been knocked over.

“ this!” Junhwe yelled out suddenly, his voice startlingly close to Jisoo’s room. His footsteps, previously silent, were clearly audible now as they disappeared down the hallway, away from where they were hiding.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, please. Lisa prayed for a miracle.

And, as if answering her prayers, she heard the faint echoes of sirens in the distance.

«•••»

At first they had been too scared to move from their hiding spot, and now they were too relieved to actually get up. That’s how the officers found them—Lisa with her back against the wall, and Chaeyoung with her head resting on Lisa’s shoulder.

Before the two could get up, another person pushed through the group of officers at the door, a flash of a bright red coat making Lisa’s eyes light up in recognition.

“Lisa? Chaeyoung?”

“Jisoo!” Lisa was so relieved, so happy just seeing Jisoo, she wanted to cry.

Jisoo ran toward them so fast in the small space that she almost tripped, and now off-balance, she fell to her knees in front of them. She took note of their faces, their arms, checking for injuries, her lips pressed together tightly. Finally, she sighed in relief. “Oh my god, you’re both okay.” She was holding back tears, but she sniffled suddenly, and the dam broke. “Oh my god, I was so scared, you two—why did I leave you two alone?” She began crying softly, pulling Lisa and Chaeyoung closer into a hug.

None of the officers disturbed them.

«•••»

It was pure coincidence that Jisoo had come home right when Junhwe was breaking the windows with his crowbar, and complete brilliance that she had avoided detection, parking farther down the street and staying in her car to call the police. The few nail-biting minutes that she had to spend waiting in the car, Jisoo had to resist the urge to run to the house and see what was going on, but the police arrived before anything happened. Though Junhwe had gotten away, Lisa and Chaeyoung were okay.

The living room and kitchen had been completely ransacked—the sofas were overturned, the TV was torn from the wall, and the kitchen drawers were all opened, their contents tossed around the room. While the detective on Chaeyoung’s case was called in to talk to the two girls, Jisoo was taken to the police station to file a formal report of the break in, and a few of the other officers helped restore the room to its original state.

“We’ve been unable to reach your parents for some reason,” Detective Park commented as he entered the now rearranged room, taking a seat on the sofa across from the one where Lisa and Chaeyoung were sitting. The sofa he sat on had a long slash running across the back cushions.

Chaeyoung frowned. “They should be home, though ...”

Detective Park immediately reassured her, “I’m sure they’re fine, but we’ve sent out a few officers to head to your house and make sure.” He cleared his throat. “In the meantime, I feel that it would actually be better to begin discussing this matter with you two, if that’s all right?” Glancing at Lisa, he explained, “I think Chaeyoung can use your support, rather than me talking to her alone.”

Lisa nodded, her hand naturally finding Chaeyoung’s and gripping it tightly.

The detective continued. “Since you two were able to identify Junhwe, we contacted Australian officials and received his case files. Based on information from the airline he used, Junhwe arrived in Korea only last Wednesday—he vandalized Chaeyoung’s house on his third night in Korea.”

He looked around the room again; despite the attempt to temporarily restore it, some damage remained. “This is almost a replica of the state Chaeyoung’s house in Australia was left in the night of her grandmother’s murder,” he said, “so we think this might be a process for him. He enters through the windows, trashes the house, and leaves through the door. Then again, it may be too soon to say—this is only the second case.”

“Only the second case,” Lisa repeated. No way. “So you expect there to be more?”

“Unfortunately,” was his reply.

Over the next few hours, the three of them discussed multiple ways to handle the situation, from having them sent out of Seoul secretly to installing an officer in the dance academy to act as a friend. None of them sounded reasonable—leaving Seoul meant finding another residence, school, and job, which was too expensive, while none of the officers had the dancing background necessary to enroll at the dance academy.

When Lisa was about to suggest that they first think of where to stay that night since the house was no longer secure, an officer burst into the room. “Hey, Chanyeol?” he called. Detective Park looked up. “We got the parents on the line.”

The detective stood up. “Why didn’t they answer earlier?” he demanded.

“Apparently the power was cut there too, so they’d been at a neighbor’s house. They had forgotten their phones at home, and only went back to get them when they realized Chaeyoung hadn’t come back yet.”

Detective Park huffed in annoyance. “That was it?” He shook his head, exasperated. “Call the team back from there, they won’t need protection right now. You two, on the other hand ...” He sighed. “If we can figure out a way to keep you both under constant surveillance without making it obvious ...”

When another officer called him away to show him something, Lisa turned to Chaeyoung.

“How the hell do they plan on making constant surveillance unnoticeable? I mean if it’s constant, then—”

“Video cameras?” Chaeyoung laughed belatedly at how illogical the idea was. “Or those bugs that record everything, but with a video feature?”

Lisa shook her head, but she was smiling. “I think today went to your head,” she said with mock seriousness. “You need sleep, Chaeyoung.”

Though she had meant it as a joke, she didn’t realize just how exhausted she was, and her eyes eventually, slowly, closed of their own accord. Lisa had been almost asleep when she heard the door open, and she jerked awake instinctively before she realized it was only Detective Park.

“Sorry about that,” he said, noticing her jumpiness. Unable to restrain herself, she grumbled in annoyance, still half asleep. “Anyway, we were discussing a plan, but we’ll need to run it by you first.”

“A plan?” Lisa asked, her voice slightly cracking. She needed water. Shaking her bangs out of her eyes, she cleared . “To keep a watch on us, right?”

“Right,” Detective Park confirmed. “It requires a bit of acting though, especially on your part,” he said, gesturing to her.

Her brow lightly furrowed in confusion. “Acting?”

“We were thinking—” He suddenly cut himself off and turned toward the door. “Chen, get in here!” Though the sudden yell made her jump, the detective didn’t seem to notice.

A few seconds later, another man stepped inside. He was wearing casual clothing like Detective Park, but he was quite a bit shorter, with an overall smaller build. His annoyance at the detective was seeping through with just his gaze, but he pushed those feelings aside to respectfully greet the girls.

“Detective Jongdae Kim,” he said with a small bow. “But there are too many people that go by Detective Kim, so you can call me Chen.”

“Anyway,” Detective Park continued, “We were thinking that it would be ideal if we,” he said, pointing to Lisa and himself, “were to act as a couple. It would give me an excuse to always be around, and since I think I’m right in assuming that you and Chaeyoung are close friends, I’ll be able to monitor her as well.”

This was nuts.

Lisa took a deep breath, restraining a laugh. “So we,” she repeated seriously, mimicking Detective Park’s earlier gestures, “act as a couple.”

“Right,” he replied.

“So that you can keep a watch on both of us.”

“Yep.”

“And Detective Chen?”

“I’ll be the brains,” interjected Detective Chen, stopping Detective Park from whatever he was about to reply. “Since Chanyeol will be on the scene, he can’t give away that he’s undercover ... I’ll be listening through an earpiece so that help is always ready in case of an emergency.”

“Right,” Lisa said, nodding slowly. It added up, of course. They were detectives, so she didn’t doubt them about the plan. Besides, Detective Park was definitely attractive, in his late twenties at the oldest, and it was just acting. Logically, this should work.

But that still didn’t make Lisa comfortable with the idea of acting as a couple.

•••

Author’s Note:

I KNOW THIS IS SHORTER THAN USUAL, ME IS SORRY *waves white flag of surrender* but rereading the last chapter, i kinda felt bad about the cliffhanger ... so ... i just wanted to get this out fast since school is starting again. *cough* you’re welcome *cough*

also, if you see me updating previous chapters, it’s to fix grammar errors and stuff since apparently i can’t English ... -_- why am i like this

~ thana