By the time Monday morning had dawned bright and sunny, Hana had made up her mind. She was going to take Sehun’s warning seriously. She would not indulge herself in ‘snooping around’ and ‘involve herself in things that don’t concern her’ from now on, as he had been kind enough to point out last night. But what pissed her most was the fact that, someone like Sehun had to warn her, when she was normally the kind of person who minded her own business. Deciding that she would never ever get friendly with those weirdos ever again, she got ready for uni. Just as she was walking to the bus terminal, her phone started ringing.

“Chan Woo, oppa!” She greeted happily, having checked the caller ID before picking up the call.

“Mind if I pick you up? I’m going to one of my friend’s place which is nearby your uni. I can drop you off before I go.” Chan Woo offered.

Hana contemplated for a while. She was slightly running late to be honest and definitely  the car would help her turn up at uni much faster than the public transport, which never seemed to break it’s city speed limits even under dire circumstances.

“Thanks oppa.” She said gratefully. After telling him where she was standing, she hung up, waiting for him to arrive.

“Why are you going around in this car? I thought you were on your way to visit a friend or something?” Hana asked, a disapproving tone in her voice. Much to her displeasure, Chan Woo picked her up in his on-duty car. Whenever they stopped at signal, people would give her curious looks, since she looked like she had been arrested for wrong doing. What made everything worse was the fact that Chan Woo himself was wearing his uniform, complete with his cap and his badge. She had no choice but to sulk and hide her face with her hair so that no one would recognize her.

“I’m on duty, Hana.” Chan Woo chuckled at the obvious discomfort she was displaying. He reached over and ruffled her hair playfully. “Relax, will you?”

“But you said you are on your way to see a friend of yours?” Hana pressed.

“Yeah, I am.” Chan Woo said with a sigh. He ran a hand over his neatly combed hair in frustration. “He was attacked last night.”

“What do you mean attacked?” Hana asked, instantly becoming serious.

“He was walking back home last night after work and he felt like someone was following him. the next thing he knew, he was being pinned to the ground by someone. He screamed for help and thankfully a guy in his fifties by the vicinity rushed over to help and whoever attacked ran away and literally vanished from sight.”

“What about the CCTV footages of the street? Did you check them out? What about fingerprints?” Hana asked, recalling how investigations were carried out in crime dramas.

“We checked them already. The CCTVs in question were all out of order that night and this is the weirdest part. There were no fingerprint marks anywhere on the victim’s body apart from his own. But he is dead sure that attacker didn’t have gloves on and that seconds before he ran away, was gripping his victim on the throat with his bare hands.”

“This is seriously weird.” Hana agreed.

“Yeah, and my friend has lost it finally. He has locked himself up in his apartment, refusing to let anyone in, afraid that whoever tried to kill him might turn up at his doorstep again for another go. But he had enough sense to call me and let me know what happened. So I’m going over to check the street out, take his statement and if possible get him to a hospital and buy him meds to calm him down. The guy has become paranoid as .”

“Do you think this has got something to do with the previous disappearances? Something tells me that it was the same person who attacked your friend.” Hana gushed feeling excited and forgetting Sehun’s warning completely.

“Woah. You should consider becoming a cop in future.” Chan Woo nodded his head appreciatively. “We all think the same too. that’s another reason why I’m going to see him even though I have load of work to do. I want to ask him whether he saw what the guy looked like, you know? Help us make a portrait of the guy and circulate it around so that people can watch out for him. weird though it might sound, this is the first time someone has survived an attack. All the more reason for us to watch out for the poor guy’s safety. The psycho might turn up again and try to do him in.”

“You could have asked him over the phone.” Hana stated the obvious.

“Tried that too. He is not opening up. I think he needs a little bit of persuading to do and nothing better than a face to face encounter, don’t you think?” Chan Woo glanced briefly in her direction, his lips pulled up in a small smile.

“Whatever floats your boat.” Hana replied.

She went to the first lecture of the day with five minutes to spare. Her lecture room for the first hour was a huge gallery with rows and rows of long benches and desks arranged in semi-circular fashion upon raised platforms. Some people had already arrived and were making themselves comfortable in their respective seats. Hana walked over to the middle row and sat on one of the empty benches. No one paid her any attention as usual and she busied herself with taking out her books from her bag. After a few more minutes, the lecturer Mr.Lee walked in with a stern look on his face. He always looked like this. May be it’s because he taught advanced calculus or may be it’s because the students he ended up teaching were always a bunch of dunderheads, no one ever knew.

“Settle down, settle down.” Mr.Lee called out in a bored voice. He didn’t even look up from his books to acknowledge those who have turned up for his class. Once finding the chapter he would be discussing that day, he finally swept his eyes over the gallery. A small snort escaped his lips. Only half the total students had turned up for the lecture.

“We will be welcoming two more people into this class. They will be attending my lectures from today onwards until the semester end.” He said as he looked at his students.

“Why are we including two more now, sir?” A nerd wearing thick glasses raised his hand in the air tentatively. “The coursework started months ago.”

“Good question.” Mr.Lee agreed. “These boys skipped my lectures last year and their attendance went below fifty per cent. They were barred from sitting the exam for advanced calculus because of the same reason. Now that they are in their final year, they won’t be allowed to graduate unless they complete all course works successfully. The idiots finally realized that they won’t graduate unless they sit advanced calculus exam this semester.”

Everyone in the room laughed lightly but stopped soon at the unimpressed look on Mr.Lee’s face.

“Come in.” he said loudly in the general direction of the door and in came- to Hana extreme horror- Jongin and Sehun. Sehun as usual looked pissed off and haughty where as Jongin was busy checking out his new classmates. Hana wanted nothing more than to disappear from her seat. She even considered hiding under her desk until the two had taken their seats but unfortunately, before she could put her plan to practice, Jongin’s eyes had fallen on her. Like an elementary school kid, he waved his hand from side to side, jumping on the balls of his feet, to catch her attention. Hana blushed so hard that she felt heat emanating from her cheeks and she wanted nothing more than to melt away and never come back. A lot of people were now giving her curious looks. They have never seen Jongin this animated before in their lives and the fact that a nobody has elicited such a reaction from the campus hottie definitely felt like an insult for them.

“Take your seats. You are wasting my time.” Mr.Lee snapped at them both. Right on cue, Jongin started walking towards Hana’s table , pulling Sehun by the sleeve of his denim jacket.

“Hana!! Good morning!!” Jongin said in a singsong voice as he sat beside her and dumped his bag on the table. As soon he heard the name, Sehun’s eyes snapped up and met Hana’s. And his usually haughty demeanour vanished, replaced by an unreadable expression. He sat himself beside Jongin and took his books out.

“I’m so happy that we are classmates!!” Jongin said excitedly, flashing his neat row of ultra white teeth at Hana. “Can I sit with you from now on for adverse calculus?” He asked, showing her his best puppy face.

“It’s advanced calculus.” Hana pointed out. “Seriously, Jongin. How come you don’t even know the names of subjects that you take?”

“who cares if it’s advance or adverse?” Jongin said looking unbothered. “Doesn’t make any di