Much to Jungeun’s dislike, she’s sitting in the library again. She hasn’t been there more than five minutes, but it doesn’t take too long for her phone to become a distraction. She’s thankful for the human to human interaction, even if it’s through a screen. The library always makes her feel on edge. She doesn’t really know what it is. Maybe it is the damp smell of wet books that only seem to get more intense by the second. Or perhaps it’s the deafening silence that ends once in a while with normal sounds of people that only become weird once you realize you’re completely alone. Except that maybe you’re not. The feeling of being watched weighs Jungeun down. She knows that it can’t be, that there’s no one else here. She could just turn around and check, but she doesn’t want to. She’s sure her eyes would be met with nothing, but it’s better to not risk it. She’s just being paranoid.

Her phone vibrates again. Somehow in between these last few days her group chat with Vivi and Haseul had turned into one with Heejin and Hyunjin, too. Mostly cause the latter two girls wouldn’t stop texting Jungeun, asking if there were any updates. When the answer kept being no, they had insisted on letting them help. It didn’t take much for Jungeun to say yes.

The chat is active now as Hyunjin introduces the theory of an alien abduction. Heejin fully supports it. Heejin also mentions that many people think some weird stuff go down in those woods. She talks about portals to another world, multiple universes and alternative dimensions. Vivi sounds fascinated by it and probably convinced. Haseul says something similar with fancier words such as ‘magnetic field’ and ‘high energy physics’ and something about a string.

It’s all too much for Jungeun, and she can’t believe this type of conversation is what’s keeping her grounded. They’d all get along so well with Yerim…

Jungeun decides that she wants company, but not one that comes with crazy talk…So, she scrolls through her contact list and takes a shaky breath when she finds the number she wants. Sooyoung’s.

She writes five different versions of the same text in less than a minute, she finally settles down with a : “hey, sooyoung. it’s jungeun. what are u doing?? i’m at the library right now…”

The invitation is kinda last minute but Sooyoung wouldn’t mind that, right? Jungeun hopes not. It’s also vague enough for Jungeun to not feel too bad if she gets rejected but also direct enough to get the point across. Like, if Sooyoung says no, Jungeun can just use her text as a normal conversation starter. She congratulates herself and her smooth wording.

Her congratulations start to feel weaker as fifteen minutes pass by with no response. Then it’s thirty and soon after that forty. Jungeun pathetically stares at her phone screen, as if that would magically get her a text back.

She hasn’t even started doing the work she’s here for. She had plans of going through some old newspaper, just like Vivi had suggested. Yeah, she definitely came to the library with the intentions of doing some investigating. No ulterior motive whatsoever. Jungeun totally hadn’t subconsciously spent some extra fifteen minutes in front of the mirror making sure her makeup looks good just cause she knew there was a tiny possibility of seeing Sooyoung later that day.

“Ugh,” Jungeun says to herself as she realizes she’s actually gonna have to go through old, dusty newspaper all by herself. What a fun time.

She thinks it’s crazy how the local library fails to have any basic book that you could think of but keeps a perfect archive of every newspaper published daily for the last fifty decades. Who even puts them here? She’s probably better off not knowing the answer to that.

Just as she’s about to stand up a loud bang of a door sounds through the room. It’s deafening to the point Jungeun’s convinced that a bomb just went off and she’s currently living the last moments of her life.

She turns around in a state of panic only to be met with Sooyoung calmly walking towards her. The girl approaching giggles at the expression Jungeun wears.

“Hey,” She says, “You good?”

“Oh my god,” Jungeun hisses, “You almost  gave me a heart attack.”

“Oh, your heart does stuff for me?”

Jungeun barely chokes at that. Not to say yes but…well…that right there definitely just made it do something.

“Huh?” Is all Jungeun manages says.

Sooyoung laughs, “I’m just messing with you.”

Jungeun lightly rolls her eyes, “Whatever, I didn’t know you were coming…”

“I mean I can just leave again if that’s what you want,” Sooyoung turns around and starts walking away. Jungeun is slow to react, but she’s able to hold onto Sooyoung’s arm and drag her back.

“What?! No…”

“Hm?” Says Sooyoung, eyes acting innocent.

Jungeun says nothing, and just continues to pull her arm, harder this time.

Sooyoung mockingly places one of her hands near her ear, “What’s that?”

Jungeun suddenly feels shy. What is it with this girl?

“Don’t!” Jungeun drags the word, it comes out as more of a whine than anything else.

“Don’t what?”

“Ugh,” Jungeun says, knowing what she’s about to say, “Don’t leave, please.”

She tugs at Sooyoung’s hand again, bashfully, “I want you to stay.”

“Ah,” Sooyoung sounds pleased, “No need to insist, really. I was going to, anyway.”

Jungeun just stares at her with a serious face, as the other girl laughs at her successful teasing. She finds it hard to not laugh along, so instead she focuses on taking a mental note of how soon is too soon to fight a stranger.

*

Once Sooyoung gets there they surprisingly do get some work done. Sooyoung is quite eager to help, which is a bit endearing, actually.

In record time the older girl manages to locate a bunch of newspapers from around the time Yeojin first disappeared. She then makes a pile of all the pages that actually include pieces related to the case.

Jungeun is in charge of reading through them and seeing if any information sticks out. So far, there’s nothing. She tries not to be too disappointed.

They do a lot of talking while working. Sooyoung’s voice is a nice counteract to the creepy noises that usually flood the library.

Jungeun finds out that Sooyoung is a dance major and that she’s been assisting the same academy as Jungeun for a few years already. She seems as surprised as Jungeun over the fact that they had never crossed paths before, “I guess good things take time,” is what Sooyoung says about it. Jungeun feels a slight flutter when she hears that and attributes it to the weird energy in the library. Yes, it’s definitely just that.

“So, can I ask about why you are so invested in this case?” Sooyoung says as she starts going through a new pile of newspapers.

Jungeun doesn’t really have an answer. She just is. She stays quiet for a minute before answering.

“I don’t know,” She shrugs, “I guess it’s the mystery of it all? And like, how close it hit home.”

“You knew her?”

“Not really. I just knew about her. Like, we went to the same school and I’d always see her around, but that’s about it.”

Sooyoung nods.

“It’s honestly so wild to me that you never heard about this case before,” Jungeun’s tone suggests that there’s some type of question there. But she’s not sure of what she’s asking, “It was everywhere.”

“Was it…?” Sooyoung looks as if she’s trying to remember something. Eyes squinted, head angled upwards. But her search for any type of memory from the event seems to be unsuccessful as she pouts her lips.

“I mean just look at all the articles written about it. Plus, it’s everything everyone talked about for like a week...then it just died down and everyone forgot it ever happened.”

Sooyoung looks incredulous. She’s often very up to date with everything around her. “Yeah,” It’s all she says, “I guess it’s kinda weird…”

Jungeun’s attention is stolen by the newspaper she holds in her hands. The spread is centered around an interview done with some of Yeojin’s classmates. They all paint her under the same picture. It’s the picture that Jungeun already has. What changes, though, is the way Yerim is depicted. There’s one girl that does most of the talking during the interview, and she seems to believe that Yerim has some direct connection to Yeojin’s disappearance.

“She’s is a weird kid,” The interviewee says, “She fools other people but not me.”

Jungeun winces at the cheesiness of the words but continues reading.

“You know, Yerim hanging out in the woods with Yeojin didn’t seem that weird at first, a lot of people go there…but alone? Who does that?! She keeps going there even after her best friend disappeared. What kind of psycho does that?!”

The interviewer proceeds to ask this girl what got her so convinced that Yerim would want to harm her best friend. She has a very weak case, but she does say something that intrigues Jungeun, “Well, around the time of the disappearance they weren’t hanging out as often. I don’t know if there was a fight or if they just drifted apart, but something definitely went down between the two.” The girl also mentions how Yerim is ‘always saying weird things’, which Jungeun can testify in favour of…but maybe that part has nothing to do with hurting Yeojin and everything to do with the girl being a quote unquote psychic.

Jungeun still isn’t sure whether she believes that or not but believing it would surely explain some things about Yerim.

Jungeun huffs out loud, feeling conflicted. Sooyoung notices this.

“What does it say?” She asks, regarding to the article that clearly got Jungeun feeling troubled.

“It’s talking about this girl that Yeojin used to be best friends with. Apparently, some people think she’s a possible suspect...”

“But you don’t?” Sooyoung catches the lack of confidence in Jungeun’s words.

Jungeun takes a picture of the article with her phone to send it to the group chat, and then hands it to Sooyoung, who eyes it curiously.

“I don’t know. I mean, sure the girl is weird. But not a bad weird. Definitely not a i’ll-murder-my-best-friend type of weird.”

“Then weird how?”

Jungeun chuckles to herself, “Like…she says she’s a psychic or something like that.”

Sooyoung’s eyebrows arch almost comically, “Oh.”

“Yeah…” Jungeun says, “I don’t know if I believe that, but I definitely don’t believe she did this. She looked very upset by it all, actually.”

“I mean it seems kinda weird to make up something like that, especially in her position…I don’t see why anyone would do that,” Sooyoung shrugs, “But who knows.”

“So you believe it?”

“The being a psychic thing?”

Jungeun nods.

“Kinda,” Says Sooyoung, “I have a friend that’s like that too…ish”

She’s so nonchalant about it that it actually baffles Jungeun. Is everyone in this town magical?? Did Jungeun miss the memo?!

“Your friend is a psychic?!” She blurts out, voice coming out a bit too high.

Sooyoung laughs softly, amused at Jungeun’s reaction, “Something like that,” She waves her hands dismissively, “It’s hard to explain.”

Jungeun leaves it at that even though everything inside of her is screaming to beg for a more thorough explanation.

“You don’t believe in this type of things, huh?” Sooyoung speaks again.

Jungeun lets her thoughts wander for a bit. Does she? She honestly has no idea anymore. She tries to think of an answer until she forgets what the question even was.

Sooyoung’s laugh is what snaps her out of it. “You look cute spaced out,” She says.

Ah, great, now Jungeun’s face is burning up again.

She says thanks, or at least that’s what she thinks she does. She’s too distracted focusing on the way Sooyoung’s cheeks look when they smile. They look like apples. And oof- Jungeun’s staring again. Why is Sooyoung so nice to stare at?

“Um, anyway! Your question, right-” Jungeun tries to distract herself by once again becoming  a mumbling mess. Good job, Jungeun.

“Well, it feels like I should believe in all that stuff,” She continues, eloquently this time, “But I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Sooyoung smirks and looks at Jungeun right in the eyes. It feels intoxicating, “Most things don’t.”

*

Sooyoung is too immersed in her own thoughts to be listening to any of what Jinsoul has been saying for the last fifteen minutes. The girl’s been rambling about god knows what, and her ability to maintain a one-sided conversation is quite amazing, to be honest.

Sooyoung doesn’t tune her out on purpose, she just happens to be distracted with something else. Someone else.

It’ been hours since she left the library, but her mind keeps replaying scenes from earlier over and over again, and really what else can she do other than give those all her attention. For some reason she can’t stop thinking about it, about Jungeun.

The energy in that room had been so weird. Not bad or good, particularly. Just…weird. She thinks Jungeun is weird, too. In an odd, endearing way that makes Sooyoung want to know everything about the girl. It almost feels like a crave; a need to understand the girl. To get closer to her.

Since the first time she saw Jungeun at that convenience store, Sooyoung has unawarely gifted the girl hours worth of her imagination. Daydream after daydream all starring Jungeun. More than Sooyoung owning these thoughts it feels as if these thoughts own her. She gets lost on them and lets ‘em have full control. She really can’t explain it. It’s an attraction bigger than her. Bigger than she can even begin to comprehend.   

Jinsoul has enough of being ignored by her friend after not hearing her voice for over twenty minutes.

“Ugh,” Jinsoul says awfully loudly, “Fine, I’ll ask. What is it with you?”

The question manages to gain Sooyoung’s attention. She looks somewhat ashamed and her cheeks become tinted by a rosy shade.

This attitude is what gives her away, and what helps Jinsoul understand the situation.

“Oh,” Jinsoul says, smiling devilish, “I see. Were you with that girl earlier?”

Sooyoung rolls her eyes at the tone her friend uses. She had told Jinsoul about Jungeun when she first met the girl and made the mistake of calling her cute. Since then Jinsoul hasn’t  stopped teasing her about it.

“Yeah.”

Jinsoul literally says ‘owo’ out loud and immediately after raises her eyebrows in a suggestive manner, “What is going in there?”

“Literally nothing,” Sooyoung huffs, “I don’t think she’s interested, anyway.”

“Who wouldn’t be interested in you?”

“See, that’s what I thought,” Sooyoung agrees with her, of course she does, “But she was much more interested in doing her work than me.”

“I mean, maybe she was just actually busy, you know. I don’t think that means anything,” Jinsoul dismisses Sooyoung’s worries.

“It’s not fair,” Sooyoung dramatically sighs, “Cute girls not liking me shouldn’t be allowed.”

Jinsoul shakes her head, “Wow, the concept of not being liked back really got you messed up, huh?”

“Yeah, who knew that could happen!” Sooyoung pouts.

“Definitely. She must be from another dimension or something, that’s totally the only reasonable explanation.”

Sooyoung  grumbles as her palm hits Jinsoul’s thigh, “Oh shut up, you have no right to make jokes about what’s reasonable and what isn’t.”

Jinsoul giggles. Sooyoung’s right.

Suddenly Jinsoul’s laugh halts, and a gasp comes out of .

Her face freezes with a worried expression.

“I forgot to pick up my sister from her singing class,” She whispers.

Sooyoung barely has time to blink when Jinsoul is already running out the door.

It’s the fourth time that week.

*

Jungeun never agreed to this. Actually, she still thinks it is an awful idea, and when this inevitably ends poorly she’ll have the satisfaction of loudly screaming ‘I told you so’ to everyone. Now, however, there’s not much she can do as Haseul, Vivi, Heejin and Hyunjin all stand with her outside of Yerim’s house.

She partly takes the blame for this and only cause it was her mistake to let them know about her plans to talk with Yerim for a second time. Somehow, they all took Jungeun sharing her plans as an invitation to join her. It had been impossible to convince them otherwise after that, clearly.

Haseul had even gone as far as saying that if Yerim was, in fact,  a suspect, then there was no way that she would allow Jungeun to spend any more alone time with a possible murderer, “You escaped her once, but God knows what she could do if you question her again!” She had said.

“She might feel threatened…Nothing good ever comes from that,” Vivi added.

“Think of us as backup,” Was Heejin’s shot at convincing Jungeun to let them join, even though it was clear that they were all tagging alone out of curiosity, and not any actual concern for Jungeun’s well-being.

“Yeah!” Had insisted Hyunjin, “If anything happens, I won’t hesitate to fight her! I’m like, the only one fit enough to do so, too!”

Jungeun ignored the subtle shade in that, but finally stopped saying no to their begging an only because it was starting to get annoying. Important disclaimer here, she never said yes either. You know, just pointing that out to be free of guilt in case this goes south real quick….Technicalities or whatever.

Jungeun had texted Yerim a few hours before, asking if she could go to her house cause there’s no way she’d ever show up unannounced. At least she still has some manners left. She didn’t mention she’d be having extra company but hey that’s why it says some manners and not all.

The shock in Yerim’s face is evident when she opens the door and finds five girls instead of one. She’s fast to recover, though, and greets them all with a blinding smile.

“Please, come in!” She says politely.

There’s no dog this time.

“So, what’s up?” Yerim asks once they’re all settled in the living room.

“I don’t know, Choi Yerim,” Says Hyunjin, moving her face awfully close towards the girl in question, “You tell me.”

An uncomfortable laugh escapes Yerim, who looks at Jungeun for any type of explanation. She has none, honestly. Her friends are just weird. Is Hyunjin even her friend…?

Thankfully, Heejin quickly controls the situation by grabbing Hyunjin’s hand and dragging her back to her seat. The taller girl goes immediately smitten and completely forgets about what she was doing seconds ago.

Yerim watches their interaction closely and a huge smile takes over her face, “Am I seeing things or did you two finally get together?”

Heejin shyly nods.

“Aha!” Screams Yerim, “I knew it would happen sooner or later.”

Her unexpected words catch everyone by surprise, except Vivi, who just shrugs, “No need to be a psychic for that, pretty sure the entire town knew.”

“Shut up!” Heejin shrieks.

The confident way in which Heejin usually carries herself is completely gone as her face goes entirely red and she hides behind Hyunjin’s shoulder.

It’s kinda cute and Hyunjin doesn’t seem that scary when she’s swooning over her adorably embarrassed girlfriend.

“Anyway,” Jungeun interrupts the moment, “That’s not what we’re here for.”

“Of course!” Says Yerim, “….Um. What are you here for?”

“I wanted to ask you something-”

Jungeun is interrupted by Vivi clearing . She sighs.

“We wanted to ask you something,” Jungeun corrects her words, earning a nod of approval from Vivi, “We were informed by a, um, confidential source that you and Yeojin weren’t on the best terms when she disappeared.”

“By confidential source she means some random newspaper,” Clarifies Haseul.

If looks could kill, Haseul would have been murdered by Jungeun as soon as those words left .

Yerim ignores those two as she speaks, “Oh, yeah. Did I not mention that?”

Jungeun shakes her head.

“Ah,” Says Yerim awkwardly, “That probably seems really weird…It wasn’t that big of a deal, really.”

“How long had you two been like that?” Haseul asks.

Yerim thinks for a while, “A few weeks? Maybe, a bit more.”

“What caused it?”

Yerim shrugs, “Nothing. Things like that just happen sometimes, you know.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Says Jungeun, eyeing Yerim closely, looking for any body language that may betray her.

“Y-yeah,” Yerim shifts in her chair, “You don’t actually believe I would harm my best friend, do you?”

Heejin opens and everyone looks her way, expecting her to talk. She just shakes her head dismissively.

She has to fight the urge to scream ‘of course not’, cause honestly, there’s nothing about Yerim that screams danger or even hints at her having a single evil bone in her body. As a very active member of any possible activity in school, Heejin has a pretty clear idea of most if not every single student in their school, and Yerim has always been the bright happy go lucky kinda kid. Nothing but lovely, honestly. On top of that, her friendship with Yeojin never seemed anything other than harmless. They were cute together.

She hadn’t really thought about it until Jungeun sent them a picture of that one article but those two did seem a bit iffy in the months prior to Yeojin’s disappearance.

Heejin wondered if her memories were betraying her and acting biased by this sudden new information, so she had asked Hyunjin about it. Hyunjin actually agreed with her, and even mentioned the fact that Yeojin would often bring that topic up. She’d say that Yerim was acting weird and distant for no reason, and she didn’t know what to do. ‘Why can’t good things never last in this town?!’ Yeojin had complained. At that time Hyunjin hadn’t thought much about it, and only told Yeojin to not worry too much, that it’s probably nothing.

She tries to not regret it now.

Heejin is snapped back into the conversation by Jungeun….squealing?

“What?” Says Yerim in an amused tone, “Are you scared, Jungeun?”

She hears Vivi fight back a laugh and honestly, she has never been more confused in her life. Ugh, you zone out for three minutes and suddenly you miss out on everything….

“Pfft. Don’t be ridiculous,” Says Jungeun, “I’m not scared.”

She definitely is.

“I just don’t see the point in going to the woods. There is nothing to investigate there!”

“I think Yerim is right, we could find something there. It sounds like a good idea, could be interesting,” Hyunjin says way too excited about this and Jungeun hates it.

“Yeah, it’s always good to check out the crime scene! Plus, it’d help us understand what Yeojin went through better,” Vivi explains. It sounds somewhat reasonable and if Jungeun wasn’t internally freaking out she’d agree with her.

“So, it’s settled then!” Says Yerim clapping her hands, “Let’s go tomorrow. Can everyone go tomorrow?”

Everyone looks around, waiting for any objection. They’re all free.

Jungeun panics and tries to get away from this one last time, “I, uh. I’m busy, tomorrow, actually.”

“Oh, yeah?” Says Haseul, clearly not buying it.

Jungeun feels betrayed, she hoped that Haseul would be on her side.

“What do you have?” Asks Hyunjin.

“Um, dance stuff.” Jungeun mumbles.

“I doubt you’ll be there all day, though.”

Damn it, she’s right.

“But it’s just practice, right? Just finish early and then we’ll be good to go.” Says Heejin, somewhat caught on where the conversation is at. Apparently Yerim is on the clear now and will help them investigate.

Jungeun can’t come up with any other excuse...they’re onto her…it’s too late, she can’t get away now.

“Oh!” Says Yerim excitedly, “I gotta walk pass the dance studio when I head to the woods. I can stop by and meet you there, and then we can walk together!”

“O-Okay,” Jungeun says, accepting her fate.

“Great!” Says Vivi, “Then, tomorrow, around two, let’s all meet near that one official path to enter the woods and then part from there!”

Why is everyone so hyped for this, Jungeun needs an explanation right now.

Everyone starts talking about their own theories of what they could find in the woods. They all sound too exciting to be true. Jungeun can’t really think of anything. To be honest, she can’t really think of anything other than the death deed that she just signed.

She sighs.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.