Wendy ran out of the apartment in a hurry with her bakcpack only halfway zipped. She only had five minutes before class and she was half an a hour away from school. The campus shuttle almost left without her, and Wendy would have gone GTA V style to the motorcyclist a foot away from her if she hadn't leapt on to the bus at the last minute.

But then she realized that she was already late, and rushing wasn't going to help her get there any earlier.

The bus dropped her off at the stop in front of the literature department building, and Wendy quickly thanked the bus driver as she exited with a few other students. 

The halls were thick with bodies and Wendy calculated that she must have had at least a five minute delay as she wove through the jostling students.

In the midst of the din, she almost crashed into....IRENE BAE!

*cue music and effects*

"Oh god!" Wendy exclaimed when they nearly collided. "Sorry about that."

"Good morning, Wendy," Irene replied calmly. "Off to class?"

The younger girl nodded. "It's on the other side of campus."

"Then I won't keep you any longer." 

"I'll see you later." The younger girl replied and tried to remain cool as she walked away. But when she rounded the corner, she took off the rest of the way to class because she just made herself even more late getting distracted by the one and only Irene Bae.

Little did she know that her book had slipped out of her half-open backpack when she left.

Irene bent to pick it up. It was their book club reading for the week.

She glanced up again, but Wendy was far gone. They didn't have each other's numbers so she would have to email her.

Irene glanced at the book as she opened the door for her students. It was a library copy from the one around town. The thought of Wendy scoping down the aisle was kind of cute, especially if Wendy had to reach for something too tall for her.

Focus! she scolded herself as she set her things down at the desk and prepared her laptop for the lecture this morning. 

Wendy sighed heavily and collapsed into the seat across from Seulgi at the campus dining. 

"How'd class go?" Seulgi asked through a mouthful of chicken.

"Just swimminngly. I almost missed the bus this morning."

"but you didn't."

"Yep. Oh, and I ran into Irene actually." Wendy sat up and observed the lunch SEulgi got for her. There was a lot of chicken.

"OH! TELL ME MOR!" Seulgi's eyes became crazy as she leaned forward.

Wendy shook her head at her friend. "Nothing really. We exchanged greetings. I was almost an hour late to class." She glanced at her phone to check the time since she had practice coming up in a few hours. That's when she saw an email notificaiton from Irene, and she quickly opened it.

Hey Wendy, you dropped your book this morning so I picked it up. You can pick it up at my office if you like? I will be here until 6 pm. I have to teach a class between 2:15p-3:45p. Let me know when you're coming -Irene

Her eyes widened and she checked her backpack to find that her book club book was missing.

"Crap, Irene picked up something I dropped," Wendy told her friend. It was already half past noon and she had soccer practice from 3:00-5:00 this afternoon. THat should give her enough time to change and look somewhat decent before seeing her. She didn't want to be all sweaty and dirty from practice. Wendy sent her a quick email response to let IRene know she would be there.

"Hey, uh, I'm gonna pick up my book from Irene's office after practice," Wendy told Seulgi. 

"Ok! I'll be waiting to hear how everything goes!"

"Aish, nothing's gonna happen, Seul." Wendy dig into the food. "Thanks for lunch."

Seulgi raised her eyebrows suggestively. "What? You're meeting in the early evening when classes are less active. Anything could happen. ANYTHING."

After finally changing the subject to Last of Us 2 and how disappointed they were with the storyline, they parted ways - Seulgi to go home and maybe do her homework, and Wendy to soccer practice.

--

After Irene's final class for the day, Irene answered questions for a few lingering studentts inquiring about their assignment. When the last student left, Irene made sure she had all her belongings before leaving the room. 

She went to her office and shut the door securely.

Strangely, there was no threat note this morning, which made Irene think she must have been overthinking the situation. Must have been a prank. A dumb one at that.

Irene managed to forget about it and she pulled down the shutters to block out the strong rays from the setting sun. Then, she went to her desk and stretched. Wendy would be here at around half past five so that was a good chunk of time to get some work done. She didn't want to make Wendy wait to finish the book since the girl had a pretty full schedule.

And it kind of gave her an excuse to see Wendy again. Outside of book club. 

Irene booted up her office desktop and pulled out the large file folder of assignments she needed to finish grading before next week. 

The next time she checked the time, it wasn't almost 5pm, and she had gotten a good amount of work done. The grading might even be done tomorrow. 

While she continued working, she heard three raps against her door.

Irene glanced at her watch. 5:20.

Did Wendy come early?

The person on the otherside knocked again, a little more forceful now. "I know you're in there, dear. It's too late to run."

"Wendy, after the last game, we're thinking about going out to drink. Win of lose. Wanna join us?" the captain asked her after practice.

"No thanks. I already have a commitment," Wendy replied. 

"Alright. See you later."

Wendy raced to the locker room to change into her normal clothes and freshen up a little bit. But now that she thought about it, she woudl still be a sweaty mess because she was going to race to Irene's office.

When she got there, the halls were still a bit busy for the evening classes, but it was not as packed as this morning.

She took the elevator to the office floors, and was thankfulf for the AC in the halls after running across campus.

Wendy noticed how quiet it was on this floor. She supposed the professors were either already in class, working quietly, or most likely gone if they had no more classes to teach.

WHen she rounded the corner, her blood ran cold when she saw a man wrestling Irene into a room.

She probably should have called for help because she was in no postion to fight off a grown man two or three times her size.

WIthout thinking, she grabbed a heavy text book from her backpack and threw it as hard as she could at the guy. Now keep in mind, the man and Irene were moving so she couldn't believe it when the book actually smack dab hit the taget: the man's head. It must be all that Red Dead I've been playing, she mused,

He howled and let go of Irene, shoving her roughly to the floor.

"You," he growled as he turned to her. "Who the are you?"

"G-get away from her!" Wendy tried to sound strong even though she was now afraid for her life. 

The man laughed. "Stupid girl. You're sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

Wendy balled her hands into fists and mentally prepared herself for a fight. The only knowledge of fighting she had was video games with Seulgi.

"Wendy, go! I'll deal with him!" Irene burst out.

There was a split second when she glanced at Irene. The woman's eyes were pleading but also fearful, which Wendy had never seen before.

ANd the next moment, Wendy was on the floor, her ears ringing because the man had smacked the side of her head real hard with the textbook she threw at him. Wendy barely had time to react before the man's boots met her face sending her into a daze. Then, he picked Wendy up by the collar of her shirt until her feet dangled in the air. He smiled nastily at the sight of blood dripping from her nose.

"Stop! Don't hurt her!" Irene protested and tried to pull him away..

That only seemed to spur the man on more as he threw Wendy to the wall. "I see how it is..." he muttered. "You TOOK her from ME!" 

"Let her go! It's me you want, not her!"

"Oh no hahahaha! You will learn the hard way, what it's like TO BE LEFT ALONE!" He snarled. "You left me. For all this?! You selfish !" He Irene and punched her across the face. THe force was enough to send her flying on the floor. 

"You will learn your lesson," he sneered.

Wendy felt fire through her whole body. She struck out with her strong legs and kicked the back of his knees so hard, his legs gave out beneath him.

But he was some sort of maniac. Despite his daze, he acted fast and wrestled Wendy until he had her under him. 

He pressed her face into the floor and she felt cold metal against , the sharp blade teasing and digging into her skin.

"If you just behaved, none of this would be happening, Irene." The man dug his blade deeper into Wendy's throat and her whole body went into panic, but she could not move with the weight trapping her. Insanity was reflected in his eyes.

Before anything could happen, he howled and writhed on the ground, his body jerking with spasmic movements. And the knife clanged against the floor as it fell from his hands.

Irene stared in horror at Wendy, who had passed out from the panic. 

--

A/N" Heyyy, who should the crazy ex boyfran be? thank. :))))) Pls leave answer in the poll! All suggestions welcome!