Chapter 12: Run

“Go…you have to go now!”

“But we can’t just leave you here!”

“I will not let them take away everything I have! Now GO!”

“Don’t cry baby…it’s okay…”

“Irene…I love you…”

Irene snapped awake, sweating profusely as she tried to catch her breath. It had been a few days since she had a dream like that, and she was hoping it’d go away. She instinctively grabbed her phone, looking for a number. 

Irene sighed as she dropped her phone down, realizing the pointlessness. She caught a glimpse of the time: 3:30am. She put her head back on her pillow, trying to go back to sleep, but she was afraid. She sat back up, messing up her hair in frustration as she looked back at the letter she found last night, on her desk.

She gripped the phone in her hands, hoping that Wendy would somehow respond to her. It hit Irene a while ago how much she depended on Wendy. It was a strange feeling, considering how little time they’ve actually spent with each other. 

Giving up on falling asleep again, Irene got out of bed and went downstairs. The empty, dark living room stared back at her as she made her way to the couch and sat down.

“GO!!”

The echoes rang in her head as she tried her hardest to forget what she dreamt. 

“Alright, Irene. Let’s just forget about it!” Irene patted her own face, psyching herself up.

She the lights and grabbed a vacuum out of the small closet downstairs and proceeded to clean mindlessly around the house.

After about two hours, the sun was starting to rise, and Irene was sitting on the stairs, panting as she had just finished cleaning the entire house, twice. She went for her phone, and decided to see if Seulgi was awake.

[Seulgi, are you up?]

She changed and covered herself with a thick jacket.

 [Yeah, I’m still up.]

[What? Were you up all night?]

[Maybe :P]

[You idiot. You’re gonna kill your body, you know that?]

[It’s not my fault!! There was this ridiculous plot going on in this drama I’m watching, and it was itching at me all night. I had to scratch it :D]

[GO TO BED]

[Okay Umma~]

Irene sighed and went out the door. It was a cold morning, and Irene shivered a bit as a breeze ran across her face. Irene liked to take morning walks whenever she could. Unfortunately, she was alone most of the time, since Seulgi was never available in the mornings. She started walking down the street, going down her usual path.

“Good morning!” Irene bowed politely to an old woman who lived near her. She smiled back at Irene as she waved.

A few blocks down the road, she started seeing more life on the streets. Her neighborhood was full of seniors that also liked to get up early in the mornings. She recognized most of them, and they definitely recognized her. As she greeted each of them, she suddenly saw a familiar looking color flashing at her down the end of the street.

Irene squinted and saw a small girl limping her way outside, tossing her blonde hair to the side as she opened up her mailbox.

“Wendy?” Irene started jogging down the street as she saw the girl take out her mail and head back towards the door.

She was running now, trying to confirm her suspicions. She was losing sight of her.

“Wendy!!!” Irene shouted.

The girl turned, her eyes shocked as she saw the puffy-coated girl charging at her like a bull.

Irene kneeled over, panting hard as she looked at the surprised girl in front of her, who had no words.

“Umm…” Wendy started, shocked at the sight in front of her.

 “I…found…you!” Irene was still trying to catch her breath.

“W-what are you doing here?” Wendy said, nervously.

“I was just…out for a walk…and I saw you!” Irene finally straightened her back, smiling happily at the face she hadn’t seen for a while.

“Oh…umm…” Wendy was still flustered as she tried hard to hide her left leg.

“How are you? Is everything okay?” Irene started asking questions.

“Y-yeah! Everything’s okay…”

“And your cousin?” Irene worriedly held onto Wendy’s hand, making her flinch.

“Hmm? Oh…oh! Yeah! She’s completely fine now.” Wendy said, scratching her head.

“That’s good,” Irene looked down, and let go of her hand. Her face turned dark.

“You’re still limping…” Irene pointed out.

Wendy gulped as she tried hard to think of a reason.

“Umm…yeah…so…about that…” Wendy slowly stepped back away from Irene, trying to get to the door.

“Your leg looks worse than before! What happened!?” Irene had an angry look on her face.

“I…” Wendy tried hard to get her words out, but just stammered nervously as Irene glared at her.

“She had to carry me around when I had a fever,” another girl suddenly appeared in front of the door.

Irene blinked and looked at the younger, red-haired girl.  Wendy face was stunned as she watched Joy walk outside next to Irene.

“Hi, I’m Joy, Wendy’s cousin.” She held out her hand.

Irene cleared , “Oh…Hi, I’m Irene.”

“Wendy’s been taking care of me recently, so she wasn’t able to watch for her ankle,” Joy spoke bluntly as Irene looked back at Wendy.

“Y-yeah…sorry, I didn’t want to worry you…” Wendy glanced at Joy.

“Yeah, so you don’t have to worry about her anymore,” Joy grabbed Wendy and pulled her through the doorway.

Irene stared blankly at this arrogant girl who seemed to be a bit annoyed at her presence. She smiled politely and looked at Wendy, who was now stuck behind Joy.

“It was nice meeting you, sorry to bother you so early in the morning,” Irene waved at the two girls and turned away, back onto the streets.

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Wendy grabbed the younger one and tossed the latter onto the couch in a full swing.

“YAH! YOU IDIOT!” Wendy shouted, embarrassed at Joy’s actions.

“Ow! Unnie~!” Joy cried out.

“What’s wrong with you!?”

“Well she should mind her own business! It’s not like she’s your doctor or something…” Joy pouted as she rubbed her sore arm.

“She was just being a friend! There was no need to act all hostile towards her,” Wendy threw the mail into Joy’s lap.

“I told you I could get the mail…” Joy whispered to herself.

“What was that?” Wendy cracked her knuckles.

“N-nothing Unnie!” Joy laughed nervously.

“Why did you even come outside anyway?” Wendy sat down next to Joy.

“You were taking a long time, I thought maybe you fell or something…”

“Joy. Please. The mailbox is like, 10 feet away from the door.” Wendy looked at Joy with a dull face.

“I don’t know! It’s not like I get the mail every day,” Joy complained.

“Great, not only does Irene think that I have an overprotective younger cousin, but she’s probably mad at me cause of my leg,” Wendy sighed.

“Why do you care what she thinks?” Joy got up and walked over to her desk, annoyed.

Wendy couldn’t answer that question. All she knew was that whatever Irene thought about her was important, no matter what. Wendy shrugged off Joy’s scoffs and lay down on the couch.

“How did she even find out where we lived?” Joy suddenly asked.

“She didn’t. She saw me outside and ran towards me.”

“Like a crazy person, then.”

“Shut up, Joy.”

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Irene walked back towards her house, confused at the recent events. She was upset that she couldn’t speak to Wendy a bit more, but she didn’t feel like she was wanted there. Irene tightened her coat around her as the clouds grew thicker, and the wind blew harder. 

Rain again?

Irene looked up at the sky, hoping that she could make it home in time as light drops began to fall on the pavement. She dashed into her home just as the rain started to pour and took her jacket off, shaking it a bit by the door before taking her shoes off. She went to the kitchen, ready to prepare some hot tea, when the doorbell suddenly rang.

She walked over to the door and looked through the tiny hole.

She barely saw an umbrella disappear around the corner, and looked down, seeing another letter by her feet. She picked it up, expecting another message from Wendy.

You’re in danger. Run.

Irene almost fell to the ground after reading the simple message. She had a mix of confusion and fear swelling up inside of her as she saw the messy words on the paper.

“What…” Irene was hyperventilating as she ran up to her room and closed the door behind her. She looked down at the piece of paper and threw it to the side, as if it itself was dangerous.

She had no idea what to do, and that’s what scared her the most. The fact that an anonymous letter just appeared, telling her to run, was causing her to panic. She clutched her phone as she sat on the cold floor, dying to call someone. But who? She couldn’t tell the police anything, they’d assume it was a prank. Seulgi wouldn’t know what to do either.

Wendy…

Irene grabbed the note and her coat and ran downstairs, almost slipping on the stairs as she opened her door swiftly.

Irene felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time as she ran down the wet street: eyes. She was being watched, and not by one person, by everyone. This was a fear she had never felt before. She had so many questions, but no one that could answer them. 

Irene turned the corner and slipped, her body falling against the wet concrete. She pulled herself up again, eager to reach her destination. Ignoring the pain on her sides, she continued forwards. 

Reaching the door, she began pounding on it, violently, her hair now soaked from the rain. 

Wendy…please…

Joy opened the door, shocked as Irene stood there, wet and panting.

“Wha-“ Joy couldn’t finish as Irene fell to the floor, her hands shaking.

“Wendy! Something’s wrong!” Joy called out behind her.

Wendy staggered over and gasped.

“Irene!” She shouted, running over to help her. Joy and Wendy helped Irene out of her wet clothes and helped her to the couch, where her hands were still shaking uncontrollably. Joy left to her room after Wendy shot her a worried look.

“Irene…what’s wrong? What happened?” Wendy put a small blanket around Irene’s shoulders.

“I…I got this…” Irene handed the crumpled letter over to Wendy.

Wendy’s eyes changed as she looked at the letter.

“Who gave you this?” Wendy tried to hold herself back.

“I…I don’t know…I couldn’t see them…they slipped it under my door…”

Wendy ripped up the letter angrily and gripped her leg hard as she stood up. Irene stared at her.

“Forget it. It’s nothing. It’s just a prank,” Wendy had a hard time convincing herself, much less Irene.

“What do I do…?” Irene was almost crying.

Wendy took a deep breath, and relaxed her hands, placing them back onto Irene’s shoulders. She bent over and looked straight at Irene.

 “I promise you, that everything will be okay.”

Irene felt herself relax as she looked into Wendy’s eyes, and slowly nodded. As Wendy stood there, looking deep into Irene’s eyes, Irene noticed something.

“What’s wrong with your leg?” Irene put her hand on the red spot that appeared on Wendy’s pants.

Wendy grabbed Irene’s hand and pushed it away, covering her slightly open wound.

“It’s nothing,” Wendy hid her face from Irene’s as she sat back down.

“This is…blood,” Irene said, looking at her fingertips.

Wendy was silent.

“Why? Why are you bleeding?” Irene turned towards Wendy and looked back at her leg.

“I just hit myself against the table, it’s nothing,” Wendy lied.

“Show me,” Irene pulled Wendy’s hand away, revealing a much bigger red spot that was slowly leaking out onto the couch.

“Stop it! It’s nothing!” Wendy stood up and tried to escape Irene’s grasp.

“It’s not nothing! Don’t lie to me!” Irene pulled on Wendy’s arm, causing Wendy to react and push Irene away.

“I said it’s nothing!” Wendy shouted at Irene, who was in tears at the anger she felt from Wendy.

“What’s going on?” Joy came outside and saw a distraught Irene, and Wendy, who was holding onto her leg. 

“Wendy…why…?” Irene was still trying to reach Wendy, who was holding back the pain in her leg.

“It’s nothing! She uh…bumped into the table over there last night! Yeah, it was a big scratch. It’s okay, I’ll get you a band-aid Wendy!” Joy quickly ran to the kitchen.

“Irene, go home. I’ll come by later. Just don’t worry about that letter okay?” Wendy kept her back to Irene.

“No, I’m not leaving…not until you tell me what’s going on with you!” Irene said through her tears.

Wendy turned around, keeping her head down.

 “There’s nothing going on with me.” Wendy hid her eyes from Irene.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“This past week I haven’t heard anything from you. I don’t know a single thing about what you’ve been doing or how you are. And now, I finally see you, and you seem worse than ever.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re my friend. Because I need to know you’re okay.”

“Why?”

Irene clenched her fists tightly as she felt an urge build up inside of her to say something, but her body wouldn’t let her.

“Here Wendy!” Joy quickly came over and pulled Wendy into her room, hiding the bandage behind her back. 

She closed the door, leaving Irene standing there, alone.