The gunshots persisted in Yerin’s mind. They ran again and again in her head as she gripped the car’s wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Everything was collapsing in on her at once, and that made it almost impossible to think. But she couldn’t let the thoughts win, the unnerving fear or her past; she had to move, and she wouldn’t stop until she reached her destination. However, fate had other plans.

As she drove, a car zoomed past her, extruding a terror so great, it made Yerin freeze in the middle of an intersection. She stared out the window expressionless. Cars honked, but she didn’t listen. Yerin wasn’t present, and for a moment, it was as if she didn’t exist at all.

Suddenly, SinB entered her mind—a SinB that trusted her, that wanted her to be safe. Yerin also yearned for SinB’s safety, so with a newfound determination, she stepped on the gas, leaving behind her fears.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Where the hell is SinB-ah?” Asked Eunha, pacing to the ticking of her watch.

“She’ll be back” Umji reassured, sitting on the single couch next to the kitchen, typing away on her laptop.

“But what if she opens and tells Yerin eonnie something she shouldn’t?” Rolling her eyes, Umji paid no mind to the older girl who continued pacing to the beat of her watch.

“What’s with you all of a sudden? She hangs out with Yerin eonnie a lot, doesn’t she? I’m the cautious one, so why are you all worried?”

“I don’t know. There was this weird vibe coming off of her at Sowon’s. She was hyper aware, or maybe anxious; I couldn’t pinpoint it.”

“Well, shouldn’t she have been?” The older girl’s lack of suspicion towards her new friend was already disconcerting to her roommates, but Eunha now suspecting her own roommates actions? Either this Eunha was a fake, or Sowon was doing something to her head.

“But, why?” questioned Eunha.

Turning her head away from her computer to face Eunha, Umji responded, “You’re worried about SinB-ah saying something to Yerin eonnie, but we’ve known her for months. This Sowon eonnie we meet, and after one day you trust her completely??”

“I don’t trust her complete-” A knock at the door halted all conversation. Their eyes drifted to the door, unblinkingly keeping them glued there. Umji slowly made her way to the bookcase standing at the end of the living room, and in mere seconds, a pre-loaded gun was tossed to Eunha. She caught it—never taking her eyes off the door. Umji stayed within the walls of the hidden room behind the bookcase, monitoring the surveillance cameras as Eunha made her way towards the door.

“Eunha eonnie, wait!” Umji exited the bookcase’s enclosed room, closing it swiftly. And just in time too, the front door had just opened. Umji rushed to Eunha’s side, who just stared blankly, pointing her gun at the unexpected guest. Lowering it upon realization that Yerin was on the other end of the door.

“Yerin eonnie? Wh-what are you doing here?” Being taken off guard, Eunha couldn’t compose herself fast enough.

“Eonnie, we don’t get many visitors so we are always on high alert, I’m sorry you had to be on the other end of that. Is SinB-ah with you?” Luckily, Umji was there to correct Eunha’s slip up, smoothly steering the conversation.

“SinB-ah told me to come here.” Admitted Yerin, “And you may not get many visitors, but that doesn’t mean you should hold the ones you get to gunpoint.” Folding her arms, eyeing Eunha incredulously.

“Is sorry not good enough for you, chief?” Eunha replied smugly.

“SinB-ah told you to come here?” Asked the youngest girl in an attempt to break the tension. Knitting her brows, Yerin’s expression dropped.

“Well…” started Yerin, eyes shifting between the two girls.

“Did something happen to SinB-ah?” The absence of SinB had already caused a disturbance within Eunha, and Yerin’s lack of compliance only made it worse.

“No, nothing happened.” As far as she was aware, but there was still that unnerving feeling sitting in the back of her mind.

“Then where is she?” The growing impatience within Eunha garnered a desperation to know the whereabouts of her roommate.

“She had some important work to take care of.” Yerin fibbed.

“So important you had to make an unsolicited trip to our home?” Eunha bit back.

“Important how?” Umji questioned, wanting to get to the point.

“I couldn’t exactly…go home…” speaking inaudibly, this concerned the pair.

“Why couldn’t you?” Pressing hard, Umji took the initiative of pulling Eunha aside, whispering to her inaudibly.

“You know she’s not the bad guy, don’t be so harsh. I know you’re worried about SinB-ah, I’m worried too, but if SinB-ah sent her here—it means she wanted her here for whatever reason.” Sighing, Eunha walked to the girl patiently standing outside their apartment, with Umji following quickly behind.

“Please come inside and tell us everything.” Yerin made her way into the apartment, scanning the area before following the girls. There was almost nothing on the walls minus a painting seemingly done by a local artist; a dog standing in the middle of a newly withering forest. It was a very bleak piece, very dark but with a lot of meaning behind it. Next to the painting was a bookshelf filled to the brim with books she didn’t recognize. She loved reading, so seeing a plethora of books she didn’t know of greatly enticed her.

After her admiring of their home was complete, she made her way into their kitchen that was conjoined with the living room. Upon sitting down, she was greeted to a cup of hot tea.

“So what happened?” Eunha asked as Yerin sat down.

Settling in, Yerin let out a long sigh. “As you know, SinB-ah and I went out for drinks. We ended up bumping into Sowon eonnie, and sat together. We shared a few rounds, chatting it up. A few hours passed; Sowon eonnie and SinB-ah ended up basically wasted, so I took them to my apartment.” Started Yerin with a quickly whipped up story.

“And you left them there, drunk?” Umji questioned. This threw Yerin for a loop. She stared at Umji, trying desperately to pull something out of thin air as quickly as possible. The longer Yerin stayed silent, the larger their suspicion grew.

“Well, I would have if they didn’t start making passes at me.” The two girls looked at each other before looking back at Yerin with confusion plastered over their faces.

“That doesn’t sound like SinB-ah.” Eunha knew that even if she was blackout drunk, SinB wouldn’t make passes at anyone.

“She didn’t seem like that kind of person, but you know people surprise you. Like how Umji-yah does actually live with you two.” Glancing at Umji before continuing, “anyway, they were making passes at me, so I had to get out.”

“But wouldn’t you enjoy having SinB-ah throw passes at you?” Eunha smirked, “and how did you get our address?” A stump in her story made the room silent; if the first time made them suspicious, the second time made her story impossible to believe.

“Maybe, but she was drunk. I would rather have nothing develop with SinB-ah then have something develop unnaturally. As for why I have your address—” The conversation was cut short by the ringing of the house phone. A sudden war raged within Eunha; why would their phone ring? Who was calling? It made little sense to her, and it frightened her.

During her moment, Umji answered the phone.

“Hello?” Answering with a much lower tone in her voice than normal.

“Is Jung Yerin there?” The woman on the other line asked. Umji turned to Yerin, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Do you need something?” Umji asked, keeping her eyes on Yerin who blinked rapidly in confusion.

“Yes, a miss Shawing was admitted into the hospital, the woman who called the ambulance found her unconscious. She is currently undergoing surgery, I ask that you please visit the hospital whenever you have the time.” A glare surfaced on Umji’s face, raising Eunha’s interest in the whatever conversation was being had.

“I will be right there.” She said, hanging up the phone.

“What happened?” Eunha asked.

“SinB-ah is in the hospital, and Yerin eonnie is apparently her emergency contact.” The information took Eunha and Yerin off guard. First it was confusion, but it quickly turned into panic—from Yerin’s end. Eunha was used to putting up a front, so even if she was internally more panicked than Yerin, it ultimately didn’t show on her face.

“Why is she in the hospital?” Eunha turned to face Yerin. “Where did you take her? What did you two do? What aren’t you telling us?!” She yelled at the girl who only grew paler by the second.

“Sh-she…I…” But it was no use, Yerin couldn’t even form coherent sentences.

“Don’t speak then. We are going to go visit SinB-ah, and if you try anything we won’t hesitate to bring you down. I don’t care how close you are with her. SinB-ah is more important to me than you will ever be.” Yerin sunk deeper into her seat with each rising decibel from the shorter girl.

“Eonnie, can’t you see she’s frightened?”

“Can’t you see that I don’t give a ?” She spat, “Come on Umji-yah, we’re leaving.”

“N-No!” Yerin forced out. “I have to go alone!” she was already to the door before she finished, “I’m sorry.”

“Umji-yah! We have to go!” Eunha said as she held up her gun. With quick thinking, Umji shook her head.

“You stay here and hold the fort, I’ll go after Yerin.” Umji may have been the person to put caution at the forefront, but she put SinB first, and that meant making SinB’s trust in Yerin the priority.

“Okay.” Upon Eunha’s agreement, Umji rushed out of the apartment hoping to follow Yer