L.Joe’s POV

I looked around the classroom. Yuri was nowhere to be seen. That’s odd. Where could she be? As far as I am concerned, she never missed a single class. She would be present in all her classes.

I took my phone out just as I received an incoming call from Mir. I answered it.

I ended the call a few minutes later, clenching my fist tight. I stood up to go look for that when the teacher came inside the room. “Where do you think you are going?” he asked me with raised eyebrows.

My jaws set, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get out of this one. Unwillingly, I sat down on my seat. he will never understand how important it is to me to look for her. Niel glanced worriedly at me. As my friend, he knew that something was off. “What’s wrong?” he whispered to me as everyone settled down.

“I know why Yuri has been depressed,” I whispered back.

“Why?”

Someone coughed from above us. “Do the two of you have anything you’d like to share to the whole class?” our teacher asked, standing in front of us and we looked up.

Everyone’s eyes were on us, the class deadly silent.

“No, Sir, just asking if the homework you set for us was hard or easy,” Niel answered without missing a beat.

I showed him my open book, smiling innocently at him.

He narrowed his eyes before walking back in class. I waited until the bell sounded for a break before our next class. I immediately shot out of my seat, heading to the door.

“Hyung, wait!” Niel called after me, trying to stuff everything in his bags to be able to catch up with me.

I ignored him and went looking for the girl. The more steps I took, the angrier I became. I found her in a classroom. The teacher hasn’t dismissed the students yet so I waited for her.

“Hyung, what’s the matter?” Niel panted, finally able to catch up with me. “Can you tell me what’s going on? What happened to Yuri?”

“Mir hyung gave me a call before class started,” I said. “He took Yuri to the hospital. And Sohyun is responsible for her being there.”

He gasped. “What?” he gawked. “What the hell did she do to her?! Does this have anything to do with Mir hyung and Yuri breaking up?”

I gave him a withering look. “What do you think?” I hissed, clenching my fist. “I am going to make that little girl regret —”

Sohyun and her fans came out of the classroom and I stopped her in her tracks. She frowned, irritated to see that I was in her way. She walked past around me but I stopped her.

“What is your problem?” she demanded.

“Yuri is in the hospital,” I snapped. “Do you feel the satisfaction now?”

She scowled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t have to stand here and listen to all of this junk.”

“Really? So you won’t care if she dies with evidence of who killed her?”

She turned sharply at me. “I have nothing to do with her!” she screeched. “Why does everyone suspect that I beat her up?”

Niel his breath. “No one said anything about you beating her up.”

Her friends gasped as she realized her mistake.

She tried to run but I grabbed her before she could even take a step away. “Mir has all the threatening messages you sent to her,” I told her calmly. “We have proof that you were behind this.”

Niel’s eyes grew big when he saw how calm I was. I don’t blame him. I am at my most angriest when I get all calm suddenly. The eye of a hurricane, that’s what my friends call it.

She began to cry but I’m not going to fall for it. She is just trying to get out of this but I’m not going to let her get off that easily. We’re talking about dealing with someone’s life here. It’s serious.

Yuri can die.

“I can’t let her think that she can get any man she wants! I had to teach her a lesson!” she wailed, trying to struggle to break free but my grip was too strong.

“What did you do to her?” I asked.

She looked down. “I punched her in the stomach,” she muttered.

“I’m pretty sure that isn’t all,” I said impatiently.

“I . . . kicked her, slapped her . . . c – cut her . . .”

I felt sick in my stomach. I never knew she was this sadistic.

“I . . . even . . . burnt her . . .”

“,” Niel cursed under his breath, growing paler by the minute.

“Do you know that if she dies, it would be in your hands, and you’ll be called a murderer?” I asked her quietly.

“I didn’t think it’d be this serious!” she protested. “I was going to stop by the end of this month! I swear! I’m sorry! I didn’t want her to die. I just wanted her to know that she can’t get any man she wants.”

I can tell by the look in her eyes that she was really scared and sincere with her words but it was too late. “In case you didn’t know, Mir really likes her!” I shouted in her face and she flinched. “Mir loves her! How dare you ruin such a happy couple?! And how dare you mess with Yuri’s life like that?”

Sohyun’s eyes flashed with anger. “Who the hell does she think she is? And why, of all girls, must it be her? Mir Oppa knew how much I like him! I just wanted him to see that I can be the girl for him.”

“By taking away the life of the girl he loves?”

“Maybe . . .”

“Kwon Sohyun, I didn’t not just hear that.”

We looked up to see her father, Principle Kwon.

She’s screwed.

“Appa!” she gasped.

Principle Kwon looked downright furious with her, as well as appalled. “Did I hear right? Did I hear my own daughter saying she had hurt a girl just because she was with the guy you like?”

Sohyun seemed to have shrunk in size.

“Do you realize what this means?” he went on. “I am so disappointed in you. No, disappointed doesn’t even match to what I’m feeling right now. This isn’t how your mother and I raised you! What are you thinking? What are people going to say now? You could go to jail for this! And I’m not going to stop the police if they do take you to jail.”

“Andwae, Appa, please!” she begged, clinging onto his shirt, crying.

He ignored his daughter and turned to me. “How bad is it?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, Sir,” I replied, bowing my head at him for being addressed to. “But I was told that her internal organs were badly damaged and that the wounds on her hands due to cuts and burns were deep.” I can’t even think straight. I shuddered, trying to get rid of the images in my head.

Sohyun kept her head down.

Principle Kwon heaved a sigh, looking deeply grave. “I will go see for myself. Go to class. I do not want to hear you cutting class. If you want, I could drive you to the hospital after school.”

I bowed. “Thank you, Principle Kwon,” I said and walked off to my next class.

“And you,” I heard him say behind me to Sohyun, “are going home. You’re going to boarding school. It’s time you fix that temper management of yours.”

I sighed, heading back to class. This is absurd. How does he expect me to concentrate on my class, knowing my best friend might be dying in her bed in the hospital right now?

Finally the last bell sounded. Just as I was about to head off to the office, where I hope Principle Kwon should be, I was surrounded by all of my friends. They asked me endless questions about Yuri.

“I’ll tell you afterward,” I said as Principle Kwon’s car drove by, stopping in front of me. “I’ll call you guys tonight.”

They nodded and I got inside the front seat. Sohyun was sitting quietly at the back. I hope she feels guilty for what she’s done. She’s really gone too far this time. I can’t believe her jealousy made her like this. She has always been unbearable, but never like this.

One we got there, I got a text from Mir saying that they were still at the waiting room. The three of us ran there to find Mir sitting down on the chairs, his head looking down, his shirt untuck and his tie loosed. Joon was there too, leaning against the wall, his eyes closed, looking up to the ceiling. Key, who must have gone home to change out of his uniform, was staring right in front of him at the wall.

“How is she?” I asked, rushing to Mir. “Where are her mom and dad?”

He looked up, smiling weakly. I was shocked when I saw him. His face was beyond agony. He looked like he was in shock. His eyes were wide with pain and regrets — regrets for not making Yuri tell him the truth, for not persuading her more because if he had persuaded her into telling the truth, she wouldn’t be like this.

“They’re still operating her,” Key replied. “I don’t know how it is. There’s still no use. Mr. Lee went back to work for an emergency and Mrs. Lee went to get a cup of coffee.”

“I’ll go find her then,” Principle Kwon spoke up and headed toward the direction of the hospital’s cafeteria.

“I’m —” Sohyun started to say.

“Save it for someone who actually cares, Sohyun,” Key sighed.

Joon’s head snapped back down and he glowered at her, taking a step closer. “I bet you think it’s funny, don’t you, messing with my sister’s life like this?” he hissed at her. He pointed to the door. “My sister is on the other side of that door, fighting for her life and you think that saying sorry will fix it? What if she doesn’t make it?! I barely had time to even get to know her that well and already I feel like I’m losing her!” The tears were starting to pour. He clenched his fist. Key and I had to hold him back in case he attacked but he didn’t seem to have that kind of intention.

Mir still didn’t look up.

“Did you ever stop to think for a second that if you and Mir were meant to be, it would have happened by now? Why can’t you just accept that fact and move on? Did you really need to bring my sister into this?!”

She looked like she wanted to cry again but Joon just then looked away. “If my sister doesn’t live, I swear I will torture you until you wish you’d never been born,” he muttered.

“Hyung,” Key said exasperatedly, knowing that she could sue him for threatening.

But Sohyun was just as distressed and I have a good feeling that she knew her mistakes because she just kept quiet. She walked to Mir. “I’m really sorry,” she said.

He didn’t answer her. I doubt he even heard her.

Principle Kwon and Mrs. Lee came back. Sohyun apologized to her. I didn’t hear what Mrs. Lee replied. I didn’t bother to find out.

I was anxious to hear news about Yuri.

Finally the doctor stepped out of the emergency room and we all rushed to him (well, except for Mir). “How is she? Will she be all right?” we all asked him, eager for postive answers.

The doctor was a little surprised to see more of us but he recollected himself and frowned. “Well, we are done with the operation.”

“So how is she?” Joon urged.

He sighed, looking down. “I’m sorry.”

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I'm mean for leaving a cliffy, I know. Ngaaawww, don't worry, next chapter will come out soon~ Waaaahoooo, Sohyun is caught! Keke~ feel so happy ^^

Meh, off to do my science revision for my test tomorrow D: wish me luck! I needa pass this test D: stupid historical geology D: T.T the curse of being homeschooled. Sighs . . .