(Another Perspective/The Day After - Theme of Ch. 2)

Five men in black stand in front of After School's dorm. They pull out their guns from their holsters and unlock the safety triggers. 

"Did you disarm the security system?" one of them grunts.

"All clear. Security cameras are shut down. The keypad lock should also be disarmed," another replies. "We can get inside and she won't know what will hit her."

"Don't be stupid. We're ordered to capture an elite Ex-Hunter here. And it's not just any Hunter... It's Ex-Hunter Lee Jooyeon. Even if she has been inactive for over ten years, do not underestimate her. She's captured many of us before she retired; she was the Hunters' ace."

"Are you done praising the girl, you idiot? We have a job to do," a man growls. The rest of the men nod.

They open the door and close it behind them as slowly as possible. The dorm was quiet and everything was still. The leader of the five points to two of his men. "You two stay in the living room and make sure to take care of anyone who enters. The three of us are going to take care of the girl."

While two of the men stand guard, the remaining three slowly tread to the only room that was emitting light. The door to Jooyeon's room was slightly open. The leader angles his ear towards the crack and he hears a light snore. He concludes she's asleep. He opens the door slowly and the three men enter the room.

Jooyeon is lying on her back, her body completely underneath her bed sheets. Her sleeping face has a peaceful demeanor to it and her breathing is light and even. The leader motions to the man on his left and mouths, Get the chloroform ready.The man takes out a bottle of chloroform and dabs it on a cloth. Eyeing Jooyeon carefully, the man hovers over her sleeping form and moves the cloth close to and nose. 

Jooyeon's eyes snap open into a glare. She uncovers two knives in both hands from underneath the blankets and stabs the man with one in the stomach. The man drops the cloth and howls in pain, clutching his stomach as blood slowly flows out from the wound. Jooyeon stands up on her bed and kicks him in the face hard, causing him to fall to the ground in a pool of blood.

"Sh&t! Shoot her!" the leader commands the other man. The leader points his gun at Jooyeon, but she swiftly gets close to him and kicks the gun out of his hand. He grunts but manages to punch her in the face. She quickly shakes off the dizziness and recovers. Jooyeon takes her knives and slashes the leader across the chest, creating a bloody "X", then elbowing his throat hard. The leader falls to the floor, gagging and trying to breathe properly. Because she was too preoccupied with the leader, Jooyeon fails to notice the other man pointing the gun at her. The man shoots two bullets at her. Jooyeon quickly staggers behind her bed and manages to dodge the first bullet, but she was not quick enough to evade the second bullet. Luckily, the bullet misses directly hitting Jooyeon but it grazes her left side, creating a gash to be formed. Jooyeon screams, already feeling her own blood coming out. She growls and using the last of her strength, she throws both knives at the man. The knives hit their mark, plunging deeply into the man and he drops to the floor.

Jooyeon breathes hard. "That's what you get for shooting me, scum," she huffs. She suddenly hears more men yelling and shooting coming from the living room.

But as soon as she turns around, her eyes meet the sick eyes of the leader and she feels a bullet pierce her. The man shoots two more bullets into Jooyeon and with a silent scream she falls face down onto her bed. 

"N-Not... so tough are you...." the leader lets out a raspy chuckle.

Jooyeon tries to push herself up, but she was too weak from all the blood loss and collapses back onto the bed. She shuts her eyes in pain and pounds her fists into the mattress because she was angry she could not fight back. She suddenly hears the leader's horrified wail and then a gunshot. Jooyeon slowly opens her eyes, but her vision isn't focused. She makes out three black figures approaching her.

Jooyeon silently curses as her vision fades to darkness.

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After the police got to the dorm, After School was to relocate to another building under police supervision while the forensics team examine their dorm to see if they could get an idea what happened while the managers and the girls were out. News about an attack at After School's dorm reached the news naturally, but Pledis was able to hide Jooyeon's disappearance from reaching the public.

Three days later, Kahi is driving with the main manager to their dorm. The results from the analysis were finished earlier that day and wanted only the leader and the main manager to come down to the crime scene. The manager side glances at Kahi in the passenger's seat as he drives. "How are the girls? I haven't seen them since... it happened. It's been crazy at the company," the manager says.

"They're not as traumatized as before, but everyone is still worried about Jooyeon..." Kahi's fists tighten. She tries with all her might not to cry. "I'm so worried oppa. There was.... so much blood. So much...."

The manager couldn't say anything. He knows there are no words to comfort the frail leader. He places a comforting hand on Kahi's arm. They are on the way to the only source that would hopefully give them the answers they seek. 

Upon arriving, Kahi and the manager are greeted by the head forensic scientist. The scientist shakes hands with the manager and Kahi, also giving Kahi a sympathetic look. "Thank you for coming. I have the results of our investigation ready for you both."

"May I ask why I am the only one requested to be here? What about the rest of After School?" Kahi asks.

"I thought it'd be best if the leader would know the details and then pass it on to the rest of the group."

"I think it's unfair if I'm the only one told the results first-hand. The rest have the right to know too. Do you know how worried sick we've all been?!" Kahi begins to raise her voice.

"Kahi, calm down," her manager tells her.

The scientist observes Kahi. He sighs but gives her a nod. "I understand what you're saying. If your manager doesn't mind, you'll have to drive me to the temporary dorm."

"You have nothing to do here?" the manager asks the scientist.

"No. We're simply cleaning up here."

"Okay. You can tell us all what you've found out about what happened at our dorm," Kahi says.

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Back at the temporary dorm, all the managers and After School gather in the big living room. Everyone is feeling nervous, scared about what the results are yet are desperate for some closure. Kahi, Jungah, and Bekah stand together, holding hands, next to the managers, while Uee, Raina, Nana, Lizzy, and E-Young sit on the couch. Nana is leaning her head on Uee's shoulder while Lizzy is holding Uee's hand tightly. Raina's arms were wrapped around E-Young, the poor maknae still more shocked than the rest over the situation even after three days. 

The scientist clears his throat as he begins. "Alright. Well, I shall begin telling you all our findings. I shall warn you now that there are several disturbing things we discovered." He pauses to see if everyone is agreement. When no one says anything, he continues. "As you know, the living room and kitchen was trashed and the only bedroom that was damaged was Jungah and Jooyeon's room."

"What happened to Jooyeon?" Raina couldn't help but ask.

"Raina, let him finish," Kahi hisses at her. Raina looks at the scientist apologetically and nods, signalling him to continue.

"Anyway, after examining the entire dorm we found blood belonging to five different men. Looking behind their background, we learned that these five men have been missing from society for over 8 years now, which confused the police but it's the truth. Although we have no actual proof, we think they hacked the security system of the building. That's why we can't use the security cameras to identify them and that's why they were able to enter the dorm." The scientist's eyes turn solemn. "And we also found blood--a lot of blood-- belonging to Jooyeon."

The members of After School stare at the scientist with wide, shocked eyes. E-Young begins to cry into Raina's shoulder, the older girl not being able to hold back her tears either. Uee lowers her head but it's not long till tears begin to drop. Lizzy buries her face into her hands. Kahi keeps a poker face on while Jungah and Bekah's tears start to flow down their faces. Nana's eyes tear up but she refuses to cry. Subconsciously, Nana plays with Jooyeon's ring on her finger as the scientist goes on.

"The forensic team noticed that two knives from the kitchen were missing. We concluded, if Jooyeon was indeed attacked by these five men, she grabbed these knives to defend herself, which explains why blood belonging to the men can be found. There were seven gunshot holes in the living room and two in the bedroom." He clears his throat again. "There are two mysterious things about this attack. The first one I'm sure you all can already guess. One: if such a struggle happened in the dorm, how come there are no bodies from either party? The knives we assumed that Jooyeon was using are also gone from the crime scene. The second one is more frightening. Other than the five men and Jooyeon, the forensic team found fingerprints belonging to three other individuals. The strange thing is the police have no idea who these fingerprints belong to."

A female manager speaks up. "Are you suggesting that the three mysterious people could be responsible for this whole incident?"

The scientist lets out a heavy sigh. "I'll be blunt with you all. Honestly, we don't have any solid evidence to what exactly happened in there. We don't know if the five men or Jooyeon are alive or not. They could be alive or they could be dead. All we know for a fact is that Jooyeon was fighting them back and both she and all the men were injured. We don't know what the three unidentified individuals play in this or what they did."

"So about Jooyeon..." Jungah starts in a quiet voice.

"For now, Lee Jooyeon is considered missing to the police. We'll continue to investigate to find anymore leads to find her for couple more weeks and do our best from keep this news away from the public. But if we cannot find anymore evidence on her... consider the possibility of her dead to be high. To be honest, after seeing so much of her blood, it'll be a miracle if she's alive. She must have suffered a serious wound."

"Yah! Can't you be a little more positive?!" Kahi yells, her emotions getting the best of her.

The scientist narrows his eyes at Kahi. "I'm only being realistic with you. If you can't accept the possibility of her being dead, it's only going to make it harder for you to deal with it if it's actually true." He feels his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and picks up. "Hello? .... Yeah. I'm discussing it with them now..... Of course.... Yes, yes... Alright goodbye." He hangs up and turns to everyone. "I must go now. A police car will be here to pick me up. I've told you everything we know. Stay strong you all." 

The scientist leaves the dorm, leaving an uneasy atmosphere hanging over the members of After School and the managers. Without a word, Nana stands up from the couch and proceeds to leave the room.

"Nana," Kahi says her name gently.

"I need to be alone," Nana croaks.

Nana goes inside the bathroom and locks herself inside. She slides down to the floor and brings her knees to her chest. All the tears she's been holding in slowly come out one by one. Nana carefully pulls off Jooyeon's ring. She stares at it through teary eyes.

"Jooyeon unnie... Where are you...?" Nana whispers to herself. She buries her head into her arms and begins to sob uncontrollably alone.