“Oh no…,” Kai said, his voice wavering. “No…no, no, no…”

Taemin, who was doing his homework on the couch looked up to see Kai staring shocked at the TV screen, tears in eyes. Alarmed, he whipped his head to look at the screen as well and was shocked.

 It was a new coverage about a massacre that happened just a few hours in a cheap motel. A man supposedly in his forties paid for four es and brought them to the motel. After giving them all a go he hastily bound them and stabbed them, but not before giving them a final phone call to someone they cared about. Taemin thought that must have been torture for the poor ladies. It was a shocking story really, but Taemin didn’t understand why his best friend was near tears.

Kai on the other hand was trying very hard to keep himself together as he stared at the television screen. It was showing the photographs of the es killed, trying to identify them. Kai’s heart shattered in two when he saw Hyemi’s photograph, her normally pretty face painted with blood and lifeless eyes wide in terror.

What struck him harder was when he saw the string necklace he had given her resting on her neck. She was still wearing it. She was still keeping their promise….

Kai couldn’t take it anymore. He let out a strangled sob as he fell to his knees, hands clutching at his aching chest. Taemin, alarmed, knelt down beside him, cradling him.

“Kai! What’s wrong?!” Taemin inquired, freaking out. Why was Kai acting this way?

All Kai could choke out through sobs was, “H-Hyem-i-i!”

Taemin, still confused, didn’t press the issue and just continued to hold his best friend, offering ever amount of comfort he possibly could.

All Kai could think about was Hyemi and the phone call he had received last night. He should’ve know something was wrong. Maybe he could have done something….

But that’s the thing—he wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

Hyemi had called him.

She cared about him.

Kai desperately wished this hadn’t have happened to her.

Hyemi’s smiling face was the last thing he could see or think about when he passed out in Taemin’s arms.