Yongguk could practically hear the conversation going on between his dongsaengs and Manager Hwang outside the airtight room in the hallway despite the fact that they were making it an effort to keep their voices hushed. He could sense their discomfort in strangely pitched tones and exasperated sighs.

“What exactly happened to hyung?” he heard Daehyun ask, “How did he end up in an interrogation ward in a police station?” There was incredulity in his voice and Yongguk buried his own head in his palms.

“He burst into the station this morning and claimed that he was seeing the stalker around him practically everywhere he went. They played footages of the buildings he went to and found no trace,” the Manager’s calm voice explained.

“So they thought that he went nuts?” Him Chan asked furiously, “he hasn’t been sleeping because of her, and they kept telling us that we didn’t have a case! I’ve seen her! Everyone in B.A.P has seen her!”

“Keep it down!”

"Hallucination or not, the company’s burning cash to keep the media’s mouth shut,” Manager Hwang whispered, “and for now, I’ve been given instructions to send him away…”

“WHAT?” the group chorused, and was immediately shushed frantically.

“…along with you lot,” he resumed drily, “away from here.”

Away? Yongguk echoed in his thoughts, away from here where?

“How long?” Jong Up spoke for the first time that evening.

Silence.

“A while,” their manager finally replied, “that’s for sure.”

*

The trip to Mount Chulma was mainly in silence, the type of silence which strained every nerve in the dusty van’s occupants’ system. The radio had been turned off five hours ago by no other than Kim Him Chan, the man of worldly patience, due to all the awful music and foreign stations. Instead, they had all agreed wordlessly on merely staring out the dusty windows as the van slipped smoothly past town after town and countryside after countryside in a seemingly endless journey. In the end, Zelo and Jong Up had fallen asleep on each other’s’ shoulders, whilst the Daehyun and Youngjae played with some sort of game console. Him Chan and Yongguk stared individually out of the window – Him Chan, due to boredom, whilst Yongguk was lost in thought.

The face of the girl flashed repeatedly in his mind like a broken record, haunting him with those strange eyes.

Eyes that seemed to penetrate, yet seemed so lifeless.

Dead.

They felt dead.

Cold and dead.

The very eyes that were capable of reminding one of decaying flesh in black water, floating alone eerily in the dark.

  Slowly, but surely, he felt his own eyes slide close and…

*

He was standing outside the TS Building, across the road as he had done a million times before. The clock by the side of the road ticked four in the afternoon in time with the gradual traffic easing on the asphalt road. There were a few people in the diner across the building. A fat lady was taking notes from a faded clipboard, as she scrutinized through round glasses at the boxes set outside her quaint bookshop.

Everything was cheery.

Everything was going on smoothly.

The traffic light across him flashed green suddenly, and he realized that he was in the way of a few others waiting in line to cross. He quickly picked up a steady pace and trailed across the road along with the flow on the zebra-crossing. At the corner of his eyes, he watched as the traffic light turned red right after he had reached the other side of the road.

He didn’t go on after reaching the pavement, as he would have done normally.

Anytime from now, he would’ve walked straight into TS Building without the time nor the reason to stop, but today, something held him back. As though there were strings bonded to his limbs and neck, his own sight drawn to the other side of the road.

Then, he saw her.

The unrecognizable figure, who had been to ragged and pitiful two years ago stood at the other side of the road. She was holding something against her own chest, as though trying to hide her heart pounding along with the excitement etched on her attractive features; now clear to view as it was free of dirt and scars. But even from afar, one could see that her bruises on her limbs had not yet vanished, as there were misty streaks of blue-black on her almost white flesh. Her clothes were no longer tattered, but they were still plain, though complimenting her countryside expression.

Yongguk felt the shock of the sight of her gradually fade and curiosity invaded his mind in an unusually quick pace.

He watched as she looked to the left, and then to the right, her neck turning completely every time she changed directions in viewing the traffic.

It looked strange.

Something wasn’t right.

Just then, she stepped onto the asphalt, right into the white line.

Yongguk watched, holding his breath as she ran across the road hastily, even though that there weren’t any cars in sight. His breathing slackened when she finally reached the end of the crossing, no more than two feet from Yongguk’s figure.

He felt his heartbeat stabilize.

She looked forwards and their eyes met.

Then, a convertible came out of nowhere and slammed her torso out of Yongguk’s sight.

He was still frozen there when the fat lady who owned the bookstore had let out a blood-curling scream and there were signs of chaos everywhere. He turned as the tires of the convertible screeched to the back and the body of the girl rolled down the hood, the head sticking out unnaturally. It clattered to the floor pathetically like a life-sized puppet and he watched as parted in surprise, watching her reflection die from the convertible’s number-plate surface. Blood stained her cheeks and limbs as the glass from the windshield which her head had crashed into, cut into her flesh like knives, allowing measurable amount of red liquid to ooze out from fresh slits.

Her rib was sticking out from her chest, and he could tell that the bone had pierced her heart.

Her limbs were trembling violently, like her lips, but she didn’t seem to notice.

The blood flowed out of her in streams, forming patterns on her skirt and blouse, before drenching them into a horrible dark red.

They stained her lips, flowed above her eyes, and trickled from her nostrils; in an odd way, snaking out from her body as they carried her life, like thieves from a gold mine.

Yongguk was still staring when finally, her limbs stopped trembling and her eyes turned dull.

Her neck stopped twitching and her head snapped back to stare straight at Yongguk.

  The girl Yongguk had been seeing everywhere stared straight at him once again.

The cold returned.