Jieun set the call on loudspeaker and put it on the floor. She forced herself to fight her fear and pull a handkerchief from her pocket. Slowly she crawled closer to the girl in front of her and tears started to fall when she saw the cut on her left wrist, fresh blood still flowing. Carefully, Jieun tied the handkerchief around the wrist to stop the bleeding and then she checked her pulse, it was still there, beating weakly. Jieun wanted to talk, to yell, to do anything to pull the girl back into consciousness, but she couldn’t even find the strength in her to utter a word that is loud enough to be heard. And so she just sat in her place, knee being pressed up to her chest while she held the girl’s wounded wrist, feeling the pulse as a reassurance that she was still here. Jieun stayed like that while still listening to Lay’s voice from her phone.

“I’m almost there.” He said between pants. Jieun knew he was running.

Soon after, Jieun heard some steps nearing and finally Lay appeared in front of the cubicle door. Lay looked terrified by the sight in front of him but it was quickly dismissed, he needed to be calm. Lay kneeled in front of Jieun and brought her to his embrace.

“It’s alright. I’ve got you.” He whispered.

“S-save...h-her.”

Lay released Jieun and checked the girl’s wrist, the cut was fortunately not too deep, he noted. But she had lost a good amount of blood and it could be fatal if she doesn’t get a medical help soon. Lay glanced at the bloody blade on the floor and picked it up with a handkerchief and put it on his blazer pocket. Then he put his hands behind the girl’s back and knee before he pulled the body up so that now he was carrying her. He glanced at Jieun who was still sitting with her face buried on her knee. Hesitation was written all over Lay’s face, he didn’t want to leave Jieun alone here because it was like dumping her all alone to the nightmare, but there was also a life that he should save.

“G-go...I’ll be alright.” Jieun muttered, still with shaky voice.

“I’ll be back soon.” He promised then started walking to the nurse office. But it was quite far and Lay didn’t want to leave Jieun for that long. He wished he had made the right decision when he decided to call someone whom he wished he could trust. The call was not answered until the sixth rings and Lay knew the reason. It was because students were still in class and they need to get permission to go out for a while and answer the call.

“Hello? Who is this?” The voice sounded confused.

“It’s Lay. Please go to female restroom near the library. Jieun is there. It’s an emergency. What you’ll see might shock you. But...please go there. Jieun is there and scared. Please.” He said, phone between his shoulder and ears because his hands were used to carry someone and he was trying to still walking fast enough without dropping anything.

Lay expected a question, but he got none, instead he received a simple okay before the other person hung up. He wished that person didn’t think of it as a joke and really went to Jieun.

***

Maybe it was the urgency in Lay’s voice, or maybe it was because Lay doesn’t seem like someone who likes to joke around, whatever it was, it succeeded to make Luhan run to the mentioned destination. Luhan had many questions in his little head, what happened? Where’s Lay? Why Lay didn’t get Jieun himself? Why Lay ask him to go instead? But all of those questions vanished when Luhan saw Jieun’s shaking body sitting helplessly on the bloody floor, her knee was pressed against her chest and she buried her face on her knee. Her hands were wrapped tightly around her knee and there was blood on them. Luhan’s first thought was that Jieun hurts herself, but after he looked more carefully, he didn’t see any wound on her bloody hands and he was a little bit relieved by the fact.

“Jieun-ah.” Luhan touched her shoulder and his heart dropped when she flinched. She didn’t move, didn’t let Luhan to see her face.

“It’s me, Luhan. Let’s get out from here, hm?” Still no response, but Luhan tried to help Jieun stand and she complied. Finally Luhan could see Jieun’s face and now he wished he didn’t. She looked so pale, so scared, and her eyes looked empty. She had stopped crying but Luhan could still see lines of dried tears on her cheeks.

“Can you walk?” He asked softly and Jieun nodded her head almost unnoticeablyy. They took careful steps, Luhan placed his hand on Jieun’s waist to support her because she looked like she would collapse any minutes. And just as what Luhan had predicted, it didn’t take long before Jieun’s feet gave up and Luhan had to carry her on his back. Thankfully enough Jieun didn’t faint and they encountered nobody except the janitor who looked at them questioningly. Luhan told him about what he found in the female restroom and he was not sure if he should ask the janitor to clean the bloody cubicle so he just asked him to check it before anyone else find it and freak out. Luhan left the decision of cleaning the mess for the janitor because he thought the old man would know better.

Luhan’s phone vibrated, a text from Sehun asking where he is, but before he could reply him the phone vibrated again and this time it was a call from Lay.

“Hello?”

“Where are you? How’s Jieun?” He sounded dead worried.

“Jieun is on my back, we’re heading to nurse office. Where the hell are you? And whose blood was in that bloody cubicle?”

“I’m in the nurse office. You’ll get your answer when you get here. Please be careful.”

Then the call was ended and some minutes later Luhan and Jieun arrived in the nurse office. Lay was waiting in front of the door and he helped Luhan to lay Jieun on the bed. She fell asleep on the way here.

“Tell me what happened.” Luhan asked Lay as soon as Jieun was nicely tucked in bed. But before Lay could explain what happened, two people knocked the door. They were in white uniform and they brought an emergency bed with them. Ms. Seohyun greeted them and they exchanged some words before they walked to a bed at the end of room and just then Luhan realized someone was lying there. He frowned when he saw the girl’s face. He knows her, she is their classmate.

“Isn’t that Dana?” Lay nodded.

“Why is she...” Then he saw her bandaged wrist and gasped. “Did she...”

“Yes.”

“Oh God...” He covered his mouth in shock. He knows Korea has a really high rate of suicide, but he had never encountered such case directly before. Dana is his classmate and although he knew almost nothing about her except her name, age, and the fact that she rarely attends class, it didn’t make him feel bad any less. He wondered what life had done for her to do such thing.

“I’ve informed Teacher Jung about what happened, she said she’d also informed Teacher Kim. You two are supposed to still be in his class now, right?” Ms. Seohyun said and the two male students nodded their head.

”Please watch over Jieun and the office when I’m gone for a while. Teacher Jung will go to the hospital instead of me, so I’ll be back soon.” Ms. Seohyun said. She smiled and patted their shoulders before she walked out with the hospital officers who were pushing the emergency bed in which Dana was lying.

“You can go back to class. I’m sorry for troubled you, and thank you.” Lay said.

“It’s okay, I want to stay for a while. I’m also Jieun’s friend by now, you know?” Luhan said and Lay just smiled at him.

“I should keep my mouth shut about this accident, right?” Luhan asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Yeah. I think it’s better not to talk about it. It will only cause unnecessary stir if students know. I don’t think Dana needs to deal with that. Clearly she had had more than enough on her plate.”

“Yeah.”

Silence. Luhan had a question or maybe questions, but he was not sure if he should ask.

“Why did you call me?” He finally decided to ask.

Lay stayed still for a while and somehow the waiting made Luhan nervous for some reason.

“Maybe because I trust you?” Lay answered after a while and it sounded more like a question. “Honestly the first person that came to mind was Tao, maybe because he is Jieun’s tablemate and they are closer now, but I don’t know his number and well, it’s impossible for me to ask Kai for help, right?”

Luhan laughed at that.

“But he is her boyfriend though. You can start trusting him to take care of Jieun.”

“I can’t.” His tone was serious.

“Why?”

“Their relationship is only based on a dare, Luhan.” Lay answered and Luhan couldn’t argue at that.

***

  It was dark, so dark that she couldn’t see a single thing, but she could hear things and she was well aware of the screaming sirens outside. She felt relieve washed over her and the hope that had dead slowly growing again. She flinched when she heard a shattering sound, something was being thrown to the floor. Then she heard some quick steps, it sounds like the person walking was walking back and front. Jieun could feel the tension and she knew the reason behind it. The steps stopped and for almost a whole minute the room was silence except for the busy sound outside. Then she heard a gasp, followed by some pained whimper before the steps sound was heard again and Jieun’s heartbeat quickened when it was nearing. Jieun could feel a presence, kneeling in front of her. Then a cold, bony hand touched her cheek gently and trailed behind until it reached the back of her head and a moment after the blindfold was removed. She shut her eyes at the sudden brightness.

“Jieun-ah, open your eyes.”

She didn’t.

“Please.” The plea sounded so desperate, but still Jieun didn’t open her eyes. She was afraid, afraid of a confirmation that would break her if she finally sees them with her own eyes.

Jieun felt a weight on her left shoulder and shuddered when some harsh breath hit her ears.

“I just cut my wrist.” The voice whispered and Jieun’s body went rigid.

Liar.

“You don’t believe it?” Jieun didn’t give any respond, no, she couldn’t, even if she wanted to talk. “Open your eyes, so you can see this pretty red liquid flowing freely from my skin.” She heard a laugh, a desperate one.

“They will be here soon. Maybe in ten minutes, maybe less.” A gasp, “It hurts, but it feels like nothing compared to all those time before you came. It feels like nothing-“Another gasp and Jieun felt her shoulder started to wet, that person was crying. “It’s n-nothing...compared to how I felt when