*3 months ago*

[Jiyong’s POV]

I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Today is the Homecoming dance, and I finally had the guts to ask Chaerin to go with me. So here I am, waiting in front of her doorstep to pick her up. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

Her mother opened the door. “You must be Jiyong! I’m Chaerin’s mother” she said. “Nice to meet you ma’am, is Chaerin ready?” I asked. “Yes she is! I’ll just go call her now, why don’t you wait inside?” she said. “Thank you ma’am” I said. She welcomed me inside and led me to the couch. “Be right back” Chaerin’s mother said and headed upstairs.

I took another big breath; I hope today ends in a good, fun way. Then, I heard footsteps going down the stairs. I stood up and looked up to her, I was speechless. She looked better than I expected. Her long blond hair fixed perfectly. She was wearing a blue dress up to her ankles. Chaerin walked up to me “Ready to go?” she said while smiling at me. “Ready if you are” and reached out my hand to her.

We left the house and got into my driver’s car, and drove off to the dance. While driving, Chaerin did not utter a word. Maybe she is just nervous? “Are you okay Chaerin?” I asked. “Yea im fine, I just have this weird feeling inside” she said.

“Hahaha you must be nervous then” I said chuckling. “Yea must be so” she turned around and looked out the window again. After about 15 minutes, we reached the dance hall. I got out the car and opened the door for her. She stepped out and we both got into the hall.

It looked amazing. Decorations everywhere, people having fun, music blasting out loud. Pretty much like every other dance. But to be honest, this is the first time I go to a dance especially with a girl. I would always just stay at home playing video games or something.

“You want to get something to drink, I’m thirsty” I asked. “Totally me too!” she said and we headed over to the drinks. Chaerin saw her friends there too and went over to them to talk to them or something, you know girl stuff.

The music suddenly changed into a slow song, and I knew it was the time I asked Chaerin to dance with me. Took a deep breath, and started heading towards her direction. “Care to dance with me?” I asked reaching out my hand to Chaerin. She smiled at me and took my hand, and we both walked to the dance floor.

We danced along with the music, slow and steady. Chaerin leaned on my shoulder. Left, right left, right. Even though we weren’t doing much, the moment felt great.

“Jiyong?” Chaerin spoke up. “Yea” I said in a soft voice. “Thank you for taking me” she said. I chuckled “Your welcome”. “I love you” Chaerin whispered. “Me too” I replied smiling.

Suddenly the speakers blew up, everyone exclaimed in surprise. “What happened!” someone shouted. “I think there is something wrong with the speakers” the DJ said. Chaerin started heading into the direction of the stage. I held her hand stopping her. “Where Are you going?” I asked. “i might be able to help since I love repairing techno stuff” she said. “Just let them fix it no need for you to help them” I said. “Chill you wont miss me that much” Chaerin said laughing.

She got up the stage and starting helping the DJ. I walked up to them to check the situation. “Your cable overheated so the speakers blew up, do you have another one?” she asked. “Yea totally” Dj said and went over to his box of cables. He took out one and gave it to Chaerin. She started putting everything in its place.

“Okay open the speakers up” She said. The DJ played his song and luckily it started working again. She is pretty good in these things. She looked up to me and smiled “See? Didn’t I tell you”.

Suddenly the speakers blew up again and fire started to form from the speakers. The speakers then fell down and the whole place started to catch fire. I saw Chaerin’s face exclaim in disbelieve. She looked so surprised! She probably didn’t know this would happen.

“Everybody out fast!” the principal screamed out. Everybody started panicking and running outside. Chaerin was still standing there, too surprised.

“C’mon Chaerin! We got to get out of here” I shook her. She did not respond to me, so I started pulling her arm and we dashed outside.

Luckily it seemed like a lot of people got out before anyone could get hurt, but that thought suddenly washed away when a girl started screaming. “Help please everyone; Jessica and Donghae are still inside!” You have got to be kidding me. Those two are the most popular kids in school! I looked at Chaerin and I can’t describe her face. If they get hurt she is going to blame it all on herself.

“Jiyong I got to go in there, it’s my fault if they are trapped in there!” Chaerin screamed. “Are you crazy? You can’t go in there that’s is too dangerous! And it isn’t your fault” I said, but she obviously didn’t listen. Chaerin started walking forward but I grabbed her. “You are not going in Chaerin!” I stated. “But-”

“No buts you are not going in there” I said. She looked down. Look everything is going to be fine. “Look! They found them!” Someone screamed. Chaerin hurriedly went towards them, but they were both unconscious. “Are they going to be okay?” Chaerin asked the EMT. “We don’t know, we have to take them to the hospital fast!” The EMT said.

Chaerin started crying, and kept on saying it was her fault. I held her close to me and said “Nothing is your fault babe”. But that did not stop the tears that was streaming down her face.

[JIYONG’S POV]

*2 weeks later*

*Watching the news*

“A dance hall set on fire by a technical failure leads to the death of 2 students as they were stuck inside the dance hall for 20 minutes and died from carbon monoxide poisoning”

That’s all that have been on the news for already 2 weeks, and Chaerin won’t leave her room either. This is such a disaster. She keeps blaming herself for their death which is not making anything any better. Her mother has told me she hasn’t eaten anything either, so I decided to visit her again today. I have been going everyday to check on her but nothing is changing. Ill try to convince her to get out of her bed.

So I dressed up and got out of my house. I took the bus which drops me in front of her house. All I could think of in the bus is how I am going to convince her to get out. I mean what if she harms herself? I'm sure Chaerin is not that type but she might do anything these days.

The bus arrived near Chaerin’s house, so I got off. I walked towards her house and knocked on the door. Her mother opened the door.

“Oh hello Jiyong” she said and I could hear from her voice that she is sad. “No good?” I asked hoping for a good answer. “She still hasn’t eaten a thing, I feel really worried about her’ she said. Okay that’s it! She can’t do that to herself! Soo I rushed up the stairs and smashed her door open. She was still lying on her bed like the whole other week.

“Are you going to keep lying there doing nothing! Get up and eat why are you doing this to yourself!” I screamed. I know I shouldn’t be angry at her but I have to. I couldn’t contain my anger anymore.

She suddenly got up and turned around facing me. “You think I’m just upset about them getting killed because of me! None of my friends are willing to talk to me! Everyone is saying I ruined their dance! Everyone is leaving hate comments and texting me saying horrible things!” she screamed crying. What? Is that really true? My anger suddenly disappeared, and I felt guilty now that I screamed at her.

I approached her and took her in my arms, but she was still crying out loud. I was trying to calm her down but she kept crying harder. “Even my friends won’t talk to me anymore” she said. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just say everything is going to get better, because I have no idea if that is going to happen.

You know our school is just like any other school, there are all kind of groups. But only one group received the most attention, the popular kids. Sadly, Donghae and Jessica were both from that group. Now because of Chaerin’s mistake, everyone hates her. I don’t know what’s so amazing about those kids anyways; they are just like all of us. They just dress fancy.

I stayed with Chaerin for the night, because I was afraid she might do something to herself. Also, the principal called her mom and said that she has been absent for 2 weeks now, if she won’t go to school tomorrow she will be expelled.

*NEXT DAY*

“Chaerin are you done yet?” I screamed from downstairs. She has been in her room for an hour now just getting ready. I mean seriously why do girls take so long?

“Jiyong” I heard Chaerin’s mom say. I turned around to face her “Yes Mrs. Lee?”

“Please take care of Chaerin” she asked and I can hear in her voice that she is really worried. “Don’t worry Mrs Lee” I told her and she smiled at me.

“Jesus don’t you have any patients Jiyong” Chaerin said running down the stairs. “What patients? You have been getting ready for an hour!” I said.

“Let’s just go, Bye Mom” Chaerin said pulling my arm.

[CHAERIN’S POV]

“Let’s just go, bye Mom” I said pulling Jiyong’s arm so he starts moving. Today is the first day I'm going to school after the incident. And I can assure you, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm pretty sure everyone is going to give me looks. But I hope I’ll be able to come back home in one piece.

“So are you going to stay quiet until we reach school?” Jiyong said. I didn’t rely that we have been walking for 5 minutes and I haven’t said a word. “Sorry I was just thinking of something” I said. “I bet I know that there is a lot going on now, but try not to think too much” Jiyong said. “Alright I won’t” I said. I’m actually thankful Jiyong is there for me. What would have happened if he was never there? I would be all alone.

“So what is your first lesson?” I asked trying to start a conversation. “History, seems like I'm going to fall asleep” Jiyong said. “I have biology so that’s not too bad” I said.

We arrived school, and I already had a really bad feeling. I felt like my whole body felt stiff, and it didn’t want to move. But I had to, I can’t back down my whole life. I have to face everyone one day, I have to be strong. I’m sure today is not going to be fun. In my head, I imagined once I enter inside, everyone is going to stop talking and stare at me, but once I got really inside, none of that happened. It wasn’t that bad actually.

Everybody was still talking and running through the hallways. Although some were looking at me and whispering, however it’s better than I imagined. I looked down, trying to ignore everyone’s stare. Jiyong held my hand, which made me feel a bit better. He walked me all the way to my class. When we reached my class door he stopped. “I have to go to my class now, are you going to be okay?” Jiyong asked worriedly.

“Yea I'm going to be fine, don’t worry about me and go to class” I said smiling. He gave me a peek on my lips and left. I took a deep breath and opened my class door. As I imagined earlier, everyone stopped talking and looked my direction. The girls who were Jessica’s best friends gave me a really dirty look, full of hate. I walked up to my desk while looking on the ground, and sat down. I put my head on my arms and tried to rest my eyes. I felt really tired.

Out of the blue, I heard someone slam their palms on my desk so I jumped in surprise. “So you finally decided to show up! You have got a lot of nerve you know!” Tiffany shouted. “It’s your entire fault that the whole dance party got ruined and Jessica died!” She screamed even louder now. I don’t know why I felt speechless, all I could whisper was I didn’t mean to. “I didn’t mean to kill her” I said again but a little bit louder this time. “You didn’t mean to? I’m pretty sure you planned this all just to get back at us!” Tiffany said.