The two of them ventured out of the school into the darkness of night as Shinhye paced herself two steps behind Yonghwa. She was too jittery to spare the school another glance and kept her gaze straight at the black button on the shoulder of Yonghwa’s jacket. The two of them didn’t live in the same street, but for the most part they walked in the same direction so Yonghwa felt no burden having to watch over her like a designated baby sitter. The night was colder than usual; the piercing winds making him regret not bringing a scarf though it was only early September. Without warning, Yonghwa suddenly stopped. The careless Shinhye inevitably continued walking and bumped right into him; her cheeks immediately flushing red from embarrassment, not that anyone could tell in such dim lighting. He gave no reaction to their brief collision, instead his stare trailed towards a house the entire neighborhood deemed completely vacant for years. It was a place that sent involuntary chills down one’s spine within a decent proximity no matter what time of day, and Shinhye was unwilling to stay planted in front of the house any longer.

            “L-let’s get going,” She suggested in more of a pleading tone, her left hand tugged gently on the sleeve of his jacket. She could not bring herself to look up at the house, but she had seen it many times before; just one or two glances that were enough to fill her mind with general pictures that she would immediately force out before her imagination took over. Yonghwa, without a word, continued walking again as response to her successful plea. He wasn’t planning on breaking the silence, especially considering what was going on in his own mind. The once withering rose bush just by the front steps of the mysterious house were now blossoming with florid roses, some still young buds. To add to the intoxicating scenario, his sharp eyes caught a glimpse of an awkward stem sticking out from the bush cleaning cut from its corresponding counterpart, the rose flower. He had no doubt that a rose had been recently snipped from that bush. For 16 years, not a soul was ever spotted inside that house, nor did the city make any efforts to demolish or reclaim that land. Before making a turn at the end of the street, Yonghwa’s curious instinct got the best of him and he reluctantly turned back towards the house, only to perform a double take followed by an eye rub after thinking he saw a quick silhouette fly past the side window. There was a dim light from the inside of the house. Even from their distance, he knew that the light had not been on just a few seconds ago.

            “What’s wrong?” Shinhye murmured her question nervously, letting the anxiety get the better of her as she stared at Yonghwa’s awestruck face. She watched as it turned from the usual serious expression to one of slight worry, and it was starting to frighten her. The sound of her shaking voice snapped him back to their current reality, leaving him to push aside his mental goose chase for later.

            “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” He assured, starting up his pace again. Past the intersection was where Shinhye’s house was, and Yonghwa’s was a left turn in. He suggested that he’d stay at the curb and wait until she entered her house safely before he left. Shinhye bowed gratefully with a forced smile that could not hide the evident fear in her eyes as she skidded past the cross walk, cutting her lawn diagonally to her front door. Within seconds she was inside, waving back at him from her living room window. Returning her gesture with a smug smile, he turned around to make that left turn to his street, fighting the desire to investigate that ‘vacant’ house again in the same night.

@}--,--'----  

          “Hey, how was class with the narcissist?” Hyomin joked, shooting Yonghwa a casual death glare as he passed by carelessly brushing against her shoulder. They’ve acted cold and hateful towards each other for as long as they’ve met, and Shinhye was just the friend caught in the middle neutral zone, unsure of how to respond to their more than childish behaviour. Shinhye learned to dodge those kinds of sketchy comments to keep her neutral status, and almost mastered the art of topic changes. She did them so subtly that a scatterbrained person like Hyomin would seldom notice.

            “You took musical history last year, didn’t you?” Shinhye remembered, groaning at the thought of her newly assigned gigantic booklet of historical context due next week. Though she wasn’t quite sure why all her courses revolved around music, she felt unexplainably drawn to all things musical.

            “Oh man, don’t even mention it. I almost bombed it last year. I never want the old nutcracker for a professor again.” Hyomin sighed, noticing the painfully familiar textbook sized “worksheet” tucked under Shinhye’s arms.

            “Wow, he still assigns that? Sorry, I’d let you copy but I used mine in replacement for firewood after I passed that course with a C minus.” Hyomin sighed, making one of her supposedly humorous statements that drew a blurry line between teasing and empathy. The two of them stood slightly blocking the door to the classroom, and the last to leave was Minhyuk, the new student. He walked out in a steady, controlled pace carrying a suave aura, glancing once at Shinhye with a smirk before turning the opposite direction down the hallway. There was no way Hyomin didn’t see it, and something about him sparked concern.

            “There’s something not right about him…” Hyomin claimed, watching as he continued down the hallway, his figure growing smaller as the distance between them increased.

            “If he had problems he would be placed in access classes.” Shinhye wittingly reminded, tapping Hyomin on the shoulder with extra force as if she was urging Hyomin to walk away. She turned suddenly, rolling her eyes and replied in her defense,

            “I didn’t mean it literally. He just seems suspicious.” Shinhye was now taking the lead, walking towards the west wing exit to their usual ‘studying’ area. They liked to call it that, but in reality, with Hyomin never being able to stop talking they could never get any real studying done. They continued this small dispute as they walked.

            “That’s what you said about Yonghwa.” Shinhye sighed, recalling the first time Hyomin had met him a few years ago. Thankfully, Yonghwa did not project his bad impression of Hyomin onto Shinhye.

            “Uh, no! I said that Yonghwa was a weird guy.” Hyomin said as a matter of fact, remembering her version of the same event.

            “Whatever, same thing.” Shinhye was now losing interest, and she was feeling hungry. Hyomin forced herself in front of Shinhye to stop her from walking and looked her right in the eyes.

            “Shinhye, listen to me. I swear, like no joke, I have some sixth sense for danger. I only think Yonghwa is weird because it’s obviously he has a cute little crush on you, but this new kid goes beyond that. He’s dangerous.” She insisted, putting extra emphasis on her last word. Hyomin had spent the entire summer trying to convince Shinhye of Yonghwa’s unannounced feelings for her, but she had never bothered making an issue out of it. Shinhye in actuality just didn’t believe it.

            “Are you sure you don’t belong in the access class?” Shinhye joked boringly, wishing Hyomin would just drop it. She had only seen Minhyuk a few times in the hallway, there was no way she could already determine whether he was safe or not based on those small encounters. When they got to their bench behind an evergreen tree, Shinhye’s loud gasp caused Hyomin to jump. To her disbelief, a crimson red rose lay sideways in the middle of the bench in the shade of the evergreen. The blood solid red infiltrated Shinhye’s vision and she suddenly felt dizzy. Hyomin glanced at the rose, then at Shinhye’s face and repeated that cycle about ten times before approaching it. She carefully reached out her hands to grab the pretty flower when Shinhye stopped her with a sudden slap.

            “It’s just a plant, Shinhye; no need to pee yourself over it.” Hyomin insisted, ignoring Shinhye to pick up the rose. She took a gentle whiff and smiled at the delightful scent and then held it to Shinhye’s face as if telling her to share her admiration. Shinhye froze in place with the rose held up to her face and without thinking, she ran. Startled by the reaction, Hyomin pricked herself on a small, almost invisible thorn and dropped the rose immediately, nearly stepping on the fallen petals as she chased after her friend while trying to stop the bleeding at the same time.

A/N: LOL everyone, I totally didn't update in forever (like 2 months or more?) I'm really sorry... Grade 12 is no joke. I am DROWNING. I feel so bad having to put my passion for writing on hault just because there's not enogh hours in a day to get to everything, and it was 4am when I started writing this chapter. I just couldn't wait any longer, having so many awesome new ideas overflowing in my mind and not being able to put them into words was driving me a little mad. Okay, not literally. Well this chapter probably wasn't one of the most exciting, but the plot will get better. Please leave some comments below ^^! Forgive any awkward language used, I repeat, it was 4am (and 4:40) when I finished.