I feel like I keep telling everyone not to eat, but seriously do not eat while reading this.

Trigger warning! 

-

Hana held herself together with self-made glue she’d collected from her sanity. Sehun has just asked her about her family relation with Tao, and she could only nod because there was a blizzard in her head. Her jaw clenched, he would abandon her here; she really would be alone.

‘You were born alone, you grew up alone, and you will survive alone,’ her thoughts encouraged.

“Really?” Sehun muttered. A fog of anguish hung around him, choking him with realization. “So, you lied to me this whole time?”

Another nod from her. Steadily, her jaw began to ache from the pressure. She used it as a distraction to keep herself calm.

He laughed as if it was the funniest thing he’d heard, grief being overthrown by rage at her simple demeanor. He imagined his world had shattered like a glass pane, it was bloody war, but there was no remorse in her eyes, not even the slightest spec. He gripped her shoulders and shook her, waiting for her to tell him it was a joke. Perhaps he’d gotten the date wrong and today was April Fools; the planets would realign, and the Earth would return to its axis.

“Don’t touch me!” She shrieked ing him away as if he were a thorn. Sehun’s eyes grew large. Jongin’s words rang in his ears, goading him. His nostrils flared making his arms drop to his sides. Refusing to look at her, he said what he thought was best at the time, “I should have known it. I thought it was weird that my parents would string me to a girl. You were a step up from the others, but I guess you’re no different from them. You just wanted to have fun. fFrst by playing Rae Mi noona, and then pretending to be innocent. I’ll admit it got me, but this is where it ends. You got caught, so don’t bother with the act, and don’t ever look for me again.”

Whether it was the harshness of his tone, or his emotionless reaction something died inside her, something irreplaceable and irrevocable. She blinked as he turned his back to her creating a wall to barricade them. She felt too hollow to cry.

In contrast to Hana, her cousin felt as fit as a fiddle. Heck, any happier and he would be floating in the air like some of his favorite super heroes. Banished were the days where he felt like a convict waiting for his sentence. Now there was only freedom and he enamored the taste of it. With a silly grin plastered to his face he subconsciously defied all rituals of the ‘commoner’ and the ‘drug dealer.’ It was the first time he’d been thrilled no one cared about him. That was until someone grabbed a fistful of his blazer, and yanked him into a classroom. The door hastily shut behind him, and she slapped a hand over his mouth.

His eyes widened in surprised as she stared towards the door half waiting for it to fly open and unleash Pandora’s ire. All the while his hormones were recalling what love-ecstasy went like. She sighed when she was convinced no one would come barging in with pitchforks. Her undivided attention then gathered him. She studied him from head-to-toe slowly nodding with the clockwork in her head ticking. Again, she sighed with all her energy until he thought she would faint.

“Are you okay? Nothing’s happened right?” She asked grabbing him by the shoulders worriedly. Normally he would have brushed them away, but right now he was floundered.

“What are you doing?” He rasped.

“Checking up on you. There were letters going around. Kangjun, and I stopped them but I think there are more. People in this school are really sneaky.” Here, she smacked his arm lightly. “How could you get caught? Don’t you know how scary this place is? Ugh…” Seryung messed her hair, and leaned against the door to examine him again with concern etched on her face.

“You’re not angry?” He blurted shocked.

“About?”

“About… About everything?”

“Like?”

“Like, I lied…”

“Tao please elaborate, I have a headache, and there’s no space in here,” she pointed to her head, “To think more.”

He pressed his lips together and gazed at her pensively. “You’re not mad that I pretended to be rich?”

She groaned massaging her temples. “Why would I be mad? I never asked you; you never told me. Where does ‘lies’ fit into the equation?”

The revelation was stunning him; she didn’t seem the least perturbed as if his social status didn’t matter to her. Just to be sure, she wouldn’t get a heart attack if she found out, he continued, “There’s something else too… No one seems to know about it. Hana-“

“Cousins,” she finished stuffing her hands into the pockets of her blazer. “I heard about it from Jongin. I don’t see why you hide it. If ‘the people’ knew they mightn’t give you as hard of a time.”

Tao pouted cutely not quite getting it. Had he missed out on something? Maybe he was dreaming? He pinched himself, however the illusion didn’t fade. It was deeply bemusing so he laughed dryly. Were his thoughts making his manic tendencies resurface?

“I’m glad you find it funny when there’s so much to be done,” Seryung commented. Taking a look around, she mumbled something incoherent. “Firstly, you didn’t bring your schoolbag, so its safe to assume that it’ll most likely be gone from where you left it.

“Second, we’re switching tables because there’s no way that clump of wood will survive; I heard woodwork class is on today.

“Thirdly, your locker, it’s best if you open it carefully and avoid it if possible; you don’t know what they’ll put in there.-”

He listened to her drone on about how to deal with bullying. It was weird, but his brain had skipped a step when it’d been evaluating; he hadn’t expected she’d honey him with advice, or that she’d even care, but here she was reminding him why he’d fallen in love with her.

“-Lastly, if there’s anything you need my help with let me know, okay? I know it sounds arrogant, but I’m not being haughty. It’s just that I checked the price of our books, and compared them to commoner stuff, and things didn’t look good. So, I just wanted to let you know if you get caught in a ‘financial bind’ I’m right here- wait that’s not right… Sorry I- Omph!”

Seryung blinked forgetting everything she had said, and even the fact that stressing about Tao had given her a migraine. It was hard to think, when she was in his arms, being smothered against his chest. She doubted she would be able to spell her name let alone be his support through this trail. A familiar yet alien bliss tingled through her.

“Nothing will happen to me.” She barely caught gist of what he’d said because now he was caressing her hair. Bells were dancing in her head, and her heart was singing. She cringed at herself thinking she was hopeless. And it was true because whenever she was around him the world altered itself; it simplified and rendered her with the IQ of plankton.

“W-what are you doing?” She whispered fearfully. The beat of her heart was reaching new escalations and she feared that gravity would return it to the cold hard ground.

“What are you doing?”

Wrestling out of his arms she caught her breath. Fragments of the world began to fall in place making her exhale. She was alive! The joyous moment was cut short, when she fathomed how close they were. Heat crept under her cheeks, and out of nowhere urges began to light.

“Stop!” She demanded. Pacing backwards, she stretched out her arm and pushed him. “No further than that; I don’t like you in my personal space.”

Tao arched a brow not sure what she was thinking, or whether she used her head at all. He repeated his earlier inquiry, making her chuckle. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m going to be your bodyguard from now on. I’m going to help you, just like you helped m-“

Her eyes fluttered to a close, and a swoosh of swashbuckling energy streamed through her veins. She moaned, now completely submissive. Their lips moved rhythmically, impetuously, hungrily, devouringly as if the world could end any second. Searing electricity shot through them. With everything forgotten only lust reigned true as they glided into the unknown plains of desire. Her arms clasped around his neck keeping him near, while he bridged the gap between them by tugging her waist closer. She could hear the rapture of his heart coinciding with hers as if their aim was to outdo each other, and see who could soar to the sky first. Perhaps tearing into the skies was a crime punishable by karma, because at that moment she tripped, and he growled. Forced to stabilize herself, her touch receded from him, and the spell broke.

Looking at him, she wanted to kick herself. Crimsoning at the ears, she tried to wipe the oozing liquid from his lips, but he caught her wrist and breached forward. She wanted nothing more than to let him whiz the connection. Flames of temptation at her, but she stop him before he intercepted her lips.

“We can’t- we shouldn’t,” she pleaded breathlessly. Although they both knew that, a new film of longing threw principles aside, making them kiss again with rabid frenzy. Healing their misconceptions, and forming new ones, only to topple them over because they didn’t seem as important. Nothing mattered to them at the moment, not school, nor societies rules, nor family, nor relationships other than their fallacy. With only air to stop them, they paused with their noses touching.

She’d never seen his eyes so clearly before; they were a glistening pair of tourmaline crystals that made her heart drum. Keeping eye contact, his hands fit hers like a glove she never wanted to remove. Time stood still as she listened to his heartbeat against her.

“I love you.”

He made her heart stop for a pulse. Undoing her fingers, the hardest thing was to break away. She blinked, and quaked sinfully. This wasn’t right; she was already in a relationship. She owed it to him to be fair; she was obliged to reason.

“Seryung?”

She jumped when he touched her. “Please don’t. Y-you’re confusing me.”

“Stop giving yourself a hard time, when I’m the one who kissed you.”

“Yes… y-you did… W-why?”

Tao cleared his throat embarrassed, “Didn’t you hear me, when I told you?”

“I-I heard you. I did… I just- I shouldn’t- It’s wrong!”

“It is wrong.”

“You shouldn’t have! What am I supposed to do now? I’m going to spend weeks thinking about this, like before, and you’re going to go back to pretending it never happened. How am I meant to cope? Don’t you ever stop to think about me?”

Tao swallowed and enveloped her in a hug. She trembled, refusing to touch him. “I’m sorry. I went the wrong way about it, but it’s true that I love you.”

“You don’t; you never did. You just hate Kangjun, so you’re doing this,” she cried.

“That’s not it.” He pressed, gently wiping her tears with his thumb. “Don’t cry.”

“You’ve always hated me for some reason. You don’t think I know? You jerk, I hate you.” She beat his chest with her fist lightly and continued to punctuate her sentences as so. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

“I’m sorry,” he soothed, knowing she didn’t mean any of it. He wondered where it had all gone wrong.

-

Confronting Kangjun was the hardest thing she’d ever done. She berated herself for refusing to let Tao come with her. Although he’d insisted she’d didn’t allow him in fear that they would fight. The last thing she needed on her cake-of-infidelity was a bloodbath between the beaus.

After a glance in her direction Kangjun refused to look at her at all. Pretending she was invisible, he continued to work on an assignment with his lips pursed.

She dawdled about trying to conceive an apology. It felt too redundant to end with an ‘I’m sorry’ after a full flown make out session with Tao. She was guilty. To relieve the parties involved a breakup had to occur, and this was where she lingered. Seo Kangjun would surely hate her after this.

“I’m busy, so can you please leave?” He queried quietly.

“No, I can’t. Kangjun we need to talk.”

He slammed his Mont Black ball pen against the desk and fumed. “I’m telling you to get out!”

“Not before you listen to what I have to say!”

“You have nothing to say. Now leave!”

Seryung shook her head. Clamping down on a tongue that might retaliate, she wandered closer to him. This ignited him further, slapping his palms against his table he stared at her in aversion.

“Because I’m nice to you, you seem to have forgotten who I am.”

“I haven’t.” She gaze straight into deep asphalt that wrung in wrath.

“You’re testing my patience,” he hissed through gritted teeth, looming over her like a ghastly ghoul.

“I’m sorry,” she replied praying she could keep her tone steady, and in check, until this terrible moment was over.

“For what?” He laughed piercingly, and his voice dropped dangerously low for his next string of words. “For making me a laughing stock? For bruising your lips against another? For coming back here fearlessly? For forgetting who I am? Or, f-”

“-For everything,” she finished lowering her gaze.

As if it were the last straw, he lashed out, striking her cheek, and leaving an imprint behind. The atmosphere went into shock before darkening once again. “Get out! Get out, before I strangle you!”

Her stinging cheek cried out in protest, and while she was frightened she continued to remain firmly calm as she accepted his proposal. The term ‘break-up’ had long sank its teeth into her, and she reckoned it had bitten him too. The resolution was nasty but it was over now.

-

“Why, if it isn’t Kangjun’s doll.” One, clapped his hands together intercepting her with his cronies. Feigning she hadn’t heard them, and mindful that the mark on her face was still raw, she pretended to push back her hair as she attempted to move past them.

Two blocked her way, and wagged his finger at her before snickering behind his hands. “She’s not his doll; she’s an adulterer.”

Three clonked him on the head. “That would make her a ‘disloyal doll,’ you cretin!”

Seryung cringed, and tried to escape again. This time One grappled her wrist, and twisted it behind her back making her squeal.

“You know what your fault is?” Three whispered, tapping the tip of her nose with his long finger. She didn’t answer him as she tried to keep her arm from breaking. Two sneered at her attempt, and jerked her head back by her hair, thereby forcing One to let go. Peering into her eyes he chuckled gleefully, “Look at her glare!”

Three snorted as if it were a droll, and clicked his fingers bringing a maidservant with the tea trolley come to a halt. Her eyes widened. Adrenaline gushed through her, and she prepared herself to sprint. Just as she whisked on her heel, she realized that a row of smartly uniformed guards bounded her. A wail of desperation bolted from her. She wondered if it was too late to beg. She didn’t dare turn to look at them. If she had, she mightn’t have been able to unleash a banshee-like scream when the scorching splash blighted her. Intense affliction seeped through her uniform and bled into her skin, deforming it, and alerting each nerve where it went. Her vision abandoned her. And then she hit the ground.

-

His footsteps clanked to destruct the silence. Amid the room stood eerily soldered wooden creations. All harrowingly macabre as their neighbors, they sought to outdo themselves. Some were rashly scratched, as if torture had come about, by metal nails. A scythe decapitated one neatly. Another he’d tried to burn, in fire, lay in a charcoaled heap. One figurine was missing fingers, while its twin was absent of nails. A doll of the same row was missing eyeballs, and stared with empty sockets. They were each catalogued by order of infliction, through a range of weaponry, in align with torture.

It wasn’t a coincidence that they were all images of the same individual.

However, he wasn’t interested in them at this moment. No, he was intrigued by a smaller set. Picking up a beat-up statuette, which bore a terrifying resemblance to Kim Joonmyun, he moved it to a shelf, and placed it beside a female statue that’d been scalded.

He appeared pleased at his craftwork. There was just one issue that needed to be put to rest. He mini-Joonmyun with his forefinger causing the model to topple at little-Seryung’s feet. Smirking derisively, he hummed a nostalgic rhyme.

asdfghjkl Sehun no! Do not break up with Hana! You need to be there for her! Reader's know what happened to her, but Sehun needs to find out before she does something crazy! Don't forget what happened when Tao lost it... >.<

Aww, look at Seryung being there for Tao. She does lots of odd things, but she pulls through. Tao is touched and so, hot kiss! These two deserved it, nae? Their scene took me absolutely ages to write. Did it convey the right things? How did readers feel reading it?

Sinister is demented, but you all knew that. What do readers think of his block doll collection? Creepy, right? He's basically made people, and then disfigured them with various 'weapons' of torture. One of the dolls was scalded, and who just got scalded by Three?.... Do you get the picture? Man's up to no good... He did something to Joonmyun. From how things seem it looks like he arranges events, that have happened, onto his shelf. He is that messed up! Tao should really protect his girl before this Sinister does something horrible to her, don't you think?

Btw for readers who are scared and wondering, I will give a 'happy ending.' I write it like that because how happy is 'happy?' There are lots of things that have happened, most of which can't be reversed, so 'happy' can mean 'the mains don't die,' or that 'they end up together,' or that 'Sinister is caught/killed' etc. There are lots of versions to 'happy' but I will assure you the ending will be worth it.