[DONGHAE]

Saying he felt miserable would have been the understatement of the century. He just wanted to go and hide somewhere until this horrible day would be over and the guilt and regret he felt would subside a little. Not completely, but at least to an extent that he could bear with, because right now he couldn't.

Not today.

Donghae sighed again and looked out of one of the windows in the cafeteria. He was sitting at one of the tables in the far back of the hall, since he entered the whole scenery and didn't plan to move one inch until it was over.

The weather was horrible, to say the least. He could barely see anything through the heavy rain, and the wind caused the raindrops to hit against the glass of the windows, making it sounds like someone was drumming on them non-stop. Dark clouds covered the sky, making it impossible to see any kind of sunshine coming through. Compared to the morning, where it had been rather friendly, the weather now was a total mess. Donghae had stopped counting the minutes until he could finally go home. Or better said he neither wanted to be here nor at home.

School hours had been rather pleasant, because they gave him some of the needed distraction, but now he sat there all alone and thoughts he had tried to ignore came into his mind, annoyingly persistent to be paid attention to.

And it was all thanks to the yearly school party all students of his class were asked to attend to. No exceptions allowed.

Seeing all of his stupid classmates, didn't make it easier to relax. They only annoyed the raven-haired even more, with their happy laughs and faces.

It was always the same. Every year, the same day, the same time, the same people, the same things to happen.

It would never change.

But that wasn't Donghae's actual problem, in fact he would have been happy if it were just for that. The real problem was that his dreams had gotten worse, if that was even possible but it seemed so.

Especially the last night had been too much. He was always walking through the same forest, the path he knew by heart, the weather was foggy and he was alone. And then those sounds of the footsteps appeared. And they kept following him until this pleading, weak voice could be heard and then it didn't take long to feel this cold end on his shoulder.

But no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to turn around. Hae remained frozen in place, like he had no strength at all. His body didn't listen to him anymore.

Usually the whole dream ended there. Only, that 'usually' didn't include last night.

After the scenery of the forest had ended as ever, he was standing in a hall, Donghae couldn't recall of knowing. And suddenly images of him had started to appear. They weren't really clear or of any content, more like puzzle pieces to lie around everywhere, but it was up to the viewer to put them together, if it would have made any sense.

Images of the past and the present had been everywhere, but the raven-haired didn't pay much attention to them, because there was one particular picture that had captured his gaze.

It was him, covered in blood but not dead. Only passed out and covered in scars and scratches, head lying down in the mud and rain falling down on him. The whole scenery looked so damn real and Hae could nearly feel himself lying there, in this condition.

And yet he had never felt it even once.

Having an open guess, Hae would have bet he was about to go crazy and there wasn't much left to actually make this guess reality. Aish, how boring could school life become?

All he wanted to do was to just go home and forget about everything, if forgetting would have been so easy. In the end the heart had the greatest memory of all.

"Hey there, party machine, I see you are having fun as ever. Want to join us for a little round of truth or dare?" Eunhyuk said as he sat down next to Donghae, and the raven-haired realized he hadn't seen his friend coming. He was actually surprised the blonde was still trying to get him to participate in this whole thing he hated so much.

"No thanks. You know I am just fine staying here," Hae replied without tearing his gaze from the window. The other sighed and he hoped Hyuk would finally understand and accept his wishes, but with that he was wrong.

"Come on, Hae. I know you aren't the greatest fan of our school party, like every year, but don't you think it is about time to change that? Everyone is already talking about your ty attitude."

"Well then, let them talk. I don't care about them anyway."

"Fine then," Eunhyuk replied and got up, leaving the raven-haired surprised in the few seconds of his imagined victory, before Hae felt how the other grabbed his chair and dragged him along. Even though the blonde wasn't that well built, he had a lot of strength.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Donghae protested, too shocked to think of just standing up and walking away.

"I think I am making you participate in today's party. In one way or another. I tried the one way and you declined so now it is the other. Live with it." Hyuk replied with a determinded expression.

"Eunhyuk, you know I..." he tried to growl, but his friend didn't even care about his warning protests and continued to drag him along.

"Shut up, Kiron, you will take part in this game right now. Bastard."

Bastard... Hmpf. Somehow the other's words sounded as final as the Amen in church. And even though he was more than just cranky and annoyed about the whole situation, he gave up and walked the last few meters to the small group of students, sitting on the floor. He groaned in his head when he saw who else just sat down in front of him, but did the same nonetheless. Once he started something he would pull it through. Excuses didn't count in Donghae's life.

Not anymore.

People started whispering and exchanging suspicious glances as they saw the raven-haired sitting among them, for he never did that.

It didn't take long for the game to become rather lively and everyone seemed to have fun, except for Donghae. He kept spacing out and asking himself what he was actually doing there, for heavens' sake. He didn't belong there, and it wasn't his wish either. Luckily the spinning bottle seemed to have mercy on him and kept on pointing to others, so he just had to sit there and wait for the game to end. They went on and on and it wasn't until Eunhyuk nudged him with an elbow, that Donghae showed any kind of reaction.

"Come on, Hae, don't look so grumpy. If you would pay some attention, the game would even be to your enjoyment. It really is fun. Trust me."

Trust me ... how heavy those two words could lie on someone's shoulders and how much pain they had caused in his life.

The raven-haired was about to respond something, when suddenly the bottle pointed towards him and to make it even worse his greatest enemy in school was the one to make a fool out of him. The dark-haired boy, with brown, piercing eyes and rather short body height was the school's Prince Charming and really popular. Donghae couldn't recall since when but they had always been rivals.

Said person was none other than Kim Kibum, who sent him an evil grin.

Mentally preparing himself, he took a deep breath before looking up to face his fate. Here goes nothing... he thought.

"Truth or dare, Lee?" the other challenged.

"Truth," Hae replied coldly and he could see how the others became anxious with the sudden change of atmosphere around them.

Kibum's grin became brighter and even more evil, hearing his rival's choice, for he knew a secret everyone else knew too but never dared to say out loud.

"Fine. Are you responsible or have you ever caused the death of someone dear to you? Someone you truly loved?"

As soon as the question had been spoken, people started mumbling again or gasped in shock.

"That really wasn't fair."

"It wasn't Lee Donghae's fault. Jessica was his friend after all..."

Not listening to the others, Donghae's eyes widened in shock.

Everything around him seemed to fade into grey and he didn't recognize them anymore. He just wished he would have remained where he had been sitting next to the window, as images he had tried to prevent from coming out appreared in front of his eyes.

He saw how Jessica stumbled over the cliff and fell down the decline. Her screams of pain, the cracking of bones, the blood, the questioning, the funeral. Everything came down on him at once, the mumbling around him became silent and he only felt his emotions running through his body like a storm. All the feelings he had ever tried to ignore, drowned him like a huge wave. He started shaking and was about to lose control of himself, because today was that day. On October 17th, exactly five years ago... she had died.

"What is it, Lee? Why are you silent all of a sudden? Did you lose count of them? Oh no, I got it, you forgot their name. That's probably it. Well, how about I help your memory a little bit then? Does the name Jessica Johnson sound familiar to you?"

Shocked to hear Johnny's name, Donghae faced Kibum with an unreadable expression. How could that guy dare to...

"Aish, you truly are a stubborn guy... Come on, Lee, we all know that you've killed her. Just finally admit it, you coward. You have been the last one to ever see her alive, don't you even try to hide the truth. You killed her. Monster." The dark-haired boy pressed through gritted teeth and lowered his eye brows as if he was cornering Donghae with his glares.

That was it, Donghae couldn't take it anymore. This endless arrogance and pride of the other made him feel sick and he got on his feet. Only seconds later he grabbed the other by the collar and pressed him against the nearest wall so that his feet barely touched the ground.

"Shut up!" Donghae shouted in anger.

"Wow, keep cool dude," Kibum tried to soothe him, suddenly feeling anything else but secure.

"I told you to shut that dirty yap of yours or I will beat it up for you! How dare you take Johnny's name into it?! You aren't worth it, you disgusting miscarriage! And you aren't worth her, how dare you look down on her like this?! Don't you ever dare do this again!" The raven-haired was about to hit the other when suddenly Eunhyuk grabbed his wrist in a strong hold.

"Kiron!"

"Take your hand away, Hyuk. This is none of your business." Donghae growled warningly.

"No. This IS something of my business. Let go of him. He isn't worth it. I know this isn't you and she wouldn't have approved of it either. So please for the sake of her honor, let him go," the blonde said in a pleading but steady voice.

Slowly, Hae took some deep breaths and loosened his grip on the other's collar so the boy fell down to the ground. Meanwhile, the raven-haired remained in his place, still shaking with anger and glaring at Kibum. As said boy tried to get away and his friends wanted to help him up as well, Donghae was fast to block his way by smashing a hand against the wall right next to the other's head, piercing his ice-cold stare right into the frightened brown eyes looking back at him, making everyone freeze in place once again.

"That's right, get away from here and don't you dare come back, got that? Or else, Hyukkie won't be there to help you next time," he said in a dangerously calm voice before he stepped back and let the other's friends pick their leader up from the ground. They bowed to him and Eunhyuk and excused themselves.Things really had gotten out of hand this time. Hopefully nobody would make a fuss out of it later on, or he would seriously be doomed. But thanks to Hyukjae he had been stopped at the right time once again.

Nobody dared to say a word, as Donghae watched how Kibum and the small group of boys raced down the hallway to get away from him. He turned away and faced his friend with an apologetic expression.

"I am sorry, Hyukkie. I shouldn't have freaked out like that. Thanks for helping me out once again." After that the raven-haired also turned to the people standing next to them, still too afraid to move. "I am sorry, guys, I didn't mean to show that side of me. The show is over now."

They were all surprised by his behavior but didn't say anything as they walked away as well, relieved he wasn't a threat anymore.

"Don't worry about it, Kiron, let's go back too," Hyuk said with a gentle smile and Hae nodded, thankful and happy his friend was still in the mood to call him by his special nickname.

As they walked in silence, Donghae couldn't help but to turn around one more time to see if Kibum and his friends had seriously left for good. But instead of an empty hallway, he was suddenly faced by two grey eyes that were just as cold as his own. A tall, well-built man came walking around the corner and directly stared at him. Hae didn't know the stranger, but he sure didn't like him. The way he got looked at seemed to be more of a challenge than a moment to get an image of the person right in front of you.

The man huffed in a mixture of surprise and amusement, and put on a small smile, before walking up to them.

"You should get a hold of your temper, young man. You shouldn't feel the need to stand up against a show-off like him," the other said in a deep voice and patted Donghae's shoulder as he passed by.

The raven-haired was kind of taken aback by the sudden and unexpected actions of the elder and didn't really know what to think of this weird stranger. He definitely didn't belong here, not to mention the likes of him were rather rare to be seen in a school building. Hae was seriously confused.

Who the hell was that guy?

Hello everyone!

So here is another update. I hope you will all like it. I am pretty happy that this story is finally getting somewhere and I hope the following chapters will help to get into the whole thing more and more and that I can answer some open questions.
Anyway I hope you are all doing fine ^^
Have a nice Sunday and until next time.
 

Yours, Slade