[ Warning - Language. Viewer Descretion Advised ]

Out of breath, all just because of Soohyun. 

Jinhwan's sneakers slapped against the tiled floor of the school hallway as he ran. He didn't deserve this; he was Kim Jinhwan. Nobody made him run after them.

Yet there he was, chasing after the one girl that never left.

Until now.

It was the middle of the day, and he was sprinting around instead of sitting at his desk and taking a nap. "Lee Soohyun!" he shouted, hurrying up the steps to the rooftop. Where was she?

He grabbed the railing, but found that it was covered with some kind of dust. Ashes. Cigarette ashes, specifically. Jinhwan was stepping down, knowing that Soohyun never smoked, as she called them 'murderers' the first time they met.

But he also knew that she wanted to escape from him, purposely sprinkling the ashes to divert him away. He continued up the stairs.

"Lee Soohyun!" he yelled once more, wiping the cigarette traces off of his palms. "I know you're here, your diversion didn't work as planned." When he only received silence, he intentionally made sounds as if he ran down the stairs again. Sure enough, Soohyun wriggled out from behind a plant and sighed. No tears, he noticed.

She wasn't hurt enough.

"Hey, princess." he called, and she screamed. She was trapped, and the only exit was jumping off of the ledge. Soohyun couldn't possibly do that, not because of a few heartbreaking words. Jinhwan watched her slide backwards, her hand reaching behind her to grab hold of the metal railing. She pulled herself up and gulped.

"I thought you got the message, you bastard. Leave me alone." she growled, her hands clenching into a fist. It was drawing blood but at the moment, that wasn't what was hurting. "I don't understand what I did wrong." he shrugged, shoving his hands in his pocket only to pull out a cigarette.

Soohyun backed away farther, the rotten stench tangling into her hair and uniform. "Jinhwan, please. I told you, I'm walking away first. I don't want to get too deep, that's all."

"What's so bad about that?"

His voice was quiet. Not the usual bored, I-hate-humanity kind of quiet, but the guilty kind. The one that spoke volumes in whispers. "I told you at the park. You're going to be the one that's going to leave, and I may end up killing myself this time." He noticed that she wasn't speaking metaphorically.

"Soohyun, don't."

"I need an escape, Jinhwan, and I'm running out of options." A minuscule drop of water journeyed from her eye to her lips, and it tasted somewhat salty. She shuddered. "If you want me to leave, fine. I'll leave. Just don't do anything stupid." he compromised, pointing to the door.

"Why, because I did so many other stupid things that you can't take it? People keep saying I have a choice to just walk away from all of this. That I can determine what happens. But you know what? I can't. I don't have a choice, and every time I try to walk away, something is always blocking my way. But this time, the only thing standing in between me and my desire is this railing."

Jinhwan felt himself leaning forward, and he realized that he was running towards her. It was as if he wasn't in his body, that he was just watching this happen from afar. "No!" he screamed, extending his hand forward. His hand wrapped around her waist as she bent back, and she barely slipped out of his grasp. "Get off of me!" she sobbed, pounding her fists against his chest repeatedly.  "Just get off."

His lips pursed into a thin line because his bottom lip quivered. "You don't need to die in order to be happy, princess." he whispered, pulling her into his embrace. He her hair carefully as she cried into his chest for a second time since they met. "You just need somebody to love you."

"Yeah? Well I tried searching, and I keep getting thrown back to square one. I told you, I'm hopeless." she muttered, her voice muffled by his shirt. 

"I don't think you searched hard enough."

The way he talked, she could tell that he was smiling. It was a sad smile, but he was smiling. "Then tell me what to do."

Jinhwan loosened the threaded bracelet around his wrist and grabbed her hand. It smoothly slipped onto
 Soohyun's arm and he tied it securely, Soohyun didn't want to look. He stared at the thin lines crusted with dried blood caused by her nails, then back to her, and incredulously gasped. "Does it hurt?" Jinhwan questioned innocently, running his fingertip over the wounds. "My palm only stings a little."

"Soohyun, that isn't what I'm talking about."

She provided him with a moment of silence, confused as to what he truly meant. Oh, she said to herself, ​her heart.

"Yeah, actually. It hurts like hell. I doubt you know what I'm talking about."

"Well, I feel like I'll discover it soon enough." She clutched his hand in order to stop herself from shaking, and her face heated up like the depths of the underworld. In fact, her whole body was bathing flames at the proximity.

"Just wear this, you're bound to find somebody in this world." he assured, patting her hand slowly. Jinhwan wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay. That he could be there to protect and love her like she was meant to be.

But he couldn't say that when he didn't believe it himself.