A soft ticking clock competing with steady sound of typed keyboard could be heard inside a room in the middle of a silent night. Sometimes the keyboard sound just disappeared for some seconds, because the owner of the fingers was thinking about what to type next. She couldn’t even count how many times did she delete those words on the screen and had to retype everything all over again. The girl sipped the-running-cold green tea latte that she had put beside her keyboard before continuing the train of typed-and-erased words on her screen.

Aerin let out a deep sigh. Her fingers froze above the rows of alphabet board. There were a lot of things that she wanted to say, but she never made to type it out. She read the sentence once again—the last sentence she typed after deleting uncountable words before. The only thing that appeared on her screen, a simple sentence that expressed all the unspoken feelings.

Jongin Oppa, I’m really sorry.

She wiped the tears that suddenly rolled on her cheek. I’m sorry. The words echoed on her brain, just once at first, and then twice, and then thrice. I’m sorry. Suddenly it was really hard for her to breathe. It just felt like something was blocking her lungs, and slowly choking her. She tried to control her breath, but her brain was failing her. She suddenly hitched. All those traumatic memories coming in like a storm into her head. Those delicate fingers started shaking, as a response from the sudden remembrance.

Why did you do this to me, Aerin?

Her brother’s voice came out of nowhere. Throwing daggers of hate. Accusing her for something she didn’t know if she really did it.

You killed them.

Her hands went to her ears, trying to block any sound to come. She choked on air. Her breath started hitching, and it was difficult for her to breathe even more. In no time, tears were rolling down her cheeks uncontrollably. The girl slumped down on the floor, hands still blocking her ears, and her body was shaking violently.

You killed them.

She shook her head, muttering some words, breathless. “No… I didn’t kill them… I didn’t kill them…”

Why do you always take everything from me?

“Hello, Aunt.”

“Ah, come on in, Agassi is inside her room. She’s probably sleeping.”

“Oh, right. I’ll just check a bit and drop her bag in her room.”

The man took his steps upstairs after getting the permission from the maid. Well, it wasn’t like he needed her permission because he could even mention it as his second home with the amount of his frequent visit for his best friend. Especially, after that particular incident.

They went out to buy school supplies earlier this evening, and unfortunately she forgot her bag. The boy only realized it when he was already home. Knowing that she would need it in the morning for her project—although it was Saturday tomorrow—he quickly drove to her house after taking a shower. It was only half an hour away anyway. Oh well, it was more like he got a reason to see her again, he thought to himself as a small smile started spreading on his lips.

His steps went quicker as he suddenly heard a muffled sound. Not a good one, and it definitely made his heart skipped some beats—not in a good way. He recognized that voice as he closed his distance to her room. And his heart beat even faster as he was getting closer to the door the sound was coming from.

Aerin was screaming violently.

Chanyeol barged in, crashing the door with his body after he realized that the door was locked. He found the young lady slumped on the corner of the room, messed up. She was pulling her hair and sobbing uncontrollably. There were pens, her phone, and other things scattered on the floor. He quietly came closer to her but the girl sent her a glare, and it was scary.

“Go away.” Aerin whispered softly with her breath ragging, but Chanyeol was still standing close to her. He stood up and took away every single sharp things that may harm the young lady. He quickly pulled the drawer to find her box of medicine, but it wasn’t there. The maid came inside as she heard the commotion from the first floor. She gasped as she found the girl looking really messed up, with Chanyeol rummaging through the drawers still trying to find the girl’s medication. The maid went out right away because she knew she needed to call the girl’s doctor. Chanyeol turned her head towards the girl who suddenly stopped crying. She was quiet. She stopped mumbling, but she suddenly banged her head on the wall.

“Aerin stop it!” Chanyeol rushed to her side and tried to stop her from banging her head even more.

“Go away!” She hit his hand who was trying to embrace her. “I don’t deserve to live. I just need to die.” Chanyeol didn’t budge and still holding her arms even tighter. “Aerin. Look at me!” She was shaking violently, wriggling, trying to let go from the man’s grip and she started screaming even more.

“Go away! I wanna die!”

“My brother wants me to die. I don’t need to live anymore.” She was wailing and still trying to bang her head to the wall, with tears kept streaming down her cheeks.

“Aerin!” Chanyeol shouted right in front of her face.

He finally got her attention. She looked at him, and Chanyeol knew that she knew it was him. There’s a really dark glint on her eyes, like Chanyeol could really see that there was a hole inside her heart. And then Aerin started sobbing. He winced when he realized that his hands were gripping both her arms too tightly—as he tried to stop her from hurting herself earlier. He was sure it would leave mark and bruise later, and he couldn’t help but felt a pang in his heart. Chanyeol quickly gathered her in his arms, hands gently rubbing the part where he hurt her, trying to ease the pain. Aerin planted her face on his chest as she cries even louder, and Chanyeol hugged her even tighter

“Chanyeol... I wanna die, Chan...”

Chanyeol sat on the edge of the king size bed Aerin was lying on. She fell asleep—or precisely, the doctor put her to sleep. He