“What the ?! What are you doing? Why are you even in here? That ing hurts!”

In surprise Dia looked down at the guy she had just jumped and hit. They had fallen together on the floor, and only now she sat up straight did she recognise him. Sehun.

“Why would you jump me like that? Were you trying to freak me out? Did you have a date with Hoya here or something?”

“Oh. Right. You were in the basketball club too.”

“You’d think you’d remember that much, after all those years we have been in the same class. But that’s not important. Are you going to get off of me already??”

“Oh right!” the girl quickly scrambled to her feet, and when Sehun followed, they stood awkwardly in front of each other.

“Why are you here?” the redhead was the first to speak.

“Preparing stuff for morning practice. Who cares. What are you doing here? Stop ignoring my questions, damnit. Is Hoya here?”

“Why would he be here? I… I just happened to be here?” she tried. It was none of Sehun’s business she was locked in here by a stalker. And if he was the stalker, then he’d already know.

“You just happened to be in a locked room, in which only members of the basketball club are allowed?” he commented skeptically.

“Yes.”

“You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you?”

“...”

“Seriously? You think I am that stupid? Stop acting like a stubborn kid and tell my why in the world you’d be here.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Was it Hoya?”

“Why do you keep asking that? Why would Hoya lock me in here?”

“Hoya’s the only one of your friends with access to this shed. But someone locked you in here? Who was it?”

“Why do you care?”

“If someone has the key to our shed, of course I’d care. Now stop evading my questions and answer me. Argh, you’re annoying.”

Sehun switched on the lights now, deciding to check for himself if anyone else was hiding in the shed. He found no one, but his eyes lingered on his classmate’s neck, were a bruise was clearly visible.

“What’s that?” His fingers reached for carefully, but when they made contact with her skin, a horrible gurgling sound came from her lips, surprising them both. Sehun looked at the shock on Dia’s face and sighed.

“You’re going to pretend that’s nothing too? Just ing tell me already, it’s not like I care enough to remember.”

When the girl kept quiet, he narrowed his eyes.

“You said someone locked you in here, right? And judging from that bruise, they hurt you as well. What the hell is going on with you? Is that why you’ve been so down lately?”

This time it were her eyes that narrowed.

“Have you been watching me?”

“Just answer my damn questions already, it’s not that difficult is it?”

“Just let me leave already.” She tried to slip past him, but he blocked the door.

“No way. I want to know what is going on first.”

“Why do you even care what’s happening to me!? So you have something else to bully me about!? Like a stalker isn’t bad enough, I must give my bully more ammunition as well!?” The girl exploded.

“A stalker?” Sehun’s voice was calm, solemn almost as he repeated the word. Not the reaction Dia had expected. She’d thought he’d be delighted to have another thing to pester her with. But maybe she had been wrong.

“Yes.”

“He gave you that bruise? And locked you in here?”

The girl just nodded.

“So that’s what’s going on… Why aren’t your friends protecting you better? I mean, Hoya seems like the protective type… and if the stalker has a key to this room… Is he in our club?” he seemed to be murmuring mostly to himself now.

“I told them he hadn’t bothered me for a while…” the girl admitted quietly. “I assured them I was fine.”

“Yeah, fine… That’s why you’re locked in a storage room. Idiot.”

“How could I know he hadn’t actually stopped har-”

She stopped talking when suddenly Sehun pulled a scarf from his backpack.

“Here. Hide your bruise. You don’t want your friends to worry, right?”

She studied him closely.

“Why are you being nice?”

He avoided her eyes and shrugged.

“It’s not like I need the scarf. It’s way too warm to wear it, but my mom insisted I’d bring it, since it’s getting colder.”

“Thanks.”

“Keep it, now you’ve touched it, I don’t want it anymore. And get out of our storage room.”

“Alright. If you could let me pass, then. And please, don’t tell anyone about this?” Dia asked quietly. After all, Sehun was right. She didn’t want her friends to worry.

“Like I’d tell anyone I was even remotely nice to you. Now go.” He quickly stepped aside to let her pass, and the redhead left with a smile on her face, yelling back her thanks once more.

Maybe he isn’t so bad after all.

---

I’m sure the stalker must be bothering her again. But Dia’s stubborn so she keeps quiet. But I’ll find out.

Hee-Jin was determined to figure out who the stalker was. How, she didn’t know yet. But there had to be a way, a way to protect her friend. She looked back at the paper in her hand:

-Knows where she lives and can get in her house

-Knows she does archery

-obsessive

-violent (already hurt her once)

-loves or hates her? I don’t know. Why would anyone hate here? But this isn’t love.

-has a lot of access to her.

“This isn’t helping at all. We all know these things about her… And I think I’m the only one with a key to her house… I’m not the stalker though... And I don’t know anyone violent and obsessive… Except maybe Hoya... But he already said it wasn’t him… Even if he’s suspicious… He wouldn’t do that...” She muttered out loud. There was no other option but to observe everyone around her best friend, and make sure the stalker wouldn’t get close to her… And if he did get close to Dia, she would expose him. For sure.

---

Hoya frowned when he noticed Dia sleeping on her table. This girl was being way too careless for someone who had just been stalked, even if the stalker had been quiet lately. For a second he wondered what he should do. Wake her? Let her sleep? He was only here to put his stuff away before morning practice. Why was she even in class so early? Did the archery club have morning practice today?

I can’t leave her so vulnerable like this.

“Hey. Wake up,” he softly called out to her, tapping her shoulder. There was no movement from the girl.

“Wake up, you can’t sleep here like this,” he called out again, louder and shaking her shoulder now. It took him quite a while to get a reaction from the girl.

“Why are you waking me??” She mumbled still half asleep, but when she noticed who had woken her, she was suddenly awake.

“Why are you here?” She asked her friend and as she sat up realised she was in the classroom. Slowly the memories of the previous night flooded in and she remembered why she was here, and why she was so tired in the first place.

“Morning practice, and you?”

“My clock was off.”

Hoya frowned, it didn’t sound like the girl he knew. She would notice if a clock had stopped working right away. Before he could say anything, the girl already continued:

“Shouldn’t you hurry for practice?”

“I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.”

Dia rolled her eyes.
“I am fine. Completely. And I don’t want to be the reason you missed practice. But if you’ll feel better, I’ll go to the Photography club. Maybe Myungsoo’s arrived early.”

“Yes that makes me feel better,” Hoya replied bitterly, but the sentiment wasn’t noticed by his friend, who was now smiling happily at the thought of seeing her boyfriend.

“I’ll do that, then. Have fun at practice!”

The girl walked off with a happy bounce in her step, and only once she reached the clubroom in question, did doubt fill her mind. She wasn’t even in the Photography club. She had no right to even be here. What if she’d bother him? She sighed softly and turned around, ready to get back to her classroom.

“Did you come to see me?”

The voice instantly brought a smile to her face.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to bother anyone from the club,” she admitted.

“No one usually gets here this early. The clubroom is pretty much empty before school, so I have a lot of time to develop pictures and such. Why are you here so early?”

“I was sleeping in the classroom, because I arrived way too early, but I got woken.”

“Then join me in the clubroom, you can sleep undisturbed. And you won’t bother anyone that way either.”

“You say that like I would definitely be a bother otherwise,” she exclaimed with a pout.

“You were the one saying you didn’t want to bother anyone... “ he retorted, and held the door open for her. There was a nice couch for her to lay on and if she was honest, she really was rather tired.

“I’ll just go to sleep then, wouldn’t want to bother you,” she teased and quickly settled on the couch. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep, leaving Myungsoo to prepare his pictures in silence. He woke her just before the first class started.

“You must have been really tired,” he commented.

“I was. I didn’t sleep well last night. Ah, I’m sorry, I slept through everything didn’t I?”

“You did. You fell asleep instantly as well. Am I that boring?” His face was serious but there was a twinkle in his eyes the girl in front of him didn’t notice.

“No, no, no! It’s not that you’re boring!! I was just tired. And really, that I could fall asleep so fast just means I’m comfortable with you. Since I usually have trouble sleeping when there are other people.”

“It’s time for class, so we’d better hurry up,” Myungsoo commented, ignoring the previous topic and Dia’s little confession completely.

“Alright, alright…” she grumbled, but smiled again when she went on: “Thanks for letting me sleep here.”

“Anytime.”

---

“So why are you wearing a scarf?” Hoya asked during third period. He had noticed it earlier, but figured she must have been cold sleeping… Yet all through class, she had kept wearing it.

“Is it new? I don’t think I’ve seen it before?” Hee-Jin added in a whisper.

“I’ve got a sore throat so I’m wearing it.” She muttered.

“Not what I heard.” All three of them turned to the voice, a boy who never really spoke with any of them.

“Then what did you hear?” Dia questioned him.

“That you’re hiding your bruises, from when you tried to hang yourself.”

His statement left all three of them in shock. It took Dia a second to regain her composure, but her friends were quicker.

“There’s no way that’s true,” Hoya commented and Hee-Jin nodded.

“She wouldn’t do that.”

“Just remove the scarf and we’ll see.” The boy looked expectantly at Dia, but the girl didn’t move. After all, even if she did remove the scarf, they’d only see a bruise. Not from attempting suicide, but from the stalker trying to strangle her. How did this become a rumour already, even without her bruise showing?

“Be quiet over there already!” The teacher scolded them, and saved the redhead for now. But it didn’t stop the weird looks she was getting.

---

“Something did happen right?” Hee-Jin asked her friend at lunch. If had been quite some time since they had all eaten lunch together, and she didn’t really want to spoil the mood. But if she wanted to find out what was going on with her friend and the stalker she had to ask.

“I heard you tried to kill yourself,” Woohyun commented dryly.

“I’m not thinking that actually happened! And if you say it’s a cold, I’ll believe you!” Hee-Jin instantly added.

“I think if it was a cold, she’d have removed her scarf to show it,” Hoya muttered. “You don’t trust us?”

“It’s not that,” Dia started.

“Then what?” Her friend looked so hurt. “You think we wouldn’t worry about you? We do, right Hoya?”

“Of course.”

“Just take that scarf off already,” Xiumin commented. “Or did you really try to commit suicide?”

“I didn’t!” The redhead exclaimed. “Why did this even become a rumour?”

“I don’t know, just heard some people I didn’t know talking about the redhead trying to hang herself,” Xiumin commented with a shrug.

Sehun? Dia sighed, then slowly unwrapped the scarf. When she heard the gasps of her friends, she involuntarily winced. This was what she had wanted to prevent.

“What happened?” Hee-Jin asked softly.

“Accident.”

“The stalker, right?” Hoya stated. “You should have told us right away. What did he do?”

“I got a note in my locker… It was signed with your name, Hoya. So I went, and walked into a little trap. It wasn’t serious... “

“Liar.”

“Huh?” Dia looked up, into the face of her best friend, who was teary-eyed.

“You’re bruised. It was serious. Can’t you stop acting like it’s nothing? It will only make us worry more!” And with that, the girl sprinted off, quickly followed by her boyfriend.

“Well, that went well. See? You should just tell us these things right away! Why would he even use my name?” Hoya stated

“Because you guys are friends?” Woohyun suggested with a shrug.

“I figured you were going to complain about Myungsoo again. Instead it was the stalker doing that,” the girl commented with a wry smile.

“Why would I leave you a note in your locker? I’d just text you.”

“I know. I know. I should have thought of that, but I didn’t. Sorry.”

“You should be more careful, okay? We don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“It’s not like I want to get hurt either, okay. I should go to Hee-Jin… Though I guess Xiumin probably wouldn’t like that. He already dislikes me enough as it is...”

“You’ll see her in class? She’s only angry because she cares about you, and you are only hiding things because you care about her, so it shouldn’t be that bad,” Woohyun stated.

“Yeah…”

---

“You want to shoot wearing that scarf?” Donghyun commented. “You know you can’t, it’s too dangerous.”

“Are you sure you’re not just curious about the rumour?” The redhead was already tired of the whispers and stares everywhere.

“That’s not it. I know you wouldn’t do that. You’d miss archery too much. Besides there’s a match in three weeks. You’d do it after that,” the captain teased.

“I would,” she agreed with a smile. “There’s a bruise though.”

“Is it bad?”

“I’m hoping I can use makeup to hide it tomorrow.”

“Then just shoot without scarf. If it’s gone tomorrow, the rumour will disappear as well.”

“I hope so,” the girl replied with a sigh as she removed her scarf. The bruise on her neck seemed to shock Donghyun, but he didn’t say anything and just nodded.

“Enjoy shooting today. But next time, you’re taking shifts in watching the first years again.”

“Really? I don’t want to~ I need to practice for the match!!”

“We all do. Captain’s word goes.”

Even at the Archery club, Dia got stared at more than the targets and she was quite happy to be going home. At least she had been able to talk with Hee-Jin after lunch, but that was about all that had really gone well today. She sighed as she walked to her locker, happy she could go home again.

“Noona, are you okay? Everyone was talking about you today, you know? I was worried,” Minwoo spoke as he joined her.

“I know. It’s nothing though.”

“Really? That’s good then! I mean, it doesn’t even look like the mark of a rope. More like someone tried to strangle you or something. Did you start doing martial arts?”

“I didn’t. Do you know a lot about martial arts?” She couldn’t help but wonder how the smiling first year even knew the difference between a rope bruise and a strangulation bruise.

“Only a little. But archery is more fun.”

Dia nodded. She was pretty sure that archery was better than any sport that involved getting punched, or thrown.

“Oh this is my locker. See you tomorrow, Noona.”

“See you tomorrow.”

She was glad he didn’t want to talk, like he usually did. After this day, she just wanted to go home and sleep. She only sighed when she noticed a note in her locker. Again.

Just give up already.
You can’t win.

“Maybe not. But I’m sure not going to give in to your violence either,” she muttered. If he was stalking her, he might actually be listening now, after all. And although she was scared, very scared, she wasn’t going to break up with her boyfriend. She wasn’t going to let the stalker ruin her life. If she listened to him, she’d only give him more power. And that could only turn out badly.