Hee-Jin couldn’t move. Not at first. Hearing Woohyun’s words had reduced her to a statue, completely in shock. Yes, what Xiumin had done was horrible. He had threatened her friend and didn’t even feel bad about it. And yes, she felt like breaking up with him was the right thing to do. But just thinking that he got hurt… That he got hurt badly… She couldn’t process it.

“How bad is bad?” Hoya asked. He sounded conflicted, somewhere between horrified and happy.　At least Xiumin could no longer hurt his friends. But no one deserved something like this.

“He’s in a coma. He might not make it…” Woohyun sounded close to losing it too. He had been there, after all. Seeing his friend get run over by a car and failing to do anything to stop it had taken it’s toll on him.

“You should go to him,” Dia said softly and hugged her speechless friend. The action seemed to snap Hee-Jin out of her trance and instead brought tears to her eyes.

“It.. It can’t be true,” she muttered softly, shaking her head. “It can’t be. Not him.”

“I wish I was lying, believe me, I do,” Woohyun commented, his voice cracking as he spoke.

“Do you have practice?” Dia asked Hoya. He nodded solemnly.

“They need to go to the hospital... I have an important meeting, too,” she started pacing, considering the options. “I’ll-”

“No, you won’t. It’s important right, your meeting? I’ll take them. I can miss practice just this once,” he interrupted her.

“Sorry.”

“You mean thank you?” he asked her with a frown and she nodded. She carefully released Hee-Jin, hesitantly, hoping the girl wouldn’t fall apart. She didn’t, and Dia realized her friend was stronger than she had expected and much, much stronger than she herself was.

“Are you okay?” Hee-Jin had directed her words to Woohyun and although it was clear he was trying his hardest just to keep himself together, he nodded.

“I’m not hurt.” It was a half-truth; in that he didn’t got hurt by the accident itself. No physical pain, but mentally going through a hell he was creating for himself.

---

Dia knew she shouldn’t be, but she was severely distracted during her important archery meeting. She caught Donghyun stare at her funnily once or twice, and each time it reminded her to focus. But not long after, her mind drifted back to her friend, and how it must hurt Hee-Jin to see the boy she loved like that.

Had it been Myungsoo, she would have freaked out. In fact, she did that even at the thought of him getting hurt. I need to learn to be stronger too. I never even realised I was this weak.

“Well, that was a useless meeting,” Dia commented once they were done.

“You might have found it more useful if you were actually paying attention,”  Donghyun commented dryly.

“Did I miss anything of importance?”  

He laughed at how innocent she pretended to look and shook his head.

“No, it was stuff we already knew.”

“My point exactly.”

---

Hee-Jin was sitting in the hospital. Not near Xiumin, as she would have wanted, but in a different room, looking through a window. The only thing moving on the other side of the glass were the machines the boy was tied up to. It looked desperate, even more so because next to her were who she assumed were Xiumin’s parents, sobbing. Although she had managed to calm her thoughts somewhat, she was crying too, as she looked at the boy she loved so much. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even imagine what anyone would want to say or hear at a time like this.

Hoya on the other hand, was feeling utterly awkward. He hadn’t even really known Xiumin that well, and he didn’t particularly like him either, with everything he had done. He had come with them for moral support, but now he was actually here, he had little to offer. Woohyun was trying to comfort Xiumin’s parent, while they were trying to convince him it wasn’t his fault. Hee-Jin stood unmoving, and didn’t respond to anything he was saying. He felt lost.

---

It was early on Saturday morning and Dia was preparing her bow. She wasn’t one for getting up early, but she wanted to, no, needed to check if she was able to focus on her archery. The match was tomorrow. She could not afford to be distracted.

Her first arrow hit the target, though not nearly as close to the center as she wanted it too. She sighed. Of course she wasn’t focussed. She had texted both her friends yesterday, and late at night Hoya had replied. Hee-Jin wanted to stay in the hospital as much as possible. Dia couldn’t blame her. But she herself couldn’t afford to let Xiumin mess with her mind now. Not this close to the match. She would use all the time she could today to get herself straightened out, and to make sure she would be able to perform her best.

After an hour of solitary practice, she had gotten herself under enough control to at least get into the 6 and 7 points. Seeing as she was hoping to shoot solid 10’s and bullseyes it wasn’t good, but better than the two points she had started out with.

“Not in good form today?” Donghyun commented as he joined her. It wasn’t long before the others would come for their regular Saturday morning practice, and Dia hated they would all see she wasn’t doing well.

“Apparently not. I will fix it by tomorrow… I hope.”

“Still too much going on in your life?”

“Yeah. Though to speak positively, the stalker seems rather quiet now everything else is collapsing.”

“That doesn’t sound positive,” the elder commented with a frown.

“But it is. Everything would be even worse with my stalker tormenting me.”

“I guess so.”

The longer she practiced, the better she was at keeping her emotions in control and focus solely on the muscles in her back, making sure the arrow went where it was supposed to go. She and Donghyun had continued practicing after the others left, both in silence. Neither of them wanted to lose the game tomorrow and they both practiced best alone.

“Looks like you’ve gotten back to your regular form,”  Donghyun commented as they were packing up their stuff.

“I’m glad I did. I’d hate to lose again.”

“I’d hate to see you lose too. I can’t imagine how much of a pain you’ll be to deal with if you don’t win.”

“I’ll make sure to win. You might even manage to win your own category, oppa,” she teased.

“I will. I’m not the one who came second last year,” he back with a smile.

“Better keep that winning streak going then. The more prizes our team can win the better.”  

“Agreed.”

---

The redhead yawned, getting up early for two days in a row. But she knew she wouldn’t feel to tired. Her nerves wouldn’t let her. Today was the big archery match. She had been looking forward to it all year, and now it was finally there. She would win and not come second. She was sure she could do it, but she was also scared. Scared that something would happen and mess everything up. It was highly probable, with how everything else in her life was going.

Her excitement grew and grew as they reached the venue, to the point that she had no idea what the first year sitting next to her was blabbering about. She could only think about the match, and if her opponents would be strong.

Once they had everything prepared, she walked around for a bit. She recognised several people of other clubs, and greeted them, letting her eyes wander over the stands. It didn’t take her long to spot Hoya and he waved at her. He was alone, and she was grateful he’d come. He didn’t even care for archery and would have no one to talk to. Hee-Jin was at the hospital again, unwilling to leave Xiumin alone even to go home to sleep, if her parents weren’t forcing her to do so.

It didn’t take her long to spot another familiar face in the crowd. Not one she wanted to see. Not one she had expected to see. But there he was; Myungsoo, his camera around his neck. When he saw her looking at him, he looked away. Why was he here? He couldn’t be here for her, could he? No. Not after how much she had hurt him. Was he here for someone else? She swallowed, only no realizing she was shaking. Why was he here? Why? Why?

And in an instant her focus was gone. Her mind could only focus on why the boy she loved so much would be at her archery match. He didn’t particularly like archery. He had told her so himself. So it couldn’t be because of that… Then why? And would the stalker think her was there for her? Would he be in danger again? Even though he couldn’t be there for her…

“Noona, are you okay? You look kind of dazed...” Minwoo’s voice managed to free her from her thoughts, for a little while.

“Yeah, I’m okay. A bit surprised by how crowded it is… It looks like there are more people than last year,”  she lied with a smile.

“Yes… I wonder if I’ll be able to shoot well with so many people watching…”  the boy said nervously. “But I’m sure you’ll be fine Noona, so don’t worry! You came second as a first year, so you can definitely win this year!”

“Thanks, I hope I will,”  she muttered, her eyes already searching for her ex-boyfriend again. This is bad.

“I’m going to make a call now, so please excuse me,” she told her junior with another smile, and turned around. She needed help.

“Hi. Myungsoo. He’s here. Please help.”

She hated how pathetic she sounded, a whimper in her voice as she begged for help. What did she even expect him to do? What could anyone do? Toss Myungsoo out? There was no way. She was doomed.

---

“I want to talk to you.”

Myungsoo looked at the boy in front of him in surprise. It took him a while, before he recognized him.

“You’re Dia’s-”

“Yes. Now let’s talk somewhere, with less people.”

Myungsoo frowned, but followed the boy with the weirdly coloured hair anyway. What could the bully of his former girlfriend possibly want from him?

“Why are you here?”  Sehun asked with a sigh.

“I want to watch the match,”  Myungsoo replied simply. “Why do you care?”

“She’ll lose if you’re here. She might lose even if you go now. She’s lost all focus.”

“Dia? She doesn’t care about me.” It hurt him to even say this.

“You actually believe that?”

“It’s basically what she said, isn’t it?”

“Not quite.”

“How would you know? And why do you care? You’re her bully, aren’t you?” Myungsoo questioned him.

“I was there. She was bawling her eyes about because her stalker forced her to break up with you. If you had just been at school that day, none of this would have happened.”

“Stalker?”

“She never told you…? Of course she wouldn’t,” Sehun sighed. “Yes. Apparently she was stalked for quite some time. Since I’ve found out, I’ve been trying to figure out who it could be. But I got nothing more than suspects. So what happened that day?”

“Why wouldn’t she tell me?” Myungsoo muttered softly. Sehun eyed him suspiciously now. He wasn’t sure if the boy in front of him was just hurt or intentionally ignoring his question.

“Where the were you that day?”

“... At home. We had a power outage. None of our alarms went off, so we were all late. When I managed to get power to my phone, I had missed calls, followed by a break up text… I thought… I thought she broke up with me because I hadn’t replied right away… That she just wanted attention.”

“Instead it was her stalker threatening to hurt you, and she was terrified.”

“Why would she tell you this?”

“Followed her, and found her crying,” Sehun shrugged.

“Why are you telling me this? Why do you care?”

“Because I’m pretty sure you’re not the stalker. And I need all the help I can get to find him.”

“Why?” It took him a while but then he had connected the dots.

“You care about her. You like her.”

For a second, Sehun was quiet.

“So, are you going to help me or not? You still love the girl right?” he then asked, nonchalantly.

“How do I know you’re not the stalker? If she has one.”

“You don’t. But you should have at least noticed she acted weird at times. Her bruises. The shock on her face when she read certain texts.”

“Yes… But how do you know it’s a stalker? Why would she tell you and not me? You were bullying her right? She… why would she trust you?”

“She told me, but not so much because she wanted to. And she asked me for help, at least today. The reason should be obvious. It’s because I’m her bully. Because she doesn’t care about me.”

Myungsoo just looked at the boy as if he’d lost it.

“She wants you to help her, because you are her bully? That makes no sense.”

“It makes perfect sense. Do you know why Dia lives alone?”

The boy shook his head.

“She really didn’t tell you anything… Well, she wouldn’t, I guess… Her mom left her and her father when she was young, just in kindergarten. And that changed her. She’d always been overly excited, and happy. Once her mother left, she turned cold. I was her best friend at that time, but she pushed me away. But that made sense. Her father came to pick her up now, but looked at her with little more than pain and disgust. He couldn’t bear to look at Dia after his wife left. And that only got worse when she grew up, and looked more and more like her mother. Until he forced her to live alone.”

“What does this have to do with her trusting you?”

“She blames herself for everything. She got bullied from a young age. She always believed people were mad at her. She couldn’t understand much Korean yet. And then her mom left. And her father seemed angry at her. To her, it must have been her fault.”

“She blamed herself?”

“And now, she doesn’t dare put burdens on others. What if she complains, and they leave her? What if she asks for help and they decide that she’s really not worth that trouble? I believe she’s terrified that one wrong move will make her all alone again.”

“So then why you?”

“She doesn’t like me. I’m her bully. So no matter how much she bothers me, it wouldn’t change my opinion of her, since she always bothers me on purpose. And even if I were to leave her alone… Well you can imagine that getting her bully of her back would only be a plus. Which is why she is able to turn to me, and not her friends. At least, that’s what I believe.”

“You really love her a lot don’t you?”

Again Sehun kept quiet, but Myungsoo could see it on his face. The boy might have even chosen to bully the girl, to provide an unchanging presence, one that she couldn’t push away even if she tried.

“How can I help?” he then asked Sehun.

“Alright. Any suspects you can think of? The stalker was jealous of you. So it must be someone who likes her. In a sick way, but still. I have two suspects at the moment. Hoya, for obvious reasons. Heck, she basically called him a stalker once already. The other is her upperclassman. Dong… Something. He’s in her club. I happened to hear him use the exact same phrase to her, the stalker had just texted her earlier…”

Myungsoo thought for a while, trying to see if he could add anything to Sehun’s deductions. And he had.

“I have two more. One of her underclassman, Minwoo or something… He seemed super into her when she was helping him after archery practice. And he seemed annoyed I came to interrupt them as well. The other would be Woohyun. We ran into him during two of our dates, which is weird as well.”

“Alright… For now… Let’s just keep an eye on these four then,” Sehun stated and frowned. “There should be something more we can do. But I don’t know…”

“Well, apparently it will be helpful if I do not show up in front of her while she’s trying to win an archery match, so I’ll do that,” Myungsoo commented. “One more thing… If you love her, why are you telling me all of this? I’m your rival, am I not?”

“There’s no competition. She wants you.”

---

Dia sighed of relief when it was her turn to shoot. Myungsoo was nowhere to be seen. She had tried, almost successfully, to convince herself that she had just imagined seeing him. She felt bad for not talking to her friends friends about her little freak out, but then again, they both had enough on their mind already. She wouldn’t burden them with her silly thoughts.

When her first arrow hit bullseye, she inwardly cheered. She had conquered her running thoughts. For now. She shot well. Not as well as she maybe could, but well enough. It was only a one point difference, but she managed to take first place. Donghyun had also come in first, with an impressive 10 point lead. The other club members had done well, but not enough to place in the top three. Still everyone was in a festive mood, ready to celebrate. Dia ran up to Hoya, hugging him happily.

“I did it! I finally did it!” she cheered

“Yes, you did!” he agreed with a smile. It had been long since the girl had looked this happy. For a second she looked so carefree. So perfect.

“We’re going to celebrate with the club… I’m sorry, it’s only for club members.”

“Yeah. Let’s not try to pass me off as your boyfriend.” He wondered why he was doing this to himself. How he was able to hurt himself over and over, with his own words, and her replies.

“They’d never buy it,” Dia chuckled. “But thanks for cheering for me! I heard you! I’m sure it helped me win!”

---

She had just come home from the party, still in a cheerful mood, when she received a text. As soon as she saw she didn’t know the sender, she knew who it was. The stalker.

“I bet even he can’t kill my mood now.”

He had only send a video file. She saw herself reading a book on her bed. It skipped to her cooking dinner. Her asleep. Her getting dressed.

“And he killed it,” she sighed softly. He was filming her, had been for who knew how long. She couldn’t even imagine what he had caught on film. Could he blackmail her now?

Sorry I killed your mood.

“Can you hear me?” she mumbled as she read this new text.

Of course. I’m always here. With you. You’re never alone.

“Yeah, I’d prefer being alone, thank you very much.”

She started going through her apartment methodically, trying to find the cameras. By morning, she had found five, and a audio bug. How had he managed to place them in her house?

She kept thinking of when this could have started as she left for school. She didn’t get far. As soon as she opened the door to her apartment, she got hit on the head with a baseball bat.

“You?” was all she could exclaim before she passed out.

Next up the great reveal! I'm gonna try and finish this story around the new year, since there's only one, maybe two chapters left.

Let me know who you suspect :D You'll find out the stalker's identity next chapter~~