Xiumin was slightly fearful as his girlfriend walked to the table he and his friends had already sat down at. After he had blurted out how Dia had ruined his life, he was sure the girl would tell Hee-Jin everything. And now she was coming here, surely to break up with him. The same redhead would ruin his life a bit more.

But Hee-Jin greeted them with a smile when she sat down. Woohyun on the other hand raised an eyebrow. He had gotten used to seeing her with her two friends, it felt strange without them.

“Where’s Dia?”

“She’s in the classroom. She said she was a bit tired and wanted to rest there. Hoya stayed with her,” the girl replied.

“Of course he did,” he replied.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay with them?” Xiumin then asked her. She shook her head.

“She said she was fine and just want to sleep. I’d only be a bother…”

“Like Hoya,” Woohyun laughed.

“He wouldn’t bother her… Too much… I think,” Hee-Jin defended her friend. But even she couldn’t be sure anymore. There had been too many weird things going on with Dia lately and although she hadn’t said anything, she knew her friend was worried about something. Probably the stalker again. I wish I could figure out who it was.

---

Dia was sitting in the classroom, eating her food while Hoya was studying her curiously.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to try to sleep?” he asked her after a while.

“Yeah… I guess,” she mumbled. She hadn’t expected her friends to stay after she had said she just wanted to sleep, but here he was. Dia wasn’t actually tired. She just didn’t feel like facing Xiumin yet. After the conversation they had had, she wasn’t sure what she could say. Apologizing now would seem fake. And really, she hadn’t done anything all that wrong. But he had said she deserved to be targeted by some crazy stalker.

“Am I really so horrible?” She hadn’t even realised she had said this out loud until she noticed Hoya shaking his head.

“Why would you think that? Did the stalker say anything? What happened?” he questioned her, trying to read her face for the answers he knew she wouldn’t say out loud.

“No, no, it’s nothing. I was just lost in thought, I hadn’t even meant to say it out loud.”

“But you did. And to answer your question, you’re not horrible at all. In fact, you are amazing, smart, good at archery, and-”

“What’s this? Is Hoya confessing his love to our resident redhead?” Sehun interrupted with a sneer, instantly making everyone in the classroom focus on them.

“Of course that’s not it, he was just trying to cheer me up,” Dia replied with a shrug.

“That’s not what it seemed like to me. But you must be right, who’d ever confess their love to you.”

“I’m always right. And as if you’d know anything about love. I do believe you’ve never had a girlfriend, for as long as I’ve been in the same class as you. Which is for-e-ver.”

Sehun’s eyes narrowed and he clenched his jaw, before replying to her.

“Of course you don’t know who I date, I’m in a different, better circle than you.”

“I think you meant circus.”

“Just because that’s where you’re from, freak, doesn’t mean everyone is.”

“I so don’t want to be called a freak by someone who deliberately dyed his hair in all colours of the rainbow.”

“At least my real hair is normal. Unlike yours,” he retorted.

“At least I am normal. Unlike you.”

“You wish,” Sehun smirked and turned around. Dia mimicked his expression before turning back to her chair. Without knowing it, she had jumped up during her argument, so she sat down again.

“He always has to in,” she complained to Hoya.

“Yeah, he’s always out to make fun of you,” he agreed, eyeing the boy suspiciously.

“At least I won the argument,” Dia said with a satisfied smile. Making him back down was always a good feeling.

“You did.”

Looking at the smile on her face frustrated Hoya more than he wanted it to. He had been trying to cheer the redhead up before Sehun had butted in. And the bully might have been right. He might have confessed right there, if it wasn’t for the interruption. Not that it would have been good, she’d probably have said something about loving him too. As a friend. So that wasn’t what frustrated him. But the fact that she was now feeling a lot better, not because of him, but because of her little argument with Sehun was something he couldn’t accept.

---

The annoyed look on his co-captain’s face when he tapped her shoulder made Donghyun sigh.

“I was going to ask why you were so happy. But now you don’t seem happy at all.”

The girl in front of him relaxed and smiled.

“I thought you were going to tell me to watch over the first years again. Even though it’s only been like three days since I can shoot myself again,” Dia explained.

“I wouldn’t do that to you, you’d kill me,” he laughed and teased: “Though I have hear some complaints, saying that it was more fun when you were still watching over them. So maybe it would be better...”

“...”

The girl sighed, then turned towards the target again, shooting her arrow straight through the middle.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Donghyun laughed. Dia nodded as she fired another arrow. It went slightly to the bottom because of it, and she sighed.

“Let’s go get the arrows now,” she called out putting her bow on it’s standard before leaving to get her arrows back. The captain had been right. She was in a good mood and performing better because of it as well. Because today, just after archery practice, she would go on a date with Myungsoo. A real one. One which they would both call a date. Just the thought of that made her giddy.

This time she had actually listened to her friend and brought a spare set of clothes. Something better, and more date-like. Hee-Jin had insisted on it when she had heard Dia had a second date, and the redhead couldn’t help but agree it would be better to wear something other than her sport clothes.

“Captain~”  she started as soon as she had returned to her bow.

“What?”

“Is it okay if I change in the storage room after practice? I have a date, and we don’t have a dressing room here…”

“You have a date? Congrats,” he smiled and pretended to be deep in thought. “Alright, only this once. Since it’s for my precious Dongsaengs date.”

“Thank you so much!” Dia smiled widely.

---

She tried to take a look at herself while still in the storage room, but the lack of mirrors made this completely impossible. When she left, Donghyun was still there, waiting to lock up after her.

“You clean up nice,” he commented when he saw her and Dia frowned.

“You make it sound like I normally look horrible.”

“That’s not how I meant it,” he said with a chuckle. “You look good. Have fun on your date!”

“Thanks oppa! I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”

When she walked to the photography club, with a slight skip in her step, she noticed Minwoo still standing at his locker. The boy waved at her when he noticed her.

“Noona, are you going home now as well? Did you just change clothes? It’s pretty!” he commented.

“I’m not going home yet,” she replied with a smile. “And thanks.”

“You’re not going home yet? Ah, you must be busy, as co-captain,” he nodded. “I’ll head out first then, see you tomorrow noona.”

And just like that, he was gone, much to the relief of Dia. She did not want to talk, she wanted to go to Myungsoo and have a date that would actually turn out well, without her misunderstanding things.

The second she knocked on the door, it opened, revealing Myungsoo.

“Did I make you wait? Sorry!” she instantly apologised.

“No, no, I was just about to head towards the archery range, since we never chose a meeting point,” he explained.

“So, what are we doing? I’d say get something to eat first and then maybe, I don’t know, something like a movie. Or something else? I don’t know,” the girl rambled nervously, making him chuckle.

“So food and a movie? Sounds good. Do you have anything you’d like to see?”

“I don’t really know what’s showing, but we can go to the movie theatre and see?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They walked together, talking all the way to the little cozy restaurant. It was a pleasant conversation, about their club activities and Myungsoo enjoyed telling Dia more about the exhibition, which had been a great success. When they continued towards the movie theatre, he softly took her hand without a word. The girl blushed, but didn’t say anything and neither did he. They arrived at the movie theatre in a comfortable silence.

“So tonight there’s an action movie, a horror and a comedy. Which one do you want to see? Comedy?” Myungsoo asked her.

“Hmm, horror’s are usually quite boring… Since they’re never scary… But it could be fun… Action, the plot of this one sounds rather weak… But then again the same can be said for the comedy… So I don’t know….” She pondered.

“So based on the plot, you’d say the horror? That’s a first, watching a horror for the plot,” he laughed.

“I guess you’re right. Let’s do the comedy then?”

“Are you sure?”

When she nodded he smiled. “Alright, I’ll buy the tickets.”

“Then I’ll go get some popcorn!” the girl replied and was gone before he could protest.

The movie turned out to be a rather lame comedy, and although the jokes didn’t make Dia laugh, she enjoyed being able to sit so close to the boy she had liked for so long. It was like a dream. One she didn’t even want to wake up from. But she did. The film ended and they left the theatre together. Just as they exited, a familiar face did the same, and Dia waved shortly at Woohyun, who did the same, before turning back to the girl he was apparently with.

“A friend?” Myungsoo inquired.

“Not really… He’s the friend of my best friend’s boyfriend.”

“Right.. Sounds complicated,” he laughed.

“Too many ‘friend’s in the sentence, right? But that’s what he is, so I can’t exactly help it.”

“Touche,” he agreed.

“I had fun,” Dia commented shyly when they were nearing her apartment.

“So did I.”

There was a short silence, before Myungsoo spoke again.

“How about we do this more often? Start dating for real?”

He wasn’t looking at her, and didn’t see her turning a bright shade of red, nor did he see her smile.

“You can say no,” he mumbled quickly when she stayed quiet, only now looking up. A smile appeared on his face when he saw her.

“I’d love to.” She replied and then quickly added: “The dating part, not the saying no part. I don’t wanna say no at all!”

“I got that,” he chuckled.

“Good.” She smiled and held out her hand. They continued the rest of their walk with their fingers intertwined and happily smiling.

---

When she had told her friends she and Myungsoo were now dating, Hee-jin had been ecstatic. Hoya on the other hand had been rather cold, saying she didn’t even know him well enough. For all she knew he could be the stalker. And while Dia couldn’t deny that was true, she felt safe with Myungsoo. She wasn’t going to let the nightmarish stalker ruin her dream boy.

She had returned to her locker after practice, only to find a note there. It was printed, and the content made her sigh. Hoya wanted to talk with her in the shed of the basketball club. After practice. He was probably just going to complain about how she shouldn’t date someone she barely knew, even if he had been her crush for over a year.

She wasn’t looking forward to it, but went anyway. He was her friend after all. When Dia tried the door of the basketball shed, it was open, yet no one was there.

“He’s not here yet? But I just passed the field. Their training is already over. He’s going to make me wait?” she was already getting annoyed when her cellphone beeped. She opened the text, not hearing the footsteps behind her.

I already told you you were mine. Break up with him.

She gasped as an arm moved around her neck, effectively putting her in a choke.

The stalker. He wasn’t gone after all.

Dia tried to turn around, to kick, to get away, but the pressure on her neck was too much for her. She wanted to scream, but instead of words a weird gurgle was the only thing she could produce. Her vision started to become blurry, black spots multiplying by the second, and before she could scratch whoever was choking her right now, her muscles relaxed and she passed out.

---

She wasn’t sure how long she had been out. When she had woken up, she was still in the basketball shed, surrounded by balls and other training equipment. Much to her dismay, the door had been locked from the outside, and the lights had been cut. It wasn’t yet too dark, but soon she wouldn’t be able to see anything anymore.

Better be prepared.
The first thing the girl did was look around, to see if the stalker wasn’t still in the shed. She found no one. Next she checked her clothes. They seemed fine, and unmoved. Her hand reached for her sore throat, but as her fingertips touched it, again the disturbing gurgling sound came from and she felt as if she was choking again.

This is not good... Should I make noise? But maybe the stalker is still here….. Where’s my phone? I should text someone I’m stuck… Why can’t I find it?... It has to be… It has to be here… It can’t be gone… Please don’t be gone… I’m just over- … What was that?.... Is someone here? … No… I don’t hear anything… Must have been the wind…Right? Now where did I drop my phone…

She didn’t sleep. She didn’t sit. All she could do was pace the small room, panicking at every little sounds she heard. And there were many sounds at night. Way more than she would have expected. Time seemed to pass so slowly out here, and when she heard someone touch the lock, she froze. Did she really hear this? Did she imagine it? Or was it another harmless sound?

No! Someone is really trying to open this door.

She looked around for something, anything she could use as a weapon. There was nothing that seemed very useful. So instead she made sure to stand across from the door, ready to jump whoever was coming after her.