ENTHRALL° s.th

015

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DOWNTOWN
EVENING
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✧──────✦ a week later, the bite mark on her leg from gyeol began to scab over. the punctures on her arms were definitely going to scar, jaehwa had just accepted it at that point. it was a pain to walk or even sit, but she'd been stealthy enough about it that no one noticed.

jaehwa had been out on errands for the past hour for groceries and things like that. her mother had recently called again and spoke about visiting within the next few days, so her grandmother had her running all over daegu for things that you could only find at that one specific place.

one of these items being completely across town, even past the half mile long bridge that was built separating downtown and the suburb area. with a lack of spare money for a cab, she made do with borrowing taehoon's bike since she had left hers in seoul.

the handle bars were filled with bags of groceries as she rode on the bike back to her house. since it was already dark, the only light was the occasional passing car. the lack of light had her hop off the seat and walk along side it.

as jaehwa neared the end, the pink hair she would never forget ran up and stopped by the railing to do something on her phone. gyeol began talking to it and pulled herself up to stand up on the railing.

her eyes widened as she lowered herself to stand on the extremely thin ledge on the other side of the railing.

"do you really want me to die that badly?" gyeol scrolled through the comments of her live.

"han gyeol! the fuck do you think you're doing?" jaehwa hadn't remember being this mad in a long time. just because she received well deserved backlash, she thought she could just end it like that?

"why are you pretending like you've never done anything wrong?!" gyeol yelled at the camera and then looked over at her. as she stepped off the ledge, jaehwa ran forward and grabbed onto the neon vest.

as gyeol threw herself off the bridge, "you thought i wouldn't kill myself right?" her body weight was too much for jaehwa who now yelled curses and profanities at her. as her hand was slipping, her fingers caught in the mesh of the vest.

jaehwa's legs were flush against the metal railing that creaked with their combined mass pushing against it. she held her breath as one leg followed the other, slipping over the railing to form a nosedive to the water.

the only thing she could do was untangle her fingers from the vest and try her best to land in the water in a way that wouldn't kill her. "you piece of shit!"

it felt like she hit concrete after jumping from a three story building. frankly, jaehwa was surprised she still had her senses working after what felt like death. all she hoped was that she was swimming up and not in the wrong direction.

the light from the buildings on the surface of the water was so close, just out of arms reach. her throat convulsed on itself as she blew the last few bits of oxygen she had left. but as soon as jaehwa felt air, she sucked in as much as she could, even breathing in some of the river water.

she floated on her back to the docks and pulled herself out of the water. "the river almost had me! that pisses me off so much!" she found gyeol laying on the dock, hitting the ground with her fist.

jaehwa's eye twitched as she limped to her side. "are you an idiot? do you know much i want to drown you right now?"

gyeol looked at her and jumped up, "loser, your nose is bleeding! that goes to show how much better i am than you!"

jaehwa pinched her ear and pulled her closer, "yours is bleeding too."

"you'd be dead if it weren't for my ingrown toenail." gyeol scoffed as she walked away with an obviously fake limp.

hobin and the others stood behind her, watching as the one punch cameraman carried gyeol around the corner. they looped jaehwa's arms around their shoulders and assisted her back to her house.

"are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital? that was an insane fall..." hobin asked, halfway into a panic.

now jaehwa was already halfway in tears from pain, but when she realized she forgot the bike and the groceries on the bridge, the tears brimmed her waterline. "damn. i forgot the bike."

"we'll get it later," gaeul suggested.

"it's taehoon's bike."

at the sound of his name, taehoon looked up from his phone. "what about my bike?" the trio dropped her arms and ran in the opposite direction, yelling apologies to her from a block away.

"i ran into some problems and forgot it on a bridge." jaehwa became fully aware of the nighttime chill, and involuntarily shivered under his gaze.

"how?"

"i got dragged off the bridge by the pink haired chick." jaehwa showed her swollen fingers that had been stuck in the vest. all she got was a jacket to the face.

"i'll go grab it, just don't freeze to death."

a few minutes later, the bike came to a screeching stop next to her. like a knight on a white horse, the horse being the bike and his sword being the groceries on the handlebars.

"why do you always show up when i need you the most?" jaehwa noted as he helped her stand from her sitting position against the wall. she even laughed, but stopped when her ribs started to hurt,"i'm starting to think you're the one stalking me."

"i just happened to be in the area," he argued. but even jaehwa was smart enough to know that he had no business there. the arcade and the dojang were both on the other side of town.