ANL - mark lee

1

I woke up to my alarm beeping annoyingly at my bedside. groaning, I whacked it with my left hand. Big mistake, turns out it looked a lot cooler in movies, but it hurt like hell in real life. I held my hand for a few seconds before shaking it off and swinging my feet over the edge of the bed. I trudged into my bathroom and fumbled before finally finding the lightswitch. avoiding the no-doubt atrocious view of myself in the mirror, i headed straight for the shower.

I had thirty minutes to be downstairs and ready before my best friend lola would pick me up for school. I was quick in the shower, just hoping to wash the sleep off of me. After the shower I quickly dried my brown hair and got into my school uniform, a plaid skirt with a white button up top and a sweater over it.

As I was buttoning the last button of my shirt I felt like someone was watching me. It was this weird feeling I had been having all week, but whenever I would look nobody would be there. I walked over and looked through my blinds, everything looked normal. I shrugged it off like I had been for the last week and headed downstairs.

As I got down there my younger sister was sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal.

"hey Nini," I said ruffling her hair. Nini was a nickname, short for nina, because when I was young I wasn't able to say it properly and then the name kind of stuck. she gave me a nod of acknowledgement before turning back to her phone. I rolled my eyes at her moody antics and grabbed a breakfast bar out of the pantry.

I heard a car horn from outside and quickly rushed to get my things together, "remember that it's your night for dinner," I reminded Nini before finally heading out the door. As I walked outside I was surprised to see that lola's car wasn't there. I could have sworn that she had just honked. I sighed and sat on the front step watching as a van drove by a little too slow. It was grey and seemed to have some scratches on the doors. the windows were tinted a dark black so I couldn't see inside. I was starting to get creeped out when finally lola pulled up.

"sorry i'm late ri," I smiled at the nickname she had given to me when we were young. my real name was aeri and that's how I was known to my parents, teachers, and other adults, but all of my friends called me ri. I liked it though, it had more spice than just plain old aeri.

I told her she was fine and not to worry about, I would have to ride the bus if it wasn't for her anyways. On the way we chatted about this and that and who hung out with who over the weekend.

"are you still getting the feeling like someone's watching you?" she asked. that's lola for you. as blunt as can be.

"yeah, it happened again this morning and then before you pulled up some sketchy van was driving by slowly," I explained.

"oh girl that's super sketchy. can you report it to someone?" she asked.

"I don't think so, it's just a feeling and one van doesn't mean anything," I shrugged. she nodded and dropped the topic. after finding a spot in the school parking lot we walked inside and went to our lockers. as I was pulling down my books that were unreasonably heavy I felt a slight tug on the back of my hair. I whipped around to see renjun and jaemin standing there.

"hey assholes," I said and turned back around.

"now that is no way to treat someone who brought you a donut," renjun pouted.

I whipped back around with a much nicer look on my face, "I mean hey guys, jaemin did you do something different with your hair it looks good,"

"oh shut up and take the donut already," jaemin said, a smirk tugging at his lips. I smiled and grabbed the donut from his hand, taking a bite.

"so, are you ready for the test in biology?" renjun asked.

I felt my face pale, "holy shit, I completely forgot. you need to tell me everything I need to know," I exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and dragging him down the hallway. As we walked into the classroom I weaved us through to our seats in the back. I quickly sat down and pulled out all of renjuns notebooks, trying to absorb as much information as possible.

"so are you just going stand there and watch me struggle?" I snapped. He quickly wiped the smug grin off his face and sat down to help me. I tried to cram as much information as possible until the late bell rang. I huffed and leaned back in my seat as my teacher started to hand out the tests.

after guessing on over half of the questions I finally finished. I laid the completed, and most definitely failed, test face down on the desk, lightly tapping my pencil on my desk as I waited for renjun to finish. a shiver ran down my spine as I got the feeling someone was watching me again. I looked up around and locked eyes with a boy with brown hair at the front of the room. it was only for a split second, but something felt off about it. the boy quickly looked away and I tried to rack my brain for his name, but nothing came up.

after renjun finished his test he looked back at me, "what's wrong?" he asked.

"what's his name?" I whispered, pointing to the boy.

"ahem," our teacher cleared her throat, "am I going to have to separate you two?" she asked with a pointed look.

we both shook our heads and resorted to passing notes.

R: who?

j: black hoodie, front of the room

r: oh that's mark, he's in another one of my classes. doesn't really talk though

I nodded and looked out the window. It was probably just a coincidence that he was looking at me right? maybe he was looking out the window, yeah that's what we will go with.

the rest of the day went by smoothly with no more surprise tests and when the final bell rang I gathered my stuff and left the building quickly, meeting renjun and jaemin outside.

"do you guys want to come over for a little bit, I don't think my parents will be home till later?" I asked.

they looked at eachother before renjun replied, "sorry ri i have something I have to do,"

"um yeah me too" jaemin said.

"okay?" I replied. they were acting weird. we said our goodbyes and headed off in opposite directions. I ended up walking home because of the nice weather. when I went inside nini was on the couch, watching some tv show.

I headed up to my room to work on my homework, but ended up getting side tracked to my phone. after working for a few hours, my parents arrived home with dinner. we all ate and helped to clean up before going back to our own things.

After studying for a few more hours I called renjun for help in biology, but it went straight to voicemail. I huffed and decided to save it for tomorrow. It was getting late so, I decided to try and get some sleep.

I heard a loud noise outside of the house and sat up slowly in my bed. I walked lightly over to the blinds and everything seemed normal. my breathing hitched as the floorboard creaked behind me. I slowly turned around to see my sisters cat on the floor. I sighed in relief and walked back into my bed, going back to sleep.

after falling back asleep I heard another loud sound. inside the house. I quickly scrambled out of bed and grabbed my hairbrush from my nightstand. it was the only realistic "weapon"in my room. I held it up ready to swing at anyone within range. with no warning I felt a large arm wrap around me and a hand clasp over my mouth. as I tried to scream I instantly felt drowsy and fell back into the mystery persons arms.

A/N : first chapter lolz