Suji was the last one in the computer lab. Everyone else had gone home early to start getting ready for the dance, but Suji had a paper due next Monday and wanted to finish it before the weekend.
Not that she'd gotten much work done. She'd been trying to call Mia for the last two hours. After Renjun had come and announced the identity of his mystery saviour as Ara, Suji had almost snapped and told him the truth.
But she'd held her tongue, because she had a firm belief that people had to do things for themselves.
That didn't mean she couldn't try and push them along the way, however.
After the fifth time trying Mia, her phone rang and she'd answered with a flustered "Where have you been?!" only to hear Mark's voice on the other end. And what he had to say did not sound good.
"I don't know where she is." Mark's voice was panicked. "She wasn't at Kahi's, she's not at practice, and no one else has seen her. She's not with you, is she?"
"To tell you the truth, I haven't seen Saeron all day." Suji saved her paper and attempted to close it. A bar popped up. "Look, I'm a little busy now, I-"
"Aren't you worried about her?"
"Well of course I'm worried about her," Suji snapped. "But I can't help you. You'd be better served out looking for her."
Mark made a noise of dissention. Suji tried not hold it against him – Saeron disappearing was a scary thing. "Look, just...go back, ask Kahi, see if you can retrace her steps. And hey, maybe she's with Mia. I've been trying to reach her for hours."
"Yeah, okay. Thanks, Suji." Mark hung up the phone.
Suji sighed in frustration, turning back to her malfunctioning computer. "Stupid Mac," she grumbled. "If I get out of this, I'm never using an Apple product again."
The door to the computer lab clicked, like someone had locked it. Suji looked up. They couldn't be closing the school already, could they?
Then all the lights turned off. Even the power on her computer shut down. Suji cried out, and nearly fell out of her chair. She raced to the door. "Hey! Wait – whoever's out there, stop! I'm still in here!"
From behind the door, someone chuckled. Suji felt her blood run cold. "I know," said the voice.
"Hyunji." Suji clenched her hands into fists. "What the hell are you doing? Open the door!"
"You should have let Sting take my offer," Hyunji continued on, ignoring her. "Maybe all this could have been prevented."
"All what?" Suji started kicking on the door. Then she stopped. Jaeminㅡ remembered what he said about Hyunji targeting everyone. But She couldn't possibly be
"Ara wasn't the one who rescued Renjun this summer, and we both know it," Suji said resolutely. "You told her to tell him that."
Hyunji hummed. "Very good. Keep going."
"That message Nari got, the one she thought was from her father. It was from you."
"I didn't really care much about her, but she's friends with you, after all. And Yeseul."
Suji's heart clenched. Yeseul. "What did you do to her?"
Hyunji laughed. "Oh, nothing you'll notice. But when I show up with a new boyfriend on Monday and his name is Lee Donghyuck"
"What?" Suji's blood ran cold. "You – he wouldn't. He hates you!"
"He thinks he hates me." Hyunji chuckled. "But you're forgetting something here – I have the other slipper."
Suji shook her head. That didn't make any sense. "What slipper? What are you talking about?"
"The one Yeseul has – or, well, had – hidden up in her room. The one matching the slipper she dropped at the dance, which I'm fairly certain is in the possession of one Lee Donghyuck." Hyunji chuckled. "It's perfect, really. I mean, Jaemin is the better option, but dating Donghyuck will be satisfying enough as revenge."
Yeseul fisted her hands. "And what about Saeron?" she asked, voice shaking. "What did you do with her? Where is she?"
"Darling, don't give me credit for everything," Hyunji chuckled. "She got herself into her own mess. It was just a lucky coincidence on my part!"
Her laughter was getting farther away. Suji pounded on the door. "You won't get away with this!"
"Oh, Suji Park." Hyunji paused. "I already have."
Silence. Suji punched, kicked, and pummeled the door to no avail. There was no one else around.
"Help," she muttered, sliding down the door. "Help me."
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