Two-faced

- her emergency -

"Jia can I ask you something?" I say, laying on her bed.

"Mhm," She says, sifting through her endless supply of lip gloss. We're in her dorm room on Sunday before she prepares to model for an instagram sponsor.

"What did Sunwoo say to you before he left and disappeared?" I ask.

She pauses for a second, looking at me through her vanity mirror. She turns around in her chair with her legs crossed to face me.

"Sunwoo and I... had some sort of a complicated relationship. But don't worry it was nothing like dating or anything even close," Jia explains cautiously.

"Okay... but why tell me not to worry?" I say.

"Hm? Oh," Jia bites her tongue. "Nothing, forget I said that part. Anyway that ended a bit ago for context. I said he sounded desperate that day because he was practically begging to go back to whatever we had."

I raise my eyebrow. She must be talking about their little meet ups. But it was Sunwoo's idea to end it.

"But- and I said this verbatim to Sunwoo- if he was friends with me, if he really knew anything at all about me. He should know that I don't give second chances." Jia tells me. "To me, people never change. So you screw up, or you're a bitch once, that's it."

Even thought I disagree with Jia because I think people do change, , her confidence is inspiring.

"I see." I tell her.

"But again, don't worry about whatever happened between Sunwoo and I or what he said to me." Jia says. "Anyway, I should probably get going to the shoot. You can stay here if you want but there's nothing interesting to do in my dorm so." Jia grabs her bag and leaves.

I stare at her ceiling for a couple minutes before grabbing my phone and leaving. I take the elevator to my floor and when the doors open Sunwoo is standing in the opening.

"Oh, hey!" I wave at him.

He nods to me but doesn't say anything. I get out and he enters the elevator without another word.

That's weird.

The next day similar things like that kept happening, and the day after that. Pretty soon it was three days of Sunwoo being more cold and distant than he originally had been. Not that I really cared, especially since Jacob and I have been closer than ever. But it still feels... unsettling.

The unsettling feeling was about to get a lot worse.

[ friday night ]

Around 7 pm I'm watching tv in my room alone like I usually do, the sun is setting and it's a peaceful, quiet, night.

My phone rings from an unknown caller but I pick it up anyways.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Hi, it's Isa, I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm your neighbor." the familiar sweet voice says. Isa was in her 30's around the last time I saw her and lived next door to my grandma and I. I remember her babysitting a couple times.

"Yeah of course! It's been a while," I sit up.

"Unfortunately I'm not calling with good news." She says with a lump in her throat. "I don't want you to worry because I know you're at school and all. But I thought I should let you know that I heard a loud thud around 40 minutes ago in your house. I heard your sister crying so I went over and it turns out your grandmother fell."

My stomach drops and the world melts around me. "I- She- she what??"

"She fell off of her chair and I called 911 and she's in the emergency room now. They're about to take her to the hospital because they feared she suffered from a stroke." Isa speaks softly. "I'm here now in the waiting room in the hospital. It's quite far away from your school and it would be useless for you to come over. I think it's best if you go to your house and stay with your sister because she's alone right now. I'll take care of everything on this end."