There's No Changing Fate

(Ch.15)

-Fifteen-

I heard the ambulance's loud sirens outside the window, even though I was literally stories up. I clutched to Hyukjae's side.

"They're not coming for me, are they?" I asked.

Hyukjae rubbed my back. "I don't know."

~

Jungsu didn't bother to knock on Hyukjae's door, but instead just walked in.

"What the hell did you do to Donghae?"

Hyukjae stayed silent.

"He was your best friend, and now he's on the verge of dying."

I watched Hyukjae lift his head up to look Jungsu in the eyes.

"The paramedics are out there trying to save his life because they're too worried he'd die on the way to the hospital," Jungsu continued. "We all know you did it, Hyukjae, and we're ashamed you'd treat a fellow member so badly."

Hyukjae immediately stood up from the bed and pushed the both of them into the hallway.

"You want to know why I did that, hyung?" Hyukjae screamed loud enough for me to hear from the other side of the wall. "Donghae was going to fucking rape Rebekah, and you tell me everyone's disappointed in me? Are you fucking kidding me? Is that your way of telling me that if you had woken up to her screams and saw what I did, you would have just let it happen?"

Hyukjae laughed to himself. "You guys are pathetic. End of story."

I heard the door creak open again, and I turned to the side acting like I'd been sleeping the whole time, and not eavesdropping on their conversation. Hyukjae must've believed my charade too, because right when he closed the door, I heard the sound of his back slamming against the wall and sliding to the floor, his sobs silent, but still loud enough to make out.

I sighed quietly, wondering why I had to bring so much pain to innocent people.

~

I heard the paramedics leave early in the morning, determining Donghae was strong enough to be sent to the hospital. Being hungry, I made my way to the kitchen. I turned around to see Jungsu standing in the doorway motionless, watching my every move.

He gasped when he saw the condition of my neck, covered red and purple in blotchy bite-marks and hickeys from last night.

"Hyukjae goes rough, I see," he remarked.

I gave him a dirty look. "Hyukjae wasn't the one who did that. He wouldn't hurt me, ever."

Jungsu lifted his eyebrows sarcastically and walked away.

Jungsu seemed like the only one that didn't believe our side of the story and still saw Donghae as an innocent angel, even though everyone else sided with Hyukjae and I.

I sat on the floor in front of the TV, eating the food I made. I couldn't sit on the couch without memories from the night before flooding my mind. Out of the corner I noticed the coat rack, with my coat still on it. Good, I thought, he didn't take it.

~

Siwon offered to get me a new coat one day, so I didn't have the memories like I did with my old one, and I gratefully accepted his offer. We found the perfect one at a store not too far away from the outskirts of Seoul- a cute checkered peacoat.

I was about to throw away the old coat when Siwon stopped me. "One time, I gave away old jeans of mine, and realized there was $100 in it! Check your coat to make sure you don't throw away anything important."

There wasn't anything special; a few pennies, gum wrappers, and a folded note. Wait a minute, I thought. That's the note that fell out of Siwon's bible the day I left.

Hyukjae's writing was still on it. Carefully, I opened the note up, anxious to see what he wrote.