Stardust || Dokyeom ✔

twenty one

PARK EUN HA WOKE up with someone urgently shaking her shoulder.

She blinked her bleary eyes, noticing how dark the room was. Her forearms ached from resting her head on them for who knew how long. What time was it, seven? He must've had a lot of fun, she thought pettily. "Took you long enough, idio – "

"Miss, I'm sorry, but I'd like to ask you to leave the room. It's nine o' clock, and I need to lock up." A kind-looking, elderly man stood over her, a ring of thick, rusty keys pinned to the breast pocket of his green jumpsuit.

"Huh?"

"This is the last room in the building I haven't locked yet. Do you need to phone a guardian, or – "

"Oh, no, I'm terribly sorry! I was waiting for someone." She shot upright, flustered. "I'll – I'll leave now."

Bidding him a hurried, embarrassed goodbye, she collected her things and quickly took her leave. The hallways were dark and quiet as she passed through them, the silhouettes of lockers sneering menacingly and mockingly at her as she went.

But the admittedly scary shadows, empty corridors, and dark doorways were nothing in comparison to the one thought haunting Eun Ha's mind that night:

Lee Seok Min had never showed up.