unpretty

27

  :continuation

June 21, 2012

"Gosh, I've got a tiny pimple already," Ailee uttered softly as she took a look at herself in the mirror while she finished washing both of her hands with running water from the faucet.

She then grabbed two sheets of tissue paper from a container and wiped her hands dry before twisting the knob of the door to walk out of the restroom. She opted to be on her way back to the classroom when a rushing person abruptly bumped her by her shoulder on the hallway.

"Ouch--" she frowned when the face of the person looked familiar, "Kangjun?" 

"Ailee? I'm sorry, I wasn't looking in my way," the boy seemed troubled, judging from the anxious look on his face.

"It's okay. What's the matter? You seem worried."

"What? No, it's nothing--"

"SEO KANGJUN!" both teenagers craned their necks to their right at surprise when they heard someone yell furiously.

Hoseok's face didn't seem pleased as he was approaching to their direction with stomping feet.

"Hoseok," Ailee was about to ask the guy about what he was so vexed about when he suddenly threw a heavy punch on Kangjun's face without warning. Her body instantly froze in shock at the sight of an unexpected event. 

"What the-- what was that for?!" Kangjun glared menacingly at Hoseok as he touched his bruised cheek with his palm.

Hoseok didn't hesitate to hold him by his collar and looked at him in the eye. He was fuming in anger when he heard about what the boy did to Ailee from the two girls.

"You bastard! I swear, if you touch Ailee again, I will get rid of you myself," his raspy voice sounded tenacious and threatening at the same time.

Kangjun puckered his lips and sucked in his breath before holding Hoseok's wrists firmly and pushed them harshly away from him.

"Wha-- Ailee? What did I do to Ailee?!"

"I knew from the start that something was off about you. You suddenly transferred here in our school in the middle of the semester and then you always keep your nose on the twins' business. How did I not figure it out? It all makes sense now! You were Ailee's stalker all along!"

The twin was taken aback as she instantly shifted her gaze at the freckled boy in disbelief.

"Wha-- the stalker thing again? What the f-- is up today? Why is everyone telling me that I'm a stalker?" Kangjun's ears turned red at once. The attention he was getting today -- not to mention despicable attention-- and the number of accusations he received until now had already pushed him to his limits that he couldn't help but become so enraged about it.

"Because you are!"

"I'M NOT A STALKER!"

Ailee wasn't so sure anymore about what she was feeling. With the events that happened and the things she heard at that moment, she was starting to feel afraid. Her thoughts were a mess, and thankfully, she was interrupted when she heard footsteps coming towards them.

Clara and Hyeri ran to their direction with a worried look plastered on their faces. They weren't able to catch up to Hoseok earlier because he immediately sped away when he heard from them about what Kangjun did. They had to look for him because he ran so fast that they lost him.

Both of the girls stopped and stood in front of them while they catch their breaths. One of them hitched her breath when she noticed something odd.

"Kangjun... is that your bag?" Clara asked when she saw a Banuce bag that was slung on the boy's left shoulder.

"Of course, who else's bag would I carry then?"

"Wait. If that's your bag, then whose is this?" Hyeri nervously pointed at the Banuce bag that she was holding. The same bag with Ailee's pictures. The actual stalker's bag.

The two girls looked at Kangjun's bag and noticed that although it had the same exact design with the ones they were carrying, the tear mark on each of the bags were different. 

Clara felt uneasy all of a sudden when realization had hit her.

"Seo Kangjun. You're not the stalker."

"Umm, yes, I was trying to tell everybody that earlier and no one believed me!"

"What? But you told me that Kangjun was the stalker?" Hoseok asked with a confused frown on his face.

"We were wrong. You see Hoseok, Boksung told us that the person who tried to kill you with a clay pot might be the same person as the stalker. She also said that the stalker had a Banuce bag with a tear mark full of Ailee's pictures--"

"My what?" Ailee couldn't help but be astonished about what she was hearing right now.

"--so we looked for this bag and found it on a teacher's desk at an empty classroom. Take a look," Clara opened the bag and motioned it to them to see what's inside. 

Ailee's hands immediately trembled when she saw printed images of herself while looking inside the bag. She saw Hoseok and Kangjun's expressions turn grim as they also witnessed the items inside, but more than them,

she tremendously freaked out the most. 

"Kangjun was our first suspect because he owned a banuce bag, with a tear mark on it. But we were wrong, seeing now that he has a different bag," Hyeri continued.

"So that's why Boksung had been so interested with my bag. She even called me a stalker earlier," the freckled boy sighed heavily.

"Wait. Kangjun, you were with my sister earlier?" Ailee asked. Despite fear creeping into her system, she tried to maintain composure in front of her friends. Now that she knew about what was happening around her, she couldn't help but be worried about her sister. The stalker was still somewhere out there and they didn't have the slightest idea yet about who it might be.

"Yeah."

"W-where is she now?" 

"Mr. Bin called her into his office."

"The annoying history teacher who's always dispiriting Boksung? Ugh, out of all the teachers here at school, he's my least favorite. I mean he always compared her and Ailee. He's a total jerk," Hyeri complained.

Just then, Clara was able to find a wooden tag hidden inside the bag's little pockets. 

She didn't notice it earlier because it was too small.

"Guys, let's go to that office right now,"

the tag read,

Bin Sung Joon.