stalker | hyunjin

拾叁

[fourteen ; the hacker]

AS SOON AS HE HEADS HOME, his hair soaked from the rain, he decides to take a shower. the steam from the warm water rising to his face helped him relax and he sighed in relief, letting the humid air comfort his body. there was one thing that had bothered him though.

the hair that clumped up near the drain of his shower was now thicker and more noticeable. turning off the water, he flinched and thought back to what his apartment owner had informed him earlier today before he left the house.

"there is certainly no problem with the drains." the old man confirmed,
"why would there be a long black hair knotted in the drain then?"
"it's your girlfriend isn't it? she's been visiting often."
"i don't have a girlfriend."
"then did you let someone else borrow your key? a friend or a sister? she wears your uniform and she's been letting herself into your room."
his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "that can't be right, i'm the only one with the key. i think you might've gotten mixed up with the rooms."

he knew the landlord wasn't mistaken, he just wanted to believe that. someone had access to his home and he just didn't feel safe. what if they were in his house now? where was he going to stay? running out the room and locking the door, he sprints towards her home.

2 knocks was all it took for her to open the door.
"hyunjin? w-what are you doing here?"
he pushes pass her and heads inside on his own.
"i need you to come with me." he says, the orbs of his eyes darker than midnight. he was heaving heavy breaths, waiting quietly for her response.
"why would i do that? you know there's a stalker and-"

"that's just the problem," he interrupts, "we need to figure out who it is and i know seungmin can help us." hyunjin was sure of himself, he once saw seungmin hacking into the schools database to change his attendance rate to a higher, much more suitable percentage within a minute. he was incredible.

she only groaned at his statement. "why now? i'm so tired." her feet trudges along the mat that lead to her sofa. she dropped dead, head first on the furniture.
"someone has been entering my house hei ryung." her name sounded cold on his lips but there was no meaning behind it, he just wanted her to take him more seriously.

"how do you know? what happened?"
"my landlord keeps seeing a girl enter my apartment. this is crazy." his words sent an uncomfortable chill down her spine and she shuddered, trying to shake off the feeling.
"alright then, where can we find seungmin?" she asked hesitantly and waits for his answer. drawing nearer towards her, hyunjin grabs her wrist and pulls her up, "follow me."

as they ran towards seungmin's apartment, 10 minutes of nonstop exercise, rain began to fall upon them and her wrist began aching under his grip.
"wait hyunjin, let's rest for a bit," she panted, whispering harshly as she tries to retract air in her lungs, "you're hurting me and i'm getting wet."
"sorry." he mutters, dragging her towards the shade and letting go of her arm. they both stand in silence as they await for the drizzling of rain to lessen.

she couldn't help but feel awkward. the way she started ignoring him made her feel guilty and she couldn't meet his eyes. they wondered off to the closed mini book store then to telephone booth that stood behind him - anything that meant to look away from hyunjin. that was until he put his jacket over her shoulders.

"umm what-"
"you must be cold. sorry if it's not helping, it's a bit wet."
"hyunjin you don't have to. you're gonna get sick if you-"
"it's fine, i gave it to you for a reason."
she hummed a response and smiled to herself, grabbing ahold of his jacket.

✿

"who is it?" seungmin unlocks the door whilst rubbing one eye. he only grunts realising his friend stood before him with a malicious grin on his face.
"seungmin! good, you're awake, i need your-"
he closes the door immediately, reasoning with himself that whatever hyunjin needed wasn't worth staying up late; but of course, the door was abruptly held to a halt left slightly ajar.

hyunjin roughly pulls the door open and grabs ahold of hei ryung's wrist, dragging her inside with him.
"thanks seungmin, i knew you'd help."
seungmin lets out a more louder and obvious groan.
"fine. what do you want?"
"help me track someone's location." he answered almost too quickly.
"why? that doesn't sound like you at all and it's 1 am."
"trust me it's important, please?"

he looks behind hyunjin to see hei ryung shuffling awkwardly in the dark, head faced to the ground and biting her lip.
"who's she?" he points to her and she looks up immediately, eyes wide from being caught in the moment.
"i-i'm hei ryung, a friend of hyunjin." she didn't even know why she was stuttering, maybe it was because seungmin was always praised for being the smartest out of her entire year group or maybe it was because he was known for his sharp glares - which he was currently looking at her that way, she tried to shake off his stares, his eyes observing her.

"umm well i've been receiving strange messages and i was wondering if you could help us find out who it is..?"
"show me the messages."

✿

"so to sum up everything, you're being stalked," seungmin looks to hyunjin with a raised eyebrow, "and you're getting threatened to stay away from him?" he turns to face her, nodding his head up and down as he understood the situation, "is this supposed to be some forbidden love you two have going on here?" he laughs, finding amusement in a completely deranged situation. if not for the dark, the reddened cheeks from hyunjin and hei ryung's faces wouldn't have been hard to miss. "okay, i'll track the IP address of where the phone that texted you is currently at and the owner of the phone for that matter."
"finally, i knew you could do it-"
"aaaand i got it! heh easy." seungmin finished, his task literally completed in less than a minute. "i don't mess around when i'm needed."

surrounding the boy that sat in front of his laptop, hyunjin and hei ryung searched the location point online and found a modern two storey house that settled at the end of XXX street.
hyunjin gulped and took a step back in panic, bumping into the shelf that almost dropped the vase positioned on top. his pupils narrowed and the sweat around his forehead dripped down to his neck.

"it's sarah's house."

———
at first i wasn't planning to make a double update but since i missed out on felix and jisung's birthday, i decided why not? hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!