stalker | hyunjin

拾捌

[nineteen ; the invitation]

"I GOT THE MESSAGE TOO." said hyunjin, staring back at hei ryung, both thinking that a party was incredulous given their current situation.
"the address seungmin found before really is sarah's place." he continued, leaving a frown temporarily replacing his usual innocent facial features.

"yeah talk about obvious. that's weird. god i hate this and i'm not going to her party." hei ryung declared, arms crossed.
"well yeah you shouldn't. i honestly don't even think you can walk properly." hyunjin added observing her feet and wincing as he notices small blotches of blood beginning to seep through the white cloth. he knelt down, his back facing towards her in order for her to climb on. a piggyback wasn't ideal according to her reasoning of intimacy with hyunjin.

she already knew the stalker shouldn't be taken lightly, she couldn't risk accepting his help - no matter how much her feet hurt.
"get up man, you don't need to carry me, i'm fine."

throwing away her fear, she abruptly stood on her feet to attempt walking. a shock of pain coursed through her body and she yelped causing hyunjin to naturally, once again swoop her up from her feet.

"what are you doing? you can't walk so just get on my back." his voice was slightly raised and it surprised her. was he angry? she thought.
"hyunjin just let me go, i already said it's fine." her palms pressed against his chest were impotent actions to push him away, leading towards a more aggressive side of him that she couldn't imagine witnessing.
"stop being so stubborn," he (practically) snarled, his fingers clasping more tightly on her thighs and arms.
"hyunjin you're starting to hurt me, put me down!" she struggled and he suddenly realised how anomalous he was behaving.

he felt partly at fault for her injuries. an irritation in his heart hated the fact that someone could harm hei ryung and he felt responsible to do as much as he could for her - although his emotions may have taken control of his actions. rather than scared, hei ryung was speechless.

"sorry-" he said, her body still held in his arms.
"i know you mean well but can you just put me down?"
"no i won't, you can't walk so stop forcing yourself." he let out a breath to collect his thoughts and continued, "let's just sit here and talk about what to do next. firstly, during the time you were ignoring me, i contacted my previous landlord, showing him photos of all the girls that have confessed to me this year, and he let me see the camera footage around my room. i got nothing. he said either lianne or sarah looked the most familiar to the girl he saw enter my apartment." hei ryung nodded attentively, her arms unconsciously snaked around his neck and he sits down on the bench allowing her on top of his lap.

"second of all, seungmin told me about a chipped nail he found when he was attacked. we should look around for anything linking to that." he said sternly and she added,
"there was only one occupied stall in the bathroom a while ago, we should ask our teachers who checked out of class around that time. hopefully that'll help."
hyunjin lets out a small smile, "looks like we know what to do."

✿

saturday evening, lying on the sofa and staring up at the ceiling, hei ryung was annoyed at the fact that she hadn't been attending school because of her injuries. she wasn't that badly hurt, she could still walk but hyunjin insisted she stay home until her wounds no longer needed bandages. she was also annoyed at the fact that hyunjin made it seem like they were going to work together. that obviously wasn't the case. he hadn't updated her on anything.

the party was tonight, myung hee has been spamming all her social media to convince her to come and she either declined the offer or ignored it. it didn't do her much good after realising a student was outside her doorstep knocking.

hei ryung opened the door to see sarah in front of her. her brown locks were braided in two sections, falling over her shoulders. it somewhat uncomfortably reminded her of lianne's signature hairdo. she wore a pink mini velvet dress with spaghetti straps and knee length boots.
"um hi... what are you doing here?" she questioned. sarah was supposed to be at her house, hosting her own party for god's sake. hei ryung couldn't manage to think of why sarah came to see her.
she let out a smile, "i heard you can't make it to my party because of transportation problems-"
"uh no that's not it." hei ryung interrupted, feeling uncomfortable at the fact that sarah, of all people, was at her house. "i would have a ride if i wanted to come."
"oh so you just didn't want to come?" she replied, disappointment evident in her voice. her smile faded as her question came to an end.
"no it's just, i'm not into partying?" hei ryung tried to come up with an excuse, a poor excuse that even she wouldn't have found herself convinced.

"oh okay..." there was a pause until sarah raised the question, "it's not about your feet?"
the first thing that came to hei ryung's mind after sarah's question processed in her head was how she could have possibly known about her injuries. second, how did sarah know where she lived? why had she not had thought of that earlier? she cursed to herself realising the front door was wide open for sarah to enter easily. paranoia was consuming her, maybe she was overthinking but if anything happened to her here and now, she knew she couldn't escape.

gulping, she forced herself to ask, "how did you know about my feet, i haven't told anyone about that." sarah stayed quiet, remaining complacent.
she continued, "also how'd you get my address?"

"well," she paused looking down to the floor. according to hei ryung, it sounded like sarah was stalling, trying to cover up her slip up. she was definitely being paranoid.
"myung hee told me to get you. you guys are best friends aren't you? she really wants you to come so she came to me."
"okay but that doesn't answer my first qu-"
"you have to get ready now! come on, i'll help you."

"no it's fine, i don't need help." sarah was pushing her to move faster, her legs almost unable to catch up.
"i'm not leaving until you come to my party." she was beginning to panic as they drew closer to her bedroom.
"okay i'll go. could i just see you there? you don't have to wait for me."
sarah looked skeptical, "promise?"
"yes i promise." she sighed in defeat.

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wow am i hallucinating?? how has this book reached 10k?? i'm so confused. thank you so much for supporting this book, i'm really really grateful! i'm still surprised this book has that amount of views, it's crazy.