Sinful Passion

one

Chaeyoung ran. She tried to run faster, pushing her body to its physical limits. But she felt fatigue beginning to envelop her and drain her muscles of their energy. Beads of sweat dripped down the sides of her face as her feet pounded painfully against the concrete floor. The pain shot up through her legs and spread like a dull ache throughout the rest of her body. Still, she kept running.

Behind her was a large, purple monster. It was gloopy and grotesque, fat and round. By the looks of it, it shouldn't have been able to run that fast. But it could, and it was chasing relentlessly after poor Chaeyoung. Saliva dribbled from its mouth, but Chaeyoung couldn't really see. She didn't bother wasting time turning around to look; she could only guess by the horrendous sounds the creature was emitting.

Suddenly, Chaeyoung tripped over a bump on the ground, falling face-first to the ground. She rolled over to try and get up, but it was way too late. The creature was already looming over her, getting closer, and...

Chaeyoung woke up with a gasp. There was a thin sheen of sweat coating her face, and her heart was racing like she'd just run a marathon. But other than that, she was in the comfort and safety of her bed, and not in the boss level of her recently played video game. Just then, Chaeyoung's alarm clock rang, and she reached over to shut it off. It was a good thing she didn't miss much sleep because of that nightmare. Although it wasn't very good-quality sleep anyway, but still.

Chaeyoung sighed, trying to calm her pounding heart. She really needed to stop playing so much video games, especially late into the night.

Chaeyoung hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, and finished her morning routine before heading downstairs dressed in her school uniform. She looked around; the house was empty. As usual, her dad had already left for work. Chaeyoung didn't feel angry or sad or anything. She was used to it. Her dad was a busy man, being the CEO of a large financial firm. He was a workaholic who spent most of his life building his career, and didn't know how to express his emotions well. Chaeyoung didn't have a bad relationship with her dad per se, but they weren't particularly close either. Chaeyoung didn't really mind it because she'd always known her dad like this. Besides, she liked having peace and quiet around the house.

Chaeyoung ate a bowl of cereal and used her phone for a while before leaving for school.

Chaeyoung was a second-year student at Hanlim Multi Art School, and was younger than all her 18-year-old peers at just 16 years of age. Chaeyoung was smart enough to skip a couple of grades across her schooling years, despite disliking school quite a bit. She usually did the bare minimum to get a good grade, spending the rest of her time on club activities, friends, or video games. Her teachers were always annoyed with her for not studying more and achieving her full potential, but Chaeyoung was happier this way.

School for Chaeyoung that day went as per usual: boring classes, and in Math, there was a piece of homework that Chaeyoung forgot to do.

Their teacher sighed. "Chaeyoung-ssi... just submit it tomorrow."

Chaeyoung nodded. She hated to admit it, but she got special treatment from some teachers because she was popular in school. She felt bad, but it worked to her advantage so she acted oblivious. No harm done, right?

Another big part of Chaeyoung's school days was hanging out with her friends, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, and Jihyo. They were her classmates and also her closest friends in school. Also, she'd known Jeongyeon since they were both children, so naturally they were best friends.

At lunch, the four friends sat together to eat.

"The other students probably hate you more than the teachers do, whenever you don't submit assignments," Nayeon giggled, making fun of Chaeyoung. There was some truth in that, though.