I Hate You, Don't Leave Me

Chapter 24

The sound of loud chatter was all around Lisa as she stood in the center of the bar, a splash of blonde on a barstool catching her eye. Lisa's brows knitted in confusion. She thought that she had already left the bar, vaguely remembered carrying Chaeyoung into the hospital, and she wondered if she had simply imagined all of it. Chaeyoung then stood from the barstool, and Lisa hurried over to loop an arm around her waist, steadying her as she wobbled. Chaeyoung immediately pushed her away, eyes sparking with fury.

"I hate you, Lisa."

Lisa blinked away the tears that pricked her eyes at the statement, feeling an extreme sense of déjà vu. "Please, Chaeyoung, just come with me."

The blonde was in the process of shaking her head, about to snap out some equally nasty remark, when her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the floor. Lisa's eyes widened with fright, and she instantly crouched down beside her roommate, trembling with worry and an immense guilt. This was her fault, after all.

"Chaeyoung," she called desperately, but she received no response. Her hand immediately went in front of the blonde's mouth, horror flowing through her veins when she felt no air hitting the back of it.

"She's not breathing!" Lisa yelled out to no one in particular.

Someone dropped down beside Lisa, but she found that she could not tear her eyes away from the girl on the floor long enough to tell if it was a man or a woman. All of her focus was on the words that she was currently chanting in her head.

Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. I can't live without you.

Her heart stopped when she heard a female voice declare, "No pulse."

Wailing in agony, Lisa sprang from the floor, eyes darting over the sea of people who had gathered to see what the commotion was. "Somebody, please help!"

That's when her stepfather emerged from the crowd, pushing people aside until he stood in front of Lisa with a smirk on his face, a tiny spark of triumph in his cold eyes. "There's no bringing her back, Lisa. She's dead."

The brunette's head spun. He had to be lying. Chaeyoung couldn't be dead. Lisa couldn't accept that.

"You killed her," her stepfather sneered.

Lisa shook her head in disbelief. For the first time ever, her stepfather was no longer her greatest problem, and she easily tore her gaze away from his to look at the girl on the floor, his mocking laughter fading into the background as Lisa finally crumpled.

"Chaeyoung, baby please don't leave me," Lisa whimpered, tears flowing from her eyes as they sprang open to land on Jisoo's warm brown ones.

"Lisa, it was just a dream. Chaeyoung's going to be fine," Jisoo reassured, holding on to Lisa's hands. "They had to pump her stomach, but she is recovering now. Bom's with her."

Taking in her surroundings, Lisa saw that she was sitting in the hospital waiting room, and she realized that she must have dozed off while waiting for the others to arrive. Jisoo was now sitting beside her, Jennie occupied the chair on Jisoo's other side, and of course, the hospital staff would have notified Chaeyoung's mother. Lisa knew that she had to have been asleep for a few hours if Bom was already here.

Lisa tried her best to shake her nightmare, but even the news that Chaeyoung was going to be alright did nothing to calm Lisa's racing heart and fast breathing. She could still picture the blonde's lifeless form lying on the ground. She felt like she was going to be sick at the knowledge that the blonde's last words to her in the dream had been "I hate you." What was even worse was that those words hadn't merely been a part of the dream. Chaeyoung had said them in real life as well, more than once, and it looked like the blonde had meant them.