01

December 7th, at 5:16. One morning, one letter, one goodbye.

December 7th, at 6:17. A silence as eerie as can be fills the sleeping house.

December 7th, at 7:18. A scream breaks the silence and a heart wrenching cry follows after.

A mother's cry of loss fills the air as she holds her son in her arms, wishing to go back in time and for the day to just stop. But of course, she can't, and the day must go on.

His school is unaware, students meeting with other students while laughing and sharing jokes. His friends ask once about him, never twice. Failing to find him, they assume he's ill with a cold and continue to first period. Their teacher looks grim as the students slowly file into the room and find their seats. The bell rings, signalling the start of lessons, but not a single teacher opens their mouth to speak. Whispers are passed around the classes until they are interrupted by the principal's voice on the intercom.

"Students and teachers, I'd like to have your undivided attention. Today, December seventh, at five sixteen AM, a student who attended our school unfortunately took his own life,"

The class becomes dead silent as they listen to their principal speak in his dreary voice. Looks are exchanged throughout the students as they start to wonder who it is.

"I'm sure there were better options than what he did, but by the time we found out, it was too late. Jeon Jungkook, at the age of seventeen, took his own life this morning. We may take his untimely death in two ways, as a wake up call or as a time to mourn. As the

principal of this school, I have chosen the wake up call to say that anyone who is going through the same thing should not feel scared to ask anyone for help.

Now, before we start classes today, we will pause for a moment of silence to respect the death of Jeon Jungkook."

The class sits stunned at the sudden death of the school's precious jewel. Smart and talented, he was well known and respected by many teachers. After a minute of silence, the intercom turns back on and the principal announces that classes are to start immediately.

By the end of third period, the death of Jeon Jungkook became old news and was quickly thrown out of the brains of the students.

Except for one.

The news of the suicide stuck to her like over-chewed gum as she sat at her desk with her expression scrunched into a pained look, recalling the memory of her younger brother's death. Her hand grips her pencil tightly as the memory of her brother laying dead on the ground is pulled back into her mind. Physically, she shakes her head and wipes the image out of her mind. She thinks to herself how she was glad she hadn't gotten involved with Jeon Jungkook as she didn't want another experience like the one from the past. She takes deep breaths before returning her attention to the lesson and averting her focus on getting through the rest of the day.

When she arrives home, she is hit by a wave of melancholic nostalgia as her eyes land on several pictures of her younger brother. She is quick to turn the frames around and head upstairs, trying by failing to push out the thoughts

of her brother and the sudden suicide of Jeon Jungkook. She finds herself clouded in her thoughts, unable to concentrate on her homework.

Damn you, society. Damn you.

After an hour of trying, she gave up on homework and muttered to herself that she would finish it tomorrow on Saturday, and she readied herself for bed. Not once did her thoughts leave her alone until she was under, unconscious and asleep already, a face of pain shown on her face.

•••

{ JUNG JIMIN }

"Jimin, wake up! You're going to be late for school!"

I groan as I roll over on my bed, pulling my pillow over my face. After two minutes of peace, I thought my mother finally realized her mistake, but I was wrong as I felt the cold air of the morning hit me as my mother pulled away my covers.

"Mom, it's Saturday, lay off."

"Jung Jimin, what are you talking about? Today is Friday, November 9th, now get up. You have thirty minutes left till school starts!"

She left the room after the given warning, leaving me bewildered, sitting on the bed. Tumbling off the bed, I checked the calendar that hung above my desk. The page for November was still attached to the calendar unlike the day before when the calendar showed the dates for December.

What the hell?

I checked my phone for reassurance and sure enough, the screen showed that today was November 9th, and that I had now only twenty-five minutes left to get to school on time. In panic, I dashed into the bathroom and pulled on my uniform while brushing my teeth.

Is

this some kind of nightmare? What the hell is going on?

I rinsed my mouth and buttoned the last button left on my shirt. Quickly, I slung my bag over my shoulder and pulled on my shoes. I ran towards the school without eating breakfast and while checking my watch, I had slammed into somebody.

"S-Sorry, I wasn't looking. My bad, I'll make it up to you, I swear!"

I quickly bowed as I got back up on my feet. I snatched a quick glance at the stranger I had bumped into and saw that it was Jeon Jungkook, the school's precious jewel.

Jeon Jungkook? The one who had died the other day?

"Wait. You dropped this."

 I halted and turned around to see him holding out a golden pocket watch.

"It's not mine, I've never seen it before.."

"It fell out of your pocket. Now hurry and take it, the bell is going to ring soon."

He shoved the pocket watch in my hand and pushed me forward. Without a choice, I took it and dashed to school, luckily making it in the nick of time. The lesson started, but I was unable to pay attention as I was captivated by the golden pocket watch that was shoved into my hand. The front and back were engraved elegantly and it looked heavenly as it shined in the light. It made a soft ticking sound as the hands of the watch moved. Strangely, the back of the pocket watch also opened, but there was nothing inside of it. I tried to revert my attention back to the lesson, but the watch kept me distracted.

After four periods, the lunch bell finally rang and desperately, I reached into my bag and felt around for my lunch, only to feel my notebooks and textbooks. Dammit, I forgot it at home. I sighed loudly and slumped in my chair. I held the golden pocket watch out above me and took another close look at it, gleaming in the light. I still couldn't find out why I had it. I rocked the chain gently and watched it slowly twirl. I noticed that in tiny font, there was a name engraved into the back of the pocket watch in Hanja (Chinese characters). I brought it closer to my face and saw that it read 'Jeon Jungkook'. My eyes squinted in confusion as I raised it back up to let it shine in the light again.

"Raise it any higher and they'll catch you."

I turned around abruptly, startled at the sudden deep voice. I turned around to see a guy who wore the same uniform as me. He wore a smirk as he gave a two-finger 'salute wave'. His eyes were mismatched, the left eye a golden yellow, the right eye an electric blue.

"W-who are you?"

"I'm V, or Taehyung. Your guardian for 29 days."

"Guardian?"

"Mhm. Guardian angel, that is."

My eyes widened.

What kind of bull is he trying to pull?

"If you don't believe me, look around."

I cautiously glanced around and noticed that everything was frozen. The clock that hung above the blackboard in front of the room had stopped and the students around me were frozen in action.

What the hell was going on?