─────── 𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑   𝟕 ───────

[7:20pm]

Aera rushed into the bathroom, heading straight for the mirror.

She clutched onto the sides of the basin, her chest heaving up and down heavily.

Her hand reached inside her purse. She fished around for a bit, struggling to find what she was looking for.

In desperation, she tipped it upside down- everything inside clattering on the ground.

Aera crutched down, gathering everything in front of her.

Lip gloss, lipstick, eyeliner, concealer, a compact mirror, keys, some more lip gloss, mascara, eyelash glue, lip liner, her phone, airpods, capsule.

Bingo.

Her medicine.

She picked up the small capsule, her hands shaking violently.

Opening it, she let three pills fall to her palm.

Two more than what she should've taken.

Her doctor strictly prohibited the usage to only one pill at a time for her panic attacks.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

She put them in her mouth, getting up and walking to the water machine and pouring herself some in one of the plastic cups on the side.

Swallowing was hard but Aera was used to it.

She gulped, the pills feeling like they were stretching out her oesophagus from their size.

Aera dropped to the ground again, sitting against the wall. She closed her eyes, leaning her head all the way back.

Her head was doing circles and it didn't feel good at all.

It took her almost 5 minutes to cool down.

"Bloody hell," she groaned, getting up.

Her stuff was still all over the floor, so picked it all up, carelessly stuffing them in her purse.

Looking at herself in the mirror one more time, she smiled- finally contempt.

Aera left the room, not realising one of her hoop earrings had come off and was still laying on the ground.

[7:59pm]

"Hey, Jiu! Jiu!!" Yeram exclaimed once she finally spotted the girl.

Jiu turned around, slightly surprised seeing Yeram in such a state. "Yeram? Hi?"

"Where were you, girl? I've been looking for you for ages," Yeram asked.

"Oh-" Jiu stuttered. "I had to go back home for a bit. Mom was having issues. So we had to drop her off."

"Oh, explains," Yeram chuckled. "But I need your help for something."

Jiu frowned, wondering what on Earth Yeram would want her help for.

The latter took out her phone from the clutch bag she was holding, opening up her recent messages and showing the peculiar one she had gotten earlier to Jiu.

"It's in Chinese, and I'm not sure what it means. I was hoping you could translate it for me?" Yeram passed her phone.

Jiu stared at the text messages, but once reading it her eyes widened. "Yeram.. I- who sent you this?"

"Can you not understand it?"

"No, I can," Jiu shook her head. "But it's just... weird."

Yeram was now curious, "What does it say?"

Jiu gulped, looking up from the phone and fixing her eyes onto her peer. "There is a rapist in the room."

A small gasp escaped Yeram's lips as she covered her mouth, her eyes widened. "No way!"

"Yes way, that's the literal translation."

"But what does it mean?" Yeram asked, taking back her phone.

"Wait- I'm confused. What's this even about and who sent you that?" Jiu questioned again.

"Well, you know how I'm investigating Dana's death?"

"Yeah," Jiu nodded.

"Well, I was looking into my first suspect- her ex. Cho Doyoung and well I suddenly got that message. I- I think uhm.." Yeram paused, unsure if she should admit to her thoughts.

"You thought what?" Jiu pushed for the answer.

"Well, what if that's the killer? And they somehow know what I'm doing, and they're trying to mess with me?" Yeram shrugged.

"I mean, it's not that far stretched," Jiu nodded. "Possibly."

"Ah, well, I don't know," Yeram sighed, pushing her thoughts away. "Maybe it's just a silly prank."

"Maybe," Jiu simply said, not knowing what to add.

"Thanks for the help though," Yeram smiled gratefully. "But I'll be going now."

"Bye," Jiu waved.

[9:00pm]

Everyone was seated and silent, patiently waiting for the mayor to come out and give his speech.

Families had been grouped at their own tables; only the most rich and successful socialites of Pendulin attended these sorts of gatherings.

The crowd cheered as Mr. Lee stepped out with his wife and two sons.

He cleared his throat into the mic, everyone going silent.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," the mayor began, smiling ahead at his guests. "I would like to thank everyone who made an effort to join me on this spectacular evening. I hope you all had a good time. It's a pleasure being here with my lovely wife and kids."

The audience went into clap mode again, cheering for the man's humbleness.

Ahyeun's eyes went straight to Heeseung, who was already partially grimacing.

He caught her eyes, rolling his ever so slightly.

Ahyeun sighed, she was well aware of what went on in the Lee family. She was one of the very few Heeseung ever confided in.

"As a way of ending of our evening, I would like to propose a toast-"

A waiter came over to the stage, passing the family a fancy glass of wine each.

Everyone grabbed their own glasses, which were already ready on their tables.

"To Pendulin, our city of dreams, " Mr. Lee raised his glass.

"To Pendulin!" everyone repeated after him, holding up their cups in celebration.

[9:30pm]

"Guys! Guys!!" Hari rushed over to her friends. "Wanna go out with me?"

Jongseong frowned, "At this time?"

"Damn, where the fuck do you want to go anyways?" Riki asked, finding her suggestion not far from ridiculous.

"I don't know," the girl shrugged. "I just wanna get out and about. Plus it's been ages since we've had some quality time."

"Didn't we have 'quality time' just last week?" Aera blatantly questioned.

"That's not proper quality time Aera," Hari hissed. "C'mon, guys. Please! Please, please!! I'm begging you, let's go," she clapped her hands together, holding them out to her friends. "Please."

They all looked around at each other, skeptical.

Hari's shoulders dropped, seeing them hesitate. She turned to her best friend, "Yeram? You can at least say yes-"

Yeram groaned. "Fine, I'll go with you I guess."

"Omg, yay!" Hari clapped. "Now convince the rest."

Yeram shot her a 'are you serious?' look to which Hari responded by ushering her to hurry. "Quick, quick."

It didn't take Yeram much convincing since when they saw Yeram's worn out face, they felt pretty bad.

"I'll go," Jongseong finally said.

"Me too, I suppose," Jake mumbled.

"If you're going, I'm going to," Niki decided. "Hyung?"

Heeseung shrugged, "Sure."

"I'll go too," Aera smiled.

"And me," Ahyeun joined in.

"If you all are going, count me in," Sunoo didn't want to be left behind.

"It's definitely what I don't want to be doing," Jungwon began. "But I'll go for the sake of it."

"Sunghoon?" Hari turned to the skater.

"Do I have a choice?" he sarcastically remarked.

"Great!" the girl cheered. "Let's go then."

"Wait-" Yeram stopped her.

"What?"

"Can we bring along Jiu?"

"Uhm.. why?" Hari asked, looking around to see the others just as confused as her.

"I thought because she's new to our circle, we can try and make her feel more welcome. She is one of us now after all," Yeram explained.

Seeing no harm in what she was suggesting, none of them protested.

"Erm- sure," Hari shrugged.

"Look she's right there," Aera pointed out Jiu in the crowd.

Yeram had already been looking that way, and when Jiu met her eye, she wasted to time in gesturing her to come over.

Jiu was confused, not sure what Yeram wanted from her, but she hurriedly walked over to them.

"Yeram, hi. Again," she greeted.

Jiu looked at the rest of them, bowing her head down slightly. "Hi guys."

"Hey, Jiu. We're actually about to go and hang out for a bit now. We were wondering if you could join us, we'd love to have you there," Yeram put out the offer.

"O-oh, uhm.. Me?" Jiu stuttered.

This was probably one of the first times she had been openly asked to hang out with a group of people.

"Yeah," Yeram nodded.

"Sure, I guess."

"Great, we'll be going to the woods by the way," Hari added.

Jiu's eyes widened, "The w-woods?"

"Yeah," Hari beamed. "It's like our favourite place to hang out. We've had a treehouse there since we were kids."

"Oh-" Jiu gulped.

"Why? What's wrong, Jiu?" Yeram asked worriedly.

"I'm just a bit scared of places like the woods. Especially in the dark," Jiu chuckled.

"Ahh, no worries. You have all of us protecting you," Ahyeun reassured.

"Yep," Jiu smiled.

"Ok, let's go now," Hari said, dragging Yeram away.

"She has zero patience," Jongseong scoffed before the rest followed out.

[9:45pm]

"It's freezing," Sunoo complained, stuffing his hands into his jacket pocket.

"At least you have a coat," Aera held her arms across her bare shoulders, shivering.

"Us girls are wearing dresses and you're wrapped up in your nice little designer jacket, so quit complaining," Hari hissed, but she too was finding it difficult to cope in the harsh winds.

"The bad weather is triggering her bitchiness again," Jongseong whispered to Jungwon, Jake and Heeseung, causing the four of them to snigger.

"I heard that," Hari snarled at him.

Jongseong gasped, pretending to be scared of her, which only made her more mad.

"I swear to-"

"Hari," Ahyeun gently put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Calm down, ignore him."

Hari badly wanted to say something but because of the stern look she was getting she decided to keep quiet and continue walking.

Ahyeun took the chance to turn her head and scowl at Jongseong. "Don't," she mouthed.

He put his hands up in defense, "Alright."

Riki rushed slightly to catch up with Aera. He noticed how she was still cold, and her legs had been shaking non stop for the past two minutes.

He slowly took off his varsity jacket, slipping it onto her shoulders; it was thin, but at least it would help a bit. "Here, since you're so cold."

Aera looked up, startled from his kind gesture. She blushed, looking down. 

"Arigato," she thanked him quietly.

"Doitashimashite," he smiled.

"Aww, will you look at that? The two Japanese lovebirds are communicating. How sickeningly sweet," Hari sneered.

"That is kind of sweet though," Jiu chuckled.

"For real," Yeram said. "Stop hating, Hari."

"Agreed. I vote #cancelhari," Ahyeun jokingly joined in the teasing.

"When and where?" Sunoo asked.

"I'm with Ahyeun," Jongseong put his hand up immediately.

"Me too," Sunghoon said.

"Haha," Hari sarcastically laughed, now walking backwards so she could argue her points to her friends. "Y'all wish you could be like me please," she flicked her hair back. "I'm so amazing. You guys are fucking stupid for hating on su-AHH!"

Everyone stopped, as Hari stumbled back, having tripped on something on the ground.

Yeram wanted to rush to help her out, but Heeseung put his hand out. "Stop."

"What?" she blinked.

He pointed at something in front of them.

They all looked at the 'thing' Hari had tripped over.

It was what looked like a wooden log wrapped in white cloth.

But it wasn't a wooden log.

"Ugh, help please," Hari whined, rubbing her back.

But everyone was too engulfed in what they just discovered.

"Why does that look like-" Ahyeun gulped, looking around.

They were all thinking the same thing.

Each and everyone of them knew what it was now.

Hari had scrambled up now and was also staring that ground. It didn't take her long to figure out what she tripped on.

"I-Is that a body? Oh my fucking God, that's a body," she panicked, her hands clamping over her mouth.

"Someone call the fucking police," Aera urged.

———

oop-😶

who do we think they body might belong too???

and also who's been sus so far in ur opinion🤨