Noise. The only thing in abundance in the classroom that Rin was just beginning to get used to. There was loud chatter, the sound of pencils and rulers clashing against the desk at someone's innovative attempt at producing music, bag and pouch zippers being opened and closed, laughter mixed with some screams and insults here and there. It wasn't new and Rin used her best adaptive mechanism to fit right into her environment.

Put on her earphones and played Fruit Ninja.

In Rin's opinion, things were going really well so far.

There was a loud thud as a fist banged against the teacher's desk, reducing two years from the rotten wood's lifespan. Silence fell over the classroom. Even Rin was surprised and she pulled off one earphone to check if things were okay.

"Who were the three users from yesterday's anonymous chat?" A girl in the same grey and black uniform as Rin stood in the center stage of their class, screaming in an unusually high voice. Her presence was difficult to ignore. She exuded arrogance and false pride, the type of person you want to slap across the face when they open their mouth to speak.

"You better tell us yourself and we'll go easy on you." For the first time, Rin noticed two girls beside the one in the center. They didn't seem any kinder.

Nobody spoke.

"Isn't anyone going to answer?!" The girl screamed.

"The website is anonymous, Soobin-ah." A female voice replied and the girl who was screaming for no known cause or rather, Soobin, now rolled her eyes.

"The day I find out who is the user, scarlet underscore 2, I'll bring members of molecule and get his or her fingers broken off, so they can't type bullshit against me again." Soobin threatened. "Do you understand?!" She screeched.

"Soobin-ah, its sparkles underscore 2." The girl behind her meekly corrected. Soobin ignored her. She was going to leave at that and Rin decided that this much drama was enough for a single day. Just as Rin put her earphone back on, Soobin's gaze landed on her. "Who are you?" She asked.

Rin didn't answer, just blankly stared back at Soobin. The atmosphere between them was becoming tense and Soobin's eyes were narrowing. Rin didn't want to get on bad terms with a student on her first day of school, so for the sake of peace and maturity, she spoke up, "Hanajima Rin. Transfer student from Tokyo."

Soobin rolled her eyes and walked out in a flash with the two other girls following closely.

The entire class let go of the breath they didn't know they were holding.

"Good that you didn't talk back to her and raise trouble for yourself." A female voice sounded from the desk beside Rin. "Dustbin usually bullies the people that she doesn't like. Its the best to ignore her." She added.

"Dustbin?" Rin asked.

"Yeah, that's what our class calls her when she's not around. Her brother is a gang leader of Molecule, so she thinks she can boss around other people." Another voice said from behind Rin's desk. "Hi, I'm Sehun. That's Irene." He pointed at the girl from earlier.

Rin knew what Molecule was, so the fear and lack of rebellion among the students was really justified. Nobody in their right mind would think of going against a gang that could handicap or probably even kill a person for not lighting a cigarette for them.

It was a fairly nice day. Rin had managed to make two friends, Sehun and Irene on her first day, earn a smile from her English teacher for answering correctly in class and the cafeteria had her favourite brand of Banana Milk. It was all going well, until Rin spotted a boy in the far end of the cafeteria.

The day had just escalated five levels higher.

His dark brown hair covered his forehead in ruler straight bangs and his eyes were locked on his phone. Rin just watched- no, observed- okay, stared for a solid forty-five seconds until his gaze lifted up and met hers. Rin immediately looked outside the window. When around twenty seconds had successfully passed, Rin looked back at his table. There was a sealed bottle of milk, the same brand and flavour as hers. They were meant to be.

When Rin's gaze somehow found its way back to his face, she realized he was looking at her too. As if on cue, they both immediately looked away. On her part, Rin had made her decision. She wouldn't look back at him, but what if he disappeared after that and she never saw him again? So in panic and rush, she looked at him again and guess, guess, he was looking back at her. Three instances of eye contact in a row. Rin really had something to work on.

The next time that Rin looked at his table, the chair was empty and she barely caught a glance of his back as he walked away with a figure that looked a lot like Soobin and her two friends. Rin was disappointed, but she stabbed a straw in the bottle of Banana Milk and went on with her day.

It was from pure coincidence that Rin heard the sound of something crashing against the ground followed by a series of laughter. In the evening, Rin was rushing outside the library after the librarian kicked her out because it was closing time and she had fallen asleep. There was an empty school bus that hadn't left yet, even though the sky was a dark shade of orange and it would soon be blue. Most people would try to stay away from isolated areas like school buildings and empty school buses during an hour like that, but Rin, she was unnecessarily courageous.

She peeked behind the bus and unsurprisingly, there were three teenagers causing trouble to one person who was half lying on the street with bruises and cuts on his face and arm. Rin wasn't going to get involved, so she soundlessly turned around, revealing Soobin.

"What are you doing here? At this time? Were you spying on them?" Soobin asked in her annoyingly authoritative tone.

"Coincidence." Rin replied. Now that she was looking closely, Soobin didn't look threatening or intimidating. Her mud covered shoes, wrongly paired socks, the burn and cut marks on what was visible of her wrists, her lips that were turning black because of constantly being subjected to cigarettes, the dark circles under her eyes, it was all rather pitiful.

"Are you leaving or not?" Soobin asked and Rin slung her bag over her right shoulder in response and headed towards her way home.

That night, Rin's papa had switched on the TV to watch a Soccer match, but the first thing that popped up was local news.

"Ring Fingernail cases increase with another missing person reported. Evidence found near Golden Cross High School."

Rin's left eyebrow raised as she noticed the familiar street and empty school bus where she left Soobin and three bullies alone with a victim. She barely registered her papa's voice in the background as he asked, "Isn't that your school, Rin?"

The reporter on the TV went on,

"Is there really a serial killer in our town?"