jaemin truly felt like nothing was going right in his life.

he had lost his parents.

he had to live in a poor neighbourhood.

he had to suffer every day.

why couldn't his life be easier?

jaemin stood up from his bed with difficulty.

his leg was hurting like hell, and his head was spinning a lot.

surely because of the amount of blood he had lost.

he staggered to the table where a box of painkillers was placed.

donghyuck had left them there.

and at that point, even if he hated the demon, and if he was angry at him for not allowing him to die, jaemin was thankful of him.

donghyuck had saved him.

he had brought him back to his house.

he had treated his wounds.

he had made sure jamein would feel okay when waking up

he had surely been the one to deviate the stab.

it was all his fault after all.

but jaemin was quite thankful.

not that he would admit it out loud.

jaemin glanced at his watch and gasped.

"half past eleven!"

he was late to class.

he wouldn't be able to get to the end of his morning classes since they ended in half an hour and his bus rides took him around fifty minutes.

however, he would surely be able to get there for his afternoon classes which didn't start before one.

jaemin would have rather not gone to school, but his scholarship was very important for him, and their principal had explained clearly that anything could make it cancelled.

so, jaemin had to keep his grades high and his discipline perfect.

so, here was jaemin, limping towards the bus stop, his back pack secured in his hand as he was hissing with each step he took.

the painkiller hadn't operated yet, but it would soon – at least, that's what jaemin hoped.

jaemin made it to the bus stop in 15minutes.

quite a record for someone one-legged.

thankfully, there was a vacant seat.

jaemin hurried there and plugged his earphones in to listen to some music and thankfully, forget about all his problems...

𝙽𝙰

when jaemin entered school, all looks were on him.

he could even hear people whispering as he walked past them to get to his classroom.

was the fact he was limping such an interesting thing to have the whole school gossiping about?

apparently, yes.

jaemin internally cheered himself when he arrived in front of his classroom, pushing the door open, giddy to get to his seat and rest.

"jaemin?"

the boy lifted his head, meeting eyes with mina's shining ones.

"mina?" he imitated her making the girl chuckle.

this only sound made jaemin smile and his heart speed up.

he really needed to find out if he had feelings for her or not...

"is everything alright? you look like you're limping..."

jaemin nodded, approaching his desk.

"that's surely because i am..." he replied, pulling his chair and letting his body fall down on it.

"why? are you hurt?"

jaemin nodded.

he leaned in, grabbing the bottom of his sweater pants and rolling them up carefully to show the girl his neatly made bandage.

"oh my god..." she gasped, placing both her hands in front of her mouth. "what happened?"

jaemin shook his head.

"it's nothing, don't worry."

"nothing?!" mina exclaimed. "it doesn't look like nothing at all!"

"well..."

"have you seen the size of the bandage?! and..."

jaemin looked at the girl that was exclaiming herself while gesturing around.

she was worried for jaemin.

it was cute.

she made jaemin feel important.

and jaemin absolutely loved that.

"it's okay... it was an accident." jaemin smiled, calming her down by putting a hand on her shoulder.

an accident...

yeah.

everything was an accident.

jaemin's whole life was an accident.

jokes on him...

"what kind of accident?" she asked, looking at jaemin while biting her lip, already anticipating the answer.

"i was cooking, and the knife slipped of my hand." jaemin explained. "and it landed right in my thigh."

it hurt to lie.

it was difficult.

almost inhuman for someone who hated to disrespect rules.

but he had to.

could he tell the girl in front of him that he was a serial killer?

could he tell her that he had killed someone the night before?

could he tell her that he had tried committing suicide?

could he tell her that his demon had saved him?

could he tell her all of that?

of course, not.

he was meant to stay silent.

meant to lie.

meant to be someone else...

"jaemin... you have to be careful..." she said, her small hand making its way to jaemin's thigh – the one that hadn't been injured.

jaemin looked at the small hand caressing his thigh and smiled even brighter.

she was cute.

"is that why you weren't there this morning?" she asked. "because you went to the doctor?"

jaemin nodded, trying to ignore his mind screaming at him not to lie.

what else could he do?

he was obliged.

"at least- "

mina was cut by her phone ringing.

"...you're okay right now." she finished, picking her phone up to look at the caller. "it's my dad." she said rather surprised.

"answer." jaemin told.

mina listened to jaemin, placing the phone to her ear.

she talked for a few seconds with her dad, and hung up after telling him that she loved him.

she still had the chance to have her parents.

unlike jaemin.

"he told me to watch the news channel. the case he works on is getting spoken about live." she said. "want to watch it with me?"

jaemin nodded, looking at her skilful fingers entering the right application and setting the phone against her pencil case once she had settled the volume.

the two students moved their chairs forwards to have a better view of the report on the small device.

the journalist started speaking, presenting the case, but jaemin wasn't really listening. instead, he was looking at the beautiful girl on whose face a smile had appeared.

she often talked about her dad.

she admired him.

why?

he was a policeman, and he wanted to catch the bad guys to create a better world for his beautiful daughter to live in.

well, that's what she had told jaemin.

"look! it's him!" she exclaimed, making jaemin turn his head towards the device.

and the sight made him gulp hard.

the report was taking place in guryong village, in the same alley he had killed a man the day before.

the body was still there, but it had been covered with a white sheet.

however, you could still see blood everywhere.

both that dead man and jaemin's blood.

"i am very sorry to announce that serial killed NA has appeared once again. however, i am happy to tell you that for once, he left a very precious clue for us. the medical examiners confirmed that there was the presence of two different persons' blood on the crime scene, which means that, after a dna test, we'll have NA's identity and we'll be able to find him!"

jaemin stayed frozen on his chair.

he didn't move his head to look at mina when she clapped her hands at the end of the report.

he just stayed paralyzed on the spot.

they had him.

it was done for him.

NA had lost...