"Holy shit..." Namjoon cursed incoherently, struggling to prop himself up, "Please tell me you're real and that I've not begun to hallucinate already? Goddamn, being concussed sucks so bad!"

"It is me, Namjoon, your eyes aren't deceiving you. You can trust them." Youngmi chuckled softly, elation fanning out over her features.

"Raving Namjoon is kinda cool though." All gazes bore through Nora's head now that she had added her pennyworth, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"He reassures me that I'm not a blockhead for not being able to understand what he says, unlike the times when he's in his full senses." She maundered on, switching her line of sight from Youngmi to Namjoon, "If you don't mind, can we skip getting you checked up after we leave from here, Doc? I vote for this version of you to stay."

"And who's she, again?" Youngmi's eyes were molded in a quizzical squint.

"She's the one who helped me locate you." Namjoon mumbled, his head heavy due to the impact from earlier, "Although now that we're at it finally, escape this place while the two of us are still there to save you. Come on now, senior, follow me."

Namjoon— immensely sore because of his embarrassment-inducing fall from a few moments ago— ascended the staircase in a hurry that appeared unnecessary to Youngmi, leading her to halt on her tracks before she reached a point that could prove to be irredeemable for her in the end. Her vision remained fixated at Namjoon's feet nevertheless, head gradually uplifting as she cluelessly traced him scramble upstairs.

Nora was witnessing everything from afar— from the confused look that had been donned by Youngmi, to her reluctance over emulating Namjoon's run for safety. Her eyebrows creased when despite the man already having reached the ground floor, the other female stood intact on her own spot.

It was as if she had wound up here at her own discretion.

Could it be so that the baseless suspicion that Nora had come to harbor pertaining to Youngmi, regarding her being a wilful participant in it all, was not so far-fetched after all? Could she really have assented to every bit of that horrifying plan that had changed every night of Namjoon and Nora into that of a sleepless one?

However, did Youngmi even have it in her to sabotage people's calm, as a matter of fact?

Nora shook her head fervently to keep the plaguing thoughts at bay.

But Namjoon could not, when his attention ultimately landed on Youngmi after having read Nora's expression at length.

"Senior! Why aren't you here already? You know that we can't afford to fritter away any more time, we aren't in such a position—"

"Why would I flee from here, Namjoon? I'm not ready to expose myself to the outside world yet, I'm still vulnerable, prone to someone's hatred for me out there." Youngmi's eyebrows furrowed as she continued to explain, "Moreover, I don't want Ewan to feel like his efforts towards me are nothing but a waste. I want to respect his concern for me."

"Are you kidding me—" Namjoon blurted, only to contain his anger as he swiveled his neck in Nora's direction, "Is she being serious right now?"

"A person can't fake her dedication towards someone to such an extent. So nope, I don't think that she's messing with us." Nora whispered, a profound gleam flashing in her eyes.

"Are you gonna break it to her, then? Or should I? Because I've had enough of this bullshit." Namjoon's speech had a certain intensity to it, acknowledging which had had Nora in awe as she bobbed her head and unsurprisingly enough, provided him with the required cue.

"Ewan is the reason why you're here to begin with, senior. He's the one who stole all of your money and stashed it in his own accounts, and on top of that— judging from what you just said— manipulated you in believing that it was in fact someone else who was after you. Did I not get that right?"

"He didn't steal from me, it was just a portion of money— that I was fortunately left with— that I had given him to protect for me. He merely took it from me, I'd rather you not twist the facts." Youngmi hissed.

"She's under the impression that we don't know about the NGO thing, how adorable." Namjoon muttered to his own self before picking up, "Ewan has a part in that NGO in Angola— from where it all began. Even that company, again in Angola, to which he sent the rest of your money. Can't you see it's all his doing? Heck, man is so avaricious that he doesn't even spare his customers if they happen to enter individually. He steals from them too! And that's not even the worst that he's done, he locked you in his basement for fuck's sake, what else do you need to stop worshipping him?"

"The one you were running from wasn't after you, senior, he was there by your side the entire time. How can you be so blindsided not to notice that?" He yelped, causing Youngmi to flinch.

"But the one on my trail claims that I had sent him to jail sometime in the past and that's what he wants to take his revenge for—"

"What? When did you talk to this self-proclaimed avenger?" Nora could not restrain herself anymore.

"I didn't talk to him, he had graffitied it on one of the walls of my clinic. It was after that that I went incognito." Youngmi clarified, only for her brows to fly up on what Nora had chosen to respond with.

"But my team didn't find anything close to what you just said. All that was written over the walls was payback time. How did you arrive at such an inference, then?"

"It was Ewan who suggested it as a possibility—"

"Excuse me, I have to take this call. I'm so sorry" Nora had to cut off Youngmi in between, proceeding as she placed her phone beside her ear, "Yes, any update on the background check?"

"The man is a repeated offender, ma'am. He's that infamous son of the Choi Holdings who had been sentenced to juvenile detention centre for the murder of one of his classmates." The speaker on the other end briefed, his voice ending up resounding through the device due to the acute silence that had surrounded the trio.

Youngmi's eyes unconsciously widened upon hearing those words. Her frivolous emotions from a few minutes ago eventually condensed as her eyes came to bear a daunting, brooding cast— as if a recollection that had the potential to wreck all her misconceptions had suddenly struck her with its presence. Her brows twitched uncontrollably, displaying well the effect of the shocker that she was still striving to absorb.

It was amusing how a flimsy mask of amiability was all that had been there to obscure the repugnance that he felt for her, and yet Youngmi never bothered to tear it apart.

▪️

NINE YEARS AGO

As much as Youngmi detested three continuous hours of cram school lined up right after her having spent a dreary day at school, it had become an inseparable part of her life. Realizing that the academy was more or less her only shot at cracking the nationwide medical exam, she had somehow brought herself to come to terms with her utterly tedious routine.

The dream that she aimed to fulfill by being patient, definitely demanded efforts that did not wane with time after all.

Even if it meant sacrificing her youth for something that was still as distant as ever.

Youngmi sighed in defeat, her pupils deflecting to anywhere but at the road in front of her. Listlessly dragging her feet around, she scoffed at herself when a moment of self-reflection had inadvertently converted itself into an involuntary recapitulation of the study material that she had put herself through previously in the day. A groan elicited from the pit of her stomach in the meanwhile, as she stared blankly at the dusky sky above her.

However, that therapeutic silence got mercilessly obliterated when a honking car swished past Youngmi, and she wound up twirling on her feet in order to avoid getting hit by the same. She puckered her lips in distaste, about to resume marching down for home that the alleyway that she was now facing, caught her attention in the nick of time.

A figure was lying on the concrete surface, and above him stood another as he gazed down at the former.

Youngmi was genuinely puzzled at first, as to what was transpiring there. But when a bone-crunching kick was launched onto the almost-lifeless person who lingered defunct over the ground— by the one whose body language was far from depicting contrition— a shiver zapped down the female's spine.

Beads of cold sweat formulated on Youngmi's forehead as she convinced herself that she was not being delirious, and that whatever she had managed to register was indeed correct. She gulped down in fear, pupils wavering as she pushed herself internally to walk down to the scene. However, by the time she could scare away the assailant with her artificial stomps, he had flung another blow upon his victim, evoking an enervated whimper from him.

The stimulus accelerated Youngmi's hesitant steps as a result, who was now charging in his direction with all her force, "Hey! What's going on there? Do you want to get reported?"

The female's shrieks had successfully distracted the attacker for a while, who then became alert of her advance towards him. Moving frantically on his own spot before deciding to elope in order to keep his identity from being revealed, the male crouched down for one last time, addressing the critically wounded person as discreetly as he could.

"Rat me out and watch the worst happen to your family. You know how I always mean what I say, right?"

The other male could only sob before shutting his eyelids close as a lone tear trickled down from one of them.

▪️

a/n

i hope this chapter kept you hooked till the end. hadn't i said that the book has much revealing to do? about time we reached that point hehe🤪 also, one of the silent readers left a lovely and encouraging comment for me in the last chapter, which reinvigorated me like nothing else. i wish for the the others to speak too. tell me what you liked and didn't. and vote before leaving, that's the least i could ask of y'all in return for curating this book for free. to the two ppl who always interact, i thank you from the bottom of my heart <3