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21. Late Invite

Goodnight, Seren.

Hoseok

Sweet dreams 💞

Her heart leaped, her cheeks distended and engorged with warm blood that involuntarily reacted to his charming words. Joy pricked her chest, butterflies inhabiting her body.

She waited a few minutes before deciding to reply.

Seren

I can't wait for this weekend either.

I really miss you. Have a peaceful night

Hoseok.

It didn't matter if it was just through text, she couldn't help but feel cherished and appreciated by him. It got her caught in a vehement recollection of the time they shared simple kisses with one another, and how she felt as though she was walking on air — blissful and euphoric.

She wanted more of that, more of him.

Hoseok seemed so reserved, and it intrigued her to get to know him better, to share more heart-fluttering moments with him.

She put her phone down, reaching for her unfinished bowl of cereal, her smile never dissipating.

Seren breathed heavily through her nose, stuck with watching late-night news.

It felt odd being home earlier than usual on a weeknight, but she wouldn't complain. She didn't have to get out of her car so late, fearful that somebody was watching her from a distance. It was the one time she felt normal, and not overly paranoid.

She set the empty bowl down on the coffee table, reaching for the remote to finally find the channel she had been searching for that night.

"brings us a new shocking discovery found by policemen who came across a dead body near the Mountain Dam Recreation Area." The sophisticated voice of a woman caught her attention, stopping her from searching for the number on her remote.

Her eyebrows pushed together, astonished by the sudden gory news.

She frowned, fixing her posture, raising the volume on the remote to get a better listening of what exactly the police came across.

The woman continued her lines, "At first sight, one of the officers thought it was a man who was simply passed out, but upon closer look, it was clear he was wrongfully mistaken. Warning, this information may be too explicit for some viewers."

Seren squinted her eyes, watching as the screen switched from an anchorwoman to an officer being interviewed earlier that day.

"We had come around back here, and at first I thought it was just a man that had passed out from the night before from alcohol or drugs." The officer elaborated his discovery, his name appearing on the bottom half of the screen. "I mean, honestly, I wish that's what we came across. This man had multiple stab wounds on his body, his ear had been severed off, along with a few of his fingers, and his face was barely recognizable, almost as if the blood just masked his features."

Seren placed her fingertips in her mouth, listening to the horrific details the officer provided upon his remarkably grotesque discovery. It made her sick to her stomach, her palms becoming sweaty as she tried not to picture the state the man was in, already perspiring with mere details, no images.

"But, I think the most stomach-turning part about it all, was how his mouth was almost slashed open at the sides." The officer recalled, shaking his head in utter disdain. "Almost so that he would always be wearing a smile on his features."

She placed her feet on the couch, keeping her knees tucked into her chest as she continued to listen to the officer on her screen.

The screen switched back to the same anchorwoman from before, her brunette hair clipped back with a few strands falling at her temples.

"Later police found that the man on the floor was named Yu Jae-sang."

A photo of the man appeared on the screen, and it almost had Seren gasp out loud in shock, her eyes widened when she saw the man's picture.

He looked familiar.

Too familiar.

"He was last seen at route thirty-three, a club just west off the street of bonsai." The woman elucidated, her expression bleak from any emotion or remorse.

Seren took a deep breath in, her hands trembling, her tongue running against her chapped lower lip. She shoveled her fingers through her hair, battling her anxiety, understanding why the man looked so familiar.

It was the same club she had gone to with Rina and Seokjin a few days prior, and it was the same man who appeared behind her as she was lost in thought, sneaking a dance in with Seren.

It was also the same man that pretended he didn't mean to step into the woman's restroom, playing dumb when Rina caught him.

Although he gave her the creeps and was almost certain something might have happened if Rina wasn't present with Seren in those murky restrooms, she couldn't help but feel awful for what had happened to him.

He must have been violently tortured before his murderer decided to either leave him to die or decided it was time for him to be put out of his misery. That fact alone urged her to vomit the cereal she ate.

Suddenly, she became overwhelmed with the feeling of paranoia. Her tongue poked the inside of her cheek, her fingers toying with one another as she tried to scatter from the poor man that got his life taken from him by a completely demented killer.

She turned to the window, making sure the curtain was still drawn, and it hadn't miraculously peeked open. Seren shivered, chills plaguing her arms and legs as she finally switched out from the news, having enough with the gory details, wanting the image to release its dark suffocating twines from her brain.

She massaged her temple with her index and middle finger, looking around her darkened kitchen area with shaking pupils, terrified that the shadow was hiding there, watching her from the dark corner of her home.

Seren grabbed her phone, turning the flashlight on, wanting to make sure that she truly was alone that night. She waved it from side to side, seeing nobody there.

She flashed it beneath the dining table, also seeing that nobody was there who may have been hiding.

She shut the flashlight off, shaking her head incredulously at her overly obsessive actions.

"I can't stay here alone if I'm being overly paranoid." She muttered to herself, sighing in frustration.

Which almost made no sense, the other nights when she saw the shadow outside her window, she was capable of sleeping after a few hours of staying up — making sure he wouldn't show up again during her sleep.

With everything that she heard on the news, and immediately thinking of the man that shows up at her window, and even inside her own home, it was all becoming too much for her.

She scrolled through her recent calls, locating Jimin's name, and clicking it.

Seren felt guilty for calling him at such a late hour, but she had nobody else to call that would make her feel safer than her younger brother.

"Hello? Seren?" His voice was a bit groggy, answering her call on the third ring.

"Jimin." Her voice was laced with relief, running her fingers through her damp hair. "Do you think you can sleep over my house right now?"

☾