Doodlebug | Beomjun, yeongyu |

Chapter no. 13

A tense quiet settled over the dorm after the lockdown was lifted. Fear lingered in the air, a constant reminder of the danger that still lurked in the shadows. Principal Park's announcement added another layer of unease – the killer was targeting names alphabetically, and students beginning with "V" were now in the crosshairs.

Knowing this, the police devised a covert plan. Undercover officers would be subtly assigned to students with vulnerable initials, acting as invisible guardians. The key, however, was secrecy. The killer couldn't know their plan, or the element of surprise would be lost.

Discreetly, Kai acquired a high-tech camera disguised as an ordinary pen. He wouldn't be taking selfies; his job was to capture photos of anything suspicious – a student with a "V" name acting strangely, a stranger lurking near the dorms, anything that might offer a clue.

kai, his face etched with worry, huddled with Yeonjun and Taehyun in the library, a place typically bustling with activity but now eerily quiet. "V," he muttered, tracing the letter on a piece of notebook paper. "We need to be extra vigilant."

Yeonjun, his knuckles white from gripping the table, nodded grimly. Beomgyu, his name a dangerous letter away at "B," was constantly on his mind. "What's the plan?"

Kai, ever the strategist, pulled out a small, sleek object from his pocket. It wasn't a pen, as it appeared, but a cleverly disguised camera. "The police are working undercover," he revealed, his voice barely a whisper. "They'll be shadowing the 'V' students, but discreetly, of course. My job is to document everything – the students, their interactions, anything unusual."

Taehyun, the ever-cautious one, raised an eyebrow. "And you trust them with this?"

Kai smirked. "Let's just say I have my ways of communicating." He tapped a hidden button on the pen-camera, a tiny red light blinking confirmation. "This little guy will be my eyes and ears, feeding intel to the police directly."

Yeonjun swallowed, a knot of worry tightening in his stomach. Keeping Beomgyu safe was his top priority, but with Soobin's name even closer to the danger zone, the situation felt overwhelming. "What about Soobin and Beomgyu?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "They can't know about this, right?"

"Absolutely not," Kai agreed, his voice firm. "Knowing they're targets will only put them on edge. We need them calm, acting naturally, so the killer doesn't pick up on their anxiety."

taehyun added "also, we don't trust soobin".

***

A week crawled by, each day a monotonous echo of the one before. Wooyoung's funeral had been a blur of tear-stained faces and choked sobs. Yeonjun moved through his days like a ghost, his eyes perpetually fixed on some unseen point in the distance. He haunted the library, burying himself in textbooks, a desperate attempt to drown out the deafening silence in his head.

Everyone tried to reach him: Soobin, Taehyun, even Kai, but Yeonjun retreated further with each attempt. The only person who could penetrate his self-imposed isolation remained stubbornly distant – Beomgyu.

Beomgyu himself wasn't sure why he was avoiding Yeonjun. It felt instinctive, a strange pullback in the face of Yeonjun's quiet despair. Maybe it was the way Yeonjun's eyes held a flicker of something new, something Beomgyu couldn't decipher. Or maybe it was the suffocating silence that hung between them, a stark contrast to their usual easy banter.

One night, after a particularly suffocating day of classes, Beomgyu craved a break from the omnipresent feeling of being watched. He knew the only place without a camera was the tiny, dimly lit kitchen alcove where a worn-out sofa huddled in the corner. He figured it was safe enough to grab a late-night snack.