fear ↜ hjs

ꕥ five

"Alright, as for today. I want you to get into groups of five and each group grab a body."

The professor clapped her hands twice and everyone in the lab started moving, appointing themselves to the six bodies laid on each tables. Joohyun noticed someone was poking her right arm, she looked in the direction and spotted a smiling Hyunjin. She smiled back, a small greeting between them.

"Discuss in your group and tell me your diagnoses on the body. No dissecting. I'll give you 20 minutes." At her order, everyone started grabbing their gloves and further checking on the bodies. "I want you to tell me, what have they been doing before their death and their cause of death." She said as she walked down the aisle, eyeing the students.

Joohyun pried the body's eyes open, her group could clearly see the pupil of his eyes shrunk. "Could be from choking or poisoning." One of them said. A girl then checked his neck and there was no sign if strangling. "Well, there's a small opening here, like an injection scar. Possibly poisoned." A male in their group said.

"He was probably kidnapped and then poisoned." Hyunjin said out of the blue. Everyone else looked at him quizzically. "How do you know that?" One of them asked. "He drank some before." He said as he opened the body's mouth and point his torchlight to the body's throat. It was red and dry.

"Besides, the smell was strong." Hyunjin added. However, most of them agreed that none of them caught the scent of alcohol at all. When time was up and the professor came to their table, they started informing her all of their diagnoses. She was pleased as their group was the most detailed.

She smiled, "I'm impressed." She commented. "How did you know he drank?" She asked and everyone else looked at Hyunjin. Before he could even answer, she added, "The body has been here for a week, the smell of alcohol wouldn't last for three days." Hyunjin smiled sheepishly.

"I had a gut feeling." He said and soon after the professor moved to the next table. After class, the whole group was still praising Hyunjin on his sensitivity and the alcohol thing. Joohyun, on the other hand felt suspicious. It was strange for someone to be able to detect the scent of alcohol which had been faded for almost a week. He needed nose of a dog to be able to smell that.

——ꕥ——

Joohyun walked into a mini mart to munch while revising at home. The mart was empty as usual as it was located in a quite secluded area with not much people. As she was paying, the news on the small television caught her attention.

"—found on Gangnam street yesterday. He was found lying in the middle of streets after falling down from a five-storey building. Suspected murder, police continue the investigation on this horrific case." The reporter said, Joohyun's mind immediately travelled to how she saw the body.

"—he held something in his hands. We are currently running lab tests on the object. As far as we know, it seems to be a wolf's fingernail." The police said and immediately, Joohyun's eyes shot back to the television. She saw the object he held yesterday. It did look like a fingernail, she wasn't expecting it to be a wolf's.

"Ridiculous, there are no wolves in the city." The owner of the shop scoffed as he handed her the plastic bag. She had to admit, he had a point. They lived in a big city, how was it possible for a wolf to live among them? It didn't fit the wolf's habitat.

By the time Joohyun arrived home, it was dark. The sun had already set and she was home alone. Jisung told her he would be late as he had to hand in the albums for the previous weddings. Joohyun switched on the television to watch a movie on her own as she was not in the mood to study.

Unfortunately, the movie wasn't as interesting as she thought it would be. By the time it played halfway, she was already bored. However, she kept on watching as she was too lazy to do anything else. Out of nowhere, she heard knockings. Instinctively, her head snapped to the room next to hers. Jisung's mini studio.

She had a feeling she wasn't wrong, the knockings came from that door. Joohyun decided to ignore, it was probably her imagination. The thought was absurd, she was alone. No one had access to his room except for him. She pretended as if nothing happened and continue to watch the movie.

"Joohyun! Help me—"

At the sound of that muffled scream, she recognised it immediately. It sounded like a little boy, a lot younger than her. She heard it before. Joohyun closed her ears as the knockings became louder each second, coming from Jisung's room.

Joohyun knew it wasn't real but a part of her still wanted to check it out. By the time she stood up from where she was seating, the knockings had stopped. Although she was scared, she walked up the short stairs towards Jisung's room. Then, she stood stiffly in front of the door.

Her hand was shaking as she reached out for the doorknob. As she twisted the doorknob, it was surprisingly unlocked. Which was unusual since Jisung always made sure to lock it. He was a little sensitive with his privacy.

Joohyun pushed the door open, but she remained outside the room. She couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. She swallowed hard, as she drew her hand up to switch on the lights. However, before her fingers could even press the switch, she felt a pair of gazes on her. Joohyun moved a little further into the room.

There was nothing at first, until the door closed behind her. Leaving her alone in darkness, except she was not alone. Joohyun debated to switch on the lights or not, but she knew if she did whoever was with her would disappear. She decided to wait a little.

Out of a sudden, she heard a low grunt, it sounded like a growl. Joohyun was positive she wasn't imagining things, she heard it clearly enough a few seconds later. The growl was getting closer in her direction each second. With limited light, she finally caught sight of it. She caught a pair of eyes staring back at her, it had yellow glowing eyes.

It was awfully similar to the eyes she saw in the blogs, books, about werewolves. Joohyun wanted to switch on the lights to have a good look on whatever was in front of her. To satisfy her curiosity,  but before she could even press the light switch, the beast charged her, sending her down on the floor.

Joohyun opened her eyes and gasped for air, she hadn't realise she had been holding her breath the whole time. She looked around her and noticed she was on her bed, Jisung was already awake next to her. What the—

Another nightmare?

She tried calming her heartbeat down as it was beating so fast. Joohyun was sure that she was watching a movie a few hours ago, when did she ended up sleeping in her room? Jisung on the other hand, looked at her worriedly. Although he said nothing, but his eyes were obvious that he was curious.

"How did I end up here?" Joohyun asked, catching her breath. "I carried you here, you fell asleep in the living room." Jisung answered. Joohyun grabbed her phone to look at the time, it read 2:48 AM. "Bad dream?" Jisung asked, a yawn escaped his lips. "Sorry for waking you up." Joohyun replied.

"I told you, it's fine. Can you sleep?" Jisung asked as he cupped her face with one hand. Joohyun lied and nodded her head. She knew that Jisung was exhausted and she wasn't going to let him accompany her while she dealt with her insomnia. They both lied down on the bed as Jisung wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her to his side.

Joohyun tried to sleep but she knew it was no use. However, she didn't realise within a few minutes she did doze off. Unfortunately, her brain woke her up again after a short sleep. Joohyun realised she was alone. She looked at her phone, the clock displayed read 3:02 AM. Where was Jisung?

——ꕥ——

🐾Do you think it's another dream?