XI
SURVEIL
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MIN WAS IN THE LIBRARY WHEN SHE HEARD IT.
Shrill chimes traversed through the campus intercom system. She counted three in a row, all drawn out and continuous, before it repeated. She could hear it even from her isolated corner of the second floor. The line-up for approved Celebration of the Arts proposals had been announced.
Her grip tightened around the waxy papers with a sigh and she dropped her gaze back to the thick passage of fading ink. The title had stuck out to her a long time ago. She only just found the time, and the desperation, to investigate. It was a small newspaper article, not well-preserved but clearly significant. Especially now.
"1996 Celebration of the Arts Ceremony ends in scandal!"
She flipped a page, skimming the words with her fingertip. The Celebration of the Arts was an annual tradition at NHU, a chance to rise to stardom for anyone brave enough to take it. She, somehow, had mustered up the courage to apply with Kevin during their movie night which was now weeks ago.
Jisoo backed out. Since the Lucas incident, she had gone awol. Jennie was furious. Kevin was being more quiet than usual, and Minni was waiting for everything to blow over. Things rarely ever did though.
She was paranoid at the prospects of someone discovering her slumped figure in between the shelves of the NHU history section. She had been followed too many times to count. While she had not noticed any shadows behind her since that day with Seonghwa, she still couldn't be sure.
She scanned the library, not finding any movement along the rows and rows of shelves to her left and right. Alone and quiet. Only her and the dust bunnies, just how she liked it.
She folded a corner, perusing another passage. COTA was notoriously competitive, especially when it came to the more physical arts–singing, dancing, theater. Winners were decided by a set of judges that were industry professionals without any association to the university. Despite the attempts to keep everything fair, the promise of money and fame led many into dark, spiraling obsessions.
"...including a female theater student, LS, who sabotaged her competition's monologue by spiking her water with rat poison. The victim was taken to the hospital, but did not make a recovery. The university held a press-conference on the seventh of May to address the issue, but refused to expel the accused student. It is our opinion that NHU students deserve to go to a safe, unbiased school. If action will not be taken, we must demand it...
The paper crinkled around Min's clenching grip. Scorched by the words that followed that sentence, she tossed the publication aside with a strangled gasp for air. The yellowed papers curled in on themselves at the corners, revealing the two lines that had made her flail with panic.
"What do guys think? Now act on it."
She had been so stunned by the familiar wording that she never heard the footsteps until they were already upon her, looming like an ominous, encroaching storm.
"What did you do?" a masculine, raspy voiced hissed.
Min whirled around, caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Blond strands of hair were arranged messily before a pair of heavy-lidded eyes. He did not bother to move them out of his way, eyes of obsidian and everything dark probing her own through the gaps.
Yeosang.
Min did not bother trying to reach out for the newspaper, the article was surrounded by all of her other textbooks and class papers. If she didn't react, he wouldn't see it. He was too focused, too intent, on her anyway.
"What?" she heaved a breath, letting the adrenaline run out of her. Yeosang was ruinous in his own right, but being ambushed would be worse. She looked behind him to a still library. He had come to see her alone, a small comfort. "Did you follow me?"
He looked down at her, dark eyes full of unspoken warnings and questions. Maybe even a few answers. The curves of his face were hard and stony under the dull lighting, almost ambiguous even. Min could read him the least out of everyone behind the blog.
Juyeon was hard to understand, but not in the same way that Yeosang was. Where Juyeon hid his emotions under a crafted veneer of pageantry and muttered pleasantries, Yeosang kept all of them on display at once. Constantly burning behind his eyes. He was hard to read in the way that words on paper, written, crossed out, and rewritten were.
Simply put, he was a locked and burned book more than he was a closed one. Yet the moment Min dared to ignore the question, it became clear that he was furious.
"Get up," he commanded. When she didn't respond other than to gape at him, he snatched up her empty book bag and tossed it her way. "Now."
She stole the chance to catch it, shove the newspaper and the rest of her books in without him realizing she had been nosing around. His figure blocked the exit to the aisle. He practically had her cornered in the quietest, least explored part of the library. She had been a fool to return here.
"What's your problem?" Min stood on wobbly feet, taking all of him in. His dark circle lined eyes seemed to droop. It was not uncommon to see him so pulled thin, so tense, but something about his mood set her on edge. He shifted his weight to one foot, bandaged hands crossed on either arms.
Of course. Yeosang seemed to stay in fights. The day he fought Seungmin was the most animated, natural, she had ever seen him. Thoughtless, merciless violence seemed to come as easy as breathing for him.
It made a part of her think that Juyeon may have told the truth.
Everything about Somin's death had been hurried, stupid, passionately horrid. It was an act of anger, something irrational and fast. A spur of the moment act, the kind he was so prone to.
His thick brows rested low on his face. He asked the same question from before through gritted teeth as if expecting a different, more correct answer. "What. Did. You. Do?"
Irritation, sleep deprivation, fear, shame. It all hit at once and she snapped. "What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Talking. About?"
Wrong answer, obviously.
He let out a sardonic chuckle that was all air and no humor. The chimes echoed again, piercing through the walls and walls of books. By the time it stopped, the air was left ringing in the space between them. His gaze bore through her like an arrow. That focus of his, his stare, was meaningful in a way she did not understand.
"What?" she prickled.
"Come see for yourself then." Yeosang stepped to the side dramatically, waving her along with a hand. She must have taken too long to react, because he only scowled and did it faster.
"Fine," she spat, hiking her bag over one shoulder with a sigh. As much as she would rather tell him to piss off, she felt inclined to reign in her temper after what Seulgi had said about the unseen rules. "See what?"
He walked off. "You'll see."
She felt her anxiety spike as they left the Haldre library and headed in the direction of the Student Center. Toward the source of chimes. Toward the bulletin with all of the COTA announcements. She jogged to catch up with his long strides.
"Where the hell are we going?" she panted, looking up at the intimidating brick building. The clock tower in the center said it was some time past eleven, hours since the announcements were first posted that morning.
Even then, students were pouring in ahead of them, their shoulders brushing Minni and tossing her around. Yeosang only looked back at her briefly to hurry her along as they climbed the escalators to the second floor.
The display was up in one of the banquet rooms. A large wall had been installed, covered in plaques that were organized by sections—dance and theater, visual arts and music, music and dance. They glinted bronze underneath the overhead light, reflecting the warped figures of students staring at them.
Min stopped as Yeosang kept pace to the dance and music section at the far end of the echoey hall. She squinted her eyes at his back, trying to catch her breath.
She had been avoiding this place since she first heard the chimes at eight in the morning.
Dance was her lifeline, literally. If she failed here, in any shape or form, her mother would have her packing her bags back to the Cape for embarrassing the family. Even without considering the blog, her position was already precarious. They narrowly approved of her career path and they hated everything else about her, from her looks to her personality. Min had her father written all over her. His skin, his hair, his audacity to dream.
Even his tendency to fail. Miserably.
Yeosang noticed her lagging behind and turned to face her, eyes cold.
"Hurry up," he hissed. He gently pushed between her shoulder blades, guiding her toward a plaque. "Look."
Minni shook him off aggressively, mad that he had forced her to face the inevitable before she was prepared. She looked at her reflection through the bronze, Yeosang scanning the ballroom behind it. The names etched into its surface came into focus.
Where it should have said Kevin, written on the placard was: Approved Duo Performance: Ballerina Minni Lee and Violinist Yeosang Kang - Danse Macabre, Op.40.
Performance Title: "The Dance of Death."
"What?" she whispered, stunned.
Min did not choose that song and she certainly did not apply with Yeosang. She was supposed to perform a rendition of Fly Me to the Moon with Kevin. Someone else had interfered with their application, leaving her with a clear message. She tensed, the cold air seeming to lick at her skin.
It felt a lot like a threat. The tangled mention of dancers and death acting as a heartless, conspicuous, reference to Somin. She was sure it was a harbinger of the chaos to come if she slipped up. But then she saw Yeosang's reflection grimace next to hers. Her thoughts went crazy all over again.
What if it wasn't a message for her at all, but the man who got thrown into this with no prior warning? Maybe Juyeon trying to have him exposed was just another cover for something worse.
They might want him dead too.
She paled, her world tilting on its axis. She had a sick suspicion that her thoughts may not be far off from the truth. The man in question shifted in her peripheral, her confusion only serving to upset him more.
"I don't know what you did, but you need to fix it."
She spun on him, eyes wild and frantic. "I didn't do this. How am I supposed to fix it?"
"Figure it out!" he whisper-shouted as eyes in the crowd darted to their heated exchange. "I'm not supposed to be in the competition this year."
"So? How the fuck is that my fault? I have nothing to do with this."
"Yeah?" His eyebrows rose condescendingly. "You sure about that? Because that's your name next to mine."
"Yes. I have eyes, Yeosang," Min fumed, unsure of what she wanted more–to cry or to deck him in the face. "Do you have ears? Because I just said-"
"Forget it." He cut her off with a gritty murmur, leaning toward her so he could be heard over the increasing number of voices in the banquet hall. "We'll finish this later. We can't talk here."
She scoffed, but her agitation cooled anyway. "What is there to talk about with you?"
He pulled away, a flash of something knowing and irritable, fluttering behind his eyelashes. The split on his lip pulled thin as his mouth formed her name. "I get the feeling that you already know the answer to that, Minni."
When he stormed away into the swarming bodies at the entrance, all she could do was gape at his back.
···✧···
KEVIN STARTED TO AVOID HER AFTER THAT.
Of course, he had heard about the COTA announcement. Matter of fact, he knew before Min did, but he did not ask questions. Didn't raise a single objection. It was like Min had stopped existing to him. As if, in the span of a few hours she had gone from being one of his closest friends to an enemy in the same house.
She found him lounging on the couch, face down in a pillow when she got back to the apartment for lunch. His chest was rising and falling steadily as Min removed her sneakers in the entrance. She rubbed the lethargy out of her eyes and sighed.
"I know you're awake, Kev," she called out. He only grunted into the pillow, waving her off.
"Go away."
Kevin and Minni lived with a firm set of rules to keep the both of them sane. Some of them included him not playing his trumpet late at night, her keeping the common space neat, and the both of them talking any issues out before they could fester. So, she pushed the issue.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong." She threw her bag down near her feet and sat herself in their second-hand leather recliner.
That made him sit up quickly. Min found herself wishing he hadn't moved at all, because she couldn't stomach the fact that he was looking at her with such disgust. Like she was dirt under his shoe.
"Are you serious right now?"
"I-" Min faltered, stunned by how much he was seething. Kev tended to be meek and understanding. The type to ask questions first and get upset later. Not...whatever this version of himself was.
He finished for her. "I saw the COTA announcements, Minni."
She figured he must have, but she did not expect him to be so volatile about it. She thought that he would understand. He had been at NHU long enough that he should have been able to put it all together and realize it had not been her choice.
"Wait. Look, I can explain. I don't know how that happened but I didn't-"
It was like he couldn't even hear her or maybe he just didn't want to. "He's one of them. There's nothing to explain! What don't you get about that?"
Her heart gave a sharp twist. Of course she understood that. "I didn't have a choice!"
"Then withdraw from the competition," he practically demanded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Just give up."
She hesitated, keeping a tight hold on herself. "I can't."
"Why?"
Min could not answer that question. As much as she wanted Kevin's trust, she knew what would happen to the both of them if she ever spoke about The Night. She was stuck under their thumb and she could not afford to be crushed.
He scoffed at that, hands clenching around the pillow. "Okay. I see how it is. You get to sneak around with the people we warned you about. The people who ruined our lives and we just have to accept it."
She recoiled. "I never said that."
"Yeah, well that's what it feels like. Especially since you're going to such lengths to hide it."
"That's unfair," she murmured. The hurt was raw and achy. She knew she was on the verge of tears only when her throat started to burn. "You've never told me a single thing about your life, but now it's an issue?"
Kevin shook his head rapidly, lips downturned. "I did that to protect you."
"So am I."
"Then what is this?" Kevin shifted, reaching for something in his bag. He tossed a set of papers on the coffee table with a smack. The sheen from daylight made the documents hard to see. Min shifted closer, elbows on her knees. Her mouth dried instantly when they came into view.
They weren't papers. They were a set of glossy polaroid photographs. All of herself.
Her, in an emerald green dress standing next to Seulgi and Irene. Her, staring at Yeosang while he played violin under the light of a chandelier. Her, curly hair sodden from the rain as she helped a limping Seungmin into the convenience store. Her, balancing in Juyeon's arms in front of a window in the dance studio. Her, just that morning, in a heated argument with Yeosang in front of their plaque.
"How did you get this?" Min's fingers trembled as she snatched that last photograph up, staring at it as if it would tell her who did it.
Kevin was so fixated on the COTA incident that he did not seem to care that those photos had been taken without her even knowing. All he said was, "Go ahead. Explain."
"Oh my god! Someone is fucking following me around and that's what you're focused on? How did you get these?"
He pinched his nose bridge, as if she was missing something he wasn't. "Minni. Just...answer the question. Please."
"What? Kevin-" she started, but was silenced by his blank, unempathetic stare. Her temper flared. "I can't. You just have to trust me or leave me alone."
He stood, staring down at her so, so coldly. "Alright, I guess I just don't trust you then."
Kevin left the apartment after that, slammed the door so hard that the photographs on their walls shook. Min could only stare blankly at the photos for a while, hot tears slipping out in the lingering silence. When she did move, it was to peek at her buzzing phone. Her movements did not feel like her own.
(1) New text from 'unknown number':
You need to fix this. Meet me at Dailee's in an hour.
"Fuck!" She threw her phone across the room, listening to it clatter and crack.
As if it would erase them from where they burned behind her eyelids, she pushed the photos off of the table and collapsed onto it. Her vision of the world was foggy through the wall of tears that did not want to stop. But still, she could see one of the photos had landed face up on the floor next to her.
It was her, turning to talk to Serevena, and Yeosang on the stage–an uncharacteristic look of fear and sorrow painting his features as he stared at the back of her head.
//
Surprise update!
Happy easter if you celebrate! Yeosang appearances will be VERY regular from this point on. Super excited for y'all to see how these two interact and how this mystery unfolds.
Thoughts? Predictions? >:)