The rain. It was the only thing to be heard on top of the roof as the bullied boy waited for his tormentors to do what they were going to do. Waiting was the worst kind of torture he could ever receive. Jinsu had a hunch of why he was here. He suspected why he was getting punished once more. 

“Give me your hand.” Son Myeonghwan told him. With a shaky arm, Jinsu outstretched it to his bully. Well, one of his bullies. Myeonghwan grabbed it and pulled the sleeve down to show slit marks. “Did you cut it? You tried to kill yourself, huh? I heard you named me in your suicide note. You said you can’t go on because of me.” 

“I…I… I’m sorry.” Jinsu stammered. 

The only female of the group, Kim Hyeonju, scoffed from underneath her black umbrella. “What a disrespectful loser.” 

Her comment was discarded as Myeonghwan yanked the quivering boy’s hair. “You motherfucker. If you transfer afterwards, how does that make me look? Have I ever fucking hit you, huh?” 

“No. Never.” Jinsu said as his lip trembled in terror. 

“No, right? That’s right.” Myeonghwan scoffed. “The angel isn’t here to save you anymore.” He turned to the tall boy that stood to the side of him. “He’s all yours.” 

The lanky boy known as Yoon Gwinam ― also known as the bullies’ gopher ― handed the umbrella in his hand to Myeonghwan. From there, Gwinam became hitting, shoving, and smacking the boy around. He pushed the boy into the wall that had a metal shelf. The frail boy pleaded with him to stop. 

Jinsu gripped a metal pipe in his hand. And lashed out. “Just fucking stop!” Jinsu tried to smack Gwinam with it a few times. 

Unfortunately, the lanky boy was also quite fast and could dodge the onslaughts. Up to where he tossed the metal pipe out of Jinsu’s hand and continued his own onslaughts on the boy with hitting, shoving, smacking, and kicking him. Jinsu gulped on the ground as he just felt pain. Gwinam kept yelling at him and kicking at the water on the ground from the rain. 

“Hey, you splash me!” Hyeonju whined as she moved to stand by their other friend, Park Changhoon. 

Metal clanked on the roof as Gwinam kicked the metal pipe. “Are you out of your fucking mind, man?” 

Gwinam punched Jinsu in the face and yanked on his hair before kicking his feet out from under him. Gwinam kicked the boy in his stomach repeatedly. All the while cursing him out. Jinsu gripped his head as he whimpered. Gwinam stepped on Jinsu’s arm and the bones creaked. Jinsu groaned. 

Gwinam put his foot on his face. Jinsu’s bones continued to creak as his eyes went red. No one on the roof seemed to notice as he kicked Gwinam’s shoe off of him. Jinsu snarled as Changhoon kicked him down, telling his friends they were done and they should go. Unfortunately, they would not leave quite yet. 

For the boy was turning into the monster his father had inadvertently created. 

Jinsu lunged at Myeonghwan, who used the umbrella in his hand (that was already folded in) to smack at Jinsu, whose jaw kept clamping shut to get a bite. Gwinam tossed him off of him before shoving the zombified boy away from them. Hyeonju told them to cut it out as she moved out of the way of the boy who wanted to fight his two assaulters and the gopher. 

Jinsu lunged for Gwinam, who tossed him over the side of the building. He hit the sign and fell to the ground. It was a long fall down. No one could have survived that. The four teenagers thought little of it as they left in a hurry. Not wanting to be a part of this if it became a murder case. Thunder cracked overhead as the boy’s impact hit the street. 

Some time passed, and the boy’s father, Lee Byeongchan, arrived at the hospital. The scientist ignored the doctor at the front and went to where the hospital had his son. Jinsu looked over at his father by his side. 

“Dad?” Byeongchan nodded his head. “Are they okay?” Lee Byeongchan could not understand why that was coming out of his son’s mouth. His bullies caused this. Yet, he was worried about them. “I’m sorry, dad. I knew it wasn’t right, but I wanted to kill them. It’ll never happen again, dad.” 

“It’s okay.”

“Do you mean that, dad?” 

“It’ll all be okay, son.” 

“What’s gonna be okay, huh?” 

“Everything. All of it.” Lee Byeongchan’s eyes widened as he stared at his son. 

“Has anything gotten better? Just answer me.” Jinsu’s face began to temple just like it did when he turned initially. “Has anything gotten better, dad? Either I die… or they do.” He let out a snarl. “It won’t get better until someone dies.” The same crazed look returned to his eyes as they became red again. Byeongchan tried to stop his son as he tried to get out of the bed. “I’m gonna kill them all. 

“Stop it, Jinsu.” His dad tried to stop him. “Jinsu, I’ll fix everything, just stop, okay? Jinsu.” 

“Do you wanna die, dad?” Jinsu asked his father. “Should I kill you?”

“Son, you need to stop it!” Byeongchan yelled. 

Jinsu snarled and tried to bite him. Byeongchan moved out of the way just in time. It had come to this. Unfortunately, he had created a monster. So with a heavy heart, Byeongchan took a bible off the bookshelf. He used it to beat his deranged son to death. Unfortunately for him and everyone else in Hyosan, there would be more monsters, just like the one his son became. 

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T

he end of school day at Hyosan High School was always cleaning for the students that did not have extra-curricular activities. Choi Namra could not wait to get out of the Student Government meeting. These normally took longer than they were supposed to as the president and vice president always argued about the smallest of things. 

At least she was not cleaning like her group of friends were. The boys would goof off somewhere while Onjo and Isak were gossiping while trying to finish up quickly. She remembered when [Y/N] would do her cleaning duties that pertained to cleaning the first floor classrooms with some upperclassman ― which always made Suhyeok jealous. 

Namra listened to the overhead speaker instead of the dribble that came from her fellow class representatives and members of the student government. “The seemingly never-ending heat has finally died down, and the muggy, scorching weather has been replaced by a fresh, cool breeze. Today, our topic is a fascinating study from abroad. A psychologist in the US conducted an experiment. He gathered forty-eight men and women who had never met. To one group he gave a specific—.” 

Before long, they were released. Namra walked with one earbud in before Isak called out to her. She turned towards the sound of her two friends calling her name. She smiled at them as Onjo looped her arm with hers. 

“You're coming to Cheongsan’s family restaurant for some chicken later, right?” asked Onjo. 

Namra nodded. “Yeah, I’m just going to visit [Y/N] for a couple hours until then, though.” 

Isak sighed. “I wish Hana would let us see her. We’ve been friends with her since grade school. I don’t understand why we can’t visit her.” 

“Oh. Me and Suhyeok decided that we’ll bring you all to see her when she wakes up. Her mom agreed to it. When she wakes up, she’s going to be thrilled to see all the updates you all have been texting her about.” the raven-haired class president told them. 

“What is going on with you and Suhyeok, anyway? I thought [Y/N] has been in love with him since she kissed him on the monkey bars when they were seven and he’s been in love with her since she pushed him off the monkey bars afterwards.” Isak wondered. 

Namra sighed. She had been expecting this. From what both Hana and Kira had asked her, she figured her friends would be curious about it. The school might even start a rumor or two about it like Cheongsan and Onjo. However, these rumors would not be true. 

“Nothing is going on. He’s like an annoying Sokka to my Katara.” When it was just Namra and [Y/N], the only things [Y/N] would talk about and watch would be the Last Airbender. “It’s like her relationship with Cheongsan. He’s a brother to me.” 

Isak did not buy that one bit. However, before she could say anything about it, Onjo caught sight of Cheongsan walking with Suhyeok and Gyeongsu. Onjo ran off towards them, followed by Isak and Namra close behind. She ran into the boy causing him to drop his phone. Cheongsan groaned as he picked it up. 

“You can’t run away.” Onjo took her backpack and handed it over to him. “Hey, gopher. Let’s get some chicken.” 

“But we’re not open yet.” Cheongsan took the bag out of Onjo’s hand. Cursed for him losing to rock-paper-scissors this morning. 

“Sure you are. Your mom says she’s testing out a new recipe today.” Gyeongsu smacked Cheongsan, who grunted. Onjo turned to the tallboy and the smaller boy. “You’re going, right?” 

“Of course.” Gyeongsu chuckled while Suhyeok merely nodded. 

“Are you two going too?” Cheongsan asked the other two females. 

“Mm. Yes. I mean, your mom told Onjo to bring her friends.” Isak replied. 

“I’ll be coming in later. I’m going to go visit [Y/N] for a bit.” Namra told her. 

“What? You’re not going to help us with our homework?” Gyeongsu whined. 

Namra huffed. “I’m not [Y/N]. I’m done doing your homework for you, Gyeongsu.” 

“[Y/N] would still help if she was here.” Gyeongsu grumbled. 

Suhyeok smacked him. “Dude.” The former bully gave him a look which made everyone shut up. Isak loosened the awkwardness and bid Namra goodbye as she had walked ahead of them by now.  

Four months had passed since Ryu [Y/N] was admitted to the hospital. And Namra was where she normally was at this time of day. Sitting in her hospital room doing homework and talking to her friend. A part of her figured she could probably hear, so she should learn some of the stuff so she doesn't have to scramble to learn it all. 

[Y/N]'s mother, [M/N] walked into the room and sat down in a chair."You should go, Namra. Your friend Onjo invited you to go to Cheong-san Chicken for food, right? Go be with your friends. I'll be fine here." [M/N] held her daughter's hand while Namra held the other. "Just don't get any closer to Suhyeok. You'll crush her with that." 

"He's more of an annoying brother than a love interest." Namra told her. 

[M/N] chuckled. "You should tell him that." 

"He already knows. We both love the same person." Namra told her. 

[M/N] turned towards Namra with her lips pursed. Her serious face. Ah shit. "Are you sure that is all that is?" 

Namra nodded and collected her things. "I should go. I don't want to keep my friends waiting."

"Think about it, Namra." [M/N] told her. Namra nodded and left. [M/N] turned to her daughter. "If you wake up, we're moving. Far away. No more humiliation and shame."

Namra walked towards Cheongsan Chicken, and she opened the door. Mrs Lee greeted her while her friends waved at her. She waved back and sat down beside Isak and across from Gyeongsu. Four months ago, this wouldn't happen. Four months ago, this friend group didn't exist. But four months ago, [Y/N] wasn't in a coma. 

The six teenagers cheered as Cheongsan’s mother walked over with two plates of chicken. The teenagers thanked her as Cheongsan questioned why there was so much. Well they were six teenagers. Six children that were still growing. Oh, and Onjo eats well ― not a lot. Mrs Lee told them to eat up before mispronouncing Isak’s name. 

“Mom, if you wanna change names, you should start with the restaurant. Why are you using my name?” Cheongsan complained. 

“I named it Cheongsan Chicken way before you were born.” Mrs Lee reminded him. 

“Exactly. You named me after the restaurant. I don’t like-,” Gyeongsu cut him off to tell his best friend’s mother that the chicken was good. 

After the group found out that one plate of chicken was a little spicy and the other was super hot, Onjo informed Mrs Lee that it was salty as everyone else told her it was good. It still was good even if it was salty. Mrs Lee informed her hussband of what Onjo had told her and they began to figure it out. 

“Did you hear about our science teacher?” asked Isak. 

Cheongsan looked up from pouring his coke into his cup. “What about him?” 

“Well, he smells like a rotting corpse.” Isak told him. 

“Oh, Nayeon spread that rumor, right?” asked Cheongsan. 

“It’s true. He was absent after his son went missing. But then he came into class, she said he smelled like a corpse.” Onjo told them. 

Cheongsan asked, “How does she know what a corpse smells like?” 

Suhyeok scoffed. “Has she smelled one before?” 

“I swear she knows every other smell except that one. Since she never smelled it before, it has to be a rotting corpse.” Onjo said. 

“I wouldn’t believe anything she says about smell. There’s no way her nose is that powerful. Well, maybe in gossip.” Namra said which caused the group to chuckle. 

“When his son went missing, he started acting weird.” Onjo told them. 

“He was an outcast. I heard he got bullied all the time.” Isak commented. No one seemed to notice when Suhyeok’s shoulders slumped at that. Before the coma, he was one of those bullies. 

“Mmm. It sucks. I feel really bad for Mr Lee.” Onjo said before she thought of their science teacher writing notes on the board and then having some sort of breakthrough that only Mr Lee could understand. “Remember last week when he just left class? They said he had never done that before.” 

“They say he was a genius.” Isak said. 

“A lot of geniuses go crazy.” 

“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about going crazy.” Cheongsan joked. 

“Yeah, we just have to worry about [Y/N] and Namra going crazy.” Suhyeok played along with the joke, causing the three boys to laugh. 

Onjo and Namra looked up from their chicken at the boys and kicked them under the table. “Hey. You talking trash?” 

Before long, the group of six left Cheongsan’s chicken. Onjo and Isak hesitated on giving Namra a hug goodbye while the sunshine of the group ― a role he shared with a certain comatose beauty ― did not hesitate to wrap his friend up in a hug while a smile dorned his face. Suhyeok and Cheongsan waved goodbye. 

The raven-haired beauty walked back into the hospital. Her mother wasn't at home to chastise her for mingling with the family that tarnished their family name. Truth be told, Namra liked this family more than her own one. And her father seemed to be more happy with this one. Or happy. She walked into [Y/N]'s room to see [M/N] and her sister, Kida, standing there with the doctor that held a clipboard. 

The doctor excused himself ― stating they had something to discuss with their other daughter/niece ― and left the room. Hana gave Namra a weak smile. [M/N] couldn't turn towards her. She just stared at her own daughter with a blank face. 

"Namra, [Y/N] may not make it out. We're pulling the plug in a week if she's not up." Hana told her. "She had another one after you left."

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