Chapter 6: "They" (1/1)
Much to her dismay, though, who she met downstairs was not Seolhyun but the manager, who almost creeped her out by revealing that she was looking for Seolhyun who wasn’t picking up her phone. Hyejeong's heart started pounding at an increasingly rapid pace. She checked her watches and it was too late for Seolhyun to be outside. She quickly took her phone and dialled her number while checking and scanning every single room the in the dormitory. One missed call, second, third... at last she realised she'd been calling her for the 30th time and there was still no answer. She started leaving messages; one after another, and an unsettling feeling was welling inside her. She walked across the kitchen which was located close to the front door, but abruptly stopped as she saw something. Seolhyun's phone was in the kitchen. So when Hyejeong was still in Yuna's room, it was definitely Seolhyun who came in. But why did she leave? Where could she have gone at that time? And why hadn't the manager seen her? The latter left the dormitory to go outside to see if Seolhyun was there.
On a sudden, the sound of the front door swinging open almost caused Hyejeong to jump. A warm burst of air greeted Seolhyun upon half-flying into the dormitory.
Hyejeong immersed herself in pure easement as the sense of relief dissolved the panic that had risen in her chest. The dozen spikes stopped the action of stabbing her brain and that sharp feeling inside her head was slowly vanishing. But a new, dull pain was building up inside her as she noticed something else.
Seolhyun hissed and sniffed as she was slightly physically hurt. When she made her way to the dormitory, she accidentally bumped into something that she didn’t even take time to explore, but as she entered the dormitory, she quickly ran to take care of the scratch on her arm. Upon realizing that they had no bandages or plasters, she ran to the nearest pharmacy and even forgot to take her phone. It was a brief pain, as the cut was neither deep nor big, and so far, it only got the top of a few smaller veins/capillaries nicked off. At the same time, she urgently needed stitches because of the minor blood flow and additionally, she had to take care of the tiny scrape on her forehead which was almost invisible.
As soon as Hyejeong's eyes landed on Seolhyun's arm, the sense of worry and concern accosted her. She couldn't simply stand there and watch Seolhyun having some slight difficulty doing all the work by herself, and other than that, she felt a pricking pain in her chest - she knew she was kind of freaking out inside, but she loved Seolhyun too much and didn't endure seeing even the slightest pain tease her. She came to stand next to Seolhyun and took her hand without saying anything.
"I didn't ask for help." Seolhyun coldly pushed her hand off, but Hyejeong caught her again.
"I don't care." She ignored Seolhyun's protest and the other fell silent, turning her gaze away with a frustrated frown. Meanwhile, Hyejeong rinsed her wound thoroughly with water and mild soap, at last covering the wound with an adhesive bandage. She then gazed up and concentrated her whole attention on the forehead scrape, but she had to stay too close in order to take care of it. Just then, Seolhyun moved a bit and looked away, sighing angrily.
"I can do it myself."
"I didn't ask for assistance." Hyejeong replied shortly. Actually, that made Se