(A/N): DISCLAIMER!!!
Sensitive topics ahead including; suicide and violence.

Maybe I should have put this disclaimer earlier on in the book and I am sorry for not doing so but to let everyone know, throughout this story, sensitive topics like this may pop up once in a while.

If you are enjoying the story so far, please let me know what your thoughts are, I'd love the feedback and please continue to support this book. Thank you for all the love and encouragement.

Happy reading readers ;)
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"Jihyo-yah, you're here" Jaesuk greeted me as soon as I sat down at my desk.

"Did you forget your bag at home?" Haha laughed.

Right!

My bag... Jongkook still had it. I left in such a rush earlier that I forgot to take it from him. How could I possibly face him after throwing a tantrum, I thought to myself.

"It will show up" I told him.

Just then, Jongkook came striding in with both our bags over his shoulders. When he reached our shared desk, he placed my bag on the table without saying a word and sat down on his seat beside me.

The look on everyone's face was priceless. Haha's jaws literally dropped and Jaesuk's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"Hyung did I see that right?" Haha asked Jaesuk.

"I... I think so" Jaesuk answered.

"She forgot her bag when she got off the bus so I took it" Jongkook lied to them.

"Jihyo, how could you leave your bag on the bus!" Haha scolded me.

"No... I... it must have slipped my mind" I spoke.

"Woah Jihyo, it's too early to have short term memory" Haha teased.

"It's a one time thing, I'm not usually like that"

Soon enough, the rest of the class began coming in and Somin with Sechan came just in time before our teacher entered the room. I still wasn't able to look at Jongkook in the eye, embarrassed of the tantrum I threw earlier on.

I slowly took off the jacket he let me borrow and slid it over the table to his side without saying a word. All he did was slide it back to me without hesitation.

"Keep it for later" he said monotonously.

I couldn't tell if he was angry at me or upset in any way. I couldn't recall anything that may have caused him to act that way towards me, so coldly all of a sudden.

"Just take it if you're going to act that way. Stop pretending like you care when your attitude says otherwise" I whispered back, quiet enough to keep off our teacher's radar.

"Jihyo, let's not do this"

I looked around and despite our teacher still speaking at the front of the class, I felt the glances of Jaesuk, Sechan and Haha towards us. Since they were nearby, I wasn't surprise they heard what I said. Although, I was a bit embarrassed.

I had to pick my battles and knew I wasn't on the battlefield yet. We were in class and causing a scene right there and then would have ended badly for us both. I decided to follow his advice and didn't speak to him again.

The day went on as usual with only one exception, Jongkook and I were still not talking to each other. We sat beside each other in every class we were in together but not a single word was spoken.

Up until lunch break he was nowhere to be found. He separated himself from the group while we all went to the cafeteria to eat.

"Are you having a lover's quarrel with Kim Jongkook?" Haha brought up the topic directed at me.

"What would we be fighting about?" I answered.

"Funny how you didn't deny being lovers with him in the first place" Kwangsoo pointed out.

"The joke is getting old and there's no truth to it anyway" I fired back.

"Woah, Jihyo-ya no need to get defensive" Haha said.

"Stop teasing her and maybe she'll be nicer to you two" Jaesuk scolded the two boys.

"Thank you" I worded out at Jaesuk.

He simply smiled back and gestured for me to keep eating the lunch I had packed for the day.

"By the way, Somin is still not back, is she okay?" Seokjin wondered.

"She hasn't been feeling well all day. She went to the toilet but it's been a while now" Sechan informed us.

"I'll go check on her" I volunteered, knowing I was the only one allowed in the girl's toilets anyway.

I ran as fast as I could, needing to go toilet too and got there in time to relieve myself. After I had finished my business, I washed my hands before checking the other stalls for Somin.

One by one, I gently kicked the doors open but none of them were even being used. No sign of Somin anywhere, I left and as I was about to turn the corner into the hallway, I stopped after I heard a familiar voice.

I bobbed my head out slightly to take a peek at who it was that I heard and saw Somin with Jongkook. They seemed to have gotten closer, talking and laughing together.

It was the most happy look he had all day, but around me he was just a big grunt who didn't seem to care about anything. I couldn't help but sigh at the sight I saw.

I couldn't understand myself at that point, I wanted to march up to them and confront the two of what the status of their relationship was but something at the back of my mind forced me not to, laying out the consequences for me instead.

What if they were together, what then?

I knew she liked him and she cleared that out for me, hell even our friends knew what she was like, the type to go for it. Maybe she achieved her goal.

Could it be the reason he distanced himself from me?

Why didn't he say something instead?

For some reason, my chest started to hurt, like strings were being pulled from my heart and I didn't know why. I had never felt that way, I wanted to break down and cry but for what reason, I kept asking myself.

I let the two giggling couple pass by before I finally stood out into the hallway and just then, the bell rang. It was time for class again, meaning I had to see and sit beside him again.

I walked back to the classroom and plopped myself down on my seat and laid my head on the table. Did I really see that right or was my mind playing tricks with me?

After a while, the students started to come back in and all of a sudden, someone dropped my bag on my table.

"Yah Jihyo, I thought you weren't forgetful yet? How could you not come back for your bag at least?" Haha scolded me.

"Sorry... I don't feel well"

While I talked to Haha, Jongkook took his seat beside me and must have overheard our conversation because he placed the back of his hand on my forehead to check for a temperature.

"Are you okay? Are you sick? Tell me if you are. Jihyo-ya" Jongkook fumbled.

"Forget it" I tossed his hand away from me and turned my head the other way instead.

*****
[KJK POV]

Stubborn as always, the girl whose back of their head I could only see, even if she pushed me away for unknown reasons, I couldn't help but care for her.

I thought the least I could do was to give her water. Luckily, I had an unopened bottle in my bag from lunch, took that out and slid it over to Jihyo. At first, she either didn't notice it or she chose to ignore it and kept her head turned from me.

"Jihyo-ya, can you at least drink some water?" I asked softly, nudging her ever so lightly.

When she finally lifted her head up from the table, she stared at the bottle of water for a while as if she thought about taking it or not. When she didn't move, I took initiative into taking the cap off the bottle before handing it directly to her.

I was just happy to see her take it, not realizing a big smile formed on my face, from ear to ear until she took a glance at me and almost immediately, put on a straight face to hide how I really felt.

Hours passed and class after class, I couldn't help but worry for Jihyo. Time went by slowly and it felt like days until the last class ended. In most of our classes, Jihyo looked less cheerful and kept her head down in almost every class.

I wondered how angry she was at me, it tortured me to know pushing her away may have taken a toll on her. I wanted to talk to her but she avoided my gaze at all cost.

"Class dismissed" the teacher announced.

The other students were quick to gather their things, put it in their bag and headed out. Jihyo was no different, she threw everything back into her bag. As I put my notebook back in my bag too, I didn't realize she had left my jacket on the table and left.

"Student Kim Jongkook, can you stay back please" Bopil commanded.

Since there were a few students left in the room, I couldn't defy his orders and nodded yes. I was so ready to chase after her and say sorry for possibly hurting her from being pushed away but something kept preventing me to do so.

Once all the other students left, I came forward to the front of the class and stood in front of Bopil's desk where he sat on his chair.

"What is it this time?" I asked.

"There's something I needed to tell you that kept slipping off my mind"

"Which is?"

He was in the middle of correcting test papers, he put his red pen down just beside one of the paper and looked up at me, adjusted his glasses with his index finger and furrowed his brows.

"You have to be careful using your vision" he bluntly said.

"Understood"

"You may not be aware of this but, Kim Jongkook is on a watch list. Every teacher in this school is tasked with looking out for you. As long as you are on school premises, someone is on the lookout"

"What? How did that happen? Is this something you did?"

"Please, why would I do that to torture a single reaper? It was decided since you came back to school" he chuckled.

"After the accident?" I mumbled.

"Do you even know what happened to the kid?"

"It was a car accident, and they brought him to the hospital but he went into a coma"

"It wasn't an accident" he clarified.

"What are you saying?"

"Kim Jongkook walked into traffic, he planned it out and even left a note for his mother"

It all made sense now. It was the exact reason why his mother was so worried about him, why she told me not to do it again. I didn't understand it at the time but now that I did, I felt ashamed for pushing away a worried mother.

The least I could do was to give her assurance but what good would come out of that once the real Jongkook woke up from his coma and who knew what he would attempt to do again.

"I understand" I told Bopil.

"Believe me when I say I'm looking out for you as a fellow reaper. I know you have some kind of hostility towards me because of what I did but I just did my job"

"Hostility is a strong word and I understand where you're coming from. Thank you for letting me know, I'll be more careful"

"Great, I hope we can work well together then"

He reached his hand out for a hand shake but before I could even take it, a blood curling scream was heard from down the hall.

"AAHHHH!"

Bopil and I immediately rushed down the hall and found the owner of the scream inside an empty room. It was a mess, papers were thrown on the floor, chairs and tables were flipped and other furnitures were disarranged.

I knew from the scream who it was. Jihyo was once again fighting for her life, but this time, from the old woman we met on the bus. She was chasing after Jihyo with a screwdriver in hand, ready to hurt her while Jihyo was determined to avoid the hits the old woman threw at her.

While the woman had her back to us, Bopil didn't hesitate to grab her while I rushed to snatch the screwdriver from her hand and threw it far away from us.

"She's possessed R76, find some sort of identitfication and call her out" Bopil commanded while he locked up the woman in his arms.

"R76 huh, I should've known you were the one out to get me" the woman maniacally laughed.

In the middle of my search for some sort of identification, what that woman said made me stop. I was ready to catch him there and then and knew exactly who it was hiding behind the vulnerable elderly.

"It's you" I told the woman as my eyes trailed up to her face.

"Been a while old friend. I knew someone was protecting that girl but I couldn't point my finger at who"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, oh boy's gone soft. Where's the tough guy that eradicated someone like me out of this world? It's not your job to protect her so stay out of my way"

"Not loving this renunion, R76 get on with it" Bopil intervened.

I went back to searching the woman and found her wallet inside one of her jacket pockets, took it out and almost immediately found her name on one of the cards.

"Go ahead and cast me out" the woman laughed.

I knew what he meant, he teased me for being unable to catch him until then. He wanted me to cast him out using his name, to finally battle it out.

"Cheon... Yongbae" I called.

"What are you doing? You can't do that right now" Bopil tried to stop me.

I was at a vulnerable state, where a lot of people could get hurt if I continued with what I was doing. I wanted to summon the spirit out of the woman to catch him so badly but, even if I did, I couldn't, not without Dongwook's help at least since I was stuck in a human body, that's what Bopil taught me.

I took a glance at Jihyo at the back of the room, collapsed at the wall, scared as she stared quietly at us. Tears were running down her face as well. I knew I couldn't risk her getting hurt, not again.

I looked at the card I held to get the old woman's name again, before looking back up at her.

"I knew you couldn't do it" the woman smirked.

"SHIN MISUN" I called out.

The old woman fell unconscious in Bopil's arms as he laid her down gently on the ground. Meanwhile, I ran over to Jihyo who was clearly still trying to process what had just happened. She was in a daze, staring blankly at whatever was in front of her.

"Jihyo-ya" I tried shaking her lightly.

"I..it happened...again" she mumbled.

"Are you hurt? Did she get you anywhere? Tell me!"

I felt frustrated knowing I wasn't there to protect her when I told myself I would do everything for her, to keep her safe. I became a big disappointment instead who couldn't even keep to their word.

"Jihyo, please answer me" I begged her.

When she finally looked up at me, her emotions took over and she started to bawl. Without thinking twice about my actions, I immediately flung my arms around her for a hug, and held her tightly like I didn't want to let her go.

"I thought I was going to die" she cried.

"I'm sorry I came late"

The only reason I let her go was because I wanted to see her face and wipe the tears away. My two thumbs guided the tears off her face as I tried to comfort Jihyo.

"She... she knew you" she spoke, catching me off guard.

She put the pieces together and I expected of what was to come next. I had two options, to tell her the truth or deny it till the end.

"W..what?" I acted dumb.

"Why did she know you? Also, Mr. Choi called you something else and that woman figured out who you were"

"Jihyo"

"He said she was possessed. Why were you looking for her i.d? When you called her name she suddenly fainted"

"You're still out of it Jihyo-ya"

"No I'm not! The same thing happened with Sechan. You shouted out his name and he fainted like that old woman!" she raised her voice at me.

"Uh... I..."

"Why are you always there when something happens to me? The woman said you were protecting me? What for? What do you know?"

"I...I..."

"Answer me!!"

"Jihyo, please calm down first"

"Who are you Kim Jongkook?"

Her eyes were desperate for answers. She stared right into my eyes, begging for her questions to be answered. I didn't want to lie any longer, not with her, when all she had been was be honest with me.

I hesitated to answer her. A part of me wanted to deny till the end but seeing her in that state, made me want to tell the truth even more. A few seconds of silence filled the room before I spoke again.

"Grim Reaper" I confessed.