we the cursed, nct dream ✔

part fifteen

⇉ the one where they agree to investigate.

part fifteen

The door to their room bangs open.

"Ri-el, that is it." Reina steps in, breathing a little hard. Her roommate and friend stares back at her from where she has been lounging on her bed. Reina shakes her head. "I told you it wasn't just a coincidence. We have to let someone know - a teacher, student, anyone."

Ri-el sits up, eyes widening. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

"Yoon Jaesu was found dead in the pool just a few minutes ago." Reina's eyes are also wide, scared and haunted. "You know as well as I do that this cannot just be another random occurrence. You know."

"Okay, okay," Ri-el is now a little spooked too, exhaling hard before swallowing. But ever the voice of reason, she gets up and guides her friend over to her bed. "First of all, let's calm down. It'll be useless if we panic."

"Why did we ever even make that stupid list?" Reina wails, head in her hands. "This is all our fault, oh my god."

"No, it isn't," Ri-el says sharply, losing her cool for a moment. "We are not to blame. If all those people hadn't treated us like utter shit while lording their power over everybody else, we never would have gotten angry enough to make a fake hit list."

"Well, it's not so fake anymore." Reina raises anxious eyes to her friend. "You didn't kill them, did you?"

"Of course I didn't! We made that list in the heat of anger, okay? We'd finally had enough." Ri-el gets up. "Song Jihyi and Park Jaesu were the very first two mentioned on it, and I know it looks bad, but there's still a chance that this is a coincidence-"

"Who is killing them?" Reina runs a hand through her pale pink locks, fingers trembling. "Don't you get it? Someone saw our list, somehow, and they're slowly making their way down-"

"Isn't this what you wanted, anyway? The list was your idea!"

"Maybe it was, but that was just because I went mad after their bullying!" Reina shouts, and then immediately looks around to see if she was heard. She wasn't, of course. It's their dorm, and they're the only ones inside. "Why on earth would you ever think that I'd want them dead?!"

"Let's not fight, it'll only make this entire situation worse." Ri-el takes a deep breath in, closing her eyes. "You and I are the ones who drafted that list. We are the only people who know about it. How could someone else get ahold of it?"

"I don't know, but we have to tell Ms. Yang." Reina is shaking her head again. "We have to come clean and show it to her. It may help with the investigation."

She's just turned away when Ri-el grabs her shoulders, pulling her back to face her. "Don't be dense. The second we go and show that to the teachers, don't you realize who the prime suspects will then be?" She narrows her eyes at her best friend. "They're gonna think either of us, or better yet, both of us killed them. And then what? We'll be shipped right back to the outside world only to be thrown in jail even though we're innocent!"

Reina says nothing, seeing the truth in Ri-el's words.

"Listen to me carefully. We have to find out who stole our list, because they're most likely the real culprit. And then we can report them. That's the only way we can come out of this unscathed. For now, let them continue to suspect that new girl."

"But Juno is so sweet, she would never-" Reina stops. "Wait, what do you mean, stole?"

Ri-el sighs. "After we made it, I stuck it in the back of my Physics binder. But when I was looking for it there last week, it had disappeared." Reina's eyes widen, but Ri-el holds up a hand. "I knew it was going to freak you out, so I didn't say anything. But I've looked and looked and I can't find it anywhere."