WORDS. |Kim Seungmin

Thirty One.

"I'm going to check on Seungmin."

"Hmm." Aria hummed absentmindedly before her eyes widen and shoots her head up. "Wait! What? No!" She panicked.

Felix, who was on his way to the door, jumped in his place. The boy stopped to look at his sister in confusion. She was halfway up from the couch in their living room. "Jesus! You scared me, Ari."

"Don't go!" She ordered.

"Why? He might need food or something."

"No!" She yelled. "He's asleep. I texted him earlier and he didn't text back."

"But he texted me." Felix cocked his eyebrow.

"He's.. umm-" Aria sighed and sat down on the couch again. "Can't you just listen to what I say? Don't go, please. I'll be checking on him later."

"Okay, Aria." Felix said, dropping his shoulders. He turned to walk upstairs again but then he looked at his sister with a pitiful face. "You look horrible, by the way." He said then left.

She looked horrible for sure.

She had no sleep for even one second. She walked into her house almost by midnight and since then, she hadn't left her current spot. When she left Seungmin's house, she told him that she wasn't scared. She told him that she wasn't going to judge or treat him differently but she needed some time by herself to process what he told her.

And she was failing that.

She stayed up all night, replaying what he narrated in her head. At last, he turned to be a Punished. And it wasn't a small mistake. It was a crime that almost led to someone losing his precious life.

Seungmin told her about his last victim. The boy got serious depression after he was bullied by Seungmin's friends. He got hospitalized because the poor kid starved himself that he was almost losing his life. That's when his parents made an official complaint to the school but nobody helped them. The rich kids' families got the issue covered as always and the kids themselves lied in the testimonies, including Seungmin.

Aria knew that he wasn't the bullying one, but he was no difference from them. He shared the same guilt with them. He helped them do that, not only for once. He knew what they did to the victims. He knew all of that but kept watching.

"Guess he always liked watching." Aria scoffed lowly to herself.

Aria rested her head on the couch and closed her eyes. She knew she promised him not to judge, but she wasn't sure anymore. That was different from what she expected. She wasn't scared. She didn't hate him. But she was confused. She didn't know what to feel or how to act. The only thing she knew was that she wasn't going to punish him. She wasn't going to make it worse for him.

Imagining how he lived those years without talking, without using his voice or expressing himself in words, made her heart ache for him. Imagining how his rich family gave up on him cause he was a Punished, made her blood boils. Imagining how he was lonely, scared, and running from his past, made her pity him.

She sighed as she started replaying him telling her about how he got his first punishment. How he panicked in the school's toilet when the words written on his face refused to be washed away no matter how many times he washed his face.

She replayed him telling her how he kept scrabbing and rubbing his face, how he cried and yelled, how he broke down, how he went home, hiding his face and how his mother screamed in fear once her eyes landed on him. She replayed him telling her about how his parents gave him all the money he needed and asked him to move out and leave for good.

He told her how his panicked brain tried to fix things up, hoping that he would get cured of this curse. He changed the testimony regarding their last victim. He even reported his friends but what he did was no good for him. The curse wasn't broken and his friends turned on him. They said that he was the bully, not them. They even threatened -or paid- other victims to confirm that. That's how he left his hometown and started moving around until he settled in Aria's neighborhood. That's why he was running for years now.

Just like that day at the café.

When Aria thought that the rude customer was one of Seungmin's angry victims, he turned out to be one of his ex-friends. He was one of the bullies who recognized Seungmin.

Aria opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder through the window behind her. She kept her eyes on his house. Seungmin answered almost all of her questions but she still had some. She even started listing new ones. For example, what was the light that kept flickering all night long through his bedroom?

With her new curiosity building up, she stood to her feet, grabbed her phone, and walked to the front door, determined to come back with all the answers she needed.