Faded // Bang Chan

Chapter 17 - Mystery Blonde

Multiple shouts filled the air but Chan couldn't distinguish the owner of the voice. He welcomed the throbbing pain in his face as one punch after another found its way onto his bloodied skin. He didn't scream or thrash or even flinch, he remained perfectly still, allowing his jaw to be met with a hard blow.

Chan's serene state fueled Jaeyoung's anger, causing Kang Dae to have a hard time pulling him off of Chan. "That's enough! Leave Chan be!" He yelled as he tugged at Jaeyoung's shirt, urging him to get off of the younger boy's smaller frame. Jaeyoung laid a final punch to Chan's cheek with a proud smile before getting up and looking down at the damaged boy. "Don't forget who's boss, you little fuck!" He spat and then turned and walked away from the group.

Sungjin took a step forward to follow but Kang Dae held his hand out to block him. "Tell me what the hell that was about!" He demanded, a stern look being shot at Sungjin who awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

Sungjin looked over at Minjae who nodded, confusing the oblivious Kang Dae further. Sungjin sighed deeply before tugging at the roots of his hair, hesitant to tell the truth on his knowledge.

"It's about In Ho. In Ho wrote three suicide notes but all I know is that one of them is about a girl called Bo Ra. I don't know anything about the other two. Dongwoo knows more than I do - he's in possession of one of them." Sungjin admitted in defeat. Sungjin had hoped it would never come to the point where Kang Dae would get involved in the Chan and In Ho incident. He had always viewed it as a sensitive subject that would never be fully solved so getting involved seemed pointless.

"Why the fuck am I finding this out now!" Kang Dae yelled, throwing his hands in the air in protest. Minjae's tense shoulders relaxed as he realised the tipsy effect hadn't worn off on Kang Dae yet. All the boys knew how bad Kang Dae's memory was after a few drinks, giving them both a sense of relief.

"Should we stop him?" Minjae distracted as he pointed to Chan who was hobbling away from the scene. "Leave him! I need to deal with you two first!" Kang Dae barked. Perhaps he wasn't as tipsy as they had first thought. Chan was more than thankful for the distraction because now he knew exactly where he needed to go. Everything seemed to lead him to Dongwoo. Why did Dongwoo have that letter and how did they know there were two more? Chan couldn't stand being in the dark any longer and he was determined to spend the rest of his life searching for the answers that seemed so out of reach. He often wondered what it was that pushed In Ho to have suicidal thoughts but a deep fear in Chan made him believe it was the due to the last conversation he ever had with In Ho, October 14th 2015.

Her plan had never been to just ditch school but what else could she call jumping the wall to escape onto the streets as? Chan had made it look so easy before but it was only as she dug her nails into the wall, desperately attempting to pull herself up to the top that she had realised how weak she really was. With much effort she managed to haul her small body to the top, feeling quite proud of herself.

"Still got it!" She smirked to herself as she thought back to her old life of skipping school and running away from the authorities. She hopped off the wall, landing firmly on her two feet before flipping her hair over her shoulder and straightening her school blazer. Na Ri began on her way down the street, ignoring the curious looks she got on her way. This was all too familiar to her life back in Daegu, the seemingly endless string of petty crimes and misdemeanours that caused her family so much grief. She couldn't deny it, the feeling of adrenaline coursing through her body was a feeling she had greatly missed since moving to Seoul but she pushed away the thought nearly as soon as it came to her.

Na Ri knew getting caught was inevitable, she had no doubt the school were aware of her past and the trouble she caused and knowing her dad as well as she does, there's no way he didn't warn the principal to keep a close watch on her attendance and behaviour. Na Ri was trying hard to keep her past self at bay, she'd never even considered properly skipping classes until this morning when her lack of concentration in class turned into a pounding headache and a strong urge to be miles away from Bo Ra who wouldn't shut up about Jungsoo at the party.