Held By The Neck | Lee Eunhyuk

Chapter 2

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

The air seemed so tight around me, it was getting so hard to breathe. The look on that guard’s face was different, it looked grim, it looked murderous, sinister. Living alone, surrounded by darkness and horrible thoughts, practicing any breathing exercise has been a daily thing to do for myself but what I just saw moments ago made me feel something darker.

A few minutes has passed and I started to calm down. I didn’t notice that my phone was still in my grasp, held tightly like my life depended on it, cause it probably does.

“I don’t know what that was but I’m probably just freaking myself out” I said to myself.

Walking around the full but glum room, trying to find something to do, seems really boring and it does, it really does. I decided to lie down on my bed for some shuteye but my phone went off.

I let out a sigh, knowing who was calling me.

“Hello?” I picked up the phone.

“Nara? Have you heard?” the caller immediately asked.

“Heard about what?” I inquired. This person knows a lot of things that are going around here but not as much as the one who owns a tiny pomeranian dog.

“The new blood.” she answered.

I winced.

“Really? Of all the things you could’ve described a situation, you had to use blood?” I said, irritated and irked, not because of the caller so I immediately added, “Sorry, just not in the mood for anything. What were you saying again?”

“The one who just moved in, I don’t know what unit he’s in but it must be on your floor since there’s quite a few vacant roo-”

“Yeah, he’s on my floor. Next to mine actually. Why are you suddenly interested about the new guy?” I inquired.

The person on the phone isn’t usually one to be interested in a person, she’s the type to curse or find a flaw on them type of person.

“Nothing, it’s just that I talked to him just now, he was on the rooftop, standing at the edge.” she trailed off, “Hey Nara, I want to ask you something.”

“Yeah? What is it?” I said without realizing what she was about to ask.

“I was wondering if you’re doing okay? You know afte-”

“You know what? I actually forgot to check on something, I’ll call you back later.” I hanged up.

Don’t get me wrong, she was very caring despite her attitude towards other people, especially to me more than her brother which at first I thought weird but since she’s my best friend, I know the reason why but to be honest I really think that she’s just showing tough love to him.

I lowered my phone and looked around once more, expecting to see something out of place. Although I didn’t see anything suspicious, I did hear someone from outside.

“What are you doing?” the person outside asked.

I’ve seen all the people that lives in this building but even though I haven’t heard and distinguish some of them by their voice, the voice I just heard made me want to look at the peephole.