Beauty Sleep // Chou Tzuyu✔️

Nineteen

-Sana-

Two knocks sounded on my door, and I looked up from the game of checkers Jihyo and I was playing. I was glad to be awake from my dark, lonely coma, and back in the real world. It was so caring of Jihyo to stay with me the whole time, even though the other members said it was because she was slowly going insane. Well, we'll go insane together.

"Ha! King me!" Jihyo said, smiling as I set one of the pieces I took from her on top of another.

"Come in," I told whoever was at the door. Maybe it was Dahyun with the flowers she said she forgot.

But it was actually Somi, who came in, looking as if she was in a hurry. Her hair was messed up, clothes wrinkled, as if she had been clutching onto them in different areas, her make-up was smeared as well. She looked as if she woke up from a night of partying.

"Nayeon unnie keeps saying I made you get hit by a car!" She said, closing the door quickly.

Jihyo froze in reaching for a checker piece, and she turned to Somi. "She's told us that, too. But don't worry. I don't think it's real."

"She's trying to kill me! She keeps saying 'you're next, you're next'! What do I do?"

"Stay away from her," Jihyo suggested. "She obviously needs some sleep. She's finding anything she can so she can pin the blame of Tzuyu's death on someone. It's a coping mechanism."

"Stay in here," I smiled, a bit painfully. It hurt to do much. Even hurt a bit to play chess. But I did it for Jihyo, because Jihyo needed the distraction.

Somi looked less tense. But she still asked, "Are you sure? Will that be okay?"

"Yeah! Just pull up a chair and watch us play. Or you can play instead of me."

Somi did as she was told, watching Jihyo and I play Checkers. In the end, it was Jihyo smiling and dancing in her seat. The victory didn't last long, as Jihyo reset the board and began playing against Somi. I had my eyes on them, but wasn't really paying attention. I thought about Nayeon's conclusion and her explanation. She had valid points, but the fault was Somi's age and innocence. Somi would never do something like that, never in a million years. Someone with a deep hatred would do that. Someone who planned it from the start...

I gasped loudly on accident, causing the two others to jump, Jihyo hitting her knee against my bed.

"What? What's wrong?" Jihyo frantically asked, hopping up to stand over me.

That night rushed back to me...the guy in black...Tzuyu being scared...it all made sense.

"Jihyo-ah, has Tzuyu ever talked to you about any problems towards our debut?"

Jihyo took a moment to think. "Of course, Tzuyu talked to me a lot besides you. She talked of back home, about training, and sometimes about a guy—"

"What guy?"

"I'm not sure," Jihyo frowned. "Just someone she's seen around the JYP building—"

"It's him!" I exclaimed. "The guy! He did this! He took Tzuyu! It all makes sense!"

If I wasn't bed-ridden, I would have gotten up and paced. But I settled on tapping my finger against my chin instead, Jihyo and Somi's eyes staring wildly at me.

"What guy?" Somi questioned.

"Two nights we saw a guy lurking around the building," I explained, hoping I didn't sound as crazy as Nayeon. I probably did. But at least my explanation made more sense. "He scared Tzuyu the first night I saw him, and the next was when Somi saw her in her...ghosty form. Remember, Somi?"