"Eleven years ago
In the beginning of grade 7 when I and Chun jo were still friends. Bae kae was also our classmate and she had started clinging on to us. We started going out together and we easily liked each other.
Bae kae have a brother who was a senior, who was friend with Hwang Tao seo, another senior who wasn't fun to fuck with. With the way everything was, I thought the three of us were going to be friends forever. I liked bae kae but I liked Chun jo more.
Mid April that semester, bae kae asked me if I was free on Saturday which I answered by saying 'yes'.
"Will you go to the cinema with me" she had asked.
"Of cos, yes. What of you Chun jo, will you be free?" I asked. It was a Tuesday and the three of us were going home.
"No. My Saturday is fixed" Chun jo replied.
Every Thursdays and Fridays, Bae kae went to music class after school and won't returned home until past eight in the evening according to what she told us and this Thursday was no exception.
I was on my way to the school that Friday when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I ignored it but my mind was going back there so I took my phone out and checked the message. I was so shocked with what I saw.
A girl was lying nakedly on the floor, she had a cardboard on her chest with the word LEAVE TAO SEO ALONE boldly written on it and if I was right, the girl was bae kae or maybe she wasn't. Maybe she just resembled her. I couldn't think straight and I was praying that it was one of those pranks that some students like to play but no it couldn't be, not with Bae kae lying nakedly on the floor.
I ran like I had never run before. I ran to the extent that the air was almost knocked out of me and when I got to the school gate I slowed down, hungrily breathing in air. I concluded not to bring it up in the school at the school gate should in case I was mistaken but when I went inside the school, I realized it wasn't a joke and everyone was worried about the picture. Everyone was asking me about her whereabout and I told them that the last time I saw her was when she said goodbye yesterday.
I was looking everywhere for Chun jo who arrived ten minutes after my own arrival, who I thought will know what was happening but she was as clueless as all of us in the school.
Later in the day was when we heard that she was double crossed on her way home after the music class and was raped and beaten mercilessly. I, Chun jo and one representative from other classes promised to checked on her in the hospital where she had been admitted. But when we got there we were not allowed to see her because her father was in full rage, accusing every student of our school for the incident.
"How dare you all come near my daughter after everything you have done to her?. Oh... I get it, you people are here to check out the result of what you have done to her..." but none of us interrupted him because we felt his sorrow in his anger and so we left quietly.
That Thursday was the last time I saw Bae kae because her family moved out of the area not long after. Her father withdrew the case from the police with the saying "My poor daughter have suffered enough". At school few people thought the Tao seo was me because we were kind of close but almost everyone thought it was Hwang Tao seo, her elder brother's friend and we were never given the opportunity to go to the cinema.
Seven years ago
In grade 11, second semester, few weeks before Chun jo dumped Jeremy another shocking incident happened but it wasn't as bad as the one that happened to Bae kae.
Sogye, a grade 10 student whose best friend was Yena was adducted on her way to Yena's house. A picture of her carrying a cardboard on her naked chest was sent to everyone in the school with the word HE IS MINE AND YOU CAN NEVER HAVE HIM boldly written on it.
Some students said it was related to what happened to Bae kae but I saw no connection in it. When she later came back to school some students were trying to get the original details from her but she kept mute and she was never the bright Sogye that we knew again.