Page 205 of Scarbound

Noeul gave a faint, humorless laugh. “You’d think the first.”

“But?”

“The second could be worse.”

Dr. Kim didn’t interrupt.

“There was one Saturday.” Noeul leaned back slightly. “I’d made plans to go out with the guys. Nothing special. We were just going to the park. Maybe get something to eat later. Normal weekend stuff.”

“And Gong?”

“He’d been acting strange all morning.”

“How?”

“He kept following me around while I got ready. Watching everything I did.” Noeul paused. “He’d been attached to me for a while by then. Always asking where I was going, what I was doing, when I’d be back. So at first I didn’t think much of it.”

“But that day was different.”

Noeul nodded. “There was something about the way he looked at me.” He stared somewhere beyond Dr. Kim. “When I grabbed my jacket, he finally said, ‘Noeul… do you have to go out today?’”

“What did he look like?”

“Scared,” Noeul answered immediately. “Really scared. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt, and his eyes were…” He searched for the word. “Pleading.”

“What did you say?”

“I told him I was meeting the guys. That I’d only be gone for a few hours.” Noeul could still hear Gong’s answer. “Then he said, ‘Can’t you stay here? We can do something together. Play the new video game or read manhwa. Please, Noeul. Stay home today.’”

Dr. Kim watched him carefully. “You remember his exact words.”

“Most of them.”

“Why do you think that is?”

Noeul’s jaw tightened. “Because I should have listened.”

Dr. Kim didn’t respond to that.

Noeul continued before she could. “I told him we’d do something together when I got back. I said I hadn’t seen the guys in days and wanted to see them.” He swallowed. “But it was like he couldn’t hear me anymore. He just kept shaking his head.”

“What happened next?”

“He said something bad would happen if I left.” Noeul’s hands had gone still. “He said he’d seen it.”

“Seen what?”

“That I wouldn’t come back.” His voice became quieter. “He said, ‘They’ll take you.’”

“Did he tell you who ‘they’ were?”

“No.”

“What did you think?”

“That he was hallucinating. Or paranoid. I don’t know.” Noeul shook his head. “I kept telling him there was no one there.”

“And did that help?”