It was gone.  His second chance had turned to ash.
Kyuhyun stared at the charred remains of his studio.  There was nothing he could salvage there.  Everything was just…gone.  Destroyed by the flames.  He’d already called his students.  Kyuhyun had tried to reassure them that he would find another space.  He hadn’t mentioned that he didn’t have the money to rent another building.
“Are you all right?”
Kyuhyun glanced to the left.  As soon as he’d arrived at the scene, he’d realized that Kim Yesung was there, waiting on him.  He’d come straight toward him.   Yesung watched Kyuhyun with a guarded expression that made him tense.  “Please don’t ask me if I’m about to have a breakdown.”  Because that was the way he was staring at him.  As if Kyuhyun just shatter apart.  “I promise, I’m much stronger than I look.”  The female cop, Krystal—the one who’d given Kyuhyun a ride home the previous night—stood a few feet behind Yesung.  And Kyuhyun newest watchdog from Choi Securities, a guy named Daniel, waited about ten steps to Kyuhyun's right.  He'd quickly discovered that Daniel was the strong and pretty much utterly silent type.
“I’m sorry about your studio,” Yesung said as he inclined his head toward him.  “But I didn’t think you were about to breakdown.  I figured if you were, well, you would’ve done that last night.”
Kyuhyun squared him shoulders.  “Then you make one person…”
“Pardon?”
Kyuhyun blew out a hard breath.  He was so seeing his own dreams covered by black and gray ash.  “You make one person who doesn’t think I’m on the edge of some major meltdown.”
Yesung's eyes had narrowed.  “Did you do like I asked?  Did you think about Choi—”
Kyuhyun had to laugh.  “Siwon isn’t doing this to me.  Hell, he thinks I’m doing it to myself.”  Kyuhyun's arms felt chilled so he roughly rubbed them.  “Siwon, the cop up in New York, Yunho—”
“Uh, yeah,”  Yesung cut in, “I don’t know who the hell Yungo is, but you should know that I did some more talking with Detective Fuller first thing this morning.”
“You did?”
“He got another mechanic to look at the car.  There was still no sign of a rear-impact collision, but this guy did find something else.”  Kyuhyun's image was reflected back in his dark sunglasses.  “All of the brake fluid was gone.”
“What?”  The chill Kyuhyun felt got worse.
“With all the fluid gone, the car couldn’t stop.   That night, you were headed into the curve, and you must have tried to brake.”  Yesung raked a hand through his hair.  “You couldn’t, and the car lost control.”
It wasn’t just Kyuhyun's arms that felt chilled.  His cheeks felt the same way.  “Someone sabotaged the car.”   Krystal stepped closer.
Yesung darted a glance at Krystal, then he focused once more on Kyuhyun.  “It certainly looks that way.”
Someone had been trying to kill him, for months.  “I want this to stop.”  What did he have to do?  What?  “I can’t live this way.”  Being afraid.  Having a constant guard—no.
“We’ll find him,” Yesung said.  “Don’t worry.”  Easy for him to say.  It wasn’t his life on the line.  “With the new evidence, Fuller is re-opening the investigation in New York,”  Yesung continued.  “The jackass doing this is going down.”
Krystal gave a hard nod.
Kyuhyun's gaze darted between the two cops—and over to Daniel.  Kyuhyun wasn’t surprised to see that he had his phone out and at his ear.  The guy was probably briefing Siwon on this new development right then.
Siwon… Kyuhyun's gaze snapped back to Yesung.  “You think that jackass is Siwon.”
Yesung didn’t respond.
“It’s not.”
Krystal shook her head and rocked forward on the balls of her feet.  “Having too much faith in the wrong man could be dangerous.”
“Everything I do is dangerous these days.” Kyuhyun gave Krystal and Yesung a curt nod.  “Thanks for your help.”  Kyuhyun started hurrying away from them.  Daniel immediately fell into step with him.  Kyuhyun's big, six-foot-plus shadow.
“Kyuhyun!”
Pausing, he glanced back at the detective’s call.
“Tell me you aren’t staying with him.”  Tension had hardened Yesung's face.
“I won’t tell you that.”  Because Kyuhyun wasn’t planning to return to Siwon then.  He hadn’t lied when he told Siwon that he needed a break.
Does Siwon trust me?  Because, even after everything, Kyuhyun trusted him.  He always had.   “If you aren’t going back to Choi's place, then where are you going?”
Kyuhyun gaze slid to the wreckage.  “To find a new studio because I am not going to let my dream be taken from me.”  He'd find a way to get the cash that he needed in order to rent another studio. There has to be a way.  Kyuhyun wasn’t going to give up.  He just had to take things—   One step at a time.
That was how Kyuhyun recovered after the accident.  How he’d learned to ignore the pain and just walk.  One step at a time.
***   Yesung watched Kyuhyun walk away, his eyes narrowed.
“He didn’t seem particularly scared to me,” Krystal said as she came fully to his side.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Seemed more pissed, judging by the look in his eyes.”
Yesung turned his head and saw that Krystal's gaze was on Kyuhyun.  He followed Krystal's gaze and watched as Kyuhyun climbed into the passenger seat of a waiting car.  He newest guard slammed the door and then headed for the driver’s side of the vehicle.
“You’re sure he went home with Choi last night?”  Yesung asked Krystal.  Dammit, he’d warned Kyuhyun.  Why wouldn’t he take his warnings seriously?  He wanted to help him.  But he was starting to think Kyuhyun had a death wish.   “I’m sure that’s where he went.  It’s not easy to mistake that guy.”
No, it wasn’t.
“He rushed Cho out of the club and into that fancy car of his,”  Krystal said.  “They went to his penthouse and stayed in all night.”
I warned him.
“I guess some people like the danger too much,”  he said, voice gruff.  Yesung's sister had been that way.  He’d warned her, too.  Warned and buried her.  Am I going to bury Kyuhyun, too?
“Want me to keep up the detail on him?” Krystal asked.  Her long brown hair blew in the faint breeze.
“Yeah, stay close.  If you see anything suspicious, you let me know.”  Over her shoulder, he saw that the arson investigator was waiting to talk with him.
Like he needed the guy to tell him that the fire had been deliberately set.  That was ing obvious.  As obvious as the fact that someone was playing a sick game with Cho Kyuhyun.  A game that wasn’t going to end until Kyuhyun was dead.  Just like my sister.
 ***   This location could work.  Kyuhyun gazed around at the old fire station.  Okay, sure, most people wouldn’t think this place was primed to be a studio…   But this can happen. I can make this work.
Excitement and determination pulsed through him.  He’d make this studio even better than the other one had been.  He could get started right away.  If he worked fast enough, hard enough, then maybe he could even have the studio up and running in three weeks, maybe two.  The building could work, so now he just had to come up with the down payment for the place.  He’d already sold all of his possessions.  His credit cards were maxed out.  But…there were a few people who owed him some favours.  People like Donghae.  Maybe… maybe he could loan him the cash—
“I’m taking over, Daniel.  You can go now.”
Siwon’s voice.  Kyuhyun didn’t stiffen.  Didn’t start in alarm.  Right then, he was too hopeful and happy to stiffen up.  Daniel's footsteps padded away, but Siwon's didn’t come any closer to him.
Determinedly, Kyuhyun glanced to the left.  He found Siwon staring at him with a hard