CHAPTER 2: COMFORTABLE

“What the…” Hayleigh’s eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the light of the room. She was sitting upright, but she couldn’t move her hands and legs. When she looked down at her wrists, they were bound to the arms of the wooden chair she was sitting on. Beside her were Sehun and Minseok, in the same situation. It wasn’t the first time that something like this has happened to them, but she felt different. For the first time in years, she was scared. 

A man clad in a suit and tie slowly made their way towards them, adjusting his cufflinks. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, with light brown hair, and a bitter smile. Su Daewon.

“Why did you bring us here?” she shouted at him.  

“Now now, Miss Diaz. I have no intention of doing anything to the three of you. I only have a few questions.”

He crouched to her level and gave a smile that was in no way warm.

“Who are you really and who do you work for?”

“Like, do you really not know my name? Ugh, fine. My name is Cassidy Diaz. I’m the heiress of a multi-national company! Do you treat all your guests like this? My husband and I will make sure that you hooligans will—“

The man narrowed his eyes at her, pulled out his gun and pointed it to her head. “I don’t like liars, miss Diaz. Bad things happen to people who lie to me.”

She inhaled sharply. This guy meant business. 

“Stop. Don’t point the gun at her, she knows nothing. I’ll tell you what you need to know. 제발.”

Sehun’s words sent warning signals to Hayleigh’s brain. He was getting reckless again. She needed to stop him before he did something stupid, so she broke character.

“He’s lying! Look, these two have nothing to do with me. Let them go, and…I’ll tell you what you want to know. Then you can kill me after. “ 

 “Aww, look at you two protecting each other.” Baekhyun’s chuckle quickly faded to a look of disgust.

“I’ve always hated people like you.” 

He pulled the gun away from her forehead and walked in front of Sehun. Hayleigh eyed Minseok, who mouthed the words “I know” as he tried to free himself from the ropes tied around his wrists. Things were getting worse, fast. At this rate, Sehun was going to get shot and she and Minseok were going to be next.

 “I’m going to ask you one more time, Miss Diaz.” he said as he pointed the gun in between Sehun’s eyes, “Who sent you?” 

Hayleigh didn’t know what to do. Risk losing Sehun and possibly Minseok, or risk exposing Y.A.C.? 

“Cassidy,” Sehun warned, “don’t.”

Her heart sunk.

“I—I can’t.”

He looked at her, disappointed. His disappointment was quickly replaced by a look of annoyance. 

“Maybe you’ll tell me if I do this.”

He pulled the trigger and the sound of a gunshot echoed in the room. Hayleigh screamed as Sehun’s body went limp and blood trickled down his face.
 

“NO!”

 

Hayleigh’s eyes flew open as she gasped for air. She slowly sat up on her bed and started crying. She couldn’t stop seeing the blood leaking out of the gaping hole in Sehun’s head.

It was just a dream. Calm down. It was just a dream.

Sehun heard Hayleigh’s shout and ran straight to her room. Had someone found them? He barged in only to find Hayleigh sitting up on her bed, sobbing. He sat down beside her and pulled her into a hug.

“Nightmares again, huh? Whatever happened, it wasn’t real.” he cooed while her hair. After a couple of minutes, she slowly pushed Sehun away from her. 

“I—I’m okay. Ugh.” she sniffed, wiping away her tears. She let out a small laugh and covered her face with her hands.

“This is embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry about it. Uh, do you want to talk about it?”

“I-It’s nothing. C’mon, I’ll make breakfast.” Hayleigh got off the bed and started heading for the door when Sehun tugged on her wrist, causing her to fall backwards back onto the bed. Hovering above her, he pinned her wrists and raised his eyebrows. 

“That wasn’t nothing.”

Hayleigh rolled her eyes at the boy. “You’re getting sloppy, Oh.”

“What?”

“You forgot the ankles.” 

Smirking, she quickly raised her knees to her chest and pushed at Sehun’s pelvis, making him flip above her and onto his back.

“If you must know, it was about you.” She muttered before sliding off the bed and heading out the door. Sehun quietly followed behind her, knowing that he shouldn’t push the topic if she really didn’t want to talk about it.

Hayleigh opened the cupboard and grabbed the last box of pancake mix and tossed it to Sehun.

“You know what to do.” She said while she took a few eggs and some bacon from the fridge.
 

30 minutes later…
 

“What time is it?” Sehun asked before taking another sip of his coffee. 

“It’s almost noon, but I think this is good enough for brunch. I’ll go ahead and get ready.” Hayleigh stood up and placed her dishes in the sink before heading to her room. She grabbed her towel and toothbrush and made her way to the bathroom. She slowly stepped into the shower and switched the heat on. Little by little, she forgot about her terrible dream, and she started singing.

Sehun finally finished his breakfast and washed the dishes.

“Aish, this girl.” he muttered in his native language. “Still refuses to wash the dishes whenever I’m around. What am I, a maid?”

When he finished drying off the plates and placing them onto the rack, he made his way to his room to pick out his outfit. On the way there, he passed by the bathroom and heard Hayleigh singing in the shower. He shook his head and laughed to himself.

“Yah! You’re in the shower, not Madison Square Garden.”

“Go step on a lego, Oh. You’re just jealous I can sing and you can’t.”

“I’m actually an amazing rapper, for your information. Anyway, double time Santiago! It’s almost 12:30. Don’t forget to pack necessities, we’re probably flying today. Let’s not repeat what happened last time, alright?”

Luckily, the clothes that Y.A.C. had stocked in the closets were comfortable and fashionable. Hayleigh gave a satisfied smile as she turned to face the mirror, checking out her outfit.

“They sure know how to pick ‘em.” 

She left her room and knocked on Sehun’s door. “Hey, are you ready yet? We still have to find our way to HQ.”

Sehun opened the door and sighed. “I know, I know. Let’s go look for that passage.”

Hayleigh stifled a giggle while looking at Sehun’s choice of clothes. She knew he wasn’t that stylish, and since she saw him in a suit most of the time, she didn’t know that he was that bad.

 

“What?”
 

“No. Nope. Non. Anieyo. You are not going to HQ with that outfit. I won’t allow it.” She pushed him aside and entered his room. Sehun deadpanned, but followed her inside.

“It’s comfortable. I like it.”

“Well, Sehun,” Hayleigh started, “did you know that you can dress comfortably and not look like a boy at the same time?”

“What? What’s a boy?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain, but all I can say is you’re dressed like one.”

“You act like such a mom, you know that?”

“I do.”

She opened the closet and brought out a light grey shirt, denim jeans, and a silver leather jacket, throwing them on the bed. 

“Wear these, quick.”

 “Sometimes I forget why you’re the leader. But this reminds me why.” 

“Double time, Oh! I’ll bring our stuff to the living room.” she said, quickly grabbing his luggage before leaving the room. Sehun closed the door and sighed.

“Bossy as always.” 

 

Sehun opened the door and made his way to the living room to find Hayleigh sitting at the piano again, trying to play a song. He cleared his throat, making Hayleigh look at him. She gave him a satisfied smile and stood up.

“It suits you, I like it.”

“Thanks. But anyway, back to business. What did Magnus say about finding the passage?”

“Cap said that “we’d need a little hand soap for that one”, meaning there are only two possible places that the passage could be in.”

“The bathroom and the kitchen.” 

“Exactly. Let’s split up. Which one do you wanna check out?”

“I’ll go bathroom, and you can check the kitchen.”

“Okay. Tell me if you find something.”

“Mm.”

The two went in opposite directions. Hayleigh checked out the hand soap bottle in the kitchen. She checked if anything was hidden under it, but there was nothing. She tried pressing the top of the soap dispenser 25 times, once, and thrice to spell out YAC, but it didn’t work.

“Ugh. I just wasted soap.”

Suddenly, a loud groan echoed around the house. It sounded like walls moving and metal moving.

“Sehun?” Hayleigh shouted from the kitchen. She made her way to the bathroom to find the sink and medicine cabinet replaced by an open passage with a staircase going down. 

“I--I think I found the passageway.”