The rain beat down mercilessly on Kai, endless tears seeping from the torn skies, a torrent of darkness that saw little hope of receding anytime soon. He eyed the endless flocks of people milling about the streets below him like a God distastefully watching their people make a mess of things in the mortal world, as if he was above everyone and everything in this world, totally above reproach.

"Yet in God's eyes, we are all but equal - if there even is a God."

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Kai smirked. 

"Hyung, get off the balcony," Kai's roommate, Sehun scolded from inside their humble apartment, "You're gonna' catch another cold."

Kai scoffed, somewhat embracing the rain that chilled him to the bone, "We've travelled the entire world, seen a thousand different places and faces - a cold doesn't bother me."

Sehun groaned, "Well, you're gonna' get sick, and then give it to me - that's gonna' bother me god-dammit. At least put a rain-jacket on."

Kai rolled his eyes at his best friend's irritating antics - in contrast to Kai's flair for the dramatic, Sehun was more pragmatic about things, liked to analyse and decipher things, but still somehow wound up being dragged along with Kai's diabolical plans. Kai simply took life in his stride. After the things he'd seen in the past two years' worth of endless travelling, he'd given up on trying to predict the habits of ordinary people.

Always expect the worst.

Yet, as he made his way back to his room and began to dry himself up, he couldn't ever forget the images of that night just circling in his mind, reminding him of his true reasons for returning home (and dragging Sehun back with him, for that matter). 

The sight of Her long brown hair, matted and burnt at the edges, make-up-stained tears streaming down her face as an armed guard dragged her, mercilessly, into a club, where a smirking man stood staring at her, waiting for her.

Kai still felt the pains he bore from that night, consequence from bearing witness to a horrible crime. He flinched as he eyed the remaining bruises from his broken ribs, the countless stitches along his gut from where the bottle had pierced his skin. Worse, he still had no idea what happened to the girl he saw snatched that evening. The pain he felt physically was miniscule in comparison to the guilt he felt inside.

But he knew what he had to do.

Kai stared at himself in the mirror, his handsome face contrasted by the handsome, fading bruise underneath his eye, his clothes simple, yet stylish as they clung to his muscular frame. The carefully, put-together appearance of someone hiding a dangerous secret. He sighed, before grabbing his trusty, patterned backpack he'd picked up in Budapest, before wandering into the main area.

The boys insisted on living in a small abode in one of the more quieter areas of the town, but upon hearing of his son's return, Sehun's father, the college Dean, immediately had a high-end penthouse prepared for the boys; Kai was happy to have it, a perfect bachelor pad for parties and the like, but Sehun (ever-prideful) rejected it, so instead, they moved three floors below into a more humble, studio-loft. Kai couldn't help but feel jealous of Sehun's over-protective father.

Not all fathers are so protective - in fact, some are just the opposite.

"Remind me, why are we suddenly deciding to enroll in college?" Sehun asked as he played (more like continually lost) a round of Call of Duty on their TV. He was still confused over Kai's sudden change of heart over travelling. Sehun had always been up for college, but somehow, Kai had managed to convince him that life was better spent on the road.

Kai was snapped out of his treacherous thoughts, and scolded himself for drifting. But then again, he'd never been a stranger to drifting.

"Because," Kai answered as he took a hefty sip of his black coffee from the counter, "I've decided that we do not abhor all forms of forced education that our parents have tried to unto us, and that we finally want to settle down despite only pursuing half of the travels we'd initially planned."

Sehun shrugged, once again dragged along with Kai's excuses, "Sounds good enough to me."

Yet Kai could never bring himself to tell his best friend his true reason for coming home, his true reasons for enrolling into college, let alone the truth behind the night that almost left Kai as good as dead. Kai remembered the excuse he gave Sehun when he came home bloodied and bruise - bike accident in Hong Kong. And he bought right into it. Sehun may have been a genius mathematician, but he was a terrible people-reader.

They set off through the early morning, Seoul traffic, busy as they always remembered it being, but not enough to make them late for orientation as they were stuck behind seemingly endless cars and buses on their journey to campus. After parking Kai's car up, they were met by the eager smiles of recruitment students donning hideous high-vis shirts, violently pointing them towards the main lecture theatre where their day would begin. Yet as Sehun absent-mindedly soaked up all the information being thrown at him in the countless manual, guides and maps, Kai grew nervous.

When they took their seats in the lecture theatre, far enough in the corner as not to attract unwanted attention, Kai's eyes scanned the theatre, near-paranoid. He began tapping his foot endlessly, rubbing his sweaty palms together constantly in a bid to distract himself. Even the arrival of Sehun's father, the University Dean, on the stage didn't evoke any distinct reaction from Kai (although Sehun remained reluctant to react too, considering his 'baby-son' status).

Where will she be? How will I tell her? Will she remember? Would she want to know?

Soon enough they were being ushered out of the lecture hall, the Dean's words going in one ear and out the other, caught up in the chaotic flurry of freshman students (all younger than Kai and Sehun by a couple of years), with even less idea of what to do or where to go than everyone else. Even as Director Oh came to personally greet the two boys, and congratulate them on their sudden decision to enrol in university, Kai was focused on something else. His eyes constantly pried the faces of passing students, trying his hardest to keep an eye out for her. Yet no luck. 

"Jongin?"

"Sorry?" Kai shook his head at Mr Oh's use of his real name. He scolded himself for zoning out again.

Mr Oh chuckled, Kai practically like a second son (even if he did lead his own astray), "I'm glad you've decided to pursue the path of education, I'd hate to see that brain of your's go to waste."

"Don't worry Sir," Kai smiled respectfully as Sehun stood by, embarrassed at his father's intrusion, "I don't plan on wasting anymore time."

Oh, how that's a lie.

"That's the spirit!" the Dean cheered, pumping his fist in the air much to the chagrin of his son, "Now, Sehun, let me take you to the Mathematics building - you're gonna' love it."

"No, Dad, no!" Sehun pleaded as his father dragged him along. Kai smirked as he watched his best friend fall victim to his father's coddling. But he had his own matters at hand. 

"So she's in third-year now. If I was a third-year, where would I be..." Kai wondered as he began to traverse through the mass campus, completely caught up in the hustle and bustle of everything, without actually paying attention to the state-of-the-art technology, high-end theatres, the scents wafting out of every restaurant, the club-lines in the Students' Guild area, even the gawking stares of female (and some male) students didn't phase him. He needed to find her.

It was only when Kai started to give up, and debated flunking his first lecture in Philosophy and head to a bar, that a glimmer of hope appeared right before his eyes. 

A student bullet-in board, with a well-designed poster for a Vegan-Coffee shop, stared him right in the face - he recognised the workers pictured in the photos. In fact, Kai recognised most of them; the owner, Siwon, was a neighbour of his when he grew up in his mother's house, in the richer part of Seoul; Key, a student a couple grades above him in highschool, the best English speaker (especially for an International School), and Kai smirked at his change of hair colour, but his maintained sense of fashion; Luna, the girl who used to sing in Kai's church choir (long before he stopped going); Amber, the girl-bully of the school who used to give Kai's old friend and former Head Boy, Jongdae, wedgies whenever he didn't give her his lunch money. 

That girl was Queen of after-school detention service.

And last of all, Jung Soojung - or, as he remembered, she preferred 'Krystal'. 

We've both abandoned our names - our identities.

Kai was slightly shocked to see she no longer donned the cherry-red hair or green contact lens that she was renowned for in high-school, but rather her natural, dark brown, her eyes dark and cold as she failed to smile for the photo. For a split second, Kai saw the girl from the alley that night in Hong Kong - her sister. Jessica.

Kai's sense of purpose that had quickly dimmed throughout the day returned upon this haunting reminder. He didn't come here to settle down or actually build an education - he came to clear his conscience. An old, high-school acquaintance who needed to know facts. Facts that could lead to the truth. It would no longer be his weight to bear, but her's.

Kai couldn't keep this held in any longer, he had to tell someone. The whereabouts of Krystal's sister, Jessica, would no longer remain a mystery, hopefully. But once Kai could tell her what he saw that fateful evening, his part would be played, and he could return to the life he loved. 

But, as he made his way towards said coffee shop near campus, a dreaded feeling in his gut told him that this wouldn't be over so easily. 

He stopped outside the shop, peering in through the wide windows at the shop with it's warm colour palette and modest, cosy interior - he saw Amber expertly serving up cof