It had been five minutes, and she was still on the floor crying.

It had been five minutes, and Seunghyun was fed up.

He stalked out of the house, leaving the front door open. He stared out at the front yard, looking for any suspicious civilians on the street. Everyone seemed pretty normal, so he took a few steps forward to look past the bushes. Still nothing in sight. He sighed, turning and walking back into the house, closing and locking the door behind him.

“I checked. There’s no one out there” He said quietly, crouching beside her hunched over body. “Jayoung? Did you hear me? There’s no one out there” Seunghyun repeated, slightly confused and frustrated on how to help. He thought about when he was back in the car, when she was still shaken up. Reaching out, he grabbed her wrist, bringing her arm towards him. She offered some resistance, but he just used his strength, even if it was going to scare her. Placing the back of her hand in his palm, he ran his fingertip over her palm, to get her attention. “Jayoung, I want you to pay attention to what I’m tracing on your palm, and then I want you to tell me what it says. Do you understand me?” He stared at her, but took her silence as a yes. The pink haired male began to trace out the characters of a word on her palm, glancing at her quietly.

Jayoung’s breathing was shaky, but she tried to focus on the movement. She felt him pause after the first word; he was obviously awaiting her answer. “S-Seunghyun” Jayoung mumbled, and got a small noise of approval before his calloused fingers began to trace another word. “Youngbae” She said, remembering the cheery smile of the other from earlier this morning. Something about that smile was just so comforting. Unknowingly she started breathing along with his . When he made a line, she breathed in. When he lifted his finger, she breathed out. He could tell that it was already helping, but he wasn’t sure what to use. She only really knew two of the males. Gently he moved his finger, tracing out the characters on her palm. “Sa. . .” She frowned for a moment, lifting her head and looking at him. “Sarang?” Jayoung was confused, and she looked curiously at him. Seunghyun nodded a bit, smiling and nodding slightly.

“Right. Do you feel better now? Is your breathing calm?” He let go of her hand after helping her stand, watching her pull his jacket tighter around her body. She nodded in response, jumping as there was another knock on the door. Both jumped, and he glanced at her. “Calm down. Don’t worry” He moved to the door, glancing back at her to make sure she wasn’t panicking again before peeking through the peephole. He sighed in relief as he opened the door, digging the wallet out of his pocket. He placed the money in the delivery worker’s hand, taking the bag of food. “It was just the food being delivered” He called out after closing the door, turning to look back at her. She was chewing at her lip. Seunghyun came back to the table, placing down the food and unpacking it from the bag. “Can you grab some utensils. . .?” He trailed off, looking over at her. Jayoung was in the kitchen, pulling down some plates and metal utensils. He was slightly confused; he never ate takeout off of an actual plate. He took a few steps back as she took over, sharing the portions of the food between the two, hers obviously a smaller portion. She looked up at him expectantly; he finally clicked as he sat down in front of her.

“Eat well” She mumbled, pulling her hair back from her face as she took her first bite. He watched as she hummed appreciatively, smiling at her reaction. She glanced up at him, looking between him and his face.

“Oh-“ He nodded, quickly taking a bite of the butter chicken. “Mmm yum it’s really good” He smiled at her, watching as she let out a small snort. Seunghyun was proud of the small happy reaction he bought out of her. They both ate in silence for a few minutes, before one of them decided to break the silence.

“How old are you. . .S-Seunghyun-ssi?” She looked up, wiping a small grain of rice from beside her lip. He looked up, slightly surprised by the question. She looked at him, and he finally swallowed so he could finally answer her.

“I just turned twenty-nine in November, last year” He responded, looking at her with a small smile. He felt like she was actually trying to make an effort to become comfortable with him, and he appreciated it, especially with her current attitude towards most men.  “What about you, Jayoung? How old are you?” She bit her lip, looking down at her plate, picking out the chickpeas of one sauce and arranging them in a line around her plate.

“I’m twenty-four” She responded, earning a frown from the male. Jayoung was so young. . .but she had clearly gone through so much. Seunghyun wanted to probe further, but she didn’t look comfortable. He was itching to find out about her abuser, wanting to know who he was and how long this had been happening to her. But she was only just beginning to open up, and they’ve only known each other half a day. He had to learn how to respect her boundaries; he was never good at that though. He just had to ask something more.

Taking a deep breath, he laid down his fork and looked up at her. “Do you need to go collect clothes from your house?” He immediately regretted his words as her fork dropped with a clang, her arms immediately retreating to hug her waist. It seemed to be her way of keeping herself feeling safe. Her eyes watered slightly, and the girl rapidly shook her head in response.

“I-I-I can’t go back in there. He won’t be home but I can’t go back there. Never. He’ll know” Her voice grew softer as she spoke, eventually fading into a whisper that Seunghyun had to lean forward to be able to hear. Slightly unsettled, but still determined, Seunghyun stood up and moved to her side of the table, crouching beside her chair.

“What if we took you? Myself, Daesung, Youngbae, Seungri and Jiyong? Would you feel safer if we went there with you?” He slipped his hand into hers, squeezing her hand soothing and rubbing his thumb across the back. “What if we were there to protect you? Like we were your bodyguards?” Seunghyun spoke softly, watching as the tears began to well up and spill down her cheeks from fear of the place. “We promise no harm will come to you. I promise to let no one harm you” Her head hung low as she hesitated, her head nodding slightly in response. Jayoung sniffled slightly, wiping her eyes and opening to sleep.

“We need to go during the day. He works from eleven am to seven pm. We can only go between then” She spoke, lifting her head to look him in the eyes. Her eyes locked with his, and he could feel the slightest sense of trust in her deep brown orbs.