[CONTENTID1]sorry[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Chapter Thirty Six[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

THIS IS PART 1/2 OF A DOUBLE UPDATE.

It was if time had slowed down around Baekhyun. Jakyung was here, in his arms. She was drunk, and blonde, but that didn’t matter. She was here.

“I don’t understand,” he said dumbly, wanting to slap himself the moment the words left his mouth. Jakyung attempted a serious look.

“Hi. My name is Jack Parker,” she stuck out her hand and dissolved into another fit of giggles. “Sorry, sorry. I mean, Park Jakyung. I’m not in New York anymore.”

“No, you’re not,” Baekhyun said. After all the time he spent being mad at her, all the time he wanted to tear the world apart in order to find her, now that she was here, he didn’t know all what to say.

“I probably shouldn’t have had so much to drink. But you know; it numbs everything out. Everything in here.” Jakyung said, her voice going serious. She grabbed his hand and placed it on her chest right above her heart. “And in here.” This time, she took her own trembling left hand and tapped the side of her head. Baekhyun continued to stare as if she had sprouted a unicorn horn in the middle of her head.

“Noona!” Kai shouted from across the room. He waved the pill holder triumphantly in the air, and made his way over. The first thing he noticed was Baekhyun’s hand sitting on her . Kai raised an eyebrow at his dazed, older friend and slowly removed his hand for him, and pushing him back a few steps. “I’m not even going to ask what that’s about.”

“I’m sleepy Kai,” Jakyung said, making a grab for the square container. Kai handed it to her and grabbed the unfinished glass of water from the bar. She washed down one of the small pills with water and shoved the now closed container into her cleavage. At Kai’s amused look, she grinned and shrugged. “This dress doesn’t have pockets.”

“You’re ing insane,” Baekhyun said suddenly, his tongue coming untied. He leveled his gaze with Jakyung’s inebriated one, and all of his anger and frustration came rushing back. “An absolute ing madwoman to think that you can just show up here and everything will be fine again. Do you know how ing worried I was? Do you even have a brain? I can’t believe you would do that to me, to just leave like that. I can’t believe you would– ”

Jakyung slapped him clear across the face, startling both him and Kai. They stared at her, wondering where the silly-drunk Jakyung from moment prior went so quickly. She had a fire burning in her eyes, an intense look filled with rage and hurt. Neither man moved, stunned into silence.

“I don’t expect you to be thrilled that I suddenly show up like this. But I do expect a level of understanding from you of all people, Byun Baekhyun.” Her voice was low and dangerous nad her heated look sent a shiver down the spines of both men. “I came here with the intention of apologizing. But clearly I was mistaken to think that you all could be mature and at least hear me out.”

At this point, some stragglers to the party had stopped to watch the exchange with interest. She turned her gaze to them, and her glare intensified.

“Does this look like a ing TV drama to you?” She hissed, and several of them scattered. The only ones left were the rest of the EXO gang, who were sporting looks ranging from confusion to surprise to amusement. Jakyung turned her attention back to Baekhyun.

“You think I’m insane? You’re absolutely right. What do you think these are for?” she yelled. She pulled the pillbox back from her cleavage and threw it at him, where he caught it before it could tumble to the ground. “I’ve got years of psychological and physical abuse under my belt, not to mention this.” She yanked the glove off her left hand and held it up for him to see. The scar tissue was pink and puckered and stood stark against the paleness of the rest of her skin. Her hand trembled and her fingers curled involuntarily, and no matter how much she tried to extend her fingers, they would not move.

“Jakyung—” Kai began, but she plowed on before he could stop her.

“You don’t understand how I could do this to you? This isn’t about you, Byun Baekhyun,” she spat his name with such contempt, it seemed poisonous. She lowered her hand, but didn’t bother replacing the glove. “For some reason I was under the impression that you would at least understand why I might not want to be in this place, surrounded by reminders of the deaths and destruction that came about because of who I am and who my family is. Clearly I was wrong.”

She closed her eyes, trying to control her breaths, trying to push back the emotions she’d held back successfully the whole night. But it was too late, her outburst had broken the mental dams she’d built and even the medication wasn’t working fast enough. Her steady breathing turned into quick gasps for air, and her body seemed to shrink in on itself, and the tears came faster than she could wipe them away. The sound of her own heart beating wildly filled her ears and she could do nothing but let it happen. Twelve pairs of eyes watched her unravel, and listened to the sound of her sobs, temporarily unable to do anything but watch the undoing of their friend.

And then there was a pair of arms around her shoulders, and a calm voice speaking words she couldn’t understand. Her vision was blurred by tears, but she knew that whoever was trying to comfort her was now leading her up the stairs and to a room. Then she was being sat down on a bed and pulled even closer into those warm arms. The words they whispered – no, sang – to her became words she understood.

“Baby don’t cry tonight; after the darkness passes.” Like magic, she could feel the panic attack subsiding, she could feel her breath start to regulate. “Baby don’t cry tonight; it’ll be as if it never happened.” He continued to sing, and she continued to feel herself returning to normal. She could feel the medication start to work and her mind drifting into the nebulous, white space of sleep.

Chen sang until he was sure she’d passed out from either exhaustion or the medication kicking in. She was still trembling, so he pulled the blanket over her, and extracted himself from the bed as carefully as possible without waking her. He stared at her for a moment more before leaving his room and heading back downstairs. Before he even reached the bottom, he could already hear Baekhyun being ripped a new one for the second time that night.

“You’re an absolute idiot,” Kai raged, holding back from hitting the older man. “Couldn’t even wait until you were both sober to start running your big ing mouth and making everything a bigger deal than it already was. Of all the stupid things you could say, and you said that. You pick on her insecurities like she means nothing to you without trying to understand her end of things. ing brilliant. A real ing Einstein we’ve got here.”

“Kai that’s enough,” Suho said sternly, though he was feeling much in the same way. “Obviously this was not the way anyone intended for the night to go, but it’s happened, so now we have to deal with the consequences. How is she, Chen?”

“Sleeping in my room,” he replied, trying to not look in Baekhyun’s direction. While he, too was angry and hurt and confused at Jakyung’s actions, he knew that Baekhyun’s outburst was unnecessary. “I think she’ll be alright.”

Kai sighed and shook his head. “She shouldn’t be left alone for too long.” At the questioning looks, he explained, “The side effects of the medication include sleepwalking and very vivid dreams, especially nightmares.”

“He’s right,” Xiumin said, speaking for the first time since everything had calmed down. “The nightmares are bad.”

“How would either of you know that?” Luhan asked, confused. “Didn’t she just get back today?”

“Why do you think I’ve been going to New York so often; for my own health?” Kai asked. “I’m guessing you found out and made a little trip of your own then, hyung?” Xiumin nodded; it didn’t need to be known that the one and only time he had gone had ended in him lashing out at her much like Baekhyun just did. It already bothered him to know that she had to suffer the subsequent panic attack by herself; at least this time, there was someone around to take care of her.

“Alright, alright, it’s clear that a lot of things need to be explained,” Suho jumped in again. “It can wait till tomorrow. I don’t care what you do; as long as you don’t fight and as long as you don’t disturb Jakyung.”

“I’ll move her to my room,” Kai said, heading to the stairs. “She’s less like to panic when she wakes up.” He didn’t wait for any responses, and with a last scathing look at Baekhyun, disappeared up the stairs.

+++

The next morning found Jakyung waking up with not only a hangover, but with puffy eyes and the specific desire to beat Baekhyun to a pulp. Kai was curled up next to her on the bed, his cocooned around him. It had been the reason she’d woken up in the first place – she was cold – but the sight of him looking so peacefully content while sleeping relaxed her just a tiny bit. Glancing down and seeing that she was still in the clothes she’d worn the night before, she wiped her car keys from the night stand and quietly rolled out of the bed.

She was hoping not to encounter any of the others as she made her way down to the garage, but she had no such luck.

“Wow. You look… interesting,” Chanyeol said from his perch on the kitchen island. Jakyung flinched, clutching at her heart.

“, Yeol. What are you doing up so early?” Jakyung hissed, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Chanyeol chuckled and shook his head.

“I actually just got back,” Chanyeol explained. “Went home with a girl last night. She was cute, but eh; too serious.”

“Right,” Jakyung replied, dragging out the word. Through her hungover haze, she vaguely remembered seeing him the night before. “I have the odd feeling that I may have accidentally, uh, felt you up last night. Sorry about that.”

Chanyeol had the decency to blush and give a short laugh as he recounted the event. “Yeah. Right after I found you and Kai we started dancing together and I gotta say, you got pretty frisky. I guess that’s what a dozen shots of Tequila will do to you. If I wasn’t afraid of what you would do the next morning after drunkenly sleeping with you, I would have gone for it.”

“You find me scary?” Jakyung was incredulous. “Aren’t you the big bad gangster that likes peeling people like oranges? I could only imagine what sorts of freaky things you get up to in the bedroom. Thanks but no thanks.” She couldn’t help but grin in response to his proud look.

“I am pretty good at “peeling people like oranges,” as you put it,” he boasted. Jakyung rolled her eyes. He noted the keys in her hand. “Are you leaving already? We all wanted to see you.”

“I don’t think all of you want to see me,” she said with a bit more sting than she intended. “But no, I’m just grabbing some clothes from my car. This dress is uncomfortable.”

“I could always help you out of that.”

Both Chanyeol and Jakyung turned to the newcomer, a fluffy-haired Luhan, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and one sock. Jakyung raised an eyebrow and eyed him up and down.

“As tempting as that offer is, Inquisitor Babyface, you’re not my type,” She joked, earning a playful tussle of her already mussed hair.

“Good to have you back, Jakyung,” Luhan said as he went straight for the freezer. He pulled out his missing sock and tossed it on the counter. All three stared at the item before Chanyeol burst into laughter, and they soon joined in.

“I don’t understand why your sock was in the freezer, of all places, but I suppose it’s better than finding a body in there,” Jakyung chuckled.

“No, the bodies go in the deep freezer down in the basement,” Luhan deadpanned. Jakyung was sure if it was a joke or not, but decided to interpret the look in his eyes as playful. “Go get your clothes and change, princess. I’m sure if Kai wakes up and finds you not there he’s going to flip. Besides, you’ve got some explaining to do.” The knowing look he gave her was a harsh reminder that, yes, there was a reason why she was there, and yes, she did have some explaining to do.

Once she had retrieved her things, she made her back up to Kai’s room, only to find him just starting to wake up.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” she greeted as he stretched and yawned. Kai turned his bleary eyes to her, and after taking a few seconds to adjust, snapped to attention.

“Noona,” he said softly. “How are you? Last night was rough.” Jakyung’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline.

“Excuse me?” Kai blinked, before realizing how his words sounded, and grinned.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t that r