They walked through the store in search of items to stock the safe house with.  DaeHyun and Zelo were playing around and Guk couldn’t help but join in. It had been awhile since he was able to just have fun with his friends. They managed to get some stuff together and were finishing up at the cashier.

“Hyung!” Zelo came running up with a blue ball. “Hyung, can we buy this?!” his smile was big.

“What? No. Put that back.” Guk pushed Zelo back with one hand as he went for his wallet with the other.

“Hyung please!” Zelo steps forward with a puppy lip.

Guk stares at him and can’t help but crack a smile. He turns back to the cashier and digs out his money as Zelo places the ball in the bag. Just then, DaeHyun comes up with a white ball of his own. His eyes are big as he stares at Guk.

BYG stares back at him.

“Aish, really.” Guk mumbles and DaeHyun adds his toy to the pile.

DaeHyun and Zelo begin to talk loudly and make jokes as Guk tries to add up all the cost with the cashier. His phone’s ringtone begins to play.

“Omo…” he fumbles for the phone in his back pocket as he tries to hand the money out and get the bags together.

The ringtone continues on. And on.

“Aish.” He grunts as he pulls it out last second. “Hello?”

“Yong Guk!” it’s Hyuna. She’s loud. Screaming into the phone. Panting into the phone.

“What? What is it?” Guk asks, sensing her fear.

“Someone’s here!” she yells.

Here? Here where? Where are they?

“What? Who? Where?” Guk asks as he turns quickly to Zelo and DaeHyun. They immediately quit their antics as they look at their leader’s face.

“I don’t know! Here! At home!” she cries.

At home?! What is she doing there?

“Why are you at home? Where’s HimChan?” he asks quickly, staring at Zelo and DaeHyun.

“Not here! No one is here!” there’s a loud noise in the background. Banging of some sort. “Ah, Guk they’re coming in!”

Guk is on the move. He moves quickly away from the cashier. Zelo and DaeHyun call after him as they gather the bags and try to rush to follow him out.

“Run!” Guk demands. “Hide! I’m on my way! God damnit, Hyuna, you HIDE!”

He shouts to her in the phone as he sprints to the nearest bus stop, Zelo and DaeHyun call to him from the back.

Hyuna gasps and there’s a loud noise. A crash of some sort. And then the phone clicks and is silent.

“Hello?” Guk shouts into the phone. “Hello?! Hyuna! Are you there?”

DaeHyun and Zelo catch up, panting with the bags, eyes wide.

“HYUNA!” BYG screams into the phone.

He pulls it back and redials the number. Nothing. It won’t even ring. He tries again. It rings this time. And rings. And rings. Voicemail. What happened? Where is she?

The bus pulls up.

“Get in.” Guk growls between his teeth.

“What’s going on?” Zelo pants as he struggles to follow DaeHyun onto the bus.
Guk grabs some of his bags and pushes him up the steps.

They take their seats and DaeHyun and Zelo lean in to hear.

“Something’s wrong.” Guk says as he looks around the bus. He feels anxious. Mad. Sad. Scared. Worried.

“What’s wrong?” Zelo asks quietly.

“Hyuna. She was at home. Alone! She said…she said someone was going in? She was scared. Then the phone died or something.”

Zelo and DaeHyun exchange worried glances.

“Who was it?” Zelo whispers.

“I… I don’t know. But we need to get there. NOW.”

He pulls out his phone and dials the number.

“Hello?” HimChan asks from the other line.
“HimChan! How could you leave her alone?!” Guk thunders. Passengers look at him angrily.

“Wha… what? I didn’t do anything.” HimChan stumbles.

“Get home NOW! Something’s happened! Hyuna’s in trouble! Get there now!”

“…We’re already on our way. What’s happened?”

“Call DaeHyun’s phone and talk to Zelo. I’m heading home now.” Guk snaps.

He hangs up on HimChan and jumps up as he pushes his bags to Zelo.

“What are you doing?” Zelo asks.

“I’m going to find a faster way home. You two take the bus to the stop and come home. Don’t go inside the apartment. Wait out front for me and me only.”
Guk yanks on the emergency cord and the bus comes to a grinding halt. He jumps out the open doors as passengers and the driver yell curses to him for his rudeness. Then he’s off. Through the streets. Dodging traffic. Taking alley ways. Sprinting down the street. It begins to rain. Pouring rain. Guk doesn’t care much as it cools him down so he can run longer.

It takes him a while and he’s sweating and panting when he finally reaches their street. His short cuts had beaten the bus but he wouldn’t have been able to have Zelo and DaeHyun keep up with him when they were carrying the bags. Guk stops outside of the apartment right as HimChan, YoungJae, and JongUp come up from across the street. They’re panting too.

“Where is she?” BYG asks angrily, staring at HimChan.

HimChan’s eyes are wide and innocent.

“I don’t know.” He replies.

“How can you not know?” Guk growls as he takes a step closer and clenches his fists.

JongUp steps between them.

Just then CL and Miryo come walking up from the other direction.

“What’s going on?” CL asks worriedly.

“Where’s my sister?” Miryo cries.

Guk turns to the apartment and enters the code. He rushes inside and heads for the stairs. Those will be faster than waiting for the elevator.

He hears foot steps behind him and he glances back to see HimChan following him. He suppresses the urge to punch him as they race up the steps. They sprint down to their apartment and stop short in the doorway.

There is no door. It’s been cracked and broken to pieces. It hangs off its hinges, kicked in. Wood splinters scatter the floor.

There’s nothing but the sound of their breathing as they cautiously walk in. The hall opens to the kitchen on the left and the family room straight ahead. HimChan and Guk stop in the center and look around. The family room table is toppled. Guk glances at HimChan and he returns his gaze. HimChan nods and goes down the left hall towards the bathroom and the boys’ room. Guk turns down the right towards the girls’ room. He opens their door and goes in.

“Hyuna?” he calls softly.

Nothing seems out of place in their room. Their bags still seem half packed. The windows are closed. There’s nothing. And no one.

Guk goes back down the hall to see HimChan coming out as well.

“Anything?” he asks.

“Nothing.” HimChan replies. “Nothing even looks like it’s been touched. I mean… besides the door…”

Then a loud song starts to play. Ringtone.

Guk and HimChan’s eyes shoot to the family room. BYG rushes in and pushes the table aside as he searches the floor.

“Where is it?” he shouts.

“I don’t know!” HimChan replies from the other side of the room.

Then he goes to the couch. He takes the cushions out as Guk lies down on the floor and looks underneath.

“I see it!” Guk yells as he reaches under and pulls out Hyuna’s phone.

The caller I.D. says that it’s CL calling.

“Hello?” he answers it as HimChan looks at him.

“Guk?” CL asks from the other side. “What’s going on up there? Where’s Hyuna?”

“I don’t know. She’s not here. No one’s here. Well, someone WAS here, but not anymore.”

She’s quiet. “Where could she have gone? Did they get her?” her voice cracks.

“I don’t know.” Guk whispers to disguise his own worry over the situation.

HimChan walks around the room before he gets to the slider door. It’s partly open. He pulls the curtains back and opens the door. Guk watches him as he goes out onto the balcony.

“What happened?” BYG asks CL.

“She forgot her wallet. We were just down at the drug store. She went back for it, but she was taking too long.” CL whimpers.

“Hey, guys!” HimChan calls down over the balcony.

Guk gets up and goes out with him. He looks down and sees that Zelo and DaeHyun have joined up with the others below. He hangs up the phone.

“What’s going on?” Zelo calls up.

“She’s missing!” HimChan calls back.

They start to talk among themselves.

“What do we do now?” HimChan asks Guk quietly.

Guk glares at him and turns back down to the others.

“We’re coming down!” he shouts.

He pushes past HimChan and leaves the room. He heads to the elevator. HimChan follows quickly.

“Listen, I didn’t know, man.” HimChan says as he waits for the elevator.

Guk crosses his arms over his chest and stares as the elevator moves around the numbers.

“She told me that you said she could stay.”

BYG turns and heads for the stairs as the elevator opens. He doesn’t want to ride with HimChan.

HimChan grabs his arm.

“I’m sorry!” he says. “I am really really sorry! I know she means a lot to you! And I swear… I swear I didn’t know. Please. I won’t stop until we find her either.”

Guk stops and hears him out before turning.

He looks him in the eyes.

“She told you that I said she could stay?” Guk asks him.
HimChan nods.

“And you believed her?”

He shrugs.

Guk smiles.
“Tricky girl.” He mumbles.

“She’s a feisty one.” HimChan adds.

Guk looks at him again and then gets into the elevator with him.

They ride down together and meet up with the group outside. They’re hiding underneath the balconies to avoid the rain.

“Where is she? What do we do?” Miryo cries.

“I knew I shouldn’t have let her go alone! When will I ever learn?” CL cries with her.

The whole group begins to talk and shout over each other. Asking where she could have gone. Wondering who could have come. Wanting to know what the room looked like. Wanting to know if she could have gotten away.

Guk’s mind was spinning with the questions and the noise.

Then he heard it.

“Yong Guk!” a cry. Almost like a gasp. “CL! Miryo!”

It was! It was her voice. The group became dead silent as Guk pushed his way to the front. There, hobbling towards them in the rain… was Hyuna.

She was panting, dragging a leg behind her, drenched in rain, stressed eyes yet filled with relief.

“Guys!” she gasped as he limped closer.

“HYUNA!” The groups erupted in shouts and clapping.

“Where have you been?!”

“What happened?”

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re hurt?”

“Who was that?”

“What did you do?”

But all the questions came unanswered as Guk rushed to Hyuna and swept her up in his arms. He held her tightly against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder as she choked back sobs.

“Hyuna.” He breathed into her hair. “Hyuna.”

She sniffs.

“What happened?” BYG asks as he pulls her away and brings her under the balcony.

Everyone crowds around her. YoungJae enters the code and everyone piles into the lobby of the apartment complex now that Hyuna’s been found and the place is dubbed safe.

“Someone… someone chased me up to the room.” Hyuna pants. “They kicked in the door! I rushed out onto the balcony but they were coming out. So I jumped over to the tree. I missed and landed halfway in the branches. I hurt my ribs.” She bends over and keeps her hands to her side, grimacing at the memory. “Then I tried to climb down and fell the rest of the way. I landed on my ankle wrong. When I got to my feet, some man was looking over the balcony at me. So I started to go down the street to the drug mart where CL was but I had gone the wrong way! The guy rushed away from the balcony so I thought he was coming after me. I ran down the street and hid in an alley. Then I just started coming back this way to find CL and them. But thank God you all were here!” her eyes close and she sits on the lobby couch.

Guk wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he sat by her. The others started to sit along the couch and other seats. They were quiet. Thinking. Digesting all that had happened. Giving each other worried glances.

“What do we do?” JongUp asks quietly.

Silence.

“Someone found our safe house.” YoungJae mumbles.

“We can’t stay here… can we?” DaeHyun asks.

Quiet.

“No.” Guk shakes his head. “We can’t stay here if people know where it is now. We’ll have to locate a new hide away.”

Another moment of silence.

“Where can we go?” CL asks.

“We can find another apartment on the other side of the city.” HimChan offers.

“Too obvious.” Guk shoots it down.

“How about my place?” CL offers.

“No. We can’t put the rest of YOUR family in danger too.” BYG reasons.

“Our family is already involved…” Miryo voices.

“Even worse.” BYG states. “Plus GDragon will be watching there too.”

“So… where?” JongUp asks quietly.

“There’s nowhere.” BYG thinks out loud.

“Well, BYG. There actually is ONE place we could possibly go to.” Hyuna says without turning.

She stares off straight ahead for a moment before turning to meet his eyes. All eyes are on her.

“You can’t possibly be thinking…” Guk starts.

“Yes.” She interrupts.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Just no. I’m not dealing with that. Not with him. Not with them.”

“He offered! His family is never home! They work overseas. Plus, they’ll give you more numbers. More eyes. More hands. More resources.” Hyuna reasons.

“I don’t like it.” Guk says quietly, knowing he’ll lose.

“Who do you mean?” HimChan asks.

Hyuna looks to him.

“The Beast boys.” BYG states gruffly.