YoungJae was impressed. Considering they were up against trained assassins, WooHyun and DongWoo were fairing amazing against them. In fact, he was a little suspicious of their skills, but decided now was probably not the best time to be questioning his allies.

“Whoa!” WooHyun exclaimed as his opponent managed to nick his face. He rubbed the scratch with a smirk. “You’re gonna pay for that.”

YoungJae looked around.

Two…was too easy. If they really sent people after him, there should be more…or at least more skilled. They must be just a distraction. Where was the real threat?

“Jae!”

He jumped at the voice, whipping his head back and forth to find the source of the voice. Everyone had a little fright when this girl, who apparently disliked walking on grounds, flew down from the ceiling.

“Kae!”

“L!”

The pair gave MyungSoo a strange look. MyungSoo blinked in confusion.

“Sorry, I thought we were going through English alphabet names…just pretend I’m not here,” he clarified.

YoungJae turned his attention back at Kae.

“You’re not dead! I’m glad you’re not dead!” Kae exclaimed happily as she took his hand and jumped up and down. She was apparently oblivious to YoungJae’s cries of pain as she greatly irritated the wounds she had created earlier. “Come on! Appa said you’re dead, but I have to show him you’re not!”

YoungJae stared up at Kae in confusion. She wasn’t the one that sent these guys after him. Then…it must be ‘Appa.’

“Kae…your ‘Appa’ is trying to kill me,” YoungJae bluntly stated. Kae blinked a few times before laughing.

“What are you talking about, Jae? Why would Appa want to kill you? Jae is…”

He watched as her eyes turned from innocent mirth to soulless voids in a matter of seconds. The dagger that she had taken from YoungJae earlier flew past his head, dangerously close between him and MyungSoo, and lodged right into the face of the assassin that had taken aim at the back of YoungJae’s head. As he screamed in blinding pain, Kae turned to the ones who had been fighting Infinite with an expressionless face.

“Are you trying to kill Jae?” Her voice was eerily low and empty. WooHyun and DongWoo scrambled out of Kae’s way as she walked towards the two other masked men.

“You touch Jae, you die,” she threatened in monotone.

Silence.

“Leave.”

With that one command, the two picked up their dead man and left in a hurry.

Once they were gone, she flew back to YoungJae’s side and returned back to being a hyper little girl.

“Is Jae okay? I was afraid you died because I exploded you earlier. I didn’t mean to! Well, I did mean to, but that was before I knew you were Jae. Appa didn’t believe me when I said you were alive and I wanted to make sure you were okay, so I came back to take you to Appa!” she smiled brightly as if she was proud of her own plan.

“Why?”

Kae blinked in confusion at YoungJae’s question for a few seconds before laughing childishly.

“Why? Because Jae is the only one Kae trusts other than Appa!”

When Kae glanced back at YoungJae, her smile faded.

“…Jae? Why…are you looking at me like that?” she mumbled, unsure of the look YoungJae was giving her but it wasn’t full of excitement like she thought it would be. He smiled back sadly.

“It’s nothing…let’s…go meet your Appa…”

MyungSoo glanced over at YoungJae as Kae bounced away in front to show them the way. The older boy knew exactly what the look on his face was.

Pity.

Guilt.

 ‘How long…have you been manipulated…because of me?’ YoungJae wondered painfully as he bit his lip.

~

Abandoned.

We were both abandoned.

Along with everyone else in that shelter.

A little bit in the outskirts of town in a more wooded area.

A shelter for abandoned children.

You were mute because your parents never paid enough attention to you.

So the other kids made fun of you for it.

~

“What’s your name?”

“You’re an idiot. She can’t talk.”

“Does she even HAVE a name?”

“I bet her parents didn’t even bother naming her. How pathetic.”

The quiet girl shrunk away from the other children as they ruthlessly judged her. Even if she could speak, she didn’t have anything to say because she was too scared of all the harsh eyes on her.

“Wow, now I know why your parents abandoned you. Way to be a bunch of stuck up brats. Does picking on someone that can’t talk back make you feel better about yourself?” said one boy as he pushed his way through the crowd to offer a hand to the outcast girl.

“Yah, Yoo YoungJae! Who gave you the right to talk all high and mighty?” taunted one of the girls.

“Dunno. Who died and made you queen?” countered the little smartass as he stuck his tongue out at them. “Come on. Let’s go play over there.”

The girl stared at his hand for a moment before tentatively putting her own in his. He gently pulled her up and led her away.

“My name is YoungJae, by the way. What’s yours?” he introduced as he sat down with her in front of his pad of drawing papers. She shook her head and looked down in shame. “Oh…right…well…I have to call you something…hmm…”

His eyes brightened at a great idea when he saw the line of alphabet on the wall.

“I know! Can I call you Kae? Since my name is Jae, you can be the letter after mine!” he suggested with a smile. “Kae?”

His smile was contagious. A small tug on the corner of her lips made YoungJae smile even brighter as she nodded in agreement.

“Oh! And don’t worry! Talking is easy! You just have to yell out from the pits of your stomach and let your voice out! The rest is easy-peasy from there,” YoungJae told her. His words were so encouraging that she just nodded to everything he said.

“Let’s be good friends, Kae!”

~

YoungJae came out from the kitchen after helping their caretaker set up the table. He looked around in confusion when he couldn’t find Kae.

“Where’s Kae?” he asked one of the girls.

“She walked out the door after you walked into the kitchen,” she answered.

“Do you know where she went?” YoungJae asked, concern evident in his voice. The group of girls shook their head.

“I’m going to go look for her. Tell Ahjumma I’ll be back shortly!”

He ran out calling her name as he searched the perimeter. Kae had never been outside by herself before. What if she got lost or hurt? His heart raced in fear of losing his friend.

“Kae! Kae, where are you?!” he yelled as loud as he could as he continued running around. Where could she have gone?

Then he heard it.

“Jae?”

He whipped around and sprinted as fast as he could in the direction of the faint voice.

“Kae! Is that you? Where are you?!”

“Jae!”

His heart beat rapidly against his chest as his feet crushed floor covered in dried autumn leaves. Despite the cold, dry air rushing into his eyes, he kept them wide open, scanning through the trees for Kae. When he found the bundled up little girl, he sighed in relief.

“Kae!”

She turned to his voice and smiled brightly.

“Jae!”

He stopped in front of her with wide eyes.

“You…said my name…”

Her eyes widened as if she didn’t even realize she spoke before nodding rapidly as YoungJae laughed, jumping up and down.

“Jae! Jae! Jae!” she repeated as she got up and jumped with him.

“For Jae!”

He stopped jumping when she shoved something at him. Looking down, he saw a small crudely shaped heart made from bark that was broken in half. There was a J carved on one half. She pouted, looking down at the broken heart.

“Broke…Kae pabo…” she stumbled with her words to convey what she was trying to say. He smiled warmly, grabbing a nearby stick and breaking it in half. With the sharpen half of the stick, he took the other half of the heart and carved a K on it. He handed it to her and took the J half from her.

“Jae, Kae!” Kae exclaimed as she held up the half YoungJae carved on.

“I bet Ahjumma has string we can thread through them so we don’t lose them. Come on!”

He grabbed her hand and the two of them ran back inside to show off Kae’s voice.

~

It was all the misunderstanding.

I would have never left you by yourself, Kae.

I wasn’t going to leave with the nice couple if they weren’t willing to take you to.

But you ran off before I could say anything.

~

“KAE!”

~

I didn’t think that I would ever see you again…

After you ran away, a land slide destroyed everything in the area. Everyone managed to make it alive.

Everyone except you.

No one was willing to dig through the land slide to find you.

You were just one orphan child in a run-down shelter in the middle of nowhere.

One orphan child…that happened to also be my only friend growing up.

But no matter how much I cried and flailed…

No one would help.

And so I thought I lost you forever.

~

‘But now that you’re back…I’m worried…what exactly this ‘Appa’ of yours has done to you this whole time?’ YoungJae concluded, limping with MyungSoo holding him up, as they followed the excited Kae.

“Come on, Jae! Appa should be around here! I’m pretty sure he found Jung DaeHyun and then we can go home!” Kae informed as she bounced down the hall in search of her Appa.

The rest of Infinite shot YoungJae a wary glance at the name. He merely just shook his head and placed a finger to his lips. He knew she was on the enemy’s side…

But he couldn’t just let her go.

For once, YoungJae didn’t have a plan.

But he was determined to get Kae out of there.

He had to.

He-

“…Appa…”

YoungJae’s eyes widened.

“Oh …” he cursed at the scene before him.

The man he figured was Kae’s ‘Appa’ smirked at Kae one last time as he fell to the floor after being shot in the heart.

“It isn’t over…until you break…” he chuckled up at the one that killed him.

The one with blind rage in her eyes.

DaeHee screamed as she fired two more shots into the man.

YoungJae was aware of the way Kae flinched at the two remaining shots.

“Kae…please…Kae…listen to me…please don’t do anything you might regret…Kae!” YoungJae called out as he tried to reach out to her.

But it was too late.

She was already charging at DaeHee like a rampaging bull.

“YOU KILLED MY APPA!”

=====================================================================

Hmm…can you tell things are escalating? Because things are escalating.

/starts transcending the heavens as you read/

~Kira :3