Chapter Fourteen

 

There was a long silence forming between them. She refused to believe it. She didn’t want to believe it.

“So, they’re holding Luhan captive…” She mumbled out, unable to control the tightening of her jaw. Sehun didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.  She clenched her fists as images of Luhan flooded her mind.

“Why? What would they want with him?” She shot back to Sehun, almost desperate. “They’re not going to kill him, are they?”

“I’m not sure why they’re holding him captive. I tried to take some evidence the sources brought and get out amongst the chaos but when the leader noticed, I got stabbed. Luhan came and distracted him in order for me to get away." There was a small silence as she processed what he said.

"I-I’m sorry Ileana. I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything for Luhan. I should have stayed and protected him better.” Sehun’s voice cracked with his eyes firmly planted to the table.

She stood up from her chair and squatted down next to Sehun. She forcibly turned him in his seat, making his gaze go to his lap. He refused to look at her.  So, she put her hands over his fists and rubbed her thumbs lightly over them.

“It’s not your fault Sehun. “ She whispered, attempting to meet his eyes through his fringe. She squeezed his hands, “I’m at fault. I shouldn’t have gotten either of you involved in this mess.  You two risking your lives for me is not okay.” She let go of his hands, which made him meet her gaze again. She stood up and felt an emotional knot forming in . 

This mission was supposed to be easy for her. It was supposed to come naturally as the letter said. A friend being captured was not part of the deal. And she refused to let her new companions put their necks out for her sake. This was her mission, not theirs.  That’s when she came to a conclusion.

“I’m leaving.” She managed to declare firmly. Sehun immediately stood up.

“Leaving? Leaving where?” Sehun’s eyes were frantic, searching hers for an explanation.

"Leaving here, Sehun. I need to go."

"What? You can't just leave for no reason!"

“The reason is I’m not going to put you in any further danger than I have already.  I decided I’m leaving Sehun and that’s final.” She took a deep breath and nervously rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Don’t worry, I’ll get Luhan back. Even if it kills me so…bye. ” She shakily exhaled and quickly walked away. She got to the entrance and put on one of her boots when she felt something slam into her back.

“Let go Sehun.” She whispered, trying to remove his arms that were wrapped around her neck

“No.”

 “I’m not going to put anyone I care about on the line anymore. That includes you Sehun, so let me go.” She felt the knot in growing larger by the second.  She flinched when Sehun whipped her around in his arms harshly.

“I don’t think you understand Ileana.” Sehun’s eyes burned her so bad her body started to shudder. “Luhan and I chose to help you. We understood what we were getting ourselves into. ” She refused to look him in the eyes at this point. He was making this a lot harder than necessary.

“You’re right, I didn’t understand.” She replied, clenching her teeth, “I didn’t know it was going to get this dangerous. You guy might be willing to go the extra mile, but I don’t want to let that happen. So let me go Sehun.“ She tried to squirm away from the hands that gripped her upper arms. They were only gripped harder and she let out a small cry of pain as a result. The grip still did not lessen.

“Okay. Let’s say I do let you go. Tell me this: Where will you go? What will you do?” Sehun loomed in closer to her face, attempting to make eye contact. She felt her confidence start to break down little by little.

“I’ll be okay. I’ll find a way-“

“No you won’t. Don’t think I’m doing this just for you. I’m doing this for my home. I’m not going to let the one thing that can save my home walk out my doors, just to get picked up from who knows what.”  

She didn’t offer a reply. That was mostly because she knew he was right. She was in a world she wasn’t familiar with. She didn’t have a place to go, she didn’t know many people and she didn’t have any money. And how was she going to stop a war if she was captured?

She felt her posture slump and she finally met Sehun’s eyes, whose face was only inches from hers. Sehun must have sensed her defeat because his hands loosened its grip and traveled down her arms to take her hands.

“Do you understand now?” Sehun said lightly, rubbing his thumbs over the top of her hands. She sighed and nodded. As her thoughts cleared, she realized how impulsive she was.

“I guess. Hearing about what happened to Luhan shocked me a little. It just makes me think that it was my fault. I just...I just don’t want it to happen again.”

“It won’t. I’ll be more careful.” Sehun whispered, bring one of his hand up and moving strands of her hair out of her face.

“You better or else I’m really gone.” She met his eyes steadily, showing how serious she was. “I’m not kidding, if you walk through that door with even one scratch on you, I’m gone.”  

Sehun bit his lip, not exactly liking her condition but he nodded in the end.  When he nodded, his hair touched her forehead and it clicked just how close they were. She flushed and took two steps back.

“Um, I’m going to go help Kai in the shop now.” She quickly blurted out and shoved her other boot on. She pushed the stairs down and rushed down it without sparing Sehun a glance.

When she entered the shop, she saw that Kai seeing out a customer. When he was done, she walked on over to him and smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Busy today?”

“Average.”

“Cool.”

She heard rustling behind her and turned around. Sehun was grabbing a coat and heading out the door. When they met eyes, he nodded and then proceeded to walk out the front door.

“Where is he going?” She mumbled out.

“To the lab of course. Where else?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

“Guess it’s just you and me then.”

As the hours went by, Ileana grew use to working in the shop. She was able help the customers most of the time, but when the customers would ask her about a gadget she’d never seen before, Kai always came and offered his services. She also found out that a COMM was basically EXO’s version of a cell phone, a very advanced cellphone. A communicator included touch screen, holograms, voice recognition and every fancy function you could think of.

Kai prepared their meals for lunch and dinner, which were also delicious. She wondered if the natural ingredients on EXO were just better in comparison to home, which was why everything tasted so good. Sehun shortly arrived after Kai closed the shop and  found them playing cards on the ground.

“Ileana.” Sehun called to her and nudged his head to the room that lead to his flat. She nodded and packed up the cards.

“Thanks for showing me the ropes boss.” She smiled as she passed the cards to Kai. He returned it.

“It’s fine, it’s nice having help and company for once.”

“Ileana!” Sehun raised his voice with a tone of slight irritation. Ileana shot him a look of annoyance.

“Good night Kai, it looks like I’m urgently needed elsewhere.”

“Good night Ileana, see you tomorrow.”

Ileana made her way over to an impatient Sehun. When she reached him, he turned around and walked away. They both kicked off their shoes when they entered the apartment and rested themselves onto his couch.

“How was your day?” She impulsively asked. Sehun rubbed his face.

“A mess. The rumour going around about the war has everyone jumpy. And with Luhan missing, the higher uppers are getting antsy. ”

“That’s too bad.” She mumbled, playing with her thumbs.

“How was yours?” Sehun asked, leaning back on the couch while observing her.

“It was fine. The customers are really nice and Kai helped me a lot. You owe a nice shop Sehun.” She smiled at him. Sehun returned a small tired smile of his own.

“Thanks. My parents always wanted to open a shop of their own, but they were too busy to get around to it.”

“I’m sure they would have loved it.” She brought her legs up and cuddled with them, her mind thinking of her own family. How were they? Were they worried about her?  She thought of the last time she saw them. It was a regular family dinner at home, nothing special. It was a regular routine for her, school, walk home, have dinner with family, do homework and watch television until bed time. But then her routine was ruined when she woke up in a field. She started to retrace her memories from EXO.

“Oh!” She shot up, “I have some information!”

“You do? How?” Sehun raised an eyebrow and leaned closer.

“I met someone who gave me some information...though I sort of had to force it out of him.” She explained.  Sehun’s eyes turned cold in response.

“Who are they? Are you sure we can trust them?” 

“I’m pretty sure he’s trustworthy. He’s one of the guys from the vision and my mark reacted to him.” She pulled up her sleeve and showed Sehun the tattoo that grew into a small tree.

“But how did you meet him? Was he a customer?”

“No, I met him at the tea shop-“

“I’m still not happy about that-“

“-And when I walked away from him, my tattoo hurt and the tree started to die. So I went back and started up a conversation.”

“Ileana, do you know how dangerous that could have been?” Sehun’s warning tone made her frown.

“Yeah, well my mark wouldn’t have it any other way, so stop being so protective and listen.”

“I’m not being protective.” He mumbled lowly, looking away. She smirked.

“Sure. Anyways, based off what he told me. It seems like Sector K isn’t exactly the safest place to be in right now.”

“Why?” Sehun raised his eyebrows.

“His friends or something like that told him to move. Based off what you told me this morning, I think he might have been part of that Sector M crime group.”

“You’re telling me you talked to a guy who's in the group that took Luhan and stabbed me?”  Sehun’s jaw was visibly clenched.

“Was, I said was. He said he left the group because they were too destructive or something. “

Sehun went silent for a while, “Did he say anything else?” She nodded.

“Yeah, he did say something about my mark. More importantly, about people who know what it is.” Sehun shot her a look of confusion and looked down at her arm again, “He said that I shouldn’t show my mark openly because the people who know what it is could be a threat.”

“A threat? What kind of threat?”

“I don’t know. The guy wasn’t really all that willing to answer my questions after I started asking him about the group.”

Sehun leaned back again and sighed, “Although I don’t know much about this guy’s credibility, I think you should follow his advice and try to hide your mark. I’m thinking if he knew it, he must have found out from the group and we definitely don’t want them to find you.”

She nodded obediently, pulling up her sleeve quickly. She uncontrollably let out a big yawn. She looked out the window and saw it was quite dark out. Sehun stood up and grabbed the blanket she used to sleep with the night before. He unfolded it and looked at her expectantly.

“What?” She asked, eyeing the blanket and him. Sehun rolled his eyes back.

“Lay down.”

She cautiously laid down on the couch. As soon as she was flat, Sehun placed the blanket on top of her. He straightened out the blanket and pulled it up to rest under her chin.

“Go to sleep.” He whispered. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

“Okay, good night Sehun.” She whispered back and proceeded to close her eyes.

After a few moments of silence, she felt a small tingle on the top of her head and flinched. She opened her eyes quick enough to see Sehun pulling back his hand.

“S-sorry.” He sputtered out, “It’s just…I use to play with my mother’s hair when I was younger. Your hair reminds me a lot of hers.”  She searched his eyes and saw a certain amount of sadness in them.

She sat up a little and took her hair out of the braid it was in. She run her hands through her hair and laid her head back onto the pillow.

“Go for it.” She whispered, messing up her hair and then closing her eyes. She didn’t feel anything, so she opened her eyes again. Sehun looked at her nervously, unsure of what to do. “I give you full permission to touch my hair, braid my hair, whatever. Just don’t cut it.” Sehun quickly shook his head. She smiled once more and closed her eyes. She peacefully fell asleep with the feeling of fingers gently running through her hair. 

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Oh hi there!
This chapter is brought to you by: Chipmunk versions of EXO songs.
Ahahaha, I love chipmunk version of songs for some reason. Anyways, sorry for not getting this out sooner. I had a hard time writing this because I knew where I want to go after this chapter, it was just getting there that was the hard part D:

Anyways, guess what! It's Sehun's birthday!!!!! He is now LEGAL. SCORE. Ahahaha, I'm actually older than half of EXO's members, which is weird in my opinion. I'm not usually into younger guys, but GOD. EXO changed that. EXO changed everything really. I realized that I don't spam Sehun pictures enough, especially when he's a bigger character in here. So here!!

credits: tumblr

All grown up *teartear* But prepare yourself for the noonas! They're vicious! Not like I'm one of them.

Anyways, that is all. Buh byee

Giveaway of the day: *throws birthday cake* WE MUST CELEBRATE WITH CAKE. nomnomnomnom