Chapter 7

            Confrontation verses Examination

The news came late that night. A loud banging on the door that sent the four remaining in the house into instant fear. The oldest male was up first, pointing for his wife and daughter to hide and slowly made his way towards the door. I followed the hand that pulled me away when I tried to follow him. I wanted to scream out to him not to go, that it was dangerous but that would kill us all.

Next thing I knew I was halfway out the broken window, pushed by my desperate mother and ready to run if the smallest danger appeared. My youngest brother was helping my mother out the next moment and we watch, fearful, as our father went to peek outside through the cracks in the rotting doorframe.

I met his eyes, saw the love that masked the fear and sent a little prayer up to whatever God was left.

Then the door opened.

It was easy to say a deep sigh or relief escaped my entire family. My fathers shoulders dropped considerably at the sight of the familiar face, uniform and badge. If it weren’t for the old tattered face that my family knew so well I’m sure we would still be wary. It wasn’t unheard of – people stealing soldier outfits and badges.

The male met my eyes, took off his hat and bowed low to my mother and I. I’d know him since I was little; he was the one who always brought my eldest brother, the one currently called away at the battlefield, new shells from the sea. He’d only seen it once, my eldest brother and it had been only a year before all this chaos started. But he’d loved it, been fascinated with its beauty and never ending waves.

I followed the hands the pushed me back inside, never taking my eyes of the newcomer even when I helped my mother back inside. Something was wrong and I guess my father sensed it as well.

No words were spoken. I watched my father place a hand gently on the newcomers elbow and saw the old tired eyes meet his old friend. With sad eyes, dropped eyebrows and the sparkle of tears the oldest man shook his head. I didn’t need to ask, I knew the answer when I met my fathers eyes.

Chase, my eldest brother, wasn’t coming home.

-

‘Myungsoo,’ I don’t know what possessed me to confront him. Maybe it was because I hadn’t been able to sleep last night after seeing Faye at the beach but there I was, standing in front of the place Woohyun had directed me too that morning.

‘Why do you want to see Myungsoo?’

Woohyun was in the middle of picking an outfit to wear, chucking various shirts on the rumbled bed linins after holding them to his chest, shaking his head and discarding them. I watched anxiously on top of the bed slowly being covered in shirts. My legs were crossed and I was wearing an old shirt from Faye that was a deep maroon, a jumble of words printed at different angles around the middle and ripped slightly around the low hemline. Faye had been convinced to throw it but something in me had grabbed it and insisted I’d wear it as a nightshirt.

It would have been a waste to throw it.

Anxiously I played with my fingernails before smoothing my hands down the clothes on the bed that had been tossed carelessly, ‘I have my reasons.’

He cast the smallest glance at me. His eyes told me he knew I was lying but, in all his faith for me, he pushed it aside and instead changed the topic. ‘You start work in three days. Before than do you want to go somewhere?’

Somewhere?

‘Where is there to go?’

Woohyun shrugged, finally deciding on a grey sweater. ‘Anywhere,’ with that he pulled his shirt over his head. I turned my head away quickly, embarrassed and listened as he spoke to me, ‘there are some beautiful places. Do you like beaches, forests, cities?’

Definitely not the sea, I wanted to say. Never the sea. Frustrated with my own fear I shoved my hair out of my face, ‘why don’t we go on a picnic?’

Woohyun shoved the discarded clothes to one side of the bed and sat across from me, lacing up his shoes, ‘Picnic? Can I surprise you where we go?’ I nodded. ‘Are you going to get dressed anytime soon? If you want to see Myungsoo…’

My face lit up, ‘You’ll tell me where he is?’

Laughter spilled out of Woohyun, ‘Yeah, yeah. Just promise not to do anything stupid.’ There was a dark underlying to his final words but I chose to ignore it. Woohyun knew a lot more than he let on about.

‘Well look at you, getting all dressed up.’

He looked so different with his clipboard, white doctors coat and sanitary gloves on. Still the best looking there but just… different. Less carefree. I tried to force the smile off my lips at his over exaggerated voice acting as he gave my new clothes a once over. It was nothing special really, just some cream shorts and a lacy deep blue shirt that Faye said she had long ago grown sick of.

‘Have you got some free time?’

Myungsoo took another glance at me from behind his clipboard, moving over to his desk to go through bucket loads of files, ‘Enough, what’s up? Want to explore the world, learn dirty secrets about Woohyun?’

A smirk fell over my lips, ‘Nothing of the sort but I’ll remember that for later.’

He sent me a grin of his own, ‘you better. I’ve always wanted to tell embarrassing stories about Woohyun to his girlfriend.’

Red smudged my cheeks, ‘we’re not going out.’

‘Potato potahto.’ He waved his hand at the seat across the desk. ‘Sit down, you’re making me uncomfortable.’ With that he briefly leaned across the table and watched me, his chin resting comfortably on the palm on his hand, a pen twirling in his fingertips, ‘How would Woohyun feel if he heard that terrible confession?’

I opened my mouth to enlighten Myungsoo that Woohyun wasn’t actually here at the moment but he swept away the words before they left my mouth. ‘I know, I know. It’s not like that,’ he began to flutter his eyelashes ridiculously, mimicking a higher voice pitch, ‘we’re not fluttering around one another like two fretting butterflies, guided by a blinding light to the other.’

I couldn’t help the way my nose wrinkled up at his description, ‘You put shame to butterflies.’

He grinned coyly, ‘Never liked them very much anyway. Why are you here anyway, you never said.’

I stared at him, exasperated, ‘you never let me.’

He just raised his eyebrows at me. It wasn’t hard to guess his thoughts. Probably something along the lines of, ‘I’m letting you now?’ with a high serving of sarcasm. Lovely.

I couldn’t suppress the sigh that escaped my lips, neither missed the knowing glance from Myungsoo that made it obvious he knew I understood what the eyebrows had meant. He’d returned his focus back to his paperwork by then anyway.

‘Is there something I should know about Faye?’

Myungsoo looked up at me for a moment before looking down. ‘She’s pretty damn y,’ he remarked with a grin. I watched as he mused over different files, ‘She really wants a cat, can’t stand spiders and she’ll really ticklish?’

‘Myungsoo…’

He just hummed a reply to me, seemingly engrossed in his paperwork. I wondered if he half knew the reason I came and was trying to avoid the topic. That only made me more nervous about bringing up the questions I wanted to ask.

‘Is Faye ok?’ I found myself lowering my head, letting the whips of hair that had fallen out of my bun to shape my face. I was nervous, or maybe just scared. Scared of that dark mask I’d seen. I didn’t like it, not that scarred look in his eyes like he knew too much. But too much of what?

‘She’s not dying or anything.’ I didn’t really appreciate his sarcasm in the situation. Maybe he couldn’t feel the tension swirling around me. 

‘That’s not what I mean…’ I watched again, in sinking dread as his face fell into the blank mask. He pushed up roughly, letting his chair crash to the floor behind me. Placing his hands palm down on the table he leaned across, looking down at me.

‘It’s none of your business.’

I gapped, rushed after the storming boy as I tried to find the words, ‘But…’

I skidded to a stop when his stiff form turned, eyes shooting daggers at me, ‘Stay away from Faye if you’re going to ask questions. She’s happy.’

Doubt crossed my mind and with a small voice I whispered, ‘Really?’

I watched his eyes as they lose their resistance, as doubt drifted in a concern wrote itself over his face. Suddenly he was lifting his arm, looking at his watch but I said it before he could anyway, ‘She’s at the Blood Sea right now, isn’t she?’

But he shook his head, ‘No. She’ll be going soon,’ with that he was off, pacing quickly towards the doors of the hospital.

I ran after him, my legs not half as long as his to keep up with his fast pace, ‘Why?’

He just ignored me.

Together we walked behind her, clearly loud enough for her to hear but if Faye did she never gave us any indication. I would occasionally glance a look at Myungsoo but his eyes were fixated on Faye, watching with a dark expression as her steps became more and more mechanical.

Every now and then she would stumble and Myungsoo would leap forward as if he could jump the distance and catch her but she always regained her step. Always kept moving towards her destination.

Then there she was, the Blood Sea shimmering in the setting sun in front of her, outlining her frame in that same sickening red. She looked fragile, like a young child caught up in the body of a teenager, screaming to be free.

We stood there with her for ages, it felt longer than yesterday. Maybe it was harder because Myungsoo was there as well. His grief swum around me like an unrelenting fist. But I couldn’t leave them, for four reasons. Faye, Myungsoo, Myself and answers.

‘Faye,’ I whispered. I didn’t have the courage to go to her today, and apparently neither did Myungsoo. Instead the two of us stood, watching the small body stare blankly at the sea, as if part of her was missing. I guess no matter how strong you appear it doesn’t stop you from being scared.

Sorrow chocked me. I’d wanted people to understand me before but now, with Faye in front of me and Myungsoo fell to his knees beside me, helpless to help the woman he loved I wished I’d never hoped for that. If I could I would want to take it all away from them, hoard it in myself until I reached destruction. For some reason, I blamed myself, my appearance, for their pain.

‘Why does she come here?’

‘The same reason as you and I. And… the same reason as him.’ Myungsoo wasn’t looking at me anymore, but past my head. Fearful, because in my heart I knew who stood behind me I turned around. My brief hopes for someone else vanished as I meet Woohyun’s brown eyes, empty from the laughter that normally accompanied them.

His mouth opened and closed but I couldn’t hear a thing. It didn’t matter. I already knew the answer.

‘Nightmares.’

Author note;

I’m sorry for the late (crappy) update. I recently broke up with my first boyfriend. While it was a long distance relationship and we only lasted about 5 months it’s been really hard for me to realize I’d fallen out of love with him and that even with those feelings gone I didn’t want to hurt him – because obviously he’ll always be my first love and the one who taught me so much and gave me so many beautiful memories. The only thing I regret is that I couldn’t break up with him in person (thanks to him being in Japan and me in Australia). Because of that my emotions were (are) jumbled.

It’s also kind of hard when everyone thinks I’m ok because I broke up with him when it was more complicated than that… It’d be nice if some of my friends stopped pointing out how single I am and how cute ‘that’ guy over there was and just let me have friendship time to forget about it all.

At least now I understand how people feel. I never really did before.

Other than that I was busy writing and memorizing a 4-minute Japanese speech for Uni. Fun fun.

Onebrightstar;
Thanks ＾＾ It was kind of thanks to you mentioning it. I figured if a reader noticied I should get to it and stop procrastinating haha. Rambling is good, I'm fluent in it. （＾０＾） I won't give hints haha. I'm sorry about the late infinite spam oh my gosh I've been into KPOP for about 7 years and never actually almost died waiting for an album to be released. I downloaded them the morning I woke up and played them, especially 'Chaser' all the way to uni. I cannot explain how epic (for lack of a better word) i feel walking around Uni listening to that song. （^__^）／ For some of the others I listened once or twice and they grew on me. But i particually love 'Feel so bad.' It's sort of quirky so I like it haha.　＾＾；

Only thing I'm disappointed in is that Myungsoo and Sungyeol hardly got any lines in Chaser. I mean Sungyeol got more than usual (yay) but they're reducing Myungsoo's. Sungjong grew up （T＿＿T） our little baby (I can't say that we're the same age O.o). Hoya sang! （＾＾！） I was so suprised haha. I know he can sing but they tend to just make him and Dongwoo rap. (Why didn't Dongwoo sing too!? Sad face). （T＿T）　

PinkMarygoldDreams;
Thankyou!!  I'm really glad you like it. ＾＾　It means a lot.
I know （T__T；）
I kind of felt sick writting it. I almost cut the line out but figured it was good for dramatic effect （＾＾；）
Not amazing but i'll take that compliment haha, makes me happy. （＾０＾）／
Myungsoo's so much more than an ice prince. Can't let my bias live his fanfic life cold and mean haha. 
Oh my gosh haha, yea she probably has ^__^ I didn't really feel necessary to go into her shower life haha, like how people don't normally mention people going to the bathroom in stories. I'll make a shower scene for you HAHA. ^^ You can't back down now. It's going to happen. 
Thanks for reading!  And commenting! （＾＿＾）／