- - - - -

Victoria awoke yet to another still morning. The sun shone in upon her irregularly early and she sat right up in bed. Her mind still at base time.

She was prepared to grab her black uniform and head out for a run before breakfast and crew training with the others. And she expected to see Jung Mo standing by the door waiting for her. When she jumped out of bed to reach for her black uniform on the table to her left where it always was, she found just a small wardrobe staring at her instead.

Where was she?

Victoria spun around the room and felt her heart beat fast then calm down. She was still safe. They hadn’t yet located her. She was still in hiding.

“Are you up?” a voice boomed from the kitchen.

Ok Taecyeon, the man she’d threatened just a few days ago. The corny stuff she’d read out of a magazine in the City Hall of Kwangju was what she’d used against him. The reproductive system or whatever it was just a joke. It was amusing, however, to find that Taecyeon seemed so baffled and scared from the words she’d used. But to her luck that had shut him up and she was able to stay. Now that she looked him over, Ok Taecyeon seemed like everybody’s ordinary man. Someone with a job, a home to come back to, a kind person--no, a naïve man.

“Yah! What are you looking at?!” he shouted with a pan in his hand from behind the table.

Victoria leaned against the interior of the kitchen entrance and smiled.

“Well, good morning to you too, sir.” she said walking in.

He frowned at her in a disgusted manner as she sat down, “Yah, what’s with you this morning?”

“Isn’t it the same as any other morning?” asked Victoria pulling her plate toward her.

“Psh,” he snorted, “what kind of a woman doesn’t even offer to help out at all?”

“Hurry up,” she tapped her spoon on the ceramic plate.

Victoria wolfed down the meal, set her plates in the kitchen sink, and hopped in front of the TV.

Taceyeon changed and walked out of his bedroom. Slipping his shoes on beside her he glanced at the TV.

“Don’t forget to wash the dishes.” he reminded and sounded like a mother. “Don’t leave the water running, you got that?”

“Yes.”

“Yah, are you listening?” he asked.

“I said yes!” she turned around.

“Wow,” he exclaimed, “how old are you to be acting like that?”

“Do bring some chicken back,” she said before turning her back to him shrugging his comment off her shoulders.

The door closed behind her and Victoria waited a while more before finally getting up to wash the dishes.

- - - - -

Donghae drove into the parking lot of his father’s business that morning and just sat there for almost 30 minutes. For the first time in a long time he didn’t want to go in. From when he entered high school he’d been encouraged everyday to live out his life following his father’s shoes - something he’d given himself in to. There hadn’t been once while growing up that he’d actually rebelled against his parents like his friends had against theirs. It was just because he held too much of a respect for them and they had always come before anything else in his life.

Was he suddenly tired of that kind of life?

Yes, he was. He wanted to break away for once. Driving out of the parking lot he found himself on the streets immediately aware of where he was heading.

- - - - -

Yoona looked up when the door to her office opened and a man stepped inside.

“Yes, Sheriff?” he asked.

“Is it possible to organize a search team without the Chief knowing?”

“I don’t think that’s possible, Sheriff.” he replied. “Even when you’re calling for a team to head out with you on an emergency the Chief needs to be notified immediately.”

“Can’t it bypass him?”

“I don’t think so, Sheriff.”

Yoona heaved a sigh, “Dismissed.”

He nodded and headed out. Yoona had certainly hoped for a small gap somewhere. She wanted to grab a team and head back to the woods. Even if there would probably be nothing to find 14 years from when Victoria went missing she still wanted to check the grounds. There must have been a way in the woods where the kidnappers had entered and left without anyone seeing at all. If Yoona could somehow follow that trail…

She doubted it for a moment but decided on it anyway. It wasn’t like she could get the actual reports from the detectives. The Chief had hidden those records elsewhere. Somewhere, Yoona knew, she wouldn’t be able to locate.

The door opened again alarming her.

“The meeting is about to start.”

“I’m on my way.” Yoona told grabbing a silver folder off her desk following the man out.

- - - - -

When Victoria stepped out of the gym after a few minutes of running she was almost shocked to see Donghae standing in front of his car waiting for her. Closing the door behind her making sure it was locked she stood in front of the door as if observing him for any signs of suspicion.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Oh…” Victoria turned away then turned back to him. “You’re here, again?”

“I only just got here,” he assured her sensing that she didn’t want him to know that she’d been inside. “You working out?”

“Yea…” her voice went quiet.

“Do you want to go get changed? I’ll wait for you down here.” he offered.

“We’re going somewhere?” she asked. She hadn’t taken one step toward him at all. He wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“We can go skating again.”

“Skating?” Victoria felt herself brighten up.

After a long drive Victoria finally found herself standing in front of the rink holding onto the skates Donghae had rented for her. She watched amazed as the people of all ages inside went round and round the ice rink. Some slipped but got up and some never slipped at all.

“Lets go,” he told taking her by the arm gently.

She almost thought, for a moment, that he was going to drag or pull her somewhere. The guys at the base had treated her like a man, they had treated her roughly. Once they grabbed her arm they pulled her onto the mat for a duel. If she wasn’t rough with them she would have become a pulp by now.

As he led her over to the benches to take her shoes off and slip the ice skates on she glanced at his face for the first time closely. His face looked soft and his hair seemed to be neatly combed. The brown glow in his eyes gave off a relaxing composure, the kind of composure he held every time she’d seen him.

He turned toward her and seeing that she’d been caught Victoria turned away feeling herself flush red. It was something she hadn’t recalled for a long time. Embarrassment.

Donghae smiled, “Aren’t you going to sit down? You can't wear your skates standing like that.”

Victoria sat down silently beside him and slipped off her tennis shoes.

“Did you see the boots I bought you the other day?” Donghae asked. “You should wear them sometime. They won’t hurt your feet, they’ll feel just like tennis shoes.”

He spoke calmly, softly with a kind of long patience - she observed. The men at the base shouted, screamed, and relentlessly used their fists against each other. Victoria watched as Donghae tied the shoelaces on his skates tightly. The thoughts slowly entering her mind.

She’d stepped into a forbidden world. Something she wasn’t meant for. The kind of world she’d been forced to abandon long ago, 14 years ago when she’d been locked up in the cold dungeon for days. It was impossible to reenter something so normal. Because even now she felt like an eight year old forced to relearn how to speak, how to count, how to memorize the alphabet, how to recognize new faces again.

Why, she wondered once. Why had she threatened Ok Taecyeon to let her stay? Why had she chosen to stay instead of continuing her run?

“Victoria?” his voice broke her thoughts.

She kind of liked his voice.

“Victoria?” he called again.

Victoria refused to turn. To see those brown eyes that reflected some kind of sadness hidden in them. She didn’t want to see herself through his eyes.

When she didn’t reply she felt something tug at her feet. Glancing down she found him in front of her on his knees putting the skates on her feet. Frozen, for some reason she didn’t move. Not a signal in her brain told her to move.   

“Ok!” he said lightly slapping the sides of her skates creating a small echo.

He got up and extended his hand forward gesturing his head toward the rink. Victoria took a long time debating, thinking.

“What are you doing, Victoria?” a voice asked at the back of her head as she took a hold of his hand.

Once in the rink Donghae continued their unfinished lesson and Victoria found herself almost slipping and hanging onto his arm with both her hands. The first time in the long time that she’d had fun in the cold.

Laughter eased both their confused hearts after they removed the skates and sat down to some hot chocolate. Victoria let out a loud breath and glanced back at the ice rink.

“Are you cold? You look cold.” he said making her turn back.

“Are you cold?” she asked.

He smiled, “Not really.”

“Then I’m not cold too.” she gave a small giggle and finished the rest of her hot chocolate.

“There’s a sandwich shop around the corner. Want to go there and grab something to eat?” he suggested.

Victoria nodded and followed him out. It was chilly, Victoria realized. Even more colder than it’d been inside. The wind whip lashed her face as if telling her to go back inside. That it wasn’t good to be outside. She didn’t quite understand until she saw a woman dressed in an expensive black coat with an old fashioned styled hat on her head. Diamonds on the left of her hat creating the shape of a flower.

“Yah!” she shouted.

Donghae stiffened up beside her.

“What are you doing out here?!” she questioned throwing her short arms forward to hit him.

The large purple purse hanging at the end of her arms dangled in mid air.

“Mom!” he gave a loud shout stopping the woman. “Stop.”

His mother eventually huffed and puffed in cold air and turned to look at Victoria. Through her eyes Victoria could see that the woman was obviously upset with her son and disliked the sight of her. It wasn’t like the kind of vengeful glares the men at the base shot her. So far, she’d met no one like the men at the base. For that, she was relieved.

“You,” the woman asked, “who are you?”

Victoria opened to respond but Donghae cut her off. “You don’t need to know.”

“I’m not talking to you,” his mother said eyes still on Victoria.

She’d learned at the base that when questioned her name she needed to reply immediately. That didn’t seem to be the case here.

“It hasn’t even been a week and you’ve already picked up someone from the streets?!” his mother questioned still staring at Victoria. “Where are you from? Where are you parents? What do you do for a living?”

“I…” Victoria began.

“Mom, please stop. Just leave.” Donghae interrupted.

“I’m not talking to you, for the last time!” his mother spouted.

The woman was unstoppable when upset, Victoria observed.

“You, do you know who this man is? He has a fiancée waiting to get married next week. Step off the sidewalk and head back home. If you’re a runaway it must be because your parents are so poor you couldn’t cope, right? So you want money?”

“Mom!”

“What?” Victoria asked, a hint of seriousness in her tone.

Her parents?

“Don’t pretend like you don’t have ears,” the woman started, “your parents must have no ethics to teach manners to a girl like you.” the woman then glanced at the jacket she had on. She reached for it and grabbed the collar, “This, my son bought for you? Go ahead, keep it and tell everyone you’re dating the rich son of a business owner. But don’t let them know you’re a third wheel. Oh my! How embarrassing that’d be! Just say you ran away after using him up, alright?”

Victoria stared at the woman and grabbed her hand that was gripping onto the collar of her jacket tightly. The woman winced.

“Ow…oh my! Look at her,” the woman bit her bottom lip.

 Victoria took a step forward, “Take it back.”

“What?” the woman blinked her ears shocked at what she was hearing.

“All you said. Me, my parents, your son. Take it back.” Victoria hissed almost quietly.

“Victoria!” Donghae’s voice entered her ears.

She let go of the woman and saw the fear in her eyes. It was the same kind of fear she saw in her victim’s eyes before killing them. No matter how many times she’d avoided gazing at her victim straight in the eyes it had happened so many times that she couldn’t erase the fear she saw from her memory.

“What are you doing, Victoria?” a voice asked inside her.

What was happening? She couldn’t explain. Her heart seemed twisted into pain but her face remained still. She needed to run. However, before she could take a step forward Donghae pulled her back and opened the car door for her.