(A day later)

—Nobody’s POV—

Heechul and Kyuhyun looked at each other and nodded as they got into Hankyung’s car. The Chinese man gave the two a look of disbelief, but Heechul shot his boyfriend a glare and Hankyung surrendered, deciding not to question either of their sanity at the moment because Henry’s happiness was at stake, and only god knew how much Heechul loved Henry as a dongsaeng. Then again, Kyuhyun was supposed to have lost his memory about recent events. He either recovered those memories, or he’s always been this evil, Hankyung decided.

Sometimes Hankyung wondered why he was with someone as snarky and crazy as Heechul. But then again, why was Heechul with him? He shook his head slightly to himself and started the car, wondering once more about how on earth Kyuhyun had found Yuri’s address. He knew that the kid was a computer whiz but to break into the school’s website and find her info? He didn’t quite know what to say about that.

Surprisingly, Kyuhyun and Heechul had allowed Sungmin to join them on this whacko mission of theirs. Their reasoning was that Sungmin knew martial arts and would be useful as a threat. At that time, Hankyung had wondered where that left him, because everyone knew that he knew martial arts as well. Well, they also had another reason – that Yuri knew Sungmin and would thus open her door for home. Honestly, Hankyung doubted that they needed that. Kyuhyun could probably blow the door down, for all he knew.

After picking Sungmin up, Hankyung made a turn and started driving to Yuri’s place. He reasoned that she might be at Zhoumi’s, but apparently Sungmin’s cousin was keeping him occupied. Also, Kyuhyun had put a tracker on Yuri’s bag. Really, Hankyung doubted the sanity of the people he hung out with. Perhaps it would’ve been better if he’d stayed in China.

The drive to Yuri’s apartment wasn’t too long, because she lived rather near Zhoumi and it wouldn’t take long to get to Zhoumi’s place by car. Hankyung parked the car and waited patiently, knowing very well what would happen. Sungmin, Heechul and Kyuhyun would somehow knock Yuri out, bring her to the car, and then he’d have to drive them to that abandoned warehouse. It would be the same as what happened with Hyoyeon, basically.

It took less than ten minutes before the trio returned to the car, Yuri slung over Sungmin’s shoulder. Hankyung let out a small sigh as they neared the car, and he wanted to roll his eyes when Sungmin and Heechul debated over whether or not to leave Yuri in the trunk. Kyuhyun was caught in the middle, since he couldn’t afford to offend either one of the two. In the end, Sungmin caved in and Heechul grinned victoriously, throwing the unconscious girl into the trunk carelessly. He couldn’t care less if she died in there.

Hankyung ended up speeding to the abandoned warehouse where he and Heechul had had a couple of getaways at, because he didn’t want Yuri to die of suffocation in his trunk. Heechul clearly wasn’t bothered by the laws, but Hankyung didn’t want to be thrown into jail because of his boyfriend’s recklessness.

It wasn’t long before Yuri was tied up in the same chair that Hyoyeon had been tied to, a few months back. Hankyung regretted not asking Yesung along. At least he’d be able to walk around with the other and chat a little. Heck, anyone would have been fine. He looked at how Sungmin seemed to be bored listening to Heechul and Kyuhyun plan more, and he tapped the younger male on the shoulder. Sungmin looked really grateful when Hankyung asked whether or not he wanted to walk around, and Hankyung was glad he asked.

The two ended up heading up to the third floor and walking around in silence. Hankyung looked at Sungmin and decided that perhaps he should be the one to break the deafening silence. “Sungmin?”

The younger male looked at Hankyung with a small smile. “Yeah?”

“Why did you even want to come here?”

Sungmin pursed his lips thoughtfully for a few seconds before shrugging. “A lot’s happened to Kyu. I don’t really want anything more happening to him. For all we know, Yuri could have some tricks up her sleeve, or maybe Sooyoung’s keeping close tabs on her. I don’t want him in the hospital, not again,” Sungmin replied. Hankyung nodded in understanding and Sungmin smiled. “Same reason why you’re here, isn’t it, hyung?”

Hankyung laughed at that. “No, not really. I’m here because Chullie threatened to break up with me if I didn’t help him,” he corrected with another laugh. Sungmin nodded in complete agreement to that, not having anything to rebut Hankyung with.

“Touché.”

--------------------

Another few minutes later, the duo were back in the first floor and waiting for Yuri to regain consciousness, deciding to perhaps find out about what Heechul and Kyuhyun had in store for Yuri. They sure as hell wouldn’t be using the exact same methods they had used on Hyoyeon, because Hyoyeon and Yuri were two different people with different fears.

Hankyung sighed when he heard their plans, looking to Sungmin who had the same expression. Heechul and Kyuhyun definitely weren’t a force to be reckoned with. Sooyoung may be a little much to handle, but Yuri was a piece of cake for the two of them. Then again, Sungmin leaned over to whisper to Hankyung, “Yuri actually isn’t afraid of many things, but her family is one of the things that she treasures most.”

Hankyung then decided that Sungmin was one of the reasons why Kyuhyun and Heechul knew so much about Yuri. He and Sungmin watched as Kyuhyun took a bottle of water from his bag and walked over to Yuri, pouring the water over her face to wake her up. Sungmin raised a brow and turned to Hankyung who merely shrugged, having seen what they’d done to Hyoyeon before.

Yuri slowly awoke and blinked rapidly, taking in her surroundings. Heechul got up slowly and smiled deviously at her, but unlike Hyoyeon, Yuri stood her ground. She struggled around for a bit before realising that she was bound to the wooden chair and wouldn’t be getting out of it anytime soon.

She shot a glare at Kyuhyun and Heechul. “What the hell do you want?” she demanded. Sungmin was surprised. Where had the Yuri he knew gone to? The Yuri he knew was kind and well-mannered, and she wouldn’t ever speak in that tone to others. Sungmin was beginning to think that maybe he never knew Yuri at all.

“What do we want? What do you want?” Heechul spat back. Now this was a sight that both Hankyung and Sungmin had grown accustomed to. Heechul being rude to anyone wasn’t a rare sight. They saw it nearly every day, actually.

“I’ve liked Zhoumi since high school and since I ran into him at Han River that day, I figured that I should give things another shot. He’d just broken up with Henry, anyway,” Yuri replied nonchalantly. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and resisted the major urge to slap her. Minnie’s there and he wouldn’t want to see me hurting his ex-classmate, would he?

“Stop feeding us bull. How old do you think we are? We know this has something to do with Sooyoung, so spill,” Kyuhyun ordered, already tired of her lousy excuses. Nobody just happens to run into her crush by a river and right after he received a breakup text, too.

“There isn’t anything to spill, dimwit. Now let me go.”

Before anyone knew it, Sungmin had gotten up and walked over to Yuri, sending a tight slap right across the cheek. Within seconds, Yuri’s cheek was red with a palm mark, and Sungmin glowered at who he used to consider a friend. “Don’t you dare call him a dimwit, .”

Heechul smirked and patted Sungmin on the back. “Nicely done, Sungmin-ah. Now tell us what the hell Sooyoung did to Henry,” Heechul growled. Yuri raised a brow and smiled innocently at them, making Kyuhyun and Heechul want to gag.

“I don’t know what she did, but all I know is that I was supposed to seduce Zhoumi,” she answered with that same smile plastered on her face. Kyuhyun took a deep breath before smiling back at her and slapping her across the same cheek.

“ please; we know Sooyoung told you her plans. Even if she didn’t, you could always make a call to her and ask now can’t you?” Kyuhyun asked. Yuri shrugged, unfazed by the stinging pain in her throbbing cheek and keeping her front. She had willingly participated in Sooyoung’s plan and knew that there would probably be consequences if she failed, seeing as how Taeyeon, Hyoyeon and Seohyun had all been punished after failing Sooyoung. They had all been beaten up by her men, but in places that couldn’t be seen so nobody suspected anything.

“I don’t want to.”

Heechul grinned menacingly and Sungmin retreated slowly, letting his boyfriend and the eldest in the room do their stuff. Hankyung had taken Kyuhyun’s laptop from the side and opened the recording programme, already knowing what was expected of him. One way or another, Heechul and Kyuhyun would definitely get Yuri to tell them what happened. It was just a matter of time.

----------------------

“What the hell!”

That was Yuri’s first reaction to the knife that Kyuhyun pulled out of his pocket. It wasn’t so much that she was afraid of pain, but she was afraid of blood. It was the same knife that had been used on Hyoyeon, Hankyung noted. Sungmin furrowed his brows in worry – for Kyuhyun, that is.

“You didn’t want to tell us, did you? I was thinking that perhaps we could play a little game,” Kyuhyun said in a low voice, running the knife along Yuri’s cheek and bringing a sense of déjà vu to Hankyung. Kyuhyun smiled and brought the blade down Yuri’s cheek, watching the ruby droplets of blood mar her otherwise flawless skin. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re sick in the mind, and that you’re a bastard,” Yuri retorted, fighting against the ropes binding her to the wooden chair. She was glad that she couldn’t see the blood trickling down her cheek, or she’d probably have a panic attack.

Yuri’s eyes widened when Heechul brought a mirror to her, and she immediately squeezed her eyes shut. The eldest smirked at this, grabbing hold of Yuri’s face and quite literally shoving the hand mirror into her face. “Scared of blood, are you? Tell us what the hell that did to Henry!”

Still adamant, Yuri shook her head. “No way am I telling you!”

Heechul narrowed his eyes and removed the mirror. “Look at me.” Yuri hesitantly cracked an eyelid open, mentally heaving a sigh of relief that the mirror was out of sight. Heechul took a deep breath and jabbed Yuri’s stomach using the handle of the mirror, making her breath hitch in and causing Yuri to gasp for air. “Spill, now.”

Hankyung had heard this tone of Heechul’s dozens of times before, but it sent a chill down his spine nonetheless. Sungmin, on the other hand, shivered involuntarily and felt the hairs on his arm stand. Heechul was scary enough when he was shouting, but that scariness was brought to a whole different level when he was using that tone.

“No,” Yuri managed to choke out. Heechul threw the mirror to the nearest wall, causing it to shatter and making Yuri and Sungmin flinch. Hankyung muttered something about how his boyfriend would have seven years of bad luck while Kyuhyun stared at the glass fragments.

“What do you want me to do before you’ll tell us? Do I need to kill your brother?” Heechul snapped. Yuri shook her head and Heechul shrugged nonchalantly. “Ok, fine. Kyuhyun, please,” he said, gesturing towards Yuri.

Kyuhyun smiled when he was called up. “Finally, some time for me to have fun. This knife’s been itching to be used ever since we used it on Hyoyeon, now hasn’t it? Tell me, Yuri. Have you ever heard of the knife game?” Kyuhyun asked, still keeping the warm smile on his face. Yuri shuddered at the thought of Kyuhyun playing the knife game with her, but nodded either way because Kyuhyun wouldn’t have cared if she didn’t know what the knife game was.

“Excellent! Now I’m assuming that any tune would be fine for you. Heechul hyung, do you have any fast songs on that phone of yours?” Kyuhyun asked politely, moving a wooden plank to Yuri’s lap and placing her right hand on it. Heechul nodded just as politely, and the boyfriends of the two gave each other a look that screamed ‘this is freaky ’.

Heechul scrolled through his songs and decided on one of the faster ones. “I love this song!” he exclaimed with exaggerated delight, tapping the song and playing it. Before long, the tune of ‘Oops!’ was playing and Kyuhyun grinned, letting himself get used to the beat of the song before starting the knife game.

In case anyone isn’t familiar, the knife game is where a player uses a knife and, according to the beat of a song, jabs the knife in between another person’s fingers. The faster the song, the more difficult it is to play the game, of course. Kyuhyun mildly wondered if there was a fashion designer who was missing a few fingers, and snickered to himself, causing him to miss the beat and accidentally cut Yuri’s middle finger.

“Oops!” Kyuhyun said unapologetically. “I was wondering which fashion designer had missing fingers,” he explained with a smile. Yuri winced in pain when the wind blew particles into the open wound, and she began to tear up slightly at Kyuhyun’s words. It was always her dream to become a fashion designer, and her hands were important for that. But she had honestly, truthfully, been in love with Zhoumi for ages, and this was the perfect opportunity to finally be together with him.

Yuri took a deep breath, looked away from her fingers, and forced the tears away.

---------------------

Five minutes later, Heechul and Kyuhyun stood and looked at Yuri’s bloodied fingers. Hankyung and Sungmin had opted to stop watching ages ago, deeming it too bloody for either of them to handle. They weren’t particularly turned off by blood or anything, but it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

Yuri, on the other hand, still had her eyes squeezed shut and was now faced the wall, unable to even think of looking at her fingers. The mere thought of how bloody her fingers felt was enough to make her gag and feel light-headed.

“Still not giving in?” Kyuhyun asked, and Yuri could just hear the smirk in his voice. She tried moving her fingers and bit down on her lip to prevent herself from screaming, because it hurt. The pain was more excruciating than anything that she’d felt in her entire life, and Yuri had to wonder – was she going to be able to hold up? Even if she continued denying them, they would keep doing more to her. Was it worth it? Becoming a fashion designer had been her dream since forever, so was Sooyoung worth the risk of losing her dream?

In the end, Yuri chose her dream over Sooyoung and Zhoumi. No matter how much she loved Zhoumi, it wouldn’t be more than her love for fashion and she knew it. She couldn’t give her dream up, and she wasn’t about to allow Kyuhyun and Heechul to cripple her and make her unable to realise her dreams. “I’ll spill. I give in.”

Heechul and Kyuhyun grinned victoriously at each other. “I’m glad you finally decided to cooperate, and save yourself from more pain. Now what did Sooyoung do to Henry? How did she threaten his parents?” Heechul demanded.

“She wouldn’t allow his mum to get treatment for her leukaemia if he didn’t give her his phone. He wasn’t allowed to contact you guys through any means, online or whatever, because Sooyoung was keeping tabs on him personally and she had men posted to his house. She sent a text to Zhoumi using Henry’s phone, initiating a meeting at Han River. Henry was still in Canada, of course, and when Zhoumi arrived, I informed her. She sent another text, a breakup text. Zhoumi didn’t believe it at first but he was still hurt, and I went to comfort him. Things just continued on from there on, since Henry still wasn’t allowed access to any forms of contact, and Zhoumi thought that he really wanted to break things off. That’s basically what happened.”

“That conniving really threatened my baby like that?” Heechul asked. Yuri nodded and Heechul straightened up, already walking away from Yuri. Hankyung and Sungmin stopped recording the exchange between the three. Sungmin was already sending the file to his cousin, knowing that she would have her phone ready because he told her to. Kyuhyun cut the rope binding Yuri to the chair and walked away as well. Sungmin and Hankyung sighed in unison, the former ensuring that the mp3 file was sent before walking to Yuri, along with Hankyung.

“Yuri, I can’t believe you did something as lowly as that. I thought better of you,” Sungmin said, taking the piece of cloth that Hankyung was holding out and tearing it in half, wrapping one piece around each of Yuri’s bloodied fingers. Yuri sniffled and shook her head.

“I just thought that it was a good plan. I didn’t think so much. I was being selfish, I know, but I really love Zhoumi,” she admitted, still trying her best to keep the tears at bay. Sungmin sighed, shaking his head and helping her up. He and Hankyung brought her to the car, letting her ride shotgun because Heechul would’ve thrown her in the trunk again. Heechul and Kyuhyun joined them in the car not long later, the elder grimacing at the fact that Yuri was in his seat, but not saying anything because he was satisfied with how things went.

Sungmin leaned against Kyuhyun and let out another sigh.

“I really hope Viki can talk Zhoumi around.”

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“Why are you here, again?”

Zhoumi stared at Viki and she raised a brow. The two had been sitting in Zhoumi’s living room for almost an hour now, since Viki brought food along and Zhoumi felt bad if he rejected the food. Viki had eaten at the speed of a snail, and Zhoumi wondered if all Westerners ate at that speed or if she was doing it on purpose.

Viki looked up from her phone and smiled at Zhoumi. “I was wondering if you’d take a walk along Han River with me,” she replied. Zhoumi looked at her incredulously, as if she was mad because she could very well have asked Sungmin to go with her. “Please?”

Zhoumi sighed and checked his phone, praying hard that Yuri would ask him to go out with her so he had a legit excuse to decline, but to his dismay, he hadn’t received any texts from anyone. He looked at Viki and shrugged as nonchalantly as possible, getting up to dispose of the empty food packets before turning back to her and nodding. “Ok, let’s go.”

Viki did a small victory dance in her head because she was still waiting for Sungmin to send her a recording. Zhoumi went to get changed into something a little more suitable than a singlet before opening the door and heading out with Viki.

For ten minutes, they walked in silence. Viki vaguely wondered if Zhoumi was getting suspicious and decided to finally initiate some sort of conversation while waiting for the recording. “So, Zhoumi, you’re interested in fashion?”

“Yeah, why?”

Viki shrugged and put her hands in her pockets, waiting for her phone to vibrate because she didn’t know how long she could stall Zhoumi. “I did stay in France, you know. Maybe if you’d like, you can come over sometime and I could show you around,” she suggested. Zhoumi stopped walking and turned to her, giving her a weird look.

“You’re not hitting on me, are you?”

Viki laughed and Zhoumi glanced around because they were attracting attention. Sure it may be mid-afternoon, but there were still people walking around and they were staring at Viki like she was mad. Maybe she is, Zhoumi hypothesised.

“No way! If anything, I’d hit on Ryeowook, Donghae or Leeteuk, not you,” Viki said with a chuckle, shaking her head in disbelief. “Really though, feel free to go to France with me whenever.” After you fix this mess with Henry, she added as an afterthought.

She liked Zhoumi because he was nice, but after hearing about what happened with Henry, she couldn’t wait to tick Zhoumi off and maybe knock some sense into him, literally. That’s one of the reasons why Sungmin asked for her help, actually. She was staying in Korea for the rest of the year, making it convenient for her to help out. Also, as with Sungmin, she had the ability to make people respond to her no matter how much they didn’t want to.

Zhoumi nodded absentmindedly and Viki had half a mind to hit him for not paying attention to her like that, but her phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly took it out, smiling when she saw that Sungmin had finally sent the damned recording to her. “Let’s sit down there for a bit,” she said, pointing to one of the empty benches nearby. Zhoumi nodded and went to take a seat, waiting for Viki to join him.

“I’ll admit that I have a reason for visiting you today. Sungmin wanted me to talk to you,” she admitted as she sat down. Zhoumi suppressed a groan because who else would send her to his house for no good reason? As far as he could remember, he hadn’t ever told Viki his address.

“Why?”

“Because you’re being an idiot and Henry, even if I don’t know him very well, is a nice kid and he clearly didn’t want to break up with you,” she replied simply, as if things weren’t complicated in the least bit. Zhoumi laughed bitterly and pulled his phone out, scrolling through his texts and finding the breakup text from Henry.

“Doesn’t this show anything?”

“Oh come on, he didn’t have access to his phone! Isn’t that what he told you?”

“That doesn’t make sense though. Why would a stranger send that to me?” Zhoumi rebutted. Viki rolled her eyes and played the recording, skipping to the part where Sungmin told her to skip to. She watched Zhoumi carefully as he listened to the recording. By the end of it, he was at a loss for words.

“So?”

Zhoumi’s throat went dry and he didn’t have any idea how to react to that. Why hadn’t he thought of Sooyoung at all? Why did he trust Yuri so inexplicitly? He should have questioned her motives, because her sudden appearance at Han River was too coincidental to be true. Had he been that desperate for some sort of comfort that he completely didn’t care about Henry anymore? Zhoumi was utterly disgusted with himself and with Yuri.

“I have to go,” Zhoumi said, suddenly feeling the urge to vomit. True enough, he got up and made it to the nearest drain only to throw up, seeing his food resurface after less than two hours of being eaten. Viki sighed and handed Zhoumi a packet of tissue.

“Apologise to him, why don’t you?” she suggested softly.

Zhoumi shook his head and buried his face in his hands.

“I don’t deserve his forgiveness.”

3970 words of word vomit from last night and this morning XD This turned out to be A LOT longer than I expected (it's a monstrous chapter compared to the usual), but I hope you guys enjoyed it! For all those who've been cursing at Yuri, here's her just desserts. And Zhoumi will be beating himself up over stuff now, so don't expect ZhouRy to get back together just yet! :)

Ok, I'll definitely be able to update next week because I have a week's worth of holiday and I don't intend to study X) So you guys can look forward to the next chapter, whatever's gonna happen! :D

I don't know why half of this chapter was focusing on Hankyung. I think I didn't give him enough spotlight (Shindong, too, but he didn't have a role in this chapter ><) so here's Hankyung's time to shine! (for now, it's just this XD)

Once again, I hope you guys enjoyed this and look forward to the next chapter! Annyeong~! ^-^