Chapter 16

                    “Hyung! Where did Sehun go?” Kai ran out of the fountains and asked Suho who was sitting on the grass. Kai was soaking wet from head to toe and the white shirt was sticking to his body. Julianne wasn’t looking any better. She was standing next to Kai, her wrist in his hand while she tried her best to pull away.

                    “Why? Are you going to compete with the maknae on whose abs look better again?” Suho teased.

                    Julianne turned to stare at Kai in disbelief at what she just heard. Kai suddenly smirked at the girl, but she spoke up, “How can a person be so vain? Your abs doesn’t even look half as good as Chris Hemsworth’s in The Avengers!” She then slapped him across his chest playfully and recklessly.

                    Suho literally rolled on the floor laughing at the scene while Kai’s eyeballs were about to pop out.

                    This woman… Aish! She’s half Western anyway, so calm down, Kai, you can’t blame her. You can’t blame her for being reckless. You can’t blame her… Ugh!

                    “Hyung! Fine! I don’t even care where the maknae went anymore!” he snapped out of his thoughts and sat down, yanking Julianne to sit down next to him. Instead of protesting, she continued laughing and teasing him.

                    Suho tried hard to stop laughing. He finally managed to tell him that Sehun left “probably for a walk” when everyone already gathered on the floor.

                    “That boy has no life,” Chanyeol sighed. Suho started to pass out some drinks and snacks he bought on the way back with the guitar.

                    “Ah… Now that we’re missing two people… Those two have no life,” Fiona shrugged at her own words, which reminded Min right then that she failed to text the leader as she was told. She looked for her phone right away.

                    “Are you calling Kimberly?” D.O asked.

                    “Good! Call her! I’ll call the maknae,” Baekhyun suggested.

                    Realizing that it was only eleven o’clock, Min replied to them that she was going to call, but she couldn’t guarantee if the girl would come or not. She was probably still with her family.

                    The manicured nails on her fingertips dragged along the screen. She pressed the recent calls button to search for Kimberly’s phone number, didn’t expect it to be this easy that her number came up on the top of the list.

                    Kim, Incoming Call, 9:45AM

                    Her tears weren’t flowing much, and she made no sound, but her body shaking was quite visible. Sehun felt his heart skipping beats for various reasons. He just saved a person from a car accident, but why was he not happy?

                    He froze on the spot, didn’t embrace her or push her away, but only seconds passed before she became the one who pushed him. Kimberly straightened up, her face emotionless. He expected her to look sad, but this was telling him that she was angry.

                    They were still in the middle of the road, and the green light was about to appear, so he pulled her to the side first. She quickly pulled away when they reached the park.

                    This is so easy for me, father. I can do this work without getting any guy involved. How does that sound? Don’t worry. I can do this for you, for the last time. If I don’t earn any trust from you again, I’ll just quit.

                    Kimberly mumbled a “thank you” to Sehun without looking. When she was about to turn away, her phone rang.

                    Min

                    “Kim?”

                    “Yes, it’s me.”

                    The voice on the other side paused for a second and continued, “Is everything going well? You and your… family?”

                    The older girl let out a small sigh, “You know me so well. I can handle it. Don’t worry.”

                    “We’re at Seoul Grand Park. I’m sorry I forgot to tell you…”

                    “It’s okay. Is everything going well over there?”

                    Min ignored the question, “Where are you?”

                    “…”

                    “Kim?”

                    “Hey… Look. I have to go. Don’t wait for me. I’ll be back late today. Cover me if the staff comes back before I do please.”

                    “…Okay…”

                    “Thanks. I’m hanging up.”

                    “Take care, okay?”

                    She didn’t answer the last line. She just turned off her phone and put it in her pocket. Sehun’s phone also rang right after. This time it was Baekhyun. The girl only shook her head when she knew who it was, to signal him not to tell them she was there.

                    Baekhyun hurried Sehun to go back to the fountains. The boy hesitated at first but finally answered that he would be there soon.

                    “Go,” the girl said. She turned around and was about to cross the street again.

                    Sehun didn’t answer, and she didn’t look back. He wasn’t expecting her to do such thing anyway. They weren’t the hero and heroine from a drama who were about to break up or anything. He cared, though, about where she was heading to, so he asked, because he too logically thought that she was still part of the team and that she shouldn’t go missing or get into any trouble.

                    And “none of your business” was exactly the answer he expected from her.

                    “They’re still here, singing and playing guitar.”

                    “Are they all together?”

                    “Yes. Sehun is also back. Kimberly left and we didn’t follow her. So right now the eleven of them are all together.”

                    Manager Im sighed, “Why causing such a scene, these guys. Are the other people suspicious of them or do they pay attention to them at all?”

                    “No, Hyunkyun. Don’t worry, there are only a few others around here and they’re either kindergarten kids or senior citizens.”

                    “And the family? Are they meeting her again?”

                    “They probably went home or something. After the girl ran away, they had quite a fight. All three of them. And they got into the car and sped away. Seriously, her father was so furious. Are you sure it’s not going to affect us?”

                    “Let him be. Follow the rest closely, hyung. If anything happens, secretly help them, okay? We’re still at the company and I don’t think we’ll get off early. Sooman is changing our plans again.”

                    “Tough, huh? Good luck, bro.”

                    “Among the people that revolve around
                    There’s you who only dance for me
                    Tonight where the red cocktail shines bright
                    I wanna run away with just the two of us

                    Oh your beautiful voice
                    is allowing me to do everything I want
                    Right now we’re dancing with our body language
                    and song that only the two of us know”

                    Tete’s Romantico filled the air, and the owner of the voice was Suho. Min was forced to play the guitar a while back. She was quite grumpy, and the guitar was getting a bad treatment from her. Suho’s sweet voice, however, covered all the flaw, and everyone enjoyed the song, ignoring the guitarist.

                    “Oppa is the best!” the other girls beamed.

                    “I wanna hear daddy’s voice too!” Sora leaned towards D.O and grabbed him by the arm while showing puppy eyes.

                    “Daddy?” Baekhyun raised his brows.

                    “Yes! Daddy D.O is my daddy!”

                    “You’re funny, Sora. Then who’s your mommy? This guy doesn’t have any girl.”

                    “What do you mean, Suho oppa? D.O Daddy has Kimmy Mommy!”

                    At her words, all heads turned to him. Chanyeol even spat the water he was drinking and almost popped his eyes. “What?!”

                    Sora giggled with sparkling eyes. D.O waved both hands in front of him, trying to deny what the rest were thinking. “Not like that!”

                    “Then like what?” Kai furrowed his brows, suspicious.

                    “We… We just adopted Sora together. Look how cute this orphan is,” D.O patted the girl on the head, smiling. Sora didn’t play along, however. Her eyes shifted to Julianne. Fiona, Min, and Wendy did the same.

                    “I- I need to get some fresh air,” Julianne suddenly sprang up and left, her voice awkward.

                    D.O, sensing the tension, asked, “What’s wrong?”

                    Kai stood up and quickly followed her.

                    “So you mean… Julianne is…”

                    “An orphan. Yes,” Fiona nodded. D.O’s eyes widened.

                    “Don’t worry much, oppa. She’ll be fine. It can’t be possible for her to sit here and laugh at the joke like it was nothing, right?”

                    Sora even dropped the “daddy” and became serious. Nobody dared to speak afterwards. Min took the guitar and strummed on it again. She said,

                    “She knows well that she’s an orphan since birth. She’s not sad about that, and I’m not telling you this so you can keep on teasing her-”

                    “How can we even tease her?” Chanyeol cut. She gave him a warning look.

                    “But she doesn’t like the word ‘adopt’…”

                    Suho shifted uncomfortably in his seat and carefully concluded, “So… She’s one of those who are not… adopted by anyone?”

                    Min nodded. The girls looked away.

                    “That’s so tough. How did she live by herself for the entire 17 years of life?”

                    “Not alone. She might be overage, but she’s still living at the Banks Orphanage. Her last name Banks, she’s sharing that with about fifty others, all of those who have never been adopted by anyone. Banks is the last name of the owner of the orphanage. They’re kind; I’ve met them, but she doesn’t feel like she has a family that way.”

                    “Isn’t Pegasus her family?” Baekhyun asked, his eyes soft.

                    “You talk beautiful, oppa, but how can a person not yearn for their family at all? The real family, I mean.”

                    “Have you heard of IU’s A Child Searching for the Star?” Wendy suddenly asked. Some of the boys nodded, so she started singing. Sora took over the guitar.

                    “It’s the song Julianne sings every once in a while. We might as well practice, so you don’t cry when the day comes,” the maknae joked.

pinkspades: No time to talk! Need to go to class! I'll be back with another chapter later :) Hope you enjoyed and thank you all for commenting <3