Chapter 8

Ji Eun was lifted and thrown back onto the rough stone pavement ground. Her uniform lifted up slightly when in the air, hence when she fell back onto the ground, the white and smooth skin of hers was scratched. She winced in pain, screaming as she tried to remove whatever was preventing her to see – but to no avail. Someone had pinned her arms against the coarse wall while digging his or her nails into her skin. She felt a huge blow on her cheek, then to her ribcage. The excruciating pain made her unable to scream moreover spoke.

“S-stop…” She begged, almost inaudible.

“Hah! Then stop fooling with our Luha-“

“Shut up!”

“Again!”

A kick at her stomach made her black out.

***

Ji Eun opened her eyes, squinting as she tried to get a better view of what’s in front of her. She cringed, feeling a tremendous headache as soon as she tried to lift herself up. She placed her left hand on her forehead, as though it could help to soothe the pain.

Are these-..?

She sees a few tubes in front of her eyes. Confused, she rubbed her eyes and took a better look at them. The tubes were stuck into her arm…

“救命啊！(Help)” She screams at the sight of the tubes that were stuck through her skin. She removes the tubes and threw her blanket aside, unaware that there were other people in the room.

“JI EUN-SSHI! DON’T MOVE! YOUR ANKLE IS INJURED!!!!!!”

Ji Eun gasped at the sudden cry. She turned to where the shout was from, eyes widening when she sees a group of 12 males sitting on one corner of the room. And now that she realized, she was in a hospital – a patient room to be exact.

Almost immediately, the 12 males were gathered around her bed, throwing questions at her, asking if she was fine – which was kind of rhetoric.

“Why am I even here?” She asked, ignoring the questions about her health.

The room turned silent at her question.

She couldn’t have forgotten.

“Well…” Kris started, pausing for a brief moment. “Luhan and Sehun found you in a far corner in a part of an alley. You were- I guess you know the rest.”

Ji Eun stared at Kris, causing the formal to become uncomfortable. She shifted her gaze and tried to register his words. Alley…

Out of the blue, she faced him again.

“Oh… I was beaten up right?” She said, but it was unclear if there was annoyance or hatred in her tone of speech.

The confident leader that fans saw on stage felt small almost instantly. He was taken aback by the new mysterious and unpredictable side of her. He nodded without a word.

“I guess I was lucky to not have died and to suffer just these injuries,” She mumbled, her eyes shifting towards her ankle which was wrapped with bandage. Then, she patted her shoulder, feeling the tightness around her shoulders to her waist.

A small grin crept to her face as she glanced up back at the guys. Their gaze darted towards her and they sat still without moving a bit.

“How long have you guys been here? It should’ve been long. My body’s aching from not moving already…”

“It was 8 hours…” Sehun spoke aloud. Like being asleep for a normal duration of 8 hours…

“Oh… That was long. You guys were here for 8 hours?” Ji Eun asked again. Her usage of words was becoming more and more informal that it was starting to scare them.

“Yes…” Suho replied when he saw the other members getting flustered.

“I see…” And then, the room fell back into silence.

***

The twelve of them exited the room as soon as the doctor informed them that he was going to check on Ji Eun. They all heaved a sigh, probably the breath that they had kept inside them during the awkward silence inside. Sehun stole a glance at Luhan who was walking by himself in the front. The latter had not spoken to him since they’ve reached the hospital, and whenever he attempts to start a conversation, he replies with merely a nod or a shake of the head. Sehun felt scared.

He knows that this best buddy of his was one who expresses his feelings or thoughts openly. But, the professional Luhan was different. Whenever Luhan is in front of the public eyes or in front of the camera, he never showed his hard feelings – anger, annoyance or anything that would make one judge. Sehun remembered once, on a show which M was in, the emcee asked Luhan a (stupid) question that delves into their private lives. The other members flinched when they heard the question, Tao even rolled his eyes – also something that Sehun would do. Luhan, being the really professional one hid his feelings with just a chuckle and a smile.

“I don’t think I can answer that!” Luhan replied, as if jokingly. Sehun recalled.

There was also once when Luhan was shoved by the massive crowd (fans) which actually caused him to fall and injure himself slightly. Luhan did not show any significant sign of annoyance. He merely kept mum and ignored. And, that was something that was happening to Sehun now.

Luhan isn’t happy with him, or maybe even mad.

Joonmyeon sensed that something was bothering the maknae he cared a lot for and thus hastened his pace to check on him. His eyes followed where the younger was staring at and he sighed.

“Just let him cool down. He’s gonna be okay.” The older said while giving the younger a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.

Sehun stole another glance at Luhan.

***

EXO, excluding Luhan left for the cafeteria located in the hospital they were in. They had their caps and masks (hospital ones so as to reduce suspicion) on and were at the stall, looking at the menu.

“I’ll get the buns!” The chubby cheek male exclaimed to Jongdae, which in turn rolled his eyes playfully.

“What? It’s not like I can eat those everyday!”

They ate at a large table at the corner of the cafeteria, which was much quieter and had less people bustling around the place.

Xiumin finished his plate of 4 buns within minutes but nevertheless was still hungry. He turned to his right side, where Chen was sitting and grinned when he saw the plate of buns Chen had apart from his sandwich in his hand. The still hungry boy nudged the latter and smiled cheekily to him before reaching out to grab the plate of buns away sneakily – well, not quite sneakily.

Chen pretended that he did not notice the formal’s actions and continued munching on his sandwich. From the start, he had already predicted that those 4 buns (which were now in the male’s belly) were not enough for that Chinese-looking boy. So much for going on a diet…

In the midst of their meal, 2 men approached them.

“You must be EXO? We’re the police.” The taller man introduced as he flashed a card with the police logo on it.

The young males nodded, somehow shocked that those men were police (and how they could actually recognize them despite their careful covers)

“We’re here to ask if any one of you have any suspect in mind or witnessed something that could’ve led to Miss Park Ji Eun’s incident.”

The seated males glanced at each other; their manager must’ve contacted the company about it already.

Their gaze darted towards one another again, waiting for someone to answer the policeman’s question.

Sehun thought for a moment. Then, he raised his hand. “I have a couple of people in mind.”

***

A/N:

To be very honest, I had no idea I would actually include Chen and XiuMin moments in this chapter. I just thought that they still had no 'screen time' (or perhaps, lines) yet, so yeah... Oh, by the way, I got inspired to write Luhan's professionalism after reading a tumblr post about his professionalism. How much I love tumblr oh my gawd.

I'm sorry for grammar mistakes in past or in this chapter! :( [Gonna edit them soon!]

If you're curious, I'm actually half-korean and half-chinese. I live in Singapore though. (Just joking! Well... Maybe not? kekeke)

I got some news to share :P I'm attending SMTOWNSG! Hehe, anyone of you guys attending it too?

Now... random EXO gifs.

*HOT LUHAN MODE*

WOOOOOH~ /grins/

Oh right, did you guys see EXO's Samsung CF? IT FEELS AS THOUGH IT IS THEIR COMEBACK TEASER!!... eottokkae? Oh, BAEKHYUN IS THE NEW DERP SQUAD RECRUIT!