Back to the present moment, I looked along the streets and the path we were walking on – it seemed all too familiar.

“Myungsoo…” I trailed, eyeing up at him again.

“Hmmm?”

“Isn’t this the route I take to go home? Are we going back to my place?”

He shrugged, feigning ignorance. “I don’t know…? Is it?”

I laughed and slapped him lightly on the arm. After a few wordless turns and strolling down the usual streets, we finally arrived at our ‘secret’ destination: my apartment. When we were just outside the door after opting to climb the two levels of stairs, I looked to him.

“Before I go in… I just want to tell you that I had a great time. Just in case I’m too overwhelmed and forget…” I looked to the floor as he finally let go of my hand and slung a casual arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. I could smell his scent, something like the musk of dark, clean coal and because he didn’t like wearing cologne, it was more obvious to me that this smelt more like heaven than any perfume.

“Don’t worry, I’ll remind you.” He chuckled, voice reverberating in his chest. He then let go and gestured towards the door and I fumbled my keys to open in expectation. But what I opened the door to find was most definitely not what Myungsoo had planned.

In place of candles, chocolate, rose petals and a nice jazz playlist as Myungsoo had asked the rest of the Infinite members to put up, the whole place was a complete mess with the television lying broken, the books strewn in a mess and the crockery smashed all over the floor. I gasped in shock as Myungsoo stood in equal astonishment.

“Oh my god.” He turned to me, “This is not what I had planned! Honestly, I had candles and love poems and chocolates and flowers-” He was about to continue apologising when I cut him off, sudden exhaustion in my voice.

“It’s alright.” I cooed. “Maybe it’s a burglary or something.” I bit my lip and ran an exasperated hand through my hair, just surveying the sight and trying to take it all in. Myungsoo swallowed hard and in frustration pulled out his phone to call up s, if they knew anything about it or even if they did it – but he highly doubted it.

Just as the line picked up however, a man leaped out from behind the kitchen counter and held me in deadlock with a knife poised under my throat.

“Hello? Hello? Oi, Myungsoo?” Sunggyu’s voice from his cell phone dropped to the floor as Myungsoo raised his hands in tense defense. “Who are you? How did you get in here?” He growled, “Let go of her, you bastard.” The switch in his voice from Myungsoo to L – his operation code name was almost instant as I tottered on my toes, pressed against the chest of the stranger who smelt of booze and cigarettes.

Another two men appeared from in my bedroom and sauntered out, holding my underwear in their hands and I shuddered at the thought of what they had been doing in there.

“Quite a lovely one you have here, don’t you L?” The one holding me snarled, his tongue flicked out and narrowly missed my ear lobe and I tried not to crumple in disgust.

“Let go of her.” He growled again, shifting in his stance and eyeing the other two wearily as they began to circle him in the clattered living room.

“You know, Big Boss never appreciated you busting him out and now, he wants revenge.”

Myungsoo could never remember all the criminals he had put into jail as there was too many to even remember but all he cared now was the danger they posed. It was always like this and one day, this scene where I was caught in some kind of deadlock was just going to be inevitable. Whenever I was out with him, when we were together, he was always super cautious about protecting me and looking out for anything that could do harm. Once, he nearly kicked a stray cat because he thought it was a dark force of evil lurking in the bushes late at night. I used to laugh at his antics and he’d scowl and lecture me on looking out for myself but it never really hit me how it could all just manifest into reality, even in that one split second.

I was breathing heavily and I looked straight ahead as if I couldn’t see anything. There was nothing much I could do but in my neck as further away as I possibly could from the blade but even if I pulled back, the guy pushed it closer. Myungsoo swiftly looked at his surroundings before cursing under his breath, but in one quick leap, he lunged forward and ripped the man’s arm, holding the knife from my throat and punched him simultaneously in the gut. Then, he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of his hold, “stay out of the way.” He warned and I rushed immediately out the door, picking up the cell phone he had dropped earlier on the floor to call the police and the rest of Infinite.

Sunggyu picked up on the first ring and his voice sounded irate. “What?!” He rasped into the speaker and I winced away from the sound as Myungsoo picked up one of my dinner stools to defend himself and force the other two men into a corner.

“We’re in trouble! Someone’s ransacked my apartment and now they’re fighting in my living room. One of them is out cold, you’ve gotta come quick!”

Sunngyu was quick to respond as I heard another voice ask what was happening in the background. “Have you called the police?” He asked.

“No, not yet.” I plastered myself up against the door as Myungsoo stood in front of me, protecting me from view. He picked up the kitchen knife the first guy used to threaten me with and lunged forward again.

“Don’t. Those bastards can’t deal with this. We’ll be there in 5.” Then there was the cold beep of a dead line and I hoped that they would truly make it in time. The three men in the room were now exhausted as I cowered in the furthermost point, near the door. They were breathing like animals and growling at each other whilst I watched on but I knew L was better than this and then in one sharp tornadoe spin, he kicked the two in the ribs and they were out flat. There was silence then that aded the room and he turned, slowly at first to look at me with pained eyes. ‘This was never supposed to happen,’ they said and I couldn’t help but comfort him with my own soft gaze and agree.

He had been punched in the face in amongst the brawl and purple bruises bloomed along his jaw, his lip busted and cheek beginning to swell. He raised a slow hand and ushered me towards him, gesturing for me to come closer. I managed to unfurl myself from the foetal position I had claimed in the dispute and inch, step by step into his shuddering embrace. I felt him kiss my forehead and I could do nothing but clutch pathetically to his chest and stop any shocked tears from spilling over my eyes.

The door then burst open and Hoya stood with his guns cocked whilst the rest of the members aimed on from behind him. Seeing that there was nothing, they dropped their weapons and looked on in relief, no one commenting on the lovers embrace we were both tangled in.

“Anyone hurt?” Dongwoo peeked up from behind and looked tersely around.

L shook his head in two sharp movements and they trailed in one by one into the mess, avoiding the two who were lying unconscious on the floor.

“Sungjong’s just asked the apartment block to evacuate so we can clean up this wreck and he’s probably explaining to them what happened… with a few harmless lies here and there.” Sungyeol shrugged, a little disappointment in his face that he didn’t get to take part in the action.

Woohyun picked up the fragments of what used to be the television and looked at me as L released me from his embrace, cupping my cheek in his hands like I was the most precious thing in the world and I tried to divvy up my attention. “You have insurance on this place?”

Before I could answer and tell him sadly ‘no’, Myungsoo spoke up, eyes never leaving my face. “Yeah, I applied for home insurance on her behalf. Things should be fine.” I looked on oblivious. When did this happen? I never knew about it.

“You predicted this would happen?” Woohyun raised a disapproving eyebrow and Myungsoo just turned from me slowly and shot a death glare that shut him right up.

“She’ll stay with me for the time being, while her place gets cleaned up.” He touched his bleeding lip and the umma-instict in me kicked in and I pulled his hand away before he could come in contact with the sticky red. He smiled at me softly and I paused for a second before letting his hand go and walking cautiously to the kitchen sink to wet a nearby tea towel on the bench – probably the only thing undisturbed in the kafuffle.

The Infinite members then started talking about something between themselves and banter ensued as they waited for people to come and clean up the debris, remove the unconscious men and lock them up again. But it seemed, I wasn’t careful enough. With the wet towel in hand, I walked around in the aim of dabbing it along Myungsoo’s puckered lip, wiping the blood away in one clean swipe but before I could get there, it seemed the first guy who had held me down was readying for offense.

He had woken up from his heavy blow to the stomach and reaching around for anything he could find, curled his fingers around  his original knife that L had dropped and stretched up to slash, hard. I felt his grip tight on my ankle and I fell down effortlessly, without struggle and as I dropped forward, I could feel the open gash down my back – eyes widening at the sudden sharp agony.

You know in movies where in these moments time just sort of stops? Well, that was what it was like. Time slowed down as I greeted the floor, Myungsoo’s eyes widening in horror as I out in shock and red blanketed my vision.

I heard his scream. My name. He yelled it like a curse.

And that was when I knew that I couldn’t do it anymore.

That I couldn’t be by his side.

That I needed to run. 

~

A/N: I hope you guys liked it! Comment and subscribe~

Ahhh, L is just so AAAYYYY! :D