The Escape
Chapter Seven
*
No Pain, No Gain

*

"I don’t care who you talk to, what you talk about or when you leave, oppa, just don’t leave me alone, I'm begging you," Yoona whispered into Taecyeon's ear as they entered the big ballroom where a charity function was currently being held. "I don’t know anyone here!" she hissed, her arm linked in his from the red carpet. She was treading unfamiliar territory here - sure, she attended the balls and business functions of Kim Enterprises, but that was different to this. This, was not an event run by her family's company. This was an event where she did not know anyone but Taecyeon. This was something that was totally out of her comfort zone. Tonight she would not be able to hide behind Yuri, Tiffany or Hyun Joong from the business world that had caused her so much pain.

"Don’t worry, I won't," he leaned into her and put his hand on the small of her back. "You'll be stuck with me all night." He assured her.

It had not taken Yoona and Taecyeon long  to find and try on a suitable dress for tonight's event - once she had tried on the strapless peach dress which was decorated with jewels, they both agreed that it was perfect for the charity event. Floor length, it was perfect for Yoona, showing her elegance and beauty. He could tell she wasn’t exactly happy with having to come to tonight's event when he turned up at her workplace unexpectedly, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. His brothers had meetings to attend, functions to organise, restaurants to run, bars to oversee, and business partners to meet. It was the least he could do as one of Wonhee's sons by turning up tonight to represent the family company at this highly prestigious charity event. On the other hand, he felt guilty for having to drag Yoona into this when it clearly wasn’t her type of scene. Of course, she could have stayed at home, but that thought scared him. Lee Seung-gi was roaming around freely in Seoul, and he had shaken Yoona up so badly last time. Taecyeon had promised to look after Yoona, and that he would do.

After hearing that he wouldn’t leave her, she released a breath which she didn’t even know she held. It was silly really, she thought to herself. After years of having grown up with a wealthy family who had a high status in the corporate industry, she still hadn't gotten used to the idea of attending business events. It brought back too many memories of her parents. Her dead parents.

"Let's go get a drink," Taecyeon suggested and he began leading Yoona towards the bar.

*

"Daddy's home! Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" Minho jumped up and down as the little fellow heard the jangle of keys from the door of the apartment which the family of three lived in.

"Minho! Get back here you rascal!" A tired Victoria shouted from the bathroom. She had spent a good half hour trying to get Minho to take a bath, but to no avail - he refused to get into the tub with the rubber ducky until Daddy got home. Life was hard as a mother, she had learnt - Minho had uttered the word 'Daddy' before 'Mommy'. She would never forget the horror at her son having said the word 'Daddy' before 'Mommy'. Hell, she was the one that had stayed home those first few years to look after the toddler. But then again, she was the one that carried out the discipline, it shouldn’t be surprising that Nichkhun had more convincing power. He was always the one spoiling him with toys for their precious child. "Minho! Come back and have your bath!"

He could feel it as soon as he crossed the threshold into his home. Little Minho was at it again, giving Victoria a hard time. "Daddy!" he heard from his son, and before long, he could see the little fellow running down the hallway towards him. "Hey little man!" Nichkhun greeted his son as he picked him up. "Have you had your bath yet?"

"I had almost persuaded him to get in the tub when he heard your keys jangle!" Victoria whined to her husband coming down the hallway after her son.

"Hey honey," Nichkhun smiled at his wife before giving her a kiss with Minho still in his arms.

"I haven't even made dinner yet either," Victoria pouted.

"Aw, Mommy's had a hard day today, hasn’t she?" Nichkhun teased. "Come on Minho, let's go get you squeaky clean while Mommy makes us dinner," he said as he put his son back down, who then ran back into the bathroom, excited that his father was home.

"You look tired," Victoria commented now that they were alone in the living room as she helped him out of his blazer and then his tie. "Sit down," the wife commanded and the husband obeyed.

Her hands went to work as she began massaging his shoulders. "Was work that tiring after I left this afternoon?" It was customary for Victoria to leave work early on Monday's and Friday's so that she could pick up Minho from school rather than get the nanny to do so, afterall, Minho was her son, and she didn’t like to leave him in strangers hands. She just wasn’t comfortable leaving her son in the care of people she wasn’t familiar with, even if it was only for a few hours. "Chansung handed in his resignation letter today. He said it was time to return back to the corporate world," Nichkhun replied.

"Already?" Victoria asked, surprised. Though they had both known that Chansung's employment at Happy Days was temporary, they hadn't realised how time flew by. Chansung was contracted as one of their photographers at their business for a year, as their previous photographer had taken a year off to go visit Africa.

" Yeah, Changmin called earlier this week though, and he said he'll be back from Africa in 2 weeks when Chansung leaves. So it shouldn’t be a problem. I called Tiffany beforehand and she said she was more than happy to have Changmin take over as the photographer for the wedding. Anyway enough of work, Taec can look after Minho this weekend. We can drop him off at his on Thursday night too," Nichkhun patted Victoria's hands, which was still massaging the knots around her husband's neck.

"Really?" Victoria practically jumped up and down after hearing the good news. Taecyeon and his brothers were different when it came to Minho - Victoria trusted them, unlike the nannies that changed every week. Nichkhun had grown up with the lot of boys, and were pretty much considered family, despite Nichkhun being Thai. From the day she met them during high school, although she wasn’t as close to them as Nichkhun was, she could tell that there was a strong relationship between the boys that would last. Furthermore, Minho loved his uncles, so Victoria was relieved that Taecyeon could babysit.

"Did you know that Yoona is living with Taec, Honey?" Nichkhun remembered.

Victoria wasn’t sure if she had just heard right. "You mean our Yoona? Im Yoona?"

"Yep. I was surprised too when I asked him,"

"Wait a minute," Victoria stopped. "Does that mean they've been seeing each other? I don’t recall Taecyeon ever mentioning a girlfriend… I'll have to ask Yoona next time we go shopping together. Wait a minute… That means Yoona will also be looking after Minho that weekend, right?"

"I suppose so. Why?"

"That’s good. Yoona's good with Minho. Minho loves her. And I love her. And I trust her. She'll make sure Minho eats all his vegetables too," Victoria thought out loud as she remembered all those times she brought Minho into work when he didn’t have school. She recalled how much Minho had laughed that day when Yoona looked after him for her while she had to attend meetings and all that whatnot. Yoona was talented with children, they loved her where ever she went, and it was no different with Minho.

"Daddy! Hurry up!" the couple heard from the hallway, and saw Minho's head peek out from the door, earning chuckles from Victoria and Nichkhun in the living room, and he kissed his wife before running down the hall to deal with the little one.

*

"Ah, I almost forgot to tell you," Taecyeon said to Yoona as they made their way back from the bar with their drinks to the crowd of business men and women. "We're looking after Minho this weekend. Nichkhun and Victoria's kid,"

Taecyeon's sudden announcement surprised her. "We are? Since when?"

"Since this afternoon when I came to pick you up. He's staying with us starting Thursday night," Taecyeon informed her.

"Okay then. It's your place after all," Yoona replied. She noticed that a few business men were walking towards her and Taecyeon, and it looked like they knew him. Quickly, she thought of a plan to get away from having to stand there with Taecyeon listening to business talks. "Oppa, I'm going to visit the ladies room. I'll come find you afterwards,"

*

"Please excuse me sir, Mr Shin," Taecyeon politely said as he backed out from the business conversation he was in with the elderly man and his sons. "I need to go find that partner of mine, she's disappeared on me," He couldn’t seem to concentrate on the conversation at hand, and decided to go find Yoona. After all, it had been at least a good half hour since she had gone to the bathroom, and there had been no sight of her return. Don’t get him wrong - he wasn’t worried about Lee Seung-gi suddenly turning up. This was a high profile event after all, and only those with invitations could get in past the tight security. But when he had promised her that he wouldn’t leave her side tonight, he had meant that and intended to keep his word. The only thing he didn’t expect though, was for her to voluntarily leave his side without notice.

As he searched through the ballroom filled with his seniors of superior business men and women who ran international corporations, he spotted Yoona sitting at the bar, alone. The sight of her amused him really, she didn’t quite fit into the scene, yet she also looked like she lived for events like these. After watching her down the fourth glass of champagne, it was obvious to him she wasn’t happy, and it was on his agenda to find out why.

From the corner of her eye, Yoona saw Taecyeon heading towards her, and a few strides later, he was sitting down on the bar stool right next to her. She knew she should have gone back to find him after going to the ladies room, but she didn’t feel like she fit in here. And because she neither her brother nor her sister was present, she had no one to hide behind. It was all new, unchartered territory for her. Quite frankly, it scared the freaking daylights out of her. While lost in thought, Yoona heard him ask the bar tender for a beer.

He studied her while he waited for a beer to come his way. "What's wrong?" He asked as he tilted her chin his way, so that she would look into his eyes. He would not take "Nothing" for an answer. He was mature enough to know that something was definitely up. Hell, he had grown up with an older sister who now lived in the States with his parents to be able to differentiate when something really was okay, and when something wasn’t okay when it came to girls. "Don't even lie to me Yoona, I grew up with an older sister," he added for good measure, just to make sure she would open up. "And you've had four glasses of champagne,"

"Oppa," he heard her speak. "I'm sorry,"

The next thing he knew, he pulled her into a tight embrace after seeing her eyes get teary. Cradling her head and cooing her, he let her sob into his chest as she thought back to what had happened a few minutes ago, tightening her grip on him. "Come on, let's go," she heard him say before he grabbed her hand, leading her out of the ballroom, the building, and into his car.

*

Park Jin Young watched the scene unfold from afar during a conversation with a few other business men at the charity event. Sure, he had kept tabs on Yoona for almost two decades, but he was surprised when he saw her turn up at tonight's event as someone's date. Recently, Park Jin Young had found himself dealing with issues related to Yoona more frequently than normal, but her unexpected appearance at tonight's event only meant one thing - he needed to keep a closer watch over her."Find out that guy's name for me. And what the hell the relationship is with him and Yoona," he whispered into his assistant's ear as he watched the male lead Yoona away. "I want to know as soon as possible."

*

"Oppa," Yoona stopped Taecyeon by yanking on his arm. "We don’t have to leave you know. You need to be here. I'm fine. Really," she wiped her teary eyes.

"It's okay. I'm over it anyway. Let's go do something else," Something tugged in his heart when he saw her at that moment. Maybe it was the strength in her to go back in there and face something which obviously made her unhappy, or maybe it was the because she had stopped crying.

"But-"

"I've made an appearance, spoken to the people I needed to speak to, met people I've need to meet," Taecyeon interrupted. "Now let's go," he smiled at her before taking her hand in his again.

*

"Want to talk about what happened back there?" Taecyeon had hesitated before asking. He had driven Yoona to a place where he hoped that she would feel calmer - to the Han River. Now, they walked side by side on the footpath out under the starry night sky, listening to the water crashing against the sides, a comfortable silence between them.

She thought hard for a moment, looking up at the sparkling night while pulling closer his suit jacket which he had draped over her once she got out of his car. Taecyeon deserved to know why she broke down like that, but the selfish side of her argued that this was her business to deal with, not anybody else's. Just thinking about what had happened tonight brought her to tears, the pain, guilt and regret flooding with the memory.

Yoona had spotted the man that she had been after for the past few weeks. Park Jin Young. He stood in a corner of the ballroom, in deep conversation with many other business men who had also been invited to the charity event, like Taecyeon. Upon realisation of who it was, she had a sudden urge to run up to him and confront him for what he did to her parents so many years ago. But something also yanked her back, taking away her courage to confront such a powerful businessman. The sight of him caused her pain, reminding her yet again of her parents, their business, and their death.

Guilt overrode her for not confronting such a despicable man who had her parents business, conned into his filthy hands.

Regret that she didn't ask for the answers she had been searching for, for so long.

She had failed her parents. Failed to find the answers.

And just like that, she let the tears fall again.

As soon as Taecyeon saw those tears forming in her eyes, he knew that something had adversely affected her at the charity ball beforehand, and it pained him to know that he was the one who was ultimately responsible for bringing her to the high profile event. For the third time that night, he reached for her hand, bringing her to the bench that looked out into the sea. He let her cry into his chest when they sat down, and he wrapped her in a tight embrace, cooing into her ear that things would be okay. He hoped so anyway - whatever it was, he was sure that it couldn’t be that bad. She would work things out eventually, whatever it was.

*

"Isn't that Taecyeon oppa and Yoona?" Jei asked, to no one in particular. She could recognise Yoona anywhere - hell, she worked with her at Happy Days. Jei was the make-up artist, and Yoona a photographer. Together, they made a great team, great friendship, great fun and brought great laughter into the office on long, hard days. And she had Minjun's brother enough times to recognise him. The only thing she didn’t know, what that Yoona and Taecyeon knew each other.

"Where?" Minjun asked in return. They had decided to meet tonight for a romantic walk on the Han River and had just gotten ice creams with the innocent girl who had captured his heart. Kim Jin Hee, otherwise known as Jei.

"Over there," she pointed to the two figures hugging on the bench facing the sea, 20 metres or so away.

The moment Minjun eyes landed on the bench his girlfriend was talking about, his eyes widened in surprise. "Jei, I have something to ask you. Did I, or did I just not, see my younger brother kiss Yoona's forehead?"

*

Bleh. Kind of a rushed chapter this time… trying to get lots of writing done before I have to begin packing  my stuff and move to the city.

On a side note, as soon as I saw the pictures that Yoona had attended Sun's wedding, I fangirl mode and have been convincing myself that she was not only invited because she's close to Sun, but that she was also there on behalf of Taecyeon. AND I almost died when I saw those reports that Taecyeon was 'confirmed' to be casted on We Got Married. Like seriously. I was like 'OMG OMG OMG HE HAS GOT TO BE FREAKING CASTED WITH YOONA'. But it was just a rumour. SIGH.