He had silenced his phone before falling asleep, but even the buzzing of an incoming text message was enough to wake him when it reoccurred multiple times. Groaning, Youngjae rolled over and fumbled around the bedside table. When he had securely snatched his phone, he yanked open a drawer and gently tossed it inside. Whoever was trying to get a hold of him this early in the morning would just have to wait until he was done sleeping. It hadn't even been a full minute before the buzzing began once more, though, and continued running in tandem with the ring tone that normally played.

     It was completely possible for him to ignore the call. Anyone who tried getting a hold of another person at this ungodly hour would understand that their chances were slim, and couldn't possibly justify any anger at being ignored. Besides, whoever it was had texted him multiple times before even bothering to call. Nobody from work would be texting him; the in-office phones didn't have the ability to do so and no one in their right mind would be using their personal time and personal phone to message him. Satisfied, Youngjae ignored the drawer's humming and curled up to go back to sleep.

     A few moments later, he was sitting upright and retrieving his phone. Nobody from work would be texting him, but a certain author he knew had a particular dislike for speaking over the phone and always favored text messages. Turning on his phone, Youngjae groaned and ran a hand through his hair. At the top of every message, and the most recent missed call, was Hei-Ryung's name. Before he could call her back, however, the phone began buzzing again. Obviously, things were desperate enough for Hei-Ryung that she was willing to attempt to call him twice and risk having him actually answer. On the second ring, Youngjae unlocked his phone and answered the call.

     "I'm so sorry about calling you this early! I know you were sleeping and that it wasn't right of me to do this, but when I tried calling Seulki I got sent straight to voice mail and-" As she spoke, Hei-Ryung's tone became increasingly distraught and unsteady, until by the end she could barely choke out the words, let alone make herself understandable. Feeling more alert, Youngjae reached over to turn his lamp on so he could find his shoes. "I really am sorry. I-I..." After briefly removing the phone from his ear to put her on speaker phone, Youngjae placed the device on his disheveled bed and began searching blindly under the bed for his shoes. His memory was still somewhat foggy from sleep, but he could recall enough to know that any articles of clothing he had been wearing the day before had been so haphazardly discarded that he didn't stand a chance of finding them.

     Squeezing his eyes shut to try and remove the heaviness of sleep that was still settled on them, Youngjae got to his feet and staggered over to the dresser. Behind him, Hei-Ryung suddenly went quiet. "Are you still there? Did you fall back asleep?" She had grown considerably more quiet, apparently not wanting to disturb Youngjae if he had indeed drifted off once more. "I'm sorry." Before Youngjae could announce that he was fully awake, Hei-Ryung hung up. With a sigh, Youngjae hurried back to his bed and immediately hit the redial button. On the third ring, she answered.

     "Hei-Ryung-"

     "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have hung up on you until I was sure that you had-"

     "Hei-Ryung!" Youngjae didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sudden odd turn his night had taken, so his exclamation ended up as an exasperated mixture of the both. Immediately, Hei-Ryung went quiet. Sighing, Youngjae pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and took a few moments to collect his thoughts. "Hei-Ryung, what's wrong? Why are you calling me?"

     Apparently the night had been quite eventful for Hei-Ryung, as she couldn't seem to settle on how to start her story. After a few false starts, she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "He's bleeding. It's not bad, but..." Once more putting the phone of speaker, Youngjae missed some of what Hei-Ryung said. When he could hear her once more, Youngjae carelessly tossed the phone onto his bed and lunged across the room to start rummaging through his drawers for something decent to wear. "Yongguk- um, a friend of Daehyun's- told Daehyun about this party, and Daehyun invited me. He... he got drunk, though, and... um... he..."

     "He picked a fight," Youngjae filled in, knowing exactly where this story was going. When he got drunk, Daehyun either became angry or depressed- sometimes even a volatile cocktail of both- and it seemed that this time he had gone for the former of the emotions. "The hell was he thinking when he brought Hei-Ryung, though?" Steaming, Youngjae tossed aside the dress shirt he had fallen asleep in and slipped on a simple gray sweater instead. The fabric was thin and beginning to wear holes in a few places, but Youngjae was too focused on kicking his once-neatly pressed pants off to notice.

     "He... got in a fight." Giving up on being tactful, Hei-Ryung let out a defeated sigh and admitted the truth. "Um... we aren't hurt too badly... but he... he kind of passed out..." Though he had only been half-listening to Hei-Ryung's story, Youngjae perked up immediately upon hearing the word 'we' rather than 'he'.

     "Did she get involved?" Nearly tripping over his jeans, Youngjae hobbled over to the phone while simultaneously trying to pull the pants on. "Did you get hit?" He exclaimed when he got close enough to the phone to be heard.

     "Um... just a little... it's not bad... it stopped hurting a few minutes-"

      "Hei-Ryung, where the hell did that drag you off to?" The words came out of his mouth before he could stop them, riding to the surface on a boiling collection of anger, concern, and not quite enough sleep. Quietly cursing himself for sounding so harsh when she was already distraught, Youngjae opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off by Hei-Ryung blurting out the name of the club. Snatching his phone off the bed, Youngjae glanced at himself momentarily in the mirror to make sure he wouldn't be arrested for public indecency and then rushed to tug on his sneakers. "Are you inside the club? Where should I meet you?"

     "No... we got kicked out... um... we're on the curb... right in front..." Clenching his jaw to prevent another outburst, Youngjae listened patiently as Hei-Ryung gave a general description of where she was. At least it didn't sound like Daehyun had, essentially, left Hei-Ryung alone in a shadier part of the city.

     "I'll be there as soon as I can. I need to hang up now to call a taxi... are you going to be okay?"

     "Y-yeah. I'll be fine." She was barely holding it together, and it killed Youngjae to hang up on her, but he wouldn't be able to walk all the way there. After hesitating for just a moment, Youngjae tore the phone away from his ear and ended the call. As soon as the screen went blank, Youngjae ripped open the door and practically sprinted down the hall while dialing the taxi service.

     It wasn't hard to pick out the unfortunate pair. As soon as the taxi rounded the corner, Youngjae could see Hei-Ryung sitting on the curb with Daehyun barely balanced on her shoulder. They were on the very edge of the pool of yellow light provided by one of the many street lights lining the asphalt, so he couldn't tell if the splashes of dark on her face were developing bruises or shadows. Youngjae sincerely hoped for the latter, but had a sinking feeling in his stomach that it was the former. "Pull over here," he directed, pointing to a spot a few feet away from Hei-Ryung and her unconcious companion. Nodding, the driver neatly parked alongside the curb and, at Youngjae's direction, left the taxi idling. As soon as the vehicle lost enough momentum for him to safely exit, Youngjae threw open the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

     Looking up from the nervous patterns she was scratching into her arm, Hei-Ryung managed a weak smile in Youngjae's direction. Though some of the spots he had noticed disappeared when the light hit her face, the majority remained as ugly, purpling bruises. There wasn't a fist in the world large enough to cover her entire face, either, which meant whoever Daehyun had picked a fight with had gotten his hands on her multiple times. Probably while Daehyun was staggering around drunk, or perhaps after the alcohol in his system had already caused him to pass out. Swallowing hard, Youngjae forced himself to remain level-headed and made his way over to Hei-Ryung.

     "Does it still hurt?" He asked, gesturing to the bruises. Struggling to fight back the tears that threatened to spill over, Hei-Ryung shook her head slowly. "So, what set him off?" Gracelessly, Youngjae lifted Daehyun's limp body off Hei-Ryung and sprawled him out on the sidewalk.

     "We got separated and... um..." Following Hei-Ryung's nervous fingers to her shoulder, Youngjae noticed that the sleeve of her dress had been torn at the seam, revealing finger-sized bruises on the skin underneath. It wasn't hard to guess why Daehyun had gotten so angry, and Youngjae couldn't exactly blame him. It wasn't as though Youngjae had been much better when he found out Hei-Ryung had been hit. If he had been faced with something like that... he probably would have thrown a few punches as well.

     "Are you okay?" Quietly, Hei-Ryung nodded, but something was obviously weighing on her mind. Resting one hand on the sidewalk to balance himself, Youngjae stayed crouched beside Hei-Ryung and waited until she could get out whatever she wanted to say.

     "I... I couldn't do anything for him," she blurted out, wrapping her arms around her knees. "And it was my fault he got hurt. It's always my fault. I thought I was better, but... I still can't do anything." Burying her face in her arms, Hei-Ryung struggled to silence the sobs that racked her shoulders. Hesitantly, Youngjae rested a hand on Hei-Ryung's shoulder. When she didn't flinch away, he began running his fingers up and down her back in an attempt to comfort her. "I'm sorry. I'm... I'm so sorry."

     With a sigh, Youngjae waited a few minutes for Hei-Ryung to calm down before gently helping her to her feet. Sniffling, she rubbed away the tears that streaked down her face, wincing every time her fists bumped the bruises on her face, then turned to look down at Daehyun. "I'm sorry I called you. I'll take him home and make sure he's okay," she mumbled, glancing back at Youngjae with a weak, apologetic smile.

     "You go home. I'll take him back to my place and keep an eye on him." Grabbing Hei-Ryung's arm, Youngjae gently started pushing her in the direction of the taxi. "Use that one. I've already paid the driver." Pulling open the back door for her, Youngjae gestured for Hei-Ryung to head inside. Hesitantly, she glanced between him and Daehyun, obviously feeling conflicted about dumping the drunk onto Youngjae. "Don't worry. This isn't the first time I've put up with him." Waving off Hei-Ryung's concern, Youngjae lightly nudged her towards the taxi's interior.

     Nodding, Hei-Ryung ducked inside but stopped Youngjae from closing the door behind her. "Thank you." Despite how miserable she looked and felt, Hei-Ryung managed the first genuine smile he had seen on her face that night. Opening his mouth, his first instinct was to brush it off as him ensuring the safety of the company's best author, but that was quickly buried by the realization that he did not come out to find her at two in the morning because she wrote popular books. Swallowing down the words, Youngjae scrambled to come up with something to say before he left Hei-Ryung hanging for too long.

     "Any time," was the best he could come up with. After they had said their goodnights and Youngjae had shut the door, he turned his back to the taxi and internally cursed himself for so quickly losing the ability to speak. When the crunch of gravel beneath tires had faded away, Youngjae pulled out his cell phone and placed another call to the taxi service. It took a few minutes of Youngjae giving a vaguely detailed recollection of the events of the night's events before he was informed a taxi would be there in five minutes. Thanking the operator, he hung up and turned to face the lump of flesh he had abandoned on the sidewalk. It would be easier to maneuver him if Daehyun were at least somewhat coherent, but Youngjae didn't look forward to dealing with his drunken friend's antics. Sighing, he shoved his cell phone into his back pocket and nudged Daehyun's arm with his foot.

     Groaning, Daehyun swatted Youngjae away and rolled onto his back. "Welcome to the world of the living," Youngjae chuckled, continuing to poke Daehyun with the toe of his sneaker until he was sure Daehyun wouldn't slip back into sleep. Mumbling an incoherent reply, Daehyun attempted to sit up but could barely make it an inch off the ground before he began swaying and had to lie back down. "Come on, you can't sleep here. Time to sit up." Not yet interested in putting forth the effort required to assist the inebriated man, Youngjae continued poking at Daehyun with his foot to try and urge the young man up.

     "Would you stop... stop kicking..." Cracking one eye open, Daehyun scowled up at Youngjae's bemused expression before covering his face with his hands. "I shouldn't complain. Trash doesn't deserve anything else." Rolling his eyes, Youngjae eased himself onto the sidewalk beside Daehyun. "He told me not to... not to drink... and here I am," throwing his arms out to emphasize his point, Daehyun nearly smacked Youngjae in the face. Fortunately, though he was still tired, Youngjae had the faster reflexes and could lean out of the way as Daehyun's hand unsteadily made its way past. Rolling his eyes, Youngjae helped Daehyun into what could liberally be referred to as a sitting position and occasionally reached over to balance him while they waited for the taxi to arrive.

     Though it took a few moments, the absence of the female companion he had entered the club with finally hit Daehyun, who immediately began look for her. "She went home," Youngjae explained when he realized why Daehyun was flopping his head around. Groaning, Daehyun held his head in his hands and slowly shook it from side to side. "She was a little shaken up, but by morning she should be better."

     "I'm sorry. I'm really, really, really-"

     "Apologize to Hei-Ryung when you see her next. She's the one who shouldn't have to put up with this," Youngjae interrupted, partially because he genuinely didn't an apology from Daehyun but mostly because he could tell the alcohol was beginning to cause the young man to be stuck in an eternal loop of 'reallys'. "Besides, that's my job, isn't it? Making sure you stay out of trouble?" When the taxi came, it took some convincing and a lot of force to convince Daehyun that he was not trash that needed to stay on the curb and get him inside. Finally, though, with the assistance of the driver, Daehyun was squeezed inside and the door quickly shut behind him and Youngjae.

Author's Note:

I've been thinking of requesting an actual poster for the story, but I'm not sure what/who should be on it, or even what kind of a style I should be looking for XD Any suggestions for what you'd like to see?