Victoria’s POV

I was staring at the dark sky as I walked, wanting to see the stars but unfortunately there wasn't any. The wind blew a little stronger, causing the trees and bushes to shook. Without any warning signs, the rain started to pour down heavily. For a long moment I just stood there, not knowing exactly what to do.

    I turned around and intended to run back towards my company but the streets suddenly looked unfamiliar. Where am I? I started looking around and realized that I was probably far away from the company. How long had I been walking?

    My whole body was drenched and shook violently at the cold gust of wind that blew. I saw a bus stop up ahead and ran towards it. I took a seat on the steel benches and groaned. I wanted to call manger Oppa but I left my phone and bag at the company with him; so I guess I’m stuck here for a while.

    “Rain please stop and go away! I’m cold!” I complained angrily at the sky. My teeth started to chatter so I placed my cool palms on my cheeks to warm myself up. But I was still cold.

    “Are you heading anywhere, Miss?” I could hear someone yelling over the sound of the rain.

    There was a taxi cab in front of me and without hesitation I ran towards it and hopped in the back seat.

    “Thanks Ahjussi. I thought I was going to freeze myself to death.” I sighed with relief when the cab was super warm. The Ahjussi laughed a throaty laugh.

    “Where do you want to go Miss?” The nice Ahjussi asked. I thought about it, should I ask him to take me back to the company? But I’m pretty tired. Maybe I should tell him to take me back home. Suddenly I knew where to go. I told the Ahjussi the address and he nodded.

    The drive there wasn’t silent. The Ahjussi knew who I was and asked me all sorts of questions. It turns out his kids love F(x) and I kept blushing as he showered me with compliments. But I cringed when he asked me about Nichkhun—it turns out his family is also a big fan of WGM. I was less enthusiastic when I answered his questions about that but he didn’t notice.

    It was still raining heavily when we reached the destination. The Ahjussi was really jjang when he said the ride was free of charge. It turns out I was the first celebrity to ride his cab and I told him I was sincerely honoured. I was also relieved because I didn’t have any money on me—but I didn’t need to tell him that. I waved goodbye to the Ahjussi as I got off and ran towards the white house.

    I shielded my head with my hands as I ran up the steps and took shelter at the front door’s porch. I look at the big house, wow it’s been quite some time since I last saw it. I smiled as I stared at the house me and Nichkhun used to call home. But my smile quickly died when I realized that I don’t even have the key to the house. What was the point of me coming here if I can’t get in? Aish, how stupid can I be?!

    I groaned and stomped my feet. I prayed that the taxi Ahjussi was still in front of the house but he was already gone. I groaned again. What am I supposed to do now? Why did I ever decided to come here? 

    My hair was already soaked and I started to feel uncomfortable in my wet sweats. I banged on the door, begging someone to open it but of course I knew the house was empty. I wondered whether the house owner would be mad if I ruined their door. I shook my head—I’ll think about that later. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as people say.

    My plan was just to ram myself right through the door. Well I didn’t say it was a good plan but I need to get out of the rain or I’ll catch a cold. I could already picture manager Oppa’s furious face if he caught me with a cold. I shuddered, scary!

    I took a few steps back and ran towards the very hard looking white door. My hand turned the door handle and before I could bang my shoulder against the door, I was stumbling forward and landed hard on my knees inside the house.

The door wasn’t locked!!!

    I was angry yet I felt ridiculous for not checking whether it was locked or not in the first place. I yelped when I tried to stand up—I’m pretty sure my knees were bruised and I could feel the sharp pain around my ankles. I slowly took off my shoes and the bruising around my ankles were still a dark shade of blue.

    I walked towards the living room and the lights. I was surprised to see a number of boxes scattered on the living room floor. I went towards an unsealed box on the kitchen table—all the pictures of me and Nichkhun’s family, of the family picture with the F(x) daughters and of our wedding were in it. The clay pottery we made for each other and also the couple items we got from our fans were also in the box.

    I sighed; the WGM staff had packed all of our things already. I wondered if they are going to throw everything away. All my memories with Nichkhun… thrown away just like that. I wanted to take everything back to my dorm but I knew I couldn’t.

    I sighed again and then sneezed. I shivered and remembered I was still wet. I went downstairs to Khuntoria’s home-movie theatre, also known as the laundry room to hang my wet hooded sweater to dry it off. Even the white tank top I was wearing on the inside was soaked. I remembered that I had put some towels in the guest bathroom but the staff already packed them and I was too cold to check the boxes one by one for a dry towel.

    “Ah! The closet!” I clasped my hands together. Since me and Nichkhun got this house for our 100^th anniversary, I was so excited that I even stored some of my clothes and toiletries in the closet just in case I need them.

    I darted up the stairs and straight towards the closet in the wardrobe room. I turned the lights on and pulled the closet doors open, but only to find them empty.

    It hit me. Manager Oppa had told me he was going to pick up my stuff yesterday morning and I remembered hearing him say they were the personal belongings I left at the WGM house. He said he will drop them off at the apartment. Oh great! It’s raining out, I have no phone, no money, I’m soaking wet and why is it so cold in here?!

    “Arrggghhhh!!!” I screamed with anger. I complained some more under my breath as the water from my hair and clothes dripped and formed a puddle around me.

    “Victoria-ssi?” I froze, not that my body wasn’t already freezing before, and turned around.

    I was hit by a wave of emotion when I saw the boyish angel standing in front of me.

    “Nichkhun… ssi…” I breathed.

    “What are you doing here?” Nichkhun asked softly but before he could get an answer, I pushed him, he stumbled backwards and I slammed the wardrobe room’s door shut in front of his face.

    “Go away!” I screamed at him as I pushed myself against the door since it doesn’t have a lock on it, preventing him from coming in.

    There are three reasons why I did that:

a)      I was shocked, of course, and panicked since I wasn’t ready to face him now.

b)      I looked ridiculous with my wet clothes and hair.

c)      I was wearing a thin white tank top and a black bra underneath that are both soaked—you know what I mean!

This is utter embarrassment.

    “Victoria-ssi, what’s wrong? Are you okay? ” I could hear Nichkhun’s panicked voice through the door.

    I felt sort of guilty for treating him so rudely like this when he sounded so worried. I decided to tell him what happen.

    “I’m fine, it’s just…” I took a deep breath and everything came out like a waterfall. “I was taking a walk and suddenly it started to rain and I was lost and I didn’t have my phone with me and no money but a nice taxi Ahjussi gave me a ride here for free. I wanted to see the house one last time but I forgot that I don’t have a key to the house so I decided to break in since it was cold outside. But the door was locked, so I tried to run over it. But it wasn't locked and I ended up hurting my knees. I was cold and uncomfortable and didn’t I keep some of my clothes in the closet? But manger Oppa had already packed my belongings so now I don’t have anything warm to wear. Aish, how I hate him right now.” I muttered the last part but it was still loud enough for Nichkhun to hear. I was gasping for air since I said everything too fast.

    A little, just a small part of me hoped that he would comfort me but that was a disappointment when I heard his booming laughter. He was laughing so hard that I imagined him rolling around on the floor.

   Annoyed, I hit the door like it was him instead and yelled, “Stop laughing, it’s not funny! I’m freezing over here.”

    But he didn’t stop and replied, “But it is funny.” He said it between laughs but eventually he finally stopped.

    The door handle suddenly turned and the door slowly opened. My eyes grew wide and I quickly pushed my whole body against the door. “What are you doing?” I said through gritted teeth. I felt like I was pushing a brick wall instead.

    “I thought you said you were freezing in there?” I stopped pushing and peered at the side of the door to scowl at him. He handed me a blue towel and smiled. I stared at the towel and rolled my eyes as I took it. I wrapped the towel around me—covering my torso from him.

    “Thanks.” I muttered bitterly but then smiled back at him.

    I walked out of the wardrobe room, towards the screen doors of the balcony—it was still raining and the sky still dark but I knew it was still early, maybe 4 or 5 in the morning.

    “Nichkhun-ssi,” I turned around and faced him. “What are you doing here so early?”

    He chuckled and tilted his head towards the bed. The surface of the bed was covered with clothes and there was a suitcase and a duffel bag on top of them.

    “I came to clean up my stuff.” He scratched the back of his head as he looked at the mess of his shirts and jeans.

    “You call that cleaning?” I laughed and walked closer towards the bed. Nichkhun also kept some of his clothes here but I didn't think it would be this much.

    “I just can’t seem to fit everything in my bag. I’ve been trying to figure out how to stuff them all in my suitcase since last night.” He sighed and shook his head, his hands on his hips.

    “How many clothes do you own?” I asked with astonishment. From the looks of it, he might own more clothes than me. Shocking! “Do you want some help?” I asked and he quickly nodded.

    “Yes, please!” He looked relieved and I giggled.

    “Oh, but… um… how…?” I stared at myself. I was still wet and I didn’t want to ruin his clothes. Nichkhun understood what I was trying to imply and he grabbed something from the pile of his clothes.

    “Here, wear this.” He handed me a shirt.I shook my head and opened my mouth to object but he cut me off before I could say anything. “You’re going to catch a cold if you keep wearing that.” A picture of manager Oppa’s angry face popped in my mind. I took the clothes and ran towards the bathroom to change. I heard a soft chuckle from behind me.

    I looked at myself in the mirror—I looked horrible. I hung the clothes Nichkhun gave me on the towel rack while I dried my hair with his towel. I couldn’t help but smile when I smelt his sweet musky scent from the towel but quickly snapped out of it.

    Yesterday morning I was a total mess and after a few hours, after receiving his text, I was so happy because I got to see him again. Then I was in pain again when I find out he had left for who knows how long. After fighting with those emotions, I decided to move on and slowly forget him. But here we are, back to the place that was supposed to be a dream. Fate must be having fun playing with me. I sighed.

    When my hair was less wet, I hung the towel and grabbed the clothes. He gave me two pieces of clothing. One was a long sleeve blue shirt and the other were black plaid shorts… wait are these his boxers? I threw the shorts on the floor and stared at it with horror. I peered out of the bathroom door and Nichkhun was busy stuffing all of his clothes into the suitcase.

    “Um Nichkhun-ssi?”

    “Hm? Is something wrong?” He asked, an eyebrow raised.

    “Do you… have, um… anything else to wear?” I asked nervously. It was embarrassing to be asking him this.

    “Why? Is that shirt too big?” Nichkhun asked without looking at me. His gaze still fixed on the scattered clothes.

    “No, the shirt is just fine but… it’s the… the shorts um—don’t you have anything else?” He turned to face me, a playful smirk on his face. I can feel my cheeks getting hotter.

    “Everything else would be too big on you. You just have to wear them.” Nichkhun said nonchalantly. Ugh! Fine! I slammed the door and started to take my clothes off but slipped them back on again.

    “Nichkhun-ssi?” I peered out the door again.

    “Hm?”

    “Do you have a hair- dryer with you?” I asked. Nichkhun looked at me quizzically and then started rummaging through his duffel bag. He handed me his hair-dryer and I smiled with relief.

    “Why do you need that for?” He asked. I looked away from his eyes, embarrassed.

    “My hair will start to frizz if I don’t dry it.” I explained quickly and shut the door closed. The truth was that even though he had lent me a change of clothes, I still need to wear dry undergarments and I don’t think Nichkhun would have those.

    I took off my clothes and hung my undergarments on the rack. I plugged Nichkhun’s hair-dryer and dried them off. I wanted to laugh the whole time. This is so humiliating! My face was probably flushed to a bright shade of red right now. My undergarments were still damp so I continued on drying them until I heard a loud knock on the door. I turned off the hair-dryer.

    “What?” I yelled from inside the bathroom.

    “Why are you using the hair-dryer too long? You’re going to raise the electricity bill.” Nichkhun yelled. Oh no! How should I answer him?

    “So? Just leave me alone!” I shouted back, my face burning.

    “But you’ve been using the hair-dryer for more than 10 minutes.”

    “It… It… It’s private!” I shouted hoping he would just let it go.

    He was silent for a moment, he probably understood what I meant. “Oh… okay.”

    I sighed and rubbed my temples. I continued drying my undergarments. When they were dry, I slipped them back on and wore the clothes Nichkhun gave me. The shirt was big on me and the sleeves were too long but it was still comfortable. The shorts were the hardest thing for me to wear but in the end I just slipped them on and ignored this nervous mortifying feeling. The shorts fitted my waist perfectly but a little loose around my thighs.

    When I was done, I hesitated for a moment before coming out. Right now, Nichkhun is literally a few feet away from me. He was still the same Nichkhun I fell in love with but why am I so afraid to walk this door? Why does it feel different? Hs my feelings for him changed? Is that why it feels much more awkward than it should? Or am I feeling awkward because I'm wearing his clothes?

    I jumped when Nichkhun knocked on the door.

    “Victoria-ssi, are you done yet? I really need your help, I’m going crazy over here.” I slowly opened the door and shuffled towards him, ignoring his stare. His eyes widened the moment I walked out and how I wished to be invisible right now. I must really look ridiculous in his eyes. Way to go Victoria.

    “Stop staring at me!” I hit Nichkhun on his shoulder and he laughed.

    Suddenly he grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards the bed. He ordered me to sit while he rummaged through his duffel bag again. He kneeled in front of me and rubbed something that looked like ointment on my knees.

    “W-What are you doing?” I stood up but he pulled me back down.

    “Stay still. Didn’t you told me you hurt your knees earlier?” He looked up at me with his big brown eyes and I nodded in silence. He smiled and continued rubbing my knees with the ointment.

    “Thank you.” I said when he was done. He was still kneeling as he stared at me, a boyish smile on his face. I shyly looked away and stood up. He laughed nervously as he got up and looked away as well. He started to grab a handful of his clothes and shoved them in the suitcase. I hit him again. “You can’t do it like that!” I scolded.

    I taught him how to fold the clothes into smaller sizes so he could fit everything in the suitcase and he whined the whole time, saying it was too difficult. Nichkhun divided his clothes into two piles so we could finish sooner. We chatted while we folded the clothes but it felt awkward since there was nothing much to talk about. I already folded half of my pile while Nichkhun had only folded three pieces of clothing. I shook my head and laughed. He only smiled sheepishly.

    “Weren’t you supposed to be doing a promo all around Asia with 2PM yesterday?” I finally collected enough courage to ask him after a long moment of silence.

    “Oh yeah, the promo. I had a sudden schedule yesterday so everyone went first. I’ll be leaving today, at 11 a.m.” He explained. I just responded with an ‘Oh’.

    There was still a few shirts left before I finished folding my pile and Nichkhun was also done with his half but he did a terrible job at folding them. I smiled, amused at how hard he was trying just to fold clothes. After a while my arms felt stiff so I stretched them out.

    “Oh!” Nichkhun suddenly said. He surprised me by grabbing my left hand. “You’re still wearing your wedding ring.” I looked at my third finger and the ring he gave me was still there. How come I didn’t notice it before? I’ve been wearing my wedding ring this whole time? I stared at beautiful wedding ring Nichkhun gave me—my eyes suddenly stung.

    “Yeah you’re right. I guess I forgot to take it off.” I looked at my third finger for a moment and then pulled the ring off. “Here.” I handed the ring back to him. “You can have it back.” I said indifferently and continued folding the last few pieces of his clothes. Initianally, I wanted to give the ring back to him after shooting the last episode of WGM, but I must have forgotten about it. Since he’s still here, I should give it back. It’s not like I’m ever going to wear it again so might as well return it. Besides, keeping it won't be any good for me as well.

    Nichkhun looked at the ring in his hand. “It’s fine, you can keep it.” He grabbed my left hand again, pulled me closer and slipped the ring gently back on my third finger. “See, it suits you perfectly...” We both looked up at each other. This reminds me of the time he proposed to me during the wedding photo shoot. For a long moment, I just stared deep into his warm brown eyes untill I finally forced myself out of it. I blushed and stared at the wedding ring. Nichkhun’s hand was still holding mine.

    I slowly pulled my hand away and continued folding. He cleared his throat nervously and I smiled when I saw his ears turning bright red.

    “Done!” I exclaimed as I sat on the edge of the bed. After a few minutes later, Nichkhun was also done with his pile. He zipped up his suitcase and place the bags on the foot of the bed.

    “It’s finally done. Wow, who knew folding clothes would be this tiring.” He said as he massaged the back of his neck. My body was feeling sore as well and my eyes were starting to droop. I stifled a yawn. “Oh yeah, what happened to your ankles by the way?”

    “Huh?” I asked, I didn’t hear him clearly. He pointed at my ankles. “Oh. It’s nothing really. I practiced too hard yesterday.” I stifled another yawn. I wondered what time is it right now. Nichkhun's done with his packing so I guess he must be on his way to the airport. I felt another mix of painful emotions swirling in my heart. Once again fate is playing with me.

    “I guess you’re leaving now.” It wasn’t a question. Nichkhun only nodded and stretched his arms.

    “But I’m really tired right now.” He plopped himself on the bed and pulled me back to lie down next to him. “You look really tired too Victoria-ssi. You should get some sleep.” If I wasn’t this exhausted right now, I would’ve said no immediately but my body felt really heavy so I obediently lay down but moved away from him a bit and closed my eyes. I heard him stifling a laugh.

    “What?” I asked, my eyes still closed.

    “Oh, nothing. Don’t you think fate is a funny thing? I thought I wouldn’t see you again but here you are, lying next to me.” He laughed again. So he thinks fate is funny too. But I was getting more annoyed with it.

    “Hilarious.” I said sarcastically before dozing off.

~~~

Hello! Here's my chapter 4. I hope you guys like it and I'm sorry if this chapter is too long. Thanks for the motivation guys. Now off to work on chapter 5. Fighting! Enjoy~