For a long time it really felt like she was still his. When he let go and opened his eyes he heard their hearts racing in unison. He’d done it, he’d really done it. If he stayed longer, he might regret it.

“I’m going to go now.”

And he caught the last of her eyes before he disappeared.

>_____<;;

After a really short shower Namjoo stared at her reflection still unable to process what had happened earlier. Almost hesitantly she reached her fingers up to touch her lips.

This was bad. Very bad. In such a short amount of time it felt like Luhan had all of her in his hands. How was it possible to feel so deeply connected when she barely knew him? What would this make Chanyeol? How could it be that she felt as close to Luhan as she did to Chanyeol…maybe even closer? What was it about Luhan that she knew, but couldn’t form into thoughts or words? Just who was he?

“Hungry?” Chorong asked when she walked into the kitchen.

Namjoo glanced at the various foods her sisters had decked the kitchen table with. “What are we…having a party or something?”

“Well since it’s Sunday and we probably won’t be having time to eat like this,” Victoria said from the counter where she was pouring water into glass cups.

Namjoo raised a brow before sitting down. “You two in a good mood or something?”

“Of course we are,” Chorong patted her head while walking by to which Namjoo swatted her hand away a second too late. “You’re here, we’re here, so lets just enjoy the meal.”

Namjoo turned to frown at her sisters. “Is this something about Officer Park?”

“Oh him,” Chorong said as if it wasn’t important before she came to sit at the table, “we made a deal with him. The one he talked to Victoria about. It’s not too bad, but we have to be cautious about helping him out. He wants a box to unleash his powers, right Victoria?”

“Yep.”

“What are you still doing? I’m starving, lets eat,” Chorong called.

Namjoo watched her perky sisters. “So that’s it?”

“We’re coming up with a Plan B, in case he betrays us,” Chorong informed. “Oh and we ran into Mr. Crime Investigator at the police department.”

“Oh…” Namjoo shot Victoria a quick glance. “Didn’t he come with you two to pick me up?”

Chorong nodded with which Namjoo gave another “Oh.”

“And Victoria still has to thank him for helping us track you down,” Chorong eyed Victoria as she came over to sit.

“Maybe next time.”

“You mean never.” Chorong corrected.

Victoria shot her a look. “Where’s Luhan?”

“He went.”

“Already? Well…I guess that was expected.”

Namjoo glanced at them. “You two are being weird.” Namjoo glanced at them. “Is something up?”

“Nothing,” Victoria said.

Namjoo continued frowning at them before suspiciously eating. “You do something to the food? Like put some gas pills in there or something?”

Chorong laughed before patting her back, “No. We’re just happy you’re ok. Our little troublemaker, what would we do without you?”

Namjoo shrugged Chorong’s hand off her shoulder, “Stop it. That’s weird.”

Chorong laughed, “Ok, sorry.”

“Are you doing ok?” Victoria asked after a moment of silence passed between them. “I mean about Chanyeol and Luhan. You won’t get too stressed over it, will you?”

Namjoo glanced at Victoria. She hesitated before saying, “When we were together earlier, I got a feeling that he’s the one I was waiting for.” She could feel both Chorong and Victoria turn to look at her. “Remember I told you guys about seeing someone else while I was kissing Chanyeol? I think…that was Luhan.” No one spoke for the next minute and Namjoo asked, “Am I bad for being like this?”

Victoria gave her a firm smile before shifting her seat over to wrap an arm around her. “It doesn’t matter who you love. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

Namjoo slightly shrunk away from Victoria. “Have you guys been talking about me? You have, haven’t you?”

“We didn’t say anything bad,” Chorong nudged her. “Don’t get heated over it.”

Namjoo snorted at her sisters before turning to Victoria. “Since we’re going to start looking for mom’s killer, I want to do something before that.”

“What?” Victoria turned to look at her, but Chorong slightly stiffened in her seat.

“I want to call the Dream Weaver.”

The room silenced except for the humming of the fridge. Namjoo kept her eyes on Victoria while waiting for an answer. She held her breath for a second and surprisingly didn’t feel as nervous about asking as she thought she’d be.

“Ok.”

Namjoo’s eyes slightly widened at the answer she hadn’t expected. “Really?!”

“Yea,” Victoria nodded. “You can when I’m home this weekend.”

Namjoo nodded and turned to look at Chorong who shot her a blank smile that said she still didn’t agree with it.

>_____<;;

“Are you really ok with it?” Chorong asked Victoria when Namjoo had gone up to her room.

“She’s going to have to find out about Luhan anyway,” Victoria said scrubbing the oil off the pan in the sink. “In order to decide who she wants, she’s going to need to find out why Luhan died. We can’t tell her about her past from our mouths. It’s better for her to see it.”

“Really.” Chorong said and it wasn’t a question.

Victoria slightly nodded. “I get the feeling that he’s really sad about something. It’d be nice for them to be together while their time lasts.”

“We might just be asking for the impossible.”

“We are the impossible, and we wouldn’t be asking for the impossible if you hadn’t sympathized with him in the first place,” Victoria reminded. “Didn’t you see how different she looked when she came down? Happy. Different from the gloom we know.”

Chorong glanced at Victoria suddenly feeling despondent.

“Are you ok?” Chorong asked.

Victoria nodded and turned to Chorong with a smile. “I just want you and Namjoo to be happy.” Then added, “Really.”

Chorong glanced at Victoria before putting her arm around her. “You too.”

“I mean…since when have we stopped suffering after mom died?”

Chorong felt her heart ache for her older sister and Namjoo. “Yea.”

Before going to sleep Chorong quietly opened the door to Namjoo’s room. The sister who’d often been frequently visited by nightmares often darted in their rooms in the middle of the night. Since then all doors had been left unlocked at all times. Their childhood was now long gone and so were the days they spent alone sorrowfully. There was no mother, no grandma, but they had an older sister who would keep them under her wing until the time came to go. And that offered her a pleasant security.

After mom passed away, Victoria seemingly distanced herself from the family. It was like she became 20 right away and had no time for play. Chorong had to admit Victoria felt foreign to the family. When Victoria moved out, Chorong didn’t feel like she missed Victoria much. Everyone really had been on their own.

“Aren’t we meant to make amends now that we’re back here?”

Victoria was right; they were there for a reason. The first few days were really chaotic, but after realizing they’d have to work together things didn’t seem so bad anymore. The three of them were slowly falling back into what used to be a family. Maybe they weren’t close yet, but they were definitely progressing.

And Chorong realized that she was looking out for Namjoo more. She was also starting to work things out with Victoria. The duty of a sister, the middle one, wasn’t just mediating anymore. If Victoria couldn’t find time to mend to herself, Chorong would find a way to do so. When Namjoo was hurting or felt lonely, Chorong would coax her when Victoria was still hesitant to.  

Then Chorong recalled how frustrated Victoria had been earlier in the day when they’d return to find Namjoo missing. Victoria had been really scared, Chorong fathomed. She, too, had been scared. Losing another member of their family was something she didn’t want to experience again. Chorong suddenly became conscious of the fact that if it hadn’t been for Luhan, Namjoo probably wouldn’t have returned. She and Victoria had a lot to thank him for. Chorong suddenly wondered how long Luhan had been aiding Namjoo from behind the shadows.

Namjoo was peacefully sleeping in bed with an arm sprawled out, that dim lamp offering a soft glow to the room. Quietly backing up she closed the door and retreated to her room. Upon her first step she spotted Woohyun’s bright smile on the wall and peered at the pamphlets lying beside the program application on her desk.

>_____<;;

“You look like you’re heading out for an interview or something, what’s the dress up for?” Victoria asked pouring herself a cup of coffee.

Chorong was sitting at the table filling up on some leftovers from last night dressed in a blouse Victoria had never seen her wear before.

“Turning in my application,” Chorong held the papers up for Victoria to see when she turned around.

“And you’re dressed up to go,” Victoria stated, “good girl.”

“I’m not a dog.”

Victoria snorted before asking, “So when you heading out?”

“Right after you leave.”

“What about Namjoo?”

Chorong turned around to eye her, “You can’t be expecting what happened yesterday to happen today.”

Victoria cocked her head with a slight sigh, “Precaution. Have you heard of that?”

“Oh yea?” Chorong challenged. “Well, ever heard of the repairman?”

Victoria raised a brow to which Chorong continued, “Called this morning. Namjoo will look out for him. I won’t be gone long, so don’t worry.”

Victoria pressed her lips together before taking a sip of her coffee. “Your dad didn’t break anything else in this house, did he? In case you should fill me in, so we can start making amends to it.”

Chorong rolled her eyes at her and shook her head.

Before leaving the house Victoria reminded Namjoo for the tenth time, “Look outside the window before you open the door. And don’t hesitate to use your powers, you have them for a reason. If anything goes wrong, call.”

“Ok, enough. She’s getting irritated,” Chorong literally pulled Victoria out of the door frame and waved. “Be back soon!”

“You sure you won’t be taking long?” Victoria asked before getting into her car.

Chorong groaned, “Victoria.”

“Ok, ok, I’m off,” Victoria muttered before getting into her car and first backed out.

Yes, she was worried. Yes, she knew Chorong could take care of herself. Yes, she knew Namjoo was capable. But yet in all she was still worried.

The drive to school was slowly entertaining as she witnessed two police cars make a chase down the big streets and bystanders turn to watch. She also saw two wasted men going at it by one of the streetlights and quickly sped off in disgust. Victoria should have seen the signs, but obviously she had been too engrossed over her sisters’ safeties.

Searching for a parking space didn’t take long, but the walk to the architecture building took much longer than she’d expected. A curious crowd had formed just in before the front steps and Victoria couldn’t push her way through even if she was as respectful as could be. The students in front of her thickened and pushed her back.

“Seriously,” Victoria muttered before walking around them and listened to them gossip in horror to one another.

After a few seconds she finally came across a loosened gap in the crowd. Pausing in her steps she slightly bent to the side and spotted dried blood on the cement. Her eyes widened and someone started shouting for the crowd to move back. Barely given the chance to regain her balance she felt the students shift back a few steps before bumping into her. Victoria hopelessly stumbled back and would have fallen against the ground if it wasn’t for the person who’d caught her from behind.

“Careful!” he cautioned linking his hands under her arms and steadied her to her feet.

“Thanks…” Victoria began when she turned to him, but quieted when she spotted Changmin.

He nervously glanced at her before it became slightly awkward. Victoria looked away and pressed her lips together.

“You come here?” Changmin questioned breaking off the awkward.

“Oh yea…” Victoria replied. “What are you doing here? I mean…what happened?”

“Is there an access roof up there?” Changmin nodded his head toward the architecture building.

Victoria twisted her head around to look up at the seemingly high walls of the wide roof.

“There’s a small garden up there along with some funky furniture from creative designs,” Victoria explained.

“A student called the station 7:00 this morning,” Changmin told, “didn’t know it was a prank or not, but we had someone come out here. By the time the sheriff got here, student was already on the ground.”

Victoria felt her jaw drop in shock.

“Wanted to ask around if there has ever been any sorts of suicide on campus.”

“I’ve never heard of them…” Victoria felt her heart sink. “Oh my god…”

“Investigator!” someone shouted and waved his long arm about when he spotted Changmin.

Changmin gave her a slight nod before he jogged off to the right.

“All right, get out of here! Go to your classes! Please leave!” the policemen began shooing bystanders away.

Slowly one by one they left and second by second the site came clearer to Victoria. Below the granite staircase lie the fragrant the student left behind. The blood stains seemed to be absorbing her attention, calling out to her. Victoria couldn’t move as if she’d been drawn into some kind of spell she couldn’t break free of. She stood there and stared, while Changmin and the other officers fixated themselves into their little meeting.

It slowly became visible to her eyes, first starting off as a thin gust of smoke before the body darkened and came into form. Victoria felt a cry fall out of , but really not even a sound fell out of her.

He was wearing the same clothes he’d fallen to death in. Jeans and his t-shirt that carried the Pepsi logo. This student wore glasses, thin framed ones that had gone out of style a year ago. His hair was somewhat long and towered down a sight of his face as if it’d been used in effort to cover his eyes. Victoria spotted some acne on his face and recognized him as one of the quiet persons studying architecture. She’d seen him looking through books in the library, but had never spoken with him.

Her eyes ran up his figure. There was this light dark cloud swarming around him, but he looked normal excluding the blood strolling down the side of his face and the part of his head that had been mashed in. It was honestly disgusting and Victoria wanted to turn away to vomit, but again, she couldn’t move.

“Tell the truth.”

Victoria felt her lips move, but couldn’t utter even a sound.

“Help me tell the truth.”

Victoria felt tears begin to wedge into her eyes from fear, disgust, or helplessness. Her heart was ramming inside her chest and her consciousness was beginning to panic for the amount of time she’d been forced frozen.

“Help me, please.” He looked at her pleadingly before someone grabbed her arm and turned her around.

“Hey, are you ok?” Changmin questioned.

Victoria let out a loud gasp as if she’d been shocked and he immediately let go of her. She found herself panting and ran a hand up to clutch her shirt before turning back to look at the spot where the student had appeared, but he was gone. 

***hohoho! ChangToria meets again! Victoria's involvement with this case will further Changmin's suspicions of her and her sisters!

***Uh...just to let you guys know, Luhan was never a character intended for this story actually lol It was all supposed to be ChanJoo, SuRong, and ChangToria, but now blah~ it just so happens that Luhan's in the story now lolololol but whatever happens, it's still gonna be ChanJoo. LOL sorry for cutting Chanyeol out of so many scenes of this story lol I'll bring him back in later though.