>_____<;;

Chanyeol was ready to call it a night and hop into bed, but after he turned the TV off the doorbell rang. He wasn’t expecting anyone and his sister had left town just the other day. Without much hurry he started toward the door and felt a spark of surprise surf through him when he saw Namjoo.

He felt his heart jump a little, but quickly calmed himself. She probably wasn’t there for him.

“Hey,” she greeted, “can we…talk?”

Chanyeol blinked his eyes before stepping back to allow her in. When he closed the door he saw her look around before heading over to sit on his bed in front of the window. He set his eyes on her back before walking over to sit next to her being careful to leave a gap between them.

“You want to know about the things I couldn’t tell you before, right?” Namjoo asked without looking at him.

Chanyeol’s lids fluttered before he suddenly knew where this was headed.

“You don’t…” he began feeling guilty and apologetic, but Namjoo cut him off.

“It’s a long story,” Namjoo clasped her hands together, “you said you’d listen without judging me before. Can you hold onto your words tonight?”

Chanyeol opened his mouth to reply, but stopped and pressed his lips firmly together before nodding. He had to be honest. Truth was, he very much wanted to know what she’d been keeping from him.

Namjoo slightly tilted her head toward the ground before lifting it up, “His name is Luhan. He’s my guardian angel.”

He heard something break in her voice and her face contorted up agonizingly.

“He came to me the day I wanted to jump off the bridge,” Namjoo began.

Chanyeol carefully listened to each word of the story Namjoo was weaving in front of him. He watched her face break, the tears fall and she wiped them each time until she gave up, and he saw her heart fall apart in front of him over and over. He couldn’t do anything and that was the worst of it. Her cries and deepening sobs penetrated a part of him and he knew her sharing this with him would further change things as they were.

His heart shattered when he heard her apologize, “I’m sorry, I can’t forget him.”

The thousand tears spilled when she lowered her head and her shoulders shook. Chanyeol felt himself ache over how heartbroken she was. He realized how wrong he’d been to push her earlier. Realizing her feelings through her story didn’t help make him feel better. Maybe things would have hurt less if she hadn’t told him. He felt himself melt into a puddle of pain the more he heard her cry.

Slowly reaching out he wrapped his arms around her to offer some comfort knowing that was all he could do.

Honestly, he didn’t know how he felt. He’d never known anyone to make Namjoo cry like this. For at least a while, he thought he had held the most importance in her life.

Her heavy tears drenched his shirt so much that it felt like he’d just taken a walk in the rain. Namjoo had suddenly fallen asleep a while later with her head on his lap and everything almost felt normal when he ran his fingers through her hair.

This person with him tonight was so different from the person he used to know. He always felt attached to the Namjoo who ran and came back, but this one made him feel distant. When he looked at her now, all he could see was the pain in her face and the depression she was fighting alone.

Why…had she told him her story?

>_____<;;

Changmin walked through the empty playground and found Victoria sitting at the bottom of a slide. He’d been curious about why she’d called him out of the middle of nowhere, since it wasn’t like her to do so. He’d been in the middle of dinner, but it wasn’t like he could have told her that.

“This is a change in pace,” he sat sitting on the slide beside her.

He turned to see her solemn face before realizing something was wrong.

Her eyes were downcast and her hands were calmly on her knees in a relaxed manner. Victoria looked really laid back if not for the expression on her face.

“Just,” she started, “I don’t know what to do when I know my sisters are having a hard time. All I can do is just watch them suffer.”

Changmin made no comment as it was best never to interrupt until the other finished what they wanted to say. It was an interrogative technique he’d learnt through his career and had as well indulged itself into his everyday life.

“I feel so awful,” Victoria talked on, “I was so worried when Namjoo was in the hospital. She suffered a lot before the incident and I always thought I only wanted her happy, but I almost let her die today. What is wrong with me? I just had to make a decision, but I couldn’t. I can’t even look at them now. What have I turned into? Have I become so greedy? I’m such a bad person. I can’t even face them.”

Changmin’s mind swirld at the confusion of what Victoria was going on about. Exactly what kind of situation was she in? What had happened to her and her sisters today? And what kind of decision did she have to make?

“Um…I might sound inconsiderate,” Changmin started, “but it might be better if you talk to your sisters about this, instead of coming to me. I don’t know how I can help you.”

Victoria ran her hand over her face distressed mumbling, “I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Changmin correctd, “I just meant…because I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know how I can help you. Just…” he felt his mind spin at what he wanted to point out to her and shook his head. “I know you care about your sisters, and you do a lot Victoria, I know that. Take my word for it, whatever happened today won’t matter as much as what you’ve been trying to do all this time. It can’t compare to the effort you’ve put into putting your family back in place, isn’t that what you told me? I think you were just put in a difficult situation, it happens. It doesn’t mean you don’t care for them and doesn’t automatically make you an awful person.”

He watched Victoria try to hold back her tears. Honestly, he was still confused and lost about where she was coming from. Changmin knew she cared deeply for her sisters especially because they were the only ones she had left as family. He didn’t know what had happened and he didn’t expect Victoria to tell him, since she was most secretive about what went on in her family. Changmin didn’t think she’d ever tell her about what went on behind closed doors.

Feeling kind of strange for just sitting there beside her and not offering a hand to help her he awkwardly reached his hand out and wrapped it around her shoulder. It was a friend thing to do, right? To comfort another friend…at least he thought so.

>_____<;;

When Namjoo first opened her eyes she knew she wasn’t home. This wasn’t her room. It didn’t take her long to feel those fingers swirling quietly through her hair. As if realizing that she’d woken up, Chanyeol pulled his fingers back to let her sit up.

At first she was unable to look at him so instead she let her eyes land on the space between the window and his bed.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked. “Let me go get you a cup of water.”

He quickly got up to walk away and Namjoo only turned in time to see his back disappearing down the hallway. Turning back to stare at the space between his bed and the window she knew this didn’t feel right.

>_____<;;

“So where’d you go last night?” Chorong asked setting a plate of omelet onto the table. “You want to share?”

Victoria quietly sat at the table and picked up her utensil to eat without a word.

“You on your period?” Chorong continued. “There was something awfully weird in the air last night.”

Chorong walked away to pour herself some water and slightly glanced back at the sullen Victoria.

“Anyway, I wonder where Namjoo is.”

“I just needed some air,” Victoria said. “Chanyeol is a much better person for Namjoo than even we would be. You should tell her not to leave him.”

Chorong slightly raised a brow, “Why that? And coming from you?”

She took a sip of the water before sitting down.

“So what exactly did Lee Shin Il say to you?” Chorong asked. “I didn’t think you could freeze the whole park like that when you just got your power. That was…strange. He must have pissed you off.”

Victoria let out a sigh and leaned into her forehead into her hand.

“I can’t say it.”

“Well…why?” Chorong wondered.

“I said I can’t.”

“Well that doesn’t explain it, cause you were freaking out about something on the way back. It was all on your face, Victoria.”

“I said I can’t!” Victoria raised her voice and the empty plate from beside them meant for Namjoo flew off the table and into the wall. It crashed loudly before breaking into pieces upon landing on the ground.

Chorong felt her eyes go wide. The first time it had happened was when Victoria was super angry. There was a slight fear gauging her from inside. Victoria was pissed…at herself or them?

“Sorry,” Victoria muttered before getting up to walk out, but paused when she saw Namjoo standing at the kitchen doorway.

A kind of exasperation filled Chorong when Victoria walked away and she heard the front door close.

“What…was that?” Namjoo asked with a frown before turning to look at the broken plate.

“Don’t ask me,” Chorong shrugged sinking into her seat. “Don’t you think there was something weird about Victoria last night?”

“There was?” Namjoo asked. “I didn’t see. Why? What’s wrong?”

“Like I know, I don’t read emotions,” Chorong raised her shoulders up.

Namjoo grabbed another plate from the shelf before walking over to sit down.

They ate quietly for a few minutes until Namjoo said, “I told Chanyeol about us.”

Chorong almost dropped the spoon from her hand and choked on the food in , “Wh…what? T…told him what?”

“Powers, Luhan, everything.”

Chorong coughed again and smacked her chest with her fist as if she were choking, “Wh…why!?”

Namjoo shrugged, “I thought I wanted him to know. I just thought…he’s suffocating from my secrets. And I’ve let him hang on for long enough.”

Chorong felt her mind sinking as she raised a hand up to smother her face, “So then what? You’re going to break off with him? Or are you waiting to see if he can accept it?”

“I’m not waiting,” Namjoo replied. “I feel guilty, but it’s not like he’ll feel the same as he always did now.”

Chorong felt her heart sink a little realizing Namjoo was only trying to pull out of her situation by being honest, “I’m sorry.”

“Nah,” Namjoo shook her head. “It’s ok. We’re too far apart now.”

Chorong reached over to pat her sister on the back, “Anyway, we should talk to Victoria. I think something happened between her and Lee Shin Il last night that she isn’t talking about. Or else, that,” she gestured toward the broken plate, “wouldn’t have happened. Her powers don’t just go off without reason.”

“Sure, ok,” Namjoo nodded.

>_____<;;

Changmin hadn’t helped. Victoria wasn’t feeling any tad bit better after sleeping. She felt even more distraught and overwhelmed with guilt. She hadn’t meant to take her emotions out on Chorong. She was just deeply troubled and suppressed by Lee Shin Il. She always let him get to her.

For a few hours she walked around and sat around at random places watching children and adults stream by like blurs. When she returned back home Chorong and Namjoo were sitting in the living room watching some show together.

They always seemed close, even if not on perfect terms. It was always as if they were able to understand each other on a level that Victoria couldn’t touch. Was it because she had disliked Namjoo so much as a child? Or was it because they’d both lost their other halves to death? Where was it in their relationship that kept Victoria at a distance?

“Ah! You’re home!” Chorong exclaimed then reached for the remote to turn the TV off.

“Oh…yea…” Victoria’s voice was quiet.

Namjoo watched curiously as Chorong got up to pull her into the living room. Victoria allowed her sister to pull her in before sitting her down between her and Namjoo.

“Sorry about the plate earlier,” Victoria apologized.

“Well not to get on your nerves again,” Chorong said, “but there’s no plates in this room to break this time.”

Victoria smiled a tiny smiled at her joke.

“Want to talk about what’s been been bothering you?” Chorong asked. “I mean, it’s obvious something’s been on your mind since yesterday. We agreed we were going to put this family back in place, didn’t we? You haven’t forgotten what we talked about at the church, right?”

“Church?” Namjoo repeated with a raised brow.

Chorong smiled at her before setting her eyes back on Victoria. Her eyes sat on the ground quietly while recalling the night she and Chorong cried in the chapel. She had wanted to be a better sister to Namjoo and Chorong had wanted them to be more honest with one another. Suddenly Victoria recalled how stressful it had been watching Namjoo sleep her days away.

It had been very lonely living in the house without her. Chorong kept her smile on patiently waiting for Victoria to say something.

“No,” Victoria quietly said, “I remember.”

Chorong smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, it’s ok, you know.”

“Just…I’m sorry,” Victoria hung her head, “he wanted me to trade you for an answer about mom. I was so confused, I couldn’t say no. I’m sorry, Namjoo. I couldn’t protect you. I’ve never been good to you two, I’m so sorry.”

Victoria felt the guilt wash over her and cried.

A second later she heard Namjoo snort, “That’s all? I can protect myself too, you know. I’m not 10. Grow up, Victoria, it’s fine.”

“And I thought it was something serious,” Chorong sighed relieved and put an arm around Victoria’s shoulders after Namjoo.

“You think too much.” Namjoo stated. “We’re not kids anymore; not 8, 10, or 12. You said we’ll deal with things together, so don’t be a hypocrite.”  

“I agree,” Chorong nodded.

Victoria let out a laugh and wiped her tears dry, “Yea, thanks for making me feel stupid, guys.”

“Oh, sure,” Namjoo nodded.

“Next time, just don’t act so shady,” Chorong tapped her fingers against Victoria’s arm. “Then we won’t know anything’s wrong.” 

***SuRong's date next chapter and new monsters(?)