Leeteuk and Donghae’s meeting went off without a hitch. They were soon talking to each other as if they’d always been best friends. They’d found things in common and just ran with them. Heechul was in the kitchen, smiling to himself over it as he finished up getting the meat ready for the barbecue.

Most everyone was outside already, enjoying the heat as much as they could without melting. Victoria was running late. She was bringing her boyfriend and something about him had held them up. Heechul didn’t care much, new love did things to time that was hard to explain to everyone living outside of it.

What had Heechul aloof were his new dreams, where he was more masculine and Leeteuk was a lot more feminine. He wondered if it meant something deep inside his subconscious.

Leeteuk was dancing with Gain and Jia in the backyard. Simon was taking up his usual place as DJ. He and Donghae were arguing over the best danceable songs while they sipped beers. Heechul was still inside and Leeteuk wondered if he should check on him, but Gain stole his attention back to her as she danced closer.

She’d been taking her break up pretty well, better than Leeteuk had taken his collapse with Taeyeon. He figured having something to do with Jia was helping her keep her mind off of everything. Speech lessons would also be giving her something to look forward to.

Jia was doing remarkably better already. Just a few weeks of sessions with Gain and tons of practice and she was starting to sound almost like she’d been born in the states. Not as local as Simon, Heechul and Donghae sounded, but getting there.

Victoria made an entrance through the side of the house at the gate to the backyard. The party looked up and smiled at her.

“Hey Vic,” the majority chorused.

Leeteuk took the lead on introducing Donghae to her. “And where’s this boyfriend of yours hiding?” He asked after the pleasantries.

“Oh, I sent him inside. He had to use the toilet.”

Heechul felt like there was something wrong. Something was different about his house. He felt like something was watching him. Setting down his knife and the meat he was t, he turned to wash his hands and caught sight of someone in the kitchen with him.

“Hi Heechul,” an all too familiar voice said.

Feeling his vision try and blur on him, Heechul took a deep breath and held back the urge to vomit. His whole body felt heavier and lighter at the same time, his knees threatening to drop him as he gripped the sink in white knuckles. There, not five steps from Heechul, was the scariest thing he’d hoped he’d never have to see again.

Chansung. The abusive ex-boyfriend.

Heechul’s voice was gone. All he could think was that the knife was still behind him and that he should grab it. But as the other man took a step toward him, Heechul found he couldn’t move either.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” Chansung said. He was close enough to Heechul to touch him and he did, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Heechul shrugged away from the touch and backed away, unfortunately into a corner. His own kitchen was pinning him in with the man he wished was just a bad dream.

“Hey,” Chansung said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He kept stepping closer to Heechul, keeping him in the corner.

Heechul finally convinced his hand to go looking and he found the handle of the knife without taking his eyes off of Chansung’s chest. He refused to look at his face. “Stay away from me,” Heechul said tersely, brandishing the knife.

Chansung leaned but didn’t step back. “You’re going to stab me now?” He laughed.

“Just stay back.”

“So what’s the boyfriend’s name anyway?” Simon asked Victoria. He’d given up playing music go round with Donghae and was hoping to make fun of the girl.

Leeteuk was starting to worry about Heechul. He didn’t know why, he just thought it was taking him an unusual amount of time to bring out food.

“His name’s Chansung,” Vic answered.

Simon frowned, thinking the name sounded familiar.

Donghae piped up, “You met him in a club?”

Vic nodded. “He’s tall and dreamy. Works out a lot too.” She was clearly infatuated and Gain was laughing about it with Jia.

Simon and Donghae exchanged one glance before nearly shoving each other out of the way to get to the house. Leeteuk was already opening the back door and Donghae jumped past him to get inside.

Chansung had Heechul’s wrist, keeping the knife away from him as he all but pinned the smaller man to the countertops with his hips.

“What the do you think you’re doing?” Donghae yelled. He ran in to yank Chansung off of Heechul by his neck. The knife fell useless to the ground as Donghae and Chansung struggled against each other.

Simon got there as the knife was falling. Heechul wasn’t hurt so he ran for Donghae, trying to pull him off of Chansung.

Leeteuk cautiously walked to Heechul, not wanting him to mistake him for anyone that would hurt him. “Heechul?” He asked when he was a few steps away.

The sound of Leeteuk’s voice broke Heechul out of the spell and he in a shaky breath, looking over at his boyfriend. Leeteuk held his arms out and Heechul jumped at the chance to be safe in them. He buried his face against Leeteuk’s shoulder, hiding himself from the sights and sounds of Chansung and whatever Donghae was doing to him.

Simon had tugged Donghae off of Chansung and the girls had come into the house at that point. “Get the out of here,” Donghae was yelling as he fought against Simon’s hold to get his hands on the again.

Realization struck Gain first and she went straight to Heechul and Leeteuk, helping guard him from anything and everything. Jia looked between everyone, understanding that Chansung was the worst person in the room right now.

Victoria suffered a moment of shock, not letting herself believe that her sweet boyfriend was the one who’d been terrible to Heechul.

“Why are you still standing there?” Simon yelled at Chansung. “Get the out of this house.”

Chansung smirked a little scoff, wiping the blood Donghae had caused from his lip. He tried to get a look at Heechul but couldn’t see him so turned his attention to Victoria.

“I’ll call you later,” he said and left the house through the front door.

Simon waited until he heard a car drive away before he let Donghae out of his hold.

“Why’d you hold me back, ?” Donghae yelled at him.

Simon ignored him and went to Heechul, pushing the others that were holding him away. He searched Heechul’s body for anything, anything Chansung might have done to him. Seeing Heechul’s tear-stained eyes brought back too many screwed memories to Simon’s mind. “Did he hurt you?” Simon asked, holding Heechul’s shoulders.

Heechul shook his head, whispering in Korean. “He just grabbed my wrist. He wouldn’t let me go. He was pinning me against the counter. I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t do anything but think to grab the knife.” His voice became more frantic as he told what had happened.

“Did you hurt him?” Simon asked.

Heechul shook his head, biting his lip and crying again. Leeteuk pushed Simon away and took Heechul back, holding him tightly.

Simon looked between them and sighed. There went a holiday they’d all been looking forward to. Ruined by trauma they all thought was gone for good.