Kris stood at a standstill as Xavier was being punished by extremely pissed off Luhan. Torture by Luhan was like being set on fire, over and over again non-stopped.

“He was the one who asked for help!” Xavier shouted in pain. Yes, Kris was the one who tipped Xavier off about Sarang’s kidnapping. That was the reason why he locked himself in Lay’s damn computer cave for so long. He needed to track down Xavier.

So in her absence he found out that Sarang had asked Xavier for help to figure out who had threatened him. She found out that that person lead straight back to her parent’s murder. And he could have guessed that she knew it was her grandfather. He was the puppet master behind this whole mess. Right now, he was messing, like into thin air messing.

Kris knew he wasn’t dead. He was hiding somewhere, waiting to make his move.

“Let him go.” Kris ordered. Luhan froze for a second before he turned around to face Kris. His stunned face said it all. “It wasn’t his fault that the place burned down. It wasn’t his fault Sarang died.” He told Luhan and he knew that Luhan was on the verge of killing him.  

“What?” Both Luhan and Xavier stated in unison.  

Kris huffed, running his fingers over his blond locks. “What did she offer you? What did Sarang offer you for helping her?” He asked because he knew Sarang offered something. People like Xavier didn’t make deals and expect nothing in return.

Xavier smiled because the man hunting him was now helping him, “A clean stale, my old record is wiped clean, that’s what she offered before her pretty little head burned down in that building.” He answered. He was thrown back onto the ground by Luhan.

“Shut the hell up.” Luhan hissed viciously through gritted teeth and cold eyes.

“I can give you that.” Kris decided, “As long as you never show your face in front of me again.” He added.

Xavier smiled pleased with the outcome of things, “Deal.”

“What the hell was that? Are you out of your mind?”  Luhan shouted as he followed Kris. Kris tried ignoring Luhan but apparently the older male wasn’t having any of that today. Luhan reached over and pulled his shoulder before pushing him back against the wall.

“Don’t you dare ignore me Yifan.” Luhan hissed and Kris knew that Luhan was totally serious. Luhan did use his Chinese name after all, and he only did that when he was on the edge of a breakdown.

“Xavier’s just a messenger. Let him go and tell the world Lee Sarang is dead. They’ll think I did it.” He revealed. Luhan furrowed his brows disappointingly.

“You want them to think that you killed her?” Luhan half hissed and shouted. He pulled the roots of his hair in frustration.

“No, I want them to think the Dragon killed her.” He corrected. Luhan stepped back and looked around wildly. So this was about the Dragon’s Mark on Sarang.

“You’re so ed up.” He said disappointedly.

“At least that way the world stops chasing her.”

“She’s dead.” Luhan shouted angrily and Kris was taken aback by his friend’s sudden burst. Kris didn’t reply and that instantly caught Luhan’s attention. Something wasn’t right. Kris wouldn’t be acting this way if Sarang was really dead.

“What do you know?” He mused and by now all of EXOM could hear their conversation. Luhan knew something was up.

“Let me take you guys somewhere.”

-----

She slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelashes felt like butterfly wings, slowly opening up to the sunlight. She groaned in pain as she tried to remember where she as. Her body felt sore yet the pain was completely numb by now. She could feel tubes attached to her arm.  

“You’re awake.” A soft voice stated and reality suddenly dawned on her. She looked around the room wildly before her eyes fell on the person sitting next to her bed. He looked dead tired, his dark circles were visible, his hair was standing a hundred different directions, probably from pulling it, he just looked horrible in general.

“Luhan.” She said his name weakly; her voice was hoarse and dry. She tried sitting up, but the second she moved pain shot all over her and she cried out in pain.

“Shh, don’t move its okay.” He asked worriedly trying to get her to lay back in bed. Why was he here? How did he get here? God, how did he even find her? The last thing she remembered was stumbling onto this small town before collapsing on the ground.

Everything else was a blur because all she could remember was darkness. She remembered rain pouring down on her, how exhausted she was, and she just wanted everything to end.

“Kris found you.” Luhan said softly but why did he sound so disappointed when saying those words.

“He shouldn’t have.” She retorted sadly and Luhan brows merged and his lips tightened. He huffed out air and stood up from the chair he was seated in. He paced back and forth around the room, mumbling incoherent nonsense.

“God, I’ve never met a woman was stupid as you.” He hissed. She didn’t say anything back because she knew he was probably correct.

They were engulfed with silence before she finally found the nerve to talk, “Is Xavier-“

“Alive. Yes, he is.”

“Does he think-“

“Yes, he thinks you’re dead. Fool thought you died in that fire…just like I did.” He said, the last part of the sentence rubbed on badly because she realized that she managed to make Luhan worry and scared.

“Then how did you find me?” She asked not being able to piece the situation together. How did she end up here, wherever here was, who took her, who found her?

“Kris knew you weren’t dead. I don’t know how but he just knew you were alive. God darn that idiot, we thought he didn’t cared. We thought he was going to let you suffer, which he did, but that’s not the point.”

“Luhan-ah,” She began as stern as she could, he stopped talking and turned his full attention to her, “Is Kris okay?” She asked softly.

“After what you went through, all you want to know is if Kris is okay? Do you really like him that much or are you just stupid?” He accused glaring at her.

She looked down and bit her lip, “Both.”

“He’s fine, still a total that has no balls.” Luhan answered as he sat back down next to Sarang. He looked over all her wounds carefully. If only she knew the minor heart attack EXOM had when they found out about her condition.

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes.” She answered instantly, still as blunt as ever and sometimes he wished she wasn’t so blunt. “But it’s nothing, I feel worst,” She slowly moved her hand over her heart, “Here.” She looked so fragile and weak like she could crumbled away like sand any second now. Had they done this to her? Had they destroyed someone so beautiful?

-----

Tao walked next to his best friend. He didn’t say a word or try to make a sound. They were standing by the windows, looking outside and the sound of the rain drizzling down against the porch echoed loudly. This was a small clinic, perfect fit for small towns like these.

No one knew they were there, no one knew Sarang was here, Kris made sure of that.

“You were searching for her the whole time.” Tao confirmed knowingly, this explained why he locked himself in Lay’s computer cave.  

“Did you doubt me?”Kris rebutted not quite answering directly but affirming Tao’s statement.

“Yes, I honestly did.” Tao answered turning to face his friend, “You said you didn’t want us risking our lives for her.” Tao reminded bringing up the words Kris said when they found out Sarang had been kidnapped.

“I never said anything about myself though.”

“Touché, your life is our lives, you didn’t think we were going to let you go alone, but you did. Typical .”

Kris chuckled bitterly as his eyes continued to stare at the rain gently drizzling down on them.

“I messed up bad this time, didn’t I?”

Tao didn’t know how to respond. Should he be honest or should he break the fall for his friend.

“Yeah, I did.” Kris answered his own question after Tao’s lack of response; guess that response was an answer in itself.

“So what are you going to do next?” Tao asked. None of them knew what to do. They never thought they would be in this situation, and now that they were, no one knew what to do.

Kris exhaled deeply as his thoughts contaminated his mind. He always knew in the back of his mind what he had to do; he just didn’t want to do it. He knew it was his fault; all if this was his fault. Everything that happened to Sarang was because of him.

Maybe that was why he should had stayed away, maybe that was why he should had held back his curiosity, maybe that was why he felt to guilty, because he knew he was the one who caused her so much pain.

He was the bad guy in this situation and he knew it, not Chairmen Lee, not Xavier, but him.

“Dragon’s Mark.” He stated, “An omen of death,”

“Or a mark of protection.” Tao finished knowingly, not surprised that they had reached this step. “You’re going to let her go.”

Kris could only nod. “Her grandfather’s still alive, he still wants her. He knows who I am, who we are, and he won't stop until we’re dead. If he thinks she’s dead he’ll leave her alone.” The logic seemed right, but would the story progress like he predicted?

“So what…ship her off to some third world country?”

“Better than letting her stay here.” Kris retorted sadly because he knew it was either she leaves, or she stays and dies.

Tao didn’t know what to make of this situation because he had never seen his best friend like this…so venerable. “Aren’t you being selfish about this, I mean, taking charge of her life and all.”

Kris chuckled, “I’m a selfish remember.” He tried sounding humorous, but in the end he just sounded sad.

“I keep pushing her out of my life because I didn’t want to get attached to her, but what the hell; I’m more attached to her than ever. Man, you have no idea how horrible that it, because it makes all this harder.” Kris softly murmured.

“So why don’t you let her stay with us, I mean, we’re capable of taking care of her.” Tao suggested.

“Staying with us is suicide, and I can’t, I won’t let her get even more hurt.” He answered brokenheartedly.

-----

“Hey.” Kris mumbled to Sarang as he stood awkwardly by the door. Luhan had finally left but would return soon, and until then he was going to explain everything to her.

Truth be told he had been walking back and forth outside her room, pacing up and down the hallway, not quite sure how to do this. He had never done this before, and for him it was like learning to fly without wings.

He couldn’t bear to see her because he was scared of how she would react. She would hate him, he just knew it and he was secretly scared of that. So many people hated him; he didn’t want her to one of them too.

He remembered leaving the mansion after his mini argument with Luhan. At the time he knew Luhan was right about everything. He should had helped her, he should had never pushed her away, but he just kept thinking that if he pushed her out enough he would stop caring about her.

Right now it made no logic, but at the time he just needed to keep her away. So in the end she took the blame, she was punished and he walked out free and unharmed.

The entire time she was missing he spent countless hours tracking her whereabouts, backtracking all of Lee Corporation’s buildings, searching for any acres of land under their company name, searching for any signs of Chairmen Lee.

And when he finally found her broken body on the dirt road in the middle of the nowhere the only thing he could think of was that he was without a doubt, the most horrible monster.

The first thing he noticed as he stepped towards her was how she refused to look him in the eye.

“Sarang-“

“Let me guess,” She cut him off as she began talking, “Your pride got in the way, you refused to save me because I’m your so-claimed weakness, so why’d you do it in the end, because it would rot your conscience?” She hissed angrily, and both were shock at her sudden statement. Kris couldn’t blame her, he expected those words.

“You didn’t deserve to die that’s why, especially not because of me.” He answered and she snapped up from bed, he saw her wince in pain and rushed over to help her.

“Hey, easy there.” He said as he helped her sit back in bed, his hands caressing her head and back gently. She eyed him oddly, not quite sure how to react to his behavior. Kris was never a poster child for being kind and considerate; he was quite the opposite of that.

 “Why are you here?” She softly questioned. She didn’t want him to see her like this, beaten and broken.

“To protect you,” He answered, “Because nobody has protected you in such a long time.” He knew those words hit home when he saw her head lower.

“You pick now, right now of all times to start protecting me. After everything my grandfather did, after all the I’ve been through, you pick now, as the best time!” She half shouted furiously.

“I know that I’m late-“

“Late! Try ten years late.” She reminded through clouded eyes. She didn’t know where this side of her came from, but it felt good, releasing her locked up emotions. She’s been storing everything for so long.

“I know.” He said disappointedly looking away from her.  His pride was gone, his ego pushed away, here standing before her was just Kris Wu, not the Dragon, not the leader of EXOM, but Kris Wu, the idiot who destroyed her life.

Neither of them mouthed a single word for what felt like an eternity. It was finally Sarang who spoke, “So where are you shipping me off to now?” She asked knowingly. She knew he wasn’t letting her stay in Seoul, or in Korea and maybe in Asia for that matter.

“You understand why I’m doing this right, in order to protect you.”

“Protect me by sending me away. You’re just letting me go. What kind of man are you, to let a woman go just like that?”

He almost laughed at her words because he expected that kind of question. He thought bitterly about it, “You know those type of guys that need to let a girl go, but can’t because they’re too selfish to live without the girl…let’s just say….I’m too selfish to let you suffer any longer. I’m too selfish to ask for your help, and I’m too selfish to let you stay.”

“And I have no say in this…” She replied sadly as tears dared to fall from her eyes. What was she to say, what was she to do?

“You don’t want to stay anymore do you?”

Sarang took the longest time to reply, but her answer was what mattered to him. “No.” She whispered as her tears finally fell down onto her bruised porcelain skin. “I’m tired, I don’t want to stay any longer, I don’t want to do this anymore.”

And inwardly it broke his heart; because he made Lee Sarang, the strongest woman he’s ever met, cry. It broke his heart even more to let her go, but this was the right thing to do, he told himself. Set her free, he said,  because she of all people deserved it.