“You shouldn’t be out of bed.” Luhan insisted when he finally found Sarang. The past few days for her felt too slow. After her talk with Kris she never saw him again. She knew he was purposely avoiding her but she didn’t know why.

She knew she should be mad at him, furious even, but she couldn’t be. She wanted to yell at him, she wanted to push him away, but in the end she just ended up wanting him more. It was so new to her, the feeling of wanting someone in your life regardless of how much pain they cause you.

“You can’t lock me up in bed all day.” She insisted. “Not when you’re planning on shipping me off today.” She reminded and even without looking at Luhan she knew that he was frowning.

“You want to leave don’t you? You want to escape from all this.” He asked.

“Yes.” She answered with a sad knowing smile on her face as she turned towards him.

Her face still had a bruise on her forehead and a scratch on her left cheek, but her face was bluster free. He couldn’t say the same about rest of her body. She was a healing cripple soul, and he didn’t know how long it would take for both her physical wounds and her emotional ones to heal up.

“You also want to stay don’t you? You want to stay so badly it hurts to leave, because you’ll be leaving your whole life behind.”

“Yes.” She repeated.

“Does Kris know about this?” He probed

“It doesn’t matter Luhan.” She replied but he knew she wanted to tell Kris. She wanted to scream it in his face that she wanted to stay, stay by him. Regardless of everything she wanted to stay with him. Luhan knew that Kris would never allow this, because he couldn’t see Sarang suffer anymore. Kris knew that being with him meant more pain.

“Are you ready?”

Sarang shook her head because she didn’t know if she’ll ever be ready. Honestly, she was scared out of her mind.

“You’ll take care of him won’t you? Take care of Kris.”

Luhan chuckled at her request. She sounded so anxious and worried, like a mother leaving her new born child for the first time. He never thought he would see the great Lee Sarang like this. So this was the real Sarang, underneath all her walls and shields.

“Still worried about him huh? What about the rest of us? Aren’t you worried about us?” He brought up with a small pout.

She couldn’t help but laugh at Luhan, “Don’t pout. You’re too pretty to pout.”

“I’m not pretty!” He exclaimed, shocked that she could even call him pretty. He was a damn assassin, not pretty.

A smile cracked on Luhan’s face and he found himself laughing. They both found themselves laughing at themselves.

“Ah, it’s good to laugh again. I can’t remember the last time I laughed.” He commented after they calmed down. He noticed that Sarang had that sad look on her face again, and he could already tell she wasn’t looking at him, but behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know who was standing behind him.

“Guess it’s time to say good-bye.” She murmured softly. She moved her eyes to him, and faking through it she smiled, “Thank you for everything Luhan. Thank you for being my friend. I’m going to miss you.”

He knew she tried sounding happy, but failed miserably.

“So you’re just leaving like that…I’m a bit disappointed, I thought you were going to put up more of a fight.” He joked. She gave him a top-sided smile in return and her eyes reflected everything she needed to tell him.

“Let’s go.” Kris’s insisted appearing beside Sarang. Sarang moved a few inches away from him before she turned around and away.

They both waited until she was a good distance away before they spoke. “You’re horrible you know that.” Kris had a hard look in his eyes and said nothing in return.

“You’re going to regret it.” Luhan insisted knowing that if he tried hard enough he would get Kris to change his mind. When Kris gave no reaction Luhan just got angrier.

“What the hell man, what’s wrong?”

“She laughed,” He said so bitterly it hurts, “That was the first time I heard her laugh.” He revealed and Luhan inwardly smirked because he knew that his friend did care. He cared too much that it hurts.

“Can I tell you something first…..” Luhan began knowing that Sarang was probably going to kill him for this. Or she was going to hug him and name her first born after him.  

-----

Sarang expected someone else to be driving her to the airport. But her driver ended up being him. This was a smaller, private airport where a plane would be waiting for her. She was to be flown to Japan before she was taken to her final destination.

She played with her fingers and stared outside the window, avoiding looking at Kris because she just couldn’t bear to see his face. Neither of them had said a single thing this whole time. Each too lost in their own thoughts.

Why not Lay, or Tao, why him. Why couldn’t one of the other boys drop her off and watch her leave. She ran her fingers through her hair, her fingers brushed over the bruised on the back of her head and she winced in pain.

To say she was completely healed was an understatement, but thanks to lots of painkiller she brushed it off like it was nothing. She guessed EXOM felt the same about her condition, aside from Luhan who studied every bruised on her body, throwing curses at her grandfather while doing it.

The car came to a slow stop and she felt her heart sink. So this was it, reality came crashing down on her that she was leaving, and Kris’s face was going to be the last face she sees before she leaves. Oh, how tragic.

She felt like a freight train was repeatedly hitting her heart with the force of a wave. Exerting all the energy she could conjure up she pushed the car door open, oblivious to how Kris hadn’t moved an inch.

She stepped outside and felt the cold wind hit her and her body shivered up. Her body still felt sensible to everything.

Realizing that Kris wasn’t going to get out of the car she helped herself by opening the back door and grabbing her suitcase along with her duffle bag. She didn’t pack much because she didn’t want to carry the load around. She just grabbed what was needed.

With her duffle bag heavily swung over one shoulder and her suitcase rolling behind her she set her sight on the plane up ahead.

Lay informed her that the pilot would drop her off in Tokyo and from there on she would take a flight to wherever she wanted, the world was at her feet and she could choose where to go. Just go somewhere safe, were his exact words. If only he realized that there was truly no safe place for her.

She made it halfway to the plane before a pair of arms reached out and grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to turn around.

“What?” She asked defectively to Kris who had a cold, stern look casted in his eyes. He released his grip from her and took a step back.

Why the hell was he here? Couldn’t he just stay in the car and watch her go, wasn’t that what he wanted.

“What do you want?” She asked again as she watched him intently. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out at first. He had to muster up the strength to  speak.

"Do you have to go?” He asked softly. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“What?” She asked completely caught off guard by his question. Out of everything she wasn’t expecting him to ask that. “Isn’t this what you want? To be freed from me, for me to get away from grandfather, isn’t that what you asked for?” She brought up.

His head dropped and she just stared at him with bewildered eyes. Why was he acting like this? Why, of all times, why now?

“Look, I have a plane to catch so if you’re not going to say anything, I’m going.” She stated firmly as she began to walk away. But he wouldn’t let her.

“Do you want to go?” He repeated.

“What did I tell you before?” She brought up remembering when he visited her at the hospital a few days ago. She told him she was tired, and she was, she told him she didn’t want to do this anymore.

“Then let me rephrase my question; do you want to leave me? Do you want to be rid of me?” He asked gently and she felt her heart flutter.

“It doesn’t matter what I want.” She answered and she knew it wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

“What if I can’t let you go?” He brought up and she was more than amused at how ironic this situation was.

“You will.” She replied flatly taking a few steps away. He only continued to close the gap by stepping closer to her.

“What makes you say that?”

She laughed at his sentence, “You left me on our wedding day. You kicked me out the second I mentioned my parents. You didn’t rescue me when grandfather kidnapped me; instead you let someone else do it….”

“I know all of this but-“

“Face it Dragon….you always let me go.”

He hated how bitter she made it all sound, but he knew it was bitter and cold because it was the truth. He never fought for her, even if he knew she would fight for him. He was the one letting her go, and in the end she got hurt and he walked away.

“Luhan told me something earlier.” He revealed and Sarang instantly knew that Kris was deeply impacted by what the doe-eyed man told him. “After all this….I don’t think I can do this. I know I’m only going to hurt you but I can’t do it.”

“Do what?” She mumbled delicately she wasn’t even sure if he heard.

“Let you get on that plane.” He answered and her heart stopped when he said those words.

“…So...what do you want to do?”

His eyes clouded with fear and confusion before he finally stepped forward. She was taken aback by his out of character actions but her body reacted the second her wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. She felt warmth engulf every inch of her.

His arms felt secure and safe as he pulled her close. She felt her face burn crimson and she hid her face in his shoulder. She closed her eyes tightly and took in his addicting scent.

“Do you want to leave?” He whispered into her ear and she shivered as how deep and gently he sounded at his moment.

“Yes.” She answered and she felt his arms tighten around her small flame.

“Do you want to leave me?” He asked more carefully this time.

“…No.”

-----

“What is it?” Kris asked impatiently. Luhan hushed him before speaking.

“Not long after her parents died there was something I asked you. Do you remember?” Luhan brought up.

Kris groaned, “Ten years Luhan, it’s been ten years. Do you expect me to remember a conversation we had ten years ago?”

“This conversation, yes. It was the first and only time I ever saw you cry.” Luhan clarified and the way Kris’s eyes flickered forward was validation that he remembered.

“What about it?” he asked timidly as if remembering the past scared him. Maybe it did, maybe Kris ran from the past because it was too painful.

“It was the one and only time I could ever get you to reveal what you really wanted. Behind all the bull, killing, chasing, and denial, you told me what you wanted. Do you remember what you told me?” Luhan mused and it was so interesting seeing Kris squirm like the teenager they once knew. How time can change someone was so amusing.

“You know that I was a pissed off, lonely kid who lost not one but two important people in my life. I wasn’t thinking straight.” He defended by Luhan flicked that thought off.

“No, a major lost like that teaches you how people truly are, behind all the bull they showcase to the world. And that one time ten years ago was one of those rare occasions where I saw Wu Yifan.”

“I wanted someone who will love me…there, I said it, why does this matter.”

Luhan smiled, it was a wicked smile, “I once asked Sarang what she wanted. What she truly wanted…you know what she told me?”

“I don’t want to know.”

“She told me that she just wanted someone who will love her.” Luhan revealed, “Tragic isn’t it, how the two most ed up people in my life want the same exact thing but are acting like they want anything but that.”

“You’re becoming a sentimental Luhan.” Kris scowled.

“Better that than being the idiot who let the girl go.” Luhan countered knowingly with a sad look on his face like he understood.. “You know, I once told her to take care of your heart.”

“Why would you say that?” Kris asked, annoyed that his second-hand man was becoming everybody’s personal therapist.

“Because the timing felt right.” Luhan said casually. “So now I’m going to do the same thing….Take care of her heart, it’s more fragile than you think.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean.”

Those were Luhan’s final words before an inpatient Tao called Kris away so he can drop Sarang off.