Pants. His own pants. That was all he could hear in his ears, besides the tremendous pounding coming from his over beating heart. It was a stupid idea to run, but his own instincts told him that he should. They told him that he was the fastest, that he could get there in time. Dashing through roads, he disregarded the traffic lights, causing him to almost get hit by a passing white car. He stopped, exhaled a short sigh of relief, and carried on.

Throughout the run, he was mentally scolding himself. He couldn't believe how naive he was, not realising that the girl he loves was the one he did before. If he did, would they have be in this situation now? Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. It's too late to change anything, so L continued to focus on finding Hyorin.

Barely passing another car, he reached the woods, the tall branches of the trees swaying in the night breeze. Myungsoo switched on his phone light, considering how dark the woods were at night, and walked through carefully, stepping around the roots. Reaching the shrubs where he first met Hyorin, L took in a deep breath and pushed them apart, hoping to find her there like he did long before.

He was greeted only with the sight of a bare tree.

His little heart sank at the sight, remembering all the time spent on this wild goose chase. Now what? Crushed, L crashed on to the foot of the tree, screaming loudly in pain. His head hurt from thinking to much. His legs hurt from running too fast. His heart hurt from breaking so many promises towards her. His hand... why does my hand hurt? Shining the light on his right hand, he found something wedge between the skin of his palm, something very small and brown.

A wooden splinter.

L smiled, pulled the small object out and flicked it away. It drew a little blood out of his palm, which he just rubbed away as it wasn't serious. To him, getting splinters was normal, especially if you spent most of your time playing around a huge tree. He could still remember how much fun it was chasing Hyorin around its thick trunk, or pretending to be olympic athletes by jumping over taller roots as of they were hurdles. There was even a few times when they were brave enough to climb up its uneven bark and sit on its sturdy branches, doing cloud watching in the day, and star gazing at night. And as he spent more time with her, the more fond he became of the sunny girl with dark hair and a bright smile. He wanted to do everything for her, there, then and forevermore.

L's smile slowly faded as he thought back on everything that happened, how broken the young girl became, never finding the man that loved her before, and shattered by the man she met later. He hoped that it wasn't too late to heal her heart again. Gaining some motivation, he placed his hands on the ground and tried to stand up, before letting out a hiss. Something pricked him again. Having another look, he found another splinter in his hand, a much bigger one this time around, about the size of a small pencil. Strange, splinters don't end up this big, if they come out naturally. Puzzled, Myungsoo shone the light on the earth, finding it littered with wooden pieces of many different proportions. Now this is DEFINITELY not natural. Shining the light on the tree instead, he gasped. 

That's quite a lot of blood on the tree.

Somebody had scratched off bits and pieces of the trunk, most probably with their bare fingers and fingernails, leaving behind an imperfect oval shaped depression close to 2cm deep. L winced, imagining the pain that the person must have went through in order to do that. But what did the person so desperately scratch off? Looking closely at the trunk, he saw words on it, carefully carved out propbably with something sharp.

"Myung and... something. BFF." He mouthed, tracing his fingers across the letters. "Wait... Myung? Then shouldn't the word be Hyo? Hyo..." Something clicked in his mind at that moment. "Hyo! Hyorin must have been here!"

Myungsoo touched the reddish-brown liquid, finding it dry to his disappointment. He couldn't believe that he had missed her, even though his hunch was right. As much as he wanted to feel sorry for himself, there was still a girl out there, cold, hungry, and most likely bleeding as well.

But what can you do when your trail's gone cold?

"Hello?" Bora answered cautiously, a little afraid to find the caller ID being an unknown number. One can never be too careful in these kind of situations, more so when you're in a girl group. There had been many stories in the kpop industry, of crazy fans who somehow manage to obtain their idols numbers and track their phone calls, or receive death threats from antis instead. So far, none of these things had happened to her before, but better be safe than sorry, right?

"Hello." A dejected voice replied, her voice on the husky side. Bora didn't know a lot of people who had that distinct voice.

"Hyorin, is that you?"

"Hi unnie." Hyorin spoke, trying to sound slightly more cheerful, though the blood from her fingers were starting to stain the pay phone receiver, making it a little sticky.

"Hyorin-ah!" Bora exclaimed, relieved to hear her leader's voice. "I'm glad you called. Are you okay? Feeling cold, or hungry? Are you lost? Do you need someone to get you? Maybe I can-"

"Woah, slow down unnie! I'm okay. You don't have to worry." Hyorin chuckled weakly. "Besides... I'm not coming home."

"What?" Bora spoke, shocked at what Hyorin had said.

"Unnie," Hyorin took in a deep breath and continued. "You are the most quirky, bubbly, sweet and wonderful friend I had ever have. Becoming friends with you was one of the best moments of my life, along with becoming a girl group with Soyou and Dasom. Thank you for always worrying and taking care of me. I'm sorry that I'm such an incompetent leader that puts you and the girls into so much unnecessary trouble."

"It's okay, Hyorin-ah." Bora replied, close to tears. "Why don't you come home first? We can talk this out."

"I have already made up my mind, unnie. I'm going somewhere else."

"Where?"

"... I'm going back to my happiest moments, to the times when there was no pain. There... I want to be free."

"To be free? Free... No, no! Hyorin-ah! Don't do it!"

"Mianhae, unnie. Help me tell the girls my goodbyes too, okay?"

"Hyorin-ah..."

"Goodbye... unnie."

"Hyorin!" Hearing the line cut, Bora sank onto the floor, tears constantly streaming down her face. No Hyorin. Don't do it.

Don't go.

L was still resting at the foot of the tree, even though it was clear that Hyorin's not going to come back twice. He was like an empty shell, striped off of energy and motivation, along with the fact that he didn't want to go back to Bora empty handed. Mopping around the maple tree seemed like a better option. As he continued feeling sorry for himself, his phone vibrated in his right pocket, blasting out Infinite's 'Destiny' as well. My indirect way of self advertising, he thought to himself, answering the call after checking the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hi L." Myungsoo could hear the strain in her voice, rather unusual for a person so bubbly.

"Bora noona, is something wrong?"

"Myungsoo," Bora replied, trying to dry her tears which were still flowing. "It's about Hyorin. She called."

"Are you serious? Is she okay? Did she sound okay? Did she tell you anything?" L was partially relieved at the fact that Hyorin had called back, meaning that she was more or less alright. But why was Bora crying? Tears of joy, maybe?

"She sounded fine, but I don't think she will be soon."

"What?" L answered, slightly confused. "What are you implying, noona?"

"I'm implying that we need to find her ASAP, before it's too late."

"Too late for what?" Myungsoo didn't like where this was going.

"L, Hyorin's going to kill herself."

===============================

Done with another chapter, late again. Sorry guys, but it's rather difficult to come up with a good storyline in a short time. Please forgive me. Hope you guys had enjoyed this chapter though.

I was just wondering, how old are you guys? I want to see what age groups my story is attracting. I'm 16, a pretty crucial age to be in if you're Singaporean. And here I am spending my time writing fan fiction. Lol. :P

Comment and Subscribe! :D