Chanyeol ran back to Aecha, his heart was on fire. The police station wasn’t really far from where Aecha was. But the way of him going there and coming back wasn’t near either.

Run! Run! Run! Chanyeol chanted in his mind as he blindly ran back to her, not even looking where he was going. When Chanyeol tried to pick up his pace even more, he tripped on a rock and landed hard on the ground, face down. Chanyeol cursed heaven in his mind, at a burning time like this and he tripped. Chanyeol stood up quickly, too quickly that his knees couldn’t adjust to the change just yet. They hurt like hell and Chanyeol couldn’t help but sitting down a little. Ok, he must be calm and do things right so that he could reach Aecha in time. Rushing things would do him no good; it was making him slow down. He must take things slow and do things rightly.

Chanyeol stopped a little and massaged his knees gently. After a minute or so, he stood up, this time he did it slowly, and they didn’t hurt as much as before. He ran again at a slower pace, then he sped up despite his knees were aching again. Lucky for him, his trousers were thick so his skin wasn’t scratched, or else it’d hurt much more. Chanyeol ran back to where he was just a while ago, but no one was there. He grew anxious as he looked around for Aecha. His heart stopped and his eyes widened in horror when he caught the sight of Aecha slumping on the bench, her eyes closed. Thinking that something bad had happened, Chanyeol shouted out as he ran towards Aecha and cradled her in his arms.

“AECHA! Oh my god, are you ok?”

As she was still immobile in his arms, Chanyeol felt like the world had stopped moving around him. Unwilling tears slowly flooded his eyes but Chanyeol tried his best to hold them back. He mustn’t cry, him crying meant something had happened to Aecha. No, he didn’t want that. He didn’t want her to make him leave her there with Minwoo. He didn’t want her to be in pain. And mostly he didn’t want her to be stock-still in his arms like now.

Her body was weak against his, Chanyeol was scared. Holding her like that in his arms, he finally knew how much Aecha meant to him.

Shaking her body lightly so as not to hurt her, Chanyeol called out for Aecha again; his voice cracking, “A-Aecha, please open up your eyes! Don’t be like that. I don’t like you being like that.”

He then cupped her cheeks with his hands so that Aecha’s face was in front of his, and he could watch her face better. Aecha fought against her exhaustion, slowly opened her eyes to look at him. Relief flooded through his body when he looked into her eyes, though her eyes were tired as ever. Crushing her to his chest again, Chanyeol breathed out, “Oh thank god, you are ok. You don’t even know how worried I was.”

Aecha groaned as Chanyeol hugged her too tightly and she pushed at his chest a little so he would release her. Chanyeol frowned, but then his eyes widened with realization. He immediately kept her at arm’s length and examined her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you hurt somewhere?”

Chanyeol inspected her face once more. Aecha turned her head, trying to hide her face from him. She knew her face would look horrible with all the things Minwoo had done to her.

Chanyeol's eyes widen as he saw her face. When she turned her face, Chanyeol cupped her cheek to turn it back, and Aecha groaned in pain one more time. The bruises there were probably because of the slap Minwoo gave her. Chanyeol bit his lips to hold back the curses that were ready to spill out of his mouth when he saw the bruises and the cuts on her face.

The hand cupping her cheek slid down the side of her face as Chanyeol brushed his thump over the corner of her lip gently. Aecha had accidently bit her lip when Minwoo slapped her and it was bleeding a little. She flinched when she felt his finger on her lips, afraid it’d hurt her. But Chanyeol swept away the blood ever so gently that it felt like feather sweeping on her skin. Aecha relaxed under his touches and let Chanyeol tend to her scratches.

“Does it hurt much?”

Chanyeol tried to keep in his rage toward Minwoo hidden and tried not to lash out at Aecha for being so reckless, he asked her in a soft voice.

“No, just a little bit.”

Aecha lied, not wanting to make him feel bad for not coming back to help her in time. She also didn’t want to make him worry about her.

However, Chanyeol didn’t believe her lie, so he took her arms and inspected them, not caring about Aecha’s protest. His blood boiled one more time when he saw all the purple spots she got there. Chanyeol raised his voice, glaring at Aecha.

“What the did he do to you? And you told me it didn’t hurt? If I had been here with you, he couldn’t have done all these things to you!”

Aecha shied away from his out lash, muttering her reply. “I thought I could outrun him until you came back.”

“You thought? Isn’t it too dangerous to put your assumption here? Didn’t you think that if he caught you, he would hurt you?”

Chanyeol scolded her for being so reckless; she didn’t think of her own safety at all.

“But I wanted to make sure Hana is safe.”

“What about you? Don’t you need to be safe too?”

“You know what he wants with Hana. I don’t want that to happen.”

“What he wants with Hana? What does that jerk want?”

Chanyeol was so pissed at Aecha for acting that way and he momentarily forgot what Minwoo wanted to do to Hana.

“You know it. The things he does to other girls too.”

Aecha muttered, not wanting to say the word. Minwoo was famous for those dirty deeds, so Chanyeol would know it.

Chanyeol thought about what she said a little, and he slowly realized what she was implying. Softening his tone, Chanyeol asked, “But what about you? He could do that to you too. Didn’t you think about yourself?”

Chanyeol shuddered inwardly at the thought of Minwoo doing these things to Aecha. He would kill himself if it had happened.

Aecha smiled bitterly, waving a hand dismissively, “Look at me! I know what types of girls that he likes. He wouldn’t want a girl like me, I know that. And I was right, he said so to me just now.”

Chanyeol was confused of her words at first but then he knew what she meant. Aecha was saying that Minwoo wouldn’t want an ugly girl like her. It’s an ugly truth. Not wanting to dig in this matter further and hurt Aecha’s self-esteem, Chanyeol dropped the topic. He pulled Aecha’s head to his chest, cradled her gently in his arms, trying to give her some comfort. He admonished her, gently this time.

“But still, you should have let me stay with you. I could have stopped him. Look at what he did to you. It is bad.”

“Not as bad as the things he wanted to do to Hana. It’s just physically, I can take it.”

Aecha replied in an instant. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the price she had to pay when she tried to help Hana. And it was ok to her, it was much better than something happened to Hana. Aecha wouldn’t forgive herself if she let it happen.

Chanyeol grew frustrated. Why was Aecha so nice to Hana? Why couldn’t she just think of herself? She was reasonable with what she said, he couldn’t blame her for what happened to her. But still, he didn’t want things like that to happen to her ever again.

Chanyeol nuzzled his nose into her hair, Chanyeol inhaled deeply, “But I don’t want you to get hurt. Don’t act like that anymore.”

Aecha stopped breathing for a moment, listening to Chanyeol’s heartbeat. It was beating so fast. Aecha's heart also swelled at his words. Was Chanyeol worrying about her? He surely sounded like he was worrying. In fact, he was very worried. And it made Aecha very happy.

Aecha nodded, agreeing with him, a stupid smile forming on her face. She’d be more careful from now on. There was someone worrying about her after all.

“Are you worried about me?”

Chanyeol stammered, denying her assumption.

“N-no, of course I’m not. I’m just saying, you can do whatever you want.”

Aecha sighed and wondered out loud.

“Really? I guess, I have to save Hana next time. Minwoo said it was not the last time.”

“What? No, you don’t. You do it once more and you’d get it from me.”

Chanyeol immediately raised his voice and threatened Aecha, tightening his hold on her as if to protect her from the non-existent harm.

Aecha giggled at his reaction and poked his chest, “Don’t worry! I was just kidding.”

Chanyeol flushed, he got caught showing his worry towards her. He smiled a little, rubbing Aecha’s back and mumbling something like, “still can tease me?”

They sat there until Hana was back with a policeman coming with her. She frowned at the sight of Aecha in Chanyeol's embrace. As he saw Hana, Chanyeol reluctantly let go of Aecha.

“Aecha, are you ok?”

Hana went to sit by Aecha on the bench and asked, looking at the girl to see if she was alright.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I just have to get home and rest.”

Aecha offered Hana a smile to reassure the worried girl. Hana nodded, believed Aecha. She then turned to Chanyeol.

“We should go home then.”

Aecha stood up to leave with them, but she crouched down again, clutching her stomach where Minwoo kicked her. It hurt so much that she couldn’t stand up straight. Chanyeol rushed to support her again.

“You ok? Can you walk?”

“Yeah, just let me try.”

Aecha tried to straighten her body again but she still couldn’t.

Chanyeol turned to the policeman and asked him to take Hana home for him. However, Hana objected as she also went to Aecha’s side, “But…”

“Just go with him already.”

Chanyeol snapped. He had to take Aecha home so he couldn’t walk Hana home like they had agreed.

Couldn’t she understand their situation? Why must Hana insist on him taking her home?  

That’s what Chanyeol thought, and that’s why he snapped at Hana. He then turned back to Aecha and ordered, “You get on my back. I’ll take you home.”

Hana bit her lips to hold in her objections. She just wanted to walk Aecha home with Chanyeol to make sure Aecha was ok, but Chanyeol didn’t let her. He even snapped at her. Why must Chanyeol snap at her just now? He was always so nice to her. Hana didn’t understand it. And she didn’t like Chanyeol treating her like that.

Aecha looked at Hana unsurely, but Hana showed no emotions whatsoever. Offering Aecha an emotionless smile, Hana turned around and went home with the policeman.

Since Aecha had no other choices, she got on Chanyeol's back.

Before they got going, Aecha told Chanyeol to come with her to a bench. When they got there, Aecha asked Chanyeol to pick up her phone that she had placed on the bench before she joined the fight to help Hana.

“What is with it?”

Chanyeol asked curiously, inspecting her phone. Why did she place her phone there?

“A video of Minwoo fighting us and hitting me. Nice angle, nice view.”

Aecha smiled proudly as she watched the video she had filmed by her phone.

“To do what?” asked Chanyeol as he started walking to Aecha’s home.

“I’ll edit it a little so that only his face is clearly seen. Then I’ll send it to the principal. I’ll ask him to keep our identity anonymous, and keep the video from Minwoo so he wouldn’t know who stab his back.”

“I get what you are trying to do. The principal is really strict. This video would probably give Minwoo a year of grounding, at least.”

Chanyeol smirked at Aecha’s plan. Aecha was pretty smart.

“Exactly!”

Aecha smiled proudly, wrapping her arms around Chanyeol’s neck happily. Minwoo had said that she wouldn’t get away with sticking her nose in his business. Well, he couldn’t get away with beating her up either.

“You are really smart. I just know that.”

“Thank you.”

Aecha smiled even wider at his compliment. Chanyeol also smiled. He then remembered something so he picked up his pace.

“We should get you home fast. You need rest.”

Aecha stayed obediently on his back as Chanyeol took her home. She was really happy because Chanyeol was caring for her. All the pain she endured, it was so insignificant now.

The date didn’t end like how Chanyeol had imagined it to be. He was supposed to take Hana home after their date, but Chanyeol didn't regret it turning out this way. He’d rather take Aecha home instead of walking Hana home. The girl needed him more, and Chanyeol wanted it more.