~The Next Day~

Kai’s POV:

“So… are you ready for our wedding this Saturday?” Jessica asked suddenly before innocently taking a sip of her smoothie.

Kai nearly choked on his ramyun, his eyes widening in bewilderment as he hit his chest a few times to force the ramyun down. “O-Our what?”

“Hm?” Jessica tilted her head, batting her eyelashes and pouted her puffy pink lips slightly. “I thought you already discussed it with your mother…?”

‘I knew she had something to do with this… damnit, I’m running out of time,’ Kai thought and put on a small, strained smile. “Oh… right, I must’ve forgotten.”

“Anyways, I was thinking of getting a white cake… Oh! Laced with pink frosting of course and---“

As Jessica droned on about her thoughts concerning the wedding, Kai’s mind drifted elsewhere…

How was he going to save his mother by the end of this week? Should he go ahead and reveal his stepmother’s secret now before it’s too late? Not to mention, how could he make things right with Jen…?

“Kai… Yah!” Jessica shouted, “are you even listening to me?”

Kai blinked several times as if trying to blink away the thoughts cluttering his mind and attempted to smile charmingly but it only faded to nothing – he wasn’t exactly in the mood to smile or to even attempt one at that. Everything hurt… it hurt to suffer alone. With no one on his side, he barely could find the strength to carry on at times.

“Of course I’m listening; I did get lost in your eyes for a moment though… mianhae.” Kai bowed his head briefly while inwardly praising himself for being such a smooth talker. ‘Jen would never fall for this though…’ he thought as he looked at Jessica’s cheeks turning crimson.

“Oppa~” she whined and pushed her hair behind her ear, “hajima.” She took another sip of her smoothie to avoid eye contact with him; eye contact would just make her blush even more.

“I’ll leave you mainly to the wedding planning though; your ideas seem really great,” Kai complimented half-heartedly.

“Even the horse-drawn carriage?!” Jessica’s eyes shone bright with childlike joy at the thought of a true “Cinderella” wedding.

Kai nodded in response, making Jessica smile brightly. “I love it.”

“Good, I’ll go arrange it right now then!” Jessica hopped up out of her seat smoothie in hand. She walked over briskly and kissed Kai’s cheek. “Thanks oppa!” Was the last thing she said before happily skipping out of the school’s cafeteria with nothing but hope-filled dreams.

“Good indeed because I have my own plans to carry out,” Kai muttered to himself before standing up as well and leaving the cafeteria but contrary to Jessica’s dream, Kai’s dream was filled with nothing but vengeance.

---

Kai sat at his desk in his dorm room with all the documents he had stolen from his stepmother’s safe yesterday spread out in front of him. Everything he needed to prove his stepmother’s evil actions were here but… how to go about it was the problem. Should he go straight to the public with the information or should he do things his own way?

He ran his hand through his hair, contemplating all his options. Going to the public would be the easiest way, yes, but it could easily backfire. His stepmother controlled a lot of media outlets and could have them deny his reports. Also, convincing the public of something so absurd (though true) as to how Mrs. Kim imprisoned his real mother so that she could be with his father for the sole purpose of monetary gain was going to be difficult.

‘Looks like I’m doing things my own way,’ Kai thought and picked up his stepmother's journal that had an address in it on the very first page – the address to where his real mother was being held captive.

He sighed, pursing his lips together tightly. He was now convinced that he was going to have to personally break her out – but how? The place was bound to be heavily guarded… that meant surveillance cameras, armed guards, and possibly even some attack dogs.

Nothing seemed to be easy but he knew of one person who could help him…

Luhan.

Luhan was great with technology. If he could manage to turn off the power in the building, that would make it a lot easier for him to infiltrate the building and escape with both him and his mother unharmed.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Luhan’s number almost hesitantly. The last time he encountered Luhan, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience to say the least but he still had faith in their friendship – with that thought, he hit the call button.

He heard the call pick up, but Luhan didn’t say anything. “Luhan-ah…”

“Oh,” Luhan squeaked over the phone.

“I’d rather not have this conversation over the phone… can we meet up somewhere?” Kai asked, tapping his fingers on the desk in a rhythmic pattern.

“…Sure,” Luhan replied after a long moment of silence, “where?”

“The coffee shop,” Kai answered.

“I’ll be there,” Luhan said and with that, he hung up the phone.

Kai hung up as well and placed his phone in his pocket as he stood up, grabbing his coat before heading out the door.

---

When Kai arrived at the school’s coffee shop, Luhan was already there. He was sitting at a booth absentmindedly looking down as he tapped his feet on the ground before looking up at Kai with an unreadable expression.

Kai felt an air of tenseness settle on his chest as he approached Luhan and sat in the booth across from him. Neither of them said anything for the longest time – they just looked at each other. Despite Luhan’s blank expression, his eyes could never lie about how he was feeling. Kai could sense fear and confusion from him and it pained him that Luhan felt that way. They were still best friends… right?

“I know I have no place to ask anything of you but… I need your help.” Kai finally broke the heavy silence and watched as Luhan’s eyes changed to nothing but pure confusion now but he still didn’t say a word, he only nodded to urge Kai to continue.

“I could really use your technology skills… it’s about my mother,” Kai added and passed his stepmother’s journal across the table to Luhan. Her journal contained her plans dealing with his real mother’s imprisonment and where she was being held.

He watched as Luhan flipped through the pages, reading some things here and there before setting the journal back on the table and closed it slowly. “You can count me in.”

Kai’s eyes widened in disbelief, wondering how it was so easy for Luhan to agree to help. “Really?”

“Ne~” Luhan responded with a nod, “why wouldn’t I?”

“I just thought maybe… I don’t know…” He knew what he was trying to say – to say that he expected Luhan to be mad at him – but he didn’t know if he should.

“You expected me to be mad, right?” Luhan questioned.

Damn, how did he know?

Luhan shook his head slightly and looked out the window, letting the warm sunlight shine on his angelic face. “I can’t be mad at you for telling me the truth.”

“Neither of us wanted to hurt you…” Kai sighed and fidgeted awkwardly in his seat. Talking about his feelings wasn’t something that was easy to him.

“I know,” Luhan shone a strained smile, “but if you hadn’t have been so honest with me back in Korea, I don’t know what I would’ve done…”

“You haven’t been-,” Kai began, worry evident on his face.

“I only thought about it once,” Luhan interrupted and finally turned to look back at Kai, “but I remembered I promised you that I wouldn’t attempt suicide ever again. You’ve always been there for me even if it was just in memory.”

“I hate when you’re like this…” Kai sighed and broke the eye contact to awkwardly look down at the table. He could distinctly remember the two times Luhan attempted suicide and he saved his life each time. Even the memory of seeing his best friend so close to death made goose bumps sprout up on his arms.

“You told me that pain can only kill me if I let it… well I’m not going to let it anymore. I’m going to be stronger so that I can stand on my own two feet. I’ve relied on you for strength too much all these years but now I want to be the one to help you and to protect you… so don’t worry about me, I’m not going to attempt it ever again,” Luhan concluded with a soft smile. He was proud of everything he just said and even prouder that he meant every single word of it. He was tired of always being the “weaker” one of his friends, especially considering that he was older than them as well. He had been blind to how pathetic he truly was all these years – what example has he been setting for the other two?

It’s okay to be weak? It’s okay to give up?  No, wrong. It’s not okay… he knew that now.

“Finally you’re seeing it from my perspective," Kai smiled tearfully. He couldn't describe the happiness he felt when he heard those words from Luhan - it brought him such relief to know that his best friend would never attempt something so absurd ever again. "I'm glad I have my best friend back."

“Now you should definitely start calling me hyung again since I act more like one, would ya?” Luhan joked and ruffled Kai’s hair playfully.

Kai laughed and fixed his hair. “Okay hyung.”

Luhan settled back in his seat; his smiled eventually faded from joking around and he put on a more serious face. “So exactly what is it you wanted me to do?”

Luhan noticed the sadness behind Kai’s eyes as he began to explain: “They’re holding her in this abandoned building in Itaewon; I need you to see if you can hack into their power system and knock out the lights while I sneak in and get my mother.”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Luhan questioned with a look of worry, “and how are you going to get to her when you can’t see in the dark either?”

“As a kid, I brought a pair of night vision goggles when I went through this whole ‘I-want-to-be-a-spy’ phase… I’ll use those,” Kai answered while twiddling his thumbs. He was as nervous about this not working more than anyone – this could mean life or death… his biggest fear. And despite whether Jen wanted to see him or not, he would see her anyway… just so that he’d have no regrets in case anything went wrong.

“Don’t worry so much,” Luhan assured with a small smile and reached over the table to pat Kai’s shoulder, earning a smile from him, “I’ve got your back… we’ll get her out safely.”

“Thanks Lu- I meant, hyung,” Kai smiled, feeling a bit more confident with Luhan’s comforting words.

“So!” Luhan began and clapped his hands, rubbing them together with a mischievous smirk playing on his lips. “When are we doing this?”

“Meet me at my car at midnight,” Kai answered and stood up, heading towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Luhan watched as Kai was heading towards the door with a look of bewilderment.

“To see someone,” Kai threw the statement over his shoulder before leaving the confused Luhan behind in the coffee shop.

---

Knock knock.

Jen sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes groggily. “Aish! I can’t even take an afternoon nap…!” she grumbled to herself as she trudged to the door and opened it. “What do you-,” she began but finally her eyes landed on his face and she fell quiet.

“Can we talk?” Kai asked but didn’t wait for her response – he pushed past her and walked into her dorm room.

“Y-Yah! You can’t just-,” Jen began.

“I love you,” Kai cut her off with nothing but a look of seriousness on his face.

Jen moved as if wanting to respond but couldn’t find the words – her heart yearned to say it back but her mind said otherwise. ‘He’s with Jessica now… he doesn’t really love you’ is what her mind said and again her mind won against her heart.

Kai, noticing her inner conflict, simply shook his head and looked away from her. “I know you don’t believe me… I didn’t necessarily expect you to. But whether you chose to believe me or not, my heart knows the truth and it knows that I love you. It doesn’t make sense now but I can promise you that I’m going to fix everything… just wait for me.”

“What are you-,” Jen began again but Kai was already on his way out the door.

“Wait for me,” he repeated before closing the door behind himself. ‘I’m going to make this work… I won’t give up on our love,’ he thought with a new sense of determination. He would let his love for Jen and his real mother drive him to his goal… his goal being his happiness and he needed both of them to be truly happy.

---

~Midnight~

“Are you ready to do this?” Luhan asked while leaning against Kai’s car. He was dressed entirely in black for this occasion; he even pulled his hair back and hid it beneath a black beanie.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Kai replied, he too was dressed similarly to Luhan, “now let’s go.” And with that, the two hopped into the car and began making their way to the small, abandoned building in Itaewon.

Fear gripped their hearts as uncertainty began to set in – would they succeed in getting his mother out safely or would their mission be compromised and they lose everything?

It was all or nothing… and Kai has so much to lose.

Phew! I haven't updated in a while, ne? I've began working on quite a few stories. ^^;; What was one oneshot turned into like three (well, it's about to be three) and my new BaekChen fic is really consuming my interest so... mianhae! I didn't mean to keep you all waiting for so long. Thanks for understanding! <3