The sun was starting to set behind the tall buildings of Seoul and Kris was still sat where he had been sitting for hours; a bench on the outskirts of the city overlooking the buildings in the distance. His mind seemed to be thinking so much at once that it was impossible to form coherent thoughts, instead images flashed across Kris’s mind.  

It was a slow, painful and incurable torture on Kris’s mind. He imagined Lay alone at the dorm and feeling betrayed. Then Lay being told to do Kris’s shifts. Then Lay in immeasurable pain from overworking. Images of Lay collapsed in agony and all alone filled his vision. Lay. Lay. Lay. He didn’t stop thinking of him for a single second.

“Kris? Is that you?”  A voice asked, but Kris didn’t hear it. He was in the same trance that he had been trapped in for hours.

When there was no response Tao sat down on the bench beside Kris and sighed. Leaning forward he waved his hands in front of Kris’s face and called out again.

“Kris?” Tao tried once more.

Kris let out a small gasp and flicked his eyes towards Tao. However the hatred he would usually feel towards Tao was lost amongst all of the other emotions tumbling around inside of him and he simply looked at him with dead eyes.

“You alright?” Tao asked cheerfully, hiding his surprise at Kris’s behaviour. Kris gave one short nod in reply. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be working at SM?”

“I’m just out for a bit.” Kris replied. Suddenly Kris felt a hatred for talking. The more words he said, the more words he put between his and Lay’s last conversation and the more distance he felt was between them.

“Isn’t that some sort of breach of your contract?” Tao asked. Kris just shrugged and brought his knees up onto the bench, hugging his arms tightly around them, he only just started to realise he had been cold all of this time.

He thought of how Lee Soo Man knew they were dating. He even had footage of them when out in town on their week off. But now that he knows about their relationship he wouldn’t use Lay as a weapon to get to Kris, would he? Wait, were they even still dating? Would Lay want him after this?

“I’m guessing something happened.” Tao said, leaning back on the bench and rubbing his cold hands together.  Kris hesitated before nodding once quickly.

“Must’ve been pretty bad seeing you reaction and that you’re here right now.”  Kris frowned at this. Was it really as bad as he had made out? Had he just overreacted and now Lay was alone? Questions and questions occupied his mind but he found no answers.

Silence settled once again until Tao asked “Are you going back?” This caused Kris to actually turn his head and look at Tao. He bit his lip and quietly mumbled out a response.

“I don’t know.” That was all Kris could take before returning to his trance, eyes filling with tears but he never spilt a single one. He blinked them back and curled up into a tighter ball. Lay. Lay. Lay. Lay…

Tao watched Kris in morbid fascination for ten minutes. He watched the empty lifeless shell that was Kris, but he noted that Kris didn’t seem sad for himself; he was worried about something else. Someone else.

Deciding he couldn’t take it anymore Tao took out his phone and called for his driver to pick him up. He had told his staff he would only leave for a short walk; however he had been sitting with Kris for almost an hour, and all of this time Kris had shown no signs of leaving. No signs of anything.

The car arrived and Tao, with the help of his driver, pulled Kris inside and drove off to Tao’s estate.

If Kris had been acting as he normally did, he would have been blown away by the sheer size of the place. A wall surrounded the entire property and a grand gate opened up to the driveway outside of the building. Down the long winding drive and to the left was a large garage, and in the open space outside of that was a fountain which served as a roundabout for cars passing up the driveway.

The building itself must have been five storeys tall and the width of four regular sized houses. The door stood proudly in the middle of the building and between two large pillars. Well-kept flower beds lined the edges of the estate and all in all, it was beyond anything Kris had ever seen on TV, let alone had the privilege to visit.

However Kris didn’t even notice any of this right now, he followed wherever his feet took him as he was led inside by Tao and the driver.

After ordering a cook to make them both dinner Tao sat Kris down on his sofa.  The curiosity was building up within him but he knew he couldn’t ask Kris tonight. One glance at Kris’s lost face told him that.

Instead he tried to make Kris feel relaxed. He the TV and started to watch a K drama. Kris’s eyes flicked up towards the familiar OST. He and Lay watched this drama all of the time.

Momentarily forgetting where he was he was pulled into the drama, watching the familiar characters and even cracking a small smile at the jokes. Tao watched in relief as Kris relaxed a little bit and showed signs of human emotion.

The food soon arrived and rather than eating in the dining room, Tao asked for trays to be delivered so that they could eat at the sofa. Kris went to eat his food when he realised he didn’t have any chopsticks.

“Lay would you pass me the_” Kris turned and looked at Tao and realised where he was and what he was doing. His mouth fell open in horror but also in pain as he realised he was about to eat a luxurious meal while Lay would be eating a cheaply put together meal back in the dorm, if he was even eating at all. “Oh god.” Kris said. Pushing the food away and standing up, this time real tears formed in his eyes, slowly running down his cheeks.

Tao became surprisingly supportive, pulling Kris in for a hug despite Kris’s struggles and telling him to shush. “It’s fine Kris, please. Just sit down and have a drink. If you’d like to talk about it I’m here okay? Shh…”

After fifteen minutes Tao got Kris to drink a drink so that he wouldn’t dehydrate, however he secretly added sleeping pills without Kris’s knowledge.

Drugging someone was something he has never done before, but in Kris’s state he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest. When Kris started to get drowsy Tao showed Kris to a room upstairs and left him to go to sleep by himself.

Kris woke up a while later in the early hours of the morning. At first he had no idea where he was but memories of yesterday started to haunt him again. Realising he was now in Tao’s house while his boyfriend was alone and not knowing where he was back, waiting for his return in that dreaded dorm in SM, Kris felt like the worst man alive.

He carefully got out of bed and pulled on his clothes. Sneaking downstairs he looked around the house, trying to remember his way out. Sneaking around he realised that other than the few staff that worked there, Tao lived completely on his own.  Maybe he wasn’t as different from him as Kris first assumed.

Finally with the front door in his sight Kris made his way over to the door. With his fingers wrapped around the door knob a small cough startled him before he could leave.  He turned his head to see Tao coming down the stairs in a leopard print dressing gown.

“Where are you going?” Tao asked, clearly unhappy, but also concerned.

“I have to go back to SM. I can’t leave Lay there. There’s no way he can get out now by himself.”

“Just a moment.” Tao said. “I’d like a quick chat about that actually; I think you’d appreciate what I have to say.

Kris debated ignoring him but the expression on Tao’s face made Kris feel like he really did want to help.

“It might be easier for me if you could explain what happened first.” Tao said, sitting Kris down in the lounge, which was only lit by the fireplace where a fire was warming the cold room, and by a small dull lamp in the corner.

Kris slowly went through everything that had happened. Lay’s injury, his own trip to hospital, not being able to get holiday, the low pay, the ridiculous hours he worked, and finally he mentioned the surgery.  Tao looked vaguely shocked, but somehow he looked understanding and also signs of happiness shone in his eyes, or maybe that was just the flickering of the fire.

“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.” Tao started. “So now it’s my turn to tell you my story. As you can probably tell, I am quite well off. The money for this house came to me through my mother, who was CEO of a private detective unit.  Her and my father hadn’t been getting on so well, and they decided to divorce.  After the divorce it was arranged that her possessions and money would go to me should she pass away. Sadly a year after divorcing she did just that. I inherited her company, her money, this house and everything in it, but most importantly of all, I became in charge of the case that she had been working on before her… departure.”  Kris blinked, taking in the information.

“The case that she was investigating was on entertainment companies and host clubs. More specifically, SM Host Club. I was given the research that she had already found out, such as the alarms not working in the private host rooms, but there was still so much more to learn. I needed inside knowledge so I started to visit myself. Some nights I would go just to have fun, so it wouldn’t seem suspicious. And well, it’s not like there are many people here for me to get drunk and have fun with.” Tao said, gesturing to the silent empty house.

“So what?” Kris asked eagerly “You’re investigating SM?  Are you going to shut them down?”

“If I can. However before now I never had a reason to file a lawsuit against them properly. I didn’t have enough evidence to make it count and if I filed it too early they would have hidden the evidence.”

“So what’s changed?” Kris asked.

“I now have you.” Tao said happily. “With my money and influence and the research I have carried out added to your own experiences, I think we can make this happen. Let me put it this way, before me could you pay to leave your contract? Could you afford a lawyer who is good enough to go up against a company as big as SM? Did you even have the knowledge on how to even start doing those things?”

Kris stayed silent and Tao looked happily at him. Lifting a glass of water into the air as a toast Tao called out to the quiet night. “To the end of SM!” 

Just so you know, I wrote this after having just three hours sleep in thirty six hours. I'm tired :P I've also been working all day on a project for my class. However I hope you like this chapter, there has been some development! 

And guess what... MY STORY GOT OVER 1000 VIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! Look at all my subscribers! I love every one of you. Those who have upvoted, my heart beats for you. And those who took the time to read this at all, you are the reason that I am so willing to write and write and write chapters day after day even if I didn't sleep. 

So what are your thoughts on this chapter? This sure have changed. Kris is so depressed he's practically insane, and who knows what's going on with Lay? Please leave a comment on what you think will happen next and your thoughts on what have already happened!

Love you so much.

-1990stalker-