Nichkhun chuckled at her seriousness, but sobered considerably when he remembered how she got angry at him in the first place.

“I just suddenly thought of my sister.” He said truthfully. He waited to see if that will get a favorable reaction from her.

Victoria just nodded, suddenly uninterested. She was not in the mood to swap stories with him tonight. She suddenly wants to get this over with so she can finally get to bed and start to debrief her heart of her situation and get on with her life. She had put it on hold for so long, she needs to get back to it and apologize for ignoring it. She wants to talk to Miranda so bad, she just wants to hurry this all up and deal with it.  She wants to hear her unnie’s voice, telling her that she will be alright, that she will survive this.

She moves to pick up her plate and deposit it to the sink. She hears Nichkhun get up and do the same. When he neared he took hold of her wrist to stop her from doing the chore and turned her around.

“Qian, let’s leave this for later. We have to talk.” He says to her earnestly.

She just stood there for a few seconds looking at the sink before she nodded and rinsed her hand. She followed him to the living room in front of her couch. She settled with her legs folded underneath her and grabbed one of the pillows and hugged it briefly to herself before placing it on her lap.

You are going to be alright. She said to herself. This is a fact of life. Just survive it like unnie said. She conjured Miranda’s gentle face and remembered her voice and it brought her sudden calm. She took a deep breath and finally allowed herself to look at him. She figured she needs to talk about something else first to ease her heart slowly so she asked,

“What happened earlier, why were you covered by someone’s blood? It wasn’t stage makeup was it?”

Nichkhun was watching her closely as they sat in the couch together. Her face was blank for awhile before it suddenly calmed right before his eyes and it scared him. Something is not right. He wanted to start and explain to her when she suddenly asked about the state he was in earlier. He sighed; he needs to be patient with her.

“No it wasn’t, there was an accident earlier while we were driving back from the airport from our event in Busan.” He made himself comfortable in the couch.

“I was driving with Minjae-hyung while the guys were driven back separately with our van. It was a just like any other drive. We just went past the bridge when the car in front of us, suddenly blew its rear tire and flipped in the air. It happened so fast I thought I was just imagining it.” He rubs his eye as he remembers the horror of that moment.

Victoria was hanging on to every word, they heard about that accident in the breaking news in Miranda’s car; she didn’t realize Nichkhun was in the thick of it. She pressed her back into the couch but stayed silent.

“It flipped twice before slamming back down right side up. I had to swerve to avoid it and stopped a few feet away; thankfully it was an empty road so there were no other cars involved. We sat in the car for a few moments trying to stay calm. We both got out to check on the driver, other drivers on the other side were also running towards us.”

“Hyung called for help while I started to walk towards the car, the driver was a woman. She got out shakily from the car covered in blood. She was in shock; she couldn’t hear me call out so I ran to her. When she turned to me as I neared, she collapsed as I got hold of her. She was mumbling and holding on to me. I couldn’t understand her at first but I encouraged her to talk so that she does not become unconscious, she was asking that I don’t leave her and I said I won’t, but she fainted after a while.”

Nichkhun suddenly felt Victoria’s hand on his. Her face full of concern, he squeezed her hand to reassure her but continued,

“When the ambulance arrived, I insisted in riding with her. She was falling in and out of consciousness during the ride to the hospital. She kept saying a name so I took out her phone and checked her contact list. It was the first one on the list so I dialed the number. She fell unconscious again just before he answered.” He winced when he recalled how the man on the other line yelled at him for calling on the woman’s phone but calmed down after Nichkhun got to explain.

“He was not happy to get a call from me using his friend’s phone. I told him where we were taking her.”

He grabbed her closer; he was getting agitated as he recounts the events that unfolded right in front of his eyes.

Victoria held him, she heard him sigh.

“It was terrible, Qian. I couldn’t do anything to help. I just held her hand and assured her that she was going to be alright, but I guess she couldn’t hear me.” He let out a shuddering breath,

“She coded in the ambulance. They tried to revive her but she was already gone.”

“Oh no!” Victoria gasped.

“They pronounced her dead when we arrived at the hospital. The police questioned me and the rest of the witnesses. I was just about to leave with Hyung when the man I talked to arrived.” He held back a sob from escaping and willed himself to calm down, he doesn’t want to upset the woman by his side.

He took a deep calming breath, “He was her best friend. They were supposed to meet later to celebrate her birthday after work.” Tears fell from his eyes as he recalls how the man sobbed in anguish in front of him. He stayed with him while they waited for the police t