HOYA

(Listening to Be Mine remix by Infinite)

“Here,” Nicole rushed to the bed and patted it. “Settle her down, I’ll be back in two.”

While Nicole ran out to the other side of the room, I stood awkwardly next to Kairi. Every few seconds I found my eyes flitting towards the bruises, my nose scrunching in immediate disgust. If it had been anyone from Paragon, I would have ignored it. But the perpertrator was Woohyun. Forgive me, I spoke to no one in my mind, for being so confused. I remembered the wild look in Woohyun’s eyes when I had taken him away from the girl, the latter collapsing the moment I had intervened.

I tightened my jaw as Nicole went towards the bed with a compress at hand. “Is that all you have?”

“That’s all we can do,” Nicole spat back. She was obviously upset at what Woohyun had done, probably more upset at my tactless complaining when I was carrying the unconscious body in. The General has fed her well alright, I thought. That’s what we called him. The General. Not in any form of respect but to re-emphasize among us the fact that he was leading an unfair, militaristic regime.

I watched as Nicole pressed the bag on the bruises. I felt touched by Nicole’s help, only to realize that she was simply doing her job. Hippocrates’ oath, Nicole had reasoned when I asked her why she was so worried. God knows who he was but he surely had a way of making the meek Nicole confident when on duty.

“Here,” she handed the towel to me. “Take care of her, I’ll be back.”

I hesitated, only to be thrown a glare. Geez, where was Hippocrates when we were trying to calm her down during our escape eight years ago?

“Where are you goi—” But Nicole had already left, skittering back to the tunnel from where we had entered. She was probably headed towards the seniors. The seniors, I shuddered. Though most of them were close to being our age, their expertise and experiences often made us call for their help. In the past few years, Woohyun had come close to joining their ranks.

I glanced at Kairi while holding the warm compress on her arm. “Wouldn’t happen anymore,” I muttered to myself, thinking of Woohyun’s nonchalant walk away from her. Seconds passed and I felt uncomfortable gazing at Kairi. But try as I might I could not look away from her. One wrong move and I thought she would break, the very thing Woohyun had tried to do.

And for once, I was not on the same side as him.

                                                                                                        YOONA

“What happened??” SungGyu rushed to Nicole, who was running out of breath. I walked towards her and rested my hand on her shoulder.

“Everything fine?” I asked. Nicole took a deep breath and shook her head.

“Someone… needs.. to….Woohyun…” She then rolled her finger next to her head, signalling Woohyun’s apparent craziness.

“What about… her?”

“Her name’s Kairi.”

L got up from his seat and stared at me. If only our fathers hadn’t been good friends, I thought and brushed away the temptation to sock him in the stomach.

“What?” I asked, folding my arms. “So everyone’s pitying her now?”

“You would too Yoona,” Nicole answered and narrowed her eyes to restrain her tears from falling. “Woohyun.... if Hoya and I hadn’t interrupted, she would have surely….” Nicole then motioned a slit across her neck, making everyone sit up.

My eyebrows shot up. What on earth had this guy done? “I’ll go.”

“No, wait.” Nicole pressed me back, blocking the tunnel with her thin body. “She seems to trust Hoya the most, I saw it from the moment she came here.”

It was this very knack of body language reading that had helped us face-off many potential spies and trouble-makers. Nicole was not only a good hand to heal, her warm eyes were sharp enough to see through anyone. Maybe it had been her childhood, being brought up in a psycho-analyst household. But even Nicole’s personality was such, she was patient enough to observe an inanimate object.

We heard foosteps. Everyone turned towards the West tunnel, grimacing when Woohyun threw himself on the couch. He looked up to see everyone glaring at him, pointingly shrugging at me.

“What?” he said. “Something wrong?”

What followed next shocked all of us. Nicole, fragile Nicole Jung, threw her hands on Woohyun’s collar and stood him up, only to slap him across his face.

“What’s wrong with you??” she screamed, throwing a light punch on his chest. Woohyun stared at the floor, his face blank.

“Say something!” Nicole shouted. “How could you… I don’t even want to THINK of what would have happened!! What makes you different from the Paragons??”

I stiffened as Woohyun pursed his lips and shot a look at Nicole. Wrong words, I thought and glanced towards L, the closest male standing next to him. L saw my eyes and took a step towards Woohyun.

“Nam Woohyun….” L murmured. Woohyun turned to look at him and then at all of us. He scoffed.

“I can’t believe you said that,” he said to Nicole, whose eyes were now b with tears. “She’s the enemy!”

“And you’re a monster!” Nicole shouted back, gasping for breath. SungGyu moved towards her but was blown off by her hand.

“Tell him to mend his ways! I’m sick of having every second person in the house land up with a bruise here and there because of him, forget about almost beating an innocent girl to death!”

Woohyun widened his eyes. “I did NOT… and she’s not innocent!”

“Just because she’s from Paragon doesn’t mean she killed Inguk and Seungyeon!”

Silence fell. I glanced towards SungGyu and nodded, watching Nicole shiver as she was taken away to her room. L rested a hand on his friend’s forearm, only to be pushed away.

“Get lost,” Woohyun muttered. Leeteuk blocked his way, but was thrown off in the same manner. I saw Donghae move forward, but beat him to it.

“He’s still your senior,” I hissed at Woohyun. The latter stood in silence. He then looked up at the ceiling.

“And Paragon is still my enemy,” he murmured, trudging his footsteps towards the West tunnel.

I have to meet her now, this Kairi girl. Number one, she had unleashed Nicole’s hidden courage. Number two, she had erased the one thing we never knew existed.

Woohyun’s invulnerability.

A/N : This whole story has been inspired by Infinite’s Paradise but there are songs that speed up my flow. Listen to these songs when you have time. Paradise will however be the central theme of Searching For Avalon.