HOYA

“What is this?”

I watched as Woohyun unfolded a piece of paper then sat himself down, facing everyone. He had removed his jacket, making the vein on his muscles visible to everyone. The people in the common room exchanged glances, spreading a mutual decision to shut up. Woohyun is angry. No one speaks.

“We have a situation, as all of you know by now.” He looked at me and I sighed. “Hoya, want to elaborate for the ignorant ones?”

I shook my head. “After what happened right now..” I glanced at Nicole and cleared my throat. “No need for a summary.”

Woohyun grimaced at Nicole’s sulking face, her shoulders being warmed by SungGyu’s hands. Who would have thought we would see this day? Kim SungGyu making sure Jung Nicole was holding her horses? Epic.

“She’s the daughter of General Lee, Paragon City’s architect, conductor, operator… Basically he’s the brain behind Paragon.” Woohyun smirked at all attentive faces. “That’s the only important news. Now comes the reason for this meeting.

“I don’t want to hear she ran away. I don’t want to hear she tried to kill herself. We already have regulations of our own but now that she’s here, I want everyone to follow these new orders. We’ve got some new rules now.

“No one takes her out. Period. I don’t care if she suffers from Vitamin D deficiency…. No matter what, she’s getting no walk in the park.”

That was an obvious one. Did Woohyun seriously think we were that dumb?

“Second, someone has to be with her at all times. And the rotation of positions…”

I rolled my eyes as Woohyun stretched a chart on the bulletin board and tapped his finger at a random box. “This is just a blueprint. You don’t have to be strict about who gets to be with her, but SOMEONE needs to be with her. All the time. Whether it’s the bathroom, even when she’s sleeping…”

Woohyun folded his arms, looking away for a while. He seemed to be lost in another train of thought, brought back by a revelation of his own.

“And uh, one more thing.” Woohyun narrowed his eyes. “She’s not staying in the room all day long. Move her around, make sure she gets to know this place from top-to-bottom. Keep her busy. Remind her whose incharge now.”

Oh, so that’s what it was. For a moment I thought, and I’m sure everyone else did too, that Woohyun’s soft spot had emerged. Unforunately all he wanted was for us to indoctrinate her with hatred towards Paragon. We hated Paragon and all the consequences its birth had to deal with, but none of us were as morbid as Woohyun.

“Any questions?”

I slapped my hand on my forehead when Nicole raised her arm. SungGyu tried to say something to her but she pushed him away. Woohyun bit his lower lip, then waved his hand for her to continue.

“Why did you bring her here?”

“You speak,” Woohyun muttered to me as he stomped out of the room, going inside the east tunnel. Nicole tried to protest but I made a face and turned towards everyone else.

“We all know about the Avalon Act.”

Voices murmured across until Yoona walked forward, crossing her arms with a look that said ‘zip it.’ Everyone complied.

“Thanks,” I murmured and continued. “We’re hoping that she would know something about this and if not more information than we already have, we could at least expect a reaction from the General that would head us on the right path.”

This is why I was always closing the talk. I was cryptic, straightforward and frankly speaking, I knew I was not much of a person to respond to.

And yet Kairi had found refuge in me. I sighed to myself. The girl didn’t understand. Holding onto any of us was not going to make Woohyun disappear. The reason behind his intrigue was beyond comprehension, something that made him even more dangerous than other times.

                                                                                                                      L

“No one takes her out. Period.”

The common room was re-arranged for a meeting and this time, everybody was on their toes. For the first time, half of us were scared of Woohyun. Standing before us was a possessed man, not the friend we knew. Nevertheless he looked better than before and after a few words of convincing, Leeteuk and him gave each other a (sort of) mutual hug. That didn’t do well with Yoona but Leeteuk gave her a look that shut her up.

“We’ve got some new rules now.”

I scoffed to myself, ignoring Luna and Sungjong’s shushing. “L hyung…” Sungjong whined, furrowing his eyebrows and bringing his finger to his lips.

Rules? Not even an apology and this guy was ready to tell us what to do. But a part of me agreed with Woohyun. We needed rules. Guidelines, actually. Before someone did something to blow him off again.

The first rule was simple. Of course no one’s taking her out. Was she a dog?

“I don’t care if she suffers from Vitamin D deficiency…,” Woohun glanced at Nicole who pursed her lips, “…No matter what, she’s getting no walk in the park.”

“Second, someone has to be with her at all times. And the rotation of positions…”

I gawked at the chart. When the hell had he made this?? There was a weekly and daily schedule of who would be with her when. From bathroom to breakfast to sleep, everything had been restricted for Kairi.

“She really is a hostage now,” I heard Sungyeol mutter to Dongwoo, who grimly nodded. I agreed with choding for once. I remembered the bruise on her arm and the look in her eyes. Yoona and I had exchanged a look of mutual sympathy for the first time but that too had been erased when I had tried making a funny comment.

“It looks like the map of Paragon.”

That led to another round of verbal diarrhoea from my childhood enemy about my lack of sensitivity and how I was only pathetically attempting to being cool.

“At least I’m not going around pretending to be Lara Croft,” I had spat back, nodding at her outfit.

“It’s summer time Myungsoo,” Yoona hissed and marched out of the room. I had turned to look at our new guest and shrugged. “Get used to it.”

I didn’t know if Kairi’s lips had been trembling out of ‘my-abductors-are-cuckoo’ realization or the innate need to laugh at our stupid argument.

Back to the present, I shook my head to focus on Woohyun. I narrowed my eyes at the chart, searching for my name.

“You’re with her from 5 to 9, Tuesdays.” Amber sat next to me and handed a bottle of strawberry milk. I gave a curt nod as a way of saying thanks and gulped down the contents.

“Four hours?” I said, my tone apparent of unwillingness. Amber shrugged it off saying the schedule was flexible. “Didn’t you hear Woohyun saying this was a rough blueprint and as long as someone’s with her he didn’t give a fudge about who it was?”

I shook my head and ignored Amber’s raised brow. I thought back to Kairi, my eyes planted on Woohyun’s expression. I sighed, feeling a little smug too. Wasn’t there anyone who had seen past him?

Woohyun might have made himself look like a revenge-seeking puppet of paranoia. But being with Kairi for even a few hours had shown me her colours, her character. Woohyun had seen it too, which was why he was getting so obsessed about her. Any other abductor would have ignored her, thrown her into a corner, killed her, maybe do worse…

But Woohyun wouldn’t do that. Rub out her face and Kairi was a characteristic doppelganger of Seungyeon, the girl who had made him the way he was. Why would he let go of that?