Heading Home
Searching For AvalonL
I didn’t know why Hoya was being so nice to the girl. It was pretty obvious that she was as much scared of him as she was to us. Scratch that. She hated Woohyun, we were just collateral damages of her hatred. Then why on earth was she so limply sitting behind Hoya, her arms tightly wrapped around him like she was scared of letting go?
I could see Hoya throw glances at her. Her eyes were visible, those green eyes that even I was momentarily shocked by. But she was just a girl. A girl who was a symbol of our enmity with the system. She was the General’s only bloodline, we had to take care of her as well as threaten the old man with her.
“What a burden,” I muttered to myself. Sungyeol exchanged glances with me and nodded. The poor guy was as much, if not more, thrown back by this sudden change of plans.
“Woohyun should seriously reconsider this,” Sungyeol muttered to me while I stared at Woohyun glaring at Kairi’s back, walking towards Hoya. “The General, when he finds out who took her, he’ll send an army after us! What do you think? L? L?”
As if we could reconsider things anymore, I shook my head and revved up my engine even more. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to reach home, ASAP.
KAIRI
“Dad no!”
“It’s okay, I’m right behind you…”
I kept throwing glances at my father, who was promising not to let go of the back as I cycled without training wheels. Suddenly, I got too brave. Next thing I knew, a bright white light hit my eyes and all I saw was darkness.
My eyes didn’t dart away. I kept challenging him to look back at me but Hoya was hardly interested in anything. But then we’re on the road, I realized. My grip tightened as we took a swerve around another empty bend. Geez, weren’t there any humans outside our city? The desert continued and the road stretched out even further towards the horizon. The sun was bolting down on us. I glanced at Hoya’s watch, something a hardcore trekker would wear. It was somewhere around noon time.
Suddenly the route changed. Somewhere in the middle of the dull tar, the bikes, in perfect synchronization, took a turn outside the concrete. The wheels of the bikes trampled down the sand and I dug my fingers into Hoya’s shirt. He said something but I didn’t hear him and as we uncomfortable bumped across the terrain, I peeked my eyes at Woohyun.
While the rest were whooping in joy at this sudden rush of adrenaline, he was blankly staring ahead. His eyes, which I could see through the open space of his helmet, were as dull as a grey cloud. Yet there was chance of thunder, a of lightning that could occur if any of us did something wrong.
Admit it, a voice inside me said. You’re scared of him.
I turned away from my own self and focused on the directions. The bikes kept zooming across the empty land until suddenly, at a distance, I saw plateaus and hills.
I felt like I had entered some sort of day-dream. I had never seen a hill before. I had never seen any form of nature so closely and here I was sitting behind a stranger, zooming towards one. Like the mouth of a monster, one of the plateaux had a huge sand-stained rock standing against it. The bikes stopped and I sighed in relief. I quickly jumped off but as soon as I did, a hand crept up and took hold of me.
“I’m not escaping,” I muttered in a sour voice. Woohyun blankly looked at me and said, “Doesn’t mean I can’t hold you back, right?”
Before I could react, the sound of scraping caught my attention. My jaw dropped open as I watched SungGyu and Hoya push the boulder away and reveal an opening that only fell into darkness.
“Ladies first,” Woohyun mocked and pushed me inside with him. He obviously knew where we were going, I could see nothing but the absence of light. From behind me, the bikes revved up their engines again and fear gripped me. Wait, was I going inside with Woohyun alone? The six boys were weird but I felt like being around them seemed to tone down Woohyun’s craziness a little. To my unexpected relief, I heard Hoya say something to SungGyu behind me and I came to the conclusion that the bikes were being towed in by their respective owners.
I slipped a bit and Woohyun roughly pulled me up. I struggled a bit, just to remind him that I’m not what he wants. He laughed at my weak attempt.
“What are you fighting for?” he scoffed. I was blind and losing one of my senses like this was a hint to myself to keep shut for a while.
“You’re a fast learner,” Woohyun continued. “Not rebelling anymore are we?”
I stuck to my decision. Maybe if I stayed quiet longer he would drop his foolish act.
A chrome-coloured light filtered in and as we moved in more, we saw a lamp set up against the stone wall, leaving two tunnels on each side.
“See you there!” Sungyeol exclaimed. L pushed him and Dongwoo followed as the three took the left tunnel. SungGyu gave Hoya a look and the latter sighed. “I have to take Woohyun’s bike right?”
SungGyu walked away without an answer, choosing the right tunnel. Woohyun pulled me as Hoya somehow managed to pull both his and Woohyun’s bike along with him. I laid a finger on Hoya’s purple bike, suggesting that I’d help but he gave me a look of warning and I didn’t do anything further.
I wondered where the others were going. Sungyeol had spoken like they had a common destination. Then why on earth had they taken two different paths? As if to answer my question, cold air blasted on my face as the end of our tunnel widened and I stared at what was ahead of me.
Another long road. This time though I didn’t see any of their bikes. Dongwoo, L and Sungyeol were perched on a bright red Hummer while next to it were a skateboard and two silver-grey bikes. They looked less intimidating than the ones we had rode in and as I turned around I noticed that even the bikes of the three guys I was with were absent. Their leather jackets were replaced by lighter pieces of clothes. So that was the purpose of the tunnel. But why leave the bike items in any other place than wherever their home was?
Dongwoo, who had been laughing, gave a one-arm hug to Hoya. The latter jokingly pushed him away and sat on the driving seat of the Hummer. I tried to walk towards it but Woohyun pulled me away. My face went chalk white.
“Not again,” I murmured, my voice trembling. SungGyu heard me and looked towards the ones inside the jeep. L stared at Woohyun then gave a humourless laugh whereas Sungyeol widened his eyes, his lips in an ‘o’.
SungGyu sighed. I looked at him. Was he actually going to say something?
“Hey,” SungGyu said. Woohyun, who had been taking out another leather jacket, froze. His narrowed eyes looked towards the speaker. SungGyu ignored the look and continued.
“We’re going home,” he said. Woohyun continued staring at the man.
“You’re going to bring her home like this?” Sunggyu said, waving towards me. I wondered how my face looked like and risked a glance at bike’s side mirror. I felt nauseous at the sight of the pale, fearful girl. This wasn’t me. This just wasn’t me.
“Why pity her so much?” Woohyun mumbled. SungGyu heaved a sigh and shook his head.
“It’s not pity Woohyun-ah…”
“Kairi.”
I jumped at the sound of my name. I looked towards the Hummer, staring at Hoya. From my peripheral glance, I saw Dongwoo standing on the fancy skateboard, holding on to the back of the jeep. Wait, what the hell…
“See you,” Hoya waved and the jeep zoomed ahead of us. I shivered at the sound of Woohyun’s laughter and furrowed my eyebrows at the sight of Dongwoo enjoying his daredevil ride.
“These kids…” SungGyu gave one last sigh and looked at me. He looked like he wanted to throw me a smile but right then and there Woohyun grabbed onto my arm, again, reminding us both of what had happened.
“She comes with me this time,” he said. SungGyu nodded and seconds later, followed the jeep.
Now it was just Woohyun and I. The sound of silence pierced my ears. In these few hours, I had gotten used to the sound of engines, wheel running on concrete and the wind buzzing against my ear. I stared at the road ahead of us, blinded by the sudden shot of light.
“Get on, will you?”
As I shifted with the jacket and the helmet, I could feel Woohyun staring at me. What worse could possibly happen, I thought and lifted my head. I stared back at him and he didn’t budge.
“We don’t have time for this,” he muttered but continued watching me as I sat at the back of the bike, biting my lips. Woohyun took hold of the bars and as the bike roared to life, the light ouside swallowed both of us, reminding me of a bad childhood memory.
“Dad no!”
What I saw next, took my breath away.
KAIRI
Cool air swept across my face and when I opened my eyes, I gasped. Rows and rows of rich green trees lined on both sides of the road, I quickly turned around to check whether we had really left the caves to enter this boulevard. My eyes fluttered in confusion as I saw the sunlight peeking through the leaves and forming lines across my cheeks. The heat felt nice, the warmth was something I had never experienced before. Knowing that I had been on a bike before, knowing that despite his hatred, Woohyun would dare not have me die, I slowly removed my jacket.
“Hey! Hey wha--!”
WOOHYUN
“Hey! Hey wha--!”
I stopped talking and watched Kairi carefully remove her jacket and place it on her lap. She reinstated her arms around my waist, not as tight as she had held Hoya. I could see her eyes peeking at the sun and her surroundings through the helmet and momentarily sympathized her. How many were there, people like her who had never the natural ways of things? People who had never seen so many trees, the sunlight? I grimaced as I thought of my parents who had readily given up on their humanity to follow their crowd.
I stared ahead. The girl could have all the fun she wanted right now. Once we reached home, the rules were going to change.
HOYA
“Hey look at her!”
Dongwoo, his one hand holding on to the back of our jeep, used his other hand to point behind us. I looked through my rearview mirror and widened my eyes. Woohyun was staring at the road with the most cold expression while behind him, Kairi was sitting without a jacket, looking like she was enjoying the ride.
“It’s sort of funny,” L muttered and snickered. Sungyeol muttered something incoherent. But then again, everything he said was incoherent to me.
My eyes flitted back to the view behind me. Knowing Woohyun, he was probably going to do something to get the girl back on track. But if he wanted to, he would have done it already.
Then why didn’t he? The prospect of unexpectedness scared me.
KAIRI
I might not have much time left.
I had no idea what these guys wanted. I had no idea why they had hurt my father and taken me with them. But uptil now I was unharmed and the scenery passing by me was too beautiful for my negativity to ruin it.
I had never been too this part of the city. What if we weren’t in the city at all? The path took turns and dozens of golden plants swayed in the wind. I racked my brain and recognized them as cornfields. This was, undoubtedly, amazing. It’s not like I had ever disliked the city.
Then why was I feeling like I belonged to this place?
Woohyun said something. I looked at his reflection from the side mirror and gulped. His eyes reminded me that I was still their hostage. Giving the landscape around me a farewell sigh, I wore my jacket and shut the visor of my helmet, my tears spilling out as we entered another cave. No matter how beautiful that one moment might have been, I was being pulled into darkness again. I let the tears spill all over my covered face, being able to taste it’s saltiness as drops of them fell on my lips.
Where this cave had come from, I didn’t know. But unlike the previous cave, this one was made of grey-coloured slabs instead of dark brown walls. I soon realized that it was a road tunnel. Minutes later, the road sloped down and Woohyun didn’t even decrease the speed. My body was pressed right against him and I felt even more helpless as the steep path made me nauseous.
I couldn’t even scream slow down, how many more hidden paths might there be? The sunlight that had been sweeping down from behind us faded away and the surroundings became cold again. The slanting road returned to a straight angle and the bike stopped. I heard the other bikes a little further ahead of us and waited for Woohyun to shackle me with his arm again.
“Take off the helmet.”
I obeyed him and roughly handed the object to him, whipping out the jacket and throwing it on his bike. My heart leapt as he glared at me. How could I still be so stupidly brave?
“Better be careful of your actions Kairi,” he muttered. My blood ran cold at the sound of my name. He couldn’t possibly be a murderer too, right? I then saw Woohyun looking me up from head-to-toe. I gritted my teeth and let his eyes wander wherever they wanted.
“Fix your hair,” Woohyun said. I furrowed my eyebrows and murmured, “What a time to do that.” Woohyun ignored my words and waited as I detangled my split-ends.
“Done,” I muttered and looked at him from underneath my eyebrows. Woohyun smirked at my attempted glare.
“Yes keep it up,” he said. “You’ll need that courage when I want you to rat out on your father.”
I grew even more confused. What on earth was he talking about? Woohyun pushed me to walk ahead of him. It was a straight path whose end could not be seen as of now, when suddenly, I heard footsteps next to me.
“Is this her?”
It was a girl. My eyes flew open in shock as I looked to my right. Though I couldn’t see her, I could make out her body outline and found her to be slightly taller than me. She had a boycut and she wasn’t scared of standing close to me.
Woohyun sighed. “Sungyeol must have already narrated his own little tale.”
“Not Sungyeol, L hyung.”
Wait. HYUNG??
The dimness ended and I stared at the ‘girl’ standing next to me. The hairstyle wasn’t a boycut. The ‘girl’ had been a boy all along, his soft features shocking me. I looked away as he returned my stare and paid attention to the room we were standing in.
Above us there was no roof. Sunlight poured in and I wondered how such a huge hole had been created. But as I looked closely, I found little patterns strewn across the sky. A glass ceiling. The roof was a glass ceiling covered by the corn-fields. My mind couldn’t help but be awed.
The room itself had a lot of depth. But my critique on the interior design of this lair was interrupted as I was greeted by the nonchalant glances of my abductors.
L was sitting on a couch reading a magazine, Dongwoo and Sungyeol were trying to talk to a dazed girl with pleading words while Hoya was whispering something to a man, who kept nodding towards my direction.
Great, I thought. As more people poured in and murmured at my presence, I realized how from a victim of abduction, I had suddenly become an intruder.
Comments