“Hey! Minsun, you there?” Nichkhun talked to the phone when she finally answered.

“Put it on loudspeaker!” Wooyoung asked, a bit too eagerly. Khun did as he requested, but they were immediately puzzled at the things they heard. The sound was muffled, but they could hear a lot of noises. The faint sound of music in the background and a lot of rustling and random noises... and then a scream.

The two boys looked at each other, mentally asking each other if that was Minsun’s voice.

“STOP!”

The sound wasn’t clear, but they could make out the words they heard.

“Stop it! Joongki, please!”

“SHUT UP!”

Something that sounded like a slap proceded right after. Not once, but multiple times. Then, there were heavy sobbings.

“ this, I’m going up there!” Wooyoung left the car which was parked right outside of the building, quickly followed by Nichkhun since he had the access card to all floors of the building. They both had their phones on their ear, calling for more help along the way.

-

Gohee was browsing through Gossip Boy at home. Her hand constantly glued to her lips, all sorts of negative feelings crept into her heart  as she read all the latest entries. About how Minsun was rumored to be going out with Joongki, or how Joongki had been harrassing her since she started attending Gongmun High. She could tell that Chansung and Junho had been trying their best to keep those articles biased towards Minsun, because there were so many people posting bad comments about her at the school’s message board already. There were so many things she had missed out, and everyone was too caught up with all these recent happenings to keep her updated. Even Jaebum too.

Gohee sighed to herself. She dialled Minsun’s number on her phone, but the girl didn’t pick up. This morning, Jaebum told her about Joongki’s party which got busted by the cops a couple of days ago, and Minsun was there too. Jaebum was there when the cops had all those kids at the ground floor of the building, ready to be brought to the police station while Wooyoung comforted her.

She hated it. She hated the feeling of being stuck to her place and all she could do was watch things happen.

-

As if the action was programmed into his brain, Wooyoung continued to jumprope in the same, quick pace and kept his breathing regular while his mind voluntarily traveled back to the event that happened two days ago. He was surprised that Chansung and Junho arrived right before they got onto the elevator. They said they had an acquaintance there, one of those people who kept the gossips updated on Joongki’s side actually, but with a little blackmail, he became their key resource on Joongki’s whereabout.

Wooyoung almost lost himself when he found Joongki and Minsun at the bedroom. If Nichkhun wasn’t around, he probably had killed someone that evening.

 

Wooyoung and Nichkhun broke into the bedroom with the help of Chansung and Junho, who kept the guys outside from trying to stop them. The sky was tainted with shades of purple when they got there, which rendered the room dark and murky. The only thing keeping the room alive was the sound of Joongki’s heavy breathing and Minsun’s desperate struggle against his assault on her.

Joongki strangled Minsun’s neck with one hand, burying her head deep into the mattress while the other slapped her face, over and over again to keep her quiet, despite knowing that the action just made her struggle and screamed harder. Minsun was lying helplessly beneath him, left only in her undergarment and her skirt. Her top was long gone, ripped to shreds which fell clumped on the floor, nearby her mobile phone which accidentally answered Khun’s call on its own less than a minute ago, when Joongki threw it away.

Wooyoung closed his eyes, trying to throw away those images, those playback away form his mind, but they kept coming back.

“SON OF A B*TCH!”

Wooyoung charged forward. His fist landed right on Joongki’s face first thing, sending the guy rolling down to the floor. Nichkhun went straight to Minsun’s side, quickly consoling her. Joongki  got back on his feet almost immediately, his eyes glazing with rage. He threw a punch towards Wooyoung, but Wooyoung avoided that swiftly. Wooyoung attempted another successful punch on his jaw and then grabbed his collar with both his hands. Wooyoung effortlessly pushed Joongki on the floor again, this time locking him to the ground beneath him. As if he was posessed by a demon, Wooyoung threw puncesh after punches non-stop.

Nichkhun had to leave Minsun’s side to stop Wooyoung. He was so overwhelmed with rage, so strong that Khun couldn’t stop him by just holding onto his arm. He was thrown to the side when he tried, so he had to go around him and circled his arms around the smaller guy from behind, pulling him away from the half-conscious Joongki.

“Wooyoung, get your mind straight!” Khun yelled into his ear. Things quieted down a little when Khun managed to stop Wooyoung from hitting Joongki any further.The room was now filled with the sound of Minsun’s soft sobbing, and Wooyoung’s heavy breathing as he fought to struggle himself free from Khun.

“Wooyoung, that’s enough! You’re scaring Minsun!” Khun added. At the mention of Minsun’s name, Wooyoung was awakened from his previous state of insanity. He gradually grew calm again. Panting, he slowly looked at Minsun, sitting timidly on the bed with Khun’s blazer loosely buttoned up on her. Khun could feel his muscles loosened up, and decided to let him go.

Wooyoung staggered to the bed to check on Minsun. Her soft hair was a mess, her pale cheek red and sticky with her tears. Her small frame looked even more fragile and smaller in Khun’s blazer. The sight made him want to protect her even more.

“Are you... are you okay?” Wooyoung asked her. Minsun didn’t answer him. She looked up and reached up for him, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and cried into his shoulder.

His  reverie was brought back to the present when he suddenly heard girls sobbing softly, mixed with Junho and Chansung’s voices, scolding them sternly; which was not something that happened everyday since they were mostly cheerful and joking around most of the time. Wooyoung halted his activity for a while to grasp the situation.

All the members of the basketball team, including Taecyeon - with his leg still in a cast - who was sitting quietly at the corner with Coach Cho, looked up at the entrance and watched as both Chansung and Junho mercilessly dragged a girl each by the collar at the back of their neck as the girls sobbed softly, asking for forgiveness. Chansung and Junho dragged them to the center of of the basketball court and pushed them forward.

“Now do what you’re supposed to do,” Chansung told them, his voice cold and unforgiving.

Sobbing weakly, the two girls slowly lowered themself to the ground and kneeled in front of everyone, causing a shock to all the members of the basketball team. Wooyoung recognized one of them; Juni from second year, one of Chansung and Junho’s biggest fans who were alwasys seen loitering around them.

“I’m sorry,” they both said timidly as they weeped in front of everyone.

“What’s going on, Junho? Chansung?” Jaebum asked as he took a step forward from the bench he shared with Taecyeon just now.

“They’re asking what’s going on. Explain to them,” Junho ordered Juni.

Hanging her head low in shame, Juni began to explain, “I’m so sorry. Everything happened because of me. I was the one who stole Junho oppa’s phone and spread Minsun sunbae’s video. Everything happened because of me, it was my fault, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry!” She said, apologizing over and over again.

Upon hearing to Juni’s explanation, Wooyoung’s anger rapidly filled his every blood vessel, just like a couple of nights ago when he saw Joongki violated Minsun last time, just a litlle milder this time.

“I can’t believe this.” Wooyoung muttered under his breath before his voice shot up drastically, “What the hell were you guys thinking?! Do you think that was a joke?! I seriously- ugh.” He looked away, trying to calm himself down. Jaebum walked towards Wooyoung and placed a comforting hand on the shoulder of the team’s new captain.

“I’m sorry... I’m really, really sorry... I’d do anything to fix everything up...” the girl begged more.

“What’s the point of being sorry now? You can’t even apologize to Minsun because she’s...” Wooyoung looked away. He could only finished his sentence with a sigh. Everyone had been trying to contact Minsun since that incident, but none of them got through. It , but he couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for Minsun to be all on her own right now after everything that happened.

Unable to contain his fume anymore, Wooyoung left the gym in angry strides. If he stayed there any longer, he might just go crazy and began to yell at the girls, which was not the wisest thing to do as a team captain, and Minsun’ best friend right now.

“Taecyeon hyung, do something about them,” Chansung requested to the ex-captain of the team. Taecyeon rubbed his neck awkwardly. He always had this ridiculous weakness towards girls, when things involved girls he just it harder to make decisions.

“You girls do know of our policy, my policy of not letting things go without punishment?” Taecyeon asked them, frowning atthe thought of having to punish girls the way he did to th eboys.

“Y-yes, we do...”

“Ah...” Taecyeon sighed and then tousled up his hair in frustration, “I can’t do this,” he whispered to himself.

“Jae, you take care of this,” Taecyeon told Jaebum as he finally came to a decision. Jaebum nodded with a smirk on his face. Taecyeon might be well-known for his strict ways and rules among the basketball team members, and Jaebum was always the one hwo picked up the dirty mess of the consequences; the one who advised the boys to not be late, the one who lent a listening ear whenever the boys felt like giving up. But those weren’t the sole reason he was picked as the vice-captain.

“No problem,” Jaebum replied with a friendly smile on his face. He turned to the girls and bent his back towards the girls, purposely taunting them a bit with the close proximity as he told them,

“Now, now. Just because you are girls, don’t think I’ll let you off easily, okay? Unlike Taecyeon, I don’t hold back with anyone.”

-

Wooyoung stepped back as far as he could from the main gate and stretched his neck as far as he could, as if he could peek behind the tall gate around Minsun’s mansion. It was ridiculous, but Wooyoung had always acted that way. His mind traveled back to when Khun visited the gym that evening, updating them on Minsun’s whereabout. Apparently, Minsun’s mother was freaked out of the whole scandal and had Minsun locked up at her house and her phone confiscated, not letting anyone to see her or talk to her; not even Khun. Khun said Minsun might return to school after rumors died down, but until then, nobody knew what was going on in her house. The thing was, the rumors were getting out of hand, especially because Minsun’s mother decided to keep quiet about it. Some speculated that Minsun was , and some went as far as she was locked up in the house because she had gone pregnant when it was barely three days since the incident.

Wooyoung decided he gave another try and rang the intercom.

“Who is it?”

“Uh... Minsun’s school friend. You see, her teacher had been asking for her and I had to-”

“It was you again wasn’t it?! The kid from yesterday? I told you, Minsun is not allowed to see anyone right now!” The security guard shouted into the intercom. Wooyoung bothered him yesterday, endlessly persuading to let him visit Minsun, driving the security crazy with his antics, which led to such negative response today.

“I’m not asking you to let me see her!” Wooyoung retorted in irritance, “Just... Can’t you just called her over and let us speak through the intercom?”

“I can’t do that!”

“Sure you can! Do it secretly, without her mother’s knowledge. Come on, this is important, you know? Don’t you feel sorry for Minsun?”

“Go away before we call the police!”

“Police?! I’m not a robber or anything you know? Hello? HELLO?! YAHHH!!!” Wooyoung shouted into the intercom in frustration when no one answered him anymore.  He even kicked the metal gate and gave a middle finger to one of the many cctv’s installed around the house before he walked away with burning determination that he would break into the house any day soon.

-

A week later...

A young maid gently sighed when she peeked behind a wall, and saw Minsun at her previous spot since she was grounded. As usual, Minsun was sitting at her personal white piano, playing a piece after a piece of classics or even modern music on it. The young maid was the youngest in the house, particuarly in charge of Minsun since they were closest in age with only two years of , the maid being the older one. At first she thought Minsun was annoying since she never showed any sign of gratitude and was cold, but later on, she realized that Minsun was just being careful and that she was extremely lonely. Even though Minsun was cold towards everybody in the house, people hardly had any bad feelings towards her since she always treat everyone the same; with manner and respect, unlike her mother who treat everyone else as some kind of lowly beings.

The young maid looked to her side when she saw the head butler stopping by her side, his gaze also locked on the lonely pianist.

“Such a sad song again,” the butler said with sympathy.

The young maid nodded, agreeing. “How sad it is, to play the piano alone, with nobody listening to it, appreciating it.. Why couldn’t Mrs. Jung appreciate such a talented, thoughtful girl?”

“What did I say about meddlig with personal affairs of Mrs. Jung and her family?”

The young maid quickly lowered her head, bowing in apology, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kim,”

-

Minsun’s fingers was lightly dancing across the piano keys, but she slipped and pressed the wrong key when a thunder loudly struck the sky. She looked up and stared outside through the tall glass wall surrounding the foyer, and saw the heavy rain hitting the glass pane. Because she was too dazed just now, she didn’t realize that it had been raining.

“I have to close the window,” she muttered to herself and got up, walking towards upstairs, to her bedroom since she had a habit of letting the window opened. Right after she pushed the door of her room opened, she saw a figure crouching on the floor- soaked from head to toe – who seemed to have just jumped into her room from her window. Minsun took an automatic step back, gasping deeply before she was ready to shout in horror but the boy was quick when he jumped towards her, pressing his wet palm onto her lips, pulled her into the room and locked the door.

“Don’t scream! It’s me! It’s Wooyoung!”

Minsun stayed frozen in that position at the fact that the boy who had just raided her room was none other than the ‘Noisy Wooyoung’. Wooyoung slowly pulled his hand away from her face, but there was no answer coming from her, only her small eyes widened. She looked at him up and down, at his wet, tousled hair, his wet shirt, and the dripping water which soaked the carpet between his feet.
“I… I’ll get you a towel,” Minsun said and then ran to her walk-in closet. Minsun returned immediately and handed him a fresh, warm towel.

“I came here because I heard you were locked in your house.” Wooyoung mentioned as he dried himself. Well, he could have waited for Minsun to ask, but that wasn’t his style. Minsun was still a bit dazed, like she couldn’t believe that Wooyoung was there right in front of her. She blindly nodded to whatever Wooyoung said and then slowly walked to the window. She looked out, trying to figure out how did Wooyoung managed to get past through the security?

Wooyoung followed behind her and explained, “It just happened that my clever brain managed to find a blind spot of the cctv, and I climbed the gate from that angle, even though I have to admit that that was quite challenging.”

Minsun stared at him in disbelief, which almost baited a whining from the boy, but Minsun had broke into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, my god,” She laughed, so hard that she had to sit on the stool by her dressing table.

“Hey, hey, what’s so funny?” Wooyong asked in a whiny tone, finding Minsun’s laughing at him to be very annoying. Could it be that she wasn’t actually locked? But Nichkhun wouldn’t lie about stuffs like that.

Minsun had finally calmed down, even though there were still traces of laughter left on her lips. She wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye, and then told him, with a genuine, grateful smile,

“I didn’t know you would go this far for me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Wooyoung’s chubby cheeks pinked a bit at her words, which he wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not, or why did he blushed in the first place, but he had to look away from that smile. Her rare, gentle, genuine smile which made him felt a bit weird in the stomach.

“So, what do we do now?” Minsun asked as her shoulders relaxed again. Her hands were layered on top each other on her lap, her movement gentle and poise.

‘’Don’t you want to get out of here?”

Minsun looked down, heistating about answering the question.

“Come on. Put it this way, you’re already locked up like this. You can’t even get in contact with Nichkhun. You don’t even go to school. What worse can happen? Just get out of here for tonight. You’ll get crazy for being locked up for too long.”

Minsun smiled again, touched at how concerned he was for her.

“You’re right.”

-

Minsun sat at a table in an ice cream café, contently swinging her legs back and forth as she ate the ice cream in front of her, feeling serene as the calming noise of heavy rain embraced her despite the busy people passing by outside the cafe. Perhaps, after being locked up and alone for so long, she needed to be somewhere busy just to keep her mind sane again. Just not to feel lonely anymore. In this case, she defiitely wasn’t lonely since Wooyoung was there with her.

“Yah, how can you eat ice cream when its raining ike this? Its too cold!”

“Since I bought it for you, you have to eat all of it. Do it quickly.”

“Aish…” Woyoung sighed, but obeyed her anyway.

“Will there be people looking for you when you’re gone?” Wooyoung suddenly asked. Minsun nodded.

“There definitely will. My maid will call me for evening tea in a few hours. The bodyguards will start searching by then. I’ll have time before midnight I guess.”

“What do you want to do after this?”

“Hm... There are lots. Would you do everything I ask you?”

Wooyoung shrugged. “Whatever I can do, I would.”

-

The rain had conveniently reduced to very light drizzles as they left the ice cream shop, so Minsun suggested they went to the nearby park. People usually went there to fly kites, but not on this particular day when it had been raining the whole day. Despite the drizzle, the sun was up there shining brightly, as if accompanying them on the deserted park, giving the illusion that it was just another bright day that Minsun should spend outside.

There was a small group of young adults dancing at one corner of the park, and across of them the usual, small kites vendor was around. They bought a simple trapezium shaped kite in rainbow-coloured stripes. Wooyoung paid for it, and naturally took the role of being a kite-playing instructor to Minsun since it was her first time flying a kite. Wooyoung was unexpectedly good, but he almost hated Minsun for being so smart. She picked up everything he taught her almost immediately. By the time her kite was up high in the sky, the drizzle was gone, the sky was bright blue and the sun smiled brightly, like the day had never rained in the first place.

Minsun ran across the green, neatly trimmed field happily, ignoring the little puddle in the way or the mud that splasehed onto her skirt from the previous raining this morning. Wooyoung chased her and whined that it was his turn, that he at least had a chance to play the kite as well since he paid for it after all.

The rain poured out all of a sudden again so the two ran, looking for the nearest shelter. They headed out the park, towards the side-walk, wanting to cross the road and get to the other side of the road where all the shops were, but there was a sudden rush of humans, trapping both Minsun and Wooyoung into the current of movement. Wooyoung instantly grabbed Minsun’s hand tight and pulled her close to him, keeping her safe and together with him while going along with these people rushing to a concenrated spot, and Wooyoung realized that there was a guerilla concert by a famous band, CNBlue. The crowd cheered loudly that Wooyoung had to wince from the piercing noise as the band began to play their catchy music. Minsun seemed like she was interested, so Wooyoung stayed there with her. Plus, they were in the middle of a packed crowd, it would be too troublesome and dangerous to get out of there.

Neither of them were big fans of the band, but they found themselves enjoying the concert just like everyone else there. It could be the pumping music reverberating around them like water rippling in a pond, or the lively atmosphere which sent their adrenaline rushing through their veins, or the magical energy the performance transferred to the audience which allowed them to completely forget the situation they were in. There was no worrying of Minsun’s limited freedom, no worrying that they were jumping to the beat of the music despite the heavy rain that sent them completely soaked.

Minsun had never felt so alive.

-

The rain continued into the night. It was only drizzling by that time, but the chill seeped hrough thebones since their clothes were still not completely dried. The two youngsters sat together under the plastic tent of a street stall, ordering hot noodles for their dinner. Wooyoung stared at Minsun incredulously as she dug into her meal as if she hadn’t eaten for days.

“How many days since you last eat?” Wooyoung asked, for the sake of being sarcastic, but to his surprise, she actually came up with an honest answer.

“Five. I can’t eat when I’m stressed.”

“Seriously?”

Minsun nodded. “Honestly, after being locked up like that for days, I seriously felt like giving up.”

“Like… SUICIDE?!”

Minsun laughed a little, “No, giving up as in, stop rebelling against my mother, to do whatever she says, and to forget you guys. In a way, it does feel like suicide to me, because I have to give up my life for her. But you came.” She smiled gently at Wooyoung, which made him felt uneasy. It was that weird feeling in his stomach again.

“What if I came?”

“I thought, I shouldn’t give up that easily.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, both not saying anythng. Just to savor the moment, appreciating the little freedom Minsun had until she had to go back to her ‘prison’ again.

“Don’t. Don’t give up.” Wooyoung said flatly. He wanted to help her, wanted her to be able to do whatever she wants, but he couldn’t. All he could do was to tell her not to give up.

“Because you said so, I won’t.” Minsn smiled wider.

“Did you talk to your mother the whole time you were locked up? Can’t you ask her to at least let you return to school?”

“I haven’t seen her ever since that night. She was so mad at me for getting caught in that situation. She was too worried if the stocks price decrease because of rumors about me, but I didn’t have the chance to speak to her at all. I was alone all the time.”

“What about your father? You rarely talk about your father.”

Minsun smiled a little at the mention of her father. “He couldn’t care less about me. He was there just for my mom and the business. He isn’t my real father anyway,”

“He isn’t? Then...”

“My real father left me when I was too young to even remember his face. I only remembered his name. Seo Hanbin...” she whispered the name, looking as if trying to remember everything she could about him, but there was none. There was not a memory, not a clue about her father.

Minsun let out a soft sigh as she added, “I didnt know why he left either, but I had a feeling it was because of my mom.”

She was about to continue with her dinner when suddenly two men dressed in sleek, black suits passed through the door of the plastic tent, and through the transparent material, she could see the black luxury car parked outside. Even though she didn’t know them, she immediately knew that her time was up.

The two guy scanned the area before their eyes landed on Minsun, and they started to calmly walk towards her.

Wooyoung realized the situation and turned to Minsun in alert.

“Are they-?!”

Minsun nodded. “Yes,  they are here to get me.”

“Miss Seo Minsun,” one of the tall men spoke after they bowed to her in respect. “We came here to bring you back under Mrs. Jung’s order.”

Minsun nodded calmly. She stood up, and Wooyoung followed along.

“We’ll meet again, right? After everything’s back to normal,”

Minsun didn’t reply, instead, she stared at him with sad eyes.

“This is not like that night right? When we had a walk on Christmas Eve and then you’re gone the next day. It wasn’t…”

Minsun shook her head. Wooyoung was wondering if she was denying his assumption because it wasn’t true or because something was going to happen. He didn’t like the latter’s idea.

“I’ll be leaving for London tomorrow morning. My mother wants me to continue my study there.”

“What?!”

“Please say goodbye to the others for me,” Minsun forced a smile, despite knowing how bitter that smile would have looked to Wooyoung.

“But you-”

“I had a great time today. Thanks a lot, Wooyoung. See you again someday.”

Wooyoung just stood there as he watched her small frame turning its back on him, and slowly walked away with the two men on each of her side. Wooyoung scoffed to no one in particular, unable to grasp the reality just yet. He ran outside the tent, standing in the drizzle only to see Minsun getting into her car, leaving. He didn’t know why but his heart was racing, his blood boiling and he couldn’t stop himself from having this extreme, unbearable loathing towards something he didn’t know. Her mother, maybe, or perhaps just fate itself.

“Can’t you not leave?!” he shouted even when the car had left. But to his surprise, the car suddenly stopped, and Minsun left the car again, and ran towards him. At that moment, so many possibilities emerged in his mind. Whether she decided not to go, or if she wanted to run away. She stopped about a couple of steps away from Wooyoung, and they stared at each other like that for a few seconds. He found that her tears were already staining her pale face.

“W… What are you-”

Wooyoung sentence stopped midway when Minsun suddenly pulled him into a tight hug. She wrapped her arm around his neck and stayed like that for a while, despite Wooyoung being shocked at her sudden act. He unsurely placed his hands on her back. He could hear her sobbing softly before she said,

“I’ll never forget you. Thank you. Thank you so much Wooyoung.”

Minsun finally pulled back, and they let silence took its place between them for the time being. Wooyoung was unsure at frst, but then he lifted his hand anyway and wiped away her tears with his thumb. Minsun stared deeply into his eyes as he did the same, and then she suddenly tip-toed, and briefly pressed her lips on his left cheek. She slowly took step back and they held gentle, hazy gazes at each other for a while. Wooyoung gulped when that feeling washed over him again. That fuzzy, fluttering feeling.

He knew what those feelings were by the time.

He liked her.

He wasn’t sure since when, but it had been a while. H eliked her.

Minsun wiped away the remaining tears on her face. She secretly wished everything was just a dream, she wished she didn’t have to leave. She wished Wooyoung would take her hand and take her away just like he did once. Without a single word, Wooyoung continued to watch as she slowly turned around again and got back into the car, escorted by one of the men.

He couldn’t said those words. He couldn’t say goodbye, because he wished someday, on random day, they would meet again, as if she had never left in the first place.