Chapter 13

Chasing Xiumin
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“I’m really sorry about the hot chocolate,” Lay said, handing the sopping, hot chocolate-soaked rag to Yoojung, who dunked it in the sink, wrung it out, and handed it back to him. “I just wanted to do something nice, but it seems I only ended up making a mess of things.”

“It’s alright.” Yoojung brushed the hair out of her eyes with her wrist, waiting for him to finish up with the rag. “It’s just a spill.”

“No, it isn’t.” His eyebrows pulled together. “I always do this. It’s no wonder no one trusts me to do anything. I can’t do anything right.”

Yoojung squirmed. Well, this is awkward. I invited him in for hot chocolate, not a therapy session, and I’m clearly no mental health professional. What am I supposed to say? Unsure, she settled for her usual neutral “Oh.”

Looking up from where he was kneeling on the floor, Lay grimaced. “You know, you’re not very good at this comforting people thing.”

“No, I’m not,” she agreed immediately. “I haven’t exactly had lots of practice.”

“You don’t get out much, huh?” He tipped his head to the side and stared at her curiously. “Should I be honored to be the first non-Im to step foot in this apartment?”

Perhaps it was out of shyness at the way he was looking at her so unabashedly, or perhaps it was out of shame at his words, but Yoojung felt her cheeks burning and dropped eye contact, choosing instead to stare at the mug shards on the floor.

“You missed a spot,” she squeaked, waving vaguely in Lay’s general direction.

He laughed and gestured at the spill. “You’re not going to help me clean up? You were the one who dropped the mugs, after all.”

Yoojung flushed even harder and flailed. “Oh God, I’m so sorry! You’re right, you’re the guest, I should be cleaning up, shouldn’t I? Just… just put down the rag and go wash your hands or something and I’ll -”

“Um.” He cleared his throat and sent her a lopsided grin. “I was just joking. I was the one who made you drop the mugs, so I’ll clean it up. I’ve had plenty of practice cleaning up after myself anyway.”

“Oh.”

He was joking. Just joking. Why am I like this?

“Is ‘oh’ your favorite word? Because you say it an awful lot. My favorite word is ‘bun.’” He handed her the rag again. “Also, do you have a broom to sweep up the shards? It’s getting difficult to clean around them.”

“The broom’s behind the fridge, and... I suppose I do like 'oh.'” Nodding in the general direction of the broom, she turned back to the sink. Curiosity getting the best of her, she asked in a tiny voice, “why ‘bun’?”

“Hmm?” Lay poked his head out from behind the fridge, where he had somehow managed to shimmy. “Say that again, I didn’t hear you clearly.”

“I - I was just asking why you like the word ‘bun.’” Her voice got quieter as she spoke, almost disappearing at the end of her sentence. Why was she even asking this guy why he liked the word 'bun'? Would he think she was being nosy? Was she -

“I just like buns a lot.” Squeezing his way between the fridge and the wall again, this time with broom in hand, he grinned at her. “My… brother used to buy them for me as a reward. If I didn’t fall asleep during mis - lessons, then he would buy me one from a street vendor. He never told the others; he would just slip off secretly to ‘go to the bathroom’ and then press a pineapple bun into my hand when he came back. It was our little secret.”

“Did you grow up in China then?” Yoojung frowned. She loved pineapple buns, too, but good ones were hard to find in Korea, especially from street vendors. Taiwan and China had the best pineapple buns, but Lay's Korean didn't seem to have an accent.

“Oh!” Lay’s voice rose in pitch. “No, no, nothing like that. I’m full-blooded Korean, one hundred percent. I just grew up in a neighborhood with lots of Chinese immigrants.”

“Oh.”

Behind her, Lay let out a breath. “Enough about me. You have a sister, right? I met her that one time I brought ramyun over. Where is she?”

Yoojung dropped the rag she had just finished wringing back into the sink. Why did he have to ask about that?

Hands shaking, she retrieved the rag and bit down on her lip. “She’s… not here.”

“Oh, did she go on vacation or something? I want to go on vacation. I’ve always wanted to go to Gangwon-do, Yanggu.”

If she hadn’t been so shaken, Yoojung would have given him a funny look. Why there? There isn’t much in Yanggu except for mountains and sweet potatoes.

“She’s not on vacation,” she managed to say, squeezing the rag much harder than necessary. “She’s somewhere else. How about your brother?”

A pause. “He’s also not on vacation.” Lay’s voice, rough with emotion, came from right behind her, and she jumped, startled to find him standing so close.

“Then… then where is he?” she breathed, still winded by their physical proximity.

“He’s just… gone away for a bit. I’m going to get him back, though. Me and the rest of my brothers together.” Lay’s eyebrows drew together again, and the muscles in his forearms, tense, strained at his rolled-up sleeves. “We’ll get him back. We will. I’ll do everything in my power for us to get him back.”

The determination in his voice, in his entire stance indeed, made Yoojung wonder why she wasn’t just as resolute about finding her own sister. Sure, she had reported Chaeyoung’s disappearance to the police, but maybe she should be doing something herself. Weren’t all the heroines in adventure books always going off on grand adventures, battling fire-belching dragons and child-eating ogres to retrieve their loved ones? Weren’t they ready to sweat, ready to bleed, ready to die for their family members?

In comparison to them, what was she? A timid mouse staying in its mousehole, too afraid of the world to venture outside? A heartless chunk of ice, not caring enough for her own sister to take action and search the world herself?

No. In her heart, Yoojung knew what she was and what she had always been: a coward, nothing more and nothing less. She was afraid of speaking, afraid of judgment, hell, she was afraid of talking to a random greeter at HomePlus, for God’s sake! Here she sat, safe and sound at home and moping around in her own self-pity while her sister was out there in who knew what condition with no one at her side.

Distantly, as if she were buried miles within her own body, Yoojung felt a tear sliding down her cheek, and then another, and then an entire stream of them as her body shook.

“Hey, hey!” Alarmed, Lay touched her elbow and guided her toward the dining room table. “Are you okay? Do you want to sit for a bit? What happened?”

Unable to control the tears, Yoojung sniffled and tossed the mangled rag onto the table. “No, I'm alright. It’s nothing. I just really, really wanted that hot chocolate.”

---

“Hey, Marilyn Mengroe, are you even listening to me?” Kris snapped his fingers in front of the screen. “Wake up, wake up!”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” Luhan pinched himself in an effort to stay awake and forced his eyelids up. He hadn't been so exhausted in

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Chasing Xiumin is one of the many fics on AFF that have been plagiarized on another site (see blog section for more info). Please don't read CX on that other site - my work can only be read here on AFF, so if you see it anywhere else, please report it to me.

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comrades
#1
Chapter 22: I just realized this story hasnt been touched in two yrs and now im in mourning :(
vampwrrr
#2
Chapter 21: Oh, wow. That killed one of my theories that little boss was Chanyeollie. I think that Big Boss is Xiumin.

...or not.

Something's up with Xiumin, anyway, though. An experienced secret agent crying over torture? Or...hm, there's something to the fact that Luhan hears machinery in the calls. Maybe they're recordings?

Anyway. RIP, poor Fluffers.
vampwrrr
#3
Chapter 20: I really like how Chaeyoung has decided, even though Jongdae is...the most annoying man on the planet, to stick with him because no one deserves to be alone and defenseless and falsely accused of a felony.
vampwrrr
#4
Chapter 19: I don't trust Henry, I don't trust Chanyeol--shoot, at this point, I don't even trust that Xiumin has actually been kidnapped.
vampwrrr
#5
Chapter 18: Awww, Yixing has a crush...
vampwrrr
#6
Chapter 17: Is Jongdae starting to let down his clown guard?
vampwrrr
#7
Chapter 16: Awwww! Taotao packed them snackies?!
vampwrrr
#8
Chapter 15: I caught the showtime reference and my heart cooed.
vampwrrr
#9
Chapter 14: I love being right.