Seungwan’s heart had never thudded with dread as badly as it did when she stepped in front of Kyungsoo’s paneled office door. She took a deep breath and opened it.

Her gaze fell on a pair of long lean legs crossed gracefully, as the girl to whom they belonged sat half propped at the front of the table on which Kyungsoo was working. And her heart plummeted into the depths of infinity when Seungwan saw who the girl was. Nayeon. The same girl she’d seen a while ago on a mobile screen.

Kyungsoo sat on his revolving chair on the other side of the table, looking lost in whatever he was doing on his laptop, unaffected by the beautiful girl lingering on the other side.

Their gaze turned to the door soon when Seungwan came in, and the concentration frown on Kyungsoo’s face disappeared as he stood up. “Seungwan”

It was just one word. She shouldn’t have been affected. But the way it left his lips, the way his eyes got solemn told Seungwan much more. Told her things she wanted to run away and hide from.

I shouldn’t have come here….

“Who is that?”, Nayeon got up and asked with a smile, everything, everything about her so graceful and pretty that Seungwan wished the earth would open and just swallow her whole right there and then.

“That’s…err….my friend from college. Seungwan”

 Friend. Seungwan heard nothing else that left Kyungsoo’s lips. This is a dream, a really bad dream………

He must have realized how shell-shocked she was, because instead of asking her anything more he asked the other girl instead. “Do you mind leaving us alone for a minute, Nayeon?”

 “Sure”, The girl got up and started towards the door with a skip, each step of her’s crushing Seungwan’s heart and hopes further. The girl paused near Seungwan, turning to her with a smile that portrayed all the rainbows and flowers in the world. Like Seungwan’s world hadn’t just burned to ashes.

“It’s nice to meet you, Seungwan. I’m Nayeon by the way, Kyungsoo Oppa’s fiancé”, She told her, extending a hand.

So it’s true. From the moment Seungwan had heard about it, a part of her had believed it to be true. She shook the girl’s hand with the vigor of a corpse before she left her and Kyungsoo alone.

Seungwan had never felt more suffocated in her life. None of them said anything, and as much as Nayeon’s presence in his office had affirmed the truth of the engagement news, Kyungsoo’s silence just stamped and sealed it. He was looking at her, she could tell, but she dared not look up. Finally, his patience gave in and he asked. “Why are you here, Seungwan?”

 Her heart twisted painfully at his empty words, and she fought back the urge to close the distance between them and slap him witless. Or kiss him and beg him to tell her it was all false and that he was still hers.

“Why do you think?”, She looked up at him softly, moisture forming in her eyes. But there were no overflowing tears or the urge to sob and cry for some reason.

 “I’m guessing you saw the news”, He looked down momentarily, and Seungwan thought she caught a flicker of pain in his eyes.

 “Why….?”, She asked, unable to elaborate further.

“There are reasons. None of which are any of your concern”, he turned his back towards her, pretending to pick up something from the rack of files behind his desk.

The lack of emotion in his words hit her like a slap. There wasn’t even any bitterness, almost as if they were a computer generated sound.

There were so many things she could have said in response, so many questions and allegations she could have thrown at him, but she suddenly felt so, so tired and weak and she wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed and sleep off whatever night mare this was.

So she simply sighed and turned back to go, halting at the threshold as his voice reached her ears.

“Seungwan”, She didn’t turn. She couldn’t, and simply waited for him to continue.

 “I…I’m sorry for everything. I hope you’ll have a happy life”, If she’d turned she would have seen how hard he was trying not to break down.

 Seungwan opened the door, and walked out without looking back.

_

“”

Was the first word that left Chanyeol’s mouth upon seeing Kyungsoo in the tabloids. He had known something was going on, Kyungsoo had been too distant for the past few days, Chanyeol knew he was busy with office work but at that moment he realized how much more his friend had been going through than just work.

He suddenly remembered Kyungsoo telling him earlier this month, after they had returned from the trip, about how the company was in a bit of bind with a loan Mrs. Do had taken from Kim Funds, and Chanyeol had a strong feeling that all this engagement fiasco had something to do with that.

 “What the actual hell?!”, Jongdae, who Chanyeol hadn’t noticed walking down the hallway and getting seated beside him on the bench outside the hospital room in his reverie, exclaimed loudly upon seeing the news on the gadget in Chanyeol’s hands. “Is that really Kyungsoo? Our Do Kyungsoo?”

 Chanyeol sighed. “I think it is”

 “What the hell happened?”, Jongdae thought out loud. Both their eyes widened as they thought and spoke of the same thing. “What about Seungwan shii?”

 They both slumped back against their seats. “We need to talk to him”, Chanyeol said after a while.

 “Yeah, we do”, Jongdae had already taken out his cell and was busy dialing Kyungsoo. “He’s turned off his mobile”

Chanyeol tried next, but with the same result. He opened their online chats and realized Kyungsoo had left all of them that morning.

Chanyeol felt guilty for some reason, like he had a part in all this. If only he and the others had paid more attention to Kyungsoo, maybe this wouldn’t have occurred.

But it had been such a long week for him, as well as for Jongdae and most of all for Baekhyun as the guy’s parents had landed in Korea all of a sudden earlier that week, with his dad about to undergo a bypass surgery.

Baekhyun had been scared witless, Chanyeol knew how much the guy cared for his family, especially as Mr. and Mrs. Byun had been stalling him from coming to visit them in the States, even though Baekhyun had insisted on visiting them repeatedly since they’d returned from the trip, telling him that they were busy with Mr. Byun getting retired from service and all in a few days. Chanyeol had found their attempts to keep Baekhyun away weird as well, but he hadn’t said too much. And seeing his Dad land on a gurney with the history of a recent heart attack was enough to shock the guy enough to forget everything else and spend all his time at the hospital, and Chanyeol and Jongdae had naturally followed him, seeing as he appeared to be the friend who was greater in need of their support at the time.

After Baekhyun’s pneumonia episode had thankfully been treated and they had returned to Seoul, Chanyeol had tried asking his friend what had actually made him reckless enough to spend hours out in the freezing cold. Chanyeol knew it had something to do with Taeyeon, but he hadn’t pushed seeing as Baekhyun flinched every time he brought up the topic, and hoped things would work out on their own. Not that he had any hope really, that they would.

Nobody had thought much about Kyungsoo for the past few days, or even imagined he was in enough trouble to do something of this scale.

……………………………………………

“Who is this Nayeon woman anyway? Do we even know her?”, Baekhyun asked after he had gotten over the initial shock after seeing the news. He had been down in the hospital cafeteria to get coffee and something to eat, after Jongdae and Chanyeol insisted he looked like a sleep-deprived, starved zombie (which he did) and had returned to find his friends more serious and concerned than he had seen them in a long time.

"No, we don't. She's a high school student for goodness sake, I don't know what's gotten into Kyungsoo", Chanyeol shook his head.

"We need to talk to him", Jongdae was still on his phone, as if staring at the news and reading it over and over again would somehow answer his questions or change the reality.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go", Baekhyun urged.

"We can't. He won't be at the office at this time, and Jongin just told me he isn't at the house either, the guy has it all covered. He's turned off his cell phone so we'll only get a hold of him on Monday", Jongdae told them.

"And you need to go and rest a little, if you don't want to end up on one of the beds here", Chanyeol said to Baekhyun, to which the latter rolled his eyes but agreeing with it, left the hospital a few minutes later after checking up on his father and taking Mrs. Byun with him.

_

"Hello?", The male spoke up from the other end.

"Hi, Hyuk? It's Taeyeon", Taeyeon cleared .

"Yeah, how are you?", She could hear some shuffling at the other end.

 "Fine. About the date, Hyuk........I don't think I'll be able to make it", Tayeon bit her lower lip, wondering if Hyuk would be disappointed in her. But with the way things were, she really couldn't see herself going out and enjoying.

"Oh, everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's my cousin, Seungwan. I don't want to leave her alone right now...."

"Is this about the engagement news?", Hyuk asked.

Taeyeon sighed. So everybody knew about it. Had she really been expecting this to be over by the next morning, to turn out to be some giant big misunderstanding that would be resolved and deleted from their lives? "Yeah"

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she is. Too okay, actually, that's what's scaring me"

Seungwan had turned up at the house that afternoon, looking soulless for the lack of the better word. Soon as they had heard the news, they'd all been prepared to cater to all sorts of reactions from her, especially Taeyeon, but what they had not expected was for her to be reaction-less. She went about doing things normally, with emptiness in her eyes, talking about trivial things and naturally it got them all concerned. They'd expected her to cry, to scream, to at least show some emotion but she did nothing. Not to mention the amount of tension and silence in the house, with none of them daring to talk about it out loud out of the fear of what that might do to Seungwan, and with the conditions like that, she could hardly go out with Hyuk.

"So, I hope you understand why I can't come", Taeyeon added.

"Yes, I do. You don't have to worry about it", She could imagine him giving a soft smile at the other end. "Do tell me if there's anything I can do"

"Thanks, Hyuk", She took a deep breath soon as she hung up and looked out the glass panels of the living room. On second thought, she turned to her phone again and dialed D.O.'s number.

She had to get to the bottom of whatever this was. What could've have driven the guy to decide to marry someone in such a short time? It wasn't, couldn't be, out of love. She was sure of that much. For one he would have to be a great actor and for them all to be brainless fools to not see that he and Seungwan were very much in love. And he wasn't one to cheat either, she knew him that much. She wouldn't have let Seungwan date him in the first place if she'd had even a slight intuition that he was like that. What could be the reason for this sudden venture then?

Instead of rings, Taeyeon got the computer generated voice telling her that the phone was turned off and therefore unavailable. She pursed her lips in exasperation. She asked Chanyeol next, for some reason no one was talking about what was going in the group chats they had, and so she didn't either. Maybe they were all still trying to wrap their minds around the news like her, because it was as shocking as they came.

The tall guy knew little more than she did, he told her none of them had been able to contact Kyungsoo since Friday, so that solved that piece of the puzzle. The guy had intentionally gone off the radar, and though Taeyeon tried to reason with herself that it could just be because of the circumstances, she couldn't help the small bubble of anger that rose in her at his actions. If the guy thought he could do this to her sister and get away with it, he was wrong.

"I think we'll only be able to see him on Monday, that is if he decides to show up then", Chanyeol informed her.

"What about Mrs. Do and Jongin? Don't they know anything?"

Chanyeol sighed. "Yeah that's the thing. Mrs. Do isn't here either, they've both gone off somewhere together. And Jongin's freaking out too, because they didn't tell him anything. He just received a call from his mother this afternoon, telling him they'll be back by Monday"

Taeyeon frowned at the information. "Well, let's wait then"

_

Taeyeon walked towards the elevators through the lobby of the building, looking like a hurricane. With her immaculately tied up hair and office appearance, she could have gotten any deal signed had she been going for it. But she was on a very different mission, one that could involve a lot of glaring and shouting, if things came down to that.

Another article had been released that Sunday, and it had been the breaking point for Seungwan. Kyungsoo and his so-called chaebol fiance had been caught ring shopping and the media had been swooning over it, try to twist the whole thing into a princess and pauper story. The news had shown up on an entertainment channel on TV, full with Nayeon smilingly choosing a ring and Kyungsoo happily paying for it before putting it on her left ring finger in front of the cameras. Might as well have gotten down on one knee and completed the ruse, Taeyeon had thought bitterly and they had all watched with heavy hearts as Seungwan had finally snapped out of her denial reverie and broken down right there and then in front of them. Mrs. Son had looked like the saddest mother in the world as she had held a sobbing Seungwan, none of them able to do anything about the whole matter. Even Sehun, who had always been the snobbish whining kid in their house had sobered enough to not have asked a single thing of them since.

And Taeyeon's blood had seriously boiled at the situation around her. So, the first thing she'd done the next morning after making sure Seungwan was fast asleep was get in the car and drive to the Do's office building.

If he thinks he'll get away so easily after hurting my sister, he's wrong, Taeyeon pressed the 5^th floor button as she entered the empty elevator. Very wrong.

Soon as she stepped out, she noticed how less the rustle of activity around her had gotten. Monday's were supposed to be busy days for businesses far as she knew, but the tiled space in front of her looked deserted, save for a few employees going here and there. Not bothering to stop at the reception to get permitted to meeting Kyungsoo, she took a left into a small hallway at the end of which she mused was Kyungsoo's office room (she'd read the office directory outside the elevator). Her steps quickened as she heard voices coming from the end of the hallway, which got louder as she neared the glazed door of Kyungsoo's office. Not bothering to knock, she twisted the handle and pushed it open.

fell at the scene in front of her.

Yixing had Kyungsoo's collar in a death grip, as he glared the latter down while Kyungsoo just looked at him soullessly, his hands by his side, not fighting back.

"What-", Taeyeon was cut-off by Chanyeol, who was standing beside Kyungsoo.

"Hyung, calm down! You know he's just trying to get us all off his case, please don't take him seriously!", Chanyeol put a tentative hand on Yixing's flexed arms, and then sent a glare in Kyungsoo's direction.

And that was when she noticed the rest of them. Junmyeon, Minseok and Jongdae far on Yixing's side, trying to get the guy to calm down and stop whatever was going on from getting any more physical, while Jongin sat at the sofa at the other end of the room, crutches by his side, looking as solemn as an autumn night. A part of her mind registered that a certain someone amongst this group of friends was missing, but the circumstances in front of her took preference in her mind.

Yixing's expression softened, but he still didn't let go of Kyungsoo, looking the guy right in the eye as if he could somehow find something there. "You promised me", Yixing shook Kyungsoo lightly, his voice and expression filled with plea and not accusation. "You promised me you wouldn't hurt her" Even from a distance Taeyeon could tell how hard it was for Yixing, how agonized he must have felt to get close to physically hurting one of his closest friends.

Kyungsoo smiled sadly in response. "Some promises are just made to be broken, hyung", he shrugged, and for a brief moment Taeyeon saw guilt and apology flash across his features.

Yixing took a deep breath, letting go of Kyungsoo, who breathed out loud before turning to them all. "If you're all done, you can leave, I have more important things to do here" He met Taeyeon's eyes for a second too, before turning to his desk and starting to shuffle papers around.

"Why are you doing this? Just tell us for God's sake! We're your friends!", Chanyeol pleaded with Kyungsoo, who didn't bat an eyelash.

"We might be able to help you know", Jongdae added.

"There's nothing to tell. It's my life and I will choose to do whatever I want with it. I'm getting married and that's final, and if you guys can't be happy for me, at least have the decency to stop making me feel guilty about it. If you people really are my friends as you claim to be", Kyungsoo said monotonously as he sat on his desk chair, not lifting his head once from the file he was reading, and they all collectively sighed in exasperation.

"It's no use, hyung. Stop wasting your breath on him", Jongin spoke, getting up with the help of his crutches and starting towards the door. "I've wasted enough time asking him already, there really is nothing to tell here I think", His voice took a bitter edge as he said the sentence. "Let's just go"

Yixing sighed and with a final look in Kyungsoo's direction left, Minseok and Jongdae following behind with lingering looks of their own.

"Just know we'll always be here. Whenever you're ready to tell us", Junmyeon put a hand on Kyungsoo's shoulder. His voice was filled with trust, as if Kyungsoo hadn't just told them all to get lost in nicer words. It made Kyungsoo raise his head to meet his friend's eye, and a look, like the ones Taeyeon always exchanged with Seungwan or Miyoung or Soojung was exchanged, one that spoke of understanding and loyal faith but he still didn't say anything.

"Noona, let's leave", Chanyeol stopped near her on his way out.

"When did I ever agree to leave? I just came here", Taeyeon didn't tear her cold gaze away from Kyungsoo, and took a few steps towards him. "D.O. and I have some talking to do, don't we?"

Kyungsoo looked up at her hovering over his desk and sighed in defeat. "Sunbae I reall - "

"Chanyeol do you mind leaving us alone?", She asked the tall presence behind her. "I'll be waiting outside", the lanky male told them as he left.

Taeyeon calmly pulled out a seat in front of him, and made herself comfortable in it, like she was there for a meeting.

"If you think you'll be able to get something new out of me, you're wasting your time. I've already said all I need to", Kyungsoo spoke coolly, intertwining his fingers on the desk in front of him.

"And here I thought you were going to at least offer me coffee, is that how you treat everyone who shows up at your office this early in the morning?", Taeyeon raised her eyebrows in sarcasm.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, reaching for the intercom to order coffee, but Taeyeon stopped him by speaking.

"As much as I would love to stay and chat over coffee, D.O., time is of the essence. I did after all leave Seungwan is less than perfect conditions at home, she'll need a shoulder to lean on once the effect of the sleeping pills I gave her wears off and she wakes up to discover that what happened yesterday wasn't a bad dream", Taeyeon said, leaning forward a little. "That the boyfriend she thought was hers a day ago is now getting married to someone else. It really to be betrayed by someone you've trusted and liked for so long"

Kyungsoo's features contorted at the last sentence for a second, but his face was back to being a cold wall the next. "Is that supposed to make me feel guilty? I'm sorry it isn't working"

"Isn't it?", Taeyeon leaned forward, glowering. " I guess I really was wrong huh? You really are just another one of those heartless bastards who don't care how much destruction they leave in their wake when they break a heart. I never should've let Seungwan near you, should've saved her from this terrible fate I've already had the honor of suffering from once"

Kyungsoo's expression softened. "If this is about Baekhyun - "

"It isn't about goddamn Baekhyun, D.O.!", Taeyeon slammed a hand on the table, barey restraining her anger. "It's about you and you very well know it! If you really were involved with someone else, why did you lead her on in the first place? And marriage of all things! I can't even wrap my head around the fact that you’re getting married, let alone with someone who has just graduated high school! How long have you had us all fooled huh?"

Kyungsoo's jaw hardened. "I didn't fool anyone. It was a quick decision, I admit that, but it was very well thought out. And you of all people should know sunbae! Seungwan and I were never dating in real, it was all a fake setup to placate our mothers"

He looked away shaking his head, as if stating things that were so obvious already was a wastage of his time. Breathing heavily, Taeyeon picked up her bag. "I really did underestimate you, D.O. You are a better actor than I thought", She said with enough conviction to make anyone believe it, even if she didn't herself, and started towards the door. " A better cheater too, I think"

She didn't see him flinch at the accusation. Stopping near the door she turned to look at him. "If you really had even a little decency left in you, you would do this right! End it properly once and for all, tell Seungwan you don't love her, that it was never real for you. At least give her closure so that she can move on and live like a human, instead of a zombie with a broken soul, who might never be able to trust someone with her heart again. You owe her that much"

And with that, she walked out, leaving Kyungsoo to wallow in misery.

_

"Were you able to get anything?", Chanyeol, who was standing leaning against the wall near Kyungsoo's office, spoke up soon as she got out. There was no sign of the rest of them.

"Nil. What is going on really, Chanyeol? I find it hard to believe he's really has been in a relationship with that teenager behind all our backs. Unless the D.O. I've known never really existed at all?", Taeyeon spoke her real mind as they both started towards the elevators.

"No, noona, that's the thing. He isn't letting any of us in on what's really going on, almost as if he's trying to protect something. I don't whether that's us or the information he's withholding"

"But you know something?"

"Uhh, kind of...", Chanyeol paused to press the button outside the elevators, as they stood waiting. "I think it has something to do with a company loan Mrs. Do took from Kim Funds last year, especially with the amount of time Kyungsoo's been spending at the office since December. But I can't be sure, it's just a hunch"

Taeyeon nodded in response. "So how do we get to the bottom of this? Before the damage gets beyond repair?"

Chanyeol sighed. "I'm working on it. You're most welcome to share if you have any ideas"

The metallic doors opened with a ding and both got into the otherwise empty elevators. Taeyeon thought about it for a moment. There had to be something that could be done surely? "Have you tried contacting Mrs. Do?"

"Yeah, she seems to not be in Seoul at the moment, and her contact’s turned off too. Even Jongin doesn't know where she is. Only Kyungsoo does and rest assured he isn't going to tell one of us anytime soon"

Taeyeon only sighed in response. They got off the elevators quietly, into the ground floor lobby. A name flashed into Taeyeon's mind at that time and her heart drummed as she turned to the tall male beside her. "Chanyeol?"

He mumbled in response so she continued. "Where's Baekhyun? I haven't seen him around much the past few days"

Since a week ago, when she'd seen him across the ground talking on the phone, when Hyuk had asked her out, Taeyeon hadn't seen Baekhyun. Not in the hallways, and not anywhere else. She'd brushed away the thoughts the first few days, telling herself she ought not to care, but she'd found herself doing just that.  How pathetic of her really to care so much after all that had conspired between them. But it was surprising at the very least to see that he wasn't even present amongst his friends at such an important time. It was natural for her to be curious.

Chanyeol gave her a look. "He's at the hospital, where else?"

Taeyeon's eyes widened as her heart did a painful leap, thinking of the boy with gold dyed hair. "Why? Is everything okay?"

Chanyeol stopped to look at her, his brows furrowed in confusion. "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

--------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Well that was.....a rollercoaster. What do you people think is going on? Has anybody connected any dots yet?

I love, love, love reading the comments!

Thankyou for reading!