Seungwan worked through a haze to consciousness. She felt detached from herself and her surroundings, like she’d been sleeping for days. She blinked a few times, trying to make sense of where she was. It certainly wasn’t her own room, the sunlight shining from behind the curtains was enough to deduce that much. How long have I slept for? She slowly sat up and an ill feeling rose in her, like she was forgetting something very important.

She abruptly moved her head to the other side of the room where the curtain covered window was, and winced, like her brain had just hit her skull and that’s when it came back to her.

Grocery shopping with Sehun and Soojung. The men she’d seen at the end of the aisle and then darkness.

All her senses alert at once, she got off the bed. Had she been brought here after her kidnapping? A dressing mirror along the side of the wall revealed her to be looking just as wild as she felt. If her captors had brought her here, she had to be careful.

Swallowing hard with her heart hammering in her chest, she opened the door slowly to find herself in a lobby. There was another room across the hall, and she could visualize a small sitting area connecting beyond the hallway. Had they brought her to a house? She took small steps and just as she was about to cross the threshold into the living room, the door of the other room opened and she halted. Caught.

She turned around slowly to come face to face with –

Kyungsoo?

She was shell-shocked for God knew how long before she finally found her voice back. “What….?” What was he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be –

And then it came back. He was supposed to be getting married. Snippets of Taeyeon telling her something in a waiting area that felt too much like an airport, boarding the airplane in a daze with – with Kyungsoo? – slowly came back to her.

And she felt dizzy with confusion and fear and so much else all at once. She’d barely shut her eyes for a second before she felt the warmth of arms around her, holding her.

………………………………………

“Are you okay?”, Kyungsoo did not try to hide the concern from his voice. He thanked God he’d heard her moving outside.

She blinked up at him, and then her face hardened, as if reality had finally caught up to her and stepped back from his half embrace. His heart sank. “What is going on? Why, why am I here – and with you?”

He could tell she was trying to keep the panic at bay but he saw it all in her eyes. The shock, the ache and even….fear. He sighed, trying not to feel the pang of hurt that accompanied the notion that she was afraid of him, and told himself that it was natural for her to be. She must not remember much.

“There’s no need to panic, I can explain everything. Sit down please”, He said in a formal tone gesturing to the white sofas behind her, but she only seemed to grow warier at his calm attitude.

“Tell me first”, She made no move to sit down, only hugged her arms around herself, every part of her screaming suspicion.

He told her how Taeyeon had come to them to report of her disappearance, and how they’d looked for her almost everywhere. He then told her how they’d found out about her whereabouts from Nayeon, not bothering to tell her about his confrontation with Minjun, and then the rescue plan carried out by Baekhyun, Taeyeon and Jongdae. She frowned throughout, but the unease and distrust lessened as her mind got diverted to the new information.

He went on to tell her about their landing in Hua Hin, Thailand, that they had been picked up by one of Nayeon’s old maids who lived in the vicinity (who Nayeon had already asked to make the necessary arrangements for their stay) and she looked around herself as if seeing the whole place in a new light. He didn’t tell her how she’d slept on his shoulder throughout the flight, making him tremble with longing, or how, when he’d carried her to room because she’d fallen asleep during the taxi ride here, she hadn’t let go of his collar for some time and he’d almost given in to sleeping beside her. He was relieved now that he hadn’t, or God knew how much she would have freaked out.

“So….”, She said, thinking hard. “You and Nayeon didn’t get married?”

“No”, He cleared his throat not meeting her eyes. “Nayeon she…she decided she didn’t want to”

He had never felt more ashamed to admit anything, to tell this girl he loved so much that he hadn’t been brave enough to stand up for them, and another person had had to instead.

“And we’re staying here?” She asked after a while.

“Yes”

“Why?”, She demanded indignantly.

“Because it’s not safe for us to be in Korea right now”, He reminded her.

She pursed her lips, and met his gaze hard. He tried not to flinch. He had always seen those eyes soft and warm, especially for him, her manner always affectionate, and it felt like a gaping hole was now left in him which that fondness used to fill.

“I need to talk to Taeyeon”, She demanded, her arms like a barrier around her again. A barrier he couldn’t cross. “Right now”

“You can’t it’s not safe”

“I don’t care! I need to talk to her!”, She was anxious again, and without waiting for his response she made a beeline for her room. He followed, not knowing what else to do.

“Listen, Seung, calm down“, he said, informally, and she looked at him from where she was frantically rummaging through the lone bag in the room, scalded by his use of the familiar name before going back to her search. “Where’s my phone?”

“It isn’t here, both of our phones are back at home. We can’t be using them, or any other gadget for that matter, they will know if we contact someone”

“You can’t seriously expect me to just sit and accept this! I can’t just stay here like this!” With you was left unsaid. “Why didn’t someone else come with us? Why didn’t Taeyeon come?”

He gave her a look that said ‘really?’. “Because we’re the only ones directly in the line of fire! Nayeon will feed some story to her uncle and the press to make up for my and even your disappearance, how would we’ve justified everyone else leaving? And it makes no sense for them to, they have lives to live!”

“And I don’t?”, She fired back. “You should have been the only one to pay for whatever this is! Why do I have to suffer with you?”

A profound silence descended after her outburst. Kyungsoo steeled himself against the pang of hurt that hit him, because melancholic as it was, he was the one to blame for all this. She had been dragged into this because of him.

“I-I didn’t mea – “, She looked down, clearly guilty at her sharp words and it made him hurt further.

“You’re right”, He cut her off. “It is my fault, and I know no amount of apology is enough to make up for….for all that has happened, but just this once….please – “ He pleaded. “Please just trust me”

He looked at her, but she didn’t meet his eyes. Of course, what reason did she have to trust him?

“This is only temporary, it’ll all be over before you know it”, He assured her.

Realizing his presence was no longer needed, she probably needed time to reconcile herself with the circumstances, he left the room.

…………………………………………………

Seungwan stood there aimlessly for some time. How much more torture was the universe going to put her through?

Had it not been enough that she had accepted that Kyungsoo wasn’t for her and decided to move on? Or that she had been kidnapped for being in his life?

No, because then she had to be put into this mess, this plight where she was apparently going to have to see the guy who’d chosen someone else over her, every day for God knew how long. What had she done to deserve this?

All she wanted in that moment was to be back at home, in her bed, the familiar lavender scent of Taeyeon’s lotion surrounding her.

But instead she was here, in a country she hardly knew anything about, that too at the mercy of a guy she wanted nothing to do with, unable to contact or see any of her loved ones.

Silent tears flowing out of her eyes, she went lethargically towards the bed, hoping she that when she woke up again, this nightmare would be over.

_

Taeyeon picked up her bag and started to make her way out of the almost empty auditorium. The past few days had been long, with everything needing attention as the Spring Week grew closer. They were, thankfully, done finalizing the lists for the singing and dancing competitions and the rehearsals for the stage plays were also going well. Baekhyun and Chanyeol along with Luna took care of the financial side of things, and she was grateful that burden wasn’t hers to bear too. Everyone was working hard.

Was Seungwan doing okay? The thought made its way into her head of its own accord. As busy as they had been for the past few days, the worry that clawed at her thinking about Seungwan and Kyungsoo had not lessened.

The worst part of it all was not even being able to contact them. She placated the others all right, especially Mrs. Son, even if she didn’t believe her cajoling herself. But there were times, like when she saw the tabloids featuring Nayeon (Nayeon’s plan had worked well enough, and the media had easily bought and gone rampant with the ‘runaway bride’ story. Many told of how Kyungsoo had been so broken hearted that he’d flown away to another country to try and get over Nayeon’s betrayal of running off with her old boyfriend on their wedding day. A few went deep enough to be able to bring out articles saying that Kyungsoo was being forced into the marriage and had finally gotten the courage to break it off on the wedding day but those were rare and had been easily masked amongst the more popular ones) that the worry hit her in pangs.

Were they okay? Were they being cared for? How was Seungwan holding up living with Kyungsoo? Had he told her the whole truth and had she forgiven him?

They’d been able to contact Nayeon only once in the past three days (the said girl had been in Jeju then, not staying in one city for too long since her departure with Chanyeol’s cousin) and that had also only been thanks to Chanyeol and Jinyoung. She’d told them about telling her father, who had apparently accepted the situation after a few tries of Nayeon convincing him that she didn’t want to marry Kyungsoo and was happy that she hadn’t. Her uncle was proving a little more difficult, wanting to know the whereabouts of the girl he’d gotten kidnapped on Minjun’s request, in the fear of her going and reporting everything to the authorities. But since Minjun had promised he would help in convincing him (after he had been assured that both Kyungsoo and Seungwan wouldn’t do any such thing), Nayeon had been hoping that things would go back to normal soon and she would get Kyungsoo and Seungwan to contact them before coming back home.

“Hey”, Yoona walked into step with her, breaking her out of her thoughts and they shared tired smiles. “How’re you doing?”

“Same as you”, Taeyeon said. “Auditions are going well right?”

“Yeah, minus A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Yoona sighed. Taeyeon could tell how hard the taller girl had been working from the shadows under her eyes.

“Still no luck with Lysander or Hermia?”

Yoona clucked her tongue and Taeyeon resumed looking ahead, biting down on her lip. She raked her mind for any possible solutions to the biggest problem they were currently facing, that was finding the actors for the two main characters for the Shakespearean play.

“Have you tried talking personally to someone?”

“Yes, to every person I know who can act even a little, I have”, Yoona looked more exhausted in that moment than she’d looked to Taeyeon in a long time, and then she looked up from beneath her lashes at her. “Except you”

“Me?”, Taeyeon laughed in incredulity.

Yoona halted at that moment making Taeyeon stop to face her too. She did not like the serious look on her face at all, and the horror of what her friend was suggesting slowly dawned on Taeyeon.

“Oh, no, no don’t give me that look”, Taeyeon shook her head, and started to turn towards the doors that would lead her out of the building into the night.

Yoona reached out and held her wrist. “Taeyeon please! You know I wouldn’t be asking you if I wasn’t desperate!”

“I don’t know the A in acting, Yoon! Please!”, She couldn’t believe her friend had even considered asking her, and started walking again, Yoona following.

“But you sing well, it’s a musical! And how would you know if you don’t ever try acting! Also Hermia’s character is kind of…..relatable”

“No, it isn’t!”, She countered, as they entered the parking lot.

“Listen Tae, wait”, Yoona made her stop again. “Just come to the auditions tomorrow. If it really doesn’t work out, I promise I won’t force you”

Taeyeon sighed, considering what was at stake. Now that she thought of it, Yoona really must be desperate to have considered her. “Please?”, The girl gave her a cute smile and Taeyeon made a face at her before giving in. “Fine”

“You’re going to do great I’m sure! See ya tomorrow!”, With a flying kiss in her direction, Yoona went towards her own car, leaving Taeyeon to think about what she’d gotten herself into as she unlocked her own.

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A/N: Yoohooo, long time!