“I know that you’re into plushies and cute toys. I know you once used to collect them with me. I’m sorry our days of love never lasted. I apologize that I took away such memory from you. Let me pay you for that.”

“Where are we going?” Soyeon asks with a tinge of askew boredom in her tone. She doesn’t want to show Suho, who has been tremendously helping her the past week to seem ungrateful by at least withstanding his annoying spontaneous trips. Suho, thankfully, seems pretty oblivious and continues to walk ahead of her while humming a song under his breath. 

“I told you already, we’re going to meet Sehun.” Suho says quite happily, a bounce in his walk. She tries not to groan outrightly both by his joyful persona and the twinkle in his eyes, and the bounce. God, the bounce. Does he secretly think he’s two?

“Where are we going to meet Sehun, you .” She says back, a frown settling on her face.

He had jumped into her room, the exact room he assigned for her in his massive room after he outrightly plucked her out of her home, and told her to dress up prettily, put on some perfume — she had sniffed herself in reassurance — and get ready to go out. He didn’t say what to wear or where they’re going, so she quickly put on a random outfit consisting of a pair of tight skinny jeans in faded blue, and a cashmere shirt. 

“Oh,” he falters in his bounce, walking beside her. “The Red Plate. He’s finally got an A on his math test and he’s inviting all of us to eat. His treat.”

Sehun’s an accounting major and that’s a surprise of its own because man, does he at collecting two numbers together and even worse at multiplying. She had thought of it as an exaggeration when Suho told her so about the boy, but she went wide-eyed when she witnessed the thing by herself. He’s so bad with numbers she doesn’t even know why he majored there. Family pressure said he, and she instantly understood. She’s majoring in Law for the exact same reason. She’s more into astronomy than anything human-wise. The outside world is more of her thing than grounded places on earth. 

“Sehun’s treating everyone?” She widens his eyes. If Sehun’s bad at anything number-y, then he’s even worse when it comes to money. Then again, they’re kinda on the same boat. In order to preserve money, he needs a way with numbers, which he does not. “With his own money?” He’s also a cheap hoe. 

“Can you believe it?” Suho beams. “I’m still bubbling with excitement over the damn thing! I still feel like I’m getting pranked!”

She shakes her head in disbelieve, a choked laugh threatening to escape her encased lungs, a laugh of amusement at Suho’s hyperactive exhilaration.

She walks with him silently as he blabbers everything and anything at the same time, overwhelming her mind and shifting it into an uncultured pile of goo. She owes him her ears, though, after what he did, and so she shuts the ugly comment on the rims of her lips. 

After offering her the same hand Baekhyun offered how many times and finally had the courage to accept it, Suho instantly brought her out of the abusive environment she’s in. He’s rich and he has tons of spare rooms in his house. He offered her one until she’s more stable and on her feet, even though he wanted to give it to her permanently if it wasn’t because of her refusal. She hates being in debt to people, especially people she considers her good friends. She knew Suho for a month, now two, and he’s still not in that stage where he can offer her big stuff like a home. However, she can’t be picky while on this problem, so she agreed.

He told her he’d hire a lawyer that’s good enough to be able to win her case. She instantly said no. They were her parents, still, and she has seen a lot of abuse cases go to fail because there aren’t enough pieces of evidence. By the time things actually moved forward, her bruises would fade and she’d be the one forced back to live with her parents, or worse, imprisoned for false evidence and slander. Her parents themselves were respected lawyers, no one would believe her. Besides, she was already an adult which would raise plenty of questions like ‘why didn’t you leave?’ So she opted to just leave silently without saying anything to anyone, or to them. They wouldn’t be able to make a case of kidnapping because she left willingly and she’s not a minor. She just settled with a peaceful exit.

Suho didn’t like it, of course, because he felt like they needed to be punished for all those years of abuse she had to go through. He believed they were on a whole lower level which needed to be prosecuted. He mentioned something about a cousin who had gone through the same and had received a horrible future all throughout his life. He didn’t want that to happen to her. Besides, the atonement money would give her some sort of boast. She refused all the way to the end. She told him they were still her parents despite anything, and she didn’t want to stoop down low to the same level of theirs. 

When they reach the restaurant, Suho pauses, turns around towards her with a frown, and lifts a hand to block her entrance. She gives him a curious look.

“Before we enter, there are two things I want to know first.”

“Seriously?” She huffs a breath out. 

“Yes,” he nods his head quite seriously. “One; how are you feeling right now?”

He’s talking about how he had taken her from her home and her parents didn’t even look for her or care. It looks like someone screaming ‘good riddance!’ right on her face and he didn’t like it at all. Her parents are the worse kind of people alive according to him but even he found it a bit too over the top not to ask anything about her. Who even brings a child to life if they don’t want to raise it?

“Honestly? I’m a bit disappointed,” she whispers, fiddling with her fingers. “I thought in the least they’d call my phone, wondering where the hell I am. But they didn’t even bother. All they did was deliver a text message to me wondering when I’ll come home to get an -whooping. It’s..” she pauses as if confused what word to use. Suho helped her generously.

“Disgusting?”

“That’s not the word I was looking for.,” she mumbled, looking at him in a way that told him she is very uncomfortable with the subject and yet, she doesn’t know how to end it. 

“That’s the exact word they deserve,” Suho practically growls lowly under his breath, curling his hands into tight fists. “They’re so incredibly disgusting I’m still in awe with how low they can dwindle.”

She stays silent, looking away from him because she doesn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Suho doesn’t see how hesitant she is and merely thinks she’s reluctant to be a part of this conversation. However, he’s still asking his questions. 

“Okay, for the next question,” he raises two of his fingers up in emphasis. “Are you ready to meet up with everyone? With Baekhyun?”

She hadn’t told him she had already gone and seen him and how ugly their interaction has been. It’s not like she’s hiding it, or something, there just wasn’t a good opportunity where she can shove this between lines. Besides, she considers this as a secretive part if her and Baekhyun alone, and no one needs or should know about it.

“Um, are they angry?” She looks extremely nervous, eyes wide, and Suho takes this opportunity to be a . 

“Furious.”

“Really?” She sighs, biting her fingers in nervousness.

“Kidding!” He exclaims happily, throwing his arms around. If he isn’t her friend, she’d have kneed him someplace unpleasant. “Where went the badass Soyeon? They’re just worried.”

“Okay, okay,” she rolls her eyes but she really just wants to punch him. “I’ll meet them.”

“You’re saying it as if you considered bailing!”

She says nothing in confirmation but he knows that it’s true. She pushes through his pack so he’d walk and not make a scene and he yelps, flailing around.

“Soyeon—“ he tries to say, but she rushes past him and goes inside the restaurant, leaving him behind.

The restaurant is not a fancy expensive one (Sehun can’t afford that) but it had a sense of class mixed with a homey atmosphere that made a weird feeling bubble within her. She walks further inside and passes heavy tables filled with people as she searches around for her friends. She finds them right away, in a huge back table made for twelve or so people. There are three new people she can’t recognize and before Suho can keep up with her, she rushes towards them. Almost immediately, they catch her, and she pauses in front of their table, taking a small prayer between her hands.

Kyungsoo sees her, and his eyes widen. Before she can reconsider staying and running away, he opens his mouth. 

“Well, well, well. Look who decided to grace us with her presence after shutting our calls in our faces!” 

“How rude.” Sehun abides.

She winces at the insult. She knows they don’t know what’s happening to her aside from the fact she suddenly moved in with Suho, so she doesn’t take their words to heart. She opens to speak but Chanyeol beats her to it. His eyes are strangely twinkling and she knows they’re just messing with her. 

“Where have you been all these days, madam? Hidden away like a hermit under her rock? I’m so, so incredibly wondrous of how long people can stay in their homes without fresh air.”

Once again she opens to speak but Kai, who hasn’t been around himself because of his overworking parents, speaks. 

“I’m feeling like I’m supposed to say something but I don’t have any comebacks.” Kai smiles amusedly, brushing his fringe aside. “I wasn’t overly around myself, too.”

Baekhyun just glares, and she notices this, but she also notices how harshly he’s curling his fists on top of the table, anger seeping past through his armor like liquid steel. She doesn’t look at him for a long time to not raise suspicion or make him even angrier than he already is, and regards the entire table as she speaks next.

“Guys, c’mon.” She waves her hands around, walking the last steps towards them and reaches for Kyungsoo’s chair, lowering her head down to shoot him a look. She notices there are others she doesn’t know but she holds her tongue and instead glowers at the boys she does know. “You‘re jerks. Do you know that?”

“It’s not us who disappeared and ignored the world for two weeks.” Kyungsoo retaliates right away. 

“It’s not us that are jerks here, Soyeon.” Once again, Sehun’s eyes are twinkling. She’s not sure whether they’re being serious right now or mocking her. Kyungsoo’s blank face tells her nothing. 

“Okay fine!” She exclaims, throwing her hands in exaggeration. “I’m sorry I hurt your fragile human feelings. Do you want me to sit on my knees and beg?”

“Hmm, that would be a sight to see, you on your knees.” Kyungsoo hums, rubbing his hands together evilly. This time, she catches a spark of amusement on his face.

“Guys, stop it,” Baekhyun surprisingly interrupts and she’s glad for a lot of things. Him speaking after a whole lot of silence. Him interrupting their nonsense, and him standing up for her. But he destroys her fantasy right away by saying, “The boys don’t even know who she is. Don’t make them think you’re dumber than you are.”

The new boys, three of them, snicker at him. She doesn’t want to show him that his words affect her more than she’d like to believe, so she secretly scowls.

“Sit next to Kyungsoo, Soyeon!” Suho exclaims from behind her, suddenly bouncing their way with three packets of tissues wrapped around his arms. Once she does sit next to Kyungsoo, the boy smirking at her, Suho takes his spot beside her, literally throwing the tissues on the crowded table. She looks across her and sees one of the strangers staring back at her, smiling a cute kitty smile at her. She smiles back. Next to him, Baekhyun sits, and he scowls at her when their eyes meet. 

“Are you never going to introduce us or something? I feel like a third wheel here.” One of the stranger boys said. He has squishy chipmunk cheeks and single eyelids. He looks to be five years old and if it isn’t by the wine glass in front of him she’d have thought he’s really a toddler. 

“Agreed.” The other guy agreed cheekily, the same one in front of