‘I said never to come in here!’ he was shouting, it felt so loud and painful against your sensitive head you thought you might go deaf. ‘It was just one thing and now look what you’ve done!’ He crouched down to your level but his face was as hard as stone as he took your long hair in his hands. He coiled the strands around his fingers and his eyes looked as though they were turning black in his rage. Taking in an angry breath, the boy began to pull. Your head tilted to the way he yanked at your hair and you screamed at the pain trying to take a hold of his grasp.

‘You’re hurting me!’ you cried, tears streaming down your forever paling cheeks as the colour left through the wound in the back of your head that neither of you had seemed to have noticed yet.

‘You hurt me!’ he shouted, his warm breath on your face, that soft honey fringe falling over his glistening eyes.

With the last bit of strength you could gather, you took Taemin’s wrists and pulled his hands off your hair and pushed him back onto the ground. You stumbled onto yourr feet and ran for the door, slamming it shut behind you as you ran down the stairs, almost falling.

Taemin stayed in the room staring down at his hands in frustration. He didn’t follow you, he felt no need. Where would you go? He’d locked the front door. You couldn’t go anywhere.

But it must’ve slipped his mind, for the door was unlocked. You took the heaviness of it and pulled it open, the freezing cold air hitting your face. You stepped onto the crisp white snow and took in a deep breath.

He sat in the silence, not even thinking, not even wondering.

You walked around in the blank white scenery; you didn’t have any idea where you were going. Snow started falling again; snow flakes landing on your eye lashes and numbing your fingers. You couldn’t see a thing now, nothing but white and sharp ice hitting your face you reached for the back of your head and winced in the sudden pain you felt. You stared at your hand against the blank white canvas, red staining your finger tips.

Her eyes shut tightly, and a final gasp of cold air released from her lips as she fell on her knees to the ground.

Taemin sat on the floor for over an hour, without moving; only blinking. He stared down at his hands still. Something must’ve awoken him from this daze though, as he finally snapped out of it and looked up at the piano. He stared at it, the imperfection that wasn’t normally there… he stood up onto his feet and stared at the lowest white key. A speck of blood splashed onto its shiny surface. Taemin swallowed hard on the lump that emerged in his throat, guilt settling in. It was time he went to apologise. He opened the door and walked down the stairs and began to call her name, his echo repeating itself down the corridor. But she didn’t respond. He flung the doors open in every room on this floor looking around each frantically. Nothing.

He ran down the grand staircase and stared at the front door. It was slightly ajar, flakes of snow drifting onto the door mat and melting on contact. His eyes widened, he was certain it had been locked. He ran to the coat rack, pulling on a big black duffel coat, his hands still shaking in frustration but now worry too.

He stepped out onto the snow, sharply inhaling as the cold hit his lungs. Everything was white, the cold snowflakes stinging his eyes.

Taemin stumbled around the grounds, without a clue where he should be going, she could be anywhere. He called her name as powerfully as he could bring from his cold body. It felt like he had been roaming around for hours, his boots not keeping his toes warm, his hands freezing red raw.

He felt like giving up, but where he had to turn to go back home- he couldn’t work out. He kept wandering, running now and then but stopping when it became too slippery until his tired and frustrated eyes fixed on a shadow on the ground ahead. He ran over, falling beside her. He placed a hand to his mouth in shock when he noticed the small droplets of red that stained the snow by her head. The snow began to settle on her ice cold cheeks, her long hair flowed around her shoulders, laying out on the ground.

‘I’m sorry…’ Taemin began to sob. He placed his hand to her neck. There was a pulse. Without wasting anymore time, he used all his strength to lift her up. He carried her in both his arms, her expressionless face pressed to his warm chest.

He now wondered if either of them would make it out of this alive. Taemin didn’t know where they were but he knew all too well how vast the land around the mansion spread. Who knew how far he had strayed. He hugged her as close as he could and kept saying her name to see if there would be any response, but nothing yet.

The house came into sight at last. Taemin almost fell through the front door, still holding her tightly. He headed straight for the stairs, down the corridor to his room. It was the only place where the fire was on, he thought. He breathed in the warmth of the room as he pushed the door open and walked towards his bed, laying her body down onto the soft satin sheets.

He stood back for a second, rubbing his cold and aching arms. He then decided to move her closer to the fire. He pulled up all the sheets off his bed and wrapped them tightly around her. She lay awkwardly on the floor but she didn’t complain. Taemin pulled off his now soaking wet coat and pulled on the black jacket that rested on the armchair. He went into the bathroom and soaked a towel in hot water before returning.

Lifting her up into a sitting position, Taemin leaned her body against his and examined her head injury. He held the hot towel to it, shaking with nerves. He didn’t know how to deal with this sort of thing. This was so far from what he wanted.

Why did she have to interfere? Why did she have to be so dishonest?

 He didn’t know who was in the wrong, but with her in this state right now, he couldn’t help but feel it was him.

‘Please… for goodness sake just wake up.’ He growled as time passed and there was still no response. ‘Please.’ He pulled her in closer and lay down on the old floorboards.

--A/N-- text written in italics are written from a third person narrative if you hadn't realised, hope you're enjoying it so far!