I woke up in the morning feeling very refreshed. Confused and with a slight headache, but surprisingly well rested. I vaguely remembered going to bed feeling sick, but most of the night… it was a huge blur mixed with some of the worst nightmares I had ever had. Still, it was my last day with the boys, and I felt pretty good.

Of course, I would have felt better if I hadn’t been woken up by the sound of Korean men, no, Korean boys in my room. I had somehow managed to pull the blanket over my head during the night, so I let it down a tiny bit to peak out. I saw Daesung and Seungri at the foot of the bed with Teayang and Jiyong standing behind them.

“Ah, noona is awake!” Daesung said with a smile. I sent him a glare as I groaned and pulled the covers up again. “Aw, noona,” I heard him whine just before I felt the bed shake a little. “Wake up.”

“Let her sleep,” I heard Taeyang pitch in before I felt the bed give a huge quiver as though someone had kicked it.

“Ya! Nikky, wake up!” I let out a growl as I heard Jiyong join in. Even though I felt rested, I wanted to sleep more, damn it. The assault on the bed continued, and the whining picked up with Seungri joining in.

“Noona! Wake up now!” The bed shook again as I heard the maknae whine.

“Noooooona. Noona noona noooooona!” It was when Daesung joined in that I finally had enough.

Taking a deep breath I sat up as quickly as I could and let out a growl. “Gah! You boys are so annoying! Why can’t you let a noona sleep?!” I glared at the boys around the bed but burst out laughing when I saw their expressions. They looked absolutely terrified, and it was hilarious. Well, except for Taeyang. He was the only one looking away and blushing. At least he had the decency not to want to wake me up. I made a mental note to thank him for that later.

“Noona is scarier than Jiyong-hyung,” I heard Seungri whisper to Daesung before I gave up my glare, smiled and yawned, stretching while I did so. I froze when I heard the sharp intake of breath and quickly glanced around to see what was wrong. All I saw were shocked expressions on Daesung and Jiyong’s faces and a mixture of sadness and anger on Seungri and Taeyang’s. I followed their line of sight to my arms and I felt my breath catch before I let it out in a sigh.

That’s right. The night before had actually happened. It hadn’t been some horrible alcohol induced nightmare. Some hallucination from bad food or a bad drink. No, I had been drugged and almost– Well, bad things almost happened to me last night. And now all four of the boys in the room had proof.

What was it that made me come to this realization? It turned out that I had been right the night before, when I knew I was going to be bruised in the morning. That bastard Chris had held onto me so hard, I now had two lovely and horrible looking bruises on my arms. When I had stretched, the long sleeves on my baggy pajama top had fallen down past my elbows, leaving my arms bare for the world to see. And boy, were my arms colorful. I had a large hand print covering my entire right wrist and a bruise encircling my arm right above my left elbow. You couldn’t see the finger shapes on that bruise like you could on the wrist, but that was because it was the worse off of the two what with the various colors it had turned during the night.

“Noona,” I turned to see Daesung start to approach me and then stop, looking confused. “What happened?”

I just let out a sigh as I got out of bed and headed towards my trunk of clothes. There were so many things flying through my head right now, but the most prominent one was: I had to tell them. They wouldn’t just let me cover the bruises up and forget about them. They would want, no, need to know. I just didn’t know how to tell them. Also very deeply buried was another thought: Thank God Top isn’t with them this morning. As much as I hated having to tell these four boys, knowing that Top- no. I didn’t want to think about what he would think of me if he found out. It was too much.

I heard that voice again behind me. “Noo-“ but it was cut off.

“Daesung-ah.” I was actually surprised that Jiyong was the one who cut Daesung off. I felt like he would want to know as well, so why would he not press the matter? I glanced over and saw that he was no longer looking at me, but at a forlorn looking Seungri sitting on the bed and being comforted by Taeyang. The older man just stood by the maknae, murmuring in Korean and patting his arm, while their leader looked on, his expression impossible to read.

I finally gathered my clothes plus some accessories and walked towards the bathroom. I stopped, my back towards the boys as I spoke. “Seungri? Could you and Youngbae-“ I felt my breathing catch but I just took a quick breath and continued. “Could you two please tell them? But no one else, okay?” I glanced over my shoulder at. “Please?” Only when I received a nod of agreement did I finally lock myself in the bathroom to try and get ready for the day.

---

I was lucky it was November, so I could get away with long sleeves. And I had managed to find a thick leather bracer-type bracelet in the bottom of the accessories in my trunk, thank you Cho Hee-unnie, so after I was all dressed, you wouldn’t even be able tell I had markings on me. Of course, I could still feel them. As I undressed I accidentally hit my wrist on the towel rack and hissed in pain. A painful bruise, a painful reminder. I looked at my wrist and saw his hands on me once again...

I decided I needed take a quick shower, or at least I tried to. Once I got in and started scrubbing under the hot water, my mind wandered. It took a few minutes before I managed to get my thoughts under control, since they were in quite a tailspin at first, but eventually I came to a fitting conclusion. It was over. The night had happened, I was lucky enough to be safe, but there was nothing I could do to make it go away. Yes, every time I thought of Chris it made my heart stop, and not in a good way, and every time I thought about what almost happened last night I felt myself shiver, but I wasn’t going to let myself think about it. I knew in the upcoming days and months I would have moments where I’d think about it and become upset, both at myself and him, probably angry even. But dwelling on it, thinking about it, and talking about it wouldn’t change anything. All I wanted now was to put it in a box, lock that box tight, put that box in another box, lock that one as well, then bury it in the deepest depths of my mind. It would surface, sure, but I’d be damned if I let what that had done affect me and the way I went about my day and my life.

Of course, I realized now that I owed my life to Seungri and Taeyang. Really, I truly owed them my life. If Seungri hadn’t come outside at that moment? If Taeyang hadn’t joined him? So many things could have gone wrong. But they didn’t, and I felt my heart lighten as I realized that. They had been in just the right place at just the right time, and we all came out alright. I knew I would have to have a discussion with both of them, sometime today, but I was a little worried about it.

How could I express to Seungri just how thankful I was? The fact that he had stood up to a guy that towered over him and tried to put himself between me and someone hurting me was just astonishing. There was nothing I could do to ever repay him, but I knew then that I needed to say thank you as a start.

And then there was Taeyang, my Youngbae. He was so energetic, and so hyper, but seeing how concerned he had been last night had just about broken my heart. And then when we got back… I felt myself blush. I knew how he felt around girls and that it took some time for him to be comfortable around them, but for him to have been able to help me? I never would have forseen that. Again, I needed to make sure he knew how thankful I was.

Plus now Jiyong would know. Next to Top, he had the worst temper. I needed to make sure to explain things to him, to make sure he wasn’t upset with me. Not that I really thought he might be, but…

Daesung. I stopped what I was doing as I realized he would also know.  The little boy that I looked to as a little brother. He was so sweet and innocent. Did he really need to know? I glanced at the door and realized it was too late to stop it now.  I went back to brushing my teeth as I let out a sigh. I really hoped this didn’t change how he thought of me… how any of them thought of me.

---

It was only when I hit the first bruise hard enough to almost yelp that I realized I had been scrubbing perhaps a little too hard. I glanced at my shoulders and the parts of my body I had already washed and they were pink. A little too pink. I touched my shoulder and winced a little, trying to figure out why I had been scrubbing so hard. And then unconciously I thought of what had happened. I had the urge to continue to scrub, and scrub hard, but I snapped out of it and back to reality when I heard a soft knock on the door, followed by Taeyang’s voice. “Nikky, are you almost done?”

I quickly dried off while answering "Almost", but it was another few minutes before I had finished getting dressed, calming down, and locking the event back in its box. Unfortunately, I left the silence of the bathroom only to enter the silent and tension filled bedroom. All four boys present kept their eyes on the ground as I sat on the edge of the bed. Finally Daesung came and sat on my one side, while Jiyong came and stood in front of me. Even though I knew we had to talk, I couldn’t meet their eyes, so I mimicked their earlier pose and kept my eyes on the ground. At least I tried to until a certain leader decided to interrupt that.

A pair of hands entered my vision to hold onto mine before I saw Jiyong crouch down in front of me. “Nikky,” he said in one of the gentlest tones I had ever heard from him, “I’m sorry.” I looked up and meet his eyes, surprised.

“Why are you sorry?”

He took a deep breath and glanced away before meeting my eyes again. “I wanted to go last night. If I hadn’t-“

I just smiled and shook my head, pulling my hands from his grasp only to grasp his hands instead. “It isn’t your fault, Jiyong. And nothing really happened, thanks to my white knights,“ I smiled at Seungri and Taeyang before I continued, “so it’s okay.”

“No, it not okay,” Daesung said, and I was surprised by the anger in his voice. I glanced over and saw that he was still staring at the ground, clenching his hands together so tightly I could see the veins and tendons, reminding me of Taeyang gripping Chris’s wrist the night before.

I let go of one of Jiyong’s hands and reached over, laying my hand on the younger boy's clenched fists. “Nothing actually happened, Daesung. I’m fine, I promise.”

He shook his head and stood up as he started spouting off Korean a mile a minute. He was pacing and using wild hand gestures, until finally he stopped. He turned and said a few words before starting to talk a little slower, letting Jiyong translate.

“He says you should report it to the police. That if it was his sister, that’s what he would do. And since you’re his noona-“

“Jiyong,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze to stop him from speaking. I let go and stood up, slowly walking up to the agitated boy in front of me.“Daesung.” He just sighed and started to turn from me before I grabbed his arm, making sure he was looking right at me as I spoke. “Dae, I don’t want to go to the police.” When he opened his mouth, I held up my finger and shook my head. “Let me finish.” I took his silence to be an agreement and continued. “I don’t want to go to the police because nothing ended up happening. I don’t want to think about it, or him, or the whole situation anymore, okay?” The look he gave me almost broke my heart, but I held firm. I knew it was the best course of action. “It just hurts too much to think about. I can’t change what happened, but I can forget about it and move on. I don't want what he did to be able to affect me, and going to the police is almost like admitting he had an effect. No one else needs to know except the people in the room right now.” I took that time to glance around the room and make sure all of the boys were listening. “So please, let’s just forget about it and enjoy our last day together, ‘kay?” I smiled at each of them in turn until they nodded. “Good,” I gave Daesung’s arm a squeeze before looking around the still tension filled room again.

I tried to think of a way to disrupt the tension I could feel in the air when my stomach, once again, decided to let out the song of its people. I blushed a little and heard a few chuckles. “So, um. What time is it?” I turned to glance at the clock just as Jiyong answered.

“Past one.”

“Ugh, no wonder I’m so hungry,” I pouted and rubbed my stomach as I said this before getting an idea. I looked over and met Seungri’s eyes. He was always trying to appease people, and I knew if there was anyone here who would understand my silent look, he would. I pleaded with my eyes, trying to tell him exactly what I wanted to do and I let out a huge grin as he caught on right away.

“Noona, let’s go eat!” He said, jumping out of his chair and, once again, bounding across the room to me. He grabbed both my hand and Jiyong’s and pulled us both towards the door. “Come on hyungs, noona is hungry!” The maknae and I exchanged a grin as I gave his hand a squeeze before latching onto his arm as we exited the room and headed towards their rooms so they could don their disguises. Once again, the ‘white horse’ was my knight in shining armor. 

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A/N: I just had to add in the white horse bit >.< I couldn't help myself! lol. Anyways, thank you all SOOO much for all the comments I've been getting! I never thought I'd a) reach over 100 subbies OR b) reach over 300 comments. I love you all! *cries*

That being said, I'm going to go with way 2. Why? Because I now have officially written out (at least an outline) of the entire rest of the story. Next week will only be 1 chapter. CUZ I'M GOING TO THE BIGBANG CONCERT IN NJ!!! *spazzes* I apologize for only one chapter, and will try and get 3 this week to make up for it but... don't hold your breath, loves! <3