- - - - -

“I don’t understand,” Donghae said.

“Have you never heard of the story?” asked Taecyeon.

“What story?”

“Yoona had a friend, who at 12 years old, went missing.”

Donghae sat up in his seat, “Of course. Her father told me about it.”

“You didn’t take it seriously, did you?” Taecyeon tried. “You never witnessed how hard Yoona worked in order to find her. You never saw any of it, did you?”

Donghae stared at him.

“She went all over South Korea using every means possible. Crying her eyes out, you didn’t know any of it, did you?”

Donghae remained silent. She’d never dropped a tear in front of him. He could only recall all the times in which Yoona had been hours late for a date they had scheduled.

“Don’t you understand?” Taecyeon asked. “Yoona’s heart is slowly breaking. Because of you…and Victoria.”

Donghae’s eyebrows twitched. “Victoria? What does she have to do with this?”

“Didn’t I just say it?” Taecyeon said. His voice was solid and low as if he were saying something dangerous.

Donghae thought long and hard back to Taecyeon’s words then felt his eyes widen. He looked at Taecyeon who stared at him calmly.

“Do you understand? Why you can’t do it?” Taecyeon asked.

Donghae shot up from his chair like a bullet and out the door. Taecyeon immediately followed him down the stairs.

“Where are you going?!” Taecyeon shouted.

When they got outside no one was there. Donghae rushed toward the gym and found the door unlocked. Once he opened the door Yoona’s wailing was visible to the ears. Looking around inside they found no other soul.

“Yoona,” Donghae called walking in.

He’d never seen her cry before. The way she was wailing was so depressing. Donghae got down beside her and pulled her up.

“Sorry,” was all he said before hugging her.

Taecyeon felt his heart beat slow down and he turned around closing the gym door after him. To see them hugging…wasn’t a sight he wanted to see. Yoona’s cheery smile erupted in his mind before he walked away from the gym. Tilting his head up toward the hidden sun he recalled Victoria was missing.

- - - - -

Victoria stared at the road with tears in the corner of her eyes. All she just wanted to do was run now. Staying would make the worst end of everything. Traffic rushed pass and the people around her seem oblivious to all her emotions. After five minutes a large green bus finally stopped before her and everyone boarded it. It stayed for 15 more seconds waiting for her to go on but when she showed no notion to go on, it drove off into the street.

Yoona should have stopped looking for her. During all that time Victoria had worked so hard to give up her hopes of returning to find Yoona and her parents. When she finally did, who knew that she’d be thrown back into the world she had left behind. What was more burdensome now was that not only was she a fugitive, but everyone was looking for her. Either to bring her back to their arms or to kill her.

“Live or die.” the voice appeared in her mind again.

Something loud rung in the air and it took her almost a minute to discover that it was her phone. Taecyeon was calling. Victoria had thought of leaving her phone behind and just walking off but Taecyeon wouldn’t just leave it at that. That person, she’d learned, was stingy about money. Victoria stared it before taking out the battery and throwing it back into her pocket.

Heaving a sigh she took another walk around the loud city.

- - - - -

Donghae dropped Yoona off at her home before heading back to the company for a few hours. That night alone in his room he recalled Yoona’s father telling him to be careful around her.

“Yoona might grow sensitive sometimes,” her father had cautioned.

Not once had Donghae seen that girl being sensitive. Victoria had had that strange smile on her face, the smile which turned sad at the hospital. He had taken her clueless-ness as her being cute but now that he thought about it maybe she really didn’t know anything.

“Yoona had a friend, who at 12 years old, went missing.”

Yoona’s father had explained that Yoona had lost her friend to some men in the woods when they snuck off from camp. Some men had taken her friend, Victoria, away. What had they done to her? Had they locked her up without letting her see the world? Was that why Victoria had been clueless about everything? Had they hurt and tortured her?

It stung his heart to imagine what could have happened to Victoria during all that time that she’d been with those men.

Should he have not been so tough on Yoona? Was it really a wrong move to cancel the wedding?

He wasn’t sure anymore. He felt terrible…toward the both of them.

- - - - -

Taecyeon jumped up when the door opened and Victoria walked in.

“Where’d you go?! How dare you turn off your phone!” he started but stopped when she only stared at him with a look full of warnings. “Yah! Why do you have to do that to me? I was just worried!”

“Worried?” Victoria asked raising both eyebrows. “If you’re worried, you’d keep it to yourself.”

“Yah!” he started again. “If you run off without ever telling me, I’m reporting you to the police.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” she tried.

Taecyeon gulped.

With that she walked on. She didn’t come out for dinner even when he’d left it on the table for her afterward. In the middle of the night Taecyeon got up from the couch and walked through the dark to glance in through the crack of the door. Victoria was lying on the bed on her side, as always. The light on the phone in her hand kept turning on then off, on then off. She wasn’t asleep. He turned away and glanced into the kitchen to see that the food hadn’t been touched. A pain of worry for the girl filled him as he cleared the dishes, washed them, put them away, and went back to the couch.

They didn’t exchange words the next day. Not even when he tried talking to her. Giving up he headed to work.

Yoona didn’t come by that day.

- - - - -

Victoria paced around the apartment and stopped when the doorbell rang. No other than Donghae was there. But she had no wish of seeing him after yesterday’s event with Yoona. Sitting down on the couch Victoria grabbed the couch pillow and wrapped her hands around it as the doorbell rang on impatiently.

- - - - -

No one answered after the ten minutes he stood there. Figuring that maybe Victoria stepped out he went back down the stairs and glanced in the gym. No one was there. Where was she?

Donghae waited around for an hour more but when Victoria didn’t show herself he decided to leave.

- - - - -

Yoona stayed in her office the whole day. Not once did she step out. The articles she had read over so carefully seemed so meaningless now. She only wanted the reunion she’d always wanted with Victoria but she was refusing to know her. Yoona put her hand over her face and took a deep breath. The way Victoria had hit her yesterday…those hits were from someone dangerous. Victoria really didn’t want her near. Was it for a good or bad cause?

Yoona could only recognize the rage boiling within her wondering what those man had forced Victoria to do during those 14 years? Had they forced her to kill? Yoona shook her head once more. It was too hard to take in. Someone so innocent had been made into something violent. And all because Yoona couldn’t stop what had happened in Gapyeong 14 years back.

- - - - -

“Do you want to eat some chicken tonight? When I come back, I’ll buy some for you,” Taecyeon offered in the early morning.

Victoria didn’t reply as she picked away at the food on her plate. Instead of wolfing them down like she usually did she chewed slowly.

“I’ll get some on the way back,” he offered and got up.

He felt choked up even in his own apartment. Victoria wasn’t talking to him anymore and he didn’t understand why.

When Yoona didn’t come by during break Taecyeon was called up to the office. Donghae sitting in his chair loosely watched as he walked into the rich oak office.

“Yes?” Taecyeon greeted.

“Is Victoria in?”

“Why?”

“She won’t open the door and she won’t answer my calls,” Donghae started.

Taecyeon felt a smirk grow onto his face, “Believe me, she won’t even speak to me now.”

Donghae smiled. “Well…I guess that’s something good to hear.”

Taecyeon frowned at him, “You didn’t take my words into consideration, did you?”

“No.” Donghae replied straightforwardly. “Why should I? Yes, you made me doubt my reason for cancelling the wedding and hurting Yoona, but my first priority is still Victoria. Is it wrong that I want to give her what she’d missed out on all those years she wasn’t here?”

Taecyeon stared back at him.

“That’s all. You may leave.”

Taecyeon opened the door and walked out. He would have liked to fill that missing gap in Victoria’s life too, as much as Yoona wanted too. It wasn’t easy. Victoria would never let them near her ever again.

- - - - -

Victoria stepped out of the apartment. It was suffocating in the apartment being alone for so long. The night sky had been drawn over the early afternoon sky like a curtain. Stars were out and shining already. The glow from the moon shone down on her as she looked down the street. Turning away for the fifth time she unlocked the door to the gym and from the light of the moon she noticed a second black shadow looming on the ground. She spun around ready to attack but was kicked in beforehand. Sprawled on the ground Victoria turned around.

“Is this where you’ve been all along?” asked Jung Min.

Victoria searched behind him for any sign of So Young but the young girl was no where to be seen.

“Why are you here?” Victoria questioned feeling her heart race.

Taecyeon would be back soon. If he saw Jung Min…

“To get rid of you.” Jung Min replied mockingly.

Victoria stared up at him. She would have agreed to die, but not there. Not in the gym. Not in a place Taecyeon literally owned.

“Aren’t you getting up?” Jung Min asked.

Victoria slowly got up to her feet then stared at the man.

“What do you want?”

“Your dead body.”