55
Defence
- - - - -
“Did Ok Taecyeon come in for work?” Donghae asked from behind his dark desk.
“Ah…yes…” Secretary Jung hesitantly replied. “Do you want me to call him up?”
“No, you can go out now.” Donghae said.
When the door closed he opened a side drawer and took out the white silk box holding the ring safely. It wasn’t a good idea to go see her today, after all. Victoria would want some space to herself. He worried again if he’d made her feel uncomfortable.
- - - - -
In the light of the afternoon Yoona added some makeup onto her face and eyed herself in the mirror. Feeling unsatisfied she took off her makeup and redid it a few times until eventually she got tired of how long it was taking her. Adding a last touch of blush she finally headed out.
Walking through the automatically revolving doors she noticed Taecyeon talking to the receptionist behind the circular desk about something. He turned around when the receptionist nodded toward her and Yoona smiled at him.
“Afternoon,” she greeted. “Are you hungry?”
“I wasn’t intending to go out,” he told plainly.
Why? He always agreed for lunch.
“I’m inviting you out today, you won’t reject my offer, will you?” she asked.
In the end she found herself sitting with him at casual restaurant with two bowls of soup in front of them.
“Did you already move out of the apartment yesterday?”
He nodded recalling he’d only done so because of the argument they’d had. He still felt guilty and angry about it.
“How did you find the apartment? Is it ok?” she wondered.
“It’s fine,” he replied solemnly.
Yoona glanced at him to see that he’d been staring down into the soup the whole time. “Is something wrong? Did something happen?”
“It’s nothing,” he assured.
“It doesn’t look like nothing,” Yoona pointed out. “You’re obviously upset about something. I always talked to you about my problems, I don’t mind listening to whatever’s on your mind.”
“It’s just an argument,” he reluctantly answered.
Yoona felt surprised at the mention of an argument. What in the world would Victoria and Taecyeon have to argue about? Money? The apartment? But it seemed so childish. Would they really fight over things like that?
“You and Victoria?” asked Yoona carefully. “What about?”
That his plans to take her out to dinner had disappeared as soon as he’d spotted a car outside his apartment. As soon as he opened the door to hear an outright proposal. Because Victoria never rejected his offer. Then he’d tossed the ring case at the door and almost had a fight with Donghae. And that was where things spun off. Where he’d had an argument with Victoria accusing her of this and that. Then he just left.
“Taecyeon?” Yoona called.
Taecyeon grabbed his spoon, “Lets eat. I have about 15 minutes before I need to go back.”
There was no doubt that he’d been absentminded the whole time during lunch. He never responded to her questions and when he did he gave answers that were totally off-topic. She didn’t know if she should be worried about it or not but as often as she felt disappointed with his lack of attention, she was feeling the same way again that day.
As she watched him walk into the business building she began wondering if Victoria had been telling her the truth. Or had Victoria only encouraged her on empty hope because Victoria knew she had become fond of Taecyeon? Was it that obvious? As obvious as Taecyeon’s attention always flying elsewhere?
When he always talked about Victoria he talked as if he had a lot of interest in her. And that interest had slowly changed over the course of time…and Yoona had been one to witness it all. The moment when Victoria tumbled to the ground at the factory she’d watched him carry her out. At the same time he’d repeated into her ears over and over that she couldn’t die on him.
Yoona felt her heart ache and tears boiled in her eyes. It couldn’t be…
- - - - -
Standing against the desk he stared through the large clean windows and watched traffic go by. Often he remembered Victoria would wait for him outside of the shops while he paid for her clothes and when he found her she was always watching the cars go by in a daze. He felt sorry for telling her to chase Donghae out and tell him she wanted to be his wife. Of course, he’d only said that out of anger. He didn’t mean it. He’d been hard on her after all. Taecyeon wondered if he’d hurt her feelings. If there was someone he had to apologize to, he’d only apologize to Victoria.
After work he immediately went to a chicken shop and bought some fried chicken. It might be hard on Victoria if he took her out after Donghae had already done so. On the way back to the apartment he felt a tinge of excitement grow within him. If they didn’t have another fight then he was pretty sure that they’d end up having some fun together. Victoria was always fun to be with. He glanced at the bag of wrapped up chicken on the passenger’s seat and smiled firmly.
Stopping his car beside the apartment he hurried up the stairs. When the door opened he couldn’t hear anyone moving inside. The place was as silent as if it had been empty all night long.
“Victoria?” he called walking toward the kitchen and glanced in.
No one was there. He glanced at the open bedroom door and wondered if she was sleeping. And there she was lying on the bed in a deep slumber. Feeling a wave of relief he decided to unpack the chicken in the kitchen first then wake her up to surprise her. The thought of just that made him excited again. After setting the chicken out on the plates he walked back toward the bedroom with his hands wet from the sink water.
“Hey, wake up,” he called from the doorway.
But she remained as still as a dummy. He called for her to wake up again but after his third call the smile faded from his face. Walking further into the room he finally realized that her hair was glistening as if she’d been sweating all night. Putting a hand to her forehead he found that she was burning up.
“Yah!” he bellowed grabbing onto her shoulders hoisting her up.
As he held her up her head lolled forward. Fear engulfed him when he wondered if she’d been unconscious ever since he’d left yesterday. Not good. It wasn’t good. Instead of debating for a long time, he immediately picked her up and rushed through the door. If she was suffering from a high fever just three days after returning from the hospital it wasn’t a good sign. Other than the sign that she wasn’t as well as she thought she was also meant he hadn’t been taking enough care of her.
In the hospital he watched as the nurses wheeled her off into a private room for examination while he waited in the hallway anxiously awaiting for news. The nurses walked out of the room a few minutes earlier accompanied by the hospital doctor. The doctor explained that her wound wasn’t healing as properly as it should have and that a few day’s rest would help her fever go down, however, they’d like to keep her in the hospital for three days just in case. Thanking them immediately he asked if he was able to go in and visit. When given permission he slid open the door and found her sleeping in the bed in another hospital gown.
Another meal, another good night he’d foreseen between them had faded as quickly as the thought had popped into his head earlier. Sitting on the chair beside the bed he glanced at her sleeping form.
“How often do you need to sleep?” he questioned roughly and sarcastically at first then heaved a sigh. “If you wake up now, I’ll go and apologize to that jerk of yours.”
- - - - -
Donghae awoke early when his phone suddenly began ringing excitedly. Groaning he sat up in bed and reached for his phone.
“Hello?” he mumbled not yet awake.
“It’s me,” the voice said.
Donghae felt his eyes open as he recognized the doctor’s voice on the other end of the line. “What? Why are you calling me? Do you want me to donate you some blood?”
“Still come in and do that when you have time,” the doctor replied, “but something interesting happened last night.”
“What?” Donghae asked.
“Remember that girl you brought in twice for me to check up on?” the doctor asked.
Now Donghae was immediately awake. “What about her?”
“Did you two break up or something? Or did something extreme happen between the two of you?” he went on.
“What are you babbling about?” Donghae arrogantly asked. “Get to the point.”
“Some guy brought her in yesterday. She had a high fever but other than that there’s something peculiar here,” the doctor said.
Donghae listened intently.
“She seems to have been wounded just a few days ago. The wound is deep and it’s having a hard time healing, I’m guessing because of all the things she must have been doing, moving about and all.”
“What about the wound? What wound are you talking about?” Donghae questioned.
Victoria had seemed just perfectly fine the last time he saw her, which had been two days ago. Nothing was wrong with her, but now that he thought of it...she did look a bit on the weak side.
“To me it looks like a gunshot wound. I’ll have to check in with the doctor she last visited before I can fully inform you,” the doctor answered.
“What!” Donghae heard his own voice shout.
“Anyway, feel free to come in whenever. She’ll be in room 313 if you want to visit.” the doctor explained before hanging up.
Donghae was bewildered. Gun shot? Where did that come from? What did that have to do with her? Getting up he quickly dressed. He wasn’t going to wait all day to go to the hospital.
- - - - -
Taecyeon stood by and watched as the nurses did their round checkup on the still unconscious Victoria. She hadn’t woken up.
“Are you her friend?” the nurse questioned with a sympathetic smile. “It shouldn’t be long before she wakes up now.”
Taecyeon smiled and watched the nurse leave. Turning back to Victoria he bit his bottom lip.
“How much longer do you want me to wait?” he asked putting his hand on her head and rubbing his thumb against her forehead. “Wake up already, you lazy person.”
About an hour later, Taecyeon decided to finally call the company to excuse him from work. However when he slid open the door he found himself face to face with Donghae. Neither of them were happy to see the other.
“What are you doing here?” Donghae asked.
“What are you doing here?” Taecyeon rebounded the question.
“I don’t want excuses coming from you so explain to me what exactly is going on,” Dongahe demanded.
Taecyeon stared at him for a long moment before suggesting, “Lets not bother her here.”
Under the happy sun outside and standing in the cold by the dead tree in a yard meant for patients to breathe some air, they stood facing each other. Luckily the yard was empty that morning.
“What’s going on?” Donghae demanded to know.
“How’d you get here?” Taecyeon switched the subject.
“I have a wide network,” Donghae replied through almost gritted teeth. “Now you tell me about how Victoria got that damn gun shot wound.”
Taecyeon’s throat closed. What?
“What are you talking about?” Taecyeon played stupid.
“Are you fooling with me?” Donghae asked threateningly. “Last week, during those days I wasn’t able to contact any of you, something happened. What is it? What are you hiding from me?”
Taecyeon gulped. What to do now?
“Do you still plan to hide it from me?!” Donghae shouted.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Taecyeon stated.
“What wouldn’t I understand!” it wasn’t a question.
Taecyeon stared at the man before him, “You’re just infatuated. You don’t have any real feelings toward her. If you do then it’s just puppy love, your love doesn’t exist.”
“What nonsense are you speaking?” Donghae asked as if disgusted by him.
“What kind of a guy wants to marry a girl he knows nothing about? Only a month after having found her in my home you want to go all out for her?! Are you kidding me?” Taecyeon boasted. “You just want to possess her. You just want to own her. But you don’t care about what will happen to her. You’re so blind to it all that you don’t even understand what you’re putting her through. What kind of a guy treats a girl like that?”
“Who are you to criticize me?”
“Do you think I don’t see it at all?” Taecyeon questioned. “Ok, maybe I haven’t witnessed what you’ve done with her, or how you’ve treated her, but this is it. Stay away from her. You’d only hurt her if you take another step further. Victoria doesn’t need you.”
Before Donghae could go on a voice interrupted. “What are you two doing out here?”
They turned to see Yoona walking toward them.
“What are you doing here?” Donghae asked.
“Me?” Yoona asked before turning to Taecyeon. “Taecyeon called me last night. What about you? Are you visiting Eun Chul again?”
Donghae glanced at Yoona before turning to Taecyeon. With a small glare he turned around and walked into the hospital. Taecyeon was ready to follow him but was pulled to a stop when Yoona reached for his arm.
“What’s going on?” Yoona asked concerned.
Taecyeon turned around, “Who’s Eun Chul?”
“Eun Chul?” she repeated. “He’s the medical doctor that went to school with Donghae. Why?”
Taecyeon turned away with a sarcastic laugh escaping him, “Tell him not to leak anything else to Donghae.”
“What? Why?” Yoona held Taecyeon back from taking another step.
“Donghae knows Victoria was shot. The matter’s getting out of hand, don’t you think?” asked Taecyeon.
Yoona glanced at Taecyeon shocked but after a second said, “Just because of a gun wound, you think that would tie Victoria with those guys? Donghae won’t be able to discover such things so easily. After searching all my life I couldn’t even pin those guys down, and Donghae’s just a mere businessman. You think he’s capable of linking Victoria to those guys?”
“He has a wide variety of people in his network. We wouldn’t know.” Taecyeon reminded.
“I do too,” Yoona stated. After a brief pause she said, “I think you’re just being overprotective of Victoria.”
Taecyeon didn’t want to deal with anyone else after he’d already met with Donghae. Turning around he walked back into the hospital.
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