Donghae could make out his stocky build, but that was all he could see. Siwon stepped forward with an equivocal expression. Of course Donghae had forgotten over him. Now he could only imagine the shock the guy might experience when he found out Donghae was the famous thief on the piece of paper he carried around.

An air of tension immediately surrounded them while it built a bubble around them. The particles in the air became stuffy and no one made another move. Some officers lifted up their guns, the others reaching for handcuffs. Donghae gulped. He’d never had a gun pointed at him before and the intensity of it brought sweat down his face.

The silence broke when something quietly clicked from behind him. Donghae turned to look at Victoria and in another split second a shot sprang in the air. Everyone fell into deep confusion and turned to look at each other trying to make out who had made the shot, but all that was relevant in Donghae’s eyes was Victoria clumsily toppling over a rock and into the reservoir. His mouth fell open, all the commotion behind him lost to his ears.

“Who did it!? Who made the shot!?”

“It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me!”

“I’m sorry!” 

Racing forward Donghae ran into the water, the liquid splashing against each step he took before he dug out Victoria from the mass of tall weeds. His heart ran in circles crazily and every thought he had slurred. Was Victoria breathing? Was she dead? What happened? He didn’t know. He couldn’t interpret any bit of anything at all.

He pulled her out and felt her slouch against his chest, her arms dangled from her sides uncontrollably, and he wasn’t sure if she was still breathing anymore. Frustration and anger ran through him with the inability to take control of the situation.

“Victoria! Victoria!” he cried before the other’s voices reached his ears.

Donghae turned to recognize the shadows of the others, Siwon at the front eyes large from bewilderment. Donghae’s eyes traveled from him to the gun at his feet and he raced to take it, Victoria leaning against him like the remnants of a mummy. He tried pressing the trigger before he discovered that Victoria had put on the safety lock of the gun. Donghae squeezed his eyes shut with tears on edge from the painful memory of the quiet click behind him just moments ago, and some idiot had the nerve to shoot.

A heavy scream escaped him as he shot his head back and Donghae turned to face the others his eyes fiery and enraged.

“Don’t move. I’ll shoot.” Donghae sternly warned moving his gun from person to person.

At last his mad eyes landed upon Siwon and he unlocked the gun. Donghae shot at their feet before hoisting Victoria over his shoulder. He ran the rest of the way back, searched for an unlocked patrol car, and took off.

\ \ \ \ \

It was late and Seohyun was brooding alone in the kitchen. Luhan had really gone and Victoria had disappeared. What had come up that had been serious enough for her to just drop their break-in mission? So much had happened and she had found out so much that she just wanted to sit down with Victoria to have a talk, yet all of it seemed impossible. 

Seohyun wanted to see Siwon. His face would tell her the calmer of reality even if he faced the harsher side of it himself, but they would come to understand each other and help each other through it. And that would make everything better. However, Siwon was in for his night shift and he wouldn’t be in contact. Seohyun had no one else to talk to.

The feeling of loneliness and emptiness eagerly surrounded her, but the knock on the door forced her back to the harsher side of reality. Seohyun lifted her head up from between her hands and glanced toward the hallway as if the guest had invited himself in.

Getting up to her feet she slowly started toward the door and unlocked it. Siwon glanced back at her and without a word she let him in. The solid expression of exhaustion and profound shock on his face told her there was serious business. Closing the door behind her she glanced at him almost curious about his visit if he weren’t there to just see her.

“Did something happen?” Seohyun glanced up at him. “You don’t look well. Are you sick? Did you get off work because you weren’t well?”

“I left without anyone knowing,” Siwon mumbled before turning to look at her.

Seohyun glanced into his eyes feeling almost nervous at once. For the first time since she knew him he was really exuding the ‘police’ feel. She realized that even though this was her apartment he had more authority over her now than ever.

“There was a break-in at Yun Man’s,” Siwon monotonously started, his eyes dull but despaired. “Victoria and Donghae were there.” 

Her lips fell apart from the abrupt news. However, what was worrying her the most at the second was that they’d been seen by the police, Siwon included was the worst factor.

“I think it’s time you tell me what’s going on.”

\ \ \ \ \

“Hyuk! Hyuk! Hyuk! Come out! Come out!” Donghae bellowed at the top of his lungs with all his might as he walked into a dark hall. “Hyuk! Hyuk!”

“Oi…what are you doing here?” Hyukjae yawned when he opened a door at the top of the long stairway, a cake of light immediately lighting up the auditorium.

Hyukjae lived at the auditorium where he also ran his auction house. Donghae had pushed aside the curtains and had ran backstage where Hyukjae camped out in one of the backrooms two floors up. His friend apparently stared down stupefied by Donghae’s sudden visit.

“Hyuk, help me, please.” Donghae cried out helpless.

“What do you want?” Hyukjae who was still half in dreamland yawned again.

“I know you once helped out for the Secret Services.” Donghae called up. “You’re the only one I can think of right now. Please!”

Hyukjae, after a literal 5 minutes finally climbed down the stairs. 

“You better shut your trap about that.” Hyukjae threatened earnestly before ordering Donghae to bring her into one of the backrooms.

Donghae’s heart wrenched with pain when Victoria’s unconscious face scorched from the pain in her arm when Hyukjae cut up her shirt and gently touched her wound.

“Is she ok?” Donghae wondered from the side, his voice scared.

“Uh…” Hyukjae nodded. “You said she was shot?” he glanced up into his friend’s face. “This is nothing. Just a scratch. Probably lost consciousness from falling over.” 

“So it’s really nothing? She won’t die?”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes at his friend’s childishness. “Fortunately, no.”

Donghae sighed and watched Eunhyuk put pressure on the bleeding before placing a white piece of bandage on it and wrapped it up in gauze ‘just in case’.

“She’s fine, don’t worry your off, man.” Hyukjae assured.

“Do you know when she’ll wake up?” Donghae wondered.

Hyukjae took off his gloves and tossed them away into a silver bin with a shrug. “By the way, what the hell happened this time? Get yourself in trouble?”

“I ditched a patrol car a few blocks from here. Police might question you.” Donghae explained.

“Great.” Hyukjae rolled his eyes again before glancing at the unconscious Victoria on the table. “She her?”

A smile rose onto Donghae’s face. “Yea.”

\ \ \ \ \

It was cold. She was cold. Victoria embraced herself with her arms but stopped when a pain from her left arm stung her whole body. Opening her eyes slowly she found that she was lying in a room foreign to her. A blanket had been draped over her so cautiously that it covered even her neck. The room was empty but the thought of being cold had probably just been a dream as she was very warm.

The fat pillow underneath her head wasn’t hers, she could tell right away. The room had been well kept but it was as plain compared to hers. Victoria’s slowly eyes spaced over to the door when it opened and she saw a man’s back before he turned around with a cup of water and some pills in hand.

Calm silence crept in when they looked at each other and Victoria pulled herself up. When the blanket slid down to her waist she realized she wasn’t in her own clothes but a formal buttoned up shirt. Her damp hair fell over her shoulder before Donghae set down the cup of water and small bottle of pills beside it on the bedside desk.

“I…I didn’t do anything, I promise,” Donghae almost shyly promised, “it’s just…your clothes were drenched and I didn’t want you to catch a cold.” After he met her eyes again he mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

Victoria turned away feeling as sullen as she had the last she came to his apartment. A flux of emotions pounded themselves into her. It was still there, that string that tugged at her heart achingly. For the same reason, the reason she didn’t understand, she still felt hurt. 

“And…you know…what I did the other day…sorry.” Donghae murmured sincerely.

Looking at him made Victoria’s heart mellow. Still, she didn’t know what to say. What was right? She still felt like she should hold back. She wasn’t fully prepared to accept or express anything. But her heart…still hurt.

“Thanks, for coming after me. You didn’t have to.” Donghae didn’t smile even when he looked at her and seeing that made her feel a little guilty. “You can sleep here for the night if you want. I brought you some warm water and pain killers if it hurts.” He stopped as if he were hesitating. “I…I’ll go now.”

Donghae turned so that his back was to her. It hurt again. Her heart hurt again. She couldn’t describe it.

“You,” she began, “can stay…if you want.”  

He turned around to look at her and Victoria felt her cheeks run mad with temperature before smoothing out an area by the side of the bed. His eyes fell on it for a moment and he contemplated for a while before quietly sitting down. Again, they were silent.

Victoria stole a long gaze at his back which created a neat arc before they traveled up to his glossy hair. Even when they were so close she still felt cold and lonely. Why had the emotions fluttered back after she had blocked them out? Her heart hurt so much…

She glanced at him once more and scooted forward. Without thinking she reached a hand out and ran it against the back of his neck. His flesh ran soft and smooth underneath her fingertips. Donghae turned to look at her surprised and Victoria inched forward while her hand bristled into his hair. With a touch of her lips she kissed him and felt him freeze under her spell. Victoria backed up and peered into his wide eyes before her own traveled across the smooth of his face. She instinctively shut her eyes when he kissed her back, his hand cupping her face gently before moving back to look at her as if looking for permission to go on. Without a word he kissed her again, their lips interlocking slowly but passionately.

After a mere minute he shifted back to look at her, “If you don’t say anything I might not be able to stop myself.”

No word escaped her. With his other hand he reached for hers entwining them together. He sent a flurry of kisses across her face before they locked into another passionate one.

\ \ \ \ \

Seohyun slid her Agent ID across the table and after a close observation of it Siwon glanced up into Seohyun’s eyes which she quickly averted from him.

“If you’re seeking the answer about why Victoria was there, I can’t tell you,” Seohyun told. “If you want to ask if Victoria is the same as me, I won’t lie.”

Siwon’s heart pounded against his chest loudly. He’d never known for his heart to beat so heavily before. 

“What do you want to know?” Seohyun asked very business mannerly.

Their eyes met and Seohyun glanced at him witch such seriousness he felt as if the Seohyun in front of him wasn’t the one he’d known just yesterday. What was she? He felt rude to put it that way, but he guessed he really didn’t know her after all.

“Why…are you really here?” Siwon glanced at her, afraid he might hurt her, and scared that he already had. At the end, was he prepared to hear what was going to come from her?

Seohyun lowered her eyes, “I really don’t want you to know. You would never look at me the same way, but I guess it’s alright now. Work should have no feelings attached.”

His heart sunk.

“What we’re looking for is a top secret,” Seohyun began, “this work should be done without anyone being aware. We came down to the suburbs of Seoul for only one thing in mind. It’s a key business powerhouses are all after. The outbreak of small business failings is probably because of this key alone. Whoever gets their hand on it has the ability to manipulate, frame, bribe, and make their oppositions fall into pits of helpless debt. It can do more. It can kill.”

Siwon felt a shiver run down his spine. A simple key had so much power…and Seohyun had come down just to bring it back to the government? All her work was just for a damn key? It was complete nonsense. 

“After you walk out from here, you’re no longer safe,” Seohyun stared him right in the eye. “I’ve been watched, and you will be too the moment you leave this apartment. It’s a mess, right?”

The smile she brought up with the last sentence made him uncertain. Was it a joke? A sick joke?

Seohyun glanced toward the window which was blocked by a curtain.

“It’d be best you leave when the sun rises.” Seohyun explained.

When she rose to her feet Siwon said, “You aren’t safe here either!”

Her heart melted, softened, and wanted to cry. She spun around to look at him, “Person wise, we aren’t, but work wise, I am more able than you.”

“What difference does that make? I don’t understand any of this! Do you expect me to just believe all this nonsense?! I pointed my gun at Victoria, Donghae has disappeared, and now you’re telling me you’re an agent after some key!? I can’t…Seohyun…”

“Do you,” Seohyun started, “remember that break-in at Gi Su’s manor?”

Siwon stared at her confused, but felt like he understood where she was going yet didn’t want to believe it.

“You went after someone that night, right? You ran after her but lost her, didn’t you?” Seohyun looked at him with trivial eyes hurt between whether to lie or not. “I told you once that I run fast, right Siwon?”

Everything inside him froze and he managed to shake his head stubbornly. The memory of that silhouette he’d chased in the dark shone at the back of his eyes.

“No…”

“I’ll repeat myself,” Seohyun told, “business powerhouses have been fighting each other for that key, because it had to be done in secret, we’ve done it behind everyone’s backs and have acted like burglars. The countless break-ins, who do you think could have done them?” 

Seohyun’s eyes pierced his painfully.

“I told you, you would never look at me the same again,” Seohyun said disappointed with herself and his uncontrollable reaction. “I’m sorry.”

When she took a step away from him he took one forward and grabbed her hand.

“I…” Siwon struggled with the words, “please…just give me some time. I need…I need to sink the information in first.”

Seohyun stared back into his eyes as if doubting him.

“I…I have never doubted you, I promise.” He swore. “I don’t want this to change the fact that I like you. You didn’t lie. In fact, you did tell me you weren’t a reporter and I said you could tell me when you felt ready. If this is the truth…if this is…just let me sort out everything in my head first.”

\ \ \ \ \

Victoria opened her eyes to the dimness of the room before she turned to look at the presence beside her. Turning away she wondered what time it was. Sitting up from the bed she stared down at the clothes they had ruthlessly thrown. No emotion fluxed through her. 

Moving softly she crept down and slipped each clothing back on and glanced around for the clothes she had worn out yesterday to see that they were nowhere in sight. Giving up she buttoned Donghae’s shirt over her torso and pulled on his sweats halting when she heard him sit up from behind her. Without realizing she had gathered a puddle of saliva in and silently swallowed them before turning around to look at him.

“I’m leaving.” Victoria said. “I’ll return your clothes after I wash them.”

“I’ll walk you out,” Donghae suggested and tried to get up but Victoria interrupted.

“It’s better I go alone.” Victoria stiffly told. “Can I…borrow some money?”

He slightly smiled and leaned over to grab some money out of the drawer beside her.

“You don’t have to return it.” He handed her the money and her keys before placing a soft kiss at the corner of her lips. “See you later.”

Victoria felt reluctant toward everything nonetheless she nodded and stood up to walk out. On the ride back to her apartment she still failed at conjuring up any certain emotion. Sure, she worried about Siwon sighting them yesterday and that was all. She couldn’t feel sad nor could she imagine what he was feeling. For the first time she began fearing that she’d lost touch with humanity. Had the humane side of her disappeared for good? 

Victoria crept up the stairs with all the time in the world and quietly unlocked the door, but as soon as she took a step inside she heard voices. She stilled and listened. Seohyun’s voice was recognizable but the male counterpart she was speaking to wasn’t. Victoria had to search her memory for a long time before she remembered Siwon’s voice. Immediately backing out she closed the door with as little strength as possible. No, she wasn’t ready to see him yet. She wasn’t prepared to talk to him either and it didn’t matter what he’d say, she didn’t want to talk.

Retreating outside she sat on the nearby bench she had once seen Luhan sitting on. Not one person passed her by that morning and the streets seemed dead as well. Everything seemed as dead and silent as her heart. The wind didn’t even sweep past her side of the earth that morning, so she sat with head locked on her feet unable to think of any possible thought.

\ \ \ \ \

He hadn’t done anything wrong, he was sure of it. Luhan was confident that he could clear his own name. Seohyun had misunderstood. If they talked they would be able to work everything out.

Pressing his lips together he started toward the apartment and stopped when he saw a patrol car parked in front of the building. After staring at the car he wondered if Siwon had decided to make a stop to visit Seohyun or if he was there for some other business. Luhan jumbled the possibilities within his brain before he turned to see Victoria sitting aimlessly ahead. What caught his eyes the most was that she was dressed differently.

Luhan walked toward her and was surprised that not even she looked up when he approached. He was sure his footsteps had been loud enough to alert even a bird busy eating, but Victoria just kept staring at the ground. She looked nothing but miserable in his eyes.

“What are you doing out here?” Luhan asked.

Victoria looked up at him. The slightly dark bags underneath her eyes made him stay quiet. Without a word he sat down beside her and stared at the neat shops across from them that hadn’t opened yet for business hours.

“Why aren’t you going in?”

“What about you?”

“I’ve been kicked out as of last night.” Luhan smiled jokingly but Victoria didn’t feel him nor did she make any comment.

Victoria returned to being a silent doll and just stared at the ground as if she’d forgotten he were there.

“Where did you come from?” Luhan tried.

Victoria lowered her eyelids and looked sad.

This wasn’t the way to help Victoria, he thought. If he prodded her about her problems and about where she’d been he would only be making her feel worse if she wasn’t already feeling it. 

So he smiled and suggested, “Do you want to go out? I think, we should get you a change of clothes first.”

Luhan enjoyed escorting Victoria through the mall and down the aisles of clothes. The expressions that popped up on her face whenever he took out something he thought he liked made him want to laugh. And for once it looked like Victoria had dropped her worries just to enjoy herself. He liked this side of her, the side that rarely came out. And after Victoria had chosen something she liked they finally went for breakfast.

***Wowee! A lot sure has happened!!

***Seohyun gave away way too much! We'll see how things go for her side later

***A short date for Luhan & Victoria ^^

***I should also say that I'm almost completed with this story ^^ I spent the whole day writing yesterday, and oh boy, I feel dried out