{ Eunkwang POV }

Something had happened again. Why else would Eunjin be wondering the streets barefoot with a lost expression? When she spilled everything about her relationship with Minhyuk it took every fibre of resistance I had to not find him right there and then and beat the living daylights out of him. Obviously I couldn’t tell anyone else about it otherwise Eunjin would wind up in a hospital, or worse, a grave. Now it would be my responsibility to protect her and keep a close eye on Minhyuk. If I ever have to resort to force or violence to protect her from Minhyuk, I would do it. 

Eunjin had fallen asleep on my back a while ago after I caught her staring. Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind if she stared at me all day long, but she can’t know that. After walking for almost twenty minutes we finally reached my apartment. It was on the other side of town so Minhyuk wouldn’t find us here. That’s right, what do I do about Minhyuk now? I don’t want him taking Eunjin away again and making her suffer even more but I had no choice.  I would call him a little later. It was a struggle to get the door open with one hand while the other kept Eunjin from falling off my back. Pushing the door open, as quietly as I could I walked through the place and set Eunjin gently on my bed. I’d let her rest here before calling Minhyuk, much to my hesitance. The small alarm clock on the bedside table said it was four thirty, so I lightly lied down next to her and just studied her face. Her image was already carved into my brain but her beauty kept me mesmerised. I could lie here forever.

{ Eunjin POV }

I yawned widely and rolled over on whatever it was I was lying on. It was very unfamiliar to my bed so I cracked open an eye to see a foreign white ceiling. Maybe I was just dreaming so I rolled over again and came face to face with Eunkwang. Our faces were only a few inches away and I felt my face grow red. I was dumbstruck for a moment before jolting up and jumping off the blue sheeted bed. ‘What the hell am I doing here?! Where is here anyway?’ A thousand thoughts raced through my head before the events from earlier today materialised in my head. Breathing a sigh of relief I focused my attention on Eunkwang again, who had perched himself on the edge of the bed with a half smile.

“Good afternoon, have a nice sleep?” He asked in a bright voice. He seemed pretty cheerful which was quite the opposite of myself.

“Yeah, thanks. So, um, um…” I had absolutely no idea what to say. I mean I’m in the apartment of a man, who is not my boyfriend, what was I supposed to say? I shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.

“Well, I guess I better call Minhyuk so he can come and pick you up,” Eunkwang said solemnly and pulled his mobile phone from his jeans pocket.

“Unless you’d rather stay.” He added and looked at me curiously. I don’t want to go back to Minhyuk just yet but I knew the longer I stayed away from him the angrier he would be. But to stay with Eunkwang? The idea of getting a break from it all sounded perfect but was it right? Minhyuk was still my boyfriend despite the beatings and my wavering feelings, so would that be considered cheating? Eunkwang was still waiting for my answer so I just gave in and said to call Minhyuk.

“Ok, he said he’d be here in ten minutes.” Eunkwang had just gotten off the phone with Minhyuk and sat on the lounge next to me. I was watching the TV while trying to think of what I would say to Minhyuk. ‘Should I even bother saying anything?’ I knew he wouldn’t listen. I was so frustrated with his behaviour; one minute he was normal the next he was a raging bull. There had to be an explanation for his behaviour besides me. Maybe Eunkwang would know. Turning to face him I crossed my legs on the lounge and leaned forward slightly, determined to get answers.

“Eunkwang, you’ve known Minhyuk since you were in highschool right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, I need to know why he treats me like this. I can’t stand how he’s kind one minute and terrifying the next! It’s killing me and I won’t be able to deal with him until I know why he does it!” My desperation showed in my voice as I pleaded with him. He began to fidget and his brow knitted together. He knew something he wasn’t telling me.

“I don’t think I should tell you. It’s not very nice.” He replied while looking at his hands. Now I was angry. I shot up from the lounge and stood right in front of him.

“Not very nice!? My whole life for the past four years has not been very nice, I think I can handle it.” I spat at him. ‘Is he deaf?! Did he not hear everything I told him that day?’ I was fuming by the time he took a breath and began his answer.

“Alright, fine. Minhyuk once knew someone, but that person-”his sentence was broke off by the sound off someone knocking loudly on the door and the doorbell ringing incessantly. He looked at me with intense eyes before stomping to the door and flinging it open. Minhyuk strode into the room and brought me into a tight hug.

“Oh, Eunjin. I was looking everywhere for you! Lucky Eunkwang found you, now let’s get home.” He spoke with such fake concern that it made me cringe. If only he knew that Eunkwang knew everything already. I couldn’t leave now; I had to know what happened in Minhyuk’s past! Soon I’d go insane with this treatment and never get to do what I wanted to do in life.

Eunkwang walked us to the door and gave me a painful stare. ‘What could have happened in the past to not only affect Minhyuk but also Eunkwang in such a way?’. Standing in the elevator I thought of various scenarios that could have happened. ‘Maybe someone close to him died?’ ‘Maybe something happened to his family?’, so many different situations formed in my head but I had no idea of knowing if they were true or not. But soon I would find out.

The sky was dark but the street was bright with the hundreds of signs that lined the footpaths. I glared at Minhyuk from the corner of my eye though he didn’t notice and continued driving towards the apartment. What would he do to me now? I had run out of the apartment, wondered the streets for the majority of the day and ended up at his best friends place. I was in for it now.  It was about six thirty by the time we arrived at the apartment and walked through the door. I stood there motionless, waiting for the latest assault. But it didn’t come, Minhyuk just walked into the kitchen, grabbed a drink and sat down in front of the TV. I cautiously stepped into the lounge room and stared at Minhyuk in confusion. ‘He’s not going to do anything? Not even a single word?’ It was beginning to make me really nervous and I fidgeted from foot to foot before turning to walk to the bedroom.

“Eunjin. Never do that again.” Minhyuk called out in a stern voice which caused me to stop and look back at him. His eyes were trained on the TV but I knew he had a grim expression on his face. I didn’t respond and just ran into the bedroom and closed the door as quietly as possible. I had to get some answers about him but I had no idea where to start. I could try and ask Eunkwang again but he refuse again. Wait, I could go through Minhyuk’s stuff. It sounded like a horrible thing to do but I had to do it. Doing it right now would be far too dangerous so I would wait until he went to work tomorrow. For the rest of that night I sat on the bed and plotted tomorrow’s excavation plan.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

The alarm screeched at me to wake up. Rolling over and pushing the button to make it stop I sat up and saw Minhyuk was already awake and doing up his tie in the wall mirror. ‘Today I’d get some answers.’ I thought darkly as I walked into the bathroom. I made him breakfast as usual and said goodbye as if nothing were happening. But once I saw his car speed off from the window I dashed into the bedroom and thought about where to begin. I’d start with under the bed. Getting down on my stomach I crawled under the bed and began pulling out everything from shoe boxes to backpacks. Dust floated in the air as I opened each an every item and emptied it’s contents on the floor. Old shoes, socks, pens, more bags, books and clothes littered the floor. I sat on the floor in frustration at my failure to find anything of importance. Groaning I shoved everything back under the bed and brushed the dust off my clothes. I put my hands on my hips and scanned the room for any other possible hiding places.

The wardrobe.

Of course, anything could be hidden in there! In ripped open the double doors of Minhyuk’s side of the wardrobe. There were a few drawers and a rack of clothes hanging. I took all the hanging clothes and threw them on the bed and took out all the boxes of stuff on the bottom of the wardrobe. I opened one medium sized plastic box and rummaged through it. There were photos of Minhyuk and his family and ribbons from various sporting achievements. Nothing important in there. I went through all the other boxes and folders but found nothing out of the ordinary. ‘There has to be something in here!’, I was about to lose hope but saw I had not yet gone through his drawers. They were my last hope.

I pulled out the top drawer but found nothing but clothes and socks. The next two only held shirts or other items of clothing. The bottom drawer was the largest and heaviest. I heaved it off its rollers and placed it in front of me on the floor. There was a heavy winter coat on top and a collection of gloves and belts underneath it. When I came close to the bottom of the drawer I found a small plastic pouch. Now this was unusual. I picked it up and it felt light, as if it held nothing in it. I opened the flap on it and peered inside. Nothing was in there, so I held it upside down and shook it. Soon a piece of paper floated out. I snatched it up and looked curiously at it. I was photo of Minhyuk when he was much younger, maybe only fifteen or sixteen. But he wasn’t alone in the picture; he had his arms around a girl. She was absolutely beautiful with long straight black hair and a bright white smile. They looked like more than friends as their faces were extremely close. ‘Who is this?’ I stared at the picture for ages trying to make sense of the photo. My thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking at the front door. I jumped in surprise and dropped the photo as I rushed to the door.

I flung open the door and faced Eunkwang. What was Eunkwang doing here?

“Hey, I came to see you again.” He said nonchalantly. ‘To see me again…? What?’

“Oh, why?” I asked in puzzlement, the photo being pushed to the back of my mind.

“Well, I thought you might want to get out of the house for a while. Seeing as…well, you know…” He trailed off towards the end. Was he taking me out?

“Oh, sure. Um, let me just get some shoes.” I slipped on a pair of flats and grabbed the hidden spare key from the old jogger before closing the door behind me.

“Where do you want to go?” Eunkwang asked in the ride down in the elevator. Truthfully, I didn’t really know anywhere to go so I just said wherever he wanted to go. ‘Why does this feel like I’m going on a date or something?’ I thought and blushed involuntarily. ‘Wait, why am I blushing?! It’s not like I like Eunkwang!’ I shook my head a followed Eunkwang to wherever it was we were going.

Soon I forgot about the mess at home and the strange photo.

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 Hello Hello! So many secrets, can you guess who was in the photo?

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