We ran through the increasingly harsh rain. It poured so hard that at some point I couldn’t see any longer. I took a shuddering breath as I stopped suddenly realizing I couldn’t find Kai. Panic began to build in my chest as I stumbled back and my hands felt a cold and harsh tree trunk.

“KAI!” I screamed though I doubted he could hear me when even I couldn’t hear myself.

It’s just some rain I told myself as I ran my hands down my face and pushed back my wet hair. I blinked repeatedly as I tried to gain visibility again. I took a breath and broke into a run in the general direction that we were going into hoping that I would break into the clearing of his cabin. Instead it seemed to get cloudier as I pushed forward. Mud sloshed around in my shoes and I screamed as my foot caught in the dirt and I fell forward.

Quickly picking myself up I ignored the fact I had mud all over me. It wasn’t like it wasn’t going to get washed away in the next three minutes. I leaned against another tree trunk and shut my eyes, maybe he was calling for me and I hadn’t realized it yet? I tried to imagine his voice, but just as I tried to remember it a loud clash of lightning sent me to my knees. I shuddered both from cold and fear as I prayed it wouldn’t happen again. It could just be a fluke. It didn’t have to be that type of storm right?

Another loud clash pulled a scream from me and I was immediately angry at myself. I was grown up enough to not be afraid of lightning yet it had me practically crippled with fear? I pulled myself up forcing myself to not be afraid, though it was failing miserably. The flashes of light and claps of thunder made my heart race with fear and I felt myself beginning to think stupid things.

It was in a split second between raindrops and thunder, but I heard my name being called. I scrambled up and tried to ignore the storm around me and screamed as loud as I could. He had to hear me I pleaded as I kept screaming loudly hoping that like me there was second between all the chaos where he might hear me.

“HYERIM!” His muffled voice came from nowhere as he ran to me, soaking wet, and pulled me into his arms.

I felt relief and a sense of safety wash over as I wrapped my arms around him and cried into his chest. He grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me in a random direction. I stared at him as we ran and clasped his hand like a lifeline. Finally, the cabin came into focus and we ran in.  We were breathless as he stepped inside and I refused to let go of his hand.

“What happened to you?!” He asked pushing his hair back.

“I don’t know… It’s just the rain suddenly became too much and I couldn’t see and I tried to catch up but I just…aaAH!” I screamed as a clash of thunder resounded around us and I jumped.

“Alright well you’re safe now. That’s all that matters. Get some clothes we both need showers. You take the one in them main bedroom, I’ll take the one down the hall alright?” He said as he let go of my hand and went to get our bags.

“Thanks for coming back for me” I said as he handed me my bag.

“I wouldn’t leave you behind” Kai said and I felt my heart jump as he smiled brightly despite the coat of mud we both wore and he walked to the other bathroom.

I ran up to one of the rooms and went straight into the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and immediately peeled off the wet clothing. Lightning and thunder struck again and I frowned forcing myself to cope with it. I was indoors and I wasn’t alone. I showered and pulled on a large shirt and some loose pants. Even though it was only afternoon it was dark as I ran into the big bed and pulled thick blankets over my head. It was still cold despite all the blankets, but at least the sounds were muffled, if only a little. I heard the door open and footsteps follow.

“You’re afraid of thunderstorms?” Kai asked from somewhere in my room.

“Just a bit” I replied, my high pitched voice betraying my fear.

I felt the edge of the bed sink in and I could picture him sitting there with that playful smile of his.

“That night I was gone… were you this scared?” He asked suddenly, his voice ringing out from outside the blankets.

“No…” I lied, “It’s just because we’re in the forest”

“I’m sorry” He said sincerely besides me.

“It’s fine. You don’t have any responsibility to me you know. There’s no reason to apologize” I whispered as another clash rang out and I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming out. At least it was better with him around.

“And if I wanted that responsibility?” He asked, his voice suddenly closer.

“You can’t. It doesn’t belong to you” I replied not sounding nearly as strong as I wanted it to sound.

“What if I decide to steal it? I think I can steal it. I want to steal it” He whispered, a loud warning echoing around us.

“You have other responsibilities” I whispered in between a particularly loud clash of lightning.

“….you do too” He answered gently as he pulled back the blanket over my head.

I must’ve looked like quite a sight with my widened eyes staring up at him in surprise along with my messy semi wet hair and a soft smile playing on his lips.

“Let’s go to the living room” I whispered hoarsely , fighting my fear of the storm raging outside and shooting out of the bed.

Grabbing a discarded blanket on the side of the bed I ran for the door. A masculine arm shot out past me and closed the door in my face, grabbing my upper arm and turning me around forcefully.

“Is it because you’ll feel guilty?” He asked suddenly.

“Won’t you?” I said loudly.

“No. Yes. I don’t know, but right now I can’t help it. I can’t stop thinking about you. How will we know if we never try?” He said an unspoken urgency in his voice.

“We can’t try if we both have other people that trust us!” I insisted trying to pry myself free.

“What if we don’t have another chance? We go back and everything goes back to normal. Every reason we have to not try to see what we feel will be 100 times worse and I can guarantee we’ll never know” He ended, his voice hoarse.

My mind spun for a moment. What was happening?

“If the reasons for us to not explore what we feel are that strong, then isn’t that a sign we shouldn’t?” I said clearly, steadying myself. Forcing myself to ignore what my body and heart were nagging me to do.

“Then you can blame it on me” He insisted, running us into the cold door behind us so that my breath escaped me and his body pinned mine in place, “You can say I took advantage of you. You got drunk and I had my way with you? You wanted me to stop, but I wouldn’t let you” He continued his hands running down my sides and his lips grazing mine.

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t breath. I was overwhelmed by the emotions running through me. Desire and something else. Something more sincere and innocent despite what was happening. His scent surrounded me and the warmth of his body poured into me endlessly reminding me where I was. Could I do that? Could I really push it all on him when I….

“I’m not going to do this Kai. I’m not this type of person” I whispered.

“I’ll break up with her Hyerim. I swear I will if it means that we can try making this work” He said suddenly, his voice dripping with determination.

“You’ll break up with her, for me?” I whispered in wonder as I finally got the courage to look into his eyes. That was a mistake.

“Yeah, I will. I… like you Hyerim. At some point, I began to think that being married to you wasn’t such a bad thing. We’re already together, why not just go with it if there are feelings between us?” Kai asked as he pulled me towards the bed, sitting on the edge and holding a hand out for me.

“Don’t you feel anything for me?” He asked softly “I genuinely like you. Can’t that be enough for tonight?” He whispered.

In the end, he was giving me a choice. I could turn around and walk away and everything would be fine. Daehyun would never know what almost happened. I would divorce Kai and move on, but of course that’s not what happened.  

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So I wrote the scene... *sigh* It needed a little bit of a leading up to so I wrote this chapter really quick mostly because I'm delaying posting it lol Next chapter will be rated mature so skip over it you don't want to read it, I won't put anything that you can't go on without knowing in that chapter. Um... yeah so chapter 27 will be up in a little while after I read through it once (oh god...) and fix any spelling errors etc. 

So... yeah... :)