~_____~

After changing into something more comfortable Namjoo finally turned around to stare at the bed. She hadn’t yet had the chance to change the bed sheets or give anything a wash. Her eyes lay on the bed in vain. In her mind she could see her and Kris kissing passionately before they’d stop and take a look at each other before continuing.

Instinctively, she ran a hand over the band-aid on her neck and kicked at the bed. “Eesh!”

The memory of it all was attacking her so hard. Namjoo couldn’t figure out why she had done it…with him. Lightly pounding her fists against the side of her head she stomped over to her closet, grabbed an extra blanket, wrapped herself into it like a burrito, and sat against the wall.

Attraction, she had to blame attraction. And it was because she had allowed him to kiss her. Why in the world had she enjoyed it in the first place? Namjoo washed her face in her hands. She had screwed up. She groaned and rocked herself back and forth. It was impossible to rewind any of it. How was she supposed to face her own co-worker now?

She sat like that for almost twenty minutes before deciding she was unable to sleep. Carrying herself up she escaped out of the suffocating room and found Tao seated on her couch watching the TV with the volume on mute. They glanced at each other surprised.

Namjoo cleared and stared at the ground before walking over to join him on the couch, “I can’t sleep.”

“Oh…”

Namjoo sat curled up on the couch and hesitantly glanced at him, “You can turn the volume up.”

Tao glanced at her really quickly before doing so and for the rest of the night they just stared at the TV screen.

~_____~

Victoria was in a smoky place. It almost seemed foggy and choked up. Water was dripping and a voice was calling out. Rather than hearing those echoes, she could feel them bouncing off the hallow walls.

“Hello?” her own voice vibrated underneath her feet.

Glancing around she spotted a low ceiling overhead that almost touched her hair. Where was she? What was this place? Her footsteps cautiously halted when she spotted a shadow at the exit of the tunnel or whatever it was she was walking through.

Victoria blinked, stared, and felt her lips move. Who was that? She almost took a step forward, but someone their hand out to grab hers. “Don’t go.” Spinning around she saw a face covered in darkness. The light at the head of the tunnel was far from where she was and she almost couldn’t see a thing. Victoria felt her breathing calm though, she wasn’t scared of this person. Instead, she felt like she trusted him and that it was possible for her to rely on him.

Then very slowly the darkness faded away and she was staring at Donghae.

She jolted awake when the door opened and turned to see a blinding light making its way into the room. A woman with curly hair took a step in.

“What are you still doing here!? Quickly get up and leave! You were supposed to be out of here an hour ago!” the woman scolded grabbing Victoria’s arm to pull her up. “You’re distracting my business! Oh! Young people these days have no manners at all!”

Victoria’s eyes met with the woman’s utmost unhappy stare before she slowly glanced around the room. Eunhyuk had disappeared. And that was when her eyes landed on the cup of water she hadn’t finished last night. The truth slammed her so hard she felt like throwing herself off a cliff.

“Ahjumma,” Victoria asked, “who brought the water last night?”

The woman stared at her, “I don’t know! Are you going to get out or not!?”

A few seconds later Victoria exited the inn. Traffic had filled up the street and the sun was beginning to burn up her face. Yet she had no mood to pay attention to it.

“Tsh…I can’t believe this,” Victoria ran her hand up through her hair.

Eunhyuk had spiked her drink with some kind of strong sleeping pill or something. That was low. That was a really low move. He had used that as a gateway to escape from her clutch and now she didn’t know where he was or where to find him anymore.

“Great, this is the end for me,” Victoria kicked at the ground upset. 

~_____~

When Tao awoke he discovered half of the blanket Namjoo had wrapped herself in last night had been draped over the lower half of his body while Namjoo used the rest to cover herself up. Pulling himself up he glanced around with his vision still blurry before he rubbed his eyes. In the end he’d fallen asleep at her place instead of heading back to Donghae’s. He shot his eyes over to the TV to discover that it was turned off and guessed he’d fallen asleep before her last night.

Tao glanced over at Namjoo who was deep asleep curled up into a fetal position. His feet brushed against her legs and he quickly pulled them out of the blanket shy and embarrassed. Clearing his throat he stood up and started to walk away, but stopped and slowly turned around. The first thing his eyes landed on was Namjoo. Pivoting in position he slowly walked back to her and bent down to adjust the blanket over her so that not an air of wind could escape into the blanket. His eyes ran up from the blanket to her chin stopping at her intimidating lips. He suddenly thought of the rosey scent her skin gave off and barely closed his eyes to concentrate on it. In the midst of it Namjoo reached her hand up to scratch her forehead and he felt her knuckles skim through his hair before she eventually awoke.

They stared at each other the second his eyes fluttered open. Shocked and surprised, Tao’s brain couldn’t send any signals for his body to move. When Namjoo tried to sit up she rammed her forehead into his. With a loud shout Tao stood up and started to turn to walk away, but his legs clumsily tangled and he ended up crushing her legs with his fall. Her loud scream filtered his ears before he rolled over and ended up with his arms sprawled over the couch.

“Eesh…” Namjoo huffed rubbing her forehead then screamed, “what the hell were you doing!?”

“I…I…” he opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly felt his body flush with heat. If he told her she would laugh at him or worse, about it later. Clearing his throat he turned away and blinked nervously, “Nothing.”

Namjoo stared at him with an annoyed frown before she got up. Coincidentally, Tao had gotten up at the same time too and when he turned he ended up blocking her way. Namjoo stared up at him with another frown.

“What are you doing?” she questioned, a hint of irritation in her voice.

Tao immediately turned to the side to make way for her and Namjoo eyed him for a few seconds before walking by. “Are you hungry?”

“H…huh?” his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Namjoo stared at him with another frown again wondering why he was being so strange, “I asked if you’re hungry. I’ll make you something to eat before you leave.”

“O…oh…”

Namjoo shook her head at him, “Whatever.”

His eyes slowly followed her before she disappeared to wash up. Tao was amazed. How was it possible that he was feeling upbeat and happy for once?

~_____~

Donghae awoke when his body slipped to the side of his chair with a jolt. He mumbled and groaned before yawning before he stared out of the window. The sun had lit up the park with its orange-yellow glow. He could finally see the swing sets that had been swaying back and forth with the wind last night and shook his head. Glancing at his watch he drove out of the lot. There was no choice, but to decide on what to do next while driving around. He was going to kill Victoria when he saw her. She had better still be in Yeongwol or else his spending a night there was just a waste of time.

He literally stepped on the brakes causing his whole body to jerk forward just before he drove around the corner.

“Speaking about the devil,” he mumbled before punching his steering wheel. The horn sounded really loud and he watched Victoria jump a little before she turned to look around. Their eyes immediately met and he raised an annoyed eyebrow at her. He scrolled down the window while Victoria turned her face away from him, “Get in.”

“For your information I came here in my own car,” Victoria stated. “I will see you back in Seoul then.”

She started to take a step forward, but Donghae pressed the horn again. It echoed for seconds on end and passersby turned to stare and watch. He wasn’t about to just let her go.

“Donghae!” she shouted wondering if he knew a limit to persistence.

He bit the bottom of his lip, “Forget your car. Are you going to get in, or should I keep pressing the horn?” Victoria narrowed her eyes and stared irritated. Donghae raised his eyebrows and waited.

“Why, isn’t this luck,” Victoria’s sarcasm was at work again a minute later when she’d gotten into his car.

“Where the hell were you?” Donghae started questioning at once. “How could you just disappear like that!?”

“Lets talk later, I’m really hungry right now,” Victoria brushed his irritation off her shoulder.

Donghae glared at her through the corner of his eye. The frustration and irritation of searching for her for hours on end last night was exploding inside him as if he’d kept it all in a bottle. Gripping onto the steering wheel he harshly turned into a fast food parking lot and purposely stepped on the brake real hard. Victoria’s body was sent flying forward and she had no choice, but to stop herself by flinging her hands out against the dashboard.

“What the hell!?” Victoria cussed.

Donghae bit his bottom lip before pulling the seatbelt off him and shook his head, “Alright. If you’re hungry, lets eat.”

Victoria stared at him wide eyed before she turned away with an exasperated huff.

When he stepped out of the car he slightly turned to look at her annoyed before walking toward the front doors with no intention of waiting for her.

~_____~

When Victoria turned around from the counter with her tray of food she spotted Donghae already sitting at a table. He’d already started on his meal and was eating greedily. There was a huge urge to roll her eyes. She wanted to avoid him at all costs. It was obviously visible that he was being rude to her on purpose and for whatever reason he was still in Yeongwol, she couldn’t get into her head.

So as not to walk past him she took one of the booths closest to the condiment stand and unwrapped her breakfast burrito.

Donghae glanced over at her before lifting his tray up with a silent groan and set it down loudly in front of Victoria. She looked up at him irked and Donghae seemed to stare back with the same expression before sitting in front of her.

“Ugh…seriously…” she whispered to herself sore by his presence and ran a hand up her face in hopes of hiding the roll of her eyes from him.

“I’m giving you 15 minutes,” Donghae warned, “if you don’t finish by then, lets just have our conversation here about why you were at the brothel.”

Victoria turned back to Donghae with stern eyes before something dropped behind her.

“S…sorry,” a young teenager apologized with a nod of her head before scurrying off to join her friends at another table.

Victoria shut her eyes and bit onto her bottom lip before shooting Donghae a hard stare. He only shrugged at her with a sly smile. He was doing it on purpose. She was just so annoyed with him!

~_____~

Park Chorong, who had talked to him about unsatisfying the expectations expected of her and how low she had felt when her family used their connections to set her through the Police Academy, was one who remained silent in Lay’s mind. That morning he found himself debating whether to bring in coffee for her for some kind of snack. He felt that by doing so he might cheer her up from the things that happened every day at headquarters. There always seemed to be some kind of tension floating around and he could see how inferior Chorong felt. So many things had happened lately that he hadn’t yet had the chance to just sit down with her for a nice chat.

Chorong, he concluded, was a good person. Lay would honestly like to get to know her more.

When he got to headquarters that morning, he discovered that no one had yet arrived. Neither Donghae nor Victoria was there and he suddenly wondered if either of them had returned from Yeongwol yet.

He ended up sitting in the lounge for almost half an hour before the elevator opened and he turned to see Chorong walking down the hall. Lay waited a second for her to turn his way, but she seemed fixed on something else.

“Chorong!” he called out and smiled with a wave when she stopped to look his way.

Grabbing the warm coffee and wrapped muffin he’d bought that morning he slowly jogged over to her.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

She looked at him before turning away to look around her as if cautious of wandering eyes, but no one was even there. What was she worried about?

“I did,” she replied before looking back at him.

“I got you a little something,” Lay handed the muffin and coffee to her.

Her eyes ran over them silently before she looked back at him. She’d already had breakfast along with a cup of coffee that morning, but it felt rude to reject the food he’d gotten for her.

“You worked hard yesterday,” Lay smiled when she took them from him.

“Everyone did,” Chorong smiled, “thanks.”

“It’s no problem,” Lay waved his hand in front of him worried if she felt bad.

Chorong looked around again before she asked, “Did you just get here?”

“Oh…oh yea,” he lied. “No one’s here yet.” They stood awkwardly for a few seconds. “Chorong…” he started but was cut off by the opening of the elevator doors and the two turned when Suho appeared from around the corner.

He was yawning tiredly before he approached them. Suho clamped his mouth shut when he saw them and smiled cheerily, “Ah…wow, you two are early!” He glanced around before continuing, “Where’s everyone?”

“No one’s here yet,” Lay answered before he saw the anxiety on Chorong’s face.

“Morning, Chorong,” Suho called, “did you sleep well last night?”

Lay watched Suho lean his head to the side to get a glimpse of Chorong before she abruptly turned. “Yes!”

The atmosphere quickly became awkward again and Chorong lowered her head in utmost embarrassment.

“Ah…” Suho said then laughed. “Should we go sit down in the lounge? Standing here in the middle of the hallway’s kind of awkward, don’t you think?”

Lay smiled and nodded before stealing a glance at the frozen Chorong.

“Chorong,” he called before tapping her shoulder.

Those shy eyes of hers glanced up at him before she nodded and walked ahead into the lounge. Lay stared after her before pressing his lips together and followed.

~_____~

The drive back to Seoul was suffocating. Victoria wasn’t sure she was going to make it. There was so much tension inside the car that she could almost see flames bursting from Donghae. He was really no joke when determined to make a fool of her. It was brothel this, brothel that every single time a customer went toward the condiment stand and he would always make sure they heard him.

She glanced at him through the corner of her eyes and decided to play the bigger person, “Did Chorong and Namjoo make it back ok?”

Victoria felt like snorting when Donghae turned to look at her with a sneer. “No thanks to you, Namjoo barely escaped ual assault.”

A gasp dropped from her lips and she twisted in her seat to look at him, “What!?”

“You heard me,” Donghae seemed to grumble, “I’m not letting you off the hook for that. You were aware of the things that could have happened inside a brothel. You should have at least thought of that mere possibility. Chorong barely escaped the hands of those women while carrying Namjoo with her.”

Guilt crushed Victoria. She hadn’t imagined it would be like that. There was complete confidence in the fact that they would be able to make it out safely.

“And then you disappeared for a whole night,” Donghae tapped his hands against the steering wheel, “now why is that, Victoria?”

A tight frown formed on her face and she glanced at him before leaning back against the chair. Donghae would kill her if he knew she had been with Eunhyuk. 

***0___0 Vic had a dream about Donghae 0___0

***hahahahahahahah! and Donghae's poking fun here with Vic. Lets hope they warm up to each other soon.

***The two words that describe Tao are: shy and embarrassed LOL at least Namjoo's starting to bring out a new side of him ^^

***Heh~ and Lay is getting interested in Chorong, but she's so obvious he will probably realize soon that she has a thing for Suho