~_____~

Victoria turned surprised at the sudden loud voice and straightened up when she saw Donghae. The only possible remark that appeared in her mind was, “Oh…you’re here?” Then simply turning away she said, “It’s so pretty here, I forgot how ancient this city was.” Placing her arms up on the high wall she stared at the valley inching out into the sky. “It’s really alluring how beauty is surrounded by things like life and death. How, in our lines of work, we’re always surrounded by the possibility of death. What if life is the hell we’re living, and that’s why we’re meant for heaven when we die?” Victoria tilted her head up to the deep blue sky and smiled in a silly way.

She could hear Donghae loudly walking toward her, but didn’t bother turning to look at him. Donghae impatiently grasped her wrist and started pulling her toward the staircase, but in retort she pulled her hand back. Stumbling back a step she turned to him withholding a frown. Instead, Victoria felt mounts of disappointment flying through her.

“I can be patient with you, I can deal with your greedy nature, but I won’t take it if you try to use force on me,” Victoria told him off. “Lee Donghae, you’re the hell of my life. I don’t care what you put me through, if you threaten to pull me from the case, or if you refuse to tell me anything. I’m going to make your life a burning hell too. Even if you burn everything around me, I won’t leave.” She made sure to stare right into his face before saying, “You know what best goes with fire, don’t you? A fire doesn’t happen without gas. I’m going to be that and stick with you everywhere you go. Wherever you try to look for Eunhyuk, I’ll be right on your tail. Whether you run up or down, I’ll be there. I will make your life hell.

“You’ve treated me like an inferior the past two missions and I really don’t like that. I’ll warn you right now that I’m no longer tolerating it. I’ll see you back at headquarters.”

Victoria purposely pushed him with her shoulder as she brushed by and headed down the stairs. She was really determined this time around to win over Donghae and she would make sure it happened. It didn’t seem like her body wanted to cooperate at the moment. Her brain felt laggy and she still felt drowsy. The chloroform had done her in really good. Thinking about the men who attacked her made her feel even more angry.

Shoving her emotions to the side she started toward the road and hailed a taxi. When she retrieved her car the sight of a ticket left underneath her windshield swiper made her feel even more exhausted.

“Perfect,” she muttered before getting into her car.

She managed to drive all the way to the highway until her eyes decided to start closing on her. Victoria resorted to pulling over to the side of the road and reclined her chair back. She finally fell asleep a few minutes later.

~_____~

Donghae stood on the wide rooftop lost for a mere minute. Ok, he had to admit maybe he’d overdone it. But where in timing would he squeeze in his apology? He decided it would only be best if he went a little easier on her during their next mission. He promised he would listen to everyone…but what if he couldn’t help it? Every day after Eunhyuk had gone missing he’d spent anxiously awaiting for news about him. And now that it was finally here he only wanted to find him all the more. Each little thing about Eunhyuk made him nervous. If the detectives and the police weren’t able to find Eunhyuk who else, but he, himself? And if he couldn’t, who would? So Donghae could only do all he could…but even that seemed to be giving everyone a hard time.

Troubled and frustrated he sped all the way down the road slowing only when he entered the highway. Spotting Victoria’s car by the road sent hurdles of guilt and maybe worries through him. For a person who had been overdosed with chloroform, she had woken up too soon. Donghae would have driven passed without stopping, but guilt took the best of him. He’d made her angry earlier when it only seemed that she was talking about something genuine.

Parking his car ahead of hers he walked out and started toward her car. Cars continued to echo by and all the noise he could make out was the winding tires grinding against solid concrete. The windows of Victoria’s car were clear and glossy. Pausing beside the side window he saw Victoria asleep on the seat she’d pushed back. He debated about waking her up or leaving her to be. Donghae chose the latter. The last thing he wanted to deal with was an angry person and Victoria was angry at the moment.

Turning around he got into his car and drove off.

~_____~

Everybody seemed ready to call it quits for the day. Every one of them looked tired no matter how patient and cheerful they tried to look. There was an edge to all their faces that said they would continue with matters tomorrow, but what had to be done still had to be done. They would still have to wait for Donghae and Victoria to talk about everything that had happened in Yeongwol.

After closing the car door Kris turned at the call of his name and found Namjoo waiting for him by Suho’s car. It was a surprise he hadn’t expected. He’d thought she would be first to walk into headquarters and resume business.

“You said dinner, right?” Namjoo asked when he headed over.

“Really?” he asked with an almost smile. “I don’t remember.”

“Well you were talking about me owing you a meal or whatever,” she said before it clicked into his mind, “I’ll make you something, why don’t you come over later?”

Kris raised an eyebrow, “Serious?”

She nodded, “If you want…”

“Of course,” he triumphantly smiled and raised his hand with a chuckle, “I guess getting hurt is worth it. I’ll see you later.”

~_____~

“So what did you get that made you run out like that?” Lay questioned.

Suho looked up at them from the table he was leaning against and rolled his sweater out, “Pencils.”

The group found themselves staring at the five normal looking pencils in the center of Suho’s sweater.

“Pencils?” Kris repeated confused.

Suho looked at them still confident.

“Does this seem funny to anyone?” Tao asked skimming his eyes over them.

“Don’t jump to conclusions yet,” Suho defended himself before pulling out his phone. “Was it 218?”

“214.” Tao whispered.

“Ah yea! 214, right Namjoo?” Suho asked before continuing, “There was more to that room than we thought. Look,” he set his phone down into the middle of the circular table they had crowded around. A victorious smirk climbed onto his face when they peered at him. Suho crossed his arms, “So I have two things confirmed, the headmistress does meet up with a man and she’s met with him on several occasions. Second, we know for sure two girls, Han Dan Bi and Park Eun Bin, were kept in the brothel. According to what I learned, no harm was done to them.”

“See, you don’t need to fret over the interrogation,” Lay kindly nudged Chorong.

“But in all, the pencils are useless, Suho,” Namjoo pointed out.

“What?” he asked with wide eyes, his hands falling to his sides. “Why?”

“If the girls at the brothel have touched the pencils, they would have overwritten the little girls’ fingerprints,” Namjoo explained. “Of what use are they now?”

“What if they didn’t touch the pencils?” Suho asked. “They could have touched it like this,” he grabbed the eraser part on the end of the pencil and let the pencil dangle.

Namjoo rolled her eyes at him.

“But it’s worth a try,” Tao said, which caused all of them to turn to him surprised.

“Oho,” Suho managed before putting the pencil down, “looks like you’re down, Namjoo. I’m sending the pencils in for a check anyway. Dan Bi’s family will be sending in one of her written pieces tomorrow so we can compare and see if that note was really written by her. We’ll have to check out Park Eun Bin too. Lay,” Suho called.

“I got it,” Lay nodded before pulling his phone out.

Suho carefully rolled his sweater up and checked his watch while the others left the room. “It’s been an hour since we got back. I wonder what’s taking them.”

“You think something happened?” Namjoo asked.

“Donghae’s probably picking another argument with Victoria,” Suho worried.

“Then that must be it,” Namjoo stated before turning to look away.

“You could be of a little help,” Suho reprimanded. “We could treat Victoria and her team better.”

Namjoo made a face at him, “And you’re saying I haven’t done any better?”

“Not what I’m saying,” Suho stated, “but you could treat Kris a little better. You two argue all the time. Is there a reason why?”

He watched her face expression constrict before saying, “No, he just gets on my nerves. Isn’t that normal?”

Suho eyed her before shrugging. “No. You seem to make him angry a lot.”

“That’s not angry, Suho,” Namjoo pointed out, “that’s trying to annoy me.”

“Well…then I haven’t seen you that annoyed in a long time,” Suho blankly said. “Oh…Tao was looking for you this morning,” Suho pointed to the side at Tao who was spacing out. “Did he want something from you?”

Namjoo turned to look back at Tao and recalled how he’d walked in on them so awkwardly. With an uncomfortable smile she shrugged, “I don’t know. I didn’t see him this morning.”

“Oh…really?” Suho asked then shrugged. “Do you think we should wait for Donghae? If not, we should disperse. Everything’s completed as it is for today.”

“Should we?” Namjoo said.

“I guess so,” Suho nodded. “Then I’ll catch you later.”

After walking away Suho searched the halls and found Chorong sitting in the lounge. She had seemed down earlier and he wondered why that was.

“Hey,” Suho greeted and waited for her to look up at him, “you didn’t have lunch yet, did you? If not lets go grab something to make up for lunch and dinner.”

~_____~

Donghae drove around in circles before he reentered the same highway he had just been on a few hours ago. The sun was starting to set and all he could see in the sky was this moody glow. Victoria’s vehicle was still where he had last seen it.

He was irked; annoyed that his conscience was banging at the back of his head. For hours he had only driven as far as the next city, cruised around, and ended up circling back to Yeongwol where he and Victoria had fought. Donghae couldn’t leave. His body wouldn’t let him arrive in Seoul if not with Victoria.

His body jolted forward upon the fierce step on the car brake. What the hell was Victoria doing? Why the heck was she still asleep till this hour?! And in the middle of the highway!

Donghae sat in his car angrily gripping onto the steering wheel before he unlocked his car door and stepped out. Slamming the door after him he walked toward Victoria’s car. Peering inside he spotted her still knocked out in the same position as before. A grunt bellowed from him before he looked away with a sigh of exasperation and knocked on the window. Victoria didn’t respond so he knocked again and again. When there was no response he turned to see Victoria slowly waking up before she glanced at him with narrowed eyes. Sitting up she absentmindedly unlocked the door before opening to speak and stopped once she realized she hadn’t opened the window.

After making a face she scrolled down the window, “What?”   

Her idiocy made him want to just snort at her. “The heck are you doing?”

Victoria narrowed her eyes at him before she scratched the back of her head. Donghae almost let out a groan. Was she even awake?

“Get out,” Donghae ordered.

“Huh?” Victoria lowered a brow before she turned to look around. It looked like she was looking for something, but Donghae didn’t see anything she had left out. There was nothing in her cup holder or the seat beside her.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Donghae asked with impatience crawling underneath his tone.

“Ah…shoot, my phone,” Victoria mumbled before patting her pocket and awkwardly laughed. Turning to him she said, “Never mind.”

Donghae then deemed that she was still in dreamland. Reaching for the door handle he pulled it open and reached for her arm. “Get up.”

As expected, Victoria fought back. “The hell!”

Donghae reached out again for a grasp on her arm and wrestled her out. They fought for a few minutes and a few cars even slowed by to watch.

“Don’t you know you’re embarrassing us!?” Donghae half shouted in hope to reason with her.

“I don’t care! You’re doing it to yourself!” Victoria pulled, pushed, and half slapped his shoulders.

“Aish!” with a harsh lug he finally managed to get her away from the car and kicked the door shut.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” Victoria screamed when she managed to shove him back.

Donghae watched her try to get back into her car before he pulled her away again. Still holding onto her, he opened the car and locked the doors then slammed the door after him.

“I’m warning you,” Victoria said before she twisted his hand back which forced him to shriek.

Victoria started walking away once he let go of her. Donghae moaned in pain before he started after her and wonder what he was even doing. The heck, Victoria didn’t want him there and he could have walked away. Just what was he doing?

Grabbing her hand he abruptly turned her around so hard that he felt her weight shift against him. Regaining himself he silently started for his car and unlocked his car with his beeper. Victoria tugged and tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip on her so hard that his hand felt numb. Donghae shoved useless bags and shoes inside his trunk aside before spotting what he was looking for.

“Are you freaking out of your mind?” Victoria asked when her eyes widened at the handcuffs Donghae picked up.

He let it dangle off his finger, “I’m not a cop, but Officer Park did use my car once and left these behind.” He smirked, “So, are you going to listen to me now? Or should we be naughty?”

Victoria glared at him for a long time.

Minutes later Donghae was finally on his way back to Seoul, his conscience at peace. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel whistling along to the tune on the radio before glancing over at Victoria who was meekly staring out of the window.

“You that angry?” Donghae questioned.

“Shut up,” Victoria mumbled before leaning back into her seat and turning her face away from him.

“Tsh…” he mumbled. After a few minutes he turned to glance toward her again. “Victoria, Victoria.” She didn’t respond so he slightly leaned forward and saw in the side mirror that she had closed her eyes.

He guessed the chloroform had done her in good. With a quiet sigh he turned the radio off and slowed down for a less bumpy ride.

“For this act of kindness, you owe me dinner,” Donghae said before glancing at the knocked out Victoria. “You hear me?” 

***Ha~ Ok, I hope the HaeToria in this chapter makes up for what I've been missing ^^ A rough argument and finally a concerned/guilty Donghae.

***And yay! Dinner for SuRong, time alone at last! Oh yea and KrisJoo also gets dinner together, almost forgot xD

***Oh yes, for Sehun x Namjoo shippers, I have a short story up for them called 'Glass Slippers' about the journey to recovery from pain. I was going to put word up about it when I updated Blaze ^^; but things happened and I didn't have the time to write. Hopefully I'll have another chapter up by the end of the week. 

***And now I must go back to Tumblr cause Shinee's back!