Kaiko

Where the hell is she!? I looked around the parking lot as soon as I ran out of the airport. I don’t know why I tried; Sohee always runs really far, REALLY fast when she’s upset. And the rain was making it difficult for me to see; it wouldn’t make it difficult for her to run.

Okay, if I’m going to find her, I need to think of places where she would go – I need to think like Sohee. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, breathing deeply.

“What are you DOING?!” Eli yelled, breaking my concentration. “We need to find Sohee, and you’re standing there like you’re about to take a nap standing up!” I whirled around with my leg up, ready to ram my knee into his groin. However, something stopped me. I saw the look of alarm in his eyes and the way he flinched and tried to defend himself as soon as I whirled around with my knee raised.

What was I DOING? My sensei would be ashamed of me if he found out what I was doing; any kind of martial art was meant for self-defense, for protecting oneself and the people that he or she cares about! I will admit that Kyuhyun-kisama deserved that punch – I did it for Sohee.

But Eli… He must have learned his lesson since he asked me to help him break up Sohee-chan and Kyuhyun-kisama; I saw the look in his eyes when Sohee ran away from us with tears streaming down her face. I saw the look in his eyes when he realized that it was Kyuhyun who made her cry. I figured that he had grown up since then – at least a little bit. He had grown up enough to NOT deserve a nice beating.

I slowly lowered my leg, eyeing him warily. “You love Sohee-chan,” I stated, my anger fading as all of these thoughts worked through my brain.

He opened one eye from his flinch, looking at me with curiosity. “You didn’t know that? I thought everybody knew that!”

“When you asked me to help you break up Sohee-chan and Kyuhyun-kisama, I assumed that you were being a selfish child,” I explained. “That isn’t the way you treat someone that you love.”

Eli looked down, his features etched with guilt. “You’re right.”

Wait, what? Seriously? “You’re agreeing with me, just like that?” Eli nodded, being otherwise silent. This is… unexpected. “O… Okay…” I slowly pulled out my phone.

“Are you going to call her?” He asked, his eyes filled with worry. I ignored him, hitting one of the speed-dial buttons and holding my phone to my ear.

Xander

The dorm was eerily quiet. I looked up from my laptop, scanning the living area with my eyes. Dongho was sprawled out on the floor working on his homework, Kibum helping him. Kevin was on the opposite side of the couch from me, reading. I could hear Soohyun and Kiseop playing a video game in Kiseop’s room.

… And that was it. Sohee wasn’t yelling curse words, Eli wasn’t being a doofus, and Kaiko – never mind, Kaiko isn’t a very noisy girl. I glanced at the armchair off to the side that all of us guys used to fight over because it’s so big and comfy. Since Kaiko arrived, she’s taken a liking to sitting in that armchair – however, after witnessing what she can do to anything that comes between her and whatever has her attention, we have decided against fighting her for it.

We were all in the gym, each of us doing something different. I forget what everybody else was doing, but I was doing crunches. I was in mid-crunch when I saw Kaiko walk in and head straight for the boxing equipment. I sat up completely and watched as she pulled on a pair of gloves while approaching a punching bag –

And then proceeded to beat the out of it.

I felt scared of her from across the gym. I could see ferocity in her eyes that I had never seen before. I noticed one of the bigger, burlier guys who was one of our part-time bodyguards approaching her. He stood behind the punching bag, holding it while she struck it with a series of punches and kicks. He said something that made her stop in mid-kick, her leg frozen in mid-air. She looked up at him slowly, her balance not wobbling. She lowered her leg, just as slowly, and said something to him while crossing her arms.

“Alexander, is everything alright?” I jumped in surprise when our manager appeared behind me.

“Um…” I paused, glancing over at Kaiko – , she didn’t look happy. “Everything is alright for me, if that’s what you’re asking…”

He followed my gaze and frowned when he saw what I was looking at. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Kang Dae, one of the bodyguards,” I said, trying to avoid bringing attention to Kaiko. This was a private gym, reserved for idols and their bodyguards. I don’t know how pissed our manager would be if he found out we invited a “friend” to the gym with us.

“I’m talking about the girl,” he said, making me wince.

. “Um…” Think, Alexander, think! I saw Kang Dae reaching out to touch Kaiko, but she seized his arm and pressed her thumb against the inside of the joint of his arm. He let out a yell of pain that made everyone in the gym stop what they were doing.

If life was a cartoon, then a lightbulb would have appeared over my head.

“She wants to apply for a job!” I declared, smiling at him. “She wants to be one of our bodyguards! She’s very talented -” He looked over just in time to see Kang Dae attempt a swing at Kaiko.

She moved so fast, I blinked and it was over. One second, Kang Dae was swinging at Kaiko, and the next he was on the ground with Kaiko crouched over him. Only, his face was actually pressed against the mat, and Kaiko had one of her knees pressed firmly against his back and his arms twisted behind him.

“Impressive…” Our manager murmured. “… Have someone inform her that she needs to have a drug test. Also, there’s going to have to be a background check.” I stared as he walked away, my mouth hanging open.

I doubt Kaiko was going to be happy with me about this…

She’d been really surprised, kind of like I expected – but not in a bad way. It was more of a, “, are you serious?” thing. And since she got the job, she’d been learning Korean from us. She was catching on quickly, since her job kind of required being able to understand when it’s fangirls trying to sneak backstage and into our dressing room with fake passes, and when it’s an actual interviewer with a legitimate pass.

I was jerked out of my thinking by Kibum waving my ringing phone in my face. “It’s Kaiko -”

That was all he had to say for me to reach up and yank my phone out of his hands before he had a chance to attempt a game of keep-away. “Moshi Moshi, Kaiko-chan!” I greeted her in Japanese, pushing my laptop away. “I was just thinking about y-”

“Xander-kun , we have a problem,” she cut me off, her voice sounding a little panicked. “Kyuhyun turned out to be an , and Sohee-chan ran away, and now we can’t find her!”

I think my brain stopped working for a second. “What?”

“Kyuhyun was making mushy-eyes with another girl. Sohee-chan saw it. Sohee-chan got pissed and ran away. I don’t know where Sohee-chan went,” she explained very slowly. Because she was speaking slowly, it gave me enough time to grow pissed with each sentence.

“Kyuhyun did WHAT?” I snarled, lunging to my feet and storming for my room.

“Sohee-chan caught him being mushy with another girl while waiting for the plane to Italy. When he tried to talk to her, she flipped out and took off.”

“I’m on my way,” I stated. She was halfway through saying my name when I snapped my phone shut.

Kaiko

“Uh-oh,” I muttered as I heard the tell-tale ‘click!’ from Alexander’s end of the conversation. “That was probably a really bad idea,” I stated, turning to Eli.

“You think?” He squealed. I pulled out my phone again, hitting a different speed dial.

Kevin

I was humming and whistling to myself as I went through my room, picking up the mess that had been building up over the course of the weeks. I knew that it had gone too far when I tripped over some dirty t-shirts that had gotten tangled together, and a pile of dirty jeans cushioned my fall. My arms were full of dirty shirts when I heard my phone ringing in my pocket.

I dropped the laundry and pulled out my phone as Xander stormed into the room and started sifting through the massive piles of dirty laundry scattered around the room. I dismissed Xander’s obvious irritation and checked the caller, smiling when I saw that it was Kaiko, and answered my phone. “Kaiko!” I squealed. Xander had been crouched over a large pile of close, sifting through it for something, and he tensed when I answered my phone. “What’s -”

“Are you in the dorm?” She sounded panicked.

“Um, yes…” I answered, feeling nervous because of the look in Xander’s eyes as he looked over at me. What was going on?

“Don’t let Alexander leave!”

“Huh?” I lifted one arm and started to scratch my head with confusion. “Why?”

“Kevin, where’s my jacket?” He snapped, standing up and glaring at me. Hm… Obey the scary-looking Alexander who is in my immediate vicinity, or the deceivingly-adorable Kaiko who could very well kick my later?

“It’s in one of the loads that I just put in the wash,” I lied.

“Kyuhyun did something stupid, and Alexander’s stepped onto the warpath. Don’t let him leave until he’s calmed down!” She explained.

“Wait, what did Kyuhyun do?” I asked, completely missing what she said about Alexander.

“Sohee ran off,” she explained, dismissing my question like I had just dismissed what she said about Alexander. “I need somebody to wait in the dorm, in case she goes there before we can find her.”

“What happened with Kyuhyun to make her run off?” I asked.

“He was cheating on her – in the middle of the airport!” Alexander spat.