"Sir! Please calm down, or I will have you removed from my courtroom!" The judge was banging his gavel as you put yourself between him and the gate. His ears were ringing violently, and he felt the anger in himself spill over.

 

The self-satisfied smirk on the other male's face...

 

Daehyun was seeing red, a red bloody haze. Everything was narrowing and he couldn't breathe, the pain slicing open his chest. 

 

The only reason he wasn't leaping over the flimsy pieces of wood in front of him was your hands, and you knew it.

 

You held onto the fabric of his shirt; you both heard the soft red fabric rip in your hands, trying to keep him still.

 

"Daehyun-ah! Please! Please, sit! Sit!" you hissed, digging your hands further, the pleading in your voice the only thing that filtered through.

 

He sat, breathing hard through his teeth, staring straight, not moving. 

 

After a few moments of silence, his breath the only audible thing in the room, the judge turned to the juror again; he was visibly shaken. His voice was trembling now, the paper shaking harder now, hoping that the enraged man wasn't going to attack him next. 

 

"Please continue..."

 

He nodded, "On the charge of Aggravated Assault, we find the defendant guilty-" 

 

The rest was lost to the roar Daehyun felt in his ears, the rapid beat of his heart and the tension in the hands still gripping his chest. He had the satisfaction of watching the smirk fall from the face of that stupid man, and the fear enter his eyes. 

 

Daehyun heard nothing else after that point, except when the judge decided to tell him his sentence right then.

 

Five years.

 

Five years for hurting you. 

 

Five years for beating you.

 

Five years for you. 

 

Five years for all the pain he had caused. 

 

Just five years. 

 

He knew nothing else, not the people leaving, that sentence whirling around in his head, your hands the only thing keeping him to this world. 

 

The courtroom was empty before he came back, void of all people, even the judge. Your eyes were locked on a door and Daehyun's mouth finally creaked open.

 

"Why are you watching that door?" He didn't know the significance of it.

 

You swallowed hard, squeezing his chest. "That's the door he walked out of...I guess you were as dazed as I was." He nodded, reaching up almost robotically to hold onto both of your hands. He closed his eyes tightly, wishing he could take every second of it back.

 

"I am so sorry..." He hung his head, it was all his fault. He wasn't there to protect you, he didn't take you right to the hospital, the evidence wasn't strong enough…

 

"It's...it's okay," you whispered, shocking him, and he released one of your hands to take your chin, turning it to him.

 

"How? How is it okay? Please tell me, for it's not to me!" His eyes bored into yours and, miraculously, you smiled. A weak, wavering smile, but it was there.

 

"He's gone. He had to pay for it. Even if it wasn't what we wanted…he didn't die or go to jail forever, but he's not walking the streets." You took your other hand and smoothed his still long hair back from his face. Daehyun lowered his head into your touch, stunned by you.

 

He never knew the amount of strength you had in reserve.

 

 

It was a few months after that he himself came to peace, as much as possible, with the decision. It wasn't like he could do anything about it. He just had to be at every appeal date, making sure he served all that he had to. 

 

He was in the process of pulling tape over the last box of stuff in your apartment, the place looking like a bare shell now. Nothing compared to the mayhem that it was. It held a lot of memories, smiling birthdays, cupcake making, movie-watching... He smiled. You’d always had a lot of stuff; it had taken three weeks to carefully pack everything. Or rather, three weeks to pack it his way. If he had left it to you, it would have all been thrown in the back of his tiny car and be flying out the side on the way.

 

It was a good thing he had paid it off before all this happened. 

 

You popped in the door just as the thought crossed his mind, an answering smile on your face.

 

"Are you finally ready yet? The car is just sitting there wasting gas." You stuck your tongue out at him. He nodded, lifting the box easily-

 

"I didn't say to start it, just go to it." 

 

You pulled a pouting face as he walked past, surveying the wall and floor to make sure nothing was left behind. 

 

"But it's hot, I turned the air on for you. Isn't that something?" He chuckled, shaking his head, walking out of the front door. This would be the last time he ever crossed this threshold. It was a bittersweet thought. 

 

He had made good on at least this promise.

 

He’d sold his house for a pretty penny, since it was in a rapidly up and coming neighborhood, and had paid off your lease. The rest of his money had gone to buying a U-haul to gather up the stuff, and he still needed to pack things into his car... his mind raced through the list of things that still needed to be done. But when he looked at your smiling face, the haunting look slowly dwindling from it, it gave his mind ease.  

 

He was getting you out of here. 

 

All the bad memories…he was going to leave them behind in a cloud of dust.

 

You were moving in with him in a town two hours away. To a new place, a new office, a new school he could teach at. Several of his students had already come by to say their farewells, some giving cards telling him how he was their favorite. It had warmed his heart, and he hoped he could be as good in the next school. The previous school had offered to send a letter of reference and he had been immediately accepted. 

 

It gave him pride. 

 

You slid in the passenger’s seat next to him, giving him one of your old grins, and he felt his heart flutter again. He still sometimes saw the sadness cross

your face, but he could erase it now by a joke, a hug. 

 

It made him the happiest man on earth. 

 

It was going to be amazing being by your side. And maybe he could work on you coming around to loving him exactly like he loved you. 

 

Maybe even one day he could call you his wife.

 

The mother of his children.

 

A secret curve to his lips was seen when he looked into his rear view mirror.

 

Starting the car with ease, he looked behind him again for any traffic and pulled out, doing exactly what he wanted to do…

 

Leave the bad memories in the dust.