When Amber took her slow step down the stairs, Key was already waiting for her in the living room. They both exchanged glances, but too tired to say a word. Amber tried to pull back all the guilt she hold for Key, but she’s just too obvious for him. Because he’s staring at her sharply right now, reading her like a newspaper headline. Bold and obvious.

“Why did you do that? Really Amber…why?”

Amber never heard him sounded like this before. Key is always blunt. He says what’s on his mind, he wears what he think is best, and most importantly, he always proud.

But the Key she’s looking at now seems a lot more weaker.

 “Someone shot the plane, hyeong. You could’ve died any second there. I was just…I don’t know. It was chaotic, that was the only thing crossed my mind…”

Key grunted. Both of them were standing facing each other, feeling too awkward even just to sit on the sofa. The voices of miss A upstairs could be heard hazily from down here, but both Amber and Key had been deeply drown into the air between them.

“Do you think… I will be so easily killed ? Am I not counted as a man or something?” Key finally took a seat at the edge of the sofa, suddenly feeling all worn out just by swimming in this conversation.

“Of course you’re a man! I called you hyeong, not eonni…”

“YAH!!” Key swore he could tear the sofa into two just now. “That’s not the point- -”

“I know.” but Amber cut him. She put both hands into her pocket, “I know. But I just want you to be safe…”

Key scoffed hard, “Ah. By sending me back to Seoul like a package box ??”

“But you were unconscious so- -“

“WHAT? By keeping me out of your dangerous life ?! Don’t be ridiculous.” Key cut in cynically.

It was somehow managed to freeze Amber for a few seconds. She gave him an ‘I can’t believe you said that’ look, before putting her hoodie up and tight, covering almost half of her face, covering her trembling emotion she’s been trying to keep for days. She threw herself on the carpet, leaning on the sofa, powerless. She didn’t know what to say anymore. It’s her fault and one ‘sorry’ word couldn’t convince Key to soften himself.

The sound of the sudden door sliding behind them managed to steal their attention. They turned around and found Suzy entering the living room through the back door. She stopped, looked surprise to find both of them alone in the living room. So she smiled and said, “I see you guys finally met! Amber eonni, do you want to take a bath or something? Coz you can use the guest room upstairs if you want.”

Amber was about to answer when Key yelled at her, “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something here?! Tsk.”

Suzy looked offended, “Hey, I was just offering her a bath! A nice warm bath.” she said before making her way upstairs with anger in every footstep.

Still hiding under the hoodie, Amber replied, “Gomawo…! I’ll take bath later!”

“Mian, hyeong.” is the next thing Key heard from her.

He stared at her, “Well it won’t make any difference now.” he spilled coldly.

Amber sneaked out from her hoodie, trying to find a bit of warmness in Key’s face, but all she found was just plain anger. It’s hopeless, she thought.

And so she stood up fast, which made Key spontaneously  turned to her, “Where are you going?”

Amber just sighed before she finally turned around and took some long leaps upstairs.

“YAH!”

She could hear Key’s shouting under the stairs, but she kept stepping anyway.

So not cool, hyeong.

***

While Jia is fixing the bandage on his forehead, Heechul’s playing with his empty revolver, making a lonely ‘clack’ ‘clack’ sounds inside that room. Min shared the sofa across the bed with Fei, waiting for him to talk. But he looked like he’s really into his gun, until they heard a couple of knockings on the door.

“Come in.” said Heechul, and he finally put his gun aside.

Suzy closed the door behind her and immediately took a seat at the end of the bed.

Heechul smiled.

“Nice, everyone’s already here.” he started.

Min got in the line, “Oppa, was it Max ?”

Heechul let out a cold scoff, “Yeah. It was him. He hunted us down to the airport right under my nose. It was quite impressive actually…”

“How about his partner, Jung Yunho?” asked Fei fully concerned.

“He didn’t show up, but I think he picked Max up there somehow. After I shot Max at the cargo, I passed out. When I woke up, he had gone, without any single drip of blood trails. And yeah not long after that, Amber found me.”

Fei seemed to be really worried when she said, “I’m pretty sure Yunho is with him now, and they’re not gonna be sitting around doing nothing. They’ll be back and for that we need to get Amber under full protection.”

 “And by the way, we can’t keep her here, even though this house has layers of security protection. Sooner or later, they’ll found her here.” Suzy added.

“Then, what’s next?” Min turned to Heechul.

Heechul closed his eyes when Jia pulled his forehead with a bandage, but he managed to talk, “Aww!!…. Ah… then, Jia-ya….”

“Keke..sorry…” Jia chuckled after finishing the bandage.

He continued, “We need to get the dog to wear its leash.”

“What- -OH!” Suzy immediately got his idea. The other girls were confused at first, but then as they exchanged glance, they shared the big idea.

“Jia, Min, stay here. We’re going out for a while.” said Fei quickly before leaving the room with Suzy.

Min followed them outside, while Jia’s still sitting on Heechul’s bedside. None of them speak, and Jia seemed to be waiting for something. Her hands are busy packing the bandages back into the first aid kit, but her eyes are set on Heechul sharply. She’s waiting. Until Heechul finally threw his attention to the window, fully unguarded…

…and that’s the opportunity.

She did it fast. Right at the tip of his wounded forehead.

Heechul was quite shocked by her action, as he spontaneously stick his cold revolver on Jia’s abs. But Jia stepped away in a flash and ran out of the room with her first aid kit.

Heechul smiled. He managed to see her blushing for a few seconds there..

“Thank you…” he whispered, touching that little part of his bandage that has just been kissed.

***

Amber POV

There were many gentlemen in our house that day. And then the day after that, and on and on… so many men and women came into our house. Dad always talked to them in his library and locked the door. For days I was really bored. I wanted to play games on dad’s computer, but it’s inside the locked library. Shen was also bored. Usually we would play together on dad’s computer, but now there’s nothing we could do.

That afternoon I decided to knock on the library. After a couple of knockings, dad opened the door for me and he took my hand, “Amber-ya, I’m sorry we’re still using the library. How about you go play with Shen?”

“Can I play the computer? Shen wants to play too…” I said, ignoring all the guests who seemed to be quite disturbed by my presence.

My dad looked troubled, and there were a long pause before he finally nodded. I remember laughing in excitement and shouted to Shen, “Shen, we can play!!”

“Ssshhh…but keep it quite, okay?” he messed up my hair.

Shen ran all the way to the library and joined me in front of dad’s old computer, at the corner of the library, separated by a wooden bookshelf. The two of us shared one big chair, with Shen’s taking over the mouse, and I was on keyboard as usual. We then played for hours, until all the guests have left.

My dad then came, “You guys sure made a lot of noises…” he messed up our heads.

“Mr. Liu, Amber typed too fast! It’s not fair!” Shen pouted and I just laughed at him.

“What games are you playing hmm… Coding again aren’t y- -“ suddenly my dad stopped. He leant closer to the monitor and slowly took the mouse away from Shen’s little hand.

“1…2…4…7…3…1…7… oh my, how did you come to this...” he said, staring at the pitch black screen, full of codes that I thought was just a cool numbers game back then.

My dad glanced at us once again and he said, “Did you two do this…?”

Me and Shen nodded as we got down from the chair, didn’t really dare to look him back at his eyes. I couldn’t tell if dad was angry or not, but I knew he was in shock. He mumbled, “I know you guys often play this game, but…aigoo, this one is my work…”

“Eh?” both me and Shen were also surprised.

Shen took my hand and made us bow together. “Appa mian…” I said.

But then my dad bursted in laughter, “Ahahahah…yah, gwaenchana~ Come here, let me show you something.” he tapped the chair, signing us to sit with him as he pulled an extra chair.

And after that, me and Shen spent the rest of the night in front of the computer, listening to my dad’s lecture about those numbers on the monitor. Eventhough me and Shen didn’t really understand back then, but we enjoyed every moment. It was happy…

. . .

I turned off the shower and grabbed a towel. It’s been years since then. When Shen was just Shen and not someone called Max. When I could play all day long, when dad was still messing up my hair…

I shrugged the thought off my head.

When I walked out of the guest room, I saw Jia outside Heechul’s room holding the first aid kit tightly. What’s up with her?

“Ah, how’s he doing?” I asked her. She seemed to be wandering in her mind, coz she just nodded real quick and left. Weird. But she’s always weird, isn’t she? Jumping here and there, spying on me, dyed her hair in pink, Jia has been that way all the time.

Since I’m already standing in front of the door, maybe I should visit that Heechul guy…though it will be a little awkward. And plus, I need to know who attacked us. Aghh…it would be a lie if I didn’t suspect Max at all but, who knows? It could be anyone.

Or I wish it could be anyone.

“Come in!” said Heechul beyond the door, and I bet he knew it’s me coming.

I opened the door carefully, anticipating whatever I might see inside. But I was a bit too much. He looks absolutely normal, just a wounded man, resting in his bed. I expected him to be…I don’t know. I just didn’t expect him to be that normal.

“You look a lot better that way, miss.” he said, pointing at me, which confused me.

“Uh…what? I don’t understand…” I took a seat on the couch across his bed.

He chuckled a bit, “You! You looked like a mess a few minutes ago, and I hate you for that. But thank you for tidying yourself up.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. Really.

“Eeeh so... you haven’t told me anything. Wanna start by telling me who did that to you?” I got to the point. I don’t know what else I can say anyway.

“I don’t think I have to tell you who.” he said with those challenging eyebrows of him.

I didn’t need to think twice. “So it was really him…But why did he just left you there? Where did he go?”

That eccentric guy just gave me a smirk and said, “How could I possibly know?”

“Hmm..is that so..." I became simply speechless.

He gave a light nod, “Yes he’s still out there somewhere and you’re his magnet. So one new rule that you have to acknowledge from now on is : Be careful.”

His sentence was pretty brief and simple, but I swore his eyes are glancing at me deeply. It was like, he was sending me tons of messages through his eyes without even talking. Kinda creepy actually, coz he’s not someone I’ve known for long, yet it seems like he’s known me inside out and I couldn’t hide from him. Intelligent guys sure are scary. And it goes the same with those Miss A girls. First time I met them, they were staring at me like they’ve known me forever. It’s so intimidating.

“Eh sure…will keep that in mind. Thanks..and get well soon. Seriously, that’s…pretty bad.” I pointed at his bandage,  and he just gave me another light nod politely.

There was this thought actually, that I want to share with him. About my relationship with Max…wait, has he found out? I could just tell him that Max is a childhood friend, and then he’ll understand. But what if he hasn’t…? What if he thinks the other way around?

I’m not taking any risks. Max is still a friend of mine, and I can't judge anyone, even this guy in front of me, even those miss A girls.

I can't judge them, and I hate myself for being like this.

Darn.

***

It felt like a really long time since Key last met his father. And one thing for sure, his dad hasn’t changed at all. He’s still cold, still throwing him that look that Key hated the most. A look that says, “You’re just a kid. Don’t act like you’re smarter than me.”

Everytime.

So there he is, sitting at one of the steel bench outside his father’s office, accompanied by Suzy on his right, and Fei on his left. Great, he thought, I feel like a prisoner already.

“Are you sure you’re going to handle it?” asked Fei one more time, before pushing him into the lion’s cage.

Key stood up fast, “100% sure. Just don’t cross the deal : If anything goes wrong…” he’s waiting for the girls to continue his sentence.

“…Amber-is-our-first-priority.” Suzy added the rest lazily.

“Good girl.” said Key in satisfaction as he left the bench for the blurry glass door in front of him.

***

Detective Kim couldn’t hide the slight shock on his face when he saw his son entering his office. He almost opened his mouth to welcome him, but Key was faster.

“Abeoji.”

The old man didn’t have any other choice but to let him sit on one of the desk chair. The usual tense already filled the air around them and none of them won’t hold it back either.

“Are you here for that girl again?” Det. Kim didn’t want to waste his time.

Key sighed as he pressed his back to his seat, strengthening himself, “Yes. And, please don’t address her like that. She’s just Amber…and you know JYP Operation is protecting her now, right?”

Key could see his father twitched a little when he heard JYP Operation mentioned. “Abeoji, are they really that powerful? That stupid group of annoying girls?”

Detective Kim turned to his window and glanced at Suzy and Fei. “What have they told you…? You’ve gone too far into this mess. It’s not supposed to be your concern.”

Key nodded as he picked something out of his pocket, “I come today with this.”

The detective turned and sighed when he saw the brooch. The same brooch Suzy showed her the last time. A simple silver brooch not bigger than a little finger, with a ‘JYP’ font engraved sleekly on it.

Kim Daegu laughed, “So are you meeting me, officially on their behalf?”

“Because I have to do it. How could I let those girls hold a meeting with you behind my back? I’m your son. So I’ll be the one who talk to you.” Key spilled, pressing every word to emphasize his feeling.

Detective Kim combed his hair with his fingers, preparing himself for this. “Before you say anything, let me tell you one thing, Key. The case of Amber Liu had been closed, because I handed over the authority, fully to JYP.”

“They’ve told me about that, I know alright. But you’re still keeping something that’s hers.”

His father chuckled, “I’m not following… What is this about?”

Key took the brooch back and kept it back inside his jacket. He sighed and quickly pointed it out, “Her apartment, okay? We’re talking about her apartment that you’ve sealed. Amber need her apartment back, abeoji. Could you release it?”

His father seemed to be quite surprised by the request, but after a long pause he finally replied, “As long as it’s an official order from the ops, I guess I could release her apartment immediately.”

Key raised an eyebrow, “Wah. I thought it wouldn’t be this easy…”

“Key, listen.” his father suddenly sit on his table, facing his kid directly. Key replied his glance with a fierce one. That look, that serious look of his father, is not a new scene for Key. He had met those eyes hundreds of times and he’s waiting for whatever this sudden ‘serious’ conversation might lead to.

Detective Kim couldn’t easily speak his mind, as the wrinkles on his forehead slowly multiplying themselves. “Please just… get back to your life, Key. Keep out from these mess, will you?”

“Huh… Abeoji, you too…? You’re telling me to keep out of this too?” Key sounded tired. He heavily risen up from his seat but his father held his shoulder, “Listen to me! You’ll regret it!”

Key snatched his shoulder away, “Just call me when you’ve released the apartment.” he said ignorantly while walking out of the room. He didn’t look back, but he knew his father must be pretty pissed.

What he didn’t expect was that when he got out from that office, Jonghyun was already standing there with Suzy and Fei.

“Sorry, I promised to call him..” said Suzy when he saw that surprise look on Key’s face.

Jonghyun looked like he just ran away from the campus when Suzy called her, coz he looked so neat, complete with his best sneakers to attract the girls.

Jonghyun tried to put on a smile, but it came out awkward,  “You okay? How’s Amber??”

“Oh God. She's fine, and there’s so much to explain, I don’t think I can even tell you the complete story.” Key sighed.

Behind Jonghyun, Fei and Suzy were still waiting for him as they threw him a waiting glance.

“Oh right.” Key turned to them, “You know what, he easily approved it! He’ll release her apartment as soon as possible.”

Jonghyun tried to jump in the stream, “Huh, apartment? Jamkkaman…what’s going on?”

Fei grabbed his shoulder, “Don’t turn that panic, okay? Amber is just going to get back to her apartment, that’s all. But of course, with security guards surrounding her 24/7.”

Key knew this was for the best, but Jonghyun seemed like he still can’t frame the main idea. A whole day long is needed to explain him everything, Key thought. “Don’t worry I’ll tell you later.”

Jonghyun sighed heavily, “Well you MUST. I mean, hey, you were KIDNAPPED and now you’re back with Amber like nothing happened! Of course I need to know what’s goin on...oh and by the way Key, I think you should come with me now.” he continued but then he remembered the girls beside him, “Ah girls, can he go home now?”

Key wrinkled, “Hey you don’t have to ask THEIR permission, Jjong! I’m coming with you.” he stated fast as he immediately left with Jonghyun.

Suzy half-yelled, “Yah, what’s your problem?!”

“Let him be.. He’s done a great help anyway, right?” Fei calmed her down. But Suzy still pouted.

Fei lightly laughed, “Heee Suji-ya… you’re  still our maknae  after all…”

***

“Key…that was…very life-threatening, you know.” said Jonghyun, almost out of breath after he heard his story in Paris.

It’s only been a couple of days, but Key missed Seoul so much. As Jonghyun drove them into the club house, Key’s silently enjoying the wind sweeping his face gently, made him feel a little better.

“Are the boys inside?” asked Key when the two of them got off the car.

Jonghyun shook, “Nope, they’re all still in class. Eh, come on in.” he opened the door for Key before him.

“It’s awkwardly great to be home- -“ Key stopped, when he haven’t even reached the living room.

That figure. Key couldn’t help but smiling when he saw her right in front of him. But she didn’t smile, she just ran to him and when he was about to hug her, she stopped and punched him in the arm.

“Oppa, where have you been?! You’ve driven all of us crazy!” she put on her best cold face, though it failed, 'cause Key already witnessed her soft side just now. 

“You don’t wanna know what happened, trust me.” Key just stood there, letting Nicole hug him tightly.

“And you’ve no idea how worry I was…” she said, wrapping her arms to his back.

***

Hahahahha, hope you enjoyed the show!

And oh my, it's been an awesome time since I got here for the first time on summer!

My first fanfiction is a Khuntoria one and had been completed~ 

Day X Night is my second fanfiction and I loooove writing it!

The adventure is still on~

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