KyuHyun slid into the seat opposite his mother, his mind strangely blank, and his heart strangely calm.

“What else is there to say?” Kyu said, his voice emotionless as he stared unseeingly at his mother. The only thing on his mind since he had stepped out the front door was SungMin. The guilt was eating away at his mind.

“Nothing,” his mother whispered, and Kyu looked up to see her face stained with tears. The tears were dry and gone now, but the trails they had taken remained.

“Mom, you called me here to talk right?” Kyu asked, his voice anxious.

“Actually I called you here to talk,” a voice from beside him said, and he closed his eyes for a second before turning to his father. Time had been cruel to him, leaving his face even harder than before, his lips set in a thin line that was so familiar to Kyu from childhood.

“Father,” Kyu said, his voice strained, and for a moment, he was seven and vulnerable again. He was a teary-eyed kid who had to follow every instruction given to him. He was a bruised child who had expectations of his father stacked upon his frail shoulders.

“My son,” his father greeted him, and though his voice was ward, Kyu clearly heard the icy undertone to it. The one that had frozen him in his tracks so many times before.

“I’m not doing this,” Kyu said, trying to make his tone firm as he stood and walked toward the door. He got outside and in the frosty silence of emptiness, he heard the click of heels as his mother followed him. He felt her soft touch on his shoulder and turned to meet her guilt-filled eyes before someone grabbed his hands from behind and a cloth was pressed against his mouth and nose.

Still the last thought on his mind was SungMin.

“Now what?” Sheila asked as they loaded her unconscious son into the back of a black pickup van.

“Now I carry him to New York as I planned and you stay on here, letting those who ask know that he went on vacation with his father,” Jeremy answered, turning to his ex-wife with a smirk.

“Let me come to New York with you,” Sheila requested, trying to keep her voice from breaking. Currently, it was bordering on hysteria.

“Not today, my dear,” Jeremy said, his voice going cold.

“Then when?” Sheila insisted.

“I don’t know! Perhaps never! I do not need your help!” Jeremy snapped as his irritation grew. Sheila didn’t back down.

“I’ll follow you,” Sheila vowed.

“Don’t, unless you want me to lock you in the same room I plan to lock him in.” Sheila’s heartbeats became uneven as she took this in, and before she could react, the door had already closed and the black of the vehicle faded in with the night sky.

Who could help her now?

“He hasn’t been home since yesterday,” SungMin said worriedly into the mouthpiece of his phone as he spoke to YunHo.

“Min, it’s only five in the evening. Maybe he’s working late,” YunHo tried to reason.

“He’d call, YunHo,” SungMin insisted.

“Maybe he forgot,” YunHo said.

“He never forgets,” SungMin countered.

“Have you called the office?” YunHo asked.

“No…”

“Do it now