“Do you want me to give you a lift to the station?”

“I’m good,” Victoria answers on the other line.

Luhan sighs.

“I’ll be back soon,” she quickly adds. Luhan can hear Victoria shuffling her stuff out of her room, the wheels on the luggage rolling on her wooden floor noisily. “Don’t worry. I’ll call you once I’m there.”

“Shouldn’t you worry about me?” Luhan pouts, resting his elbows on his knees and kicking at the dirt beneath him. “You’re leaving me here all alone.”

Victoria chuckles. “Should I worry?”

“I don’t know,” Luhan grumbles. Beside him, Kris and Xiumin give each other a disgusted look. Luhan bluntly ignores the gagging sounds that they are making. “How long are you going to be out of town?”

“If things go according to plan, I’ll only be gone until Monday.”

Luhan takes a deep breath. “If they don’t?”

“How would I know?” Victoria says. “Are you going to be this clingy every time I go somewhere? You’ve been acting strange lately…”

“Never mind,” Luhan cuts into her voice that is slowly fading out. “I have to go. Kris and Xiumin are waiting.”

He hears Victoria opening the door to her dorm. “Okay. If it gets too late, I’ll just call you in the morning.”

“No,” Luhan disapproves strongly. “Call me right away.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your sleep. We just took our finals.” Victoria explains.

Luhan won’t take anything for an answer. “I’ll worry.”

There is a brief silence before Luhan hears Victoria chuckle, a smile in her voice when she finally speaks. “Alright. I’ll call you when I’m home.”

Luhan slides his phone into his pocket, stealing a packet of one hundred calorie chips from Kris’s hand. Xiumin just laughs, as per usual, and drinks out of his vitamin water.

“So, when did he start acting like this?” Kris asks Xiumin.

The shorter boy chugs one last mouthful before closing the cap and tossing the water bottle back into his bag. “Ever since he saw his girl with your brother at school.”

“They’re just friends, Luhan.” Kris reassures. “Trust me, I know. You don’t have to feel so insecure about the two of them.”

Luhan stuffs several pieces of chips into his mouth. “Mhm.”

“Did it make you that uncomfortable?” Kris questions with hinted interest. “You’ve never been so anxious about a girl before. Don’t you remember the days when we used to switch girlfriends in high school?”

Xiumin gives Kris a look of accusation. “You did?”

“Everyone on the basketball team used to,” Kris supplies.

“He wasn’t on the basketball team with us,” Luhan rolls his eyes. “Xiumin was into soccer.”

“Still am,” Xiumin clarifies.

Luhan falls back against the back of the bench. “Maybe I should pick up some sport again instead of working out. She really didn’t like how skinny I was before, but she seems to think it’s weird that I’m becoming bulkier.’

“I think you care too much,” Xiumin shrugs. “She’d tell you if she really didn’t like something.”

Kris disagrees. “Vic’s not the type to.”

“See?” Luhan groans.

“Changmin meditates,” Kris offers.

Luhan furrows his eyebrows. “Meditate?”

“You could always try that.” Kris smirks.

Xiumin holds back a laugh.

“Why would I want to meditate?” Luhan retorts.

“You don’t,” the tallest of the three states flatly. “It’s boring and Vic hates it.”

Xiumin and Luhan share a brief look before Luhan goes back to sulking.

“You want to know what else Vic hates?” Kris asks, breaking the silence.

Luhan lazily looks up at him.

A basketball is tossed from Kris to Luhan, which Luhan catches easily. Kris then throws an arm over Xiumin, leaning against the smaller framed boy. “Victoria hates standing out. You’re too much of an eyesore in public Luhan, can’t you tell? Vic wears simple makeup and dresses up in simple clothing—Changmin’s mentioned Victoria complaining about her hair because she doesn’t know how to make it look normal without spending hours on it. I mean, she works so hard not to attract attention to herself but there you are, in all your flashy glory, bringing all eyes to you and her when you’re together.”

It’s almost a revelation to Luhan really.

“Sure, your age difference is an issue, but that’s because younger men seem to be attracted to her like bee to honey.” Kris adds. “Vic can walk around with Changmin and not care because they are the same type of people; low profile, easy-going, and simple. You? You’re nothing of that sort.”

“You make it sound like it’s Luhan’s fault.” Xiumin says, trying to defend his friend.

Kris shrugs. “Isn’t it, though? He doesn’t want to date Vic in peace; he wants the whole world to know. Isn’t that everything Victoria wants to avoid?”

From the corner of his eye Kris can see the basketball flying back towards him. Luhan stands from the bench and tosses his backpack over his right shoulder. “Let’s go shoot some hoops,” he sighs, “I need to clear my head.”

“Look what you did,” Xiumin teases Kris. “You depressed our beacon of light.”

Kris just shoves Xiumin playfully until he almost trips over his own bike. “He hasn’t been shining lately, anyways.”

Her parents announce that they have decided to divorce. Victoria is at an age where it doesn’t affect her too much whether her parents are legally together or not, but no child in the world wants their parents to be separated.

“There’s no other way?” She asks her mom, glancing over at her father who is sitting on the other side of the long table.

Her mom thins her lips and holds Victoria’s hands in her own. “We’ve thought it over multiple times; when you were still studying, we overcame our differences because we didn’t want to interrupt your education, but now that you’re more or less complete with schooling, we don’t find the need to force ourselves anymore.”

Force ourselves, Victoria repeats in her mind. Had her parents been suffering because of her?

“We’ll always be here for you though,” her dad says, “don’t you ever doubt our love for you.”

That night, Victoria recedes to the darkness of her room. She thinks of many things then; things like her childhood, when her parents were always by her side, and then she thinks of the times her parents urged her to apply for her prestigious academy.

Most of all, she thinks of her parents. What had it been like the past four years for them? Were they encountering financial issues—stemmed from providing for her—, being the cause of their problems? Did she not care enough about her parents while she studied?

Her family was considerably well off. The tuition for her schooling shouldn’t have been much of anything to them, let alone a reason to tear them apart.

Each and every thought weighed heavier until the pressure in her chest became unbearable. She had forgotten to call Luhan that night; that and another few errands amongst several things she had been reminded to do that day.

The next morning, she wakes up to the incessant ringing of her house phone. Dragging herself out of bed, around the now empty house, she lazily picks up the phone and grunts a hoarse, “hello?”

“Do you know what time it is?” Changmin scowls.

Victoria glances at the old grandfather clock in the living room. “Almost noon. You called me just to ask the time?”

“Luhan is going crazy.”

The mention of Luhan immediately wakes her up. “What?”

“I’ve called numerous times to both your cell and your house phone. By now, he should just about be arriving at your front door.” Changmin chides. “The kid was worried sick, you brat.”

Victoria grimaces. “I—“

“Where’s your phone?” Changmin interrupts her.

She rummages through her pockets but can’t seem to find it. Seeing her struggle, one of the housemaids approaches her with hands outstretched. “You left this on the counter in the doorway yesterday night, ma’am,” the maid says.

“Thank you,” Victoria smiles. She switches the cellular on and sees the numerous amount of missed calls. “I never knew I was so important,” she tries to joke.

Changmin is barely amused; a little, but barely. “Qingdao is about to be on fire.”

“That’s not funny,” Victoria purses her lips. After reading through a few text messages from Luhan and a few others, she sighs and tells Changmin she’d call him back later.

“I heard about your parents this morning,” Changmin says before they end their conversation. “If you’re feeling upset or anything, you might want to share your thoughts; at least with Luhan, you know?”

Before receiving Victoria’s phone call, Luhan was busy hating the world for mistreating him in the ways it did, all the while sitting at the train station impatiently. Two times now the train had been delayed, for issues Luhan didn’t care to know.

When Victoria calls, he just about jumps into the railroad track in a mixture of relief and excitement.

“Where are you?!”

Of course, he doesn’t sound like either of the two when he actually speaks. As a matter of fact, he sounds very, very angry.

There’s a pause but Luhan can hear Victoria taking deep breaths on the other end.

“Sorry. I had a long talk with my parents last night and misplaced my cell phone.”

Her explanation was simple, so simple that it actually kind of made Luhan a little angrier than he expected himself to be. In this duration of their relationship, he’s never been truly upset with Victoria before—at least, he never showed it. “You promised to call me.”

“I know,” Victoria sighs, voice apologetic, “and I know you must be worried sick but I was really tired and fell asleep before I knew it. I’m really sorry, Luhan-ah.”

Victoria’s voice is stressed and dreary. A little part of Luhan begins to soften and he lowers his voice. There’s still no signs of a train arriving soon. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet,” Victoria replies. “Have you?”

“No,” Luhan says, releasing a long breath. “I’m at the train station right now.”

She thinks of what Changmin had told her earlier, that she should express her distress if she were feeling upset. At this very moment, there’s no one she wants to see more than Luhan. “Will you be here soon?”

“You don’t mind me coming over?” Luhan asks, quite surprised.

Victoria bites down on her lip. “I really want to see you. I miss you.”

“Is everything alright?” Her boyfriend inquires, worry seething in every syllable. Victoria never behaved this way and Luhan never really expected her to; to Luhan, Victoria always appeared strong and independent, even if he knew she was just another innocent girl beneath the surface.

And then all the tears that Victoria had held in from the night before come pouring from her eyes. She really, really missed Luhan. “No,” she shakes her head, brushing the tear streaks from her face. “I’m not okay, Luhan. It’s not okay.”

“Vic—“ Luhan begins, but can’t find the rest of his words. On more than one occasion he’s had to face a girl’s tears, but never has he felt so helpless. “Shh.”

She tries to suppress her sobbing, choking herself in the process.

Glancing at the clock, having been at the train station for over four hours now, Luhan grabs his things off of the bench and runs outside. “I’ll be there soon, alright? Get a glass of water and take a nap,” Luhan tells her.

“I—“

“No,” Luhan interrupts, “just listen to me.”

In reply, Victoria hums a small sound agreement and they end their conversation briefly after Luhan confirms that she’s drinking some water to replenish her system. He stops the next taxi and asks for a ride to the airport.

He was going to Qingdao, even if it was the last thing he was to do.

The world truly does hate him, because the next earliest flight for Qingdao isn’t for another few hours and he can barely stand even on the tip of his toes without everything else in his body itching like a bad allergy.

Luhan just doesn’t understand what’s wrong with him or why he’s reacting to everything the way he is, but he can’t stop the aching pain in his chest and all he knows is that he has to see Victoria with his own eyes immediately or he won’t be able to sleep at night. Hell, he won’t even be able to eat or drink. It’s become that serious.

Meanwhile, he doesn’t want to call Victoria just in case she has fallen asleep, so, he calls the next best person: Kris.

“Might as well go over the directions with you while I’m waiting,” Luhan shrugs.

Kris groans in mild detest. “I’ve been to the Song family house all but twice, when I was a kid. You’d have better luck asking my brother.”

“I already did,” Luhan states matter of factly, “how else did you think I got her address?”

“Ugh,” Kris grunts again. “Just call a taxi and give them the address then. It’ll be the most eye-catching house on that street.”

Luhan agrees to the suggestion, but not without a fit of complaint, and leans back in the chair he’s sitting at outside of his departure gate. He stares around a little, the silence between the two settling a little too well, until Kris finally gets the hint. It wasn’t Luhan’s intention to call him for directions at all.

“You actually want to ask me about Vic, don’t you?”

There was no need to lie. “Yes.”

Kris just laughs a little before sipping out of his can of coke, amused. “This morning, I think my parents mentioned something about Vic’s parents coming to a mutual agreement for a divorce. Judging by your current actions, I’m guessing she didn’t take it too lightly.”

“Has she always been very close to her parents?” Luhan asks.

“Considerably, I guess,” Kris shrugs. “I’m not really sure. Like I said, my brother would know more.”

They chat for a little while more until Luhan decides he’s bored with Kris and Kris decides he’s had enough of Luhan. There’s still a good couple of hours before the plane arrives for departure and Luhan is truly at a loss of what to do to pass time.

He begins walking around for a bit, until he spots a unique small  gift shop that sells a variety of products ranging from key chains to jewelry. There’s a pair of couple sunglasses that catches his interest; as he waits for the employee to wrap it up, he also finds a small studded necklace that reminds him of Victoria.

“Is there a special meaning to this necklace?” He asks the staff when she returns.

The lady behind the counter smiles and brings the necklace out. “It’s for strength,” she says, “the purple gems that lines around the diamond in the center are like a force field that brighten up and bring more attention to the stone in the heart of its core; it’s much like an valor of support, not stealing the spotlight but accessorizing it in a subtle yet meaningful way.”

Her words hit home almost directly and Luhan asks her to bag the necklace as well.

“Is it for your girlfriend?” The lady asks.

Luhan nods, smiling in content. He happily stores the gifts away into his bag and head back to his departure gate. For the rest of his wait, he browses the web on his cellphone and plays a couple of games he’s downloaded into it.

Time doesn’t go by nearly fast enough, but he spends this time alone to reflect on what he could do better to make Victoria feel more comfortable in his presence. Sometimes, just wishing isn’t quite enough.