~Chapter 12

Paige stretched out from the position she’d been sleeping in for too long. The room was incredibly dark. She blinked a few times and remembered that she was still up on the 3^rd floor in the TV room, with Amy. The TV was off and she had a blanket over her, which she definitely was without last night. Paige hadn’t brought her cellphone with her and had no idea what time it was. She blindly navigated around the couch to the back of the room where the door was. Cautiously, avoiding bumping into anything, she opened the door to the main area of the 3^rd floor. The light from the windows hit her quickly. It was definitely well into the morning hours. She turned around to see that Amy was stirring on the other couch.

“Amy!” she whispered loudly. “Amy, wake up.”

“Huh?” Amy lifted her head and squinted at the bright light from behind Paige. “What time is it?”

“I have no idea, but we slept all night here. We should go down to our room. But, lets hurry! I’m sure my makeup is a disaster right now.”

“Okay, okay.” Amy got up and stumbled to the door where Paige was waiting. “Do you think the coast is clear?”

“No idea, but the best we can do is just go. They could all be asleep or not even here,” she reasoned.

“Alright, lets go.”

Paige ran her hand through her hair and then wiped under her eyes just in case her eyeliner had spread. They heard nothing on the 3^rd floor and continued to the staircase to head downstairs.

“The two beauties here think they can sneak down before anyone sees them,” Chanyeol mentioned while watching them from across the room. Paige buried her face in her hand while Amy whipped around to stare at him. And then Amy notices that Chanyeol is not standing there by himself. Both Kris and XiuMin are standing with him. Chanyeol and XiuMin have playful smiles lighting up their faces. Kris, actually had the nerve to look bored and disinterested.

“Excuse us!” Paige whines while dragging Amy down the stairs.

“What the heck? I haven’t seen him in over 2 days and he’s just standing there with that stupid look on his face,” Amy exclaimed once they were at the 2^nd floor.

“Maybe he just woke up. Come on, lets go wash up before anyone else sees us,” Paige pleads.

They both washed up and got changed before heading down to the main floor. Everyone looked incredibly busy.

“Are you guys leaving again?” Paige asked to everyone, and anyone who was actually paying attention to them.

“Yes, hopefully in the next 15 minutes,” replied Suho.

“Bummer,” Amy sighed.

“You knew we were going to be busy,” replied Kris who had just come down the stairs.

“Yes, I did. I can still be bummed can’t I?” Amy retorted.

“If you’d like. Just don’t expect us to be available. Your vacation will be over in another week. I hoped we made it clear just how unavailable we were."

“Oh the message is coming through clear, thanks,” Amy fumed. Unavailable huh? I guess that answers my question.

Amy and Paige retreated to their room until everyone had filed out of the house. More now than ever, they wanted to stay out of the way.

“What should we do? We had 2 really great days. I am not sure what we should do with ourselves today.”

“Kris sounded really cranky,” Paige muttered.

"So, what do we do with ourselves?” Amy asked, determined to not spend any extra thought on Kris. “Today is our 6^th day here, and it’s been a whirlwind. I don’t think we would have seen as much as we did if it weren’t for the guys making that list. But, it’s blatant that we’re on our own today.”

“I honestly don’t know what we should do,” replied Paige.

“Lets just go get lost!” Amy suddenly shouted.

“Actually lost?”

“No, that’d be idiotic. We could look up a few things to do online and head out again.”

“Probably a good plan.”

“I know! Don’t you remember there’s supposed to be like a crazy fun marketplace type area? Shops everywhere and tons of tourists? I read that everyone there pretty much speaks decent English!”

“Oh, I think so, hold on.” Paige whipped out her cellphone and did a quick search. “Itaewon?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! That’s it!” Let’s go see what that’s about!”

“Alright. Lets go!” They both excitedly left to explore another new area of Seoul.

Their schedule had been all over place since that morning. Exo had been featured on a few radio shows and had appeared on a few countdown shows following the initial release of their album. They were all dying for some downtime, but it was likely their schedule was going to stay like this for a while. During different times in the day they had been given some free time, but it was mostly their only chances to get something to eat or try to take a nap between each appearance. Thankfully, their day had ended earlier than it had the last two days. When they got home, they were all pretty content to do absolutely nothing.

They were once again, spacing out in the main room of the house. With no one wanting to get up, Chen took the opportunity to yell for the girls. “PAIGE! AMY! WE’RE HERE!”

“I bet they’re asleep. That girl is always sleeping,” Kai muttered.

“It’s 7 in the evening, Kai. How could they possibly be asleep right now?” asked XiuMin.

“Because, if they’re left alone anywhere in this house, they wind up sleeping. Paige has been caught asleep on the patio, in the dance studio, and in the TV room, twice!” Kai explained.

“If she hears you, she’s going to hit you,” laughed Sehun.

“If she isn’t responding to Chen, she can’t hear me.”

“AMY?! PAIGE?!” Chen screamed again.

“For goodness sake, just walk up the stairs,” muttered D.O.

“I’ll go nab them,” Tao volunteered. The rest of them continued to stay cemented to their seats. They could hear Tao calling around upstairs before returning down to them. “They’re not here.”

“They must have gone out again today,” Suho concluded.

“Do you think they finished everything on the list yesterday?” Chanyeol asked.

“Maybe not. They could be doing the last of it now!” stated Lay. “I hope they’ve had fun the last few days.”

“I’m sure if they didn’t, we’d have heard about it. Right?” asked XiuMin.

“It’s not like any of us have talked with them in the past few days,” muttered Luhan.

“I’m going to go upstairs and relax,” stated Kris. He was becoming worried with how everyone had grown so attached to the two girls. It was all he heard about when they had been given free time away from agents, managers, and other staff. What he was most worried about was his own attachment. If he’d had to do it over again, he would have hesitated to kiss Amy. Watching her with Tao the night before had ignited jealousy. He was already determined to extinguish the feeling. Kissing her hadn’t been solely due to her state of nerves. It had merely taken three days for her to become ingrained in his head. She was going to return to America as fast as she’d appeared in his life. He honestly hadn’t realized that something like this could happen that fast. Now he was determined to put it aside before things became too messy for either of them to deal with. It would only take a matter of time after she left for him to get her out of his head. Until then, he had to be very careful not too get too close or leave himself alone with her.

Two hours later and everyone had settled into their normal evening routines. Most of them had agreed on a movie to watch. Kris and Lay were upstairs playing with tracks in the studio. Luhan had settled in with a book in the main room. Chanyeol and Baekhyun were playing with the computer again. Everyone was doing something that would keep them occupied until they felt like sleeping.

“Did you see that picture!?” Chanyeol burst out laughing.

“That’s not very flattering. Why do people insist on capturing every single moment?” Baekhyun replied.

Just then the front door burst open. Chanyeol and Baekhyun jumped away from the counter in the kitchen and ran into the main room. Luhan dropped his book and stood up.

“Is Amy here?” Paige choked out. She was out of breath just from sprinting from the taxi through to the front door.

Luhan looked wide-eyed at her. She was visibly shaking. “Paige…” Luhan said slowly, “why wouldn’t Amy be with you?”

“Because I lost her, almost three hours ago. I had hoped she’d come back here. Maybe if we’d had the same idea,” she had rambled in reply without finishing her thought process.

Luhan walked up to her and lightly squeezed her upper arms. “Where were you?”

“Itaewon,” she replied meeting her eyes with his. “We were together there for the whole afternoon, and then I turned around and I don’t know if I had continued walking while she had stopped. Or maybe she walked away while I was looking for something. I didn’t see her anywhere. I waited for a while watching for her. Her cellphone had died earlier in the day because she forgot to charge it, but I had mine so we weren’t worried about anything. It was so busy down there. I finally gave up hoping she’d have come here,” she had rattled off in both Korean and English mixed together. It had probably sounded completely absurd. “For all I know, we just kept passing each other all afternoon. I don’t know where she is!” That was the last of her composure. She finally started to cry.

Chanyeol had run upstairs in the midst of her rant and was collecting Exo members down to the main floor. Kris had run down the stairs and came up abruptly in front of Paige. “Tell me again. What happened?”

Paige told her story again, but all in English this time. Her story rambled on just as much but with some sobs and hiccups in between words. “Oh God, she really isn’t here? I have to go back,” she started for the front door.

“Wait,” Luhan protested and grabbed her wrist.

“Everyone dress down. Hats are a must. Grab cell phones. We’re going to go find her. Paige, you have to stay here. You know Seoul less than anyone else here. Luhan will stay with you. If Amy comes back, Luhan can phone the rest of us and we can come back.” Paige nodded at Kris’ request.

Taking multiple taxis, Exo split up into groups once arriving in Itaewon. They would search the main vending area first before attempting to stray from the main street. Hopefully, Amy had just stayed within the shops area. Kris, Tao, and Lay took off first. Kai and Sehun took off right behind them. Xiumin and Chen started a slower search towards where they’d started on the street. D.O. and Suho also took up a slower search towards the front. Baekhyun and Chanyeol ran as well, hoping to start from somewhere in the middle of the street.

“You’re going too fast! We’ll never find her if you scan so quickly!” Tao yelled at Kris.

“We have a lot of ground to cover!” Kris snapped back. Lay was keeping up with Kris, but taking second glances back at Tao.

“Fine! Go then, I’m going to check shop by shop! I will call you if I find her!” Tao yelled after already falling behind.

“Fine!” Kris yelled.

Tao could have smacked him. He was over how bossy Kris had been off and on since the girls started staying with them. It was like he thought he had some kind of moronic right to them before others. He still wanted to get into it over his glare the other night during the movie. However, he’d been content that Amy had sat with him for the majority of the movie. According to Paige, Amy hadn’t been seen in the past few hours. He really hoped she had stayed put somewhere on this street.

Amy was sitting in between two small vendor booths trying to stay somewhat warm. She had frantically looked for Paige for a while before deciding that she should stay still and wait for Paige to find her. Paige knew that her cellphone wasn’t charged and really doubted she would stop looking for her. Amy was still confused as to how they had been separated. She had told Paige that she had seen something on a stand and had then walked into the shop. But, when she turned around, Paige hadn’t been there. She walked out of the shop and she couldn’t see Paige anywhere. She thought she’d walked in a natural direction to where Paige would have traveled since they had obviously come from one direction. However, after passing several shops, it became apparent that she had truly lost Paige.

Panic had set in and then waned a few times over the past few hours. She had started to worry that something had happened to Paige. And then she had worried that something was going to happen to her. She just wasn’t sure what she should do. If the streets cleared more, she could make a good sweep of the area. Right now, it was still bustling with the nightlife of Seoul. The thin jacket she had brought wasn’t cutting it anymore. A few hundred times she had told herself to just get a taxi and go back to the dorm. But she was so worried about Paige wandering like she was, she didn’t dare leave.

She was so cold. Amy stood up and moved a couple of booths closer to where food was being served. She hoped some of the heat from the grills would keep her warm. This is where I’m staying, for just a little while longer. She rubbed her arms and watched the endless wave of people looking around. She had let her mind stray despite her current predicament. She was mad, furious really, at Kris. She couldn’t understand why he had been so irritating earlier that morning. They hadn’t even had a chance to talk. What did he think she was? Just someone he could kiss when he felt like it because she was leaving?! Why was he being so hurtful in the way he had talked to her? Unavailable?! Screw that! Oh but goodness, she was cold. She stood up and moved side to side to try to get more circulation through to her feet. She looked down at her shoes while wiggling her toes.

When she looked up she just missed someone running by, followed by a second person running by. She stared in the direction they had run for a minute. If she hadn’t known better, she would have guessed that the blur that had passed by had been one of the guys. Oh, you are so hallucinating now. If Paige were still wandering, they would never have known that she was here. They hadn’t told anyone where they had gone. Maybe that was a mistake. No, they had traveled to Korea by themselves in the first place. If it’d just been them, then they would have had to figure out a situation like this on their own.

Amy sat back down and cuddled with herself while watching the crowd. Paige would have to pass by eventually. How had they managed to keep from each other for this long? Amy rubbed her hands together and blew on them for more warmth. It was autumn and apparently far colder here in the evenings than in central California. Right now, despite being in a country she’d always wanted to visit, she very much missed her home climate. She was also really curious as to what time it was. The sun setting had been a good indicator earlier, but she had no real grasp on the passing time.

A few more minutes had passed and Amy was tired of being in the same place. She needed to leave from sheer anxiousness. She wondered if Paige was going through the same thing. In her head, she started to pray that Paige would have just gone back to the dorm. Amy stood up, debating heavily on leaving. She in a breath of cold air and shuddered again. It was like the air pierced every area of warmth that she had left inside her. That was it. She needed to leave. She took a step forward just as someone blocked her entry to the main walking area. The figure turned around to look into the little space she had found next to the food booth.

Amy could have collapsed with relief at the sight of him.

“Amy?” the voice could have been a choir of angels for all she knew. Tao's tall frame, coupled with the layers of clothing to keep out the cold, took up her entire view. She tried to smile but instead felt the tears start to run down her cheeks. He took four quick steps towards her and grabbed her up into his arms. “Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay?”

“I’m cold,” she managed. She tried to look up, but her eyes were swimming in tears. She could feel blessed warmth coming from him and wanted nothing more than to sink into it. She didn’t know how he managed it, but his hug became even stronger. She shuddered against him, as the small amount of warmth was the most she’d experienced in a while.

“You’re okay? Right?” His already intense eyes had narrowed in, inspecting every centimeter of her face.

“I’m just cold,” she repeated. Despite the dark natural color of his eyes, she believed he was the warmest person on the planet at that point in time. She blinked at him while holding his gaze.

“Don’t get lost again, ever," he whispered. She watched as his gaze rapidly bounced between her eyes and her lips. In the same time it took her to realize what he was thinking, he came to a decision. He closed his eyes and quickly captured her lips with his. A fireball of heat started simultaneously in the pit of her stomach and at the top of her head and collided somewhere around her chest before shooting to the tips of her fingers and toes. She welcomed it, allowing herself to get lost in it. She closed her eyes and pressed herself as close as she could to him. His arms surrounded her and aided in making her feel like she was being absorbed into his warmth. His kiss was hungry and passionate, and she felt herself respond with the same amount of necessity. She had needed to be rescued, and he had done just that. When she could no longer feel the cold of the air around her she broke off the kiss to breathe.

She stared back into his eyes, trying to express her gratitude by sheer will. Still in his arms, he brushed a strand of hair away from her face and wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye with the pad of this thumb. “You’re really okay?”

“Now,” and she meant it. She didn’t want to lose her source of warmth and she could tell that he didn’t want to break contact with her. She realized that she was breathing heavily and tried to calm down, but he was still holding her tight against him.

“How? How did you know to come here?” she asked.

“Paige came back to the dorm a little while ago. All of us, except for Luhan, are here looking for you.”

“So she’s safe? She’s back at the dorm?” she could feel the strength in her legs disappearing again. This time it was from overwhelming relief. Thankfully, Tao still had her in his grasp.

“Yes, she’s fine,” he reassured. She closed her eyes for a moment while letting everything sink in. She was safe and Paige was back at the dorm. Everything was fine. “If I let you go, are you going to faint?”

“No, no.” She wasn’t sure if she was saying that she wouldn’t faint, or asking him not to let go. She could feel how close his face was to hers still.

“No, don’t let go? Or no you won’t faint?” Tao asked. She opened her eyes, temporarily stunned at his ability to read her thoughts. “I won’t let go, yet," he breathed. 

He kissed her again. This time it was slower to build, however, matched the first kiss in passion quickly. Again, the fireball ripped through her and she suddenly felt too warm and possibly faint. She gave him every opportunity to kiss her as thoroughly as he could possibly want. She grabbed the side of his jacket, just where his waist was as an indication that he shouldn’t stop until he wanted to.

When her brain could no longer fathom anything other than sensation, he pulled away. Dear God. She leaned forward, resting her head on his shoulder, letting him hug her for another minute.

“We should let everyone know you’ve been found. They’re still out there frantically worried,” Tao reminded her. Amy nodded. Tao let go of her, but quickly took off his jacket and flung it around her. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Kris first.

“Kris, I’ve got her…” ! Kris! She suddenly felt a wave of panic set over her. While Tao was busy relaying her location, she started to twist her hands together with anxiety. She didn’t want to see him right now.

Tao hung up with Kris and proceeded to call the rest of the groups before calling Luhan at the dorm to get the news to Paige. “Come on. The others will catch back up to us in a few moments so lets keep walking.” She suddenly didn’t want to be found. She looked down at the ground as they walked forward.

She could hear the sound of running footsteps heading towards them. Please don’t let it be Kris, first, please! She huddled herself inside of Tao’s jacket and kept her eyes locked on the pavement below her feet.

“Amy?! Are you alright?” The sound of Kris' voice was kin to having a bucket of ice water poured over her head. She looked up, not quite meeting his gaze.

“I’m just, very cold.” It was all she could manage, and it was so very true all over again. More and more running footsteps caught up with them. Soon she was surrounded by eleven of the twelve members of Exo. As a group they made their way to the street and loaded into a few taxis to head back to the dorm.

A/N

This was supposed to be the chapter posted on Christmas, but I was too anxious... so now ... you can look forward to the next chapter to be posted on Christmas.

My co-author posted her first ever fanfic and one shot featuring Chanyeol: http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/618647/chanyeol-s-perfect-date-christmas-fluff-oneshot-romance-exo-chanyeol-parkchanyeol

And if you haven't read my 3 chapter Sehun short story, you should. :D http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/595396/fading-away-angst-dreams-fluff-romance-sehun-shortstory-ohsehun