Sometimes fate has all the right timings at all the wrong times. As we are connected by this fate of ours, we have yet to see the fate that we share with others. That moment that my hand slowly left yours, something felt so wrong and I knew it was fate playing with me once more.
 
"Mark?!"

*STARE* Out of all the girls in the world, why does it have to be her? The one who made you vulnerable. Why was she of all people, there at that very moment?
 
Fate can bring us closer together but fate can also break us apart. One little word, fate can change our lives forever.
 
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Your Side:

"Stephanie?"

*STARE* Your heart trembled to the wits end, lifelessly thumping inside of you. As her gaze landed on you and yours upon her, you were trying so hard to gasp for a steady breath and a stable heartbeat at that mere second but it was nearly impossible for you to do so.

*SILENCE* This chilling scene from the nights' air surrounded you, only making things even more unbelievable. Every little thing around you at that moment seemed to be engulfed in a frozen state of this so called "time".

Time, what is the real meaning of the word "time"? When everything that surrounds us seems to be standing still. Nothing was heard. Nothing was moving. Time? Was everything going to end now, was the meaning of "time" an inevitable ending or was it a tragic beginning of our game of fate?

*STARE*

*STEP* "Stephanie, it's...it's not what you think." You snapped out of your frozen state, realizing that it was just getting more awkward by the second and breaking the ice was probably for the best. Taking two steps closer to her motionless figure, seeing her at that moment was like mirroring an image of yourself except you were a lot stronger than she was, not physically stronger but emotionally you seemed to be holding yourself together at that moment. Your heart throbbed painfully at the thought of how she must be feeling right now, looking at you not knowing what to do or say. Those words unconsciously stumbled out of your mouth as you somehow didn't want  her to  misunderstand the situation, even though there really wasn't much to "misunderstand' in the first place. It was what she saw and what she was about to see that truly made you feel guilty. You were seen with Mark and there was no way out of it now.

*GRAB*

*EYES WIDEN*

*STARE*

Feeling the warmth of Mark's perfectly fitted left hand enveloping your cold trembling right hand, you dared not to look over at him. It was only a mere second but it only took a second for everything to shatter as Stephanie's eyes could only land on one and one thing only.

*SOFTLY CLEARS THROAT* "Um, actually I..." Mark spoke up rather gently while holding onto the hand that you were trying so hard to free from his grasp the very moment he took it in his. You didn't know what Mark was trying to do  but before he could even utter out another word.

"S...s...sor...sorry..." Stephanie was at a loss and in a confused state of mind, trying her best to hold in whatever emotions that were flowingly out like a storm. Fumbling over her muffled words, the sadness in her tone made those eyes of hers' grow weaker as the tears, the tears were welding up in those hurt pained eyes and your heart throbbed endlessly aching for her. You finally realized that when she was the one who made you feel the most vulnerable, you were in fact the one who did the same for her. You were the one making her vulnerable at that very moment. Without a fair warning she immediately took off running without another word.

"STEPHANIE WAIT!" You called out effortlessly, the guilt was lingering over you but no matter what you really didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

*LOOKS*

"Mark!?!" Obviously, Mark knew something and of course you wanted to know what was going on but now was not the time to talk.

*GLANCE* You eyed him and then diverted your attention back towards the direction that Stephanie had left to just a moment ago. But he didn't budge one bit.

*SMACK* You tried to smack some sense into him, either he was really not getting the hint or he was playing dumb, in which made you infuriated at this point.

"OwWw~." He pouted innocently at you and truth be told; if you had the time to beat him up right now, you would have done so as steam escaped dangerously from your fuming body. You were seriously irritated as he just stood there.

"GO AFTER HER MARK!!!!" You frantically shouted at him not believing that you actually had to spell it out for him.

*LOOKS* "Not unless you come with me, I'm not going anywhere." Out of all times to be stubborn, why would he choose this exact moment!

"Seriously, you've gotta be kidding me Mark?!!!" You were outraged, but you knew if neither of you go after Stephanie.

*FLING*

"I have no clue what's going on and I don't even know what she's doing here but you are seriously being A JERK RIGHT NOW!!! IF YOU DON'T GO AFTER HER, I WILL!!!!" You angrily stated freeing yourself from his grasp.

*GLARE* You furiously glared at him as he was extremely taken aback by your sudden choice of words but honestly it was the truth. He saw Stephanie in the midst of tears and yet he didn't do anything. Why was he being so heartless? Even though he may not "like her anymore", she was still someone who he had liked in the past. Shouldn't he be a bit more caring and understanding towards her feelings? What if you ended up in her shoes? Would he just leave you behind too?  All these thoughts flooded aimlessly through your mind but you knew there was no time to think about them now.

*RUNS*

"STEPHANIE!" You took off running; not even sure where she went and for a few seconds you weren't too sure you even went the right way. But suddenly, your eyes landed on a figure in the middle of the walk path and you knew at that moment it was....indeed Stephanie. She didn't make it very far but you could tell that she wanted to keep running but she didn't know where to run now as the path had suddenly ended.

*STEP* Each step closer, her figure became more and more clearer to you and the closer you got to her; the more your heart pierced inside of your chest.

"Stephanie..." As you finally made it to her side, you whispered softly calling out to her trying your best not to startle her at this point. You understood how she was feeling, if you were in her shoes at that moment honestly you wouldn't know what to do either.

*STEP* She didn't or maybe she just couldn't look your way as she began to take a few steps forward, avoiding you at this point. Even without her looking directly at you, you knew all too well why she was avoiding you; her soft cries left you feeling guilty all over again. You could honestly feel all the hurt that she was trying so hard to keep hidden.

"Stephanie." You lightly stepped in front of her, softly calling out to her once more but this time gently grabbing a hold of her left arm.  

*TURN* Tears were streaming endlessly from her eyes and she unconsciously flung you away a bit too hard.

*CRASH* You landed on the ground with a pretty loud thud, as she gasped in shock at what she had just done.

*FLINCH* You would be lying if you had said that it didn't hurt but in a blink of an eye, Stephanie came crashing down next to you apologizing in between her endless sobs.

*TEAR* "I'msosorry...I'msososorry...I...I...I'msorry..." She tried to help you up but ended up falling to the ground as well, never once stopping her mumbled sincere apologies.

"Stephanie, it's okay." You didn't know what to do at that point, but by instinct when we see someone crying, we usually think of doing only one thing.

*HUG* "Shh, everything's gonna be okay. I know you didn't mean it Stephanie. Its okay."

"I'm sorry..." Her soft whispers clung onto the cold breeze, echoing lightly through the nights' sky.

*PAT PAT* "There's nothing to be sorry about. Shhh..." You gently her back as you felt her tremble even more in your embrace.

*EYES WIDEN* Mark suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was slowly approaching the both of you. You were seriously caught off guard for a split second but then immediately glared at him as he came to a complete halt a foot away from you. Thank goodness Stephanie's back was facing him or else she would have took off running once more.

*GO AWAY LOOK* You shook your head lightly trying to shoo him away, while making sure that Stephanie didn't notice. You somehow knew that he was probably the last person that she would want to see right now.

*RAISE HANDS* Without much effort, Mark seemingly got the clue and lifted his arms up in defeat. He quickly shot you an apologetic smile, before turning on his heals heading back the way he had came moments earlier.

*SIGH* You heaved out a relieved breath as you felt Stephanie's grip loosen around you.

*PULL AWAY* You looked at her with streaming tears still pouring out of her swollen red eyes.

*SMILE* With your arms still around her, she glanced back at you with a embarrassed and apologetic look on her face. You gave her a small warm smile before speaking up softly and calmly.

"Come on, lets get ourselves up~"

*NOD* She nodded without any hesitation, as you swiftly helped her up.

*STAND*

*STARE* You couldn't help but feel another pang against your heart, just by looking at her the pain that she must be feeling suddenly hit and  ran right through your heart almost instantly as a lonesome tear fell from her eyes.

*WIPE*

*SMILE* "You know, you shouldn't be crying with such a pretty face like that~" You gently glided your hand to wipe her tear stained face while trying your best to cheer her up.

*SMILE* Miraculously she ended up giving you a small heart felt smile.

Maybe crossing eachothers paths was indeed a work of fate and maybe we both didn't know that at that moment, we too were connected by a thread, a thread of friendship. We shared a one important connection, Mark. We both cared about Mark.

*GLANCE* Something caught your eye all of a sudden...

" Wait right here, I'll be right back."

*STEP* Stephanie lightly nodded as you made your way to...

~Meanwhile~

"Noona really is the best~"
"yah shhh..."
*COVERS MOUTH* "Ooops."
"wait....guys? Shouldn't we be following Mark?"
"This is way more entertaining though, don't you think so~?"
"Hey guys, where did he go?"
"Who?"
"Mark, you IDIOT! I'm talking about Mark!"
"Shhhh"
"..."

*GLANCE*

*EYES WIDEN* "..."

*TAP* "H...h...hyung..."

"Yah, Taehyung stop touching my shoulder! What's wrong with you!?"

"..."

*SILENCE*

*JUMPS UP, RAISING ARMS* "THEY FORCED ME TO STALK YOU~!!" The things that this kid says and does? V shot up and screamed shutting his eyes frantically. Everyone ignored him and didn't even bother to look back and see why he was screaming things out except for one angry hyung, who has had enough dosage of V for one day!

"Yah! Seriously, we can't even stake out without you opening your mouth?! Next time I really am gonna...*TURNS AROUND* duck tape your mou..." As soon as Suga turned around he nearly had a heartattack.

*EYES WIDEN*

*GULP* "..."

"Wait, where'd Noona go now? All I see is Stephanie."
"ahahha~ She ditched Stephanie~"
"Why would Noona go help her and then turn around to ditch her?"
"Yeah~ Noona wouldn't do that, she's too nice~"
"Somehow this scene seems a bit familiar... I have a very VERY bad feeling."

"...." The others were chatting carelessly while V and Suga were left speechless, as Suga turned back around trying to get Seokjin's attention.

*TAP*

"Yah~ Yoongi, why are you acting like Tae..." Seokjin was the ultimate third victim of this crime scene, as he turned around about to smack Suga.

*GASP* "...."

*SILENCE*

"What are you guys doing?" You asked as you had walked over spotting something orange near the bushes and when you got there V was the owner of that "something orange" his hair.

*TURNS* In slow motion after hearing your voice the rest of the boys swirled around,  eyes widen glued onto you with the most startled expressions.

*STARE*

"N...n...nooNA~?!!"

Mark's Side:

"I'm such an idiot!" As Mark walked to god knows where, he couldn't seem to stop his anger and frustration in himself. And as much as he wanted to stay close by to eavesdrop, he knew that you would get mad and he definitely didn't want to make you even angrier then he knew you already were.

Mark knew all very clearly that he didn't handle the situation very well. Seeing Stephanie all of a  sudden, he literally out, loosing all of his senses. It's not that he didn't want to run after Stephanie, but because you were there he didn't know what exactly was the right thing to do at that point in time.

Truthfully he felt horrible; not knowing what to do at that moment was definitely something he hated himself for. He's a guy after all, instead of just standing there he should have been a better man and went after Stephanie, seeing her sad eyes weld up in tears but instead he just froze in a panic. He also didn't want to make matters worse and for you to misunderstand him if he did end up going after her. Don't get the wrong idea though, Mark still really cares about Stephanie as a close friend and he definitely didn't want to hurt her but at the end of the day if he had to choose between Stephanie and you. You were his number one priority now. It was either hurt Stephanie's feelings or hurt yours and he decided  you were more important to him and that was why he wanted you to go with him to talk to her. You were a part of him now and maybe he was being a bit selfish but everything was going great for the both of you and he didn't want to jeopardize this relationship. M