CHAPTER FOUR

A Path to Follow

She called him once and then she called again. Her fingers would hurry to press the dial button again whenever no one picked up. What if she’ll hear his voice on the other end this time? She took her head in her hands – was it too late?

          The door clicked open. Luhan came in with a straight face that foreshadowed no good news.

‘No way will they let us do it,’ he said.

          Yoona looked up at him, her face tense.

‘Then what do we do now?’ she asked.

‘Wait?’

          Her brow furrowed; she thought whether it was wise to tell him about the call.

‘I got a call,’ she said; Luhan’s eyebrows sprung up. ‘From Sehun.’

‘Did you try calling him back?’

          Yoona nodded.

‘He never picked up.’

‘It could have been an error,’ he spoke, shaking his head. ‘Or a prank.’

‘What if it was real? Then…’

‘Then there are survivors, but… ’

          Luhan paced back and forth in the room, the afternoon’s rays falling strangely on his brooding face. ‘Can I see it?’ he asked in the end, ‘The phone.’

          Yoona handed him her phone hesitantly. When he took it in his hands he looked at it for long as if it were a painting or a poem. How much could a date and a name speak of?

          Luhan frowned, then shut his eyes. His hands were stiff around the phone. Yoona looked at him intently – never once in her life had she seen such a manner of investigation. He opened his eyes at once, as if he woke up from a bad dream. Yoona looked at him questioningly, but he did not say anything. He stared straight through her, then his head turned to look past the window – into the wilderness and vastness that lay beyond.

          ‘Luhan?’

          He turned to her, his eyes quiet. He pressed his lips together.

          ‘Because of a call – don’t hope too much.’

          Somewhere far away. Beyond the troubled waters of the Yellow Sea and the dry sand of the Gobi Desert, the early peaks of the Himalayas, there was a place hidden from all eyes and shielded from all ears. A great cliff hid a cave and the cave hid something of worth. Behind its entrance, in the dark, lay someone. A shivering hand merely touched what looked like a phone – blue case, a charm in the shape of a star hanging from it.

          ‘I don’t know how much he heard of our talks…’ a soft voice said.

          ‘Whether he heard it all or just one word, you know what to do with him,’ another more threatening man spoke.

          ‘Yes – Sir.’

          Shadows on the wall of the cave stood testimony that the young man lying against the cold rock was lifted by his arms by two other figures and taken away. Behind remained a phone – remote on the wet rock of the cave. Until one man returned and stared for long at it. The screen lit up, a name written in black – Yoona – and a picture of a smiling girl staring though the glass at him.

          Then with a kick, the phone fell down over the edge of the cliff.

          Yoona was finally going home. After a night unslept at the headquarters, a day that unfolded slowly but oddly, an attacker, a mysterious partner and the tragic possibility that she would never get to hear Sehun’s ‘yehet’ again, all made her feel wearier than she ever was. The case was off her hands now; she didn’t know whether to feel relieved or burdened. The only thing left to do now was, as Luhan had said, to wait.

          Now, as she walked back home, in the bronze lights of the old lamps that lit the street she lived on, she couldn’t think of anything, because everything was muddled.

          There were a few more minutes left of walking when a motorcycle stopped beside the sidewalk, beside her. The cyclist put his foot down on the ground, then took his helmet off. His golden hair stood like waves against his lean face, his eyes dark and alert.

‘Luhan,’ remarked Yoona.

          He smiled – his wildest smile she’d seen so far.

‘Do you want come for a ride?’ he asked, motioning to the seat behind him.

‘I…’ Yoona began, looking at the road ahead.

‘It won’t take long. The wind helps you loosen up,’ he said, more serene than he’d ever been.

          Yoona nodded, a slight smile on her face. She put her bag in the metal basket at the back, then got up on the motorcycle; she placed her hands around Luhan’s waist and waited.

‘Tighter,’ said Luhan, wriggling his body.

          She did as told.

‘Better,’ he exhaled.  ‘Are you ready?’

‘Mhm.’

          She nodded against his back. Luhan leaned in, but then straightened his back again.

‘Ah, wait, it shouldn’t be this way,’ he said. Then he took off his helmet; he twisted around to put it on Yoona’s head. ‘Fashionable,’ he grinned, his thumb up.

          When they left, they took off as quick as lightning. Seoul’s lights became a blurry painting around them, as they sped through the city. The wind that brushed by was cold, but Luhan’s body kept Yoona warm.

‘Where are we going?’ Yoona bellowed to cover the city’s noise.

‘Secret!’ Luhan screamed, the wind whisking his hair back.

          They stopped after taking a road less traveled by. It was so dark and remote that for a few moments, Yoona regretted accepting Luhan’s invitation. She remembered that morning’s attacker, his pained face and Luhan’s sturdy hands holding him against the wall. Was he as dangerous as he seemed that morning or was he as innocent as he seemed now?

          It was a grassy cliff where they stopped. The wind was strong and icy, a menacing ravine ahead. But it was beautiful, no one could deny it. From up there, the city seemed little but spectacular – skyscrapers stood like uneven sparkling pencils, the packed roads golden rivers each flowing here and there.

‘Isn’t the sky amazing?’ exhaled Luhan, stretching out his arms.

          Yoona shifted her gaze to what vastness lay above the city; she didn’t notice it until then.

‘Where are we?’ she asked.

‘A cliff,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Just a cliff that gives me the feeling I’m back in China.’ He took steps on the grass, always looking towards the sky; then he frowned as if trying to remember something. ‘But it’s a little different, isn’t it? It’s different than in China. When I stood like this looking at the sky there, back in Shanghai, I felt like I could let go of anything and that I could be nobody – it was relieving really. But why do I feel tied down here? Like there’s something out there that I need to grasp, but I fail to see it.’ He swayed his hands in the air in an attempt to make the explanation clearer; he looked at Yoona who seemed baffled.

‘Do you- do you get what I’m saying?’ he asked, nodding steadily.

          Yoona stared out at the city and thought, although it was hard. Whenever she tried to reflect on Luhan’s contemplation, her thoughts seemed to circle back to the plane and back to Sehun. Was he cold there? – she refused, still, to think that he was dead.

‘Well,’ she uttered finally.    

          Luhan sighed. ‘Do you want to lie down?’

          She turned to face him almost involuntarily. The grass at her feet was cold; she didn’t imagine lying down on it. But before she could talk about his foolishness at coming up with such an idea, Luhan crouched down and then cautiously lay his head on the ground.

‘Ahh!’ he sighed almost happily, his pressed lips opening into a smile. ‘I could sleep here all night. Under the stars, grass for my pillow.’

          Yoona hesitated, but she came to lie down on the frozen grass just as Luhan. It didn’t feel that bad; it was in fact relieving, like he’d said. With the cold around her face and body, she tried to clear her mind but hardly could. The only thing that was left to do was – Luhan had said it as well earlier – to wait. Waiting was a torture.

‘We don’t need to give it up, you know,’ started Luhan, as if reading her mind.

‘But what could we do alone?’ asked Yoona, her face up facing the sky.

‘More than you can imagine,’ he breathed.

          But they were remote from any information that would bring them closer even to an answer, let alone to the plane and passengers. They were  - she didn’t like to admit it – helpless.

‘If you think about it, we’ve been wasting time,’ said Luhan dreamingly. ‘With doubts, and fights, and talks here and there.’

‘It’s the way an investigation unfolds,’ she said, ‘ you should know that.’

          Luhan turned his head around for his eyes to face Yoona. ‘But I’m not saying we should do an investigation. A search.’

‘Isn’t that the same thing?’

‘No,’ answered Luhan without even giving it a thought. ‘You investigate to find an explanation. In a search, you look for something.’

          Yoona seemed absorbed in the stillness of the sky. He was right in many ways, wrong in others. Although the temptation was great for her to do something, anything, she listened to the voice of ration.

‘There are crews already searching for the plane,’ she said, with an amused puff at his star-investigator foolishness. ‘Would we better at scouring the seas and mountains for something as small as a plane?’

‘If we know where to start at…’ he began. ‘I can’t believe you really didn’t think about this.’

          Yoona turned to him almost instantly. ‘What?’

‘It took a few hours, but I managed to trace Sehun’s call,’ he said, his face serious.

          Yoona's mouth fell open at once; Luhan smiled.        

          They sat there looking at each other, for a piece of time that couldn’t be weighed. If that night’s revelation didn’t stand as a credible justification for the awe in their eyes, one would say they were in love.

Author's Note

Dear readers,

Author has few things new to say this time too.  The same thanks I throw to you, for reading and supporting this story. I hope it entertains you. All that I kindly ask of you would be to tell me your opinion - which includes criticism - so that I can do better and better. Other than that -- please stay with me, Yoona and Luhan for the continuation of this story. 

Love,

luluflawless