Chapter 18
You Said Remember Me II
She tried to take a step forward, but Donghae pulled her back with greater force.
“What are you doing?!” Nana turned back to him loudly.
“You can’t face up to them here,” Donghae said urgently, “what are you going to do? Pull your gun on them? What about the innocent people here? How are they going to fend for their lives? Don’t be reckless here because I’m not looking after you if you blow it off here.”
Nana stared back opposing him.
“We need to run,” Donghae thickened his voice.
Shouts and the upset voices of others echoed through the lobby snatching Donghae’s attention away from the hardheaded Nana. He turned around to see a disoriented crowd making way for Leo and Yong Jo who were quickly making their way toward them.
“Run,” Donghae ordered before turning around and dashing through the doors.
The loud swearing of a woman came hurdling into the air after him just seconds before the pair of footsteps became closer and closer to them. He hadn’t had a chase nor had he been chased since…a long time ago. Even he didn’t have to run after Ren Gei with so much strength. Where to go? Where could he hide? Where could he run to without being caught or dragged to his death? He couldn’t lose his life before he saw Victoria again.
Slightly turning back he saw that Nana was lagging behind and their chasers were immediately catching up. He paused briefly to let her catch up and grabbed her hand pulling her after him.
The wind whooshed by in a handful and it was impossible to stop for a taxi. People gave surprised shouts as they pushed by. Branded shops, restaurants, draped outside tables, trees, parked cars, everything passed by. Everything had suddenly become clouded masses of blurriness. It was difficult to keep track of where he was exactly going when he didn’t know the city well. A car immediately braked when they passed a parking lot and it honked at them relentlessly, yet Donghae didn’t have the time to apologize. A few seconds after the car honked again at Yong Jo and Leo.
“I can’t run anymore,” Nana panted heavily behind him, “can we stop for a moment?”
Donghae turned around to see that the chase was never ending. Leo and Yong Jo were persistent in catching up. How was their stamina so strong? The thoughts swirled inside Donghae’s mind as he continuously searched for an escape route.
Trying to conserve his energy he didn’t respond to her. Twisting his neck around he saw that the street lights ahead were transitioning from green to yellow. Urging the empty energy within him to come out he raced toward the end of the street flying across the crosswalk to the other end. He stopped to catch a quick breath before turning around to see a swarm of cars going by. Yong Jo and Leo were trapped on the other side.
His chest heavily moved up and down and he realized that his body was out of shape. He wanted to blame the fact that Victoria had cooked too much for him, but it wasn’t time to ponder such silly thoughts.
“Lets go,” Donghae turned back around, “they’re going to chase us as soon as those lights change…”
A loud gun shut and the screeching tires of a car cracked into the air. Nana ducked from the noise as the two froze in spot. His heart was literally pounding within his ears before he turned back to see Yong Jo and Leo walking toward them like two soldiers who’d escaped from battle.
Where to go? Where to run to? Where could he hide without worrying whether they’d catch them or not? Chief Kang had always been the boss of the situation and it wasn’t like Donghae couldn’t act on his own, but he’d never come across such situations before.
Blankly pulling Nana along he turned down an alleyway hoping to find a good hiding spot. There were trash bags everywhere and old paper that seemed to have sunk into the filthy cement. The red doors leading to the apartments inside were worn out and even the paint were peeling off. Never minding his surroundings he lugged Nana into a narrow opening between the apartment buildings and the antique store beside it.
It was even more difficult to budge through, but when they finally made it to the other side Donghae found that they were in another alleyway, a dark one.
“Where the hell are we going?” Nana asked from behind already out of breath.
The panting Donghae didn’t know what to say. He was feeling almost annoyed at the moment due to the fact that he didn’t know where to go and due to the fact that they couldn’t get away. Spotting a gap between a large city garbage disposal bin and whatever building it was behind it he pulled Nana after him. Crouching down they sat there hidden behind the garbage disposal.
“Ahh…why are we here?” Nana pinned her nose with her fingers.
Donghae was too frustrated to care where they were. He could only hope for their survival. Closing his eyes he waited and waited while trying to calm down his heavy breathing. A few minutes passed by and there was still no sign of Leo or Yong Jo.
“Did we lose them?” Nana turned to him.
Donghae didn’t reply again. For a second he began to dread the fact that he was there, that he and Chief Kang had been attacked, that why it had to be him who had to be separated from his family, why did it have to be him who was being chased and hunted down? Why did he have to look for so many answers? Why was he pinned in this situation?
A deep emptiness and disappointment in life itself sunk into the core of his heart. Anxiety and worry all weaved itself together inside him. He was beginning to really worry, now, about whether he would really make it back to Victoria. If he’d really make it out of Cheonan. And whether she’d still be alive by the time he would make it back to her.
“If I don’t have the chance to go back,” Donghae quietly started, “I hate the fact that my friend is the only person I can trust my wife with.”
Nana turned away wrapping her arms around herself.
“If it hadn’t been for the fact that I failed her once, they wouldn’t have gotten so close. They wouldn’t have disappeared together without a word that day. I wouldn’t have argued with her.”
“What happened?” Nana asked confused. “Is your wife having an affair or is it that you don’t trust her?”
Before he could answer a few rounds of gun shots flew into the air. Nana cupped both hands over her ears and he could hear his heart beating heavily. Why were they shooting so much? Why hadn’t he heard anything? A couple more gun shots rang in the ear as an alarm went off in his head then it silenced.
Donghae tilted his head up to see nothing at all in the air. It felt like a silent dream where one only saw a blank darkness. Footsteps eased at the gap and stopped.
“Get out.”
Nana and Donghae both turned, lumps stuck in their throats.
/ / / / /
Victoria jumped when the door opened and felt foolish for having done so when she saw that it was only Changmin.
“Oh? Did I scare you?”
“No, I was just hearing one of those ringing bells in my ears, if you know what I mean,” she said.
He smiled and walked over handing her a popsicle, “I got it from work. I thought you’d probably like one.”
“Thanks.”
“Did you eat yet?”
He walked over to the phone to see if there were any messages.
“I did,” she replied and hesitated before telling him, “I called a friend. I hope you don’t mind.”
“You did?” he turned around. “What did she say?”
“Ah…he doesn’t like me staying here so he said he’s on his way here,” Victoria explained.
“He?” Changmin repeated.
“Eunhyuk is my husband’s childhood friend,” Victoria continued, “I met him through my husband and we also became friends.”
“Is that so?”
“After he comes by, I’m probably going to leave with him,” Victoria told.
“Already? Yuri hasn’t returned…”
“I know, I’m going to wait for her first.”
“How is he going to look for you? Yuri told me that it’s not safe for you to be out there alone,” Changmin said. “Should I go with you to look for him?”
/ / / / /
“Where are you going?” Hee Sun asked from the doorway.
Eunhyuk stuffed the rest of the shirts from his drawer into his traveling bag.
“Osan,” he ignorantly replied, “have mom look after Melodix. I’ll be back in a few days.”
“A few days?” Hee Sun repeated as if taken aback by his answer. “Why are you going to Osan? Are you just going to skip work like this? Dad’s going to be furious with you.”
“He’ll get over it,” Eunhyuk waved off her concern, zipped up his bag, and turned around, “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Hee Sun wondered. “Is Victoria in Osan?”
Eunhyuk paused, “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Oppa!” Hee Sun called after him as he started down the hallway. “Victoria…she’s not going to get over Donghae oppa that easily.”
Eunhyuk turned around to face her, “What are you talking about?”
“Oppa, don’t go to Osan just because of Victoria.”
Eunhyuk narrowed one of his eyes confused with her, “I don’t know what you’re thinking, Hee Sun, but I’ll be back soon.” He took a step forward and stopped then turned back to Hee Sun, “Victoria’s in a dire situation right now. You’ll understand once I return.”
/ / / / /
“I’m sure he’ll get to me somehow,” Victoria rejected Changmin’s offer. “I bet you’re tired from work. How was it? What do you do? It sounds fun being a zookeeper.”
“Ah…I just feed the animals and play with them,” he answered.
“You have it easy,” Victoria commented, “I heard from Yuri that you two are from Seoul. How long have you been living in Osan?”
“A couple of years now,” he replied taking a seat on the couch adjacent to her.
They were quiet. Victoria didn’t know how to continue the conversation.
“You must be bored,” Changmin said, “do you want to go out?”
Victoria raised her eyebrows.
“I can take you to the zoo. Have some fun before you leave the city,” Changmin urged.
“Would that be ok?”
About 15 minutes later she followed Changmin down the trail. There were still plenty of visitors walking around. Victoria felt envious of the families passing by with children loudly begging to be carried or excitedly speaking about how that bear or that seal was so cute. A young couple walked by with a 2 year old in a stroller and she pause briefly to watch them.
If she and Donghae had had a son, how would he be? Would he take after her or would he take after Donghae? Would he be mischievous? Would he favor her over Donghae or Donghae over her? What if they had a daughter? Who would she take after?
“This is my favorite spot,” Changmin’s voice broke into her thoughts.
Victoria glanced up to see an animated crocodile arched over the building.
“I don’t play with them nor have I ever fed them, but it’s awesome inside,” he sounded like an innocent child as he led her inside.
After a bright white maze-like hallway they entered a dark room with low bridges built all the way across to the other side. Dim lights shone on the murky water below and Victoria immediately spotted a family of crocodiles swarming about.
“It’s awesome, right?” he asked without turning back. “The zoo completed this building a few months after I started working. I’ve only been here once, now that I’m here again it’s just so cool! I always loved water creatures. Why are you so quiet?”
He turned around just when Victoria almost clumsily tripped forward. Her heart began racing when the hand-made bridge they were standing upon started swinging from side to side.
“Are you ok?”
That was when she realized that she was partially hanging in his arms. Taking a step back surprised, Victoria immediately apologized.
“It looks like you’ve had enough in here, why don’t we go out?” he suggested kindly.
As they walked out Victoria made a face at how embarrassing it’d been. Yet, on the other hand, what if she hurt herself and lost the baby? She couldn’t think about it. If anything ever happened, she didn’t know how she could face Donghae again.
The yellow sun blinded her when they stepped outside. Changmin led her toward the aquarium to see the fishes then he led her toward the seals he’d played with in the morning. As he leaned against the railing immersed in his speech about how he first approached them, Victoria got the impression that he was still very much like a child who refused to grow up.
If she’d had a better connection to the world when she was younger, maybe she would have had the strength to fight off the depression that had sent her to Hangzhou. If she’d had a stronger love for something, she could have perhaps been a happier person. She wouldn’t have needed to wait for her aunt to pass away and she wouldn’t have had to lean upon Han In Seol for comfort. She could have been a stronger person.
“Victoria?”
She turned to look at Changmin who was no looking at her concerned.
“Ah…I was just thinking some things,” Victoria swirled her finger in the air.
He laughed a little, “What are you thinking about?”
“That if I had loved something as much as you love animals, I could have been a happier person before so many people started disappearing around me,” Victoria watched as the seal climbed into the water to play with its playmate.
“But don’t you have your husband?”
Victoria pressed her lips together and smiled, “Of course, if I hadn’t done the things I did or if none of the things that happened to me didn’t happen, then perhaps we’d still be living on our own sides of the world. It’d be regretful.”
“I heard from Yuri that your husband is a criminal investigator, what does he do?”
“Oh…he just runs around,” Victoria sarcastically replied. “His job is scary, I don’t like it, but he loves it. I can’t do anything about it, because what’s important to him is important to me too.”
“Whoa…you’re cool,” he complimented, “your husband must be really happy that he married you.”
Victoria gave a small laugh.
“You’re really pretty, anyone would like you, honestly,” Changmin told before turning away.
Victoria turned to look at him wondering what he actually meant by it. Was he indirectly telling her something? She couldn’t tell because he seemed so calm. Turning back to the seals she remembered that Donghae had remarked once how she could have interested many men without knowing it. Could she have done some things without knowing it?
***Not the best chapter, and I'm still figuring out how I'm going to use Changmin. Hmm...or maybe the love tension will build up once Donghae meets up with Vic...hrm...
***Ever been to the zoo in Nebraska? They have a place for crocodiles just like it! It's so heart pounding and freaky to be in there!
***I'll be back with another chapter possibly Thursday or Friday ;D
spring semester ends this friday and i'm off for summer break :D i'll get back on track with YSRMII
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