Chapter 76
You Said Remember Me II
/ / / / /
“You heads have better got this right,” Ren Gei mumbled from what looked like his deathbed to Young Ae.
Eui Tae had dragged in a mattress from who knows where in under Ren Gei’s orders and while the monster lay on it, Yong Jo had tended to his bullet wound. The past few days had been spent in darkness shrouded by Ren Gei’s foul mood. Young Ae was ready to get out of that hellhole and move on somewhere else where she didn’t have to bother with a few s. She hated hearing ‘Victoria’ and ‘Nana’. Their names were so repeatedly chanted that it was as if the world only had those two.
Damn that head Leo and dictator-wannabe Ren Gei.
Thanks to Eui Tae who was so favored by Ren Gei for no known reason and bulky Yong Jo who was the important first aid professional, Young Ae was left to be treated like trash. She’d been running their damn errands like a water boy.
She glared as Ren Gei went through the digital camera she’d taken from a teenager on the street.
“Good,” he praised turning the camera off and dismantling the memory card. He handed it to her instructing, “Now go get the photos and stay low. If you move one muscle and do what you’re not to do out there, I’m going to have your spine, you .”
Young Ae gritted her teeth. She’d shoot him someday, she swore. Him and the others.
/ / / / /
Another sigh. Again. Victoria opened her eyes to meet with the dim room. The clock read 6:30. A little too early for Donghae to be up, but he was.
Victoria flipped over to lay on her side and glanced at Donghae who had his eyes clamped shut. Surely, he was the perfect image of a sleeping doll. Surely the early days of marriage had been fun while waking to see him asleep or watching him fall asleep. She hadn’t gotten tired of it yet.
“What is it?” she asked.
Donghae didn’t respond.
“I know you’re not asleep.” she stated.
“Why are you up?”
“Well, with you,” she imitated him sighing, “I can’t. What are you thinking about?”
The corner of his lips first curved up then he turned to her with open eyes.
“It makes me feel good to know that you heard.”
Victoria beat away his comment. “Is it something concerning Eunhyuk?”
Donghae turned to stare at the ceiling as if that were the answer.
“Yea, I’m worried.”
“What did you two talk about?” Victoria wondered.
“I can’t say.”
“Is it serious?”
“Not saying.”
Victoria snorted.
“Honestly,” Donghae tried, “if I answer, you’d know. So I’m not going to answer you. I’ll build up the suspense and leave you hanging.”
“Loser.”
Slowly closing her eyes she put an arm around him and moved over. Lying her head on his shoulder she gently rubbed his arm.
“Then…you’ll be letting Nana leave just like that?” Victoria asked. “Is it really alright? I know she’ll be alright on her own, but do you think she’ll be ok on the most part? I mean, being alone that is. Suddenly speaking about home…do you think she’s using home as an excuse to run away?”
Donghae drew his arm around her and rubbed her back.
“I don’t know about that too.”
/ / / / /
The silence of her heartbeat had never so loud. Nana had never known for loneliness to be so overwhelming. So overwhelming that it was her into a dark black whirlpool. And in that whirlpool hands and arms of those who were already tortured and mistreated tried to drag her in to be with them. Down in the whirlpool would be an abyss. One so deep she’d never be able to climb out. She’d fall forever, be miserable forever. There would be no one to come save the heroine in distress like in those Disney movies. Fairytales were such lies. Instead of a happy ever after ending, Nana would be alone. It wasn’t like the prince who fell in love with the poor maiden.
No. Reality was a much different story. It hurt, she was sore. All her emotions were that.
She dug her head into her pillow some more and dragged the covers over her shoulder. Curling her knees up to her stomach and she clamped her eyes shut.
/ / / / /
When Yuri’s quiet footsteps moved pass his bedroom he could envision her carefully turn around the stairs and walk down so cautiously that it was as if she was going to steal a cookie from the cookie jar. Changmin turned back to stare at the ceiling.
What was running through his mind exactly? What was he doing exactly? There was Nana who was gonna leave anytime soon. Then he’d be left with Yuri again. How was he to get Yuri and Eunhyuk together when everything seemed to be falling apart at the same time? It felt like everyone was drifting. Nothing would work out the way he wanted.
Actually, nothing had been working out the way he’d envisioned it to be. Yuri was supposed to be with Eunhyuk by now, he and Nana were supposed to return to their usual roles, and Donghae and Victoria were supposed to remain the way they were. A perfect normal couple.
Nothing was like that.
It seemed frustrating to a point. What had he done wrong? Had he missed a step along the way? Or had he overstepped something and ruined it all? Changmin didn’t know.
Though, there was that possibility that he didn’t need to do anything at all. That he shouldn’t have done anything at all in the beginning. That he shouldn’t have asked Nana for that favor. Then Eunhyuk and Yuri would have gotten together naturally anyway.
Perhaps that was it. He’d overstepped something.
Recently, Yuri seemed farther from him than usual. And Nana, too, seemed farther from him. Everyone seemed to be miles away from him when they were so near. Yuri didn’t talk openly as she often did anymore. Nana had become more quiet repetitively.
Were the two of them hurting somehow? Over Eunhyuk?
Changmin brain burned from thinking so deeply. Everything was because of Eunhyuk.
Shifting onto his side he stole a glance at the high school graduation photo of him and Yuri sitting atop his bedside table. Their youthful smiles full of innocence were now gone to be replaced with worry and exhaustion.
Where was the Yuri he used to know? Where was the Changmin he used to be?
He had ruined it. He’d ruined everything.
Taking a long sigh he finally got up to his feet, swung open his door, and glanced at the stairs before moving toward Yuri’s bedroom. Pushing the door open gently he glanced at Nana who was curled up at the side of the bed, the blanket high over her scrawny shoulders. He watched her for a moment before her eyes blinked open. Edging his way in he sat down at the foot of the bed.
“Have I burdened you along the way with that favor I asked of you?” Changmin wondered while glancing out the window at the weak sun still climbing up the sky.
“What burden are you talking about?” Nana questioned quietly.
“Have you been conservative about all our feelings this whole time?” Changmin asked. “Do you feel bad about Eunhyuk? About Yuri? Me?”
Nana was quiet. She probably wouldn’t want to answer.
“I don’t resent any of you, if that’s what you want to know,” her voice was meekly quiet.
Changmin slightly tilted his head and glanced at her through the corner of his eyes. What about Eunhyuk? Did she like Eunhyuk like Yuri too?
“Eunhyuk? What about Eunhyuk?”
What sort of answer, though, did he want to expect from her? What did he want to hear? Did he want to assure himself that Nana would back off and leave him for Yuri? Was that what he wanted to hear? Or did he want to know that Nana would do what her heart wanted? What did he want to hear from Nana?
“Eunhyuk,” Nana slowly spoke, “didn’t do anything out of hand. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine because I’m a bit foolish. Don’t be angry with him.”
Changmin turned away.
“Changmin,” Nana called, “I have some things I’d like to talk to you about, but I’ll say the words I want to say to you after we see the musical. So, don’t forget.”
“Ok,” he replied then got up. “Yuri’s preparing breakfast. I’m going to go down first.”
Changmin walked out of the room gently closing the door behind him. Nana wouldn’t admit that they’d somehow hurt her. She would never say it.
Turning around the corner Changmin heard the knife falling against the cutting board in patterns. The faucet was running and something was already cooking on the stove, he could tell from the splattering of the oil. Finally making his way around the corner of the stairs he felt quite taken aback when he saw that Eunhyuk was chopping up some onion while Yuri remained busy at the sink.
What was this? Why were the two together…so early in the morning?
/ / / / /
Turning off the water, Yuri turned around to place some carrots onto the cutting board for Eunhyuk.
“You know how to cut these, right?” Yuri wondered.
“Of course.” Eunhyuk simply replied.
“Oh yes, I forgot you used to be Victoria’s cooking pal,” Yuri half laughed before looking up.
Her eyes met with Changmin’s and she let them stare at him before turning away.
“You’re up?” she walked toward the stove to check on the egg she was cooking. “That’s kind of unusual. Couldn’t sleep?”
Changmin slightly turned his face away. Yuri wondered if he felt somewhat jealous seeing her with Eunhyuk so early in the morning. Well, he should feel jealous. It was his fault he never said anything nor made a move sooner. Now that Yuri knew everything, she didn’t quite know how to confront him anymore.
“Sit down,” she suggested.
“Do you want help?” Changmin wondered, never moving from his spot.
It felt like he was carefully eyeing her to make sure she didn’t touch Eunhyuk deliberately.
“No,” Yuri answered. “We’ve got it under control.”
She switched her attention back to the frying pan and allowed her eyes to steal their way up. Changmin was sitting with his side to her. It wasn’t possible to see all of his face.
Yuri returned her attention back to the frying pan asking herself what in the world was she doing?
Everyone awoke for breakfast and Yuri did her best to accommodate them all. She had to make sure Nana was comfortable, Eunhyuk was feeling alright, Changmin wasn’t in pain from his injury, and that both Donghae and Victoria weren’t feeling distressed staying in the house. She had forgotten for a short moment that Victoria was pregnant. It wouldn’t be healthy if she was hit with too much stress during the moment. Yuri agreed that it’d be better for Victoria and Donghae if they were to stay somewhere more relaxing instead of somewhere full with tension, but it couldn’t be helped at the moment. If only Ren Gei and his gang were caught sooner…
Changmin and his useless tricks were entwining everyone into some sort of big mishap, but she couldn’t go to him upfront and ask him about anything. It just didn’t feel right if she did it that way.
Then there was Eunhyuk and Nana who she was currently working with at the moment. Communication was still stiff between her and Nana, but she was putting more effort into it. And she could tell Nana was trying her best too, yet Yuri understood the girl wouldn’t ask for anything personal.
“Oh! It’s the police woman! Hi y!” one of the teenage boys who made his regular visits after getting caught smoking on the streets in the early mornings waved to her.
“Would you shut up!” the police officer who’d brought him in reached over to push his head to the side.
Yuri quickly walked by so that she could avoid their messy interview session that morning. Closing the door to her barren office, she slumped down in her desk.
/ / / / /
Yuri had been quiet that morning. Nana had noticed it. Had she a lot of things on her mind? Or had Nana put them there? Now she was beginning to suddenly worry if she’d left some load for Yuri to bear. Nana hadn’t intentionally meant for Yuri to get more stressed, but really she didn’t know who to go to and Yuri was just there at that moment.
Nana would have to apologize to Yuri for that.
Something loud clattered in the sink making Nana jump in surprise. She turned around to see Victoria at the sink fussing with the dishes.
“Are you ok?” Nana asked.
“Oh, yea. Just had a slip of the hand,” Victoria smiled broadly.
Nana smiled back and returned to making the stove shine. However, she turned back to look at Victoria who was now again scrubbing the plates clean.
“Victoria,” Nana called, “you’re having your first baby, right?”
She watched expectantly as Victoria’s smile sort of dropped. Had she asked something she shouldn’t have?
“I was just wondering how it feels like…” Nana excused turning back to the stove.
All of a sudden she’d felt nervous for some strange reason. It might have had to do with the look of slight fear that had etched itself onto Victoria’s face all of a sudden.
***The gang does in fact know where Donghae, Vic, Nana, and Hyuk are staying. Vic forgot to tell them her suspicion about how the little boy had found her. And the gang is going to be moving against them soon!
***The issue about Vic's miscarriage gets indirectly brought up by Nana! Uh-oh!
***I have finals this week, so after Friday I'm free to write whenever again!
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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