[CONTENTID1]TWENTY THREE[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Yuri woke up with the sound of the drizzle rolling off the rooftop. Soft dim light shone through the gauzy curtains as she stretched mildly. She turned around when she felt a pair of arms around her waist. Yoona had wrapped her arms around Yuri and she seemed to be in deep sleep.

Yuri smiled contently; watching Yoona sleeping had easily been her favourite habit. She took in every detail of Yoona’s bare face closely. The latter’s chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm, her hair was in disarray, she looked so much younger when she was sleeping.

Yuri finally felt the bed shifting, and Yoona fluttered her eyelashes lazily.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” Yuri greeted, her voice still rough with sleep.

“M’ning Yul,” Yoona yawned. There were creases from the fabric of the pillow on her cheeks.

“It’s time to get up,” Yuri said but Yoona huffed, and rolled farther away from Yuri instead. Yuri frowned when Yoona buried her head back to the pillow.

“Let's get up,” Yuri tucked her arms but Yoona let out sleepy whine. “No.”

“Yes, we'll get up now,” Yuri said, rolled her body closer to Yoona. At the same time, Yoona rolled her body to face Yuri, her arms automatically finding Yuri’s waist. She snuggled closely to Yuri’s chest.

“Few more minutes please.”

Yuri felt her cheeks burn as Yoona tried to cuddle as close as possible to her chest. “But-,”

“Shhh, let’s sleep,” Yoona cut her off before she fell asleep again.

Yuri chuckled. She just stared at Yoona’s angelic face with full of affection before wrapping her arms around the latter’s shoulder and following her to sleep.

The rain had stopped and sun shone brightly when Yoona finally allowed Yuri to drag her down the bed. As soon as they took a bath, one of them would go find food for their so much late breakfast. And then spend the whole day inside the beach house, laying down, just lazing around until the sun sets, and night comes before going for simple walk.

It happened every day while they were in Geoje, but neither of them seemed to mind their new routine, nor did they complain about boredom. As long as they were together, everything else didn't really matter to them.

“It's my turn to buy the lunch!” Yoona claimed as she got up from their nap.

“We could go together,” Yuri suggested, still not keen with the idea of letting Yoona go around alone.

“Two person would gain more attention. It’s okay, I’ll be fast,” Yoona said as she grabbed her coat.

For a split second, Yuri had urged to tell Yoona that she had no problem with strolling around because Mr. Im didn’t even mention her name in newspaper; and that Yoona was the only be more careful because her picture had spread almost everywhere now. But she shut up at the end. She didn’t want Yoona to know the news she read in newspaper few days ago, because she almost could see Yoona’s frantic reaction.

Yuri watched as Yoona disappeared from behind the door and sighed. The day went surprisingly fast for them and the day they avoided would finally come the day after tomorrow. According to their original plan, they would return to Seoul the day after wedding, but she suggested them to stay for few days more until the chaos completely died down, and of course Yoona wouldn’t complain at all.

Yuri let her mind wander, just as how it always did lately. She wondered what Krystal was doing, did Yoona's dad find out about Krystal's involvement on their run away? Did she get any trouble from him? She also wondered what her friends were doing at Seoul right now, and whether the work she left to Hyoyeon went well.

Yuri's hand grabbed the phone in her pocket for the first time since she arrived in Geoje. She would call Hyoyeon to check their work, with hope it would lessen her guilt for neglecting her duties.

The call was picked after the first ring.

“Hello,” the voice on the other line said reluctantly.

“Hyo? It’s me,” Yuri said, she could tell that Hyoyeon was stressing over something right now.

“Yuri,” Hyoyeon said shortly, unwillingly.

“Yeah,” Yuri felt uneasiness come over her. Was her co-worker hate her for being irresponsible now? “How is work? Is everything going well?” Yuri asked again.

“Y-yeah,” Hyoyeon answered, and there were pause and Yuri heard few whispers on the other line before Hyoyeon’s more stressful voice speak again, “Yuri...”

“Yes?”

“W-where are you?”

“I-,” Yuri cut herself off before she could reveal her location. She had a bad feeling. It didn’t feel well, something was obviously happening right now. “Hyo, who’s there with you? Are you alone?”

“Yuri, I’m sorry, they are threatening me-”

“Sh*t!” Yuri ended the call, her heart was picking up the pace rapidly. She shouldn't have made the call!

She pulled out the sim card from her phone and broke it into two pieces; the things that later she knew were useless because Yoona's dad already detected their location from the phone call.

Her hands was trembling now, but she ignored it. She ran into bedroom and stuffed their clothes into a bag as fast as she can, inwardly praying Yoona to come back soon so they could leave this place.

Finally after half an hour of waiting, Yuri heard a light knock on the door. Her chest leap as she walked toward the door. Now that Yoona was back, they could get out from this beach house soon, but right when she opened the door, she just remembered that Yoona had never knock. She had spare keys.

“Who are you?” Yuri freeze when she met four figures standing in front of the door. “What do you want?”

“We come to pick up young lady,” said the tallest guy, trying to push door wider to let them in but Yuri’s hand was gripping the door hard.

“I-I don't know what you say. Stay away from my place!” Yuri barked. She tried to show her bravest face but she failed miserably when she spot Yoona walked closer to them. Yoona was a few feet away from beach house, her head hung low, looking at the plastic bag in her hand happily. She was unaware of what happen.

As the guys spotted Yoona, two of them started to approach Yoona but Yuri clutched their arms.  “Wa-wait you can’t-,” her mind went blank, the only thing she knew was she started to shout. “RUN! Yoong, run away!”

Yoona who heard Yuri’s loud voice jerked up her head, and her eyes widen when she saw two guys approaching her, while the others was holding Yuri’s arms firmly on the front door. She had got vision of what was happening right now, her heart sped up.

“Get off her!” Yoona growled, her plastic bag dropped from her hand, completely ignored. Her heart hammered in her chest as she saw Yuri tried to pry her arms away from the guys.

“Don't touch her!!!” Yuri shouted, kicking the guys with all her might. But she was powerless against two muscular guys. “I said don't touch her! Run Yoong!”

“President Im asked me to pick you up,” said the guy that approaching Yoona calmly.

“I won't go with you!” Yoona glared at him but he started to hold Yoona’s wrist. “Don't touch me!” Yoona kicked his feet. The guy groaned but the other one managed to catch her wrist and prevented her to move around.

“Ack-,” In front of the house Yuri was shrieking. The guy gripped hold of her wrist and twisted it painfully behind her back.

“Don't you dare lay your hand on her!” Yoona tried to walk toward Yuri but she couldn’t move, she was helpless too. But unlike the way they treated Yuri, they seemed hesitant to hurt Yoona and Yoona used the opportunity bite the guy’s hand that gripped her wrist.

She kicked the other guy in leg; the same spot she had been kicking him few minutes before. When they groaned in pain, she grabbed plastic bags on the ground and sprinted as fast as she could toward Yuri.

“Don't touch her!!!” Yoona hissed, opened the plastic bag and threw two very hot soup toward the guys. They yelped in pain.

“Run!” Yoona grabbed Yuri’s hand, and they started to run to the road. The guys quickly recovered and following them from behind, shouting them to stop as people around them started to look at them curiously but they didn’t stop running.

They didn’t know the way they were heading. All they knew was to run as fast as they could. They were panting, sweating, their legs were sore, and the solid road beneath them started to become sloppier, their feet touched more sand and they were heading to the beach when Yoona tripped. She couldn’t feel her legs anymore.

Yuri bent down to look at Yoona’s bleeding knee, “Yoong, you okay?” she asked with hoarse voice. She helped Yoona to stand up, looked frustrated. There was no way they could run fast with the wound in Yoona’s knee.

Her head was thinking fast, she looked around and spotted a crack in the large rocks next to them and lead Yoona to hide behind it. From the distance, they could hear the footsteps approaching them.

Yoona clutched Yuri tightly, tears rolling from her cheeks. Yuri didn’t make a sound, she just hugged Yoona back, their cold sweat mixing together, their heart beating in dangerous rate. They were silently praying that a miracle would come and save them, but it seemed like miracle was walking away from them when the guys easily pried them away.

Yoona’s body was shaking like crazy; she was screaming from the top of her lungs when her hand separated from Yuri.

“Don’t take her!”

Yoona could hear Yuri’s voice but what happened the next was coming in fast blur. All she knew was she felt a jolt of electricity went through her system and Yuri’s crying voice slowly disappeared.

Yoona jolted awake. Her head was pounding so hard, as if thousands of needles jabbed inside of her brain endlessly, her vision was blurry, her breath came out short and fast. After a moment, she became aware that her shirt was sticky; she was drenched in sweat. All of her senses were vibrating, taking in abrupt return to normality.

“Honey! You're up,” said the way too familiar voice next to her.

Yoona turned her head to aside. Her mom was looking at her, looking so pale and worried.

Yoona squinted her eyes to adjust the bright light of the room. She was laying down in her bedroom… her bedroom, inside her house... Yoona snapped out her daze when she noticed the absence of someone’s presence she had been greatly used to for these days.

“Where is Yuri? What did you do to her?” Yoona yanked away the warm blanket that covered her body. She didn’t need this warmth, she only needed Yuri. She tried to get out of the bed but her mom’s hand stopped her movement.

“Honey please calm down, you're safe in our home,” she pleaded, her hand caressing Yoona’s cheek gently.

“I need to find Yuri,” Yoona’s hoarse voice said, pushing her mom’s hand away from her cheeks. She was dragging her feet down the bed when the third voice heard.

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