Prologue - Taekwoon

“Did you see where she went?!” I asked, rushing toward Jaehwan as I crossed paths with him out on the street. The younger boy was paler than usual, his dark eyes missing any sign of their usual amusement. He shook his head, and I continued to scan the area, looking at the different signs to stores for a clue on where to find Ava.

“Hyung, what’s going on?”

“I, I don’t know,” I replied, and it was the truth. I had bumped into Ava in the hallway of Jellyfish, my smile evaporating as I noticed the tears in her eyes. As soon as she had seen me, her expression had changed and the next thing I knew she was running away from me.

Ava hardly ever runs. So I knew something was wrong.

“It’s been an hour since we lost sight of her,” Jaehwan panted a little, the sign of our chase catching up on him. It was then that I realised I was breathing heavily too, and took a moment to steady my own. “Maybe she just needs to be left alone?”

I shook my head and started looking around again. “I don’t feel good about this.”

“I’ll go this way then.” Jaehwan took off to the left and I began to move in the opposite direction, searching the buildings I passed in the darkening night. I didn’t want to wait for Ava to come home, my mind flashing back to when she was attacked two years ago. It made me move off with more determination, my height favouring my search as I darted through the outdoor population. I continued to look out for the caramel haired girl, feeling frustrated when it seemed to be the popular hair colour of late. I scolded my girlfriend for keeping up with the trends and sighed as I still came up without any sight of her.

Damn her ability to vanish.

Feeling defeated, I pulled out my phone and rang Jaehwan. He picked up almost immediately. “Have you found her?”

“No, could she have taken a subway to another district? Or a taxi somewhere?”

I groaned, running my hand through my hair and staring into the small coffee shop in frustration. My eyes then caught something and I held my breath, moving towards the door of the shop and telling Jaehwan I’d call him back. Blindly, I placed my phone back in my pocket and walked up to the booth in the corner, the occupant’s eyes welling up more at the sight of me.

“Go away.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, sitting down next to Ava. She looked around us at the small amount of customers and then shook her head.

“I don’t want you here. Go back.”

“I’m supposed to be on a radio show right now,” I pointed out, and Ava snapped her eyes to my face before shoving me away. “Jaehwan saw me going the wrong way, and followed me too. Shouldn’t you be more responsible for how your idols get to their schedules?”

“Right now Taekwoon, I just need you to be responsible for yourself.”

“The thing is, Ava.” I moved closer, brushing my hand over her swollen eyes gently. It didn’t ease the pool of tears like I hoped. “I might be an idol, but you always come first to me.”

Ava didn’t respond, too overwhelmed with her tears. I could feel myself getting affected by how upset she was as well.

“Isn’t it a good thing that I don’t talk enough for me to be missed from radio shows?”

“Can we talk later? This isn’t the place for this,” she managed to sputter out.

“So where do we need to go then?” I got up, grabbing her arm and pulled her to her feet. She wobbled and fell on me, my arm going around her and taking her out of the store. A couple of girls were taking photos of us as we exited and I was thankful Ava had hid her face into my side. I smiled weakly at the pair and they put down their phones.

“Leo-oppa!”

“Ladies, can I ask a favour of you?” I smiled again, knowing if any photos got out of Ava and I together whilst missing a scheduled interview would be hazardous for the both of us. The girls came closer and I held onto Ava a little tighter. “Can you please delete those photos? It would be a big help if you could. I promise if you come to my fan-signing tomorrow, I will personally take photos with you both.”

“How did you know we were going?!”

I grinned, regardless of how anxious I was becoming about my current situation. “I will take that as a deal then?”

They nodded enthusiastically, pulling out their phones and deleting the photos in front of me. I thanked them and then dragged Ava across the street, trying to get us to the quickest available taxi. Ava pushed me off though, and I looked down at her and then the area we were in.

“This is exactly why I ran away from you!”

I regarded her quietly and then reached forward but she walked off. “Why are you running from me? What have I done wrong?!”

“It’s not you, it’s who you are!”

“That doesn’t even make sense!” I cried out, rushing after the girl who was stalking off through the night. It was irking me that we were having a fight like this in public. I groaned, my eyes trying to keep on her, but also making sure no one was filming us. We had already been in trouble recently and I didn’t want more probation to occur.

“Taekwoon, just go. You have work.” Ava tried to stem her tears and then suddenly dashed across the road, my mouth freezing at yelling after her. I lost her in the dense amount of people trying to enter a club and I swore, running off again as my phone began to ring.

“Jaehwan I have found-”

“I hate doing this to you, Woon-ah.”

I stopped moving at the sound of Ava’s voice, hearing the tremble in her tone. “You’re not trying to leave me, are you?”

“I should, but I can’t.”

“Where did you go, I’ll come to you.” I started scanning the crowd and found her again, her eyes locked on mine. I went to step across to her when she said two words that froze me to the spot.

“I’m pregnant.”