His Muse (SF9 Fanfic)

3

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS INTENDED FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE, THAT SOME MAY FIND DESTURBING. MATERIAL CONTAINS ASSUALT, PHYSICALLY AND SEXUALLY. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

A creepy smile wipes away the scowl on his face as he says, "What brings you here Lizzy?" His voice sounding upbeat.

I inch a bit back in my seat to create further distance worried about not knowing what is going to happen. "Zuho and I ran into each other at Starbucks and decided to get lunch together."

His smiled widened and his grip on the girl next to him tightened. "Ah, well that sounded like fun. Amanda and I have had a great afternoon so far together and it'll just get better later on, right babe?" He turned toward the meek looking girl who quickly glanced up to meet his eyes and averted them back down to the floor before nodding her head keeping her eyes down.

A pang of sadness hit my heart watching Amanda flinched as Derek wrapped his arm around her shoulders possessively. I never had thought Derek would be capable of this type of attitude and possible physical or mental abuse. He had always been so nice and helpful but now I'm seeing the cracks in the façade. A good chunk of abusers are just like that; kind and caring until they're comfortable enough to show their true selves. I learned that first hand myself, you can never trust a book by its cover. I felt like the Derek I knew may just be what I made up in my head this whole time because of my crush for him and this is his true form and I may not have seen it cause I didn't want too. It may not be a façade, I could just have been blinded, once again, to the red flags.

I felt a hand gently cover mine and I looked up to see Zuho's concerned eyes. He gave a small smile and turned to look at Derek. "Well we don't want to keep you any longer from your fun afternoon ahead, so we will leave you be."

I looked over at Derek whose gaze was burning a hole at Zuho and my hands but he quickly cleared his throat and the happy façade was back into place. "Oh of course, I'll see you Lizzy at work tomorrow." I nodded in agreement, "Come on Amanda, we have places to be." He yanked her closer to him and pulled her out the door.

Quietness surround the table, Zuho's hand still covering mine. "Everything alright?"

I nodded and pulled my hand out of his as the waitress came over to our table to grab our order. I briefly scanned the menu but my appetite was gone and was replaced with memories of my own abuse. Zuho could see the troubled look on my face and ordered us both the same thing then thanked the waitress. Once she left, he shifted in his seat and leaned onto the table resting his head on his hands and looked up at me. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No, I'll be okay. Just gotta take it one day at a time and force yourself to be better." I laughed forcefully.

"It can be but sometimes it's good to take a break and just let yourself feel what you need too. It's okay to let the world stop for a day or two and just take care of yourself."

"I guess so but distraction can be good too." I leaned on the table too letting my head rest on his arm that was stretched out. "So what is a big K-pop star doing here anyways?" I asked trying to lighten the mood and get my mind off of what was mentally going on.

Zuho smiled sweetly, "I'll answer your questions if you answer mine?" Sighing I nodded my head. "Well we all finished our military service and our group has grown popular in other countries so we've been on a world tour and are about halfway done our concerts in the United States. Youngbin convinced our company to give us a couple weeks off when they were planning the dates and we landed on this little city to take a mini vacation."

"Well I'm glad you did take a vacation here, no one seems to recognize you guys much."

"That is true, it's nice just being able to be me. I love Fantasy a lot and always love seeing them but it's also nice to take a bit of time to myself with the boys and just spend some time together."