Let Me Dream || Victon

Chapter Forty-One: Savior

Those words sent a shockwave through her. She suddenly felt dizzy, and found it hard to concentrate on all the questions being thrown at her. But all the reporters were asking the same thing. Was it true that she was in a relationship with Byungchan? 

She clenched her hands into fists, trying to stop the tears from pooling in her eyes. She felt immense waves of guilt wash over her. Poor Byungchan. 

He'd already been so stressed about all the news being published about him. He'd already been so stressed because of his situation. She'd only been trying to be a good friend to him... but somehow she'd only ended up making everything worse. 

"I'm... I'm not," she whispered, but the words were stuck in her throat and no one was listening to her. Everyone was shouting, but no one was listening. She closed her eyes, trying to reorient herself and block out all the noise. It wasn't working. She felt herself shaking and she opened her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as tears blurred her vision. She tried to take steps back, to get away, but she was completely surrounded. Whenever she took a step to move, some of the reporters would grab her arm and force her to stay put. 

She was looking around, trying to figure out how to get herself out of this situation, when the crowd suddenly parted and someone pushed their way through. 

Chan.

His eyes met hers, and before she could even say or do anything, he took off his jacket, holding it around her so that it would partially block her face from reporters. Then he turned to the crowd, holding up a hand for them to stop. They didn't stop taking pictures, but they did step back. They stopped shouting their questions and started asking nicely instead, using "Sir" at the end of every sentence. 

He ignored all of them, keeping an arm around her as he led her to his car, opening the door for her and handing her the jacket when she was safely inside. She watched as he walked around the car to his seat, and noticed that while the reporters were now shouting again, none of them were touching him. 

Chan got into his seat and rolled down the window. "Hey!" he shouted at the reporters. A hush fell over the crowd. "If any of you follow us home, I'm suing. And you know I'll win. So I'd advise going home for now." 

"Do you have a statement?" the closest (and apparently stupidest) reporter asked, shoving a microphone in his face. "What's your relationship with her?" 

Chan grabbed the mic and threw it as far as he could. "That's my statement," he snapped, turning on the car's engine and driving away. 

It was only when they were far away from reporters and couldn't see them anymore did Gayoung finally start to relax. "Thank you," she said softly. "How did you know where to find me?" 

"I asked Subin. Listen, you're a bit shaken up... do you want to come over to my place for a little bit? Or I can take you to Subin's place or-" 

Gayoung shook her head. "I want to see Byungchan. I have to see if he's okay. I have to... I have to apologize to him." 

Chan frowned, clearly not approving of this. "If you're seen together, it'll only make the rumors worse. But we snuck him to Seungwoo's place, so I doubt anyone will know. Fine, we can go see him." 

She nodded, feeling a world of relief. "Thank you," she whispered. She couldn't thank him enough. "For everything. Especially for rescuing me from those reporters back there." 

He smiled at her, though the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Anytime."