Dance Partners || N.NK ||

Part 61/S2

"Hello?" Ni-ki spoke again, the confusion in his voice from your lack of response clearly evident.

"Why didn't you...tell me sooner...Ni-ki?" you finally spoke, your tone slightly cracking.
"What do you mean Yn?" he responded, the slight noise of him leaving his bed and slipping his slippers on unmistakably audible.

You closed your eyes shut for a while, holding the phone to your ear tighter.

"I heard someone on the street over that day...she muttered something about you being on a hiatus...is that true?" you finally let the question roll down your tongue.
You knew that a hiatus wasn't just a long break for the idols, but rather something caused by a serious matter.
And you couldn't help but assume the reasons that could've landed him on a hiatus.

A sudden silence filled the air.

"Ni-ki..." you began.
"You've been on a hiatus this whole time... haven't you?" your voice wavered.

But there was no reply from him.

No sound of movement.
Nothing
Not even a sound of him slightly even breathing.

And—Knock.

There was a knock on your bedroom door before it was pushed open by the one and only other person living in the house : Ni-ki.

He stepped inside the room, his once sleepiness now faded away.

The call was long ago ended.

"What's going on in your mind Yn?" Ni-ki mumbled, walking close to your bed.
"Answer my question." you ignored his question.
"Hmm?" he hummed in question as if asking you to pose your question.

"You were on a hiatus all this time...weren't you?" you asked.

He sighed, looking away from you.

"Yeah... I've been in a hiatus for a long time now... thats true" he muttered, walking over to the window of your room.
"Why?" you simply asked.

He sighed.

"Well..." he paused, his gaze lingered out the window.
But his mind didn't.

"It's complicated..." he muttered, still facing out the glass window.

"Complicated in what way?" you asked with no hesitation.

But he stayed silent.

"Just tell me, Ni-ki!" you urged, your voice trembling.
you really wanted to know the real reason behind his hiatus.
And no matter how much you tried to shake it off, the constant feeling of guilt kept gnawing at you.
What if it was because of you?

"It was a scandal..." Ni-ki began.

"What scandal?"
"For what?"
"With whom?"
"Since when?"
Your questions kept piling up one by one.

Ni-ki sighed once again, as if gathering the courage to speak up.

"It was a dating Scandal," he spoke, his eyes still fixed somewhere elsewhere than on you.

You froze.

"It started on the day of the three-day vacation...with you. When I saved you from the failed bungee jumping cord."

Your breath hitched.
The moment he mentioned about the bungee jumping cord, a sharp sensation  went through your nerves.
The feeling wasn't new.
It would always happen when your brain suddenly remembered something new from your lost memories.

You thought you had long recovered all your memories.
But you were wrong.
There were still tiny details yet forgotten.

That day—the way he held you, the way the staff panicked, the flashes from a fan's phone across the river, while your teammates stood on ground with the looks of worry plastered on their faces.

It all made sense now.

"Then why didn't you tell me about it all this time??" you asked, your eyes focused on his back facing you.
Ni-ki stayed silent, followed by a quiet sigh, not daring to answer.

"I couldn't..." Ni-ki whispered.
"Why not?? You are on a hiatus because of me, so why not speak to me about it?" you questioned.
"It's not that easy Yn..." he spoke.
"Had I said it earlier, the worser it would've been" he said, his sentence making you confused.

"That's makes absolute no sense" you muttered.
"I know."

"Well...I couldn't bring myself to tell you about my hiatus," he finally said, his voice low, almost trembling.
"I was scared i'd loose you all over again. You were still recovering from your amnesia...it just wouldn't have worked out."

"How so? I wouldn't have left or vanished from your life once again for that scandal..." you mumbled.
"You don't understand it...." he finally turned around, finally revealing his face to you.
His eyes were noticeably red—from the lack of sleep.

"Durning your memory loss...you were a completely different person," his voice wavered as he walked closer to you.
"When I first found you, it was past midnight. You were walking barefoot on a bridge's pavement, all alone—lost, with no idea where you were headed to or even who you were."
His words sent a jolt of pain through your mind, even though you had long recovered those exact memories—the moments he was now speaking of.
"You didn't recognise me. You only spoke English and wouldn't respond when I tried speaking to you in Japanese or Korean." he said, all the things he mentioned added more to the throbbing pain in your head.
"You had cuts all over your body... and you were burning up with a fever so high hot, not even the cold weather could bring it down." he mumbled, settling into the empty space beside you on the bed.

The more he spoke, the worser your headache got.
Faint images of Picture frames hanging on a wall played in front of your mind.
It felt like as if you were dreaming.
But you weren't.