University of Wonderland

Chapter Thirty-Five

The footsteps outside went to fight-or-flight mode. Apparently, I close the same path as most deer when faced with an oncoming car. Fight. Or more accurately, freeze, since I certainly didn't choose flee. Minho turn off the flashlight and pulled me into a standing position. On wobbly legs, I managed to follow him, knocking into a table in the progress,

"Shh!" Minho hushed.

My hip throbbed where I'd smacked it, but I bit my lip to keep from crying out. We squeezed behind a desk and crouched down, pressed between the wall and the chair. My leg muscles strained from the squatting position. I tried to readjust, but Minho placed his hand on my shoulder and steadied me. The folders in my hand cut into my skin.

The footsteps in the hallway grew louder.

My body betrayed me, erupting in tiny eartquakes of convulsions when all I wanted was to be taxidermied into this very position, like a trophy moose mounted on the wall. Minho snaked his arm around me and pulled me into his chest to muffle me. His heart beats at the same time as mine for the quickest to have an attack.

The footsteps entered the room.

I sucked in a deep breath. The blaze in my chest could create a fire in the forest. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could make out the faint outline of shoes on the opposite side of the desk. They stopped, one foot pointing toward us. Minho squeezed my arm.

My lungs ached and I let out a trickle of air through my lips, eyes squeezed shut because I knew how this would end. I'd get caught and arrested, and would never be unfashionable again because all I'd ever wear would be an orange jumpsuit like everyone else in prison.

The footsteps moved and headed toward the open file cabinet drawer. Papers rustled as whoever it was shuffled through them.

Minho and I exchanged glances. Someone else arriving at three a.m. on a random day to sift through the same files as us? That couldn't be a coincidence.

The mystery person slammed the drawer shut, making my teeth clattered. My heart racing, breath desperate, I waited once again for my sentence. This time the footsteps grew softer, and then the door to the room slammed shut.

I let out a breath and started to stand, but Minho held me back with a shake of his head.

He grabbed his cell phone and place it on his lap, lowering down the brightness.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

He typed something for me to read: Shh. Coast = not clear. Not wasting time just in case.

He opened the file that was on top and started to scan through. My hands were so dried that they could be a desert, but I copied them, if it's the only thing to distract myself from the inevitable end to my freedom. Being grounded actually seemed tempting.

The file on my lap was full of papers. I slid the top page off and held it up to the light, leaving the rest of the open folder balanced on my lap. It looked like a phone transcript. All the names of speakers and phone numbers had been scratched out, as wellas some of the lines of dialogue. My eyes immediately fell to my parents' names, like a beacon, halfway down the page in the dialogue.

The pages trembled in my shaky hands. Minho looked over at me.

First speaker: Bae Junyoung and Bae Hye-mi and Oh Kwangsoo. I don't know where they are, but find them and stop them. This can't get out, and if they do this protest . . .

Second speaker: And how do you expect me to do that? If arresting them didn't work, nothing I say will.

First speaker: I'm not asking you to say anything. I'm telling you to do anything.

Minho snatched the rest of the open foler off my lap, leaving me with the phone transcript in my hand. He stared at the other files in the folder for a second, mouth parted.

"Yah!" I yelled before I remembered to be quiet.

He snapped the folder closed, rolled it into a tube, and slid it down into his pocket.

"Minho, I need that," I whisper-yelled. I waved the phone transcript at him like it reinforced my claim. I wasn't about to reach into his pockets.

"I think the coast's clear." He stood up and pushed himself out from behind the desk.

I tried to stand up and tucked the folders I hadn't looked at under my arm. I didn't know what they contained, but they might be useful. Or maybe Minho had stolen the most useful one of all. He ran toward the door without waiting for me to follow.

I hurried after him, tripping my own feet along the way before he get away with my file. "Wait!"

He opened the door and stopped short right outside it. "Oh, shit."

I stepped outside and my feet came to a dead stop at the sight of what had caused him to freeze.

Sehun.

"Suzy?" Sehun looked back and forth between Minho and me.

Minho relaxed out of his rigid position and pasted a smirk as if this showdown could feed his drama fix for at least a week.

I let out a breath I'd been holding since I entered City Hall. I command my body to move into action and run to Sehun, almost knocking him over with the force of relief. I wrapped my arms around his neck, so happy to see him in such an unusual place. He hugged me back, but loosely.

He tilted his head to the side. "What's going on here?"

Good thing it was kind of dark and Sehun couldn't see my red cheeks. "I should ask you the same thing," I said, my voice started out shaky but growing more confident by the end of the sentence. "I thought you said you would never break in here."

Minho chuckled, enjoying this way too much.

"I wouldn't." He dropped his arms from around me. "The door was open.

"You guys can stick around and fight, but since we didn't actually get caught, I'd like to keep it that way." Minho walked down the hall quickly. One that resembled more getaway than departure.

Minho threw Shin-Hye's keys behind him. They clattered to the floor. I bent over to picked them up, my hoodie falling into my eyes. My sweaty hand wiped it out of my face.

"I'm not happy you did this," Sehun started. "But -"

"I needed evidence. Why are you here?" I quickly walk to the exit.

"You didn't let me finish. But you should've told me. I would've come with you. Made sure you didn't get caught." He reached for my hand. I let him take it.

I spun around to face him. "I wanted to tell you. I wish you'd been here with me." I smiled at him, mostly to get a smile from me in return. "But I didn't have your number." I removed my hand from his and headed for the doors again. "And you're avoiding my question."

He ran past me to hold the door open for me. "I followed Minho."

The cool air blasted in my face. The wind lifted the hoodie and made it sway in the breeze. Minho reversed out of the parking lot.

"If you followed him, why did it take you so long to find us inside?"

Sehun shoved his hands in his pockets. "Suzy, let's talk in the morning. Not when you're angry."

"Fine." I stomped toward Shin-Hye's car. I thought Sehun had told me everything when we ditched the gym, but clearly there was something else he didn't want me to know. I would've brought him instead of Minho. We could've been a team.

I wasn't sure who my ally was tonight.

=^_^= . . . =^_^=

SURPRISE!!! A surprise update for you guys, I hope y'all didn't wait too long. *tears*

The person was Sehun!!! Whoever guessed that, good job! You are awesome! I'd finished my essays and now I can probably type more this week. But . . . I don't know~

I haven't been receiving any comments from you guys, I don't what you think about this story. Do you guys want me to finish this quickly? Or delete this? I don't know . . . but please I love to read your comments, they make me happy. *Smiles brightly*