Defence

39

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Taecyeon stared down at the dishes on the kitchen table satisfactorily and smiled. Walking out of the kitchen he headed toward the large window behind the TV and glanced outside. There was no sign of Victoria. He had called her a few minutes ago but no one had picked up. Taking another sigh he turned around and walked into the kitchen hoping that the food wouldn't go cold before she got back.

When his phone rang he answered almost immediately, "Ah...Yoona."

"Is Victoria there?"

"No, she said she had somewhere to go and hasn't returned yet."

"Do you know...if by any chance Donghae is with her?"

"Lee Donghae?" Taecyeon repeated the name. "Are you looking for him?"

"Yea," she replied, "I feel like I want to talk to him. His mother was over earlier, I'm afraid I may have gotten him into trouble."

For a moment Yoona wondered why she had gone into detail about it.

"I'll go see. If I see them I'll let him know." Taecyeon said and paused then went on, "Is everything ok?"

"I'm fine." Yoona paused and hesitated as if she wanted to say something. "That's all. Thanks."

Taecyeon hung up and headed down the stairs. He guessed he had no choice but to go look for the two. By saying she had somewhere to go, did she mean that she had to go see him?

He walked down the street and stopped when he saw a black car parked by the sidewalk. Glancing into the car he turned to search around the area hoping to find them near. When he turned around he saw the two of them emerge from beyond the thicket of trees. A feeling of curiosity overwhelmed him when he noticed that Donghae was treating Victoria to a piggyback ride. And as if Donghae had sensed him he looked straight toward him coming to a stop.

"Yah," Taecyeon called, "get off."

Victoria looked up and Donghae gently let her down. Taecyeon made his way over and glanced at her before turning to Donghae.

"Yoona's looking for you," he told. "I think you should go see her."

Donghae stared back then turned to Victoria calmly.

"I'll see you again." he said to her.

Victoria nodded with a smile and watched as he walked off. With one last glance toward her Donghae got into his car and drove down the road. When the car disappeared she turned back to look at Taecyeon.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied.

Victoria walked pass him and stopped when she heard, "Don't you think you should say thanks in person?"

She turned around with an eyebrow raised, "What?"

"That stupid note you left the other day," Taecyeon went on, "don't you think it's more meaningful if you say it in person?"

Victoria glanced down the empty road before turning back to him, "Why do you even bother to let me stay? Do you feel sorry? Is it sympathy or pity?"

"Yah," he called seriously.

Victoria stared at him blankly.

"Do you like him? That guy, you like him, don't you?"

Victoria swallowed the saliva in her mouth. The earth spun underneath her as the wind howled in silence.

"Stop holding yourself back, it gets harder to look at you when you try to hide. Don't run either. You keep thinking that you can't return to normal so you think you don't belong here, but I can tell you that you most certainly belong here. Sometimes, I wonder why I had to run into you that night, but now I know that if I hadn't run you over I would probably still be lonely right now. In a way you really did help fill that gap I'd been feeling. It's the truth, about why I let you stay. So don't think of going anywhere else." he honestly said. "If you like him, stay here so you can like him until the end. Along with the others, I don't want to see you go."