Defence

60

It was half an hour later when she left Victoria's house and returned to her car. On the way to the apartment she felt anxious yet happy that she'd see a smile on Victoria's face. It was feeling like forever since she'd seen her friend.

When she rung the doorbell no one came to the door. Yoona rung the doorbell again and again insistently before Victoria came to the door looking drained. There was something about her that felt different.

"Are you ok?" Yoona first asked without a greeting. "You look tired. Have you been doing well alone?"

"Ah..." Victoria turned and put a hand up to her face as if to block her eyes from view. "I'm ok. I just...didn't sleep well last night."

"Have you been up all night?" Yoona stepped in closing the door after her.

She felt worried, heartsick. Questions pondered her mind as she wondered if it had been the right decision to tell Taecyeon to move out.

"I'm ok. I feel better, really." Victoria tried.

Yoona glanced at her without a word and walked into the kitchen setting the container of food down.

"I brought some porridge for you," Yoona explained, "Mrs. Kim made it."

Victoria's face became overfilled with feelings of longing and regret, a sad expression. She quickly wiped it away and smiled as if she hadn't felt sad at all. And while she ate, Yoona found herself staring at Victoria's blank expression. It was as if she were holding back all emotions that should have been poured out. For some reason, Yoona felt that without seeing Victoria tear up made everything even sadder.

"Is it ok? It's good, right?" Yoona asked trying to get something out of her silent friend.

Victoria looked up with a very happy smile, that of a child's. "It's just like old nanny Kim to make this. I can hardly recall how it used to taste like...but I do recognize the ingredients she put in here. I enjoy it."

After lunch they sat around and talked about some shows on the TV before Yoona left. When she walked out she concluded that something about Victoria was off.

- - - - -

The door closed and Victoria was once again enveloped in silence. Sitting on the couch with knees up to her chest she leaned her head against the top of the couch. Homemade food...she'd never tasted anything like that in what felt like a lifetime. How thankful she was to Yoona for bringing Mrs. Kim's specialty for her eat even though Victoria couldn't express any of her thankful feelings.

She didn't want to imagine how heartbroken Yoona would be again when she would no longer be there. To Donghae, as well, she'd have to tell him...he was just a person she'd met by accident. All he was to her was just a normal man, another friend she'd just come across. And Taecyeon...

Victoria couldn't imagine it. What should she say? What could she say?

The impact against her legs the first night they met when he ran into her had been marked so clearly into her body that it was engraved so deeply into her still mind. The morning he'd arrived back at the apartment to find her having a conversation with Donghae to when she'd threatened him to let her stay.

A light smile marked her lips then when she recalled his shocked facial expression.

Memories seeped into her veins. When he first brought her to the store for clothes, when she had her first meal with him and when he asked her why she always wolfed down her food, when he bought her a cookbook, his scolding were all embedded into her brain. The phone he bought her that he claimed was so expensive and made her carry around made her almost want to laugh till she cried. Then came the banquet and the reunion with Yoona at the hall. Everything seemed to fly in her mind.