Blaze

Realizations

His brows twitched, but before he could speak he heard Chorong say, "Suho?"

"Oh...hey," Suho greeted. "There you guys are."

The three stared back at the two quietly before Tao hurried forward questioning, "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine."

"You couldn't even stand earlier!" Tao's voice blasted Kris' worry.

Suho seemed to stare at Tao a little taken aback then apologized to Namjoo, "Sorry, I came a bit late."

"You two split up?" Tao asked as if too surprised they'd done so. "Why? No, let me come scout with you two."

"No," Namjoo deepened her tone, "Suho and I have things to finish. Go back with Kris and Chorong."

Pressing his lips together Kris finally walked forward and bent down to touch her ankle. Namjoo quickly withdrew her feet surprised. Tao lightly stared at him unhappily when he rose back up.

"Is it your ankle?" Kris worried.

Namjoo peered around her as if she were a student being interrogated in the principal's office.

"I'm fine," Namjoo insisted uncomfortably, "I felt a bit weak after they surprised me, that's all." Her eyes wavered over them silently again before she said, "Come on, Suho."

Kris said nothing more, but when they began to turn he reached out to grab her shoulder.

"Answer my calls," Kris forced the words out even though he knew that the others would hear, but he wasn't afraid. Chorong and Suho knew he liked Namjoo and he believed that Tao felt it as well.

Namjoo's eyes swayed up to look at him before she glanced around aware of the others' eyes. She still felt her pockets for her phone only to realize she didn't have it on her.

"We'll catch you guys later," Suho cut their meeting short deciding this wasn't the atmosphere they needed. "You guys stay safe."

And he watched unwillingly as Suho and Namjoo walked off closely with their couple hats on their heads.

~_____~

The pain was unbearable spinning in her eyes like a manipulated kaleidoscope. Victoria was no longer drifting in and out of her dreams. After the attack she was too conscious and this pain in her torso just worsened all else. As she lay thered almost lifeless on the hospital bed she tried all means to fixate her perpetrator's face in her memory.

Nothing came up.

For a long time she lay there allowing the pain to spiral through her. It was almost difficult to breathe and she had nothing to stare at, but the ceiling and the cold room. Through the silent room all that accompanied her were the raindrops splattering against the window reminding her that there was so much to do outside of the room.

Victoria wouldn't be able to handle anything personally. All plans of sabotaging Donghae had come to ruins at Eunhyuk's apartment and between all of this she still couldn't figure out where her attackers had come from.

Long moments spent trapped within her own cell she finally thought of an answer. If she couldn't do anything on hand, she could at least trust it to someone who was out of the group. Yes, she still had many connections.

Yoona, friend and trustworthy secretary was someone she could believe in. What she needed most now was faith and a helping hand. After grabbing her phone she dialed for her friend.

"Ah...Yoona, it's me," Victoria started.

~_____~

Donghae had the back of his head leaning against the hard wall, his eyes floating up toward the overhead lights out of boredom, yet he couldn't leave because of Victoria. When footsteps approached he expected a nurse, but instead spotted someone he'd never seen before. She was definitely not in a nurse's uniform.