Depend On Me

chapter 4

I sit in the corner of the couch, my legs draped over Leo's as N lectures me.

"If anyone saw you... Omo! The couple, what happened to them? If they tell anyone, you can get in trouble with the authorities! What will we do then?" He's pacing back and forth while I look down at my hands, to ashamed to reply.

"She'll say it was self-defense." Leo answers for me.

"Because it was," Hongbin says, standing from the chair he was previously silent in. "Think about it, if she hadn't done this," he gestures to Adrian still knocked out and tied to a kitchen chair, "We could have lost her." He looks at N, annoyance written on his face. "Be happy she's safe."

"While that may be true," N started again, "None of this would have happened had she not attacked the others," he says, looking at me pointedly. Next to me, Leo makes a sound of irritation and leaves me to stand next to N.

"Hakyeon," he says softly, "Can I talk to you outside?" He phrases it like a question but doesn't wait for N to follow him to the balcony. I glance at Hongbin as they close the door and see he still looks irritated.

"Hongbin?" I say softly. He looks up, obviously surprised at my use of his real name.

"What," he asks, "No 'Bean'?" I force a smile for his sake.

"Thank you," I say. He looks stunned but before he can say anything Leo and N return.

"Okay!" N exclaims, clapping his hands together. I look at Leo, who is sitting on the opposite side of me and seems to be more interested in his rings than this conversation. "After a quick chat, Leo has had an idea. We will vote on it, majority rules. Everyone in the room looks at one another except for Leo who still hasn't looked up.

"I think it would be best," Leo starts softly, still looking down, "If Kahlia resumed living life as a normal teenager." Silence. I look around confused. "That is," he continues, "Until further notice, she is no longer a part of Excelsis." It takes me a minute to understand what he is saying. "All in favor?" He asks looking around. All of the guys raise their hands, none of them looking in my direction.

"What the fuck!?" I look at each of them. "Why?!" I demand.

"This is for your best interest," Ken says softly.

"Bullshit!" I scream. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" I gesture to the man in the chair.

"It's not your choice," Leo says, finally gaining the nerve to look at me.

"Fine," I say and walk out the door as calmly as I can. After I close the door, I start running, accidentally bumping into Aria. I don't even stop to apologize. I run out of the building, unaware of where I am going and uncaring of where I end up. I don't stop running until my legs give out. I collapse on to the floor and lay on my back. When I finally catch my breath I look around; I'm on the river shore across the river from the dorms I just left. I don't know what to feel. I feel sad that they didn't want me, happy that they cared about me, angry they didn't trust me, but mostly betrayed that they jumped on an opportunity to be rid of me. I look back towards the dorm and scream as loud as I can and collapse into the sand again. I jump as my phone goes off and I hear Leo's ringtone. I press answer but he speaks before I can say anything.

"Where are you?" He asks.

"Home."

"Don't lie to me." I can hear anger in his voice; he's always hated it when I lied to him. "I'm at your house, your mother says you never came home."

"Why do you care?" I scoff. "I'm living life as a normal teenager, should you even be talking to me? Leave me alone." I hang up.

"Boyfriend troubles?" I jump again at the voice coming from beside me. I find myself face-to-face with a petite blonde girl. She is about 4'3'' with brown eyes and brown roots. Bottle blonde much?

"I guess you can say that," I reply cautiously.

"That sucks," She says, "I thought you guys were cute together." I give her a skeptical look.

"Do I know you?" I ask.

"No," she replies simply, "But I know you Victoria." She smiles. I stiffen a bit, preparing myself for a fight. Seeing the change in my demeanor, she laughs.

"Relax. I'm not here to fight you. I'm here to talk." She raises her hands to show she means no harm and continues talking. "You see, me and my friends," she gestures just up the riverbank and I notice for the first time there are people surrounding us. "We all watch the news quite a bit, and we kept hearing speculations about V.C., so we made a video in hopes of luring V.C. out. That's when someone found my friend and tried to attack them! Can you believe that?" She says feigning hurt. Suddenly I remember May and how she quit after I sent her to track the origin of the video. "After we confined her," the girl continued, "We asked her some questions and she refused to answer, however after a little persuasion, she told us all about Victoria Cruz, that's you, and we made it our mission to recruit you to lead us. So, what do you say?" When I don't' reply she pushes further. "Come on, stop flying solo and come with us. If you need further persuasion we have videos of your violent tendencies, wouldn't want your cute boyfriend to see how violent his girl could be, would you?" I mentally sigh, relieved that she didn't know the truth about Taekwoon and the rest of VIXX.

"I don't know anything about you," I tell her, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Come with me to the hideout and I will answer any questions you have over coffee?" She offers. I nod and follow her.

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AN: Hey guys! Please comment, vote, and do stuff like that if you liked the story?