The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

29

By midday the next morning, the group found themselves once again deep in the forest, heading in a direction Kayleigh swore led towards a rocky biome. They decided to rest in the morning and while it was easy for everyone else to fall asleep, Mel couldn’t stop her thoughts from racing around in her head. 

Gazing straight up at the blue sky peaking through the canopy, she sighed loudly and fiddled anxiously with her fingers. Every hour she let Kay lead them towards a different biome is time Melody could be using to figure out who the heck the Joker is and what happened in the Pen they had discovered. But if she disappeared, they would all know where she went off to.

Suddenly, she felt a warm hand take hold of hers, interlocking their fingers. She instantly traced the hand back to Seungmin who shot her a concerned gaze. Staring into his warm brown eyes, she wanted to blurt out everything on her mind and share the burden with him but she couldn’t. Or rather, she knew she shouldn’t.

“Are you alright?” He asked, eyes inspecting her nonchalant expression.

With a soft smile, she nodded, “I’m fine.”

“Did you get any sleep at all?” 

“No.”

Seungmin immediately sat up, a frown stitched to his face as he caressed her cheek with his other hand. Leaning into his touch, she released a partly shaky breath as her gaze locked with his. The loving look he gave her sent a faint blush to her cheeks and the corners of her lips curved up into a fond smile.

“What’s wrong?” He asked softly.

“What isn’t wrong, Seungmin? I just… I hate this. All I want is to escape already. I don’t want to deal with all of this right now.”

“All of this? Do you mean… Kayleigh? What’s wrong with Kayleigh?”

It was her turn to sit up, clearing her throat after doing so as she avoided his gaze.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” He tilted his head in confusion. “What does that even mean? If you don’t like her, surely you should have a reason for it.”

“She’s odd,” Mel muttered. 

“Why do you say that?”

“She has been lying since the moment I first met her and I don’t know why. If she really is the Ace of Diamonds, why would she be lying? What does she have to lie about?”

He shrugged, “maybe it’s because she doesn’t completely trust us yet. She lost her members and was betrayed by the rest, Melody, that probably left a deep scar. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a problem trusting people.” Seungmin’s thumb brushed over the back of her hand gently as he added, “I lost my members too and to someone I considered a brother. It took me years before I could finally trust Minho or Jeongin or Jisung and to this day I still have trust issues. You haven’t gone through any traumatic experiences like that. You wouldn’t understand.”

“I know she has a traumatic past but even if I took that out of the equation, there’s still something off about her.”

“So you think she’s the Joker, then?”

“I don’t know,” she trailed off. “She could be. None of us actually know who the female Joker is. She could easily deceive us all.”

“Her jumpsuit literally reads ‘Ace of Diamonds’.”

“She could have stolen it.”

Seungmin chuckled, bringing her hand up to kiss it as he stared at her in adoration, “I would have expected you to be most accepting of her, to be completely honest, Mel. It’s rather hypocritical of you to accuse her of being a Joker when you were so upset when Jisung did the same thing.”

The playful glint in his eye proved he was partly joking but she could tell that there was still some honesty to his words. Her cheeks heated up at the statement, gaze dropping in shame. 

“I guess…” she mumbled. “But I still feel like there was something in the Pen that she tried to distract me from.”

“And why’s that?”

“I just have an unsettling feeling about it. Something Brea had said got me thinking and now I can’t get over the thought that there might be something behind the forest.”

He nodded, letting go of her hand so he could gently push her back until she was lying down again. 

“How about this then? You get some sleep now and when night time returns, we will all head back to that Pen together. Minho, Brea and Jeongin will watch over Kayleigh while you and I explore as much of that forest as we can, okay? Would that make you feel any better?”

She beamed, pulling him down with her before wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling her head into his chest, “that would make me feel much better. I would love that.”

Instantly responding to her embrace, Seungmin rubbed circles into her back gently and placed an affectionate kiss on the top of her head. His heartbeat lulled her to sleep, a wide grin plastered on her face and for the first time in a while, her mind was still. Tucked between his arms, Melody felt safer than ever but the feeling also seemed oddly nostalgic. In fact, everything about it felt strangely like a case of deja vu. As though the action reconnected her with a memory of her past self that she had long forgotten and a part of her brain longed her to think further about it, to unlock the memory while she still could. But she decided against it, knowing that an opportunity to rest like this was not something she was presented with often.

“Don’t do it,” Mel heard Kayleigh warn.

“Don’t do what?” Seungmin whispered in response, trying not to wake her up.

“Don’t take her to the forest tonight.”

“Why not? Are you seriously hiding something? Was she right in saying there’s something odd about you?”

“She loves you again, Seungmin. That’s all you wanted, wasn’t it? Why would you want to trade that just so she would know the truth? You know you can’t have both, right?”

“What are you on about?” The confusion in his voice was evident. Panic settling deep in Mel as she felt his heartbeat quicken. “I don’t understand what you are saying.”

“Of course you don’t and neither does she. They completely erased your minds to give you a second chance, Seungmin. You would have killed yourself long ago if you knew how all of this ended last time. So to avoid you finding out and to make sure Mel never stops loving you, I would suggest getting her as far away from that Pen as you can.”

“Last time? What do you mean by last time? Completely erased my mind?”

Kayleigh chuckled, “let’s just say, my dear boy, that you aren’t as innocent as you think you are. You are just as responsible for what happened to that Pen as I am. Do you really want her to find out who’s blood painted the walls of that shed? Because once she finds out, Kim Seungmin, she’ll never love you again.”