A/N: Happy Holidays everyone! I hope all of you are well and getting to spend some time with loved ones. A big thanks goes to KLSoEul and LilisLittleRose for starting this collaboration and for the great set up, as well as their feedback and encouragement. Hopefully this will add some cheer to your day along with a good dose of SoEul!
"Are you fellas lost?"
Ga Eul had to blink twice when she looked up at the newcomer's face. "Geun Suk oppa?"
"Oh, you recognized me." Jang Geun Suk smiled at her, looking embarrassed. Ga Eul almost giggled. The actor was just as handsome in person, with a smile that could transform his face from intense and brooding to adorable and cute. And that deep voice!
"I heard some commotion over here so I wanted to check. Is everything okay? Are you okay?" He looked into Ga Eul's face, concerned. Then he gave Yi Jeong a pointed look. Yi Jeong scowled back.
"Ah, everything is okay. I was trying to find the exit and reached a dead end. Then he startled me. We were just arguing on which way to go." She frowned at Yi Jeong. "Sunbae, next time don't sneak up on me like that!"
"I wasn't sneaking up on you." Yi Jeong retorted. "I saw you running and thought you needed help."
"If I needed help, it wouldn't be from you!" Ga Eul stuck her chin in the air. Yi Jeong was ever ready to come to the aid, but for her, heartbreak almost certainly followed. She wasn't about to let him back in again.
Geun Suk stood awkwardly in the tense silence ensuing.
"Um, if you're lost, I think I found the way out. I can show you– and your friend if you want," Geun Suk offered.
"He's not my friend," Ga Eul said quietly. "I'll come with you. He can find his own way out."
Yi Jeong watched the pair go with disgust and stalked in the opposite direction. Ga Eul had gone from furious and vengeful, to giggles and sparkling eyes. He saw the way Ga Eul had looked at the actor-slash-singer. She had looked at Yi Jeong like that once, all starstruck and enamored the first time he met her at the small porridge shop. Now she only looked at him with anger and hurt. He had wanted to misbehave enough for her to get over him but maybe he had gone too far. She barely wanted to talk to him now, let alone be in the same vicinity as him. For goodness sake, she'd pick a serial killer over him.
Now she had gone off with a complete stranger, calling him "oppa". Sure, he was famous, but how would she know what kind of person he was in reality? Yi Jeong had even met him a few times at social events, and the actor was… alright, he was actually a nice guy. But all he was to Ga Eul was a tall, handsome, charismatic celebrity– so was Yi Jeong for that matter!
And look how that turned out for Ga Eul. Maybe she was better off now. At least the guy seemed decent and had a bright future, even if apparently he didn't make enough to wear branded clothing. With his hand injured, all Yi Jeong had left to his name was his family's money and his playboy reputation.
He's not my friend. It was like a punch to the gut. They used to be something like friends. Now they were…
Yi Jeong tripped but caught himself before he fell. He saw two long legs clad in camouflaging white protruding from underneath one of the trees. "Ji Hoo?"
He could never understand how Ji Hoo could nap in the most indiscriminate places. "Ji Hoo-yah, you can't just sleep in the snow. You're going to get wet."
Yi Jeong lightly tapped his friend with his foot. "Ji Hoo?"
Something was strange. Yi Jeong crawled under the low branches, getting closer to examine his face.
"Ji Hoo!" Yi Jeong shook him forcefully. "Yah! Yoon Ji Hoo!"
Ji Hoo was unconscious. Yi Jeong gasped when he saw a trickle of red staining the snow near his head.
He pulled out his phone. "Woo Bin. Ji Hoo's been attacked. Everyone's in danger!"
Ga Eul's steps were light as she trailed behind her number one celebrity crush. She couldn't believe her luck. Just that morning Master had been going on about how she would meet the person she most wanted to see, but warned her not to go off with the bad guy. It was so satisfying seeing the dumbfounded expression on Yi Jeong's face when she left him behind.
"So Ga Eul, is it? You're pretty just like Autumn."
It was such a stupid line that she had heard so many times before, but coming from him made Ga Eul elated. He thought she was pretty. Unlike someone whose ideal was the likes of Lee Hyori and Kim Tae Hee. "Thank you. So you celebrate Christmas?"
"Yes. I wanted to surprise my family with a fresh Christmas tree this year. And you?"
"We celebrate Christmas too, but a fresh tree is too expensive for our family. This tree is for the restaurant that I work at. Our boss makes the best porridge in all of Seoul. You should stop by sometime."
"I will. There's nothing better in the middle of winter."
Hah. Porridge wasn't beneath her favorite idol, as opposed to a certain privileged chaebol who never ventured to try it even though he had visited the shop several times.
"This is a long way from Seoul. How are you getting your tree home? Is your… acquaintance helping you?"
She hadn't thought that far ahead. Maybe they could buy a seat for the tree on the bus? Or maybe one of the other F4 could help them. Surely they didn't all come to buy a Christmas tree in their four tiny sports cars? She rolled her eyes just thinking about how pretentious and impractical Yi Jeong's orange car was.
"He couldn't help me even if I asked. His hand is injured." She frowned. He hadn't been wearing gloves in the cold weather. She shook her head. Anything having to do with him was no business of hers.
"Oh really? That's too bad. Then how about I help you? My truck can surely fit two trees, and you and your girlfriend."
Girlfriend? How did he know that she had come with Jandi? A ringtone sounded.
"Just a minute," Geun Suk said with a smile. He stopped and pulled his phone out from his pocket to answer it. At the same time a white and red cloth fell out.
"Oh! You dropped something." Ga Eul bent down to pick up the handkerchief. When she looked more closely, she saw that the embroidered lettering in the corner said "Do Kyung Woo".
"Yes, we're almost there." Geun Suk said into his phone. The pitch of his voice wasn't as deep as before.
She looked up at her companion and noticed a mole on his right cheek that shouldn't have been there. She realized with horror that the red on the handkerchief wasn't actually a pattern. It was blood stains.
"So, I guess our little game is over," Geun Suk, no, Kyung Woo said smiling maliciously. As Ga Eul turned to flee the impostor grabbed her wrist roughly and pulled her towards him. Just when she was about to scream, his other hand gripped her throat, silencing her. He twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her forward along the path.
"Where are you taking me?" Ga Eul choked out.
He brought his mouth close to her ear. "To see your friends. Then maybe you can come to my place alone when all this is over."
His hot breath on her cheek caused her to flinch in disgust and fear. The terror and his hand on her throat were making her dizzy as she stumbled along. Her vision started swimming.
Yi Jeong sunbae, Ga Eul thought as everything turned to black.
"Yi Jeong-ah. What happened to Ji Hoo? I can't hear you– " Woo Bin's voice cut out.
"Woo Bin!" Yi Jeong heard a long beep and then silence. Damn! He tried calling Jun Pyo, but couldn't even get a ring. The reception was bad in the mountains. How was he going to warn the others? He would have to tend to Ji Hoo first.
Yi Jeong used his left hand to pull on Ji Hoo's legs. With difficulty he dragged him far enough to clear his shoulders from under the tree. He hooked his right arm underneath Ji Hoo's shoulders to hold him up while he examined his head. Luckily the wound was small. Yi Jeong draped Ji Hoo's left arm over his own neck then slowly lifted him, but then his right hand cramped when he tried to grip his friend's limp body. He slipped and they both fell back into the snow.
Yi Jeong screamed in frustration. He couldn't even be of help to his friends in his state. How could he be this useless?
"Yi Jeong!" It was Woo Bin. "What's wrong with Ji Hoo?"
"He hurt his head and won't wake up. I think someone might have attacked him."
"Let's get him out of here first then we'll figure it out. Help me get him onto my back."
After they maneuvered Ji Hoo onto Woo Bin's back, Yi Jeong asked, "How do we get out of here?"
"I lost Ji-ah while we were playing hide-and-seek. She was gone for so long, I decided to mark the path to the exit. Then I heard you." Woo Bin gestured at a broken branch on the ground with the tip pointed in one direction. "Come on."
When they reached the exit, Yi Jeong summoned Ji Hoo's driver to tend to him. Woo Bin finally found a decent signal to make some calls. "Secretary Kwon. We need back up. And call for an ambulance."
Ji Hoo started to stir when Woo Bin returned. Yi Jeong shook his shoulder. "Ji Hoo. Are you okay? Can you hear me? What happened?"
"I… I don't know… Jun Pyo and Jandi… arguing. Lost them."
"And? What happened after that?"
"Someone… hit me." Ji Hoo put a hand to his head.
"Are you sure it was a person? Did you see who it was?"
Ji Hoo's eyes fully opened. He looked straight at Yi Jeong. "It was a person. I didn't see them… but I heard their footsteps." He winced in pain. "Warn the others."
Yi Jeong and Woo Bin looked at each other. Woo Bin said, "I couldn't reach Jun Pyo. Stay here with Ji Hoo and I'll go look for them."
Yi Jeong shook his head. "I'll go in too. I can't just wait out here while everyone else is in danger."
Woo Bin glanced at Yi Jeong's still unhealed hand. "Okay, but if anything happens, find me or Jun Pyo before you do anything stupid."
With Ji Hoo now safe, they hurried back into the sprawling maze and split up to search for the others. Racing left, right, then left again, Yi Jeong tried not to panic. All the while he couldn't reach anyone on the phone, no matter how many times he tried. His thoughts whirled. Yi Jeong had a bad feeling and not a small amount was for a certain porridge shop waitress. He had dismissed her dramatic story about a killer on the loose, but she did say she found blood. He cursed himself for being so stupid whenever it came to Chu Ga Eul.
Maybe she would be okay as long as she stayed with that actor. Then Yi Jeong remembered something with dread. His clothing. Why would a successful celebrity be caught wearing knock-offs? The guy had made him uneasy and it wasn't just because he was jealous, for he couldn't deny he really had been jealous. He tried to clear his head before he could think of the worst.
He turned the corner and found himself back where he had first crossed paths with her. There were three sets of footprints in the snow with two of them, a large set and a smaller one, veering off together. If he could just follow her footsteps then he could make sure she was okay. He stopped dead in his tracks when he came across a handkerchief. It was splattered in blood. Yi Jeong sped up and then finally his worst fears came to life. There had been a scuffle with tracks all over the place, and further along the smaller set of footprints disappeared with only the larger set going forward.
Ga Eul yang.
His phone buzzed. Hands shaking he pulled it out to find it was a message from her. He prayed it was to tell him that she was okay.
When he read the message the blood drained from his face.
~Inhwa
