+ thirty two

Chanyeol got Narda to the hospital with Nari and Kyungsoo. The EXO vocalist continued to apologize, even though Narda assured him that she knew he didn't mean to hurt her. Chanyeol practically carried Narda into the emergency room, hurrying to the front desk and asking that a doctor see her in that instant. The nurse assured they were doing everything they could to get all the patients seen. Since it was early morning, there weren't many people and it wasn't long before a doctor saw her.

The had x-rays taken and her wrist examined, but it hadn't been difficult to determine that it was broken. Her wrist was secured in a cast, she was given pain medications, and she was told it would heal within six to eight weeks. All through that time, she was to visit the doctor's office once a week to get her progress checked.

Kyungsoo promised in his guilt that he would go to all of her check ups. Nari and Chanyeol promised to he there for her as well. They were in and out of the hospital, with Narda's pain medications within the hour, and soon were on their way back to the SM dorms.

As they neared the building, Nari and Narda's phones dinged with an incoming message. Narda was unable to reach for it in her pocket, but Nari got her phone out and looked at the screen. It was a text message from Sarang. She opened it and her eyes read off the message on the screen.

sarang: nari are u guys on ur way?

sarang: jun is freaking out

sarang: he actually had THESE printed

sarang: (photo attachment)

nari: omg im

nari: i have to show this to soo

sarang: he and the guys printed a bunch of
those flyers this morning and are getting 
ready to pin them all over seoul. smh.

nari: we're on our way

nari: dont let them do anything stupid,
as funny as that would be lol

sarang: he was so close to adding his own

phone number to the flyer, but we convinced
him not to.

Nari looked up from her cellphone screen, trying to hold in her laughter, but it was too much for her. As Chanyeol drove the car back to the SM dorms--they would have someone pick up the other car from the karaoke place--Nari turned her phone to show Kyungsoo what she was laughing at. "Look at these horrid things that Jun oppa printed." She told him through her laughter.

Kyungsoo squinted his eyes to get a better look and read off the flyer. "Missing children. Park Chanyeol & Do Kyungsoo. Last seen last night, around ten pm, after dinner with their family & friends at Lee's Bulgogi Restaurant. If seen, contact SM Entertainment." When he finished reading it, he let out a loud groan. "That's so embarrassing."

"What?" Chanyeol wondered from the driver's seat.

Nari passed her phone over to Narda in the front passenger seat, still giggling at the ridiculousness of it all. Two grown men were being treated like children by their groups leader. But he meant well. He was their leader and saw them as his younger brothers. Narda took the phone in her healthy hand and held it towards Chanyeol for him to see. He didn't look at it until they had reached a red light. He read the flyer and like Kyungsoo, he let out a groan.

"He acts like we're five." Chanyeol commented.

But Kyungsoo corrected. "You act like you're five. I thought they knew we were at the karaoke place. You said you called them."

Narda nodded in agreement. "You said Byun and Taeyeon knew."

He confessed with a sigh. "I lied."

-

They arrived at the SM building after the boys dropped the girls off at their apartment, then they headed across the street to accept their fate. As they went towards the lounge room where the other boys were gathered, they saw the flyers tacked on each of their bulletin boards by their doors. As they climbed the stairs to the sixth floor, they even saw the flyers posted in every floor of the stair well. By that time, everyone living in the dorms had probably seen it.

Back at their apartment, Nari and Narda were exhausted. Narda went straight to her bedroom and got under the covers, though it was difficult for her to get any rest in the pain she was in.

After stirring in her bed for what felt like hours, she gave up on that notion. She instead got out of bed and went to get something more comfortable to wear. She slipped out of her navy blue floral print dress and wore an old national team jersey with black pajama bottoms. She saw a black coat draped over her chair, which she had placed there when she entered the room. She remembered that it belonged to Chanyeol and decided to return it to him. She walked over and picked it up, folding over her good arm.

She left the apartment, promising Nari that she would be back soon. Nari nodded and drifted back to sleep on the living room couch. She hadn't even made it to her bedroom.

She went across the street and walked around to the side of the building, knowing that walking past the dront doors wasn't an option. She was banned from ever entering the SM building. But that didn't mean she didn't see the boys anymore, or that she couldn't get back in. As a child, her father had taught her how to pick locks, and it was a talent that she used only in situations where she wouldn't get in a lot of trouble. But this was the exception.

Narda knew she could have returned the coat on any other day, but she also wanted to know how the others were doing after the scare of that morning when they thought their group members went missing.

Uising the pointed side of a hair pin, she managed to unlock the door and looked both ways before sneaking past it. She quietly climbed the six sets of stairs that led to EXO's floor and she saw the flyers on the way up. Out of instinct, she tore one off the walls, folded it and stuffed it into her pocket. She was an EXO fan after all, and anything EXO that she could get her hands on, she was willing to take. 

She opened the door to her hallway and tiptoed her way to the lounge room, which was where the boys mostly spent their free time whenever they weren't at SM's main building practicing, or out having fun with friends of family. The room was empty when she entered and she folded the coat neatly on her lap, waiting for Chanyeol to come. She waited for several minutes until the lounge door finally opened to reveal Jongdae entering the room. He had a tupper ware container in his hands which he opened and was going to heat up.

But he stopped when he saw her and waved at her with a grin, his lips taking on their signature shape. Narda always thought that when he smiled, he looked like a baby fox.

"Hey Guti," He said to her as he tried his best to speak in English. "Are you looking for Chanyeol?"

She nodded her head, patting the coat on her lap. "Hey Jongdae. He let me borrow his coat last night, and I just wanted to return it."

When she patted the coat on her lap, he noticed the cast around her wrist. His eyebrows furrowed with concern for her. "What happened to your wrist? You didn't have that when we saw you last night." He tried to recall the events of the previous night, and he didn't remember seeing her wearing any cast.

Narda lifted up her hand for him to see the cast better and crinkled up her nose as she spoke. It was hard for anyone to miss, since it was a bright highlighter pink color. "Yeah, this happened this morning. Kyungsoo did it to me."

Jongdae was taken by surprise at her words. He set his food container on the table by the microwave and went to sit by her on the couch to get a better look at her injury. "I always knew he had it in him. But what did you do to him, Guti? Soo has never hit a woman." He wondered with genuine curiosity. There was no hint of amusement in him now as there had been the night before when he watched Baekhyun and Chanyeol fighting over her. In his mind, it had to have been something very bad for him to have gone as far as breaking her wrist.

She sighed, telling the story with as little detail as possible. She already knew that Kyungsoo felt bad. The last thing she wanted was to go around telling everyone what had happened. "I was trying to wake him, and he got startled. So he grabbed my wrist and broke it. He probably had war flashbacks or something."

Jongdae was about to make a comment when the door opened again, this time Baekhyun walked in. He was surprised to see Guti there. But he was more surprised to see her there alone with Jongdae. Before he could even say anything to them, Jongdae got up from his place on the couch next to her and said, "I have to go. I'm suddenly not very hungry anymore. I'll just heat up my lunch later." He grabbed the tupper ware container off the table and scurried out of the room, winking at his friend as he passed him.

As soon as he saw the bandage around her wrist, Baekhyun concluded, "Are you trying to trick Jongdae into thinking he broke your hand now?"

"Actually no." She replied a bit coldly, their conversation from earlier not forgotten. "I came to return Chanyeol's coat. He let me borrow it last night because I got cold. This happened to me this morning, and it was Kyungsoo who did by accident. The doctor says its broken, and will take six to eight weeks to heal. Is that what you wanted to hear, Byun?" She raised an eyebrow at him in question.

His expression immediately softened at her words. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Thanks." She sighed indifferently.

"I bet that hurt." He said to her sheepishly, not really knowing what to say.

"No." She replied sarcastically. "It was very relaxing to get my wrist snapped like a twig."

"I'm trying to be nice." He huffed, starting to get frustrated with her instantly.

Narda pointed out, "You're only being nice because I'm injured. I don't need your pity, Byun."

He chewed on his bottom lip, debating something. When he finally decided, he went to sit by her side and took her good hand in both of his. "Fuck this, Guti. I'm tired of pretending I don't like you. The truth is I like you a lot. I just want to be near you and I can't because no one wants us together. I promised Chanyeol I would back off because he really likes you. And then SM made me date Taeyeon. There's no chance for us, and I can't take it. I can't stand being away from you, and I can't stand seeing you with someone else."

Narda blinked back in confusion, thinking for a moment that maybe she had fallen asleep back in her apartment and she was dreaming. 

"Byun--" She paused, caught off guard. She looked down at her arms and pinched herself, muttering, "I must be dreaming. Byun Baekhyun--my EXO bias--just said that he likes me."

He grabbed her chin and tilted her head up to face him.

Baekhyun brought his lips over to hers and closed his eyes once he felt her lips against his. He kissed her, taking her by surprise, but she instantly melted into the kiss with a sigh.

"That time by the staircase." She reminded him after pulling away to catch their breaths, her voice barely above a whisper. Her finger tips touched her lips in disbelief.  "You said that you didn't like me. That I was just your crazy sasaeng. When I kissed you, you said I was the cause of all your problems. You constantly make it clear to me that the last thing you want is to even see me."

He quickly shook his head. "I was trying to push you towards Chanyeol but you're stubborn as hell. Right then what I really wanted to do was to grab you, and kiss you. I wanted to take you to my room and never let you out of there again."

Narda looked down once again, blushing furiously. "Geez Byun. Keep it in your pants."

"I'll try." He joked with a grin. Without warning, he leaned in again, kissing her on the lips with more freedom. Narda let him and held his face in her hands carefully. When he pulled back, he made a promise to her that made her heart skip a beat. "I'll talk to my managers and Taeyeon, just give me a few days, okay? I'll stand up for us and I won't let others try to separate us. Just promise you'll wait for me? And promise you won't let anyone know about this yet. I don't want people to ruin it before we can even start something." He pleaded, taking her injured hand and kissing each of her fingers gently. His dark eyes looked up at her with sincerity.

She nodded her head, but on the inside she was beaming. Her heart raced madly against her chest and she was barely able to get the words out. "I promise, Byunnie."

-

things are getting even more interesting now. still, the biggest piece of drama is yet to come so stay tuned for that. im sorry if im posting updates too often. i just want to finish this story, since i posted it about eight months ago. by this time i had speculated that this story would be long finished.

only about eight more updates for this story to come to an end. i hope you've all liked this. 

thank you for reading, and thank you for getting this story to 8K reads. im still surprised at how well my exo stories have done. your support means the world to me.

have a wonderful weekend!

-clary