Derick W J Tan

Tiffany helped Yoona onto the bed as tenderly as she could, but as quickly as possible too. She wanted to go look for Ixion, worried that he may get rash again and… … The consequences were too frightening.

“OK, I need to go find your oppa now,” she told Yoona, fluffing her pillow a little first.

“Go, I’ll take care of her,” said Tae Yeon, who was quite shocked when the she first entered the hospital.

The entire lobby looked like a typhoon had just swept through.

Tiffany quickly patted Yoona on the head, telling the girl to rest well, before she ran out of the private First-class ward.

Tae Yeon turned back to her patient and saw Yoona’s hand searching for hers. She reached out and held them.

“Aigoo, (Oh my,) why are you crying all of a sudden?” she laughed, thinking that it was probably over something silly.

“Unnie…” Yoona’s tears were flowing freely, damping her bandage until it overflowed onto her cheeks. “I was so scared, I was so scared!”

“Ommo, (Oh my,) you were completely fine just a second ago!” Tae Yeon quickly pulled the girl into a hug, and only then did she realize how afraid Yoona was, having never felt her shook that hard before. “Why didn’t you say anything just now?”

The poor girl was crying out loudly now. Wrapping her arms so tightly around her noona that Tae Yeon had to pry her arms open a little because it was beginning to hurt.

“I didn’t want oppa to get worried.”

“What? Why would you worry about something like that when you’re obviously scared to death?”

“…didn’t want him to be worried… about me.”

“You silly girl,” Tae Yeon pulled her away and looked at her, but the girl was still shaking so badly that she immediately hugged her again. “Your oppa is there to take care of you and protect you when you’re afraid. What good is he if you don’t tell him anything?”

Yoona was beginning to settle down a little, still crying.

“Oppa, has enough to worry about over the past few days,” Yoona explained. “I didn’t want him to get stressed over me as well.”

Tae Yeon felt like bonking the girl on her head but didn’t.

“Do you think your oppa cares more about being stressed or more about comforting you when you need him?” she asked. “Besides, how stressful can he get with just two incidents?”

Yoona started shaking her head.

“Aniyo… (That’s not true…) There’re a lot of things that oppa worries about that he doesn’t talk about. I know he sits at home worrying about all of us everyday, because my mother told me that’s why she does everyday.”

“Your oppa is not your mother. And even if he does worry about us, it’s what he wants to do and he doesn’t have any problem with it. Besides, we all get stressed from time to time. It’s normal.”

Yoona shook her head.

“Oppa is different. He has always been different from other people, blind or not,” Yoona said with a sniff. “He always behaved like he wasn’t blind, and sometimes he does things that blind people can’t do, like catch me when I trip or always know where to look when I look at him. And whenever he’s around, there’s always a lot of breezes, even when the windows and door are shut. He’s just different…”

Yoona must be really close to him to pay so much attention to his every actions in order to notice all these. But still, she had a point and Ixy was indeed never like any other blind people. Especially how well he could fight and protect them.

“Oppa has enough to worry about without me adding on to his worries,” Yoona then said, and her lips started to tremble again. “Which is why I just couldn’t tell him…”

And Yoona started thinking about what happened again.

“He kept forcing himself on me,” she cried on Tae Yeon’s shoulder. “And he kept touching and touching…”

It was heart-wrenching to hear Yoona describe her experience, but Tae Yeon bit her lip and bear with it, wanting to let the girl cry her heart out so it’d be easier for her to let this whole thing die away.

“I was so scared… And the man only got more excited when I called for oppa… I didn’t know what to do… …so scared…”

No, she couldn’t hear anymore. As brave as she was, Tae Yeon simply couldn’t hear more and even she was starting to cry because it scared her to just listen to what Yoona had gone through, thinking that the very same thing could happen to her and Tiffany as well.

“Stop it, stop it, don’t think about it anymore, Yoona, stop thinking about it. You’re safe now and–“

–There was a noise outside and she could hear Tiffany shouting in English as she ran off.

She ignored it and focused on Yoona.

“It’s all right now, okay?” Yoona was more important. “No one can hurt you now… Tae Yeon unnie won’t let anyone hurt you ever again, alright?”

She had to ask a few more times before the girl finally nodded.

“Alright, do you want unnie to stay with you for the night?”

Like she needed to ask.

Tae Yeon removed her shoes and took off her hair-tie before getting in bed with Yoona. The girl hugged her legs immediately and Tae Yeon nestled her in her arms, patting on her head in a slow, comforting rhythm as she hummed the girl to sleep.

At the elevator.

“Ixy, please don’t be rash!” Tiffany pleaded, tugging on his arm. “I don’t want you to–“

He shrugged her hands away when the doors opened and when she tried to chase after him, a strong gust knocked her backwards before the elevator doors closed and began to descend. Her tears began to flow freely as she fumbled for her phone and started dialling.

“Gordon!” she yelled once the call got through. “Ixy- Ixy is really an-angry! He knows where the guy is! He knows what the guy- the guy did to Yoona! An-and he’s going to–

“–Don’t worry, I have someone heading over to stop him as we speak,” he assured her, quick to comprehend the situation. “Just, no matter what you do, don’t follow Ixion, understand? I’m serious. Do not follow him. It’s not safe when he’s like that.”

Tiffany nodded, glad that this Gordon guy seemed to have the situation under control. She then gave him her word that she wouldn’t follow Ixion and the man only hung up once he was convinced.

But when the lift finally came back, she dashed in and started mashing the button for the first floor.

- Chapter 24 (Violated Pact)