Safe (Lost Memory) - Part III
Title: Safe (Lost Memory)
Pairing: Sehun/Kai
Rating: G
Summary: He always carries a gun. He probably carries a code. He has never wanted to protect a man all his life. Until he is lost. Who is he protecting? And who is he protecting him from?
The days passed and the only attacks so far were the first two ones, the one in the hospital and the other ambush one in the apartment. Kai makes sure that Sehun is tightly guarded, he has actually set a GPS connecting Sehun's phone to his so he can track his whereabouts in case he sneaks out again. Aside from that, Chanyeol had been the regular babysitter, dropping by afterlunch til Kai's off and he doesn't complain. Mainly because Kai has made it his punishment for allowing Sehun out the last time. Kai doesn't let his guard down, however. He thinks it's suspicious that they haven't been attacked yet, when they've been doing regular visits to the hospital. If they have followed them like the last time, why can't they now?
Apart from that, Kai doesn't let Sehun worry about anything else and all he does is urge him to keep remembering. Sure enough Sehun has been giving hints of recovery, once when he mentioned that the last time he's eaten fastfood was when he was in college, which he pretty much doesn't remember anything else after that. He also remembers his birthday which is actually just a few months after Kai's. Sehun even does mind exercises before going to sleep to condition himself in order to remember things he might actually can while he's unconscious. But what Sehun doesn't tell Kai is that he has been repeating the same dream over and over again. He doesn't know why the impact on him is so strong, but it has started ever since the shooting incident in the hospital. A man pointing a gun towards another man, and then all he sees is the gun and there's a gunshot after. It doesn't play more after that, it just gets clearer and clearer every night, but still not enough to see the faces of the people involved. He keeps it to himself assuming he's over thinking things and that his fear of the gunshot made the scene seem real. But he can never be sure.
One fine Saturday morning, Sehun woke up from a dream. The same dream, his last image was of a gun. He shook his head and sat up straight, clamping his head in between his legs. He probably should tell Kai about it but he is unsure whether it is important. Clearly, having a nightmare isn't in Kai's list of problems to solve at the moment. He breathed in and out to calm his racing heartbeat before he looked up again. He read the time and the date from the alarm clock at the side table and suddenly his mood changed. It's Kai's birthday.
Even though the clock hasn't hit 7 yet, he grabbed his phone and called the just woken up Chanyeol. They had a talk about celebrating Kai's birthday the previous day, and so he wanted to make sure whether the plan is going to push through. Mainly, Sehun just made clear to him that the plan should push through.
When Chanyeol reached the apartment silently, he stepped in with Sehun opening the door for him and the two tiptoed away to Sehun's room. Chanyeol bought party hats, party poppers and a cake saying that's all he could afford with his own money because Sehun obviously has nothing to contribute.
"This is enough." Sehun cheered as he played with one of the party hats. "We'll surprise him when he gets out of bed." He raised a hand for a high five.
"Hope he likes it." Chanyeol clapped his hands a few times, mirroring the other's excitement.
After about a solid 45 minutes, Sehun and Chanyeol were perched on both corners of the bed, both have ran out of things to talk about as well as their patience.
"I think I should wake him up." Sehun decided as he stood on his feet and went for the door.
He stormed on the floor across Kai's room and he turned the knob, easily opening it. He never thought Kai would leave his door unlocked but nevertheless he was thankful it was.
It is the first time he had been into his room, also the first time he is seeing Kai's inner world that he hasn't been showing much. The floor is tidy and shiny, as well as the shoes placed neatly in the shoe rack. The closet is tightly closed unlike his which is half open most of the time. Nothing is not in place and it impressed him. What caught his attention the most is the person itself lying on the clean white comfy bed sheets. The elite cop who's always in a suit, is right in front of him in a white tank and gray sweatpants, lying on his front, half of his face buried in his pillow and a soft snore coming out of him. Sehun finds it cute that he looks so angelic when he's sleeping, very contradicting to what he shows when he's awake. He fought the urge to tickle his foot, thinking it's not right to do that to someone sleeping and mostly because he's scared of the consequence. He walked to the side of the bed instead and poked the sleeping Kai's toned arm with his pointer finger.
"Hey." He said.
No movement.
"Hey." He said a bit louder, repeating the gesture.
No reaction.
"Kaaaaiiiii." He pushed his arm with his finger with an effort but the cop wouldn't budge.
Sehun cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles.
"Kai!" He shouted and grabbed Kai's arm and pulled him hard. The said sleeping person stirred with an annoyed face.
"Get up! Get up!" Sehun chanted as he continuously pulled the other with much effort, slightly stumbling on his feet but keeping himself on the ground. "Kai!!!!!"
Kai who was dragged at the edge of the bed almost falling off threw a pillow at Sehun.
"What are you doing?" He opened his eyes and looked at his intruder before pulling his hand back with a huge force that Sehun literally flew to him and his bed. He dropped right at Kai's middle, face flat on his hard muscles.
"Ow." Sehun slowly dropped to the floor like a viscous liquid, holding his nose. His hand still clamped tightly around Kai's wrist.
"Get out of my room." The half conscious Kai grumbled under his pillow, trying his best to go back to his sleep.
"No. Get up now, wake up. Come on!" Sehun suddenly got his energy back and he was now pulling on his hands again. "It's already 8:30AM."
At this, Kai immediately sat up. "It is?"
"Yea." The younger panted from pulling the other guy too much.
"Damn. Why didn't you tell me earlier." He stood and looked for his slippers.
When he has done so, Sehun grabbed his shoulders at the back and started pushing him. "Go on, wash up." He pushed him to his personal bathroom, then closed the door. "Don't take too long!"
"Whew." Sehun wiped his forehead and ran back to his own room.
Sehun and Chanyeol waited right outside Kai's door, both wearing party hats, Chanyeol holding the cake and Sehun the party popper. They've repeated what they're supposed to say about a hundred times and they were sure they've perfected it.
"At the count of three, we will both shout a greeti--" Sehun was discussing the order of their lines until Kai's room door opened and he was cut.
"Happy birthda--"
"Happy b--"
The other two shouted at different times.
Kai looked at them questioningly while he was buttoning the sleeves of his suit.
"--day." Sehun finished, forgetting to pop the party popper in his hands. "Where are you going?"
"Agent Park?" The cop in front of them raised an eyebrow at the said person.
"Agent Kim." Chanyeol balanced the cake in one hand as he gave him a salute.
"What's this?" Kai looked directly at Sehun.
"A birthday party." Sehun said in a weak voice. "I thought Saturday is your off. Where are you going?"
Kai stared at the two who were frozen in spot, as if they were poured water onto, embarrassed at how they look in front of him.
"Right. Birthday hats?" Kai commeneted, surveying the colorful pointed tips of their hats.
"Are you going somewhere else?" Sehun rephrased his question.
"Yea." He clapped his arms beside his legs and put his hands inside his pockets.
Sehun bit his inner lip out of disappointment, which made him look like he is giving him a pout.
"You should get dressed asap. You're going with me." Kai added as he ignored the disappointment on Sehun's face.
"Huh?" His face lightened up and mixed with confusion.
"We're going to my parent's house."
The drive to Kai's house is quiet. Kai drove, Sehun sat on the passenger's seat and Chanyeol on the backseat.
"He's going to let you meet his parents. You're something special." Chanyeol whispered from behind Sehun. Kai asked him to come alone since he was already there anyway.
"Of course I am." Sehun whispered back. "I'm someone everybody wants and I've got a couple of bad guys tailing me from behind. Of course I'm special. I'm his special key." It was supposed to be a joke but Sehun gritted his teeth at how he realized he seriously meant it.
Chanyeol nodded in agreement. Kai looked at them both but Sehun has shifted his eyes back to the road and Chanyeol was pretending to be humming a song.
•
It wasn't what Sehun was expecting. Kai's family lives in a simple house, and the house is decorated with a little banner that says "Happy birthday Kai! Welcome back." More to his surprise is the new knowledge he acquired about Kai living with just his mother and younger sister. He was expecting his family to be composed mainly of males but he never questioned him about his father nor his other relatives anymore. His mother is very welcoming and warm, his sister is just the same. She ushered them graciously into their home and Sehun couldn't help but smile at how Kai is so much the opposite of his family.
"You must be Sehun." His mother took his hands into hers and shook them lightly. "You look pretty young."
Sehun smiled at her kindness.
"He's the same age as me." Kai cleared his throat.
"And you look really good too." Kai's younger sister who's just in high school commented as she winked at Sehun.
Sehun chuckled lightly while Kai rolled his eyes.
"And..." His mother looked at Chanyeol who was observing the room with his eyes.
"Oh, Park Chanyeol from the inverstigation unit. Agent Kim's colleague and probably partner in this special case." He shook her hands aggressively with a very wide smile.
"Thank you for looking after our Kai well."
"It's an honor." Chanyeol grins widely.
Kai cleared his throat once more.
"Oh Kai, happy birthday my son!" She moved towards him and tackled him into a big motherly hug. Kai stiffly put his arms on his mother's back as he pat her. "We missed you."
"I.. I miss you too." He said awkwardly as Sehun watched him with amused eyes.
"I missed you too brother!" His sister joined in and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"And nice to meet you, Sehu--" She reached out to kiss Sehun too but Kai held her wrist back and raised his eyebrow. Sehun laughed a bit. She scoffed as she freed her arm from him.
"Agent Park." She tiptoed and kissed Chanyeol on the cheek before giggling and running a good distance away from Kai. He just clicked his tongue.
Sehun noticed how close Kai is to his mother and sister. He tolerates everything they do to him so far. They had sung karaoke where Sehun was forced to sing to Nobody. He messed it up in the end because he doesn't really remember the song. Kai had to sing a few songs too and he did it with a warning "No one will record this." On the other hand, Chanyeol has stolen the mic and sang until the afternoon. Sehun has dozed off in the middle of it, having been not too well yet and tired from all the activities Kai's mother and sister had suggested earlier.
"Should we carry him home?" Chanyeol asked the moment he has dropped the mic with Kai's sister applauding and giggling.
"Sehun. Sehun." Kai shook his shoulder a bit to wake him up but the latter is peacefully asleep. "Get the car ready." He directed Chanyeol.
Kai turned to bid goodbye to his mother and sister, giving them each a kiss on the cheek. They greeted him a happy birthday once more before Kai lifted Sehun up and let him ride on his back. The other unconsciously wrapped his legs on him and slumped on his shoulders, head resting on one of them. Kai tightened his hold on him before going through the door, and nodded at his family before finally setting off.
The drive is yet again silent and peaceful with Sehun still sleeping soundly on the passenger seat and Chanyeol tired and exhausted from too much singing. Kai didn't feel the same though as he stays alert and keeps his eyes on the road. As a comfort to himself, he pushed the cd into the stereo and played his favorite song.
"....you know i can't smile without you."
Chanyeol groaned from the backseat.
"I can't smile without you." Kai joined in, ignoring the sleepy Chanyeol who's trying to cover his ears discreetly.
"I can't laugh and I can't sing." Kai sang louder.
"You might wake Sehun up." Chanyeol whispered.
"I'm finding it hard to do anything. You see I feel sa--"
Kai steered the wheel fast and avoided hitting a tree by turning around. Chanyeol was awakened at the whole shaking of the car and the sound of a gunshot. One. Two. Three loud shots. He immediately took his gun out and alerted his senses. Sehun was woken up by the movement of the car, his head slightly hitting the headrest of the seat.
"What's going on?" He asked as he straightened up and held onto his seatbelt.
"Agent Kim, they're going after us." Chanyeol has turned into a serious alert cop and is now backing up Kai.
"Don't fire. They're too many. Take Sehun to the backseat and let him duck." Kai ordered as he turned into different corners, trying to outrun the chasing van and two other cars. Chanyeol pulled Sehun to where he is and let him bend down beside the backseat. Another gunshot.
"Who are those people? The syndicate?" Sehun covered his head with his hands.
"Most probably." Kai answered briefly. "We need to go by foot."
"What?" Chanyeol gasped, gun clasped tightly in his hand.
"Easier to get away. We'll separate." He steered the wheel madly until Sehun feels dizzy. "Go up to the headquarters and report this incident. Fast. Agent Park."
Chanyeol nodded. "On your signal."
Sehun heard the clicking of Chanyeol's gun, preparing to shoot. Were they going to risk their lives? Their lives? For him?
"Sehun, when I tell you to run, run." The car accelerated. "Do you understand?"
Sehun couldn't believe his ears. What's going to happen then?
"Sehun?" Kai called him to his senses but everything around him seems to be slowing down. The sound surrounding him is slowly fading into muteness. He couldn't hear a thing. He heard a faint Sehun from Kai but no other sound came out after that. He faced Chanyeol whose eyes are wide in surprise but dedication is glued on his forehead as his eyebrows meet in the center. The car must have stopped as Chanyeol just turned his back on him and got out of the door from the other side, pointing his gun somewhere he couldn't see from the outside. He fired once when he saw how his arm shook from the first shot, and then he disappeared as he ran, slowly in Sehun's vision, away from the car.
"Se-- hun." The slow reception of Kai's voice registered into his head. Everything was in slow motion. Sehun just stared at the door where Chanyeol has been a few seconds ago, eyes wide in shock and helplessness. He doesn't move. Until he felt a hand curling around his fingers and he was pulled back to reality.
"Sehun. Run."
Something about his voice made him spring to his feet and pump them faster to get going. He was running. His vision blurred. He kept running. He saw the cars speeding up towards them. He still ran. A headache. He willed his legs to keep up. A gun. Sehun's eyes teared up. A group of men flashed in his mind. He stepped on rocks. Someone is raising a gun. Tears rolled down. A gunshot. Sehun's heart has stopped.
Before he collapsed, he felt Kai's arms on his shoulders, then another gunshot, and he was falling into blackness.
•
Sehun woke up in his bed with a watching Kai from the corner of the room.
"What happened?" He tried to sit up but he felt the heaviness of his head so he lied back down.
Kai simply watched him and walked to his bed, unscathed.
"You fainted."
Sehun closed his eyes to remember the incident and his mind wound back to Kai's house, way before the shootout.
"Do you remember anything now? You did right? That's why you fainted." There was a hard expression on Kai's face that Sehun had a hard time reading it.
He didn't respond.
"Did you remember anything? Sehun?" Kai's tone was hard and cold.
Sehun racked his brain for an answer. There was something. While he was running. Something. But something was wrong. He doesn't remember what it was.
"I don't remember." He shook his head in defeat.
Kai's eyes turned more solid than they were. He exhaled deeply, as if trying to calm himself down. He was frustrated.
Sehun didn't find it scary. But it drew a sharp cut in his heart all the same. The disappointment in Kai's face was too much to bear. And it made him feel useless, helpless, hopeless.
He tried to sit up again. "I'm sorry." He bowed his head low, apologizing sincerely.
Kai shifted his eyes to the wall. "The only thing you should be sorry for is when you didn't run the first time I told you to."
Sehun bit his lip and looked up at Kai. "I'm sorry."
Kai ignored it and still avoided his eyes.
"I remember something." He offered when he noticed Kai still wouldn't look at him. "I remember all their plate numbers. The plate numbers of the cars of the syndicate." He said seriously.
Kai took note of this. Sehun registered the numbers in his head even if he had only seen them in a short period of time. This characteristic puts him more into the diamond character. But he needs to tell him something.
"Sehun, it wasn't the syndicate who was after us today." He momentarily paused to allow Sehun to process this new info. "It was the Japanese party the syndicate owes. The news about you being their diamond has reached them." He watched Sehun's reaction. "They're also after you."
The diamond sat in silence. There wasn't just one group going after his life, there were two. And he doesn't even remember why.
Kai asked Sehun to just rest the next day. He didn't go to the office either, thinking it might be risky to leave Sehun alone even for just a minute. Knowing two groups are actually looking for him, Kai feels that he needs to tighten his security. And he'll only feel assured if it's him guarding him rather than anything and anyone else.
Another reason that he wants to stay with Sehun is so he can talk him to it. To help him recover that memory from the other day. To help him get it back. To push him, but not too hard. But sometimes, he just feels really desperate.
"Do you remember anything now?" He asks Sehun, bringing him something to eat and sitting by the edge of the bed.
Sehun shook his head negatively.
Kai looked at him in the eyes, thinking deeply. "Can I ask you to concentrate on numbers?"
The younger is confused.
"Numbers. Codes, to be exact. You can remember them well. You must really be a diamond." He explained slowly as Sehun reaches for his juice.
"Codes..." He repeated to himself. "Maybe I really am a diamond." He said, almost in a whisper. He couldn't find another reason as to why two parties are going after him, if he didn't carry something so important. He wills himself to think of numbers, and a flash of a lot of random numbers came to him. Telephone numbers. Serial codes. Plate numbers. All of them came pouring into him, but the code doesn't look like any of them. He feels scared. Scared of what he might know, scared of what might be waiting for him outside, scared of who he is. He doesn't want to let Kai know of all his worries. He's only been a huge let down to him so far and there's no more room for his silly worries in the other's priority list. Nevertheless, he feels scared all the time.
"I will work on it." He put on a brave face. Kai just nodded and let him finish his plate.
Kai sat beside Sehun that night, watched him write random numbers and letters on a paper, scratching them off when he feels it's not right. Sehun has drawn a lot of combinations, but nothing seemed significant. He closed his eyes in different times, forcing himself to go back to that night of the accident, before he lost his precious memory. But all that comes back to his mind is a blur of different numbers, he's not even sure if those would pertain to the ones he needed or just the simple ones he'd come across with. The accident didn't even register into him, there was nothing helpful that he can remember. Nothing at all. He scratched the last combination he has written quite hard until the tip of his pencil gave in and snapped. Kai just simply watched him.
•
One night while Kai is in the middle of writing a report, he heard him. Sehun is screaming from his room. Kai grabbed his gun on his table and dashed towards Sehun's room. He saw Sehun writhing in his bed, hands clutching his sheets, and panting. Sweat formed under the hair on his eyes which were tightly shut. A nightmare. Kai quickly pulled him up and shook him to wake up.
"Sehun." He gave him a forceful shake and the other opened his eyes.
"What is it?" He asked.
Sehun's eyes are wide. There was a flash of his nightmare right before his eyes. A gun. The gun in his hand. Blood. Staining him. A paper. A paper with codes. The code. It's not a simple combination. It has a hundred characters. He was holding it. He has it. He knows it. The code. The image started to blur. It was seeping out of his head like liquid. It was slipping away. The memory. It was turning black. And blank. He doesn't remember. Sehun shakes his head, afraid.
"WHAT IS IT?" Kai bellowed, clutching both his arms tightly and slightly shaking him a little too hard.
Sehun doesn't remember. He just curled up and cried, pulling his legs to his chest and burrying his head into them, shaking it repeatedly.
Kai softened up and loosened his grip on the younger's arms. He realized what he just did. He pulled him into a hug, the fragile boy in his arms, sobbing like it's the only thing he can do.
"I'm sorry." He apologized with sincerity. "I'm sorry." He repeated as he ran his hands up and down his back to calm him down. "Go back to sleep."
Sehun gripped the side of his shirt, holding on to it to feel that he's not alone.
"Shhh. I'll watch over you. Go back. I'll stay." He promised, as he continuously rubbed his back before letting him lie back down again.
"Sleep well. I'm just here." Sehun closed his eyes as his last sobs died down to be replaced by his slow steady breathing.
Kai didn't realize that he, too, fell asleep with his hand clasped tightly with Sehun's, his head resting on his other arm as he sat beside his bed. Just as he has promised.