Chapter 14

Chris

I notice the building immediately, it's exactly how it looked on google maps. Extravagant, beautiful but somehow on the dingiest street in the whole of Seoul. I walk inside as quickly as possible, making my way over to the front desk in the middle of the small, but glammed up foyer.

"I tried knocking," I hear a man slam the palm of his hand onto the receptionist's desk. "Fucking bitch locked me out."

"Excuse me," I say politely, storming over to the desk in complete contrast to my tone of voice, disrupting whatever situation was going on before I had even arrived.

"How may I assist you," the receptionist smiles, fixing his tie smoothly, slightly glancing over to the other man.

"I'm looking for a Sophie," I state, standing as straight as I can, trying to look even a little bit taller, more threatening maybe. The man beside me quickly turns to face me and I watch the receptionist glance over at him, raising an eyebrow lightly.

"Sophie?" The man beside me mutters, brushing his fingers through his hair, his eyebrows furrowed in sudden interest.

"Yep," I grunt. "You obviously know who I'm talking about. Where is she?"

"No clue," he shrugs, tapping his fingers along the surface of the desk, a light smirk plastered on his face.

"What's your name?" I ask, breathing as slowly as I can, calming myself down.

"My name?" He tilts his head to the side, raising his eyebrows. "And why should I tell you that?"

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" I demand, raising my voice enough to force the guy to take a step back.

"Daniel," he raises his chin, both of our breaths heavy. I immediately know who it is, her boss' son and I immediately know the kind of guy he is... but I don't know what he's done and that thought makes me go fucking wild.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE," I curse, trying as hard as I can to keep it together, trying to stay composed, stay focused. I watch as he shrugs the question off casually, not even bothered by my aggravation.

"I swear to god," I growl under my breath, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, shoving him into the desk. He throws his head forward on impact, waiting a second before slowly raising his chin to make eye contact with me. At this point I wish he reacted... I'd be happy if he cried, got angry, at this point even pinning me against the wall and making out with me would be better (I'm not gay I swear). But, no... he just stands there, his face completely straight (as well as my sexuality, I promise) not an ounce of reaction visible.

"Why?" He utters, a light smirk on his face, even though I'm still holding him down by his collar.

"Did you just ask me why?" I seeth, nudging him further into the desk.

"I'll tell you where she is if you tell me why," he smiles, placing his hands on my shoulders as if we're best mates.

"We're friends," I scowl, giving him one last push into the desk before letting his collar go.

"Ok, she's on the 5th floor, room 02," he shrugs, brushing himself down as if he just won a massive fight or something. I shake my head, adjusting the waistband of my sweatpants before walking away towards the elevator only a couple of metres away.

"If you're into her, just give up now," I hear Daniel chuckle from behind me as I wait for the elevator doors to open. "She's just a slut anyway."

"What the fuck did you say," I croak, my throat completely dry, barely able to get the words out. I turn around to face him, a smug look on his face as he sees my reaction. This guy, who the fuck does he think he is.

I charge towards him, placing my hands over his collarbone, throwing his body into the wall. Without even thinking I close my fist, pounding it into his smug little face. He flinches back, attempting to dodge but his nose starts to bleed as I walk back towards the elevator.

That motherfucker, I swear if he did anything to Soph, I'm gonna find out.

I sprint down the hallway, immediately finding room 02, slamming on the room's door. After pounding for what seems like ages, I allow for there to be silence, awaiting a response from her. Nothing.

"Sophie," I call, trying to sound as calm as possible, my cheek pressed up against the door. "It's Chri-"

Before I can even finish the sentence, the door swings open, Sophie standing on the other side, her face completely blank, her eyes bloodshot red. She stands completely straight and her cheeks are stained with tears, her hair is a mess, unlike earlier when it was done up so perfectly.

"Chris," she stutters and her lip quivers, evidently trying to stop herself from crying, evidently still drunk. I want to say something, I should say something, but I can't get anything out of my mouth. I want to tell her that I should've cared for her better, should've been there, but I stay silent, walking forward and embracing her in my arms instead. As I put my arms around her waist, she rests her head on my chest, her warm body fully relaxing into the hug. I can feel her shaky breaths, her chest rising up and down against me, her hands grasping onto my back. I pick my hand up, brushing my fingers over the back of her head and through her hair for a while, until she looks up at me.

"I'm sorry," she apologises, looking at the ground, avoiding eye contact as my hand still rests on her head.

"For what?" I murmur in reply, shaking my head. Why is she saying sorry... there's literally not one reason I can think of.

"Just for calling you so late, I feel like we're not that close yet yunno so..." Her voice dwindles off and I feel as if she doesn't even know why she's apologising herself.

"C'mon, let's leave, yeah?" I nod, parting from the hug, still holding onto her arm. She watches me, replying with just a nod, still staying completely silent, waiting for me to take action. I turn around, leading her out of the door and towards the elevator. I breathe a sigh of relief after finding out that Daniel had left the foyer and we continue walking out into the alleyway, Sophie still following me passively. I lead her into the passenger seat of my car, which she struggles to get into intoxicated, shutting the door after her. As I walk around the hood, I notice someone walking towards me in the distance, squinting my eyes, trying to make out who it is under the dimmed streetlights.

It's the receptionist.

"Wait," he calls out, picking up into a small jog towards me.

"What," I question, leaning onto the car, looking straight at the ground.

"I thought I would just tell you, for your piece of mind," he begins, his voice low and threatening. "Nothing happened, he didn't do anything, she kicked him out." He flicks his head over to where Sophie's sitting, and I lift my chin up, finally looking at him in the eyes.

"He better not have done anything," I retort, getting into the car and slamming the door.

"Where are you taking me?" Sophie mumbles, still slurring her words, the palms of her hands resting over her eyes.

"My place," I state as I twist the key, starting the car.

The drive home feels like it's going by quickly, even though it's completely silent. Everytime I glance over at Sophie she's looking out the window or tapping her feet on the floor, still completely wasted. I take this time to think about the situation, think about what happened just in one night, it doesn't feel real... then I remember something.

"Sophie," I look over to her, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" She responds, her eyes barely open as she looks back.

"What was that daddy thing about?" I ask, tapping my hand on the steering wheel, trying to fight a smile.

"Um," she stammers, brushing her hair behind her ears. "It was Lin."

"Go on," I urged, flashing her a light smile.

"She changed your contact to 'daddy' so like..." Sophie slurs, racking her brain for what happened next. "I thought you were my dad I guess."

"Oh," I nod, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Yeah," she smiles, leaning back into her seat, resting her head on the headrest. I look over as she closes her eyes, her head dropping forward. As we near the dorms I start to hear Sophie's breaths deepen and I hold in my laughter as she begins to snore. Before this day I always thought she would be a deep but quiet sleeper yunno...? I wasn't expecting her to be an absolute monstrosity of a snorer, I swear the car was shaking at each exhale.

We arrive at the dorms, pulling into the carpark, Sophie still sleeping in the passenger seat. I lean over the centre console, giving her a light nudge, encouraging her to wake up... nothing... She remains sleeping. I may have been wrong about her being a quiet sleeper, but I was right about one thing, she's a bloody deep sleeper.

I open the door of the passenger seat, sliding my hands under her body. After supporting her head with my arm I carry her out of the car, walking towards the entryway to our dorms. I look down at her face, she's stopped snoring now but she has a huge chunk of hair resting in her mouth, so being the gentleman I am, I move the strands of hair, tucking them behind her ear, continuing to walk.

After reaching the front door I rustle through my pockets, taking out the keys, struggling to balance both holding Sophie and unlocking the door, whilst still being quiet. Finally it opens and I walk inside, re-adjusting Soph which, to be honest, reminds me of how I held her when she was trampled by that random man.

Entering my room, I place her down onto the bed, moving her head onto the pillow. I watch her move her arm under her head as I walk to the other end of the room, taking my shirt off, placing it in a random drawer, making sure to shut it quietly. I look over at Sophie again, seeing her spread across my bed, still sleeping. As I give her one last glance, I walk towards the door of my room, the door creaking open.

"Where are you going?" Soph asks and I look back again, noticing that her eyes are still shut.

"The couch," I smile, even though she can't see me. She shuffles over, smacking the other side of the bed, signalling for me to lay down on it. Well... why not?

I immediately close the door, getting into bed next to her. As I lie down, she lets out a content mumble, briefly opening her eyes to look at me, her eyes travelling up my body.

"Yunno, that video of you changed everything," Soph mumbles, rubbing her hands over her eyes as she closes them again.

Author's note

I know I say this every second chapter or so... but this SUCKED... It took me wayyy to long to write as well 😭😭 I think it's just because I'm away from home... which may be a problem because I'm away from home for the next 3 weeks or so!!

Anyway hope yall some what enjoyed, now I have a lil story to tell you guys about my own life  0:

There's this guy (he's such a cutie patootie) and he went to rowing states w me. To give some context, like 80% of my friends like him, so I can't rlly tell anyone about this HELP. Anyway, on the way home and I ended up sitting next to him. It was like 10pm so I fell asleep on his shoulder. He ended up waking me up when we got back home and I WAS ON HIS LAP 😭 Like my head was on his lap, my hand was on his thigh and his arm was like placed on me if that makes sense? I drew a diagram tho if it didn't...

Anyway, that's all, I just needed to tell someone (:

Thanks for reading <33