Four

4 - Slip

They watched her, followed her before they made a move. She suspected nothing, still feeling excited for the event she waited for. But eventually, it was time.

When it started, she ran, limping towards the hotel but they were faster so in a few seconds, she was caught. Her scream resounded in the forest but only the trees were there to sympathize with her... to witness the horror laid upon her.

Her wrists were bound by a strong pair of hands behind her while a cloth was being tied to cover her eyes, as if it would somehow mask the crime they were committing. She kicked and writhed and tried hard to escape but she was only one and they were more.

The damned men pushed her onto the ground, dirt staining her beautiful dress. She felt something sharp cutting through her and the sound of cloth being ripped was too deafening that it overwhelmed her screams. Her terror as a hand touched her bare body drowned her.

"Stop... please."

She tried to dig for their souls but she didn't know that they were void of it. The world was cruel to them that any kind of action was the same and meaningless. The nameless men started to violate her thrust after thrust. She felt their teeth on her skin, in her mouth, on every part of her body. Little by little, her life was being torn right in front of her.

After what seemed like forever, they were done. By that time, her blindfold was coming loose and soaked with her tears and her whole body ached too much that she couldn't feel it anymore. She thought she was dead and started to say sorry to someone who was probably waiting for her to come home.

"I think you'll have to eat dinner alone tonight, big sis." She whispered.

She was about to give in to the sweetness of death until she heard laughter. Someone was laughing at her and at what they did... like it was some kind of a sick joke. Her blood boiled in her veins which made the pain come back double.

"I know you." She said too weakly that no one heard her. She felt her body being thrown and hit the ground painfully.

Rain started to fall and as she realized the cold drops on her body, she also noticed the absence of the blindfold on her eyes. How long it hadn't been there, she didn't know. Her whole body started to weaken dramatically until she could feel her heart beating very, very slowly.

***

Andrea sat with company's designers while watching the mini show they prepared for her. The designers of La Bella were tasked to create a new line for the spring season but after five minutes and just four clothes, Andrea raised her hand to stop the show.

"What is this?" She asked without masking the annoyance in her tone.

"Ma'am, it's a mix of the colors of spring... green and-"

"Mirae." She cut off, "Do I look stupid to you?"

Mirae panicked and stuttered "No, Ma'am". The five designers as well as the staff and the models fell silent while Andrea stood up and threw the folder at Tiffany. She pursed her red lips and straightened the side of her dark blue off shoulder dress, accenting her thin shape. Obviously, the boss isn't pleased with what she was seeing.

"La Bella is all about beauty. Not just any kind of beauty you see on TV or in the street." Andrea looked at them one by one but no one would dare make eye contact with her.

"We know that, Ma'am." Mirae bravely said again.

"Then it's either you're blind, stupid, or completely indifferent to the company's goal." She had her blank expression while she spoke. "Look at that green sundress you paired with a big hat. Will you wear it, Tiffany?"

Tifanny became alert and cleared her throat. She glanced at Mirae who had a pleading expression on her face.

"I won't, Ma'am." Tifanny said without looking at her friend.

Mirae slammed her copy of the dresses and let out a tired groan of annoyance. Everybody looked at her including Andrea who had no remorse whatsoever.

"Fuck this company. It's successful, sure but it's nothing but crab pulling everybody down just to get on top." Mirae walked out, aware of what she just did.

She was Andrea's favorite designer until a month ago. During a major event, she was heartlessly shamed in front of many people. Andrea made an ill remark about her clothes and the way she fixed her hair. She was called a whore the whole night as a joke.

"Mirae, don't do this." TIfanny hissed while trying to stop her from packing her things into the box.

"She's evil and you are becoming like her, Tiff. I don't even know you anymore." Mirae was teary eyed as she remembered how Tiffany used to defend her from anyone.

"You know I need this job, right?"

"Yeah. That's why you don't need me. I'll hand in my resignation tomorrow."

"Are you crazy? She will sue you!" Tifanny half ran beside her to the elevator.

"Then we'll see who loses everything."

The doors closed with Tiffany staring at it. She was convinced that Mirae lost her mind. Andrea is just not the woman to defy. She has been her secretary for four years and not once did she tell anyone what Andrea asked her to do. Her boss is sick and right now, her friend is in her ring of fire. It will only take a few days before she gets instructed to ruin her life. She knows it. Andrea would do it.

"Anyone of you wants to go with her?" Andrea didn't even check if anyone raised their hand.

She walked out of the meeting room straight to her office. Her leather chair greeted her as she sat gracefully in it and leaned back a bit. There was a reason she hated Mirae. She's talented, sure but she made the greatest mistake of her life when she opened her mouth and spoke of Jessica.

Like millions of other fans out there when the news broke about a fangirl allegedly getting violated by EXO, Mirae was one of those people who didn't take the victim's side. Not knowing anything about Andrea's sister, she called Jessica a fame whore. That she was just using EXO's name to get famous and drag the group down.

Since then, the lines were blurred between personal life and work. It all became personal and poor Mirae didn't know anything about what she said. In her mind, she was a victim of random bullying by her heartless boss and she isn't putting up with her any longer.

Andrea's phone vibrated on her table. It was Detective Han.

"Yes?" She said calmly on the phone.

"Hi Miss Choi. We found a new lead on your sister's case."

Her heartbeat pounded and she literally ran to her car and drove as fast as she could to the police station. When she arrived, some of the policemen were stunned to find such a beautiful girl in their midst and almost undressed her with their gaze. She walked straight to Detective Han's office, wiped the chair with tissue and sat at his desk.

"Although this is not sufficient to finally get a search warrant, it's a pretty strong evidence once we established whose it is."

"Just tell me please. I can't stand this place."

The detective sighed and produced a sealed plastic bag with a mud covered handkerchief in it. She was about to say something when she saw the embroidered name on the corner of the blue cloth.

엑소

Meanwhile, at the SME building, a young man just arrived in the practice room. Eleven pairs of eyes looked while he put his bag down and took out his training shoes.

"Why are you late?" The leader Suho asked, crossing his arms like a true blue strict leader.

"I'm here now. What's the problem?"

"Did you go see your girlfriend Kai?" Chanyeol chuckled with Baekhyun.

"You have a girlfriend?" Chen exclaimed.

"Why, you jealous, troll?" Luhan smirked.

"Keep the junk in your pants, shall we?" The troll retorted.

They aren't going anywhere until the leader asked Kai again where he has been. Kai simply said "Out" and started warming up for the whole day of practice. But instead of going through the dance steps in his head, something else was invading his thoughts or should it be someone else.

When they got home that night, Tao immediately turned on the TV as soon as he read the comment on his latest Instagram post. Sure enough, it was yet another news about the rape victim. All of them fell silent, some stopped right in front of the TV and the others looked away but kept listening.

"Human rights advocates are pushing for the investigation of the twelves boys of EXO, stating firmly that idols shouldn't be treated like 'gods'. It is to be recalled that no search warrant was issued due to lack of evidence to the groups alleged involvement to the crime..."

"This hasn't stopped yet?" Lay whispered under his breath, completely fed up with all these news.

"Some fans won't give up, will they?" Kris said in exasperation.

"You know I got a message that says she's pregnant and I'm the father." Baekhyun chuckled and did a high five with his best bud Chanyeol.

The usual naughty boy Sehun also kept his mouth shut, remembering that day of the crime in detail. He was checking his social network accounts when he heard one of the managers talking about some of the EXO members missing. Kyungsoo was sitting beside him but other than him, he did not see the others.

An hour later, the event was announced to be cancelled due to some technical difficulties when the truth was, six of the members just arrived. They were covered in dirt and none of them would dare open their mouth to talk about it.

After that day, their life became more eventful. One day, when they went inside their old dorm, they were startled to see the huge vandal on their wall that says "EXO is going down". Security was called and their managers rushed to find them another place to stay.

It was more chilling to know that no locks were forced to be opened, no windows were broken and nothing was stolen. Whoever trespassed in their dorm surely had his keys or happened to chance upon an open window somewhere.

"But we didn't do it." Lay spoke again while sinking into the soft couch.

"Are you sure?" Sehun asked looking around the living room.

"I'm not having this conversation again." The kind deer Luhan stomped off to his room.

The rest of the group stayed there, listening through the late night news. The others just shrugged it off and phoned in a random restaurant to order chicken legs. They are still boys and too much of this shit is simply too much to their brains.

"Can't we see Andrea today? It was really stressful." Big boy Chanyeol whined.

"Don't bother her too much. She has important things to do too." Suho scolded.

Yeah, right. Like plotting your downfall.

Andrea dropped by the hospital to see Jessica, carefully avoiding publicity. She parked on the side of the building and quickly walked into the small door that led to the stairs. When she finally reached her room, she carefully placed her expensive bag on the table and caressed her younger sister's forehead.

"Hi Jessica."

Her eyes worked through Jessica's appearance, from her hair, to her lips, to her nails. Andrea made sure that Jessica still looked pretty especially now that the bruises are starting to heal. She would groom her hair and cut her nails... put gloss on her lips.

Jessica is one of her obsessions and seeing her in this condition broke her soul. She looked around the room for any signs of intrusions or any devices until her eyes fell on the roses by the window. She immediately checked the roses and found nothing except that they are fresh.

"You finally have an admirer." Andrea said while picking up the roses and throwing them out of the window.

Andrea is not a sweet kind of girl and she hates roses. But I don't, in case you want to send me some.