Six

6 - Claim

When Henry received a call from Andrea a few days before the EXO concert, he already knew she was up to no good. He met up with her at a café with a few of the event staff. Watching and listening to her talk about what she wanted to happen, he was proud and at the same time scared of her.

Andrea has always been a single minded girl, focused on what she is doing at all times. Her sister Jessica is her one and only treasure and when the incident happened, EXO has become her new obsession. Not like her sister Jessica who would fight for the boys. Andrea wanted them down, broken and forever regretting.

Henry was standing beside Andrea when it was all happening. He heard the crowd of teenagers go wild while Tiffany hurriedly took out her phone to send the message her boss dictated to her to the media. It said that EXO was showing their true colors. That they are not the innocent boys the fans claim them to be.

The sly smile on Andrea's face while she witnessed the whole group's embarrassment in front of thousands of people seemed to say only one thing: that it was nothing compared to the humiliation her sister went through.

"What are you planning now, my love?" Henry asked Andrea while driving to the office.

"Huh?" She peeled her eyes off the window and looked at him like she already forgot he was there.

"You should take some rest." His words were too sweet.

"Have you ever seen me sleeping?"

"Ahh..." He tried.

"No. But I sleep. You just sleep before me."

He chuckled. Admittedly, he is the sleepyhead between them but there was a perfectly good reason for that. When they arrived at the exclusive parking area, he stayed seated in the car and just stared at Andrea. How could such a beautiful creature be real?

"Will you marry me?" He blurted out in a millionaire way.

Just how the hell do rich people blurt out things in a filthy rich way?

"Henry, stop it." Andrea laughed a bit and opened the door.

But it won't open.

"Why don't you answer me?" Henry asked, still with his mellow voice.

"Quit joking. We're gonna be late." She started to get annoyed.

"What if I'm not kidding?" He leaned closer to her until he could feel her breath on his lips.

"Then I say no."

Henry froze for a second and then pulled away, grabbing the wheel a little bit tighter. He arranged his thoughts and tried hard not to breakdown in front of Andrea. Even though he should be the first one to understand that Andrea will say no to such question every time, he couldn't help but get hurt at the fact that she won't even lie for once... for him.

"Are you tired of me?" Andrea's voice was far from cracking.

"No." Henry answered immediately without looking at her. "I just thought you'd want marriage."

Andrea sighed. Marriage meant nothing to her. It's just something that complicates a relationship more. The feeling of being tied up to a person forever is just too burdensome. She doesn't need a contract to be truthful to her words. As far as she knows, she is taking good care of the people important to her with or without a written agreement.

"Isn't this enough? I see you, you see me. We share a bed in some nights and we are exclusive. What is the need for a contract?"

"Haha. Okay, I got it. I thought you wanted to model a wedding gown down the aisle. Because you would look perfect." Henry looked at her again but with a loving smile.

He unlocked the doors and hurried out to help her get out of the car like a true gentleman. They walked side by side into the office, looking like they just came down from Mount Olympus. Henry glanced at her and then wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her closer to him.

"So what did you need a plumber for, this time?" He casually asked her while they walked through the office.

"Nothing special."

"You know I'm not calling your bluff right?"

He let her go and stopped in front of her own office. She placed a soft kiss onto his lips and held his cheek with her hand.

"Now you understand me."

**

"Kyungsoo-ah, don't forget about your recording tomorrow for the backup vocals." Sara went through her notebook planner once again and then checked it with the version on her phone.

"Yeah." Kyungsoo said with his eyes closed and leaning a bit back on the car seat.

He stayed back a bit longer because of the solo parts he had to do. Sara went on with the group's schedule until they reached the condominium building. She got off with him to remind the other boys too of their schedule.

"I'm sure they're all dead now." Sara said while they were walking to the elevator in the lobby.

"No. They're all alive and noisy. Trust me." Kyungsoo said with a hint of annoyance.

As they waited for the elevator to go down, Kyungsoo caught something moving on the side of his eye. He turned his head slowly to its direction and looked back at the elevator. He put on his mask again and adjusted his hat. Sara didn't notice him until he took the mask off again in the elevator.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I think I just saw a person at the lobby." Kyungsoo answered while taking his hat too.

"What? You think it's a reporter or a sasaeng?"

"I'm not sure."

Sara suddenly became alert. She hated nosy reporters as well as crazy fans. They all drive her crazy. When they got the unit in this hotel, she made sure that it had strict policies on allowing non-tenants and the media into the building. It was too bad before and it can't happen again.

When they arrived at the dorm, Sara gathered them all in the living room. She reminded them of their schedule and then started to warn them to still be careful about trusting other people.

"Does this have anything to do with that rape case again?" Kris asked with arms crossed in front of him.

"Yes but not just that. You know reporters are-"

"Going crazy again because of that accident at the concert." Chanyeol cut off, already getting tired of everything.

"We've read the articles Manager Jung. We are called perverts now." Baekhyun chuckled at the word.

"What? We have been demoted from rapists to perverts? I'm really out of trend." Chen's sarcasm was a bit off but he was completely pissed.

"Boys, don't let that issue get to you. You're innocent. What you have to a-"

"Are we innocent?" Lay silenced everyone.

That day, five of them went missing and that included Lay. He looked around and focused a bit more to the other four members who were with him. He ended at Sara again and raised an eyebrow.

"Are we?" Lay asked again.

"Yes you are all innocent. What I need you to do now is be careful. Avoid anyone you do not know at all costs. You can't trust anyone." Sara told them all.

"Heard that boys?" Xiumin spoke up. "I think that includes the cute girl across the hall."

"What girl?" The manager widened her eyes.

They told her about Andrea and how perfect she was. Sara had no idea that Andrea is the same person she spites because of buying EXO. She listened to what they had to say about her and even though she imagined a goddess and not a person, she reminded them to be alert. They can't trust anyone.

When Sara left, Sehun walked up to Lay by the window and followed his gaze. The whole place was dark except for the lights in the street and tower signals in the distance. The darkness masked the imperfections of the city and showed just silhouettes of well-constructed buildings.

"Maybe we are really at fault. Don't you think, Sehun-ah?" Lay said softly while keeping a far gaze.

"Yeah. Can't you really remember what happened to all of you that day?" He asked with respect to his hyung.

Lay shook his head. The truth is, he had no recollection of that certain day of his life. The doctors said it could have been caused by a severe shock but five people experiencing the same thing? It seemed impossible.

"Do you feel like you did something?"

"Honestly? No. I wish I did not."

**

Andrea stood at her door, stopping it from closing with her body. She has been waiting patiently for someone to come out of the dorm, fixing her hair and her clothes while she did so. She gained half a kilogram and she wasn't happy about it. Her recent meetings with SME required her to eat out of her diet.

What a total burden. The thin, anorexic girl gaining a bit of weight. It should go down as the problem of the century.

"I hope only one of them comes out or else." She thought to herself.

"I told you. The next MV includes getting off a plane at one thousand feet." Chen told Luhan while coming out of their unit.

"There is no way they will make us do that. It's insane." Luhan didn't want to believe him but his voice hinted fear.

"Just wait. And don't tell me I didn't warn you."

"Shut up."

"Uhm. Excuse me." Andrea interrupted.

"Oh, Andrea, hi." Luhan turned to greet her.

"Hi Miss girl next door." Chen waved his hand once.

"Hi. I'm sorry. Am I interrupting you?"

The two looked at each other and shook their heads. From Andrea's point of view, they would make a really good couple. She almost expected them to just eat up each other's lips while they were arguing a while ago.

"No, of course not. Do you need anything?" Luhan asked.

"Actually, yes. Do you happen to have a paring knife? I think I lost mine when I moved."

"Oh, I think we have. Let me check."

Luhan hurried to key in the passcode and Andrea naturally looked at the numbers he was pressing.

2-9-9-

Chen suddenly blocked Luhan and Andrea looked up at him to check if he caught her. There was a knowing smirk on his face and she had to fake an embarrassed face. She lowered her head and touched her hair before shyly smiling back at him.

She caught a glimpse of the door and silently willed it to close again. Slowly the door moved and stopped just an inch from closing. It was too frustrating for her until Chen pulled the door close. The troll had no idea.

"Are you trying to peek at our passcode?" Chen asked her directly.

"N-no. I... I'm really sorry. I just have this... habit." Her stuttering was ironically flawless.

"Relax. I was kidding." He laughed out loud and started to walk away. "Please tell the girl that I went ahead."

"Yeah." Andrea waved off and whispered, "Bastard."

Luhan reappeared with the knife and Andrea had to fake an apologetic look, asking him if they also had a bread knife. Being the knight in shining armor, Luhan said he would check and re-entered the passcode.

2-9-9-1-0-6-2

Gotcha.

Andrea kept repeating the numbers in her head until they imprinted on her brain. She went back to her unit with two kinds of knives and a smile on her face. These boys are surely naïve. Except for that troll. Maybe he can be the first one to go.

"It's 2-9-9-1-0-6-2. Yes. I want it done immediately." She said on the phone and put it on the table beside the sharp knives.

"You belong to me EXO. Unfortunately not for long."

**

"You belong to me." He whispered in the wind.

The view from the balcony of his place was breathtaking. The Han Bridge was standing in its full glory like the woman in his mind. He was thinking of her again and now he is getting pushed and pulled out of dream world.

He lost her for now but it's only a matter of time before he reclaimed her again.

"Just wait for me."

The knife in his hand shone a bit through the moonlight and he realized how beautiful it looked like against her skin. That's a really good view.

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