Disclaimer: Noblesse isn't mine.

Awaken (Part 19: Yuna)

"Hello? Chairman? You there?" Ikhan pushed the button in rapid successions before finally holding it down so that the buzzer inside would not cease until he lifted his thumb. "I don't think he's home."

Shinwoo pressed his ear to the gate. His eyes tightly screwed shut as he concentrated all of his focus on what may await him on the other side. Yuna unconsciously held her breath, straining to hear from a distance what he couldn't hear at close range. He stepped back and shook his head, confirming her suspicions. "He's not coming."

"I should have considered that he would be with Rai—wherever that is—instead of here." Ikhan released the button. "Chairman, if you're home, we really need you. It's important."

"I saw him once." Yuna spoke quietly, hesitant to provide the information, and her gaze fell to the sidewalk. "I saw him in the house once after Rai… He came out of one of the doors in the hallway, and he walked away in the opposite direction when he saw me. I thought he might be mad at me because… Maybe he still is."

"Mad at you?" Ikhan's hand fell away from the intercom. "Why would he—"

"That's it!" Shinwoo threw off his school jacket and, after hastily stuffing the end of his necktie into his breast pocket, rolled the sleeves of his blue shirt up to his elbows. "I'm climbing the gate."

"Shinwoo," Ikhan placed a hand on his arm, stopping him from finding a foothold to mount it. "Even if you can make it, Yuna and I…"

He shook Ikhan off. "I can't just stand here and do nothing."

"Shinwoo, let me try first." Yuna pulled off her jacket, drawing protests from them both, but instead of climbing the gate, she punched the button to the intercom. "Chairman?" She swallowed, easily summoning the emotion that already quivered in her voice, and held up her injured hand to the camera. "I don't know what to do. My mom won't come home for hours, and I thought that since you're home… I'm sorry. I know you're busy. I'm sorry about… I just… I didn't know where else to go and... Chairman, please... It hurts."

Ikhan waited breathlessly as each of them listened for a reply, but the intercom never came to life. Reluctantly, he nodded for them to leave. "Let's go. He's not coming."

"I can't believe this." Shinwoo snatched his jacket from the ground and irritably slammed a spiteful kick into the gate. It swung open without restraint.

Ikhan ripped off his glasses and stared at the open gate blindly for a moment before replacing them over his nose. "When did he…"

"This feels weird." Yuna nervously passed through the gate, slowly traversing the path to put off her arrival at the front door. "It's not like the chairman to open the gate without saying anything."

Ikhan latched the gate behind him and speedily caught up with Shinwoo. "I didn't think he was home. I hope I didn't bother him too much with the intercom."

"You did push the button a lot." Shinwoo found himself whispering and tapped his fingertips against the door far too lightly to be heard. "It never bothered him before when we came."

"Yeah, but that was before Rai—"

The lock unfastened, and the door pulled back far enough for them to enter. Shinwoo and Ikhan quickly darted inside and, kicking off their shoes, donned pink slippers. They settled down on the couch, but Yuna lagged behind with greater reserve.

"Come inside, Yuna."

She shuttered at the chairman's soft voice and timidly crept into the house. He stood partially behind the door so that he was fully concealed from the outside but only half-covered from the inside. Once she entered, he closed the door behind her but didn't leave the foyer.

"I'm sorry for intruding." Yuna stepped on the back of her shoe, holding it down with her toes as she pulled her heel out. "If we're bothering you—"

"Not at all." He nonchalantly reassured her but gave the boys a stern look from across the room. "Perhaps one of you would care to explain why you are not in school?"

Shinwoo looked at Ikhan, hopping for an answer, but the other clearly intended him to reply. "Umm… What have you heard?"

"I have heard that you were truant, Shinwoo." Frankenstein stepped up onto the raised floor and left Yuna to put on her slippers in privacy. "I can see that that situation has not been handled as promised."

Shinwoo's face flushed. "Chairman, I… I had a good reason for cutting class…"

"Which is?"

"Which is…" He turned to Ikhan, pleading for help. "Um…"

"I would have expected a better prepared excuse, especially from a student that skips class to visit his chairman while school is still in session. Were you trying to get caught?" Frankenstein casually folded his arms, leveling his gaze at them both. "Do tell me that you expected me to notice. I will be insulted if you did not."

The boys glanced at each other again, uncertain whether this was serious or a joke. Ikhan moved first, standing from his seat and bowing formally. "We have no excuse. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Shinwoo mimicked his example, "I'm really sorry."

"I expect you both to go back to school."

"But we—"

Frankenstein raised his hand to silence them. "I will call someone to pick you up. You may stay until then."

"Alright." Ikhan said immediately and glared at Shinwoo until he also begrudgingly resigned himself to agree. "We'll go back then."

"Now," Frankenstein turned to Yuna as she quietly padded into the room, "I will get the first aid kit. Please wait here."

"Sure thing," Shinwoo grinned coyly. "Where else would we go?"

Ikhan smacked Shinwoo's arm the moment they were alone. "Don't be so obvious!"

"It wasn't that obvious. Right, Yuna?"

"It was pretty obvious." She answered in a hushed tone, reminding them to lower their voices as well. "I know this was my idea, but I don't think we should go through with it. It's so invasive."

"What if something really did happen to Rai? Would it be invasive then?" Shinwoo slunk into the kitchen and poured himself a drink while his eyes scrutinized every surface for any clue that may have been left behind, a misplaced business card, a half-scrawled note. Nothing. "Man, this place is clean."

"I try to keep it tidy."

Shinwoo nearly dropped his cup. "Chairman! When did you get back?"

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Frankenstein kneeled next to Yuna and set the first aid kit on the coffee table next to her. "You should have expected me to return."

"I didn't expect you to be so fast." Shinwoo downed his drink and dumped the empty cup into the sink before yanking open the refrigerator door and investigating the contents. "There's nothing fast and easy to make."

"Shinwoo…" Ikhan was on his feet and across the room within seconds. "This isn't the best—"

"What? I'm hungry!" He pulled out a bag that she recognized. It came from the convenience store near her house. She and Shinwoo had gone there together on the night that she had remembered being kidnapped. Ajussi and the man in the hat—

"Are you alright?"

Yuna pried open her eyes, unaware that she had closed them until she had heard his voice. He studied her with concern, noting every expression that marred her face. She nodded and regretted it. "I just have a headache."

"A headache?" Frankenstein repeated. His expression transformed from worried to inquisitive. "Does your head bother you more than your hand?"

"No, it's nothing."

He unsnapped the lid to the first aid kit and arranged the necessary supplies on the table beside him with greater thought than the task should have required. He moved slowly, deliberately, as if every action held an unfathomably significant purpose. "How did this happen?"

Shinwoo silently tugged the sleeve of Ikhan's shirt and nodded his head toward the hallway. Yuna followed them with her eyes as they both tiptoed across the room, conscious that even the slightest sound would give them away. "I…"

"Yes?" His head began to turn, following her gaze. The boys froze in place, suspiciously posed in the mouth of the hallway.

"I—" Yuna scrambled for something, for anything, to draw his attention. "I punched a wall!"

His face snapped back to her, and for the first time, she had brought a mark of surprise to it. "You hit a wall?"

Shinwoo dipped his head as a show of gratitude and shoved Ikhan down the hallway, leaving her alone to explain her confession. Yuna looked down at her wrist, watching the deep blue melt into purple and hoping her hair fell forward enough to cover the blush on her cheeks. "It wasn't on purpose. Well, it was, but I didn't mean… It really hurts."

"May I?" He asked, motioning to her hand and taking it very carefully when she held it out to him. "The skin over your knuckles is broken. You must have hit the wall at full force."

"Yeah, it was pretty hard." Yuna watched him gently finger the bones in her hand, checking for anything amiss, but he seemed to be satisfied with her condition and moved on to her wrist.

"I imagine you had a good reason." Frankenstein stated rhetorically but still paused for her to reply.

"Whoa!" Shinwoo shouted, "this is—" The rest disappeared into a muffled garble of sounds as Ikhan likely smothered his hand over Shinwoo's mouth.

"Ouch!" Yuna ripped her arm away to distract the chairman from the boys.

"I apologize. Was that tender?"

"A little." She lowered her hand again so that he could continue his examination. "Is it bad?"

"It's not injured as badly as it appears," Frankenstein dabbed antiseptic over the scrapes on her knuckles with a cotton swab, "but I want you to refrain from using it for forty-eight hours. Keep it elevated, and ice it for roughly twenty to thirty minutes every three to four hours to help the swelling go down. I have done all that I am able to do at the moment. I'm afraid that it will be sore for awhile."

"You're done? Already?"

"I am." He replaced the unused supplies in the kit and stood with the kit under his arm. "I'll get an icepack for you."

"Chairman, wait!"

"Hmm?" He stopped and waited for her to continue.

"It's just that…" She pressed her lips, struggling to come up with an idea. He had already tended to her hand. There was no other reason to distract him unless— "May I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

Yuna took a deep breath and pointedly met his eyes. "What's wrong with Rai?"

"He is…" a sad smile turned his lips, "not well."

"But what's wrong?"

Frankenstein shook his head so slightly that his hair didn't even sway with the motion. "I don't know exactly."

The boys slipped into the room once again, and Yuna smiled with relief. "Chairman, I hope he gets better soon."

"Yes, so do I." Frankenstein turned around before she could say anything further. "I will call someone to take you back to school. In the meantime, will one of you fetch the icepack from the freezer and give it to Yuna?"

"Alright." Ikhan answered, breathless and a little shaken.

Shinwoo latched onto her uninjured arm and yanked her to her feet almost before Frankenstein had left the room. "We have to leave." He whispered, his lips near her ear. "We have to go now."

"Hurry." Ikhan grabbed his shoes from the floor and carried them outside without bothering to put them on.

"What's going on?" Yuna set her slippers neatly on the floor while Shinwoo threw his on top of the pair Ikhan had cast away. "We can't just leave without saying anything."

"We found some things." Ikhan walked barefoot down the path and only stopped to put on his shoes once they were outside the gate. "I know Tao-hyung was good with computers, but this is… It's too much. It's too professional. He has security cameras everywhere. I couldn't hack his stuff. I couldn't hide what we did. He'll know we were snooping around."

"What if we explain ourselves?" Yuna freed herself from Shinwoo's grasp so that she could slip on her shoes. "You only walked down the hallway and opened a few doors, right?"

"That's not the problem." Ikhan answered shortly but softened his voice immediately upon seeing her expression. "Think about it. Why would hyung need to monitor the house? It's because there's a reason to do so, and with what we have remembered about Ajussi, I think that reason is probably something big."

"But it's Tao-oppa. How could he be involved in something like—"

"How could Ajussi?" The sharpness returned to his voice, and he glared at Shinwoo instead of Yuna. "What are you waiting for? Tell her what you saw."

"Regis was sleeping in one of the rooms." Shinwoo stopped, his shoes still hanging from his hands. "I remembered something new."

-Vapor