fifteen

Her heart stopped beating, and just when it would have killed her, it started beating hard, making her chest hard. Her knees almost buckled, but Kai caught her by her elbow. She looked at him and the worried look on her face made her feel guilty towards him. He did not know what was going on. She never told him.

"How?"

"A friend of his told me. Said he was coming here to the rescue. I got here on the first flight that I could, and he was actually on that same flight. I tried to stay hidden, and I only left the airport here after he did."

"Who is Nicky?" Kai asked.

Baby looked at him, again, and shook her head. "Let's get home and I'll explain it."

He looked at her for a second, hesitating in the hall, but he grabbed her hand and nodded. "Jib e ga (let's go home)."

Baby grabbed Sarah's hand, who grabbed D.O.'s hand, and they walked out of SM in a chain. Baby noticed that as soon as they exited the building and into the flashing lights of the cameras outside that D.O. Sarah let go of each other. Security helped them wade through the crowd and into a car that was waiting for them.

The entire car ride was quiet while the manager took their van around complicated streets, so they lost anyone who was following them. Soon they went through the gate to the community where their house was and then through the gate of their house.

"I'll give you a tour," Baby said, smiling, trying to avoid the conversation she needed to have with Kai.

"Later," Sarah smiles sadly. "I'll make my way to the kitchen and feed myself."

"Eommaga eumsigeul mani namgyosso. Mani moggo (My mom left a lot of food. Eat a lot)." Kai takes her hand and leads her up the stairs to their room, closing the door behind him.

"Jagiya… wae geurae (Baby… what's wrong)?"

"When I first came here… I was running away from a situation… from someone. My ex boyfriend."

"Namchin (boyfriend)?"

"Ne. He was abusive—not physically, but mentally, emotionally. It was bad, and I was scared. I depended on him. He made me feel like I needed to be dependent. He… messed up my head."

"Those are the phone calls you get, that you don't answer? The text messages that read that make you feel cold?"

Baby never noticed that Kai had noticed what was going on, even a little. She thought her smiles could hide it. And not that her smile wasn't genuine, because it was. Nicky could shake her for a moment, but Kai made her forget all that.

Kai swept her up in a hug and squeezed her tight. "Mianhae (I'm sorry)."

"Ani. You have nothing to feel sorry for." She squeezed him back. We have more important things to worry about, and even those we can weather together."

Kai pulled back from their hug and smiled at her.

Her stomach swirled, threatening to make her breakfast come back up, but she pushed it back down as she smiled at him. This entire two weeks, she was nauseous and sick but she pushed it off as nerves. A lot was going on and adding Nicky to the picture made it even worse. "There's no way he'll be able to find me, though. I'm safe."

She held Kai's hand and smiled as she pulled him out of their room and down to the kitchen. As she walked in, a smell wafted at her and into her nose. It smelled horrible, like burnt tuna, soured pickles. "What is that?" She scrunched up her nose.

"Bibimbap," Sarah replied.

"Did you kill an animal and put it in there?"

Sarah looked down at the big bowl and then looked back up at Baby. "Gogiga opsso (There's no meat in here)."

The food in Baby's stomach rolled again, and this time there was no swallowing it down. She rushed to the closet bathroom, just barely making it to the toilet. Her vomit sprayed on top of the toilet more than it, and the sight of it made her throw up more.

Kai and Sarah rushed in behind her. Kai rubbed her back, while Sarah wiped the toilet seat and found another towel to wash off her face.

Baby, finally done throwing up, leaned back on the cold tile, and wiped her face, still feeling incredibly nauseous.

"How long have you been sick like this?" Sarah asked.

"There's been a lot going on these past two weeks. I've been so scared that it's hand my stomach in knots. I'm not sure when it started."

Sarah leaned against the sink and looked at her sister. "Baby… when's the last time you had your period?"

"It's not period sickness, my period is…. Coming up at the end of the month." Baby said, not catching where her sister was going.

"Are you sure?"

"... yes maybe."

"And have you been using protection?"

"For sex?" Baby could feel Kai startle. "Of course… sometimes. Sometimes, in the moment, we forget. But I'm on birth control." Baby finally understands what her sister is saying, and she looks at Kai. Her period made her have horrible cramps, but it never made her sick like this, and this was more than being super anxious. Her period was supposed to come at the end of the month, but this was the end of the month.

"Wae Geurae (What's wrong)?" Kai asked.

Sarah gets up from the cabinet and walks out, calling behind her, "I'm going to the store to get a pregnancy test."