Forget-me-not

Seungmin

Ki-Woo licked a finger and flicked through a stack of papers. "Aha! Here we go! It's apartment C and number five. I'm going to go ahead and assume you know the complex, right?"

"Yeah, I know the complex." Seungmin wrote down the apartment number on a green sticky note. "Thank you for that. I think it's going to be a big help."

"It's no problem, I'll do anything to help Cynthia." A frown filled Ki-Woo's face and the golden frames of his glass slid down his nose. "I wish I would have known what was happening when she came here. I wouldn't have allowed her to leave."

"It's my fault for not telling you at first. I should have explained the situation, but I didn't think it'd go like this. I had faith in the wrong person."

After his thoughts spun mindlessly, Seungmin finally decided he had to try to rescue Cynthia. In a way, it was a lot like attempting to rescue Rapunzel from her tower. Flora made a great evil witch which made Seungmin Cynthia's prince. He always liked Disney's version of Rapunzel, but ever since this happened, he grew to hate it.

"I'm sure you'll be reunited with her again soon. I'm a big believer in karma and, from what I've seen, you've done nothing, but push out good energy into the world. I'm positive that it'll come back to you."

"I sure hope so," Seungmin mumbled. The more days that passed by, the more worried he became. His brain buzzed with anxious thoughts. He kept finding himself thinking about Cynthia and her well-being during times when he was supposed to be focused on his job.

The previous day, his manager had pulled him into his office for a lecture. Seungmin was too distracted and it was starting to affect his work. He apologized and promised to do better, but it was difficult to stay focused when the love of your life could potentially be at risk.

Cynthia was the first person he thought of every morning and the last one before he fell asleep. She taunted him in his dreams. He'd see her and rush towards her, but he'd never make it to her. There were pieces of dreams that were lagging. He could run and run and run, but he'd never catch up.

He seemed to be stuck on a hamster wheel. Worry about Cynthia, freak out, and try to rationalize his thoughts. Worry about Cynthia, freak out, rationalization, worry about Cynthia, freak out, and then rationalize. On and on and on the thoughts went.

Anxiety caused him to jump to the worst conclusions. It didn't help that fans were starting to get curious about Cynthia's whereabouts themselves. Someone leaked information that Seungmin had moved back into his dorm. Fans were starting to speculate that something happened between the couple.

Conspiracies of a break up started to flow. Videos had been created discussing Cynthia's disappearance. The other day he stumbled upon a video that insisted Cynthia died and the band and company were trying to hide it from fans for the sake of their image.

Seungmin rolled his eyes while watching it. People would come up with the strangest things sometimes. If Cynthia would have died in the accident, it would have never been hidden from the public. He couldn't stand the thought of hiding things.

When he first started to date Cynthia, the company didn't like it. The company hated when any of the guys began to date. Seungmin couldn't find a reason to care. Cynthia was sweet and she made him happy. She got along with his band members and she was kind to the staff when she interacted with them.

In the beginning of the relationship, she asked multiple questions about his family which he thought was strange. There was a brief hint of hesitation on his end. When Cynthia realized how uncomfortable she made him, she immediately apologized and then admitted her parents were deceased.

When parents disappear, people tend to look for that nurturing affection in other places. Everyone wants to be nurtured by someone. The loss of any parent can rip away the warmth that might have once existed. Cynthia's gaping wound in her heart from her parents' loss was still fresh.

The ambivalence and emotional heartbreak left her scarred. There was a gut-wrenching feeling of unfinished business. Plus, the added disheartening realization that her entire support system had been ripped away. She relied on her parents quite a bit. After all, they were the ones who were answering her questions about the world, rooting for her, and still teaching her about adulthood.

Upon hearing Cynthia's grief and struggle with the loss, he took her to her parents house the next day. They accepted her with open arms and the moment he saw the warmth and the tears in Cynthia's eyes from his parent's kindness, he knew they were meant to be. When his older sister poked jokes at Seungmin, but then wrapped Cynthia in a hug, they clicked instantly.

There was an irreplaceable warmth when she was around. At his house, she was eager to help his mom serve dinner and help out. She answered his parents' questions and she asked about their lives. When Cynthia disappeared to use the bathroom and then went missing, he found her with his older sister. The two were bonding and painting each other's nails.

After that, he refused to hide Cynthia from the fans. He refused to keep her lively spirit trapped. He didn't want her to have to live with such secrecy. He knew how hard it was to hide a relationship in the idol world and he didn't want a part in it. He didn't want the scandals and the hurt, but he had never meant for things to happen like this.

His management team refused to budge on their hidden stance and when they did, he went out and announced their relationship anyway. Management was pissed, but there wasn't much they could do. The fans that supported him welcomed Cynthia with open arms and the ones who didn't, he didn't care about.

Why should he care about pleasing everyone? The idol world needed to have boundaries. He followed most of the rules, but some rules were meant to be broken. He used to be so happy until the accident. Sure there were occasions where some supposed fans could be cruel, but he ignored them. He did his best to shield Cynthia from the toxicity that came from the idol world.

When he found out she was reading hate comments, he took her phone for a while. He took them out on extra outings and made her forget about the digital world. The pair took photos and he made her smile and laugh. They made memories that still lived in his heart.

They kissed by the Han River during picnics. He led her through the zoo with their hands intertwined. They visited small coffee shops and tried new drinks. They entered strange shops to browse and sometimes bought things they didn't need.

Occasionally, they'd wrangle some of his band members on their outings. One of his favorite memories was a time when the whole band got together and went to a Lotte Giants baseball game with Cynthia in tow. Cynthia had bought them each a jersey. They managed to get an excellent deal on seats close to the field.

There was a lot of screaming, chaos, and multiple funny moments. When the Lotte's scored a home run at one point, Hyunjin started to jump up and down and dumped his popcorn all over Chan's head by accident. Salt got into his eye and when Hyunjin tried to help him, he bumped into Han, and Han dropped his drink and spilled it everywhere.

The spilled carbonated drink caused the floor to be wet. Not realizing what happened, Lee Know jumped with excitement and then slipped. Thankfully, Changbin caught him before he fell into the sticky mess. It left everyone in a fit of giggles besides Chan who was still trying to rub salt from his eye.

When Cynthia realized what was happening, she managed to get over to Chan. She made him tip his head back and she washed his eye out with water from her water bottle. It was chaotic in the best way possible. Photos of that afternoon still sat in Seungmin's phone.

He picked up the sticky note with Flora's address on it. When Cynthia began to work at Woo's Wisteria's, she wrote Flora's number and address down as one of her emergency contacts. Seungmin just remembered it last night and showed up at the flower shop the next day to get the exact apartment number.

Now all he had to do was lure Flora out, so he could get in.