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She sat there waiting for them for what seemed like an eternity, humming a tune that had come to mind, as she hugged the jacket around herself. Her lungs still burned from the lack of oxygen she had endured while she had been in the water, and she shivered from the cold. From inside the boat she could see the two boys standing on the deck through the window, eyes filled with curiosity at what they were doing. They spoke for a few minutes with two men who had arrived from another boat, then the two men helped them load a few cases onto the boat. Within about a half hour, the two men were gone and Gemma still waited for the two boys who had rescued her from the water.
Taeyong and Ten placed a tarp over the cases of product, even though the only people who had access to the privately owned docks were the two packs. Before even returning to her side, Taeyong stayed on the deck and sent Ten up to the boat's cabin to drive it back to the dock.
Upon landing, they were met with four more boys, all of which seemed to be about her age.
Gemma waited anxiously for someone to come get her, and it was another while that she sat there by herself. From the window she could see as the four boys on the docks removed the tarp and moved the boxes one by one into a waiting truck. It was another half hour of waiting before she saw Taeyong and Ten again. Both of them entered the room without the other boys.
Taeyong offered her his hand to take. "Come on, we're taking you to our home in Seoul." He explained to her.
She took one look at his hand and took it, knowing that she didn't have much of an option on the matter. She didn't know where she was from and she didn't know where to go. "You'll like it there." Ten said with a bit of encouragement. He was more friendly than Taeyong, and more willing to go out of his way to make her comfortable. Not that the first wasn't. But as an alpha, he was more accustomed to the others doing things for him, and not the other way around. "Our older brothers bought us that house. Its not big and fancy, but we're getting by at the moment."
Gemma only nodded her head, staying completely silent.
She followed them off the boat and onto the dock. The others were surprised to see them accompanied by a girl, especially a girl they didn't know. "Who's that?" Jaehyun asked with confusion while he looked her over. He didn't remember anyone else getting on the boat with them when they arrived at the docks. But he looked from his leader to the girl--both were dripping wet--and he put the pieces together before the leader could even reply.
"We saved her from the river." Taeyong informed them, gesturing to the icy waters behind him. "And she doesn't remember anything, so she'll be staying with us until we can find out where she's really from."
Mark nudged Jaehyun, saying to him in a whisper. "Doesn't that remind you of what happened with Kyungsoo hyung?" Jaehyun gave a nod of his head. They all remembered what had happened to Jagi. They had been with the pack around the time that it happened, and they later heard that she had regained her memory after months of not knowing who she was. The same was a probability for Gemma. They knew it could be months before she might remember anything about her past and where she was from.
"Does she have a name?" Taeil wondered. The four boys on the docks were awestruck by her--not just at the fact that their leader had saved a girl drowning in the river, but at the fact that she was very beautiful. Even in their moment of distress trying to save her, Ten and Taeyong had thought the same.
Ten gave a shake of his head. "She doesn't remember. But maybe it will come to her after a few days."
Satisfied by the answer they had gotten, the six boys of the younger pack piled into the truck. All of them had rushed to help her inside and Ten got to sit next to her, by her other side was their leader Taeyong. On the way back to their home, they all wanted to ask her so many questions. But they all stayed quiet, since they knew she wouldn't be able to answer them anyway.
And all the while, she hummed the same tune to herself.
-
Viri raced to find her friends who were enjoying the party, drinking and flirting with boys. Both Kata and Mila were close by and Viri tugged them both by the arm. The look on her face did enough to alarm them. "Gemma fell off the boat. We have to do something." She urged, and it took a moment for the news to sink in since the two other girls already had a few drinks in them.
Kata--Gemma's best friend--was the first to react.
Her eyes widened in fear as the news hit her like a bucket of cold water. She knew Gemma didn't even want to go to the party in the first place, and now she was lost in the river and her friends didn't know how to find her. Viri explained to the two girls what had happened and Mila thought up a plan. "Here's what we'll do. We'll return to our hotel rooms and no one will ever know we went out tonight. When the sisters wake us up in the morning, we'll just tell them we don't know where Gemma is. They'll call in the police, and they'll find her. We just have to keep quiet or we'll get in trouble."
They were seventeen year old girls after all. Rich seventeen year old girls from prominent families. They knew that a scandal like that, could ruin them and their families.
But Kata didn't care about any of that. She preferred finding her friend, especially considering that she felt guilty that this happened to her. "We can't do that." She argued with her friend. "We can't lie to the police when they ask us when we last saw her. That's a crime."
"If we talk we'll get in trouble." Mila insisted.
"If we don't talk something can happen to Gemma." Viri said, taking Kata's side for the moment.
Mila gave a shake of her head, speaking to them calmly in order to give them fake reassurances that everything was okay. "Maybe someone helped her and will take her to the police station tomorrow. She'll be back before we know it."
It took a lot of convincing and mental manipulation, but Mila was able to convince the other girls to keep quiet. Once the boat returned to shore, the girls hurried back to their hotel and locked themselves in their rooms for the night. Kata--who shared her room with Gemma--was most worried. For one, she was worried for her friend. But she was also worried that the police would find out they were lying, all to avoid a smaller punishment.
They were putting their friend's life at risk.
-
another filler ish third chapter. but it will start getting a bit better in the next one. the song that she's humming is important. it'll be one of the first and only things she remembers.
im also gonna really try to update "lucky" tonight.
but if i cant, then for sure tomorrow i will. since i'll have the next three days off from work. so please stay tuned for that. thank you all so much for reading and supporting me and my stories. it honestly means the entire world.
have a wonderful week!
-clary
