TWENTY-FOUR

Josiah had been told to take dessert to Cain and Abel. Never in a million years would he have actually expected to see or hear what it was that he saw and heard. His best friend had been confessed to by one of their group members. Abel liked Cain and yet it was something no one had known about, not the other members and definitely not him. No one even suspected such a thing. He wasn't one to judge though. Josiah had always been one to believe in the saying that love is love. And even though he himself wasn't a member of the LGBTQ community, he still supported them. But Abel...one of his group members had just confessed to another group member, one that already had a girlfriend.

The maknae felt like he had to leave at that moment. He shouldn't have been there. It was supposed to be a private moment for the two, one in which no one else should have witnessed. He had turned around quickly, too quick and ended up almost tripping on his shoelaces that had somehow become untied. He dropped the plates of ice cream sundaes he had been carrying. The glass plates had shattered and the ice cream sundaes splattered on the ground, some had even gotten on his shoes.

Abby had been too shocked both by Abel's confession and at realizing that someone else had been there to hear and see it. She hadn't even noticed that Josiah had cut himself and was bleeding. Abel was the one to react first as he hurried over to Josiah's side.

"Are you okay? Let me help." 

Abel took a hold of Josiah's bleeding hand but he pulled his hand away at the sudden touch. Abel had touched him with the same hand that had just been holding onto Cain's hand. It wasn't that he was a homophobe but pulling his hand away had been a reflex.

"Oh. Do you perhaps think I have cooties now just because I confessed to a guy? Well don't worry, it's not like I'm going to start liking you just because I like this one guy." 

Josiah couldn't even manage to utter a simple no, all he could do was shake his head. No matter what, he wasn't going to start seeing Abel any differently and he wasn't going to act differently towards him either. Abel was still the same person no matter who he chose to like. Extending his hand out to him, Josiah let Abel take hold of it.

"Do you think I'll need stitches?" 

The word stitches was what ended up snapping Abby back into reality. She ran over to where both Josiah and Abel were kneeling, not even realizing that she had knelt down herself. Under normal circumstances, having any part of her body touching the ground other than her feet would have been something repulsive. Something she would have never done but at the moment all she could think about was Josiah and his cut.

"Let me see. If it's not too deep of a cut then you can just use steri strips. You will most likely still get a scar though..." 

Abby looked down at her abdomen as she said this. 

She might not have been able to see her scars as she wasn't even in her own body, but she could still feel them there. At seeing that Josiah's cut didn't seem all that bad, she felt a huge relief. The sweet baby didn't deserve any ugly scars. The cut on his palm was probably only two inches long. So long as he didn't get too much sun exposure to it, the scar wouldn't darken much. Abby had used a cream for her scars but she stopped using it once it had stopped making a difference. But the cream had definitely helped and because of that her scars weren't as bad as they would have been.

"A scar? Well I guess at least that'll make me look more macho and less cute." 

Josiah smiled. He didn't mind too much. He was more scared at the thought of needing stitches than getting a scar. He had been trying hard to shake off his cute image since he was getting too old for it. Other members had been his age when they debuted and yet he had been the only one who everyone still seemed to think of as a kid.

"Scars are ugly, believe me. I have several of them. I'll give you a cream that I have, it will help so the scar won't become as noticeable." 

"You have scars hyung?" 

Abby had just said something about herself, it was a slip up but there was no way for her to take it back. Of course Josiah would know if Cain had scars. All Kpop groups had changing rooms they had to change in before concerts or even music show performances and that meant that members saw each other's bodies all the time.

"Well yeah but the cream I'm telling you about is REALLY good. It's the reason why you weren't able to notice any of the scars that I have. You can only really see them when you look up close and even then you really have to know where to look."

This of course didn't apply to the scars she had gotten from the car accident but they did apply to the scars on her wrists that she had made herself. After five years, those scars were barely even there. She didn't even think Cain could see them since he would have to know what had once been there in order to be able to see even a trace of her past.

Abby had left to get a first aid kit, it was lucky for them that they always had one in each of their vans. But with her gone, it left both Abel and Josiah alone. Abel had forgotten all about his confession to Abby but Josiah hadn't and there were things he wanted to ask.

"Abby..." 

Josiah remembered that was the name of Cain's girlfriend.

"What about her?" 

Abel was confused as to why Josiah was bringing up Abby. He hadn't thought he had been there to hear about the body switch.

"Well...she's Cain's GIRLfriend."

He felt he had to emphasize the word girl so that Abel would know where he was going with this. 

"Yea. I know that. She's really pretty, don't you think?"

Josiah sighed as he got up and took a seat on a nearby bench. It looked like he had no other choice but to be straightforward. He didn't want Abel to feel like he had to hide who he was from him. They weren't just members of the same group, they were also friends. And friends should trust one another. 

"It doesn't bother me if you're...you know...gay..." 

Abel understood now. The reason why Josiah had brought up Abby was because he thought he had confessed to Cain and as far as he knew, Cain and Abby were dating. 

"Oh. Well actually I'm not the only one that's gay, Cain is too. He's only dating Abby as a cover up." 

He couldn't tell Josiah the truth and Abel didn't mind being thought of as gay. If it meant he could be lovey dovey with Abby, he didn't see a problem with making Cain be gay as well.

Josiah had heard of gay guys dating girls just so that they wouldn't be suspected of being gay. He couldn't believe his best friend would hide such a thing from him though. If Cain were really gay, he would have at least told him.

"Abel! Stop messing around with the boy! And stop lying! Hyun—I mean, I'm not gay! And neither are you! Josiah, Abel was only rehearsing for a drama that he will be auditioning for and I was helping him. You see, I have long hair right now so it was easier for him to think of me as a girl so that's why he chose me to rehearse with."

Abby felt like she could scold Abel for trying to make Josiah believe Cain was gay. It was one thing to lie about himself but he went too far by lying about Cain and it wasn't like it was a white lie either. She might have lied to Josiah but at least her lie was so that he wouldn't have any misconceptions about his best friend.

"Ah! I see now! You two are working together to trick members, aren't you? Chan was telling us about how Abel had pretended to like your girlfriend. So then Abel was only messing with me! He almost had me believing for a moment! That means you'll be a good actor Abe hyung!" 

Abby's lie had worked since Josiah seemed to believe it. There was no doubt that she had gotten better at lying ever since she had switched bodies with Cain. Josiah was however somewhat gullible. Had it been another member that had caught them, perhaps they wouldn't have had the same luck.

It didn't take long for Abby to disinfect Josiah's cut and put the steri strips on him. He had been really lucky his cut wasn't bad enough that he had to go to the hospital. The mess with the shattered glass and ice cream sundaes had actually been worse than his cut. Josiah had wanted to pick up the pieces of glass but Abby prohibited him from doing so and instead looked for a broom she could use. Josiah had decided to get them another ice cream sundae in the meantime and that left both Abby and Abel alone once again.

She still had to scold Abel for what he had done earlier. And he was in the perfect position she needed him at, bent down as he was picking up the bigger pieces of glass. He wouldn't be able to see what was coming to him. She gripped the broom tighter to make sure it wouldn't end up slipping out of her hand and went ahead to hit Abel's non-existent booty with the broom. Abby was able to give it two pats before he reacted and turned around.

"What was that for?!" 

"For doing what you did earlier! Could you have not come up with something else to tell him or were you just looking to stir up some trouble for Cain?!"

"Huh? Why are you talking in third person hyung?" 

Josiah who had just left them alone had returned in a matter of seconds. He didn't have any ice cream sundaes with him though. Abby stuttered for an answer but was unable to come up with one since he caught her by surprise. Josiah shook his head at this.

"Never mind. Both of you have just been acting weird lately. I only came back because I forgot to ask if you guys wanted sprinkles on your ice cream sundaes. I had forgotten to add them on the other ones but I could add them this time if you two want."

"Sure. Sprinkles sound nice." 

Abel noticed Abby's menacing smile. And he was sure she wasn't smiling about the sprinkles. She still seemed to have a tight grip on the broom and just looking at it made him rub his behind. Those two hits had hurt more than he would have thought they would.

"Wait up! I'm going with you!" 

Abel tried to catch up to Josiah by running after him. Normally he would have loved any chance he could get to be alone with Abby but not when she still had that broom with her. He could sense she was still mad at him and it was better to try and appease her with an ice cream sundae before being left alone with her. He just had to make sure to add an extra scoop of ice cream and a little bit of extra of everything else.

Josiah stared at Abel as he put toppings upon toppings on one of the ice cream sundaes. It looked like it would all topple if he were to even try walking with it.

"That ice cream sundae must have like 5 pounds of toppings by now. Why are you even adding so much to it? I thought you said you wanted to lose some weight." 

"It's not for me, it's for Cain. He's been extra grumpy today so I thought some extra sweets might do him some good." 

Abel knew that women tended to have that "time of the month" and perhaps it was just that time for Abby. She had always looked so sweet and yet she had hit him with a broom.

"Say ah." 

Abel tried to feed Abby some of the ice cream Sundae with a plastic spoon he had gotten just for her. Josiah had already left so he saw no problem with feeding her.

"I can feed myself thank you very much."  

Abby grabbed the spoon from him but then smiled as an idea occurred to her. She still wanted to get back at Abel but she had felt a bit bad for having hit him with the broom. So instead of hitting him again, she was going to do something else.

"Abe, you wanted to feed me but what if I want to feed you, can I?" 

She tried to say it as cutesy as she could while making puppy dog eyes at him. He nodded at this and opened his mouth but instead of feeding him the ice cream, she aimed higher until she got to his nose. He was left surprised at this. Wanting to get her back for it, Abel scooped up a big spoonful of his own ice cream sundae and flung it at her nose. Abby gasped at feeling the coldness on her nose. He had attacked her so suddenly that she hadn't even had a chance to try to evade it.

"Lee Abel! I'm getting you back for this!" 

He saw Abby scooped up some of her ice cream sundae so he decided to run away before she got a chance to get it on him.

"I can run too you know! And I have longer legs so I'll catch up to you no matter how fast you try to run!" 

She grabbed the bowl of ice cream sundae and ran after him but no matter how long her legs were, Abel seemed to run faster. It seemed like him being chased with an ice cream sundae made him run faster than a competition did. But Abby was determined to get it on him and Abel was bound to get tired.

The two were running around so fast that they were no longer even paying attention to where they were going. They were both starting to get out of breath but despite that they continued on, one was running away while the other chased after. They had gotten all the way to one of the water park's entrances when they both ended up crashing into someone.

Instead of getting her ice cream sundae on Abel, it ended up getting all over a woman's white suit. Abby looked up and was shocked to see that it was none other than Mrs. Lee, Jun's aunt.

"Oh my gosh! Mrs. Lee! I am so sorry! Please forgive me!" 

Abby started bowing repeatedly as did Abel who had ended up crashing into a tall muscular man who he assumed was the chauffeur of the woman in white. Abel was relieved that he at least hadn't been carrying his ice cream sundae with him, because of that he hadn't gotten the man dirty just like Abby had with the woman. He could tell that they were both in trouble though and it was the man who ended up speaking first.

"Mrs. Lee, these are the hooligans that ganged up on your nephew. Their names are Lee Abel and Hwang Cain. They are both from a Kpop group called Adam." 

"Yes, I remember this one." 

Mrs. Lee pointed at Abby. She was smiling as she pointed at her yet Abby couldn't help but feel scared. Mrs. Lee was always a nice lady, the opposite of Jun. But she had just gotten an ice cream sundae all over her white suit AND her chauffeur had just told her about them having ganged up on her nephew. That only meant one thing, Jun had told on them. 

"Mrs. Lee, Should I get you a change of clothes? I believe there are boutiques nearby." 

The chauffeur looked about ready to do anything for his employer.

"I am fine. At least I am wearing some color now. A plain white suit was boring after all." 

She dismissed her chauffeur and both Abby and Abel were left alone with her. 

"Are we in trouble?"

It was the first thing that came out of Abby. She knew having beaten up Jun like they did had been bad but he had deserved it. She was sure not even all the pain he was feeling now could compare to the pain he had made her feel all those years ago when he broke off their marriage and abandoned her when she most needed him.

"Don't worry. I won't say a word of this to either your manager or EVE. I know my nephew very well and I know that he must have done something in order to have deserved what you did to him. Besides, I heard you only stood and watched. The one that really did all the beating up was Abby but I always thought she would someday try to hurt my nephew just to make him feel even if just a fraction of the pain he made her feel. So it's fine. I'm not here to reprimand any of you. I am actually here in hopes of recruiting a makeup artist and a model."

Mrs. Lee stood there smiling. She was nice alright, practically an angel but Abby knew where she was going with all this. She pretty much wanted the same thing Jun had except that instead of a bride, she wanted a makeup artist. But in the end it was all the same since that bride Jun had wanted and the makeup artist Mrs. Lee most likely wanted was one in the same, her or at least the person they all thought was her.

"By makeup artist you mean..." 

Abby was more worried about Cain than about herself. She didn't think he deserved to be mistreated by Jun and yet Cain had always tried to protect her from him in some way. Jun was her fight and she might have let Cain and Abel fight him earlier but now it was her turn. 

"Abby. And the model being you of course. Although...looking at this young man here, he might not be as tall but he does have a pretty face and those freckles on him are just so lovely. So how about you two model together?"

It wasn't the first time Cain and Abel had been offered a modeling job together. They were both visuals in their own rights and made excellent models so it was no surprise that she would want them both.

Abby did not want to face Jun again and she was sure neither would Cain or Abel. Even if the offer was coming from Mrs. Lee this time, it just wasn't worth it. 

"I'm sorry but I'll have to decline. There are other members though. You could talk with our manager and see if there's someone else in our group that would like to model. There's actually another visual in our group, his name is Lucas. And as for Abby, I'm sure she's too busy to take on a side job."

Abby noticed Mrs. Lee had been texting on her phone while she was talking.

"Well according to your girlfriend, she's not. She just told me she could do the job, at least just for this one photo shoot." 

Mrs. Lee showed her phone to Abby and she was right, Cain had accepted her offer.

"The thing is that one of our makeup artists recently quit and the photoshoot is next week. We won't be able to hire one so soon. But as for the model, I was serious when I said I was in need of one. The one we had hired for this particular photoshoot breached his contract and it'll cost us more to cancel the photoshoot than to hire a new model. Such horrible luck we've been having. But I'm sure you're right. I could talk to your manager about this Lucas guy."

Abby couldn't believe what she was about to say but she also hadn't believed that Cain had accepted such an offer to begin with.

"I'll do it. I'll be the model." 

At least that way Cain wasn't going to have to face Jun alone because she knew for a fact that he wouldn't miss such an opportunity to be there.

"I'll be a second model if your offer still stands mam." 

Abel walked forward and bowed to Mrs. Lee. 

"Such a cute boy and with nice manners too. Of course the offer still stands."

Earlier when Jun had left injured and bruised, Abby had felt like she had won but at that moment it felt like she had lost. Because Jun ended up getting what he wanted after all, at least partially. Now all Abby wanted to know was why Cain had accepted the offer. Not only that but she also wanted to know why Abel had offered himself as a model.

"Why did you just offer yourself to be a model?"

"Why did you?" 

It was a question Abel already knew the 

answer to and yet he still felt he had to ask. 

"I asked you a question first. Do not answer mine with another question."

"I'm assuming you only accepted the job because of Cain. So I did the same, I accepted the job because of you. This way it will be three against one."

"Three against one?" 

"You, me, Cain. All three of us against that bastard Jun. He's going to be there, right? Well if he dares do the same as today, all three of us will just have to gang up on him again." 

Abel made a fist with one hand and punched his other. Abby didn't know why but this made her smile. 

"I think you care about me...don't you?" 

She was shy to say this but it seemed like it was true, Abel had more than proved it that day. 

"Of course. More than you could imagine. I can't believe you would even have to ask such a question. And here I thought I had been making it obvious all along." 

"Well I care about you too. And it's because of this that I wouldn't want you getting into any trouble, especially not because of me. We were lucky that we didn't end up in trouble today but we won't always be so lucky."

You're worth any and all kind of trouble and much more is what Abel would have wanted to say to her but he knew Abby wouldn't like him saying such a thing so he kept it to himself. But when the time came, he wasn't going to let such a fear stop him from protecting the girl he was falling in love with. Abel hadn't been sure at first if what he had been feeling for Abby could be called falling in love or just simply like but he was sure of it now, he was falling in love. Such a simple four lettered word and yet it held so much meaning to it.

Having been so deep in thought, he hadn't realized Abby had gone on ahead of him. He had to run just to try to catch up to her.

"Where are you going?!" 

Abel had to cup his hands around his mouth just so that she would be able to hear him. Earlier he had been the faster runner but it seemed like all that energy from then had left him.

"Going to see the fuckin asshole that agreed to be a makeup artist for the company my ex works for!" 

He couldn't hold his laughter at hearing Abby cussing Cain out. It seemed like he wasn't going to be the only one that Abby was going to be mad at that day, it was Cain's turn to taste her wrath.

"Should I get a broom for you?!" 

He could only hope to see Cain get the same penalty he had gotten earlier.

"No need! I'll get him myself!" 

"How so?" 

Abel had finally been able to catch up to her and was now walking by her side.

"I'll kick him like this!" 

Abby lifted up one of her legs and kicked the air. 

"And here I thought you were a nice girl. Are you even the same girl that dried baby Siah's face and then put steri strips on his cut?" 

"I can be both, a good girl and a bad girl." 

"Wow. Sexy. I like that." 

Abel turned to her and winked but she responded with a roll of her eyes.

They had finally gotten to where Cain should have been but there was one problem, he wasn't there. None of EVE's staff was. And not only that but it seemed like even the members had left because not even the two vans they came in were anywhere to be seen in the parking lot, at least not in the one where they had parked. 

There were parking lots surrounding the water park on all sides, they had just been in one but there hadn't been any cars there. But as they walked around to the other parking lots, not a single car from EVE was in sight. The only cars they saw there were perhaps those of the few employees from the water park.