On the Run

I’m afraid that I’m being ruined by you
Though you’ll shake me up and turn around

Sunggyu and I sat across from each other. It was impossible to breathe with all the paparazzi. We had to do our best to make this believable. Holding hands, giggling. Gag me. I coulnd't concentrate. If we smiled. We'd then be blinded by 20 different cameras. One guy was getting too close for comfort and I was seriously about to pour my champagne all over that stupid camera.

"So..."

Flash

I sighed

Another flash.

The glass felt like it was about to break in my hands.

She was struggling. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. True, it was annoying but it looked like she was about to clobber someone. I leaned towards her. "If you keep making that face none of the pictures will turn out right." She scowled harder as a response. I laughed. "I have a plan." Her eyes sparkled.

I stood and she followed, unsure. She took my offered hand and we headed for the front door. The waiter gave us our jackets and I buttoned Haeri's for her. The paprazzi were going crazy.

He was doing it on purpose. I knew he was. Perhaps he liked the attention, I'm sure his picture in famous magazines was helping the company. Or perhaps he just liked aggravating me.

Sunggyu leaned forward and pressed his lips to my ear. I almost stomped on his toes if he wou'dnt have said: "When I say so, let's make a run for it."

He laughed at my devilish smirk.

We stepped outside and hailed a cab. The others were doing the same. I understood his plan now. As the paparazzi filled their own cabs, we entered ours and exited the other side! In a split second we were across the street and leaving every single one of them behind.

"I know somewhere we can go." I don't know what possessed me to say that or why I even felt like taking him there. We had beed 'dating' for one week now. Our mothers' were driving us crazy. We never had a chance to be alone and discuss our battle plans. I hadn't seen Woohyun in awhile, but I knew he was just laying low, waiting for his moment to strike.

We circled around a few places to throw them off of our scent. Then finally we arrived to my secret get away. It wasn't until we enterd the abandoned building that I realized we were still holding hands. I let go but it felt weird to have my hand back to myself.

I realized that we were in an old drive in movie theater. It looked like all that visited it now were drug addicts and teenagers. The placed was big enough to house about 20 cars comfortably. It concerned me a bit that she knew this place well enough for this to be the first thing to come to mind. Haeri was silent and I turned to her.

She had walked away from me and was poking at a machine.

"What are you doing?"

"I've almost got it." Just then a light flashed from it and a picture of two robots flying around in space appeared on the wall. "I can't believe it still works!" She giggled happily and ran to an open topped car. The tires were missing and it was covered in rust.

"Come on!" She waved me over. "What? Too dirty for that nice suit of yours?" I could say the same for her skirt. Still, I grabbed a blanket, shaking it out really good, and placed it in the backseat. She beamed and got in without my help, despite me offering a hand.

"What's so special about this place?" I asked once I had settled in beside her.

Haeri was quiet. "I might tell you another time." I could respect that.

"So, now that we're finally alone. We should figure out how to move in my apartment before our mothers can protest."

She was still quiet, probably thinking about why this place meant something to her. I didn't speak again and watched the movie as she retreated into her memories.

When the movie had finished we started talking about plans and devising stories to cover our trails. "I can move my things into your apartment this week. It won't be much, just necessities."

"What about your band? It's going to be even harder to move around now than it was before."

"I already explained that I'd have to take a break for a little bit, just until the marriage is finalized."

Sunggyu nodded. Even though we were having these conversations, I felt like we would never be prepared for what was to come. My mother was an evil woman, and one that always got her way. I feared for my friends safety...and my sanity.

"How about the rules on skinship?" He smirked at his own question. I laughed.

"We can't, NOT touch each other. Especially in front of other people." I tapped my lips, thinking.

"Since we've already kissed, it'll be hard to avoid that one in the future."

"It doesn't matter. Not like its that big of a deal. We can stick to the basics of holding holds, arms around each other, hugging, the occasional peck on the lips...By the way, how's your sister?"

He threw his head back and laughed. "I'm jealous of her actually, looks like she just might find love out of the marriage. Sungjong is a sweet enough kid, if not a little naive. With a few more world experiences he could grow up to be a fine man someday. I'm happy for her."

"I'm glad to hear it. You said you had a brother, how come I've never seen him?"

Sunggyu looked me straight in the eyes. "He left home a long time ago. Ran away."

"Have you heard from him since?"

He sighed and turned away. I realized this conversation was a sore spot and I apologized for bringing it up.

"It's okay." Sunggyu took my hand and played with the ring that he gave me. My face was feeling a little hot.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, when some cans rattling had our attention. A group of dogs were sniffing around. They looked unkempt and deranged. "We're going to make a run for it." He whispered.

"Are you insane?" I hissed. The dogs perked their ears up and looked dead at us. At the first snarl we were hightailing it out of there! We could hear them barking and snarling behind us.

"Up the tree!" He pushed me up and came climbing behind me, practically covering my body with his. The dogs were jumping up and snapping their jaws. He set me on a branch and got on one opposite of me.

Once we got our breath back we howled with laughter! It was such a thrill! The adrenaline was leaving our bodies fast.

A crack. I looked up at Sunggyu, no longer laughing. Before my branch completely collasped from under me, he had pulled me to him, both arms wrapped around my middle. My face and hands were on his chest and I was engulfed by his sent.

Why'd he have to smell so good? It wasn't fair.

"Are you okay?! That was close." He sighed and leaned against the tree. I scooted around. We had to share the branch and the only way to do that was for me to sit in his lap. His legs were on either side of me. His arms around my shoulders. I was glad he couldn't see my face.

Sunggyu looked down at the dogs. "Might as well get comfortable. Doesn't look like they'll be leaving anytime soon."

Great.

Night had fallen. The tree branch was uncomfortable long ago. We had readjusted a few times. Now my legs were hanging down, but I was still leaning against his chest. He was holding my hand again, playing with that ring.

"Why do you do that?"

"Hmm?"

"Play with the engadgment ring."

"Because I have to keep reminding myself what this is."

I looked at our intertwined fingers. "I don't understand."

He leaned forward so he was looking at me. "If I don't keep telling myself what this relationship is and what it means for the both of us in the end...I'll find myself looking for some other meaning, a deeper one. Even if there's not. I know we will split in the end so I have to remind myself not to get too attatched."

I couldn't speak. What do you say to that? While still pretending to be my future husband, he was already building walls between us.

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