Safaiaunnie: Hi guys! I'm so sorry for the late update. My life is kind of hectic at the moment. My mom just got minor surgery, I just lost my part time job (no biggie :) It was the end of my contract) and I am submerged by school projects. I think it'll be a while until another one. I am sorry, really sorry! This one is kind of disappointing for me, it isn't what I expected to be when I thought it up...

Chapter 11:

It was a month later that Yuri finally recovered enough to take up her protection duties again, against the protest of her siblings. She batted them all off, saying that she needed to be on the job now more than ever. No one knew what she meant by it but, obviously, she wasn't going to tell either.

HyoYeon and Tiffany have been avoiding her for a while now. She knew exactly why, and Sunny and Sooyoung were hiding something from her as well. She was worrying herself for their safety and for their charges. Her girls were predictable enough to her. Tiffany would think of using Jessica, then probably be scared off by JaeJoong, and use herself. She didn't know what HyoYeon was thinking about, but Yuri had ordered that Krystal be moved to their house as well. They had put an extra bed in Jessica's room, so that the sisters would be together.

She took all the girls off the case, and wouldn't tell them why. But the looks she sent them was reason enough. Tiffany had been wearing a wig for a month now, not letting the others see her hair. No one noticed, not even Yuri. Only Sunny knew, because she was there when it happened.

She knew that both girls had different built, but when winter came, and they had layers of coats, no one would be able to tell the difference. They were extremely close in terms of heights.

No one had seen any of the Anh for a while now; the only one they did see was Ok TaecYeon, hanging around Yoona. Everyone thought that it would be over between them, especially after Yuri's stint in the hospital, but she did not learn and they were still together. They all tried not to kill him on the spot and he simply smirked at them, behind Yoona's back. He was, however, forbidden to come into the house, and they made sure that Yoona knew it. They would kill him if he sets a foot into their property.

Yuri sat on the couch in Yunho’s office, flipping through magazines without a word. She would occasionally stop at a page or two, to look over the products and then move on.

Yunho would busy himself looking over some files, keeping himself from looking at the woman next to him. He had yet to tell her how he felt for her yet, because ever since she woke up, she was taking over this operation like she was her father. No one dared to go against what she says, because in all honesty, it made sense. Her brother, JaeJoong, would fight her for a while, but then agreed with no problems.

He was getting frustrated. How could she act like she wasn’t fighting for her life back in that hospital? Did she know how worried he was for her? Thinking that he had lost her before he even got her... ‘Of course she doesn’t, you idiot. You never told her!’

‘She’s supposed to know! She’s that observant!’

‘She’s human!’

“Are you done arguing with yourself?” His head snapped towards the tan beauty, and he slightly blushed at the attention. She raised an eyebrow, and turned back to her magazine. ‘Right... He’s just too weird. Now... What to do about Tiffany and HyoYeon? Arg... Normally I would just ask Jae-oppa! Now I can’t even tell him...’

‘See, she’s observant!’

“Or you are that easy to read.” His head snapped to her again, and this time she was smirking. “You think aloud Jung-ssi.”

‘This is embarrassing. I better not have thought that aloud.’

“You didn’t but I can read you this time.”

Yunho just blinked at her, and then slowly turned to his paperwork. He did not need more prompting; he was embarrassed enough as it is. Yuri just held back her smile. ‘He’s cute when he’s confused.’

A knock was heard, and they heard TaeYeon’s voice on the other side. When Yunho told her to come in, she headed to Yuri immediately after closing the door. She held out a file to her, motioning silently that they had eavesdroppers, nothing dangerous, only curious workers. Yuri nodded and walked to the door, thankful for the carpet she had installed, muffling the sound of her heels. She smiled at TaeYeon, who joined her on the other side of the double doors and pulled them open in one wide swing. The five people outside piled up, looking up at the two intimidating woman in front of them. They saw their boss sitting at his desk, raising an eyebrow at them.

They quickly brushed off their clothes and turned tails to run away. When the girls were sure that they were alone, sending glares at the secretary for not having chased them off in the beginning. The frail woman recoiled at the glares, glaring back only when they turned around. Yuri’s eyes darted slightly towards her, but only walked back into the office. TaeYeon turned around to close the doors and stared straight at the woman, making her look back down to her papers.

“It’s about time you fire that one.” TaeYeon said. Yunho just shook his head at her and looked back into what he was doing. He let the two talk out whatever they needed to talk about. Not that he could hear them anyways; they were taking in hushed tones.

Yuri opened the file she was given and looked through it. She frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah... I had a hard time with Sunny, but she told me that this was Tiffany’s plan. And as for HyoYeon, SooYoung doesn’t know what she is planning, but knows that it involved the youngest of the sisters.”

“Hm...”

“Yuri, this has to do with the pact, you know that. If one of us gets hurt, all of us act together. They-“

“Are not holding up their end of it. Why are we not being consulted then, TaeYeon? Because they know that we won’t agree to it. What Tiffany is doing is dangerous for her, Taeyeon. We can’t lose her. And Hyo... If she is doing what I think she is doing, you know father will punish her. I can’t see her suffer, not for me TaeYeon...”

“Calm down Yuri... We’re not going to let it go this far. Let Tiffany do what she is doing. She is not stupid, and unfortunately, neither are the Anh. They’ll know that she isn’t Jessica. As for Hyo, I’ll talk to her. Don’t worry about that.” TaeYeon’s eyes flashed, she’ll set her girls straight alright, did they know how much they were putting on the table at the moment. Yuri was going give them hell for it.

‘Noona, are you okay?’ Joon thought as he lay on the cold ground, his only guard beung NicKhun again. The other man simply looked at him, smirking. He was facing the camera this time, not wanting whoever was on the other side to be suspicious. He had to put up a front, hurting the boy in front of him. It didn’t mean that whatever he said couldn’t have a double meaning.

“Your noona is out of the hospital you know. I wonder why she hasn’t come yet? Maybe she really doesn’t care about you!”

“Shut up!” Joon yelled out.

“Why should I little boy? Your sister clearly doesn’t want to bother with you. You almost had her killed!”

HyoYeon looked at Sooyoung’s guilty expression. “You told TaeYeon.” The statement held a bite in its tone, and the taller of the two flinched at it. She did not feel bad for exposing her friend, but she could never take the animosity coming from said friend. Sooyoung had hoped for another way of dealing with things, but when a few weeks passed and there were no signs of change coming from the other woman, she took action.

“You know I didn’t have a choice Hyo. I can’t lie to Tae, or to Yuri. You know she was suspecting something. Good grief, it’s Yuri! You had to know that!”

“You had to know that Kim HyoYeon.” A disembodied voice said. Both women looked around, knowing full well who it was.

“Cousin.”  Hyoyeon said her voice bitter. “I assume Yuri already knows.”

“She knew before any of you knew, including you Hyoyeon. Remember, she had Krystal moved before your plan was even complete. She wanted to give you the benefits of the doubt, Hyo.” TaeYeon’s voice had taken a different tone, a softer tone. “You and Tiffany are killing her you know.”

HyoYeon snapped her head to her, “What do you mean?”

“Both of you are planning something behind her back. How do you think she feels right now? With all the responsibility she has taken over the past month. I don’t know why she suddenly is taking over completely, but I know something happened that day, something more than her getting shot. And you know what, JaeJoong was concerned enough to ask me about it. My answer? I don’t know.” TaeYeon knew she was rambling now, but she didn’t care. “Do you know how useless I felt at that point? Do you? ... I know you care about Yuri, Hyo. We all do. I hope that is why you are planning on betraying Yuri’s trust, in hopes of using Krystal to avenge her. I hope that is why both SooYoung and Sunny have been avoiding the two of us lately. I hope that is why Tiffany is currently disguising as Jessica, in Anh territory.”

“Tiffany is doing what?” That last part shocked both of the younger women, “What do you mean by that?”

“Tiffany is endangering herself to avenge Yuri, and we can do nothing to stop it. Yuri can’t get away from her charges because honestly, she doesn’t trust you girls to do the job anymore, and I can’t stop both of you at the same time. She didn’t tell any of her siblings either, because if her father ever finds out, it’s your heads, and she wasn’t willing to risk that. And do you know what the worst part is? She’s blaming herself for the danger you girls are in. The best she could do now is to not tell anyone.”

“Doesn’t mean that we don’t know though.” Another voice stopped their conversation. It wasn’t any of Yuri’s brothers who stepped through the door though; it was SeoHyun, a thirteen year old that, by all logic, should be out playing with her friends, at the park, not listening in to conversations about death, betrayal and revenge, in a mob member’s apartment. She certainly shouldn’t be interfering in one either. Seeing the lost childhood in the youngest of them always made the girls work harder to protect their clan, and so that hopefully, the next generation wouldn’t have to work like they do, that just maybe, they would be spared the bloodshed at that age.  As much as they loved their friends, they simply did not want their children ending up like JaeJoong and Yuri.

“JaeJoong Oppa knows that you girls are planning something.”

“How did you get in here SeoHyun. Shouldn’t you be home?”

“Jiyoung oppa asked me to come. To talk you out of it.”

“Why you SeoHyun?” HyoYeon asked. She had always been the fondest of SeoHyun.”Why not Yoona, or himself?”

“Yuri-ssi?” Yunho called out to the woman as he got ready to leave. She glanced at him briefly before standing up, smoothing her black blazer, and her black dress pants, and got her bag. She usually would leave the bag at home, but it turns out that guarding this particular man made her need certain things, like her magazines, and her mirror. “Let’s go” Yuri said.

The man looked at her, staying silent for a while. They never had anything to say to each other, he realized that now. Even though he liked her, he never had an actual conversation with her, because it simply wasn’t needed. She read him too well; he never had to tell her something for her to know what he really wanted. He still did though, hoping to see her answer somewhat in surprise. “Are you ready to go Yunho-ssi?” Yuri asked again, after he was caught staring off into space.

“Oh, yes.” She let him walk in front, and followed him out of his office. She watched as he nodded his goodbyes to his secretary, and Yuri herself barely spared her a glace. She allowed him to lead the way down to the garage and got behind the wheel of her car, waiting for him to settle in the passenger seat, as he had been doing for the past weeks. “I’m upping your training.” She simply let out midway back to their apartment.

“Pardon me?”

“I’m upping your sisters and yours’ training. I might be absent in the near future, and although I trust the people we have protecting you, I want to make sure you can protect yourself sufficiently during those times. Until you can, you will have to be trained. Plus, it wouldn’t for your sisters to gain a bit of muscle mass; they are too thin to keep up at any rate.”

And Yunho found that fact all too true to be able to contradict it. “Okay then.”

Yuri glanced at him at his easy acceptance of things but mentally shrugged, it was better this way. She wasn’t about to complain, that’s for sure. “So it is decided, I’m taking you to the gym tomorrow night.”

Yunho looked at her in surprise. “Only me?”

“Yes... Unfortunately, my brothers and your sisters won’t be doing the same schedules as us. You work, they, sadly, don’t. They will have time to go during the day. As it is, you’re lucky I’m not dragging you there now.”

‘Was that a joke?’ Yunho thought to himself, as he focused on her face, as she was driving still.

“Stop staring.”

He quickly whipped his head back, blushing and missing the smile that pulled at the dark beauty’s lips. ‘He’s too obvious.’ Her features suddenly turned dark. ‘But I cannot let it happen. Not him, he cannot be dragged into this world any further than he is. I will not allow Jung Yunho to be as broken as we are.’  Yuri was determined. This man will not be in her life after this whole thing blows over. She is unwilling to bring anyone into this world, never.

Her brother once asked her if she would be willing to bring children into their world. Her answer was “I will not make the same mistake as our parents did Oppa. The answer is no.”