Don't worry, I will update as much as I can :D

 

---***---

 

It's been hours maybe, Jiyong didn’t know, he spent time in that same place. He was busy thinking, thinking, and will continue to think if a woman didn’t come to that park and surprised him.

 

"Omo! Jiyong, what are you doing, alone, in a dark place like this?"

 

Jiyong lifted his head. "Nuna."

 

Less than five steps in front of him, Hanbyul already stood with both hands on her hip. "Why are you here?"

 

"Nuna, when are you coming?"

 

Hanbyul squinted her eyes. "Don’t think you can change the subject. Where’s Dongwook?"

 

Jiyong knew just then, his nuna wouldn’t believe an honest reason. Jiyong can imagine, if he says 'I want to be alone', Hanbyul definitely will reply with ‘Nonsense'. At least, that's what always she said every time Jiyong made an excuse.

 

"Too hot in there, and too many people, nuna. I just wanted to cool off a bit. Hyung is still in the hall maybe, with Kikwang and hyung’s old friend."

 

Hanbyul’s forehead wrinkled. "Dongwook’s old friend? Who?"

 

Jiyong shrugged. "Someone called Choi Seunghyun."

 

"Choi Seunghyun? I think I've heard it before," Hanbyul said, folding her arms across her chest, trying to remember. Finally she gave up after a few seconds.

 

"Ah! I totally forgot. I’ll asked Dongwook later. Oh, did Kikwang bring another girl?"

 

Jiyong shook his head.

 

Hanbyul immediately smiled. "YES! Hahaha... my strategy succeed!"

 

Jiyong shook his head again, this time because he couldn’t believe that this woman in front him was older. Not with that childish behavior.

 

"Well, let’s go Jiyong." Suddenly Hanbyul pulled his hand, told him to stand up.

 

"Eh?"

 

"What? Are you going to be here all night? Most of the guests have gone home, your head is cool enough. Let's go."

 

"But..." Jiyong tried to escape. He knew Hanbyul will look for Dongwook. That means his friend would be there and... that girl too.

 

"It's my engagement party, you have no right to refuse. Come on! Or do you want me to drag you in?"

 

--- *** ---

 

"Gosh, Dongwook! What the hell is this?"

 

Jiyong was half-hiding behind Hanbyul, couldn’t help but to feel curious as he heard how angry his nuna sounded. He looked from the side, and he almost snorted a laugh.

 

They were there, in front of the bar drinks; Dongwook, Kikwang, Seunghyun, and the two girls. The difference was, at the bar there were a lot of empty bottles of soju and beer. Kikwang obviously has been drinking. His face flushed, although he wasn’t drunk, nor Dongwook. Seunghyun... Jiyong couldn’t guess. It seemed like he didn’t drink, his face didn’t show any change at all. And the woman who has introduced himself as Park Bom, she has fallen. She slept soundly, beside Dara who was shaking her shoulder, trying to wake her.

 

Dara...

 

Oh, . Once again fireworks in his heart were in action, just by one look at her.

 

"H-Hanbyul?" Dongwook sputtered. His expression was like a thief who was caught under the police flashlight.

 

"Explain to me what has happened here in five seconds!"

 

"Uh, um, Hanbyul..." Dongwook still couldn’t think straight because of the alcohol he gulped.

 

"Four..."

 

"Oh yes, Hanbyul, this is Choi Seunghyun, my friend..."

 

"Three..."

 

"And that's Sandara Park and Park Bom..."

 

"Two..." Hanbyul squinted sharply at her fiancee. Dongwook finally managed to repel the influence of alcohol and understood the situation.

 

"It's all because of Kikwang!"

 

Kikwang was surprised. "Hyung! Me again?!"

 

Dara giggled, Jiyong choked. Oh, come on, Kwon Jiyong. Don’t embarass yourself again.

 

Hanbyul realized the sound that Jiyong made and glanced slightly at him. She followed the direction of the Jiyong’s sight. A girl.

 

Jiyong? He's weird...

 

Hanbyul shook her head, focused back to Dongwook. "You mean?"

 

"He suddenly asked me to join him drinking! I told him I don’t want to, but he still forced me!"

 

Kikwag couldn’t hold back anymore. "Hyung! Don’t lie! Hyung was the first one who invited us all to drink, after that hyung made Bom nuna drunk, and then hyung still forced me to accompany hyung... auch!"

 

Jiyong looked down curiously. Dongwook’s feet was already on Kikwang’s.

 

"Dongwook..." Hanbyul said with a sweet smile. Her tone was friendly, but her gaze could make the fire of hell freezed in a second. Dongwook’s eyes wandered in all directions, not daring to look back at the death glare.

 

"Uh... Okay! Okay, I confess. I really want a drink these days, but no one wants to join me, so I asked Kikwang. Hear me? I ASKED him. He himself immediately took these bottles! And that nuna, I didn’t even say one word to her. Really! She immediately picked up a bottle in Kikwang’s hand and finished it in one gulp. Of course we don’t know that she can’t drink alcohol. She fell asleep before going to take the second one."

 

Hanbyul still squinted, didn’t quite believe in Dongwook’s confession.

 

Suddenly the man sitting next to Dongwook said, "Um, Hanbyul ssi? What he said is true. Bom picked up that bottle without saying anything and drank it down. We also don’t know why she did it, but Dongwook really didn’t do anything to her." Dongwook looked at him with grateful expression in his face.

 

"And you..."

 

That man stood up and reached out. "Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Choi Seunghyun, I used to be Dongwook’s friend in college. Congratulations on your engagement, Hanbyul ssi."

 

Hanbyul shook it and smiled. "Thank you."

 

Dara also stood up. "Sandara imnida, please call me Dara, Hanbyul ssi. And she is Park Bom. Sorry, she's not in good shape."

 

Hanbyul welcomed Dara hand, but didn’t say anything. She just looked and observed her, made the situation quite uncomfortable.

 

"Err... Hanbyul ssi?" Dara asked quietly.

 

As if she was just awoke, Hanbyul replied in haste. "Oh sorry, Dara ssi, nice to meet you."

 

Bom suddenly twitched in her sleep, muttering something that couldn’t be heard. Dara immediately returned to Bom’s side.

 

"Bom, are you okay?" Seunghyun also stepped toward the place between Bom and Dara.

 

"Seunghyun, you'd better take Bom home," Dara said.

 

"All right. Come, Dara," Seunghyun said, pulling up one of Bom’s arm and supported the limp body with his shoulder.

 

"Seunghyun, do you hear me? You take her home, I can go home alone." Seunghyun was surprised at her words.

 

"What? No, Dara, I’ll take Bom back home and then I'll drive you."

 

Dara insisted. "Seunghyun, my house is in different direction with both of yours. If you drive me again, you have to rotate further. No, I will go home alone, I can always call Sanghyun."

 

"Dara, don’t be stupid. Your brother has to go to school tomorrow, and now it's already one o’clock in the morning. You really want to bother him to pick you up again? No, I’ll drive you home," Seunghyun said with no intention to lose.

 

"Precisely. It's already one o’clock, and you have meeting tomorrow at eight in the morning, don’t you remember? You have to get enough rest, Seunghyun, and I believe that meeting is really important."

 

"But if you call your brother..."

 

"There is no problem with that. He can skip class once in a while, I guess."

 

"Dara..." Seunghyun frowned, wanted to disagree with every words Dara has said, but it was true. Of course he remembered that bloody meeting. That meeting will pave the way for the company to expand their businesses overseas. He couldn’t miss it.

 

"I'm your secretary, I won’t interrupt your work. I can take care of myself, Seunghyun," said Dara again stubbornly.

 

"But you're a woman, Dara! Alone, and now it's already in the middle of the night! Oh, God, can’t you listen to me just for once?!" Seunghyun exclaimed, getting impatient. How can a girl who claimed to be older than him not thinking at all about her own safety?

 

"Jiyong, take Dara ssi home."

 

Hanbyul’s curt words managed to make Dara, Seunghyun, and Kikwang squealed, "EHH?!"

 

Jiyong himself, who was still hiding behind her nuna, could only gape and stared in disbelief at Hanbyul.

 

Me?

 

Hanbyul walked toward Seunghyun. "It’s okay I believe, Seunghyun ssi? Just think of this as an apology for being such an awful host. Jiyong will safely deliver your secretary up to the front door of her house."

 

Neither Seunghyun nor Dara could say a word. Jiyong could feel the dumbfounded stares they were both directed at him. . Jiyong couldn’t lift his head. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stare back at Dara. Hopefully Kikwang was drunk enough not to realize that Jiyong’s face was heating up.

 

Oh please, as if Dara will agree to let me take her home, thought Jiyong. She didn’t even want her boss to drive her, let alone him, whom she only met less than 6 hours before.

 

Hanbyul looked at Dara, smiling. "Hmm? How about it? It's okay, don’t be afraid. I can guarantee that Jiyong is the most reliable man you can choose to take you home. He is a good kid and a gentleman. And he didn’t drink at all today, so rest assured that he will drive carefully. He will not cause harm to you. Well, for Kikwang, it's another story."

 

"Nuna..." Kikwang whimpered behind her.

 

Hanbyul ignored it and kept staring at Dara, trying to convince her. "Well?"

 

What made Seunghyun speechless, and also Jiyong, Dongwook, and Kikwang, is the fact that Dara finally nodded. "All right."

 

Kikwang got up after collecting himself, his face full of smiles. "Well, come on! Jiyong, take me home, too."

 

In an instant Hanbyul has already been standing in front of Kikwang and his fiancee. Jiyong sometimes wondered, how Hanbyul could be walking somewhere at lightning speed without any sound at all.

 

Hanbyul showed her evil smile. Jiyong could see Kikwang's face paled, his smile fading. "Who says you can go home, Kikwang ah? I had to ask for your responsibilities on this!" Hanbyul pointed at the scattered bottles of beer and soju on the table. "And you too, Dongwook!"

 

"Nuna / Hanbyul ah!" Kikwang and Dongwook whined simultaneously, making Dara giggled again.

 

---***---

 

"Dara, are you really okay?" Seunghyun asked for the umpteenth time while the four of them walked toward the parking lot. Well, three of them to be exact. Bom was being piggyback by Seunghyun now.

 

Jiyong getting annoyed. What did he want? Is he really that unreliable? Indeed, he has behaved strangely the whole time, but he wouldn’t do anything harm on Dara.

 

Yes, how could he harmed Dara if just one look at her can make his heart beating uncontrollably? Walked beside her and tried to act indifferently as much as he could was already exhausting enough.

 

"I'm okay, Seunghyun. Stop asking, you’ll make Jiyong ssi feel offended," Dara said, glancing at Jiyong.

 

This is it.

 

Jiyong ssi... Jiyong ssi... Jiyong ssi...

 

Jiyong repeated Dara’s words to himself. His name... his ordinary name now sounds like a song in his own ears. Only when Dara said it.

 

"Really?" Seunghyun also looked at Jiyong. "Have I offended you, Jiyong ssi?"

 

Jiyong’s heart sank. This man has destroyed the melody of his name.

 

"Not really."

 

Seunghyun frowned at Jiyong’s curt answer, but he said nothing.

 

Before long, they were already arrived beside Seunghyun’s car. Dara helped Seunghyun put Bom in the front seat and fastened the seat belt.

 

Seunghyun walked slowly into the driver's seat. It is as if he wasn’t willing to let Dara driven home by an unknown person.

 

After Seunghyun sat in his car, he turned and opened the window, talking to Dara alone.

 

"Call me when you get home," said Seunghyun.

 

Dara nodded excitedly. "Bye, Seunghyun. Be careful on the road."

 

In the final seconds, Seunghyun looked at Jiyong sharply. Jiyong knew what that look meant.

 

'Get her home safely or else...'

 

---***---

 

Seunghyun drove with uneasy feeling.

 

Not that he didn’t believe in Jiyong. He had heard stories about him. Yes, from who else if not Dongwook.

 

Dongwook often told him that he was worried about his cousin. No hobbies, no goals, never showing emotion, no passion for enjoying life. What made it even worse, he was haunted by nightmares all night long, almost everyday.

 

Before hearing the story of Dongwook, he didn’t like Kwon Jiyong. He didn’t like his cold nature, and he envied the only heir of the Kwon family.

 

Envy? Sure, who wouldn’t be jealous? Just imagine, he was the sole heir to the whole Kwon family’s fortune, quite handsome, Seunghyun admitted grudgingly, his academic achievement was far from the word 'unremarkable', and he got it all in what common people will consider as a very young age.

 

Rich, handsome, smart, young. What else did he need? And he already had a spouse, Kim Jina, who is also the member of the billionaire family in Seoul.

 

But, who would have thought, behind his perfect life, he suffered.

 

Seunghyun even felt sorry for him. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to bear awakened every night with sweat all over his body, remembered his nightmare, and felt afraid to sleep again because sooner or later, that dream will surely come. Again and again.

 

Even so, this evening, he made sure that indeed he didn’t like Kwon Jiyong. His piety soon erased when he saw how he stared at Dara, how his attitude was... strange when he was in the same room with Dara. He knew what it all meant.

 

That's why, he was sure Jiyong wouldn’t do something that Dara didn’t want. He was afraid, one day he has to deal with Jiyong. To fight for something, or rather someone. And he wasn’t sure he could win.

 

---***---

 

Dara still waved toward Seunghyun’s car. Once the car was out of sight, she turned to Jiyong suddenly, surprised him. "Well, Jiyong ssi. Thank you for the offer earlier, but I don’t want to trouble you. I can go back by myself."

 

Of course Jiyong immediately frowned. "I'll drive you home."

 

"Thank you, but I really shouldn’t. Actually my house is quite close from here, it’s just fifteen minute walk. Please go home, I'm really okay."

 

"I'll still drive you."

 

"But..."

 

"I said I’ll drive you."

 

"Jiyong ssi..." Dara was desperately trying to convince Jiyong.

 

Actually, from the beginning she has planned this. Luckily, her house was indeed in different direction with Bom and Seunghyun. And Seunghyun didn’t know where it is. Dara deliberately asked Seunghyun to pick them both at Bom’s home earlier. If he knew that her house was close enough to the location of the party, he certainly will insist to Dara back and ruined her plan.

 

However, the existence of Jiyong was really beyond expectations. She didn’t have any choice but to accept the Hanbyul’s offer just so Seunghyun wouldn’t argue with her anymore. And she also already decided to ask Jiyong to let her go home alone. Who would have thought that this guy she just met proved to be so stubborn.

 

"You must be busy tomorrow, I really don’t want to trouble you."

 

"No, I have no important schedule meetings up to next two days."

 

"But..."

 

"Dara ssi, I was asked by Hanbyul nuna to take you home safely to your door. And that man also entrusted you to me," Jiyong said flatly.

 

"But I can look after myself."

 

"Oh yeah? How?"Jiyong raised an eyebrow.

 

Dara was pissed. From all of these people to underestimate her, he certainly didn’t have the right to do it!

 

"Listen, Jiyong ssi. Now is not the time for the concept of 'women are weak' or 'women should be protected' anymore. Therefore, please don’t use that lame excuse that you have to take me home just because I'm a girl and I can’t protect myself, okay?"

 

Jiyong's frown deepened. "I don’t ever think you're weak, and yeah, women are to be protected, I believe. But I won’t drive you home because I have to. It’s because I want to. Is that enough to be a reason?"

 

Dara was flabbergasted. It was the longest sentence she has ever heard from him so far. And I think he's the quiet one, thought Dara.

 

"B-but I’m kind of carsick, and I'm a little dizzy. I've been drinking a little, and I believe I will not forgive myself if I throw up in your car and make a mess of it," said Dara reasoned again. Okay, she's totally bluffing. The only thing that she has drank tonight was orange juice.

 

Jiyong didn’t answer. He was deep in thought. Then suddenly he called the parking boy there. Dara's eyes widened when she saw Jiyong handed his car key to the boy and told him to give it to Dongwook.

 

"Ji-Jiyong-ssi, what are you doing?" cried Dara when the boy ran away.

 

Jiyong looked back at her. "What?"

 

"Why are you... you..." Dara couldn’t find any words to say.

 

"Give him my car keys? You said you didn’t want to be escorted by car, and you also say your house is close enough. Then we can walk alone, I guess. Right, Dara ssi?"

 

Dara couldn’t answer. All her reasonings were no longer useful. She finally realized, whatever she said, whatever attempt she tried to avoid going home with him, Jiyong will still continue to do his duty of safely escorting her back to the front door of her house.

 

---***---