.

JAEJOONG

I watched her as people came in and out all day to see how she was doing mostly her father’s deputies whom I didn’t know she even knew and wasn’t too sure about. Of course I sat next to her throughout these visits, one of her hands always held in mine.

There were some elderly people from the neighborhood as well and I could tell she was as surprised by the first group as the last. It was good that others showed such care for her especially at a time like this, I didn’t begrudge that, as long as the men kept their distance.

She still tired easily so I took her upstairs after a few hours which made her chuckle for some unknown reason.

“What’s the joke babes?”

She sniggered as I pulled the covers up over her legs. It wasn’t exactly freezing but it wasn’t that warm either, I didn’t want her catching cold along with everything else.

“You’re so transparent Mr Kim.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not even a little bit sleepy but you’re putting me to bed, yeah right.”

“You're already tired and looked sleepy.”

I got one of her dog eared classics and started reading at the page she’d left marked. The girl who hadn’t been sleepy was out in minutes. Uh huh.

I had no intentions on leaving her side but then her father came to the door and silently beckoned me to come out. I left my place on her bed, easing my arm from under her head so as not to jar her awake, and followed him out the door.

I left it cracked a little just in case she woke up and needed me, before turning to him.

With a chin lift I asked him wordlessly what was on his mind.

“What did you say to Kathy in the hospital son? I need to know because she’s downstairs again and I still don’t know what the hell is going on, I need to know if I should be worried about my kid.”

“No, no one has to worry about Dara, I’ve got her covered.....”

“Boy....”

“Captain, she’s mine.....”

“A few days ago you didn’t want to know her.”

“A few days ago I was pissed because your daughter and I were in a different place, I was as much to blame for what happened as she was but that’s over now. I’ll ask you to forget that little blip in judgment and instead remember the two of us the way we were before......”

“I can’t watch her go through this again Jae.....”

“It’ll never happen again, not by me, not by anyone, the same cold bastard that stood in front of you in my father’s study, that’s who’s telling you this. No one will ever hurt her again not if I can help it.”

“She’s not as tough as I thought, to let herself come to this......”

“She’s strong Captain, don’t doubt that. We just happen to be each other’s weakness. Make no mistake, she’s bright and sweet and tough. Tough because she had to be. Now I have to find a way to show her she doesn’t need to be any more, that she has me, us, to fight certain battles for her.”

“I’m a little lost here son.....”

“Follow me.”

I turned and went down the stairs where Kathy was, I guess her little show wasn’t working too well if the sour look on mom’s face was anything to go by.

I wonder if she realized my family was positioned in formation around her to keep her from getting anywhere near those stairs to reach Dara. I know the battle stations well. It’s the Kim's way,  to always protect their own.

I hadn’t planned on doing this now thought I would have at least a few days but Dara's mom seemed impatient to get hers.

I caught the tail end of the convo and realized she was brown nosing mom and dad.

“I’ve heard about your family of course. You have relatives in Europe. I think I might have met some cousins or something like that and to think my little girl is dating one of you....”

“Excuse us....”

“I walked over to where she sat and just looked at her. She looked around at everything in the room but me.

“Let’s go.”

The Captain came over. I looked at my family and communicated to them that we would be right back. Mom went back to fixing up Captain’s living room while Joongki was pawing through the pies and other baked goods the elderly ladies had brought by, Shinhye was reading a magazine and dad was looking like he wanted to follow us.

I’d fill him in later. This wasn’t my story to share, not really.

“So Kathy, I asked you at the hospital what Jaejoong meant by the things he said and what it was he said to you, but you brushed it off, well you’re here now so start talking.”

Captain set things off as soon as we reached the kitchen.

“I have no idea what either of you are talking about. You can obviously tell from this little episode that Dara’s not well. Who knows what lies she’s been cooking up all these years? I’ve read about this, people with these eating disorders tend to lie about everything.....”

Captain stepped between us before I could strangle the .

“Say one more word against her and I promise, he won’t be able to stop me...you lying frozen hearted . Dara’s problems are mostly because of you. Your brilliant mothering skills are mostly to blame for the way she behaves.

I turned to the Captain then.

“You want to know what I said to her, I’ll tell you.....I told her I knew about the attempted . I didn’t find out about that little tidbit until a week after she left. Up until then I just thought your ex was a manipulative who neglected her daughter so she could party and get ed. The head games were enough but to leave her at the mercy of your drunken boyfriends? That’s........ there are no words.”

“What, what’s he talking about Kathy?” Captain asked with murder in his eyes.

“I don’t know, it’s like I said she made it up......”

I was in front of her before she could get the next word out.

“Jae let her go......”

“Don’t lie about her again. You ing beat her, starved her and neglected her. That was bad enough but then you left her at the mercy of known drug addicts in your home when she was ing thirteen years old. One of the reasons I was so pissed off at her was because she would prefer to return to that than spend the holiday with me.

At least that’s what I thought at the time but it had nothing to do with that. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere near you if I hadn’t ed up. That’s on me but if you stand here and lie about her again.....I’ll throw your in a ditch.”

“Alright son calm down...Kathy what did you do to my daughter?”

She started backing up. I guess the look in the Captain’s eye was nothing to sneeze at.

“It wasn’t my fault okay. She was supposed to stay in her room, if she’d only stayed....”

If she thought for one second I was going to save her from him she was mistaken. I just stood back as the Captain slapped her across her face as hard as , blood flew from her nose as she screamed bloody murder.

Dad and Joongki came running and got him off of her as I stood back thinking 'One down, two more to go.'

This cleaning house was going to be a ing breeze. Too bad I had to deal with the when I should be concentrating all my energy on getting my lamb better. I guess it’s two birds with one stone. After this I’m sure there’s no way in hell the Captain would ever let lamb anywhere near her mom again. My little mercenary will just have to find another way to pad her account in the future.

I left them downstairs to deal with their mess and headed back to my girl. I had a lot of to do in the next few days. New Year was in a couple weeks as well as Dara's birthday. Its the perfect day to do what I planned. I wanted this over and done by then. She was still asleep when I crawled back into her narrow twin sized bed with her. Sighing softly, she curled into my side as I held her.

.