Jimin let out a sigh, massaging her temples as the stress was beginning to make itself known to her. Her attachment ended and now, the only thing left were her final exams that she needed to pass in order to proceed to the next stage. Residency training. And then she’d be a full-fledge surgeon. She stretched her arms and her rolled her head both clockwise and anti-clockwise, stretching her neck.

“03:17” She muttered under her breath when she saw the digital clock that was on the wall. She stood up and stretched her entire body, relaxing her muscles that were strained from sitting too long. She went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to find for something to drink but was greeted to an almost empty fridge.

The only things were a few chocolate bars, 2 eggs, a packet of ham and a 1.5 liter bottled water bottle. She sighed and reminded herself to go grocery shopping later after school. She picked up the water bottle and took 2 full gulps of water before putting it back inside the fridge. She closed the door to the fridge and went to pack her bag for school later.

She went straight to bed right after.

Jimin woke up to her alarm ringing, her head throbbing in pain. She let out a soft groan as she sat up, her head spinning just from the movement. She let out a deep breath and got off her bed before going to the washroom to wash up.

She wore a baby blue blouse paired with a pair of jeans. She toasted 2 bread and left the house, eating the toasts as she made her way to her school. She takes the bus to school since she doesn’t own a car, and she told Jaehyun that she didn’t need a ride to school. Although he would usually fetch her home.

“Yah!” She heard someone call out the same time an arm was draped over her shoulder. She looked up from her notes and saw Jaehyun grinning at her. She smirked and leaned against him as she continued reading the notes whilst walking to class. They had the exact same schedule, so they were like chewing gum. Forever stuck together, to some of the female students' distain.

Jaehyun was somewhat of a kingka in the school. He was rich, smart and a total gentleman. The female students in the school completely fell for his charms but he only had eyes for Jimin. The girl who entered this prestigious school through a scholarship. In other words, the scholarship girl. Sure, he dates once in a while but the longest relationship lasted for 3 weeks. Jaehyun told Jimin that he dated because the girl asked him to try it out with her. He also told her that it was all one-sided to which Jimin actually believed.

She knew Jaehyun inside out, he was a gentleman with manners and would rarely decline an offer. But he was one to know where the limit was, so, he’d always be the one who would initiate a break up before going further.

“Jaehyun-ah.” Jimin called out and Jaehyun hummed in reply. Both of them entered the lecture theatre and sat together at the back of the theatre. There were a couple of students in the lecture theatre. Jimin didn’t respond to Jaehyun’s hum as she took out the materials for the lecture, making Jaehyun frowned in confusion. Wondering if she really did call out to him, or it was just his imagination.

“Did you call me just now?” Jaehyun asked Jimin who was flipping through her lecture notes.

“I did, but never mind.” Jimin said, not turning her head to look at him, but she did let out a small smile. Jaehyun’s eyebrows creased, curiosity got to him.

“Tell me.” Jaehyun said, putting his hands on her shoulder and turned her body to face him. She blinked in surprise and looked up at Jaehyun. The question she wanted to ask might anger him, or might annoy him. So she had stopped herself from asking. Not only that, but it was very out of the blue. Definitely out of the blue. She was reading on types of abdominal wounds when she was suddenly disturbed by the thought.

“Taeyong… How do you think he is? I’m worried that he’d do something rash and reopen his wounds again.” Jimin said, looking down on her hands that were resting on her lap. She didn’t dare to look at Jaehyun’s eyes, afraid that it’ll hold disappointment. She was worried for a stranger that almost killed her. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?

Yes, she had told Jaehyun about it and he was undoubtedly furious. He nearly called for a private detective to search for him and wanted to have him arrested for harassment but she stopped him. Telling him that she was fine, and that he was gone. But that did nothing to calm Jaehyun down. He did stop himself from calling the private detective though, to which she was thankful for. She sometimes hated that side of Jaehyun.

It might be charming for some girls, but she felt as if she was being tied down and being too much of a damsel in distress. Jaehyun was the overprotective brother/father that she didn’t have and she was the sister/daughter that couldn’t take care of herself. It made her feel extremely helpless. However, despite that, she felt extremely grateful to him. He was the pillar of support that Jimin needed whenever she had to go through some tough times.

“Taeyong? Why are you worried about him?” Jimin heard him asked as he lightly tilted her head up to meet his eyes with his index finger pushing her chin up lightly. Instead of anger though, she saw confusion. It had been two weeks since she let Taeyong go and never once had she mentioned him before. Besides the day she accidentally made a slip up on the incident with Taeyong. They were still doing an attachment in the hospital and there was a patient who tried to commit suicide by strangling herself with a rope, like those in the horror movies.

They were having their lunch when she had told Jaehyun about the incident, telling him that it reminded her of the time she was almost strangled to death by Taeyong. He was obviously enraged and scolded her for not telling him sooner so that he could take actions against him. He was so angry that he didn’t talk to Jimin for 2 whole days, until Jimin decided to apologize to him.

Jimin just shrugged, not knowing how to answer to that question. “I don’t know. I was reading my notes when the sudden thought of him came to my mind.” She simply replied, turning her body back to the front as the lecturer came in. She heard Jaehyun let out a sigh and stole a glance towards him.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. From what I can see, he’s used to having those kind of wounds.” Jaehyun said softly, being careful not to disrupt the lecture. She just let out a hum in reply, listening to the lecture whilst her mind was drifting off to her worry towards Taeyong.

“Why do you have to attend the meeting anyway? You’re a doctor, not a businessman.” Jimin asked as they were eating dinner. Jaehyun let out a frown. He had no idea either. Even if he did attend, he would understand nothing, so he was just going for naught. His parents had asked him to attend the company meeting so that he could take over the company in future, knowing how it works and make sure that all the major shareholders would know who he was. But the funny thing was, he studied to be a doctor, not to be the CEO of a pharmaceutical company.

 “Don’t remind me. I’m asking myself that as well.” Jaehyun said, not happy at the thought as well. Jimin just chuckled at his reaction to the question.

“At least let me take you to your apartment building.” Jaehyun said and Jimin rolled his eyes at his umpteenth attempt to fetch her home. He was already late for the meeting and he still wanted to fetch her home, which sounded ridiculous in her ears. She would only be the target of his mother’s rants at the end of the day if he was any second later.

“Unless you want your parents to find me personally and settle scores with me, go.” Jimin said, giving him a look that dared him to say another word of fetching her home. She had dealt with his parent multiple times. Dealt with their threats, anger, basically everything that the typical rich parents would do to make sure that the poor friend would stay away from their child.

Jaehyun frowned at that, obviously not happy that she was using that against him. He knew about his parent always finding Jimin whenever he did something they didn’t like. She was a bad influence in their eyes, but on the contrary she was a great influence in his life. She had taught him how to be independent and how to deeply care for a person. She had taught him how to be grateful for all the things he had and taught him how to appreciate them as well.

Unless those were considered as bad traits, she was definitely a great influence to him.

“Are they still doing it?” Jaehyun asked and Jimin shook her head.

“You must’ve been a pretty good son recently. The last time they met me was 6 months ago.” Jimin said and Jaehyun scoffed.

“I’ve always been a great son, but they just couldn’t accept that my girlfriend is poor.” Jaehyun said, making a pouty face to Jimin with his eyes closed, making her lightly tap his lips with the base of her 4 fingers. He had always liked to joke to people about her being his girlfriend. She didn’t actually minded since she got used to it. But when she thought about it, having Jaehyun as her boyfriend wasn’t such a bad idea.

He had always been great to her and all, but when she thought about going further with him, she didn’t feel the spark that she was supposed to feel when she liked someone. As in like like. So she didn’t bother venturing too much into that thought.

“Girlfriend.” Jimin chuckled and shook her head in amusement. “Anyway, go. Don’t break the streak. I don’t particularly like your parents visiting me and offering money or whatsoever to leave you. Unless you want me too of course.” Jimin threatened and Jaehyun widened his eyes.

“Fine. Fine.” Jaehyun surrendered and hugged Jimin to which she returned by putting her arm around his waist.

“Call me when you reach home, and call me if you run into trouble. I’ll leave the meeting if I have to.” Jaehyun said and Jimin just patted his back, reassuring him that she’ll be fine on her own. Besides, she had gone home alone plenty of times before since he always had something to do for his parents. It wasn’t anything new. His parents would always come up with excuses, making Jaehyun have no choice but to let Jimin go home alone.

Jaehyun dropped Jimin off at the bus stop and Jimin went home alone from there.

“Please don’t. Please, I’m begging you.” She heard someone cried as she walked through the usual alley to get home. She blinked when she saw a woman kneeling down while hugging the little girl. The little girl was crying and so was the woman she assumed was her mother. She turned to look who the woman was facing and saw a familiar posture, but with a mask covering the lower half of his face.

“At least let my daughter go. She has nothing to do with any of these. She knows nothing.” The woman continued crying. The alley was rather deserted. Ironic since it was only 8.30 PM. Then again, it had always been deserted. Not many people would go through the alley, unless it was a shortcut of course, like to Jimin’s house.

“I leave nothing behind.” She heard the guy say and she widened her eyes at the familiarity of that voice. She heard the cocking of a gun and out of instinct, she ran in front of the 2 female, blocking them from the gun, but she soon gasped as she felt the bullet go through her side. The man before her had his eyes widened in shock.

Jimin’s legs gave out and she sat on the lubricant ground, scrapping her knees in the process.

She forced herself to turn around, despite her side protesting from the movement. “Are you guys okay?” She tried her best to pace her breathing as the pain was slowly becoming unbearable even for her to withstand.

“We’re fine. Thank you.” She said and stood up, before attempting to run away with her daughter but as soon as the stood up, 2 gunshots were heard and both mother and daughter fell to the ground, lifeless. A bullet went straight into each of their skull. Jimin’s eyes widened as tears started to form in her eyes. She had helped someone who kill even women and children.

She let herself sit on the ground, looking at the lifeless bodies of mother and daughter. “Of all time and place, why must you appear right here and now?” She heard footsteps approaching her and her body automatically turned to face the person. She glared at him with so much loath that the man stopped walking momentarily, but proceeded a few seconds later.

“Why did you kill them? They’re innocent.” Jimin asked, her voice cold and distant. It nearly mirrored the one that the man owned but with more gentleness in them. The man pulled down the mask, revealing his face to Jimin but she was not the least bit surprised. Her memory never failed her once. The standing posture, the voice, those dark but beautiful eyes. Taeyong.

Taeyong looked at her with an unreadable expression. “It was a mission that I couldn’t oppose to. But you weren’t included in it.” He simply said and soon carried Jimin bridal style, making her nearly screamed out in pain at how rough he was being. Her side screaming in pain. She was wearing a black coat, making the blood invisible to others.

“What are you doing?” Jimin asked, her breath falling short as the amount of blood lost was taking a toll on her. Taeyong didn’t even looked down to check on her and just continued walking to who knows where. Soon, Jimin’s consciousness was going in and out and before she knew it, her whole world went dark, making her lean her head against Taeyong’s hard chest.

Taeyong simply glanced down at her before he continued making his way to her house, recalling the road that the driver took and already knowing the shortcut to her house without needing the GPS. He made sure to know the whole map of Korea, the darkest alley, the most deserted warehouse, the famous club, basically everywhere since it was in the line of his job.

He took the elevator up and got off when the elevator door opened. He went to her door and lightly nudged her. “What’s your passcode?” He asked and she slightly stirred.

“300911.” She managed to mutter under her breath and thankfully, Taeyong managed to catch it. He used the hand that was supporting her legs to type in the passcode. After hearing the door unlocked itself, he pressed the door handle and opened the door. He closed the door with his leg and the door was automatically locked.

He went to lay Jimin on her bed before finding for the first aid kit, recalling her taking out the first aid kit from one of the kitchen cabinet when she was treating his reopened wounds. He took out the box and put the box beside her before taking a plastic bowl from the washroom and filling it with warm water. He took a cloth as well.

“Why are you helping me?” He heard Jimin asked softly as he injected some anesthetics into her veins to numb the pain after taking off her coat and lifting her shirt up until it was directly below her bra.

“You weren’t my mission. It was reckless of you to jump in front of those two.” Taeyong said as he used the metal forceps to take out the bullet, making Jimin clenched the bedsheet under her in pain and biting her lower lips to prevent her from screaming. The anesthetics would take a while to take any effect, and Taeyong seemed oblivious from that fact.

“They were innocent. Do you kill innocent people even if they were your mission?” Jimin asked, obviously not happy with the new found fact. She had expected him to kill people, but killing the innocent was just too much. Taeyong didn’t answer as he stitched the wound on her side. He had learnt basic first aid on his own since he needed to aid himself. His parents never called for someone to treat him whenever he was done with training, so he had no choice but to help himself. 

Her baby blue blouse was already stained with blood. He went to clean the blood around the wound before throwing all the used gauze pads and forceps away. He threw the bullet away as well. Suddenly, her phone started ringing, the sound resonating around the house and Taeyong had to take out the phone from her bag. Jimin had slightly regained consciousness when Taeyong nudged her for the passcode to her house.

He handed the phone to her and she took it. She rejected the call when she saw Jaehyun’s name flashing on the screen. Instead she simply sent him a text, telling him that she arrived home safely and told him not to disturb her since she was studying. It was an obvious lie but she desperately did not want Jaehyun to be here and witness this. She knew she looked like someone who was dying and Jaehyun would probably hire someone to rip Taeyong’s throat out. He had the money to.

Jimin didn’t know why but she was even worried for Taeyong, even after he shot her, without meaning to anyway.

“Sleep.” Taeyong simply said after Jimin put her phone down.

“I know that it’s weird to say this after seeing you kill that woman and her daughter, but, it’s good to see you again Taeyong-ssi. I was worried.” Jimin said, her eyes barely opened, however she caught Taeyong’s eyes widening at her words before she closed her eyes fully. The anesthetics taking effect on her body.

Meanwhile, Taeyong was staring down at her sleeping face.

She was worried about me?