"Seohyun?  We're here."

Her voice cuts through the thick drowsy haze that has enveloped me during our ride.  I become slowly aware of the warmth of her, her shoulder pressed to my face, and then I realize how far my arms have drifted toward her waist.  I sit up instantly, cheeks burning, and wrestle the helmet off my head.  I am rewarded by soft laughter.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," she says, and her voice sounds so clear, now that there is no noise to mask it.  That's another thing - there's no noise here: not the sound of Yuri's bike, not the harmony of the road around us, nor the rise and fall of the perpetual background whispers that fill the city.  We are alone, and as I look up I see stars - nothing but stars, spilling across the sky in a wash of brilliance, the only light in the utter darkness that surrounds us.  It is breathtaking, and I think I forget how to live for a moment while I'm taking it all in, because I find myself swaying and have to grab Yuri's waist to avoid falling off altogether.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"  Yuri speaks quietly now, a far cry from the almost-yelling we had to do in the noise and din of the club.  There, she was confident, shining, and her words cleared the noise around her the same way she parted crowds when she stepped into a room.  Here, her voice is so quiet I would have to strain to hear it if we were anywhere but here.  She sounds gentle, almost vulnerable, in the soft nighttime silence.

"Where are we?" I can't help but ask.

"Pretty far out," Yuri says.  "If I told you exactly, it wouldn't mean anything to you.  But Mount Yongmun is that way."  She jerks a thumb over her shoulder.  "And that's Seoul."

I follow her pointing finger to another sprawl of light - stars that spill not across the sky, but over the earth, an imperfect reflection of their celestial counterparts.  An unearthly glow hangs over the city, masking the low-hanging stars around it with its brilliance.  It's both beautiful and unsettling.

"It's spectacular," I admit.

She offers me a small, sad smile.  "Spectacular that we're drowning out the natural beauty of our skies with the light we make ourselves?" she says, and turns to look at the far-off city.  "If you say so."

I raise an eyebrow.  "That's awfully sentimental for someone who spends her spare time killing people."

"It's my job, actually," she corrects me, and if I'm expecting amusement in her voice - that I'm playing along with the joke she made earlier - I don't hear it.  She sounds serious.

I turn to look at her fully, expecting there to be a crooked half-smile on her face that she can't fully keep under control.  But there's nothing.  She really is dead serious.

"Right," I say, "so that's why you brought me out here.  So you could kill me.  Because it's your job to kill people."

I'm only half-joking.  What if it's the truth?  What if this was all a trap so she could kidnap me on the back of her motorcycle and sell my organs?

She looks at me for a long moment, and the back of my neck prickles.  Maybe I really am on to something here.

At last, she turns away.  "No," she says, staring at Seoul again.  "I brought you here because this is pretty, and I thought you should see it."

I snort.  "And then you could kill me when my guard is down."

She glances at me, and now she is smiling.  "No," she repeats.  "If I wanted to kill you when your guard was down, I would have done it the moment we left the club."

Now I'm really confused.  Is she flirting with me or trying to unsettle me?  Is this a date or some kind of bizarre psychological hazing ceremony?  Who knows?

"Look," I say, trying to throw her off guard, "if you're trying to be funny, then it isn't - "

"No, no.  I'm not trying to be funny."  Now she really is amused.  "I do kill people for a living, if timing calls for it.  I'm hired to be a bodyguard for people, and if I need to kill someone to keep my charge safe, then I can and I will.  Do you have a problem with that?"

 I hesitate.  Do I?

"Why do you think you have to kill someone to protect someone else?" I find myself asking.

She shrugs.  "Isn't that what protection is?" she says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.  "You do what you have to to make sure that the people who want to hurt the person you're guarding don't get to go through with their plans.  A lot of the time, that means killing them."  She offers me a crooked smile.  "People who want to hurt other people are often frighteningly determined about it."

I shiver.  At least it's a much more mundane explanation than I was expecting.  "So...you're a bodyguard.  For hire."

She tips her head.  "You could put it that way," she says.  "I've been hired by your father to watch over your sister."

I ignore the twinge of jealousy that comes with the thought that she's protecting Tiffany, not me.  Why the hell should I be jealous of this?  "Why her?"

She laughs.  "What, are you envious?" she says.  "It won't really be me, you know.  It's going to be someone different, every time.  People working with me, mostly."

"All right, but why?" I persist.  "What's wrong with her?  Is she being stalked, or something?"  Not that I'd mind.  No, that's a cruel thought.  I stifle it immediately.

Her smile becomes mischievous.  "Trade secret.  Couldn't tell you if I wanted to, sorry."

Is she playing with me?  I decide to take the bait.  "Do you want to?"

For a long moment, Yuri is silent.  I find myself studying her profile, the way the starlight and distant city haze limn her features in a soft glow.  I can't help but linger on her lips, the way they are softly parted while she considers, lost in thought.  I want to kiss .  I want her.

"Yes," she says finally.  She turns and looks at me again, and this time there is none of the playfulness I saw before in her eyes.  She is serious, and somehow I like that.  "Yes, I do."

I my lips.  "Why?"

"Because I do.  But I can't," she says, and drops her gaze for a moment.  "Like I said, trade secret."

Annoyance wells up inside me.  "Why did you tell me you want to, then?"

She looks up at me, and I hold her gaze.  And in that moment she suddenly seems so open, so vulnerable, that the urge to kiss her becomes nearly irresistible.

"Because I want you to trust me," she says quietly, without a trace of uncertainty, without hesitation.

This is the part where I kiss her.  I'm sure of it.  But somehow, I don't.  We stand there for another few seconds, just staring at each other like that, and the seconds stretch into eternity and I am sure that soon enough the night will swallow us both up if I don't say something, or do something, but I can't bring myself to -

The silence is suddenly broken by a muffled chiming.  Yuri blinks and looks around, and it's like she's waking from a dream; I feel it, too.  "Oh," she says, sounding distracted.  "That's my phone.  Kai...  Sorry.  I forgot, I'll have to go - "

She takes a step forward, and I know that in a moment she'll be at her bike, she'll ride off without me and I'll have to call Yonghwa to come and pick me up.  I move as if by instinct.  As she turns, I reach out and grab her wrist and pull her close, and then is on mine and my lips are on hers and I'm not quite sure how I got here and oh god her lips taste like heaven and it's clumsy and messy and too quick and over far too soon, because she pulls away after a moment and just stands there, not saying anything.

Oh god.  Oh god.  Oh god.

I've ruined everything.

I can't bring myself to meet her eyes, so I stare at the asphalt in front of my feet instead as I say, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," she says quickly, almost too quickly.  I raise my head, just for a second.  Her eyes are dark and wide and - to my surprise - her cheeks are curiously flushed and , oh god , her lips are full and red and -  No.  I can't, not again.  She takes a step forward and grabs my hand, and the scent of cinnamon and musk wafts over me.  "You didn't do anything wrong, Seohyun," she says, her voice soft, too soft.  "Promise."

I don't say anything.  I can't.  And, after a moment, she lets go.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," she says.  I don't move.  I listen as she puts on her helmet and guns her bike.  The sound of it is deafening against the peaceful silence we had a moment earlier.

No.  I should say something.  Do something.  Make up for what I've done.

I turn, to see her rev the engine and pull out, onto the road we came here by.  Too late.  I should have known.

I turn back, and the bitter taste of the fumes left in her wake mix with the acrid, rising lump in my throat.  What was I thinking?  Of course she didn't mean it like that.  She hadn't been flirting with me all evening; she was just being nice.  I'm so stupid.

I didn't even tell her I'm not out to my dad, I begin to think.  But then what does it matter?  She's not like that.  I'd just disgust her by telling her about all my strange attractions.  Just like I'd disgust her if I kissed her without warning.

Oh, wait.  I already did.

I turn and begin walking back down the road.  My head is starting to hurt again.  I'm too tired to cry.  I'll wait till I'm back to civilization, then call Yonghwa.  He can pat my back and tell me just how big an idiot I am when I get home.  Meanwhile, I'll conveniently never have to see Yuri again.

Which is when I remember that she's now my sister's bodyguard.

God dammit.

 --

Here you are - your second late update of the month!  I'm sorry, guys, I'm just so terrible at keeping to a schedule.  I promise I'll give you at least one new chapter every month, okay? T u T

I'm going to switch to Yuri's POV after this - this marks the official end of part 1, mostly from Seohyun's POV, so part 2 will see us catching up with our other lovely leading lady.  Hopefully hearing it from the other side will help clear things up - keep in mind that not everything zero hymn thinks is very accurate; she's prone to worrying too much, heh.  (No, Yuri isn't just a bodyguard.)  Until then, see you all and take care~