[CONTENTID1]Armor[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Chapter Fourteen[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

***THIS IS THE THIRD CHAPTER POSTED IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS, SO GO BACK AND READ CHAPTERS 12 AND 13 IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY.***

When the sun rose, and Jakyung stumbled out of her room, and Baekhyun noted that she looked even more worse for wear than the night before. She didn’t even seem to register that he was there still. When she came back to the living room from the kitchen, he sat up, and she jumped, coffee sloshing over the rim of the mug she held in her hand.

“Oh, Baekhyun. It’s just you,” she said, setting the mug down on the coffee table. She disappeared for a moment to retrieve something to wipe up the pill and when she returned, he had her coffee mug in his hand and was sipping from it.

“You call this coffee? There’s so much sugar and cream it might as well just be syrup,” he said, setting it back down. She shrugged and took a sip herself, reveling in the warmth of the drink.

“It’s better than drinking tar,” she retorted. It was silent for a moment, with them just carefully watching the other, before she sighed and put the mug down. “Aren’t you going to ask about last night?”

“I figured you wouldn’t tell me anyway, so why bother asking?” He shrugged. He knew this was the right answer when her shoulders relaxed and she took another sip of the drink.

“Mark Tuan is a bastard who I hope rots in hell,” she mumbled. “I might as well just give up and go to my father if he’s going to keep sending that bloodhound for me.” She glanced briefly at the calendar sitting on the side table.

“I agree with you, Mark is a bastard,” Baekhyun said. She brought her gaze back to him.

“How do you know him?”

“Let’s just say that we weren’t friends, and I have seen firsthand why people usually curse his name when they say it,” Baekhyun told her. She nodded once in understanding; she didn’t need the gruesome details.

The sat in a semi-comfortable silence for a while, Baekhyun on his phone, and Jakyung just staring off into space. They were both broken from their thoughts as a sharp knock sounded from the door.

“Jakyung! I’m coming in now; it’s Kai!” The telltale beeping of the keypad sounded before the door opened, revealing a livid looking Kai.

He was over to her in a second, and she barely had enough time to put her cup down before she was swept into a hug.

“I’m fine, Kai,” she mumbled into his shirt. “Really, I’m fine. I won’t be in a minute thought because you’re squeezing really hard and I can’t breathe.” He loosened his hug, but still held her firmly in his arms.

“Didn’t you say to me, “This noona is tough” yesterday?” He scolded. She shook her head, and he tsked. “What if that psycho had gotten you?”

“But he didn’t, Kai,” Jakyung insisted, finally wiggling free. “Can we not talk about him? He’s ruined enough for me already.” Kai frowned but didn’t press on.

“I’ll drive you to work tonight,” Kai said, and his tone indicated that she shouldn’t argue. At this early hour, she didn’t have much energy for anything. He was taking the surrogate brother role pretty seriously and she didn’t have it in her to get mad at him for it. “You should change the passcode to the door. And get a secondary lock. I’ll have Sehun look at it for you. He’s a genius with that kind of thing.”

“If you drove my car here, then how will you get home?” Jakyung asked. Kai smirked and twirled her key ring around his fingers.

“I’ll be taking your car so you can’t escape,” Kai said. Jakyung opened to protest, but Kai continued before she could speak. “I’ll send one of the other guys over later to come keep you company.” Jakyung thought about this for a moment.

“Tell Xiumin to come over and you have a deal,” she said evenly. Kai shook his head in disbelief.

“You want to play Mario Kart?”

“Yeah, sure. Mario Kart.”

++

When Xiumin arrived that at one that afternoon, he not only had Mario Kart with him, but Chen had tagged along bearing snacks. Jakyung would be a liar if she said she wasn’t disappointed that it wasn’t just Xiumin, but Chen was starting to grow on her, and she found that she didn’t mind his company.

“Is this a peace offering?” She asked Chen as a greeting as he dumped the bag of salty and sweet snacks on her armchair.

“Well you’re stuck here under orders from Kai, so you have to keep busy somehow,” he answered brightly. “We’re the designated “somehow” and I always bring snacks.”

Xiumin made his way over to her and held out a thin plastic card. “He gave me his card to give to you for whatever you wanted. Not that you’ll need it.” He grabbed her hand and placed the card in it, and she shivered at his touch.

Ever since they had traded numbers three days ago, they had been texting each other, dancing around the topic of their mutual attraction. Seeing him again was like lighting a cold fire under her skin, and he pulled her hand away, stuffing the card into the pocket on the front of her shirt. He smirked at her reaction and plopped down into the couch.

He was teasing her on purpose, she realized.

Chen, sensing the tension in the air, threw his arm around Jakyung’s shoulder and guided her to the spot next to him on the loveseat. “I’m going to kick your at Mario Kart, you know,” he joked. Xiumin snorted in disbelief.

“He , Jakyung. Don’t listen to a word he says.” Xiumin tossed them a couple of controllers and got to work setting up the console to her TV. While he was buys with that, Chen and Jakyung chatted away.

“Do you have anything big planned for Sunday?” Chen asked her. Jakyung shrugged, but then remembered the whole reason she was trapped in her own apartment in the first place.

“Unfortunately, I do,” she grumbled. “It’s the last thing I want to be doing, but I don’t really have a choice.” Yungmin had texted her earlier and told her that she had a permanent spot on the staff if she still wanted it, and she thought about using that as her excuse not to go to her parents stupid Spring Gala. However, she knew that they would really pull out the big guns and send Mark and maybe a few others if she decided to do that.

“Well, if for some reason that gets cancelled, let me know,” Chen said casually. Jakyung narrowed her eyes at him and leaned in so that she could see the barely noticeable blush on his cheeks.

“Are you asking me on a date, Chen?” She asked playfully. His eyebrows rose so high on his forehead, she guessed they would have flow