[CONTENTID1]The Guardian from Afar[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

 “NamJoon, wouldn’t it be a great thing to have an invisible red tie of fate with the person you are destined to be with; to know that somewhere in this world, there is someone out there, waiting for you just as you wait for them?” her sleepy voice asked as she was hunched over, supposedly studying.

“In a romantic perspective, sure, but in reality, it would only hurt you more at the end.”  He answered curtly, shutting his book and sending her a fleeting glance. “Why? Thinking about marriage already?” it was a childish jab at her, the kind that they always played upon each-other, only this time there was silence as his reply. “Wait, seriously?” his eyes widened in shock, and his heart swelled with pain. “Aren’t you a little bit too young for that?”

She sighed disdainfully and pushed off her `Psychology on the human behaviour` books to the side. “I have one too many debts nowadays; can’t keep up with them, either. Marriage seems like the only way out of this mess, you know?”

His voice seemed to shut down unwillingly, and his eyes darkened. “What about your family?”

She sneered, but then ruffled her hair and buried her face into her forearms. “Yeah, I don’t think so… Mom would be all in for agreeing with my marriage, dad probably doesn’t even care… He never did, really. They can’t support me, anyway; they can’t even support themselves.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and spoke, “And of course you wouldn’t accept my help, would you?”

She made a disgusted face when she looked at him, as if reeled back completely from such a thought. “No way! No, no, no!” adamantly, she shook her head and flailed her arms everywhere, making him release some of his tension and chuckle in the end.

“It was worth a try.” He grinned and put his philosophy books back into his drawer, getting ready for bed.

“No, it wasn’t…” she grumbled.

He smiled an easy-going grin over his shoulder and began walking to his bedroom, signing with bliss once his bed came into view and he could allow himself to fall into the embrace of warmth. “Sorry to say, Friend, but you’ll have to take my help…”

“It’s interesting seeing you in the front lines, Rap Monster.” JiMin grinned, bringing the older man for a firm handshake. “How come you’re here and not at uni?”

NamJoon sent the younger a wishful smile, laced with bits of melancholy. “I need some money, asap.”

Suga whistled from the corner of the darkened room. “Don’t we all?” the comment was a sarcastic one, but everyone within their group had learned to appreciate his remarks; after all, the man only meant good.

True to Suga’s words, NamJoon nodded his head with a grin. “I’ve got us a target, boys.” He chuckled, trying to unwind the tension that he had before any mission. “And we’re moving out now.”

Just like Kim NamJoon was a good philosopher, or a good student of any subject in general, he was also quite skilled at lying, since his `undercover job` required of him to have that useful skill. That skill was being used in the conversation that he was now having with her, as well.

Her eyes were suspiciously narrowed on his peacefully sitting form, trying to see any unnecessary twitch of his facial muscles, or any sign of nervousness at all, but she could see nothing. “But do you not think it suspicious?”

“I think you should use that money while you have the chance to…” he mumbled grumpily, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. “Who cares whose it is? In today’s society, if you have it- then it’s yours.”

“It was you who did the money transfer, wasn’t it?” she asked again, her suspicion eased only slightly, instead guilt of the thought of having to use that money taking over.

“You know better than anyone that I don’t possess such bills. That’s why we’re sharing this apartment.” He was pure lying at this point, but he swore to himself that she will have no knowledge of his dirty handlings, and the blood-coated money in his possession. She had to be protected, and had to be loved; though while he couldn’t provide her with the reassurance for the second point, he could still keep her protected- his title in the underworld allowed him to do that.

She was not getting married any time soon, not under his watch, anyway.

“I still can’t use the money, though…” she grunted and fell into the seat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder like she always did when she was mentally and emotionally drained and with no will-power.

NamJoon’s eyes closed in frustration, but he bit his tongue and willed himself to ask, “So what are you going to do with it?”

“I’ll go to the ward tomorrow, let them know what happened and let them find the account that did the transfer.” She sounded so innocent then, so pure and gentle in her ways, that NamJoon had trouble controlling himself in calling her `cute` right then and there, for her to hear and question him right after.

They lived together, and their mornings, as well as evenings, were commonly spent together, either studying, eating or just watching TV shows, to add to that, she was also studying psychology. How she hasn’t noticed his crush on h