Short: Law student and intern Kim Jongin uses his charms for a dangerous pastime behind the screens, but he falls for the most normal girl.
Words: 3511
Type: Angst/Fluff
Pairing: Kai x Miyong (oc)
Warnings: mentioning of an injury and killing, illegalities etc.
A/N: This will run chronologically with Engraved, but it’s not needed to read this to understand Engraved, but the parts posted for Engraved after this will contain spoilers. It is also not necessary to read Engraved to understand what is happening here. But it will make things more clear.

Miyong pov

There was a knock at her door and she put down the knife where she was cutting up vegetables. “Coming!” she called. Her apartment wasn’t big, just a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. 
She stopped when she reached the door. It was Jongin. He was dressed in a black leather jacket and light wash skinny jeans. There was hesitation in her before she opened the door. “Jongin.”
“Hey.” He smiled, beautifully so, as always. And it still made her heart thump even though everything she’d learnt. “Can I come in?”
She nodded and stepped aside to let him in, he shivered and ped his jacket. “I thought we agreed to meet at the studio.”
He looked at her, his lips absentmindedly. “Yeah, I know. But I thought w-we maybe should talk before…you know…because of everything.”
His little stutter was quite, and by the way he fidgeted with his dark brown sweater she saw how nervous he was. That’s when she noticed. “How did you find out where I live?”
“Oh…We…can you know…find that information. It’s a little rude, I know…but if you deem me not safe to be around a bunch of kids I guess it’s easier to know that. Before we make a scene there. “I don’t mean to intrude, if you want me to leave I’ll go.” He mumbled and moved back to the door. 
Miyong quickly reached out for his wrist to pull him back. “Wait. Come sit.” She pulled him into the living room and sat him down on the couch. “I’m making spaghetti, do you want some?”
“Miyong…I don’t want to impose.”
“You’re not imposing, I’m asking you. Spaghetti, red sauce.”
“Is there eggplant?” he asked, scrunching his nose. 
“You don’t like eggplant?”
He shook his head making a disgusted face, almost like a little kis. She couldn’t help but laugh.
“There’s not eggplant, it’s safe.”
“Then gladly.” 
He got up and helped her clean some thing and cook the pasta. They found themselves eating It on the couch, the room smelling delicious. The pasta was maybe a little overcooked, but it was good nonetheless. 
But after a while she thought the silence was getting uncomfortable and they were avoiding the elephant in the room. “Talk to me.” She said.
He looked up form his plate, wiping away some sauce from underneath his lip. “What did she tell you?”
“I want to hear it from you.” 
Jongin sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. He looked so different from how he had last monday. His hair was falling down parted in the middle, and his eyes stood more…innocent. As if he had completely changed. She remembered the chill she’d felt when shed seen him in the vest, with the white button underneath. The slope of his back as he nonchalantly walked across the room talking to people. Most of the change was in his face though, like his eyes were less young and his…she couldn’t describe it properly but she saw it.
“She wasn’t lying, Angel. I told you about my family, they pay my expenses, and that kind of stuff. I live with them. The group, gang, mafia, what you want to call it, they’re my family.”
Some ty family you have…she thought. 
“We do a lot of illegal things, I won’t lie about that. We fraud, we con, we deal, we kill.”
“You kill?” she said, eyes wide, staring at him. No, not him, not Jongin. 
There was a shaky breath from him, the quiver of his lip. “If there’s no other option, yes. But I hate it, I’ve only killed 3 times. And it makes me feel disgusted.” He whispered the last bit, like nobody was allowed to hear. 
“Three times?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that…for family…If I have a choice I won’t do it. But I can’t let a loved on die when I have the option to save them. But I know it’s not good, and this is not the life I wanted. I wanted something simple, after dancing, but that dream broke, and things were ty for a while and then…this came along. It’s where I’ve been ever since.”
She didn’t reply, she thought about it, looked at him. He looked sad, with his shoulders hunched forward, chin tipped down. 
“I know it’s bad what we do, and that me being a lawyer is illegal. But I just…I want to be normal Miyong.” He said, and she heard his voice crack. 
“Why didn’t you go home Jongin, to your family, your real family?”
He stopped, it’s like he stopped breathing. His eyes staring at her, and she saw tears well up, immediately feeling guilty for asking. “I…don’t want to talk about them. My family now…they…without them I would be much worse of. If it wasn’t for Angel, I don’t know where I’d have been.”
She couldn’t stop herself, the words were out before she could stop it. “She’s brainwashing you, Jongin, she seems like an awful manipulative person.”
“She’s not, I know she tends to come across as a . But she’s like my older sister, I love her. She took care of me when I had nobody else, and yes she indirectly got me into this place. But she didn’t want me to. There was no other option at that time.”
“So you’re not happy with them?”
“I’m happy in a way, like. I’m glad to have found friends, to not be alone. I learnt a lot there. But it’s not where I want to stay, it’s something I want to leave behind when I can.”
Miyong was quiet her mind was racing a hundred miles an hour. Was she about to be friend or whatever they are with a criminal, someone who killed, who broke the law time and time again. His heart seemed to be in the right place, he was back to his usual self again. Shy, gentle. The image of him holding a gun was sickening. Was it worth it?
“Why did you become a lawyer?”
“They helped me get in here, if that’s what you’re guessing at. But I’ve always wanted to help people. After dancing. I thought many times while I was dancing, what I wanted to do if it flunked. And I originally wanted to be a police officer, but that was a little tricky. So I settled for lawyer, I turned out to really like it. And if you think this whole thing is disgusting and you don’t want to see me anymore, I understand. I won’t hold it against you.” 
She wasn’t even sure if he liked her, but something in the way he looked at her now, the way he sat there in the corner of the couch, told her he did. It was like her heart knew, but her mind refused to process it. She liked him, a lot, a lot more than she let on. Was there a use in trying, and could she even live with being with someone like him. She was labelling him, she caught herself. Criminal. And she wondered if it was even right, in a sense. He seemed so adamant about not wanting to be there. Maybe he wasn’t playing. 
“I…What about all the women at the party. You were flirting, I saw, you never flirted with me. But Angel said you hated it.” She felt something bitter saying the other girls name, but she saw the look on Jongin’s face when he talked about her. He did really care for her. 
Jongin pursed his lips. “You weren’t supposed to see that, but yeah, I hate it.”
“It’s just flirting to what? Why?”
“It’ s not just flirting.”
“Huh?”
He bit his lower lip, teeth sinking into supple flesh. “Sometimes I sleep with them.”
She gasped in shock and then furrowed her eyebrows, running a hand through her own hair. “You have with random women…for your job?”
There was a short nod, a blush, and a look of shame on his face. Then something hardened, and he stated. “It’s just , nothing else. It’s not important.”
Just …just …She’d never slept with someone randomly before. Well she’d had a boyfriend who was her first, they’d dated for a year or two, and then a year ago she’d started this thing with another guy. They went way too fast and it ended up ruining everything in the end. 
“I…I need to think about all this.” She said, looking at him. 
He cleared his throat. “Yeah of course, take all the time you need. I’ll just go then.” Jongin moved to get up but she stopped him. 
“I’ll put it clear for you. I like you Jongin, a lot. And I can’t get a read on if you like me too, not properly. I love that you’re shy and gentle and this whole image you’re sketching for me is conflicting. I can’t properly wrap my head around it, like I can’t believe it. I didn’t expect this, not you. And I sense there’s something that got you there, that it wasn’t your choice, and I think you’re not telling me because you’re scared. Or not ready to tell me. You don’t have to tell me, yet at least.  I can see that this wasn’t where you wanted to be, but somehow you did go for it. You continued it, you killed, you use women. I just…I can’t see the clear.” 
He was silent, studying her features, almost like he was waiting for her to say something more. Or thinking of what to say, not knowing what to say. But he did speak up in the end. “I’m sorry, for bringing this on you, that you have to carry this with you for the rest of your life. It’s not what I wanted. I’m sorry for lying to you , for making you think I was a normal, good man. I’m not I understand, I don’t want you to think that. But…I like you too and I was stupid enough to fall for you and think there was a possibility it could work out.” 
She cut him off there. “So…you say you’d better just not fallen for someone, ever? Like this will be part of your past for the rest of your life.”
“It’s better isn’t it? For most of us. I don’t think I could love someone like the people I work with.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, and sneezed. She found it so cute, he had his legs pulled up to his chest, leaning his chin on his knees. Like a little kid, but the sorrow in his life made him look much older. She noticed then that he had really suffered, that he was broken. Something in him wasn’t well. He wanted to be normal, he was normal. He wasn’t like Angel, she had that air, the dominance. Jongin just seemed like a scared boy, lost in a world that isn’t his. 
She took a stab in the dark, deciding to take his soft hand in hers. He looked up at her with a pained expression. “Do you think you could love me?” she asked. 
“I definitely think I can.” He whispered. 
Miyong smiled then, and pulled him in for a hug. He was warm, and she felt how rapid his heart was beating. His face buried in her neck, and her hands his sweater. “Please don’t make me regret this.” She said in his shoulder. 
His hand came up to cradle the back of her head. “I promise.”

***

Soon she found herself driving her and Jongin to the dance studio in the city centre. It wasn’t the same studio where she’d gone when she was younger, but it was from the same group. Just a different location. 
“Okay, so Minseok is your boss?”
“Yeah.” He said. “But he goes by Xiumin too.”
“Do you have a code name?”
He chuckled. “They’re not as much code names. More like aliases. We use them depending on the situation. In your world, as we say it, the legal world, we go by our real names. Like I do when I’m at the internship. But when we do something underground we go by another. I do have one.”
“What is it?”
“Kai.”
“Kai?”
“Kai.”
“I like the sound of that.” She decided. “Kim Kai. It’s short and simple. So Angel then, I guess that’s not her real name?”
There was a short silence. “It’s not, but most of us tend to call her that, it’s more of a nickname.”
She let herself briefly look at him in the passenger seat, he was tracing the lined in the door. “Do you call her that?”
“Why are you asking about her, she bothers you doesn’t she?”
“I don’t like her.”
“She’s really not that bad, once you get to know her, you will see.”
Miyong didn’t answer with more than a short snort. 
“I call her by her real name and by Angel.”
“What’s her real name then?”
Jongin looked at her, and she looked back. “If she wants you to know her real name she’ll give it to you.”
“Her card said Cheonsa.”
“Second alias, she’s not part of our group. She works solo, but she helps us out. She’s so to speak a family friend, but it’s why she has way more aliases.”
Miyong turned into the parking lot by the studio and parked the car. “We’re running a little late, let’s go.” Jongin followed behind her, she was wearing black tights and a white sweater that hung of one shoulder, underneath a dark blue woollen coat. She didn’t find Jongin’s clothes so helpful for dance classes, but then again, he couldn’t really dance with his leg. 
They entered the room and she found a few parents with their kids. “MIYONG!!!” Jeonna called running to her and hugging her legs. “Who is the boy?”
Suddenly Jongin found himself with 12 sets of little round eyes staring at him. “Is that Miyong’s boyfriend!” “Ah, he’s handsome!” “He looks like prince charming!” all kinds of chants came from the little kids, and he blushed and kind of stepped closer to her.
“What did you tell them?” he asked, eyes wide. A girl came up to him, pulling at his sweater, so he bent down. “Hey there.”
“Are you going to marry Miyong?”
“Ah, Sasha,” Miyong said, “Don’t ask such weird things, you’ll scare him.” Then she kind of stood around and faced the group. “Everyone, this is Jongin, he’s coming along for the class today. He used to dance for the Lee-Young academy.”
There were some ah’s and oh’s and Jongin seemed really flustered. By then the moms left to say bye to their children, and Miyong got ready to start the class. 
It was nice to see Jongin with the kids, especially Sasha took a liking to him, but they all stared at him a lot. When he got out of his shell he was actually really good with them. Showing them the moves he could. His leg might be busted, but his poise was still perfect. So graceful and beautiful to watch. The way his leg stretched perfectly straight, or his back bent in a perfect curve. It was on a level she’d never achieve. And that thinking he hadn’t danced in over 3 years, like it was in his blood. 
He’d picked up some of the girls for some form of mini lift, they loved it. At their age, between 5 and 8, there wasn’t much actual ballet going on. The movements weren’t to difficult, and they weren’t wearing any real slippers yet. 
It was just the way he acted with them that made her heart swell. How he smiled widely and played with them, he seemed so happy and peaceful and normal. She loved his smile so much, and to see him sad like he had seemed at her place, it broke her heart. This suited him so much better. And the kind of crazy thought came in her head that he would be such a great and loving dad later in life. It gave her butterflies in her stomach. 
How she managed to had fallen for a con artist this fast was beyond her, maybe he had tricker her. But right now she was taking a leap of faith, trusting her heart that told her he was good. That his intentions were right, that he didn’t want this. 
“Miyong!!!” Jeonna came up to her again. “Can you dance with Jongin?”
“Huh?” she was dumbfounded.
“Yeah aren’t you going to dance?” Sasha said, from Jongin’s arms where he’d picked her up. Daeul was hanging around his neck, legs dangling a little, cheeky little smile on his face. 
Jongin looked at her, and she blushed, and he blushed. But then he smiled, and put Sasha and Daeul down. The he walked over on bare feet, and bowed. “May I have this dance.” 
This was the first time he’d make her blush this much, she wasn’t usually a shy person. “Of course.” She muttered and took his hand. He pulled her close, taking the lead as it should be. She was a little worried at first, about his leg. But as long as he seemed okay she wanted to do this. She wanted to. The way his hands rested on her hips, guiding her, or his hand in hers. He spun her around, and even lifted her up a little. Perfect posture again, and she tried her best not to look blank by him. There were butterflies everywhere, sparks where he touched her bare shoulder as he tipped her back in the end. 
All the kids were cheering and clapping. And then he suddenly pulled her up to his chest, she landed with her hands against him. Their noses almost touching, his breath fanning out over her lips as she looked into his eyes from this close. Colours golden brown running into darker ones around his pupil. 
“Ew! Don’t kiss!” one of the kids squealed, and then there was a whole lot of screaming about cooties and kissing being disgusting. It was loud, and it made Jongin laugh out loud, a sound that her ears loved more than his smile. His laugh was a little dorky and a lot of loud, but it was so genuine. 
He stayed by her side, hand on her lower back, warm, as the parents came and picked up their kids again. They found themselves alone in the studio, the large room and wide mirror. She looked at their reflections. Compared to him she looked short and chubby, and not like a dancer at all. He was gorgeous, like a model and she had to look away. 
“Hey.” He said, tipping up her chin from where she looked down. “Don’t do that. You’re beautiful, and I don’t want you to think otherwise.”
“You’re very observant.” She said shyly.
He smiled at her, pulling her close, cupping her cheeks. “It comes with the job. But please, don’t look at yourself like that.” 
He was so close, and his hands were soft and warm and big. She took a hold of his wrists and pulled herself up, connecting her lips to his. She felt him still out of shock, and she wanted to pull away, afraid she crossed the line. However, before she could he put a hand on her lower back to keep her close. 
His lips moved against hers, as he angled his head slightly. There were as soft as she imagined they’d be, his lips. And she leant up on her tippy toes to wrap and arm around his neck. She parted her lips when he softly swiped his tongue over her bottom lip. He was so gentle, as he kissed her, taking the lead even then. She pushed closer against him, carding a hand through his soft hair, and he groaned softly. The light scrape of his teeth over her bottom lip as she broke the kiss made her toes curl. 
They were both breathing a little faster, and she felt his heart thump under her hand. Fast like it had before, but not for the same reason. 
“Jongin?” 
“Yeah.” He breathed against her lips. 
“Promise me something else.”
“Anything.”
She pecked his lips, once. “Promise me that…you won’t keep doing this. That at some point you’ll just become a lawyer, or anything else.” It was something she maybe couldn’t ask of him. But she just didn’t want to date an active criminal, or a criminal at all. For him though, she was ready to make the exception. Still, she didn’t want to jeopardise her own career chances. 
“If you’ll be my girlfriend.” He whispered shyly, looking at her with a light blush on his cheeks. 
They sealed the promise with a long, slow kiss, that left them breathless and smiling.