“Oh, I see where you aaaaaaaaaare,” the man said in Korean. I gulped and closed my eyes. Then the cartons were pulled off of my body. “Ha! So, you were heeeere, why are you hiding from me? I won’t hurt you…” the man said, bending down to look at me. He reeked of alcohol and another strange smell. I froze in my spot, not moving, just watching him. 

            “Ellie??! Ellie, don’t say that you’re on the phone, I’m running to you now, kick him or hit him, do something!” Kibum was yelling into my headphones, which unfroze my body.

            “Ahjussi,” I mustered up the courage to say and stood up. “Actually, I’m a police officer,” I tried to speak in my best Korean as possible, no accent or anything. Then fear flashed across the man’s face, it was just a flicker but then he laughed.

            “You?? Police?” he laughed more, but he didn’t approach me further. Indeed, he was invading my personal space but he hasn’t laid a hand on me.

            “Good, keep him talking, I can hear his laugh from where I am, just a few more seconds!” Kibum’s voice was reassuring, keeping me together.

            “Yes, I’m a cop, I just called the station,” he looked at me with wide eyes and pulled my headphones off my head. He was reaching out his hand, to grab my phone, my hand, my hips, I had no idea, but I didn’t wait to find out. I punched his face then kicked his stomach as hard as I could. He cried out in pain, then I heard a familiar voice.

            “Ellie-yah! I'm here!” it was Kibum’s voice. The man on the ground wasn’t unconscious but I quickly ran out of there to get to the street. When Key saw me, he ran up to me so fast and hugged me as tight as he could. He rubbed the back of my head up and down, soothing me. I started to hyperventilate again and he kept doing what he was doing, trying to calm me down. “Sssh, it’s okay, I’m here love, it’s okay… sssshh,” I started to sniffle as I breathed in and felt tears run down my face.

            “I,” gasp “was so,” gasp “scared,” I said, crying loudly now. He then let go of me and looked at me with angry eyes. A look that sent chills down my spine. I’d never seen him in this state before.

            “Where. Is. He.” he growled. His hands turned to fists as he started to walk away from me, towards the house I exited. I grabbed his arm to stop him.

            “No. Stay here, I punched him and kicked him already, please, we don’t need this on the news,” I pleaded. “This is the last thing we need,” I added. He looked at me with the same angry eyes, then it started to die down.

            “I can’t just stand here and do nothing while that happened to you, I have to-,” I cut off his frustrated voice.

            “Do what? Give him a beating? Lecture him? He’s just some loser creep Kibum-ah,” I said, digging my nails into his arm, still afraid. I didn’t want to see that man’s face again and feel that fear again. I started to drag him towards his car, with its headlights making the street brighter.

            “I can’t just do nothing!” he stopped, throwing my hands off his arm. His face was red with anger. His blood was boiling that steam might as well have came out of his ears. I took a step closer to him and wrapped my arms around him.

            “You didn’t do nothing, you calmed me down, you came here… If you hadn’t picked up you phone and it went straight to voicemail…I- I wouldn’t know what to do, I was so nervous that I couldn’t even remember what ‘911’ was here!” I exclaimed. Then it all came screaming back to me. 112!!!

            “Okay okay, I’m sorry, I’m glad you’re not hurt…Let’s go before he comes out,” Kibum said and pulled me towards to car. “he didn’t…touch you or anything, right?” he hesitated. I shook my head and let him open the car door for me. Once I sat down, he stood there by the door, not closing it. “he didn’t do anything else to you…no?” he was looking straight into my eyes. I shook my head violently.

            “I’m okay, he didn’t touch me…I was just so scared,” I heaved. He didn’t take his eyes off mine but he stretched his arms out with one arm on the car door and the other on the roof of the car. Seeing him like this was comforting, he was protective and manly and I would have giggled like a girl if we were in a different situation.

            “Do you want to go to the police station? Should we file a report?” he asked with the space between his brows forming a ‘V’. For the first time tonight, I actually looked at him. He had slippers on while wearing socks, skinny black sweatpants and a green hoodie, with his specs on. He probably didn’t have time to put his contacts in. I just realized that he got out of bed just to come to my rescue in the middle of the night…well, almost morning. I suddenly felt awful. He was a busy person and I called him out in the middle of a winter night to come to my rescue because I just haaaaaaaaad to go out for a run at such an awkward time of the day.

            “Noooooo, we can’t go to the police station and file a report, it’ll be on the news, you’ll be on the news,” I said the last part quietly. He exhaled loudly and shut the passenger door with unnecessary force and got on the driver’s seat. Was he angry?

            “Are you angry?” I asked, without hesitation. He started driving, speeding through the streets.

            “Yeah Ellie, I’m a little angry,” he stated. I was taken aback and had no idea what to say back. He was angry? Kibum was the most patient man I’ve ever met, he never got seriously angry, just annoyed at petty things. But actual anger? He’s even using a ‘seriously angry’ tone that you can only see in daily melodramas.

            “Why are you angry?” I asked, blankly.

            “Because, Ellie!” he shouted. “You always just worry about everything but yourself! I don’t caaaaare about the news. If we file a police report and my name goes up on there, I would not caaaare at all! This is about your safety, for God’s sake!” he yelled, not looking at me. It felt like I was being lectured in the car with my mom or dad.

            “I’m only worried because I don’t want things to be posted online again!” I yelled back. Our personalities clashed a lot of the times. We both wanted to be right and we both wanted to prove our own point, sometimes disregarding what the other had to say.

            “Like I just said, I wouldn’t care…!” he said through his teeth.

            “I do! I care if things get posted again! I just want normal, as normal as this could be! We’re already worried about things going online, I don’t want give them reasons to post anything…I don’t wanna be the cause, Kibum-ah, they have enough reasons as it is,” I said sternly.

            “I understand, but this is your safety. Nothing matters more to me especially since you’re not from here, people will take advantage of you,” he stated, not raising his voice this time.

            “I get it, I really do… But I’ll be more cautious and I won’t let anybody take advantage of me just because I’m a foreigner,” I tried to reassure him. He didn’t seem convinced, but he decided to drop it.

            “Don’t go for runs in the middle of the night anymore,” he ordered.

            “Next time, I’ll remember ‘112’ to call the police,” I offered a half smile, even though he wasn’t looking.

            “Next time????” he looked at me with his eyes wide.

            “Oh no, no, I mean just like...if ever…like I needed to call… you know what never mind,” I shook my head. He then grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it.

            “Don’t you ever do that again,” he said with both a serious and a worried voice. “You scared me so much, I didn’t know what to do!” he kissed every finger and kissed the back of my hand again then just held it. I hadn’t realized how close we got, especially how our skinship progressed. It used to be us walking two metres apart, swinging our hands making sure they wouldn’t touch and then he kissed me in my apartment and now he was kissing my hand. Right now, I’m just so relieved to be okay that I would let him do whatever he wanted... Okay, not those things, but I mean, not avoiding physical contact……. Okay, that sounded weird too. I shook my head to get the thoughts out of my system somehow.

            “What’s wrong?” he asked, tightening his hold on my hand.

            “Oh, nothing nothing,” I replied quickly. I turned my face away to hide my cheeks which were probably as red as tomatoes.

            “I’m sorry we haven’t really talked since our date… I’ve been busy sorting things out at the company and signing a bunch of contracts for work…” he said as we stopped at a red light.

            “Oh no, it’s okay, I talked to Kris a lot, especially last night before I went to bed, New Year’s Eve is pretty special…” I said quietly then realized, “oh wait! It’s New Year’s Day today!?” I said. It felt like days have passed since last night, which was New Year’s Eve.

            “Oh right! We don’t reaaally celebrate New Year’s. More on the Lunar calendar remember? But I know it’s special to you… Do you want t-“ Kibum started.

            “Let’s watch the sunrise,” I cut him off. “I mean, if you’re not busy and all that,” I added, scratching the back of my head.

            “okay, call,” he nodded. “I have something to talk to you about too,” he added the last part quietly. What? What is it now? Did something happen again? Maybe it’s something good…But his tone makes it seem like it’s something bad… Okay… I don’t wanna think about it! Ugh, this is stressing me out.

            “Is it…uh, bad?” I asked, clearing my throat.

            “Uh, depends…” he thought for a few seconds, then said, “we’ll talk about it later, for now, let’s just enjoy this, can’t we have a moment of just zero worries? I feel like so many things have happened that I never fully appreciated our moments,” he said, looking at me with loving eyes and blinking slowly like it was a commercial for skincare or something.

            “Ugh, why are you prettier than me? You’re so annoying,” I joked, pushing his face away.

            “pfft, you can’t compare me to you, honeeeeey,” he said in English.

            “Wuah! You’re just so smooth with your words,” I hid my face. 

A/N: There you go! Were you worried about Ellie's safety? Kim Kibum to the rescue! I wanted to show a manlier side of Key since it's always the diva side of him being shown, so i'm sorry if I made you nervous, but with good intentions. Thank you for getting this far with me, lovelies! See you next chapter! ►►►