SanDara’s POV

“So are you planning on staying here Mr. Lee? I mean I don’t really mind if you stay here as long as you stay in her room”, Eunjung said giving me a look; I roll my eyes at her as I grab a toasted bread on the table.

‘Seriously she’s out of her mind’

“No, I’m actually going to stay at a friend’s house this afternoon. Sorry about my unexpected visit”

“Ow, it’s alright”, she said and starts munching the fries she had ordered from a fast-food chain nearby. We were already enjoying our breakfast and all the explanation has been done earlier, with a lot of spazzing from my girlfriend telling me how hot Minho was with and without a shirt on. Glad, Minho decided to take a shower that time or he’ll hear everything and that will be embarrassing. 

“You got a friend here in Seoul?” I asked surprise since I didn’t know Minho know someone in Seoul except me. Well, I haven’t really seen him with anyone except me. He grows up with me as his only companion so I was a little bit surprised that he got himself a friend when he doesn’t really know how to socialize. Err— as if I know.

“Yeah, sorry I didn’t tell you about him. He is actually going to help me find a job here”

“Why did you decide to spend your first night here, when you can really spend it in your friend’s house? ”

“I just want to check on you, I’m sorry”, he blurted out.

“Check on me?”, I look at him with a raised brow. Does he really have to do that? “Uhmmm just to remind you I’m not your child and I’m no longer a kid and you don’t have any responsibility to look after me, you’re not my parents”, after ranting all that I earn a spank on the head from Eunjung.

“Yah, Dara are you really harsh towards your friends?”

“You know I am”, I said giving her a forced smile.

“Sorry about her”, she told Minho with an apologetic smile on her face.

“Don’t worry, I know she’s always like that when she unexpectedly got her—“, I stuff some bread in his mouth before he blurted out about my red tide that happens to appear after Eunjung walked out of the apartment earlier and much to my horror he was the one who notices the stain on my pyj’s.

“Oh, I see. You got your visit”, Eunjung gave me a smirk.

“Gosh, please can we just eat”, I roll my eyes at them and started nibbling.

The two gave each other a knowing look smiling. Now, I really don’t want to see the sight of the two closest friends of mine. I hope they won’t get close enough to gang against me or I’ll lose my mind, seriously.

The two continue on their conversation as I sit on the side busy finishing the food that they seem to have forgotten.

“It wouldn’t be hard to find a job when you got that Ph.D. whatsoever thing”, Eunjung chuckled “Not like us who need to search overtime for a decent job so we won’t end up a slave. Right, Dara?”

“Right”, I answer not thinking.

‘yah, what did she say?  Did she just say slave’

My head automatically snaps toward Eunjung who was still talking to Minho.

“Oh, that’s right”, Eunjung said snapping her fingers. “Maybe you can help Dara—“

My eyes turn into slits as I stare at Eunjung face giving her the ‘I’m going to kill you if you mention that thing’ look making her shut up.

“Help Dara about what?” Minho glance at me and I force a smile but instead of smiling back, he stares at me with his eyebrow creasing.

I really don’t want to drag him into my own problem. I know he will be willing to help me but I also know I would just add to his burden, he also had his own life he shouldn’t waste it on me.

“Nevermind”, Eunjung awkwardly chuckle as she took a sip from her coffee.

---

“What’s going on”, Minho asked feeling left behind as the two kept silent.

“Why do I need to help Dara?”

“Well, you know—“, Eunjung glance at Dara before opening again “Dara isn’t really a good cook so I was thinking you might be able to help her out a little before you leave, that’s if you don’t mind”

Dara sigh in relief as she kicks her friend's foot under the table.

‘I guess she’s still afraid of her life’

“Is that all?” Minho asked Dara with questioning eyes. He really felt something odd.

“Yes, she has been complaining about the way I cook. Leave me some recipes will you”, she chuckles awkwardly. 

“Sure”, he finally said dropping the subject.

“Yeah, yeah” she answers not really interested.

After Eunjung left, Minho starts teaching Dara in the kitchen but he keeps on asking Dara if there was something wrong but Dara won’t say anything and would just chuckle awkwardly telling him he was overreacting. After an hour Minho receive a text and decided to say goodbye.

“Are you sure, you don’t want me to go with you? You might get lost?”  Dara said as he follows him downstairs.

“No, I can manage, and besides he said he is on his way”

“Oh, then I’ll just see you off”

“Alright”, Minho said flashing her a smile.

A car park across from the apartment and as Minho saw its plate number he stops and turns to face Dara holding her on her shoulders.

“Take care of yourself, arraseo? I got to go”

“Wouldn’t you introduce me to your friend?” Dara asked as he peeked on above his shoulders.

“Next time, he's a busy man”

“Oh, look his waving”

Minho's eyebrow creases as he turns around. He sighs in relief as he sees the man from the driver sit came out and wave at them.

“I guess, I really need to go”

“Alright, take care”, Dara mumble and wave him off. He then smiles and waves back at her before running his way to the car. He opens the door to the passenger and slid himself in.

“So how was my daughter?” the guy in the backseat asked as soon as Minho got in, his eyes still focus on the petite girl across the street waving at their car.

---

Seunghyun’s POV

I walk inside the house and headed straight to my room. I my coat revealing the blood-stained shirt inside. I wasn’t hurt or anything since it wasn’t my blood. I just ended up a few quick missions and beat up those stupid gangs who happen to pass by acting like a hero to save the official who was supplying those drugs.

Poor kids, I sighed.

I took everything off; throwing everything that was covered in the blood into the bin inside my room. I step inside the bathroom and turn on the hot shower. I started scrubbing the red/ dried blood off my body. The water runs red beneath my feet, the rusty smell filling the entire bathroom. I really hate the smell of blood but somehow I already get used to it. It took me a while before I clean everything off me as the slimy smell was replaced with the smell of expensive soap lather on my skin. I rinse it off and I felt the tiredness and stress from the fight. It has been all drain in my body as the water continues to run smoothly on my skin. I step out of the bathroom with the towel hanging on my waist. I change into a fresh shirt and jeans before I went down the stairs to get myself a meal. I can feel the emptiness of my big house as every sound I made is the only thing I hear it felt lonely but somehow like blood, I’m also already used to it. A person like me doesn’t really need companions, right?

But somehow I felt I wanted a change from this bloody and tiring life, I wanted to run away but then would I’ll be able to live if I did that. Would there be someone who will be willing to save me from the dark world that was swallowing me whole? Sometimes I just really wonder but then this is the life destined to me, a life that involves a lot of fighting, pretending, and most importantly killing.

I just need a little distraction for a while, I told myself.

I walk toward the door annoyed as I’ve been in the middle of my sleep when I heard the ringing of the doorbell. My head was throbbing due to the alcohol, I guess. I got a few bottles before heading to bed.

“Crap!” I muttered as I click the door open.

“Hyung!” Baro was standing outside my door frantically.

I raise an eyebrow as I look at him in disbelief. What is he doing at this hour? Didn’t he know what time it is? And most importantly didn’t he know that he disturb me in my precious sleep and I’m not really in a good mood because of that.

“What?” I asked him as he didn’t speak a word after I let him enter.

If he had wakened me up for nothing important, this boy is really going to get hit. I watch him and saw his hands shaking on his side as he was trying to find his tongue. He keeps on avoiding my gaze and it’s irritating me already.

“Spill it!”

“I—I think she’s going to make it”, he finally said stumbling on his own word.

“What!?!” something began to boil inside of me as my hand clenched into a fist.

“I try my best to prevent it. I have talked to every office she tries to get a job and they all didn’t accept her. I didn’t get her fired on the two jobs she had right now or she might get suspicious as you said—“

“Then how can she have the money if she doesn’t have a job?”

“It was her friend and her manager, I saw them handing her some cash. I’m not really sure about its purpose yet but the smile on her face tells me it has something to do with your 600000won”

“Yah!!!”  I grab Baro’s collar and pin him on the wall. Fear already registers in his eyes as he began to shake more. I try to breathe in relaxing. He's just a boy but I can’t lose this game. He can’t fail me.

“Your job here is to make sure she wouldn’t be able to produce any amount of money. If you can’t handle that easy job do you think I’ll let you handle any mission? And if the higher ranks hear about this, do you still think you’re going to be worth keeping?” he already knows what I meant about that. His eyes start to lose focus as his body stiffens. I know that just like me he has nowhere else to go, that’s why he enters the organization. He just wants to survive in this cruel world and live just like everybody else in the organization. I let go of him as the old me flashed in my mind.

He looks down trying to fight the threatening tear that was about to fall from his eyes. He is still weak, I sigh.

“What are you still doing here?” annoyance and authority still ringing in my voice. He snaps out from his thought and looks at me. “Get your off my place and make sure you finish your job”

“Neh, sorry”, he bowed down and run his way out.

---

Dara’s head was resting on the glass where the bread was displayed. She has been feeling weak and hopeless, she had been smiling for a few weeks before but all her happiness had drained out of the drain just in one day.

<*flash back>

SanDara’s POV

“Thank you! thank you!”, I repeated as Mrs. Jang handed me the money I’m borrowing. It was actually my 2 months advance and I’m really glad that she understands my situation. I combine it with the money; Eunjung had given me before she headed to Japan for promotion. She has been signed by her company and I was really happy for her since all her hard work had paid off. The money was actually her last share of payment for our rent since she’ll be going to join her group in the company’s dorm. I hadn’t paid my share of the rent for almost 2 months and our landlady is already on fire about that as she already sent me the notice a week ago that’s why I asked Mrs. Jang for help.

I wouldn’t be in the tight situation right now if that jerk didn’t show up and asked me for 600000 won for his side mirror, I wouldn’t be in great debt right now. I need to think about the rent and the 600000 won at the same time and it really did gave me a headache and an almost heart attack. Sometimes it makes me think that money really rules the world cause everybody seems to need it, especially me.

I had stopped walking in front of an appliance store, there was a big plasma TV on display inside its glass window but it isn’t the thing that caught my attention, the show in it did. It was a one-on-one interview of the wealthiest and most successful businessman in South Korea, my dad. He smiles and laughs with the mc as he told him how he gains his money, reputation, and everything he had right now. Then he was asked about his family, he pauses and I feel something inside my stomach twist but then again he smiles though it didn’t reach his eyes.

“I got a very loving wife”, he told the mc with a soft chuckle.

Yeah, right you got a loving wife, a lonely and now-dead ex-wife, and a poor daughter.

I am a daughter of a billionaire and yet I needed money badly like everyone else. Can you believe that? I, a daughter of a billionaire. But I am currently working her off just to earn money. I am even in large debt and have nothing to call mine. My friends will surely laugh at me when I told them this; they’ll think I’m insane. The only one who knew about this secret was Mom, Minho, Eunjung and me. Well, I don’t really know on my supposed-to-be dad's side but I don’t really care.

He was in full luxury while I’m almost broken, maybe it was right to claim something from him since I’m still his daughter even though I try to deny that fact. Maybe I could ask for my share and leave a comfortable life for a while. But then he wouldn’t let that happen. If I claim to be his daughter, true he will give me everything, not just portion, but he will also ask me to take over his business and stay with him and that’s what I cannot do. I hated him and I don’t want to stay any close to him. He was never been a father to me and he never will be. So stop it, Dara, don’t be weak because of money.

I scolded myself for thinking about those things. What the hell was I thinking?

I did some extra job for Mrs. Jang delivering stuff for our local dealers. I wave goodbye to the last store before I headed home. A small tired smile was painted on my lips as I walked. My phone then starts vibrating from my bag so I try my best to fish it out and I accidentally bump into someone in the process.

“Ouch”, he fell on his and something drops from his hand and fell on the street. I hear a loud crash as a car pass over it, my eyes widen in horror.

“I’m so sorry”, I came running to his aid. I should have stopped walking when I was getting something in my bag.  I can’t really see the guy's face due to the scarf that was half-covering his face and the sunglasses and pink bonnet he was wearing.

“Ah, my camera!!!” he took the crash camera on the street. Guilt and pity all mixing inside me, what have I done this time?

He turns to look at me and walks eagerly to face me. I can feel his anger behind those glasses.

 “How are you going to pay for this?”

Pay? That’s not exactly what’s on my mind.

“I’m really so—“

“I just bought it”, my sentence was cut off as he shoves the box in front of my face. I took the box and check the tag price. Why am I really unlucky? It worth much more than my rent, darn!

“It was an accident, it’s not my fault”, I try to reason out.

“Yah!!! Miss if you look on your way you wouldn’t bump on each other. Just pay him”, the man on the street sided him and everyone watching us seems to nod.

Can’t they just mind their own business; I can manipulate this kid if they aren’t interfering.

“But—“

“I’ll sue you”, he cut me off with his serious tone and the glare from his glasses.

“Fine”, I sigh in defeat as I massage my temples.

This is just great!!!

<*end of flashback>

---

“Hey, sleepyhead”, someone pokes my right checks and I open my eyes to be welcome by the jerk face.

“Sleeping while on your duty? You should be fired”, he muttered.

I didn’t answer and just roll my eyes. I already know how I will end up. The day tomorrow was the deadline of our four weeks deal and I was already hopeless. His eyebrow creased as he looks at me.

 “Don’t worry, I won’t back up on the deal”, I said in a lifeless tone before turning my back on him.

“What’s with those bags?” he asked pertaining to the bags pile up on the little couch on the side of the store.

“Dara unnie is staying here from now onwards”, Suzy said as she landed a tray of cookies on the glass.

“What?”

“She has been kicked out of her apartment”, Suzy answer.

I wonder why she is answering that jerk. Err— maybe because I wasn’t answering. He shouldn’t be concerned anyway.  I’ve been kicked out of my apartment since I wasn’t able to pay the rent due to that stupid camera, why did it cost so much?

I turn around to clean the counter and saw that his eyes, all focus on me.

“What?” I scowl.

“Are you really that poor?” he said shaking his head.

“Yeah, thanks to you”, I muttered in a low tone.

“Will that take long?” he asked as he watches me work.

“Yeah, you can just leave. You don’t have to look after me, I told you I wouldn’t run away”, I already sounded annoyed as he continues to pester me in my work asking me if I was done every minute. Suzy and I were already cleaning up and closing the store.

He sighs.

“I’m taking you with me?”

I was taken aback by what I just heard as I was frozen on my spot. I turn on my heels and face him, his face was calm as he stared back at me and I started to wonder if I heard it correctly.

“Are you done, now?” he asked.

“Stop messing with me and just leave”, and I motion him toward the door.

He rolls his eyes and stood up from his seat passing me in the process. I thought he was already leaving but then he turns to the side and grabs my bags on the couch.

“Then let’s go”, and he once again started to walk, I grab on my bag before he passed me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked him with a raised brow as I look up at him. He leans down our face closer than it should be.

“I already told you”, his breath almost knock me out of my feet as my stomach turns into different knots. I step back, away from him gulping a lump on my throat.

“It’s not part of our deal”, I said as I pull my bags away from him.

“Really?” his eyebrow creased. He put the bag down and reaches out from his pocket. He took out the paper that was probably our contract and begun reading it, nodding. Then in my horror, he took out a pen from his coat.

“Yah!” I yelled reaching out for it but he already held it higher.

He leans it on the wall and began writing and I jump trying my best to take it from him.

“There it’s already in here”, he smiles at me innocently as he once again shows me the contract. It was written after the 4th rule.

Until I pay all my debt, I need to stay with him.

“That’s unfair”, I pouted as my arms cross on my chest.

“Life is always unfair, dear. And besides, I also need to keep an eye on you to make sure you wouldn’t run away”, he said with his boyish grin.

“I already told you I wouldn’t”

“And I already told you that I don’t really trust you”

“Then why would you keep me if you don’t trust me”, I mumble beneath my breath sounding irritated.

“Cause you make me feel bad. Anyways, just think of it as an opportunity that had come on your way, just grab it”

You’re the worst opportunity that came in my life, why would I grab it.

I look away from him still had no plan of going with him, I was about to turn around and went back to the counter trying just to ignore him. He might just be pissing me off but then he grabs my wrist and make me turn back to him

“Don’t make it harder. I’m giving you work and a place to stay what’s wrong with that?”

“Unnie, he is right.”, Suzy came siding him “You know you’ll freeze in here if you persist to stay”

I bit my lower lip since I know they were right, I probably freeze here if I stay and he is really giving me a good opportunity to stay alive. But, I’m still hesitating. I can’t leave with this guy, I just—.

“Listen, you already sign the contract and all you need is to comply. Do you rather die than accept my offer?”

I look up at him meeting his eyes and I suddenly felt speechless, his eyes were just beautiful that I find myself lost.

“I just want to help”, he added with sincerity.

And as I didn’t give him a reply still lost, I felt his hand loosen his grip on my wrist but he didn’t let go.

“Now, shall we?” his voice was soothing that I let him lead me outside.

As far as I know, I hate this guy but why am I letting myself being drag by him. Is this an effect of all the kisses we shared, I mean he stole?

“Unnie”, I look back as Suzy called me. “Enjoy”, she waves at us and I suddenly thought she was possessed by Eunjung as I felt she was also shoving me in his throat.