Ahn Ailee

They say that love is like a rubik’s cube. There are countless numbers of wrong twists and turns, but when you get it right, it looks perfect no matter what way you look at it. But compared to love, I think a rubik’s cube is a piece of cake.

With a rubik’s cube, you can control those twists and turns. If you know your strategies and your algorisms, the way to success is imminent. With love….it’s different. You can’t control love, the same way that you can’t control life.

Sometimes, I wish that I could, because if I could control love, none of it would have happened.

I met him through a fluke. Or, that’s the way I feel about it anyways. I met Lee Chang Sun almost a year ago. It was a warm autumn’s day, and I remember it well.

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Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be an architect. In elementary school, I used to build things with popsicle sticks. In middle school, I took up art, and sketched  my heart out. In high school, I designed my dream house, which I built less than 10 years later. The thing I like most about being an architect is that you get to really appreciate the foundations of it. I see the “bones” of the house, and I make sure that it is strong enough to keep the inhabitants safe.

I was good at my job, and  I found  myself as the executive architectural designer for one of the top firms in Asia. Under normal circumstances, Changsun, or  Joon as I got to know him by, would have been sent to one of my underlings.

But that day, I had been slacking off, and chatting to the cute new delivery boy at the front desk. My biggest mistake. My boss decided that I wasn’t busy enough, and that I should be the one to talk to Joon.

“Ahn Ailee.”

Just the way that he said my voice made my skin crawl. I was so dead.

“Yes, Mr. Yang?”

Behind me, I heard the delivery boy make his escape, and I suddenly wished that I could do the same.

“Miss Ahn, since you seem to have so much free time, why don’t I have you talk to Mr. Lee here.”

Seungho gestured to the man who had followed him out of the elevator, and I immediately felt my heart skip a beat. That man was wearing a crisp black suit, and wore black wire-rim glasses. He was tall, maybe around 5ft 10 or 11, and was very fit, with dark brown hair that tumbled like a waterfall over piercing, deep set eyes. I really didn’t see how talking to this man was a punishment in any way, shape, or form.

“Lee Chang Sun here is a representative from one of our partnered security firms, requires some consulting expertise. Mr. Lee, Miss Ahn is one of our top executive designers and would be a perfect match for what you need.”

“I see,” the man nodded with a bow. “Annyeonghaseyo.”

I bowed back, still trying to figure out what Yang Seungho was up to. He was not a forgiving boss, and assigning me to talk to a handsome man was not his type of punishment.

“Mr. Lee’s project is required to be complete by Monday,” Seungho finally said, an evil glint in his eye. “Expect to be working all weekend, Miss. Ahn.”

He spun on his heels, and stalked into his back office. I stood there glaring at his closed double doors, and sighed. The last thing I had wanted was to be working after hours, especially since the weather was so nice this week.    

“Sorry about that.” The voice behind me was closer than I had expected, and I jumped a little. Joon was standing just a foot away, and leaning against the counter. “I know you’d probably rather not be working overtime, but hey…it could have been worse. Flirting at work at my company would have probably gotten you fired.”

“I was not flirting,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I was admiring and talking.”

“Well shall we get started?” he asked, holding out a poster carton in his hands. “The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.”

So I led him down the hall, and into my office. I took my seat behind my desk, and gestured for him to sit as well, and Joon folded his long legs into the chair across from me.

“Executive Architectural Designer, Ahn Ailee,” Joon muttered slowly, reading the plaque on my desk. He looked up in surprise, and caught my eye. “Wait, you really are an executive designer? I thought Yang Seungho was just being sarcastic.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. It didn’t sound like a compliment.

“Aren’t you a little young to be an executive?” He asked.

“I’m 23,” I told him.

“Ah, younger than me by a year and way too young for someone with such a high positioned job.”

Again, I couldn’t tell if he was complimenting me, or completely dissing me. “I guess I’m talented,” I replied, wryly. “So why don’t we get started, Mr. Lee Chang Sun.”

“Call me Joon. Everyone does.” He opened the cap of the poster carton, and took out several pieces of rolled printer paper. On them were what looked to be preliminary floor plans of a pretty big house.

“What is this for?” I asked, taking them from him.

“As Mr. Yang already mentioned, I work for a security firm. Our client is interested in adding a small 6m x 6m room somewhere in this house. This client is….rather wealthy, and wants to keep a safe somewhere in a secret room. Architecturally, I need your expertise to advise a location for such a secret room, based on these floor plans and foundations. Now, if you had a house life this,” he tapped on the paper, “where would you put a secret room?”

I studied the floor plans quickly, and bit my lip. “Well, that depends.”

“On?”

“Several factors. Like…the location of the alarms and security cameras, the distance to the neighbor’s house, which side faces the garage and the road. Things like that.” I sighed, and rubbed my temples dejectly. “Mr. Yang was right…this is going to take all weekend.”

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We met up at a coffee shop on Saturday, and then again on Sunday. By lunch time, I had worked out the perfect location for a secret room, and I was content.

“Whose house is this?” I asked, estimating it’s size. “These much be some rich, rich people.”

“I can’t tell you who they are, but rich doesn’t even begin to describe them.”

“Aishh,” I glared at him, finishing my coffee. It was about 2 in the afternoon, and it was still beautiful outside. I still wanted to save what I could of this weekend, and get some fresh air. I picked up my purse from the side of my chair and stood up, ready to leave.

“But-”

I turned back to Joon, looking quizzickly. His mouth opened, then closed, and he blushed a little, letting out a small smile.

“But if you let me take you out to dinner some time next week, I’ll let you have 3 guesses.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He just continued on with his intense gaze. “Only if you’ll say yes,” he replied, just as smoothly.

I couldn’t help  but smile back. “Fine then, it’s a date.”

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It was almost a week later when I heard it on the news. Power politician’s house broken into and robbed. Two guards shot, and jewels estimated to be worth about 3.5 million USD stolen. As soon as a saw the house in the background of the newscast, I felt sick. I’d recognize that floor plan anywhere. The first person that I called was Lee Joon.

“Annyeong,” he answered, sounding cheerful. But then why shouldn’t he be? He just jobbed a fortune in jewels.

“It was you, wasn’t it,” I yelled into the cellphone.

There was a moment of silence before his voice came back, cold and clear.

“I don’t know  what you are talking about, Ailee.”

“Meet me at the coffee shop in 20 minutes.”

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I don’t know what about Lee Joon made forgive him, and overlook all of his faults. Maybe it was the fact that he told me the truth upon our meeting at the coffee shop.

Joon worked for G. O., the leader of a branch of the Korean mafia. The politician whose house he had robbed was lobbying for the passage of a law that would be inconvenient for the Boss, and stealing 3.5 million from him had been incentive to drop his plans. Joon wasn’t usually a robber, he was an assassin.

Joon’s parents had both died in a car crash when he was just four, and  G. O.’s uncle, who had been best friends with his dad, had adopted him. Now, G. O. was in charge,  and Joon was considered second in command. I didn’t want to hear anymore. Mobsters, killings, assassins, I didn’t want to know any  of it. For god’s sake..I’m just an architect, goddamn it.

But then he had said those five words, and those words changed my life. I think I love you. Call me crazy, but I think I loved him too.

We dated for almost 7 months. We would go out for dinner, to the movies, or just take walks together at night. I’d tell him about my life and my work, and he would listen, not sharing any of his own. In a way, I was glad, because in my heart, Joon was a good person, even though that might not always be the case in real life. I didn’t want to know about his work for the mafia, and the bad things that they did because in my case, ignorance really was bliss.  

 When he decided to break up with me, he spoke words of truth that were nonetheless still hard to hear.

“I’m an assassin, Ailee. I kill people. And you? You design houses. We’re not suited for each other, and it’s never going to work out.”

I just wished that he had thought of that 7 months ago before he had confessed to me and stolen my heart.

Now, mother won’t stop trying to get me to go on her arranged dates. She was dead set on me marrying a lawyer or a doctor, or better yet, a CEO. Still, even though I hadn’t seen or heard from Lee Joon in almost 3 months, I couldn’t help but think how my mother would have absolutely despised the man. Joon was everything she would never want for me.

[A/N]: Just setting up their relationship a little bit.  Music Video action will start next chapter! Anyways, I'm totally attracted to Lee Joon right now. Watch the MV again...still hated the girl hummmm