“Are you alright? He didn’t manage to get a knife in you right?” Zelo’s voice is full of fear and concern.  I laugh slightly realizing that the roaming hands are simply checking to make sure I am not hurt.

     “I’m fine.”

     “You’re fine?” Daehyun asks, raising his eyebrows at me clearly questioning my truthfulness. “The tears on your cheeks would indicate otherwise.”

     “I’m physically fine. Is that better?”  I respond, seeing if Daehyun will accept this answer.  I hadn’t even realized I had been crying, and I raise a hand to my cheek feeling the dampness there for myself.

     “More truthful” Daehyun nods, acknowledging my answer.

     “Come on, I know the best cure for shaken nerves.” Zelo commands while helping me stand up.

     “Oh, really? What’s that?” I question, already feeling comforted by their concern for me.

     “Ice cream!” the young man declares with a smile as we turn to leave.  Zelo suddenly halts dead in his tracks as he turns to the door.  He is too tall, I can’t see around him, but I know almost immediately why we have stopped.  A low, husky voice drifts past Zelo meeting my ears.

     “You’ve become too close, haven’t you?” Though it’s phrased as a question, it’s really not a question at all.  “Zelo, go wait in the meeting room.  Daehyun, go get Himcha-“ Yongguk orders as he pushes past them and towards me.

     “You can’t!” Zelo exclaims, “He knows.”  The look of fear in Zelo’s eyes makes me freeze up. Is Himchan really out to get me?  What is it that I’ve done?

     Yongguk stops swiftly, he turns back around, in a slow and calculated way, to face Zelo.

     “He knows? And she’s still alive?” Amusement and shock coat his husky voice. “He has more self control than I thought.”

     “But still, you can’t let him watch –“ Zelo is cut off by Yongguk, whose expression hardened at Zelo’s lack of obedience.

     “I will do what is best for the Bunnies, and if that means putting a Rose in danger then so be it.” This was clearly Zelo’s and Daehyun’s dismissal.  Though both men hesitate slightly looking from Yongguk to me and back to Yongguk, they both turn and leave.  Now it’s just Yongguk, me, and all of my unanswered questions.

     “You” Yongguk starts towards me, “what is it about you that keeps breaking my boys’ defenses?”

     “I should be the one asking the questions” I stubbornly point out.  I had been backing up to avoid being close to Yongguk, but my legs have now found the edge of the bed.  I have nowhere else to go. 

     “Have you been playing with them?” He asks the question in a way that is extremely suggestive.  He shoves me on to Zelo’s bed.  “Do they think they can get you into the position I have you in now?”

     “Why is my title of the Gilded Rose so important?  What have I done that upset Himchan so much?”  The questions fall from my mouth.

     “Why do my boys seem to think you’re so important while the Roses practically gave me permission to kill you?”  Yongguk hits a nerve, but I refuse to acknowledge it. 

     “What revenge has he already taken? What was the cost of it?”  I question Yongguk back with much more ferocity than I feel.  At the current moment I am petrified.  I am at the will of Yongguk, and though I don’t have Yongguk pegged for that kind of guy, the current position I am in seems to indicate otherwise.

     “Can you show me what you’ve been doing to my guys?  Huh?  You want to play those games with me?”  Yongguk has now climbed on top of me.  He’s straddling me.  He is sitting up right over me, while I am lying down.  I’m completely at his mercy. “You are really becoming a thorn in my side.” He snarls moving close to my face. This is it.  I think as both terror, and resignation set in. I can’t get away from him; this is it.  Yongguk’s next action shocks me.