“Can I have a tall cappuccino?” A guy peered over and spoke to the mysterious bobbing head hidden behind the counter.

“Just a minute,” The bobbing head replied while picking up the individual packs of brown sugar she had clumsily knocked off the shelf. Waking up late, getting caught in the rain, failing her science paper and making a mess at work – up till then, she had no idea that this would be one of the days she reminisced about in future.

Not wanting to make the customer wait for long, she stood up promptly, accidentally giving his forehead a headbutt. A flurry of apologies followed the instinctive exclamations of pain.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! Don’t worry about it,” He quickly comforted the barrister, who appeared to be on the verge of tearing, in a cheery tone.

It was only then that their eyes met for the first time. “Can I make it up to you somehow?” The girl asked apologetically.

“Oh,” Momentarily distracted by what he saw, his face turned a barely noticeable pink while he averted his gaze and caught a glimpse of a novel on the table. “Well, can I borrow that?”

“What?.. . I mean yea sure!” His unexpected question left the barrister slightly flustered as she quickly picked up her book to pass it to him.

“By the way, I’m Siwon. And you are..?” He asked with a charming smile.

“Oh. I-I’m just Yuri,” She stammered.

“I’ll need to return the book. So I guess I’ll see you again? “Just Yuri”?” He added cheekily before exiting the coffee house with her book in his hand.

“Huh? What?” Her heart skipped a beat upon hearing that and it took her a few moments to regain her composure. “Oh! Mist- Siwon, what about your cappuccino?” By then, he was long gone.

~~~~~

Yuri’s POV

The dryness of the air caused me to cough vigorously, forcing me to wake up from the rare sweet dream.  It was a sweet dream but for some reason, I woke up in beads of perspiration nonetheless.

Catching a blurry vision of the scars on my right knuckles and the burned mark on my left arm – the signs of two of my futile attempts to escape, it once again registered that I was no longer “just Yuri”.

At that thought, I leaned my head back against the wooden wall and closed my eyes, taking in all that had happened within the last two weeks and consciously thought about Siwon, hoping it would keep me going.

Siwon and I have been together for about three years. I met him during the transitional period between middle school and high school at the coffee house where I worked at as a part-time barrister for. For some reason, we really hit it off. Coincidences can get quite freaky at times. Somehow, we both entered the same high school by chance and after about half a year of knowing each other, we decided to take our relationship to the next level. Since then, I became the lucky girl that other girls in school envied.

It is not difficult to see why. Siwon is what many deemed the full package. He is cute, smart, tall, athletic and kind. Most importantly, he is also the epitome of a sweet boyfriend. It does not therefore come as a surprise that many in school thought of him as a prince figure. He did fit the image, almost perfectly. The only imperfection in his life being that he was the lonely prince. From what I know, he is an orphan brought up by caretakers and servants in his luxurious house. The family aspect of his life was virtually missing and that was a missing piece of his life I always hoped I could one day help him fill up.

“I was confident that someday we were going to truly achieve our “happily ever after”,” I muttered under my breath before emitting a self-depreciating laugh.

While I do want to believe that Siwon is currently looking frantically for me too, I would be lying too if I were to say that I am not getting tired both physically and emotionally. After all, it has been two weeks since I have been captured by Kim Jaejoong. We have been on the run since and this is already our third hideout.

I still want to be with Siwon but I am not so sure if that is in our future anymore.

~~~~~

“Yuri, Yuri!” A voice was calling out to her.

As she drifted in and out of consciousness, Yuri thought she felt her body being lifted. “Siwon?” She could barely muster her strength to utter before the darkness took over again.