~chapter thirty-one~
happiness
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All the pain we've endured until now.
All the hope that I lost you have found.

Kai wasn’t entirely wrong when he told Mari’s father that ‘once she gets her hands on him, not only his jaw will be hurting’.

In fact, Kai couldn’t be more right about the whole thing, because the second Mari sees her father, her fist is in the air.

She hits him so hard in the jaw that Kai can hear the old man’s bone crack. Or at least it sounds as if cracking. Kai is officially impressed and the man is officially hurting like hell. Only it gets better, because the next thing Mari does is to plant both her hands on his shoulder to make him bend and when he does, she kicks him in the stomach using her knee.

The man literally rolls onto the floor, growling loudly, blood dripping down his nose and onto the floor; he tries to stop it with his hands.

Kai is by Mari’s side in the next second, not in front of her or behind her, but right there with her. Mari’s shaking violently and there’re tears forming in her eyes.

“How dare you,” she spats, all red and trying to stop her tears from falling; she clenches and unclenches her fists, probably having an urge to hit him again. Kai wouldn’t stop her. “How dare you!” She repeats and almost kicks him again, but she stops in the last moment and suddenly crouches down, so quickly that it looks like her muscles just gave up.

“How dare you,” she whispers to her father, stretching out her arm towards him. The man is still on his side, clutching his nose, but he eyes her carefully as she pats him on his shoulder five times. It looks like she wants to hit him, but it’s too week for him to even feel, and there’re tears finally falling down her cheeks.

“I had to go through all this because of you,” she says, venom once again in her voice, but it’s shaky. “And you show up now? When everything is finally better? What do you possibly want from me? Why did you come?!”

She stands up in one swing, Kai stepping away out of a habit because she’s flailing around so much she could hit him without purpose and probably didn’t even notice.

She stands so her back is turned at her father and she covers with her hand, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself down. When she turns back her face is set into a grimace, her eyes are red and her whole pose is defensive.

“What do you want from me?” she asks, her voice serious and stern and so emotionless Kai feels a shiver run up his spine.

“To talk,” her father wheezes on the floor, crouches onto his palms and knees in front of her. “Fix it.”

Mari’s breath stutters. Kai frowns at the man, glances warily at the girl and back at the man. When he does, he sees him bowing in apology.

“I’m so sorry, Mari-ah,” he says, his voice shaky; blood from his nose continues to drip on the floor, even more now that he’s bending down, but he doesn’t seem to care. Kai does care because Suho is going to kill him if he doesn’t clean it up, but the thought occurs to him only for a split second before his attention is back at Mari.

“I’ve got money,” he says, looking up at her sincerely, his voice red and ugly, blood and tears mixing down his chin. Mari clenches her jaw so hard Kai can actually hear her teeth grind. “I’ve got the whole amount.”

“How did you get it?” Kai finds himself asking, seeing as Mari is too shocked to ask herself; her head snaps up at him, as if only realizing he’s still standing there. Her father doesn’t look away from her as he answers.

“I earned them fairly,” he says quickly. “No hazard, no debts. I’ve got the whole amount. If it’ll be too much, the rest is yours, Mari. Everything is yours. Just promise me that you’ll be the one to pay them back.”

Kai stares at him in disbelief and then shoves him hard on the shoulder with his foot. The man is on his side again, stretching his arms up protectively and defensively.

“You ing coward,” Kai spats at him. Mari grabs him by the shoulder and yanks him back so he can’t do anything more.

“It’s okay, Kai,” she mumbles and then crowds into his space, seeking comfort. “Stand up,” she shots towards her father. He obeys, although his legs are shaky. He still tries to stop his nose from bleeding. “Do you have the money on you?”

He wordlessly pulls out an envelope from the inside pocket of his suit; it’s a thick file and Kai wonders how did it fit there.

Mari takes a wary step towards him, snatches the money away from the man. She opens the envelope and her eyes widen. Then her expression comes back to normal.

She closes the envelope and stares pointedly at the floor for the next twenty or so seconds. Then she closes her eyes with a deep, shivering sigh. In fact, her whole body seems to shiver.

“Get out,” she says. “Don’t try to contact me again.”

Her father makes a face that’s similar to a kicked puppy’s. He really is sorry, Kai realizes, but he doesn’t let him see it.

“I’m sorry, Mari-ah,” he says again, but the girl cuts in, “Just get out.”

The man glances at Kai hopefully, but Kai pointedly looks away. Then he just hears him stagger away.

That’s exactly when Suho decides to come home from work.

He enters the house in the same moment Mari’s dad wants to open the door; the younger man eyes him with shock and disbelief.

“Oh my God, are you okay?!” He shouts, grabbing the man by his shoulder, worry all over his face; he glances at Kai and Mari. “What the hell did you do?!” He spats at Kai.

Kai, not sure why, feels sudden anger boiling at the pit of his stomach. He makes his way towards the main door, yanks Suho away from Mari’s father and unceremonially pushes him out from the house, not caring if it’s violent or hurtful. The man trips, but doesn’t fall, and doesn’t even look back; he fixes his tie and staggers towards his car.

Suho is too shocked to speak for a few seconds and then he throws a fit.

“Who the hell was that? Why is Raejin here? Why was he bleeding?!” He shouts. Kai closes the door with too much force and locks them, then turns at Suho to explain, only he sees Mari reel weirdly in the living room. He passes Suho and he catches her in the second she loses consciousness.

He has to bend down and lean back so she can be flush against his torso; his knees protest at the weird angle and sudden weight, but Suho joins him and helps him throw her around his shoulder.

“Put her down,” he commands. Kai slowly goes to the couch, puts her as delicately as he can and check for her pulse and breath.

“She’s fine,” he tells Suho.

His hyung is staring at Mari with his mouth open. Then he crosses his arms on his chest and straightens up.

“What the hell is going on? Why is there blood on our goddamn floor?”

Kai sends him a long, suffering look. What is he supposed to tell him? Her name isn’t Raejin, it’s Mari, and she’s been living her life paying his father’s debts and in constant fear? Her father just decided to show up and it so happened that she was visiting me so he decided why not ask for forgiveness in here. So Mari hit him in the face?

He cringes at the thought alone.

“If I’m going to tell you, she needs to be awake,” he finally decides to say.

“What exactly is going on between you two, Kai?” Suho sighs heavily, rubbing his face. “I can see how you look at her, dammit. How she looks at you. How serious is her situation exactly?”

“Very,” Kai answers, ignoring that awful glimpse of hope that shows up in his heart when Suho says ‘looks at you’. It’s not a time or place for that; and he knows that Suho is talking nonsense anyway.

“At least now I know why she didn’t want to let me in,” Suho says quietly, his face entirely hidden behind his hands as he continues to rub it in a tired manner. “Why did she let you in?”

Kai can only shrug and wonder about it himself.

~*~

Mari wakes up around seven minutes later and immediately hides behind her hands in utter embarrassment and guilt. The first thing she asks is if the blood stain is visible.

Suho chuckled at her and Kai sighed with relief above her. Then he crouched down and grabbed by the wrist so she’d show him her face. Her eyes were as red as her hair and still wet, and her cheeks flushed.

“You did great,” he praised her, and it looked like it was something she needed because she nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, taking Kai’s hand into her palms and bringing it closer to her chest. Kai’s heart was going crazy at her touch and he leaned closer, until he was crouching on the floor in front of the couch, completely flush against the piece of furniture.

Suho just watched them for a few seconds before exiting the room and going to the kitchen.

Kai stayed with Mari for a few minutes until she calmed down and sat up.

“Stay here, I’m gonna talk to him,” he told her. Mari snapped her eyes up at him.

“We should tell him,” she whispered. “He deserves it.”

Kai nods, huffs out a laugh.

“I know.”

Suho is pulling ingredients for dinner when Kai enters the kitchen. The older boy sends him a distressed glare and Kai looks at him, pained.

“Don’t make that face,” Suho tells him. “I should be the one making it.”

Guilt flows into Kai like a hot wave and he slumps towards the wall, worn-out.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. Suho throws a bag of peas onto the counter violently and then leans forward, dipping his head down until Kai can only see his back. His hyung’s muscles are twitching under his skin and he finally takes a deep breath, turns back towards Kai.

“I have no rights to be angry about you and her,” he informs him. “But I do deserve to know what happened in my own house.”

Kai nods. Suho makes dinner and Mari stays with them. During the meal they slowly unfold the secret to Suho. Mari feels weirdly at ease, even if usually it would cause her great distress that anyone around her found out.

But then again, there’s an envelope of money waiting for her on the table. Those are the money that are going to set her free. She’ll get rid of all the bonds that are still connecting her with the mafia; she’ll get rid of her debt, of her torment.

Maybe she’ll be even able to live normally. Without fear and constant running, without her privacy getting violated, without having to be scared all the time-

Her heart seizes in her chest at hope and sudden happiness, and she tries to keep it at bay, not give herself too much positivity because it never ends well but…

But she’s sitting here, Suho accepting her for what and who she is; Kai is by her side, his elbow touching her. She’s warm and content and finally feeling safe.

And she’s got the money now. She can end it once and for all.

~*~

They count the money together. Taemin comes back and his eyes widen at the cash on the table. He throws his bag onto the chair and plops down onto the floor so he’s in front of Kai and Mari, Suho on his right.

“You won a lottery when I was out?” He asks. They all eye him carefully. He stretches out his hand to take one of the bills, but Suho slaps his palm.

“Not ours,” he says as if talking to a child. Taemin pouts, so he’s not that far away from the truth. “Dinner on the counter.”

Taemin eyes them all very carefully, but decides that food is more important and he can ask about why they’re acting so weird later. He stands up and disappears in the kitchen, clangs of plates and buzz of microwave the only signs of him there.

There’s enough money on the table to pay off the debt and practically buy Mari a new apartment.

Seriously.

The amount is the original sum that she was supposed to pay off, but because she’s been doing it for years now she’s already paid off quite a lot. That’s why she was left with an additional amount for her own use.

And she normally never used other people’s money. But this time? She was more than pleased that she can use them. She could go to her father and demand more money for her; she didn’t care. She hated her father too much. She wouldn’t mind if he’d end up on the streets because she took all his money from him.

It was cruel and the sudden anger made her surprised and a bit scared.

“Can you contact them?” Kai asks Mari, nudging her gently on the elbow.

“I can,” she answers, her voice getting a bit stuck in . “I can ask them for a meeting.”

“And they’ll be willing to meet?”

“They just want money,” Mari explains. “They don’t care about the money. They enjoy teasing me, but their main goal is to collect money. They scare me so I earn them quicker. It’s always been like this.”

“Won’t they be suspicious?”

“Of course they will. But I can just tell them that my father gave it to me. I don’t care what they do about it. They can torture and kill him for all I care,” she mumbles, but the second she says it she wants to take it back. She shuts her eyes close again, pain in her heart. Gosh, she got so violent.

“That’s not true,” Kai says softly as if reading her mind. Mari chuckles bitterly at this.

“I can’t believe I said it,” she admits, her voice quiet and completely broken.

“I know,” says Kai, embracing her and brushing her hair back. That simple touch makes her eyes flutter closed.

“I need to call Jaejoong,” she whispers suddenly. Kai takes his arm off from her and she can feel her whole body craving more of his warmth, but she decides not to give it too much thought. She stands up, both Suho’s and Kai’s eyes lingering after her tiny frame, and Kai wonders if she’ll ever get stronger, look healthier; he thinks that he might be there to see her finally relaxed and enjoying life and the thought makes his heart swell with emotions and impatience.

The fact that he imagines himself in Mari’s future freaks him out though.

“Who’s Jaejoong?” Suho hisses at him and Kai laughs openly.

Mari comes back clutching her phone. She sits down on the floor instead of back on the couch and she seems to try to hide inside herself; Kai waits until she says something, Suho as well.

“Can I…” she starts, looks up at Suho and then at Kai, then back at Suho. “Can I stay a while longer?”

Both boys huff out breaths because they both thought she’s going to say something awful, announce that Jaejoong is coming to steal his money or something of this sort.

“You can stay the night if you want,” Suho says, relieved. “If you don’t mind taking the couch.”

Mari smiles at him and relaxes a bit.

~*~

Jaejoong shows up in their house the next morning. Kai is the one who opens the door for him and they have a very impressive scowling competition that’s ended when Taemin yawns so loudly and cat-like in the living room that they both frown in confusion.

“Come on in, I guess,” Kai says, grimacing; Jaejoong scoffs and swaggers past him. He takes off his long coat to reveal a suit underneath, of course, Kai thinks, and then he enters the living room without a word.

Mari is by the table, Suho is at work, Taemin is sprawled on the couch with his shirt almost by his armpits. Kai rolls his eyes at him and Taemin glances at Jaejoong, flails around and sits up.

“Whoa. You didn’t say you’re friends with male models, Kai,” he says somewhat accusingly. Kai snickers at him, makes a gesture to him to shut up. Jaejoong ignores his friend completely, instead comes closer to Mari. They don’t greet, she just throws him the envelope so he can see the money.

“How much is it?” Jaejoong asks. Mari takes a sip of her coffee.

“Enough to pay back and provide me a new home and maybe even college,” she admits. “And I can pay you back right now.”

Jaejoong snaps his eyes up.

“I added my money once,” he notes.

“Duh,” Mari says. Jaejoong scowls at her. “I still want to pay you back.”

Jaejoong opens the envelope and pulls out a two bills. Then he lifts his eyebrow at Mari.

“That’ll cover it,” he says. His expression softens then. “Did he say anything about me?”

“You should stop hoping that he’ll be that caring father again, Joong,” Mari drawls quietly, looking guilty and pained. “He didn’t say anything. He came here, begged to forgive him and gave me the money. End of story.”

Jaejoong nods and Kai feels sorry for him. He realizes that Taemin is staring at them all suspiciously, but also with a hint of worry. He glares at Jaejoong as if he’s the reason of all the distress.

“Okay,” Mari’s brother says. “I’m glad.”

Mari nods. She stares into her coffee while Jaejoong seems to wait for something. She finally lifts her eyes up and they stare at each other for a long minute. Both Taemin and Kai wait for them to do something, anything, but then Jaejoong twitches and sets the envelope back onto the table.

“I’ll see you,” he tells Mari and heads to the door.

The girl leans back in her chair. Kai watches Jaejoong go and moves to lock the door after him. Jaejoong is outside already and Kai is a second from closing the door when the man stops him with his foot.

Kai snaps his eyes up at him.

“I don’t know why she chose you,” Jaejoong whispers. “But don’t you dare to hurt her.”

Kai eyes him carefully, but the man doesn’t wait for his answer. With a final glance he whips around and walks off towards his sleek, black Camaro.

Kai swallows hard.

~*~

“I’m going with you,” he informs Mari a week later. She’s putting the envelope into her bag.

“No,” she says simply, sternly.

“Then I’ll follow you.”

“I’ll just lose you.”

“No you won’t.”

She rolls her eyes at him, hard, throws her bag onto her shoulder.

“You’re not coming,” she states. “I’ll lock you here if I have to.”

“You know that I’ll just climb out through the balcony.”

She scoffs at him, but her anger falters.

“Kai…”

“Mari.”

She rolls her eyes again, make some kind of a weird, annoyed movement which makes her look like an angry puppy; Kai smirks at her.

“Go home,” she pleads.

“No can do.”

She growls loudly, snatches her keys from the counter and goes to the door. Kai quickly exits the apartment first so she doesn’t lock him in, because he could climb out through the balcony but he knows he’d end on his in the end. That’s just his luck.

Mari doesn’t say a word as he follows her, but he does observe her movements and emotions. He notes how distressed – no, scared – she is, how she shivers and jerks at every sound and how she gets more and more rigid with every step she takes.

He can’t think about how much she’s actually had to go through.

They get to the part of the city Kai’ve met her for the first time and they go deeper into the abandoned buildings. Then they see three men in the end of the alley. Kai knows two of them, but the third man is a complete stranger. He can see from Mari’s expression that she doesn’t know him either.

The man on the left is the one Kai hit some time ago. His nose is crooked now. The man in the middle is the unknown one – he’s very tall and incredibly skinny, there’s a cigarette between his lips. The man on the right is the rat-looking one Kai’s met before.

Garn is the one missing from their group and he remembers the fight he was a witness to. He wonders if the man is dead.

“Brought a friend, I see,” says the man in the middle, apparently a boss now. He takes the cigarette out of his mouth, plays with it while talking. “I wouldn’t say that’s smart, Flash here is getting angry, if you mind,” he points vaguely at the man with a broken nose. He’s shooting daggers at Kai, but the boy tries to look unruffled at that. He somehow succeeds, because the satisfaction he gets from being the one to put him in such state is stronger than fear or reason.

“So,” the boss says, an amused smirk playing on his face. “Heard your father is back in town. He didn’t even drop by; that’s a little rude, don’t you think.”

“I don’t care about my father,” Mari says. Her voice indicates fear, but is also very stern and serious. “I’m finishing his business. And then I want you to leave me alone.”

The boss chuckles, takes a lungful of smoke.

“Who do you think we are, darling? A deal is a deal,” he says, puffing the smoke out. “Give us the money and we’re even.”

Kai doesn’t entirely believe them. Mari hands him the envelope and the boss counts the money quickly, throwing his cigarette away before he does.

“Everything seems to be in place,” he says, his voice pleased. “That’s shocking, really. Looks like your father finally decided to fix his failures.”

Mari swallows hard.

“I want you to leave me alone from now on,” she says. “I want you to stop following me, observing me, talk to me. I don’t want any of you near me.”

The boss eyes her carefully and then hands the money to Flash. He winks at Mari and Kai’s fingers twitch.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “Like I said. A deal is a deal.”

He snaps his fingers at his minions and they both scowl in unison at him, but don’t try to oppose him.

“Have a nice life,” the boss whispers in the end. They walk away slowly and soon disappear in the shadows of the buildings.

Kai glances at Mari to see her face frozen. She looks like she’s just seen a ghost, but as much as her face is completely motionless, her hands are shaking violently.

“Mari,” Kai says, grabbing her by her palms and pulling them up. She finally looks up at him.

“It’s over,” she says shakily. “It’s ing over.”

Kai smiles widely at her and she throws herself at him. Kai embraces her tightly.

~*~

That day Mari stays at Kai’s again. They celebrate the whole night with Suho and Taemin, although the other boy doesn’t really know what they’re celebrating. He’s just enjoying the food and the fact that Kai is smiling openly and easily and sincerely and that they’re all together.

That day Mari sleeps without worry and it’s her first night without any nightmares.

~*~

She wakes up to the sound of bacon sizzling on the frying pan and the scent of eggs. She’s tangled in the sheets on the couch and the TV is on, although it’s almost muted; there’s a cartoon playing and she smiles at it.

Then she looks at the clock and panics for a second because she has work. Then she realizes that she doesn’t have to work in four places in the same time anymore.

She can choose whatever job she wants to do.

And it feels amazing.

She squeals into the blankets and pillows like a baby, energy and happiness buzzing under her skin, and she can’t stop flailing her legs around.

Kai comes with two plates and eyes her judgingly. Mari freezes and then Kai laughs loudly. He puts the plates onto the table and suddenly throws himself on the couch, grabbing Mari by her ankles and attacking her with tickles. Mari shouts and flings herself around, trying to get away, but Kai is stronger and has the advantage of being above her, so he doesn’t let go that easily.

“Stop, stop!” Mari shouts, convulsing in laughs. Kai flops down behind her, gasping loudly, and she gasps as well, both tired.

Then she turns towards him and he realizes that they’re completely flush against each other. Mari’s face is just inches away from his.  He can’t help but think of how easy it would be to just lean over and press his mouth against Mari’s.

“Kai?” Mari says, her voice uncharacteristically soft.

Kai then realized that he’s staring at Mari’s lips. He needed to stop doing that. He flickers his eyes up to meet her wide, amber ones. It would be so easy and Mari didn’t look like she didn’t want it. In fact, she looked like she was preparing herself for it. Her eyes were half-lidded and was parted, like she was waiting for Kai.

, if he had ever seen anything more beautiful.

He turned his head away, facing the TV. “You make a good roommate.”

Kai didn’t need to look at Mari to know that she was coming out of her daze. There were a few seconds of long silence before she responded.

“Uh, thanks,” she said, sounding uncertain and disappointed. “You too.”

Kai imagines himself being hit with a hammer repeatedly.

But then he turns towards her again, sincerity in his eyes.

“I’m glad I was there with you when it all ended,” he admits quietly. Mari’s eyes seem to shine in the morning light and she smiles softly, contently.

“Me too,” she answers, intertwining their fingers.

Taemin comes skipping down the stairs, at the scent of bacon, and they both pull away before he sees them. They stand up to eat and Taemin hugs Kai tightly for making him breakfast. Then, after glancing at Mari, he also gives her a hug and it’s longer than the one he gave Kai. The younger boy feels jealous all of a sudden.

“I’m glad that whatever bad thing was going on in your life is over,” Taemin tells Mari and pats her on her back a few times. Kai can see the exact moment Mari’s heart swells and she’s so moved that there are tears in her eyes again, God.

“Stop crying, gosh,” Kai says, pulling them both into a hug. Mari chokes on her laugh and Taemin echoes it with a chuckle.

As you can see, the story is slowly coming to an end. 

There's still some more chapters ahead, some dealing with the past because life is never that easy but also some fluffy moments. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

Thank you for the lovely feedback, thanks for subscribing and reading. It means a world to me when you subscribe and comment. Thanks so much for being so patient with me too.

* I'll probably update tomorrow, hopefully *
(also, this chapter wasn't fully checked for typos/mistakes so forgive me if there're any serious ones)