>_____<;;

“What the hell…you what!?” Chorong questioned standing in front of her in the kitchen.

“Ugh…this is so embarrassing,” Victoria muttered trying to rub the kiss marks off with a damp towel.

“Was it good?” Namjoo asked from where she was seated.

Her two sisters turn to shoot her glares.

Namjoo slightly laughed and shrugged, “Well, I guess you were too drunk to remember.”

“I was not that drunk,” Victoria spat through gritted teeth before shutting herself up. “Can you like make these frigging things disappear?”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Namjoo told. “I don’t reverse things like my angel does.”

“He did it to you, why can’t he do it to me?!”

“Whoa…hey, watch it,” Namjoo warned. “My case was different. Don’t make sleeping with a partner a crime.”

“Can you two not argue right now?” Chorong cut into their conversation.  

Victoria groaned and turned away from them. “How long do I have to wait for these stupid things to disappear?!”

“Maybe a couple of days judging from the deep, dark color of them,” Chorong muttered.

Victoria turned to her with an offended snort.

“What?” Chorong asked totally clueless.

Victoria rolled her eyes annoyed and turned to Namjoo, “Can you get Luhan down here to give me a hand?”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Chorong cut in. “Don’t make him come down here.”

Victoria frowned at her sister before she noticed some kind of warning in Chorong’s eyes as she quickly darted them to Namjoo. She let out a sigh of lost hope and bit her bottom lip.

“Ugh…” Victoria moaned. “I need to wash my mouth.”

“You were drinking,” Chorong stated with crossed arms, “why.”  

Victoria glanced at them as if guilty of something. “I don’t know. It just happened. But forget it,” she quickly switched the subject, “we have to quickly start looking for a Byun Tae Won.”

“Who?” Namjoo asked.

“He’s the biker who discovered mom’s body,” Victoria explained, “I didn’t get his address, but it probably won’t be that hard if we search through directories and those things.”

Namjoo slightly snorted, “Really.”

“What?” Victoria questioned. “It’s possible.”

“In the whole of Seoul,” Namjoo said flatly, “this isn’t just some small city.”

“Well we’ll do it anyway,” Victoria stated, “I’m going to go take a shower.”

She walked away from her sisters and hurried upstairs to the bathroom. Victoria finally realized why her sisters had given her the stare when she returned. She really looked like a mess and she smelled of sweat.

Tossing the damp towel aside she leaned forward and ran a hand over the ugly marks on her neck. She detested them so much. She would never meet that damn crime investigator ever again! Victoria would swear her word on it.

Feeling disgusted she stripped herself of her clothes and eventually felt like burning them before climbing into the warm shower where she spent the next half hour scrubbing herself deliriously.

>_____<;;

“Great, I’m wide awake,” Namjoo rubbed her eyes.

“Coffee?” Chorong asked before turning on the stove and placed the boiler on it.

“I guess.”

“Victoria must feel screwed.”

“Your comments are so great,” Namjoo blatantly commented with a small nod of the head. “Screwed.”

Spinning around Chorong shot back, “I didn’t mean it that way.”

Namjoo snorted at her before leaning against the palm of her hand. “Guess we can’t blame Victoria if she feels attracted to that crime investigator.”

“But we’re likely to be jailed if we’re involved in anymore strange crimes,” Chorong muttered pulling out a seat and sat down. “Especially if Victoria gets closer to him.”

“Him? After what happened? I don’t think so,” Namjoo shook her head. “You know her, she’s too strong headed for those kind of cliché things where you fall in love with a man who willingly decides to help you.”

“Anything’s possible,” Chorong shrugged then turned to face Namjoo, “but, aren’t you worried about Mi Hee? She might say something to Chanyeol.”

Namjoo pivoted her face away. “To be honest, I’m more stressed about how Luhan appears and goes as he likes, and says what he wants. What exactly did he and Victoria talk about. Do you know?”

Chorong felt her younger sister’s eyes land on her and she thought about the things Victoria had told her. Perhaps Namjoo wasn’t meant to know about it until Luhan felt like telling her, but why he wasn’t, she couldn’t understand. Would knowing that they were soul mates create some kind of burden for Namjoo?

“No, I don’t,” Chorong lied.

Namjoo let out a troubled sigh. “When I’m with him, there’s this kind of fluttering emotion that I don’t have with Chanyeol. And I don’t know what it is. It makes me feel happy, warm, whole, and a little sad. But Luhan says he doesn’t have that missing piece of me with him. It’s stupid, I know, I barely know him, but he feels so familiar and I’m just so sure that he has what’s missing from me.

“He said whatever happened a thousand years ago, I can’t turn back time to change. Doesn’t that mean something?”

And all Chorong could say to help was, “Don’t stress so much over it. I’m sure that if it’s meant to be, you will know for sure.”

Then Chorong thought about how Victoria had explained to her that Namjoo and Luhan had been soul mates, but Joseon Dynasty’s Namjoo had met Chanyeol and married him. If by some fate, Chanyeol had become a substitute as Namjoo’s soul mate, what role did Luhan play then? It wasn’t possible that Luhan could return to the position that was once his now that he was a guardian angel.

And suddenly Chorong felt like slapping herself for coming up with something so horrible.

“What?” Namjoo questioned.

Chorong immediately turned to her with slightly wide eyes surprised and quickly spun around when the boiler went off.

With an awkward laugh she said, “Water boils fast.”

Escaping from Namjoo Chorong hustled over to the stove before turning it off and lifted the boiler off it. For a few seconds she stood there and really hoped that what she’d been thinking was totally wrong.

>_____<;;

Changmin woke up with a tiny headache, which quickly spread from the back of his head to his forehead. He let out a painful gasp as he reached a hand up to massage his head before suddenly turning to stare at the empty spot beside him.

Though the pillow had returned to its usual fat state he frowned upon seeing the strands of hair laying on it. A frown started to spread over his eyes before last night suddenly rewound itself through his head. Changmin remembered having dinner with Victoria before they began drinking the wine and everything fast-forwarded in his head again.

“Oh god…” he muttered before digging his face into the pillow overwhelmed by shame.

>_____<;;

About half an hour later, Victoria walked into the kitchen in sweats and a sweater that well wrapped up the marks on her neck.

“No class today?” Chorong asked.

“I’m an over achiever,” Victoria said without turning to her. “Did anything happen last night? No emergencies?”

“I thought you told me to handle everything by myself,” Chorong muttered stirring her spoon into her bowl of cereal without appetite.

Victoria turned around to let an exasperated sigh. “Lets keep caught up with each other’s newsfeed since we’re in the same house.”

Chorong half snorted, “Well nothing’s new around here unless you count walking into the street dazed and being saved by an angel.”

Victoria almost choked on the coffee she was drinking before turning to Chorong, “What!?”

Chorong shrugged a shoulder and turned to face Victoria, “Namjoo, who’s not here at the moment as you can see, walked into the street. She can’t remember why, but bam! Out of nowhere Luhan saves her. It was expected, but don’t you think she could be getting into less trouble nowadays that we’re dealing with more trouble than ever.”

“And where were you?”

“Uh…well…” Chorong stuttered after her amazing story, “talking to someone.”

“Someone?” Victoria eyed her. “Who?”

“Well…you know the teacher I met at the school,” Chorong eased out an awkward laugh and pulled at her hair for distraction.

Victoria snorted. “Did she get hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” Chorong shook her head.

“So you were on a date,” Victoria commented turning away.

“It was not!”

Victoria snorted.

“So yours wasn’t a date either? Dinner, wine, and then you know…” Chorong spun her forefinger in the air, which resulted with Victoria walking over to knock her in the head.

“Boy, aren’t you two lively?” Namjoo walked into the kitchen before pouring herself a bowl of cereal.

“Who’s this guy Chorong’s been seeing?”

“Aish! Will you guys stop it with that nonsense?” Chorong helplessly asked.

Namjoo snorted, “Suho, some teacher who called Chorong out just to see her.”

“It was about the program.”

“Didn’t look it to me. That information is probably online and he even bothered to show up with pamphlets,” Namjoo slightly laughed.

“Someone’s got an admirer,” Victoria commented leaning against the sink.

“He does not,” Chorong shook her comment off. “For all I care he could be married.”

“With no ring on his finger,” Namjoo quickly interjected to which Victoria snorted.

Chorong turned to glare at Victoria. “Geez, I’ve had it with you two.”

“We’re just kidding, Chorong,” Victoria held back a laugh before going on, “anyway, lets split up tomorrow afternoon to search for Byun Tae Won. I’ll cover the city limits, while you two split up the rural side of town and searching for directories.”

“You want us to do this blindly?” Namjoo asked. “That’s doing more work than needed.”

“Um…I have plans tomorrow.”

Her sisters turned to stare at her.

“You? Plans?” Victoria asked.

“Yea,” Chorong nodded. “I can help out for an hour or so, but I have something on at 3.”

“A date.” Namjoo spoke.

“No, it’s not.”

“Whatever you say.” Namjoo turned away.

“Why don’t you look up the directories today?” Chorong asked. “See how many people have the name Byun Tae Won and we’ll go check them out tomorrow.”

“Right,” Victoria monotonously agreed before dumping her cup of coffee into the sink.   

>_____<;;

Chanyeol lazily got up from his bed to rid of the knock on his door.

“Chanyeol!” Mi Hee cheerily greeted.

“Noona?”

Mi Hee pushed him back before entering his apartment. He spun around to see her look around with gaped open.

“Wow you completely redid your place,” she commented impressed, “looks nice.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with your friend.” He said closing the door after him.

“I just came by to visit my little brother,” Mi Hee said plopping down onto his couch, “and catch up some.”

Mi Hee looked around before grabbing the remote and glanced at the picture hanging on the wall.  “You and Namjoo still seeing each other?”

“It’s not your business,” he muttered snatching the remote from her before she could turn the TV on. “Are you here to gossip about something? You never stop by for nothing.”

Mi Hee snorted before crossing her arms. “From your attitude I suppose something’s going on.” She waited for him to say something, but after a moment of silence she said, “Fine, I saw Namjoo yesterday. Catch your attention?”

Obviously it did. Chanyeol quickly turned to his sister. “You met up with Namjoo?”

“I said I saw her,” Mi Hee restated while leaning forward as if to make a point before leaning back.

“Where?”

“I don’t know, the streets,” Mi Hee informed without much care, “I saw her with someone, some guy. Chorong was there with some other guy too. You don’t think they were on a double date, do you?”

Chanyeol made a face at her. “Ok, that’s enough, get out.”

Reaching for her arm he pulled her up and never minded her protests.

“Fine, let go of me!” Mi Hee pulled free before turning to him once more. “Whether it was a double date or not, there was a guy with her. Just telling you, cause’ I don’t want to see my little brother’s hopes falling down the drain so pitifully.”

She shot him a smile before pulling the door open and walked out. Even a minute after Mi Hee had gone Chanyeol still found himself staring at the door as if it were a person.

A guy…someone had been with Namjoo. Then he shook his head. She wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t do such a thing to him. He’d known her for so long, it couldn’t, it wouldn’t happen now.

>_____<;;

Namjoo was well asleep when Luhan decided to make his appearance. The day had swung by peacefully and he was glad to see that the sisters were getting along better than usual now. He wasn’t sure what the next day would hold, but he was ready for anything at any time.

Reaching his hand out he adjusted the blanket over her and sat there quietly watching as she slept. She was always one to sleep well. Even when he still had her, she always slept well.

A smile crept over his face as he recalled the days they spent in his home. It was so long ago, but they were still so clear in his memory.

Before he’d found her, she’d been alone, her parents dead and long gone after their powers had been taken. Namjoo would have died if her powers had been taken too. Unlike he who lived under generations of magic and had few people with him, Namjoo had no one. Thus she became his mate through friendship and love. Those days had filled him whole. Namjoo hadn’t been his wife under law, but they’d always been married in his household.

It was only too late when he’d found out Namjoo was the one who held the end of their red string of fate. Happier days could have awaited them if the Prince hadn’t cut in and he if hadn’t made that decision. It was a mistake on his part, but it was impossible to regret it forever. At least, at least he could still see her. But honestly, he still hurt over the fact that their string of fate had been cut and over the last lifetimes, whether happy or sad, Namjoo had always been with someone else.

And yet he was afraid that if Namjoo kept pestering him about who he really was, he was scared he would really tell her in an attempt to win back what’s already gone. And he was scared that if he violated the rules, he would have to lose her not once but twice. Luhan didn’t think he could deal with that, and he didn’t want her to go through something like that again.

Feeling empty and depressed he slowly lay down. He spent the next few minutes looking at her before he felt that bitter tear slide across his face. 

***Another update cause I'll be out of state tomorrow ^^

***With Mi Hee's big mouth, will Chanyeol fall into suspicion or will his trust for Namjoo beat it?

***Their search for Byun Tae Won resumes next chapter!

***And a little insight into Luhan & Namjoo's life in the Joseon Dynasty!