>_____<;;

Suho browsed around the kitchen once more before turning to look at Luhan with a smile.

“Are you from around here?” Suho asked.

“Oh…yea,” Luhan nodded awkwardly.

“What do you do? I mean…your job,” Suho said and wondered how much more awkward he could get.

Luhan took a few seconds to figure out what he’d say before answering, “I’m a guard.”

Immediately impressed Suho’s jaws dropped open, “Wow! That’s really neat!”

Luhan just smiled in return and glanced toward the door.

“Are you Namjoo’s boyfriend?” Suho asked.

“Oh…um…”

“Sorry…I didn’t mean to ask if you’re not comfortable talking about it.” Suho immediately apologized.

“No, it’s fine.”

They quieted and Suho glanced around the kitchen again unaware of Luhan’s watch.

“Are you here for Chorong?” Luhan asked and Suho immediately turned back to him feeling his face heat up at once. Luhan kindly smiled before saying, “If you’re hoping to get closer to her, give her a sense of security first.”

Suho blinked his eyes rapidly suddenly confused. “W…wait…wh…what do you mean?”

Luhan turned when Namjoo and Chorong walked into the room before turning back to him with a smile. Suho watched Luhan put his hands on Namjoo’s shoulders before wheeling her away from the kitchen. Now utterly confused about what Luhan had meant, he didn’t quite know what to say to Chorong.

“Sorry about that,” Chorong apologized.

He turned back to look at her and observed her face, which didn’t express much. A second later Chorong frowned and he turned away.

“Are you ok?” Chorong asked.

“Oh yea…” he nodded.

Chorong stared at him strangely before turning to look around.

“Sorry for holding you back earlier…just…my sister was dealing with something outside,” Chorong explained.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Suho suggested.

“Then I’ll walk you to the door,” Chorong suggested.

They were quiet at first while walking together, but when Chorong opened the door he felt like he needed to say it before it was too late.

Abruptly turning around at the doorway he said, “Go on a date with me. We could go to the movies, do something you like, and have dinner.”

Suho could feel his body heating up from the nervousness of everything and wondered if his face was red. What if she rejected him? He would be too embarrassed to ever show up in front of her again. Suho wanted to slap himself. Why couldn’t he play this any cooler? Did she think he was an idiot? Did he look stupid? Oh the frustration of it was kicking at him from inside. He wanted to slam his face against the door.

“Sure,” Chorong replied and he felt his heart skip a beat.

Was he hearing right?

Chorong gave him a tiny smile that assured him he hadn’t heard wrong. He broadly smiled and let out a joyful laughed before clamping his mouth shut in embarrassment at his release of joy.

>_____<;;

“What did you say to him?” Namjoo asked when they were by the sitting room. “Why’d he look like that?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Luhan replied dropping his hands from her shoulders.

Namjoo frowned at him.

“I was just helping him,” Luhan assured. “Not in a bad way.”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I believe that?”

She dug her fingers into his and slightly pulled at his hands before looking up at him. Looking at him gave her overwhelming happiness and made her heart race. She’d never been so simply happy. They’d been so unfortunate before and she really didn’t want to live the unfortunate life again. She finally had him back and she finally recalled everything. Namjoo didn’t want to lose again. Thinking about it…she wanted to cry again.

“Luhan,” she looked back at him, “can you stay here with me?”

He slightly pulled her along as he stepped back and clutched onto her hands when he stopped.

Leaning forward he leaned his head on top of hers. “I want to.”

Namjoo closed her eyes shut and felt her heart sink. “You already said you can’t be here forever.”

“Mm…I did.”

“Why can’t you stay with me?” Namjoo cried. “Why do you have to go?”

Knowing that both their hearts were being ripped apart he let go of her hands and pulled her into a hug.

“I’m with you now,” he said. “Now is all that matters.”

And Namjoo didn’t say anymore as he rocked her back and forth in his arms.

>_____<;;

With her back to the wall Chorong turned away from the sitting room and looked toward the front doors with eyes full of sympathizing despair. Suddenly she had no more appetite for the already half eaten sandwich she’d made for breakfast. Quietly sliding away from the sitting room she edged into the living room to stare at the dead TV screen.

Actually, what kind of luck did they have? Were they all somehow meant to be alone? Even Namjoo’s luck seemed to be going straight down the drain.

“I think it’s about time we get into this plan with Officer Park,” Victoria suggested during dinner. “We need to find out what exactly he has planned for that box he’s after. I’m most thinking he’s going to be putting us in some sort of danger.”

“There’s no choice, but to go along with what he wants, right?” Namjoo asked. “Lets just go with the flow and counterattack if something goes wrong.”

“Do you know anything about this?” Victoria turned to Luhan.

“A box with a mythical dragon?” he repeated. “I’ve never heard of it. It’s most likely something on the dark side.”

“Then it’s something dangerous.” Victoria stated. “He did say something about the Underworld. Do you know how it is down there?”

“There’ll be a lot of evil down there,” Luhan said, “from creatures to humans to things you’ve never seen before. I’ve only heard stories of it, so I can’t be sure what’s real or not. I can’t help much, sorry.”

Victoria turned to Chorong, “So what do you think?”

“Oh…” Chorong glanced at Victoria before looking away and poked at her food, “we should just let things flow along. We can’t do much anyway without knowing any more about Officer Park.”

“Are you ok?” Victoria asked.

Chorong glanced at Namjoo who was eating as if nothing were wrong at all and felt even more worried.

“No,” Chorong shook her head.

After dinner Chorong found Luhan wandering around the first floor and watched him walk around mindlessly before finally approaching him.

“Mind chatting with me a little?” Chorong asked.

He turned around to look at her surprised by her presence. A few seconds later they were sitting outside on the front doorstep. The sky was blanketed in darkness and only the moon shone through all this black. It was kind of like her heart pouring through the gloom of everything else.

“If you don’t mind, want to tell me about what happened to you two back then?” Chorong asked.

Luhan pressed his lips together before looking up at the sky as if it could help him remember it all. He told her about the day he’d come home to find the palace guards in his home, then how he’d discovered Namjoo, and how his home was ransacked. And Chorong felt her heart flip inside her chest sickeningly when he told her about how they went into hiding, but even so Namjoo was given away and with no other choice she had to run for her life. Luhan stumbled through his words as he painstakingly recalled it all and Chorong thought she could hear the anger still in the tone of his voice and how upset he was over it all.

And how he’d lived remembering it all while Namjoo had moved on from lifetime to lifetime, Chorong couldn’t imagine how hard it had been on him. Not even words could describe an ounce of his feelings with weight.

“If you were given this chance to enter her life, why can’t you stay with her?” Chorong asked back her tears.

Luhan tilted his head toward the ground and looked back up to the sky again. He remained silent for a long matter of time. Was he trying to steady his own emotions?

“I’m not her soul mate anymore,” Luhan quietly said as if it were the fact that hurt the most. “I can’t take her away now.”

“Then what is this chance for?” Chorong asked. “You’ve come now and you’re just planning to leave my sister empty handed? Isn’t that…a little too cruel of you?”

And Chorong thought the unfairness of it was stinging her heart more than it should be.

“I…just wanted to see her.”

Chorong heaved an upset breath before biting her lower lip. Telling him that he should have gone back the moment he’d seen her was a little too evil for her and it wasn’t right when he was suffering the most.    

“Can’t you just stay with her? I know Namjoo would want you to stay.”

Luhan resumed to his silence again.

“Isn’t this a little too unfair? You perked up Namjoo’s curiosity and now that she’s like this, you’re going to just leave? Do you enjoy seeing her with someone else?”

“I want to stay.” His voice was almost a quiet whisper. “I can't betray the words I've already given the angels. The longer I stay, the greedier I'll become and it'll hurt everyone else despite Namjoo's feelings. I can't become human and I don’t belong here in the first place. What could have happened can't happen anymore.”

“Can’t you try?” Chorong asked. “If you two were meant for each other once, can’t it happen again? There must be some way.”

“Namjoo’s looking for me.” Luhan changed the topic before heading back inside.

Flustered, Chorong couldn’t find the strength to even get up to head back inside.

>_____<;;

Unable to concentrate on her readings any longer she slammed her textbook shut and walked out into the hallway. Assuming that Namjoo was with Luhan she opened the door to Chorong’s room to find it empty. Now that she thought of it Chorong had been somewhat absentminded during dinner. Was there something bothering her?

Closing the door Victoria started down the hallway, but paused when the bathroom door opened and Namjoo stepped out.

“You were taking a shower?” Victoria asked. “Did Chorong tell you if she was going out?”

“Chorong?” Namjoo asked. “No.”

“Hmm…really…”

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“It’s just she was kind of off during dinner. Didn’t you see it?”

Namjoo’s eyes moved around the hallway before she shook her head. “Not really.”

Victoria glanced toward the stairs and turned back to take a glimpse of Namjoo’s face. She was glowing from happiness, but there was also something sad hidden behind the mask.

“Are you ok?” Victoria asked.

“Yea,” Namjoo smiled.

She looked kind of tired and not wanting her to look any more Namjoo turned her face away before walking off. Victoria watched her walk into her room before the door closed. Not once in her life had she seen Namjoo cry like that. Her sister had welled up like a bucket of water at their mother’s funeral and wept at their grandma’s funeral, but she’d had never cried with so much agony. Something was wrong, but Namjoo wasn’t saying it.

Victoria decided it be best to leave her alone and give her time with Luhan before things needed to be picked up after. Chanyeol, of all, would need to be seen after. For all Victoria knew, that boy would never leave her sister. But now wasn’t such a great time for Chanyeol to return to Namjoo’s life.

Victoria headed downstairs by instinct and paused at the bottom when the front door opened. Chorong walked in looking somewhat disoriented. Instantly worried, Victoria started toward her.

“Where did you come from?” she questioned.

Chorong put a hand up to her face and walked into the living room before sinking into the couch. Taking a seat adjacent to Chorong she listened as she told her about what had happened to both Namjoo and Luhan before sinking into sympathy for them. Chorong, on the other hand, cried.

“I don’t get it. It’s so unfair; they shouldn’t have to go through this. Namjoo shouldn’t have to lose him again.” Chorong argued.

“It’s ok, Chorong,” Victoria slipped an arm around her. “It’s not something we can control. Don’t think about it so much.”

“Namjoo’s my sister, I don’t want to see her go through all that,” Chorong said. “Don’t you see that mask she’s putting on? She’s probably hurting so much right now. Luhan shouldn’t have appeared if it was going to be like this. Namjoo’s life is even more ruined now.”

As Chorong covered her face with her hands Victoria held her even tighter.

“Chorong. Come on, Namjoo’s my sister too and I’m also worried, but this is Namjoo’s problem. We can only support her from behind. You have a date, coming up, don’t you? Go enjoy it and release all your stress. Namjoo will enjoy her time with Luhan in the meantime. Lets just make sure Namjoo doesn’t get any more depressed than she already is, same for you.”

Chorong sniffled and nodded, “I just don’t like this. It’s like there’s something always against us. I don’t want to end up alone like mom.”

“You won’t, we won’t,” Victoria assured. “Our lives are different from hers.

Chorong sniffled again and laughed, “Because you only have one man in your life.”

“That makes no difference, Chorong!” Victoria withdrew her arm and playfully shoved her aside. “You’re just like me! What are you going to do tomorrow morning if Suho appears on our front doorstep? He might even be ready to whisk you away as his bride.”

“Ugh!” Chorong groaned and flopped backward to lay down on the couch. “Oh man…the date’s supposed to be tomorrow already since he doesn’t have to stay long at school.”

Chorong threw an arm over her head.

“Oh wow, already. He’s moving fast,” Victoria sarcastically commented. “Is there going to be a hotel trip after?”

“Please, I’m not going to follow your footsteps.”

With that Victoria grabbed Chorong’s foot and twisted back her toes until she cried out in pain.

“That hurts!” Chorong sat up and grabbed her toes devastated by the pain. Jumping to her feet she screamed, “You’re probably going to be visiting Changmin’s relatives the next time you two go out!” And she ran up the stairs before Victoria chased after her. 

***I have to keep rewriting and changing dialogues and dialogue, but everything still seems soo cheesy and corny to me /falls on floor

***So here we have it. Luhan's not staying long and Chorong's date comes up next chapter. 

***Do forgive me if I go missing for a period of time. Finals is this week and I have an urge to write a oneshot for ChanJoo