Christine paced around the living room, nibbling at her fingernails. She hadn't sat down since they arrived at Himchan's place. The sun had risen an hour ago and there had been no word from Yongguk. Himchan had welcomed them warmly, telling them to make themselves at home and once the sun went up he excused himself to run an errand. Christine had been up a solid 24 hours now but she was restless. As mad as she was with Yongguk she couldn't hide it under her love and worry for him.

That stupid, stupid man! Who does he think he is!? Splitting up and running off like some hero, saying he'll meet back up with us! I hate him so so much!

She looked at the time and peeked through the curtains but saw nothing. It was eating her alive. If she could sneak around and call him everyday from a pay phone why couldn't he do the same? Whenever a car passed she would run towards the window, sometimes open the door and look up and down the street. At around nine o'clock she had begun to doze off on the sofa. She almost thought it was a dream or the TV when she heard the garage door lift up.

Messy hair, dark circles and all, she fell off the sofa as she tried to get up. Christine ran to the connecting garage door in the kitchen and fiddled her fingers as she saw the door open. Relief washed over her when she saw Yongguk walk in first, dragging the soles of his shoes over the mat on the hardwood floor. Christine ran to him, hugging him tightly as the tears left her eyes.

“Hey, it's okay.”, he mumbled in her ear. Yongguk's arms hugged her just as tight but she pulled away.

“What. The. Hell. Is. Wrong. With. You!” Each hit that she gave him was emphasized with her words.

“Ow, ow! What the , man?!” Yongguk blocked her hits with his arm, cowering away from her and pulling Himchan in front of him.

“Oh, not the face!” Himchan put his forearms in front of him, shutting his eyes.

“Bang Yongguk, you stupid, stupid- Get over here!”, she pushed Himchan out of the way and cupped Yongguk's face in her hands, giving him a kiss after each insult she gave him.

“You're so dumb!”

“I was so worried!”

“I hate you!”

“Why did you do all of this?!”

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate-”

That time his lips stayed with hers, pouring all of his feelings into that one kiss. Christine wove her fingers into his hair, pressing her lips more firmly to his.

“Ahem...”, Himchan coughed awkwardly, “Not to be a burden or anything but there are lots of rooms here and...Hell, I'll even let you use mine but you have to stop that...Right now.”

“We should call Youngjae first.”, Yongguk sighed, giving Christine another long kiss as Himchan pulled out his cellphone.

“Good morning~”, he sang through the phone, “How may I be of service?”

“How we doing Youngjae?”, Yongguk asked.

“So far so good.”, he said, typing away at his keyboard. “I've transferred your funds to the one in Canada and I'm currently deleting your existence from the world. There should be a bright glow surrounding you shortly and you should fade away soon after.”

The older males rolled their eyes at his joke. “Get it?”, he chuckled from the other end.

Christine leaned onto Yongguk, “What is he talking about?”, she asked quietly.

“He's getting rid of everything, phone records, school records, anything and everything.”, he explained.

“There wasn't much of everyone's history, it's mostly all of yours Yongguk. Why are you so prestigious?”

Himchan snorted as he turned around from the coffee maker, a fresh new mug full in his hand. Yongguk threw him a glare and he looked away. Christine listened as Youngjae confirmed that everything was in the clear, wishing Yongguk luck where ever he was going and that he was always just a phone call away if he ever needed anything. Himchan pocketed the phone and as he was about to speak the front door opened. She watched as Yongguk and Himchan both approached the tall teenage boy that had entered, holding a large yellow envelope in his hands. He handed it to Himchan, who handed him a thick white envelope that Christine could only assume had money inside.

“You're running Jongup's errands now?”, Himchan mused, giving a hug to the boy.

He chuckled, “I need the money, and hyung isn't all that bad.”

Yongguk embraced him as well, “How's your mom, Junhong?”

“So much better.”, he smiled. “With the money I earn with Jongup hyung I was able to pay for her surgery. She's just in recovery now.”

“That's great.”, Yongguk said sincerely, “When are you going back to school?”

Junhong rubbed the back of his neck, “Well uhm...I was actually going to wait until my mom got back on her feet...”

The older male raised his brow and pointed his finger at him, “You'd better.”

Christine stood awkwardly in the kitchen, watching the interaction. The boy had to have been no older than Eric, maybe the same age or even younger. She heard him mention that he'd be around again at sundown. Christine took another step closer and the floorboards creaked under her feet, bringing all the attention to her. Yongguk chuckled as her cheeks reddened in embarrassment and she quietly excused herself.
 

“So that's her, huh?”, Junhong smiled crookedly as she shuffled up the staircase.

Christine looked down, meeting eyes with Yongguk and hid her flustered face as he smiled at her just before she hurried down the hall.

“Yeah.”, he smiled, “That's her.”

She shut herself inside the first room she could, finding both Daniel and Eric already showered and asleep. Eric was on the bed, laying on his stomach with his arms spread out, snoring lightly against the pillow. Daniel slept on the nearby couch, hugging onto one of the sofa pillows. Christine sighed, the guilt returning. Even though Yongguk kept saying it wasn't her fault, she couldn't help but feel that it was. She dug through the two bags that Eric had packed, silently cheering when she found that he had packed some of her clothes.

As she exited the room she could still hear murmuring from downstairs and made her way to the nearest bathroom. She thought about everything as the hot water rained down on her skin, releasing some of the tension she was holding. She thought about the day she first saw Yongguk. It was in between classes, where she would normally grab a bite to eat from one of the vendor carts. From there she would cross the street, buy something to drink at the convenience store, and then sit at one of the benches outside before having to go back for her next class.

She walked into the store, minding her own business as she usually did. Along the back were the freezers, keeping the drinks cold. She didn't see him right away, but he saw her. He saw her walking up from the corner of his eye. He was only about two feet away from her, watching her as she picked a drink and walked down the aisle. He kept his eyes on her as she stopped to grab a packet of gum, her face still visible to him. She didn't know it then, and he would probably never tell her but he was thinking in the back of his mind that this was probably the creepiest thing he'd ever done. When she made it to the counter, he was right behind her and watched as she took off her heavy backpack to set it on the ground and dug through for her wallet.

After paying she moved to the side, only to knock over the backpack, spilling out all of the books and papers she had inside. He heard her mutter under her breath and he set his things on the counter, squatting down to help her. “Oh...thank you.” He let out a chuckle when she struggled to get everything back inside, unable to zip it up. She gave him a glance, not knowing why he found it so amusing and was taken aback at how close he was and how his smile completely took her breath away.

“Very studious aren't we?”, he chirped.

“Uh...Uhm, yeah not by choice.”, she said flustered, quickly diverting her eyes back to her stuff.

She stood up back quickly and grabbed her things, muttering another thank you without looking at him and left the store. Yongguk watched as she crossed the street, heading for the small clearing that had tables and benches. Without looking at the cashier he grabbed one of the magazines from the rack and put it along with the other things he planned to purchase. When he was done he followed her again, sitting a few tables away from her. He saw her take out everything from her bag, fixing it so that it would all fit before beginning to eat. She read a book as she ate her food, oblivious to the fact that he was there and had followed her.

He pretended to flip through his magazine, keeping his eyes on her most of the time, and trying to come up with a way to approach her. From the street a car honked, bringing both of them to look at the street. His hand went straight for his concealed weapon under his arm. She looked at the car and as she brought her attention back to her book she saw him sitting there. He let out a breath, puffing out his cheeks making. She blinked as she looked at him for a second longer, before she faced her book again just as he turned his head back. She didn't think anything of it at first, she actually didn't have the time to. Her watched beeped, indicating that she needed to head back now or she would be late for class. She tossed her empty drink bottle and take out container in the trash and stuffed the book back inside her backpack and began walking, not giving him another glance.

It went on like that for a few days before she confronted him. He would try to talk to her while she was in the store but she only mumbled out one worded answers and avoid any kind of personal questions, even her name. On the fifth day she waited outside the convenience store instead of crossing the street. When he came out, she surprised him by being there.

“Why are you following me?”, she asked him.

He became flustered, “Well you never want to talk when I try to talk to you. You always mumble out 'Yeah...Good...Okay...Mhm.' How am I supposed to get to know you if you ignore me?”

She instantly fell for that, hiding her smile. “Well what do you want to know...and why?”, she asked with a cute suspicious look.

“How about your name, for starters.”, he beamed. “And like I said, I want to get to know you...Is that such a bad thing?”

“I guess not...”, she pursed her lips, “...My name's Christine.”

His brows went up for a second but he smiled right after, “And I'm Yongguk. See, was that so hard?”

Christine narrowed her eyes at him playfully, “Stop being cute, it's not working.”

Yongguk smiled even brighter and felt his cheeks heat up as she her heel and headed towards the street. Before crossing she looked back at him.

“Well, are you coming or not?”, she asked.

He was taken aback and quickly stood next to her, still blushing as she smirked while looking up and down the street before they both crossed together.

Christine reached for her shirt, only to be pulled back onto the bed. Yongguk chuckled as she struggled and whined.

“You got dressed way too fast.”, he chuckled, noting how all she really was missing was her shirt.

“My brothers are two doors away and-”

“I locked the door.”, he mumbled against her cheek while his hand traveled to the button of her jeans. “And we're pretty good at being quiet don't you think? Everyone is still asleep.”

“But, still.”, Christine giggled, covering .

“But nothing.” Yongguk kissed her shoulder, smiling how his marks from the night before were still there, overlapped with the freshly made ones.

“I'm sleepy, and...and I'm still angry with you.”, she sighed.

Yongguk groaned against her shoulder, “I know I lied and that you're still upset with me but, Christine, baby, I'm trying here. Even if I was able to stall, I would've had to get you guys out of there somehow...I...I'm sorry.”

Christine cupped his face, feeling immediate regret. “I do love you though, but I can't forgive myself for bringing you in this situation like this.”

“Hey I would've done something like this regardless...and I love you too, you know that. But look at it this way, we'll get to start over, everyone. It won't be easy but, that's all I can give you and we can work on this together. Remember what Eric said, as long as we're together then why are we even questioning it?”

She pouted, “My brothers are going to hate you and love you at the same time. I knew I would end up with a trouble maker!”

Yongguk chuckled, “Says the one that was charged with assault to police officers and destroying evidence.”

Christine let out a snort while pulling her shirt over her head. “I was not going out easy, I made that clear when they came in.”

He pulled her back to him, keeping a tight hold on her. “Get some sleep.”, he stifled a yawn and placed a kiss on her cheek.

After a few hours Christine shifted around, no longer feeling Yongguk's warmth on the bed and frowned. She heard their voices travel up the stairs from the first floor and walked down quietly.

“I'm not going anywhere with you.”, she heard Simon say.

“Your names are all over the news, they may not have your pictures up but enough officers can describe you and they will soon so if you stay here you will get caught and you will be put in prison. Is that what you want?” That was Himchan.

“Daniel help me out here!”, he pleaded.

“I...Man I have to do what's best for Christine and Eric right now. He was right, if we can get out of here and start fresh then that's what I'm going to do. I need to keep my family together, and that includes you too. You've been like a brother to us, why can't you just-”

“How can you trust him so easily?”, he snapped, “ man, you don't owe him anything, don't turn your back on me now.”

Christine moved around some more, leaning against the wall outside of the kitchen.

“I'm not turning on anyone I just think that we should take this op-”

“I don't want to go Canada...I want to go to Japan, I have family there...I want to there.”

Yongguk looked to Himchan and he sighed, “Yeah, sure. Daehyun can do that for you but you'd still have to go with them to Canada first, give him a few days to set it up and then you can go but...It's more likely for you to get caught. I mean, Japan is right there...it's the closest place-”

“I don't care, that's where I want to go.”

The others quickly protested, saying that he was being irrational and that Daniel was right.

“Maybe we shouldn't be together right now.”, Jisu spoke up, “That way in case they find one of us, they don't find all of us.”

She could already see the look of despair on Daniel's face at the mention of splitting up.

“Okay then.”, Himchan exhaled, “I'll change up some things. I guess that means that only four of you will be leaving tonight then. Christine and you three, oh and you can come out now Chris.”

She jumped in surprise when she heard Himchan call her out but didn't step out from her hiding spot.

“There's a mirror, I can see you.”

Sighing, she peeked her head out slowly and saw Yongguk's face brighten up but their eye contact was broken when Daniel stood up from the table.

“Family meeting.”, he muttered and walked out of the kitchen.

She and Eric both sighed, dragging their feet to follow him. They both sat on the couch in front of the coffee table, watching as Daniel paced slowly on the other side. Christine tugged on the hem of her shirt a little, biting on her lower lip as they waited for him to say something. From the kitchen she heard some murmuring, footsteps, and sighing before she saw Simon storm back up the stairs with Intae running after him.

“First of all, where in hell did you get all that money, Chris? H-How did you, why didn't you tell me about it?”

“Whenever you'd give me money for something I'd put away half, sometimes more. If there was ever change from anything I'd put it away too. I've been doing that since before mom and dad left...”, Christine leaned forward slightly, putting her elbows on her knees, “I knew that once you started doing what you had to that we needed a back up plan, or at least Eric would.”

“Did you know about it?”, Daniel looked at Eric.

He shook his head quickly and Christine stopped him before he could talk. “When I called him from the jail I gave him a riddle...”, she glanced at her younger brother and smiled, “We used to buy those dollar riddle books and do them all the time when we were little, so I knew that he would figure it out.”

Eric nodded once, smiling as well. “I forgot about that...Every weekend right? When they'd leave us in the park all day. We would go through at least three a day.”

Daniel furrowed his brows, “Where was I?”

“Juvie.”, Christine rolled her eyes, “As usual.”

He snorted, plopping down on the chair adjacent from them, “Why didn't you tell me about this guy, huh? Would've saved us some trouble.”

Eric chuckled, “Actually you'd be in even more trouble. Even if Christine hadn't met him like she did then they still would've arrested you guys and I don't think I'd be any better off.”

“That and every single guy that I'd ever met has been harassed by you.”, she added.

“Pfft, every single guy?”

Christine sat up, “Kim Seokjin.”, she said.

“Who?”, both of her brothers looked at her oddly.

“That was the first boy I ever had a crush on. I was in my second year of middle school, he was a year ahead of me. You picked me up one day and saw me talking to him, you grabbed him by his collar, said to back off and he never spoke to me again.”

“Nuh uh.”, Daniel said childishly.

“Uh huh!”, Christine mocked him, “And as I got older, the threats to the boys got more and more severe so I just gave up all together.”

“So...you never told him about me?”, Daniel took a glance in the direction of the kitchen and looked down at the coffee table.

Christine shook her head, “When he asked about my family...I just told him I had two brothers, one was a sweetheart and the other was a hardass.”

Eric snorted out a laugh. “But...that was it, I never said any names and he never asked anything else...” Christine bit her lip, remembering how Yongguk had said that he didn't get any information from her.

“That's because he probably already knew everything.”, Daniel grumbled.

“The only reason for that would be a very detailed case.”, she shot back.

“How about we just stop.”, Eric interrupted, knowing that this was headed in a negative direction and that was the last thing he wanted. “I don't want to chose sides but, he did help us hyung. I know you don't think you owe him but...he brought you two back to me and I think that you should give him a chance...He really loves Christine...It's obvious he does, otherwise he wouldn't have cared enough to get you out of there.”

From the kitchen Yongguk smiled, running the tip of his finger along the rim of his glass. He could listen clearly from the table.

“Can't we just...forget about everything?”, Eric frowned, “Everyone's safe, that's all that matters.”

“Yeah whatever.”, Daniel grumbled, “How does your honorable cop boyfriend have all these unlawful contacts by the way, huh?”

Christine shrugged, that thought had crossed her mind as well. So far she had counted five other people that had helped or would help, but how did Yongguk know them?

“You meet people on the job.”, Yongguk leaned against the arched entryway, “Some of them you make sure to keep in touch with.”

“Oh story time!”, Himchan passed him up, a new mug of coffee in his hand and sat down on the other sofa, “The first time we met he was planning on arresting me and I kept getting out of the cuffs, he had to chase me down like ten times that night.”

Christine and her brothers laughed while Yongguk's face flushed a deep red as Himchan told the story.

“The first few times I wasn't able to get very far but one time in the middle of the night I lost him for about two hours, I had some jobs to pull you know. Ah.”, Himchan laughed, “He drove all over downtown to get me. By the end of it he was just fed up and I told him that if he didn't arrest me then, I would owe him. His rookie-cop self took the deal and at some point we stopped owing each other favors and we were just happy to do something for one another.”

Christine curled up against Yongguk who had settled down in between her and Eric. She leaned her head against his shoulder, hooked her arm with his and smiled shyly when he slipped his fingers in between hers. Daniel was so unused to the image of his sister with someone that he fidgeted around a bit, noting how Yongguk turned his head slightly towards her and lightly pressed his lips to her cheek while Himchan finished his story.

“Well this family meeting expanded pretty quickly...”, Daniel raised his brows and stood up from his seat. “Sun down right?”, he asked.

Himchan and Yongguk nodded. “Alright...I guess I'll go do something...”, he shrugged.

As he disappeared upstairs, Himchan excused himself and Eric went into the kitchen with Donglim and Jisu. Yongguk leaned back, bringing Christine closer to him and wrapping his arms around her.

“Well he accepted that faster than I thought he would.”, she murmured.

Yongguk pouted, “He's going to try to throw me off the plane isn't he?”

Christine stifled a giggle and awed, “I'll make sure he doesn't.”, she promised.