The bright morning sun woke her up, she felt like she had no sleep at all. Slowly, she forced her eyes open and took in the first light of the new day. Beams of heated reflected into the room.

She remembered where she was. She was at one of Kris’s safe houses while everything was being worked out.

She remembered the events of last night as they replayed in her head. She sat up in bed realizing that the spot beside her was empty. Last night after that long and awkward moment of silence where she realized that she had feelings for Kris, he suggested that they sleep. Lord knows they both needed it. Sarang however was too preoccupied with all the thoughts bombarding her head to get any sleep.

She remembered how the two of them tried to sleep as far from each other as possible. Sarang purposely moved closer to the edge of the bed because being close to him made her insides flutter with a thousand butterflies. She couldn’t deal with that right now.

She stepped out of bed. She felt a cold breeze hit her skin, sending chills down her spine and up her bare legs, she was reminded that she was still only wearing his shirt from last night.

She tiptoed to the living room where she heard Kris talking. He was on the phone with someone; her best guess was that it was Lay. When she caught sight of his back, she completely froze.

She likes him.

Sarang wasn’t a fool and she knew what her emotions were telling her. She just didn’t understand why. Why did she like him? There were so many reasons to hate him. There were so many things he had done wrong. There were so many wrongs with their relationship, or whatever it was that they have, that there was no way the two of them could work out.  

Well, they had money and power, but that wasn’t what made a relationship. She tried thinking deeper, analyzing the small details she could had overlooked.

He was attractive, no doubt about that, but that wasn’t the reason why, she wasn’t that shallow.

There were so many things he did that made her heart ache though.

The way his cold eyes penetrated hers whenever she did something that interrupted his plans was something she could never forget because just one glare and she found herself breaking apart. She hated how he questioned her motives, how he always looked over his shoulder when it came to her.  She hated how he argued with her, like everything she did was wrong, like every word that came out of fueled his hate for her.

He saw her as some sort of science project where he could cut her open and study her piece by piece. She was a game to him, an experiment he would push aside and throw away once he figured out who she really was. She was disposable to him.

He had left her on their wedding day, letting her take the fault for him. He abandoned her and he didn’t even bother to apologize afterwards. In the end she was the one who took the heat and felt the pain, and he walked away untouched.

There were so many cons; she just wanted to see some good in him.

 Think Sarang, think.

The way he kisses her, the way he made waves of pleasure soar through every cell in her body whenever his skin touched hers. His touch was highly addictive. The way he made her want to try harder, be better, he loved challenging her, though sometimes she felt that this was a negative thing.

She brushed away a piece of hair that had fallen in her face when she brushed over the bruise on her cheek. It was healed by now. She remembered that he had taken care of her when he found out her grandfather had hurt her. That brought back all the memories she had of him.

When they picked out their wedding cake, though the wedding part didn’t go according to plans, the notion of the two picking out their cake still mattered to her and touched her heart, but she would never say that out loud.

The way he held her close when Xavier was staring at her. He probably only did it to make their ploy look believable, but she felt reassurance when he did pulled her close to him. He probably didn’t even think much of it.

“What are you doing?” Kris asked breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked over to him, and as quickly as possible she pushed everything she felt aside. He was staring straight at her.

“Nothing.” She answered as coolly hoping he couldn’t see through the mask she put her on. She didn’t want him to see the mess that lay behind that mask.

------

He barely got any sleep last night. He felt like he could rip off the head of the next person he saw. His emotions were dialed up to high and he had never felt so bipolar.

He turned back and stared at Sarang's sleeping figure. He had to fight the urge to jump her right now because she had kicked the blanket away showcasing her entire body to him. Her long, lean legs drove him nuts and it was even worst that she was only wearing a shirt, his shirt

Biting his lips he went over to her side of the bed, taking a quick glance at her face before pulling the blankets over her small body. He took sight of her spotless white skin, the way she bit her delicious lower lip in her sleep and the pinkish tone of her cheeks.  He wanted to touch her so badly.

He quickly got out of the room as fast as he could. The things that the woman did to him were insane. He couldn't help but think how ironic it was, he wasn't able to touch his fiancée, a sad thing indeed.

He went into the living room before he grabbed his phone and dialed Lay's number. The techie answered on the third ring.

"What the hell happened?" He asked coldly. He heard shuffling on the other line before Lay answered.

"Something went wrong man. Something was up with the whole thing." Lay replied calmly and Kris could hear Tao and Chen shouting curses in the background. That wasn’t a good sign.

"What's what supposed to mean?" He asked clearly bothered with the turn of events. He could already feel it, something was wrong. It was his intuition telling him that things were not over yet.

"It means that Xavier's gone. Not dead gone, like body gone. Luhan and Tao only found the body of the head, not Xavier's. He’s still alive.” Lay answered and Kris could feel Hell rise up underneath his feet.

“What the hell happened?”

“Well Sarang’s information wasn’t wrong, but I think that Xavier knew we were going to be there. Whatever he did, he made it look like you had killed him when in reality you didn’t.” Lay confirmed robotically.

“Is it safe to come back?” He asked, praying that the answer was yes because he didn’t know if he could be alone with Sarang for any longer.

“Yes, it’s safe to return. Why? Did something happen?” Lay asked suspiciously. He was worried about Sarang. Kris groaned, great s were growing weak for her, even better.

"Why do you sound like a worried father? I did nothing to her." He rebutted, but that was only half true. If nothing means cornering her into the counter of the bathroom and attacking her with kisses was nothing then he hadn't done a thing, but he could tell that Lay would say otherwise. He decided to withdraw that information from his friend.

"Whatever Dragon. Just get back here." Lay ordered before he ended the call. Kris sighed, turning around to find Sarang standing here.  He couldn’t help but stare at her frame with his shirt hanging loosely on her, her hair was a wavy mess and the sun shined down beautifully on her.

He stared at her for half minute, amused with how breathtaking she looked. Then he noticed how far her eyes looked. She looked like she was half a world away, trying to fight through armies and swim across oceans. She looked so far away, but so close at the same time. Her brows were furrowed and she bit her lower lip in concentration. What was she thinking about?

He wanted to rattle her open and read all her thoughts. He wanted to know what she was thinking, how she was taking everything, what she had planned. He just wanted to know more and more about her.

He wanted to hit himself for this because getting close to her was never part of their deal. He was supposed to kill her, why mark her if he wouldn't kill her, but he knew he couldn't kill her. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't hurt her, he already hurt her enough.

"What are you doing?" He asked softly to himself. The question was intended for him, but Sarang thought it was intended for her. She blinked and her eyes fluttered over to him.

"Nothing." She answered coldly. There were no emotions in her eyes, no feelings laced in her voice. Nothing at all. He knew that Sarang was either a master at concealing her emotions, or she didn’t care at all.

"Get your things, we're going back." He told her. She nodded before she rushed back into the bedroom. If he didn't know any better he would had assumed she was avoiding him. She returned a few seconds later with her dress hung over her shoulder and her bag in hand. Her eyes were glued to the ground and he couldn’t help but noticed how different she was acting.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concerned with whatever was going on with her. Did she hear his phone call with Lay?

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She responded. “Let’s hurry the hell up, and stop by the apartment so I can change.” She ordered walking past him. She quickly put her shoes on and pulled the front door open before stepping out.

Yeah, she was acting differently.

-----

Sarang was pissed off when she found out that Xavier was alive. She didn't know how the hell he was alive. She saw Kris shoot a bullet in the man. She saw his body fall.

She leaned against the balcony. After Kris made a quick pit stop so she can change into something more appropriate, because she knew that EXOM would ask questions if they returned with her in Kris's shirt, they went back to the hideout.

Kris being Kris had tried shutting her out of all conversations, revealing nothing to her. Thankfully for her, Luhan and Lay had filled in all the blank spots for her. She didn’t understand why he couldn’t just tell her, she wasn’t going to betray them. Did he really distrust her that much?

"Hey, are you okay?"

She looked up to find Luhan standing across from her. His back was leaning against the back of the wall, next to the door.  

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She retorted. He tilted his head and eyed her curiously. She hated how this doe-eyed man got under her skin, like he could read her like an open book.

“What happened between you guys last night?” He brought her.

“Why are you so curious?”

“Kris is acting like a bigger than usual, that’s why.” He answered.

“I didn’t do anything.” That wasn’t a total lie on her part. He nodded his head while he crossed his arms. She could tell that Luhan didn’t believe her, hell she didn’t believe herself either.

“How’s the search for Xavier going?” She asked. She needed to bring the conversation off her and Kris and onto the problem they had right now. Xavier was alive and if she was him, she’ll be pretty revengeful right now.

“Stop trying to change the topic.” Luhan snapped stubbornly. He wasn’t going to let her off so easily. She wanted to know why he was so persistent. None of her issues with Kris concerned him, so why was Luhan asking so much.

“Why do you want to know?” She asked, annoyed with where this conversation was leading.

“Because he’s my friend Sarang and because you’re my friend.” He responded and he sounded truly sincere about his words. It was a foreign thing to her, after her parents died there wasn’t anybody else who worried about her or cared about what happened to her. She wasn’t used to people worrying about her, or people trying to help her. In a way she was like a child, still learning the ropes on how the world worked.

“He kissed me.” She admitted. She waited to see how Luhan would react, but his reaction, or rather lack of, surprised her.

“So that is what’s bothering you?” He asked. He didn’t look shock about her confession. Maybe he knew all along, maybe he already guessed it.   

“No.” She defended, “Oh, fine, yes, it’s bothering me.” She snapped. She didn’t want to be in this position. She didn’t want to look weak in front of Luhan, or any of them for that matter. Where was the cold-hearted, strong Lee Sarang when she needed her?

“You like him.” Luhan mumbled. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Sarang didn’t say anything, but that only affirmed his statement.

“What am I supposed to do now, because I can’t like him, and I can’t hate him. The worst part is that I don’t even know where these feelings came from. I mean, I’m not even supposed to be feeling like this, it was supposed to be different, I was supposed to be different. That’s the most upsetting part, knowing that I have no control over my feelings.”

Luhan was really quiet afterwards; he just stared into the air like he was trying to gather all his thoughts together before he spoke.

“God I wished you didn’t like him.” Luhan mumbled. Sarang’s heart instantly fell when she heard his words. Luhan looked straight at her and stepped closer to her. With each step Sarang felt herself being cornered, just like last night with Kris.

“Luhan, what are y-“

“I’m going to apologize beforehand, but just let me test this out.” He cut her off. She didn’t know what he was talking about anymore.

He whispered something else, but it was too soft for her to hear clearly.

She didn’t say anything afterwards because in the next few seconds his body had pressed against hers, his arms wrapped around her thin waist and his soft lips connected with hers.

how's that for a cliffhanger *inserts evil laugh*