Dara’s Point of View:

Was I going remotely insane or did Ji-Yong just say he loved me back?
I paused, my lips. “What did you just say?” I whispered.

softly smiled, running his fingers through my hair. “I said I love you too.”
I couldn’t help but mimic his smile.

Everything in my life just took a turn for the better and it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

For a while I felt this pull towards Ji-Yong that I could never put my finger on. I didn’t know what it was but something in me pointed towards the direction of love. I didn’t listen to myself though. I guess I was just too stubborn to.

You know,” Ji-Yong laced his fingers through mine.
I glanced up, my eyes locking with his.

“I never thought this would happen. After all the bull that happened with Jung Ah, I thought for sure everything in my life was set. That I’d go on with only myself to worry about. I didn’t have to worry about some or the trouble of being in a relationship…”

I frowned a bit at his words.

The last thing I wanted was for him to feel tied down or that he was in a forced relationship.
Upon noticing this, Ji-Yong squeezed my hand. “But then you came and showed me why I should open up again and I’m glad I did. You give me a purpose. It isn’t just about the guys anymore, I have someone else in my life that makes life worth living.”

I bit my lip, feeling my cheeks heat up almost instantly, his words hitting home.

“But, you have to know,” He perched himself up on his elbow, staring down at me both solemnly and seriously. “Now that you’re in a relationship with me, things will be different from here on.”
I pursed my lips. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that my life isn’t necessarily safe as you could already tell. I have enemies that will do anything and everything to bring me and the guys down even if that means going after the people I love.”
I gulped, shifting my gaze elsewhere.

“If you thought what Luke did to you was bad, you haven’t seen the worse yet.”
I shifted in bed, not knowing what to say.

“Hey,” He thumbed my chin gently. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Alright?”
I looked into his eyes before nodding.
I know he would keep me safe. He’s done it one too many times before, I have more than enough faith andtrust in him.

“Despite my dangerous lifestyle, I love you and I will do anything to protect you. You’re a part of my life now which means you’re under my wing. The guys have your back too. They won’t let anyone hurt you either.”
I smiled softly.

“But, you also have to know that being in a relationship with me also means that there are some things that you can’t know. Business wise.”
I nodded. “I understand.”

“So when I tell you to leave the room, you leave. Alright?”
I nodded once more. “Gotcha.”

“And when you’re in the same room with us, you don’t ask questions nor do you say a word about what you’ve seen that includes telling Bom anything.”
I signaled with my fingers across my lips as a sign that they’re locked and I’ve thrown away the key.

Ji-Yong chuckled, leaning over and pecking my lips gently. “You’re so cute.”

I faked a cough, giving him a stern look.
He put his hands up. “I mean, y, sorry.” He teased before capturing my lips in a kiss once more.

I pulled away. “Eye, eye, captain.” I saluted him referring back to his previous orders about what I shouldn’t and should do.
He let out a whole-hearted laugh. “What would I do without you, huh?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “But I can tell you one thing…” I smirked. “You’d have one helluva boring life.”

“You got that right.” He chuckled, pulling me into his arms.
I sighed in content. Everything in my life was finally perfect… at least, for the most part it is. I still had one more problem to take care of.

“Ji-Yong?”

“Hm?”

“What time is it?”

His eyes widened. “.” He rasped, pulling his phone out. He let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. It’s only half past eleven. You missed half of yourEnglish class.” He frowned. “I’m sorry. I know I told you I’d have to back by the time lunch was over--”

“It’s alright,” I waved my hand dismissively. “It’s not like you knew your car was wired with explosives.”
He faintly smiled.

“As much as I’d hate for this cuddling session to end,” I sat up. “It has to.”
Groaning, Ji-Yong threw his arm over his eyes, pushing himself so that he now laid on his back. “I don’t want to.” He whined childishly.

I laughed, pushing his shoulder slightly. “Come on you , we have to go. You promised, remember?” I cooed playfully.
“What did you just call me?” Ji-Yong removed his arm from his eyes, looking at me skeptically.
I bit my lip. “Nothing.” I sing-sang innocently.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Bull.”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
He nodded his head. “Say it, Dara.”

“Say what?”
“What you called me.”

“I didn’t call you anything.” I looked away from him, trying so hard to contain my laughter.
Smirking, Ji-Yong cocked his head to the side effortlessly. “Alright, then I’ll just have to get it out of you.”
“What do you mean?” I stared at him with big eyes.

“You’ll see soon enough.” He smirked, moving on his hands and knees and before I had the chance to say anything, Ji-Yong pounced on top of me, his fingers crawling into my sides making me squeal out in laughter.

“No, stop!” I called out desperately, wanting him to stop tickling me.
He shook his head, grinning down at me. “No way!”

“P-please!” I choked out in between my laughing fits.

“Tell me what you said!” He countered.

“Never!” I laughed.

“Then I’m never going to stop.” He chuckled, continuing to tickle me wherever he could.

I was about the color of a tomato by now, Ji-Yong’s fingers making me cave sooner than I expected.

“Alright!” I yelled.
He slowly came to a halt though his fingers still rested on my waist. “What was that?”

“I’ll tell you!”

He grinned in satisfaction. “Go ahead.”
I shook my head. “First you gotta get off of me.” I tried to negotiate but Ji-Yong was smarter and caught on almost immediately.

“Yeah, okay, babe.” He sarcastically remarked. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”

“No, I just don’t trust that you’d stop after I tell you.”

“And you think I trust that you wont just run away from me if I let you go?” He cocked a brow.
I sighed. “I hate you.” I pouted.

“No you don’t.”
I nodded. “I do.”

“If you did, you wouldn’t even be here right now.”
I sighed for about the third time today. “You’re so difficult.”

“And you aren’t?”
I shrugged, laughing.

“You know you’re doing a good job at trying to change the subject.”
“Thank you.”

“Your welcome. Now, tell me what you said and you’re a free girl.”
I contemplated this before finally, I gave up. “Okay, okay…” I took a deep breath. 

“I called you a .” I mumbled.

“A what?” He faked not being able to hear me as he pressed an open hand to the side of his ear.

I rolled my eyes. “I called you a , you idiot!”
He laughed. “Really babe? A ? What kind of ing is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re so weird.”
I laughed. “That makes two of us, babe.” I smirked.

“Mm,” Ji-Yong bit his lip. “That sounds so y when you say that.”

“Say what?” I played stupid. “Babe?” I spoke in a low, seductive voice.
He groaned. “Jesus babe, the things you do to me…”

I grinned. “I know.” I laughed. “Now let’s go before someone notices we left.”
“I doubt anyone would notice.”

“With our luck they probably will now.” I pushed him off of me before standing up and walking over to my clothes.
I was just about to pick them up when I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. 

“Ji-Yong…”

“Hm?” He mumbled against my skin, his lips laying several kisses on my bare shoulder making me shiver under his soft touch.

“Not now.” I breathed out unevenly.

“Come on babe,” He slid his hands up so that they cupped my s, giving them a tender squeeze causing a moan to escape through my lips. “We can just stay here and enjoy each other’s company…”

Just as I was about to surrender to his temptations, my common sense came back. Pulling myself out of his arms, I shook my head. “No Ji-Yong, we have to go.”

“Why the are you in such a rush to go back to school so quick?”
“Because I already missed like three days?!” I stared at him incredulously.
“
So? Who gives a ?” He spat. “It’s just school!”

“Just school?” I laughed humorlessly. “Ji-Yong, school determines our future. Of 
course I care! I know you have your future planned out and all but I don’t. If I want to make something of myself, I need to get good grades and graduate without any misconduct.”
Chuckling, Ji-Yong shook his head. “This is ing stupid.”

“No, it’s reality. You just seem to live in some sort of fantasy that everything is going to be handed to you. You’re used to always getting what you want, am I right?”

His eyes were hard on mine.

I took that as a yes. “Well, newsflash buddy, that’s soon going to come to an end especially when it comes to me.”

“So, what? You’re just going to reject me every single time I wanna ?”
The words came out so harsh and vile that I immediately felt my heart drop from my chest. It felt as if the whole world came to a halt and the only two things that were still alive were Ji-Yong and I.

After what felt like forever, I finally spoke up. “Is that what you think I am? Just a ‘’?” I spat the word as if it were dirt on my tongue.
Ji-Yong stared at me long and hard, silence overwhelming us.

I shook my head. “You’re unbelievable and I don’t mean that in a nice way.” I sneered, leaning down to grab my bra as I slipped it on before putting on my shirt.

“Dara--”

“I can’t believe you right now. I mean, we just made up from our previous fight and things were finally looking good between us,” I paused, collecting my thoughts. 

“And you just have to start another one?” I stared at him in complete disbelief. 

“How much of an can you really be?”
Ji-Yong pressed his lips together in a straight line, at a loss for words for the first time in forever.
“I guess Kayla was right about you.” I spat, disgusted. “You only do care about .”

“Don’t you ing dare believe that two faced son of a .” He hissed bitterly. 

“She’s nothing but trouble.”

“Or,” I faked surprise. “You’re just mad because she was actually speaking the truth.”
“No.” He spat. “If I just wanted to you, I would have done that a long time ago.”

“Why rush it?” I laughed resentfully. “I mean, you’re smart. You reeled me in, made me feel as if I meant something to you.” I scoffed. “I even believed you when you told me you loved me.”

“I do love you!”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
“
Are you ing kidding me right now Dara?” Ji-Yong spat.
“No.”
“God damn it, Sel.” He sighed in frustration, running his fingers through his hair. 

“I was just mad okay?”
“We all get mad, Ji-Yong. I’m fuming right now but you don’t see me treating you like !”
his lips, Ji-Yong looked away. “I hate this.”

“Maybe it’d be better if we just spend some time apart…”

“Hell no.” Ji-Yong barked. “There is no way we’re ending this.”
“Why? I won’t give you what you want. You might as well be with someone who could handle your B.S. and have with you whenever you want.”

“If I wanted someone like that, I would have still been with Jung Ah.”
“Why don’t you go to the diner and take her back then?”

“Because I don’t want her. I want you.” He mumbled the last part, making my heart skip a beat.
I shook my head, feeling tears of frustration building up in the back of my eyes. “Why do you do this to me?” I whispered.
Ji-Yong stared at me solemnly.

“Huh?” I countered. “Why do you go from being happy to angry? Why do you make me feel like ? Most importantly, why can’t you just let yourself be happy?”
I could tell I hit a nerve in Ji-Yong because he stared at me as though he were a deer caught in the headlights. I paused, finally putting the pieces together. “You push everyone you care about away. For what?”

“I don’t know.”
I nodded my head, pulling my bottom lip in my mouth. “It’s like every time you feel yourself getting close to someone or just being happy, you turn into this monster…”
“I’m sorry.”
I let out a deep breath. “You don’t have to be sorry.” I looked down at my feet, fumbling with my thumbs. “Just stop doing this to me… to yourself.”

He nodded, looking away, at a loss for words once more. Walking over to his shirt on the ground, he picked it up, slipping it over his head. “Let’s go.”
I opened my mouth to say something but decided against it as I merely just followed Ji-Yong out of the room and down the stairs.

“See you guys later!” Ji-Yong called out, walking out the front door without even a glance back at either me, to make sure I was still there or the guys.

I sighed, turning to face them. Waving, I smiled softly. “Bye guys.”

“Bye Dara.” They all spoke in sync making me laugh lightly.

“Hopefully I’ll see you guys around.”

“Me too.”

“You okay?” Seung Hyun spoke up.
I raised an eyebrow. It’s weird how this guy I barely even knew, read me like a book. “Yeah, I’m fine…”

“You sure?”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“
Anytime.”
Waving once more, I walked out, closing the door softly behind me.

“What took you so long?” Ji-Yong asked me as soon as I stepped foot into what I 

presumed was another car of his.
“I was saying goodbye to the guys.” I muttered, pulling the seatbelt across my body.

He nodded, his face as hard as a rock, no emotions present.
I stiffened the moment Ji-Yong began pulling out of the driveway. I couldn’t help but feel as if today’s previous events will occur once more.

Upon noticing this, Ji-Yong cleared his throat. “I checked every inch of the car, we’re safe.”
I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding in this whole time. 

“Thanks.”
He shrugged. “I said I’d keep you safe, I meant it.”

I pressed my lips together, my stomach churning painfully.

When we arrived to school, Ji-Yong parked in front of the doors.
Unlocking my seat belt, I opened the door, stepping out before shutting it closed. As I began walking, I noticed Ji-Yong wasn’t beside me. Turning around, I crouched down in level with the window. “Aren’t you coming?”

He shook his head.

I sighed. “Ji-Yong--”

“Just go without me, I have some business to take care of.” He spoke monotonously.
“
But--”
“
Just go Dara.” He spoke sternly. “I’ll see you later, alright?”

“Whatever.” I dropped the subject, standing up tall and taking a step back.
Without even another word, Ji-Yong drove off leaving me standing there alone and confused.