hey guys
so i know ive taken extra long to update this time,
so to make up for it, i wrote 4000+ words
just for you<3
lool
anyhows
its like...... 4am
and i need to get up in 2hours
so im not going to leave a foot note this time.
i hope you enjoy this chapter ^^
(btw, SHINee comes back in the next chapter
i just needed to get this part done because its important)

as awlways,
xxsaranghaeDFMB
__________________________________________________

–RECAP–

“I made it~” he sang in that sing-song voice of his.

“I’m glad.” I replied, snuggling my head into his damp chest. Yes, he was sweaty, but I could care less. He was half way there and I was overjoyed.

–GD’s POV–

I was tired.
SO, RIDICULOUSLY TIRED.
But having Sunghee in my arms made it all worth it.
For a second, I thought that it was all over and done with. I think it’s called wishful thinking these days.

“Jiyoung.” Sulyeongnim’s voice tore me away from my little land of thoughts. Sunghee and I stepped away from eachother and I bowed at 90 degrees as she returned to he grandfather’s side.

“You’ve done exceptionally well in the first test.” He commended me, and I heaved a sigh of relief. “However, you now have the second test to complete.”
My breath hitched again before he spoke. “However, as you are the youngest applicant we’ve had and you are still a minor, I’ve decided to cut out the second endurance test.”
THANK ING GOD. My arms were seriously going to give out and my legs were going numb.

One of the hyungnims untied my hands as Sulyeongnim continued. “You have six hours to prepare for the infiltration of the mansion. At night fall, you will have to take something of value from the leader and make it out safely. You cannot return to the Kim House until you have completely lost them so if you are caught, your chances of staying may be over.” He warned.

I nodded and waited for him to leave before I ran/limped over to Sunghee where I collapsed in her arms.

“Aigoo. You did so well!” She commended me.

I managed the biggest smile that I could.
“Let’s get you some food, eh?” she literally picked me up and hauled me over her shoulder. It took me a second to hear the other hyungnims laughing at my larger form slung over the smaller girl’s shoulder like a sack of rice.

“Kaja~!” she sang happily and proceeded to skip(well sort of) to our room with me on her shoulder.

The hyungnims also joined in the celebration. Well, it wasn’t exactly a celebration. More like a mid-point congratulatory meal. I tried to stay away from eating too much, since I didn’t want to feel bloated for my last test.

Soon, it was nightfall and we all piled back into the courtyard again.

“Jiyoung, for your last test, you must infiltrate an enemy base and take one item of value from the leader.” That didn’t sound terribly hard. It was a simple mission right? “The base you have been assigned is the Kwon Mansion.”

Say. WHAT.

“You will have the assistance of my granddaughter, who has been assisting in these missions for a year now. You will be taken to the residence in an hour. You have until then to prepare.” He dismissed us.

I sat in our room silently, studying the wooden floorboards with a stare that I would be scared to face myself.  Sunghee was in the bathroom, changing into more appropriate clothing.

“–young-ah. Yah! Jiyoung!” her voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see her in a black tight fitting turtleneck shirt and tights of the same color. “You alright there? You look like you could kill a man…” she muttered, casually re-tying her hair.

“I’m just… thinking.” I replied lamely. I didn’t even know what I was thinking, much less what I was doing.

“Well, you might want to get changed into some blacks. It’ll make it easier for you to get around unnoticed.” She tossed a black shirt in my direction. It was funny how she would go into the bathroom all bubbly and come out ready to kill if and when necessary.

An hour later, prep time was up and we were travelling in a ute, on our way to the mansion. I was nervously fiddling my thumbs or tapping my fingers or something somewhat irritable. Sunghee grabbed my hands with her little ones and held onto them with a death grip that I’ve only personally encountered a few times in my life.

“Jiyoung. Snap out of it.” She said. “Worrying about it isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
I nodded. She was right. I tried to look on the brighter side of things. After this experience, I would never have to look at that dreaded place ever again. So instead I tried to think of what my dad valued. My mind started working itself over and over and I finally got it.
I needed to get my mom out of there. She didn't like how he treated her either and she didn't want to be in there any more than I did. She was the one who helped me out of there in the first place.

As soon as I got there, I explained my plan to Sunghee.

We were going to sneak through the back gate and get my mom, who was probably sitting by herself in the back garden, to come with us. The guards out the back would be too drunk to do anything anyway so that would be pretty easy for us to get through. We had a few chloroform soaked rags each if we needed them anyway.

I explained the floor plan of the mansion to her and we made the decision to climb the back wall rather than try and break past the guards. That part went successfully and the two of us split up to deal with separate things. I would get my mum to the gate and she would be knocking out the guards at the gate.
As expected, she was sitting on her bench, staring at nothing but the stars in the sky, no doubt thinking about her past, before she married my father.

“Mom..” my voice cracked as I whispered the familiar name.

She perked up a bit and turned her head slowly towards me. “Ji…young?”

I ran forward to hug her. “Mom… I missed you so much.” I hugged her tightly.

“Jiyoung… is it really you? What did you come back for stupid boy?” she scolded me in a hushed voice.

“I came back to get you out.” I replied. “We gotta get going. Come on.” I urged.

“I can’t…” she replied. “Y-your father will kill us if he finds out.”

“He won’t find out. Come on already.” I urged again. “What have we got to loose? There’s nothing left for us in this dreaded house anyway.”

She hesitated for a split second. “Ok. Lets go.”

I grabbed her by her frail hand and started running. Mom was a strong woman. One of the strongest women I’ve ever seen. She’s even beat up a few of my dad’s henchmen for the fun of it. But today, she just looked so vulnerable. Her hair was starting to grey, her skin was pale and her eyes sported heavy bags. I suddenly felt a pang of guilt for never thinking of going back to get her until tonight.

We made it to the gate and I was surprised that we hadn’t bumped into any of my dad’s men but it was soon explained as we exited the place. All of the guys in the garden/back gate area who had went to investigate what was happening outside were now either unconscious or dead and piled on top of each other behind the brick wall. I spotted the broken security camera and smirked, knowing that Sunghee had done an exceptional job of covering up. However, she was slouched against the brick wall, seemingly asleep, as apposed to the lazy standing stance I expected to find her in. I knew her better than for her to be arrogant enough to think that she was done with the guys and I cautiously approached her half sitting half lying form. I quickly realized there was blood slowly pooling next to her; her blood. I hurriedly picked her up and ran towards the ute parked down the road, my mom following closely behind. The hyungs seemed to go in defense mode, seeing my mom, but soon realized it was Sunghee that I was carrying and pushed it aside.

I laid her down in the back of the car and they found a torch to see the damage.

She had several horizontal slashes across her chest and a stab wound in her abdomen. We didn't know how deep they were, but we needed to get her to hospital, and fast. The Kim Hanok was way too far away and she would probably loose too much blood by the time we got her inside.

“Hold up a second. Did you get the item?” one of the hyungs asked.

I nodded. “His wife.” I replied without looking at him, taking off my shirt, ripping it in half vertically and wound it around her upper torso.

They looked shocked and slightly skeptical, but didn’t question it further. I knew their minds were all set on getting Sunghee medical help, and fast.

I removed anything suspicious form her, like the knife she had strapped to her calf and the bottle of chloroform, rags and her gloves, as we sped through, I don't even know how many, red lights and almost hit a few people as we made our way to the hospital.
They parked a few blocks away in an alleyway.
I was going to have to take her myself from there.

As I ran under the dim streetlights, I remembered seeing the color drain slowly from her face. Her hands were starting to go cold and I was so ing scared that she was going to die before I got her to the hospital.

Every step before I got to the hospital was etched into my head. I can still remember the fear, and the panic eating away at my conscious. But as soon as I stepped foot in the white building, it was all a rush. I vaguely remember her being taken out of my arms and put on a stretcher. The metallic stench of blood, her blood, on my arms and my bare chest as I stumbled my way to a nearby chair and watched her being rushed around the corner, to an operation room no doubt. I didn't even notice when one of the nurses draped a hospital blanket over my unprotected shoulders.

The doctors asked me questions. They asked who she was, who I was, where I found her, if I knew what caused it, if I knew who caused it. I wanted to tell them, but I knew better than that by now. She and I belonged to the underground of Seoul. We didn't exist to the upper world. There were no records of us. No traces of us. Only a blurred face faintly sketched in the minds of a few unknowing, innocent children as we watched them play together from a distance.

“I don’t know who she is, or what happened to her.” I told them. “I found her lying in an alleyway as I was walking around. I’m a homeless boy and I don’t have any connections to her.” It hurt to say those words, but I knew that was what I had to do. If they found me out, they would connect me to my father and that would be the end of Kwon Kim Jiyoung. Not only will that be the end of me, but they will also begin to be suspicious of Sunghee and if she was found out too, she would be no better off than I was and I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her.

They came to me later on, telling me they needed permission to operate on her. I told them yes, obviously. It was strange that they would ask permission from a twelve year old. As they ran back to the room, I wondered if I would get to see her smile again. It worried me to no end. Hours passed like years and after what seemed like an eternity, they wheeled her out of the room, all of them looking somewhat relieved. They commended me for bringing her at the time that I did or she possibly wouldn’t have made it. They said none of her vitals were affected and she would live and would be released as soon as all the tests and blood transfusions were completed. I breathed a sigh of relief at that.

I excused myself and left the building, explaining to the receptionist that I would be back tomorrow morning to visit ‘the girl in room 430’ on my way out. I walked back to the ute slowly, kicking a few stones or pebbles as I went. I knew today would be frightening, but not as crazy as it was today. I opened the door of the ute and let the hyungs fire their questions at me.

“She’s ok. She’ll be released after they run a few tests and her blood transfusions are done with and we can pick her up then.” I explained. They all breathed the same sigh of relief I did when I was told those words. “I’ll visit her tomorrow morning when she wakes up.”
“That’s good.” One of the hyungs smiled. “Now, why did you go into the trouble of getting Kwon’s wife? I’m surprised she’s as calm about this as she is. I was expecting her not to cooperate or something.”
That's right, they don’t know yet. I took in a breath before I revealed my secret. “I’m… I’m the heir of the Kwon family. This is my mother.” I replied. “Both of us have wanted to get away from the dirtbag for years now and we’re glad to have finally gotten it out of the way.”
They took a second to process the information. “Does Sulyeongnim know about this?” one of them asked.

I nodded yes. “I hate the Kwon family. I don't care what my blood is, I will never be like that bastard.”

They seemed to be happy with that statement. I heard the kinds of things they said about the Kwons and I absolutely loved the crap they talked about my dad.

I talked to Sulyeongnim one on one that night. He seemed a bit angry that someone had hurt his granddaughter, but didn’t get angry at me for not protecting her, as I expected him to. I knew my father Kwon Hyujoon would have beaten me half to death and then starved me for a week if I had failed to protect someone he valued. However, he agreed to house my mother, but in a separate apartment or house until we were sure that we would be safe from the watchful eyes of the Kims.

Just before I left, he stopped me and told me to sit back down.

Confused, I did as I was told and waited for him to speak.

“Jiyoung, you have done well today. You were smart with what you chose to take from the house and you also contributed to saving my granddaughter.” My heart skipped a beat as my stomach twisted itself in a knot in anticipation. “I would be glad to call you my grandson.”

I think I cried.

The next morning, I skipped the whole way to the hospital. Yes, I got on a train for a whole freaken hour and skipped the rest of the way to the little hospital on the outskirts of Seoul. I was ecstatic. I was officially a member of the family.

I couldn’t wait to hug her, and see her smile. I imagined the proud look she would have on her face.

I strode into the white room, smiling from ear to ear. Sunghee was still quite pale, but the improvement was evident in her cheeks. She sitting in her bed, looking outside her window and she smiled as I walked in.

“Hey.” She greeted vaguely, knowing I would have made some sort of a cover up story that would leave the both of us with no connections.

“Hey.” I managed my reply. I was left breathless for some reason. I kind of wanted to just run into her arms and hug her tightly, apologizing for the night before and telling her about the better news.

I guess I did end up doing that, but in a calmer way I guess.

“So how did it go?” she asked. “Did you get your mom out?”

I nodded, “Thanks to you.” She hummed happily.
“And what happened with haraboji?” she asked.
“I’m part of the family now.” I stated proudly.

She beamed. “I’m glad. You’ve gotten really strong. Just like a dragon.” She smiled. “Jiyoung the dragon…” she mumbled to herself. “Ji-dragon. G-dragon! That’s your new nickname.” She decided.

“You’re cute.” I chuckled, walking up to her and pinching her cheeks.

“Thanks oppa.” She said. “You mean a lot to me.” She said shyly.

My heart jumped a bit and my stomach flipped. “You’re beautiful.” I whispered without realizing.

She looked at me and blinked before bursting out in laugher. “And you’re hilarious.” She chuckled.

I stood there awkwardly and blushed. Luckily, the doctor came in before I said anything else possibly embarrassing.

“Kyungmi-shi, your results are back.” He said. Something seemed off. I looked to her and I knew she knew something was wrong as well.

“Well, tell us.” She urged.

“Good news first or bad news?” he asked.

“Good news.” She confirmed.

“Well, the good news it that you will be released as soon as your cuts have closed up enough, which we predict will probably be four days or less because of your fast recovery rate.” That was good news. He hesitated a bit before continuing. “The bad news is…. The cuts across your chest weren’t deep enough to get any vital organs, and there are scratches on your ribcage, but the muscles on your upper torso will not be able to grow properly. We do not have any donors as of now, but we can put you on a waiting list.” He said.

I’m trying to say this in the least awkward manner possible, but I know for a fact that a woman’s chest is important to their self esteem and confidence. I was worried about how Sunghee would react to that, but it seemed I was worried over nothing.

“It’s alright. I’ve never been into being big chested anyway.” I almost laughed at that.

“Oh, I see then.” The doctor smiled and sighed in relief. “If you ever change your mind, we will still be open for you to apply.”

She nodded and the doctor thanked us for understanding and excused himself.

I spent every one of those four days next to her during visiting hours. We sang, and messed around, we pranked some of the nurses (who all took it good-heartedly THANK GOD) and fed eachother at meal times.

“Yah, you know we’re going to have to change your hairstyle or something. You might be recognized while your coming and going.” She said to me on the last night of her stay at the hospital.

“Hmm.” I hummed, agreeing with her. “My dad’s probably got his dogs scouting the whole city looking for the two of us.” I mumbled. I surprised myself with how calm I was about it. Four months ago, I would have trembled in fear at the mention of my father, but there I was, not even really thinking about it.

Three years passed and we continued to grow closer. By this time, the family knew us as the ‘four meter string siblings’. Many of them joked that we were joined by an invisible string of roughly four meters because we were hardly ever found more than four meters apart. Of course, we had our separate lives and did things alone and so on, so forth, but around the house, we were stuck together like glue or, in this case, string.

She joined highschool that year and joined the gang I was in, Big Bang. There were 5 members before her. TOP was 16 at the time, Taeyang and I were 15, Daesung was 14 and she and Seungri were the maknaes at 13. She was gossiped about a lot, since this new girl was hanging out with the jjang kingkas. Eventually, she was confronted and attacked by a group of our ‘fans’, when she then proceeded to roundhouse them all into lala land. She was suspended for that, but it happened quite a few times over the next two years, and she eventually ended up expelled from the school, but continued to visit us when she could. However, after TOP graduated, he decided we needed a during-school leader. We all made the decision to appoint Sunghee the leader, as she had the most experience in this field, regardless of her age.

After she moved, she started dressing as a male. We found she bumped into less trouble and more fangirls than haters. She cut her hair to a boy’s cut and bleached it white blonde, she changed her name and also acted more masculine and, apparently, managed to get a couple of girls to faint. I remembered the laughing that went on after she told us that.

That autumn, the both of us were listening to music under the orange maple tree in the center of the garden and reading random magazines to pass the time. At this point, I had already developed feelings for the younger girl for a long while ago, but because of her extremely protective grandfather and other ‘family’ members and also because I was scared of rejection, nobody else knew of this.

“Hey, Sunghee-ah.” I called her without looking away from my magazine. I was sitting against the trunk of the tree and her head was resting in my lap. I looked to her when I got no response and found her soundly asleep in the warm autumn sunlight.

Now don't call me erted when I say this, but she looked so kissable there. And me being the idiot that I was, I leaned in to her face. I stopped when I was around a centimeter away and studied her face for a little bit, taking in the sight of her long eyelashes, her cute pink lips and her chubby cheeks. I hesitated, wondering if I would get caught for it, but went ahead with it anyways. She was asleep, she wouldn’t know would she?

It was a blissful moment when my lips touched hers. Its felt like everything in the whole ing world was right and to be completely honest, nothing else mattered anymore. I almost laughed at myself when I thought I felt her kissing back. The thought of her even remotely liking me back was something I called wishful thinking.

“You sneaky bastard. You had to do it while I was asleep didn’t you?” her voice snapped me out of my self-lecture.

I froze and pulled away a bit, looking at her face, unsure of what to do, but I melted into her adorable eyesmile and leaned in to kiss her again.

“I really really like you Sunghee.” I whispered.

“I like you too, Jiyoung.” She replied.

We kept it under wraps at first, but ended up telling Sulyeongnim around a month later. We were still being chased by the Kwons, although we were very close to taking the title as first place, and if they found us together, a lot of people would be affected.

Surprisingly, Sulyeongnim was very happy to hear of our relationship and approved of it but explained that it would not work out in the long run.

“Although you are now a Kim, your father’s blood still runs through your veins and if it so happens that you have a child with Sunghee, he or she cannot be exposed to the outside world until every Kwon is either dead or sided with us.” He said.

It made sense. It didn’t matter how much I wanted to be a Kim, I was biologically a Kwon and that made things more complicated than usual. If they found me out, they would take anything that was mine, and kill everyone related to me. I couldn’t risk that.

We still went on a date that night. I treated her to icecream at a shop nearby and we talked… a lot. Although it killed us both to do it, we decided on keeping our relationship at a distance. From there on, we were no longer dating and more like extremely affectionate siblings. And that's how it’s been up till now.

–End Flashback–

So that’s the history behind me and Sunghee.

“Yah. Who’s treating who today?” Sunghee asked, absentmindedly checking a text on her phone.

“I’ll pay.” I replied, taking the boba from her and taking a sip.

“Rightio.” She smiled. Her smile hasn’t changed, but I still melt every time I see it.

“Hey, are you going to get yourself a boyfriend any time soon?” I asked.

She gave me the ‘I thought we already went over this’ look.

“Look, I just want you to learn to move on and live more. Plus, I’ll always be here. Live it up a bit more.” I said. Those words made my heart ache. I didn't want to give her up, but it would be better for the both of us in the long run. Both of us needed to move on from our relationship and learn to love someone else like that.

“You worry too much about me.” She halfheartedly scolded me. “We’ll both find someone sooner or later, but for now, let’s just hang out." She pulled my arm, dragging me with her.

I was still going to take time to get over her, but I was going to do it. I had to.