“Saehee... Saehee-noona.”

Jongups shakes me awake. My eyes slowly open and I look around my surroundings, remembering that I'm sitting in front of Youngjae's room door. I bring my arms around my knees, seeking for warmth in this cold dawn temperature.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“It's still four in the morning,” he responds.

“What are you doing awake?”

“I was going to get a glass of water, until I saw a figure in the middle of the hallway –You should go up and sleep in your room.”

I shake my head, “I'm going to wait until Youngjae comes out.”

Jongup shrugs it off and walks back upstairs. Soon he struggles back down, arms full with a blanket and pillows.

“What are you doing?”

“I don't want you catch a cold while waiting,” he sits on the floor next to me. “Plus, its going to get lonely if you wait here by yourself. Let's wait together.”

I blush a bit as he wraps a blanket around us and places a pillow behind my back. I scoot closer to him and place my head on his shoulder. Jongup never fails to make me feel sad or uncomfortable. I wasn't able to understand why I was feeling this feeling, but I wanted to stay next to Jongup like this for a really long time.

“Thanks, Jongup.”

Suddenly something hits my hand, and I hold in front of my face to see that it was a note written by Youngjae.

Please get me a glass of water.

“I'll get the water –I forgot that I was thirsty as well,” Jongup says. He gets up and disappears into the kitchen.

Is he awake?

I take the blankets off of me and stand back up, facing Youngjae's door. I take a deep breath, and let my hand knock against his door three times.

A few seconds passed, until he opened his door. After properly eating this past week it looks like he finally got some weight back and looked much healthier.

“Jongup's getting the water right now. Can we talk?”

It was then I noticed his sweaty forehead. He was breathing somewhat heavily.

“Are you alright?”

His lifts his arm and places his palm gently on my cheek. He realizese his actions and shoots his arm back to his side and takes a gulp.

“I'm … scared,” he whispers.

I didn't know how to respond for a while. I'm still not used to Youngjae's presence after not being with him for the past three years. Jongup helped me forget most of my past, but now that Youngaje's back –plus being mentally ill confuses me greatly. But most importantly, it surprises me that Youngjae is actually admitting to his feelings. He's scared.

My hand automatically lands on his cheek when I stare into his dark brown eyes. “Don't worry, it was only a dream. You're safe here, nothing will happen.”

He holds the hand that was on his face tightly. I bring our hands down and he pulls me into his room.

“Please, stay by my side.”

“You should go back to sleep.”

“Don't leave me.”

I follow him as he slowly goes back under his bed covers. His still hasn't released his hand from mine. He looks up into my eyes and I look down at his. Soon enough he takes my other hand and brings it up to his hair. I hand no choice and started patting and it, his face looking more pitiful than ever.

Jongup comes into Youngjae's room and just stands at the sight of Youngjae and me. We make eye contact and he lets out a slight smile and places the glass of water on the stand next to Youngjae's bed and walks back out, his pace a little faster than usual.

I stand up to follow after Jongup, until I feel Youngjae's hand squeeze mine. I look back into his saddened eyes, begging me not to leave. I sigh and sit back down to continue petting Youngjae's hair. Just how bad was his nightmare?

As I was putting Youngjae back to sleep, confusion spread across my mind. Why did I even start feeling irritated when Youngjae held me back from chasing after Jongup? Is it possibly that …. I actually like Jongup?

++

I was at my desk, working on some documents until I hear a knock at my door.

“Come in.”

My fingers stop typing against the keyboards once I see Youngjae in front of my door.

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course.”

Pretending like I'm busy, I continue working and typing the documents.

“I want to give it one more shot.”

“Give what one more shot?”

“Our relationship.”

I stop typing for a moment, but caught myself loosing guard and continued.

“I'm sorry, I have no intention of doing so.”

“It's because you like Jongup now, isn't it”

This time I completely stop typing and look straight into his eyes, “Yes, Youngjae. I have feelings for Jongup now. You were just a guy that my dad picked up from the woods and raised when I was sixteen. Now you're just a guy who only gives me pain.”

Youngjae scoffs, “I give you pain?”

“Just go and rest,” I sigh.

“You think I'm acting like this because you think I'm mental, don't you?”

Youngjae, please just get out of my room.

“Why don't you answer me?”

My eyes open widen, you can't hear what I'm saying?

Youngjae doesn't respond, but his eyes long for an answer instead.

“Fine, I guess I do admit that I am a bit off. My dad hit my head so hard that it caused me to be like this. But you know what? You're a bit off too, Saehee. The Saehee I knew wasn't so ignorant like this.” He chokes up a bit, “I'll just pretend we never had something between us. You're just a boss at my job, and I'm just you're subordinate. I'm very sorry for wasting your time like this.”

He turns his back and walks out the door, leaving my words hanging from my mouth. Why is he leaving without my permission? He left before I could even say anything else. His dad hit him in the head? Is that what caused him to loose his mind-reading ability?

But I guess this benefits me in someway. Youngjae and I never had something going on between us. He's just my subordinate, and I am just his boss. He never liked me, or really liked me.

I couldn't help but let the pain shoot right at me and let the tears automatically flow out.

++

The dining table was dead silent. The guys noticed the tense atmosphere going on between me and Youngjae, and decided that it was best to just leave it like that. The sound of our eating utensils hitting against the plates was the only sound that was being made, until Himchan was unable to continue the silence.

“I can't take it anymore!” He yells, spitting out some of his chewed food. “This is too awkward! It's Youngjae's first time eating with us since he came back, and there is no ing alcohol on the table!”

“Thank you, Himchan!” Daehyun hollers. “I just wanted to scream until my lungs pop out. I think that was the longest I've ever stayed silent.”

“Congratulations, Daehyun-.” Jongup says.

Daehyun dramatically slouches in his chair, “Please, do something about these two, Himchan-oppa.”

Himchan shoots up from his chair and points and Youngjae and me, “You two. Go on a mission, now.”

“Did you just tell your boss what to do?” I ask.

“Can you not tell that I don't ing care?! I'm still a solid four damn years older than you, ! What are you going to do about that?!”

“But why a mission?” I groan. “I have too much paperwork to finish already.”

“You know the saying, 'going on missions with another person creates a bond,'” Daehyun says.

“Says who?”

“Me.”

“A-ha! Here's a case,” Himchan holds out a piece of paper. “Someone just requested to kill their child. He's currently hiding in the subway. Why don't you guys look for him and kill the damn boy, will you?”

He throws the paper at me. It was a picture of the boy's face. Judging right on the spot, this person looked like he was still in elementary school.

Youngjae actually gets up from his seat and walks out the door first.

“Hurry up and follow him, Saehee!” Daehyun urges.

I roll my eyes and shove my piece of paper in my pocket as I catch up to Youngjae.

++

Turns out the boy was in the Seoul subway, and since lived an hour away from Seoul we hopped onto the underground train and headed for Seoul. There were still a great amount of people despite the late hour since everyone was coming home from work.

As the two of us walk into the subway, a huge amount of people got in at thes ame time and tried to separate us. Youngjae places an arm around my shoulder so we wouldn't loose each other. When we stepped in the seats were all taken, and the crowd did a very good job in pushing Youngjae and me closer together.

We look into each other's eyes for a split second and look our own separate ways. He doesn't take his arm off me, and we watch the window change into different scenarios every few seconds. Not a word was spoken along the way, and we finally breathed fresh air after coming out of the suffocating train.

First we searched for the boy together, but only old homeless grandpas were lying against the walls, asking for money. The subway station was bigger than we thought, so we decided to split up which did no use. He finally met up with me and we searched the last corner together.

Next to an abandoned ticket vending machine was a little boy, sitting on the cold hard ground. I look at the picture and back at him, finally finding that it was the same person. He was much smaller than I imagined. We have to kill this little toddler?

Yes, I know. I'm a mafia boss and I kill for a living blah blah blah. But –

A different thought occurs to me when I see Youngjae approaching the boy. I follow him, but stay a few feet away. He went up to the boy and squatted down, eye level with the boy.

“How old are you?” Youngjae's asks.

What is he doing?

The boy weakly holds up five fingers. Only five years old? Why would anyone want to kill a five year old? What has this boy done?

“You're very young!” Youngjae continues, “so what's your name?”

“Choi Hanwul,” he mutters.

“Hanwul? As in the sky?”

The boy nods, not knowing what Youngjae exactly meant.

“This noona and I are here to asassinate you, do you know what that means?”

Smooth, Youngjae. Just directly tell the little kid that we're going to kill him.

The boy shakes his head and Youngjae chuckles as he ruffles the boy's unwashed hair, “You don't need to know.”

Just then Hanwul starts crying, “I'm hungry! I miss mommy!”

Does he even have a 'mommy'?

Youngjae gently places his hands on Hanwul's shoulders, “Don't cry, this hyung will buy you some food. What do you want? Snacks? Candy? Ramen?”

He calms down a bit and sniffles, “I want kimbap.”

Youngjae takes him in his arms and walks to a nearby food stall. I somehow end up following them, and somehow end up buying for the meal as well. Hanwul digs in as he shoves the rice ball into his tiny mouth.

“Eat slowly, Hanwul. You have all the time in the world to eat.”

“Youngjae, what exactly are you going to do with this kid?” I ask.

“Please. Just let me take care of him –for a week. You don't have to do anything. Just let him stay at your house. He can sleep in my room, and I'll find an orphanage to send him to.”