one week later

I sprint through the woods, weaponless in the dangerous situation I'm in. The enemy can be heard from a short distance with the loud rustling of the bushes. I'm usually able to run for a long distance --until I strain myself and start feeling irritated at my tiredness like right now.

“6 o'clock from the building -- I'm about to pass out-- he took my gun,” I pant through the walkie talkie, continuing to run my furthest away from the chasing enemy. I let out a grunt of frustration when no one replies.

“Your boss needs help you ing pricks!”

Not even a single scratch coming from the walkie talkie.

--Ah , Whatever.

I stop running and take a moment to catch my breath, waiting for the enemy to catch up. Once the ugly bastard with the extra furry eyebrows was close enough to be able to directly kill me with the bullet, he immediately lifts my gun he took from me and shoots it. In a split second I dodge the bullet, lunging myself towards this overweight man, and end up only weakly punching his cheek, lacking strength from running so much.

His heavy panting was obvious that his strength was almost all gone as well, and his only ability with the strength he had left was to shoot the bullets with the gun he had in his hand. I take my advantage and kick his stomach with my leg, causing him to fall back and drop the gun. I take out my knife to make my way into stabbing him until his quick reflexes made him get up and retrieve the gun. He shoots another bullet but luckily I was able to dodge it by hitting it away with my knife.

“Just get out of here, will ya?” I ask.

“No can do, miss. This is my building.”

“What do you even do here, you useless, fat pig?”

He laughs at my audacity, “I should be asking you the same thing, you scrawny little .”

Just then Youngjae swiftly comes out of the bushes behind the man and lifts his finger to his lips, telling me to make his presence unknown. I take a quick step forward with my arm holding the sharp knife, causing the man to take a step back, surprised by my sudden threat. I take more steps closer to the man, and he finally takes his defense and loads the gun, only to find nothing loading.

“Oh poor you, to stupidly use the last bullet like that,” I smirk.

Youngjae fires his own gun which causes the enemy to fall on his knees, gasping for his life.

“You could have responded if you were going to come. I could have dealt with running a few more miles,” I direct to Youngjae.

He shoots one more bullet to make sure that we finished off the enemy.

“Let's just go, I promised Hanwul that I'm going to buy him another toy when he gets back from daycare,” he replies.

I roll my eyes and follow Youngjae's lead back to our ride. My expectations were right, it does take a lot of dedication and sacrifice in raising Hanwul correctly. Even though we spent a lot of money on new clothes and toys for Hanwul (don't forget about the snacks), I'm satisfied that he's happy as of now.

The one thing I learned this past week is that you need a lot of patience for a kid like Hanwul. He's such a brat at times but you can't help but to accept it because of the environment he grew up in his short five year life. I'm doing my best to change that, but I don't exactly know where to start myself.

Oh, and Jongup still hasn't come back.

“Any news on Jongup?” I ask as we were all riding in our limo back to our place.

“Not that I know of, do you think he got so nervous that he chickened out and didn't want to tell us and ran away?” Himchan replies.

Only a sigh comes back in reply, I wish he'd come back soon. I have a lot of things to talk about.

This past week without Jongup made me come to a realization that in the three years that I have been suffering I've only depended on him whenever I needed something, and he was the only one that fully knew me inside and out. I want to tell him about how much stress I'm getting these days, how disgusting and cheesy I find Himchan, and how Hanwul is such a brat but my love for him will always be unconditional. All these tiny things I've been keeping in seems as if they've been building up inside of me, and that I'm going to explode if I don't let these things out.

We've tried calling him, but his phone was turned off. Worst case scenario he's dead, and if he doesn't come back by tomorrow we're going to start searching for him because we did take account that he is a grown up now, and maybe he wanted some time to himself. It's not like he can't take care of himself anyway.

++

My eyes are glued onto the computer screen meanwhile my fingers are madly typing against my keyboard.

Total killed: 3

Profit gained: $206

No one replied to their boss despite her request through the walkie talkie. Punishment:

I let out a yawn and stretch my arms into the air, thinking about what their punishment should be. Harsher trainings? Extra missions? Cutting their salary? Starving Daehyun and taking away all of Himchan's beauty products?

I like the last one, I smirk.

My door flings open and Hanwul comes barging in, showing off his kit of all these different types of dinosaurs.

“Look what Youngjae-hyung got me, noona!”

I tip back in my chair as Hanwul comes jumping onto my knees, rubbing the box in front of my face.

“It looks really cool, Hanwul. You're so lucky,” I say, putting the box away from my face, looking at Hanwul's sweaty face after playing and running around so much in daycare.

“How was daycare?” I wrap my arms around his waists so he wouldn't fall off my chair.

He shrugs, “It was good.”

“Are you making a lot of friends?”

“I'm going to scare everyone with my dinosaurs tomorrow!”

“Hanwul, you don't scare people away. You have to--”

Someone knocks on my door and Youngjae who was observing the two of us open it, “Madam, Jongup has come home,” the maid says.

Jongup's back?

My hands immediately put Hanwul off my lap and I head downstairs. In front of the open door was Jongup leaning his arm against the door, his backpack hanging on one of his shoulders as he takes off his shoes. He looks up after taking successfully taking both his shoes off and makes eye contact with me. My feet automatically dash towards him and wrap my arms around him.

“Where were you?” I ask.

He stares off into space for a while, “I was not expecting that.”

I release myself from Jongup and take a space back, realizing what I just did myself. I normally don't show a lot of skin ship with people, was I just that excited that he's home? Did I really miss him that much?

Yongguk and Himchan come rushing behind, “How come you weren't picking up your phone?” Himchan asks.

“I sort of dropped it in the toilet and it died.”

I roll my eyes but a smile follows after, “What were you doing this past week?”

He looks away and bites his lip, wondering how to explain, “I have to talk to you privately about that.”

Jongup's eyes widen when he sees Hanwul walking in with Youngjae and Daehyun. If I recall, after we got Hanwul, Jongup stayed in his room, preparing for his interview and never really got a chance to see or meet Hanwul.

Daehyun takes an advantage of that and puts an arm around Youngjae's shoulder, “I know what you're thinking, Jongup. It is …. he's Youngjae's and my child.”

Everyone glares at Daehyun, so he takes his hands off of Youngjae and whistles away back to into his room.

“Really, who is he?” Jongup asks.

“The night Youngjae and I went on a mission, we ended up picking him up.”

“Wasn't he the kid you were suppose to kill?”

I let out a sigh and shut my eyes, nice going, Jongup.

Taking a deep breathe I look behind into Hanwul's eyes, the feeling of anger and betrayal stirring inside of him.

“You said you wouldn't kill me!”

“Hanwul, it's a misunderstanding--”

“Noona I hate you!”

Hanwul turns his back and runs back into Youngjae's room, and he follows shortly after Hanwul dashes away.

“I guess I've said something I shouldn't have?”

I shake it away, “It's nothing, now let's go privately talk about the thing you're going to tell me about.”

++

Jongup and I sit side to side, our feet dangling from the rooftop. I've fully explained to him about Hanwul and what exactly is happening, in my life to be specific. Instead not explaining where he was all this time, he carefully listens to everything I wanted to let out and he always responds with the right words. It was like a normal conversation between boss and subordinate except the subordinate being extra humble than he's suppose to be.

Everything about me, nothing about him. It was a bit selfish and it might even come out as annoying, but Jongup was able to put up with it and he was fine with it.But I realized that I spoke too much when I saw the sun going down.

“So, how did your interview go?” I finally ask.

“I think I did okay. I did it like I rehared and got the right reactions I expected them to have.”

I show a confused face towards Jongup and he explains, “The not-so-impressed-but-realizing-that-this-person-is-not-an-ordinary-student kind of look, if that made any sense.”

I shake my head, “I'm sure you'll get in. You're Moon Jongup, anyway.”

He replies with a nervous smile.

“So exactly where were you this past week?”

He hesitates as if he didn't know how to explain, “I ran into a girl.”

Something pangs against my heart, but I hide the pain and instead raise my eyebrows in act of interest, “A girl you say?”

“But not just any girl. I ran into Eunhae.”

My raised eyebrows now furrow together, “What are you trying to say?”

Jongup gulps, “I saw her with another guy.”

“It could just be another guy –maybe even her brother.”

Jongup shakes his head, “She was with … Youngjae's dad.”

I let out a tiny gasp. Why would she be with Youngjae's dad anyway? Wait, that means that bastard is near us. Is he possibly watching an eye on us? Does Eunhae even know who exactly she was talking to? She might not even know that it's Youngjae's father, but what is she doing with him? What is he doing with her?

Jongup continues to explain, “I kept an eye on the two of them that day and met up with her right after they finished their conversation. She told me not to tell anyone, but her family is financially struggling, and she needs to find a way to make money with her 'useless brain'. She works at a pub. --As an item.”

My eyes widen, “So does she …. sleep with other guys?”

“'All the time,' she says. It's the only way to earn money.”

“Is she really that stupid or something? Does she really not know who her boyfriend is?”
 

“Eunhae doesn't want to depend on Himchan, and he doesn't want him to think that she only likes him for his money.”

“But he does know that she doesn't like him for his money! Aren't couples suppose to trust each other and depend each other without counting any scores because they love each other? Himchan is in the mafia, Jongup. If he finds out about this, he has the ability to kill her.”

Jongup sighs, “I've tried all I could do, Saehee. I went to that pub everyday to keep away the guys. I wasted money just to make sure other guys don't touch her. But then she kicked me out, yelling at me that she didn't need any of my help and that she's going to live her own life and make her own money her own way. I don't know exactly how much she's struggling, but she needs some help.”

“No ,” I whisper. “What is she going to do when Himchan finds out? She can't change the fact that she already slept with numerous of guys, he'll--"

He might turn into Yoo Jaewook.

If you think about, Eunhae is in the same situation and Youngjae's mom.

No, he won't. He's Himchan. He can't be like him. I won't let him.

I need to find a way to stop this.

++

One week ago.

Youngjae walks out of Saehee's room after revealing the truth about the relationship between him and Hanwul. Instead of worrying about her reaction, he was more worried about how red her face was and how much pain she looked like she was in. Hopefully, she was healing herself as she was fast asleep.

But then he stops walking, and clenches his fists.

She's so beautiful, his voice rings in his head. Even after all these years, his eyes are only fixed and thinking about her, his heart only belongs to her. But  he knows it's not the other way around. She only finds him as a pain and an annoyance. He only gives her more hard work to do. He regrets hiding from his dad 13 years ago, he should have just died.

There were numerous of times when he would try to give Saehee something simple like a glass of water or tried helping her with her paperwork, but someone, that bastard –Jongup was always faster and beat him to it. He despised how brightly Jongup made Saehee smile, and wondered why he couldn't do the same. It hurt his pride, how can a guy younger than him do so much better?

That's why he wished Jongup would continue to stay away, and everyday he was thankful that he still did not come home. Youngjae just wants Saehee to himself. He wants to be with Saehee, right now.

Youngjae turns his body and walks back to Saehee's room with a fast beating heart. Should he really risk this? What if she wakes up all of the sudden? No, he can't hold it anymore. Three years without her were a serious drag, and it's even more frustrating that he now has the ability to be with her, but always has to hold back. Well not anymore.

His hands gently turn the doorknob and he slowly opens up to see Saehee peacefully resting up in her room. She looked like as if she was Snow White after eating the poisoned apple, and he wanted to kiss her awake. She continues to be in deep sleep as Youngjae takes slow and quiet steps towards her. When he reached her bed, he slowly makes his way and lays next to Saehee, carefully lifting her head so she can lay and his arm.

He looks down and stares at her beautiful, deeply breathing face. He leans his face closer and softly pecks her forehead. He then reaches for the tip of her nose, her cheek, and eventually her lips.

I love you.

Soon her warm body heat and the warm covers Youngjae was laying in made him comfortable, and he wanted to stay like this for eternity, right next to Saehee. His eyes unknowingly closed while he was gently her hair, and soon he joined Saehee in her deep sleep.

++

When Youngjae opens his eyes, the sun was just setting and the sky was orange. Saehee was still sleeping, and Youngjae gets taken aback when he feels her arm wrapping around his waist.

Just then a sudden fear and concern bothers him. He knows Saehee wouldn't like what she sees if she happens to wake up right now. Not wanting to be any more troublesome for the future, he quickly removes the covers off of him. But when he looked up he noticed the door open and Daehyun standing in front of the bed, taking numerous amount of pictures of Youngjae and Saehee spending their lovely nap together.

Youngjae's eyes open wide and quickly chase after the idiotic bastard that dared to have successfully accomplished such a risk.