It was dark. Pitch black. I felt like I was floating in space, but there was no gravity. I could walk, but there was no ground. No stars. No planets. No moons. No clouds.

There was nothing.

“It’s about time you woke up.”  A voice said. I sat on something hard, and my hands and feet were tied together behind something. My eyes fluttered open, and from all of my training, immediately became alert of my surroundings. I was in a warehouse. I could hear signs of traffic outside, but it was not very loud. I was sitting on an old wooden chair, with my hands tight behind it. In front of me stood a girl that looked to be around my age –21—and behind her about 10 other girls, none of which looked familiar. Their ages seemed to range from 25 all the way down to maybe 8, and they all carried a range of items from baseball bats to long wooden sticks, knives, daggers and katanas.

And none of them looked happy.

I said nothing.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” the woman in front of me said. She had slightly curly blond hair, brown eyes, and was about 5’8” tall. She was wearing a short black skirt with a white button-down shirt tucked into it, a black and white scarf tied around her neck, with black pumps, and my bag on her side.

I still said nothing.

“Answer me!” She screams wildly.

“What do you want me to answer? Your question was slightly rhetorical, and you had framed me with nothing that I could defend myself with. Therefore, I cannot ‘answer you’.” I say calmly.

“Che.” She says, and puts her hands on her hips. “Do you honestly believe that we were just going to let you get away with kissing Jonghyun? IN PUBLIC?” She screams. She goes through my bag and pulls out my phone. She scrolls through it for a second, finding what she wants and pushes the phone in my face. “And what is this?!” the screen on my phone was filled with photos of Jonghyun’s and rest of the SHINee members’ selcas. She puts the phone back in my bag.

I sit there silently, watching her seethe. Saesangs.

She screams in rage and walks up to me, readying her hand, and slapping me across the face, and throws my bag at me.

Hard.

But sensei told me to never let anything faze me.

So it didn’t.

I turned my face towards my attacker slowly, and stared her down which an expressionless face, to make her think she didn’t hurt me. KEY WORDS: make her think. The truth? It hurt A LOT. That girl must have gotten surgery and put cement plates in the back of her hands. She started laughing.

“What? You think you’re tough? I admit you have guts pulling all of this stuff off. Kissing Jonghyun in public, when in truth? You don’t even know him! Then going on stage with him and taking the credit for saving him? Then going back stage? You’re not even famous! You don’t know each other! You can’t do that kind of stuff without MY PERMISSION!” The girl screams, hysterically, and then starts to walk around me slowly. “The best part about this?” She says, now fully behind me, then leans in close to my ear and whispers, “you’re going to pay the price.”

I swing my head back hard, connecting with her nose, and hear her scream in pain. I stand on my tied up legs, dropping my bag to the floor just as the leader screams, “attack her you idiots!”

A tall girl steps forward, no more than 18, with a katana, and tries to swing at me. I jump up, bringing my feet out in front of me in a pike position, causing her to slice through the ropes on my feet, freeing my legs. I land on the ground and swing the chair around hard to connect with her body and breaking the chair into pieces, knocking her out, and leaving only my hands tied together behind my back. Two more girls- who looked about 12 and 16 -step forward to take me on. The younger of the two who was on the left swings at me with her bat, but I do a back-flip out of the way, bringing my arms around my body with my legs tucked in, so that way when I landed, my arms were in front of me instead of behind. The younger girl connects the bat with the older girl on the right, who had no weapon, hitting her in the stomach, and causing her to go into fetal position on the cement floor in pain. The bat girl ignores her injured ally and advances on me. I backhand spring a few times to gain distance between us,-passing the leader who was now on the ground crying because of a broken nose, and grabbing my bag-giving me time to look for an exit. I saw a large garage on my left, but I had nothing to open it with. There were no exits to my right, and then behind me was a door that was chained shut with an old rusty lock. The girl with the bat reaches me, and swings at me again, but I catch the bat, and pull her forward, finally pulling it out of her hands. I grab her arm, and in three swift motions, pinch a nerve in her wrist, her elbow, and finish it off with a karate chop to her neck, knocking her out. There were now seven girls left, but a few looked a little too scared to step forward. A brave looking girl at about 14 came forward with a crowbar, and charges me with a scream. I backed up against the chained door, and waited for her to reach me. Some of the girls in the group behind her yelled for her to stop, but it was too late. I sidestepped her just in time as she swung at me, but instead hit the chain with such force, causing it to shatter, making the door swing open. I stepped behind the girl, pinched two nerves in her neck and yanked up, knocking her out also, and then ran out the door.

~~~<***>~~~

As I reached a crosswalk two blocks from my small condo, my arms, legs and face ached. I had bruises and bleeding rope burns on my wrists and ankles. I chest ached and had a smarting mark reaching across my body from the bag being thrown at me. My face still burned from the slap, and I could feel a black eye starting to swell, and from my reflection in the window of a closed store, I had a nasty bruise on my back all the way down my spine from the chair breaking against me, and a small cut on my neck from the knife that the kidnapper had used against me. I was also slightly jetlagged from the plain I had taken out of Tokyo back to Seoul, even though it was only two hours long. I reach into my bag and pull out my phone, and before I knew it, I was calling Jonghyun.

It rings a few times.

“Hello?” I hear Jonghyun’s voice on the other end.

“Your fans are freaking crazy.” I say breathlessly.

“Katerina? What happened? Are you OK?” Jonghyun asked worriedly.

“I’m fine, but I just want you to know that what I said about being seen with you in public, and ruining yours and my reputations was a lie. It was just mine.” And with that, I hung up on him asking me for details on the accident, and what I meant about my statement of his fans being crazy, and walk up to a tall brick building, with a glass door and a gate leading inside. I press the code into the electronic padlock on the door, unlocking it to let me inside into a narrow hallway. I walked to the very end where an elevator waited to take me up to my room. I walked in, and pressed the top floor-floor14-and waited. As I waited, the elevator music played a familiar song. I listened for a while, and finally it clicked in my head as I walked off the elevator into a short hallway that curved around a corner a few feet down.

EXO’s Miracles in December.

I felt like the elevator was proposing EXO to me now, because of the small fallout I had with Jonghyun.

I walked down the hallway, only passing two doors, and turn the corner. At the end of the hallway was only one door, because of how big that apartment was.

My apartment.

There was only one reason I could pay for it. Just like how there was only one reason why I did karate.

As a child, my parents had owned a restaurant business, and a karate business. My dad was a karate teacher, and my mother a chef. They constantly fought about finances, and having to pay for everything made money tight. I had gone through karate training with my father since I was 3, and had been taking culinary lessons with my mother since I was 5. When my mother passed away when I was 19, she passed the restaurant down to me. My father had proposed to me that if I sold the business to some other company, he would pass the karate business down to me in his will. He said I would get plenty of money for my life from the sell, and he would give me an inheritance.

So I did.

I sold my mother’s business, and just as my father promised, when he passed away a year later, the karate business was passed down to me, along with a $5 million dollar inheritance from my father’s secret stash of money just in case he ever wanted to start a new life somewhere. Where he got the money I had no idea, but all I knew was that I then had $7 million dollars all to myself.

But I felt guilty.

To make up for selling mother’s business, I sold my father’s also, increasing my money to $9.5 million dollars, making me the richest teenager in Korea at the time.

I spent some on buying the condo from the landowner for $500,000 and had been living there ever since. It was a nice place. Two stories, consisting of a landing in front of the door that overlooked the living room. To the right of the landing was my bedroom, and my own personal bathroom. To the left was a spiral staircase that led into the living room, and just off to the right, the kitchen. In front of the living room was a large set of double glass doors leading out onto a back balcony with a crystal clear hot tub, and a view of Seoul that anyone would envy. On the left of the living room was a hallway with six small guest rooms, and two bathrooms. Behind the stairs, hidden behind eight large shelves filled with small knickknacks, was a secret library filled with over three thousand books I had collected over the last two years. I dropped my bag on the floor of my crème colored carpet and collapsed onto my $1,000 pediatric memory foam king sized bed.

My phone went off for the 12^th time since I had left Tokyo.

Jonghyun

I sighed. It didn’t surprise me. I thought about not answering it, but since I was in the privacy of my own home, and he wouldn’t stop calling until I answered, I decided to do the opposite.

As soon as I hit the little green button on the screen, he went off.

“WHAT THE HECK!?! Why haven’t you been answering your phone for the past two hours? Do you know how badly you had scared me? I was tempted to call the police to file a missing person’s report based off of the information you gave me. You can’t just do that!”

In the background I hear someone say:

“Jonghyun. Back off man! There’s probably a good reason why she wasn’t answering her phone. Maybe it died! Maybe she turned it off and didn’t see that you called her, or maybe she just didn’t want to talk to you!”

“You want me to back off?” Jonghyun said to the other person. “Then let her explain herself. You don’t know what was going on with her!”

I heard a door slam.

Silence.

“Hello?” I say.

“Are you OK?” Jonghyun asks quietly.

“I all ready told you. I’m fine, just a few bruises. Trust me, I’m OK. Nothing I can’t live with.”

Not true.

I felt like killing myself, I was in so much pain, but I was trained to hide it.

“You’re lying.”

I sit there, shocked that he knew, but I couldn’t let him know that he knew.

“No,” I say slowly, “I’m not. I think you’re just hearing my tiredness. Now, if you excuse me, I need to take a shower, and go to bed.” I hang up, and get into the shower a few minutes later. The hot water felt like daggers all over my body, stabbing me every chance they got whenever they hit a bruise or a cut. I looked in the mirror after I got out and stared at the bruises over my body. I definitely had a black eye. I mark from my bag was starting to bruise a little bit, and the bruise from the chair was starting to swell. I sighed and put in a pair of shorts and a low tank top. Just as I laid on my bed though about a half an hour later, the door bell rings. I look at the time.

1:32 A.M.

Who comes over at 1 in the morning? I thought as I walked to the door grumpily. I opened it roughly, and said:

“What?” Then looked at the visitor.

Jonghyun.

“Aha!” he said pointing at me, and walking into my house, taking his shoes off in the process. “I knew you were lying!”

I cross my arms and walk away.

This was a bad idea.

I hear him breathe in sharply. “Oh my god your back. What the heck happened?!” He follows me into my room and grabs my arm pulling me over to him so he can look at me some more to find other things.

“Stop it!” I say trying to pull away from him, but it was no use. “How did you even get in anyways? Why are you here?”

“Black eye.” He whispers everything to himself. “Bruises across the back and the chest. Bruises on the wrists and ankles, and rope burn.” He shakes his head and starts to walk away from me slowly, then sits on my bed with his head in his hands. I really look at him then, in some black skinny jeans, black dress shoes and a white button up shirt with a black cross on it that looked a little too tight on him, but it really showed off his muscles.

“I am so sorry Katerina.” He says, rubbing his face and looking up at me with the saddest face I had ever seen. I give in and sit next to him, putting my hand on his bicep-which was hard with muscle.

“It’s OK. Really. Most of these bruises are my fault because I hurt myself trying to get away from them. In fact, all of it is my fault because if I hadn’t intervened with you and your fans, this wouldn’t have happened anyways. Please don’t blame this on yourself.” I say softly.

He looks at me with sad eyes, and brings his hand to my face softly, rubbing his thumb against my cheek. I close my eyes, and the next thing I know, he’s kissing me softly, his hands cradling my face softly. We break away a few seconds later, and he sighs, putting his forehead to mine.

“Get dressed real fast.” He says, standing up. “We’re going out. I’ll be out on the landing if you need anything.” And with that, he walks out, shutting the door behind him.

I stand up, happy that he actually kissed me again, and get dressed into a simple but cute outfit, consisting of some black flats, black jeans and a frilly white lace top. I put on a little bit of mascara and foundation on the black eye, and leave my hair the way it is, since I had dried it after I had gotten out of the shower. I walk out of my room about five minutes later expecting to see Jonghyun there, but he was gone.

“Jonghyun?” I yell loudly through the house as I walk down the stairs.

“Oppa?” I yell again shyly as I reach the living room, but I didn’t need to, because he was already down there, staring out my back door.

“Your apartment is huge, and you have an amazing view. I’m tempted to instead just go sit out in your hot tub with you, and stare at you—I mean your view.” He smiles at me over his shoulder, and I laugh, touching his shoulder.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked him quietly.

“I love how quiet you talk. It makes me want to listen to you because I’m curious to hear what you have to say. I was thinking maybe a nice quiet dinner to settle the nerves at a lie-low place not far from here. It will be private so you won’t have to worry about anyone recognizing me.”

“I love it already.” I say, smiling a little.

“Perfect!” he says, grabbing my hand. “Then let’s go because I already made reservations.”

I laugh as he pulls me up the stairs and out the front door to the elevator. The song playing was the music version of SHINee’s love pain, and Jonghyun laughs.

“Ironic.” Is all he says.

We walk out the glass doors of the building to a sleek black car waiting for us out on the street.

“Did you have this all planned out when you came here?” I ask as he opens the door for me.

“Yep.” He says, sliding in after me. As soon as he shuts the door, the car starts to move towards our destination.

“I wanted to ask…” I said, hesitating. “How did you know where I lived?”

“I have my connections.” He says, winking at me, smiling brightly.

“What time did you get in?”

“About an hour ago.”

I gawk at him. “Why aren’t you at your dorm asleep? I’m sure you have an extremely busy schedule. If I were you, I would try to sleep every time I had a break.”

“I wanted to check on you. I could tell you weren’t OK, and I was worried.” He looks at me sideways.

I squeeze his hand. “Thank you.” I say, and kiss him lightly on the cheek, and he smiles.

Then I pinch him on the arm.

“Ow!” He covers the area with his hand and pouts. “What was that for?”

“I poke his forehead. “For not taking better care of yourself!”

He laughs and smiles so big that his eyes squint closed almost completely. 

“Ah! My favorite smile!” I pinch his cheeks.

“Stop it! Stop it!” he swats my hands away kiddingly, and I laugh, settling back down.

“So! Where are you taking us?” I say, taking hold of his hand again. He looks at our clasped hands, and holds mine in both of his. “It’s a surprise that I know you’ll like.” He says.

“Sir, we’re here.” The chauffer says to us.

“Thank you.” Jonghyun answers to him, and steps out of the car, holding his hand out for me.

I take it gratefully, stepping out of the car behind him. He holds onto my hand and pulls me into a restaurant that I had never heard of.

As soon as we walked inside, I gasped.

“Do you like it?” Jonghyun looks at me hopefully.

“Oh my god! I…”

~~~~~~

Hey guys! Hope you liked the cliffhangers on the last chapter because heres another one! xD Sorry guys but i cant help it they are getting really long and i need a place to cut it off :P  Dont forget to subscribe to my story! and comment below any ideas or comments on the story and such! Thanks! hope you like this story its my first fanfic! :) <3