[Kris' POV]

                I don't know what Ren was talking about when she said there was nothing in Sydney. From the moment we arrived, I didn't know where to put my head first!

                To make me feel more at home, Ren took me around Chinatown. I thought it was cute of her to do that.

                "And this is where you grew up?" I asked.

                "Not here in the city," said Ren. "You couldn't afford it on my wage. I grew up further north."

                "You sure you don't wanna show me around there?" I asked.

                "It's not worth the risk," said Ren. "If I run into anyone, I'll never hear the end of it."

                Something was telling me that there's more than a bad foster home that Ren was trying to run away from. No one signs a 13-year contract without doubting it a few hundred times over and during. What could she possibly have done or escaped to make her never want to come back and to the point she won't show me? Was she ashamed? Was she hiding something, or someone?

                "Jagiya," I called. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

                Ren was looking sad. My guess was I wasn't wrong to think there was something she hadn't told me.

                "Yes," she said softly.

                I sighed heavily. Before I could ask another question, she pulled me to the side. She stood us behind a lion gargoyle that stood perpendicular to another gargoyle at the top of Chinatown. She turned around.

                "I don't think you noticed this...the night we were together," said Ren.

                She lowered her shirt just enough so that her right shoulder was bare, and directed my eyes to look at the exposed part of her back. I widened my eyes in shock. I had to look deeper into her shirt because not all of it was exposed in the area she pulled she shirt down to show.

                "How did you manage to keep this hidden for so long?" I asked.

                "It wasn't entirely hidden," said Ren. "People are zooming in on my back and noticing it."

                I couldn't stop looking. On her back was a tattoo of, what looked to be, a faded serpent. It looked like she was halfway through laser treatment to get it off.

                "It's pretty faint," I said. "No way I could've noticed it in the dark. But man...that's an ugly piece of !"

                The serpent wasn't a stylish mystical design; in fact, it looked like it popped out of a child's book. I didn't blame her for wanting it off.

                "You could've gotten a cover up," I said. I was pretty stubborn to have said that, because I knew how getting a tattoo felt.

                "I could've, but I didn't even want this one to begin with," said Ren.

                I was curious of the story. Ren covered herself up again and straightened out her shirt. She pulled my hand and began walking again.

                "I had a boyfriend at the time," she started. "It wasn't supposed to be anything serious. He was...he was kinda just there. But he got on good terms with my foster parents; better than I did, anyway. Then one night..."

                Ren trailed off momentarily. It looked like she was trying to gather herself from the memory of getting it.

                "He drugged me," she spoke, in a really shaky voice.

                I halted in my tracks and glared at her in horror. "Did he...?"

                "He didn't me," Ren spoke for me. "But if I had hung around any longer, he probably would have. But he drugged me, and then I was knocked out. By the time I woke up, I had this piece of on me and he had disappeared."

                "You never found him?" I asked.

                "I did...through the cops. I found out that my foster parents knew his parents and were dealing together. He also ran deals with them from time to time, and drugged me to try and get me into it."

                My heart sunk over and over as she spoke. I was starting to be glad that she never told me any of this before meeting my mother; I don't think she could have borne it.

                "Oppa..." her voice quivered. "They're in prison...and I put them there..."

                It hit me like a bombshell grenade. Suddenly I realised that about half the rumours that went around in the company about her were true! How did she pull through after all that? How can she still travel the world in one piece and live to tell me that she loves me?

                "They tried to hurt me," Ren continued, quivering as she went. "They tried to rob me. If they ever get out and find that I'm here...!"

                I cut her off by pulling her to my chest. I held her warmly and my head through her long hair. Once I let her go, I kissed her deeply.

                "I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry I forced you to bring me here. We can leave tomorrow first thing."

                Ren just shook her head. "I was wrong to deny you coming here. And I should've told you but..."

                "Don't," I said, firmly. "You don't ever have to apologize for anything anymore. We'll get that thing lasered off completely when we get back to Korea."

                "Actually..." Ren started. "The company knows; they're funding for the treatment. They don't know the story but."

                "All right," I sighed, in slight relief. "But man..."

                "I promise...I promise I won't hide anything from you."

                "I know you won't. But I appreciate you not telling me all at once. Still...you don't have to apologize for anything. Even you tell me now that I wasn't the one you lost your ity to, I won't be mad. What's done is done."

                Ren crunched her eyebrows comically. "I did lose it to you...don't fret. But look, we can spend the day out. And maybe...stay in tomorrow?"

                She looked up at me with brighter eyes. I couldn't help but smile at what she had in mind.

                "Sounds like a plan," I said.

 

To make up for not updating for ages~ Double update!!
I'm starting to rush the story line a little bit to get to a more important
hopefully it won't go on so long that i need to make a sequel out of it
I'm already working on another one, when i shouldn't be ><"