It was a bouquet of black roses that got to you the most. It felt like that the guy who sent it to you had spitted on you. You clenched your fists and tried to breathe. Your belly muscles were so firm that you had to purposely loosen them to let your lungs expand. That coffee you had drunk sometime ago mixed in your belly, threatening to rush back up the way it came. You might be better without it, but vomiting made you cry and the arsonist that torched your Dental office might be watching through a pair of binoculars. He might be giggling evilly to himself, his drooling mouth and watching you out of his cold eyes like a lurking snake.

       You scanned the small buildings around you, their outlines distorted hazed by smoke. He could be watching from one of those windows, you shivered. You would not let him see you snivel like a hurt little girl. That snake had left the bouquet on top of the kerosene right out front. No attempt to hide what he had done. He had attached a letter.

For you, I love you, from Inferno

          Those words were printed on the front. Same font he had use for his previous emails that you tried to ignore. Evidently, Inferno didn’t respond well to being ignored. Well hell! You were paying attention to it now. He had gotten the big reaction he was looking for. The police were completely dismayed with you for soiling the crime scene. You hadn’t thought about practical details like fingerprints and etc., when you had ripped the black roses apart and stomped them into the ground, shrieking at the top of your lungs. You had put on quite a floor show and your parents had been embarrassed.

          But you were angry. You wanted to hurt the guy who did this, hurt him bad and make it last. Make him sorry his parents had ever met. It hurt that you had financed so much of yourself into this place. Everything you had and a whole lot more besides and you had never cared much ever, in your life about anything.

Well except for one extraordinary event …

OMO! ANIYO!

          No way were you going to let yourself think about Kwon Jiyong. One charred disaster at a time, thank you very much. You scuffed through the ashes, mind agitating.

Who was this ?

What does he have against me?

          You had no natural enemies. You were Miss Cooperate, Pleasantness and Graceful. There was a saying “you reap what you sow” but it seems like that goddamn rule didn’t apply to you. Maybe it is because you had done something horrible in your past life.

          You had left a path of destruction in your wake. You just had to grab your inner countess to hunt this guy down and serve his balls up to him on a plate and that’s if he didn’t get you first. You shivered at the thought. You dashed the tears away with dirty hands and blinked madly, staring at the mess. The dental office had just been built around March; it still hasn’t reached a year. All those months of work, reduced to nothing.

          It felt so good bringing your dream dental office into life like you had finally come home. Floss and Gloss was your precious baby, your idea, your investment and your risk, your own wretched and destroyed disaster.

Just be grateful it happened at night while you were closing.

Woobin was there to save you and the staff already left.

Also thank God the fire didn’t spread.

And you only had minor bruises and wounds.

A hand clapped down on your shoulder. You jumped. “Don’t worry.” A familiar voice said. “It will be alright.  Although I’m sure you will resist my help again, I will still be here to help you out. I’ll do my best to make sure you can stand on your feet and build this again.”

          Speaking of the devil it was Kim Woobin. Your family and his family were close with each other and they also share some businesses. Kim Woobin is like the prince of Taehwadong (Junggu Ulsan). Kim Woobin had possessed much of what you might call the perfect guy.

You turned and tried a smile, but failed. “Komao oppa… Chincha Komao. If it wasn’t for you I’ll be dead by now… I hate this.”

He hugged you then you hugged him back. “Yah! You don’t need to thank me. The important thing is that you’re safe, nothing else matters for now. This…” He faced you in the direction of your dental office. “This is all replaceable… but you on the other hand… are not replaceable. I promise you that things will eventually get better.”

“What are you doing?! You’re still here?!” You grimaced at the razor tone of your umma’s voice. Your umma climbed out of her Jaguar lazing on the curb and pounded towards you both, careful not to smear her sandals. “You shouldn’t be out in the open!” she scolded.

“I’ll come when I’m ready eommoni.” You said.

“I see.” She said. “As always. You have to do things your way. You must suit yourself.”

“Ne majayo (yeah right) eommoni.” You mumbled sarcastically. “As always.”

          It took energy in contradicting your umma. The woman had run your childhood like a tyrant, picking your clothes, schools and friends except for those memorable days with Kwon Jiyong. Your umma had cast the Jiyong fiasco up to you for years as an example of what happened when you didn’t listen to her. For once, she has actually had a point. It stuck in your throat even now.

          You had finally forced your parents to accept that you were an adult who made your own decisions. Then Inferno came with a can of fuel and suddenly your parents just felt correct in rushing you into a smothering gift box again.

“I can’t believe you are standing beside Woobin looking like that. Not to mention being in public dressed like that! What a disgrace.” Your umma’s eyes flicked down over your body, mouth tightening.

          You looked at Woobin, although he was covered with dust, soot and dirt, he looked handsome and very formal. You looked at your clothes, you were wearing a grey one shouldered loose batwing top that just reached above your knees and a jean shorts.

          You were changing your clothes when the fire started, you got stuck inside and you were in the state of panic that you forgot to put on some clothes. It pure luck that Woobin, who was waiting outside, came in to save you and carried you out. Good thing you had spare clothes in your car, you didn’t really had a wardrobe choice since that was the only clothes inside the trunk, so it’s either that or walk around half .

Woobin interrupted you before you reply angrily to your umma’s scolding. “Imo (auntie) it wasn’t really her fault, it was the fire and partly my fault for carrying her out when she was half-. Her clothes got burned while she was changing inside. The only spare clothes that she had were those clothes. It was either that or she’ll have to walk around . Don't worry Imo, I'll take responsibility for her.”

          Woobin was one of the best men you have ever met in your life; he made you happy for as long you could remember. But sadly you can only see her as an oppa or a best friend. Of course there were a lot of times that you had an on and off crush on him, you two flirted with each other and also there were time that whenever you were lonely, you were a tiny bit tempted. There was a bit heat between you sometimes but other than that it wasn’t really that big of a deal.

          Of course that’s because your measures of heat was based almost completely on your moments with Kwon Jiyong. Maybe you had just imagined all that wild intensity that lightheaded excitement, you had just reached 17 after all when he was 23.

          You swallowed your throat raspy from smoke and suppressed tears. Maybe a marriage without heat would be more stable. After all, all you had to do was look around to see the damage heat could do.

“You’re making a spectacle of yourself. You're very lucky for having Woobin around.” Your umma said to you. “I’ll see you two around. And I will see you at home, when you lower yourself to come.” She went back to her car.

“I’ll take you home.” Woobin said. “You are aware that you have to be accompanied everywhere now, right? You should pack your things.”

“Pack?” you asked. “Waeyo? Why am I packing? Where am I going?”

“You can’t stay at your place, you-ah.” He lectured. “It’s too remote, up to the hill and you don’t even have an alarm. It’s either you stay crash at my family’s house or your parents, where we can keep an eye on you. I contacted a security firm to provide you with full time bodyguards.”

“Bodyguards?” Your smoke-roughened voice broke on the word.

“Ne majayo.” His chest puffed out. “I’m going to tell the police where we are going. I might as well just stay at your parents’ house, so you have company. And for heaven’s sake stay where I can see you.  I’ll be back.”

Full time bodyguards?

          You stared bleakly at Woobin’s back as he went to the policemen. Now your parents could monitor you day and night. Make sure you were constantly living up to the family standard as the princess of Nangok 17-Gil. You might as well just mummify yourself right now and save everyone the trouble.

“Uhmm… Hey, you-ah.” A male voice from behind you.

Omo! I know that voice!

Am I going crazy?

Should I turn around?

          You couldn’t turn and your muscles won’t move. It was like that time you had gone skydiving. You had to close your eyes, grasp the one the skydiver with you, frozen solid and fingers numb. Your bones all rubbery and flexible and your insides immeasurable and empty.

          He didn’t speak again. Maybe stress had driven you to hallucinations and there was only one way to find out. You commanded your muscles to obey so you turned.

Oh god! It’s really him!

Kwon Jiyong!

          Your insides tightened and you felt faint, just looking at him taken so much space. The air around him seemed electric. He was quite taller more charismatic and so more damn… handsome than ever. You tried to speak but your voice was rough and croaky from all the smoke.

You coughed and tried again. “Jiyong… op-pa…” You yelped.

          You didn’t want him to see you like this. Wounded and grieving. It was too much like the last time he had seen you. Except that back then the smoking devastation had been your heart and Jiyong was the arsonist who burned it.

          You stared at each other. You felt empty handed and exposed. You had pictured running into him after you had decided to come back to Nangok 17- Gil many times. But in your fantasies, you had been thinner, s hoisted with a push up bra and you had a cute dress, elegant jewelleries, make-up and well groomed like a drop dead gorgeous girl who turned into a very successful fine lady.

          Jiyong who? You would say then your eyes would widen in recognition start as you stand beside the perfect husband for you then you would add sweetly Oh chincha mianhae… I just didn’t recognise you. How are you? Oh by the way I would like to introduce you to my husband.

          But this was not the current scenario. Your eyes kept dropping, tearing up, trying to bring together this man with the Kwon Jiyong of your girlhood memories. You had to tear your eyes away and look at your feet before your lungs would unravel and in a shuddering gasp of badly needed air.

          Jiyong stood there like he was an idol who rocked the stage with his killer performance, accepting the adoration of gazillions of his screaming fans as his right and due. Jiyong smiled oh so damn ily at you, and you crossed your arms over your chest.

An idol my …

He’s more like the devil…

The fallen angel who is the ruler of the gates of hell!

“What are you doing here?” you exclaimed. “I thought you had left that’s why I moved back here. Everyone said…” You stopped, realizing how stupid and how much your words had revealed.

Depressing amusement rushed in his eyes. “Keurae (that’s right). We do have a big house here that we share before but we only used it for the weekends. BigBang and I already moved to Myeongnan-Ro now.” Jiyong faltered. “So don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.” Embarrassment sharpened your voice. “So did you just come to watch? Quite show isn’t it?”

He looked around. “Yes it is.”

“Must be a really contentment to you.” You regretted the words instantly. Everything that came out of you put at a disadvantage.

Jiyong’s eyes flashed. “Not in the least.” He said quietly. “I never wished you anything but the best.”

This snotty geu saeki!

After all the horrible things you said to me?

Now he dared to get me feel in the wrong?

“Oh? Isn’t that sweet? But you know what? ... Bull!” you snapped. “All this bull I smell can’t explain to me what the hell you are doing here with such bad timing.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and it took all your self-control not to stare at his thin but powerful forearms, his long, graceful hands and the bulge of his biceps. “I heard about the fire.” He said simply. “I just want to make sure you were okay.”

You swallowed back an unreasonable trembling in your throat. “This place…” you motioned around with your hand. “This used to be my brand new, fabulous, beautiful and advanced dental office. Did you know that?”

“Ne…” He said and his face solemn. “I did know that.”

“Some geu saeki burned it down to ashes.” You said. “ON PURPOSE!”

He nodded. “That . Do you have any idea who did this?”

“Chincha opsoyo (none)!” You struggled with the quiver in your throat. “It was Inferno. The weirdo who had been sending me emails.”

Jiyong’s eyes sharpened. “Mwo?! What emails?”

“I’ve been getting emails for the past few weeks.” You explained with a sigh. “Declarations of love, comments on what I’m wearing and he has been watching me… Up… close…”

“You told the police about the emails?” he asked.

“Keurayo!” you said. “What could they do? There was nothing particularly threatening in them. Just, you know… slime.”

“Did he leave a note today?” he demanded.

You choked off the laughter before it could become hysterical. “Ne majayo. Today he told me how I would twist and burn in the fire of his desire and then…how did he put it? Something like that and that soon we would be as one and that our union would be tense and explosive. All written in this sticky, self-styled poetic style that makes me gag to death.”

Jiyong made a sound in his throat, like a wild animal’s growl. It made your hairs spike up. “That sick geu saeki needs to be eviscerated."

You gaped at him then forced your mouth to close. “Ah komao Jiyong oppa, for putting that lovely image in my head.”

“Mian you -ah.” He murmured. “You haven’t been in town very long?”

“About two months I guess? I still haven’t finished my dentistry; I still have one more year to finish the course. I just built this so once I finish my course I can have my own dental office and start immediately. My cousin is…well WAS the current dentist here; she said she would be glad to help me out here until I graduate and until her Dental office in Seoul is standing.” You sighed. “Now everything is gone with the blink of an eye. God, this .”

“You’ll get pass this.” He said. “It would take more than a can of petroleum to keep you down you -ah. This is just an error on your monitor.”

You felt your spine straightened, your chin satisfy. His words gave you a jolt of energy and pride. “Ne, I admit that I needed help from Woobin oppa but I did a lot of repairing myself.” You hurried on. “I’ve studied carpentry I can handle big power tools. You name it and I assure you that I can use it.”

“Wah~” His eyes widened, he was impressed.

“You don’t know how much deep my debt is right now, just by building this. Like it’s not even funny but I was so happy when this was done. And I didn’t really care. I painted and designed the dental office myself, did you know that? Of course you don’t, what a dumb question.” you laughed. “But it turned out pretty well. I’m not a painter and I’m not that good in arts but… I think it was good.”

“Yes you are. I saw it before and I know how good you paint and design.” He said gently. “I’m sure your dental office was beautiful. Mianhae you -ah … Mianhae I never got to see them.”

          Damn it! Jiyong’s words were the exact words you needed to hear. Your parents seemed hardly surprised by the disaster. What did you expect, when you went against their benevolent advice? They had been tapping their feet waiting for you to fail from the beginning.

          One bit of genuine sympathy and you fell right into pieces. You lowered down your head, let your hair cover your face then covered your face with one hand and fished with the other one in your pocket for tissues. All that was left were wet, soggy ones.

          Jiyong’s warm hands came to rest hesitantly on your shoulder. Attentiveness bubbled through your nerves at the gentle contact and the sobbing eased down, startled into hiding no doubt.

You peeked over your head. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any tissues with you? I’m oozing.”

“Carrying tissues around is not my style, mianhae. But here.” Jiyong handed you his handkerchief. “It’s clean, haven’t used it yet.”

“I’m not using that…”

“Yah~ I don’t usually offer my precious handkerchief so take it.” Jiyong smiled. “I mean it’s not worthy of your Godlike Highness’s royal snot but it’s all I’ve got to offer princess. Go on… blow on it.”

          You wanted to laugh but NO, you won’t let him score point at your expense. Jiyong stuck it in your hand and your fingers closed around it. Restricted giggles made your nose run even more copiously.

“You’re making it worse!” You the hanky over his chest while your head was still stooped low.

Jiyong grabbed the handkerchief, tilted up your chin then wiped your nose gently as if he was dealing with a whiny kid. “There… that’s better.” He smiled then placed the hanky in his pocket.

You hid your blush as you accused. “You’re annoyed so you’d do anything to make me stop crying right?”

“Aniyo… Tears don’t bother me anyway.” He said. “It’s just that once I get a laugh, I have to follow up and try to get another one. I just can’t help myself.”

“Whatever…” you sniffed aggressively, wiped your face with your long sleeve shirt. “Mianhae about your handkerchief.”

“I’m not.” Jiyong said. “I’m never washing this again. I think I’ll frame it.”

          Your breath stopped as you stared over the edge of your hand. His eyes looked straight into your mind, examining through memories and fantasies. Drawing his own unfathomable conclusions. His lips curved as if what he had seen had given him authorization to take any rights he liked.

“The thought of you using powerful tools is really arousing.” He said.

“I… I… I can’t believe you just said that to me.” You struggled.

“So put me in place.” Jiyong said. “You’re the princess of Nangok 17-Gil. Who dares mess with you?”

Ne… Who indeed?

You realized after that it was too late to. “Pabo-yah. You never stay in any place that you are put.”

He shrugged. “That’s true. I can see you in my imagination, looking smooth and strong. Using a table saw, controlling the hell out of it. Muscles flexing, sweat dripping, saw dust flying and metal screeching.”

“Shibal! Chincha… you are so full of .” You said. “Keumanhae (stop).”

“Ne majayo, scold me and tell me who’s boss.” Jiyong’s eyes sparkled. “I definitely dig that.”

You forced to wipe out the stupid smile in your face as you looked up but failed miserably then looked back seriously at him. “You can’t stop messing with me around any time now.”

“Aniyo. Not yet… I drop to my knees and offer you a drink. You open it then pour it from your neck. A drop slides down your neck, to your collarbone and it keeps on sliding, that’s when I fall on my control … and then… I beg for mercy.”

          You remembered that sweet-talking charm that could get you to agree to anything Jiyong wanted. But in the end he hadn’t wanted it or you. You stepped back and you couldn’t slide into this sweet covered trap.

“So…” you said brightly. “How are the BigBang members these days?”

Jiyong’s eyes went blank as he switched gears from full-out seduction to bland conversations. His mouth jerked. “Uh they’re great.” He said. “Seunghyun hyung and Bae are married. Dae’s feeling great with his yoja and oh, Seunghyun hyung is gonna have their baby.”

“Wow~ that’s great! What about Hyuk Soo oppa?”

His face hardened. A cold flash in his eyes sent chills through you. “You never heard about Hyuk Soo?”

Your stomach dropped. “Heard? Waeyo? What should I have heard?”

Jiyong’s throat worked. “Hyuk is dead; he ran his car off a cliff.” He paused eyes boring into yours.  “You mean you never heard about that?”

You tried to speak several times before your vocal cords would respond. “Aniyo…” you whispered. “They forced me to go into a plane to Seoul and no one said anything about it.”

“Of course they didn’t.” he said. “Why would you ask?”

          That hurt you. It suggested that you didn’t care which was unfair. But his eyes were spooky with old pain. How insignificant to get offended about semantics in the face of his loss.

“Mianhae Jiyong oppa…” Jiyong silently nodded as he accepted your words. You gulped before asking the next question. “So, um, was it…”

“Suicide?” Jiyong jerked his chin. “That’s what they said. Who knows?”

“And that stuff he told me? About the guys trying to kill him?”

Jiyong paused. “We never found proof that it was true.”

You took a moment to process that. “So it was… he was…”

“Ne. Paranoid delusion? That was their official conclusion.”

The resentment in his voice provoked you to ask. “And your own conclusion?”

“My own conclusion doesn’t count for anything. I keep it to myself.”

          You could think of nothing else to say or rather you could think of many things and none of which were appropriate. Like grabbing him by the throat, yelling that he was a pabo and that he shouldn’t have gone through that without you. Your throat stiffened like a fist.

“What the hell?” Woobin’s face was looping towards you, his face alarmed. He grabbed you and placed you within arm’s reach as he scanned you. “Yah! Kwaenchanayo? You look like you’ve been crying. Did he…”

“Aniyo oppa… kwaencha… Don’t worry. My eyes were watering.” You said hastily. “From the smoke.”

          You lowered down your head then wiped it with you sleeves again. By the time you lifted up your head, Jiyong and Woobin were having an intense staring contest.

Woobin started. “How dare you geu saeki. I’m surprised you have the nerve to show your face.”

Jiyong’s eyebrows lifted. “I wanted to make sure you -ah was ok.”

“As you can see you -ah is fine. Now, leave.”

“Woobin oppa…” you whispered as you gently grasped Woobin’s arm.

“I’ve got her covered.” Woobin placed his hand on top of your hand that was grasping his arm.

Jiyong eyed Woobin’s hands on top of yours. “Well then, I’ll leave you in his capable hands then.” Jiyong said to you. “Take it easy princess.” Jiyong nodded politely to you, turned and walked away. You felt unreasonably abandoned as you stared at his withdrawing back.

Hmmm... what to add for the next chapter? Maybe scenes? hahaha LOL

I always refer to it when I have no other ideas hahaha. Anyway for the old subscribers you might be wondering why the title changed. I figured that Hallelujah would be to boring since it has been a long time since BigBang released that song. And the fic is for GD anyway, might as well use his songs for the title. That's why I switched it to R.O.D , this story makes so much sense with the lyrics of R.O.D. 

And instead of Hallelujah project going after Hyuk Soo I changed it to coup d'etat project. You'll find out soon why coup d'etat project is better and why it is called coup d'etat.

*sighs* No one seems that interested with the story... Does the story really ? God, I'm pathetic.

I'm only continuing this for my dear subbies, for your sake I will continue and do the best I can.

 I hope I'll be seeing you guys soon.  And in case you know how to make a poster or know someone who can, can you please help me? I need it for this fic. Komao~ I'll always be updating soon so I can end your misery of reading this once and for all hahah ~^^~ Hwaiting!! 

 *hahaha I feel bad for Seungri, always getting bullied by his hyungs*

Oh just so you know, this is my reaction whenever you guys upvote, subscribe or comment.

Hahaha gotta love Jaesuk oppa!!

So upvote, subscribe or comment below and make author-nim proud!! hahaha