"Me? This was all my fault?" She looked up at Yongguk who scanned the paint with a frown.

Yongguk looked down at her with determination.

"It's not your fault, none of this is."

She looked guiltily at the window.

He tugged on her to make her face him, "Hey, look at me. It's not your fault, okay? It was Ryu. It's their fault not yours."

She nodded and faced the crowd.

"Eun Ah! " Halmoni came racing through the people and pulled Eun Ah, and by default, Yongguk into the store.

 "Halmoni, wh-what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Halmoni rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. "Don't worry, I'm fine. It was probably some punk kids. Yoohyun is cleaning it with some of the others. They were probably just upset that the pretty noona stopped coming in as of.....ten. Oh! Hello, who are you?"

Halmoni eyes glittered excitedly at Yongguk.

"Halmoni, really? This isn't the time, someone vandalised the store!"

"Yes sweetheart, I know, I was there. But it's paint, it will come off." She turned her attention back to him with a flashy smile.

 Yongguk smiled politely and bowed.

"Yongguk, meet Halmoni. Halmoni, meet Yongmi's older brother, Yongguk." Eun Ah watched Halmoni admire the boy before her eyes landed on their hands.

"Oh.My.God."

Eun Ah followed her eyeline and grimaced. "Yeah, I know, it's weird, but Yongmi pulled a prank and no--"

"Why are you two wearing matching wedding rings?"

Both Eun Ah and Yongguk stared at her with wide, panicked, eyes. She wasn't supposed to see it, but everything had happened so quickly that she had forgotten to take hers off.

"Wh-what?"

Halmoni carefully eyed Yongguk and circled around the pair, looking them up and down.

"You know a ring on your left hand is for marriage right?"

Eun Ah glanced at Yongguk nervously.  "Ani, it's not like that. T-this is for a school project for my parenting class."

Yongguk gave her a confused look. Eun Ah on the other hand, was relieved that she had told Halmoni that she was going back to school.

Halmoni stood in front of the two and arched her eyebrow. "Your class made you get married?"

"Sort of?" Eun Ah didn't sound too sure herself anymore, Halmoni had the best poker face that Eun Ah wasn't sure if she was buying the story or not.

She turned and face Yongguk, her wooden spoon gripped tightly in her hand. "And you're in her class?"

Yongguk felt Eun Ah pinch his hand. "Yes, Ahjumoni, I'm her classmate. We're doing a project on families and parenting so we need to act married and take care of an...egg."

Eun Ah looked at him in horror.

That's the best that you can come up with? An egg?

Yongguk gave her a small shrug.

"An egg? You're taking care of an egg in university?"

Eun Ah cleared , "It's only one part of the project, and it's not that bad since we're living together."

Silence filled the store.

Oh.

.

She wasn't supposed to say that.

"What." Halmoni, deadpanned, looking at Yongguk who didn't deny it. "You two are living together?"

"WITH 6 OTHER PEOPLE! AND YOU MET MOST OF THEM!" Eun Ah yelled quickly in her defence.

"So with Yongmi, Jongup, Daehyun and them?"

Yongguk was surprised that she knew about them so fondly. The way she spoke was  like how he imagined a mother would ask her daughter who would be at a party she wanted to go to.

"Yes. All of them."

"So basically you'll be living with 6 boys and 1 girl."

Eun Ah swallowed nervously, "They're not like that, you've met them, they're good people."

She turned to Yongguk, "Do you like her?"

"W-what?" Yongguk side glanced at Eun Ah.

"Do you have feelings for her?"

Yongguk looked at the younger girl by his side and thought about it.

He wasn't sure, she was important to him, but he couldn't exactly tell her that.

"We don't have that type of relationship." He said firmly, even though doubt filled him.

Eun Ah looked away and ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach.

Halmoni stared at him before a smile appeared, "Maybe you should."

"W-what?"

She winked, "Maybe you should have feelings for her. It couldn't hurt. "

"Halmoni." Eun Ah's voice was serious, "Stop pimping me out."

"It's not pimping if he likes you back and I like him better than the others."

This woman has a problem.

"He just said that he doesn--"

Halmoni scurried off to the back, ignoring her, and pulled out plastic containers before placing them in bags and handing them off to the pair.

"I made these for you and the boys. Take it and eat it, especially since you're studying now. You look so frail, are you eating properly?"

She handed the bags to Eun Ah who just looked upset. "Halmoni, aren't you worried that the vandals will come back? Maybe you should close the shop for a while."

"Over this little thing? Don't worry, the store is always bustling and I'm calling extra people on shift for the next little while. I'll be fine!"

Eun Ah felt her eyes watering and passed the bags to Yongguk and grabbed both of Halmoni's hands.

"Please be careful, I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. You're my family.  If you need anything, let me know and if you feel unsafe tell me and I'll send some of the boys over to help you."

Yongguk watched in admiration as Eun Ah fussed over the owner. The woman seemed sweet and caring. Now he understood why she said that this woman was the closest thing to a grandmother that she had.

"I promise. And don't be silly,  you have more family than you think." She winked at Yongguk, "You have a husband and a bunch of adorable dongsaengs. When my time comes, you'll be fine."

"You're time isn't coming."

Halmoni shook her head and brandished a meat cleaver from the counter. The pair looked at her in shock when she waved it around, surveying the handcuffs.

"So this was a prank huh?"

She placed their hands on the cutting board and raised the cleaver over her head.

"JESUS! HALMONI WHAT THE HELL!" Eun Ah cursed when they yanked their hands away.

"What? Don't you want to be free? Unless you want  to stay together." She raised her eyebrow and waited for the two to reluctantly set their hands back down.

With a strong arm, the knife came down on the chain finally, separating the two.

For a woman in her 60's, she was scarily strong.

Yongguk winced and Eun Ah turned her head away and prayed for the best when they felt the knife slam down. They let out a sigh of relief when only the chain was cut.

Sure, the cuffs were still on their wrists, but at least they weren't attached to each other.

"I can't believed that worked." Halmoni looked amazed as she inspected her handy work.

Eun Ah looked at her in dismay, "You could've chopped our hands off, you know!"

She gave Eun Ah a cheeky smile. "Well you're fine aren't you? All limbs in place?"

She didn't give her time to respond before turning her attention to Yongguk.

"So, what kind of wife is my brat like?"

-----

"You told her you were going back to school?"

Eun Ah hummed in response. After sharing embarrassing stories for half an hour, she still felt unsettled and distracted by the vandalism as Yongguk drove them to Jiyong's house.

"I called him about the threat, he's assembling our allies, so we need to meet up with them."

She nodded silently, playing with the cuff on her wrist while looking out the window as trees blurred past.

"Ryu won't touch her, I promise. He's in such a tight spot that I'm positive that he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt her. That threat was for you and you only. So our guard has to be way up on you."

He glanced over at her and saw her desolate expression.

"What's wrong?"

"It just feels real now. Even when I was kidnapped it felt surreal, like it didn't really happen, but when it was Halmoni's store, I started thinking that these men are insane enough to hurt her to get to me. It's all kind of terrifying."

Yongguk gripped the steering wheel tightly as Jiyong's house came into view.

"I promised you nothing will happen. Not to you, not to her either. It's okay to feel scared, but I won't let anything come near you."

Eun Ah gave him a soft smile and patted his knee, "I believe you."

His grip faltered on the wheel when he felt her touch and his shoulders slowly relaxed.

"I kind of have to believe you, you're my husband aren't you?" She said with a joking smile.

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