　그 선을 지켜라! ✕ 정택운 is 권 마리's 남사친.

〈 8화

WishIWasAzn ✕ Ash ●●●

picture of face claim, height and width are both 200

있잖아 나...

the basics

FULL NAME Kwon Mari

OTHER NAMES

» Max - Her best friends call her this and sometimes her older brother; it started out as "Ma-ks" because of her first and last name but when they met Julie, it changed to Max. It is a testament to her name and her go-go-go personality, like always at "max speed".

» Little Kwon - Her brother's friends call her this, especially when they are together. It's an endearing name but at the same time teasing little sister type of name; only her brother's friends call her this so it's not often used

» Umma - About a year after Julie's death, her son began calling Mari "Umma" which gave her mixed feelings because she knew she wasn't his real mom but she also was happy that he trusted her enough to call her mom

BIRTH DATE/AGE 18.08.1993/25-26

BIRTH PLACE Tongyeong, South Korea

HOMETOWN Tongyeong, South Korea

NATIONALITY Korean

ETHNICITY Korean

LANGUAGE

» Korean + Fluent; Born and raised in South Korea, she has a Gyeongsang dialect due to the region she lived in.

» English + Fluent; Her and her brother decided that it was going to be the language they learned together when they were younger and because of their intellect they were able to pick it up rather quickly; it helps her speak to american research assistants in her job

» Japanese + Semi-fluent; Because her hometown is so close to Japan, her and her best friends used to travel to Japan during vacations and she likes to watch anime and japanese romance dramas

FACECLAIM Kang JiYoung (former Kara)

BACK-UP FACECLAIM Yoo JeongYoon (TWICE)

APPEARANCE Mari stands at 168 cm and weighs in at 54 kg. Her complexion is slightly more tan than average, having grown up in a port town and spending most of her childhood outside. Her face is very boyish, sharp jawline, dark brown eyes with flecks of gold, and full lips always set in a smirk. She has wide shoulders with a modest bust size that she often tries to hide because it is the one thing on her body that makes her feel insecure. Her legs are slightly longer than her torso which makes her appear taller than she actually is. Her figure is what one would describe as sporty build, she has more muscle than a typical dancer but not so much that it is super obvious. Mari also has a few body modifications. She has two piercings in each earlobe as part of a pact with her best friends, Julie and Taekwoon; she shares her left ear piercings with Julie (who had only her right ear pierced twice) and her right ear piercings with Taekwoon (who only has his left ear pierced twice). After Julie died, she kept her earrings and every so often changes them out. She also got a tattoo on her upper left arm in memory of her. A few months following her acceptance of Julie's death, her and Taekwoon got matching tattoos on their right pinkies, the word "promise (약속)" connected by an infinity symbol.

STYLE The best way to describe Mari's style is a tomboy surfer chick who likes her plaid and themed clothing. She has a wide selection of board shorts and swimming tees as she always found bikinis impractical for surfing or swimming in the ocean as much as she did and she never went to the beach to strictly tan. She never goes anywhere without a hat, either flatbrim or beanie, unless it is a formal event where hats are prohibited and then she begrudgingly leaves her head unadorned. She cleans up well for these formal occasions, though doesn't stay in the outfits for long. Her shoes of choice are usually sandals, sneakers, or...nothing. If she can get away with it, she will go barefoot. In the lab, however, she has to wear closed toed shoes.

When she wears darker clothes, she usually accents it with neon colors specifically neon greens and blues. Her usual outfits consist of jeans or cargo shorts with an undershirt and a plaid overshirt of some sort. Her hair is usually left down around her shoulders or pulled up in a ponytail.

Kwon Mari's Style Board

...요즘 많이 생각했는데.

"What new worlds can we explore today?"

PERSONALITY TRAITS

GryffinPuff (Gryffindor/Hufflepuff), Sanguine, INFP

Best of Mari - Protective, Kind, Loyal, Accepting, Encouraging

Worst of Mari - Stubborn, Emotion Bottler, Selfless, Over Enthusiastic, Blunt

TRAITS ELABORATED

"You've gotta get through me first." Mari is extremely protective of the friends that she has made throughout her life, especially Julie and Taekwoon. Her parents taught her to cherish the people she loves and she shows that by protecting them. She will stand up for and fight for her friends if need be, even if it puts her in jeopardy. She has always had the mindset that the people in your life are more important than the things. She also tends to be protective of children and animals more than most. If she sees kids being bullied or people picking on homeless animals, she will step in and stand up for them without need or want of a reward for it.

"I'm always here if you need me." Her heart is pure and she experiences her most joy when being kind to others. She loves to listen to people talk about themselves and their lives and does tend to eavesdrop on people's conversations without meaning to. She is an exceptional listener and offers her ears, mind, shoulder, and advice when she notices something is upsetting her friends, her family, or even that lonely guy at the bus stop. Mari gives really good advice, even if she hasn't personally experienced what the other person is going through. She is able to put herself in their shoes and figure out a way to help them.

"I've got your back." She is fiercely loyal to the people she cares about and to the causes she believes in. This goes hand in hand with her protective nature but it goes beyond that. She doesn't hang out with certain people because of how they treat the people she cares about and she makes it very obvious where her loyalties lie. In the professional world, she is loyal to her coworkers but she is more loyal to the company. The things that she does is to help people and she won't let anyone stand in the way of that. She has been known to drop everything she is doing to help someone she cares about, including dropping out of sports teams in high school because they insisted on picking on her friends. They lost the championship soccer tournament senior year in high school because of this and she doesn't regret a thing.

"Believe me, I've seen much weirder things." Growing up in a small town with such an eccentric older brother, she has always been a bit...off. She was known as 'the girl that could've been popular' in high school because she chose to stick with her friends than join in with the 'cool' crowd. She takes the world in stride and accepts even the strangest of things as something normal and useful in the world. If someone's strange tick or habit comes out while they are with her, she'll brush it off and smile. She embraces the differences in people because she truly believes it is the strange things about a person that makes them who they are, which is why she never fell in with the 'popular' kids since they always tried to hide it. She tends to be a bit informal around people because of this which can make some peope angry.

"You've been hiding all day, let's go to the beach!" Her brother always encouraged her from when she was very little so when she met her friends, she passed on that encouragement. She has an impulsive nature but her main impulses focus on getting her friends out into the world. She is a curious person by nature but she always wants to share it with someone. Her best friend, Taekwoon, is a homebody but she always drags him everywhere whether he wants to go or not and he has learned to only ever say "no" if he really thinks it's a bad idea. When she was younger, she used to make up imaginative stories to get him to follow her and they explored nearby parks or stretches along the coastline. She encourages people to do their best in all situations and is always there to pick them up if they need help. Sometimes this is against protests but in almost all situations, it turns out for the best and it ends up being an adventure full of memories.

"I can do it myself!" She doesn't give up on things even when they seem to be hopeless and, though many times it doesn't work, those few times that she manages to complete the task or get someone to feel better about themselves, she feels an extreme sense of pride and tends to rub it in other people's face (though not in a mean way, more like a snarky, off-handed comment). When she started her job at Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical, the older research scientists about how it would take years to accomplish any sort of upward mobility but they sure did shut up when she became second in command of the department in only a few short years. This stubborn attitude can cause her issues when it comes to her research as well, however. One the one hand, she is a hard worker but when she can't fully grasp something or can taste the breakthrough she's nearing, she will work until she has exhausted herself and even then she'll say she isn't tired.

"What do you want me to do?? Cry about it??" Mari has the extremely terrible habit of taking her bad emotions and pressing them down and bottling them up with a smile on her face. After awhile, those emotions explode, granted it takes a long time for her to get here. While this allows her to get through traumatic events at the time it takes place with ease and strength, a little while down the road, she has an emotional breakdown and is out of emotional commission for a few days. There is a lot of screaming that can happen and if the people who witness it aren't careful, they may get a pillow to the face or, in Taekwoon's case, gentle fist hits to the chest. These outbursts rarely happen around anyone that does not know her well.

"It's okay, I don't matter as much." Selflessness is usually seen as a positive trait but Mari takes it a few steps over the line. Her life revolves around the few people she holds dear and it can take a significant toll on her own life if she's not careful. When Taekwoon did his mandatory service, she would leave her phone on high volume just in case he called and needed to talk, which did happen a few times, and those times that it happened ended up with her staying up until 5 in the morning before an 8 AM class. She got used to running on lack of sleep which helps with taking care of ChinHae; however, it does cause her to get cranky after a few days of limited sleep. Whenever her friends get concerned about her, she just smiles and shakes it off, she's fine...she's always fine. Only a few people have ever seen past the facade of being okay because she's hellbent on making sure everyone around her is taken care of before herself.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" While she can be rather encouraging, she can also get annoyingly excited about certain things that interest her and her encouragement can stray into overacting enthusiasm that turns a lot of people off of her. Usually she is so lost in her own excitement that she hardly notices the actions and looks of those around her until one of her friends interrupts her thoughts. Even then, she is unlikely to come down from her enthusiasm unless she is more harshly drawn from her thoughts.

"Are you really that much of an idiot?" Mari tends to not filter what she has to say about people, especially when they've said the wrong thing to her, and thus her words can come off rather harsh. She was always told that the truth is better than any lie you can think of, even if it hurts, so she always gives a direct answer when it pertains to something other than Julie. Much of her bluntness comes out when someone tries to show off by badmouthing her friends and she quickly turns from the friendly, outgoing person she always meets people with to a person who will call out your every wrong move and move on to a different person as if she had been doing something as simple as ordering a hot chocolate. This tends to make her a very irritating person for people who have perfect images that she quickly tears down.

BACKGROUND Mari's parents settled down in the southern port town of Tongyeong after graduating with degrees in musical education and sports therapy. Her father became a surfing coach and helped out in a nearby medical clinic when it came to sport related injuries. Her mother is a high school orchestra teacher. Over the years, the two had two children: one boy and one girl. Mari grew up following her older brother everywhere, wanting to do everything he did. They were lucky in the fact that they adored each other as siblings as the two of them had a surprising intellect that separated them from most of the other children in the town. They both excelled in their studies and while her older brother had more of an affinity for technology and, surprisingly fashion, she excelled in sports and sciences. The one thing their intellect did share in common was their decision to learn english together. The two of them were a happy-go-lucky pair and were almost always smiling and teasing each other.

Her school years would have found her to be one of the more popular students but she did not care for the crowd as most of them would try to gain her friendship by ridiculing those most precious to her. She is someone who would take her not-so-popular friends and her strange older brother over anything the popular crowd had to offer. She was happy to be free from all of those people when she moved with her two best friends to CheongJu for university, where she had decided to take up pharmacy following some prodding from the local doctor that worked with her father. The three of them shared an apartment almost central to their universities and during their senior year, her friend Julie became pregnant.

Julie gave birth the next spring to a happy little boy and the three of them doted on him as if they were all his parents. The boy's father left Julie before she gave birth and never looked back. Mari took a year off after school to help Julie with ChinHae and to figure out what she wanted to do with her degree. The four of them lived in happiness for some time as Taekwoon finished up his degree. However, the happiness was not to last as Julie became sick. They tried the doctors in the city but they had no shred of hope staying there and so they packed up and moved to Seoul to hopefully find better doctors. Mari got a job with Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical to do research on cancer but her main focus was always to make sure Julie was okay...

Julie died a little less than half a year following their move to Seoul and Mari has been desperately working to find a cure for the sickness that took her best friend as well as do her best to be a mother to her best friend's son. It will mark the second year that Julie will be gone at the beginning of this next school year.

LIFESTYLE Due to the unique situation, her everyday life is a little different than most girls her age. She usually gets up with ChinHae which can range from 5 to 7 AM, if its the later of the two the apartment gets rather frantic in the mornings. Taekwoon gets up before them and makes breakfast and lunch for all three of them. They each take separate buses, Taekwoon taking ChinHae to kindergarten before heading to his primary school to teach and Mari heading into the city to the main lab for cancer research at Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical where she works as a research scientist. She works from about 8 in the morning until 5 or 6 depending on how the research is going that day. Taekwoon teaches from 8:30 to around 2 or 3 but stays until around 4:30 before heading home to relieve SungJae or Jiyong who take turns picking up ChinHae from kindergarten and watching him for a few hours before Taekwoon gets home. Mari gets home soon after usually around 6:30 or 7 on a long day. The evenings usually consist of dinner together, maybe a movie thought that's usually only once a week, and always, always a trip down to the riverside to one of the parks unless the weather is absolutely terrible. The weekends consist of lazier days, sometimes Mari will take ChinHae shopping with her or to her favorite cafe while Taekwoon stays at home usually to avoid people. Every month or so, they'll take a weekend trip to the coast and play around at the beach, staying with old friends, Mari's or Taekwoon's parents.

TRIVIA

~*~Likes~*~

» surfing

» exploring whenever she has free time

» apple cider, especially hot and with cinnamon

» thunderstorms

» dark chocolate

» sour candy and lollipops

» smiling and laughing

» stargazing, especially out on the beach

» the smell of the ocean, fresh cut grass and citrus fruits

» spicy food

» ChinHae, her "son" and light of her world

» basketball

» hot chocolate with copious amounts of whipped cream

» making breakthroughs in her research

» cuddling

» hats (beanies and flatbrims mostly)

» boyish clothes

~*~Dislikes~*~

» Figuring out the twist in a movie before it happens

» coffee

» guys who think they are god's gift to women

» pointless arguments

» people badmouthing her friends

» extremely cold weather, however she does like snow

» people looking down on ChinHae because his om died

» boys that ditch girls with no remorse

» nightmares, though she has them frequently

» boba

» white chocolate

~*~Habits~*~

» Twisting her hair with her fingers when she is thinking absentmindedly

» Listening to OSTs from her favorite movies (Disney, Studio Ghibli, etc.) while working in the lab

» Stares into space when she's with ChinHae and he does something that reminds her of Julie

» If she sees something that she thinks ChinHae might like, she immediately buys it and sometimes can't even wait until his birthday to give it to him.

» Whenever she sees a flat stone by the river, she picks it up and skips it

» Biting her lip when she's super happy to try and conceal her smile

» Rubbing the back of her neck and messing up her hair when she's embarrassed

~*~Hobbies~*~

» Spray paint art (those that are on canvases not graffiti)

» Finding explorative scavenger hunts throughout Seoul or whatever city they visit

» Learning words from random languages, just because she thinks its fun

» Researching ancient cultures, she loves podcasts related to mythology and history and knowing English widens the ones she can listen to

» Inventing new games for ChinHae to play

~*~Trivia~*~

» Graduated from Chungbuk National University's College of Pharmacy

» She is very good at imitating accents so she sounds (almost) like a native English or native Japanese speaker even though she isn't.

» Though she isn't a huge fan of it, her brother uses her as a model for his "fashions" so that he can get a feel for it on a model.

» She is afraid of large crowds, losing the people she cares about, failing, and disappointing people...two of which she has experienced in large measure.

» She is the epitome of a mom friend, literally as of recently.

» Ever since Julie died, she can't sleep alone

» She used to be religious but ever since Julie got sick and just kept getting worse, she stopped believing.

» She would do anything to protect the people that she cares about.

» She can name a lot of different constellations

» She wants to learn how to sail a boat

» She's rather oblivious when it comes to the love department

» While she is very smart, she doesn't like to flaunt it. It allows her to do stuff more easily than others, she works hard to further her studies like a normal person would.

우리 사이는...무슨 사이?

RELATIONSHIP

RELATIONSHIPS

» The Missing Piece | Jung Julie (Kim Taeyeon of SNSD) | 25, deceased | best friend | quiet, kind, emotional, sarcastic | 10 out of 10
Mari met Julie in middle school and she was immediately drawn to her since the girl was often made fun of for her blonde hair. Julie quickly became best friends with Mari and Taekwoon to the point that when the three of them left Tongyeong to go to school in Cheongju, they lived in an apartment together. A few months after Taekwoon left for his two years of service, Julie became pregnant by her then boyfriend who left after he graduated college. 9 months later, she gave birth to ChinHae. Mari helped her take care of the little boy and when Taekwoon returned, he also helped. A few months later, Julie was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. They moved to Seoul to find better doctors but it was no use..About half a year later, she was gone. She left a huge hole in both Mari and Taekwoon's hearts but they took care of ChinHae in her stead.

» Our Little Guy | Jung ChinHae (Moon Mason) | 3 | julie's son, now theirs | curious, outgoing, scaredy cat, sweet | 9 out of 10
ChinHae is Julie's son who was 2 years old when she passed away. Taekwoon and Mari took over custody of him at Julie's request. Since the two of them work, they don't spend every waking moment with him but whenever they are at the apartment they are playing with him or teaching him something new. They have been taking care of him since before Julie passed so they were already close to him. He is the light of their life and has been able to slowly fill the hole that Julie left.

» Blind Leading the Blind | Kim SungJae (Ravi of VIXX) | 28 | friend/babysitter | bartender | hyperactive, sweet, hard worker, ditz | 8 out of 10
The trio met SungJae while they were in school and he worked at a cafe they frequented. When he got older he 'graduated' to being the bartender of a higher end restaurant. SungJae works night shift so Taekwoon and Mari rely on him and her brother to babysit ChinHae during the day while they work. He is good at keeping kids entertained but when it comes to taking care in a crisis, he falls a bit short. After a few confused and frantic phone calls, Taekwoon and Mari started labelling things and leaving a detailed list of things that ChinHae could and could not do.

» Crouching Moron, Hidden Genius | Kwon JiYong (GDragon) | 30 | big brother | head of IT at the pharmaceutical company and main American contact, self proclaimed fashion designer on the side | genius, flamboyant, easily agitated, caring | 10 out of 10
Jiyong was a very big proponent of Mari following her intellect when it came to picking a major and career path because he believed in her talent. The two of them often tease each other and quiz each other on current events or naming characters of popular books or even just random trivia, especially music trivia. Though Jiyong does tend to act like a ditz, he is one of the smartest people in the company they work for and knows it. He also helps out Mari and Taekwoon with ChinHae when SungJae can't because he works the night shift since he gets things done a lot faster with less people around. He treats ChinHae as his nephew. He is friends with Hajoon and frequently goes drinking with him and, when he works day shifts and the secretaries are getting especially annoying, he'll act like Hajoon is his boyfriend.

» Annoying Intern | Hak KiSoo (JeongHan of Seventeen) | 28 | Intern research assistant at the pharmaceutical company | persistent, talkative, clumsy, forgetful | 6 out of 10
If Mari had met him at an early time in her life, they would've probably gotten along better; however, he came into her life right after Julie died and she was already guilt-ridden that she couldn't deal with someone asking her so many questions. He doesn't know why she always gives him the cold shoulder but he knows that he can learn a lot from her so he sticks around her a lot because she usually answers his questions, however begrudgingly.

» That | Lee Hajoon (TOP of Big Bang) | 26 | Marketing Communications Manager for the pharmaceutical company | perfectionist, sophisticated, aloof, arrogant | 6 out of 10
Mari unfortunately has to deal with Hajoon a lot as he is over marketing for her section of research. They often argue about when the right time to market the debut of a new drug is because she is a huge proponent of having as much information as possible but he is focused on making the first impression on the market for the reputation of the company. She pulls out the blackmail card she learned from Seulki whenever he's getting too irritating.

» Provocateur | Kim Seulki (Park YoungHee | vickylarz) | 26 | barista, photographer | loyal, argumentative, instigating, supportive | 8 out of 10
Seulki works at the cafe that is in the bottom of the office building (same as lunashion on tuesdays and wednesdays) as the main barista. They bonded over making fun of Hajoon's coffee choices and learning about her trip across Europe and Asia. Seulki tries to pull her back into the more daring side of life that she was out of touch with since Julie died. She also gave Mari proof of the time when Hajoon lost a bet and had to dye his hair and she uses it when he is being overly irritating.

» Protect the Artist | Oh Yoojin (Gong Seungyeon | iismomo) | 26 | art teacher, works with Taekwoon | optimistic, responsible, pushover | 7 out of 10
Mari used to come by the school a few times before she started working at the pharmaceutical company when Taekwoon told Yoojin that Mari really enjoyed doing spray paint art. Yoojin asked Taekwoon to ask Mari if she would come in as a guest artist and show the kids how to do spray paint art and she happily obliged. She loved showing the kids how to do the kind of art she loved but she also really enjoyed meeting Yoojin. Due to their schedules, they don't see each other too often but Mari will shoot her a text every once in awhile to see if she wants to grab some sweets and boba tea on a weekend and Mari brings ChinHae and Yoojin brings Happy.

» Moon Child | Kim "Luna" Minji (Minatozaki Sana | lunashion) | 19-20 | student/waitress | sociable, respectful, straightforward, competitive | 6 out of 10
Luna works at the cafe that Mari frequent gets her chocolate fix at during the day so she only sees her a few times a week at most but when she does see her, she always asks how her degree is coming. Mari finds it fascinating the "other side" of the school that she never saw since she was more on the hard science side. Mari always makes sure to bring her strawberry flavored candy when she visits the cafe on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

"What are you doing...? Please don't"

BESTFRIEND'S NAME Jung Taekwoon

FACECLAIM Jung "Leo" Taekwoon of VIXX

BACK-UP FACECLAIM Lee Jungsu/Leeteuk of Super Junior

PERSONALITY Level-headed, observant, and shy are three traits that would describe Taekwoon to a T. Since he was little, he was always shy and reserved, having moved just before starting primary school to a place he did not know. He learned to be observant so that he could know how to not offend people and at the same time, it kept Mari out of trouble because she wouldn't get into so many fights. He also learned that he could be a voice of reason and help keep Mari's feet on the ground as much as her head was in the clouds some times. When she has her emotional breakdowns, he is there to keep her from lashing out at anyone but him.

Taekwoon can also be very childish and a bit of a prankster at times. He enjoys making people laugh, just not when it's at his expense. He's always been a little self-conscious after being teased for his stutter when he was younger but as he grew older and the stutter reduced, he is able to act a little more confident. He is excellent with children and with calmly dealing with arguments between children and stopping bullying before it begins. The people who accept him for who he is mean more to him than anything in the world. He is mentally and emotionally a very strong person; however, he has a hard time when the people close to him are hurt because he never seems to know the right thing to say. He often resorts to comforting people with food or physical touch.

ABOUT

- Born November 10, 1993 (25-26)

- Works as a primary school grades 1 and 2 instructor

- He graduated from Korea National University of Education in Cheongju with a degree in Elementary Education

- He is a er for romantic comedies and frequently watches them with ChinHae

- His biggest goal in life is to have a big family and for them to be happy, like he wants at least four kids

- He had a stutter up until the middle of middle school when he was finally able to get rid of it with some therapy; however, it does come back sometimes when he's surprised, nervous or angry.

우리 사이 느은...?

STRANGERS, FRIENDS, BESTFRIENDS

THEIR STORY

"You came to me and talked to me

To me, who was wandering in the deep darkness

You knocked on my world

Where only I exist, where no one else could see."

- Leo, Feel Love

Mari was the loud outgoing kid in kindergarten, always surrounded by the other kids. They had all gone through early school together so they all had known each other for awhile. A few months into the school year, a quiet boy moved to town from Seoul as his parents moved to get out of the city. He was quiet and kept to himself but Mari was determined to make him her friend. She begged the teacher to let her sit by him and she always tried to include him when they were playing but he always just stayed quiet. She began to get a little discouraged so she decided to leave him alone until he was ready but to the other kids, it meant that he thought he was better than them and they began to pick on him. He was a quiet kid, so he didn't fight back and Mari was semi-oblivious and she didn't notice until she saw it happening on the playground at recess. At this point, her older brother and parents had already instilled the value of protecting others and it went into full gear. That day, she severed almost all of her old friendships to protect the quiet boy who didn't even want to play with her...or at least he didn't until that day. They became friends and she learned that he was quiet because of his stutter. From that day on, the two of them were always together, her talking enough for both of them and him trying to keep her from going too crazy when she got excited.

"We were kids back then, thinkin' we could live forever

We were kids back then

We were wild and free, takin' all the world together

We were kids back then

That's how we're ~~always~~ gonna be"

-Kids, Ben Rector

The two of them were practically joined at the hip since that day in kindergarten. She still did most of the talking all the way through primary school and he kept her from being too overbearing and to keep her from beating up kids that . By middle school, they were known as the odd pair. She was smart and good at sports and he was quiet and observing, they seemed almost opposite of each other. People that hadn't known them in primary school were both confused and intrigued. Were they dating? Were they just friends? Some even thought they may have been siblings. If people were confused before, they became even more confused when they had an American transfer student join in the last few months of their first year of middle school. The blonde girl was suddenly the attention of the boys with their flirting and the jealousy of the girls. Taekwoon saw the look that Mari gave him, rolled his eyes but couldn't help the smile on his face. Mari walked over to the new girl, parting the crowd that was around her and held out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Mari! What's your name?" The girl looked a little taken aback by the way Mari introduced herself and when she leaned to the side, she saw Taekwoon sitting in his chair and he just waved at the two of them.

"Julie." The girl gave a bit of a smile before Mari took her hand and dragged her through the crowd back to where Taekwoon was.

"This is my best friend, Taekwoon, he's pretty quiet but I do enough talking for both of us." She giggled and Julie had to join along. The three of them were fast friends and, although they were liked, they were also avoided. They didn't mind all that much as they were kept busy by their imaginations and Mari's ability to pull them anywhere she felt. Their days were spent playing at the beach, exploring every part of Tongyeong, taking weekend trips to Japan, and becoming the closest trio in town. You never saw one without at least one or both of the other two. Taekwoon kept the girls grounded, Julie became a voice of logic, and Mari was the captain of the team. The trio was loved by the people in town but had a hard time relating to the kids at school. Towards the end of middle school, Taekwoon had developed a crush on one of the girls in their class. Mari and Julie egged him on to ask her out and hid around the corner to give him confidence. He didn't even get to the question before the girl was laughing at his stutter. The laughter lasted about two seconds before Mari had shoved the girl into her friends that had gathered around and then began to beat her up. Mari was suspended for a week but she never regretted a thing.

The rest of their school years were mostly uneventful. They were thick as theives the whole time but Mari, being the more outgoing of the group, had a wide circle of acquaintances. She was on the girls softball team at school and was one of the top students in their grade so she was asked to help out with homework a lot. One day, one of the more attractive (to her) guys asked her out and she said yes. She thought he was cute and he seemed to be a good guy. They had been going out for about two weeks when the guy dropped the bomb on her: he didn't want her to spend anymore time with Taekwoon. He basically gave her the ultimatum between him and her best friend in the entire world. She got up from the table they were sitting at and never spoke to him again.

Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year

And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere

And this is my reaction to everything I fear

- Weightless, All Time Low

The three of them graduated high school and ended up heading to university in Cheongju: Mari headed to Chungbuk National to study pharmacy, Taekwoon headed to the Korean National University of Education to study elementary education, and Julie went to Cheongju University to study social welfare. The three of them lived in a flat together that was in the middle of it all. Taekwoon served his time in the military during this time and the girls always sent letters to him. Just before Taekwoon came back from service, Julie learned that she was pregnant by her then boyfriend. The boy left her as soon as he found out and the three of them, once Taekwoon got back, got through the pregnancy together and took care of the little boy, their son, they all called him.

When ChinHae was a little over a year old, Julie fainted unexpectedly and began having severe seizures.. They took her to the doctor, who immediately ordered scans. She had a brain tumor and it was in a place where they were unable to operate on it. Julie started treatment but the three of them decided to move to Seoul where there was better doctors that could help. Mari got a job in a pharmaceutical company and started research for the medicine that could help her best friend. But it was too little too late, a few months after they moved to Seoul, Julie passed away, leaving Taekwoon and Mari to take care of Chinhae.

Mari did her best to stay positive, for Taekwoon and especially Chinhae. She kept a smile on but at night, she couldn't sleep. A week after she passed, Mari grabbed her blanket and crawled into Taekwoon's bed, crying herself to sleep as he hugged her. Since then, she couldn't sleep on her own and usually Chinhae was with them.

THE TURNING POINT

You came upon me, wave on wave

You're the reason I'm stil here, yeah.

Am I the one you were sent to save?

You came upon me, wave on wave

- Wave on Wave, Pat Green

A few months after Julie had passed away, the three of them took a weekend trip to Tongyeong. While they were there, it was clear that Mari was becoming more and more on edge about the situation. One evening, after dinner, her and Taekwoon walked down to the beach while his parents put ChinHae to bed. Once they got to the water's edge, Mari stopped and glared down at her feet before her head whipped up and she glared at Taekwoon. He stepped back a bit and his eyes went wide, it wasn't often he was the target of her anger.

"Do you even care that she's gone? You don't act like it at all, just going on with your normal day, doing everything as usual, you haven't said anything about it, not to me, not to SungJae, what's wrong with you?" By the end of the rant, she was screaming with tears streaming down her cheeks as her face fell into her hands. "I loved her, Taekwoon, did you?" She raised her head, eyes still clouded over.

He just stood there for a moment, perfectly quiet as he looked at her and then out to the ocean and then up at the sky before sighing and looking back at her.

"You really think I don't care? She was my best friend too, you know. I miss her every single day." He held up a hand as Mari started to get into her protests about his behavior again. "Julie and I...we made a pact before she died. I promised her that your emotions would always come first, your smile would always come first because...we both knew that you're not as strong as you pretend to be, as you think you are." He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down for a moment.

Mari was stunned at his words. The one thing she so desperately tried to hide, she should've know that they had picked up on it. Her eyes filled with tears again, only this time they weren't angry. Taking a step forward, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his chest before full out sobbing for the first time since Julie died.

"I just miss her so much, Taek." "I know...I do too."

From that day on, their relationship changed every so slightly. They were...closer somehow but it was different. More and more people mistook them for a couple, especially when they were out with ChinHae but they corrected people less and less. Neither of them really talked about their feelings, they just went about their days as usual. One day, they decided to make a set of rules to keep their relationship and family together with less of a chance that it would hurt Chinhae. Yes, the rules were made to keep CHinhae safe...nothing else...at least that's what they both told each other and themselves...

INTERACTIONS They are inseparable and tell each other almost everything. Everything, that is except for their feelings towards one another that they desperately try to keep under wraps. To everyone else in the entire world, they look like a super close couple, even married due to ChinHae. Taekwoon keeps her from getting too excited about ideas that will never work and Mari makes sure he doesn't stay in one place for long. She keeps his head in the sky and he keeps her feet firmly on the ground. They tend to have minimal skinship in public because they both feel a little awkward with it but Taekwoon has no problem grabbing her hand to hold her back. In private, they usually sit next to each other with ChinHae on one of their lap's, Mari's head on Taekwoon's shoulder. If Chinhae is asleep, Mari has no problem laying across Taekwoon's lap as they read. They've always been close like this and almost nothing has changed since high school. She enjoys teasing him for stupid things and he always swats her hand away or calls her out on it. If she needs a break, she'll visit him at school, even being a guest artist for the art class with her love of spray paint art. The two of them love the outdoors and cheesy romantic movies. It's a childish kind of relationship they have but at the same time, it's on a deep level where they can finish each other's sentences, will protect each other at all costs, and love each other from the bottom of their hearts, showing it in every action. From making meals for each other to forcing one or the other to stay home when they are sick. They rely on each other completely and they always, always hold hands when they are walking.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS Friends with a set of rules:
» Rule 1) Act like "normal" parents in front of ChinHae so that he can experience growing up with two loving parents
» Rule 2) No serious romantic partners until ChinHae is old enough to understand [age of understanding to be determined]
» Rule 3) ChinHae is only allowed to watch one romantic comedy movie a week [Mari made this rule after catching Taekwoon watching movies with him every night]
» Rule 4) No getting overly emotional about things concerning Julie in front of ChinHae since he was not old enough to understand what happened [Taekwoon made this rule after Mari couldn't stop crying after Julie died]

» Rule 5) Absolutely do not fall in love with each other due to possible conflict with rule number one if a falling out should occur; this rule is unspoken but mutually agreed upon...until emotions change.

ENDING

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love,

except in this form in which I am not nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams."

- Sonnet 17, Pablo Neruda

After struggling a lot with their feelings separately as an attempt to follow the rules they set up for each other, it eventually got too much to bear with having to stay in the same room and act like a family. One weekend, Taekwoon proposed that the two of them go to the beach together, just the two of them, and have Jiyong watch ChinHae. Agreeing they needed some time away from the city, Mari agreed and Taekwoon grabbed the letter from Julie and hid it in his jacket.

Once they got to the beach, Mari immediately went out to the water with Taekwoon following close behind but keeping his distance. He was more nervous than he had ever been in his life but Julie gave him the confidence he needed. Mari wandered back over to him and tugged on his sleeve, her normal gesture to ask him what was up. He pulled out the letter from his jacket and blushed slightly and, at the sight of the letter, she blushed too.

"So it's finally time to face what's going on here, eh?" She chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of her neck as he nodded.

"We bo-both knew...hell even Julie knew which is why we have this." He flipped the letter over in his hands. "So...d-do you think...I mean is is is it okay..." He struggled to find the words, getting irritated that his stutter decided to show up, before taking a deep breath. "Do you think we can try this whole parent thing as a real couple...you know, actually in love instead of f-faking it?" He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down out of embarrassment.

"Yeah I think we can..." She smiled before wrapping her arms around him. "And I guess we can open her letter now too." She took it from his hand, still leaning into him as she opened up the envelope.

If you aren't together, please put this letter back in the envelope and rethink your decision

Mari couldn't help but laugh as tears came to her eyes. Julie knew them so well, even after she was gone. She looked up at Taekwoon who wiped his eyes with a smile before pulling the letter up more.

Since you kept reading, I'm going to assume you two are together to which I can only say ING FINALLY!

The rest of the letter was mostly their best friend ranting about how long it took them to figure it out as well as a few things she wanted them to do for ChinHae, including specific cards and gifts and pieces of advice she wanted to give him for his birthdays from when he turned 5 to when he turned 18. The letter ended with the most trusting phrase they could've ever hoped to read.

I know you guys will be the perfect parents for him and I know you won't let him forget me either. Please protect him as you did for me and raise him as your own, you are his parents now. I love you both, always and forever, to infinity and beyond.

**sorry for the long scene but I definitely had that planned out in my head for their relationship**

As for an actual ending, depending on when you would like to put this scene in (if you decide to) It would be amazing if their ending could be him proposing to her with ChinHae's help.

〈 그 선을 지켜라! 〉

CROSS OR PROTECT?

FINAL WORDS Again I am so sorry for how long this took and I hope you enjoy reading about her. A lot of stuff happened in my real life that has left me pretty down. I also apologize for how long their story is hahaha I had a lot of fun writing it.

SCENE SUGGESTIONS anything that has to do with group outings or the girls hanging with the girls or guys with guys. I'm also a er for stuff like camping trips and group shenanigans. I would also love to see how the other characters interact with ChinHae.

PASSWORD I've been a JongKey girl since I got into kpop

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