I woke up in a strange place.

And that's all I knew.  I didn't know where I was, who else was around, what happened after I out, where Yeri was, and how the hell I ended up in an oversized T-shirt.

I observed my surroundings.  I was inside a bedroom, a somewhat neat one.  I say somewhat because there were random pieces of clothes at the foot of the queen sized bed I was in.  There was a closet opposite me in the room, next to it was the door leading outside.  On the right wall was a bureau with a mirror on top of it.

The door click scared me, breaking the silence in the quiet room.  The door opened to reveal the man that I caught staring at me at the club last night, and I assumed that he's the one that helped me when I out.  He looked much more laid back now than yesterday, practically in the same clothes as me right now; oversized shirt and shorts.  Then I blushed at the realization that he probably changed my clothes and brought me to his place.

"You're up?" he asked, his voice less edgy than I remember when he told off that ert, but still stone cold and his face emotionless.

"Yeah, I just got up..." I answered, sitting up in the bed, pulling the blanket up to cover my body because I was still embarrassed at the conclusion I had just drawn.

"I didn't do anything to you, if that's what you're thinking."  He shifted his weight to his other leg.

"Okay..." I said softly, lowering the blanket back into my lap.  "Um...thank you for last night."

"It's the right thing to do, don't dwell on it too much," he said sharply.  "But now you owe me a favor."

"What kind of favor?" I asked, a little nervous.

The man crossed his arms over his chest and sat at the edge of the bed.  "Stay here for a little while.  It wasn't coincidence that you met that guy.  He was part of a rival gang of your father's."

At the mention of my dad, I stiffened.  That was extremely private information that I never told anyone, except Yeri.  "How do you know my father?"

"I was part of that gang's 2nd generation.  They want...revenge on what your father did to their parents," he explained, looking down.  "They were behind the accident that killed him a few years ago, and they got to the other members too."

I was horrified. My dad's accident wasn't an accident after all. I always had a sneaking suspicion, but since I was told it was an accident, I believed it. And now that my hunch was confirmed, I felt even worse about my father's death, not to mention scared of this gang.

The man in front of me looked up with a hard stare.  "And now they want to wipe out their kids to prevent any future revenge."  He leaned forward.  "And that very much includes you, so you're not going anywhere."

I froze at the close proximity between us.  "Um...Okay?  If that's what's happening, then I guess I should stay..." I said quietly without thinking.  I didn’t want to fight with that stern face.  It frightened me a little.

"Good," he said with a curt nod and pulled away from my face.  "Um..."  He suddenly darted his eyes away from me.  "Do you want to go home for a while just to get some of your stuff?"

The light bulb of realization finally went off.  "O-Oh, right.  Yeah, that would be a good idea," I blushed.  "I don't want to have to use your clothes all the time."  I tugged at the collar of the oversized shirt he had dressed me in, feeling a little awkward in it.  I felt a little relieved that my bra was still on and it was untouched.  I pulled up the cover of the blanket to get it off me when he turned around with an awkward cough suddenly.

"Uh... I-I think I should go for a moment.  I'll leave one of my old pairs of sweatpants by the door for you to grab," he said, scratching the back of his neck.  With that, he got up and left the room, closing the door quickly behind him.

I lifted the blanket off my body again in confusion only to have have my face heat up in embarrassment.  It was at that moment when I realized that I wasn't wearing any shorts or pants over my underwear.

I stepped out of the bed softly.  Now that I was standing upright, I saw that the shirt was just an inch shorter than the dress I was wearing last night.

"Oh, one more thing-"  He suddenly barged back into the room.  He took one look at me and covered his eyes, as if he was just remembering that I was a girl in just a shirt.

I self-consciously pulled the hem of the cloth down, knowing that it was too short for even my liking.  "Yeah?" I squeaked, trying to make this situation less awkward.

"Breakfast will be on the table in a few minutes, so don't take too long," he informed me before feeling his way out of the room.  I could hear him mumbling to himself and I chuckled slightly.  He seemed like a tough guy, but he’s absolutely clueless around women.

I waited until I couldn't hear the mumbling anymore.  Then, I grabbed the pair of sweatpants on the floor that he left in front of the door and pulled them on.  They were shorter than I thought, but I still had to fold the top inwards and roll up the legs a little since they were too long.

I went to the bathroom to wash up, but all the feelings over my dad's death resurfaced. I had tried not to dwell on them and carry on with my life since that's what he would want. But the guilt I had pushed away had come back now that I knew who killed him. And I felt terrible that I wasn't there to help him. But I had to stay strong for his sake and move on. After washing my face in the bathroom, I navigated myself to the kitchen where the man said he would have breakfast ready.  I slowly padded through his house, my steps quiet and timid.  I finally found the kitchen, the man setting up dishes on the peninsula.

He looked up.  "You're here," he stated bluntly, just to acknowledge my presence.

I awkwardly just stood there as he took a seat.  I felt weird eating with a stranger in his own house.  I felt like an intruder.

He looked up at me expectantly.  "You're not hungry?" he asked.  "Sit down, eat.  I don't bite."

I nodded and sat down across from him, picking up my chopsticks and helping myself.

He must have noticed my hesitation.  "I know this might be weird for you," he started.  "You know, a stranger helping you away from a creepy guy and then taking you back to his place and he asks you to stay with him for a while.  I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay, really," I assured him.  "Thank you, I'm really grateful for you doing this."

He shrugged.  "As I said before, it's just the right thing to do."

We continued our meal in silence, an awkward one since we didn't know what to say.

"I'm Jin, by the way," he glanced at me for a second while eating his food.

"Ara.  Kim Ara," I nodded in response.  I felt a little less tense now that I at least knew his name.

We finished our breakfast in silence.  I picked up my plate and my glass to put in the sink.

“I’ll do the dishes,” we said at the same time.

I turned around to stare at his back.  He wasn’t even done eating and he was already volunteering.  “I’m already up, it’s ok,” I said as I placed my plate in the sink and opened the tap.

Jin suddenly got up and turned me around by my arms to face him.  His expression was clearly annoyed at me.  My eyes widened slightly as I caught my breath.  I was frozen in what seemed like slight fear.

“I told you, I’ll do it,” he said curtly, as if he was reprimanding me, and moved me away from the sink a little harshly before turning his back to me for him to do his work.  Still a little stunned, I stayed in place dumbly, the only sound in my ears being the running of water and the sponge scrubbing across the dishes   “Are you gonna just stare at me for the next few minutes?” he asked sharply, making me jump.

My mind scattered, trying to find some sort of excuse or way to escape this.  “Um...no, I’ll just-”

“Just go wait in the living room,” he cut me off.  “When I’m done here, I’ll take you home to get some of your clothes and stuff.”

“O-Okay,” I muttered to myself, turning around and hitting myself in the head mentally for acting stupid.

I walked slowly to the room in the front of the house so we could leave soon.  I sank into the cushions of one of the couches, closing my eyes.  I tried to collect my thoughts about the events from last night to this morning.

What I knew was the following: some guy, apparently a son of one of the members of my dad’s former rival gang, tried to kidnap me last night at a club, he got me something to drink.  Judging by how I tasted nothing out of the ordinary in the drink and that it had anesthetic abilities, it must have been Rohypnol, or something more potent considering that it knocked me out within minutes.  I’m surprised that I’m even able to walk around the day after.  Must have been just a normal sedative or anesthetic then.  Anyway, after I walked out to get some air I was almost kidnapped, but Jin came and told him to back off, I collapsed, and then brought me to his place since he had no idea where I live and couldn’t ask since I was unresponsive.  I woke up in his place, saw that Jin clothed me, and then ate breakfast.

Then a thought suddenly hit me.  Holy crap, Yeri is probably blowing up my phone and cursing me right now since I didn’t come back to her place.  But where the hell is my phone, exactly?  And all the clothes I had worn yesterday?  I facepalmed myself.  And the only shoes I have are those freaking heels that Yeri gave me.  What a drag.  If my dad could see me now, he would have yelled the house down.  He taught me way better than this.

But almost getting kidnapped wasn’t even the worst part.  There’s a rival gang out there trying to hunt me down and kill me, and I’m in the house of one of their ex members, whom I know I can trust how exactly?  What a predicament I’m in.  I’ve made some really poor decisions in my life, but this is just out of control.  I don’t even know how I’m calm in a situation like this.

I backtracked in my thoughts a little.  How do I know that I could trust this Jin character?  I have no idea.  Seeing that he hasn’t made any moves on me yet and that he’s only been treating me with hospitality lowers the radar a little.  He even told me about their plan and wants to keep me here for safety.  But why would he keep me here?  Do his former members know that he’s even working behind their back?  Why me?  Why isn’t there anyone else here?  I know that my dad’s friends had kids too, why not go after them?  What if he’s just doing this to lure me here so they could all kill me here and make it easier than tracking me down?  Jin was able to do it last night, he found me at the club easily and was spying on me while I was dancing.

So, why should I trust him?

A cough brought me back to the world around me.  Jin was standing in front of me, a little annoyed.  He’s quite an irritable and harsh guy, I thought.  “Sorry, I dazed out a little,” I apologized.  “Hey, uh, do you know where my stuff is?”

He held up a plastic bag that I didn’t notice he had been holding.  “You can go leave them home if you want to.  Your phone and your purse is in here too,” he held it out to me.  His face was still void of emotion and his voice was coldly stoic.

I took it from him.  Very cold persona too.  “Thanks.”

He nodded.  “Should we go now?” he asked rhetorically before turning, grabbing his keys off the loop, and opening the door.

“Do you have any...shoes I can wear?” I asked timidly before he walked out.

He turned to me.  “Oh, right.  Yeah, I do.”  He opened the jacket closet next to him and pulled out a pair of sandals.  “You don’t mind if they’re big, right?”

I shook my head and slipped my feet in them before following him out the door and into his car.  I awkwardly slipped into the passenger seat of the car next to him. He started the car and pulled out of his driveway.  We rode in silence except for me giving him directions to my place.

“So...how long do I have to stay with you for?” I asked, playing with the hem of his shirt.  I didn’t want to meet his gaze.

"Hard to say," he answered.  "For now, I'll estimate about a month.  You need to be under the radar until they stop looking for you.  Or at least until you're the last child they need to find.  Then they'll just give up because you don't really have any allies if you're the last one around."

He turned at another intersection that I pointed out, and I was soon in front of my house.  I hurriedly got out of the car with the bag of my stuff.  I went up to my front door, fishing the keys out of the purse I had last night, and opened the door.  I went straight up to my room and took a duffle bag out from the closet.  While I was digging through my drawer and closet for clothes, I figured I would call Yeri before she has a heart attack.

“What the hell happened to you?!” she yelled as soon as she picked up the phone, making me pause my packing to hold the phone away from my ear.  “Why didn’t you stay at my place like I told you?!  Why the hell didn’t you answer any of my calls?!  What is wrong with you?!”

“Relax, I’m fine, don’t get so worked up,” I calmed her down and placed the phone back between my shoulder and my cheek.  “I slept at some guy’s house last night.”

“Oooh~ Was it that guy I saw you grinding on?  Did you get some action?” she swooned.

“Hell no, he drugged me and almost killed me, so I’ll pass on ‘the action’ with him,” I rolled my eyes.

“What the !  I’ll kill him!!” she shouted.  “Wait, so where did you sleep last night?”

“Some guy I saw helped me and took me back to his place,” I answered nonchalantly.  Maybe if I convince her that it’s not a big deal, maybe I’ll believe it too.  “He clothed and fed me, so I’m back at my place so I could pack some stuff.  I’m gonna stay with him for a while.”

“Hold up homegirl,” she cut me off.  “You’re staying with him?!  That’s moving too fast, even for a like me.”

“Don’t call yourself that, it makes me uncomfortable when you talk bad about yourself,” I made a face, sure she could picture me making it.  I took an armful of T-shirts, tank tops, and pajama shorts out of my drawer and stood up, dropping them in the bag on my bed.

“Why are you even staying there in the first place?  If you needed a place to crash away from home, you could’ve stayed with me.  Why is he so special?” she asked.

“Remember how I told you my dad was a gangster?” I reminded her, opening my tiny closet.  “Turns out that in one of the rival gangs, the members had a bunch of kids and now they’re after me to take revenge on my dad’s gang.  The guy that almost killed me was one of them.”

“What the hell?  So they’re just getting revenge on you?  And now you’re in hiding with some random guy you met at a club?”

“Jin said that it would be safe to crash at his place since he’s an ex member or something,” I filled her in.  “He told me everything about this when I got up this morning.”

“Jin?” she repeated.  “Heol daebak, you’re only going by single-syllable basis and it’s only the first day?” she scoffed incredulously.

“That’s all he told me about his name, just the one syllable,” I clarified.

“How do you even know you could trust him?  How do you know that he won’t pull anything on you?  Forget about your whole gang backstory, you’re still a single woman in your 20s, you have a perfect figure, and you’re alone with a guy in his house.  Please tell me I’m not the only one seeing red flags here?”

“I’ll manage,” I frowned, picking out some jeans and tops that I could wear if I decided to go out anywhere.

“You don’t know anything about him other than the fact that he’s an ex-gang member of some guys that are trying to kill you!  How the hell are you so calm about all of this?!  If you were me, you would be yelling at me to come to my senses!”

“Yeah, you’re right about that, and I’ve thought of all of that already,” I hummed in agreement, putting the clothes in my almost full bag and taking the phone into my hand.  “It’s just…”  I paused for a moment to think about this.  “I just feel...like he won’t do anything to me.  It’s an instinct.  I don’t feel like I’m in any danger with him.”

“Don’t tell me you have a crush on him or something,” Yeri groaned.

“I don’t like him,” I hummed in thought and sat down on my bed.  “I just...believe in him.”

“For now,” she added.  “Soon enough, you’re gonna fall for him.”

“Yah, maldo andwae (That’s ridiculous),” I waved her off.

“I can already see it.  The guy who saved you and protected you from a guy that drugged you and almost killed you, took you into his house to keep you away from his crazy gang of revenge-driven kids.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you just don’t know what you’re feeling or you’re just trying to deny it.”

I was silent, just listening to what she had to say.

“And you’re living with him.  You’re bound to see him in his completely vulnerable and natural form, it’s not like you’re seeing him outside where he acts different in public.  He’ll see you in your most natural and vulnerable form.  You’ll feel so much more intimate and comfortable with each other just because of that.  It’s inevitable that you guys might end up falling for each other.  I’m not saying that you guys are gonna end up married out of this, but at least stay in a long relationship.”

While she was talking, the dishwashing incident this morning flashed through my mind.  His hands were latched onto my arms firmly, but gently enough so I wouldn’t be in pain from in.  And he was so close to me, looking at me with those sharp brown eyes.  It only lasted for less than a second, but it felt like a full 5 of them.  Then I remembered how he looked so cutely awkward when he came in while I was getting out of bed without pants on.  I swore I saw him blush slightly.

“I don’t know, Yeri.  He seems like a really cold guy from the way he speaks, but I guess that’s only for now since I’m still trying to get to know him,” I sighed.  “But I don’t want this to be made into a relationship, that’s just weird.”

“Suit yourself then,” she huffed.  “I wouldn’t mind hooking up with my hero, especially if he’s good looking.”

“You and your obsession with boys,” I shook my head and laughed at her.

“Anyway, keep me updated while you’re there.  I wanna get to know this guy and see who my precious friend will be marrying one day,” she teased.

“Shut up.  I’m gonna pack the rest of my stuff.  I’ll call you back tonight,” I got up from the bed.

“Kay girl, take care,” she said.

“I will, you too,” I said before hanging up.  I went to the bathroom and took my toiletries into a smaller bag before stuffing it in the duffle.  I took out my backpack to pack my phone charger, headphones, and my laptop.

Putting my phone charger in my bag made me pause to think.  My phone was almost fully charged, and I didn’t charge it since yesterday before I left with Yeri to got to the club.  Even if it was left idle through the night, it would at least be at 70-80%.  But Yeri had been calling and messaging me, so it should be less.  Even after my phone call just now, it was in the 90s.  I want to say that it was a miracle and that my phone’s battery life was finally working the way it should, but I knew that wasn’t the case.

I decided to just shrug it off and get going, I didn’t want to keep Jin waiting for me any longer.  I grabbed my backpack and my duffle bag before heading out the door, making sure to lock it.  I walked back to Jin’s car and knocked on the window to let him know that I was done.  He looked up from his phone and unlocked the back door for me to put my stuff in.  I loaded up and sat back in the passenger seat.  My eyes drifted to his phone absentmindedly and it hit me.  Jin has the same charger as my phone.  So...he charged it all night for me?

I looked over at him driving.  His eyes were focused on the road in front of him.  His brown hair fell effortlessly down to cover his eyebrows.  His face was sculpted into that of a handsome prince, and his lips were perfectly plump.

Whoa.  Stop.

I snapped myself back to staring out the window.  Creepy much? I scolded myself.  I had been staring at him for a while.  I shifted uncomfortably and started scrolling through some random crap on my phone until Jin pulled up in front of his house.  I followed him timidly through the door before turning towards the bedroom.  I wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

Jin grabbed hold on my backpack and pulled me to face him again.  He turned his head to look at me, his face still neutral and cold.  "Let's talk for a little, just to set some ground rules," he said plainly.

"Rules?" I repeated, dumbly and timidly.

He said nothing and just walked to one of the couches in the living room.  I followed him stiffly, sitting on a different couch to face him.

"First things first.  I know the conditions of you living here are weird, but to make it easier for you to digest, just think of you living here as a roommate," he explained.  "That being said, we live just as roommates do; we stay out of each other's way as much as possible."

I opened my mouth to complain, but he shot me a look to silence me.  "We aren't obligated to intervene on each other's personal lives.  I know you probably have a job or something that you have to go to work for, and I know you probably will want to go out with friends, so I won't interfere with your life.  You should do the same with me.

"However, when you do go out, I only ask that you be very careful not to get caught by the other gang's members," he said sharply.  "Stay away from your house at all costs.  If you need to get picked up from somewhere because you're alone, then you can call me.  The only interactions you can have with me are to pick you up or drop you off somewhere, and dinnertime because I just have a habit for eating together when there are people in my house..." Jin scratched the back of his head awkwardly.  “Maybe breakfast too, if I’m awake.”

There was that shift in persona from cold and stiff to awkward and cute.  I squirmed a bit, not understanding his bipolarity and making me feel weird.  “Okay…?”

“So we’re clear?” he leaned forward and looked at me in the eye sharply.

I nodded quickly.  “Crystal.”  I shrank back under his stare.  “I’m just gonna go unpack now.”

I was almost ran out of there without looking back and shut the door to my room behind me.  I let out the breath I had been holding and laid all my bags down on the bed.  “One day he’s gonna kill me with that stare,” I mumbled to myself.

I slowly started unpacking my bag.  I put my clothes in the empty dresser drawers, and plugged in my laptop and phone on the other side of the room near the bed.  As I packed everything away, I thought about Jin’s strange switch of emotions.  One moment he’ll be scaring me with just a cold stare, and then the next he’ll turn into an awkward blushing turtle.  I don’t know what scares me more, the actual scary side of him or the switching!

I flopped onto the bed, staring at the blank ceiling and let out a heavy sigh.  This is going to be a very long month.