I could feel his eyes on me even though I wasn’t sure from which corner of the club it was that he was watching me. My fingers itched to find purchase on the nearest thing in an attempt to calm my nerves. I never did like the feel of eyes on me, not like this. They were heavy and piercing. It was like whomever this guy was, he didn’t want to let me out of his sight.

The tap on my shoulder had me screaming but I swallowed the sound and fixed my dress before turning to face the stranger dressed in a pinstripe suit.

“If you could, please, follow me. He would like to see you.”

I narrowed my eyes a little, unintentionally. I didn’t even know this guy’s name but his presence was heavy. I’d heard about him lingering around the club from time to time. All that I’d really heard was that I needed to be careful with him because no one was sure of just what it was that he was capable. I only needed to be told once to take heed.

I shook my head in response and the male didn’t look all that pleased. I made sure to quickly clarify why it was that I was actually turning down the offer before he got the wrong idea and reported it back to this stranger that clearly had rank over him.

“I have to be on stage in a few minutes. I can’t right now.”

“Immediately after, please, come see me. I’ll wait for you backstage.”

I was too nervous to turn down the polite command. I didn’t want to chance anything happening to this club. I’d grown to spend too much time there and had attached myself to the music, all to escape the life I had outside of the club. If I could, I would live there but that wasn’t allowed. Not as far as I know. Then again, no one knew what my circumstances were and I didn’t want them to know.

I sang the classic song “Summertime” even though summer was coming to an end. The melody had me swaying and belting out the melody that I had to learn to follow. It wasn’t easy but it had become so with all my practice. This wasn’t my first performance anyway, thankfully. I wasn’t too worried about the audience not enjoying my performance. I had become a regular act for the club along with the house’s big band. This was all I knew and I was scared to break those boundaries. That meant that I was terrified to meet with the man that was waiting for me backstage, and he most definitely waiting for me just like he said he would be. Taking a deep breath, I folded my hands in front of me, looking down at my feet as I followed his steps with my own. When we stopped, I thankfully didn’t bump into him. That was the advantage of watching our feet.

“Raise your head.”

That was a stranger’s voice. I figured whoever it was that had requested to see me was probably someone that I knew but, even as I raised my head as told, I had no idea who this character was. The character had long legs and a torso that matched in good proportion. He didn’t seem to be a giant of any sort but he was nonetheless taller than me. He was clad in a black vest with silver buttons, a black tie tucked under it and resting over his white dress shirt. His slacks fit him to the tee, clearly tailored to fit his figure. Shiny black dress shoes topped off the entire ensemble, not to mention the silver accessories he donned – quite a few rings on both hands and a watch on his right wrist.

He curled a finger toward me and I felt my feet carrying me without any hesitation, despite how wary I was of strangers, let alone ones that held the kind of aura that he held around him. He then patted the seat next to him on the leather couch where he was seated, a seat that I took instantly after reaching him. I had sat closer than intended but wasn’t allowed to move away when I made the attempt to do so.

“Stay right here.”

His words were stated along with a firm grip on my wrist. I swallowed thickly, feeling as though I was choking on words that were trying to come out, although I couldn’t even think of anything to say to him. I didn’t move from where I was, deciding to simply stay put and wait this out. I’d behave and be obedient so as not to get myself hurt.

“You’re staying with me, understood?”

“Stay with you?”

His grip on my wrist quickly turned gentle as he slid up that sleeve to reveal the bruises that colored my arm underneath the sparkling red sequined fabric. I looked away and felt his fingers brush over a tender spot on my neck, the bruise there fading but still painful to the touch.

“I’m getting rid of him.”

Blinking, I wasn’t quite sure what he meant but, after looking into his eyes, I realized I had a sense of who this guy was. He had seen what happened to me a couple of times and from different people. I owed money for a few things, trying to make ends meet and people taking advantage of me however they could because they thought I was stupid. I wasn’t stupid but I wasn’t strong enough to take them, to take the physical and emotional blows. The abuse was something that I was used to growing up, but it didn’t mean that I wanted to deal with it. I’d gotten myself into trouble when I was younger which was why I was cleaning up my life, trying to forget the past that had turned me into the lone wolf that I had become, working to support myself and just get things finally working out for myself.

He’d seen it more than once. He’d seen the screamers, the hitters, the ones that shoved. We’d unintentionally crossed paths on more than one occasion and here I thought he’d never paid me any mind. I’d figured he probably saw me a nuisance that couldn’t handle anything and was just always getting herself into some kind of trouble, even though that wasn’t really me. I had just become tougher over the years, refusing to ever go down without a fight, a mentality that had gotten a lot stronger with the older that I got.

He curled a finger under my chin and smiled at me, baby-like features contradicting the cold killer yet gentlemanly air that surrounded him.

“Agree to belong to me. Be mine.”

His smile was cuter than anything else and I wasn’t sure how to take it. Part of me didn’t want to turn him down because I was worried that he would turn out like everyone else and just try to use me until they found me worthless. On the other hand, part of me felt as though I could finally trust someone and have someone to protect me from the people that liked to use and abuse to their heart’s content.

My hesitation gave him an even softer look in his eyes as he then turned to one of the men standing nearby. He nodded once and loosely wrapped an arm around my shoulders, holding me closer to him as the male he had nodded to had disappeared for a moment. I felt him tuck my hair behind my ear and it made me look at him, wondering what the heck was going on. Looking ahead as the male returned, I realized it was the landlord of my apartment building.

“What are you…? What are you going to do to him?”

Before I knew it, money was in front of me. It was cash, to be exact, bills in varying amounts tossed onto the floor at my feet. The landlord and I had just gotten into a dispute that morning, another conversation about him asking for an amount of money that was so much more than what I could afford. He had been so nice to me in the beginning but, sometime after I had moved in, he began to ask for more and more money.

“You wanted her body and nothing more.”

I blinked as I heard the male holding onto me speak. My landlord began to avoid my gaze.

“You were willing to withdraw her need to pay rent if she lent her body over to you, correct? That’s why you kept raising her rent without telling her.”

He continued to speak and I felt uneasy as I looked down. He shook his head, which I could see from my peripheral, before he tilted my head up with a gentle touch.

“I want you to see what I’ll do to anyone that crosses you.”

He smiled that boyish smile at me, a terrifying kind of glint in his eyes. He nodded and one of his men had the landlord held from behind, other hand holding a blade to the landlord’s throat and pressing the blade down enough to draw blood. I stared in a mixture of horror, worry, and intrigue. There was no way that they were going to kill this guy for messing with me a bit. He had just thought I was young and stupid, right? He hadn’t actually hurt me or anything.

“No one messes with my girl.”

Soon, the male’s body dropped to the floor, bleeding out from his throat as the deep wound spilled onto the floor around his head. Men worked to move the body while the male next to me turned my head to look at him.

“I’ll protect you. Don’t let anyone else get to you, understand?”

I wasn’t sure whether to feel creeped out or honored that someone was willing to go this far for me. Regardless, the fact that someone actually cared enough to kill someone for me was a thought that had me hugging his arm.

“The name is Yugyeom.”

He would speak briefly before going quiet again. Combing his fingers through his hair, he then smiled brightly at me.

“No one will get in my way or yours. I will cut them down to get what I want and chop them into the smallest pieces for you.”

I felt the brief feeling of what I was sure of to be depression of some sort. If I agreed to what was being offered to me, there would be so much that I was surrendering just for a bit of protection.

“You are mine. Everything I have is yours.”

I could see from the corner of my eyes his men getting the body out of there, one coming back to clean up what little blood had spilled to the floor. Returning my gaze to the male, I got a chill down my spine from how serious he looked.

“You’ll really take care of me?”

“Always.”