{double update! filler continued.}

So it was no big deal, right? Falling in love was something every teenager went through one stage in their life, happy ending or not, but it did become quite a shock for Jiyeon when she found out that L.Joe was no prison breaker… he was worse: a parentless boy off the streets living with his gang called Teen Top, as she later learned.

It was crazy when the reality dawned on her, especially with such full force like that, and it was probably an even bigger blow if not just as equivalent when L.Joe had found out that Jiyeon was actually an heiress to the rich and powerful Tiara Group in Seoul, a network so international that even the undergrounds of the city knew about it.

A princess and a frog, who would have thought...?

But that didn’t stop them from wanting to walk the future together, hand in hand, as L.Joe had always liked it. He wanted to give the angel who had saved his life all the love he could give, whilst Jiyeon wanted to give him the warmth of a family that she believed he deserved, and never got. They became each other’s secret comfort, source of support, and with a little more give and take than probably needed, for many years they kept it that way.

She remembered what her father had always told her, about never dating without his consent first, but knowing his character, she hid their relationship from him. And for a good six years at that. Remarkably, Jiyeon had also been able to keep up with her excellent grades at school–their relationship was only discovered and denied recently when Jiyeon’s father walked in on one of the couple’s calls in the manor on a night Jiyeon thought her father wasn’t home, a mistake that had cost her, and that she had never forgotten and never been able to forgive herself for.

//

What Jiyeon would also never be able to bring herself to forget was the day L.Joe had introduced her to the other members of his gang at ‘the warehouse’, a hide-out so deserted that Jiyeon hardly believed ninety-percent of the population in town would have known it even existed, including her father. It was a small, paint-washed building, with a clear strip of land down the front giving way to a garage which supported a magnificent rooftop canopied by trees for easy disguising and spying.

She felt so distressed at first that she couldn’t help but resort to digging her fingernails into L.Joe’s wrist as she trudged along, but after meeting the boys, that was not the case at all. The rest of the members of Teen Top, apparently the most feared gang on the media, were not much scarier than her boyfriend himself.

Like children clung onto their mother, three of them ran to the threshold of the warehouse in excitement upon their entrance. Jiyeon recognised them immediately as the boys who were there with L.Joe at the coffee shop that morning he confessed to her.

“Hello there beautiful, I’m Chunji,” the one in the middle with the sweatband and baby face said, a grin plastered onto his face. He threw L.Joe an awkward stare in the doing, not believing the beauty standing in front of him was his girlfriend. “If you weren’t my dongsaeng’s I would hav–”

“Yah, Lee Chan Hee…” L.Joe hissed, and the older boy laughed, backing off.

He seemed like he wanted to say more, but then the little one next to him made an effort to shout out, though embarrassed, “I’m Changjo, a- an honour to meet you!” And then another, in a torn vest, who had come from his side and pushed him out of the way. “Hi noona, I’m Ricky!”

Jiyeon smiled sheepishly at the crew and bowed to every single one of them, not sure how the ‘gangster’ way had worked, but when L.Joe sneaked a smile to her from her side, she knew she had done well. The one named Ricky interrupted their exchange of glances when he sensed the atmosphere getting tense, “You love birds almost forgot about Niel and C.A.P hyung!”

At the boy’s high pitched voice, Jiyeon looked over to the kitchen, and then to the bulk, quiet one in the apron who had turned around to face her. The waft of egg, bacon and steak filled the room. He seemed busy cooking their meal, with the boy they called Niel helping him, so Jiyeon just gave them both a reassuring smile in return for their acknowledgement for her, and for a second, before the taller one withdrew his eyes from her and returned to the egg in the frying pan, Jiyeon could have sworn she caught a sponge of blush reach his cheeks.

//

The deep mark Jiyeon had dug into her boyfriend's wrist was still there when they had left after the meal that evening, yet L.Joe had not said a word.

“Oppa, it hurts right? Mian…” she dipped her head into his chest, wallowing in a cloud of regret as she made an attempt to kiss it better.

“Jiyeon-ah,” he lifted her head in the golden rays of the setting sun, “Pabo, smile for me?”, and without warning, he kissed her on the lips instead, sending through her a tingling sensation that remained with her even after the boy had broken away. That was their first kiss, and the most gentle thing ever. "You have no idea how much that smile of yours means to me."

And that was when she knew, that he had truly cherished every single moment with her, even if it had hurt him. She also figured later on that L.Joe only showed to his brothers (though not biologically) those who were really important to him, Jiyeon being by far the first. Introducing her to them was like him showing her to his parents, to which Jiyeon felt really touched–she was accepted not only by him, but also by the rest of his family. From that moment on, Jiyeon made an oath to herself to never leave L.Joe’s side until hell had frozen over, and to love him dearly always, unless he had decided to leave her first…

{filler end.}

But of course, those sort of oaths were only kept in fairytales. And this was no fairytale. Jiyeon loved L.Joe, and he returned it with a mutual liking, but to their misfortune, both were going to have to go through a lot more pulling and pushing than a straight path would allow before they could achieve anything...

The thought eventually subsided and slowly Jiyeon’s ears grew accustomed to the trickle of water she was hearing, darkness in front of her, as though she were blindfolded beside a waterfall. Her senses were restored only when a piece of fabric drenched in what felt like icy water was laid over her forehead.

“L.Joe…”

“Ahgassi! You’ve finally awoken!” Jiyeon thought she heard a boy say, but when she opened her eyes she couldn’t see anyone. All she could make out in the haze of her imagination was a wobbly half opened paper screen door, as though someone had just rushed out of it in so much panic that he or she had forgotten to close it.

“Where… where am I…” She could barely recognise her own voice.

Jiyeon fluttered her eyes a bit more and before she knew it, she was entirely awake, and aware of the fact that a soreness had started to spread over her shoulders and through her thighs when she tried to move. The light that flooded in through the open paper screen door was so blinding that it made Jiyeon felt like she had been locked up in a cave for years. Her hands wrapped in linen bandages twitched at her side. She also realised that it was not the comfiness of her bed at home that she was resting upon, but a scratchy, unfamiliar straw mat.

Then, she knew. She was no longer in Seoul, and more scarily, no longer within the guidance of her loved one.

“Young ahgassi, don’t move around like that, you may injure yourself…!” Jiyeon stared open-eyed into the granny that ran in through the same paper screen door and plodded herself in front of her, a porcelain bowl of black, gooey liquid steaming in her wrinkly hands.

Jiyeon’s eyes quickly flickered to the red-haired boy who followed closely behind, but then returned to the granny after that because she felt compelled to pay attention to her. For some reason, her face reminded Jiyeon of a mouse, and at first glance, she knew that she must have been related to the boy behind her in one way or another.

“Haebonim… What happened…” Jiyeon asked, placing her wrist to her heavy forehead, watching as the granny continued fanning the funky looking medicine in her hands.

“My apologies young aghassi, I don’t know the whole story but I believe my grandson–” She grabbed a slipper with her other free hand and whacked him hard against the shoulder when he didn’t introduce himself, to which he flinched and Jiyeon almost let out a laugh, but contained it because it would have been rude. “–Seyong here would be able to tell you… He will also look after you while I’m away, so if you need anything, be sure to bother him.”

Seyong.

Jiyeon’s eyes fell upon the youngster in front of her when the granny moved out of the way, examining him more closely this time. He was dressed quite awkwardly for a boy her age, in a sort of traditional robe and white band tied around his waist which held the attire together, chest bare, and whose face she would have admitted to being quite charming if it wasn’t dirtied by a sort of soil mixture. His hair was a fiery red and his eyes were a pitiful dark grey in the light.

She nodded in his direction so as to tell him she was grateful for his care, and his lip split nervously. Jiyeon took that as his reply, and turned her attention back to the grandmother, who was still smiling sweetly at her. She weakly smiled back. But little did Jiyeon notice, that that small twitch of her lips was all it took for the country bumpkin's heart to race a thousand miles. Just like when he first encountered her, an angel who had literally fallen from the sky, torn and injured on the roadside, three mornings ago.

♕ ♕ ♕

a/n: to be absolutely blunt with you guys, I have no idea where this story is headed anymore OTL.. I'm out of creative juice. BUT I WILL PERSEVERE LOL. This is going to be my last update for a while too, because I have to get back to my homework and stuff T^T spent a good three days and nights writing all this hehe. $: be back with another chapter soon, yours dearly, hyukxin. ♥ *hugs all new readers*

hyukxin ©