Chapter 10 

 

For the first time in weeks, when Changwook woke up, he woke up peacefully with no immediate need to scan the room for any danger or any sign of disturbance that indicate that someone had been in the room during the night. 

 

He even felt peaceful, at least a great deal more than he had been in a long time. The weight of the stress and burdens that he had been carrying since he had discovered what lurks in Sejoon's basement had lessened greatly. He felt lighter, more at ease which was so unusual for him that it borders on new and it was all because of the sleeping woman curl around half of his body. The same woman who had given him both hell and heaven all in one night. If she hadn't been yelling at him or arguing with him then she had been on her back, letting him delight in her glorious body. 

 

A small grin tugs at the corner of his mouth as he looks down at her. He was lying on his back and Yoona was lying mostly on top of him. Her head was resting on his chest, her arm was draped over his stomach and her legs were hugging his thigh. She had one long slim leg draped over his thigh and her other leg was tuck snugly up against his side. She had curled herself around him as if afraid that he would float away if she didn't hold him down and her hair. Oh, good god, her hair. Her hair was everywhere. Which wasn't unusual when she either didn't put it up or it came free during the night but this time, it was different. He could feel her silky hair draped all over his body. Her golden blonde hair was sprawl across the mattress and pillow and spread out over his shoulder, neck, and chest. His arm that was wrapped around her, holding her in place, was buried beneath the shimmering golden blonde blanket that was her hair. 

 

It was an ungodly mess of silky golden blonde tresses tangle loosely together. No doubt all due to the carnal activities they had engaged in several times during what had ended up being one hell of a night. 

 

In all his life, Changwook had never seen anything ier or anything more mouth-watering than the sight of Yoona's sleeping form in his bed, her hair spread out around her in every way after a night of passionate lovemaking. The white motel sheet was wrapped around her midsection, covering her from chest to thigh. The bottom half of the sheet was entangled with her long legs that were entangled with his leg, they sure as hell made one hell of a mess of the bed. 

 

Yoona was a beauty when she was clothed and wide awake but lying here now, especially after last night, Changwook just wanted to fall to his knees and worship at her feet. 

 

Oh god, how he loves her. 

 

Last night had been one of the most eventful nights of his life. They had made love like wild animals in heat and they had argue, their first real argument and in doing so, they had both releases some of their frustration, in other words, they had vented but when Changwook had open up about his parents for the first time in his life, unintentionally at the time, Yoona had shared his pain, his loss with him as deeply as if it had been her own and he only love her all the more for that. She hadn't pitied him like most others would have, instead, she had comforted him and reassure him that he wasn't going to lose her, mostly doing so without using any words. 

 

Yoona continues to prove just how unpredictable she was. Last night, oh dear God in heaven and all the angels too, last night. Last night had been the singularly best night of his entire life without any question. He had his share of women, oddly, he couldn't even remember the faces of any of them but not one came close to Yoona. True, she was, had been, Changwook corrected himself, inexperienced but she was the most passionate and sensual creature he had ever known. She had embraced their lovemaking and hadn't held any of herself back, at least not after the first time. 

 

With Yoona, what you saw was what you got. He had always know exactly where he stood with her. She didn't play the games that a lot of women play. When Yoona was angry at him, she let him know with all of the subtly of a hurricane and when she was happy, she shares her happiness with him. 

 

Changwook was so very sorely tempted to stay in bed with her all day and even more tempted to roll the sleeping goddess onto her back and bury himself in her sweet folds once more but instead, he forces himself to get up, out of the bed. 

 

They had to get moving. They had been in one place for too long already and they had to get back on the road. In a couple of days, he had organized to get them both out of the country as quietly as possible but for now, they had to keep moving. 

 

He needed more time, just a few days more. 

 

After last night, Changwook absolutely refuse to let the time he had spent here with her become a grave mistake that would end up costing Yoona dearly. 

 

No way was Changwook going to let them get caught because of last night. He couldn't and wouldn't let last night become a mistake. 

 

Sejoon had phenomenal resources, just as Yoona had warned him, resources that only a few days ago Changwook had been discretely informed about as said resources had successfully cut off his intended escape route out of the country. So, in order to keep Yoona out of her dad's hands, Changwook had no choice but to drive back and forth across the country until his secondary contact got back into the country. 

 

The man, who had no traceable name, was the best people smuggler there was in Korea. He could get anyone in or out of the country undetected. 

 

Changwook had nearly busted him a few years ago but the guy had saved his life, sheer dumb luck on the smugglers part but still and after Changwook had learned that the guy flatly refuse to move terrorists and slave traders, he had let him slide. 

 

For two reasons. Firstly, the smuggler hadn't been Changwook's target and now, the smuggler owed him big time. He will get them out of the country and he was well known for being a man of his word who could keep his mouth shut so Changwook could trust him, as much as he trusted anyone, particularly a criminal not to sell them out to Sejoon. 

 

The man had a reputation and a very lucrative business to protect, after all, that was something that Changwook could trust in. 

 

Changwook had let the smuggler go but he wasn't stupid. He had kept close tabs on the clever smuggler. 

 

So, in a few days, the smuggler would get the two of them out of the country and keep his mouth shut about it but as for right now, even though the risk became greater with every moment they remain in one place, Changwook decided he had let Yoona sleep just a little longer. It had been a long night and although they had spent most of it in bed, he hadn't let her get that much sleep. 

 

With a very masculine and smug smile on his lips, Changwook gently move Yoona off of him, rose from the bed and adjusted the sheet over her so she will be cover and protected from the cool morning air moving around the room that not even the air-force heat pump that Changwook had during the night could keep at bay. Yoona moans softly as she stirs at being disturb but she didn't wake up. Instead, she rolls over onto her stomach and settles in the warm spot Changwook had left behind. 

 

With an affection soft smile on his lips, Changwook picks up his weapon from the bedside table and disappear into the bathroom. If he didn't get a grip on his self-control then the two of them wouldn't leave the room for a long time. 

 

Thirty minutes later, shower and freshly shaven, Changwook step out of the bathroom, not surprised to see that Yoona was right where he had left her, only now, she was hugging a pillow instead of him. 

 

Again, the urge to roll her onto her back and wake her for another round of lovemaking hit him but he fought against it. They had to get moving and no doubt Yoona would want a shower beforehand. 

 

He, himself, had very much needed one so Yoona's need for a shower would no doubt be greater. 

 

Changwook crosses the room to his duffel bag that was currently sitting on one of the motel chairs by the door and pull out his last pair of clean pants. He then set his weapon on the bedside table and briskly pull on his black Levi's jeans. 

 

As he did so, his eyes were glued to the bed as he drank in the sight of her, committing it permanently to memory. She was sleeping so soundly on the bed, looking tousled and sated even in sleep but that was all the time Changwook allow himself. He had to get Yoona up and in the shower so he could finish getting dress and get their bags in the car before he gave into the temptation to take off his pants and join Yoona in bed. 

 

With a reluctant sigh, Changwook leans down, supporting his weight on his hands as he hovers over Yoona's sleeping form and gently kisses her on the mouth, being as gentle as he could be as her lips were noticeably red and swollen from his frequent ardent attentions throughout the night. 

 

Although, Yoona wasn't the only one with marks from last night. Using the mirror in the bathroom, Changwook had discovered that he had long red streak marks running down nearly the entire length of his back. His little kitten, who like to act the tigress, certainly had the claws of a tiger that was for sure. He now had the scratches on his back to prove it. 

 

It amuses him greatly that he couldn't even recall any twinge of pain from last night; he had been far too preoccupied with the pleasure. He didn't even have any idea as to when Yoona had come close to clawing his back bloody. Maybe it had been over the course of the entire night, he just couldn't recall. 

 

Beneath him, Yoona moan, the sound more like a sleepy sated purr than anything else. She rolls lazily onto her back, adjusting her position so that she was lying flat beneath him. 

 

Changwook broke the kiss and lifted his head just enough so that he could stare down into her radiant face in time to watch her open her eyes and smile adoringly up at him. An intriguing shade of red blossom on her cheeks which gave her a charming flush look. 

 

Deep in his chest, his heart lurch and Changwook knew that he could spend the rest of his life waking up next to her like this but even if they both live to be a hundred, it still wouldn't be enough time with her. 

 

He wanted this moment, right here and now to last forever. It was a perfect moment. He was happy and he was with the woman he loves, what more could he ever ask for? And the temptation to take her again was so powerful that it was on the verge of being painful but they had to get on the road. If he got back into bed with her now, they wouldn't crawl out of it until their body was starving to death. 

 

Changwook groans reluctantly and turns away from her, leaving the bed and pulling his park green U.S. Polo Assn. long sleeve plaid button-front shirt, the last of his clean shirts, from his duffel. Making a mental note that sometime during the day they will have to stop at a laundry mat to wash their clothes. 

 

"Get up and get dress," Changwook order her, without looking her way at all but there was no bite in his voice. There was only so much temptation, torment, a man could take before he broke down and did something ill-advised, "We have got to get back on the road. We should be miles away from here by now. In another state even. Get up and I promise we will stop somewhere for breakfast where we can get you some form of chocolate." 

 

Changwook knew that the promise of chocolate would be enough to get her up out of bed. When Yoona was in a good mood she wanted chocolate. When Yoona was in a grumpy mood she wanted chocolate. When Yoona was in a really bad mood she wanted chocolate. 

 

Yoona extended her arms above her head and stretch her body as far as she could while making a sound that was a cross between a moaned and a very feminine purr. 

 

Yoona was completely unaware of Changwook's unblinking lustful eyes glue to her slightly arching body. 

 

As she stretches her body and its stiff muscles, Yoona discovers all the tender spots her body had as a result of an active night of passionate lovemaking with the man she loves, a man who had the libido of a jackrabbit. 

 

Yoona was very tender in one spot in particular and longed for a bath that she knew she wasn't going to get, even if the motel room had a bathtub but alas, there was only a shower in the small cheap but clean motel room. Oh well, a shower was far better than nothing at all. 

 

"I want something chocolatey sweet with chocolate chips," Yoona told him, demanded really, as she rose up onto her elbows, using her right hand to keep the sheet in place over her s. 

 

Changwook rolls his eyes with playful amuse affection, "Ok, I will get you a chocolate coconut banana bread for your breakfast." After last night, he had give her the moon if she asks for it. 

 

"I was thinking more along the lines of a chocolate muffin." Yoona threw aside the sheet, not caring at all about her ness, after last night, there really wasn't any point covering up and move to the edge of the bed. She then reaches for her bag, pulling it along the floor to the side of the bed. She started rifling through it in search of something clean and loose fitting to wear. 

 

"For breakfast?" Changwook responded incredulously. 

 

Yoona gave him a downright feline grin that set his blood on fire, a great deal of his which went rushing south. Which should have been physically impossible for him after the last five hours they had spend together in bed. He had taken her half a dozen times and he wasn't eighteen anymore, even if a certain part of his anatomy did seem to think so. 

 

Yoona gave him a heavy-lidded seductive look that sent a shiver through his entire body. 

 

"I think I have burnt off enough calories that I could eat a chocolate factory empty for breakfast and not gain a pound." 

 

Unable to help himself, Changwook went to the bed, went to her, as enraptured by her as if she were a siren who had been born specifically to tempt him and him alone. 

 

Changwook leans down over her, his hands press into the mattress beside her shoulders and kiss her laughing mouth. 

 

Changwook felt happier than he had ever been in his adult life. Yoona was like sunshine and rainbows and everything that was beautiful and life-affirming in the world. She was his muse, his deity, and his love. She had brought life back to his once desolate life and hope, hope for the future. He wanted to embrace life with her and laugh and spend the rest of his life making her happy and keeping her safe. 

 

With Yoona, for the first time in his adult life, he not only felt alive but he felt as if there really was a bright happy future waiting for him and he wanted it with a surprising ferocity. He wanted a bright and happy future with Yoona. 

 

Even if he did have to fight for it first. Even if he did have to lie to her and leave her for a short time to kill her dad so that they had the chance to have that future. 

 

"How are you feeling this morning?" Changwook asks her when he finally pulls away from her enough to break their kiss so that they both could get some much-needed oxygen. 

 

A warm loving and happy feminine smile flooded her eyes and spread across her welcoming lips, "Perfect. I'm absolutely perfect." She purrs blissfully. 

 

Changwook seriously doubted that but he did know what she meant. She meant that she was in a great mood after their time together last night while physically she had to be sore after how many times he had taken her body last night and he hadn't exactly been as gentle as he should have been. Yoona wasn't used to being taken so roughly or so regularly. He would have to make sure that he took better care of her from now on but after a while, once she had become accustomed to him...Oh, sweet merciful heaven. His thoughts went wild and he could feel himself becoming hard again. 

 

In his head, Changwook quickly recited FBI radio codes to distract himself before he forgot himself and did something to Yoona that at this point will be nothing short of abusive. 

 

In sheer desperation and with his self-control in serious trouble, Changwook blindly reach across the bed to where he had discarded his shirt when he had come to her and then lean back on his knees, pulling Yoona up with him. Once they were sitting upright, Changwook wraps the shirt around her, briskly pulling her arms through the sleeves and buttoning it up. The shirt was at least three or five sizes too big for her but it did the job of covering her up. 

 

The quicker Yoona was dressed and they were in the car, the sooner his mind would stop bombarding him with the tantalizing idea of taking the shirt off again. 

 

Although, Yoona would have to take his shirt off again anyway so that she could put on her own clothes. Changwook wasn't about to let Yoona step outside the room unless she was properly dress; it wouldn't be good for his mental or physical health to have Yoona sitting beside him in the car, knowing that she wasn't wearing a bra but Yoona would have to handle that element of clothing herself as he sure as hell wasn't taking the shirt back off of her and putting her bra on for her. 

 

He just wasn't that strong damn it. He was a man. 

 

"Get up!" Changwook order her more harshly than he had intended but he didn't actually make any move to move away from her. 

 

Yoona giggle playfully, staring up at him with sparkling eyes and a gleeful smile, "Really? You think I'm going to be able to walk this morning after last night?" 

 

Changwook growls playfully at her, his hunger for her obvious in the sound but then he sobers up just a little. He lifted his hand to her face, gently rested her chin on his fingers and gently her chin with the tip of this thumb as he stares down into her eyes. Her radiant dark brown eyes that were sparkling with joy and love. 

 

"Are you really alright?" Changwook asks tenderly, "You are sore, I know you are. How bad is it? I shouldn't have been so rough with you, I'm..." 

 

Yoona swiftly covers his mouth with her hand, cutting him off midsentence, "Don't." She warns him mildly, but seriously. 

 

Yoona could see it in his eyes that he was really sorry that she was in some discomfort but that wasn't what she wanted from him, not now and not ever. She didn't ever want him to feel sorry for loving her. So, he had been a little overexcited and gotten carried away, she could take it. 

 

Yes, she felt tender in a few places but she had loved every moment of their lovemaking last night. She wouldn't change a single moment of it. Not even their argument as it had served an important purpose and had brought them closer together by dissolving some of the issues between them. 

 

Besides, making love was one hell of a fantastic way to make up for an argument. That time, Changwook had been so gentle and generous and at the same time, he hadn't lingered or drawn it out as long as he would like the other times for which Yoona was grateful. 

 

There was only so much a girl could take, especially with it being the eighth time in the one night. 

 

Truth be told, Yoona hadn't expected to enjoy that last bout of lovemaking as by then, she had been uncomfortably tender and a little sore deep inside but she had known that Changwook had needed her again, so she had endured. Or at least she had until Changwook, somehow knowing just how tender she was, had adjusted his angle of penetration and unbelievably he had made her forget all about the ache deep inside her body when he had rocketed her into yet another where he had promptly join her. 

 

"I'm fine." Yoona assures him, emphasizing each word, "So don't go hating yourself for something I love you for. Last night was great. Yes, I'm a little sore but nothing that won't ease with a day or two or with a long hot bath." She finishes, sounding wistful at the thought of a long hot soak. 

 

Changwook pulls away from her hand that had silenced him, his eyes full of concern and fill with heat all at the same time, "Yoona, I." But Changwook never got to say what he had been about to say because, without any warning whatsoever, the door only a couple of meters to the right of the bed flew open with a loud thudding crash as it was kicked open by someone strong. 

 

Changwook instinctively moves to shield Yoona with his body, pushing her down into the mattress and covering her with his body, wrapping his arms protectively around her head as she let out a startled scream. 

 

Men dress in familiar black suits file swiftly into the room, stepping or leaping over the broken door that was now lying broken in the doorway, partially obscuring the entrance. 

 

They immediately recognize the eight or more men who had file hurriedly into the small motel room but it was the man who had enter third that had their complete attention. 

 

The moment Changwook saw the third man, he sprang into action. Moving faster than Yoona had ever seen him move, Changwook curls his arms around her and roll swiftly to the left, taking her with him. 

 

Then Changwook pushes Yoona back into the corner behind him beside the bathroom door and firmly place himself between her and Kai. 

 

Yoona stares at all of them in horror. Five of the nine intruders were from the goon squad that had been her shadow for the past year, her bodyguards, while the rest were from her dad's own personal protection detail and Kai. 

 

They were outnumbered and without even seeing a single weapon, Yoona knew that they were well and truly outgunned. 

 

There would be no escape. At least not for her. 

 

Changwook. Yoona knew her dad well enough to know that Changwook wasn't going to leave this motel room alive. 

 

No one betrays her dad and live, no matter who they were, no matter how much her dad seems to like him. 

 

Despite her own fear, it took everything Yoona had not to throw herself in front of Changwook, to put herself between the man she loves with all of her heart and the men who meant to kill him. 

 

Yoona knew that it would accomplish nothing. Either Changwook would yank her back out of the way or one of her dad's goons would grab her and Yoona knew that Changwook would react to that violently. 

 

What was she going to do? How could she possibly get Changwook out of this alive? 

 

This was exactly what had happened the first time her dad had come for her. They had been outnumbered, she had been taken and someone she loves had died. 

 

History was going to repeat itself and there was nothing Yoona could do to stop it. 

 

Changwook curses himself every way he knew how. How could he have been so stupid? Worse, how could he have been so reckless with Yoona just for the sake of his own selfish gratification? And then Changwook curse himself again because his weapon was on the bedside table closest to the door and the intruders, the bedside table that was on the opposite side of the bed from where he stood. 

 

Changwook had no choice, his weapon was their only chance. It was Yoona's only chance. 

 

Hoping that if he acted quickly he had catch the goons off guard, Changwook dove for his weapon, praying to all the gods in heaven that he could reach it before any of them could react. If he could just get his weapon then he stood at least a chance of getting Yoona out of there or at the very least, give her a chance to make a run for it. 

 

He only needed a second. 

 

Changwook lunged across the bed for his weapon with all the speed he had. He landed roughly and bounce high, reaching desperately for his weapon but when his hand was only an inch from it, something hard and heavy rammed into him, knocking the breath out of him and knocking him back into the wall at the top of the bed. Intuitively, Changwook knew exactly who it was who had all but jump on top of him without even looking. Kai. Changwook struggles fiercely against him, struggle to rise into an upright position, struggle to get Kai's weight off of him but on the bed, he just couldn't get enough purchase to do either. 

 

He had to get to his weapon but Kai had made that impossible now. Changwook had lost the element of surprised. The goons knew that he was trying to get to his weapon and they had more than enough manpower to assure that that will never happen. 

 

They were caught but if they were indeed well and truly caught then there was no way in hell that Changwook was going to go down easy. He was going to fight them until his last breath. 

 

Because the two of them were fighting on a bed, that made most of their movements and attacks awkward and clumsy, neither of them were able to either get any purchase or separate from the other long enough to gain the upper hand over the other. Changwook kept trying to make a go for his weapon but each time, either Kai awkwardly move to stop him or punch at him, forcing Changwook to abandon the attempt for the weapon in order to defend himself. 

 

Changwook had to either move the fight off the bed or knock Kai off so he could make one last attempt for his weapon but before Changwook could do either, with a frustrated roar that told Changwook that Kai had had enough, Kai kick out at him with his knee, catching Changwook unprepared in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and making him wince in pain. The blow had been awkward and had been delivered with only half force so it wasn't as debilitating as it would have been otherwise but it still stuns Changwook long enough for Kai to scramble off the bed. 

 

Changwook force his body to relax long enough for him to draw in a deep breath and roll to the side, to the foot of the bed and surge to his feet, not allowing himself to think about the fact that he had just wrestled with Kai on the same bed that he had made love to Yoona for the first time on. 

 

As he straightens, taking only a moment to assure that he was steady on his feet, Changwook took a quick assessment of his situation, even as two more of Sejoon's goons move in on him, one already between him and his weapon. 

 

He was going to lose this fight, Changwook knew that. He was highly-skill and even more highly motivated but he was just too greatly outnumber and too badly outgunned. They must have had orders to take them both alive or else the goons would have just shot him dead by now. 

 

They were either just toying with him for their own amusement or Kai had wanted a shot at him before he put a bullet in his head. Either way, it didn't matter, there was nothing Changwook could do to change the outcome of this fight. 

 

Which was another first for him? Changwook had always been able to come up with something, with some backup plan or contingency, even at the last moment to get his out of trouble but this time, he was just too overwhelmed, too outgunned, to stand a chance in this fight. 

 

He was going to lose, that was certain but Yoona still had a slim chance. If she could get away then his death would be worth it, his death would mean something. 

 

Changwook whirls his head around to see her still standing in the corner, staring at him with those big soulful dark brown eyes that were filled with horror and a frustrated helplessness. 

 

That was his Yoona. It was killing her not to be fighting with him, not to be doing something to help him but at the same time, she was as smart as she was pretty and stubborn. Yoona knew she had only served as a distraction to him if she jumps into the fray and so, she sensibly stays out of the way. 

 

With wide desperate and beseeching eyes, Changwook pleaded with her just as much with his eyes as he did his words. Maybe since all the goons had their attention focused on him Yoona stood a chance. 

 

"Yoona! Run!" And without waiting to see if Yoona obey him, Changwook whirl, returning his full attention to the fight of his life. Changwook just pray that Yoona would listen to him for once in her life and make a run for it but Yoona didn't move from her defensive position in the corner. 

 

Yoona hated herself for it but she was frozen in place in the corner. Even if she hadn't been frozen by her immobilizing terror for Changwook's life, Yoona never could have left him. 

 

Instead, Yoona watch with wide trembling eyes as Changwook, a split second after begging her to run, lunged himself at four of the goons standing on the other side of the room, the four that were standing closest to the door that was her only means of escape but Yoona made no move towards it. No way, no way in hell was she going to just leave him. Changwook would die for sure if she left him. At least if she stays, an opportunity to save him might present itself. 

 

The chances were slim of that happening but it was more than enough to keep her where she was. 

 

Could she be more useless? Surely, there was something, anything that she could do other than stand around like a helpless damsel. 

 

At least she wasn't screaming hysterically or tripping over her own feet like a blonde in a horror movie. 

 

She had to help Changwook somehow, she had to do something that would get them out of this bleak situation but what? She wasn't armed, she didn't have any fighting skills or anyone she could call for help. As it stood, all Yoona could do was wait for her chance to use her dad's need for her to try to save his life. 

 

Otherwise, Changwook was going to lose and he was going to die. 

 

For her. 

 

Like hell. 

 

A surge of sheer determination and will surged through her like a tidal wave. Yoona narrow her eyes and clench her jaw in her determination and fury. 

 

They had just found each other. There was no way that she was going to lose him now. She might not have been able to fight like Changwook but she had her wits and they had served her well in the past. 

 

She had to use her head. What could she do? How could she save them both? She had to think. 

 

Should she go for the gun? Up until now, the goons who weren't currently wrestling with Changwook on the floor were enjoying the show, not paying her much attention as there was nowhere for her to go but they weren't stupid. If she went for the gun, they would undoubtedly move to stop her and if any of them got their hands on her then it would only succeed in dividing Changwook's attention. Only as long as she stays out of their hands could Changwook give his complete attention to the fight. 

 

Getting desperate and frustrated as she scrambles to come up with some kind of plan or idea, Yoona didn't notice the tall figure moving towards her, giving a wide berth to the wrestling tangle of men on the floor. 

 

"There's nothing you can do to save him. He's going to die." 

 

The chilling, almost gleeful taunting voice was like a wave of ice water being poured directly into her stomach. Yoona knew that voice well. It belongs to the most sadistic cold-blooded killer Yoona had ever known and she had been surrounded by them for two years. 

 

Her head snaps up and Yoona's focus moves from Changwook and the chaos to Kai who was only half a step from being within arm's reach of her. 

 

At first, being in the corner had made her feel less threaten or at least less threaten as the only woman in a small room filled with fighting men who had come to kidnap her and kill the man she loves could be and having her back to the corner in times of danger was an instinctive survival thing but now, being in the corner was the worst place she could possibly be. 

 

She was trapped, literally corner. The wall was at her back and a monster who had delight in and torturing her was at her front. 

 

'He's going to die.' Kai's darkly gleeful words echo through her mind, her heart nearly stops beating in her chest from the pain at the very thought. Kai delighted in torturing others, physically, mentally and emotionally. 

 

Now that Kai knew that Changwook and she were in love, really truly in love, he will do everything he could to twist it and use it against them. He had delight in it because Kai so obviously hated them both. Kai so obviously hated Changwook because he was what Kai wasn't, including her dad's favorite and Kai hated her because he couldn't control her because she wasn't afraid of him in the way that he was accustomed to women fearing him. No doubt Kai had more reasons of his own to hate them but Yoona was certain that they would be petty and illogical to everyone but Kai. 

 

Kai was also a coward which was why he had come after her only after Changwook was well and truly occupied. When Changwook couldn't come to her rescue. 

 

Yoona squares her shoulders and glares her iciest glare at him, refusing to show Kai any fear or weakness; it would only excite him more. If the only thing she could do for Changwook right now was to keep Kai out of the fight then so be it. 

 

She couldn't run. She couldn't put up much of a fight but Yoona could damn well distract. Kai was egoistic, conceited and witless. Not to mention, a ist abusive son of a . He thought he was better and smarter than everyone else, especially her because she was female. He believed her to be weak for that reason alone and all those things together made him stupid, made him easy to fool and above all else, it made him predictable and it made him underestimate her. Something he should have known better than to do by now. 

 

Kai stalks her, his eyes glued to her with a twisted watchfulness that told her that he was waiting for her to make the first move, to try to slip by him and that was when he will make his move. He was stalking her like a predator did his prey and when he caught her, Yoona knew without a doubt that she wasn't going to like it one bit. 

 

The question was, which would distract Kai more, trying to catch her or having his hands on her? Will Yoona attempt to slip past him or will she let him catch her and do what he wanted to her so he will be too preoccupied to re-join the fight? But before Yoona could decide what's best to handle Kai, Changwook wrench himself away from the goons he was fighting with an enraged roar, his battle-frenzied eyes now plaster to Kai's back. 

 

Yoona opens but no words came out. All she could do was watch as Changwook leaped up onto the bed. No, it was more like throwing himself up onto the bed, his entire body like one giant living spring. 

 

From there, Changwook lunged himself at Kai's unguarded unsuspecting back, his hands landing hard on Kai's broad shoulders where he grasps hold tightly and violently shove him sidewards, the both of them falling hard to the floor. 

 

Kai landed roughly on the floor in the bathroom doorway with Changwook on top of him, deep male grunts escaping them upon landing. 

 

Before Kai could recover, Changwook was on his knees over Kai, straddling his torso with his fists flying towards Kai's face, one after the other, his face, a twisted expression of murderous rage and fierce hate. 

 

In his maddened killing rage, Changwook manages to land three or five frenzied punches to Kai's face, that judging by the dazed out-of-it expression left on Kai's face had knocked him completely senseless before the goons tackled Changwook from behind and drag him off of Kai before Changwook could inflict further damage. 

 

It took both of the large muscle-bound goons to literally drag Changwook off of Kai as it was obvious that Changwook really wanted to stay where he was. 

 

Within seconds though, Changwook and the goons had returned to the floor, once again fighting and tussling with beefy grunts and meaty thuds. Yoona hadn't even seen how Changwook had managed to throw both of the big goons off their balance and slip free of their hold on him. 

 

Yoona only knew that Changwook was very determined to keep on fighting. 

 

It hurts her that Changwook was giving his all, that he wasn't going to let anything stop him as long as there was a chance, as slim as it was, to get them out of this. He was fighting for his life and her freedom and only death was going to stop him. 

 

A torture sound escapes her open mouth, a cross between a whimper and a sob and in that moment, Yoona would have given her life, would have sold her soul to the devil if she could have gone back in time and stop herself from ever bringing Changwook into her mess. 

 

If only she had given her dad what he had wanted from the beginning then none of this would have happened. Changwook and her would have never met but Changwook wouldn't be about to die for her today. 

 

Yoona didn't know how much time had passed, maybe only a few seconds, maybe a few minutes but movements to her left caught her attention and drag her eyes off of Changwook and the fray. 

 

Kai was back on his feet only an arm's reach from her. He had blood oozing out of the badly split lips Changwook had given him and streaming from his nose that had taken a punch but by the looks of it, most likely hadn't been broken. 

 

There was pure rage in Kai's cruel chestnut brown eyes. 

 

Rage that promises deadly retribution. 

 

Slowly, almost dramatically, Kai turn his head and zero his chestnut brown murderous eyes on her. 

 

Yoona instinctively shrank back as far into the corner as she could in terror. There was murder in Kai's eyes and a black-as-night evil glee that made all the color drain out of her face. 

 

Kai meant to get his revenge on Changwook and it was clear in his eyes and his twisted evil expression that he meant to do that by using her against him and then Kai rush at her. 

 

Before Yoona had a chance to do anything more than raises her hands to instinctively protect herself, she felt Kai's hand curl around the back of her neck and he brutally yank her out of the corner, pulling her forcibly to him and before Yoona knew what had happen, Kai had whirl them both around and had pull her backwards, one arm wrapping around her neck, pinning her against his larger body and the other disappearing for a moment only to reappear, holding a lethal looking black handgun, the muzzle of which was pointed directly at her head. 

 

Yoona tore her wide eyes off of the deadly weapon aim directly at her and instead, turn her eyes to her love. Kai had a gun pointed at her head. Changwook wouldn't offer an ounce more resistance as long as it was. 

 

Tears fill her eyes and spill over to stream freely from her unblinking eyes. 

 

Changwook didn't know where Kai was and he couldn't even spare the moment it would take to locate him. He couldn't spare the moment it would take to scan the room for him as he had both of his hands full with the two goons on top of him, trying to pin him down but it wasn't that easy. They were bigger and stronger than him and they outnumber him but he was well-train and very determined. 

 

Jaejoong had often favorably referred to him as one 'slippery son of a '. 

 

Changwook was skill and he was determined but he couldn't last much longer. One of his strength had always been that he was able to know his own physical limitations and although they were above that of the average man in great shape, he was still only human. 

 

He was outnumbered with no way out but as long as there was breath in him, Changwook would continue to fight but very soon, he would start to get tired and with that, he would slow and the risk increase that he will make a mistake that would get him taken down. 

 

He had, too. The only other alternative was to surrender and that was never going to happen, not as long as Yoona was the price that he had pay. 

 

Changwook was panting so heavily, his breath racing in and out of him and his heartbeat was pounding in his ear. His limbs were starting to feel heavy and his body was aching all over with several certain spots, including his face, becoming more and more painful that was becoming harder and harder to ignore. 

 

He was in a fierce physical combat fight and his body knew it, only adrenaline and sheer willpower built from experience kept the pain at bay enough to enable him to keep on fighting. 

 

With a burst of strength and effort and catching the two goons on top of him off guard, Changwook hastily wrestles out from under them and shot to his feet, kicking the biggest of the two goons fair in the face with his knee on his way up. 

 

With a painful cry, the goon fell backward onto the floor, landing on his back, either knock out or knock senseless. 

 

The other goon threw himself sidewards to avoid getting the same treatment. 

 

It was now or never. Changwook was sure as hell out of time and he was damn near out of strength, he couldn't keep this up much longer. 

 

With nothing but sheer determination fuelling his last-ditch attempt, Changwook lunged for his weapon one last time, knowing that it was now or never but the moment his fingers close around the of his weapon, a chillingly gleeful voice fill the room. 

 

"Hey, Changwook. Look what I have got." 

 

Changwook froze at the sound of Kai's gloating tone, his voice coming from his right but only for a moment. He knew before he even turns his head. He knew by the triumph in Kai's voice, by the sadistic taunt that his words had been, what he will see when he turn. 

 

Slowly, fill with dread, Changwook turn to the corner he had put Yoona in immediately after the door had been kicked in and what he saw, even though he had been prepare for it, nearly made his heart stop. 

 

Changwook immediately felt all hope, all of his fights, drain out of him like water from a sink once the plug was pull. 

 

In the corner of the room that Changwook had moved her into in order to keep her safely out of the fray was Yoona, standing there, wearing nothing but his shirt that he had thankfully put her in just before all hell had broken loose. 

 

If Yoona had been completely when the door had been kicked in, especially with Kai there, Changwook would have gone berserk. 

 

The sight of Kai pressing the muzzle of the sleek black Glock into the side of her head just above her ear almost made him cry out in anguish and just like that, it was over. There was nothing Changwook could do, there were no more escapes for him, Changwook was dead certain about that. All he could do was stand where he was as he stares into Yoona's wide tear-fill terrified trembling eyes as they stare back, terrified and pleadingly into his. 

 

It wasn't fair. He had tried so hard, had fought so hard to protect her, to get her away from these monsters and here she was, despite everything he had done; terrified with a cold-blooded sadistic killer holding her half- body against him with a gun press into the side of her head and although he remains silent, Changwook wanted so badly to tell her that he was so sorry for so many things, the primary of which right now was that he hadn't been able to protect her when she had needed him most. 

 

Absurdly, Changwook also wanted to apologize for not even being able to get her that muffin he had promised her in order to coax her out of bed. 

 

With nothing else left of him to do, with no fight left in him, Changwook loosens his hold on his weapon until it slips from his hold and fell to the floor with a muffled thud. Then he slowly raises both of his hands into the air, above his head in defeat, wordlessly telling Kai that he had won and that there was no need to hurt her. 

 

If it had been anyone else holding a weapon to Yoona's head, Changwook would have risk trusting them that they wouldn't hurt what they had come for, Sejoon wanted Yoona alive. No doubt Sejoon would punish Yoona for running from him and the trouble she had put him through hunting her down but he wouldn't kill her but Kai was a sadistic murderous bastard who wouldn't hesitate to hurt Yoona if only for the fun of watching Changwook suffer at watching Yoona suffer. 

 

Changwook strongly suspected that it if it hadn't been for Kai's vile plans for Yoona then he would have killed her in front of him right now just to see Changwook's grief and suffering. 

 

It was clear in Kai's chestnut brown soulless eyes. 

 

Time seems to slow down inside the small motel room that was on the cheap side. Changwook was breathing hard, panting heavily from his futile efforts to take down the team of goons that had been sent to recapture them. He still only wore his black jeans, his chest coated in a cooling layer of sweat from his efforts, beneath which bruises and darkening red marks blotted his chest and abdomen from the blows he had taken, both intended and accidental, which often happen in the chaos of physical combat. 

 

A stinging on his lips told him that he had a split lip. Now that he paid it the slightest attention, Changwook could feel the blood oozing from the cut and streaming down his chin and beginning its way down his throat. Changwook could also feel his face beginning to swell from the multiple blows he had taken, the worst of which had been an elbow, whose he had no idea, to his cheekbone. He will be lucky if his eye didn't swell shut. 

 

If there was time for that, of course. Things like that took a little time and blood needed to be flowing for swelling to occur. 

 

His bleeding and bruised body was proof of the vicious fight he had just lost, proof of just how hard he had fruitlessly fought to save the woman he loves. 

 

Muffle noise drew his attention briefly to the doorway. Changwook didn't turn his head but out of the corner of his eye, he saw more men in black suits file into the room. 

 

These men, Changwook recognize as Sejoon's own personal bodyguards and if they were here then Sejoon was, too. No doubt waiting until the fighting was done and it was safe for him to enter, with what would be a theatrical entrance no doubt. 

 

A large hand landed on his shoulder and push downwards with a fair amount of force. 

 

It went against his warrior's pride and every instinct Changwook had not to resist when he was pushed forcibly down onto his knees and his hands were brutally wrench behind his back but with a gun to Yoona's head, Changwook was done. They could do whatever the hell they wanted with him as long as they left Yoona alone. Changwook said nothing and offer no resistance, not even when his hands were swiftly and tightly secured in place behind his back with what Changwook identified to be plastic flex cuffs. 

 

They were learning. Police handcuffs could be picked with enough skill, not as easily as in the movies but it could be done. However, heavy-duty plastic flex cuffs like these had to be cut off, something that was incredibly difficult to do oneself. 

 

There would be no slipping loose of these. They were so tight that they were damn near cutting off circulation to his hands. 

 

If it had been Sejoon holding the gun to Yoona's head, Changwook would have been able to do something as he knew with grim certainty that Sejoon wouldn't pull the trigger and end Yoona's life. The one thing Changwook was sure of was that Sejoon wasn't capable of was killing his daughter before she gave him the grandson he so insanely and obsessively craved for but since it was Kai holding a weapon to Yoona, Changwook wasn't going to take any chances, Kai wouldn't hesitate to take her life. The only life Kai cares about was his own. 

 

Sejoon chose that moment to enter the room, strolling in as casually as if he were in no rush at all, as if he had all day to spend there but the first thing Changwook notice about him was that he was piss. He was furious and that casual easy-going expression on his face did nothing to hide the fury in his dark brown eyes that immediately zero in on his daughter. 

 

Changwook's stomach rolls nauseatingly at the delight and satisfaction that flash across Sejoon's face when he noted Yoona's state of undress. 

 

This was his daughter, damn it. He should have been tearing a strip off Changwook's hide for touching his little girl, not thrill at seeing proof of their intimate relationship with his own eyes. 

 

Sejoon was well and truly gone in the head. He was more twisted and cold-blooded than Kai and that was saying something but then, something moves into Changwook's immediate line of vision, blocking his sight of Sejoon and most of the room. 

 

Changwook looks up but shows no outward reaction to the sight of Kai looming over him, staring down at him with that twisted delighted gleeful grin on his bloody swelling lips. 

 

Changwook knew what was coming before the first blow landed and his body tense in preparation a full moment before Kai's first blow landed painfully on his left cheekbone. 

 

Everything else, including both her fear and relief at seeing her dad enter the room, drop from her notice when Kai began his attack on Changwook who was defenseless against the brutal onslaught. 

 

Nothing else matter but Changwook. She had to make them leave him alone. No matter what she had to do. 

 

"Stop it," Yoona beg as she struggles against the goon that Kai had handed her off too when her dad had entered the room but the goon held her fast despite her wild desperate struggles to break free of his bruising hold on her elbow. The more she struggles, the tighter the grip on her became, tightening until Yoona was certain that she was going to have big angry bruises. Not that she cares, she just wanted them to stop hurting Changwook. 

 

Changwook was tie up for crying out loud. He couldn't fight back or even raise an arm to defend himself but Kai kept punching him, even when Changwook fell to the side and one of the goons pick him up and held him in place so Kai could continue on with his brutal assault on Changwook's face and torso. 

 

Knowing her pleas would never have any effect on Kai, Yoona turns her pleading eyes to her dad. He was the only one who could stop Kai from beating Changwook to death right in front of her but Sejoon hadn't look at her at all except that one delighted appraising glance he had given her when he had entered the room. Since then, he had been silently watching Kai mercilessly beat Changwook. 

 

Yoona had to get her dad's attention. 

 

"Please? Daddy, please? Stop it." 

 

Yoona couldn't believe what she had called her dad but she didn't care. She was so desperate to stop the beating that she will give anything, do anything to save the man she loves. What did her stubborn pride matter against Changwook's life? 

 

Her dad looks at her then, wearing a carefully bored expression that Yoona didn't buy for a minute. Her dad was furious and he wanted them both to suffer for it. Her dad couldn't raise a hand to her because he couldn't risk harming her too bad that she couldn't give him his precious grandchild but hurting in front of her, Changwook was the next best thing. 

 

Her dad wasn't a fool; he knew good and well that hurting Changwook hurt her just as bad if not worse than raising his hand to her but there had been a flash of surprised at hearing her call him daddy and it had been enough to get his attention. 

 

Her dad stares at her for a long moment before turning his attention back to Kai. 

 

"That's enough." Sejoon order, with unperturbed authority, "For now." He added at the sight of Kai's disgruntlement. 

 

At the sight of Changwook's face, Yoona sunk her teeth hard into her lower lips to keep herself from crying out. Changwook's eyes were almost swollen shut and his other wasn't doing too well either. He had blood streaming from both his lips and nose and the angry red color in the skin of his face was darkening by the moment, bruising right before her eyes. 

 

Changwook look like he had gone eight rounds with a brick wall and lost each and every round. 

 

As Kai reluctantly move away from Changwook, lowering his still clench fists, Sejoon steps forward until he was standing right in front of Changwook, looking down at him sternly, a look that was almost the look of a disappointed parent. 

 

He waited until Changwook look up at him before he spoke. 

 

"I expected so much from you." Sejoon said, with dismay disappointment and a shake of his head as though he were talking to a young child who had failed an important test in school, "You would have had everything. Such a waste." 

 

Changwook said nothing, only continue to glare with dark dangerous impotent hatred up at him. This was the man who held his life in his hands and there was nothing Changwook could do about it, nothing he could do to change Sejoon's mind from whatever he had planned for him and regardless of what Sejoon wanted or expected of him, there was absolutely no way that Changwook was going to beg for his life. Sejoon wouldn't seriously hurt Yoona no matter how pissed off he was at her and Changwook didn't care about his own life because of that knowledge so there was nothing Sejoon could do that could make him beg for his life. 

 

He had never give Sejoon the satisfaction. 

 

Changwook's own dad had beg Sejoon for the life of his wife whom he had love. He had begged Sejoon to show his innocent wife mercy but his dad had never beg for his own life and neither would Changwook. He would beg for Yoona's but not his own. 

 

Even if he was about to die by the same hand that had murder his parents before his young innocent eyes. 

 

Getting no response from Changwook whatsoever, Sejoon shook his head one final time in disappointment and turn his back to him, wordlessly communicating to the whole room that he was done with him. 

 

Sejoon then nodded his head once at Kai who grins like the devil and raises his weapon towards Changwook, taking a wide step towards him until he was at a point-blank range. 

 

Not even a novice could miss at such a close range; the muscle of the weapon was barely a few inches from Changwook's face. 

 

It really goaded Changwook that Kai would be the one to kill him; the bastard was going to enjoy it but after that thought pass through his mind, all Changwook could think about was Yoona and that room in her dad's basement, in his dungeon. 

 

The breeding cell. 

 

That was where Yoona would go once Sejoon took her back to the mansion and Changwook wouldn't be around to save her. 

 

After all, he had done, the outcome would still be the same. His own worst nightmare would come true. 

 

Tuning out everything else, Changwook chose instead to focus completely on Yoona. He wanted her to be the last thing he ever saw. The woman he loves more than his own life. The woman he was about to give his life for. The woman who was worth losing his life and soul for. 

 

There was nothing else better to die for than the one you love with all of your heart. 

 

The longing look Changwook gave Yoona, he knew was a sorrowful one. He knew he was going to die, that Kai was going to kill him on Sejoon's order and that Yoona was going to suffer at her dad and Kai's hands one way or another. Not only would she never get another chance to escape from her dad, she will never forget while watching him die. It would haunt her for the rest of her life. It would destroy her. 

 

Just as it would have destroyed him had their positions been reversed. 

 

Changwook knew this from personal experience. Events like this change you and not for the better. He would have given anything, sacrifice anything, to spare Yoona this. 

 

Changwook could only stare regretfully into Yoona's wide fear-fill teary eyes as she continues to struggle against the hands that tightly held her with all the ferocity of a cornered wildcat. 

 

"Yoona, don't," Changwook beg her in his softest, most soothing tone. He wasn't going to let any of his fear show. It would only upset Yoona more. For her, he would be brave, even in the face of his own death, "Please close your eyes, baby. Don't watch." But Changwook could tell that Yoona hadn't heard a word he had said. She was beyond reason, so hysterical in her terror that she was beyond reason so instead, Changwook turn to Sejoon, "Don't make her watch like I did." 

 

As if a switch had been flip inside of her by his words, Yoona still, every inch of her visible skin was pale ghostly white. There was no color in her at all, she looks like she was made of milk and golden blonde hair. 

 

All except for her eyes. Her glorious tear-fill trembling dark brown eyes that held his heaven. Eyes that express so much, eyes that held her heart and soul on display for the whole world to see. 

 

At the reminder of what Changwook had been forced to endure as a boy, Yoona turns her wild desperate eyes on her dad, the spark of hope giving her the strength to control the chaotic upheaval that was her emotions that rage unchecks inside of her. 

 

Changwook wasn't fighting or even begging for his life so she would. 

 

"Haven't you done enough to him?!" Yoona demanded furiously, uncontrollably "You ruin his life when he was only a boy, now you want to take what is left of his life from him! You are a monster!" 

 

Sejoon was visibly confused. He narrows his eyes on Changwook as if trying to place where they had cross paths before. 

 

The silent moment's pass in which no one in the room move, all waiting to see what Sejoon did first. 

 

Finally, although still more than a little out of it from Kai's repeated blows to his head, Changwook decided to give Sejoon a clue to his real identity. He didn't have anything to lose in revealing his real name anymore, his cover had already been blown. Sejoon knew he wasn't who he had been pretending to be and it would only take Sejoon's moles in multiple law enforcement agencies a short while to identify him anyway. 

 

His cover was one of the best but no cover was infallible. 

 

"My real name is Ji Changwook." Changwook surprised even himself with his deadpan tone. He had dreamed of this moment so many times but not once had he consider the idea that he wouldn't care at all about bringing Sejoon down when the moment finally did come. All he wanted was Yoona to be somewhere else, anywhere else, as long as it was safe, "My parents were Ji Eunhyuk and Ji Bonghee. You murder them in cold blood yourself." 

 

Recognition dawn in Sejoon's eyes but that was all there was in his cold calculating eyes. 

 

"Ah, yes. I do remember that night." Sejoon told him, his tone chilly, "Although not for the reason you think. That was when my wife decided to leave me." 

 

Yoona shudder. That was indeed the night her mom had decided to leave him because he had come home drench in blood. 

 

The blood of Changwook's parents. 

 

That night bound them together, all three of them. Her dad, Changwook and herself. 

 

Maybe it had been something greater than themselves that had brought the three of them back together, that had brought them to this one moment here. Maybe it hadn't been Yoona who had brought about this moment, maybe it had been fate, a fate that had been cemented in place that dark night that everything had changed for them all. Both Changwook's and her own lives had been changed forever that night, in different ways but in no less significant ways. 

 

Sejoon continues to regard Changwook curiously, obvious to his daughter's mind racing behind him. He lowers himself down to his knees so he was face to face with him, "Now, I'm curious, Changwook. Why didn't you testify against me years ago? Or just kill me when you use my daughter to get close to me?" 

 

Changwook clenches his jaw at the implication that he had use Yoona solely for the purpose of getting close to her dad. 

 

In the beginning, yes, he had but that was so far from the truth now as to be unimportant. He loves Yoona. He had done everything he had since the moment he had realized that he had been falling in love with her for Yoona's sake and nothing else. 

 

As for Sejoon's question, in retrospect, Changwook did wish that he had been strong enough to end all of this years ago but the simple truth was that he hadn't been. He had been far to traumatized from the cold-blooded butchering of his parents and he hadn't been capable of testifying against Sejoon. 

 

The truth was, to Changwook's shame, was that he hadn't spoken for three years after that night. He had been too traumatized; he hadn't been able to speak at all let alone speak about what had happened which had so completely traumatized him and in his obviously disturb state, Changwook had successfully discredited himself as a reliable witness, he knew that now but he hadn't then, he had been too young to understand such things and as for the second part of the question, why hadn't Changwook just kill him? Well, that Changwook would answer. 

 

Changwook glare straight into Sejoon's eyes, his own eyes icier than Sejoon's, "Criminals murder. That's not me. I'm better than you. I want justice, not vengeance." 

 

At least that was one small consolation. Changwook had remained true to himself. He hadn't crossed any lines, he had stayed a cop in truth until the end. He hadn't let Sejoon or his need for revenge corrupt him. 

 

Again, Sejoon consider him for a long while, the seconds becoming minutes but then he rose up into a standing position, once again towering over him but Sejoon never took his eyes off of Changwook's, "If that foolish belief gives you peace then take it with you to the grave. My last gift to you." And then Sejoon casually turn to Kai, a somewhat reluctant expression on his face as if he didn't want to give the order but he had no choice but too, "Kill him." 

 

Changwook wanted to shake his head in disbelief as he read Sejoon as easily as an open book. It seems that Sejoon's liking of him hadn't just been because of his daughter's fondness of him. Sejoon had actually somewhat like him, maybe like the second son he had never had. 

 

Who knew? Anyway, it didn't matter now. No amount of like would have spare Changwook from the moment he had betrayed him. Sejoon was too cold-blooded and professional to let his liking of someone get in his way. 

 

Yoona couldn't believe her ear. How could her dad be that heartless? 

 

"No!" Yoona scream, as loudly as she could, so loudly that it hurtled but she didn't care. She had screamed herself mute if it would save Changwook's life, "I love him! If you kill Changwook then you will never get what you want from me because I will kill myself!" 

 

That caught Sejoon's attention. 

 

Tears were freely streaming down her face and even though it would serve her best by looking at her dad in the eye, Yoona just couldn't. She couldn't take her eyes off of Changwook who had been staring at her with wide eyes ever since she had declared her feelings for him to her dad. 

 

Changwook was so close to death that it should have been all he could think about but all he could think was that Yoona had said the words out loud that she loves him. It was the second time she had said it but this time, Yoona had said the words so fiercely, so indomitable, that there was no way anyone in the room could deny the truth of them. 

 

Whispering the words to him in an emotional moment had been magical but the declaration she had just made to the world stole his breath away. 

 

Hearing her declaration of love that no one could deny or dispute, just like that, some part of Changwook was at peace, so much so that even if he dies now, he wouldn't regret any of the choices he had made that had brought him to her. 

 

He loves her and he wanted her to hear the words from his lips. That was possibly his greatest regret in this one moment, that he had never said the words to her. She had to know how he felt, Yoona deserve to know how he felt. If it was going to be the last thing he ever did then he was going to gift her with the words the way she had him. 

 

"Yoona," Changwook whisper despairingly, his breathing ragged but his words still sounded gentle, peaceful and succeeded in bringing her gaze back to him and away from her dad. 

 

"You know I love you, Yoona." Changwook told her softly, meaning the words with every fiber of his being, "Please don't fight them, you will just get hurt. They won't kill you. You can live. That's all I want. Since the moment I knew I love you I have been willing to die for you if it was asked of me." 

 

"Changwook Oppa, don't. This isn't dying for me." Yoona sob wretchedly, still fighting against her captor's hold on her, only her efforts were starting to slow as her body started to weaken from the prolonged effort, "Don't leave me. Please don't leave me." 

 

The smile Changwook gave her was small and a little askew with his swollen face and split lips but it was filled with gentle love, "I can never leave you. You have captured my heart so completely that it will always be yours. Since I lost my parents, I believe I was beyond love, that I was undeserving of it and incapable of it but oh man, you taught me differently. Yoona, you have given me more happiness in the brief time I have known you than I would ever have had in a life without you." 

 

"Oppa." Yoona sob. Finally, she was still, she was all-consumed by Changwook and his profound heartfelt words. Abruptly, Sejoon step between them, breaking visual contact between the two of them and effectively breaking the moment they had been sharing, oblivious to everyone else in the room. 

 

Unable to see Changwook anymore and fearing that this was the moment in which she will lose Changwook forever and with him, her heart, soul and will to live, Yoona bow her head and allow herself to cry, waiting for the inevitable sound of the gunshot that would end her Changwook's life. 

 

Sejoon stood with his back to Changwook as his eyes stare intently at Yoona, considering her long and hard before he spoke, his tone and demeanor one of a man about to undertake a very important business deal. 

 

"If I spare his life, what will you give me in return, Yoona?" 

 

Yoona raise her head, feeling numb. It took her a long moment to grasp the meaning of her dad's words. When she finally did, Yoona looks up at him in hope so quickly that a sharp pain spear through her head and neck. 

 

Her dad was watching her carefully, his eyes focus and zero-in on her the way they did when he was close to winning a negotiation. 

 

That was when Yoona truly understood the true meaning of her dad's words. 

 

Yoona dismally bows her head in defeat, "My life. No matter what you do to me as long as he lives so will I." 

 

The promise to live was a harder price to pay than that of death could ever be. 

 

Behind her dad, Yoona heard Changwook's horrified frantic words as he begs her, "Yoona, no. You don't know what you are saying. What you are giving." 

 

Yoona raise her head to see that her dad had moved from between them and had turn sideways so that he could see them both and they could see each other. 

 

Yoona didn't care what her dad did. All that matter to her was that she could see Changwook once more and he could see her. 

 

Yoona smile really sorrowfully at her love, "I will love you for more than one lifetime. I will give anything for you. I wish I could say that bringing you into all of this was the biggest mistake of my life but I can't. I can't regret the decisions I made that brought you into my life. I'm just sorry it has come to this." 

 

Yoona sounded so calm that Changwook wanted to hit something, preferably her dad and if failing that, Kai "That's not enough." Sejoon told her sternly, still regarding them, "You know what I want and my patience with you is at an end. The only choice you have to make Yoona is how much pain you want to suffer but one way or the other, it's time you came to terms with that you have no choice. You will give me a grandson." 

 

Yoona glare into her dad's eyes, her hatred for him blazing gloriously on her gorgeous pale face. 

 

Changwook was relieved to see some life return back into her eyes, even if it was hate and rage. Anything was better than that dull lifeless look that had been there the moment before. 

 

"You can't get a child from me if I'm dead. If you kill him, one way or another I will kill myself. You don't believe me?" A chilling smile like that of a deranged cherish cat spread across her face and Changwook couldn't help but shudder at the sight of it. 

 

"Think about how much I love him, think about how I'm my mom's daughter." Yoona went on, her voice strange, taunting "But more than that, think about how I'm your daughter. Look into my eyes and tell me I don't have the strength to end my life." Yoona nodded her head in Changwook's direction, "He's the only card you have to use against me. You have nothing else." 

 

Sejoon stares at her for a long moment before he unexpectedly erupted into amused laughter, "You are my daughter. You can't admit it to yourself but there is more of me in you that you will ever admit." 

 

Sejoon was absolutely delighted at the prospect that Yoona was more like him than any of them had previously realized and then Sejoon turns deadly serious as if only allowing himself a few moments to enjoy his mirth and no more, "Except for one thing, Yoona." He indicated at Changwook with a side nod of his head, "He's not the only love one you have to loses." 

 

Yoona looks at him in blank confusion. 

 

"Choi Sooyoung. Tiffany Hwang. Seo Juhyun. Kim Hyoyeon." 

 

With each name, Yoona became paler until she was deadly white. 

 

"They can all be punished if you continue to defy me." 

 

Silence stretch between them before Yoona got a hold of herself. She had to stay focus. This wasn't the first time her dad had used the girls against her. In the first week of her captivity, her dad had made it clear that if she didn't settle down, he had sent his goons after the girls as punishment. 

 

"But Changwook is the only one who can get me pregnant." Yoona said the last word like it was a dirty word forbidden to use, "He's the only one I won't fight and you know it." 

 

"Interesting." Sejoon said, the one word slowly, "You are bargaining with me for his life but you won't offer me the one thing you know will get you what you want. You argue that he's the only one who can get you pregnant willingly, a true fact I admit but you keep insisting that you won't let yourself fall pregnant. A contradiction in and of itself. Just what do you expect me to do, Yoona? Keep him alive but not put him to use? That's what you want me to do?" 

 

His tone held his disbelief at her gall to even expect such a thing of him. 

 

Sejoon's eyes flicker to Kai, "What if I pointed out the fact that if not by Changwook then your only alternative is Kai?" 

 

Fear and disgust flash across Yoona's face and she knew her dad saw it but she fought to hide it anyway, "If Kai touches me, nothing will stop me from ending my life." 

 

Sejoon turn to look down at Changwook, considering him curiously, "And what about you? What do you think of all this talk of her committing suicide? Here you are, willing to give your life for her and she's talking about ending her life anyway. Surely, you have something to say on the matter?" 

 

Changwook hated himself for it, he didn't want to do it but he had no choice. He can't let Yoona hurt herself, not for any reason, "She won't do it." He stares straight into Sejoon's eyes, iron-hard will in his own, "Not if it's my child she carries. No matter what you do to me after." 

 

"Oppa!" The accusation, the betrayal she felt were all in Yoona's single gasp word. 

 

"She loves me too much." Changwook went on, ignoring her and how appalled she had sounded, as though he were betraying her. Maybe he was, "Even if I'm dead. She cares too much to kill my child, born or not." 

 

Yoona couldn't believe her ears. She had been negotiating for Changwook's life and then he had just handed her dad what he wanted with no regard for his own life. Not only that, Changwook had basically just promised to hand her dad their child. 

 

Yoona fought to keep the sense of betrayal from her face. Never would she have thought Changwook would betray her to her dad. 

 

How could he? Changwook knew that she would never give their child to her dad. No matter what. 

 

It was the one and only thing that Yoona wouldn't do, the only line that she wouldn't cross, to save Changwook's life. 

 

"Are you offering to do what needs to be done?" Sejoon clarified carefully, "What do you ask in return? Your life?" Changwook looks up into the eyes of the man who had murder his parents and who would allow the of the woman he loves but for the first time, there was no hate in his eyes, cloaked or otherwise. 

 

"Not my life," Changwook said, his tone completely deadpan, staring him down hard, regardless of the fact that Changwook was the one on his knees. 

 

"Hers." 

 

Changwook hadn't been this terrified since he had been a little boy, hiding in a closet, watching his parents being murder before his young eyes. Once again, someone he loves was being threatened but this time, the difference was that he was going to fight. He was going to fight with whatever weapon he had, he was going to do whatever he had to do to get Yoona out of this. There were no limitations for him anymore, not even his own morals or former ideals of justice. 

 

There was nothing left that Changwook wouldn't do for her, no lines he wouldn't cross. Not now that his actions had put her right where he had sworn she will never end up. 

 

He would fight for her. He would kill for her. He would die for her. 

 

The next time Changwook saw light, it only illuminated that which had haunted his nightmares. 

 

---

 

N/A: I'm sorry for ending Yoona and Changwook's sweet moment but as we know, even during fanfiction, everything has to come to an end sooner or later so I hope you guys will forgive me for ending their moments here. Besides, I would like to thank you ALL so very much for being patient with me. I know it isn't easy waiting until I update the next chapter. If work wasn't so much, I would gladly update every day like my all my first fanfiction but since work is piling up, I would have to resort to updating two chapter every weekend (Saturday and Sunday) so I would like to say sorry and thank you all once again. 

- butt3rflyl0v3r ♡