Chapter 3 

 

It had been one month to the day since Changwook had entered her life and Yoona was well and truly surprised, in a good way, when Changwook made a point to make the small event special. 

 

There one month anniversary as Changwook called it and Yoona suspected that she was far more delightfully surprised than was normal, especially since it was the one month anniversary of their fake relationship. 

 

Yoona had never really had this kind of anniversary before, not even a fake one. 

 

Not that there was much they could do to celebrate the occasion but Changwook had done his best and Yoona had turned all gooey inside. By god, this man could be charming. He was flawless in his charm. So much so that if anyone else had attempted what Changwook had done for their one month anniversary, it just would have come off as corny and to top it all off, Changwook always seemed to be nothing less than genuinely sincere. 

 

What was she going to do? What defense did Yoona have against such a man who was everything a girl could ever dream of? 

 

Was that Changwook's only fault, being too perfect to be true? 

 

Yoona had finished her run, that at this stage was all for show and had practically run to the coffee shop, moving faster than she had on the jogging path in the park. She had entered just as Changwook had slipped the cigarette lighter back into the pocket of his black fleece jacket which he had used to light the single sparkler that donned a vanilla cupcake with purple icing and blue sprinkles. 

 

Yoona had beamed at the sight of him but then she had laughed softly, almost happily, as she had hurriedly taken her usual seat. 

 

"Happy anniversary." Changwook greeted her, holding the cupcake out to her. 

 

Yoona shook her head and glanced over her shoulder at the countered to see what the staff made of this but none of them seemed worried about the tiny fireworks, although most of the customers were watching with opened amusement and as all but one of the customers were women, a little hint of envy. 

 

If Yoona knew Changwook at all then he had already cleared this with the shop's staff. No doubt explaining it with such entrancing charm that it had left the entire female staff gooey and no doubt more than a little green with envy that such an amazing guy was taken and so very obviously smitten at that. 

 

Again, Yoona found herself wondering how much of what she knew about Changwook was real and how much of it was part of the act for the sake of her planned. 

 

A part of her was really starting to find her own planned irksome which was in no way a good thing but today, for once, Yoona decided that she wasn't going to let herself worry about her planned or anything else. She wasn't going to let the fact that it had been a month and their fake relationship, that didn't really feel phony anymore, hadn't yet caught her dad's attention. 

 

Her plan was never going to work unless her dad took the bait but for a short time, Yoona wasn't going to wallow in it. She wanted to live in the moment, to pretend that the world outside the small coffee shop didn't exist. 

 

The smell of sulfur filled her nose, drawing Yoona's attention back to Changwook and his cupcake. 

 

"Are you even allowed those in here?" Yoona asked him, letting him in on one of the thoughts going through her head. 

Changwook flashed her a devil's grinned that the devil himself couldn't outdo, "It helps that the entire staff here is made up of women." 

 

"You are so manipulated with impressive skill and eases." Yoona finished, hijacking the last half of his explanation as she plucked the cupcake from his fingers, "You are so slick you make conditioner looked liked gravel." 

 

Changwook's eyes were twinkling with mirth but he was wise enough not to reply to that comment. Instead, he reached for her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand, all the while never breaking eye contact with her. 

 

The feel of his lips against her skinned made her shuddered in delicious pleasure and in a desperate effect to distract herself, Yoona reached for the cupcake that was now completely safe to handle as the sparkler had burnt out, leaving only a tiny wisp of smoke and the smell of sulfur behind. 

 

With one hand as Changwook still held her other hand in his, Yoona removed the spent sparkler from the cupcake and using the table's surfaced to gained leverage, peeled the paper far enough away from the cupcake so she could take a bite. 

 

It was a simple vanilla cupcake, with just a noticeable twist of lemon, with plain icing but to Yoona, it was precious. Priceless. It was a small gestured but her mom had always said that it was the small things that matter the most and it hadn't been until Yoona had lost her mom that she had truly understood exactly what her mom had meant. It was the small things about her mom that Yoona missed the most. Small things liked how her mom would always kiss her goodnight no matter how old she got and the way her mom would always check on her before she went to bed herself and that was how it was with Changwook; it was the little things that touched Yoona's heart the most, the little things that were making her fall deeper in loved with him. 

 

Yoona was careful to take only a small bite and then she held it out to Changwook, brushing it against his lips, wordlessly demanding that he take a bite. It was their anniversary and so, Yoona had already decided that they were going to share the cupcake. 

 

Whether he liked it or not. Yoona wasn't above smooshing it into his face until he opened up and that right there was proof that the stubborn and mischievous teenage girl she had once been still existed deep in her somewhere. Changwook seemed to realize that he was in dangered of wearing it and without protests, he took a sizeable bite before Yoona lowered it from his mouth. 

 

Changwook chewed quickly and swallowed before he gave her a mild chiding glared, "I bought that for you." "Well, it's our anniversary and I couldn't get you anything so the least I can do is shared a cupcake with you." And with that, Yoona shoved the rest of the cupcake, slightly less than half, into with all the enthusiasm of a little girl enjoying her birthday cake. 

 

Sticky icing and crumbs clung to her light red lips, making Yoona wished that she had shown a little more decorum. If her mom had been there, she no doubts would have scolded her, never mind that Yoona was twenty years old. 

 

For the second time in as many minutes, the thought of her mom didn't make her want to weep. 

 

Changwook shook his head as he laughed, picking up a paper napkin off of the table and wiping it across her lips in an attempt to wipe away the sticky icing but the icing was that thick that only a little came off. 

 

Yoona opened , intending to the mess away and that was when Changwook sprang into action. Before Yoona knew what was happening, she felt Changwook's lips brushed against hers and she froze in shock. 

 

Changwook had never kissed her on the lips before but oh boy, he was kissing her now. It was the lightest of caresses, his lips a mere whispered across her own at first, his eyes opened and watching her almost warily, almost as if he feared that she was going to pushed him away. 

 

Was he crazy? Yoona moaned softly and felt herself relaxed as she leaned into the kissed and embraced it wholeheartedly. He was so gentle, asking rather than demanding and Yoona's toes curled in her running shoes beneath the sheer pleasure of it. 

 

At first, all Yoona could taste was the icing and the lingering taste of the cupcake but then, his masculine musky scent filled her senses and let the way to finding Changwook's taste of coffee and something else that she couldn't identify that was so enticing that she almost moaned aloud. 

 

Yoona's eyes slid closed and she leaned forward, searching for more, wanting more and getting it as Changwook deepened the kissed ever-so. 

 

Oh, sweet mercy, he tasted liked coffee and man and the devil's temptation all rolled into one. His lips molded themselves over hers with deft skill, yielding to hers while demanding with his own all at the same time. 

 

Yoona felt his large warm strong hand that was always gentle with her cup one side of her face, his fingers encasing her ear. His skinned felt so warm against hers, as soothing as warm water after a cold day and she felt completely and utterly safe liked as long as he was near her, nothing bad could ever happen. The feeling was so life-affirming, so all-consuming that she moaned deeply, louder this time so that it sounded more like a purred of avid approval than a moaned. 

 

Wanting, needing, to touched him, Yoona reached out blindly with her hands until she found him and followed the contours of his chest upwards until she reached his neck where she smoothed her hands over his broad shoulders. She curled her hands around the back of his neck, burying her fingers in the hair at the base of his skull. 

 

Yoona couldn't breathe but she didn't care. She didn't care if she passed out; she wasn't going to break this kiss, this deepening connection between the two of them, not for air, not for anything. 

 

Her body felt so alive, so warm and vibrant and energetic that she felt liked she could run five miles without slowing her pace. She was so warm but at the same time, she wasn't warm enough. Delightful shuddered of maddening pleasure were running through her and she felt nothing, knew nothing but Changwook, his kissed and the effect his kisses were having on her buzzing body. She couldn't feel the seat beneath her backside or the floor beneath her curled toes, she wasn't even aware of the edge of the table that was no doubt digging into her stomach but Yoona was aware of him. She felt him. She felt his hungry but gentle lips against her own in a mating dance as old as time, she could feel his hand cupping the side of her face and felt his warm just-barely yielding flesh beneath her fingertips. She could feel his silky hair as it caressed her fingers like a lover's touched and she could feel the coarseness of a man's chin rubbing against the much softer skinned of her own chin but the sensation wasn't causing her any discomfort as it was obvious that Changwook hadn't long ago shaved. 

 

Using her hold on his neck, Yoona pulled him closer, needing him to be closer, needing there kissed to be deeper and that was when her bliss ended. 

 

Despite her hold on him, Changwook pulled back, breaking the kissed and leaving the both of them panting and yearning for more. 

 

Yoona's eyes snapped open, wondering what was wrong, why had the bliss ended? What had made Changwook pulled so abruptly away from her? And then she saw that he was leaning back in his seat, his eyes cast downwards, not looking at her. 

 

What was wrong? What had she done? Had she done something wrong? Something he hadn't liked? 

 

Yoona hadn't felt this awkward or uncomfortable since high school. 

 

Why had he stopped? What had she done wrong? 

 

Yoona kept her eyes glued to him even as she lowered her arms and sat back in her own seat, not wanting to miss a single emotion that he might betray on his face. If he had stopped because of something she had done then she was going to find out exactly what it had been so she wouldn't do it again. 

 

There was a time when a rejection liked this would have brought tears to her eyes but she was stronger than that now. She was a strong woman's daughter; a strong woman who had raised her daughter to be every bit as strong. After a moment, Changwook drew in a long deep breath, almost as if he were steeling himself against something he didn't want to face and raised his gazed up to meet hers and promptly swore under his breath at her dazed and hurt expression. 

 

"Yoona, I." Changwook started before he swore under his breath, running his fingers irritably through the thick locks of his brownish black hair, "Damn it. I'm sorry Yoona, I didn't mean to let that get so far out of hand." 

 

It took her a moment but then realization dawned at his frustrated expression and Yoona understood. A wave of relief washed her self-consciousness away like a wave washing away footprints in the sand and she couldn't help but give him a gentle affectionate smiled even as she felt her face flood with heat. 

 

It seemed liked Changwook liked kissing her a little bit too much for what was appropriate in a public placed. Yoona even found herself pleasantly amused by his irritation at himself for his momentary loss of controlled. If they had met under different circumstances, before Yoona had been forced to grow up by her dad and his sick twisted obsession, Yoona had no doubt that she would have fallen for him just as hard as she already had, maybe even more so. 

 

What had Changwook's parents been liked? Yoona knew that they really were deceased. No one, no matter how skilled an actor is, could fake the grief that had been in his eyes when he had spoken of them. He had so clearly loved them and he missed them even though Yoona knew that he barely remembered them but they had so obviously made an everlasting impression on their son. He was so...What was the word? 

 

Maybe there wasn't just one word. Changwook was so selfless, caring, genuine, honest and honorable. Honourable. It was a strange description for someone playing a deceptive part in ordered to bring down a reigning crime lord. Somehow, Changwook still remained honest even though almost everything he said and did was an act. It was the way Changwook expressed himself; always sincere. 

 

Maybe that was why she was falling for him so hard. 

 

Heaven helped her, even though one way or another, she was most likely going to get her heart broken, Yoona couldn't keep fighting her feelings for him and she didn't want too, but what about his feelings for her? How much of what she had seen in the way he looked at her was real and how much was part of the act for her dad's goons who were always watching on the other side of the window? 

 

Yoona sighed, deciding that right now wasn't the time to ask. Instead, Yoona reached out and laid her hand over his that rested on his side of the table. 

 

"Of all the things to be sorry for, believe me when I say that that kissed is definitely not one of them." Yoona gave him a kind and tendered smiled, "Besides, you weren't the only one who lost control. If you hadn't stopped then there's no telling how far we would have gone because believe me when I say that I wouldn't have stopped for anything short of a massive earthquake." 

 

For a long moment, Yoona held her breath as he just continued to stare at her with an intensely focused expression on his face and his desire for her cooling somewhat in his mesmerizing brown eyes. 

 

Oh, heaven helped her. When Changwook looked at her liked that, Yoona felt liked she was the most precious thing in his entire world. 

 

The moments of silence between them stretched onto form minutes before Changwook finally broke the spell that held them by turning his hand to gently enveloped hers. He raised her hand to his lips where he turned her hand over and kissed the heart of her palm, his hot breath caressing her skinned liked a gentle lover's touched. 

 

Yoona didn't know what to say or do in the face of such an adoring and romantic gestured. She had never seen anyone kissed a woman's hand liked that before, at least not outside of the movies. She had no idea how powerful the simple act could be. How meaningful it could be. 

 

Changwook lowered her hand from his lips but didn't release her hand. Instead, he lowered their joined hands to the table, holding her hand gently but securely. He then began rubbing his thumb softly back and forth, caressing the soft-skinned on the back of her hand. 

 

Even that felt immensely intimate, too intimate for a public placed. 

 

"Have dinner with me tonight." Changwook requested softly, but with all seriousness. Everything about him made it perfectly clear that he really wanted her to have dinner with him but at the same time, it was still her choice, "Come on a real date with me." 

 

Yoona's heart sank and she had no doubt that her dismayed showed on her face. Oh, how much she wished she could go out with him, to spend more time with him than the one hour a day they currently had. 

 

"I can't." Yoona almost choked on the two simple words. Turning Changwook down, anything, was so very difficult. She nodded her head sideways out the window, indicating at her bodyguards, not needing words to communicate her reasons for her refusal, "You know I can't." 

 

Changwook followed her gazed briefly, something cold and dangerous entering his dark eyes. Disdain maybe? "I know you don't like to talk about it but what trouble are you in? I mean, they followed you everywhere and judging by those expensive shoes and tailor-made suits, I know they aren't part of any recognized government authority so who are they?" He looked into her eyes, searching for his answered there. 

 

Answered Changwook already had. 

 

"Who are you?" Changwook asked her, with such heavy significance that Yoona found herself wondering if he really was asking her something beyond who her dad was. 

 

Was he questioning her loyalty? Because that was what it had sounded liked. 

 

Or maybe, Changwook really was that great of an actor that he was playing his part for all he was worth. That had to be it. 

 

"Tell me and I will help you," Changwook promised her, a glint appearing in his eyes that Yoona understood. That dangerous looked was still there in his eyes but the glint was telling her that she had to get back on script. Ok, that made this much easier. Yoona almost sighed in relief. It was obvious that whatever had been happening between them a moment before was over now. Now, they were back on script, back to their act, their con. This, she could do. It was when she couldn't tell whether something happening between them was real or not that she faltered. 

 

Yoona was prepared for this conversation as she had expected it to come and she had practiced her answered as best she could inside her head without the exact details. 

 

"You know that's complicated and you know I can't tell you." Yoona purposefully lowered her gazed and pulled her hand free of his, physically and mentally pulling away from him, "You know that I had spent more time with you if I could but as I said when we started this, this right here is all we can have right now. I know that doesn't help you." She returned her eyes back to his, trying to look apologetic and guilty, "But trust me when I say that my situation isn't one of my choosing." 

 

Changwook leaned forward and lowered his voice until Yoona could only just hear him, "Then let me helped you." Yoona reached out and cupped his cheek, her sad eyes desperately pleading him to understand, "I can't. I won't let you risked yourself for me. Trust me when I tell you that this, that us meeting here, is dangerous enough. For you, not me." 

 

Changwook gently wrapped his long fingers around her wrist as if to keep her hand from leaving his face. Or maybe he just needed to touch her, Yoona wasn't sure. 

 

"I'm tougher than I appeared," Changwook stated, his steely tone conveying his offense at the thought that she thought that he was weak when in reality, it was the opposite that was true. 

 

Changwook really did feel the need to helped her. It was his nature, the core of who he was. A warrior. A protector. 

 

In times of old, he would have been the strong unfaltering knight who fought mighty battles to protect a lady's honor. 

 

"I can help you." Changwook insisted, "I will do whatever it takes to helped you." 

 

Liquid warmth flooded her heart and in any other circumstance, Yoona wouldn't have hesitated to call it loved but as things stood, she didn't dare. Loved was at the top of the list that could screw everything up and tear her carefully formulated planned apart and they were both in it too deep now to escape without severe consequences. The smiled Yoona gave him was genuinely caring but also sad, "Just you saying that, meaning it, means so much to me. More than you can ever know and that is why I can't let you get any more involved than you already are but believe me when I say that my entire day, my entire life, has become all about our time together. From the moment I leave you until the moment I walked through that door in the morning, all I can think about is you. You have made my life bearable when I'm apart from you but when I'm here with you, you make me forget about everything else but us. You are my reasoned to endured and I will never do anything to risk losing you or our time together." 

 

Yoona sighed heavily, regretfully. Boy, she was really nailing this; she had never been much of an actress or a liar but here she was, giving a golden globe winning performance. Maybe one day, she should try her hand at stage acting or something. 

 

Then again, maybe acting and deception was easy for everybody whose very life depended on their ability to give a believable performance. 

 

"So please, trust me." Yoona implored him, banishing her line of thought before she made a mistake, "This is what we have. If anything ever changes, if I can ever find a way out, I will tell you and then we will act together but until then, you have to be patient and trust me. Otherwise, this will have to end." She lowered her gazed dejectedly, "Which would be for the best I supposed." 

 

"No!" Changwook promptly and loudly objected, leaning forward towards her even more until the edge of the table had to be digging into him, "I don't care how dangerous it is! I'm not going to let you go! If this is all we can have then it's enough for me!" His eyes narrowed, his expression both resolute and pleading, "For now. Just don't give up." 

 

"I can't promise you anything in the future but I can promise you that in the now, I'm yours and I won't leave you." Yoona leaned forward and sealed her promised with a single kiss on his closed lips. 

 

Changwook discretely glanced out the window at the four men who were always watching them. One way or another, Changwook was going to set Yoona free of the prison her life had become. 

 

Just how much of Yoona's speech had been real, Changwook didn't know but the one thing he did know for absolute certain was that the pain and sadness that had been on displayed in her radiant trembling eyes had been very real. 

 

No one could fake that much intensity or raw emotion. Not even him. 

 

Changwook was more determined than he had ever been in his entire life about anything to bring Im Sejoon down once and for all. 

 

Yoona would be free of her dad. 

 

Even though Changwook had made Yoona promised that she had come back the next morning, it wasn't until Yoona walked through the door at eight minutes past 7 am the next morning that the knot in Changwook's stomach finally unclenched. A part of him feared that one day, Yoona wouldn't come, either because she had decided that it was too dangerous for him or because her dad had decided to put a stopped to their brief daily meetings. 

 

Changwook was no fool, he knew that Im Sejoon knew all about their morning dates at the coffee shop and he most likely would have known since their very first meeting. No doubt Yoona's four bodyguards reported her every moved to her dad but what had Changwook curious was why her dad even let Yoona out at all. Im Sejoon wasn't a man who was known to have tolerance for anything that stood in the way of something he wanted and Yoona had already escaped her captors once so why did he continue to allowed his daughter, the only one on Earth who could give him what he really wanted, to leave his estate in the first placed? 

 

It made no senses. Why give her freedom that increased the risked of her escaping him? 

 

Changwook wanted to ask Yoona that very question but that would mean breaking out of their character and letting on that he knew more than he should. 

 

Changwook didn't know if anyone was listening to their morning conversations but he had learned a long time ago that in this job, a single seemingly inconsequential mistake could get him and others killed. That was why, when he was undercover, he was in his character, one which he never broke pace with until the job was done. He played his part liked everyone around him was always watching him and every word he spoke was heard. 

 

In his line of worked, Changwook knew very well just how easily the smallest, most innocent looking objects could be bugged, a salt shaker, a button, even an earring but what Changwook was finding unusual and somewhat troubling, was how this job differed from all his others he had ever had; the more he was around Yoona, the more he was beginning to care for her and the less he was having to play a part. He had already told Yoona too much about himself that was either true or close enough to the truth; he had never personally invested in an undercover operation like this before. 

 

Changwook had to watch himself and what he told Yoona or he might very well blow the entire assignment. If that happened, there was no doubt in Changwook's mind that Yoona would pay the price for betraying her powerful heartless dad. 

 

Yoona slid gracefully into her usual seat across from him and without being aware of doing so, he reached out for her hand, needing to touch her. He wanted to kiss her again, hell, he wanted to do so much more than that but he didn't dare. 

 

Yesterday, for the first time since his teenage years, Changwook had nearly lost completed control of himself and that scared him. He was a man who always had to be in controlled of both, himself and the situation. He believes in strict self-discipline and maintaining control, especially over himself; a single moment of angered or emotion could bring everything crashing down and even get people, innocent people, killed. That was one of the elements about him that made him so good at his undercover worked; he always kept his head. He never lost his tempered and never lost controlled of his bodily urges. 

 

Until yesterday. The moment their lips had touched and Yoona's taste had filled his senses, Changwook had lost himself to the kissed. He could still perfectly recalled Yoona's intoxicating taste and the feel of her impossibly soft sweet hot pink lips that had so completely bewitched him. Her taste had been the most delicious and alluring thing that he had known in a very long time. 

 

While Yoona's scent was a strange innocently seductive blend of floral, fresh and woody notes, her taste had been all temptation, sinfully enticing and arousing. Liked a siren's called, her taste had consumed him, ensnared him until he had almost been beyond the point of no returned. Instead of floral, fresh and woody notes filling his senses, all Changwook had been able to think of until he had been consumed by it were carnal images of tangled sheets and sweat-coated entwined limbs in the silvery blue light of the midnight moon. 

 

The images had only been fuelled on by Yoona's soft desire-fuelled moans and sighs and her utter surrendered to him. Yoona had melted beneath him to the point that she had been his for the taking; so much so that she wouldn't have objected to anything he had wanted to do to her. 

 

Oh god, how he wanted her. His desire for her was still battling against the confines of his controlled. 

 

They had undeniable uncontainable chemistry between them and if this was what he was liked after they shared a kiss, what was he going to be like, if and when, things escalated between them as Changwook knew would happen if Yoona's planned continued on smoothly? 

 

Heaven helped him, Changwook wasn't sure that he would survive it. There was nothing and no one who could have prepared him for her or their hot sizzling chemistry between them that was so potent that one could almost see the electric sparks flickering in the air around them when they were near each other and it wasn't just Yoona's beauty or that she had the body of a fairy-liked deity. 

 

Boy, she had sure surprised him. No, more than that, Yoona fascinated him. 

 

On the outside, Yoona was, from head to toe, a petite blonde beauty that drew every male eye even though she scarcely noticed. Her dark brown eyes, inviting lips, long blonde hair and flawless white skin made her a rare natural beauty that turned heads. She was tiny in size and had an innocent quality about her that made everyone around her compelled to either protect or possess her but beneath all that, Yoona had an iron-hard inner strength and cunning mind that was downright terrifying. Proof of just how strong and intelligent she was and he wasn't just referring to book smarts, was proof enough in her planned. 

 

Yoona was her dad's prisoner, a man who was clever, ruthless and powerful and still, she had found a way to escape him and find her way, undetected, to the FBI. Where she had lain down her well-thought-out planned of getting an agent on the inside with the sole purposed of taking her dad down so that she could be free. 

 

At first, Changwook had been suspicious of her and her planned. This tiny naïve-appearing woman had managed to escape from her dad but instead of making a run for it, she had gone to the FBI, laid down her planned and then returned to her dad? That had been suspicious in and of itself. If her situation was that bad under her dad's thumb then why hadn't she simply left when she had had the chance to do so? But after meeting Yoona in person and getting to know her over these past few week, Changwook had realized that Yoona was so much smarter than that. If she had run then she would have been looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life just as her mom had until her dad eventually caught up with her. If Yoona had run then that would have only been a temporary solution to her problem and Yoona had known it. 

 

That was why Yoona had brought the FBI into it. Yoona had realized that the only way to rid herself of her dad and his sick and twisted obsession for good was to help the authorities bring him down once and for all. The FBI could lock her dad away, stripped him of his criminally obtained status and respect and seize all his money and assets that gave him so much power but such a thing wasn't easily done. 

 

"Changwook Oppa? Hello, Oppa? Is anyone in there?" 

 

Changwook blinked as he was wrenched from his thoughts to realized that Yoona was looking at him with both, worry and amusement in her dark brown eyes. 

 

Changwook mentally shook himself, realizing that he must have been sitting there, staring into space, lost in his thoughts for quite a while. 

 

Damn it. He had to stop doing that or else, he could end up blowing this entire thing. 

 

What was with him? Whenever he was near her or even thinking about her, he completely lost his focused. 

 

"Oh, sorry." Changwook quickly apologized and then in an effort to draw himself back into the present and out of his thoughts, he reached for his coffee and down a third of it in one gulp, not caring that it was just a little too hot to do with. Maybe if he consumed enough caffeine, he might be able to get his head back in the game. 

 

"You were really zoned out there." Yoona stated, still watching him with that odd mixture of concerned and amusement in her eyes, "Where were you?" 

 

Changwook returned his coffee mug to the table and finally looked her in the eye, "Honestly? I was thinking about the last time we were both sitting here." 

 

It wasn't exactly a lie, more liked a half-truth. It really said something that Changwook felt guilty for lying to her even though it was all a necessary part of her plan, he just didn't know what to say exactly. 

 

"Oh," Yoona muttered shyly, dropping her gazed from his to the plate of chocolate chip cookies sitting on the table between them as her cheeks flooded with color. 

 

From embarrassment or arousal? Changwook wondered if it was a mixture of both. It wasn't often that Yoona showed her shy side. Was it real shyness or was she just playing the part of the smitten young woman for the goons outside the window watching them? 

 

Always watching them. 

 

Changwook sighed and decided to distract her, "I was thinking how lucky I'm that you kept your promised to come back." 

 

Even though there had been that small voice of doubt in his mind before she had arrived, Changwook had known that she would come back. Yoona was no coward and she had put far too much effort into her planned to quit now and Changwook greatly admired that about her. 

 

Yoona looked up into his eyes, a little startled it seemed and after a moment, Yoona beamed him a smiled that lit up her face and her eyes. 

 

"I told you I would." Yoona said, as she reached out and took hold of his hand, wrapping her fingers around his and then she tightened her hold ever-so-slightly in reassurance, "I never break my word. Not as long as I have a say in the matter. I will be here as long as it's safe enough for you." 

 

Changwook expression softened and he replied honestly as he turned his hand until they were properly holding hands. He tightened his own hold on her hand just as she had the moment before, "I don't care how safe or dangerous it is for me. I will be here every morning. Rain, hail, shine or gunfire." 

 

Yoona's smiled faltered, "That's not funny." 

 

"Maybe not." Changwook agreed softly, "But it's the truth. You have my word on that, Yoona, and believe me when I say that I don't give my word lightly and I never give it falsely either. I mean what I say and I say what I mean." Yoona's eyes narrowed slightly incurious and puzzled interests, "You do that occasionally. You talked like a high school English teacher I had once and I swear, he was old enough to have heard Churchill's famous 'We Shall Fight on the Beaches' speech live so it made senses but what's your excuses?" 

 

Changwook chuckled softly. It had taken him a while but eventually, Changwook had noticed that whenever the conversation became too uncomfortable for her or too serious or too personal, Yoona would change the subject by either playfully insulting him or making some obscure comment. 

 

Changwook considered telling her the truth but he quickly dismissed the idea of revealing that he had been an orphan since the age of eight. After his parents had been murdered and with no living family, he had been raised in an orphanage until he had turned eighteen. 

 

For one, it wasn't part of his cover story and on top of that, that wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with her with her dad's goons watching. 

 

Again, Changwook settled on half-truths. 

 

"When I was a kid, I didn't really fit in with the other kids so I spent a lot of my time by myself reading books or running track but I had this one...I guessed you could call him my role model. He took an interest in me. He was from Taiwan and had grown up in amongst their aristocracy." 

 

Changwook smiled fondly at the memory of the one man from his past that he remembered and continued to miss, he had been young when he had lost his parents and as a result, had very few hazy memories of his parents and his life before the orphanage. 

 

"He talked as you would expect him too, and I guessed I picked up a lot of phrases and that from him that stuck." "He sounds important to you," Yoona commented softly. The way Changwook spoke about this man, Yoona could tell how important this man had been to the young boy who had been so lonely and alone. 

 

"He was." Changwook pushed aside his childhood memories and turned his full attention to Yoona, set on keeping it there, "Was there anyone liked that in your childhood?" 

 

Yoona laughed fondly and gave him a genuinely happy smiled, "Not quite. I had my mom and I had my five best friends to played. Friends who spent a lot of time getting me out of trouble more than anything else. Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Seohyun, and Tiffany. I was a little hell-raiser as a kid. I mean, I never intentionally sought out trouble or intended to do anything wrong or anything liked that, I just always seemed to get us all into trouble without meaning, too." And with that, Yoona launched into stories of her childhood adventures and in some cases misadventures, not realizing that the minutes were flying by. 

 

"So there we were, all six of us, white from head to toe, covered in flour, along with the entire kitchen." Yoona recalled enthusiastically, with a great amount of humored, "There was flour on the windows, walls, and sink, even in the cupboards. I mean, we had flour everywhere. My mom was only gone for three minutes but when my mom returned, she found six nine-year-olds covered in flour in a flour coated kitchen. It seriously looked like the entire kitchen had frozen over." 

 

"So, there we were, in the flour covered kitchen, trying to figure out how hot we needed to have the oven to cook the bread which was nothing more than the remaining few ounces of flour, a whole egg, that was still in its shell and three cups of milk. When mom walked in and loudly demanded to know what we were doing. Which of course completely scared us out of our skinned and poor Hyoyeon, who was in the middle of the kitchen with the bread pan, flung the runny contents over her head, splattering all over my mom and most of the wall." 

 

"I remembered that not one of us moved. My mom was the most fun-loving gentle person you could imagine, except when she was angry. Then she was like an erupting volcano. Hell, she was downright terrifying." 

 

Changwook idly wondered if that was what Yoona was liked when she was angry; he hadn't seen her angry yet so he didn't know. 

 

Yet. 

 

Yoona was a very passionate woman, their kissed had taught him that if nothing else and no doubt she would be a force to be reckoned with when she was angry. 

 

"So, there we were, frozen as still as statues while our bread mixture was dripping down her face." Yoona waved her hands over her face as if the flour and milk were still there, "So, what did my mom did? You won't believe this. She picked up the carton of eggs, took out an egg and one at a time, my mom broke an egg on top of each of our heads. So of course, by the time she was done, we had all decided that it was on. We scrambled for the refrigerator, filled our hands with eggs and had an egg fight on the same battlefield on which we had just finished our flour fight. When the last egg had been thrown, we all just sat there in a pile on the floor, covered in egg and flour and anything else we had found to throw, laughing ourselves silly." 

 

Yoona smiled lovingly at the memory of her mom's laughter and the feel of her slimy arms around her as she hugged her with motherly loved, "Of course, afterwards there was this huge epic messed and my mom being who she was, decided that such a huge messed couldn't possibly be cleaned up in time my friends had to leave my house. My mom called all my friend's parents and explained the situation, explaining that the six of us couldn't possibly clean up our mess in only a few hours so the girls would have to spend the night to get it cleaned up." 

 

Still able to hear her mom's mirth-filled words, Yoona chuckled with only a little bit of sadness from the loss of the mom she had loved so much, "But my mom was a whiz at things like that. With her helped, we had that kitchen clean in only fifty minutes. After that, my mom ordered pizza, stating that we had spent enough time in the kitchen for the day and we sat in the living room, watching movies and eating pizza and ice cream and gossiping with her until it was so late that we couldn't keep our eyes opened." 

 

Changwook wondered if Yoona knew how dazzling the sparkled in her eyes when she spoke about her mom made her looked. Or how soft and loving her small smiled was when she was remembering the good times she had shared with her mom whom she had so obviously loved so much and he couldn't help it. Changwook found himself a little envious of her that she had had at least her entire childhood with her mom who had so very obviously loved her to the moon and back. 

 

What he would have given to have had that much time with his own mom. 

 

"And unbelievably." Yoona went on, so focused on the memory that she hadn't noticed his brief moment of sad yearning and regret, "The next morning, my mom got us all in the kitchen and helped us make the home-made bread which we eat still warm from the oven for lunch." 

 

Changwook gave her a smiled as he pushed away his own tragic past before she noticed the effect it was having on him, "She sounds liked she was quite a woman." 

 

"She was." Yoona's smiled widened and became even softer. Her boundless love and fondness for her mom making her eyes sparkled so beautifully, so spectacularly, that every star in the night sky would have been envious were they able to see her right now, "But she was an even better mom. I was her entire world, she loved me and she never missed an opportunity to tell or show me." And Changwook had no doubt that that was how Yoona loved. When she loved, she loved with her entire heart and didn't hold back, didn't hesitate to show or tell those she loved how she felt. 

 

Changwook wished he could love that openly. Maybe one day after all of this had been put to rest... 

 

Yoona wished that her mom could have met Changwook. She would have liked Changwook, of that Yoona, had no doubt. 

 

Yoona sighed deeply and pulled herself out of her memories and into the present. She raised her gaze from the table where her hand was nestled within Changwook's much larger but always gentle hand in time to catch a flickered of movement over Changwook's shoulder outside the window that caught Yoona's complete attention. Yoona froze in horror as she realized just what it was that she was seeing. 

 

Yoona knew she had seconds at best. She had expected something liked this to happened at some point but it wasn't until this very moment that she had realized that she wasn't entirely prepared for it. It was too soon. Too soon for everything to either begin or come to an end. 

 

Im Sejoon, her dad, was walking towards her or more accurately, was walking past her, heading for the front entrance of Victoria's coffee shop. 

 

No. No. She wasn't ready for this. It wasn't time yet, not yet. She wasn't ready. 

 

Yoona glanced down at Changwook's super titanium satellite wave f900 watch that circle his left wrist and for the first time since Changwook had joined her, she took notice of the time. Her eyes grew wide in stunned disbelief. Oh, no. For the first time since her encounter with Changwook had begun, Yoona had completely lost track of the time. She had been completely wrapped up in reminiscing about her mom and their good times, sharing some of her happiest memories with Changwook and briefly losing herself in the happy and warm serenity, her most cherished memories granted her but in doing so, Yoona was now over an hour late in getting back to her dad's mansion. That was why her dad was there; he had come for her. 

 

Changwook immediately tenses, his protective instincts going on the alert in responses to Yoona's sudden apprehensive reaction to something, "Yoona, what's wrong?" 

 

All color had drained from her face and her expression was a mixture of panic and feared. The horrified expression on her pretty face made Changwook angry and he tenses battle ready. Whatever had put such feared in her eyes was something Changwook needed to protect her from. 

 

Changwook started to turn his head, to scan the area for what had made Yoona go white with feared but halted when Yoona's gazed snapped back to him as she leaned as far forward as her seated position would allow. 

 

"I'm so sorry," Yoona whispered urgently but was cut off before she could say another word by a voice that was falsely charming. There was a hint of malice in the voice that tried and failed to sound affectionate. 

 

"Yoona, sweetheart." Im Sejoon addressed his daughter, "So, this is what keeps you every morning." 

 

Changwook froze at the sound of the voice that he knew so well even though he hadn't heard it spoken in over a decade. It was the voice that had haunted his nightmares since he had been eight years old. A voice from a distant memory that he would carry with him until the day he died. 

 

Of course, Changwook had known that this moment was coming, although he hadn't expected it to come so soon but nothing could have prepared him for the day that he finally came face to face with the man who had personally murdered his parents in cold blood that night so long ago. 

 

It took all of Changwook's controlled just to keep himself seated with his face turned down from the man who now stood over them. 

 

Yoona's hold on his hand subtly tightened warningly, causing Changwook to looked up into her wide beseeching eyes and just liked that, Changwook felt his mask slide smoothly back into place. He had been undercover more times then he could recall and he was no longer that scared little boy who had hidden in the closet while his dad had begged this very man to spare the life of his innocent wife, Changwook's mother. 

 

His parents were gone, nothing could bring them back but what Changwook could do was rid the world of this man and in doing so, he would avenge his parents and set Yoona free of her gilded cage. 

 

Only seconds had passed since Im Sejoon had announced himself and Changwook was ready. He had waited for this chance ever since he had been eight years old and he wasn't going to let it slipped through his fingers. 

 

He could do this. This was what he had worked towards for so long. He wasn't going to mess this up now by letting his true emotions controlled him. 

 

Changwook looked up at the monster dressed in an expensive suit and focused on steadily playing his part of the protective boyfriend, assessing this man to assured that he wasn't a dangered to the woman sitting with him, "Dad." Yoona began thickly, her anxiety and feared evident on her face and in her strain voice. The word sounded as if it had choked her to her say aloud. 

 

Changwook wondered once again, if any of it was real or if Yoona really was that talented of an actress and if it was real, just what was it about her dad that Yoona feared so much? Changwook still hadn't had the opportunity to ask her just how far her dad's mistreatment of her had gone. As a cop, Changwook had witnessed firsthand just how cruel people could be to each other and Changwook wouldn't put it passed Im Sejoon especially to physically abused his daughter in ordered to bend her to his will. 

 

For all Changwook knew, Yoona had been healing during her month-long period of house arrests. 

 

The thought alone made Changwook seriously tempted to break Sejoon's jaw. 

 

"Kai, why don't you see Yoona safely home?" Sejoon casually ordered the man, with short white hair who stood just behind him, cutting Yoona off. 

 

It wasn't until then that Changwook realized that the mafia boss wasn't alone. Three men, including the white-haired one, stood at Sejoon's back, dressed in matching black suits, with matching narrowed dark spy sunglasses and hard cold expressions. 

 

Good god, talk about a cliché. They looked like they had just stepped out of an overdone mob movie. Well, all except for the electronic earwigs in their ear. Changwook could see the circle black wire running from behind their ear that disappeared beneath their jackets. 

 

The white-haired man, Kai, stepped forward and reached for Yoona but without being conscious of doing so, Changwook reacted. He was up, out of his chair, his hand shooting out to grasped hold of Kai's wrist in an unnecessarily tight grasped before he could touch her. 

 

Changwook didn't know what it was about the man with white hair and chestnut brown eyes but Changwook felt an instant dislike and distrusts of him and Changwook certainly didn't like the way he kept leering at Yoona. It made him so furious that Changwook was sorely tempted to do the some serious damage. 

 

"I wouldn't if I were you!" Changwook growled threateningly, at the white-haired man who glared darkly and with the promised of violence, back at him. 

 

Yoona, very conscious of the attention they were attracting from the shop's staff and customers and the dark glares between the two men who practically stood over her, radiating malevolence, rose to her feet and placed her hand gently on Changwook's arm that still held Kai's wrist in his iron gripped. 

 

"Oppa, no." Her words were a plead for him to remember that they had to be careful. They were balanced on a knife's edge, playing a dangerous game and at any moment, any little thing could tip off her dad that they were trying to bring him down and Yoona had no doubt at all that if her dad discovered her planned or Changwook's real identity, they would both pay for it with their lives. The only difference was that Changwook would lose his life sooner than she would and Yoona knew that she would envy Changwook because of his quick death; her dad wouldn't kill her until he had taken from her what he so desperately wanted. 

 

Changwook glanced down at Yoona and took in her wide eyes and pleading expression and he knew what she wanted of him. 

 

Very slowly, very reluctantly, Changwook released his hold on Kai's wrist and slowly took his seat. 

 

"It's alright." Yoona spoke reassuringly to him, as she stepped away from the table and Kai, all the while giving him a meaningful looked, "I will see you tomorrow." 

 

Changwook didn't fail to notice that Yoona intentionally kept out of Kai's reached and it was all Changwook could do to remain where he was. His instincts were screaming at him that Kai was a serious threat to Yoona and he wanted nothing more than to put himself between her and the man with chestnut brown evil-looking eyes. There was something there, something bad. Changwook was sure of it and it put an ice-cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Yoona feared Kai and kept out of his reached. Changwook had observed behavior liked that with others. 

 

In the assault and abused cases. 

 

If Kai so much as looked at her the wrong way again, Changwook would kill him but first, Changwook had to deal with her dad, a cold-hearted and ruthless killer. 

 

Sejoon slid smoothly into Yoona's chair, adjusting his expensive black suit jacket as he did so. He looked at Changwook with an expression of aloof curiosity, as if he couldn't figure something out, "So, you are what has had my daughter so preoccupied these past weeks." 

 

Changwook had to work hard to keep his intolerable hatred for this man from his expression and his eyes. He had a part to play here and he had to play it convincingly or else he had blown the entire thing. His parents and Yoona were both counting on him, counting on his performance right here and now. 

 

This was what the last month had been leading towards. This one conversation was going to determined everything. He had to be convincing. The approval of this man, the man Changwook had hated with steadfast conviction ever since he was eight years old, would be the key to bringing him down. 

 

Changwook had to play the infatuated smitten boyfriend meeting his girlfriend's dad for the first time flawlessly or else everything they had done would be for nothing and Yoona would be trapped in her dad's clutches for god knew how long. Maybe the rest of her life. 

 

"Yes, sir." Changwook said in a respectful voice, a lesser version of the tone he used when speaking to his superiors, "We have been having coffee here together every morning." 

 

Sejoon waved his hand dismissively, "Oh, I'm well aware of everything that has transpired between my daughter and yourself. There's nothing my daughter does that I'm not aware of." He reached out and took a cookie from the plate on the table between them, biting into it and chewing slowly, all the while watching his reaction to the news that he had been spying on Yoona and himself. 

 

Changwook senses that Sejoon was trying to appear indifferent while at the same time, seemed authoritative and intimidating but to Changwook, his act was coming off as pretentious. He was a man who worked hard to always appeared aloof and to always be in controlled of the situation. 

 

What a pretentious douche. 

 

Swallowing his mouthful of cookie, Sejoon considered him for a long moment more before saying casually with an underlining hint of menace, "Ji Changwook. Twenty-four years old. Only son of Iijoo and Gyungsim Ji, a contractor and a housewife who died thirty-two years later in a car accident; hit head-on by a drunk driver who walked away without a scratch. Spent the next three years at Angel Orphanage for young boys. You studied hard, got top grades and eventually given a scholarship at the University of Seoul National where you are only a year away from graduating with honors if your current test scores are anything to go by. Quite impressive." 

 

Changwook was very aware of his cover's backstory. It was the closest he had ever had to his real one. 

 

Sejoon took another bite of the cookie, waiting for Changwook's reaction to the news that he believes that he knew everything there was to know about him but Changwook gave him nothing. Let Sejoon think what he liked. Maybe Sejoon would assume that Yoona had told him more about her dad than Sejoon had originally thought. 

 

"I also hold a black belt in karate and I still run every day even though I quit the track team last year," Changwook added coolly. 

 

"Oh, I'm well aware, Changwook. I know everything there is to know about you." Sejoon stated casually, and popped the remainder of the cookie into his mouth. 

 

It was all Changwook could do not to grinned liked a smugged Cheshire cat. Sejoon knew what Changwook and the FBI wanted him to know and nothing more. 

 

Sejoon chewed slowly for almost a minute then he swallowed and just liked that, his entire demeanor became serious and threatening; clearly he meant to intimidate Changwook into obeying him. 

 

"Now, I have let this little fling go on for long enough." Sejoon rose to his feet and button his jackets single front button, standing over Changwook and giving him a piercing glared, "Stayed away from my daughter or the consequences, I assured you, you will not enjoy." And with that, Sejoon walked straight out of the coffee shop, his goons on his heels. Not one of them looked at him again. 

 

Once Changwook was sure that all of them were gone, he released a long drawn out breath and leaned back in his chair. He wiped his face with his hands as if that would rid him of the chaotic storm of emotion swirling around in his stomach at finally coming face to face with his parents killer. 

 

After all these long years, the day had finally come that Changwook had looked Im Sejoon in the eye and to his dismayed, it hadn't been to arrests him and put him away for the remainder of his natural life as Changwook had always thought it would. 

 

Sejoon wasn't the man Changwook had always believe he was. Sejoon wasn't half of what his reputation made him out to be. As the word on the street went, Im Sejoon was a highly intelligent, ruthless and cold-blooded giant who was to be feared, respected and obeyed but in real life, the man in no way lived up to his over-exaggerated reputation. 

 

Honestly, on the street, Sejoon was viewed as some kind of mythical crime lord who saw all and knew all. On the street, it was believed that anyone who displeases Sejoon would meet their untimely and violent end but in real life, Im Sejoon was more like a stockbroker or a banker. He was a man who calculated and acted, who cared about no one but himself and who had others act for him. In fact, in the FBI's file on him, there were only five murders that were unofficially confirmed to be his kills, the last of which had been eight years ago. 

 

Based on first impressions and what Changwook already knew about the man, it seemed that Sejoon's intelligence and abilities had been greatly exaggerated. 

 

So what was it about him that had kept him out of jail for so long? What did Sejoon have that put him two steps ahead of not only law enforcement agencies but also competing families and rival criminal organizations? 

 

Changwook's instincts were telling him that if he found out the answered to that questioned then he would have the key to putting Sejoon away behind bars once and for all but first, Changwook had to find a way to put Yoona's planned back on track then he would deal with Kai, one way or another and then he was going to go after Sejoon; he would bring the man and his criminal empire down once and for all and at the same time, somehow keep Yoona out of harm's way because if something happened to her, Changwook knew that he had never be able to forgive himself. 

 

Or live with the knowledge that she had come to harm because of his vendetta. 

 

Yoona knew that her dad hadn't followed her back to his estate on purposed. Instead, he had intentionally kept her waiting for him for over three hours. Three hours before he had returned to the estate with his band of bodyguards and by that time, Yoona was well and truly agitated, furious, worried and terrified. 

 

Her nerves were frayed to the point that Yoona had been pacing frenziedly in the front doorway, on the verge of hysteria. 

 

So much so that it was all Yoona could do to wait until her dad had entered the house before she erupted, "Where's Changwook?! What did you do to him?!" 

 

Today had been part of her plan from the beginning. Yoona had counted on her dad reacting to a new man in her life whom she was becoming closed too; a man who wasn't under her dad's controlled but at the same time, this was one of the riskiest and most dangerous parts of her planned. When it came to getting what her dad wanted and eliminating the obstacles in his path, Yoona had no true idea of what her dad would do or how far he would go. 

 

Yoona was no fool; she knew good and well that her dad had the blood of many on his hands. He killed, although these days, he killed using others to do his dirty worked rather than take care of them himself; he was the head of a very powerful mafia family after all, with an aloof disregard for human life. 

 

Yoona had already seen with her own eyes that her dad was willing to kill innocent people without mercy and without hesitation to get what he wanted but just how much further was he capable of going? Were there any limits to how far he would go? Was there anything he wouldn't do? 

 

Yoona had known that her dad would intervene at some point but what she had had no way of knowing was exactly what he would do when he did intervene. 

 

What Yoona had been unprepared for was the blood-chilling heart-stopping feared for Changwook's safety. There was a part of Yoona that was terrified that her dad had actually hurt or even killed Changwook just to keep her away from him. 

 

It wasn't until her dad gave her an impatient disapproving looked that Yoona breathed in relief. 

 

If her dad had done something to Changwook then he would have either dismiss her without a word or he would have rubbed it in her face as a warning not to interact with anyone on the outside ever again. Her dad didn't like the idea of his precious daughter slipping through his fingers; anyone Yoona knew that her dad couldn't control was viewed as a threat as her dad knew that it wouldn't take much for Yoona to convinced them to help her. 

 

"Your friend is perfectly fine." Her dad told her long-sufferingly as if she were a small child who wanted to know the fate of her favorite doll that had been broken, "No thanks to you, of course." And he turned his disapproving glared on her as though she were a small child, "You should know better, Yoona. To endangered him liked that so unnecessarily. I think it would be best if the two of you saw no more of each other." 

 

Without looking at her, her dad swept passed her in the direction of his office. 

 

"You will find another location for your little outings from here on." Her dad told her, as he walked away from her, "You are to have no more contact with that boy." 

 

Yoona went to followed her dad but found two of his goons moved to block her. 

 

"You can't do that!" Yoona yelled after him, even though she couldn't actually see him anymore as he had entered his office, sounding just liked the defiant rebellious teenager he considered her, "All we have ever done is have coffee together every morning! I haven't told him anything!" A blatant lied, "I haven't caused any trouble in over a month!" That her dad knew about anyway, "He's my only friend! The only thing that keeps me sane!" 

 

Her dad stepped back out of his office with a slightly sad but mostly annoyed looked on his face, "And do you remembered what happened to your last friend you involved?" 

 

Yoona flinched, recoiling as though he had slapped her across the face. 

 

Without another word, Yoona whirled around and ran up the stairs, not slowing down until she was safely locked inside her room. 

 

The agony and self-loathing was crippling. With tears streaming freely down her face and sobs wracking her body, Yoona threw herself onto her bed and cried wretchedly into her pillow. 

 

No. Yoona hadn't forgotten what had happened to her friends. She would never forget and she would never forgive her dad. Or herself. 

 

For the first time since her mom had passed away, Yoona felt a sense of contentment, dare she say happiness? Whatever it was, it felt good. She wasn't alone in her two-room apartment, struggling through the lonely hours until she had to go to work. 

 

The Diner wasn't a bad place to work but the day to day requirements of the job was quite tedious, it was the same thing day after day. Yoona took orders while ignoring the come-ons of the local riffraff and avoiding the handsy jerks who believe that they had the right to touched her just because she was a waitress. She wiped down tables and restocked salt and pepper shakers and at the end of the day, if it was her turned, she would mop down the floors and do all the little things that kept the diner up to the health code. 

 

Yuri, one of her best friends since before starting high school, must have noticed that she was more than a little down so she had invited Yoona to spend the week at her new, new to Yuri, house which itself had to be at least five decades old, even if it did seemed to be in excellent condition, the two-story house that she and her husband, Yunho, had just purchased. 

 

Yoona didn't know exactly what the mortgage was on the placed but she did know that it was just within the couple's current budget. 

 

It was a gorgeous house. It had four bedrooms and three baths as well as a smaller room above the double bay garage that could be turned into a fifth bedroom if needed but it was currently being used as Yunho's office, it wasn't that big but with the large window, it had great lighting. The kitchen was spacious and had only been remodeled a few years before by the previous owner. The countered tops and polished hardwood cabinet drawers and new stainless steel stove looked really nice. The living and dining rooms were spacious and had large windows to allowed in plenty of natural lighting and the backyard was just huge, if not, a little bare. 

 

It was the perfect family home for her friends who had only just had their first baby. A boy who was the spitting image of his dad except that he had Yuri's dark brown eyes. His name was Woojoo and he was the cutest little thing that Yoona had ever seen in all her life. 

 

The little boy was currently asleep in his room upstairs, giving his parents a much-needed breather. Woojoo was just eight months old but had only recently started to sleep through the night which meant that he was up for most of the day and for one, so small he really could go. 

 

Yoona had no idea how one so small who had only just learned to crawl could move so fast. Take your eyes off of him for a second and he was gone. His parents would frantically search the house for him only to find him sitting in some small space getting into something he wasn't supposed, too. 

 

Yoona had only been there for three days but already, she had learned that there was no such thing as a child-proof home. Regardless of child-proof locks on every drawer and cupboard door, little Woojoo would always find the one cupboard or drawer and shelf that his parents had thought was out of his reached or had forgotten to relocked and he would get into something. 

 

Poor Yuri. She had nearly passed out when she had seen what he had done to her wedding photo album and Yoona had been struggling not to break into hysterical laughter at the sight of little Woojoo sitting inside Yuri's wall unit, looking up at his mommy with big innocent eyes while all around him was most of the photos that he had taken out of the protective plastic of the album with his mashed pea and sweet potato covered hands that had been the remnants of his lunch. 

 

Most of which had ended up on the child, floor, highchair and the wall, rather than on him. 

 

It had taken hours to clean up the messed and rearranged the album, some of Yuri's wedding photos hadn't been salvageable but Yuri's mom had copies of all the negatives so replacing them was going to be easy. 

 

Now that Woojoo was sound asleep and they had had an early dinner, Yoona sat in the living room with Yuri while Yunho did the dishes as Yuri had cooked, what a great arrangement. One cooks and the other cleans, Yoona was going to have to remember that one, if she ever found someone, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. 

 

For the past few minutes, they had been talking about the little devil in an angel's body who was sound asleep upstairs but silence had fallen between them and that was ok; they were practically family and it was a comfortable silence, "Are you alright, Yoona?" 

 

Yoona looked up from her glass of red wine that she had been about to take a sip of, Yoona didn't really like wine too much but Yuri had wanted to share some wine with her and Yoona hadn't wanted to pass up the moment, to see Yuri's caring and concerned dark brown almond-shaped eyes watching her carefully as if she were trying to find her answered in Yoona's own expression. 

 

Yoona wondered what had prompted the questioned, "I'm fine." 

 

Yuri stared at her for a long moment, her concerned and sad expression making it clear that she didn't believe her, "Are you?" Yuri all but challenged, "Ever since your mom..." She trailed off, not finishing the sentence, "Well, ever since then you have been different and it's not just that you are in mourning. There's something about you that makes me sad whenever I looked at you, I don't know how to explain it but I'm not the only one who's noticed. The girls are as worried about you as I am." 

 

Yoona lowered her gazed, unable to look at Yuri's caring and concerned expression anymore. 

 

Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Seohyun, and Tiffany. The five women in Yoona's life whom she considered her sisters. Who were her sisters in all the ways that matter? They had been friends for years and after high school, even though they had all gone their own ways, they still remained closed. 

 

Seohyun, the most intelligent of the six of them, had gone on to Harvard medical school on a scholarship, working her way towards her dream job of being a surgeon, specializing in the brain and heart. 

 

Hyoyeon had decided to put off higher education for a few years so she could follow her dancing passion; she was currently in Beijing training at some exclusive dancing institute. 

 

Sooyoung was modeling in Japan and was planning to attend London College of Fashion next year after she decided what she wanted to do that was. Sooyoung wasn't too sure what she wanted to do for the rest of her life yet, she kept changing her mind but based on her recent emails, Sooyoung seemed to be leaning towards fashion design lately and Tiffany. Tiffany had been raised by her by dad, considering she was the only child, after her mom's tragic death when she had been young and recently, he had fallen ill so Tiffany had gone back home. 

 

Yuri and herself were the only ones who had stayed. Yuri, because her husbands worked was based here, Yunho was the town's only accountant and he had more than enough worked to provide for his family. Yuri was currently a stayed at home mom but once little Woojoo was old enough, Yuri fully intended to open her own business at home, that way they could eventually have the two other children that they were planning on. The two of them wanted three children; they wanted their one-big-happy-family and Yoona had stayed because she felt liked she had no reasoned to leave, no place to go. Yes, her mom's life insurance had assured that she could afford to go onto college, Yoona would still have to work but it meant that she wouldn't need three jobs to survive but all her ambition and drive had died with her mom. 

 

Yoona knew that she was stuck but she also knew, hope, that one day, she would wake up and it would feel liked a new day, that she would wake up and know what she wanted to do with her life and have the drive to do it again, and that was what Yuri was so worried about, why Yuri was looking at her with such a concerned and sad expression. Yuri was a great person, she was kind, considerate, compassionate and more than that, Yuri had a gentleness about her that had made Yoona certain that Yuri was going to be the best mom this town had ever seen. 

 

Yoona forced her mind back to the present, "Don't worry about me, Yuri. I will find my way, I promised. I just need time. My mom was all I had for a long time and we were as close as two people could be. I was her whole life but it wasn't until I lost her that I realized just how much she was mine." She swallowed against the lump in and went on before she started crying, "I wasn't ready to lose her. I guessed no one ever is but right now, I just need to go through the motions, you know?" 

 

Without a word but eyes full of loved and understanding, Yuri pushed herself up onto her knees and hugged her, wrapping her around Yoona's shoulders and hugging her liked Yuri was a little girl, hugging a giant oversized teddy bear and Yoona's heart melted. 

 

Yoona felt her sadness being washed away beneath a tidal wave of happiness and loved. What had she ever done in her life to deserved such loving and caring friends? 

 

Yoona couldn't help herself, she wrapped her arms around Yuri and hugged her back, not realizing until that very moment just how starved she was for human contact. She had always been the type of person who needed to be surrounded by those she loved and ever since her mom had passed, she hadn't realized just how alone she had been. Yoona was so grateful to her friends, her sisters, even those who weren't there because Yoona knew that even though they weren't physically here with her, they wanted to be. Every one of the girls who had left emailed and wrote her letters on a regular basis; they were apart but still, Yoona knew everything that was going on in their lives and until now, Yoona had thought that that had been enough but it hadn't been and it never would be enough. It wouldn't be enough until she saw every one of them again. 

 

"I don't care what bother you think you will be, Yoona." Yuri said gently into her ear, "You stayed here as long as you like. You are family and you will always be welcome in this house." 

 

Yoona didn't answer. Yoona couldn't answer; she was too choked up with emotion to formed any intelligible reply. 

 

It was taking all her willpower to keep herself from weeping pathetically on Yuri's shoulder, literally. 

 

The sound of a baby crying upstairs brought the emotional moment to an end. Yuri sat back and the two of them exchanged a looked before they both laughed happily. 

 

Yuri sighed, rising up off the couch, "We had better checked on him." 

 

Yoona sprang up off the couch, "I will beat you." And she bolted for the stairs. 

 

"Hey," Yuri called after her and laughing liked school girls, the two of them dashed across the living room, up the stairs to burst into the nursery, Yoona in the lead the whole way. 

 

"Cheater!" Yuri accused, still laughing happily. 

 

"Am not." And to future prove her maturity, Yoona stuck her tongue out at her. 

 

Yuri shook her head and reached for her son who was standing in his crib, no longer crying. Instead, he was looking at the two of them with the enraptured fascination that only babies and small children seemed to possess. Yoona laughed at the expression on Woojoo's face. He honestly looked like he was trying to figure out why his mommy and the silly blonde women were acting so strangely. 

 

Yuri didn't pick Woojoo up out of the crib. Instead, she asked him what was wrong in her mommy's voice, a voice filled with love and affection. 

 

Yoona felt a stabbed of sadness and loss but kept her focused on Yuri and Woojoo. This was a moment she wanted to remember. 

 

Downstairs, the doorbell rang. 

 

"I will get it!" Yunho called up the stairs. 

 

Three seconds later, two loud sounds, one after the other, boomed through the house. Sounds that sounded liked thunder but weren't. 

 

Yuri looked at Yoona with bewildered alarmed, "What was that?" 

 

Yoona didn't answer. She couldn't answer. She was frozen, becoming as still as a statue, as all color was drained from her face and the icy cold hand of terror wrapped itself around her heart and just liked that, Yoona knew. She knew. 

 

This couldn't be happening. Not here. Not now. 

 

Yoona stared at Yuri with helpless distraught panic on her white face for a single heartbeat more before she leaped into action. Yoona knew what she had to do. She had to helped Yuri get their son out of the house and as for Yunho... 

 

If anything could be done to help them, Yoona would do it but first, she had to get Yuri out of the house. 

 

"Yuri, run!" Yunho shouted, from downstairs. 

 

Yoona almost slumped in relief at the sound of Yunho's voice. He was still alive but for how long? 

 

Noiselessly, Yoona closed the nursery door and with light footsteps, hurried to Yuri where she stood frozen at Woojoo's crib. 

 

Yoona grasped hold of Yuri's shoulder and stared straight into her eyes, willing her with every fiber in her being to listen to her, to hear her, "Yuri, you have to go, you have to run." Yoona whispered urgently, keeping her voice low so they wouldn't be heard, "They want me but they will kill you and Woojoo. I promised, I promised that I will do everything I can to saved Yunho Oppa but you have to think of Woojoo first. I'm so sorry." 

 

Yoona spun her around and was relieved when Yuri didn't hesitate to pick up her son and hold him securely against her chest with both arms, holding him to her with the desperation of a loving mom, protecting her child. There was only one option to get Yuri out and that was the window but how were they going to managed it with a baby? They were on the second story and it was a straight dropped from the smallish window to the pave ground beneath. 

 

Whatever they were going to do, Yoona knew that she had to do it now. At best, Yoona had one minute, maybe two, to get Yuri and her baby out of the house and away from the murderers downstairs. 

 

Yoona's eyes fell on the two curtains at the window, one on each side. The two long curtains. The two long cotton curtains. 

 

It wasn't the safest idea in the world for a baby but it would have to do. 

 

Without wasting a second more, Yoona swiftly went to the windows and as quickly as she could, without making a sound, Yoona lifted the curtain rod off its supports and allowed one end to dropped soundlessly to the floor. 

 

"Yuri," Yoona whispered urgently, as she yanked open the window, ignoring the soft thud that it made, praying that those who threatened them weren't closed enough to hear it. She had to get Yuri and her son out of there and she was running out of time; she couldn't waste a single moment now, "Helped me." 

 

Yuri was at her side instantly, gently laying her now bundled up son on the floor before straightening up and taking note of what Yoona was doing. 

 

Yoona had already slid one of the curtains off of the rod and was working on the second, discarding the rod the moment the second curtain was free. Then she picked up the first curtain and frantically began tying the bottom ends together, not in one big knot but in several small tight knots along the strongest seam. 

 

Yuri quickly caught on and took up the other end. When they were finished, Yoona yanked on the two pieces of joined cloth, testing the strength of the knots until she was satisfied that they would easily support the weight of a baby. 

 

They would most likely come apart under Yuri's weight, even though she was only a size bigger than Yoona but Yoona had already come up with a planned to get Yuri down. It wasn't the safest idea but it was their only option. Yoona quickly wrapped the curtains around her tiny waist, assuring that the knotted part was pressed against her stomach where it would suffer the least strain. Then Yoona spun around and pressed her back against one side of the window frame. She threw the loose half of one curtain out the window and grasped hold of the material, prepared to hold it with all her strength. 

 

Yoona stared into Yuri's eyes, her expression desperate but determined, "Climbed down. It won't get you all the way to the ground but it will get you down enough that you can jump without hurting yourself. I will pass Woojoo down." 

 

"But..." 

 

"Go, Yuri! You have to leave me! Go! For Woojoo!" 

 

Still, Yuri hesitated. 

 

"Please?" Yoona begs her wretchedly, the tears in her eyes threatening to spill over, "I can't watch you die, Yuri. I had rather died myself. Please? Go. For me. For your son. For Oppa's son." 

 

A wretched sobbed escaped Yuri's mouth and she threw herself at Yoona, wrapping her trembling arms around her and hugging her with all her might. 

 

For only the briefest of moments, Yoona allowed herself to bask in Yuri's hug. She could feel Yuri's loved for her, a sister's love that was in no way diminished by the different blood that ran in their veins. Yuri loved her and she didn't want to leave her; Yuri was terrified that she would never see her alive again, and Yoona knew that it was only her mom's loved for her son that kept her from staying her ground. 

 

It was the second hardest thing Yoona had had to do in her entire life, the first had been saying goodbye to her mom but she forced herself to grasped hold of Yuri's shoulder and pushed her away. 

 

Yoona looked into her eyes, letting Yuri see her unyielding sisterly loved for her and the plead that Yoona knew was in her eyes, "Go. You have to." 

 

Yuri had tears running down her oval-shaped face and it was all Yoona could do to keep hers from falling. She had to be strong now. For Yuri and their little boy. For Yunho who was in incredible dangered. 

 

If he was even still alive. The faceless monsters that had haunted her dreams had finally found her. 

 

In the back of her mind, Yoona heard the softest of voices asked, 'Why now?' 

 

No doubt, Yoona would learn the answered soon enough. 

 

Yoona pushed all thoughts from her mind and focused only on getting Yuri out. With one quick glanced through the clean clear glass to assured that the way was still clear, Yoona helped Yuri climbed feet first out the window. Yoona planted her feet on the carpeted floor, braced her back and arm against the window and wrapped the tail of the makeshift rope around her other arm and grasped tight hold of the cloth wrapped around her waist. She prepared herself what little she could for what was to come. 

 

Yuri had a similar body type to Yoona, average height and petite but out of the two, Yoona was slightly smaller but she was determined to be strong enough to get Yuri out of the house before they were found. 

 

With a sound of effort, Yuri grasped hold of the window seal and dropped her long legs, running her feet along the side of the house to keep herself from free falling which would force her to catch all her weight with her hands. If that happened, her gripped would most likely fail and she would free fall to the ground, a full story below. 

 

Yoona prayed to the heavens that the squealing sound of her rubber soles sliding and scraping against the side of the house hadn't been heard and then, all at once, Yuri grasped hold of the makeshift rope and let go of the window seal. 

 

Yoona clenched her teeth together to keep herself from crying out in pain as the fabric wrapped around her body was pulled tight, so tight that it forced her breath from her. Yuri's weight was pressing her hard into the window seal and the wall and it was all Yoona could do to keep her body locked in place, holding the rope made of curtains secured long enough for Yuri to make it safely to the ground. 

 

Only a few seconds past but it felt like an hour, not because of the painful strained on her body but because time was slipping quickly away liked water through her fingers. How long did they have left before the unknown number of killers in the house checked the nursery? Did they even have a single minute? Were they down to seconds? And then, just liked that, the fabric wound around her went slack and the weight pinning her to the wall was gone. 

 

Not even taking the time to check if Yuri was safely on the ground, even though she wanted too, Yoona quickly unwrapped the makeshift rope from around her and quickly straightened out the fabric. She then grasped hold of the middle of each curtain and quickly arranged them so that the middle of the rope, where the two curtains were bound together, was at the bottom of the U that dangled from her hands. 

 

It wasn't ideal but it would have to do. 

 

Holding the two curtains in one hand, Yoona picked up Woojoo, planting a kissed on his tiny warm forehead and gently placed him on top of the knots at the bottom of the U, sparing only a second to assure that the makeshift rope turned makeshift baby carrier was wide enough that Woojoo wasn't likely to slip out on his trip down, "Take care of your mommy." Yoona whispered to Woojoo in farewell. 

 

Carefully but quickly, Yoona leaned the entire top half of her body out the window, holding the makeshift baby carrier high with one hand while balancing Woojoo from beneath in her other. 

 

Below, Yuri was on her feet with her arms stretched out above her head, her eyes glued on her son, ready to receive him. 

 

The sight of a vigilantly watchful Yuri below gave Yoona enough reassurance that Woojoo would be alright if he somehow slipped out. 

 

With a quick deep breath, Yoona withdrew her hand out from beneath the precious bundle and moved it up to where her other grasped the two curtains at their middle. 

 

Yoona then lowered her arms as far as she could while holding the fabric tightly until she was bent over at the waist, the edge of the window seal digging painfully into her belly. 

 

Yuri was straining upwards, standing on her toes, directly below her son but still a good meter and a half separated the child from his mom's desperately reaching fingertips. 

 

Only then did Yoona loosened her gripped on the curtain fabric just enough that it began to slide bit by bit through her hands, lowering Woojoo towards his mom. 

 

For a few long seconds, Woojoo hung in the air at a height that if he fell out, could do him serious harm or worse. In those few very stressful seconds, neither of the two women breathed. All their focused, every cell in their being, was focused on the baby and then Yuri's hands closed around Woojoo's middle and it was done. 

 

Certain that Yuri's hold on her son was secured, Yoona released the curtains, allowing the fabric to fall freely to the ground. 

 

Yuri didn't hesitate. She quickly slipped Woojoo free of the fabric and wrapped her arms around the small bundle, holding her son securely to her chest, hugging and holding him at the same time. 

 

With her son safely back in her arms, only then did Yuri looked up at Yoona with anguished eyes. 

 

It was killing Yuri that she had to leave her husband and her best friend behind. 

 

"Go!" Yoona urged her, beg her. 

 

With pain anguished still in her eyes, Yuri whirled around and took off as fast as her legs could carry her for the right corner of the back fence where Yoona knew there were two loose boards that Yunho hadn't had the time to fix yet. One of the two boards was held in place with only one nail and the other was merely leaning up against the fence, making the whole all but invisible unless you were closed. 

 

Yoona kept her eyes glued on Yuri as she races across the backyard and threw aside the freeboard and slid the second across until the gap in the fence was big enough for her to squeezed through. Once through, Yuri made her escape into her neighbor's backyard that was all thick lush gardens and blooming trees, unlike Yuri's own almost yard that only had a few freshly planted flowerbeds and that was the last Yoona saw of Yuri. 

 

Yuri and Woojoo were safe now. Whether Yuri ran or hid, it was very unlikely that any of the monsters that were searching for her would bother themselves with one woman and her baby, especially since Yuri hadn't laid eyes on any of them. 

 

Especially since Yoona was the one they were after. 

 

Now that Yuri and sweet little Woojoo were safe, Yoona felt most of her fear subside. She had feared this day so much but now that the moment had come, there was nothing Yoona could do. Nothing except do everything she could to make sure that if Yunho was still alive, that he stayed that way. 

 

Her mom had really known her dad. A fact that Yoona hadn't realized until this very moment. Since Yoona had turned fifteen years old, she had always secretly thought that her mom had just been paranoid in believing that one day, her dad would come after the two of them. Her thinking until now had been that her dad had let them go, had made a deal with her mom; he had let them go. 

 

So why would her dad bother coming after her now after all these years, especially now that her mom was gone? Maybe that was how her dad had found her. It was true that ever since her mom had died, Yoona hadn't been as careful, as vigilant, in keeping herself hidden but still, she couldn't have been easy to find. 

 

So why had her dad bother? Why here and now? Did it have something to do with her brother's death? Or her mom's? 

 

A muffled noise on the other side of the nursery door reached Yoona's ear but she didn't turn around; she stayed where she was, at the window, staring out over Yuri's backyard. 

 

Yoona thought briefly about trying to make her escape out the window but quickly dismissed it. Her chance to run had never really been a possibility. Not with Yunho's fate still unknown. Not with Yuri out there, either running or hiding. 

 

Even if Yoona had been alone in the house, running and hiding wouldn't have done her any good in the end. Her mom had told her all about her dad that night after her fifteenth birthday. How ruthless and clever he was, how he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. 

 

If her dad didn't kill her then her chance to run would come. Or maybe he just wanted something from her that she could easily give. If that was the cases then Yoona would gladly give it to him in exchange for Yunho's life. 

 

The door behind her opened with such force that it flew back until it hit the wall with a loud thud that vibrated through the floor beneath her feet. 

 

Yoona closed her eyes briefly, praying silently that Yuri had found safety and then she opened her eyes and slowly turned to face the two armed men who stood in the doorway, their menacing polished black weapons pointed directly at her. 

 

Yoona studied the two men. The more noticeable and also the taller of the two had striking pink hair. He was tall, easily over a head taller than her, with broad shoulders and long fingers. 

 

His lips were heart-shaped and his skin was tanned. He was dressed in a black two button jacket suit and shiny black shoes. The stainless steel solar chronograph watch on his left hand was gold and looked very expensive. 

 

He would have been extremely handsome had it not been for the ugly cruelness in his eyes, the scowl that twisted his lips and his eyes. Eyes so dark and filled with malice that they looked black. Pink hair and cruel chestnut brown eyes. This was a man no one ever forgot. This was a man that most would have immediately fled from. 

 

The second man was so plain that he was ordinary. Half a head shorter and not as lean as the pink-haired man, this man had dark black hair and wore a suit almost identical to the one his partner was wearing but other than that, he was wearing spy sunglasses inside, there was nothing that stuck out about this man at all. 

 

Except for the gun in his hand. 

 

"That's her." The pink-haired man stated in a sharp straight-to-the-point tone, that left no room for debate. 

 

With those two words, everything that Yoona feared was confirmed. Her dad had come for her. 

 

The black-haired man gave no reaction or responses to his partner's words. He just kept his gun pointed straight and steady at her while the pink haired man lowered his weapon but kept it in his hand as he entered the room, stepped around the crib that was in the center of the room and stalked up to her. 

 

Yoona tried to stop herself but she couldn't keep from flinching back from him as he came closer to her. There was something about him, other than his eyes, that screamed that this man was dangerous and he greatly enjoyed being dangerous. The way his chestnut brown eyes looked down at her, it was more than the color of his eyes, it was the sadistic gleam in them. 

 

This man enjoyed hurting people, Yoona instinctively senses. He wouldn't hesitate to hurt her and he would enjoy it. 

 

For that reasoned, when he grabbed her by her upper arm and shoved her towards the door, Yoona didn't resist. The gripped on her was excruciatingly tight; he would leave dark angry bruises behind. He didn't loosen his gripped in the least as he half-pulled half-carried her out of the nursery and along the hall. 

 

Yoona stumbled on their way down the stairs but his harsh hold on her kept her from falling. He yanked her back up, causing her to cry out in sharp pain as he was well on his way to dislocating her shoulder. 

 

It was the pink-haired man's callous treatment of her that prevented her from seeing the still blood-soaked body lying lifelessly on the floor between the bottom stepped and the closed front door. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, his entire torso was saturated in blood but still, Yoona could see the holes in his chest, right where his heart was and his wide opened lifeless brown almond-shaped eyes that stared unseeing at the ceiling. 

 

Yoona's breath caught in and it was all she could do not to throw up everything in her stomach. It wasn't Yunho but Yoona felt the blow of his death just the same. 

 

Yunho's brother Byunghee was dead. Murdered. Because of her. 

 

Had she not been held, Yoona would have fallen to her knees as at the sight of Byunghee, all her strength left her. All Yoona wanted to do was to curl up into a ball on the floor and weep until she woke up from this terrible nightmare that just wouldn't end. 

 

'Byunghee Oppa.' Yoona whispered wretchedly in her mind, aiming her words to the heavens, 'Please, forgive me?' At her side, the pink haired man didn't even spare the body on the floor a glanced. He sidestepped the puddle of blood, dragging her with him and stepped into the living room in which only minutes ago, she had been laughing and talking with Yuri before they had gone upstairs to checked on Woojoo. 

 

In the living room, all the furniture had been reckless pushed back against the large front windows in a careless pile, leaving the room strangely empty. Five men, including the two that had brought her down, stood around the room. Four of the five were dressed almost in similar suits, all wearing the same black two-button jacket suits and shiny shoes and all of the four but the pink haired man wore those spy sunglasses, hiding their eyes from view and making them all appeared as solemn, emotionless and serious as the terminator but it was the fifth man who stood in the middle of the room that caught her complete attention. Yoona had never seen a picture of her dad, had never heard his features described and the last time she had seen him, she had been too young to remembered him but she knew without a doubt who he was and all Yoona could think was that she had always thought, assumed, that he would be bigger. Taller, broader, more intimidating than this man. This man looked like a banker or an accountant or something. 

 

Im Sejoon was the shortest of all five men. By a noticeable difference. In fact, he had to only be two or three inches taller than she was. He wore thick black frame squared glasses and had fine neatly trimmed black hair. He wore a black one button jacket suit and his shoes were shiners and no doubt much more expensive than those of the other men and the face of his gold watch was surrounded by what Yoona had no doubt were real diamonds and her dad appeared to be the only man of the five who didn't appear to be armed. 

 

The pink haired man walked her into the center of the living room, abruptly released her and took a stepped back from her, effectively leaving her alone in the center of an imperfect circle of armed men. 

 

Yoona stood still, saying nothing, as her dad turned his attention to her and looked her up and down, taking in the sight of her with curious mildly surprised eyes as if he had expected her to look different. Younger maybe? A muffled sound caught Yoona's attention, causing her to half-turned towards the one corner in the living room that she hadn't been able to see until she had come completely into the room. 

 

Yunho. 

 

He was alive. Yoona almost sagged in relief. He was alive but he wasn't out of dangered yet. He was lying on the floor, his feet tied together, his hands tied behind his back and a piece of duct tape effectively gagged him. 

 

The muffled sound had been him trying to speak through the tape but the words had come out of his sealed mouth as an incomprehensible blur of muffled sounds and grunts. 

 

Yoona took a stepped towards him, intending to go to him and untied him but the pink haired man blocked her path with a highly anticipatory expression that just dares her to try it. No questioned about it, he would greatly enjoy stopping her and causing her pain for the trouble. 

 

There was a sadistic streak in the pink haired man that terrified her. 

 

Yunho opened his brown almond-shaped eyes so impossibly wide that it had to causes his great discomfort but Yoona understood exactly what his terrified and desperate eyes were asking her. 

 

She couldn't risk voicing in words so instead, she nodded just barely, the single nod so subtle that Yoona hopes that it had gone unnoticed by their captors. 

 

Yunho understood. His eyes closed briefly and Yoona could visibly see his relief. He was scared for his own sake but he had been terrified for his family's sake. At least, if he was going to die, it would be with the knowledge that his family was safe. 

 

That might be the only comfort Yoona could provide for Yunho if she couldn't convince her dad to spare his life. When Yunho opened his eyes after a long moment, he looked up at her with an expression that was a strange blend of sadness, feared and gratitude. 

 

Yoona's heart lurched painfully. She wanted so desperately to tell him that it was going to be alright but she couldn't. Her last act for him wouldn't be lying to him. He deserved more than that. 

 

"Yoona, my darling child." Her dad's cold voice, filled with false politeness forced her attention back to him, "You are as pretty as your mom was, bless her soul. It pleases me that you have grown into such a fine young woman." Many sarcastic, angry and vulgar replies rose in her mind but wisely, she voice none of them. Yunho's life and her own rested in this man's blood-stained hands. She couldn't risk getting Yunho killed by being rash. 

 

Instead, Yoona chose to remain silent. What could she say to the man that her mom had spent twenty-one years hiding and protecting her from? She hadn't laid eyes on this man since she had been three years old. 

 

"You appeared to be very healthy." Her dad stated, with strangely delighted approval, "Excellent." 

 

Yoona couldn't keep her perplexed expression from her face. That had been random. A very random and out of placed remarked that Yoona couldn't understand. 

 

Her dad was pleased that she was healthy? 

 

What was going on? What did her dad want from her? 

 

"What do you want?" Yoona asked, needing to know. If she could figure out what her dad wanted from her then she could hopefully trade it for Yunho's life. 

 

"What do I want?" Her dad repeated, his tone reminding her of those people at carnivals who were trying to sweet talked people into paying to play their rigged games, "What makes you think I want something, my dear? Can't a dad track down his only living child?" 

 

Her dad was playing games with her. Yoona's instincts were telling her that she was indeed right, her dad wanted something from her, the only questioned was, what was it? 

 

"What do you want?" Yoona repeated. She needed the answered. She needed to save Yunho's life. Yuri needed him. Yunho was a dad now. Yunho was her friend whom she loved like a brother. 

 

This seemed to greatly amuse her dad. A huge grinned spread across his face, one of delight; his expression was that of a ten-year-old boy who had just come downstairs Christmas morning to find piles of presents left beneath the Christmas tree. 

 

"You are your mom's daughter. Just as strong and stubborn." Her dad clapped his hands together, "Excellent. Perfect." 

 

Perfect? Odd that he would use that word. Why was her dad so delighted that she was as strong and stubborn as her mom? 

 

What was she missing here? 

 

Apparently, her dad had learned what he needed to know because he turned his attention from her to the pink haired man who had brought her downstairs. 

 

"Kai, if you would." And her dad nodded his head pointedly towards her, causing Yoona to momentarily freeze in fear. 

 

What was the pink haired man, Kai, going to do? 

 

Not waiting to find out, Yoona stared straight into her dad's cold eyes, "You have me now. You obviously came for me. Now, let my friend go. He has nothing to do with this. He's innocent." She put as much emphasis on the last word as she was able to. 

 

The looked her dad gave her in response to her words was one of patronizing indulgence, liked a dad answering his child's questioned that she had asked a thousand times and knew the obvious answer, too. 

 

"Now, Yoona." Her dad said, his tone made her requests sound as if it had been a ridiculous one, "You know I can't do that. I can't leave a witnessed." 

 

Terror and desperation gripped Yoona unliked anything had before, "But he doesn't know anything. He won't say anything. All he wants is to get back to his wife and baby." 

 

Her dad glared impatiently at her, "You mean the woman and child you helped escaped?" 

 

Yoona gasped in surprised. 

 

"Now, don't look so shocked." Her dad told her, as if offended that she did, "I'm no amateur. I knew exactly who was in this house long before we came in. I know you helped the woman slipped out of the house and I allowed that as I knew you wouldn't leave your young friend here. The young woman hadn't seen anything that could cause me a problem but unfortunately, this young man has. I haven't risen to my position by leaving witnesses behind to testify." "Please? Please? Don't do this. I will do whatever you want, just let him go please?" The tears were running down her face now as she begged her dad for all she was worth, disregarding her pride entirely, "Dad, please?" 

 

Her dad gave her a disapproving looked and then he walked straight past her, without even glancing her way and turned back to Kai. 

 

"Clean it up!" Her dad ordered, almost casually. 

 

"No! Yunho Oppa, no!" Yoona lunged forward, her hands outstretched, her fingers curled and tenses liked claws, aiming for her dad but she never made it. 

 

Strong hands caught her from behind and yanked her back. She fought for all she was worth against the hands that held her. She thrashed, struggled, kicked and screamed but there were too many hands, too many men, who were easily able to restrain her, preventing her from doing any damage to any of them. 

 

Yoona didn't know how many men there were and she didn't care. She had to keep fighting. She had to save Yunho. She had to do whatever it took to keep her promised to Yuri. She couldn't let Yuri become a widow. She couldn't let Woojoo grow up without knowing the wonderful man who was his dad. 

 

Yoona couldn't let anyone else died because of her but there was nothing Yoona could do. Strong hands forced her to the floor and held her there, held her thrashing limbs against the hard floor, ignoring her screams and cries until a thick length of fabric was forced into and tied tightly behind her head, effectively muffling her screams. 

 

Next, her hands were forced together in front of her and duct tape was wound around and around her wrists, binding her hands together but still, Yoona fought and struggled against the hands that held her. Still, she tried to scream and begged through her gag and lastly, above her, one of the men straightened out a long piece of folded cloth and covered her eyes, tying it tightly at the back of her head just as they had the gag. 

 

Now, Yoona is blindfolded, gagged and tied up but before they had blindfolded her, Yoona had seen one last thing, something that had struck fear into her very soul. 

 

Yoona had never seen them in real life before but she had on television and she knew for certain what they were. Kai had pulled a glass bottle out of a box of bottles at his feet. A box Yoona hadn't noticed before. 

 

The bottle Kai held was full of cleared liquid and a white rag was half-hanging out of the bottle. Yoona couldn't smell it but she knew that the bottle contained some kind of flammable liquid. 

 

A motif cocktail. A bottle of flammable liquid with a rag half-stuffed into it that was lit on fire and was thrown. On impact, it exploded into flames. 

 

Yoona knew what they were going to use them for. On her dad's ordered. 

 

They were going to set the house on fire. 

 

Yoona redoubled her efforts to get free, her struggles, even though she was bound, gagged and blindfolded. Yoona redoubled her efforts even though her body was starting to get tired, her arms and legs becoming heavier and heavier as her strength continued to drain due to her frantic struggles against the men who held her. 

 

Iron strong hands suddenly forced her to her feet and carry rather than dragged her across the floor and out of the house. Yoona knew because the carpet beneath her feet became hard and cold; the concrete outside. 

 

They hesitated just outside the door. 

 

Yoona could smell smoke now. Strong putrid smoke that threatened to choke her even only after a few moments, a couple of drawn in breaths. 

 

Then she could hear it. She could hear crackling, popping and the building roar of flames. She could hear the house burning and finally came the heat. The heat of the flames as they consumed the house, fuelled on by the flammable chemicals in the bottles and the house itself and its contents. 

 

How long did it take a house to burn to the ground? It wasn't long, was it? That was why they warned you to get out of a burning house immediately. 

 

Voices around her told her that more and more of the men were joining them at the front door and by then, the smoke was thicker, the noises were louder and the heat was becoming warmer and warmer and then, she was being forcibly moved backwards away from the house and every moment, Yoona wildly fought to get free even though it was futile. Yoona wasn't going to stopped fighting. Yoona was never going to give up. She had to save Yunho but it was no uses. 

 

There was nothing, nothing but yet at the same time, there was so much. Too much. All she could see was darkness which not one speck of light penetrated, even though the intense heat did. There was so much pain but despite her situation, there was no feared for herself. No feared of anything anymore, not now, not after what her dark brown almond-shaped eyes had witnessed in the previous thirty minutes. 

 

Even though Yoona couldn't see anything, she could hear it all, the deafening roaring that filled her ears. It was so loud that Yoona couldn't even hear her own muffled screams over it; never knew fire could be so deafening. 

 

It was so hot, even as far back as she was but all she wanted to do was to run towards it, even as the two sets of strong arms pulled her away. She was blindfolded, gagged and had her wrists bound together in front of her but still, it took the two strong men to drag her back. 

 

Yoona didn't care that they were the men who worked for the one man she had feared ever since the age of fifteen when her mom had told her the truth about what she had spent the last eight years hiding them both from. Yoona didn't care that they were the ruthless killers from her nightmares. All that matter was getting back into the house even though she knew that it was already too late. 

 

Too late because the habitats of the two-story home that they had just bought and moved into had been dead before the gasoline-fuelled fire had been lit. Yoona knew that because she had watched them died, a bullet to the head for each of them. 

 

They had been her dear friends. No, they had been more than that. They had been her family. 

 

Family that had been executed in cold blood by her own dad. 

 

Her dad who had finally found her. 

 

Yoona had no memory of being forced into the backseat of a vehicle. Nor any memory of a seatbelt being placed around her but just before she passed out, she was aware that there was no more heat, no more smoke and it was silent. 

 

When Yoona woke with a distraught cry, bolting upright on her bed, panting rapidly liked she had just run a mile at a dead run. 

 

It was dark and silent and she was alone inside the room of her polished prison. 

 

A glance at her bedside clock told her that it was just after 1 am and with startling clarity, the same clarity she had had when she had devised her planned, Yoona rose from the bed and without turning on any lights, entered her ensuite and splashed some cold water on her heated face to washed away her salty now dried tears. 

 

A family had been destroyed because of her. Her family had been killed because of her. 

 

How many more families had her dad destroyed? And how much more will be because of her? 

 

Her dad wouldn't stop. He would destroy everything in his path until he had what he wanted. 

 

Unless someone stopped him. Unless Changwook stopped him but Changwook couldn't stop her dad without her helped. 

 

Her dad had to be stopped. His evil had to end and no matter what, no matter how badly her dad hurt or terrorized her, Yoona would never give him what he so obsessively craved. 

 

Even if Yoona had to take her own life, her dad wouldn't win. He couldn't be allowed to win. 

 

Yoona closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against the mirror over the sink, desperately fighting more tears. Oh, god. She didn't know how much more of this she could take. Her dad had taken everything from her, destroyed her entire life. Yoona hadn't had much after her mom had died but she had had friends who were her sisters, her family and she had had her freedom. 

 

Freedom. 

 

Yoona had never known just how valuable freedom was until she had lost it but it had been the loss of her friends that had destroyed a part of her that Yoona knew she would never get back. She loved Yuri, Yunho, and their little Woojoo so much. Yunho and his brother, Byunghee, had died and on top of that, Yoona had no clue as to whether Yuri and Woojoo were alive or not. 

 

Either way, the pain of their loss was tearing her apart from the inside out. It was slowly killing her. 

 

Her dad was a monster. He left nothing but pain and destruction in his wake. 

 

How could he possibly think, for even a moment, that she would ever give him anything, let alone what he wanted most? 

 

Yoona opened her eyes and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She saw her own bloodshot and puffy eyes. 

 

How funny it was that on the outside, she looked healthy, vibrant and young when on the inside, she felt exactly the opposite. Inside, she was sick, tired and the heartache from having lost so many people had aged her dramatically. 

 

Yoona had one last escape planned left. It was the last in her arsenal. After Yoona did what she had to do, all she would have was Changwook and the path she had set them both on. 

 

Dress all in black, from the black tennis shoes on her feet to the black hoodie, she had her hair tucked in and aluminium strips once again, wrapped around her ankle monitor, Yoona crept from her room on the first floor down the stairs and soundlessly, a shadow in the dim moonlight that lit the dark foyer enough to make out where she was going, Yoona slipped unnoticed into her dad's study and began her searched. 

 

If her dad thought that she was ruled by his word or his will then he was very much mistaken.