Dara

 

I was speed driving through the streets of Seoul. It was eight in the morning when Chaerin called me saying that Eric has left to pick up Jiyong after he landed back in the Korea with his sister. It was a good thing she had someone drop off the car, like she promised, an hour prior. I had to make sure I get back to the mafia house before he does.

 

I looked at the rear view mirror before going into the far right lane to exit on the highway. As I did, I caught a glimpse of my messy bed hair and it reminded me of what I was currently wearing. I was driving as fast as the streets of Seoul would let me in my pajamas. I was out of my apartment once I got that call from Chaerin.

 

 

I dashed right out without thinking twice about my appearance. I
didn't even leave I note for my brother. I sighed as I thought about Sanghyun. I don't know how I was going to tell Jiyong about my brother but I rather not have him find out by realizing that I was not at the mafia house.

 

I decided to call Eric through the car Bluetooth system. It rang three times before he answered.

 

"Hey, Eric. Am I on speaker?""What's up, Dara?" He answered.

 

 

I frowned. I couldn't tell him to take his time without Jiyong hearing.

 

"Morning, Dara." Jiyong greeted me. It was obvious he was in the passenger seat.

 

"Hi, Jiyong. Where are you at right now?"

 

"Eric just picked me up. We are on our way back to the mafia house."

 

"So like 30 minutes?" I asked.

 

"Yes," Eric answered.

 

I looked at my navigation. The estimated time of arrival to the mafia house at my surrender pace was also 30 minutes.

 

 

"We'll see you in a bit," Jiyong said.

 

"Okay, bye. Drive safely and slow, Eric."

 

"Never," Eric replied.

 

Jiyong

 

"Step on the accelerator, would you?" I asked Eric.

 

 

On my phone, Dara's tracker was advancing toward the mafia house. If Eric continues to drive like this, she'd get there before I would. 

 

"I would but there is a car in front of me."

 

 

I looked up from my phone and saw that we were driving behind a slow car.

 

"Do you know why Dara would stay at her apartment when I was gone?" 

 

"No clue, man," Eric answered.

 

Since I was on the tracker app, I looked for my sister. Right as the plane landed, she quickly grabbed her things and left with her friend, Roxany, before I could even a say a word. It showed my sister and Roxany heading to their other friend's house. Mona happened to live in Dara's neighborhood.

 

 

I stopped looking at Dami's tracking and focused back on Dara. 
I thought of nothing when I was in Italy and saw Chaerin and Dara's trackers heading into the city where Dara lived. However, when I looked again while I was on the plane ride back to Seoul,
it showed that Dara had stayed at her apartment for the night.

 

 

I fought the urge to call her and decided to handle it once I landed. In fact, I was going to go over to her apartment but Dara's tracker moved towards the mafia house and I decided to get there before she would.

 

I eased in my seat once I knew we were ahead of her. We arrived at the mafia house before Dara and I told Eric to park in the garage. I quickly jump out of the car and headed out of the garage.

 

"Uh, Jiyong? Your bags?"

 

"Worry about them later, I want to get out of this suit," I told him.

 

 

I got to my room and quickly change out of the suit and into sweats. I made sure to grab my ring of keys and my phone
before exiting. On my way to Dara's room, I checked on my phone where she was at. She was about five minutes away.

 

 

Thanks to Chaerin's OCD, the ring of spare bedroom keys were organized and I was able to open the locked door of Dara's
bedroom. I walked to the far side of the bed and tucked myself under the covers, sitting up on the bed. Checking on my phone again, it showed Dara just arrived.

 

 

I leaned over and peaked through the blindfolds of the window. Dara drove up the driveway and then parked, and quickly ran into the house.  I settled back into the bed and waited for her to come. Within a minute, I couldhear Dara outside her door, breathlessly unlocking it. The door swung open and revealed a surprised Dara.

 

"Jiyong, what are doing here?" Dara asked, trying to recover from her shock. 

 

Satisfied with her reaction, I smirked. I patted the empty space next to me, telling her to come and lay down with me. I visually took all of her in. Seeing her after 24 hours, I felt somewhat relieved and happy.

 

"You're scaring me," She said as she crawled under the covers.

 

 

"How so?"

 

"I expected you to be mad," She whispered.

 

"Who said I'm not?" I asked as I laid down, putting my arms around Dara to take her down with me.

 

"I-"

 

"I'll ask about it later. For now, I just want to sleep." I nudged her to come closer to me and she did. Dara had her head on my shoulder and her hand on my chest. I leaned my head on top of hers and smelt her hair. Her scent was different, probably from the different shampoo she had at her apartment.

 

 

"Do you want to sleep because you're jet-lagged?" She asked me, her breath fanning my neck.

 

 

"Yeah," I said, covering up the fact that I missed her. 

 

 

Dara

 

Jiyong was the first to fall asleep. I was scared to move my hand off from his chest, afraid that I'll wake him up. So I settled for watching my hand move up and down from the motion of his
chest rising and falling as he breathed.

 

Eventually, tiredness overcame me and I fell asleep to sounds of our breaths and the ticks of the clock that interrupted the
silence. I woke up to Jiyong's arm around my waist, hugging me as we spooned. I wiggled from underneath to face him. The
sunlight was hitting his face and I saw his closed left eye twitch. I moved my hand from under the covers and shield the sun
from his face.

 

 

"You don't need to do that," Jiyong said, opening his eyes. His voice came out husky and low as if he was trying to whisper.

 

 

"I'm already awake." I lowered my hand onto his cheek, cupping his face. This was supposed to be an intimate moment right? A moment that's supposed to build whatever we had going on between us. Even though things don't seem unclear when we are together, I'm uncertain of what we both wanted.

 

 

Jiyong started into my eyes, occasionally moving his to scan the rest of my face. I closed my eyes, waiting for what I was
expecting to happen. I'm certain of one thing: I was drawn towards Jiyong and that'll hurt me. His lips finally landed on
mine, he was kissing me like I've never kissed before. It was slow and deep, sending the heat from the blush on my face to every part of my body.

 

 

Jiyong maneuvered his way on top of me, hovering over as we continued to lock lips. We pulled away from each other due to
the lack of air in our lungs and he said, "I'm not going to pretend that it isn't bothering me. Why did you stay over at your apartment when I was gone?"

 

I gently nudged Jiyong off of me. He unknowingly brought up my brother and that put me out of the mood. He flopped beside me and I answered him.

 

"My brother, Sanghyun, came to visit me."

 

 

"Why?" He asked.

 

"I was really hoping that you weren't going to ask that." I explained everything as to why my brother was here without Jiyong saying anything. Actually, even when I was done, he didn't say a word. He sat on the bed next to me thinking.

 

 

Jiyong

 

"Can you say something?" Dara asked.

 

 

Dara stressed on making it clear that her case was only about her license being wrongfully provoked. However, there was no way that the whole thing wouldn't fall back on me. Yet, I know how Dara's license was important to her. She went through
medical school and training all just to make a living off of helping people.

 

"If you take it to court, YG will surely come up and-"

 

"I'm not taking it to court."

 

My furrowed eyebrows became raised, questioning her to elaborate. "Why not?"

 

"Do you want me to?"

 

"No. You don't need to. You already got everything you need here. You're still practicing your medical stuff here while
getting paid at a higher price in addition of living in the mafia house with the benefits of a luxurious life."Dara

 

 

"Exactly," I agreed with Jiyong.

 

 

I was so opposed to liking the mafia because of the morals I had before I joined. Even though it's a cruel and wicked system of criminals, it was simply a very serious business. However, I know that I'm seeing the best part of organized crime: the food, the money, the cars. I've yet seen the killings, the drugs, and the
desperate people. If it's kept away from me, in all honesty, I think I'm fine with having my occupation as the mafia's doctor.

 

 

"I have Chaerin, Taeyang, Top, and you. The mafia life I'm living isn't so bad, I can get used it."

 

I saw the corners of his mouth lift up into a small smile.

 

 

"What are we going to do about your brother?" Jiyong asked.

 

 

"I'm planning to stay over at my apartment with Sanghyun until I convince him to leave."

 

 

He frowned. "How fast can you convince him?"

 

"I don't know, maybe in a couple of days?"

 

 

Jiyong's phone rang just as he picked up his phone to check the time.

 

"It's two. You should go downstairs and grab lunch." He told me before picking up the phone and leaving my room.

 

 

I was about to follow him out it I realized that I wasn't ready. I quickly went to my bathroom and into my closet to change. By the time I left my room, it was 2:30 and I was in casual wear with brushed teeth and combed hair.

 

 

I ran into Jiyong at the elevator. He has already ended the call and changed out of his sweats into a pair of black jeans and a
white fitting T-shirt.

 

"When am I going to meet your sister?" I asked, remember the reason as to why he left to Italy in the first place.

 

 

"When Dami decides to come back from her friend's house. They haven't seen each other for quite some time and trust me when I say that gossiping takes awhile." We reached the dining room and got our food. I reached for the pizza while Jiyong had a burger on his plate along with other side dishes.

 

 

"I told her about us and she seems to already like you." He said as he sat down.

 

 

"Can you tell me about 'us'?" I asked, sitting across from him.

 

 

"I would, but it'll make you blush in front of all these people."

 

 

I could already feel the heat at my ears.

 

"I think we are -"

 

"Don't," I interrupted him. "Let's just eat."

 

 

He winked at me before taking a bite out of the burger, chuckling to himself. Jiyong's younger cousin, Jinwoo, and Jinwoo's friend, Seunghoon, joined us and started talking about their current situation with Kyesang.

 

Of course, it was Jiyong and Seunghoon that was doing all the talking since Jinwoo was someone who didn't talk too much.
Since the time I was introduced to him, I haven't heard him talk. Chaerin told me that he only opened his mouth and say
something if it was important.

 

 

"When you were gone, Top and Taeyang went to check out the
commotion that was happening at one of our clubs. It was some of Kyesang's low tier men." Seunghoon explained. "Top and
Tae chased them out but they ended up getting tailed by the police."

 

"Where are Top and Taeyang now?" I asked realizing that I haven't seen them since I got here.

 

 

"They are back here, sleeping, after Chaerin came and helped."

 

 

"What did she do?" Jiyong asked.

 

"Rolled up in her Jeep right when Taeyang and Top decided to ditch their whips."

 

The chatter took a break as we all went back to eating our lunch. Jinwoo sipped his water and opened his mouth to say,

 

 

"Kyesang knows you're alive."

 

 

His voice, just like I guessed, was deep and velvety. It matched with handsome, young face. I looked at Jiyong and back at Jinwoo. Even though they were 9 years apart, Jinwoo being 22, you can tell they were related. They both were good-looking men with defined features.

 

 

However, Jinwoo fits more of the stereotypical Italian mafia Man image: tall, pale, attractive with a strong jawline, brown eyes, jet black hair, and the infamous stone cold emotionless facial expression.

 

Jiyong nodded, already understanding his cousin. "Right. We have to be careful." I sat there wondering what point Jinwoo was trying to make.

 

Gratefully, Seunghokn explained, "Yeah, he must know that since YG hasn't gone crazy for his blood. If he's blaming us for the mysterious murders of his men and Jiyong is still alive after Kyesang tried killing him, he must be really pissed.Knowing Kyesang, things are a bit too quiet."

 

Seunghoon and Jinwoo were obviously close to each other if that's what Seunghoongot from the four words that Jinwoo spoke. They really contrasted each other, Seunghoon was not the silent type. He could cramble on and on if no one stopped him.

 

 

We finished lunch around 4 and I parted ways with them. Seunghoon, Jiyong, and Jinwoo left the mafia house to go into the city to handle some business while I went to my office on the second floor. My office, as usual, was empty. The mafia people knew how to take care of themselves and rarely got hurt. I took this time to call my brother.

 

"Hello?" My brother answered.

 

"Did you just wake up?" I assumed based on his voice and the confusion in it.

 

"Yeah."

 

"Sanghyun, it's 4 in the afternoon."

 

 

"I'm not used to the time difference."

 

"Seoul is only 16 hours ahead than California."

 

I heard some rustling in the background that I guessed it was him getting up from his bed.

 

"Why are you calling me? Are you at work?" He asked.

 

 

"Yeah, and I just wanted to check up on you. The spare key to my apartment is in my desk drawer if you're planning to go out." I said as I grabbed a pencil from my pencils and pens holder, twirling it.

 

"No. I'm going to stay in and think about how I want to approach your case."

 

"Sanghyun, can we talk about the case when I get home?"

 

 

"Sure. What time will you get back?"

 

"Chaerin is letting me get off of work early. I'll be back at 8."

 

 

"Sounds good."

 

"Okay, bye."

 

"Buh-bye."

 

 

I need to think about how I'm going to approach my brother when I get back to my apartment tonight.

 

 

--

 

Happy Sunday! 

Btw, I forgot to tell you guys that Jiyong here is half italian. 🤭