Eunji groaned with pain as her senses slowly started to return her. She could feel every bones in her body screaming in pain and she hated it. Fortunately, her brain was in its right place and seemed to be working well despite the pain in her whole body. She tried to open her eyes, failing with one because of how swollen it was. Well, as expected. There was no way that she could be uninjured after everything.

Eunji was really surprised when she saw the lady who she kissed was tied to a chair and trying to convince those thugs that she had nothing to do with her. She felt even guiltier than before since she was telling the truth. Everything was her fault and she shouldn't have involved her in the first place.

However, it was already too late and Eunji had no choice but to get beaten up in order to save her. So, she pissed them off. Certainly, it wasn’t the smartest thing she’d ever done in her life, but she had to bet that if they were pissed enough, they would forget about the stranger. She was glad that it worked though.

She let them beat her until she heard the sirens. She wasn’t an idiot, when the gang called her and demanded their money back, Eunji called a detective ‘friend’, Sunny Lee, who she had some kind of acquaintanceship with. Well, that detective had been trying to catch her for a while already so it wasn’t like they were friends. But somehow, that detective listened to her when she told her about the situation. As much as Sunny hated Eunji, she must hate the Lee’s more, who did more nasty stuff than her, Eunji concluded when the other agreed to help her. Eunji still knew that the police department was trying to catch both the Lee Seungri and her. However, she really didn’t have any other choice, so she decided to give herself up.

Eunji was willing to get caught if it meant saving an innocent person. And honestly, she didn’t regret that, at all; especially when she found out that certain innocent person was the stranger she enjoyed kissing before.

“Oh, you are awake!” someone cooed suddenly from the doorway. Eunji tried to get up from, but a pair of hands stopped her, pushing her down into the soft mattress. “You shouldn’t get up right now,” she said softly.

“Who are you?” Eunji asked, her voice cracking a bit. She took a moment to make some observations about this new stranger. She was not that tall, Eunji thought first.

“My name is Yoon Bomi, I am a friend of Chorong-unnie, and right now you are in my house.”

“Chorong?” Eunji mumbled, confused.

“Yes, but I guess you don’t know her name? She is the person from last night,” Bomi told her, and Eunji felt the panic rising again.

What happened to the stranger...

“Don’t worry, she is alright. Actually, unnie is sleeping at the next room,” Bomi said, offering her a reassuring smile.

Eunji sighed in relief.

“She told me about everything. Thank you for saving my friend.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Eunji said, disagreeing. “She got into trouble because of me,” she continued guiltily.

“Did you intend to make her get into trouble?” Bomi asked seriously.

“No, but…” Eunji answered right away, not even hesitating for a moment.

“You went to save her, am I right?”

“I did, but…”

“Then it’s alright,” Bomi answered with that soft smile of her. Eunji immediately realized that this Yoon Bomi must be a very good person. Too good for her own good, Eunji thought.

“Do you even know who I am and what I did?” Eunji asked painfully.

“If this is about you being a thief, yes, I do know about it,” Bomi answered him unwaveringly.

“Common sense says you usually throw a thief out. Or more likely you turn them in,” Eunji tried to reason with Bomi.

“Common sense says so, but fortunately, I am famous for my crazy ideas,” Bomi said while nodding seriously. “And anyway, you wouldn’t be able to find anything to steal. My cafe doesn’t have that much of money even on its best days.” Bomi shrugged.

Eunji wanted to facepalm; too bad her left hand was in such incredible pain. She couldn’t hold back and winced when she tried to move it.

“It must have gotten broken,” Bomi explained as she grimaced when she heard Eunji’s pained voice. “We should take you to the hospital.”

Eunji wanted to laugh. “No, that won’t happen,” she said firmly. She didn’t have that much money to defray the cost of a hospital. Everyone would expect that a thief would have a lot of money, but not Eunji. As much as she loved money, she had always refused to take more than she actually needed.

She took a deep breath and once again tried to rise from the bed, this time successful. “I’ve already given you a lot of trouble. Thank you very much for your kindness, but it would be the best if I left right now,” Eunji told her with a smile. Bomi was already up, trying to stop her, but Eunji was faster than her even in her worst shape. She swiftly moved past her only to be stopped again.

This time the person who stopped Eunji was none other than Chorong.

“Where do you plan to go?” the girl who is slightly taller than her asked.

This is the first time listening to this Chorong girl talking to her. Certainly, it was strange, especially since she had already heard her voice when she was speaking with those madmen (Eunji decided to ignore the part where she heard her muffled moan when they were kissing).

“Well, back to my home?” Eunji answered.

“In that condition? And where is that house?” Chorong questioned calmly.

“I can take care of myself,” Eunji said stubbornly, making an attempt to walk past her. However, the other one quickly grasped her injured left arm, making Eunji cried out in pain.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Eunji asked louder than she actually meant to.

“Now you see? I am not even mentioning the other injuries to your body.” Chorong’s calmness was making her angry.

“Why the hell are you even bothered by it?” Eunji narrowed her eyes. Chorong simply shrugged which pissed Eunji off more, but before she could bite back, Bomi stepped in between them.

“You need help,” Bomi said softly. “Please, just let us help you.”

“You know that I am a thief, don’t you?!” Eunji exploded finally. She turned her head to Chorong. Her eyes were fierce, almost trying to cut Chorong into two. “You know it! God, I used you to run away from those bad guys! And you got caught and it was my ing fault and you’re still trying to help me!? What are you, Jesus?!”

“I’m not, but you can call me Cheongju Angel,” Chorong answered with a sheepish grin. Eunji’s chin dropped in disbelief. What the hell was that?! Bomi was also having a hard time suppressing her laughter.

Giving up, Eunji plopped down onto the bed once again.

“Both of you are a bunch of idiots, and you,” she pointed at Chorong. “You are definitely insane,” she said finally.

“Call me whatever you like,” Chorong said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And what is your name, Miss Thief?”

“Shiwon,” she lied, but it is true that people do call her ‘Shiwon’. “Call me Shiwon.”

“Shiwon?” Bomi titled her head in confusion.

“Not ‘Shiwon’, your real name. Shouldn’t we already have your trust since we helped you?”

Suddenly feeling exposed, Eunji averted her gaze, focusing on anything but Chorong.

“Jeong Eunji.” She finally said.

“Ok, Eunji, you have someone to call?” Bomi asked.

Eunji looked at her with questioning eyes.

Family? Friends? Eunji shrugged, once again forgetting her injuries. However, this time she managed to contain it only to a grimace. Bomi and Chorong exchanged a look, and Bomi pushed Eunji into the bed once again. “You should try to get some sleep,” she said softly. “I will wake you up when the doctor comes.”

When her head met the fluffy pillow, Eunji felt overwhelmed by her tiredness once again and fell asleep immediately.

-

Eunji felt better after taking a long nap. How long had it been since she last slept in a proper bed? And plus, this one was really fluffy and comfortable, which was very different from the bed she used to know.

Eunji grew up in an orphanage and never knew who her real parents were. The orphanage that she grew up in was not even second rate, the place was dirty, and the people who had to look after the kids never did their jobs so the kids eventually had to look after themselves. They never had a proper education and Eunji had to drop out of school during her first year of high school. Of course, no one was willing to give a job to someone who didn’t even get to finish high school. She tried her best with part-time jobs like working in a convenience store, but she had to leave after punching her colleague who attempted to harass her. Well, that trash deserved, but the manager fired her instead. She did a lot of things after that. And most of them were even dirtier than she would have liked. But in order to stay alive in that world without having anything or anyone, she had to do those things. So being a thief was probably one of the less disgusting things in her life.

Her first theft took place during that period. Eunji hated what she did, she really hated it, but still, it was bringing her money and she really needed it. And after spending some time with lots of different things, she decided this at least could protect her body from other things, and so she decided only to steal the things that she needed. No more and no less. She wasn’t trying to justify her actions, but if she really had to be a bad person, she could at least try to minimize the damage.

But still, a thief was a thief, Eunji thought. She knew that the public wouldn’t accept this fact that easily, or empathise with her back story if she told them, so it was a mystery to her why these strangers was so determined to help her. Maybe they were really crazy, she tried to reason, but somehow it didn’t even make any sense.

After a few hours of sleeping, Bomi woke Eunji up, telling her a doctor had come to look at her injuries. Eunji complied with her and tried her best to stay silent when the doctor was treating her injuries. Fortunately, it turned out that Eunji’s arm wasn’t broken, but it seemed like it would take time until it was completely healed. The doctor, who was younger and taller than her, was working in a local clinic and knew Bomi and Chorong from back when she was attending high school. Eunji thought she was used to being alone, but she couldn’t help but envied their friendship. After the young doctor left them, Bomi who apparently thought that it was her own mission to enlighten Eunji, started to tell her the story of how the trio met.

“I know Hayoung from high school,” she started with a smile. “I met her when she was a first year, and we were both in the martial art club, along with Chorong-unnie. Rong-unnie was the vice president of the club.

“I’m surprised.” Eunji said blinking a few times after hearing that Chorong was in martial art club. After learning one new interesting fact about Chorong, unknowingly, Eunji started to pay attention to Bomi’s story.

“You see, our school was very famous for its clubs, and honestly I wanted to join the baseball club since I had practised enough taekwondo to last a lifetime, but it already had a lot of members so I ended up in the martial art club.”

“And she was the vice president? I mean, she looks too weak to make a punch.” Eunji commented.

Bomi let out a hearty laugh. “I know, right? But when I first went to the club, she was throwing someone off her shoulder!”

Eunji’s jaw dropp