I feel terrible for not having updated yesterday, but alas, we were both exhausted after our mini road trip the day before. Then we started watching Boys Over Flowers, and I got depressed at the plot and felt hardly any inspiration... but I hope this chapter makes up for the short absence. Once again, you all are amazing for even showing a remote interest in this craziness. Shisus bless you all! :D

Saturday arrived, and dress shopping was taking way longer than any of you had anticipated. You needed to find a dress that looked good on both you and Jonghyun, which proved to be rather difficult. Every dress that the two of you tried on looked great on you, but on Jonghyun it was always either too tight, or too clingy, or too low-cut, or too short—if you bend down in that, people will know you’re not Mary Sue.

Eventually, you just got fed up with trying on countless dresses, so you just sat back with Amber and watched as Key presented your brother in different dresses, looking for the perfect one.

“So how was your study date?” you asked her, as Jonghyun emerged from the dressing room in a sea foam green mermaid-skirt halter dress.

“Date?” she chuckled a bit nervously. “It wasn’t a date, it was just—we’re just—that one isn’t a good color on you,” she said.

Key huffed and pulled Jonghyun back into the dressing room for another go.

Amber looked back at your inquisitive expression. “We’re just friends,” she said. “We just studied together. As friends.”

“Okay,” you said. You really didn’t mean anything by your question, and you didn’t expect Amber to get all worked up over your choice of words. You both just sort of stared awkwardly at the floor after that.

The velvet curtain in front of you was swished back dramatically, revealing Jonghyun in a sparkly hot pink knee-length tieback this time. You and Amber considered this for a moment, then both scrunched up your faces and shook your heads. Looking disappointed, Jonghyun closed the curtain again.

“It was fun,” Amber said. You looked at each other and shared a friendly smile.

“Does anyone want to ask me about my date?” Jonghyun threw back the curtain to emphasize the word my. He had on a leopard dress with cutouts at the hips.

“That dress is not okay,” Amber answered.

“He took me out for coffee, and then we took a walk through the Rising Gardens of the East.” He wistfully drew forth the curtain again. “Mary Sue, you really are lucky to be able to marry Donghae,” your brother said from the dressing room.

You suddenly felt the need for some fresh air. You stood up from the plush couch you and Amber shared. “Does anybody mind if I just take a walk for a little bit?”

Amber shrugged noncommittally.

“Go,” you heard Key say.

With that affirmation, you made your way past the store clerk and out to the street.

The friendly clerk went to the back of the store to check on the only customers he had at the moment. “Do they need any assistance in there?” he asked Amber.

She tried to stop him from entering the dressing room, saying, “No, I don’t think—“

But it was too late, as he peeked behind the curtain only to see Key lacing up a corseted dress on Jonghyun.

The store clerk took a step back. “That’s a—“ He cleared his throat and tried to hide the sudden blush on his face. “That’s a good color for you,” he said, and then left his customers alone for the rest of the night.

You took a deep breath of the chill night air. The dress shopping had taken so long that the sun had already set. You looked around before turning left and heading down that way. You would just take a quick walk around the block, just to clear your head and not think about the complications of your arranged marriage.

This really was a tangled mess you had found yourself in. Two men were carrying on a relationship with you, one fake and one arranged, and both were against your own will. What happened to marriage being for love? You didn’t think you loved either of them. You never had a chance to really get to know them, because everything surrounding the time you spent with them was to please outsiders. You really wished someone would just save you from this nightmare.

You turned a corner and collided with someone who just seemed to appear out of nowhere. Before you could fall backward though, his hands shot out and grabbed your arms, steadying you. His grip was firm and he didn’t let go.

You peered into the face of this tall stranger. He had large, dark, almond shaped eyes that seemed like deep hollow pits, and his eyebrows were raised in intrigued amusement. The corners of his mouth were pulled up just slightly.

“S-sorry,” you stuttered. “I didn’t mean to—“

“Shhh,” he hissed softly.

You didn’t know why, but suddenly you couldn’t move. Not even to pull away from his grasp.

“What are you doing walking out here alone?” he almost whispered. Rather than looking concerned, however, his eyes seemed alight with pleasure. He leaned closer, inhaling deeply, his eyes rolling back as he did so. When he breathed out, a sweet scent hitting your face, his piercing gaze fixed on you again and you were paralyzed. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be wandering around at night?” he murmured against your ear.

Suddenly you were terrified. He had asked you a question. He wasn’t talking anymore. Did he expect you to say something? What if you didn’t talk? Would he kill you? Was he a ? You should probably say something, just to stall him, but you couldn’t think of anything. Just say something!

“Are you a ?” Why did you say that.

He chuckled, his cool breath caressing your neck beneath your ear. Your breath hitched in your throat. Besides his hands firmly keeping you in place, he wasn’t touching you, but the way he was trailing downward made you shiver.

“No,” he growled. “Is there anything else you want to know about me?” His lips made contact with your collarbone and you shivered again. “It’s the very least I can grant you in your final moments.”

Final moments? You couldn’t breathe. He was going to kill you. You had to stall. You thought of anything to ask him, anything that would keep him talking and not killing you. “N-name?” you choked, your voice cracking and barely audible.

You could feel his smile break, and his teeth gently gliding against your throat. He breathed in. This was it. Your heart was pounding in terror. You squeezed your eyes shut as you waited for the end. Or for him to say his name. Whichever came first.

Neither came first.

Instead, he was roughly pulled away from you. Without his firm grip on you keeping you upright, you collapsed and opened your eyes to see him pressed up against a wall by another very tall man, who was holding an ornate knife to the first man’s throat.

“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you now,” the second man spat at your attacker.

The first one chuckled, apparently finding being threatened with a knife very funny. He held his arms out to his sides in a half-hearted shrug. “I’m an endangered species?” he said cheekily, to your bemusement.

“You and I both know that’s bull,” said the second guy with intensity. “I know what the covenant has been planning.”

You were very confused about what they were talking about. Endangered species? Covenant? What was going on here?

The second man trailed the knife downward, keeping his hold on the man against the wall. “Now,” he snarled, stopping his hand so that the tip of the knife rested over the other’s heart, “give me a reason to let you go.”

The first man’s almond-shaped eyes darted to you, still on the ground, and the second glanced at you in reaction. His large eyes widened when he saw you and he didn’t take his gaze away.

A moment passed before the first man, seizing the opportunity given by his assailant’s distractedness, shoved away from the wall and broke free from the other’s grip. He swiftly took off and in seconds had disappeared.

Your rescuer, still stunned, looked between you and the direction your attacker had fled, before bringing his hand to his mouth and muttering, “He’s headed north down sixth.” Then he turned back to you and approached. When he reached you, he immediately bent down and hoisted you back up on your feet. “Are you hurt?” he asked, his wide eyes boring into yours.

Still unable to speak, you just shook your head. He seemed to relax a little. “Good. You should get back,” he said. “It’s not safe to walk around alone at night.”

“S-so I’ve heard,” you mumbled shakily.

He smiled a little. Then his eyes lit up, as if he’d just thought of something, and he reached into the inside of his jacket and pulled something out. “Here,” he said, holding it out to you. It looked like a dog tag, but it had an intricate carving of a bird or something similar.

“What is it?” you asked.

“Phoenix talisman,” he answered. “For protection.”

You smiled, grateful, as you accepted it. “What about you?” you questioned, not wanting him to be in danger because of you.

He grinned. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “You should be getting back now.”

You nodded, gripping the talisman in your hand. You turned around and slowly walked to the corner, but before you walked past it, you looked back. The man had already disappeared.

When you reentered the dress shop, drained and scared, confused and bewildered, an argument seemed to have broken out between the three you left behind. Jonghyun was now wearing a floor length halter with a plunging backline and gold beading. “I like that one,” you interrupted their quarrel. You were so ready to leave this place and be in the safety and comfort of your bed.

Jonghyun looked triumphantly back to Amber, who sighed and put her face in her hands. Key grinned smugly. “Oh Wooyoung!” he called, and the employee you passed on the way out came over with a nervous expression on his face. Key gestured to the gown Jonghyun was wearing. “We’ll take two of this one,” Key told him.

As the poor confused shopkeeper rang you up five minutes later, you kept reliving your strange encounter over and over in your head. Your thumb ran over the Phoenix talisman in your pocket, feeling the grooves. It was strange to think about but you couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable connection to the man who gave it to you.

Key turned to Jonghyun, bringing you out of your reverie.

“We need to find you a good bra to go with this,” he said.

Wooyoung looked up from the cash register and gaped at them.

“What?!”