[Chapter 12: Impulsive]

“Where are we going? Hey… hey stop pulling me!”

Dara grimaced as Jiyong tightened his hold on her and roughly pulled her out of the narrow alleyway. Their feet dragged along the cobbled pavement, making screeching sounds with every step. Without bothering to answer, Jiyong quickened his pace in tense silence, coming to a stop only upon the sight of a sleek black car that was parked just by the road.

Swiftly, he opened the door and pushed Dara in despite the latter’s yell of reluctance, slammed it shut and then headed straight for the driver’s seat. Dara glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, and frowned at the sight of his stormy face. What has he got to be angry about? For goodness sake, she’s the one who ought to be all sullen and black-faced! She doesn’t even have a place to stay now, all thanks to the ‘oh-so-cool-gonna-punch-the-living-daylights-out-of-you’ Kwon Jiyong.

Without a word, Jiyong stuck the key into the ignition and revved up the engine, then expertly drove the car out of the deserted road. They stayed in silence just like that, with Dara’s eyebrows furrowing in discontentment with every passing second. Finally, she turned sharply towards Jiyong and glared, her eyes narrowed and staring straight at him. “Stop the car.”

There was no reply from Jiyong, whose grave expression didn’t even seem to falter the slightest bit.

Dara inhaled deeply, trying to muster as much patience as she could given the current situation. “Either you tell me where we’re going, or you stop the car.”

Once again, her words were met with silence.

She bit her lip in frustration as he ignored her once again, and felt the beginning of hot tears sting her eyes. Angry with herself for being on the verge of tears when there was absolutely no reason to be, she blinked the tears back and exhaled slowly and loudly in a bid to calm her rising emotions. She turned back towards the window, and happened to catch a glance of her reflection through the car’s side mirror. Even in that tiny reflection, she looked pathetic. She swallowed hard and tore her eyes away from the mirror, not wanting to see that desolate face for even a moment longer.

*** *** ***

Dara’s eyes widened a little in surprise as she found them driving along a very familiar street. Even though it was late and dark by now, she’s been here too often to forget how this area looks like. This couldn’t be…

“Why are we at your place?”

Dara asked, her voice soft as the car drove through the security barricade and came to a smooth stop at the parking lot. All around, the guards were watching them with such intensity that she could almost feel the weight of their stares. For the first time in the entire ride, Jiyong finally looked at her, though his face remained unreadable. “Just get out and come with me.”

The duo stepped out of the car amidst the watchful eyes of everyone around them. Dara gulped, feeling a little unnerved by the guards – for some reason, the air seemed thick with unspoken animosity. She stepped a little closer to Jiyong, following quietly behind him as they walked towards the lift, which seemed to be taking an eternity to arrive.

*** *** ***

“There’s a washroom in the second room to the right, you can wash up there if you want.” Jiyong stated nonchalantly as he plopped himself comfortably onto the couch.

Dara stood still, frozen by the door and unsure of what to do. She squinted a little, trying to make something out of his expression. It was really perplexing not knowing what was going on in that head of his. Fingers clasped together nervously, she took a few small steps towards Jiyong and tried once again to read his face or something.

“What?” Jiyong remarked, his eyes narrowed at the odd sight of her staring at him.

A little shaken, Dara shook her head nervously. “N-nothing. I just…” Breathing deeply to calm her nerves down, she frowned and forced herself to look at him straight in the eyes. “Why did you bring me here? It’s late and I need to go home-“

“Home?” Jiyong grunted, his voice thick with cynicism. “What, you still intend to go back to that old bastard’s place and beg him to give you a place to stay?”

His comment hit home. Dara blinked, realizing that she no longer had a place to call home. She fell silent at his words as a sudden rush of helplessness surged through her. After all the hard work and effort that she had put into raising the money, she’s still left without a place to stay. What was she going to do now? Nowhere else had such cheap rent. Even if there was, it’ll probably take her at least a week to find it…

Bom. Should she call Bom? She’ll probably be able to help… Dara sighed and hesitated just as she was about to press the ‘dial’ button. She hated having to ask people for help. Even though she knew Bom wouldn’t mind, it just didn’t feel right to have to trouble her.

“There’s a guest room on the right, just down the hall from mine. It’s not big but it should be better than your old place.”

Jiyong’s voice cut through her thoughts just then. It took Dara a while to really understand what he had said, after which she immediately looked up and glanced at him, her expression one of sheer astonishment. She blinked a few times, still unsure if she had misheard him.

He got up from the couch then and slowly headed for his room, leaving Dara still confused and alone in the living area. “Wait,” she called out as he walked further away from her, her voice squeaking a little from the surprise. “wha-what do you… do you mean I can stay here?”

However, he had already shut the door by the time she got her words out. She sighed loudly to herself upon realizing he probably didn’t hear her. The surge of confusion rose steadily within her as she sat down by the sofa, her head lowered as she tried to make some sense of the whole situation. She must have heard wrongly. It was silly to get her hopes up; obviously he wouldn’t offer such a thing.

Just as she was about to give up on her pride and dial Bom’s number, a loud voice sounded from inside the room.

“Hey can you cook something? I haven’t had dinner.”

A small smile appeared on Dara’s face, and her doe eyes began to sparkle with silent gratitude. Behind all that silly pride and childish ego of his, it seems like the school’s resident cool guy was a whole lot sweeter than expected.

*** *** ***

Once the door was closed, Jiyong reached into his pocket and retrieved his cell phone, which had been vibrating constantly ever since they had arrived at the apartment. Jaw clenched, he stared at the phone for a moment, then answered it.

“What is it?” He said, his voice low. Taking a quick glance at the door to make sure it was tightly locked, he walked away from it and headed over towards the window in a bid to make sure the conversation doesn’t end up getting overheard by the girl outside.

“Boss, I don’t know what you’re planning, but it won’t be good if the big boss finds out that the girl is in your house…”

“I know what I’m doing. Just tell the rest to keep their mouths shut and make sure this doesn’t reach Godfather.”

The voice on the other end of the line raised a notch in a slight show of fear. “But Boss, you know how some of his men always come over once in a while to check on stuff, it’ll be dangerous if they see her. The big boss will definitely…”

“I said I know what I’m doing.”

There was tense silence on the phone for a while as both sides remained quiet.

Jiyong sighed after a while and dropped the authoritative tone, “Come on Daesung, you’ve followed me for years. Since when have my plans ever failed? I know it’s a bit risky this time round and I can’t really explain it to you now, but just trust me alright? Just make sure our men don’t say a word and it’ll be fine.”

Daesung didn't sound entirely convinced but he agreed, albeit reluctantly. “Yes boss.”

Jiyong hung up and placed the phone by his bedside, slowly running his fingers through his hair. There was a bitter taste in his mouth and it was, without a doubt, a result of the lie that he had just told Daesung, one of his best men. There was no plan this time round, or at the very least, he hadn’t made one up yet. The very act of bringing Dara over was sheer impulsiveness on his part, a decision that he himself wasn’t quite able to comprehend.

And Daesung was right. If the Godfather found out about this, he was going to be in a hell lot of trouble.

*** *** ***

Here's an update! I just realised this is like, chapter 12 and I haven't even started going into the main part of the story yet :( Sorry if the development seems a little typical so far, I sorta needed to have it this way in order for the characters to develop better. But I'll try to get down to working on the rest of the story as soon as I can! Hope you enjoy this chapter, and do keep the comments/suggestions coming in if you can! They never fail to make my day, really appreciate all of them! (but of course, I appreciate all my silent readers too haha) Hope you liked this chapter! :D