Luhan's POV

I place the pancakes on the table as I wait for the water to boil up. Breakfast is almost ready. I look around again, searching for a teapot, and found it above the sink cabinet.

“You found everything on your own!” Her surprised voice started my calmness as I accidentally drop the teapot but luckily my reflexes are quick enough to avoid it smashes on the floor.

“Sorry.” She gives me those sweet smiles again while gripping the teapot on my hand. She offers to make the drink while pointing out that I should rest after preparing the breakfast for her early in the morning.

“Chocolate drink? I thought coffee is the best in mornings.” I comment when I saw she was dissolving a chunk of chocolate bars into hot stirring chocolate malt.

“We need more energy than a drink that makes you awake.” Her answer is simple but manages to pull of so many questions out of my head.

“Why is that?” She later explains that we need to sort out my problem soon enough before I made another attempt to jump off the roof again. The way she told me is as if she was joking. She did added “Sorry, I’m kidding” at the end.

But those words somehow, made me feel how ridiculous my thoughts were last night. I really am glad she was there. The way she smiles while clinching her teeth, is telling me how sorry she felt for saying such things that might hurts my feelings. This girl is worry about me.

I can’t believe myself that I actually put a 100% trust on a stranger without knowing her identity. The feelings of peace and secure that I felt might be the best answer for now. I believe in this chance of living.

I keep myself quiet, feeling distress as my past memories flashing through my mind. She probably notices it, she take a bite of a piece of pancake and delightedly praising me with its taste. There’s no way I could refrain myself from laughing at her excitement.

Moments later, her cheerfulness disappears as she told me the amount is not enough.

“Hahahaa..You’re joking, right? Good one!” She stares at me with despise look. So, she’s not kidding?

“I’ll make sure to make more next time. Well.. urmm.. Actually, there’s some blue punch in the fridge. You want some?”

“Blue punch? You made them?” She rush to open the fridge and stood there for another minutes, appreciating the existence of another stomach fill-up I made.

“I saw your blueberries were almost rotten, cranberry juice almost meets its expired date and vanilla ice cream in your freezer. I thought I would be ashamed if I didn’t make something out of it."

She nods while listening to my reasons and gives herself a sip of taste, “Oh, wow, you’re a genius!” I can’t help but laughing at her food crave-ness.

A forceful sound of thud suddenly broke the peaceful atmosphere.

“What’s that?” She would’ve not been so surprised but I just ask her anyway, in case if she knows. She shakes her head, but her actions are way calmer than I am.

She moves towards the living room while still holding the blue punch. I follow her footsteps, wondering what she’s up to. She finally stops, observing the apartment door being shaken by forces of huge objects.

“LUHAN! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE! GET OUT NOW!”

She take a glimpse, signaling by her silent speaking that I should hide somewhere in the apartment. I stand there, roaming with my eyes the best place to keep my 5 ft 8’ from showing.

The cracks on the door is already clearly visible, and I’m still standing there, frantically not knowing where to hide. When I finally saw a small store room at the corner of the living room, I lighten up my weight and ran as fast as I could until I properly managed to close the store room door again.

It was at that precise moment, when five huge muscle men finally broke the door and entered the apartment. Sooyoung watches all five of them as they walk towards her without any sign of fear.

“My name is Sooyoung, not Luhan. You got the wrong house.”

The men were laughing, as if they knew she was lying. She finishes up the blue punch with one gulp and repeats the same sentence to them.

One of the men get really pisses off by her poker face expression. He grabs her hair forcefully, forcing her to tell them my present location in her house. He commands his friends to search the apartment for me while still keeping Sooyoung in his arms. The same question keeps flowing out of his mouth and the same answers are constantly given by her.

The man couldn’t handle his temper anymore; his right hand swung up higher than his height. I can’t stand watching her in that state. I dash out of the room towards Sooyoung and grab her body before his hand reaches her face. I am expecting a stamp of feet or a strike of steel-like arms on my body because of my action.

There isn’t any. While I still remain in my position protecting her, I turn around to take a glance at the man.

The reason of nothing happens to me is because of an additional appearance of three guys in the room. These guys are all much skinnier than the five men who came earlier.

The guy with sharp eyes in heavy black leather jacket is holding the hot-tempered man, who previously wanting to hit Sooyoung. He doesn’t look that tough, but the way he holds the man’s hand from moving doesn’t look like he’s much in pain. In seconds, he let go off the man’s hand, grabs his neck while give him a strong punch on his abdomen. He even kicks his legs, making the man trembled on the floor, unable to stand.

The rest of the four men who were fighting with another guy [the one who’s wearing a sweet shirt and has dark skin tone, just like Sooyoungs’], break their movements as they watch in horror how easily the sharp eye guy knocks off the hot-tempered man who I believe is their leader. Just like as if someone is pressing the pause button, no one is moving as we watch the man screams in pain after being beaten by him.

That froze moment was later broken by the clicking sounds of a phone camera. The third guy, who is in suit, holding a briefcase, smiling with dimples deeply showing; is leisurely without fear taking pictures of the five men. Same as the other four men, the dark skin guy is also taken aback by the dimple guy’s action and he rapidly knocks off one of the man when the man moves to grab the dimple guy.

“You better leave this place quick, the police are on their way and I already got your pictures taken. Seriously, you need to hide or you’ll be paying for the damages you caused to my client.”

“Yixing, stop it! You might be their next target if you continue to act like this!” The dark skin guy scolds to the dimple guy softly.

“Is everyone alright? If there’s anyone got injured, I can help you claim the medical expenses. Kai, you’re alright, right?”  The dimple guy doesn’t seem to listen; he changes the topic by asking us and the dark skin guy his condition.

“Sooyoung, who is he?” The sharp eyes guy finally spoke after I realized he was giving a long stare at me.

“This is Luhan. Luhan, this is Tao.” Sooyoung pulls herself out from my grip as she steps forward near Tao.

“I want answers in detail, who is he?” Tao spoke again.

“Someone I wish to keep around near me for awhile. That explanation should be enough for you, right?”

She walks pass Tao and stops in front of the other two guys. “Why are you two doing here?”

“Actually, I’m here because I want to set an appointment with you. It’s about you-know-what-it-is. I could just call you but you didn’t pick up the phone for the past three days. So, I decided to come here. And you know Kai, right? His job is to be near me.”

Sooyoung gives Yixing a pat while walks pass him, “Tomorrow is fine, right? There’s someone who needs to go to hospital now.”

She brings out the first aid box from the kitchen and walks towards me.

“Me?” I scan my body and realize that my side waist is already staining with blood. “Eh? Where did that came from?”

She comes by my side, lifting my shirt up, while wrapping my waist with a long white bandage cloth.

“I was holding the blue punch you made earlier, but you accidentally let the cup glass smash on your body while saving me from the big guy’s slap.”

Tao, Yixing and Kai come closer to me as Sooyoung finishes up wrapping them.

“The way you act just now, I’m sure you’re not the person who knows how to fight. Then where do all these scars come from?” Tao, despite his very scary face, his question shows how caring he is.

“Some of these old bruises look really serious. Have you checked with the hospital?” Yixing approaches while giving his concerns.

“No, I haven’t. Because I’m still alive, I thought I’ll be fine without going to the.. OUCH!!” I scream as I felt a huge pain due to Kai’s sudden action by pressing one of my old bruises.

“Tao, help me carry him to the car. Yixing, would you mind taking care of these damages and police when they arrive?” I saw a slight nod from Yixing and Kai before Tao grabs my arm and piggy back me towards her maroon Hyundai i20.

“Actually, I can walk on my own. You don’t need to..” before I could finish up my gratitude of Tao’s kindness, he cut me off. “I don’t know who you are, how you meet her and end up being able to get near her when no one is allowed, but promise me to take a good care of her. If anything happens to her, you’ll get the consequences.”

He drops my body on the seat and slams the door shut. It took me awhile to digest of everything that he just told me. Horror. I don’t know what exactly is going on around me. Who are these people? The way Yixing acts, I think he’s a lawyer. But why would a lawyer has a bodyguard? Who is Tao anyway? Who is Sooyoung anyway?

Sooyoung turns on the car engine, pull her car out of the parking lot and drives through the street. A smile forms on her lips as she caught me staring at her.  

“What’s wrong? Is staring at me is a way of you enduring your pain?”

“No, I just…” my words got cut off again because of the realization of a man in black on a motorcycle is following us.

“Is that Tao?” I squeeze my eyes to get a better vision of the figure I saw at the car’s rear mirror.

“Yeah, that’s Tao. I guess no matter how many times I tell him, he will never leave me. Don’t worry about him. He’s my neighbor. I think he’s just cares about your condition. Just let him, don’t worry about it.”

I’m not convinced with her answers. There's no way a neighbor would be acting like that.

But if she wants to keep that as a secret from me. I should understand her. I’m a stranger she met last night after all. There’s no way she would tell everything to a person like me who has no connection with her. I don’t know anymore. For now on, I guess I just let everything flows by itself. If she wants to tell me about it, I’ll make sure to listen, and if she’s not then I’ll try my best at least to act as if I am not bothered by it.

I am surprised. She didn’t drive me to the hospital but to a clinic near downtown Seoul.

She locks the car and guides me to the entrance as I read the clinic’s signboard. Xiumin? I don't want to sound racist or something, but why a chinese clinic? After passing almost three hospitals, why must she choose this small clinic to get check? 

The receptionists jump off their seats as they saw our presence. Another person ran towards us and politely shows us the room.

“You don’t need to give me this kind of service. Don’t listen to your boss so much. We can always wait and follow the procedures like other patients,” Sooyoung comments with an apologetically tone.

“I can’t. Because he’s my boss so I need to listen to him. And I can’t let you wait too because the bleeding looks serious.” The lady points at me.

“Come on.” She held my left arm for support [although I don’t need it], knocks the door written Xiumin on it, and turns the knob after a person inside the room gives the permission.

“SOOYOUNG!!!! It’s been awhile!” A guy in a white lab coat cheerfully hugs Sooyoung in an instance. She gives him a warm pat and parts herself away from him. “Yup, it’s been awhile, Minseok.”

“Minseok?” I asks Sooyoung, responding to the name tag on his lab coat that wrotes “Xiumin” in Chinese characters.

“Dr. Minseok.” His expression gets really stiff after I mention his name.

He gives me a sharp stare, but those stares are not as cold as Tao’s.

“Oh my! I didn’t see that! Come here, sit! Sit!” His icy glare went away seconds after he saw my wounds. “Mind if I took off your shirt? It’s easier for me to clean up these bruises.” I pull up my shirt but my actions are hindered by his hand as he signals Sooyoung to get out of the room.

“You’re not his relative. Would you please stay outside? I think he needs more than just cleaning. I need an X-Ray of at least his ribs and probably a CT Scan. Nurse, prepare this person a bed on the third floor. We need to keep him here for further check up.” The lady nods to the doctor orders while opening the door for Sooyoung to leave. She refuses at first but Dr Minseok urges her to do so again.

“Fine, I’ll wait outside, but is it possible if you let me stay in the ward with him too? Someone broke into my apartment this morning, so it’s not a good condition for me to sleep there. Lay is taking care of it. But in the mean time.. I need a place to stay.. so..”

Eh, wait a minute. Did Sooyoung just said Lay? I thought the lawyer's name is Yixing..

There was silence before the doctor speaks again, “I’m sorry. I was wondering why you don’t ask me to stay at my house rather than the ward. Then I remember you are not in a good term with my parents. SURE! Why not. Stay by this person side. Sure. No problem. I’ll keep an eye on that.”

What’s up with the doctor’s tone of speaking? The conversation he had with Sooyoung suddenly turns back on me. She waves at me before she closes the door behind her.

“You’ve been bullied, aren’t you? These scars, bruises, wounds..” I think the doctor has split personality. One minute he acts like he hated my presence and the next minute, he cares so much about me.

“Stop looking at me and answers my questions.” There you go; he’s being a cold-heart person again.

“You can say that. It’s been five years now..”

“Five years of constantly getting bullied.. You are indeed a very lucky person.”

“That’s the first time people told me I’m lucky. I think you’re the lucky one, doctor. You look really young despite having a clinic on your own and wards. I thought clinics don’t have wards.”

“I am young. I’m actually a month and two weeks younger than Sooyoung. It is just that, I entered the medical school earlier than normal people. Yes, you might call me the lucky one, but for me, people like you are the lucky ones. People never satisfy with what they have. Appreciate all the things around us while we’re still alive. I always believe in that.” I bend neck, broodingly about my family and at my action yesterday.

He pats my back, “You can always tell me if you want to.” The cold-hearted doctor has turns warmed again. The smiling face he gives me, forming a new friendship that I never thought of.