Cheondoong’s hands shook as he was gripping on the gun. He inspected it closely, not really digesting the fact that Jiyong trusted him with this and that he taught him how to use it in just one night. He never really thought that he being part of the mission really needed him to learn using the gun. He was expecting that he would just be a part of brainstorming or something else, not something major like keeping an eye on his noona for a night or two, to the extent of teaching him to use a gun and some basic martial arts.

 

He grabbed his phone and called a number.

 

“Cheondoong,” Jiyong greeted as he picked it up on the first ring.

 

“Hyung, time for the report,” he said.

 

“Go on,” Jiyong ordered.

 

“I’ve met with the father,” he paused. “As I expected, he looked nothing like him. But it might have been just affected by our pre-conceived notion that he wasn’t really it. It might be possible if we looked at the perspective of a dying and ill person. Like you said, it might just be because of his condition that he looked old. But as for personal feelings, I don’t think I felt something like a connection with him.”

 

Jiyong remained silent, still waiting for his report to finish. His eyes were straight on the road. It was already dark but he was still traveling.

 

“As for the cousin, I met with him during our dinner,” he said. “The odd thing was…” he trailed off as he remembered clearly what Daniel told him. “…’How’d you get that cut on your arm?’ that was his first thing he asked me, even before noona formally introduced me to him. I mean, I don’t know. I just found it odd. I’m sorry if I didn’t have anything to re—“

 

“No, that’s actually a good thing,” Jiyong said through the phone. There was a smirk on his lips. “That’s actually something odd to observe at first meeting, even before formal introductions.”

 

“Really? Yeah, I found it weird.”

 

“Not really, kiddo. It just proved my assumption to be correct.”

 

“Your assumption?” Cheondoong asked, finding out that there were still things that Jiyong wasn’t telling him.

 

“Anyway, tonight, you sneak in to your noona’s room. I want you to guard her for the night. With another addition to the mansion, he might feel troubled. Don’t forget the gun,” Jiyong commanded.

 

“You want me to sneak in to her room?” Cheondoong asked unbelievably.

 

“Yes, she won’t wake up. She’s a heavy sleeper anyway,” he said.

 

“What? How do you know that?”

 

Jiyong bit on his lip. “Well, I just know,” he said, a grin on his lips.

 

“You used to sneak in to her room, don’t you? Why you…”

 

“Report to me first thing in the morning,” Jiyong cut him off and hung up, sighing in relief. He then focused his attention to the road. He was on his way to Busan once again, now alone for his special mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was eleven in the evening when Cheondoong got up from his bed and tiptoed towards Dara’s room. He looked from his left to right and carefully opened the door to Dara’s room. Dara was sleeping soundly on her bed. He clutched the gun to his chest as he soundlessly closed the door behind him. He looked around, wondering where he could sleep.

 

He saw the couch on the far left but it was too far from Dara’s bed. So through the darkness, he pushed the couch to be positioned in between Dara’s bed and the door in case someone would enter. However, there were inevitable screeching sounds. Evidently, Dara was fast asleep, even with a light snore. As it was rightly positioned, he lied on the couch and tried to sleep, keeping the gun just on the space on the side of the couch.

 

“I hope I won’t be able to use this gun,” he whispered before sleep consumed him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was some knocking noise. Cheondoong immediately opened his eyes, realizing that his head was already falling from the couch and his legs were on the headrest. He almost fell but was able to catch himself, causing some noise but not enough to wake Dara. There goes that knocking noise again. He whipped his eyes towards it, anticipating whoever it was. After a second, the doorknob turned. Instinctively, Cheondoong got a hold of the gun from the side of the couch, silently cocked it but stayed it hidden under the pillow. As a shoe appeared when the door was opened, Cheondoong was almost ready to jump on whoever the intruder was when an ear-splitting scream filled the room.

 

Cheondoong whipped his head towards Dara who had a blanket almost covering her face while she screamed. However, she stopped when she saw Cheondoong.

 

“Oh, Sanghyun?” she called. “What were you doing here?”

 

“What happened, Sandara?” it was Daniel.

 

“Oh, Daniel-oppa,” Dara greeted too. “What are you two doing here?”

 

Cheondoong looked up at Daniel, inconspicuously burying the gun under the pillows as he fiercely stared at the intruder.

 

“I was just about to wake you up. It’s seven-thirty,” Daniel said, staring at his watch. “You’ll be late.”

 

“OH MY GOSH!” Dara exclaimed, jumping to her feet and running towards the bathroom. Her head then poked in again. “Wait, aren’t you two going to leave? I need to change my clothes.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dara walked out of her bedroom after fifteen minutes and was surprised at the amount of strange-looking men in suits around the living room. She was about to go to her father’s room before she leaves to school but there were four people guarding the door.

 

In a second, the door to her father’s room opened and Daniel appeared.

 

“Oh, shall we go?” Daniel asked.

 

“Who are these people?” Dara asked.

 

“They’re your father’s men,” he answered.

 

“It’s my first time seeing them.”

 

“You’ve seen some of them. The others just don’t come here when I don’t call them,” he smoothly answered. “There will be visitors today. That’s why they’re here.”

 

“Visitors? Jiyong and my other brothers will be coming over during lunch. Shall I cancel on them? This seems to be an important event or something.”

 

“No,” he waved off. “They’re welcome,” he said, a smirk on his lips.

 

“Let’s go to school?” Cheondoong said, appearing from his room with a backpack slung on his shoulder.

 

“You’re coming?” Dara asked.

 

“Yeah. But I’m not going to my school. I feel like ditching. But, maybe I’ll sit in on your class,” he said, smoothing his clothes.

 

“What? Why would you do that?” she asked.

 

“I…” he trailed off, just realizing how absurd he sounded. “…want to know noona more. And to do that, I need to sit in on your classes.”

 

Dara shrugged and waved it off as she went on her way, Cheondoong and Daniel following behind. Cheondoong was walking with Daniel as he stared down at the guy and he twitched his lips, causing Daniel to look away and shake his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This kiddo is good,” Jiyong said after reading the message sent by Cheondoong. “He’s even going to the extent of sitting in on Dara’s classes. I have to give this guy some incentives after this.”

 

“Oh, nice. What if we’ll recruit him to be one of us, eh? What do you think?” Kush asked.

 

“Come on; don’t let the kid get into this. He’s too young for this,” TOP said.

 

“He’s just two years younger than Jiyong. I don’t see what’s wrong with that,” Teddy said.

 

“What’s wrong with that is that he’s Dara’s little brother. It’s already enough having Jiyong and her foster brothers to be on dangerous jobs. We can’t pull the kiddo into this,” TOP reasoned.

 

Hearing this, both Teddy and Kush nodded their heads as what TOP said made sense.

 

“Are you ready for this?” Jiyong asked after their senseless talk. “Hyung, you know your positions right?”

 

“Yes, no problem, chief!” Kush jokingly exclaimed.

 

“About half an hour after I enter, okay? There’ll be a lot of men outside of the house, so be sure during that duration, they’re all knocked out,” Jiyong instructed. “TOP, you’re good at silent killings. Hyungs, you should try to do that too, okay?”

 

Teddy and Kush nodded.

 

“So, you’re going to go in first and you’re finally going to meet him. But, what if he’s not meeting you yet?” TOP asked. “Like when he lied that he’s not feeling well?”

 

“Cheondoong said they’re expecting visitors and that he said it would be for their father, but I feel it was just an excuse to deceive Dara. I’m now more certain that these guys are cons. And you’ll find out later why,” he said. “Anyway, these men are for us. The visitors are us. So, if they’re preparing for this, let’s show them how prepared we are for this too.”

 

“Okay,” they agreed as three hours from now, they were going to be on their way to the mansion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dara was waiting by their living room, clutching the phone to her chest as she was waiting for Jiyong’s text that he was already outside.

 

Little did she know that by that second, Jiyong was already outside of the house, two men searching for guns, explosive materials or any kind of weapons on his body and clothes.

 

Jiyong has been standing, feeling the searching hands of the men on his body for already three minutes. They were really making sure he didn’t have any guns with him. They didn’t really have to search thoroughly because he had left them all.

 

“You’ll never find anything in me,” Jiyong said and added in a mutter. “It’s as if you’re expecting that I’ll have some in me.”

 

The men looked up at him and finally straightened up. They motioned him to finally enter.

 

“I feel so dirty being touched by strange men,” Jiyong said as he walked past the door. Dara whipped her head towards the door where he walked in. She then ran towards him, her arms spread open to embrace him into a tight hug. “Oh, you seem excited,” Jiyong said, patting her head with one hand and hugging her back with the other. His eyes then took in the surroundings where there were indeed a lot of men in suits. They seem to be trying to steal a look on him.

 

“Yeah, they’re expecting me,” Jiyong whispered.

 

“Eh? You said something?” Dara said, looking up at him while keeping her arms around him.

 

“I said I missed you,” he said, giving a peck on the tip of her nose.

 

Dara’s chin rested on his chest, puckering her lips towards him. “I missed you too.”

 

“I’m glad you made it,” a voice from upstairs interrupted them.

 

Dara unwrapped her arms from him but Jiyong kept his arms over her shoulder.

 

“I’m guessing you’re Daniel,” he said.

 

“I’m guessing you’re Jiyong,” Daniel answered.

 

“You’re guessing?” Jiyong mockingly responded and chuckled under his breath. “Well, yes, your guess is right.”

 

There was a smirk on Daniel's lips as he looked down at him. His hands were buried deep into his pockets. Dara felt the tension so she immediately introduced the two of them formally. But when the introductions finished, the tension didn’t ease down a bit as the two of them didn’t look away from each other.

 

One thing was for sure inside Jiyong’s mind. Daniel was the same person with the guy who attacked Dara on the park and the guy who attacked him on the bar. He recognized that smirk from when he smirked at him on the bar. He went downstairs and stood in front of Jiyong, making the latter more certain of the same look on his eyes. It might have been because it was dark and raining that night that Dara haven’t recognized the guy she shot with his gun several times on his back, but he recognized him right away as they had a face off that night.

 

Jiyong tried to make his smile genuine as he went beside him and deliberately threw his arms over him. “I’m looking forward to knowing you more, bro,” he said and then he patted his back to which he got the expected and wanted reaction: Daniel winced as if he was in pain.

 

“Gotcha,” he said under his breath.

 

Dara was genuinely happy as she saw their instant closeness, missing the malicious intent each of them had to the other. “Great, I guess we’re going to have our lunch now. How about it, eh?”