I pulled away and laid next to him, hiding my face. All of the sudden, my head was filled with ugly thoughts. Hyun Joong kept an arm around my shoulders and softly caressed my arm that was laying across his chest. His head rested against the top of mine.

It’s your fault Min Ho is hurt. It’s your fault that you dragged them all here. Youngbae, Seungri, TOP, Jiyong, even Daesung are all hurt because of you. Their lives are on hold because of you. You think Hyun Joong likes you? Think again. He just knows you’re vulnerable and he’s going to use you and he’ll be gone.

None of that was true. Well.. they were hurt and stuff because of me. But They wouldn’t go to such lengths to protect me if they didn’t really care about me. Min Ho literally took a bullet for me. Thinking about that made me cringe.

Hyun Joong lifted his head. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly.

“Mm,” I mumbled, nodding a little.

He propped himself up a little. “Are you really? Look at me.”

He lifted my face again, forcing me to look at him. I sighed. “I can’t help but thinking that I’m such a burden to all of you.” I tried to look down, but his hand held my chin.

“We wouldn’t have done any of this if we hadn’t wanted to.” Geez, that sounded familiar. “We want to keep you safe. We want to find out what’s going on and fix it so you can rest easy and we don’t have to worry about it. We’re doing all we can.”

I hadn’t even told him about the envelope yet. I wondered how they’d gotten it. I should tell him what was in it. So that we could fix it and everything would be okay.

“Maybe we could stay here,” he said quietly, brushing his nose against mine. “When we fix everything, maybe we could stay here. But we need to find out what’s going on first. Did you ever… open that envelope I gave you?”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I hesitated a minute before I slowly told him what I’d found in it. I told him everything, every single detail I could remember—except that it was my father in the pictures. It was very clearly him in those pictures. He never took his eyes off of me. He was quiet for a long time after I finished. Then he nodded.

“Show me.”

I looked at him. “What?”

“I need to see it. Everything. I need to see it all. And we need to show it to everyone else.”

My instinct to protect my father took over. If the guys saw those pictures, they’d know immediately. And what would they do to me? I had no idea where that book was. I knew nothing about where all of dad’s stuff was.

“What’s the problem? We have to do something to keep you safe, Soo Yun ah.” I gasped at the pressure on my arms. He let go and shifted a little away from me. “I’m sorry. I just… I want so badly to protect you that it kills me inside to think that you could be hurt at any moment. If you aren’t in my sight, I’m worried. I need to fix this. Please let me do that.”

The look on his face was so desperate. It broke my heart. Tears welled up in my eyes, stinging, and I nodded.

“There’s… something I left out, Hyun Joong. Please don’t be mad. It was only to protect him.” I looked down, feeling like I was going to cry just thinking about what they would think of my Appa. I loved him so much and missed him like crazy. He was doing the right thing when it happened… wasn’t he?

“What? Who?” Hyun Joong’s face was more serious now; all of the desperation was gone, replaced with what looked like jealousy.

“The man in those pictures was my dad.”

“Y-your dad?” he stuttered quietly. I nodded slowly. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked out over the ocean, processing what I’d just said, putting all the parts together knowing now that the man was my father.

“Yes. I don’t know what he did exactly or why, but it didn’t seem bad. All of the people… they were bad people, they weren’t just random people he wanted to hurt. My Appa wasn’t like that, he wouldn’t just hurt people he-he-he-” I started hyperventilating.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. Nobody knows him like you did. It’s okay.” He took me into his arms and rubbed my back, telling me that it was okay, that everything was going to be okay. I let tears stream down my face even though I’d calmed myself down. “Would you… want to stay here with me?” he asked into my hair.

He was serious? I thought he was just saying that to make me feel better. A huge smile broke across my face. He lifted my chin and looked at me. He smiled too, as big as I did.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, sounding almost breathless. My cheeks were starting to hurt from how big I was smiling. I nodded.

“But what about—”

He cut me off with a soft kiss. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything. We’ll get through this and stay here. I promise.”

I sighed and whined, “Hyun Joong ah,” before he kissed me again. This time, it wasn’t just a soft peck. His lips stayed attached to mine, his soft warm tongue exploring my mouth. He rolled and pushed me into the sand, one hand cradling my head. The heat and weight of his body on mine was pushing everything else out of my brain. His presence was all but overwhelming to my senses. His lips on mine was what did me in completely. His mouth was hot, his kiss urgent, needing, wanting, yet still gentle and wonderfully loving. His free hand was gripping my waist, pulling me closer even though our bodies were flush against one another. One of my hands went to his chest, feeling the skin of it beneath his half open shirt, making him shiver. His hips nestled in between my legs, my other hand sliding up to tangle in his silky hair. His fingers caressed the skin on my hip, giving me goosebumps. He moaned softly into my mouth when he felt it. Oh, that moan…

He trailed sweet, soft kisses down my neck and I whimpered. He did it back up slowly, exploring, finding my weakest spot. When he found it, he nibbled just a little. I gasped and clutched his shoulders, digging my nails into his shirt. He chuckled into my skin and bit a little harder, drawing a moan from my lips. He shuddered and sighed. He nose grazed my ear as he whispered, “I can’t wait any longer. I feel like I’ve waited an eternity for you.”