DISCLAIMER: There is content in this chapter that is relevant to self-harm, so I apologize in advance if I offend anyone. I DO take this concept very seriously and hope that you understand that it is only part of the story.

“Ya, Kim Woobin,” Jessica knocked. “Ireona~ (wake up~),” she crooned.

Frsutrated, Woobin slowly rose from his bed, grabbing the alarm clock on the night stand next to him.

The bright red digital letters read “9:12 am.”

Woobin slowly exhaled in disbelief as he got up from the bed and approached the door.

He opened it a crack to see Jessica standing there, awake and well-rested, smiling at him with bright eyes.

“Do you know what time it is?” he asked her, rubbing his eyes.

“I believe it’s time for you to wake up and start making breakfast.”

Woobin could not stand that chipper smile that spread across her face.

“It is too early,” he dropped his head, leaning against the wall.

“Are you going against your word?” she asked.

“If I had won, would you really have let me take your car and go wherever I wanted?” he challenged.

“It doesn’t matter,” she responded curtly. “I won the bet. Look, we made a deal—“

“Arasso, arasso, calm down,” he shook his head. “I’ll be downstairs soon. Can I have a moment?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Please?”

“I’d like an omelet with spinach and cheese with toast on the side,” she ordered.

He nodded his head reluctantly.

Woobin shut his eyes and sighed with dissatisfaction.

, he cursed as he shut the door.

…

After a few cold splashes of water to his face, Woobin finally felt awake enough to come down the stairs.

He walked into the kitchen to see her standing there with an apron in hand and a smirk on her face.

He eyed her curiously as he approached her.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Here,” she stated, handing the apron to him.

He grabbed it and held it before him, staring with grievance. It was a little too pink and florally for his taste.

“I think I’ll be fine,” he declined.

Despite his objection, she persistently held it out to him.

Rolling his eyes, he snatched it out of her hands and put it on.

As he tied it, he went into the kitchen to begin making breakfast for two.

He began by taking out eggs, cheese, and spinach from the refrigerator.

He placed all the ingredients onto the kitchen counter by the stove and Jessica sat at the counter across from him.

Woobin looked at her confused as she leaned her elbows onto the counter, her face on top of her hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Just watching,” she answered plainly.

“Why?”

“I want to understand the enjoyment you get from watching me cook and clean every day,” she admitted.

Woobin normally did something similar. He’d occasionally come into the kitchen and peek over her shoulder and observe her completing her chores, much to Jessica’s displeasure.

But this time, it was her turn.

Embarrassed, Woobin turned around, going into another cabinet to grab a frying pan and pull a spatula out of a drawer.

He began to lay out the ingredients and Jessica suddenly exhaled and gave him an expression that displayed some sort of disagreement with his actions.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“You forgot to clean the spinach,” she advised him, pointing to the greens.

Woobin let out a frustrated puff of air.

“Can you please do something else while I make breakfast?” he asked.

He wasn’t exactly fond of having an audience.

“Why?” she asked, surprised. “Are you shy?” she teased.

He just grimaced at her without a word, much to her amusement.

“Arasso,” she said pushing her seat back from the counter. “Noona understands. I’ll be reading in the living room,” she told him as she got up from her seat, practically skipping away from him.

…

“How was it?” he asked, watching as she happily ate her breakfast.

She swallowed her final bite and dabbed at with her napkin before looking up at him.

“Not bad,” she concluded, much to his relief.

“The toast was a little too burnt and there was way too much cheese in the omelet,” she pointed out, tediously.

Woobin had to bite his lip to hold back his disgruntlement.

“But other than that, I’m actually pleasantly surprised,” she said as she got up from her seat.

“Surprised?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I didn’t know you could do anything besides watch other people do things for you,” she stated plainly.

It was almost painful, but he still kept his anger to himself as she continued to criticize him.

She sat down on the couch in the living room and the TV.

“Dishes in the sink?” he asked.

“No, no,” she wagged her finger at him. “That’s your job now, remember?”

He turned his back to her and went to wash the dishes and she silently grinned to herself at the sight.

…

The day went on as Jessica had hoped.

Woobin continued to clean the rest of the house. He watered flowers, swept the floors, and did the laundry.

As Woobin was setting up to vacuum the living room, Jessica came strolling in wearing spandex leggings and a sports bra, carrying a yoga mat under one arm.

“Push the coffee table toward that wall,” she instructed him, her hands on her hips.

“Why?” he asked.

“Just do it, please,” she ignored him.

Unwillingly, he followed her order and maneuvered the coffee table against the wall, creating an open space in the middle of the living room in front of the fireplace.

He watched her curiously as she unrolled her yoga mat and laid it in the center of that open space and the tv.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to do yoga,” she informed him.

“While I’m vacuuming?”

She nodded her head.

Woobin could hardly complain at the sight of her in athletic garb.

Her slim, well-toned figure was definitely not one to disappoint. She looked well-proportioned and she had a lovely flat tummy as she began to stretch and prepare herself.

As she slowly rolled up from touching her toes, she didn’t fail to notice Woobin eyeing her.

“What are you staring at?” she arched her eyebrow.

He grinned. “Oh it’s just…Noona is very pretty. I’m afraid you might distract me from cleaning.”

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

“Enough of your eyeballing and get to work,” she ordered.

He began to vacuum around her, taking casual glances at her every now and then.

She was extremely flexible.

She did everything with her eyes closed, as if she was meditating.

She was able to do some of those ridiculous poses that you’d see in fitness magazines and he couldn’t help but stare at the…enticing sight.

And she runs? He remembered how fast and agile she was when it came to sprinting as well.

He never knew a woman who was so dedicated to being physically fit.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop staring,” she suddenly blurted out.

 He turned off the vacuum cleaner.

“What?”

“Stop staring,” she said. All the while, her eyes were still closed as she began to curve her body into the next position.

“Sorry,” he muttered. Not sorry, he snickered.

“And you missed a spot,” she told him, pointing to a far corner of the room.

What the, he thought to himself.

He was pretty sure that her eyes have been closed the entire time and yet even she knew when he wasn’t doing his job right.

Suddenly, the chime of the dryer went off.

“Dryer’s finished,” she said, all the while maintaining her current position on the mat – eyes still closed.

Woobin looked at her strangely.

“Are you gonna keep gawking at me like that or are you gonna go get the laundry?” she challenged.

Woobin rolled his eyes and went his way to the laundry room.

When he turned his back, Jessica opened one eye and watched him leave.

Such a , she chuckled.

…

Woobin climbed up the steps with a laundry basket full of her bed sheets.

He had to look over his shoulder and around the basket as much as possible to avoid tripping on his way up.

He safely made it to the top of the steps and right before he went into her bedroom, he looked to her office door.

He always wondered why she would want to keep him out of there.

He understood why she didn’t want him going into her bedroom. She was probably afraid he’d rummage through her personal belongings or he’d walk in on her or something – though, at this point, Woobin definitely wouldn’t object to that.

He took a moment to really think about her, realizing that he didn’t really know that much about her.

She’s being paid to house me…she’s an old family friend of Agent Shin…she inherited this lakehouse from her grandfather…and she has the physicality of a professional athlete…

Aside from some of those trivial facts, he didn’t really know her that well.

He walked up to her office door and hesitated.

What is she keeping in there?

He balanced the laundry basket under one arm, holding it against his hip, and slowly reached for the doorknob with his other hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Surprised, Woobin immediately pulled his hand back, holding onto the basket.

“What?”

“Why were you going into my office?”

He looked like a child who just got caught by his parents doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

“M-mianhae,” he stuttered. “I was just…bringing your sheets up to your room—“

“That’s not my room,” she reminded him. “It’s right here,” she said, walking up to the door he intentionally passed, opening it.

He nodded nervously before going into her room.

She watched as he placed the basket onto her bed, pulling out her folded sheets and laid them on her mattress.

He grabbed the basket and avoided her gaze as he stepped out of her room.

“I’ll be…getting my laundry…now,” he stammered.

“Before you do,” she stopped him before he went back downstairs.

He looked over to her. “Finish vacuuming the living room and put the vacuum cleaner away, arasso?”

Woobin nodded compliantly and went his way.

…

Jessica thought long and hard about what she wanted for dinner later and figured she should probably ask him what he could make, unaware of his other cooking abilities besides omelets.

She happily walked over to his bedroom door and knocked.

“Kim Woobin,” she cooed.

“It’s open,” she heard his voice reply.

She opened the door and before she could say anything, she shielded her eyes, realizing he wasn’t wearing a shirt, but didn’t check to see if he was completely .

“Sheesh,” Jessica hissed. “What are you doing?”

“Relax, I’m not ,” he reassured her, laughing.

She peeked through her hand with one eye to make sure and after realizing he was only shirtless, uncovered her eyes.

“Eyy, why would you tell me to come in if you weren’t fully dressed?” she complained.

“Why? Are you nervous?” he grinned.

Jessica’s upper lip curled with dissatisfaction.

“I’m not ashamed of my body and honestly,” he glanced at her, “you shouldn’t be either.”

She zipped up her sweater to cover up her bare tummy since she was still in her athletic clothes and crossed her arms nervously.

“You’re blushing!” he told her.

“J-just put on a shirt, please?” she demanded.

“Hand me a clean one from the basket.”

She reached over into the basket to grab a clean white t-shirt.

“Here,” she said, holding it toward him.

“Gomaweoyo, noona,” his voice purred.

As his arm reached out to grab it, Jessica finally noticed the bullet graze on his shoulder.

“Omo,” she said, looking at it.

Realizing he saw it, he grabbed the shirt quickly.

“What?” he asked, as if he didn’t know.

She walked up to him to get a better look at his shoulder.

“You haven’t been properly taking care of this, have you?” she asked.

He sighed.

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her, slinging his shirt over the wound.

She moved the shirt out of the way, much to his dismay, and looked at it more closely.

The scar was somewhat scabbed over, but the skin around it was slightly raised, and extremely red.

“It looks infected,” she said. “Stay here.”

Without warning, she walked out of the room.

He heard what sounded like her opening the closet next door and after she closed it, she returned.

She was carrying some sort of white plastic case.

She sat on the edge of his bed and he looked at her strangely.

She rolled her eyes and patted the area of the mattress to her right with her hand. “Sit,” she ordered.

A bit reluctantly, he sat down next to her on the bed.

He finally realized that the box in front of her was a first aid kit and he sighed at the sight.

She first pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitizer and rubbed some between her hands and through her fingers.

He watched as she pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a cotton pad. She turned the bottle upside down on the cotton pad, allowing it to soak. Just the smell of the disinfectant made him unwilling.

“Stay still,” she said.

She used one hand to hold onto his arm while the other hand held the soaked cotton pad.

She carefully dabbed at the wound with the cotton pad and he immediately winced at the stinging.

“Yeesh,” he cursed, moving his shoulder.

“Ya, stop flinching,” she told him.

“Apa~ (it hurts~),” he whined.

“Ja-shik (you child),” she mocked. “Do you want this thing to heal or not?” she ordered.

He finally relaxed a little and she grabbed his arm again, this time a little more firmly, and went to attend to his wound.

She gently pressed the cotton pad to his skin and despite his natural objection, she was immovable and kept her concentration.

She continued to press his wound with the cotton pad, wiping away some of the dried blood and cleaned it as thoroughly as possible. She dabbed at it with soft presses.

“You know what you’re doing?” he asked.

“You act as if you’ve actually been shot. Just calm down,” she replied.

At first her hold on him was strong, but as the stinging subsided, he relaxed, and so her grip was much more pleasant.

To him, her touch was actually very warm and almost affectionate. He eyed her curiously as she carefully tended to him. It was not quite the same as a nurse to a patient as it was a mother to a child.

To her, his skin was very pale and very soft. It was very much similar to her porcelain skin.

She wouldn’t admit it, but he had nice skin. A nice body too. He had a well-toned upper body. His muscles were well-defined, but he wasn’t buff like a professional weight-lifter. He was impressively lean.

The sight of it was actually making her a bit shy.

But as she was observing his skin, she noticed a few dark marks and raised scars on various places of his torso, upper arms, and back.

“That feels good,” he suddenly blurted out.

Not wanting to be caught staring, she looked up at him, only to find that he was staring down at her.

She avoided his gaze and nervously pulled away from him, letting go.

“Where’s the cream that the doctor prescribed?” she asked, still not looking him in the eye.

He opened the drawer of the night stand next to him and pulled out a small tube of ointment.

She unscrewed the cap and squeezed out some of the white substance onto her finger and began to prudently smear it all over the wound.

She wouldn’t say it out loud, but he could tell she was becoming shy in his presence. She wouldn’t look at him or the rest of him and only focused on the graze.

“Do you like what you see?” he jokingly remarked.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him.

“I noticed that…you have a lot of scars…” she hesitantly pointed out.

Woobin looked down at his chest and at his arm.

“Eoh,” he nodded.

“What are they from?” she asked, wiping her fingers on a clean cotton pad to get rid of the extra residue.

She went back into the first aid kit to pull out a gauze pad and some medical tape.

“Some of them are from motorcycle accidents,” he coolly stated.

“Mmm,” she nodded her head.

“And some of them…are from my dad…because I got into motorcycle accidents.”

Stunned, she looked up at him and realized the seriousness in his statement.

“He hits you?” she asked, surprised.

He could see the curiosity in her eyes.

She didn’t fail to notice this and not wanting to seem like she was too interested, went back to focusing her gaze on his scar. She placed the gauze pad over the wound, tore off a piece of medical tape, and began securing it against his skin.

“Sometimes,” he answered her question.

“What do you mean?”

“Sometimes he hits me and sometimes pays someone else to do it for him.”

“Why would he do that?”

She knew Chairman Kim was a man of firmness and dignity. But she never imagined that he would lay a hand on his son or even pay someone else to do it.

He was paying her to protect his son and yet behind that corporate façade, Woobin was still being treated like a misbehaved child.

“Because sometimes he’s too ashamed to even look at me, let alone strike me with his own hand,” he confessed.

“That’s…terrible,” was all she could manage.

“Not all of them are on purpose,” he reassured her.

“Before I moved out of my parents’ house, he used to have guards restrain me from sneaking out, and he told them that if I resisted, they could use force. It didn’t matter as long as I wasn’t dead. They were just doing their jobs.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Of course I’m mad,” he snickered. “But it’s the price I pay for being born into this position and not wanting any part of it.”

He doesn’t want this?

Jessica could hardly believe it judging from the way he belittled her into being his housekeeper.

“Do you resent your father?” she asked, putting everything back into the first aid kit and handing him his clean shirt.

She was surprisingly becoming confident in asking him questions.

“I resent everything about him,” he admitted proudly, pulling his shirt over his head.

“But…he does love you.”

He shook his head. “My father doesn’t love me.”

“He must if he’s working this hard to keep you safe,” she countered.

“He’s not doing that because he loves me. It’s because he loves his company. Without me, his company is condemned.”

He got up from the bed and stared into the mirror.

“Is that…why you drink?” she asked carefully, hoping she wouldn’t offend him.

“I know I have a drinking problem,” he conceded.

“You’re a smoker too.”

“I told you, that is purely recreational.”

She laughed slightly.

She was glad to realize that he wasn’t just some twisted living a luxurious lifestyle to please himself.

He apparently had his own problems.

“Acceptance is the first step in recovery,” she pestered.

“What about you?” he asked.

Jessica’s head cocked to the side, puzzled.

“What about me?”

“What about your scars?”

“My what?”

He turned around and picked up her left arm, using his other hand to lift up her sleeve, exposing the various raised scars on her forearm.

She anxiously pulled away from his grip, pushing her sleeve back down.

“It’s nothing,” she assured him, crossing her arms against her body.

“Even noona has some nasty habits,” he stated.

She bit her lip shyly as she stood up. She tried to walk out of his room but he grabbed onto her shoulder and turned her around.

She almost had the urge to grab his hand and flip him over as she would to any assailant, but she resisted.

“Every scar has a story,” he said plainly. “What’s yours?”

“I…don’t want to talk about it.”

“Do you still do it?”

She shook her head violently. “I went to therapy.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t get the urge to,” he pointed out.

She looked down at the floor.

“Was it because of someone important?”

She looked up at him, noticing that all traces of humor or sarcasm had completely faded.

She nodded her head. “It was someone I loved.”

“Ok,” Woobin replied.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know more, but he couldn’t help but be curious.

“After today,” she suddenly started, “you don’t have to be the housekeeper.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“I won’t torture you. Just…help me out around the house…that’s all I’m asking,” she stated.

Woobin silently agreed with a nod of his head.

She started to walk away again but he called out to her.

“Noona.”

She looked at him.

“Thanks…for this…” he said, nudging his head to his shoulder. “Will you do it again tomorrow?”

She looked around, avoiding his gaze and left him in his room without answering.

He wondered if she let him off the hook because she so desperately wanted to change the subject, or because she was embarrassed to finally confess that she was just as weak as he was.

[A/N] Ohh, this chapter was kind of satisfying to write :) Hope you enjoyed!!

Currently working updating this story and hopefully updating "somewhere in time."

CLICK HERE to watch my video teaser for Safe Haven and hope you're all having a wonderful day <3.

- Jasmine