LEO’s POV

Why does it smell like roses here? So fragrant.

Such a lovely, sweet scent.

The scent of a freshly plucked flower.

But then came another sweet mix to it.

What is it...

Bubblegum?

Ah, yes. Rainbow bubblegums.

I sort of noticed that a soft smile blossomed on my lips.

“Hi.”

I stirred on my sleep, and as I open my eyes, apparently an angel had fallen from the heavens above.

She lied right next to me, in a beautiful white dress. Her jet black hair flew softly to the curves of her back, not necessarily tidy as it fell in an unbroken wavy strings. Her pale skin glimmer under the dim lights of the room, and her dark grey eyes were bright with love.

She looked so ethereal, almost unreal... to be a human.

But I loved her.

I reached forward to caress those soft, gorgeous locks as her pink, luscious lips arched in a small smile.

“Rose.”

“Been a long time,” she said in her usual breathy, husky voice.

“I’m so sorry... for being mad at you,” I said, a faint throb of guilt hit me somewhere in my gut.

She shook her head slowly. “Talk about something else.”

“Well..” I sighed. “You obviously had changed a lot since the first time we met.”

“To the better or the worse?”

“The best,” I exclaimed in an amazement, as she climbed onto my body, putting her chin on my chest.

Even so, she seemed.... troubled.

Her smile disappeared.

“Hmm.. I think it’s the opposite.”

“What do you mean?” I was confused at her sudden change of mood.

Rosie lean on to my side, whispered breathlessly in my ear.

“Did you forget that you ruined me for life..?”

Something stabbed my heart as my eyes were abruptly distracted by the reddening background.

Blood came out of her lower part... stained everything in sight, as she stared right into my eyes in an expression that I had seen from her just twice in my whole life.

“No... Rose...”

“You’re such a pathetic, disgusting person... What right do you have to be angry at me..? I let myself being ruined at your pleasure.. Almost died because of you... Faker...” she smirked as I panicked, pressing her invisible wound with my hands, stained them with blood.

Those words kept on stabbing me through my ears, echoed thousands of times.. drove me crazy...

I clench my ears, covering them with blood-stained hands as my head spin around and my ears rang..

“STOP! NO!!!”

“Taekwoon!!”

“Ugh!”

I jolt awake, when a pair of small, soft hands grabbed my arms, waking me up in the middle of the dim darkness. A figure with long dark hair, thin body and pale skin came slowly into my focus, and I came to a realization that Rosie was still there, even though she looked more.... human.

“Hey, wake up,” she whispered in her husky voice. “It’s alright.”

“Where were you?” I asked, panting. My heart still raced.

“Toilet,” she said, wiping my sweaty forehead with her small hands. “What was that?”

“Nightmare,” I whispered. “The same, as always.”

She sighed, shook her head.

“This has to stop.”

I was still calming myself down, chasing my breath that almost left me, using Rosie as a distraction from my nightmare. She sat at the edge of the bed, still caressing my cheeks softly as my heart beat slowed down. I ran a hand through my hair, sighing a long breath.

She’s here. It’s alright, she’s fine.

She forgive me already.

I studied Rosie’s tired face, even then noticing the dark eyebags under her pale eyes. She had worked so much lately, I could tell. Her form was way more beautiful than anything that I’ve ever seen in my twenty eight years of living, even when her bone frames protrude more, indicating a sudden loss of great amount of weight.

“I love you,” I whispered, reaching out to trace her lips with my thumb.

She managed to smile weakly.

“I love you even more.”

I couldn’t contain the mixed feelings verging in sadness yet glad that she was still willingly be mine. I lunged forward, wrapped her in my arms tightly as I let my lips met hers, and soon as she opened up to me, let our tongues danced together in a breathy kiss. I traced her chin, jaw, neck and shoulder blade as she let out a sudden relieved, long sigh, letting me dominate again and again. I lowered her body to the bed, kissing her fully in her lips again as she gave up to me, entwining our fingers together above her head. Letting our forms danced in the dim lights once more for the night.

“Ready?” I called for her as I could still heard rattling sounds in the kitchen.

A minute later, the woman showed up with a wide grin and proudly shook three-stacks of lunch boxes in front of my face, and we started walking towards the elevator to the basement. Even though she was limping due to her minor injury in her ankle when she was practicing Taekwondo for her upcoming action movie, she still look extremely energetic.

“What are those?” I asked nonchalantly, while helping her to walk.

“For you and the oppas,” she said happily. “I made breakfasts. Make sure you guys eat well.”

I sighed, taking the packed lunch boxes from her. “You really don’t have to.”

“I want to. You guys don’t eat well last time I visited, and I don’t like it,” she firmly responded, while getting into the passenger’s seat. I put the lunch boxes on the back seat, and started the engine to drove out of my building.

I yawned, doing my best to drive carefully. It was still five in the morning, and the street lights lit the streets lazily. The streets were still dark and quite empty. Rosie had the audio, played my group’s old collab song with Oksang Dalbit, I’m a Boy, You’re A Girl. She sang to my lines perfectly, even though her voice was still very husky in the morning.

My eyebrows raised.

“You seem especially energetic today.”

“Guess why.”

“Because you’re going to Japan in three hours, and you’re going to film with Sato Takeru?” I annoyedly said.

She giggled. “Oh, you’re the best, dear.”

I grumbled. I’m alone in this mood.

“You chose him over me for the weekends? What kind of a wife will you be..” complaining seemed like the best resort.

This time she laughed.

Okay it sounded like music in my ears, but I kept my annoyed look as I turned to get into the highways.

“Taekwoon, please. It’s just a filming for an ad. And, he already had a girlfriend.” She chewed on a bubblegum. “Oh, and you missed one point.”

“What?”

“Last night was.. amazing,” she said, bashfully.

I choked on my own saliva, and I could feel heat rised to my cheeks and ears. I didn’t reply, just scanned my card and drove quickly into the highways. I really didn’t want her to be late.

Yes, today was a special day for her. She was contracted to advertise SK-II’s newest line of products along with Sato Takeru, a Japanese actor, and she had been bragging about it for the whole week whenever she had the chance.

But my expression turned darker when I remember my own schedule for today.

Something I honestly, really never wanted to do.

Well, I happen to only have one thing to do today, and after that I just needed to go to practice my duet with Wonshik.

Just one thing I really despise.

But I have to do this for her.

Yes, for her.

So it’s okay. Because if she were me, I know she would do the same.

I tried hard controlling my expression as I drove out of the highways into the main roads, closing in to her beauty salon. I took a glance on the digital clock on the dash, and it was 5.30 in the morning. The skies were brighter, and I could see a spark of orange in the pale, dark blue sky.

Soon after, my Corvette took a turn into a smaller street where her beauty salon was located. But what we saw in front of us was more than shocking.

Already a group of young boys and girls lined up in front of the salon, making a small crowd, yet enough to be seen from afar. I thought it was a flock of paparazzi, but when I parked my car...

“Oh, wow,” Rosie exclaimed, leaning up front to see clearly. “There’s my fans, and...”

“Starlights,” I whispered, in a shock.

“Why would your Starlights be here?” she worriedly asked, turning to me. “They can’t possibly know..”

“No, they don’t,” I answered. “The fancafe posted my schedule today and it was only my practice with Wonshik. They’re.. here for you.”

Rosie sighed. I could sense a faint nervousness about her.

“I’ll take you,” I said firmly.

“Don’t,” she quickly replied. “We don’t know how they would react over this.”

I shook my head, and pulled her hand away just when she was about to put on a mask to cover her face.

“Trust me, I know my fans. Don’t cover yourself,” I took her mask away. “People would think you’re disturbed by them.”

Rosie finally complied to my command, and with the last sigh, she looked straight into my eyes, as if implicating the words ‘I trust you’.  We nodded at each other, and with a sharp pull of breath, got out of the car.

We met in front of my Corvette, and I quickly grabbed her hand, led her way. She shot me a surprised look, yet I kept on walking forward as the crowd of fans, which was bigger than I thought it was, started to gather around our way. They cheered, called our names, shrieked and squealed. Some of them bid us a good morning, and her fans cheered for her.

I noticed several familiar faces amongst the Starlights crowd, and I nodded with a small smile towards them. Surprisingly enough, they didn’t show any signs of negativity. In fact, they cheered Rosie more than me, and I knew Rosie was shocked with the treatment. I smiled, tightened my grip on her hand.

“Unnie, you’re so pretty!”

“She’s not wearing make up at all, wow.”

“Unnie, are you alright?”

“Taekwoon-oppa!!”

“Leo-oppa, you’re driving your wife by?” the crowd laughed.

“Unnie, fighting! Get well soon!”

“Ooooohhhh...~”

They exclaimed giddily as I put my arm around Rosie’s waist, helping her to walk up to the stairs into the building as she was still limping badly. After we stepped on to the lobby entrance, we bowed towards the crowd of fans. Rosie even gave out a loud and cheerful ‘Thank you’ for a while, and the crowd kept on cheering and laughing. They were still there even when we turned into the building and climbed the stairs to second floor.

“The best... human barriers in life,” she suddenly murmured.

I hugged her shoulders tightly. “I told you so.”

She smiled. “I love you so.”

I laughed.

“Thank you for your valor, willingness and loyalty to serve your country. Here’s your deployment details, everything you need would be inside the file. You will be expected to show up on November 25^th in Osan Air Base, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do. Should you wanted to take the train, you could take one heading to Songtan Station. Make sure to be groomed properly. Next.”

“Thank you.”

I swallowed a bitter lump of saliva, knowing that ‘groomed properly’ meant I had to shave my head when the time comes. Not that I’m scared to be near-bald-headed, I was just... not used, to that feeling.

I walked away from the counter, and found a place to sit down next to Shinwoo-hyung and examine the papers inside the brown file the admin gave me.

“How did it go?” he asked. “Everything’s inside?”

I nodded.

“When?”

“November 25^th... two months from now,” I muttered, checking the result of my medical check-up procedure that I secretly did two weeks ago. The letter ‘A-1’ was stamped at the bottom right column of the report, indicating that I was at the top health condition and perfect to enlist. Next page, criminal record, zero. Next page, portraits needed and personal informations, complete.

Shinwoo-hyung pat my shoulder.

“It’s for the better, okay? Remember, the sooner the better? You’re doing this for your wife-to-be. Be strong,” he said, as we stood up and walked out of the building. I could sense some people staring at me from the queue nearby.

“Yeah.”

We got into the van, and I sighed as I put on my seatbelt. Driving here using my own Corvette would drew too much attention, like Shinwoo-hyung said, and I just complied with him driving me in the company van.

“Where do you want to go next? The practice with Wonshik is still in three hours,” Shinwoo-hyung asked while driving out of the lane.

“Apgujeong, Chopard Boutique,” I said firmly.

Shinwoo-hyung nodded, and continued driving.

My phone suddenly rang, and a certain ringtone blast.

“Hmm, Rose,” I answered, with a smile that unconsciously came up.

“I’m going to board in thirty minutes,” her voice sounded really husky, accompanied with loud noises around her.

“I’m going to miss you, take care, drink a lot, be careful when you walk.”

She chuckled.

“Right, right. I’ll miss you too.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t take you there.”

“I’ll blame Wonshikie.”

I laughed. She didn’t know my other plans.

“Come home quickly, okay.”

“Three days would be nothing, dear. Enjoy your time without my nagging.”

“Actually I love your nags. It’s music to my ears.”

“Hmm. Right. And, Taekwoon..”

“What?”

“I love you so much, okay? Whenever you wanted to execute your missions, I’m ready.”

I sighed.

How could she still be cheeky despite the hint of sadness in her voice?

“Alright. Just... promise me you’ll be happy there.”

“And promise me, you’ll find a way to get over those nightmares.”

A faint jab hit my heart.

“Oh... alright.” I honestly didn’t know what to do about that.

“Okay. Oh, I gotta go. I love you.”

“Love you more.”

She ended the phonecall, and my heart still went on a free-fall everytime she ended the line.

I already have a plan in my mind for so long, and now that Rosie had willingly complied with it, I should fulfill them.

Even though the timing’s still a surprise for her.

Even though I still don’t know what to do with those nightmares.