“Ah, so the princess has woken up from her deep slumber”

An eerie silence fell upon the room for a while. The man is now sitting crossed leg in front of Naeun, staring down at her, grinning slyly. Then he asks, “Should I keep you, or should I kill you once I’m done with that rich brat? What do you think?”

Naeun didn’t say anything, well most likely, she can’t say anything since is taped. She glares, and glares, without moving an inch. But wait, which rich brat?

“Haha did you see his face when I told them to take you away?” he laughs raucously, and Naeun notices a golden teeth shining among the other teeth. “It was priceless. Who knows the almighty Luhan who always look so confident in meetings and conference, have you as his weakness, that is truly fatal.”

 Luhan? This involves Luhan?

“Ahh.. you were unconscious, I’m sorry.”

Luhan glared at his father bravely, or at least he tried to look brave. “I can’t, father. I don’t want to change school, you promised me if I agree to take over your company you’ll let me choose when I want to choose.”

“Well, how can you take over the company if you die before you can do so?!!”

He said it, and Luhan sighed. It was the company, which his father was worrying about, not his safety. They were in his father’s reading room. His father asked to see him after dinner and he knew this subject would come eventually. “I can take care of myself; I bet they won’t do those things to me anymore, now that the things have become so big… I even went to hangout with them last night. They apologized to me…”

“That school is not safe, plus it’s not even a good school I told you so many times before…”

“I have someone I want to marry”

“What?!!” his father was clearly shocked by the news. “Is that why?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t have a girl at this critical time. You can barely afford to protect yourself, how can you have a girl, she’ll be in danger!”

“What… what do you mean?”

His father shook his head as he took the seat to calm down. “Luhan, you are my only son, the only heir, others will try to stop you and prevent you from taking the throne and for that they’ll do anything. Human and greed, you know how they are… That’s why I’m trying to put extra caution on you.”

“Are you saying that there are people who’ll try to kill me?”

“You have to break up with the girl…”

“What no, father, I can’t!”

“Yes you can. You’re still young so maybe you don’t know. But it will pass. You can’t afford any relationship right now, not until you’re stable. Or else the girl might get hurt…”

That left the boy speechless. Naeun. Hurt. No. He tried to find words to argue, to defend himself, to say that he can do it but… he could not find any.

He dragged his feet out of the reading room, too heavy, too slow. Before he closed the door behind him, he agreed to change school. And his father apologized.

Luhan didn’t say anything.

Apologies can’t mend a broken heart.

“Just kill me and let her go,” he begs, voice too hoarse and body too ill. It was cold and puff of white forms as he breathe and pants. He doesn’t know where he is but it is dark and his hands are tied at his back and his feet are tied together too.

“I would love too, but not now my dear, where’s the fun to that if we kill you now”

“Besides, we’re just taking orders. And the order to kill you haven’t arrived so…”

Luhan groans, frustrated. There are blood spilling from his mouth to the floor.  “Let her go. You wanted me, here I am, so let her go”

“You have no right to order us anything, kid”

Someone kicks his head from behind. The world shakes and spin and it hurt so damn much.

Not long before his mind went blank. Not long before his vision turns black.

He remembered cringing as he watched Naeun her peppermint ice cream. Eyes narrowed, and nose scrunched, as if she was doing the most ridiculous thing in the world. “How can you eat that?” he remembered asking the girl, and he remembered seeing the girl rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Duh- if we can’t eat it, what’s the point of selling? Besides, it’s personal preference, I don’t need you to judge my ice cream preference. And it’s good, at least to me, thank you very much.”

Luhan shrugged because yeah, she has reasonable points. Then he started to eat his chocolate ice cream. It was their first ice cream together. He had forced her to come, by threatening her of course, why else would she be here with him.

He has been bothering her to come for a week, but when she kept on saying no, he thought of threatening her and it worked. ‘It’s not a date’, she emphasized before she agreed. Luhan nodded and grinned. Date or not, as long as they can be together, he doesn’t really care what is it.

“Only girls eat chocolate ice cream,” she said sarcastically, not looking at him and kept focusing on finishing her ice cream.

“Uh. Hello, there’s no written agreement that says only girls can eat chocolate. So what if I like chocolate, they are good!” Luhan sounded very defensive; she threw an annoyed look at him.

See, this boy has been bothering her for a week and she was irritated by his persistence and determination, that’s why she agreed. So he told Daehyun that she has things to settle after school and asked him to go home without her.

She needed to tell Luhan to stop wasting his time because she’s not interested. That this will be the last. That she won’t listen to any of his request after this.

“Naeun-ah. Let’s come here again next week,” he said, smiling so wide, so bright, leaving Naeun speechless as she stared at the boy beside her.

“Hey, your ice cream is melting, hurry up and eat”

Naeun turned her gaze away.

The next time, she did not have the heart to break that smile away from his face, or kill those shining eyes that were looking at her with hope and anticipation.

In years to come, the question was no longer whether if she has the heart or not, she simply can’t. And he loves it when he knows that he’s one of her weakness, one of the person she could not simply win over.

He remembered that he loved to , seeing her go red and threw punches everywhere.

He remembered that he loved her shy smiles, her scary frowns, her addictive laughter, her frustrating cries, her everything. He remembered loving her. He remembered being loved by her.

“Luhan, hang on!”

The couple was sitting in the living room on the couch at Himchan’s house, watching drama, but not exactly concentrating on the drama. Jiyeon was comfortable on his lap, with her back on his chest, cradling her tight in his embrace, resting his head on top of hers, legs tangling and fingers twining.

And he was happy. Truly. Now that Daehyun’s gone.

“Don’t you have homework?” she casually asked, playing with his hand quietly, drawing circles and sometimes she wrote words she couldn’t say herself.

Not that he knows what she was doing and tries to guess, anyway.

“I’ll do it later,” he said, burying his head to the crook of her neck, pulling her closer because she’s naturally cold and he has warmer body temperature. He secretly hoped that she would drop the subject and not ask him to do it right then. He wanted to hold her longer. Damn, why does she smell so nice today?

“I should go home…”

Wait, nooo. “It’s still early, stay a little longer. I’ll send you home.” His attempt not to sound so desperate failed. She chuckled and he thought, he doesn’t mind that it failed.

“No, it’s not that it’s late or not. I felt something is not right.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know…” Jiyeon moved from Himchan’s lap to sit beside him. She looked serious and he knows not to mess up when she is serious. So he listened, because the last time he didn’t listen to her when she said something felt wrong, Daehyun almost died and the other time, Himchan’s cat died.

“I think I need to go home”

Nooo. He wanted to stop her, really, to ask her to stay for the night because he suddenly felt scared. What if something happened to her this time?

They stared at each other for a long time.

Then a phone call came, shocking the two souls, and it was Daehyun. He looked at her, questioning her with his eyes. Now, why does answering Daehyun’s phone call need to be so nerve-wracking?

“Boss, we need to settle this faster. They called the police,” a man from outside the garage appears skinny, blocking the light from entering the building.

“!!!” the man with the golden teeth curses and spits. Heavy breath from the tension came out from his dark mouth. He then glares at Naeun who still lying on the floor and suddenly yanks her roughly by her hair. She groans in pain. “No stop it hurts!” but he paid no mercy to her begs.

The man drags her as if she is a corpse and pulls her hair towards the man waiting outside the garage. She screams as she felt her body burns as her skin scratches the floor but the man did not stop. Tears immediately trickle from her eyes as she cries.

Once they reach the door, the man that pulled her let her hair goes, throwing back her head like throwing away a thrash. “Bring them to the jetty and get rid of them as fast as possible. Then clean the place and get out before the police arrive.”

The man outside the garage then yanks Naeun to his shoulder as she struggles in his grip.

“Don’t leave a single trace.”

She tries to kick the unconscious man to wake him up. He is bleeding so much and he looks pale and terrible so she tried to kick as slow as she can, not to worsen the injury. Please wake up, Luhan. Pleaaaaasee.

They are at the back of a small, moving lorry, the man that took her dumped her there and she was glad to see Luhan at first, but then turns to worry when she saw his condition. From the conversation that she heard, she assumed that they are being taken to a jetty, wherever it is.

And she needs to wake Luhan up before they arrive.

A few more kicks and Luhan is coughing as he winces in pain, thank God. She heaved a relieved sigh. But his breathing is heavy and he looks so weak and in pain that for a fraction of seconds she regretted waking him up. He groans and her heart hurt to see him like that.

She cries silently.

It took few minutes before he calm down and finally turn to her. “Are you alright?” he asked difficultly, still panting heavily.

, Lu? How can you ask me that when you’re the one who is half way dying?!! But she nodded frantically, still crying, but the sound muffled because she still have that ing tape on .

“I’m sorry” his eyes half lidded, head still hurts, his whole body hurts that all he ever wanted is just to close his eyes and drift away. But Naeun moves from her place, fidgeting, dragging her body to be behind him and soon, he felt her hand searching for his.

Few moments later, after struggling and crying, she finally got his hands free. And although he is tired as hell, he moves to pull away the tape from and quickly works his way to free her trembling hand.

“Once you are free, run. You got me?” Naeun’s hands are free too, and he’s working on untying Naeun’s leg. His hands tremble too, but his voice is firm. Naeun shook her head anyway.

“Hell I’m not leaving without you,” she is still crying, and she’s crying harder.

“ Naeun, this is not some Hollywood romance movie.”

The night was dark and the air smells nasty. There is no moon, juts the neon street light to accompany. Words fail her when their eyes meet, though her vision blurs from the tears that won’t stop dripping. No no no, her heart screams. He smiles painfully, and the image is agonizing because blood still stains his face and it hurts her to see.

“I love you,” she says, after a lot of thinking and self-restraint. That’s the only thing that plays in her mind at the time and it felt like she could burst if she keep it to herself. He freezes in his spot, not moving but struggles to search for her eyes, to read the truth from it.

It was her first confession and he was not ready for it.

She’s not lying so she brave herself to meet his eyes back, to let him search all he wants, but the truth stays the same. “Damn I love you, Lu. That’s why, we have to leave together. We have to run together.”

They stare at each other for a few more seconds. Making sure he got her message, she tears her gaze off to focus on freeing his legs. They need to hurry, she reminds herself, before they reach the destination.

“,” she heard him curses. But she didn’t stop. “, Naeun. Why now?”

“I don’t know! I just… You’re the one who failed to read me. You were always right when you read me, just that one night…”

“I didn’t fail,” he cuts her off and sighed. Baffled, “What?” she responds.

“I knew you love me and I know you still love me…”

Heart torn to pieces. “Then why? Why did you break up with me?”

“Because I thought if I stay longer, I might really break if you finally decided to confess to me, if that happens then I really can’t let you go.”

“Then don’t let go! What the hell Luhan, what’s so hard about that?!!”

Suddenly the lorry comes to a halt, and the tension run through their vein again. Have they reached the jetty that the man talked about? They heard the sounds of door opens and closes, then footsteps on hundred pebbles, coming closer to the back of the lorry.

Naeun and Luhan stare at each other, eyes full of anxiousness and worry, sweat trickling from their tensed body. Naeun couldn’t held her tears, she clutches to Luhan’s hand tighter, scared to lose him, determined to run together. “Naeun, I can’t run with my condition. Do me a favor and leave…”

And she shook her head because no, she don’t want to leave him. She felt her chest hurt, it’s getting hard to breath and her head ache as the tears fell too easily, too fast, too much.

She closes her eyes when he gathers his strength to caress her face, wiping the tears, and she leans to his touch, treasuring every seconds. “Hey,” he whispered, as he leans closer and let their lips meet gently, soft and beautiful yet heartbreaking. She kisses him back, no doubt or insecurity.

When he pulls back, she has stop crying. He looks into her eyes deep, sending assuring gaze, that everything will be all right and she has to believe him.

“…run, okay?”

Stupid ing bastard. , Luhan. you! She curses as she run. There are three men guarding them. She managed to knock two of them down on her way down from the lorry with her Taekwando skill. But that won’t last long, soon after that, one of them is chasing after her, then after a while another one joined them on the run.

She tries to speed up before BANG! And she fall, face first, slumped to the ground. that hurts. “Come back here, or he die!” she hears one of the man shouts from afar. When she turns around, he has Luhan in his hand and a gun pointing at Luhan’s neck.

The two men that were chasing after her pant and grinned slyly. “Uh huh. Think we’re gonna let you go just like that huh?”

Naeun growl angrily. She glares at the man holding Luhan, going back stomping pass the two men. “Let him go motherer!” tries to look fearless, though her whole body never stop trembling. She prays to god silently, to let them both pass this night safely.

“Stop right there,” the gun now pointing at her, causing Luhan to whimper helplessly in his grip. And she stops. And he smirk.

Then the two who were chasing after quickly grab her arms and lift her up so that her feet does not touches the ground. Both Luhan and she then was dragged to the end corner of the jetty and she shivers at the sounds of the waves and the sight of the sea. Shoot!

She sees the gun is pointing back at Luhan’s head and she squirms with all her strength left that she has, trying to get away from the two man’s grip. She screams her lungs out to beg the man ‘Stop!!! No don’t shoot him!!!’ ache from it. “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEE DON’T KILL HIM PLEASEEE DON’T”

“Naeun?”

“Stop!”

“Dae?”

BANG!