~Tao~

He woke up holding Min-hee closer then he remembered. He didn't mind, he liked it a lot actually, she was warm, her sleeping face was cute, she was cuddly and soft, like a teddy bear--except, actually alive and breathing softly.

He'd taken off her glasses when she'd fallen asleep, and he'd never noticed how long her eyelashes were, how pretty they were. He'd gotten maybe two hours of sleep. He couldn't sleep with her right there, so he ended up just staring at her. It was a lot of damn time to look at her, he could almost paint her. He was surprised he got to sleep at all. He may have momentarily forgotten about the boss and Lu Han and her stalker, but it was back in the forefront of his mind already.

None of that was what woke him, though, it was his phone buzzing that woke him. He gently eased out of the embrace, trying not to wake Min-hee, then answered the phone, whispering a groggy, "Hello?"

"And you finally answer." It was Kris, Tao smiled.

"Can't you say hello like a person?" Tao asked, smiling. Whenever Kris called, it always made him smile. Kris had been his best friend for years. Tao was lying to him about the money too, but Kris seemed the most likely to still like him if the truth came out.

"That's not my style." Kris said flatly. "You seen Min-hee?"

Tao absently stroked Min-hee's cheek, he supposed she must be not wearing any makeup, her face was so soft. "Yeah, I'm with her."

"Good, then Baekhyun can stop his b*tching."

"Is Baekhyun alright?" Tao asked.

"He's fine, he just needs to stop whining."

"Okay, see you, then, I've got to go over there later."

"Alright." Kris said, then hung up. Kris had never been one for long phone conversations, said it was impersonal.

Tao set the phone down on the nightstand next to Min-hee's. Then crawled over Min-hee to get off the bed. She had her mouth slightly open as she slept, her soft lips seeming way too close.

Dammit, Chanyeol was right. Tao would probably never hear the end of this, Chanyeol loved to be right.

He paused for a minute, looking her over. Whoever it was that took her hadn't appeared to hurt her, at least not in a visible way, but from the way she frowned in her sleep last night, something bothered her.

Then he got up, heading over to the closet. He hated sleeping in his clothes, but he hadn't really felt like changing and he was pretty sure Min-hee would be uncomfortable with him just stripping down to his underwear.

He took out a white hooded sweatshirt and a pair of black jeans. Then headed out of the room to the bathroom down the hall to change. You never quite knew how uncomfortable some clothes were until you slept in them.

After getting dressed, and throwing the clothes he'd slept in in the laundry basket, he started on making himself look decent. His eyes always looked puffy in the mornings, and his hair was sticking every direction it could. When he was brushing his teeth he heard Min-hee yell.

It didn't sound overly panicked, so he went back to his room and peeked around the door, checking on her. She'd fallen out of the bed, and was currently searching all over the floor on her hands and knees for her glasses, obviously not seeing them on the nightstand.

Tao went in and took the black glasses off the table, then knelt in front of her, brushing his hand over hers to let her know he was there so she could stop reaching around so he could place the glasses on her face.

Min-hee blinked when she had them on, adjusting them slightly, then looking at him with wide eyes. He supposed he did still have his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth, and he hadn't even gotten to his hair yet, he must look a little ridiculous.

"Thank you." Min-hee said shortly, giving him a bow of her head and sitting on her knees.

"It's not a problem." Tao mumbled around the toothbrush, it coming out sounding like gibberish. Then he saw a piece of paper by her foot. "What's that?" He mumbled, pointing at it, still probably unintelligible for the most part around that toothbrush.

Min-hee looked back at it, and recognition dawned in her eyes, along with fear. Then she picked it up, looking over it quick before handing it to him like she didn't like touching it.

Tao frowned, taking the paper and reading over it himself.

Hey, Bastard

Lulu wants you to choose a side by the end of tomorrow, or I get sexy Min-hee all to myself--forever. Doesn't that sound fun? Please screw up so I can have her, so I can defile her ;)

To kill, or not to kill, that is the question. Answer by midnight, or prepare an epitaph ;D

It wasn't signed, but Tao knew it had to be, who else could it be? Someone working for 'Lulu', had to be that stalker creep. Tao balled the note up and threw it behind him. He couldn't do anything about that note at the moment, he couldn't make a decision yet.

He took the toothbrush out of his mouth, then leaned toward Min-hee, putting his hands on her shoulders. "It's alright, Min-hee, I won't let him touch you." He rubbed her shoulders slowly, trying to comfort her. "I told you, I'm going to protect you."

Min-hee looked away, taking her glasses off and sniffling. "So you're just going to agree with them? Get deeper into this mess with all these gangs, and fighting, and killing and running and hiding and--!" Min-hee's voice had steadily climbed to yelling, and she bit her lip. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... Just, Tao, Please..."

He pulled her into a hug. "I didn't say I was going to do that." He said rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head.

Min-hee buried her face in his chest. "No, please don't do that, I don't want you to have to worry about me..." Her voice was muffled, so she might have been speaking loudly, but it sounded soft.

Tao sighed. "Then what the hell should I do, Min-hee? The boss is probably already devising some way to use you as leverage, the deadline for the job is in three days. If you have an idea, then please tell me."

"I don't know! Isn't there some way to...make them both think they're getting what they want? Some way so you don't have to do what they ask?" She asked, gripping his sweatshirt tight.

"It's not that easy, they have too many people watching, they'd know if I was betraying either one of them." Tao knew what he had to do, the choice was between what he had to lose, what was worse, who could do the most damage and had enough manpower to back it up. It wasn't much of a choice, just a matter of picking his poison.

"I don't want you to get hurt, I don't want you to leave again..." Min-hee said into his chest.

Her voice made Tao's heart skip. He didn't want to have to leave again either, he'd already decided on staying, there was no way he was leaving Min-hee alone again. He saw how much it hurt her now, how much it made her upset.

He stood up, pulling Min-hee with him. "I'll think over it all okay? We have all day to think about it, that's plenty of time." It was hardly any damn time at all, but he'd say anything to get Min-hee to stop worrying. "You want breakfast?"

Min-hee was quiet and still at first, then she nodded.

~~~

Tao wasn't that good of a cook. Maybe that was a stretch--he was a terrible cook. He tried, stayed glued to cookbooks, reading the instructions over and over, studying it like he had to take a test on it after. But that was probably why he always burned everything, why he always overcooked everything, he was trying too hard to follow the book.

So when he 'cooked' breakfast, he really just made Min-hee cereal and coffee. It was one thing he was sure he couldn't possibly screw up.

It made her laugh when he set it on the dining table in front of her. After the note, Tao was glad he could make her laugh.

"Shush, I tried very hard, Min-hee." He whispered, leaning down by her ear.

"I can see that." She said, still laughing. "Cereal is very hard to make, the milk to cereal ratio has to be perfect."

Tao hit her shoulder playfully. "Damn right, took me an entire five minutes." He said before getting his own bowl of cereal and sitting next to her.

Min-hee smiled for a while, then her smile faded. She was thinking about the note again, thinking about the decision they'd eventually have to come to, the decision he didn't want to make.

Tao didn't know what to tell her, but then, he didn't know what to tell himself. They'd both probably victimize Min-hee, they'd both try to kill him.

Tao leaned his head on Min-hee's shoulder. He Might already know what he wanted and what he was going to choose, he just wished it didn't have to be this way.

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A/N: I Think...when you mess up jello, then your cooking skills must be terrible, because it has like 3 steps, and all you need is water.

I have messed up Jello xD

And an epitaph is the quote or a saying on a tombstone. Like On Edgar Allan Poe's, it says, "Quoth the Raven nevermore." I say this only because I know a few people who had no idea what an epitaph was :)