It was now morning and Jeha went to the room that Avianna was in. Miran and her mother were there watching her, but they had fallen asleep. Avianna was up looking out of the window.
He slightly taps on the older woman to wake her up and quickly kicks the chair that Miran is sleeping in.
"Shit!" Miran said and Jeha acted like nothing happened.
"Please return to the hidden home," Jeha says to the housekeeper.
"Oh no. How could I do that?"
"It's fine. She'll be back home this afternoon anyway."
"I don't know-" the housekeeper was very worried.
"Don't worry there are lots of people working here and I'm going to be with her."
"Yeah, lots of people," Miran said. 'I wish she would shut up sometimes' Jeha said to himself.
"All right, we'll head back and get things ready. Keep up the good work." And they leave.
Avianna didn't say anything and continued to look out the window. Her hair was threatening to curl back up. She still had on Miran's work clothes that were a little too tight. And her face just looked drained.
"You'll be going back to the hidden home this afternoon. So tell me what you need before we go back." She ignored him like he wasn't there.
"Nothing? You don't need anything? All right then, that's fine." He said with a deep sigh. He turned to leave her room.
"Why"? He stopped in his tracks. "Why did you bring my dad here." He turned around to look at her and she was staring at him.
"To stop you from dying." He said in a soft voice.
"Why did you care if I die or not?" She stopped looking at him.
"Do you know how many people are distressed because of you?" He walked up to the edge of her bed.
"Distressed? You're right. I'm sorry for making assholes like you distressed." She said shrugging her shoulders.
"Fine. We're assholes. We're bad people who lock you up and watch you... I'd like it if you acknowledged our efforts to protect you!"
"Right? By giving me ice cream ....... to imitate my dad's protection? Or being weird and putting out fucking ramen for me. That's total protection. If that's what it is then I don't need it. So get out?"
Jeha was defeated by her. "Fine, I think..... I made a stupid promise to your dad." This time Jeha walked out and completely left.
Avianna let out a breath that she was holding. But then she started to think about his last words. "Promise?"
*
While all of this was going on, a Korean gossip blogger started to connect the dots of the mysterious "Angel." She released information on where she believes Avianna is located. In the comments of her post people recognized that she was at Dream Forest.
Young Korean teenagers started to become detectives to try and find out who Avianna was. On Twitter Lafelt tweeted "I'll be there soon Korea 😉".
This made the young Korean's search even harder for her.
*
Dong Mi came into Madam Choi's office and laid down the tablet in front of her. "There's been a situation ma'am."
Madam Choi grabbed the tablet and saw Avianna trending again because there was a photo leaked of her when she was in Dream Forest. And her stomach dropped to her ass when she saw Lafayette's tweet.
"Where is Anna right now?" Madam Choi asked in fear.
"She's returning home right now. What should we do?" Dong Mi believes they should just get rid of Avianna. But she could see the inner dialogue that Madam Choi was having with herself.
"I think it's time that you've made a decision, madam." Madam Choi swallowed hard and looked at Dong Mi. She did a slight nod to Madam Choi.
*
Jeha made Miran bring a change of clothes for Avianna from her wardrobe. She had been in Miran's clothes for over a day and it was clear that they were a little too tight.
He walked in and threw the clothes on her sleeping form. "Hey! Get up."
Avianna was startled by being woken up. Once she realized it was him, she shot him a middle finger. "Leave me alone."
"Trust me I want to but you have to go home. Get up and change so we can go." Avianna glared at him, he rolled his eyes at her.
He walked up to the bed and got directly in her face. "Get. Up. Before I drag you out of this bed and ruin both of our days today." Avianna backed away from him. The room started to feel too hot. She wanted to say something snarky but he made her brain short-circuit. Jeha saw her expression and just smirked at her.
"Well, move from my bed so I can change." Jeha straightened his back and stepped away from her bed. She got up quickly and almost ran to the bathroom. And she slammed the door shut.
She found a brush and put her hair in a low bun. It was straight but due to all the mess and sweat it started to curl back up. She'll figure out what to do with her hair later.
She walks out and sees Jeha sitting down in a chair with his legs spread apart. Her eyes curiously drifted down his chest and they continued to travel south. He was focused on his work phone. 'He's a nice-looking man.' She said to herself. Avianna started to feel hot again.
"Are you ready to go?" He interrupted her sinful thoughts trying to creep in.
"Umm..... yeah. I have a question though?"
He raised his eyebrow. "Why did you bring me a change of clothes?"
"The ones you were wearing were too tight." This was true. Mirans were uncomfortable because they were in Korean sizes. And Miran is more slender than her. But not slender enough to fit the ideal standard.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" She crossed her arms which emphasized her chest. Jeha shot his eyes to the door. He liked the way her outfit looked on her but he didn't want to creep her out by checking her out.
"I could just tell it was uncomfortable for you and J4 is smaller than you. So, of course, her clothes don't fit on you. If you don't have any more questions may we go?" He handed her a pair of sunglasses while walking to the door. He remembered she had a light disorder.
*
They were now in the car and it was silent for a big portion of the ride. Avianna took her sunglasses off and started to look at Jeha's side profile. She was in the backseat while he was driving with his sunglasses still on.
His words started to replay in her mind about bad people protecting her. At first, she thought he was bad. The second time they saw each other he was about to shoot her stepmother. But then she replayed the scene of him giving her mouth-to-mouth.
Out of reflex, she bit her bottom lip. He kissed her in a very indirect way. It wasn't her first kiss but still, he kinda kissed her. 'He can't be that bad.' She said to herself. Jeha looked at her from the overhead mirror and she snapped her head away from him.
He slightly smiled to himself, he could feel her staring at him. He was wondering what she was thinking. He wanted to know what caused her to bite her bottom lip. Could it be him?
"What promise?" Jeha didn't answer her. She sat up from her seat and started snapping in his face. "What promise did you make, Mr.Man!"
He snatched her hands "Keep your hands out of my face. And I'm not deaf, Mrs.Girl." He released her hands and took off his glasses. "And sit back properly. My goodness." He said scolding her.
She sat back in her seat. "Your dad asked me to protect you, and I promised him that I would."
Avianna smacked her lips "So it was nothing?"
"Anyways, I did make a promise, so I'll protect you from now on. I'll make sure that nobody will ever touch you again. Even if that may be Choi Yoojin."
"Nobody asked you to." She said with a slight pout.
"Yeah, you're right. Though your dad made such a request of me, you're a grown adult now. I'll stop protecting you if you want me to. So, if that's the case then let me know." He finished that last part while looking at the overhead mirror.
"Got that?" She didn't say anything to him.
"Got that, Avianna?"
She looked out of the window. She hated how he said her name so nicely. Everyone always calls her Anna. She liked that he used her full name.
"Sure." He smiled at her small voice. It was dangerous how attached he was becoming to her. How even when she was being childish he still saw nothing wrong with her.
"Thanks. To grant Dad's request. And for bringing him to me and helping me confirm that he just left us-" She said getting upset.
"Stop being a crybaby. Your dad didn't leave you."
"Crybaby?! You don't know anything! He didn't show up when my mom died or when I got dragged off to Spain!" She sat up and was about to get in his face. He had no idea what she's been through.
"You're right! Your dad is an asshole! A terrible politician!" Jeha started yelling at her as well. "But if he had left you, then you wouldn't be alive right now. Because Choi Yoojin would never risk her fate on uncertainties. That's why you need to fucking grow up. So you can survive the fight against someone like Choi Yoojin." He released a deep sigh.
He hated that he had to talk to her like that but it was the truth. Avianna is not some little girl in Spain being trained to be a nun. She now was in a dangerous tug-of-war that could result in her death. She needed to understand that it's not just about her. It was about how she played a part in a very intricate web of plays of power. A political game of chess if you will.
Avianna wanted to yell back at him. She wanted to let all of the colorful vocabulary she'd learned from her reality show fly off on him. But she didn't. She sat back in her seat because he was right. And she thought about how powerful he was. He walked into Yoojin's house and put a gun to her head. He made Yoojin taste fear. He genuinely could protect her. Avianna decided she was just going to trust him.
"I should not have said that to you like that, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, that was a bit harsh but you're not wrong. I have one thing to ask you though."
"Yeah."
"If I listen to you and follow your lead. And I... I trust you. Do you promise me that you'll never go against me?"
"Are you asking if you can blindly follow my lead? That's dangerous, y'know?"
"What left do I have to lose?" Avianna felt so stupid for asking him that. She decided that she'd just shut up and not speak to him anymore.
"You're answer is yes, Avianna." She smiled to herself and he smiled to himself. She was more smart than she led on to be. And it was nice to know that she trusted him.
They pulled up to the driveway. He got out of the car and went to her side of the car to open the door for her. When he was helping her get out of the car he heard a camera flash.
"Get back in the car and lay low." He said to Avianna.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
•Now this was a good chapter. How do we feel about their little talk? How do feel about Avianna knowing more about her personality? She isn't as innocent as everyone thinks. How do you feel about her last question to him? I like how their relationship is budding. Thank you guys for reading and commenting more. I wanna hear your guy's thoughts.