Thorned Rose // chae hyungwon (#31)

Thirty-five

Yiwon

"But I can't stop worrying about you, my heart right here says that I need to protect you no matter what or I will never feel at ease." That lingered in my head longer than I have expected, I have never expected Chae Hyungwon to ever say this to me.

He is never serious about anything at all and he jokes around with me all the time, always pissing me off all the time and not leaving me alone and today he told me that he needed to protect me to feel at ease. He knows that he can't protect me with his martial arts because he doesn't know any but he will still protect me with all of his life and he will do it, he wasn't just thinking of me as a friend but something more than that.

I get it, things like that can happen between two people at some point when you get a little too comfortable with each other and Chae Hyungwon felt something more than that and he liked me, the same as I felt for him when he comforted me on the day that I cried in front of him for the first time, he is never that caring but he is and he just needed a bit more time to get comfortable with someone and I guess that I have gone past that for him to feel something more for me.

"A penny for your thoughts, Yiwon ssi?" I looked up and it was Kihyun, the boss of this restaurant and the other person who knows my true identity, I can't believe that Chae Hyungwon told him that I was an illegal immigrant who came to South Korea without a passport and I drifted my way here by jumping into the ocean which led me to the city of Gwangju.

"Nothing much," I told him. "I am just tired from work, don't need to worry too much about me. And I need to thank you for not freaking out about my secret." I said to him.

"I did freak out, but just not in front of you. I stoned for 25 minutes while chaos took control of my brain and I nearly yelled at myself for not noticing anything that was strange about you and that you are not from here at all, you were like a princess in your home country." He said and I nearly laughed because I could imagine the entire scene unfold in front of me. "You were horrible, you should have told me that from the start and I will be able to accept the fact right away rather than to know the entire thing months later and we live in the same apartment."

"I can't let everyone know about my secret or my whereabouts is going to get exposed and I told Hyungwon to not tell you even though we all live together and you were the only ones who were kept in the dark." I apologized to him. "I am so sorry that I couldn't tell you the truth, I didn't have a choice and now I am worried that my father would come over to get me."

"Did Hyungwon's posters worsen this situation?" He asked about the posters that Chae Hyungwon pasted it on every single part of the restaurant, I seriously thought that he wouldn't try to do that but he did that and that made me hate him for the entire day. "He is just attracting more attention towards you than anything else, it is bad enough that your father's men knew that you were in Gwangju but soon they will come looking for you in this restaurant because of Chae Hyungwon."

I nodded my head, that was what I am most worried about, Yoo Kihyun can keep his mouth shut but not Chae Hyungwon, he is already doing something without my permission and he is putting my life in trouble without intending to. "Can you make sure that he doesn't try to do anything like that again? I have only started to live this new life not too long ago and I don't want my father to come to look for me and dragging me back, I would die than to go back there."

"Is it very miserable there?" He asked me and I nodded my head, it is the place that I was born and raised in and I should be happy that I was living in such a huge mansion and being treated like a princess but I wasn't happy. No matter how rich I am, I was never happy and I was only going along with what my father wants me to do.

"I have reached the breaking point that I couldn't take it anymore and I left the empire for a life like this, it is different but I don't hate it. It is all thanks to you and Chae Hyungwon that I can be the Woo Yiwon." I said to him. "You can call me Sana if you want, it is my name before I left the empire for good."

He shook his head. "You don't like this name, that is a reason why you chose to be Yiwon and you shall be Woo Yiwon for the rest of your life."

I smiled at his words. "Thank you for saying that, Chae Hyungwon can never be like that," I told him.

"He is just being himself, don't mind him too much and I will make sure to stop him from exposing your true identity." He said to me. "You are not only my employee but you are also my roommate and my friend, we have to protect you from your father no matter what."

"Thank you, Yoo Kihyun," I said to him. "Let's close up the shop as soon as possible or Chae Hyungwon is going to yell at us for not being home in time for dinner and we are wasting his efforts to make dinner for us."