THE LEGENDARY HOT GIRL | ATEEZ 18+

7 | WHEN'S THE WEDDING

"You're beautiful," he says. He practically drools at the sight of me, a literal dog he is. But even bitches could control their barking better than he could. "Probably the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on. I've been around the world and back yet I've never saw true beauty until this day."

Yes, yes, yes.

I've heard this all before.

"Thank you, sir," I grin like the pretty woman I knew I was.

Seonghwa is nowhere's to be found so I'm left to fend for myself in the huge gathering of influential men, many of whom had no sort of respect for me without his presence. But I suppose respect had to be earned— I will gain it soon, sure enough.

I excuse myself to find the twins, wherever the hell they were. I was astonished by the lack of women at this gathering. Why haven't these men brought their wives? Are they some sort of secret? Have they hidden them in their basement?

Everything just felt extremely uncomfortable and the only sort of comfort I could find were the brothers who were nowhere to be found. I've never felt this nervous since I nearly got blacked-out drunk at Jongho's eighteenth birthday, there was a huge hoard of men just taunting me and having their turns slinging me in their arms on the dance floor. If it wasn't for the security then I'd probably wish I was dead.

Much like now.

I'd probably rather be dead than to stand here with these power-hungry, usurping men.

"Grace?" I hear my name being called.

The voice isn't far so I figure it's someone near me. I turn around until I find myself staring back at someone I don't know, someone who seemed to know me. He looked at me as though he hadn't seen me in forever, as if we knew each other. He approaches me with a charming grin befitting his beautiful face and suddenly I'm not so opposed to speaking to him.

"Do I know you?" I ask.

His lips form into a gentle smile and his eyes mock the same expression. "2012, we went to Haven Hall Rehabilitation together."

2012.

Haven Hall Rehab.

I went back to America at 11 years old with my mother, she took me so that she could claim child support from him and ended up locking me in a mental hospital. For three years I spent the beginning of my adolescence locked in a mental institution where I was confined majority of the time and drugged to the point where I couldn't even remember my name.

But there was one thing I did remember.

One person. 

"Hongjoong?" I smile the hardest I ever have for as long as I could remember. I was truly happy, in this moment I was. It was like a ray of sunshine after a long thunderstorm, like a drop of rain after an everlasting drought.

I wanted to hug him but I knew I had to refrain from doing so, so I stood there and gawked my eyes at him. "How'd you get here?"

"I was invited," he says.

So... he was a mobster too?

"I would've never gotten out of there if it wasn't for you," I want to cry right then and there just thinking about it. It was probably one of the roughest, most challenging periods of my life. Not only was I young, but I was clueless as well. I was a kid and I didn't know any better, I had no idea as to why any of that was happening to me.