CHAPTER 2

"It's funny, really… I hate wearing skirts but I endured it ALL for the girls!" Jun said happily. The gang and I came to apologize to her and we ended up getting drinking at her place. Noda and the rest kept asking her questions as the drinks poured in. They found Jun's life very interesting.

"So, even though you went to an all-girls school in America, why'd you end up here? I want to hear all of the details!" Uchi says while looking very plastered. Jun smiles at him and it seems that I'm the only one who noticed that she wasn't drinking up at all. But then again, so was I.

"Well, I'm popular with girls and so the girls there just started asking for my number. It wasn't a Catholic school but there were lots of Christians there and they started noticing things about me. Though Americans say that their country isn't conservative at all, their country really is! Those Christian girls ganged up on me, got evidence and the school board of directors decided to expel me because of PDA." She drank a bit of the cola she had then and continued, "Also because I didn't want to tell them who were the girls I was sleeping with." Everyone clapped and gave her a standing ovation. Jun smiled and laughed.

At that moment, I felt as though the whole world was trying to mess with me. I saw her smile and I can swear it sparkled. Jun is beautiful. And then Jun turned to me with wild eyes.

"FUCK!" she shouted in English. Everyone else got off his celebratory movements then. In a second, they were all quiet as they stared at a wild-eyed Jun. She ran into her bedroom and a click was heard.

Her muffled shouting voice was heard through the door. Everyone said "What?" And then she opened the door with only her bra and pants on.

"Guys! I need you guys to leave now!" She said but everyone else was looking at her womanly attributes then. I looked, too, but I stopped myself short.

"Why?" I asked. It was the first question I asked her and she looked at me, seeing that I was the only one not drunk enough to have lost my senses at the moment.

"I have a dinner date with my fiancé tonight. I told James to pick me up here at 10 today." She said then ran back in her room to open various boxes there. "It's 9:30 already, guys. I really, really, have to go. Sorry, but," she paused as she came to her bedroom's door, still in her distractingly red lacy bra while clutching a black dress in her left hand. "I'll explain everything when I get back here at around midnight or one am. I already told Mira not to come back since I have this." And then she reached out and closed her bedroom's door. After about a minute, she was out again but with a shirt on.

"Look, if you guys wanna stay here, it's fine with me but my bedroom's off-limits. I'm locking it. There's a bathroom down the hall so just use that. If someone knocks and I'm still not out, just don't answer the door, okay?" She closed the door.

"Who's gonna stay?" We heard her shout. Noda and the others just nodded. I poured myself a drink. "I'll stay, then." I said. Everyone looked at me and then sat down. "Yeah, me too." Uchiyama says. "I've got a date tomorrow, so..." Noda says. Noda, Kuma and Minami synonymously decided to leave after a round of drinks.

After a while, when Noda, Kuma and Minami went on their way, a knock on the door was heard. Uchiyama stood up. "I'm just gonna look through the peephole." He said. I kept my eyes on Jun's bedroom door. Uchiyama hurries back quietly. "Shit, Shin! I think its some gang that's out there. There all in ties and suits and shit!" He reports nervously. I looked at the front door and was going to say something when Jun's bedroom door opened.

And out stepped a woman who looked like her but whose hair looked like it was colored golden brown while it framed her slim face and neck. Her lips were very much red and her eyes had a twinkle in them. Her face seemed to glow in radiance as she walked to the door, her low-cut and backless long dress billowing with her every step. Uchiyama and I could only stare. This goddess faced us.

I mean, Jun faced us.

"Guys! Go hide somewhere right now!" she whispered loud enough for us to hear. It took me two seconds to register what she said and then I dragged Uchiyama with me to her kitchen. We heard the door click open.

"No nujeosseo." We hear a baritone say to her, in what seemed to be a different language, but in a playful manner.

"Jinjja? Na beoljulgeoya?" Jun said back playfully. To which the stranger replied, "Ani, goinchana". There was some silence until we discovered that that silence was actually masking a very quiet sound. It was the sound two people would make if they were kissing.

After a while, we heard some more words exchanged and then the door finally closed.

"What the hell?" was all a bewildered Uchiyama could say. I looked at him with the same expression on my face. We stood up and walked to her living room. "Shin, you shoulda seen those guys! They were classy-looking gangsters… Do you think Yankumi might know them? Wait, lemme call her now." Uchiyama said and took out his phone. I stopped him.

"Uchi, let's just calm down and wait until she gets home. I'm sure Jun has a story behind this one." I said. Uchiyama didn't seem convinced so I added, "Besides, if Yankumi hears this, she might go overboard again." Uchi conceded. We sat down and decided to continue drinking.

"Man… I never realized that Jun was a babe. I mean, she looks like a babe now but when we were at school and shit, she was always trippin', you know? Not like any girl I know." He said as he absent-mindedly swishes his drink. "Like that one time some guys wrestled with her? No one got to even touch her, really. Abnormal strength like Yankumi."

And that one time I she walked in the boy's bathroom to wash her hands while I was peeing? Does that mean all that underwear I saw her hanging the other day was hers? I grew red at the thought.

"Why does she have all these girls even if she has a fiancé already, though?" Uchi asked me. I looked at him and shrugged. "I guess the only way we're gonna know these things is when she tells us." He said. We stopped talking after that and just thought to ourselves. Uchiyama fell asleep an hour later.

I couldn't sleep because I was still thinking about her. Kim Junichi. That would explain my weird thoughts all this time.

~~Jun's POV~~

James gave me a good night kiss before he left with the car. I walked up to my apartment, fumbling with my keys. I admit, I got a bit drunk with all the wine that was served at the dinner party. That "date" was actually another one of those fancy dinner parties my family and James' plans every year. This one was in celebration to my coming back to Japan after staying so long in America. My father's gang allies from Korea and James' father's allies from all over Japan came to meet the future couple that would unite Japan's yakuza and Korea's mafia.

I remember that the Korean and Japanese mob leaders look upon James and I approvingly as everyone from their lowly officers and right-hand men to the wealthy merchants' wife talked about us at every corner of the room. No one could deny that we were indeed the "power couple".

"Are you going to explain now?" I dropped my keys in surprise when I heard Shin's voice. He was standing right beside me but because my drunkenness, I didn't see him. He picked my keys up and opened my apartment for me. I stepped inside and closed the door. The apartment was noticeably cleaner than it was before. I stared a bit and he noticed. "I put Uchiyama in my apartment and fixed things up a bit here. He was wasted." He sat down and stared up at me. "Also, because I don't want any interruptions to your story."

"I see." I sat down across him as he slid my keys across the table towards me. I put my head on the table and stared up at him. "So… what do you wanna know, exactly?" I said. I felt quite sleepy already since it was 2 am and I was tired. He put his chin on the table and stared at me.

"Why not start with everything?" Shin said. I sighed and sat up.

"Well, for starters… I have a fiancé because I'm the daughter of Yoo Jun Kim. If you don't know him," I looked at his poker face, "he's considered to be the biggest mafia leader in Korea. Like a yakuza leader would be here, in Japan." He just looked at me. I sighed again. "My fiancé, James, is the son of a prestigious yakuza gang here. We were betrothed to each other as soon as I was 10 and he, 16. If we're to marry, then Korea and Japan will soon become strong allies. We're the 'power couple' that'll unite everyone."

"What about your girls? Past times?" Shin finally said. I shook my head.

"Look, neither James or I want to be the 'power couple' they assume we will be, you gotta understand that. Those girls… I found them when we both needed some form of release when we saw what was coming." I looked down. "It's inevitable so I decided to have fun while I can. Also, I've been going out with girls just to pair them up with proper guys for the past four years."

"Does James know about this?" Shin asked. I nodded.

"We agreed that if we were to be a couple, even if we didn't love each other or we found someone else we truly loved, we'd tell each other everything honestly. Though, two years ago, something changed." I stood up and walked into my room. I beckoned Shin over as I took a small, ornate box opened it. Inside was a letter and I handed it over to Shin as I sat on my bed. He read it slowly and then sat down.

"So…"

"Yes. I only have eight months left to fix all this." I lay down on my bed.

~~Shin's POV~~

"So…" was the only thing I could reply as I stared at the letter that was penned to her by her fiancé. James was dying.

"Yes. I only have eight months left to fix all this." She said as she lay down on her bed. "That sunnova b*tch surgeon did that to him and committed suicide. The nano-bombs he planted had a time limit of three years. James only told me two years ago when he understood that time was almost up. He thought that he was protecting me by not telling me. I came back here to finally confront the truth." I looked at her as she closed her eyes.

"There's going to be a massive gang war." I said.

"Yes, you're right. Especially since we didn't tell the elders. Only you, me, James and that surgeon know about this." She said. I could hear her voice trembling.

"What were you going to say to Uchiyama and the others?" She opened her eyes and looked at me.

"I don't know. Something about an arranged marriage but nothing about James' situation."

"Why are you telling me, then?" Jun sat up and stared into my eyes.

"I don't know yet." She uttered and then, somehow, my face got really close to hers by then. Her eyes closed. I sighed. Jun had fallen asleep.