Author's Note: My best friend and I bounced ideas off each other tonight for this story. I started to write this chapter then realized I had no idea what I was going to do with it. So we talked the entire time we ate and walked and came up with the remainder of the story. I know what's going to happen now. It might be a little mean of me to do it, but it's how my mind works.

And for those who review, please tell me exactly how you feel about this up until now. I want to know if this is actually working the way I was hoping it would. If not, I'll try my hardest to make it better.

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Storm sat in the studio and wondered what the hell had happened. She had spent the last two days asking herself that question. What had happened that would make her run away from the situation? She had never run from anything that she could control. She could control what she did with Taemin, but she couldn't control how she felt.

Somehow over the last two weeks, Taemin had weaseled his way in and lodged himself in her mind. They texted each other all the time but they hadn't seen each other since Tuesday. She had been locked in the furnace room when Yi Jeong had given the young man supplementary lessons. She had been okay with that because she had still been sensitive about what she had learned.

She didn't want to be the other woman. The other woman had torn her family apart when she had been twelve. Her father had had an affair with her mother's best friend and had lied about it. Her mother had caught them together in her bed one night when they (the kids) had been at their grandmother's. Her father had blamed her – Storm – for the affair and had moved out of the house. Storm knew she wasn't the reason for the affair but she still didn't want to be involved with someone who was supposed to marry another.

But Taemin didn't want to marry another person. He didn't seem like he wanted to be married yet. Traditionally, the Crown Prince married between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five, and he had an heir within a year of his marriage. He was supposed to keep the family line pure, but he wanted to live his life like he had before his father had ascended the throne. Unfortunately, no one was going to let him unless he outright refused the marriage and said he was already engaged to someone.

If he did that, then Storm would be brought in front of everyone and would be judged. She would fail that because she wouldn't be able to answer any of the questions. Her vocal cords would be as thick as a chopstick as she tried to speak, not that she would because she hadn't uttered a word in two years. Taemin didn't ask why but his family would. And they would find her unsuitable to be in a relationship with him.

She stared at the fire in the furnace and wondered why people had to be so stuck up. Since she had been in Korea she had realized that because of her skin color. It didn't matter that she was classified as Caucasian. Her skin was darker because her great-grandfather had been a dark skinned Pacific Islander and she had gotten some of his pigmentation. People called her black and pretended like she didn't even exist. She hated how some people could be so ignorant.

She didn't want Taemin to go through that. He wasn't like everyone. He seemed to be very well-rounded and open to new things. He didn't care that her skin was darker than his. He liked her for her, but his family would force them apart because of ignorance.

Storm heard the heavy, air tight door to the furnace room squeak open and looked over. Yi Jeong was dressed impeccably as he had been since she had met him. He must have just come from the gallery. Normally if he was in the studio he would be dressed in work gear because it was so hot here now. It would look bad for him to be sweating under his designer clothes.

He stood in the doorway and looked at her. She knew what he saw. The flames danced across her face, casting shadows across her features. Her eyes would be glowing in the darkness. They had always done that when she was sitting in the dark or near a fire. It was something she hated about having light colored eyes.

Yi Jeong hadn't said much since he and Onew had found her and Taemin making out at the coffee shop. He had asked if she was ready to work and had left it alone. She had known that he was going to ask eventually but he had enough tact to let it slide for a few days before attempting to pull the bandage off gently.

He tilted his head as he looked at the temperature gauge on the furnace. She looked at it just to make sure it was steadily climbing like it was supposed to. It was so she looked back at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She smiled at his patience before nodding. "You've been sitting in here for two days straight. Are you working or just letting the heat attack you before you try to work?" She held her index finger up, indicating the first assumption. "Do you want to eat something? It's almost two o'clock and you've been here since before I left at nine."

Storm held up a circled index finger and thumb to say she was okay. Yi Jeong wasn't biting but that was okay. Her brother was still out of town so she really didn't have anyone to talk to. Not that she would talk to Jax because he would have focused solely on the fact that she had had the Crown Prince in their house over night. It wouldn't have done them any good to discuss it.

Yi Jeong stepped into the room and gripped her arm. She looked up at him as he pulled her to her feet. "Come on. You need to eat."

She shook her head and planted her feet. He turned around and looked at her. She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and looked at him. He knew she was thinking things through in her own way, but he wished he could read her mind and know what she was thinking.

"Have you talked to him about this?" he asked.

She shook her head again. She hadn't. They hadn't said a word about it in their messages. She didn't know if it was because he didn't want to talk about it or he didn't know what to say about it. She didn't know how to bring it up because she wasn't sure if she wanted to actually see him in an official relationship. It was a hard thing to handle.

Luckily she had told Yi Jeong everything that had happened when he had picked her up at the coffee shop. He hadn't been too judgmental because he really had no way to do so. His wife was a commoner so he couldn't talk down about her thinking of being with Taemin.

But he hadn't talked down about her first night with him. He had obviously seen that she was in a little bit of pain and had let it go. He had told her that if she truly wanted to be with Taemin she had to decide in the beginning because if she told him to walk away, he would. He would go to his new fiancé and she would lose him altogether.

Yi Jeong held out his hand. Storm looked at it briefly before taking it. He pulled her behind him as he headed out of the studio. He grabbed her bag as he tugged her out the front door to his car. He waited until she was situated in the car before he walked around the front of the vehicle and got in.

"Where are we going?" asked a mechanized voice.

The potter turned to see Storm holding her phone with voice activation running. "We're going to Jun Pyo's house. It's where Taemin and his guards are staying while he attends school."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her typing something on the screen. "Who is Jun Pyo?"

"He runs Shinhwa Group."

He didn't get a response so he looked over again. Storm was leaning up against the window almost like she was pouting. She knew his friends were the three richest men in all of Korea. Their combined net worths were far more than even the Crown's. She was walking into the lion's den.

They rode in relative silence except for the radio that droned dully. Storm listened to the music and the rhythm of Yi Jeong's breathing. Both were steady and calming, something she needed right at that moment. Her brain was running haywire as she tried to come up with a way to talk to Taemin.

Her throat was taught as she thought about actually bringing up the subject. She had never wanted to ask someone to stay so badly before. She had no idea why she wanted him to stay. Normally she was so far away from someone she was surprised when anyone ever wanted to spend time with her.

The car slid through an immaculate gate and followed the winding driveway to an awning. Yi Jeong parked under it as Storm looked up in awe at the house. It was so much bigger than she had thought it would be. When he had said that Jun Pyo was rich, she had known he was right but she hadn't realized how big his place was. She felt like an ant in a desert it was that big.

Yi Jeong led the way into the house and walked through it like he owned it. Storm stayed close to him as she followed him through the hallway. He was so friendly to the staff it was amazing he was married.

He opened the double doors to the library and was greeted by a chorus of welcomes. She shadowed him into the room until he stepped aside. She knew she looked less than perfect compared to the others in the room, but she had been working before the potter had dragged her here.

"For those who don't know, this is Storm Montgomery. Sorry for her nastiness. She was working when I dragged her here. Storm, these are my friends Song Woo Bin, Goo Jun Pyo and Yoon Ji Hoo. I've been with them since I was young." He turned and bowed to Taemin. "You know the prince. The others are his guards; Shim Onew, Kim Jonghyun, Lee Key and Lee Minho."

The eight men bowed to her as she was introduced. Storm recognized Onew as the one who picked Taemin up that day. He tilted his head as his mouth parted slightly. She didn't know what he was thinking.

But something caught her eye. There was a woman sitting by Taemin on the chaise. She was clearly well bred by the way she sat. Her back was as straight as her hair and her hands were folded neatly in her lap. She was reminded of Mulan 2 as the princesses sang about their hands being folded like holding a lily.

Taemin looked lost when she looked at him. There wasn't much he could say. She understood immediately what was going on.

"Noona," he whispered as he saw the look behind her eyes. She smiled at him then shook her head, almost as if she was waving him off.

"Woo Bin, what's going on?" Yi Jeong asked. He pointed to the woman, unashamed at his rudeness. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Choi Ji Hoon," Woo Bin answered. His voice was stiff and controlled. "She came here to see the prince."

"Why?"

"Because I'm his fiancé," the woman replied.

Storm felt like she had been socked in the gut. Knowing about it and hearing it were two completely things. She had known this was going to happen because he was royalty, but she had never thought she was going to meet the woman face to face like this. She seriously wasn't ready.

Yi Jeong met her gaze as she turned to him. He looked just as torn as she was. Without so much as a noise, Storm turned on her heel and walked out of the library.

Taemin knew that Storm wasn't expecting Ji Hoon to be anywhere near him just yet. Truth be told, the woman had just appeared without warning. She had claimed their families had come to an agreement but Taemin hadn't heard anything about it. His dad would have called him with the news.

The look of hurt on the woman's face struck him hard. He hadn't even seen that when he had told her that he was being set up. He still didn't know what that emotion had been, but it hadn't been this.

The second she turned to leave the room, he was up out of his seat and following her. She was halfway down the hall before he caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and turned her around. She looked up at him with a hurt look before she jerked her hand away.

"Noona, I didn't know she was coming," he said. "She just showed up and I had to talk to her. She's the one my parents chose. I need to at least have the decency to tell her to her face that I'm not interested in her."

Storm knew he was being sensible but her mind wasn't. To her she was already being pawned off for a better brand. She opened her mouth to say something, but her vocal cords tightened and nothing came out. It should have been shocking, but the most shocking thing was she actually wanted to talk. She hadn't uttered a word in two years. Why would she want to now?

Taemin watched Storm hurry down the hallway. She retraced her steps until she disappeared down the hallway completely.

"Onew hyung, follow her. Make sure she gets home safely," he said since he knew his head guard would be directly behind him.

Onew didn't answer as he walked past the prince. He didn't know what the fascination with the artist was, but it was enough to cause the kid's brain to go wonky. He was going to figure out what this woman had done to the normally even-keeled prince who rarely showed what he was feeling.