Breaking Rules

RULE # 60: DON'T THROW STONES AT ANOTHER PERSON'S WINDOW

Seung-ri, proud as ever, shook his head. "How about your head?"

"It stings but it'll go away soon" she answered.

"I'm sorry again" Seung-ri told her, finally looking at her eyes "I guess I should have asked first whether you're still awake before I went here... uhmmm... so... I'll leave you and Tam-Tam now. Goodnight."

Turning away from her, CL reached out to touch his arm "I – I... I'm sorry about being rude and punching you. I should have asked what you wanted first."

Seung-ri looked at her and smiled as though to let her know it was nothing and without thinking about it, CL walked towards him and kissed the side of his jaw she had punched.

"Thank you" she told him as she turned around immediately and dashed back to their house.

She ran upstairs to her room and stealthily took a peek outside. She giggled when she saw Seung-ri still standing there, seeming transfixed while holding his jaw.

She was about to call him and tell him to go home when her phone rang. Taking it from her bed, she saw it was their maknae calling.

"Minji???"

"CL-unnie!" the youngest 2NE1 member almost screamed into the phone "Mai-sunbae was shot! Let's go to the hospital!"

***

A picture of the past

For quite a long time, Teddy had not prayed to God.

He had lost his faith on a night very much like this eight or nine years ago. It was the time when Mai, after trying to save MURD.O.C. (or the "greatest jack-ass" in the world as Teddy called him in his head sometimes) had been brought to the hospital with almost no heart beat and her body unrecognizable except for that small face of hers.

That was also the night he had made a pact with the devil. He couldn't allow Song Yu Seuk to take her in that state despite his frightening persuasion (he was so powerful that he was able to bring high-powered rifles inside hospital premises to take a woman on the verge of death as payment for another's death).

Those had been very hard times and he had lived his life since then in a dark tunnel. He did what he had to do, dealt with who he had to deal with, and slept with a pistol under his bed.

Light came to him about three years ago when he began discovering talents for his clubs to make them more than just a regular drinking and dancing area. It had begun with Se7en, then he continued on with the Wonder Girls, Big Bang, and then most recently 2NE1. Eventually, he rediscovered his love for music and his passion for creating something out of scratch to make people happy... not high.

He had also began to believe that the dark tunnel was coming to an end when Mai and Danny had announced to him his freedom from Song Yu Seuk and also the opportunity to be with them again. There were still glitches – of course – but he was glad to finally be given the opportunity to straighten things out.

He was going to begin too... but something always gets messed up.

"Can't I really not be with her?" Teddy asked, finally lifting his face towards God as he kneeled in the small chapel room "Will it always be like this? The last time I dreamt of being with her, you almost took away her life. And now... for the second time, here she is again fighting for it. Both times I've only just watched. Why don't you just kill me huh? Or why don't you just tell me to stop? You don't have to do this each and everytime. I get the message now... I understand it loud and clear... just please don't take her away. I ask you... please don't take her away."

***

Author's Note:

Looking back at this story, I realize now how I wrote so much more melodramatically before. Establishing plots and conflicts that belong to Mexican telenovelas.

But I still absolutely love this story and re-reading it (re-revising it too because man my grammar was whack and the misspellings are giving me shudders) while uploading it, it is giving me the same feels I had when I first wrote it.

I hope you are enjoying it in the same manner too.

The last ten chapters will be up tomorrow.

Until then...

- Mai