I can feel something touching my face and try to move away from it. I'm so tired, I just want to sleep more. To my dismay, the thing follows me. With a lot of effort, I peel my eyes open and find the 'thing' to be Kai's hand. He is smiling down at me as his fingers brush my cheek. My eyes narrow in confusion. "Good morning princess," Kai says, leaning on his elbows.

  "Why are you here?" I ask before noticing I'm not in my bedroom. "Why am I here?" I rephrase, quickly sitting up. The sun is shining through the opaque curtains. The room is clean, with a king-sized bed, dresser, large TV hanging on the wall, and a desk in the corner. It seems like any normal guest room.

  "We needed you to stay here with us, the incident last night was the Italians. They saw you, it's not safe for you to be without us right now, they could come after you to get to us." He explains. As he is talking, I remember the events of last night. The shooting at the carnival, the doctor, Kai holding me down while I am injected with medication to make me sleep.

  I quickly jolt up and get out of bed. "I trusted you! And you betrayed me!" I yell.

  "I know." He says, shaking his head. "I wish that I didn't have to, but I did. For your safety. You wouldn't stay here if we asked you to. There are only two options. Have the doctor put you to sleep and move you to a bedroom, or ask you to stay, and when you said no, bring you here? The second option isn't good, we're a lot bigger than you, and you could get hurt. Not intentionally." He told her.

  "Or the third choice, let me make my own choices," I tell him angrily.

  "I told you I'm going to protect you, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. Even if I have to protect you from your own choices." Kai told her, coming to stand in front of me.

  "I'm sorry, but when you became ours, you lost the right to make your own choices."

  At that moment, hearing him say that, I lost control. My hand acted on its own accord, it was like I was watching it happen. I slapped him on the cheek; the noise ringing out in the room. Kai's eyes flashed, getting darker as he reached up and touched his lip, when he pulled his hand away, there was a small amount of blood on his hand. He let out a sinister laugh as he ran his tongue over the bleeding cut on the left side of his lip.

  I take a step back before turning and running to the door. I turn the nob but it doesn't open, twisting and jiggling it doesn't work. That's when I noticed it was locked from the outside. I turn around and let out a scream when I see Kai slowly walking towards me. His entire persona has changed. He isn't the person he was minutes ago.

  "I didn't mean to. I got upset at your words. I shouldn't have done that." I tell him as he approaches.

  His hands slammed on the door on either side of my head, making me scream and close my eyes.

  "Shhh." He hushes me, putting his finger over my lips. "I know that he cares about you, so I can't teach you a lesson like I normally would." He tsks. His finger trails down my lips, then down my chin, and finally down my neck. "W-who cares about me?" I asked in confusion.

  "Kai." He said, tilting his head to the side. "See, I'm the one who comes out when he is in danger. I deal with those threats. I protect him. I don't know how to protect him from you though. My usual methods won't do. If I kill you, he won't be happy."

  "What are you talking about?" I ask.

  "I am a part of him, but I'm not Kai. I live in his head and only come out to play when he is hurt, or too overwhelmed to handle something. Or sometimes when his anger gets the best of him. I've been dying to meet you."

  "Split personalities," I whisper, shocked.

  "Yes, that's what they call it." He says. "I'm the murderous one. Not that he isn't murderous, but I'm the more vicious of the two. Now back to the issue at hand. You threatened him. Usually, that ends with my knife in your throat. But I can't do that. I'm not sure what to do with you now." He said honestly. He seems perplexed.

  "H-He threatened me first. He let them drug me, he promised to protect me, and I trusted him." I barely got the last two words out over a sob.

  "If he thinks it is what's best for you, he will do it, whether you would be mad at him or not. Unfortunately, he cares about you." Kai says with a shrug.

  "And you don't?" I ask. He technically is Kai, wouldn't he care too? I am hoping to not die in this way so maybe if the split personality shares Kai's feelings, I may make it out of this alive.

  "I care about Kai, my feelings about you are irrelevant. If I did like you and you hurt him, I would still rip you to shreds." He said, monotone. "He's fighting to come back to the forefront. If you cause me to come out again, I won't hesitate to hurt you, do you understand?" He asks, towering over me. "Y-Yes." I stutter.

  At the snap of a finger, he's gone and my kai is back, looking at me, confused. He is still standing over me, my back to the door, the position threatening.

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  "Princess, are you okay?" He asked, looking me over. I nod. "What happened?" He asked.

  "I met the other you," I whisper, my voice shaking.

  "Shit." He whispers, before turning and walking over to a panel on the wall that I didn't notice before. He holds the button before speaking rapidly in Korean. "Go take a seat on the bed. We will talk about this," He said. She followed his instructions, wanting to know more.

  Within a minute I heard footsteps, and the door opened. Jae and Han walked in. "What happened?" Han asked, rushing over to me, taking in my tear-streaked face and shaking form.

  "She met the other side of me," Kai said, causing both men to cuss under their breath. "How did she draw him out?" Han asked, sitting down next to her.

  "She slapped me. We were arguing about last night. My emotions were high. She slapped me and my control slipped and he came forward. I don't know what happened while he was out." He told them.

  "Princess, tell us what happened," Jae said, walking over to me.

  "I-I didn't know. I was apologizing to Kai for hitting him and then suddenly it wasn't the same anymore. He explained who he was, and contemplated how to teach me a lesson, but in the end, I guess he decided to threaten and scare me, and then he was gone." I whisper.

  Kai sighed. "That's the best-case scenario." He said, running a hand through his hair. Walking over to her, he kneeled in front of her. "Are you okay?" He asked. When I nodded, he sighed. "Do you want to finish our conversation from earlier? You were upset." I quickly shook my head. No way was I triggering that psycho out again.

  "He isn't coming out again, babe. Especially not from us talking. He comes out when I have overly high emotions and lets my control slip. The slap took me by surprise and he gained control."

  "What were you two talking about when he took over?" Jae asked.

  Standing up, I pointed at Kai. "I trusted him! He betrayed me, I told him that and his response was... upsetting." I admit. "And what did he say?" Han asked.

  "He said that when I became yours, I lost the right to make my own choices," I say, crossing my arms.

  "Well, he isn't entirely wrong," Jae said sheepishly.

  "Jae!" I yell, turning to face him.

  "You can still make choices. What to wear, what to eat, that stuff. For your safety, you don't get to make those anymore." He explained as if it was completely reasonable.

  "That's insane," I told them, looking at them all, my gaze not staying on Kai for too long.

  "That's the life of the mafia. You are ours. It's our job to protect you and make these decisions. You'll get used to it," Han spoke up.

  "And so what? You'll keep me here locked up?" I asked, tilting my chin up to look Jae in the eyes. "Yes, if you won't stay willingly." He told me, taking a step forward to touch my cheek. "One day you will want to be here willingly and we won't have to make you our own personal Cinderella."

  I pull away, smiling up at him wickedly.

  "One day, you'll trust me and let me free and I'll run away, to a place you can't find me, and I'll get married and have ki- "I am suddenly slammed up against the wall, one hand wrapped around my jaw, the other holding my shoulder to the wall. Kai was glaring down at me. The shine in his eyes told me it was him, not his alter ego.

  "One day," He started his sentence just like the two of them had. "you'll try to run and I'll find you. I'll drag you back here and you won't ever see anything outside of this room again." He was breathing hard, his breath blowing my bangs.

  I kept my hands at my side, careful not to touch him, and not to give his altar any reason to be released.

  "You can't keep me here," I tell him, looking into his eyes.

  "I'm not the enemy to have, baby girl. I can be your jail keeper just as easily as I can be your knight in shining armor, and I won't feel bad about it if it keeps you safe. Give up control and this will all be so much easier.

  "My dad will look for me. He won't just let me disappear." I threaten. He laughs. "Kai." Jae warns at the same time Han says "Gentle."

  "Your dad is in the mafia's pocket. Owes is a pretty enormous debt that he's still paying off. So if we say you are ours, he isn't really in the position to argue that. We already spoke to him. He knows you are here.

  I collapse onto the floor at Kai's feet. That can't be true, can it?

  "And what about college? I just drop out? And my job?" I ask, realizing I have no choices left.

  "Then what? I have no education and no job. What am I supposed to do?" I look up at Kai as he squats in front of me. He lifts my chin to make our eyes meet. "When this is all over, you can go back to school and work. We just want to keep you safe. You will have a professor come here to teach you." He tells me.

  I look at Jae and Han, eyes pleading. "We will bring you breakfast soon. Take a shower and try to calm down." Jae says, walking toward the door, Han following.

  "You're the leader. Can't you do something?" I ask. Jae stops. "I am the leader, and I don't disagree with him. So no, I can't, or won't, do something." He says, not looking at me. I shake my head, frustrated. If they had asked me, I would have agreed to stay for a couple of days. They didn't even try to ask to give me the choice.

  I get up off the floor and make my way to the bathroom.

  When I get out of the shower, there is toast, fruit, yogurt, and juice left on the desk, along with a change of clothes. I think they are Jae's. Once I put them on, I sit on the bed, find the Tv remote on the nightstand and watch crappy reality TV all day.

  Finally, around five, the door opens, and Han is standing there. "Ready for dinner?" He asked, a small smile on his face, but he looked tired.

  I hop off of the bed and turn off the TV. He leads me down the long hallway, down one flight of stairs and then another. "Were we on the third floor?" I ask him. "Yes, you are Cinderella in a tower." He said with a smirk.

  I roll my eyes. We finally make it to the dining room, where there's a large formal dining table with twelve seats. Jae and Kai sit on one side and Han pulls out the chair across from Kai for me before taking his seat across from Jae.

  "We discussed everything. It was a long debate." Jae started as he and Han started scooping food onto a plate. It was Korean food for dinner tonight. Han set the plate down in front of her.

  "If you would have asked me and told me I was in danger, I would have stayed here for a few days until everything died down," I told them, pushing my noodles around my plate.

  "It's going to be more than a few days. You wouldn't miss school and work that long if we asked." Jae says, shaking his head. I sigh, annoyed. "So you just choose for me. I've known you guys for years. You've never treated me this way. You know this isn't right!" I tell them, frustrated. "You are ours now. It's not the same as when we were all friends." Kai comments.

  "Whatever. I don't want to sit here and eat with you." I tell them before making my way back to the third-floor bedroom and slamming the door behind me.