Opening my eyes, the darkness faded away. The first thing my eyes caught on was 'The street boy who almost killed me'.

"Damn you! Quit skating for God's sake, if you don't want to end up in jail!" I yelled, but the next second, I was squeezed hard against the wall, but not too harshly. Very soon, realization hit me. His body was pressed against my body. He rested his head on my shoulder for just a moment, but it seemed like hours to me.

Quickly, he covered my mouth with his hand, which immediately stopped me from yelling my lungs out. His eyes shot an angry look at me.

"Calm down woman! I will quit skating, but just don't draw attention or we both will be sentenced to death," He whispered into my ear, making my cheek red like a tomato. He must have noticed my red face and quickly removed his hand. But instead of moving away from me, he pulled me closer to him. This time my head rested on his hard chest and his chin was touching my forehead.

Jesus, Is he some kind of pervert?

A lump formed in my throat when I realized how very close we stood. If I even tiptoe a little or he lowers his head down a little...

...Something dangerous would take place that I have never experienced, even though I was married.

Marching footsteps were heard all over the place. A few men with weapons were running through the streets. I shook off the urge to bite his hand and kick him off, due to the fear that they might find me, and take me back.

I swallowed the lump and we stood there for a few more minutes. The sound of marching footsteps was gone. There was no sign of them anymore.

Assuming that the men were gone, I took the opportunity to cast off a punch straight to the man's face. He let go of me and landed on his butt.

He looks at me with surprise in his greenish colored eyes. I raise my eyebrow at him.

When he got on his feet again, he took a grip of my hands and started dragging me towards the dark street. It was an empty street with some abandoned looking houses on both sides of the street.

"Where the hell are you taking me? And what are you planning to do with me?” I paused, “Release my hand-" I said, trying to free my hands from his clutches.

"Trust me. I have no sexual desire towards a woman who can throw such a manly punch.. Besides, your injuries need to be treated, Madam," He says, making me frown, which reminded me of our collision that caused me to fall unconscious.

"Treating my injuries?" I raised an eyebrow at him, "Seriously, you want me to believe that crap. Don't you try anything funny or else-" he quickly let go of my hands. Guilt was written all over his face.

"I am just trying to take responsibility for my actions." His eyes kept wandering around as if he was afraid of getting caught.

"I’m fine." I took a few steps back to lean on the nearby wall. I clenched my fists ready to hit him again.

"Yeah, you do look fine. But what if you faint again. After our collision I would have declared you dead if it weren't for you breathing. I feel guilty for knocking you off." He stepped closer, but maintained his distance after taking a glance at my fists.

"Mister, thanks for worrying about me, but I am a tough lady. And anyone could tell that something fishy is going on. You keep looking here and there. It's like you are running away from something. You must be a thief or something, I don't want to be near you." His eyes widened for a few seconds then his lips curled up into a smile.

"Alright then, tough lady. Can you stop drawing weird conclusions?." He took a step closer to me. "Don't worry. I won't do anything to you. It's just, I think we should clear up our mess." His eyes fell on the ground and he didn't look up.

Something told me that this guy wasn't dangerous. His facial expression softened as if he was gonna cry soon.

I nodded slowly and he started to lead the way, I followed him from behind still maintaining a safe distance between us. Glancing at him I wondered, are dangerous people this handsome nowadays?

Taking a turn, we walked for a while before ending in front of a shop. The old brown broken board hanging over the store reads 'CUPID'S LOVE SHOP' in big white letters.

What the heck? So, this kind of place really does exist.

Bumping me lightly, he says, " We're here, welcome to my precious little shop, and home." He then lets me inside.

We went in and he closed the old door behind us, This put me on high Alert.

The many potions were arranged over the black colored stands, with bottles and some kind of ingredients all over the table, and that gave me the perfect vibe of a wicked witch shop rather than a 'Cupid shop'.

"Why were you running in such a hurry?" He asked like a gentleman.

My mouth closed tight at his question. To avoid his question I acted as if I was going to faint again.

His hands rushed over my shoulders to prevent me from falling.

Wow! Did he really fall for my trick? He must one stupid fellow!

Within a second, I was being carried in his arms towards the cupboard.

Wait, what the heck? Is he planning to lock me in?

__________________________________

The moment the cupboard opened, I was determined to lock this bastard in there.

But to my surprise, he also got in and closed the door from inside.

"What are you doing-" He placed his index finger on his lips to keep my mouth shut.

He leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Another noise, and we are dead meat." I kept quiet, but my heart continued pounding like hell. Can't blame it for this was the first time that someone held me this way.

"Where the hell did he run off to? Find him."

A strong and damn scary voice reached our ears. The noise of breaking bottles and other things falling to the ground was also heard from across the room.

"What’s happening?" I asked.

"Relax lady, I will explain everything later, Let's just wait for them to leave" He whispered very quietly.

The sound of footsteps disappearing made us believe that whoever was here has left.

Still, to be safe he placed his ear on the door to make sure they had really gone.

The door swung open suddenly and we fell right away, hitting our heads on the hard surface of the ground.

I sneezed because there was so much dust everywhere then heard him snickering.

I suddenly felt pain shooting through my head and groaned.

"Why the hell did I tag along with you? Ouch, that hurt!" I rubbed my head, frowning again in annoyance.

"You know what? You should lose some weight, you are crushing me to death!" This made me realize that I was sitting on his stomach.

"Rude. I am not heavy at all. I only weigh 39!" I said, while getting up.

"Really? Then there was something wrong with that weighing machine because you weigh as much as a fat elephant!" He continues, making me even angrier.

"How dare you say that!" I landed a punch over his stupid face. Then sighed in annoyance. "And stop trying to dodge my question, what the heck did you do?" I couldn't be fooled so easily, and it was time for him to understand that.

"Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, but first let's go somewhere else." He got up and again walked towards the cupboard.

"Into the cupboard again? Are you serious?" I let out a slight snort.

"Yea baby." He kicked the cupboard making it open up.

What? B-baby? Is this how common people address other girls?

"Let's go." He pulled me inside, and locked both of the doors from inside.

All we could see was darkness, until he shook his smartphone and the flashlight showed a deep stairway in front of us leading to nowhere.

We carefully walked down the stairs and reached another door.

The street boy pulled a golden key out of nowhere, but instead of putting it in the keyhole, he placed it over the perfectly curved key design on the door, making it open with a creak.

Jumping in surprise, I gave him an excited yet confused look. A mysterious smile made its way to his lips. 

He walked inside and I followed him to a pink table in the room. The only color in the place was pink, pink curtains, pink wall, pink ceiling...

Why the hell is everything colored freaking pink?

He ran his hands through his dirty brown hair while looking at me.

"It's my grandma's room." He said, as if knowing what was going on in my mind.

Why in the world was your grandma living inside a cupboard?

Everything started getting ridiculously weird since the moment I ran away from my house.

He put his phone on the table then pulled out a chair telling me to sit.

He sat on the other chair across from me, I folded my hands in front of my chest as I watched him.

"It's explanation time and don't you dare try to avoid my questions this time." I say, looking straight into his eyes.

"Well, you also dodged my question when I asked, why you were running like a mad woman." He smirked, his mysterious green eyes drilling into my brown ones. 

"See, we're both hiding our reasons because we know that there's no need to explain it to a stranger," He stated.

He was right, but the feeling to know about why made my heart sink to my stomach. True he's just a stranger, but telling him won't be a danger.

"Fine, I promise to tell you everything, but you have to do the same. Now, get started already." Knowing things were getting interesting, I placed my hands on the table to hear the secret he was hiding.

_____________________________________

"I ran away from my forced marriage."

"Care to explain it in a little more detail, Mister Running-Away-from-your-forced-marriage." My eyes focused on him.

He winced slightly, then sighed. "Fine, just listen then. This might sound a little crazy." He looked at me. "You still want to know?" 

I nodded. 

"Well, my name's Daniel. I am a cool philter maker. I was assigned to make Livia, the daughter of the Nihan family, to fall in love with a certain person, but things went wrong and she's fallen for me instead and demands me to marry her, which I disagreed with. Being the only daughter left in the family, they are forcing me to marry her, or they will kill me," He explains with enthusiasm.

"You are a stupid cupid." I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at him.

"Firstly, I am not cupid. Secondly, I don't want to marry that wicked girl whom I don't even love. Thirdly, don't you find all this really weird?"

"To be honest, I knew about the cheap philter maker who assisted the Nihan family. Though I never thought I would meet him." Now, it was his turn to be confused, "And to make things interesting, 'the wicked girl' you are talking about is actually my stubborn little sister and there's no way she will let you go," I said, seeing his eyes and mouth widen with shock.

"So, are you here to take me back. Do you really think it's that easy of a job?" He stood up and grabbed my neck with only a little force to avoid hurting me I guess.

"Bullshit, I kinda hate them." I mumbled. Seeing my anger and sadness, Daniel pulled his hands away and looked at me waiting for me to explain.

"I ran away too. It's frustrating and hard to fit in there. It felt like I was living in a jail." Rivers started flowing from my eyes. It reminded me of my forced life in that family.

Why did I cry? I-i can't...

"Can't you get everything you want? Even love with that much money?" He asked, but didn't even look at me.

So, he too thinks money is everything.

"Love isn't something you can’t just buy with money. Falling in love is your fate, but being in love is your choice," I muttered.

Here I was, being so damn nice to this person and he was laughing at me. I kicked his leg to make him stop laughing. A second ago I even thought that he felt sorry for me and now he acts like a jerk.

"Ouch! Sorry, I never thought a person like you existed in that house of devils." 

Another kick made its way to his leg.

"What was that for?!"

"Devils or not... They are still my family so don't you dare speak that way about them," I warned him, raising my index finger at him. He raised his eyebrow at me and sat back in the chair slowly.

"I heard that you were married to Zen, a businessman who works for your father." He continued. "Weren't you the happy couple, the couple all the people talk about?"

Seeing my gaze turn away from him, he said something, and I heard his voice raising, "Amy, I am so sorry!"

"You can say that a little quieter, no need to burst my eardrums." I placed both hands on my ears.

"Sorry," he muttered quietly.

"It's fine." I sighed and continued. "I wish we were, a year has passed since we married, yet he never loved me. I only wished that he would love me. That's my one and only wish." I whispered the end of the sentence, smiling at my silly wish which would never come true.

We both kept quiet for a while, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He just kept looking down.

Even though I didn't want to speak, I was the one who broke the silence... Almost accidentally because I said my thoughts out loud.

"I wish to make things right."

His facial expressions again soften at my words. Tears clouding his eyes. As if he remembered something painful.

Daniel's head shot up with determination. "Will you return if everything becomes right?"