I love a Criminal

"Zhuo Jingren, please let me explain-"

BANG!

A beautiful girl was pushed and thrown into the muddy ground. Her perfectly curled hair was a mess, her plump cheeks were red with a handprint, and bruises were forming on her delicate wrist.

Glowering eyes were filled with pure hatred and disgust as they stared down at her. He wasn't the same person she knew a few days ago, the same person who gave in for everything she ever asked for. He was her fiance, but yet here he had his hands wrapped around another girl's waist.

The look he gave was something she was never familiar with. She couldn't understand what she ever did wrong.

Xiong Zhi, a petite girl whose face screamed innocence, was standing beside the heartless man. Her dainty arms wrapped around his biceps as if she was stopping him. Pure, docile, gentle, and anything sweet could be described as her and this was her so-called cousin. The same cousin she looked up to is now standing beside him.

"You disgust me" Zhuo Jingren spat out each word, every syllable prickling her heart.

Lara Xiong never felt so lost as she did then. She told herself this was just a nightmare. The Jingren she knew would never do this to her. He told her it was love at first sight just a few days ago, but now why does he say to her that she disgusts him. How can anyone ever be disgusted with her?

"Don't touch me with those filthy hands."His voice was dark, but smooth and echoed throughout the room. Her hands froze midway hearing him as she looked at him again, hoping that he would change his mind. Telling her this was all a prank, but No the minute he called her filthy she knew there was no going back to where she came from.

Lara glanced up at him. Her heart was already torn in every direction by his words. He looked at her like she was scum under him who was always and would never let go.

"Jingren I-"

"Did I allow you to call me that? You vengeful bitch" He snarled at her, his voice dangerously low.

Lara felt a pang in her heart. She looked at him as he brutally kicked her. Where did it go all wrong, she asked herself?

Zhuo Jingren narrowed his eyes at her pathetic state.

"You are a mistake," he said as he looked and smiled at Xiong Zhi.

Lara tried getting up that was when the ground started to collapse. Zhuo Jingren and Xiong Zhi were gone. Just like that everyone who was humiliating her was gone.

As she, Lara stood there in the abyss of darkness, unsure of where she went wrong.

Lara sat up abruptly, her heart hammering in her chest.

She ran a shaky hand through her hair and squeezed her eyes shut. Her lips wobbled as tears pooled behind her eyelids. No matter how much she tried to brush the haunting past away, the pain kept catching up.

Soon, droplets of salty tears fell from her eyes. She struggled to breathe, hiccuping for gasps of air. In a cold, dark, and lonely room, she broke down. She wished it was a nightmare not a memory from her painful past.

Her heart ached with the memories from seven years ago. When she was kicked out of her so-called fiance's house where she was utterly humiliated and embarrassed. Her heart was torn into pieces, stomped on, and thrown into the ocean like trash.

Lara still remembered the pain of watching the love of her life choose her cousin over her while calling her a mistake. She was by his side for as long as she can remember.

Collapsing onto her bed again, Lara stared at the bleak and endless darkness.

She swore to herself, that she would forget her past and move on. To some extent, she did. But nightmares like the one she just experienced kept surfacing the painful past she so wanted to forget.

Because the darkness allowed; Lara to reminisce without distractions, she didn't hear any knocks.

The light knock became harsher and louder. It echoed throughout the hollow, empty room. One knock turned into two, then three, then four until it became excruciatingly rapid. Then, without warning, the door slammed open.

A middle-aged man entered the room. Do Junyeong stopped in front of his young miss with a scowl. He stared her down until she finally looked at him giving him a sense of acknowledgment." Young Miss, it's late. You are supposed to be awake by now? " Even though his voice was gentle she knew she was testing his patience by sleeping now.

"Uncle Jun, just let me sleep for some more time, eh?"Lara mumbled snuggling into her blankets.

Do Junyeong was the only person who stood beside her and took care of her even when he wasn't obliged to. When her family members and friends discovered that her father is arrested and that she is no longer the beloved Xiong princess of the family everyone started to abandon her. And when they got to know how her cousin was engaged to her fiance and how much he valued her. Everyone wanted to get in the good graces of the Zhuo Prince.

Lara wasn't surprised when everyone left her, after all, she was supposed to be a criminal. Unfortunately, the daughter of a criminal and a criminal were synonyms to society.

Lara will not deny the fact that the deeds her father did were bad, but nor could she never abandon him because of his deeds. After all, he was her father who was her only family ever since she was young. Of course, now she can include her Uncle Do.

"Are you daydreaming again? Did you hear what I just said? "Do Junyeong fumed when Lara didn't reply.

Over the years he had come to see his young miss as his daughter.

He walked to the long curtains covering tall windows to open them.

"Uncle Jun, please wait, okay? I'm still not ready for light-" Too late. Do Junyeong already opened the curtains with a smirk.