New York City. What could you say about New York City? It was smelly, rodent infested, and the people here were creeps. At least in the area where you were staying. It was nothing compared to your hometown of Malibu. You already missed the smell of the fresh ocean and the excitement of seeing celebrities at random high end stores. You looked out the window and sighed, plopping your chin in your palm. The view was nothing but tagged up buildings and street kids. When you walked through the streets, you always felt the need to clutch onto your designer purse.

The guys here made your skin crawl. They all looked like they were up to no good. Especially the guy who's been staring at you since you walked into the cafe that was anything but lively.

"You've been staring at that chick for 15 minutes straight." Sing nudged Shorter, pulling him out of his trance. "You're gonna scare her away."

"Huh?" Shorter looked away for a split second, "I haven't been staring for 15 minutes." He checked his watch, "It's only been 12."

Sing crossed his arms and smirked, "Are you scared to talk to her, boss?" He teased.

Shorter hunched over laughing hysterically, receiving an unwelcoming glare from you that went unnoticed. "Watch and learn, Sing." He pulled his yellow hoodie into place and adjusted his sunglasses.

You gulped when you felt the mans footsteps getting closer. You tried reaching for your purse and quickly putting in your headphones in hopes he'd turn around if he saw that you didn't want to socialize. Unfortunately for you, it was too late. A hand was slapped on the edge of the table you were sitting at, the noise made you jump. You looked at him from the corner of your eye and noticed how tall he was. And that purple Mohawk... who told him that style looked good?

"Hey," he greeted, "I've never seen you around. Just move here?"

You had no choice but to face this weirdo. Looking past him, you notice his friend giggling in the corner. This must have been some joke they were trying to play on you. "Not interested." A frown pulled on the ends of your lips. This guy looked just like the ones you were all too familiar with. Players that saw you as nothing more than a slab of meat that made them salivate at the mouth, in hopes of having a taste.

Instead of getting angry and calling you a stuck up bitch like all the others, he simply chuckled at your stern remark. That was definitely different and it kind of caught you off guard. He put his hands up and took a small step back, "Whoa, I'm not trying to pull anything funny on, yuh. Swear." He playfully assured and crossed his heart. "Just wanted to be-"

"What makes you think I'd want to be friends with you? Hm? Do I look like I want your company?" If you wanted this guy to go away, you were going to make sure he'd want nothing to do with you. "Here." You slid a $10 bill towards him, "Take this and use it to finish up your haircut. You look ridiculous." What was supposed to be a cruel insult was taken as a hilarious joke by Pineapple head boy and his short friend, as they both erupted into laughter.

"Damn, that was good!" Shorter rubbed the tears from his eye as he continued to laugh. "I didn't take you for a comedian."

"Oh yeah?" You folded your arms over each other and leaned in, "What did you take me for?"

"A lonely girl who has no friends in this place."

You rolled your eyes at his fairly accurate analyzation. "Yeah well I'll keep my options open."

Shorter pulled down his sunglasses and noticed your opened notebook that had stuff you needed for school. "Oh would yuh look at that. You're book smart and I'm street smart. We pretty much complete each other."

Gross. "I don't know how you came up with that, but the logic behind it is extremely flawed."

Shorter shrugged but still kept that goofy smile on his face. "Alright then, but if you ever change your mind." He went into his pocket and pulled out a card and handed it to you. "Call me."

You snatched the crinkled card and read it over, "This is a coupon for the Chang Dai restaurant."

"7 more visits and you get a free medium drink." He snapped his fingers and gave you the finger guns.

He had to be kidding. This attempt to hook up with you was pathetic. "Right." You threw the coupon in your bag like it was loose change that you'd forget about. "I'll keep that in mind." You picked up your things and left, still feeling his eyes on you.

"Wow." Sing walked up to Shorter with his hands interlaced behind his neck.

"Impressed?" He smiled, ready for the boy to shower him in compliments.

"Opposite." Sing tried covering his mouth to muffle a laugh, "You didn't even get her name."

Shorter gave himself a facepalm. "Gah!"
________________________________

It was dark out already and the library was just about to close. You had no idea how late it had gotten since your face was buried in books because your first semester of school was going to start in a few weeks. You wanted to learn as much as possible to get ahead and not let your scholarship go to waste. "Ugh, what a long night." You held your throbbing head, "I need some sleep."

This was the first time you were walking home at night by yourself. You usually tried being back in your apartment by sunset to avoid any trouble but unfortunately trouble found you. Without noticing, a couple men were stalking your every move and made their presence known when you turned onto a dark street where there was no signs of life.

One of the men grabbed you by the back of your neck and pushed you down into the pavement. Your purse was pulled from your shoulder, the force almost ripping it out of the socket. Your cries for help disappeared between the buildings and cackling laughter of the monsters who attacked you. They dumped out your purse looking for your wallet and took the whole thing. "Get up!" One of them shouted, "So I can check your pockets!"

"That's all I have!" You flinched when they surrounded you, "I swear." Another one pulled you up by the hair and slapped you around.

"Hold up! That jewelry is surely worth something."

You cried as all these callous hands pawed at your shaking body to strip you of your belongings as well as your dignity. Oh how you wished you could leave your body when you felt their hands squeeze at areas of your person that have forever been untouched by a man until now. All you wanted was for someone to save you. Why didn't anyone save you?

Soon after the men got what they wanted, they ran off and disappeared into the darkness. Your coughs echoed and your bloody body crawled to your cracked phone that was still working. You needed help but for some reason, you didn't call the police. The only person that came to mind was the boy from the cafe who offered you his friendship when no one else would. The card with the restaurants phone number wasn't too far away from where you found your phone and you dialed the number as quickly as you could with what you thought were broken fingers by the pulsing pain shooting through them.

A woman answered, "Chang Dai. This is Nadia. We're closed."

"This is an emergency!" You couldn't stop your tears.

"I'm sure there's other Chinese restaurants out there." She responded, not being amused by your shouting.

"That's not why I'm calling! I need to talk to-" then it hit you. You never even asked for his name. "I don't know his name. He's um," you stammered, hoping the woman wouldn't hang up on you. "He was tall and uh- purple mohawk! Piercings!"

"You mean my brother, Shorter?"

"Who is it?" Shorter asked, as he cleaned up around the restaurant.

"Some girl asking for you." She handed him the phone to takeover the call while she finished closing down.

"Shorter." He answered calmly until he heard the paranoia in your voice, "Where are you?" ... "Stay there," he ordered, you could hear the anger and concern in his voice. "One of my guys lives close by. He'll watch you until I get there."

"No!" You cried harder, not trusting anyone else near you. "What if he-"

"Trust me, okay. He's a good guy. I'll be there soon."

You didn't know this guy at all but for some reason you believed him. When he introduced himself, he wasn't trying to be someone else to impress you. You could tell he was just some street kid who liked getting in trouble for the fun of it. Yeah he annoyed you at first, but unlike all the other guys, there was nothing about him that frightened you. His appearance was definitely different to say the least but he was, dare you say it, interesting.

Before you knew it, there was a young boy holding his hand out to you. It was the other guy from the cafe that looked to be Shorter's friend. "Holy sh- are you okay? Shorter told me you'd be here. I'm Sing." He kneeled down to observe your injuries as well as your swollen hands. "Some of your fingers are fractured."

"Where's Shorter?" You sniffled, as you pulled away from Sing's tender hands that caressed yours like he was holding a wounded bird.

"He told me to bring you to my place." He saw the frightened look appear quickly in your eyes and tried to bring you back down to ease. "Or if you don't feel comfortable with that," he lifted up his navy blue sweater to reveal a gun tucked in the waistband of his jeans, "I'll protect you until he gets here. But letting you know, it's dangerous on this side." he warned.

Flashes of the incident played in your head. If Shorter trusted this guy then so did you. "Let's go." You responded, trying to push yourself up off the ground. Your knees bled and you felt wobbly like a near born deer. Sing tenderly wrapped his arm around your shoulder and had his other hand hovering just above your waist, in case you fell down due to your wounds. Once you got to his small apartment, you led yourself to the lumpy couch as he went to go get supplies to clean your cuts.

"Hey... ummm." Sing stuttered as he applied bandaids onto your legs. "They didn't uhhh- you know."

"If you're trying to ask if I was raped, I wasn't." You answered coldly. The boys shoulders slumped as he nodded, deciding not to ask anything else. "I'm sorry." you apologized. He was just trying to make sure you were okay and didn't need any other type of medical treatment. It was okay to let your guard down just a little bit. "They did touch me though." You sniffled, bringing your head down into your hands to cry. "They touched me everywhere."

"I'm so sorry that happened to you, y/n."

About an hour had passed and Shorter still hadn't shown up yet. You began to worry about his safety and if he decided to be stupid and try and take on those guys 4 on 1. You prayed that he was okay. Suddenly your tired eyes shot open when there was a loud knocking on the door. Sing held a finger up to his lips, motioning to stay quiet. He pulled out his gun and slowly opened the door. You almost started screaming when you noticed it was the men who attacked you that were standing in the doorway.

You were so terrified that you almost didn't notice how they were shaking and covered in sweat, as if their lives were being threatened. "We're so sorry Ms.Y/N." One apologized, "Here." They each held out your belongings, "We didn't know that you were a friend of Shorter Wong." Sing looked over to you and gave you a nod, indicating that it was okay for you to grab your items and that you were no longer in danger. "We apologize again!" They quickly bowed their heads and ran off like they were afraid to get executed on the spot.

"Is that everything?" Sing asked.

"Y...yeah. How did- why were they afraid?"

"You're stupid if you mess with Shorter's gang, or his friends. That's why they were scared. They knew if they didn't make things right, we'd kill them."

"Kill... them..." you repeated nervously.

"That's how we do things around here."

"He's right." Another voice assured. You turned to see Shorter entering the room. Somehow you found the energy to spring up off the couch and run to him, nearly tripping over your own feet. His warm embrace was there to catch you and hold you close as you cried harder into his chest. His hand caressed the back of your head, letting you know it was safe now that he was here. "It'll be okay." He whispered to you. "I promise."

"Thank you." Your cheeks began to heat up, becoming embarrassed by how you let this complete stranger hold you while you were at you most vulnerable state. Yet his hands felt so different compared to the others. They were kind and protective. Warm and rough. The way he held you, his touch was so pure. A feeling you never knew coming from someone else. Guys always had an ulterior motive with their best interest in mind, but like how you noticed when you and Shorter first met. He was different. So so different.

"Let's get you home, okay?" He slowly pulled away and let his hands run down the sides of your arms. "You don't have to be afraid anymore." He wiped your tear away with the pad of his thumb and gave you a huge smile like when he first introduced himself to you. "Yuh got me!"

A small giggle escaped your lips. Maybe it was the lighting but for some reason you didn't notice how cute Shorter was until now. He helped gather your things and thanked Sing for coming to your aid as well. You followed closely behind him as he led you to his red motorcycle.

"You drive a motorcycle?"

"Hell yeah! This baby goes so fast, you have no idea. But don't worry, I'll go slow just for you." He winked, handing you an extra helmet. "Just hold on tight, okay?"

You've never been on the back of a motorcycle before, but here you were with your arms wrapped around the waist of some guy who was the boss of a street kid gang. Never in a million years would you have imagined yourself in this position. Although, it was hard to deny the fact that this felt like a scene from a romance movie, where the knight in shining armor came to your rescue.

"Thank you again for everything." Your voice shook, as shame began to consume you for being so cruel to this kind boy when you two first met. "Also, tell Sing I said thanks too."

"Of course." Shorter handed you your purse and leaned against his bike, "I guess this is goodbye then." He buried his hands deep into his pockets. His expression seemed sad.

You looked beside you at your lonely apartment complex. "How about see you later?" You suggested hopefully, indicating that you wanted to meet again.

"Maybe you can come by the restaurant sometime. It'll be my treat."

You gasped excitedly, "You sell sushi?"

"Uhhhhh..." he scratched his head and laughed at your question, "Sushi is Japanese. We sell Chinese."

If you could bang your head against a wall right now, you would. Great! Now he thinks I'm stupid! "Hey, you wouldn't mind walking me upstairs would you? I'm still really soar and I might fall."

Shorter raised a pierced eyebrow at your request but agreed nonetheless. "You should wash up and get some rest now." He suggested, entering your apartment. "You had quite a rough day."

"Tell me about it." You sighed, "Hey-"

"Yeah?" He turned quickly, eager to hear if you needed anything else from him.

"Could you possibly stay a little longer?"You rubbed your arm nervously as you spoke, the last thing you wanted was to come off as needy. "I'm still kinda shaken up and I'm not ready to be-"

"It's no problem." He smiled. He didn't need any further explanation on why you needed him with you.

After your shower, you found Shorter sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone. "Hungry?" You asked, going over to the fridge.

"I'm fine. How yuh feeling?"

"Banged up. But I'll survive." You sat beside him and gave him a water bottle in case he was thirsty. "I really appreciate everything you did for me today, Shorter. Even though I was acting all-"

"Don't worry about it. It's okay." He smiled once more. Oh god that smile. That sweet, childlike smile. "I get turned down a lot anyways."

"Really?" That was surprising.

"Nah." He chuckled, "I'm usually the one turning them down."

You gave him a nudge and laughed. "Jerk."

Time got away from the two of you as you both spent the entire night talking and getting to know each other. You told him about how you moved across the country for school on a scholarship for fashion and design, as well as computer science. He was impressed. Beauty and brains.

Then he told you about his life and how he met his best friend Ash in a juvenile detention center. The way he spoke so passionately about him was something you've wanted for so long. A best friend who'd be there for you no matter what.

"If he was a girl I'd definitely date him."

"What?" You snorted.

"I'm telling you, the guy looks like an angel."

You shrugged, "I prefer my angels with piercings and purple hair."

Now it was Shorter's turn to blush. You even surprised yourself with that smooth line. "Heh, would you look at that. I think I match the description."

"You sure do." You couldn't help but bite your bottom lip. Before you knew it Shorter was slowly leaning in towards you as your body started to gravitate in his direction. He reached his hand up to your face and pushed your hair back behind your ear with the tips of his fingers. You fluttered your eyes shut when your forehead touched his. He was so close. His breath felt warm on your lips, making you want to feel his so badly. Your heart raced as this was about to be your first kiss with a guy you just met. What shocked you the most was that Shorter was the one to pull away before you had the chance to.

"I'm sorry. I can't do this." He took off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes. They were a warm shade of brown. So large to where you almost lost yourself in them. "I feel like you're only giving me the time of day cuz of what I did for you." He wasn't entirely wrong. "It's not your fault. I just don't want you to get the wrong idea and think I'm taking advantage of you."

"I don't think that at all." Your head shook, "I mean, I really appreciate what you did. But I don't think you're looking for something in return."

"You don't?"

"No. You don't come off as the type." Shorter's face softened. Other than his crew, people saw him as a no good gangster but there was so much more to him than that. He was also a loyal, protective and loving friend who went out of his way to help some girl he had just met who wanted nothing to do with him.

"Thanks." Your words comforted him. As corny as it sounds, he realized you were seeing more to him than meets the eye. "When I went up to you," he paused for a second, "Obviously I thought you were hot, but I got the vibe that you were-"

"Lonely." You confirmed, adjusting your position to create more space between you and Shorter. "I was."

"My intentions were to change that." He explained to assure that all he wanted was to be the one to brighten up your day, even if it was just a little bit. "Also I'm really good at readin energy and I thought we'd mesh well. Regardless if you hate my haircut." He joked.

You gasped and slapped a hand over your mouth. That harsh insult completely slipped your mind. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean- well it is a bit weird- but it looks cute on you now!"

Shorter busted out laughing at your apology, "What do you mean now?"

"Now that I gotta chance to like you a lot more than I did this morning." You admitted with a giggle.

"Ahhhhh," Shorter rubbed his chin, "I'm guessing that means that you're crushing on me now?"

Without thinking you slapped at his arms like a child throwing a tantrum, "No! No! No!" You whined, "Why'd you have to make it weird for me?" Quickly, you tried hiding your blushing cheeks behind your hands, only for Shorter to pull them back down.

"Awwww, look at you! You're so cute!" You really made me work for that smile and laugh, huh?" Shorter playfully teased.

"Can we just start over?" You asked, trying your best to not look like some boy crazed school girl.

Shorter let out a low chuckle, "Sure." He held out his hand, "I'm Shorter Wong. What's your name?"

You reached out and shook his hand, "I'm Y/N. It's nice to meet you Shorter Wong."

Nothing else happened that night between you and Shorter. You both fell asleep on the couch and woke up the next morning, only to find that the muscular chest you were sleeping on was replaced by a pillow. Shorter had quietly let himself out of your apartment, not wanting to wake you from your slumber.

On the coffee table there was a note that read, "Thanks for having me over. I really enjoyed our time together, friend." Ending the note with a winky face at the bottom.

It had only been a few minutes of realizing that you were alone again, and you couldn't believe that you were already missing the gangster boss of Chinatown, known as Shorter Wong. He was enchanting, charming, and the person you had no idea that you needed in your life to make you happy.

You looked over at the pillow that Shorter had been leaning against while he slept, and held it up to your nose, slowly taking in his sweet scent. Lavender. You giggled to yourself seeing how fitting that was for him.

The next few days you decided to stay inside as an extra precaution. Although you couldn't help but hold onto the shriveled paper that contained the number that saved your life. Then you started doubting if what you felt was real. And that if Shorter really wanted to see you again, he would have dropped by.

"No. Don't think like that, y/n." You told yourself. "He's probably busy. Besides he's just your friend..." the pep talk you were giving yourself did nothing for your sanity. Whenever you closed your eyes, all you saw was his face. His smile. You could even almost hear his laugh. You needed to see him. Without a second thought, you got dressed and went straight to the Chang Dai restaurant.

To much of your displeasure, Shorter wasn't there. But you didn't give up. The dreams and flashbacks of him weren't enough to satisfy you anymore. In fact, they taunted you to no end. You dropped by everyday for a week, growing more eager to see Shorter again.

"If you're looking for my brother, you're out of luck." You picked your head up from the table when you recognized that voice. "He's awol. Hasn't even called to let me know of his whereabouts."

"I hope he's okay." You mumbled, resting your head back down onto your folded arms.

"He's really got you hook, line and sinker. Huh?" Nadia sat down on the seat across from you and patted your head. "Don't start thinking he doesn't care just cuz he hasn't reached out." She sighed, "Shorter lives a dangerous life. He comes and goes." She explained, "Everyday I pray that he'll come back to us in one piece."

"I only talked to him for a few hours and now I'm over here going crazy just thinking about the next time we'll be together again." It was embarrassing to admit this out loud but it was how you felt. No matter how much you tried to suppress these feeling, they just wouldn't go away. "I miss him." Your voice cracked. It took everything you had to not allow yourself to cry. Tears wouldn't bring him back to you so crying your eyes out seemed pointless. "Um." You reached into your bag and pulled out a coupon that had 6 holes punched in it. "Shorter told me 7 visits and I get a free medium drink." You waved the scrap paper around in a silly, unenthusiastic way to lighten the mood and hopefully change the subject. "Day 7." You weakly grinned.

Nadia's expression matched your own as she too was trying to hide how she felt. "I'll make it a large just for you."

"Thank you."

Another day had passed and you gave up on heading back to Chang Dai. It would just make you more sad by being disappointed again. The loneliness of your apartment wasn't that comforting either. "Guess I'll go to the library." Before stepping out the door, your mind flashed back to the incident. "No. It won't happen again. Shorter promised." You took a deep breath and continued to follow through with your plan for the day.

Your timer went off at 7 o clock to let you know that it was time to head back home. Having all these books occupying your attention definitely helped you get your mind off of things. "Here we go." You motivated yourself to step out of the building and head home, reminding yourself that everything was okay now. Only issue was, your feet wouldn't allow you to move any further than the first couple of steps. "I can't do it." You set your bag down next to you as you sat on the stairs, hanging your head low.

"Hey?" A familiar voice peeped from beside you, "Need me to walk you home?"

Your teary eyes gazed up and saw a blurry figure standing in front of the setting sun. "Sh-Shorter?" The sight of him filled you up with pure joy. Without thinking, you threw your arms around his neck and nearly brought him down on top of you.

"Whoa!" Shorter tried regaining his balance. "Taking it as you missed me?" He smiled down at you, tucking strands of hair behind your ear to get a better look. "You're crying. Is everything okay?"

You sniffled, wiping away the tears that kept falling. "Yeah." You tried catching your breath that was almost stolen. "I'm so happy to see you again. How'd you know I was here?"

"Sing told me."

You tilted your head in confusion. "Sing? I haven't seen him since-" Shorter looked at you with a guilty expression and nervously scratched the back of his head. "What?"

"I may or may not have told him to keep an eye on you while I was away." He admitted in hopes you wouldn't get angry. "Not stalking you or anything! Just making sure you made it home safe and such."

There was no way you'd be upset at that. It just proved that even though he wasn't with you, he was still thinking about you every single day. And from there on out, Shorter always walked you to wherever you needed to go and would occasionally convince you to catch a ride on his motorcycle again only if he promised not to go all Fast and Furious on you. Last time you got in trouble because he was speeding through your school campus to, in his words, "impress the bitches." But also, "put all these dweebs on notice that his precious little doll wasn't to be messed with or else."

Soon after that, those walks turned into dinner dates where Shorter would cook his favorite Chinese dishes or you would plan out a fun evening that would sometimes be cut short because "business awaits". But you couldn't be upset. In the busy life of a gang boss, Shorter still made time for you and always made you feel like #1 in his life.

You loved him dearly and he felt the same way. He vowed to always keep you safe and you promised to support him through all the madness and be awaiting his return.

Sometimes you'd think back to before you met Shorter and how sad you were living in this place. Who knew you could become so happy all because of one person who waltzed into your life and changed everything for the better. "Hm. Maybe New York isn't that bad after all."