Chapter 280: The Mats

Mina was absolutely stunned when President Lee left her apartment without any threats or warnings. She assumed that the man felt he had warned her enough by basically kidnapping her neighbor's kid.

Still, what surprised her the most was that he did not do anything to Dom at all. In fact, he left Dom, who appeared just as shocked, in Mina's apartment.

"We are dead, aren't we?" Mina asked. Dom's head moved up and down slowly.

"I think I should send myself to camp," Dom joked.

"You didn't disregard orders though," Mina said.

"You really don't know do you?" Dom asked.

"Know what?" Dom sighed as he clasped Mina's shoulders. She was a smart woman, but she was also as dense as a rock.

"Forget it," Dom said. "How did your appointment go?" Dom had long ago dropped all correctness while speaking to Mina. Although she was easily embarrassed, she was not someone who was easily offended.

"I'm fine," Mina said. Her meaning was clear.

"Do you feel better now?" Dom asked.

"I guess sss-" Mina's legs were swept from under her body and Dom pinned one of her arms behind her back.

"I told you I was going to kick your ass," he said. Mina used her leg to try and kick him. "Nice try," he mocked, picking the woman up by her collar. "Get dressed now, we are going to the mats."

----

True to his word. Dom did not hold back even a little. Not that Mina blamed him, she could have gotten him killed and there was a good chance the threat was still real.

Unlike when they practice self-defense, Dom did not call out his next move. Instead, Mina had to guess; he was not harsh, but he was in no way gentle. She tried her best to keep up, but after a while, she did not even bother trying to stand.

"How the hell did someone so weak outrun me?" Dom asked. He was not even winded.

"Your muscle is not as agile as mine, and you are heavier," Mina replied in huffs. Dom laid next to her staring up at the ceiling of the gym.

"Please don't run from me again," he said. Mina turned her head to face Dom who had his eyes closed in thought.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't lying when I said that I couldn't stop my legs from moving, but you have to know; if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have come back." Mina said her sentence very slowly and Dom believed every word.

"Mina, do you know you are the closest thing I have to a friend?" He asked randomly.

"You're not very likable," Mina replied and Dom chuckled.

"Since we agree, let's not get each other killed." Mina flashed a smile and a thumbs up. Dom stood and pulled Mina to her feet.

----

Back at Mina's apartment, Dom was enjoying a meal that Mina had put together using random ingredients he picked out. As part of her payback, she agreed to cook for him anytime his rotation came up. This arrangement extended to breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Mina was grateful that Dom did not hate her, he had even told her that he was only angry because she ran during his shift, but if it had been another guard, he would not have even batted an eye.

When Mina had run, she had not thought of anyone else. Her brain was in pure survival mode, and what she had said to President Lee was mixed with some truth. If she did not want to be found, she would not have been, but the thought of President Lee or his people tearing apart her family home made her shift gears.

----

Dom loved Mina's cooking. It reminded him of something he had lost in his youth, something he did not even know he had missed. Dom's mother had been a homemaker, while his father worked as a consultant at a bank.

The family was not rich, but they were comfortable. They lived happily with one another, but underneath it all his parents were miserable. His mother and father had been forced to marry when they discovered they were expecting. They had never learned to love one another, but they never let it show to their children.

Dom lived the lie in complete bliss, but unfortunately it had all come crashing down the moment he reached puberty. His parents quite literally shattered his entire outlook on relationships, love, and life when they told their sons that they were getting a divorce.

To Dom, the revelation was a shock, but to his older brother, it was no big deal. When the moment of truth arrived, Dom was given a choice. He could follow his mother or stay with his father. At the time, he was so conflicted that he put the decision off until it had been made for him.

It was then that Dom discovered that his parents had been dating while they were still married. His mother did not even wait a full month before she moved them in with her boyfriend, who disliked him from the beginning.

Still in a private middle school, due to his father's generosity and not his stepfather's, Dom encountered a military recruiter. The appeal of joining the military was simply because it meant he would not have to live with his mother, nor would he feel guilty for telling her that he wanted to move out.

Initially, Dom's father was against his son enlisting. Dom was not a dumb child, and was doing well in school, but Dom would not take no for an answer. Eventually both parents agreed to allow him to transfer into Pan's military academy and Dom never looked back.

All the things that had occurred during that time had also influenced Dom's attitude toward Mina.

In the beginning, he held no opinion toward the woman, but after hearing her speak about her family, he could not help but to wonder if all the love she described was real or an act.

----

Dom cleared his plate and started to help Mina with the dishes. As she handed him the items to dry, they exchanged small talk. All of Mina's happy memories revolved around her sister and it made Dom wonder if she had any good memories of her own.

"What do you mean?" Mina asked. She had never really noticed that she did not have a single memory to herself.

"I mean, what about your friends? Didn't you have any?" Mina considered before answering.

"Of course," Mina said. "But I didn't meet them until I left home."

"So before then, everyone else was…?" Dom let his question hang so Mina could fill in the blanks.

"I guess they were nice to me because I was younger. My sister was two years older than me and most of her friends were older than her. I guess in their eyes, I was a child." Dom found that hard to believe. Mina was beautiful and he was certain someone noticed.

"So, no boys tried to date you?" He asked, and Mina shrugged.

"If they did, I wouldn't have been able to tell. I have gotten better, but in the past, I thought being kind was a standard. It wasn't until I left home that I realized it was not."