The last three days were spent with me and Park IlShik giving our best effort to discourage HyeRin stupid and clumsy idea to return to Seoul. Each day would end up with a bight fight between her and her uncle, Park IlShik also blamed me for not trying hard enough to make her stay—he assumed I secretly hope that HyeRin will be a donor for HyeMi. One argument to the next has led HyeRin and I to be here, on the plane that will bring us to Seoul.

This morning HyeRin tries to say goodbye to her uncle, but Park IlShik refused to see her. She cried the whole way to the airport, she couldn’t believe her uncle really meant what he said. He’d done anything he could to cancel her plan, and his last move was to threat HyeRin not to return to him at all if she proceed with her plan. Her uncle stated that the moment HyeRin take a step from his front door to go to Korea, that’ll be the last moment HyeRin will ever see him. I wished HyeRin would listen and stay behind, this is not her battle anyway—but her stubbornness has overtaken her conscience.

Park IlShik has packed all of her stuff on the front door this morning, he persistently refused to see her before she say goodbye. I tried my best to be the middle man to talk him through it, to my surprise what he planned for his niece safety is greater than what I could imagine. He asked me to come and see him early this morning before HyeRin was up, he has made a secret plan for me to follow just in case things go wrong.

“I see there’ no way to stop her now, TaecYeon-ssi. I never thought she’d do it all over again just for the sake of proving her devotion to you.” Park IlShik closes the study door behind us.

“Please believe me, I really tried everything to stop her. I don’t want to put her in danger also, samchon. I love her.”

“And you love HyeMi too. I understand your confusion.” He points a chair in front of his desk, asked me to sit down. “Now, your feeling toward them is not what’s important for me at the moment. You promised me to protect her from her family, so I want you to carry out a mission.”

“A mission?”

“Iye, I know how bad things could get when it involves my ex brother-in-law. Especially when the matter at hand is risking the life of his daughter.” He opened up his drawer to search for something and give a piece of paper to me once he found what he’s looking for. “In case of emergency, call this man. He’ll help you with anything—anything.”

I read the name card he gave me, “Park YoungJoo. Who is he?”

“My right hand man. Hey, look at me.” He demanded my full attention, “If HyeRin life is at stake, I want you to call this man and tell him Park IlShik needs his help.”

“What will happen then?”

“Just promise you’ll do that. Your job is to bring HyeRin to him and that’s it. You can go and move on with your life after that.”

“I don’t understand, I promised her to stay by her side until she recovers.”

“A promise I’m sure you can keep, but then what? Once she’s recover you’ll run back to Lee HyeMi? You plan to give her another illusion of your affection and leave her in the end? She doesn’t need that!” He slammed his desk. “I don’t trust you, boy. But you’re the only one that I can count on to carry this plan, so please promise me you’ll do what I asked.”

I don’t need to think about it, of course I’ll do everything to make sure HyeRin is safe and sound.

“The moment she leaves my house will be the moment I move out. I need to move so they cannot trace me down here. This is important for her safety later on. So what I’m asking you to do is to give that man a call when everything is over. He’ll know what to do.”

“He’ll take her away, won’t he?”

“Far away, HyeRin and I will have to disappear again, boy. Only this time it’ll be harder than the first one.” He looked down on his table with a look I can’t explain.

I look closely to him, he’s given up his argument with his niece, knowing nothing could change her mind once she’s set to do something. What he can do right now is only to prevent things to go from bad to worse.

“I’m sorry, samchon, I couldn’t force her to stay.”

“You owe me, TaecYeon-ssi. You owe me to bring her back.” He chokes a little, “And I want her to return alive.”

A stewardess comes to us asking if we’d like anything to drink and she broke my daydream. I look at HyeRin beside me, she’s leaning against the window trying to close her eyes. We both know she’s not sleeping.

“Oppa, I’m scared.” She whispers softly.

I take her hand and hold it, her palm is unusually sweaty. She must have been very nervous about what she’s going to do.

“If you’re scared, why are you doing this?”

“I don’t know, I’m crazy aren’t i?”

I pull her closer to me, letting her to lean on my shoulder instead of the window. “Hey, I’ll be beside you every step of the way and long after that. I promise HyeRin-a.” I kiss the top of her head, basically trying everything I can to calm both of us. She’s not the only one that’s nervous.

“Do you think samchon really hate me? I thought he was just threating me when he said he wouldn’t want to see me.”

“Give him a break HyeRin-a, it’s not easy for him to accept the fact that you’re running voluntarily towards danger.” Again, I try to be the middle man between them.

She inhales deeply trying to get rid of her scrambled thoughts. “I feel butterfly in my stomach, but not the good butterfly. I feel like I’m about to throw up.”

“Are you sick?” I run my hand to her forehead to check her temperature.

“No, it’s not physical it’s psychological. The last time I met him was right before the surgery begun, in the dreaded operation room.” She starts implying about her father, “I wonder if he’s mad at me or maybe a one-in-a-million chance would be he’s happy to see me rescuing his daughter.”

“You’re his daughter too.”

She scoffs cynically, “Yeah right. Try to tell that