Chapter 19 

 

Late Friday night, Yuri glanced over at the clock on her nightstand the moment the phone rang. It was almost midnight. She suddenly got a funny feeling in her stomach. Was it Yunho? The last time she had seen him was Sunday night when they had all gone to the movies. 

 

Deciding that answering was the only way to determined who her caller was, she reached out and picked up the phone, "Hello?" 

 

"Mom?" 

 

Yuri shot straight up in bed. The voice sounded like Kyungseok's but there was no way her son could be calling her when he was down the hall in his bed sleeping. 

 

"Mom? Are you there? It's me." 

 

Yuri jumped out of bed to her feet, "Kyungseok? Where are you?" 

 

"Mom, I'm fine." 

 

Yuri angrily began pacing her bedroom, "Fine nothing. Where are you, young man? No one gave you permission to leave this house. How dare you pulled something like this?" 

 

"Mom, please calm down. I'm fine. Yeonhee and I are together." 

 

"What?!" Yuri screamed, at the top of her lungs before collapsing in the chair in her room, "What do you mean you and Yeonhee are together?! It's after midnight! No one gave you permission to..." 

 

"Mom, Yeonhee and I have been thinking." 

 

Yuri gripped the phone tightly in her hand, "Thinking? The two of you have been thinking? Fine then. Think at your own houses. I want you home immediately." 

 

"Not until you and Mr. Jung promise to become friends again." 

 

Yuri frowned. What was Kyungseok talking about? 

 

"Listen honey, Yunho and I are friends. You need to come home." 

 

"The two of you didn't act like it on Sunday night. You barely said two words to each other. If Mr. Jung is going to be our in-law one day then the two of you are going to have to get along." 

 

Yuri threw her head back and began silently counting to 10, not believing the conversation she and her son were having, "Looked Kyungseok, I don't know where you are but I want you to end this called right now and come home. Better yet, tell me where you are and I will come and get you." 

 

"No mom, I can't do that. Yeonhee and I aren't going to do anything we shouldn't so don't worry about that." 

 

"But I'm worried about that. You are only 14. It's after midnight and you are out somewhere with a girl when you should be home sleeping in your bed. How dare you tell me not to worry?" 

 

"Then maybe I should asked you to trust me and to also trust Yeonhee. We are in a safe location and we won't do anything that you and Mr. Jung will be ashamed of." 

 

"That's not the point." 

 

"It is the point, mom. You and Mr. Jung are going to have to trust us. Yeonhee and I figured the reason the two of you can't get along is because you don't trust each other and you don't trust us." 

 

Yuri struggled to keep her voice calm, "I do trust Yunho and I have tried to stopped being so uptight and to start trusting you more but I see doing so was a mistake. You either come home within the next 30 minutes or I'm calling the police." 

 

"Mom, please don't. All it will do is causes unnecessary embarrassment for me and Yeonhee." 

 

"Tough. The two of you should have thought of that sooner." 

 

"Mom, I'm serious. If you called the police then we won't come back. All we need is time to talked." 

 

"And just what do the two of you have to talked about that you had to sneak out in the middle of the night to do it?" "We need to talked about you and Mr. Jung and your inability to get along." 

 

"We can get along." 

 

"Then you sure fool us. You were getting along then something happened. We don't know what but the two of you sure acted like you were avoiding each other on Sunday night." 

 

"Kyungseok, I..." 

 

"Good night mom. We will called you in the morning and tell you our decision." 

 

Yuri's stomach dropped to the floor, "Your decision about what?" 

 

"About whatever we decide. Yeonhee has to called her dad now. Goodbye mom. I will talked to you in the morning and I promise, Yeonhee and I won't do anything." 

 

Before Yuri could opened to say another word, there was a resounding clicked in her ear. 

 

Yuri quickly snatched up the phone the moment it rang again, 5 minutes later, knowing it was Yunho. 

 

"Yuri, you ok?" 

 

His deep, husky voice had a comforting effect on her, "Oh Yunho Oppa, what are we going to do?" 

 

"You didn't called the police, did you?" 

 

"No." 

 

"Good. I got a chance to talked to the both of them and..." 

 

"Can you believe what they have done? Just wait until I see them. I'm going to..." 

 

"Calm down Yuri." 

 

"Calm down? My child is out somewhere after midnight and you want me to calm down?" 

 

"Yes. My child is out there, too. One good thing is that they are together." 

 

"You think that's a good thing?" 

 

"I trust your son, Yuri. I believe he won't let anything happened to my daughter and he gave me his word that they won't do anything they aren't supposed to do." 

 

Yuri glanced out of her bedroom window. A fists tightened around her heart, knowing her little boy was out there somewhere, "Yes, that's the same thing Kyungseok said." She murmured quietly, "And you are right. We are going to have to trust them." 

 

Yuri was quiet for a long while then she said, "Did Yeonhee tell you why they did it?" 

 

"Yeah, she told me." 

 

"I thought we acted pretty normal on Sunday night." She said. 

 

"Yeah, but I guess they still picked up on something." 

 

"Well, even if they thought we weren't on the best of terms, it wasn't any of their business." 

 

"Oh? You finally agreed with me about that?" 

 

Yuri frowned, "I'm serious Oppa." 

 

"I have always been serious about that." He then asked, "Where are you now?" 

 

"In my bedroom." 

 

"How about going downstairs and putting some coffee on? I doubt either of us will get much sleep tonight and if we are going to worry, we might as well do it together. I'm on my way over." 

 

"Alright. I will have the coffee ready when you get here." 

 

Yunho made it to Yuri's house in less than 18 minutes. She met him at the door with a cup of steaming hot coffee. 

 

As if it was the most natural thing to do, he leaned over and kissed her lips, "You ok?" He asked quietly, after taking the cup from her hand and following her into her living room where he sat down on the leather sofa beside her. 

 

"Yes, I'm ok but I'm still worried about them. I didn't think to asked how they were getting around." 

 

Yunho nodded after taking a sip of his coffee, "I was told by Yeonhee their using Uber. That girl is going to be grounded for life for pulling this." 

 

"So is Kyungseok and he was supposed to be getting the Xbox One he's been wanting next year too, and to think I had considered surprising him with it this Christmas as a gift with a few games as well. He might as well kissed that surprises goodbye." 

 

"And they pulled this just to make a statement that they didn't like the way we acted on Sunday night. If that doesn't beat all." Yunho said. 

 

"Yeah, I guess it means a lot to them for us to get along." 

 

"But it's not like we argue or anything, Yuri." 

 

She inhaled deeply, "I know but I guess they were watching us more closely than we thought. You have to admit, we were rather distant to each other." 

 

"Yeah, we were." He readily admitted it, "And I didn't like it." 

 

She met his gazed and said, "Neither did I." 

 

After a few moments of silence, she added, "Do you think we are doing the right thing by not calling the police?" 

 

"Yes, but I did contact my father, brother and my good friend Heechul. There was no way I couldn't let them know. At least I was able to reached my father and brother. Evidently, Heechul is still somewhere out on the town and he isn't answering his phone but I will talked to him tomorrow." 

 

Yuri nodded, "Kyungseok and Yeonhee will come home, won't they Oppa?" 

 

When he heard the trembling in her voice, he set his cup on the table and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It felt good to hold her again, "Yes, they will come home. When they get hungry, they will be back." 

 

His words made Yuri smiled, "Yeah, Kyungseok definitely likes to eat." 

 

She cuddled deeper into Yunho's warm embrace. It felt good to be held by a man who cared about her. A man who had told her he loved her. A man she knew she could depend on, "Where do you think they will sleep tonight?" 

 

Yunho shrugged, "Probably at a hotel." 

 

She pulled back and looked at him, "Are they old enough to get a room on their own?" 

 

"It depends on where they go. To some owners, money and not age is the determining factor." 

 

Yuri really hadn't wanted to hear that. More than anything, she had to remembered that Kyungseok said he and Yeonhee wouldn't do anything. He had promised. 

 

"Come here and lay beside me. You must be tired." 

 

She automatically did what he suggested without thinking twice about it. He stretched out his legs on the sofa to accommodate her and gently held her as they lay side by side. Before he had arrived, she had changed out of her black multi graphic sleep dress into a pair of mint and white henley sleep set. Heat curled through her when he wrapped his arms around her. It felt good knowing she wasn't alone now. 

 

"Try to get some sleep." 

 

"I don't think I can Oppa. I want my baby home." A few moments later, she said sleepily, "Did I ever tell you about the first time I let Kyungseok sleep somewhere other than his own bed?" 

 

"No, I don't think that you did." 

 

"He was 3 and it was his first sleepover at a friend's house. At first, I wasn't going to let him go but then Seohyun convinced me that I should. I barely slept that entire night, knowing he wasn't in the house. I was finally able to sleep only after going into his room and stretching out on the floor beside his little bed. Now, isn't that pathetic?" 

 

"No, it sounds to me like you were a mother who had missed her child and needed the connection." After a few moments, he added, "It works like that for adults too, you know." 

 

She lifted her head and met his gazed, "Does it?" 

 

"Yeah." He reached out and her cheek with one finger, "You slept in my bed that one night but that's all it took for me to get used to your presence. All this week, I found myself reaching out as if you were still there, wanting that connection." 

 

Yuri's stomach knotted when her gazed slipped to his mouth and she remembered how that mouth had driven her crazy in so many different ways. She remembered the taste of it, the feel of it. She also remembered something else. The amount of love she had in her heart for this one particular man. 

 

She reached up and tightened her arms around his neck at the same time she leaned up for his kissed. 

 

With agonizing slowness, he took , claimed it and branded it. His tongue made love to . The more he it did, the more she became fully aware of the steady, strong arms holding her. They were protective arms. They were arms that would shield her from any storm whether raging or mild. They were arms that would always be there to hold her when she needed to be held. It had been late in coming but she realized that now. 

 

Moments later, when he lifted his mouth, she let out a satisfied sigh, "Thanks. I needed that." 

 

He looked at her and smiled, "So did I." 

 

Determined to maintain controlled of the situation, he then said, "Now, let's try to get some rest so we can be well-rested to give our kids hell when they come back home." 

 

"Yes, our kids." Yuri said, the words as if they suddenly had new meaning to her. 

 

As he pulled her closer, she settled against his comforting muscular formed and believed that from this time forward, somehow everything was going to be alright.