“Umma” I called out to her, she turned to me with a wide smile on her face. I smiled back with excitement, it had been so long since the last time we saw each other. She put her hand up signaling me to wait while instructing the nurse to continue to finish her task. As she started walking closer to me, I finally got to see the most important woman of my life up close, she looked exhausted. Her hands didn’t look as smooth as before and her face had gotten tanner than before. I took both of her hand in mine when she sat down on the chair beside my bed. As soon as my skin touched her, I felt my heart dropped a little, her hands not only didn’t look smooth but it felt rougher than the last two months.

“Umma-”

“I should take better care of myself and I shouldn’t be working too hard. I should let Taeyeon take care of some of the work.” She cut me before I even began to scold her. As always this woman knew me way better than the people who claimed to have raised me with love.

“Let me reassure you, I didn’t know much. All of these just came from aging, the outer appearance won’t last forever, you know.” I looked at her in disagreement. She was the most beautiful woman in the world both inside and out, I would never let her put herself down.

“Umma, you will always be the most beautiful woman in my heart. All of these don’t matter. What I’m concerning right now is about how tired you look? Did you sleep well last night? When did you come here? I thought you and dad were still in Dubai.” I threw a bunch of questions at her but instead of getting of annoyed, she smiled at me, the warmest smile in the whole world.

“We got on the jet after hearing the news from Taeyeon that you were in trouble.” I gasped in shock. Did Taeyeon’s parents come from Dubai because of my failure? I started to feel bad, if only I didn’t let my emotion take over me, if only I kept my cool I would have won and this wouldn’t happen.

“I’m so sorry for causing you so much trouble. I even had to drag Taeyeon into the mess. I-I really don’t deserve all of you. I’m really sorry, Umma.” I guessed I can never kept my emotion intact because as soon as I finished my sentence I started to cry like a baby. Umma didn’t say anything else, she leaned over and hugged me. I let my head fell on her shoulder as she rubbed her hand softly on my back. It had always been like this. I remember crying for the first in front of Umma when I was 12 years old. Taeyeon had just come back from America to study in Korea and I was the first friend she made. She was so excited that she asked me to come over to her house and introduced me to her parents. I was so touched then when her mother asked me to call her mom as soon as she learned that I was my grandfather’s granddaughter. She had heard a lot about me but she had never met me before. I cried because for the first time after my mother left, someone had given me sincere love.

"You deserve all of us. You deserve all the love in this world. I love you so much, my child. Nothing will ever take this love away, so don’t give yourself any reason to doubt it. Appa and Umma will always come to you no matter where you are.” I cried even harder upon hearing that.

After crying for a while, Umma began to scold me saying that I looked ridiculous when I cried and asked me to stop. I burst out laughing when she started mimicking my crying face. The nurse finally finished her task and handed Umma my breakfast. She thanked the nurse and started feeding me the most delicious porridge in Korea, of course it was the porridge that my Umma made with love.

“Umma, if you keep treating her like a child, she will never grow up.” Taeyeon said as she popped her head inside the door. The nurse quickly opened the door wider before bowing at Taeyeon. She bowed back at her as she walked in following by many bodyguards with a bunch of bags. I looked at her in disbelief.

“Yah what are all those stuffs? Am I moving house or something?” Ignoring my question, Taeyeon walked up to her mom and started kissing her cheeks and hands before taking a sit beside her. The bodyguards started placing the bags on the sofa before making their way out. Taeyeon picked the neatly cut fruit on my food tray, I slapped her hand and gestured her to answer my earlier question. She glared at me but answer anyway.

“We wish you would be moving in with us but no these are just your necessity. I couldn’t go to your house and get your stuffs because I had to take Jessica home, so I just went out and bought whatever I could land my hands on.” Right Jessica. I almost forgot what she did for a moment. Taeyeon noticed my silent and she knew exactly what I was thinking about.

“Hey I think she didn’t do it on purpose. It seemed like Donghae had planned the whole thing and tricked her since the start. She thought she was doing something amazingly sweet for you, so don’t be so hard on her, okay?” She looked at me with a puppy eyes, it was almost like she was begging me to forgive Jessica. I wanted to ask Umma for confirmation but she had stood up from the chair to clean her hands since I had gulped down almost all of the porridge anyway. I sighed and intentionally avoided Taeyeon’s annoying face but Umma came back and took my hand in hers and place it on my chest.

“Listen to your heart. You may be having a lot of stories in your head right now but at least give her a chance to speak her side of the story.” I nodded, right I should at least hear her out before shutting her off completely.

“Great because she is here and ready to speak her heart out. Umma, let’s go. You came straight from the airport last night, you should go home and rest.” Taeyeon said and escorted her mom out without hearing my protest. As the door was opened again, Jessica had appeared behind it. She bowed at Umma before looking shyly at me. I turned my body to the window because I simply didn’t know what to say to her right now. I closed my eyes trying to focus on her footsteps that walked toward me slowly and timidly.

Jessica’s POV

Taeyeon and her mom said ‘Good luck’ before making their way out with the bodyguards and the nurse leaving me all alone with Yuri. I took a deep breath and walked slowly toward Yuri’s bed. She had turned her back at me, she must be still angry at me. I couldn’t blame her, if I were her, I would be angry too.

“Yuri” I voiced out timidly. When she didn’t reply anything, I sat down on the chair beside the bed and put my hand on the bed.

“I’m so sorry about yesterday. I know that everything I said at the moment will only be excuses and I don’t want to give you any. All I want you to know is that I love you, I love you so much that I was stupid enough to believe everything he told me. I want you to have a happy life and without knowing I thought yesterday was going to be the happiest day for you. I’m so sorry that it wasn’t and that I was one of the reason for you not to be.” I said as tears began to run down my cheeks. I looked at her again and decided that I should give her some space, after all my present and my excuses wouldn’t be any of help anyway. I bid goodbye to her and wish her a nice rest before making my way to the door. As I put my hand on the door knob, I heard the bed making sound, Yuri had turned toward me.

“My family is not a perfect family that my grandfather wanted others to believe. My dad died before I even born. My mother had left me behind since I was a child. My cousins and their mother don’t see me as their family, in their eyes I was just someone who tried to take their inheritance. They hate me enough that they would kill me if they could. My grandfather…” I turned to look at her with teary eyes and I could see that she was crying too. I walked back to her, this time with the speed of light. I hugged her tight as she began to speak again.

“My grandfather used me as a replacement for the perfect son that he had built. What he try to deny is he is making the same mistake on me the same thing that he had made on his son. But I won’t die no matter how hard this life is because I really love you, Jessica. The thought of leaving you all alone in this world kill me inside.” I cried harder at her confession. I felt like I was the worse.

“That is my story. The story that I try so hard to hide because I’m so ashamed. Would you still be with me after knowing all of this? Would you fight with me knowing that we can lose every second?” I let go of the hug and looked at Yuri’s puffy eyes. I smiled at her and without saying anything else, I kissed her. I was a little disappointed when she hadn’t kiss me back. However, before I could let go, she put her hand on my head and started kissing me harder than we had ever kissed before.

Taeyeon’s POV

“Umma, I really can’t believe I’m peeking on these two with you.” I said to my mom who was standing outside the hospital door looking at the couple kissing inside with me. If I could choose, I would prefer to do this with Tiffany.

“I know, I really miss your dad.” Really? I looked at her in disbelief. My parents is the sweetest couple I had ever encountered and if I hadn’t met Tiffany, I would be jealous too dead. Yet when she talked like that, it still felt weird.

“Umma stop” I started whining when she didn’t show sign that she will stop teasing me anytime soon. After laughing quietly for a while, she decided to drag me outside and we really left to go home this time.

“Where is Appa? I haven’t seen him since last night.” I asked as we got in the car.

“He went straight to Yuri’s grandfather’s house last night.” I looked at my mother in shock, why would he go there? I really hope he wasn’t in trouble.

“He called him as soon as we landed in Korea saying how rude you were to him and that he wanted to teach him about parenting.” I looked down feeling angry at myself to have that old man disrespect my father like that. My mom put her hand on my shoulder and started caressing it.

“We know that it wasn’t true. You were protecting Yuri and we are so proud of the strong woman we had raised you to be. Don’t worry, your dad can take him.” She said she patted my head. I smiled at her, still feeling bad but I know that my dad wasn’t scared of Master Kim anyway.

“Now since we’re finally back, how about inviting Tiffany for dinner? And invite Jessica too. I want to have dinner with my two daughter and their girlfriends and I know that your father will love that too.” I laughed, I know that Tiffany would love that too.