"Really? Did your boyfriend saw the whole thing?" Tiffany asked Hyorin, who was nodding her head vigorously while grinning away. "But she looked so petite. When Inspector Kwon told me that she had gotten in a fight with a few men, I didn't really believe her."

"Inspector Kwon talked to you? When did this happened?" Hyorin was frowning as she listened to Tiffany's explanation about what happened after she left the hospital early, 3 days ago. "Did Doctor Choi say anything to you after the Inspector left?"

"She only told me that I could report off duty. But I noticed the cold exchanges of look between the Inspector and Doctor Choi. Are both of them on bad terms with each other?" Tiffany asked as she grabbed a sandwich while following Hyorin who was walking ahead of her. 

Both the doctors were on their breaks after finishing their morning routine checks on their patients. Along the way, they greeted some other staffs of the hospital who were eating at the staff canteen. The past 3 days, both of them didn't managed to meet each other as they were on different shift duties but today, they were lucky to be on the morning shift together. 

They were talking about random stuff until Hyorin suddenly told Tiffany about what her boyfriend had told her, on the day where both of them had crossed paths with Taeyeon. 

Tiffany listened intently at everything that Hyorin was telling her. About how her boyfriend had went to a club with his friends and managed to witness a fighting scene which coincidentally involved Taeyeon. 

"I'm not sure if they're on bad terms or not. All I know is that Inspector Kwon's visits to the hospital are usually not welcomed by Doctor Choi. Don't ask me the reason though because I don't know. Anyway, my boyfriend said that the man that Taeyeon had beaten up, deserved it." Hyorin munched on her food while Tiffany had a confused look on her face.

"He deserved it? Why would anyone deserve to be beaten up? Is your boyfriend into violence too?" Tiffany asked bluntly as Hyorin chuckled and slapped her shoulders lightly.

"Of course not. My boyfriend is the most romantic and warmest person I've ever known even though he looked like a player." Hyorin's answer caused Tiffany to roll her eyes at her. "Anyway, it seemed that one of the men was actually harassing one of the girls there. Grabbing her by the waist and forcing her to have a drink with him. Even the club's bouncer tried to stop him in a nice way but he rounded up his friends and tried to taunt the bouncer. Taeyeon came up to them and punched him straight in the face when the man continued to harass the girl."

"Why didn't the bouncer just asked the man and his friends to leave since they're creating havoc in the place?" Tiffany questioned as Hyorin just shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe because he was outnumbered and also because he didn't want to find trouble with their clients. If Taeyeon was the one who started the fight, at least the club won't have to bear the consequences and their image will remain intact. Get what I mean?" Hyorin tried to guess the reasons as Tiffany just paused to ponder. 

"So she must have called her bodyguards to beat them up after starting the fight, am I right?" Tiffany continued asking confidently but was surprised when Hyorin shook her head.

"She managed to beat them up before her bodyguards had to step in when the first guy that she punched, swung a broken glass bottle at her across her stomach. I think she was injured and that was the reason as to why she was brought to the hospital that night. Usually Doctor Choi will be the one who would attend to her." Hyorin explained further.

"So she stood up for the girl who was harassed and got injured because of that? Who is she anyway? And what is her relationship with Doctor Choi?" Tiffany looked at Hyorin with so much curiosity in her eyes which caused Hyorin to chuckle at her.

"Why do you look so interested to know about her? Are you having a crush on her?" Hyorin teased as Tiffany rolled her eyes at her colleague.

"Of course not. I'm not into girls. Furthermore, I've already got a boyfriend." Tiffany's reply caused Hyorin to be surprised since it was the first time that Tiffany had mentioned about her boyfriend. Hyorin quickly asked her about it and Tiffany explained. "He's someone I knew in LA. He was a student there too but from a different school. We got to know each other from our mutual friends. He's not a local there so after he graduated, he had to return to his country but we still kept in touch. One week before I came here, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes since he's really a nice guy."

"Long distance relationship? Wow. Impressive. It's not easy to do so." Hyorin commented as Tiffany nodded her head.

"I know, which is why both of us agreed to take things slow. He promised to find time to come to Seoul so that we could spend more time together. But he's been busy with his family business." Tiffany replied with a shy smile.

"Is he your first boyfriend?" Hyorin asked with a cheeky smile.

"Of course not." Tiffany replied as both of them laughed at her answer. "But he seems different from the rest of my ex-boyfriends. When we were friends, I find that he is a sweet and caring guy. Kind of like a perfect gentleman."

"But nobody is perfect." Hyorin's quick reply caused Tiffany to look at her suspiciously. "I'm not trying to burst your bubbles but even my boyfriend has his flaws. Anyway, both of you haven't really started going out on real dates together, right?"

"That is true." Tiffany answered reluctantly. "When he popped the question, we were already living in two separate countries but does it really matter?"

"Of course it does. Like I said, long distance relationship is hard. Keeping in contact through phonecalls, emails or even facetime doesn't actually gives you the true sense of what kind of person he is. Because he can always hide stuff from you." Hyorin continued as the frown on Tiffany's face deepened. "I'm not saying that he's not trustworthy because I don't know him but...."

"I get where you're coming from. When the person is not physically in front of you, you can't determine his trueself. Something like 'talk is cheap and actions speaks louder than words', am I right?" Tiffany tried to help her friend out with her explanation as Hyorin showed her the thumbs up. "I guess I'll just have to wait until he comes here and be physically present."

"All the best to you. Word of advice, guys are always nice when they are in the friend zone." Hyorin chuckled at her own remarks as Tiffany smacked her arm lightly.  

"By the way, you still haven't answer me about this Taeyeon? Does your boyfriend know anything about her?" Tiffany asked when she realised that they had went off from their original topic.

Before Hyorin could answer Tiffany's question, a staff nurse came up to their table and asked for Hyorin's assistance with regards to one of her patients. Hyorin had to excuse herself and left Tiffany alone at the staff canteen to follow the staff nurse.

"Why is it so difficult for me to find out about this Taeyeon? And to make things worse, why is she still lingering in my mind?" Tiffany mumbled to herself before she grabbed her food and decided to proceed to her office to settle some of her work.

***************************

Taeyeon took a deep breathe before she knocked on the big wooden door. A few minutes later, the door was opened as Taeyeon smiled at her brother's secretary who was holding on to the door's handle. 

"Mr Kim has been expecting you. This way please." 

Taeyeon followed her into the office where she saw her brother, busy looking through some documents and was not aware of her presence until his secretary went up to him. He looked up at Taeyeon and gestured her to sit down just by his body language, without saying a word. He turned to his secretary and asked her to prepare some drinks for us.

After she left, Taeyeon's brother closed the folder and clasped his hands together.

"Anything you want to say to me, Taeyeon?"

"Since you're the one who wanted to see me, I assumed that you're the one who has something to say to me." Taeyeon replied with a monotonous tone as she leaned back into her seat.

Kim Heechul looked at her sister and let out a sigh. Shaking his head, he also leaned back into his chair and folded his arms. Ever since their parents died 3 yrs ago, it was getting harder for him to reach out to her sister. 

"I heard about the fight at the club. How's your injury?" 

"I'm fine.... Still alive."

"Kim Taeyeon." Heechul smacked his hand on the table and shouted at his sister, startling his secretary who had just walked in with a tray of drinks and snacks. Heechul noticed her shock expression and quickly apologised. "I'm sorry. Just leave the tray on the table and give us some private time."

The lady nodded her head and quickly excused herself from the tense atmosphere in the office. After she left, Heechul turned to face her sister, who didn't seemed affected at all.

"Anything else you want to talk to me about?" Taeyeon asked while looking straight at her brother's eyes. Seeing that he was not responding to her question, she stood up. "By the way, Joohyun mentioned about missing you and having a meal together. So if you have the time, arranged something with her."

Taeyeon was about to walk away when her brother shot her a question. 

"I believe Joohyun would have wanted the three of us to have a meal together instead of just me and her."

"I'm sorry. But I'm busy. Busy trying to stay out of trouble."

With that, Taeyeon walked out from the office and slammed the door behind her as Heechul could only let out a sigh.

"Taeyeon-ah... until when are you going to be like this? Can't you understand that I'm just trying to protect you and Joohyun?"

(Flashbacks)

"Someone is after my life and honestly, I don't think I have much time left in this world." Mr Kim's words caused Heechul to frown as he continued to just stare at his father. "I need you to promise me to protect your sisters and make sure that there's no harm done towards any of you. If something really happens to me, go to this martial arts school and employ the top ten students there to be the bodyguards for the family."

Heechul took the name card that Mr Kim handed to him and found the name of the school familiar. "Appa, isn't this the place where you had sent me and Taeyeon to learn martial arts? Why do we still need to employ bodyguards to protect ourselves when me and Taeyeon are black belts holder?"

"I know both of you can defend yourself well but never underestimate the enemy. The bodyguards are there to provide an additional layer of protection for you and your sisters." Appa explained as Heechul continued frowning.

"You said that someone is after your life. Who is it? Is it one of your rivals in business?" Heechul asked but Mr Kim kept his silence.

"Heechul-ah, do you remember the talk that I had with you when you were 16yrs old?" 

Heechul nodded his head and bit his lips when he was reminded of that incident.

"It seems that the secret has been leaked and I'm actually trying to find out how did that happened. Things might start to get worse soon but I had already taken measures to counter this problem, so I need you to listen carefully to whatever that I'm about to say to you. All these plans, some of them are already put in place and I need you to follow them strictly to ensure your safety and both your sister's safety, as well as the well-being of our company's future."

(End of flashbacks)

Heechul let out another sigh when he remembered the conversation he had with his father. Less than two months after that, his parents died in that helicopter crash. Taeyeon kept telling him that it was not an accident. She had came to know about the threats that their father had received when she overheard their father talking to their mother about it. Taeyeon didn't want to believe the police, who declared the crash as an unfortunate accident and even asked Sooyoung to re-open the case.

When their grandfather came to know about Taeyeon's request, he instructed Heechul to talk to her sister to forgo the matter and didn't give Sooyoung the permission to proceed with re-opening of the case. Heechul still remembered the deadly glare that Taeyeon gave him when he ordered her not to meddle with the case anymore. From that day onwards, Taeyeon changed totally. She started being rebellious and was always against his words. He worried about her a lot since Taeyeon seemed to get herself into trouble often.

"I know it's not an accident, Taeyeon-ah." Heechul mumbled to himself as he leaned back into his chair. "I'll make sure that the murderer will get his punishment but I need more time. If only I could tell you the truth. But I had made my promise to Appa so I'm going to do my best to protect you and Joohyun."

***************************

"Noona, Taeyeon-noona just took the car keys from me and drove away. She's on her own."

"Mwo? How did that happened?" Yoona shouted over the phone as she stood up and quickly grabbed her car keys.

She had just reached home after sending Taeyeon to her brother's office. Before that, she had already informed Taeyeon that she's going to get some groceries for her mother and Minho would be coming over to fetch her later. She had noticed Taeyeon looking very solemn in the car earlier but she didn't asked anything since Taeyeon always looked solemn everytime she had to visit her brother.

"Call Taemin to fetch you and wait for me at Taeyeon-noona's house. I'll go and find her myself. Tell the others to be on standby, just in case I need some backups." Yoona gave instructions as Minho just nodded his head. 

After she ended the call with Minho, Yoona tried to dial Taeyeon's number as she made her way to the car but Taeyeon was not picking it up. When she entered the car, she quickly switched on the locator device. It was a device placed in all of Taeyeon's car so that they could locate each other in times of emergency. Yoona saw the red blinking dot that was moving towards the southern side of Seoul.

"I need to call Sooyoung-unnie to inform her about this. If I was to go after Taeyeon-unnie myself, I might not know what to say or do when I'm face to face with her." Yoona mumbled to herself as she started the engine before using the hands-free device to call Sooyoung. "Soo-unnie, something happened."

Meanwhile, Sooyoung was just about to leave her sister's office when she received the call from Yoona. She listened to everything that Yoona had explained to her as the frown on her face deepened. Soojin noticed the serious facial expression and made her way towards her sister who was standing just outside of her office door.

"If she's going southwards, I might be able to guess her destination but continue to update me about her location. Try to maintain a close proximity with her car, just in case she gets into any trouble." Sooyoung instructed Yoona through the phone before she turned around to close the door but was surprised to see her sister behind her. "Unnie."

"Taeyeon?" Soojin asked as Sooyoung nodded her head. "What happened?"

Sooyoung quickly explained about the whole situation as Soojin let out a sigh and shook her head.

"Aish, that Kim Heechul." Sooyoung gritted her teeth and clenched her fist as she said out Taeyeon's brother name. Sooyoung had always held a grudge on him ever since he agreed with his grandfather's decision about not re-opening their parent's case. 

"Relax, Soo. It's not the time for you to get agitated. You need to find Taeyeon first and find out what happened between them." Soojin tried to calm her sister down.

"Doctor Choi?"

Both sisters turned behind towards the owner of the voice, who was standing a distance away from them and it was obvious that she was feeling awkward at the tense atmosphere at the moment.

"Oh, Doctor Hwang. Are you looking for me?" Soojin asked as Tiffany nodded her head and gave a nervouse smile. "Come inside my office. By the way, I don't think both of you had met before. This is my sister."

"Choi Sooyoung." Sooyoung smiled and stretched out her hand which Tiffany received with a smile.

"I'm Doctor Hwang but you can call me Tiffany."

"Nice to meet you, Tiffany. I apologise for this short greeting but I need to rush to somewhere else. Hope to you see you around then." Sooyoung smiled again and bowed her head. She waved goodbye to Tiffany and her sister before disappearing down the corridor.

"Come in, Doctor Hwang. You said that you were looking for me?" Soojin ushered Tiffany into her office as she took her seat behind her desk.

"I heard from some of the doctors that the hospital usually organise a party for the kids at the children's ward on children's day. I was wondering if you needed any help with that?" Tiffany asked nervously as she noticed a wide smile on Soojin's face.

"Any help of any kind will be warmly welcome by me. It's a yearly event that the hospital will prepare for the kids. As you know, some of the kids are stuck in the hospital on that day and some are not allowed to mingle around freely with the public because of their illness. But we will prepare appropriate present for each and every one of them at the children's ward. It's a day to celebrate the children so we should not deprive them of that. Since we couldn't bring them out for any excursion, we decided to have a party itself at the hospital." Soojin explained in detail. "What shift will you be on 5th of May?"

"It's my rest day but I don't mind coming back to the hospital to help around." Tiffany replied earnestly as Soojin nodded her head.

"I'll send you an email once I've finalised everything and assign you with something. But just to confirm with you, this is done voluntarily, right? Since it's your rest day, I'm not going to force you to come though." Soojin asked for a confirmation from Tiffany who nodded her head eagerly. "In that case, thank you so much Doctor Hwang."

Tiffany excused herself from Doctor Choi's office and made her way out. Once she had walked a distance away, she quickly took out her phone and started typing the word 'Kim Heechul' on it. She was surprised to see that there was actually a few articles popping out and was determined to look through them once she's home.

The truth was, Tiffany was already standing near to Soojin's office when Sooyoung said out Kim Heechul's name. Initially, she didn't paid much attention until she heard Soojin mentioning Taeyeon's name. 

************************

Taeyeon bowed her head low for a few minutes before looking up and smiled a little. She turned around to take a seat at the couch which was placed at the centre of the room. She took a deep breathe and clasped her hands together, her gaze fixed on the floor in front of her.

"You don't have to stand outside. You can sit down beside me." Taeyeon said without even looking at the person whom she was talking to.

"Soo-unnie...."

"It's okay, Yoona. I know she's on her way. Just sit down while we wait for her." 

Yoona bit her lips in nervousness as she made her way slowly towards Taeyeon. She sat down on the same couch, right at the edge of it to give Taeyeon some private space.

"I'm sorry if I had caused some problem by rushing off on my own." Taeyeon finally looked up to look at Yoona who quickly shook her head. "Can you help me to inform the boys that I'm here with you so that they won't be too worried?"

Yoona nodded her head and quickly took out her phone to type a message to the boys in their groupchat. Silence filled the atmosphere as Yoona's eyes wandered around the room before her eyes stopped at the quiet figure of Taeyeon who was still staring at the floor in front of her.

"Unnie.." Yoona's voice was soft and timid as Taeyeon looked up to face her. "I'm sorry for being nosy but is this the place where your parents were cremated?"

"My parent's bodies were never found. The helicopter crashed into the ocean. The two jars are actually empty."

Taeyeon's answer came as a shock to Yoona. All this while, she really thought that her boss's parents were already cremated and their ashes were placed inside those jars. The Kim family had held a grand funeral for Mr Kim and his wife with all their business associates attending them, even though the cremation process was done privately.

"But during the funeral..." Yoona paused as she was unsure if she should proceed with the questionings.

"It was just for show. The article about their death only mentioned that their helicopter had crashed somewhere in Thailand but never mentioned about the exact location. I'm not sure who came up with all those fake processes about bringing their bodies back and doing the grand funeral with the private cremation but everyone believed in it anyway." Taeyeon explained with a nonchalant tone, letting out a sigh at the end of it. "Only me, Oppa and Harabeoji knew the true story. So I hope you could keep it a secret from Joohyun."

"I also thought that it was true." Yoona said honestly as Taeyeon could only smile. "Don't worry, Unnie. Your secret is always safe with me. But if the jars were empty, why do you still come here? Especially during times when you needed to be alone."

"Sometimes even when you know that it is a lie, a part of you will still wish that it was the truth." Taeyeon replied as her eyes were fixed on the two jars. "Death only separates us physically but in my heart, I know that my parents will always be around to take care of us from above. Even though the jars are empty, it is still a place dedicated to them. So to me, it's a special place. A place that I wish to believe that they are here. Furthermore, Joohyun likes this place too."