It was early in the morning, and Mina spend another sleepless night. Eugene came into the room , and she cringed the way he looked at her.

She fought and struggled as he pushed her down on the bed and covered her body with his. At that moment the door burst open, and Jun Gyu entered. When he saw what was happening, he leaped across the room and tore Eugene off of Mina.

"If you touch her again, you never see the sun again," he said angrily. "She's going to bring us money, but not if you touch her."

Sulkily, Eugene slammed out the door. All the rest of the day he kept his distance from Mina.

She curled up on the bed, wondering if she would ever free of these men, or if she would ever feel warm and clean again.

Mina wished she had a chance to be alone with Sam,  she is sure that she can have the trust of the boy, or maybe convinced him to help her escape.

The next day, Jun Gyu ordered Eugene to watch the road because he has to leave to meet someone.

Mina waited until she's certain that the two older brothers had gone before she approached Sam. She would never have a better chance to talk to him alone. She eased herself off the room and hobbled over to sit beside him in the rickety bench near the wood-burning stove.

Sam glanced at her suspiciously and said in a low voice, "You have to go back to your room, Jun Gyu won't like it if he sees me talking to you."

"Please, don't send me away. I'm so lonely and frightened. Let me talk to you for a moment. Promise I'll go back to my place when we heard them coming."

He leaned back and looked at her for a long moment. "You have all the rights to be afraid."

She gazed purposefully into his eyes; her lips were trembling. "Are your brothers going to kill me?"

He shook his head. "It's not us you need to be afraid about. Of course you need to be careful around Eugene, the way he looks at you, he can get his way to you, just stay away from him."

Mina could not surppress the shiver that rushed through her body. Just the touch of that guy Eugene's made her feel sick inside.

"Did he do anything to me while I'm unconcious?"

"I don't know. But you don't have to fear him anymore because Jun Gyu won't let him hurt you anymore."

His eyes widened as he looked into her eyes, and a blush stained his cheeks. "You are the most prettiest woman I've ever seen. I'd never talked to anyone like you before. What's your name?"

"Mina. My name is Mina."

He grinned, looking boyish. "That sounds pretty like you, ma'am.

"My father's the one who gave me that name." She could see that the boy is softening toward her, and she wanted to take advantage of that softness while she could. "May I call you Sam?"

He nodded, unable to look into her brilliant brown eyes. " think there's no harm in it. But only when we are alone."

"I understand. Sam, I would like to think we would have been friends if we had met under other circumstances."

She saw him gulping hard as he raised his gaze to her. "You wouldn't even have noticed me if we meet in the street, ma'am. You would just passed onto me. I'm not good enough to --"

"Don't think like that," she said, reaching out her hand to him, and then letting it fall to her side when she saw a blush stain his face once more. "You have been kind to me, I believe in returning kindness with kindness."

He shot to his feet. "I can't help you nothing, so if you are doing this, hoping I'll turn my back in my brothers to help you, you can forget it."

"No, I wouldn't expect you to do that. It's just that I a