Three weeks passed by. Things got better and things got worse.

It felt so strange for Hongki not to wake up and walk into the kitchen to find Jonghun drinking a cup of coffee and offering the pot to him. It was hard for him to sit in the living room on the couch Jaejin had given him and watched the television that Seunghyun had let him borrow until he could afford his own without Jonghun sitting next to him even though the blind man couldn't see the screen.

It was as if there was an emptiness that Hongki just couldn't seem to fill, no matter how many times he convinced Haerim that she was the only one that he needed. It was true. Though Hongki's heart still yearned for Jonghun, he knew that he would one day recover and move on with his life, the same way that he'd done with Haerim's mother.

He knew that if he didn't have Haerim in his life, he wouldn't be able to do this, though. That little girl was his saving grace, his one reason for existence. Everything he did was for his daughter. It kept him occupied and it kept him going, having her as a reason to move on and not to wallow in his self pity, which he was so apt to do.

He got another promotion at his job and now he was manager of the floor, getting himself even better pay and an office. He got a bonus that was big enough for him to buy himself a cheap car.

Aside from his broken heart, things were looking great for Haerim and Hongki. The little girl was at a friend's house, or had a friend over almost every single night. One girl in particular, a little half American girl with natural blonde hair, brought her mother over each time that she came.

The girl's mother was a beautiful American woman with the strangest blue eyes that Hongki had ever seen. He was quite fond of her company as the two children played.

Heather was the woman's name. It turned out that her husband, the little girl's father, worked in the same building as Hongki did. The two had never met because the man was in a different level than he was, working several floors below his own and not making nearly as much money.

“How did you even end up in Korea?” Hongki asked her one day as the two sat in the living room drinking coffee together while their children played and colored on the floor.

She chuckled, pushing some of her beautiful blonde hair away from her face. “Shindong was enrolled in the same college as me back in America. We both had the same Mathmatics class together. We sat beside each other, so we ended up talking a lot and one thing lead to another. I found out that I was pregnant with Emily right before graduation, and Shindong begged be to come back to Korea with him to be a family.” She chuckled softly. “He's just so adorable, how could I refuse?”

Hongki gave another light chuckle at this as well.

Heather tilted her head to the side and gave Hongki a little poke in his side. “What about you? Where is Haerim's mother? Is she...not in the picture anymore?”

Hongki gave a soft sigh. He knew that most people would always want to know this, but he detested talking about it. Normally he would reply with a simple no, but for Heather, who had become such a close friend for him in the past few weeks, he told her the full story of Haerim's mother's betrayal.

By the time the story came to a close, Heather was looking at him with an expression that was half pity and half sadness.

“I'm sorry that something like that happened to you.” She told him. “You really don't deserve it, you're such an amazingly sweet person.”

Hongki gave a soft chuckle, brushing it off. He asked her not to talk of the past anymore and they went back to watching the two girls play until it was time for them to leave.

Heather stood up and went to get her purse from the kitchen, intending to walk home since she'd walked there with Emily and Haerim after school had ended.

“Oh no..” she sighed in despair as she looked out the window. It was storming heavily, much too heavily for Hongki to even think about allowing Heather and Emily to leave.

“You can stay here until the storm calms down.” Hongki told her, placing a hand on her arm and giving her a soft smile.

“You really don't mind?” She asked with a sigh of relief.

Hongki shook his head. “It's too dangerous out there to drive and it's too far for the both of you to walk with no umbrella.”

Heather nodded. “I'll just call Shindong then and tell him where we are. I'm sure that he won't mind.”

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number without looking at a single button on the keypad. It was a number that she'd just dialed so many times that she could easily type it in.

Her husband answered after only three rings and Hongki listened to her talking to him.

She smiled softly as she returned his “Hello?” with her own.

“It's storming like crazy, Baby.” She said into the phone. “It's too dangerous to drive, so Mr. Lee invited Emily and I to stay here until the storm dies down.”

She paused as she listened to him talk. She gave him a few “Yeah”'s and some “Mhmmm”'s and then turned to look at Hongki, covering the phone's mouth piece with her hand.

“He says that the storm isn't supposed to stop until the morning.” She told him.

Hongki shrugged. “That's alright, the both of you can stay the night. There's plenty of room.”

Heather nodded and put the phone back to . “He says that we can stay the night.”

There was some more conversation and a few more vague “Yeah”'s from Heather and then she handed the phone to Hongki.

“He wants to talk to you.” She giggled.

Hongki took the phone. “Hello?” he called into it.

“Listen here, Mr. Lee.” Shindong's voice met his ears. “I'm only allowing this because it's too dangerous out there for her to come home, but I swear if I find out that you did anything improper to my wife, I'll make sure you regret it.”

Hongki couldn't help his chuckle. “You have nothing to worry about, Shindong.” Hongki replied. “I'm only inviting them to stay because of the weather. I have no ulterior motives involving your wife.”

Shindong gave a soft huff. “Fine, take good care of her, alright? And Emily too.”

“I will, don't worry.” Hongki responded. “Your family is safe with me.”

Shindong then asked that he hand the phone back to Heather and he did so. She talked to her husband for a little while longer, and then hung up the phone with a giggle.

“I'm sorry about that, Hongki.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “He likes to pretend like he's this big bad protector, but really he's just a cuddly teddy bear who couldn't hurt a fly.”

“He loves you.” Hongki grinned at her, placing his arm around her shoulders and leading her back into the livingroom. “It's a good thing.”

“Guess what, kids?” Heather giggled as she walked into the living room, ignoring Hongki's remark. “We're all going to be having a big sleepover, isn't that fun?”

Hongki laughed, leaning against the wall as he watched the three girls cheer happily about the sleepover.