A few weeks after your encounter with Ilhoon and his girlfriend, you thought about Ilhoon more than you had before.

Sun Jung was out with her friends while Jin Ae was either at work or with Eunkwang. It was getting late so you decided to stay home. You wondered how your friends from school have been.

You haven’t spoken to any of them ever since school went out for summer vacation.

You reached into the cupboard and took out your prescribed medication that was given from the doctor. They were just daily pain killers that you would need to take in order to ease up your head pains.

You dropped one in your mouth and gulped it down with warm water. You took the cup and went into the living room to watch some television. You flipped through the channels to find something interesting to watch. You stopped at a channel that was playing Running Man.

20 minutes have passed and you were laughing out loud at what the people were doing in the show. Suddenly, you heard the front of the door flung open and then it closed with a big bang.

Your eyes furrowed, *Sunjung is home already?* You were quite shocked, you stood up to see who was. Your question was soon answered when you walked out to the front door. Your eyes suddenly widened with shock.

“Umma?” You called out, your mom turned around to face you. The amount of makeup applied on her face and the clothes she was wearing was not suitable for someone like her.

“What do you want?” She asked as she took out her heels.

“W-what are you doing here?” You asked. Usually your mother wouldn’t ever come home to you.

“This is my apartment obviously. I could do whatever I want here.” She rolled her eyes and walked passed you and into the kitchen. You smelt a strong scent of alcohol from her.

“Have you been drinking, mom?” You raised an eyebrow as you followed her into the kitchen.

“So what if I did? That isn’t any of your business is it? Where are your roommates huh?” She asked and glanced around. “Did they leave you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” You didn’t know why, but at this moment, you felt like crying. This is what your mother would do when she comes back home.

She wasn’t like any other mom; she didn’t ask how your day went, she was never home to even look after you, she never deserved to be called “mom”.

You watched as she was rummaging through the cupboards for something.

“Giving birth to you was a waste of my time. I regret giving birth to a dumb child like you. You don’t deserve to be living in this world. Nobody wants you.” She then suddenly chortled. “I’m surprised your father never came to look for you.” She shook her head and started walking out.

Was it because she was drunk? No. Those weren’t the same words, but your mother brings it up every time she came home. She never saw you as a daughter. During your infant and toddler days she only pitied you, that is why she only raised you until you got older.

“Stop!” You held her onto her wrist so that she wouldn’t leave. Your eyes became watery, afraid to blink. You didn’t want your tears to fall. “Just stop!”

“Do you not see me as your daughter?” Your vision became blurry and the tears fell like a waterfall. You then felt a throbbing pain upon your cheek. Your eyes widened as you raised your palm and lightly placed it on your painful cheek. Did she, your mother, just slap you?

“Please, you were my mistake. Not my daughter.” You could have sworn you saw a satisfying grin play on her lips. You looked at her with wide and teary eyes.

You took a step back, extremely shocked of what just happened. Your mother just slapped you! You immediately took a dash for it. You ran out of the kitchen and out the door. You ran out of the apartment and ran as fast as you could. You ran and ran, you didn’t know where you were running to but just as long as you get away from that woman you call your mother would be fine.

Your lungs gave out and made you stop. You started panting heavily. You wiped your tears away and looked around to see where you were. Crying and running wasn’t a pleasant thing to try.

You were on a dock that wasn’t too far from your apartment. You noticed that if you took a few more steps forward. You would fall into the lake.

*Why does she hate me so much? I’m her daughter for crying out loud!* You frowned as more tears fell down your cheeks.

*She isn’t my mother.*

Ilhoon was just walking by, when he suddenly noticed someone by the lake. He slowly walked closer to see who it was. To his surprise, it was you.

*What is she doing?* He asked as he squinted his eyes. His eyes slightly widened when he noticed you were crying.

Ilhoon was deciding whether or not he should go or not. He pursed his lips. His conscious told him that he should go and make you feel better. A part of him told him not to because he needed to go see his girlfriend.

Suddenly Ilhoon’s phone started to vibrate in his pocket. As he took his phone out, he pressed answer. The caller ID said that it was his Yoo Yunhee, his girlfriend. He sighed and looked up. His eyes widened when he found that you jumped into the lake.

“What the hell?” Without hesitating, he ran towards the lake. He dropped the phone onto the floor and jumped in to the lake to rescue you.

As he jumped into the lake, just a few feet away from you, he found that you were panicking.

Kicking and splashing, you hoped that no one would help you and god would just let you drawn.

You suddenly felt a pair of arms, wrap around you so that you would be secure and safe in the persons arm. You tried to shove the person away but they held you tighter.

You didn’t want help at all but however, the person held you tightly as they brought you to the lower dock, there were stairs attached to it climb up to the main dock.

You were being pulled up onto the lower dock and you frantically coughed. Ilhoon also coughed along. He felt tired but he felt good in relief  at the same time for saving you. He still had his arms around you while the both of you were drenched with water.

“WHY? WHY DID YOU COME AND SAVE ME?” You cried, still not knowing that it was Ilhoon who saved you. You kept hitting him in the chest, hard.

“Ah! Yah.. yah! STOP!” Ilhoon winced. You just kept hitting him in the chest. You wished that the person who saved you could just push you back into the water. “Why –“

He grabbed your wrists and you listened to him. You were lightly panting now and you looked up. Your eyes widened as you stayed frozen.

“Are you crazy? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He scowled at you. You blushed and turn your head away. Is this a sign of him caring? You pulled your wrist away.

“Why do you care?” You asked. You took a deep breathing, heaving the light breeze. Ilhoon opened his mouth but nothing came out.

*Why do I even care?*