“Dad!” Paris hisses. “How could you say that?” She stares at him in disappointment and anger.   Amber regards Myung Soo in disbelief. He is willing to let her go for the baby?   “If you don’t want to look after the baby, I’ll do it when they’re old enough. You can stay with Sung Yeol, if you want,” he attempts to be neutral as he says it, but his lips quiver and he has to bite on his lower one to prevent himself from taking it back.   “No!” Paris shouts and turns to Amber. “Mum, I’ll help you look after the baby! I promise! Just have the baby and stay with Dad! I’ll be good! I won’t be a burden to you!”   Amber sighs at Paris’ words. She is too young to know that looking after a baby is not like having a pet. The concept is similar, but having a baby requires bigger commitment with no expiration date.   Amber wipes the tears from her cheeks and takes a deep breath. “Paris,” Amber tries.   “Paris,” Myung Soo holds the girl back. “We’ll talk about this okay.” He then turns to Amber again. “Please think about it. I won’t restrain your freedom. I just want the baby.”   Not wanting to talk about it in front of Paris, Amber gives in, “Fine. I’ll think about it, but I’m not going to promise anything.”   “Thanks,” he says.   The sound of the curtain being opened shifts their attention. The midwife earlier has returned with another one.   “Hi, I’m Min. I’m one of the midwives here,” she introduces herself to Amber.   “Min?” Myung Soo recognises her.   “L!” Min beams. “What you up to here?”   Amber regards them curiously as they proceed to hold a conversation in Korean.  

 

∞

 

  Myung Soo casts Amber a glance, then replies in Korean, “My wife is pregnant. She was attacked tonight and we’re here to check on the baby.”   He has met Min ten years ago at a bar in Paris when he went out with Sung Yeol, Woo Hyun, and his French friends, Martin and Pierre. At the time, Min had come to Paris on a vacation with her friends and cousin. When Jessica gave birth to Kyung San, Min was already five years into practice and they met again when Min was looking after Jessica at the postnatal ward after Kyung San was born.   Min gapes, “Since when did you get married?”   “For a while,” he replies briefly, not wanting to give more details. “Do you need to do some checks on her?”   Distracted, Min returns to the matter at hand. “Oh, yes. I heard your… wife can’t speak Korean, so I’m here to translate. We have some questions to ask her.”   “Do you want us to stay?”   She grins in response. “It would be good if you two can leave for a moment.”   He nods and faces Amber. “This is Min. She looked after Jessica after she had her son. She can speak English. She has some questions to ask you.”   Amber nods back and smiles to Min as he takes Paris out of the room. He closes the door and takes a seat on the chair outside, Paris next to him. They have just seated when he hears a sob from his side. His pulse accelerates.   “Paris, what’s wrong?”   She sniffs and lets the tears pour out without answering him. He surrounds his arms on either side of her waist and picks her up to seat her on his lap. She finally turns around to face him and speaks.   “How could you say that?” she sniffs. “How could you let Mum be with Sung Yeol?”   Seeing her tears, his chest tightens. He brings up the pad of his thumb to wipe the tears, but they keep coming.   “I’m sorry,” he exhales a rueful sigh.   She hiccups and sobs. “Mum and Dad are supposed to stay together.”   “There are just some things you can’t force, Paris.”   “I won’t see you again,” she chokes out as cries miserably.   He frowns in disagreement and cups her cheeks. “Why do you say that? I’ll call you every day, I’ll text you in the morning when I wake up and at night before I go to bed, I’ll come see you as much as I could, we’ll go on vacations together, I’ll take you out on weekends, and we can spend time together.” It pains him having this conversation; they’re a family, they’re meant to stay together. He then adds good-naturedly, “Except when you want to go out with your boyfriend.”   “I won’t have a boyfriend!” she retorts petulantly. “I’ll spend the weekend with you! I’ll go out with you every weekend!”   He chuckles and grabs her into a hug. Although he knows that every weekend is just not possible if she is going to be in France, while he is in Korea, he doesn’t say anything to counter her. He just holds the teary girl in his embrace and feels contented that he could hold someone who is a part of him. At the reminder of the fact that this girl has his genes, his chest swells with pride, and happiness.   “Mum’s so mean,” she whines.   He chortles and withdraws to look at her. “It’s not like that, Paris,” he tries, “Imagine there’s coffee and hot chocolate; we tell you that you can’t have the hot chocolate and you have to have the coffee, how would you feel?” She blinks as the tears keep coming, but realisation forms in her eyes. “See. We’re the one who are mean to your mum. We shouldn’t force her to do things she doesn’t want to do. And in this case, she doesn’t want to be with me anymore.”   He wonders if this was Amber’s reaction when her parents decided to get a divorce. She was even younger than Paris. He also ponders on how Amber was like in her childhood days. She didn’t really talk about it much. Was she mature for age or fatalistic like most children?   He wipes his daughter’s tears again and stands up, carrying her. He has heard movements from the room and expects the ladies to come out soon.   “It’s fine okay? I’ll be around. I promise,” he reassures her as he holds her gaze. She hiccups and wipes the moisture on her cheeks. “By the way, you’re really heavy,” he teases. She smacks his shoulder and pouts in dismay. At her reaction, he chortles and puts her down gently.   The door opens to reveal Amber with the two midwives. He bids Min goodbye and leaves with the Amber and Paris to see how Sung Yeol is doing. Krystal has informed him that Sung Yeol is in the general ward, still asleep under general anaesthesia; knowing that he is okay makes them relieved. However, Hyun Ah is a different story. She has gotten a flu from her outing tonight and although her vital signs are within normal range, they have to monitor her closely to watch for any deterioration. When they visit her in her room before leaving, Mr Lee denies Amber and Paris and asks them to leave immediately. Myung Soo decides to leave with them, which does not help at all and increases Mr Lee’s fury of him. Krystal has the chance to go inside and informs Myung Soo that Hyun Ah is sleeping and that she has nasal prongs in her nose to administer some oxygen. It would be harder to visit her since Mr Lee does not want to see Amber and Paris, and Krystal believes that it is up to Hyun Ah to fix the situation now. All they can do is wait until she wakes up tomorrow.   Since Mr Lee is staying at the hospital, it gives Myung Soo the chance to take Amber and Paris out after getting their belongings from the house. The house belongs to Myung Soo, now that his father has passed away, but he does not trust Mr Lee and his underlings, thus he decides to take some of his clothes to stay at the hotel with Amber and Paris. He reserves an adjoining room for the three of them.   Amber helps Paris into the shower and settles into bed before she goes to take a shower herself. At this time, Myung Soo decides to wash up himself. When he comes out, Amber has just grabbed her clothes to change into and is heading to the bathroom. He waits in her room as the water runs. Ten minutes passes and the water is still running.   Concerned, he makes a move to the bathroom and holds the doorknob. He enters when he realises that Amber didn’t lock the door. He wonders why just as he notices the lock doesn’t work. He makes a mental note to call Room Service before going to bed, so they can fix it tomorrow morning.   However, when he turns to ask her whether she is okay, all his thoughts dissipate. He finds her squatting down in the shower with the water running on her figure. His heart aches at the sight, but leaps soon when he sees traces of blood on the shower floor, diluting with water, going down into the drain. He slides the door opens and sees Amber rubbing her neck vigorously with the shower