Sung Yeol stares into space. He is sitting at the head of the dinner table with Jack, who has her day off, on the seat adjacent to his. Paris is watching Nanny McPhee on DVD in the living room with Jaden. Alice has gone out with her friends.   When Amber and Myung Soo kissed yesterday, the truth smacked him in the face. What was he doing? Amber would never choose him. Who is he? He is no one compared to L.   He subconsciously sighs over and over again, gaining the attention of Jack. Jack observes the man next to her who is resting his chin on his palm, eyes vacant. He shifts to leans his forehead on his palm and ponders. Amber is going to wait for L. She is going to wait until Hyun Ah is out of the picture.   . Why is life so complicated?   He sighs. His mind is so tangled and pushing him to the edge.   Hyun Ah’s making this complicated!   But as his angry thought towards Hyun Ah comes, his eyes warm up and his lungs burn. She’s leaving. And he can’t do anything about it.   Jack lets out a sigh. Surprisingly, he notices. His eyes shift to her and a furrow forms on his forehead.   “What’s up with you?”   “What’s up with you?”   He exhales noisily. “Should I admit defeat now?”   “What made you think you’ll lose?” she questions.   Sung Yeol is taken back to his earlier conversation with Myung Soo. After Paris and Amber left Jaden’s room to prepare breakfast, and Jaden went to take a shower, he went to Amber’s room to find his best friend.

 

He was so furious that he gave Myung Soo another punch square in the jaw. “! How could you do that to her?!”   Myung Soo groaned momentarily before touching the throbbing site on his jaw. He glared at Sung Yeol. “I’m not going to marry Hyun Ah. I have to take responsibility of Amber and Paris.”   Sung Yeol crossed his arms and looked into Myung Soo’s determined eyes. “I don’t care what it is that you two did last night, you have to tell her that you proposed to Hyun Ah.”   “I can’t marry her. I’ve got a family.”   He moistened his lips and was about to reply when Myung Soo’s phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and told Sung Yeol that it was Krystal. The older man promptly walked over to the younger’s side as he put the phone on loud speaker.   “Hey, Krystal, how’s Hyun Ah?”   “L, you have to return soon. I went over to see her this morning and found her unconscious on the toilet floor.” Krystal’s voice was thick with worries and fear. The men exchanged anxious glances as Krystal continued, “Hyun Joong and I took her to the hospital and the doctor said her vital signs are okay, but we’ll have to wait for her to wake up for further examination.”   Sung Yeol felt cold. His mind went blank. Oh God… please don’t let anything happen to Hyun Ah, he had thought inside.   “I’m so scared, L,” Krystal said with a strangled voice. “This is like Luna all over again. I’m scared she’s going to leave any minute from now. You’ve got to return soon. You might have—”   “Krystal?” he called out.   Silence from the other side demonstrated Krystal’s surprise of an unfamiliar voice.   “It’s Sung Yeol, Krys, Hyun Ah’s brother,” Myung Soo instantly explained.   “What? Sung Yeol? Isn’t he in Africa?”   “Long story short, I’ve returned to Paris. Can you please do me a favour?” Without waiting for the girl to answer, he had already spoken in a panic-stricken voice, “Tell Hyun Ah to wait for me! I will go and see her! If she doesn’t wait for me, I will kill her! You get me?”   “Sung Yeol,” Myung Soo tried to get him to calm down, but the older man shrugged him off.   “Tell her that, okay?”   “O-okay.”   “Thank you.”   Sung Yeol bit his quivering lips and kept chanting in his head, Please don’t go yet!   “L?”   “Yes?”   “Please return soon. You might have to push the wedding date forward,” Krystal said feebly. “Hyun Joong and I will organise your wedding preparation okay. You don’t have to worry about it.”   At the reminder, Myung Soo quickly said, “About that—”   “Yes, Krystal, please do that, thank you!” Sung Yeol interjected and ended the phone call immediately.   Myung Soo gaped at Sung Yeol in disbelief. “What was that for? I’m not marrying her, Yeol!”   Sung Yeol turned to Myung Soo, his eyes pleading the younger man as he uttered, “I am so sorry, L. Please do this for me.”   “I’ve got a daughter to look after and—”   Sung Yeol knew this would hurt Amber, but all he could think about was to make Hyun Ah happy so she would have the will to live. Hope is the ingredient of life, right?   “I know and I’m really sorry,” he begged him, eyes beginning to water. “You can just say you’ll marry her, just give her some hope and then—”   “I can’t give her false hope!”   “That’s something we could think about in the future!” Yeol yelled back.   “What about Amber?” Myung Soo questioned, and reminded, him.   He felt really bad that he would have to crush Amber’s hope, but at the same time, the thought of his sister dying overcame that guilt.   Myung Soo blinked as he listened to Sung Yeol. “You’re just telling me to marry Hyun Ah because you want Amber, don’t you?” His brows furrowed and Sung Yeol shook his head.   “It’s not about who Amber will choose anymore,” he said forlornly. “Whoever she chooses in the end, I will respect her choice, but I will fight for her, just so you know.” Myung Soo was still not convinced. “She loves you. She would do anything to be with you. Just tell her about Hyun Ah and…”   Sung Yeol pursed his lips as the water accumulating in his eyes began to flow out. Oh God… He turned away from Myung Soo in embarrassment.   “I love her. I really love her,” he confessed. “I don’t know how and I don’t know when it started, but I love her to the point that I don’t even care whether she is yours or is the mother of your daughter. I’m really sorry.” He trembled, feeling so lost and unsure of the future. “I know it’s not right, but it happened.”   After he calmed down, he wiped his tears away and turned around to face Myung Soo. “The one Hyun Ah needs is you. I will drop on my knees if you would just promise me to make her happy during her remaining time.” Myung Soo pursed his lips in in vacillation. “Amber would understand, L,” his voice dying into a whisper, “If you say Hyun Ah’s leaving, I’m sure she will wait for you…” Sung Yeol forced out a wistful smile and shrugged. “That’s how she is. She will do anything just to be with you.”   “You’re making this hard for me, Sung Yeol!” Sung Yeol noticed the annoyance rising up, knowing the man was reminded of his bold request to take responsibility of Amber and Paris.   Myung Soo knows he could not claim Paris as his own, despite the truth, because he hasn’t been in her life in the past decade, but his competitiveness—a feeling he was sure he has lost years ago—loomed into the surface.   “Seriously, you have nothing to worry about,” Sung Yeol had said.

 

“You don’t know that,” Jack says, crossing her arm to show her disagreement to Sung Yeol’s idea.   “She will, Jack!” Sung Yeol objects resolutely. “You don’t understand. This is L we’re talking about.”   “But considering what is happening, do you really think Amber would accept him?” she challenges the man.   Sung Yeol sighs in exasperation. This girl won’t get it!  “When it comes to L, she’s unpredictable!”   Jack remembers her conversation with Amber before the latter had a talk to her man in her room. Sung Yeol and Myung Soo were still having breakfast with Jaden and Paris as Jack went with Amber to her room. Jack noticed the stupendous smile that never left the younger woman’s face the whole time and she was so s