It was 4:30 pm that Sunday afternoon, Yonghwa was already at the park near Han River; he was waiting for Shinhye to arrive. The gentle breeze wafted and it brought forth memories of how Shinhye saved him during the darkest moment of his life…

“You can’t understand me and I can’t understand you…we shouldn’t have married!” Yonghwa’s mother shouted.

“Really, Hyun Jae? I don’t know what’s difficult to understand…I’m just telling you that I couldn’t accompany you to your charity ball because I’m not fond of parties!”Dr. Jung Hyo tried to be calm but his temper was already getting out of control.

“You’re always telling me that you’re tired…you don’t have time for me and Yonghwa”, she accused.

“No time? Look who’s talking here; isn’t you who are always busy with the family business. You always try to shoulder all the responsibilities of the hotels instead of delegating them”, Yonghwa’s father bantered back angrily.

“I tried my best to limit my supervision but you…you always make it a point to stay at the hospital and perform the act of the great surgeon”, she angrily spat.

“Now…you’re telling me that I’m leaching all the work at the hospital”, he replied angrily.

“Yes…and why not…” her sentence hung in the middle because her husband raised his hand as if to hit her.

“Are you going to hit me? Sure…hit me so that I’ll know that you’re paying attention to me if only by hitting me”, she snarled to his face.

Jung Hyo controlled his temper…it was not in his nature to hurt women but his wife’s nagging was something he could not tolerate.

“Hyun Jae, I’m sorry but you’ve got to understand that I dislike socialization…I prefer to stay indoors”, he replied.

“No, Hyo, the reason why this marriage won’t work out is because of these…”, she said bitterly as she threw a passel of pictures to him.

Hyo turned pale…those were the pictures of the women he had illicit relations with two years after his marriage with Hyun Jae; a year after Yonghwa was born until the present.

“How did you get this?” he asked as he picked the pictures on the floor.

“Someone told me in a charity event that he saw you with a woman coming out of a hotel in Busan. You look so happy with her. The time he told me you were seen was during the time that I asked you to me to a gathering and you declined saying you have an important operation to perform. I tried to tell him that he might be mistaken but then my curiosity got the better of me”, she said bitterly while looking down on him.

“So you got me followed. You sent someone to monitor my activities?” he asked seeming to calm seeing how he was already caught.

“Honestly, at first it hurt me because even though this marriage was arranged I was still hoping then that we’d worked it out…that we’d learned to develop feelings for each other”, she replied sadly suddenly feeling drained…tired.

“Hyun Jae”, he called as he sat on their bed still clutching the pictures in his fists.

“I see now that I was wrong…I failed. Actually, after I found out about your affairs I tried to blame myself but I realized that we’re into this together…you should’ve tried to give your attention to me…you should’ve tried to get closer and get to know me...but you didn’t you jump to the first opportunity to cheat on me after Yonghwa was born”, she continued as she turned her back and stood by the window of their room.

“Hyun Jae…I’m sorry”, he finally said as he already lacked the right words to banter back.

“I forgive you, Hyo, because you had given me my son; but, it doesn’t mean that I can forget what you did”, she replied.

“Since we’re getting everything out in the open…my latest mistress…”, he thought of the words to tell her that his latest mistress who happened to be a nurse at the hospital where he was working was pregnant.

“Pregnant with your child? I already know that…I had you monitored, right?” she finished for him.

“I’m sorry, Hyun Jae, I want to tell you about it but I don’t want to destroy this family”, he forlornly said still slumped to the bed gripping his hair as if in frustration.

“Divorce me, Hyo, give up your position in the hospital here and go abroad and practice there…you have the connections to do that…take your mistress and marry her after you divorce me”, she said evenly still not looking at him she still stood by the window looking at the dark skies illuminated by stars and the moon.

“I can’t do that, Hyun Jae, why are you proposing divorce? How about Yonghwa? How are we to explain this to him? Are you suggesting that we break this family?” he asked incredulously. He could not believe that his wife would want him to leave.

“Yonghwa is already old enough…he is already in first year college. Besides it’s not as if he wasn’t aware that our marriage is hell on earth. As for breaking this family…we hadn’t been whole from the start so what is to be broken now? Please…our parents were already gone…let’s free ourselves once and for all”, she replied sadly.

“Hyun Jae, aren’t you angry…you used to fight me tooth and nail before. Why are you so calm now? Are you doing this to make me guilty?” he asked seemed confused with his wife’s sudden calmness when they started the conversation with her nagging him.

“I don’t know…I wanted to nag you tonight and fight with you or even force you to attend the charity ball with me…but I suddenly realized that I’m already tired of fighting with you. Besides, I don’t care anymore what you do with your life so long as you get out of mine”, she replied as she looked at him with eyes devoid of emotions.

“I understand…I’ll leave tonight…,” he said as he stood from the side of the bed where he was sitting.

“I’ll ask someone to pack your things and have the chauffer to deliver your things to where you’ll be staying”, she said looking at him from her spot by the window.

“Hyun Jae, I’m sorry”, he said in resignation as he walked out of the door of their room and came face to face with his son who was crying silently.

Hyun Jae slumped on the floor after her husband left. The tears she controlled during their conversation fell. She wept bitterly until he felt someone embraced her…she looked up and saw her son.

“Yonghwa, son, I’m sorry…but I can’t live with him anymore”, she whispered in his embrace.

Yonghwa felt tears fell from his eyes even at the memories of the past. His parents’ marriage was arranged because both families were involved in real estate and hotel businesses. After his parents’ divorce, his father left South Korea and settled in Hongkong where he continued to practice being a surgeon. His mother became lost with her grief that she distanced herself from him and lived her life visiting one country to another leaving the supervision of the business to him and their trusted employees.

“Fate has been good to me because I found you to love Shinhye…my darling…my angel…the one who saved me from myself”, Yonghwa smiled wistfully as he recalled how Shinhye saved him from himself.

“Are you the patient’s relative”, an attendant asked in a small clinic near the university.

“No…but I’m his best friend and one of our classmates called me. His mother is in France at the moment while his other relatives are in London; I’m the only one who can be with him. I already informed his mother and she might be coming tomorrow or the next day”, she explained.

Shinhye observed that in the past three weeks Yonghwa acted strange…he attended classes but he was distracted. The professors also observed the decline in his scores during quizzes. Others also observed that he was frequently seen drinking alone at the bar near the university.

“May I see him now?” she asked the attendant. She left him alone in the past week because she thought he needed time to think before he confided in her. She waited but she realized it was a mistake.

“He was beaten…your classmates who helped him said that he was lucky those notoriously delinquent students did not do worse”, the attendant commented as he led Shinhye to the single room of the clinic.

Shinhye saw Yonghwa sleeping on the bed. His face was battered as were the other parts of his body. Tears spilled from her eyes as she looked at him.

“Thank you very much…I’ll take it from here”, she told the attendant. She sat on the stool near the bed and held Yonghwa’s right hand sobbing silently. She decided that she would spend her Friday night being with him.

“Yonghwa, what have you done with yourself. Why do you have to shoulder your problems alone? Don’t you know that I’m here? Don’t you know that I love you so much not only as your bestfriend but more than that?” Shinhye spoke in her mind as she silently cried.

The next day, she woke up when she felt a gentle tug and squeeze at her hand holding Yonghwa’s. She looked up and saw him staring at her.

“My parents have separated, Shinhye, my father already left my mother…me”, he said sadly as tears fell from his eyes.

“You told me that they had always been fighting…”, she said looking at him with equally sad eyes.

Shinhye had been aware of all his problems because she had been her confidant ever since they became best friends when they were in third year high school.

“Mom said that he started cheating on her after I was born…to think that I thought all those years that he was busy at the hospital…even being angry at my mother at times when she nagged him… she still protected his image to me despite the pain he caused her”, he said in a low voice.

“Maybe she didn’t say those to you because she didn’t want you to hate your father or maybe she still hoped that things would turn out fine…but sadly it didn’t”, she explained.

“I hate my dad…I hate him so much. I saw him before he left and I wanted to hurt him because he hurt mama immensely…but in the end I just couldn’t do it because he’s still my father”, he said his voice was already broken by tears.

“Yonghwa, just let it go. You did the right thing…at least you tried to retain your dignity and respect for your father despite his wrongdoings”, she said as she embraced him. She felt his tears wetting her shirt as his body shook from his crying. 

“Shinhye, Shinhye,  he left us…they left me”, he said as he continued to cry for all those years of loneliness in seeing his parents battle each other…for all those years he would have given up every material things he had just to have a complete and happy family.

“Yonghwa, please, don’t make me worry like this again. I thought I’ll die from worry when they called me and told me that some students beat you at the bar”, she said as she pulled from their embrace and wiped his face with her handkerchief.

“I’m sorry, Shinhye. I was drinking alone…they were so loud…I got irritated and the next thing I knew I was battling them singlehandedly and they were already beating me. I was just lucky that two of our classmates saw me…they helped me and brought me here and even called you”, he narrated.

“We’ll file a case against them”, she said angrily.

“Shinhye, just let it go…it’s also my fault in the first place because I approached them first. My depression with my parents’ divorce made me reckless…I sought release from my anger and in return I got this”, he said calmly.

“Yonghwa, don’t drink at bars anymore…okay? I forbid it…if you would like to drink, drink at the mansion or if you wanted to drink with someone, call me and we’ll drink at the mansion together”, she said looking intently at him.

He smiled as he looked at her beautiful face reflecting worry, concern, care and understanding for him.

“Yeah…I’ll put that in mind”, he simply replied.

“You’re father abandoned you…you mother is presently healing herself somewhere. They left you… you lost them; but, Yonghwa, I’ll share mine with yours…I’ll share my father with you…I’ll share my mother with you …let us be with you, okay?” she said filled with emotion.

“Shinhye, the scandal already tainted me and my family…would your parents still allow you to be with me despite that? Would you accept someone as broken as I?” Yonghwa asked as fresh tears flowed from his eyes.

“I’ll accept you no matter what. My parents will accept you because they know that it’s not your fault. Don’t you know that I’ll battle anyone for you? I will be anywhere just to be with you. The only thing that I ask of you is to be honest with me and love me and care for me with the same honesty and truthfulness that I reserve for you”, Shinhye emotionally said as tears also fell from her eyes. 

“Thank you, Shinhye. Thank you so much…I’ll never betray your trust and love forever”, he said and at that moment he fell in love; at that moment he decided he would rebuild his life and he would be a better person for her no matter what.

Hi everyone! I'm sorry i wasn't able to update my story this last few days. I was so busy with the revisions for my thesis. Anyways, this chapter was for our JYH...I just wanted to show his painful past here. Friends, thank you for reading, subscribing and commenting on my story....love you all so very much....