A knock came from outside. Hongki, his brother’s assistant, peeked in with a phone in hand. “Miss Yoona, Mr. Geun Suk is on the phone. He says it’s an emergency.” Donghae left me on the floor and took the phone. I looked up to see his face turn up into a look of surprise.

“Yoona. It’s your dad. He’s awake.”

At that time, I wanted to forget everything about what he said and concentrate on my father.

“Dad!” I yelled as I went inside his room. The whole family was there; Mom was crying, holding Dad’s hand, Oppa was at the other side, doing the same. My brother stood up, giving way for me to go near the bed.

“There’s my beautiful princess,” he said hoarsely.

“Hey handsome king,” Tears were starting to fall from my eyes.

“Well, really? I see you people, apparently after almost 3 weeks of slumber, and here you are, greeting me with tears. The women in my life are complicated.”

I chuckled as I leaned in to hug him lightly, “Don’t you ever do that again, Dad.”

He leaned away from me to look at the others and said, “And apparently, tears aren’t enough. They had to take every opportunity to scold me as well.” He laughed then winced when he did, “Laughing isn’t doing me any good. I thought it was supposed to be the best medicine.”

“Alright, alright. Everybody, out. Funny guy here needs to rest.” My mom stood up and shooed us out.

“Oh come on, honey. I just woke up. Besides, I need to see Jungsu. Where is that guy? Hope he’s not worse than I am.” He chuckled.

Everybody stopped. I looked at the others, wanting them to talk. My mom looked at us and shooed us out. Yes. Better she tell her. She’d know how.

When I got outside, Donghae was waiting for me. “We need to talk.” He dragged me to one of the vacant rooms.

“We don’t.”

“You know we do. I’m not leaving for the army now. You have to understand that.”

“Yea. You’re leaving in a few weeks.”

“I’m leaving after my Dad wakes up. I’ll wait for him to wake up. You have to understand. I have to do this now or it would get in the way of my plans.”

“Plans? Oh what? Is it about business again? Oh so is that why you tell Geun Suk and Dong Wook first? Is this some ploy to increase stock value again? Oh is that why you didn’t include me in planning? Is that-“

“Yoong, shush please. Listen to me first.” Donghae enveloped me in his arms.

“Let go of me.” I tried to push him away to no avail.

“I told you I’m never letting go. It’s only two years.”

“It’s two years! We’re still making up for the two years we were apart, and now you want to put another two years between us?!”

“I have to. It’s for-“

“Your plans. Right. Well, leave me out of it,” I stormed out and left him.

That night, I slept at our house. And the night after that. And the next. I did my best to avoid Donghae. Of course, meeting him was inevitable...especially after I was kidnapped.

Probably being kidnapped was one of the best things that had ever happened to me during those weeks. It made me realize how much I have and how much everything and everybody meant to me. It made me realize how I should not let simple things get in between me and my happiness. How life is so short for everything that I wanted to do.

It was a rainy afternoon...

“Hey. You’re still here?” WooHyun said from beside me. “Where’s your bodyguard?” I was standing at the entrance of the university waiting for the car.

“I don’t have a bodyguard.” At school, Jonghyun dresses casually in order to not look conspicuous.

“Sure you do. He’s that guy that always trails after you.”

“Jonghyun? He’s my...childhood friend. He’s a bit shy.”

“Ah huh. Like I’d believe that. Say, you want to grab a coffee or something?”

“No thanks.”

“Oh come on. You never let me treat you to anything.”

“You don’t need to treat me to anything.”

He seemed to be struggling for words. “I have this condition, this innate need to treat beautiful women to something. It’s like an OCD or something. You have to understand. I can’t make the need go away.”

That time, I had to laugh. “Sure. Coffee or something.”

“Let’s go right now.” He pulled at my hand and dragged me to, thankfully, my car.

“We’ll go in your car. Makes it easier rather than to carpool.” He slid in after me. “Hey Jonghyun.”

Jonghyun was looking at me with question. “We’re going to have coffee or something,” I said to him. “You don’t mind driving us there, right?”

“Yeah. Okay. Sure.” Jonghyun replied reluctantly.

“You don’t mind sitting there by yourself, right? I never liked sitting in front.” WooHyun rambled on. “Anyways, There’s this shop I go to. They’re small and cheap but they have the best coffee.” WooHyun directed Jonghyun to the coffee shop.

It was small, as he said, but it was homey. There were only a few costumers inside so we managed to get our orders immediately.

“It’s weird. Usually, there are a lot of costumers at this hour,” WooHyun said casually.

“Oh. Must be the rain. Jonghyun sure is taking quite a long time to park.”

“But coffee is better with the rain. He probably can’t find a vacant space. This neighborhood is quite packed. Anyway, I actually had something to talk to you about.”

“I figured that was the case.”

He chuckled, “Nah. I really did want to treat you to something. It’s about my sister.”

“Oh. What about her?”

“She’s training to become a model. I was telling her about you when she recognized your name. And she’s having this-“

Everything seemed to have blurred at that moment. From my peripheral vision, I saw somebody attacking Jonghyun who was walking towards the shop. Then I felt rather than saw a gun being pointed to the back of my head. Opposite me, WooHyun was in the same position, a gun pointed to his temple by one of the costumers at the other table.

Jonghyun was dragged inside, four men pointing a gun to his head. I knew he was formulating a way to escape but I shook my head at him. I knew when to surrender. And with the number of guns pointed to us, this was one of those times.

“What do you want?” I asked quietly. “You don’t need to point so many guns. I can give you money without all the hassle.”

“Shut up.” The man from behind me said. It was the last thing I remember before I woke up.