#####

Namjoo slightly walked ahead as she looked over the receipt they received after dropping off Mi Yun’s gift at the post office.

“It’ll get to her in time, won’t it?” Namjoo wondered.  

“Most likely, it’s not like it’s making a trip all the way around the world,” Luhan said.

Folding the thin piece of paper up she stuffed it into her pocket and turned to him.

“Sungjae said there’s a small park nearby. I’m going to go take a walk through it,” Namjoo told.

When she turned Luhan seemed to be staring at her as if he was analyzing her for something, but he never said anything. Was he suspecting her of something?

“The park?” he repeated instead.

“Oh…yea,” she replied. “Should we split up…”

“No,” he immediately said, “where is it? This way?”

Namjoo followed the point of his hand then glanced at him. He’d been a little strange since that morning and she couldn’t grasp why. Did it have to do with their argument before having gone to sleep yesterday? Or did it have to do with his dream?

The vibe she was getting from him was a little off too. They’d been really uptight with each other since she’d found him, but Luhan seemed…a tad bit softer now, which wasn’t the norm. Was he hiding something from her? What was it?

The park came into view when they turned toward the open gate. It was filled with numerous strangers and their young children. Going down the path brought her over a tiny wooden bridge and a mini marsh where the ferns grew high and the grass was tall. Inside her head she could see Mi Yun galloping through them freely, a dashing smile apparent on her face.

After crossing the bridge a playground came into view and she saw children at play with their guardians watching closely over them. Namjoo watched in silence and turned away to continue walking on. A handmade bench of strong Maplewood came into view and she sat down to watch a group doing aerobic exercise together on a platform in the middle of the park. Many of them were in sync; all of them in colorful outfits.

Music pounded the air like drums drowning out a festival. Their movements became a hazy wind swept by an unclear fog and Namjoo’s mind immediately closed up when she saw herself as a happy little girl running through the fields. The green of the scenery would become a maze around her and rays of the sunlight would drop down on her like stars raining from the sky. That happy little girl became her Mi Yun running toward her and Luhan with tiny arms wide open.

The haunting of her family built up and broken down never seemed to stop. It was like a shadow. It would only disappear when it could only be unseen in front of its same color. A shadow would only disappear when met with a shadow and the haunting of her family would only disappear when met with the same family again.

The gold ring on her finger suddenly came into view when she turned her eyes down. The ring was as empty as her heart. And for another time she thought about why she’d come to Bangkok.  

Of course it was to rescue Luhan.

“What do you mean you can’t!? You went to find him, you found him; now come back home! Or is it that you still want to be with him and you’re using this whole Bangkok ordeal to prolong your stay there with him?”

No…she came to get Luhan for Mi Yun. There was definitely no strings attached. She would never get back with Luhan and she was definite on that. No matter what happened she and Luhan would never be anything again.

After winning Mario over and making sure Luhan’s life was no longer on the line, she’d go back home and resume her life. Mi Yun would have her father again and everything would be well then.

Namjoo really wanted it to be like that.

“What are you thinking about?” Luhan asked.

“Nothing,” Namjoo answered and stood up. “I’m ready to go.”

“Go where?”

Why was he assuming things about her? Why did he ask so many questions? Why was he so wary over what she did or not? It annoyed her. It wasn’t like one step into public alone would have her lying in a river shot dead. Luhan didn’t have to act like she couldn’t protect herself and make her feel useless and small in the process. She wouldn’t be disposed of that easily. What was with him being so uptight as if she had something up her sleeve?

Withholding the roll of her eyes she looked at him, “Do you think I have anywhere else to go?”

He looked a little shot back by her question.

“Well…”

Her brow arched down, “Well, what? You think I have something up my sleeve?”

“No, I didn’t say that.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Namjoo implied sarcastically. “It’s written all over your face. Do you suspect something of me? Is there a problem or something I don’t know about that you’re acting like that?”

Luhan looked baffled and Namjoo knew she was getting ahead of herself, but she could see something in his eyes that she couldn’t read. It made her uncomfortable as if she knew deep down what it was, but didn’t want to have to confront it or do anything with it so she would keep denying it.

He turned away from her, “No.”

Namjoo also turned away from him. She suddenly didn’t want to be near him.

#####

Tires churned the gravel before the car door opened and Sungyeol stepped out. The pure white house stared back at him as he started toward it and rang the bell by the door. Namjoo’s mother immediately opened the door with an expression of relief. Her brows were curved in worry and she seemed impatient.

“Thank goodness, thanks so much for coming,” she thanked already stepping outside.

“Is uncle alright?” Sungyeol wondered.

Namjoo’s mother quickly nodded, “They said it’s not too serious, but God knows. That man can’t look after himself. I have to be off now. I’ve prepared Mi Yun’s lunch for her on the table. Make sure that girl eats her fill or she’s going to grow short like Namjoo.”

Sungyeol lightly laughed at the remark and nodded. As Namjoo’s mother hurried off he walked into the home he knew well. He passed the fairly sized living room stashed with a U-shaped couch and a large HD TV a carpet away from it. The pictures were the same on the wall, but there was now an empty space where Namjoo and Luhan’s wedding portrait used to hang.

The white walls flashed into his memory days when he and Namjoo used to wander toward the kitchen for food and settle with games instead of homework. Then after high school the two separated having gone to down different paths. He’d lost contact with her for a few years, but they reconnected again when a high school friend of his brought her back into his life. By then Namjoo already had Luhan who guarded her like a dog with his eyes.

Mi Yun was sitting on a little chair in the sun room under the lazy glow of the sun rays with her teddy bear on her lap. A white sketchbook sat in front of her with a few pastel crayons beside her. Namjoo’s little girl was hard at work drawing another art piece. He hadn’t seen them, but he’d heard of them from Namjoo.

“She can’t stop drawing,” Namjoo told him, “I don’t know what to do with her. Is it normal for a three year old to be doing this? Do you think she’s suffering from something I don’t know about? Do you think I’m being a bad mom?”

“No, you’re not,” he’d comforted, “she’s probably just exploring her imagination. It’s normal for her to miss her dad. Maybe it’s just a phase.”

Sungyeol quietly stepped closer to her and slightly bent forward with hands on knees. There were swings drawn on the side, stingy grass, and clouds blinding a sun with three people underneath.

“What are you drawing, Mi Yun?” Sungyeol asked. “Is that your mommy and daddy?”

“Mmmhmm!” the little girl nodded without looking up. “Mommy, daddy, me!”

“Should we wait until you’re finished drawing so that we can eat?”

“I done! Pretty?” Mi Yun grasped onto the book with her chubby fingers and held it up for him to see.

“Wow! It’s beautiful,” he exclaimed, “you really have a knack for drawing.”

“What’s that?”

“Uh…” Sungyeol muttered before laughing, “never mind. Should we go wash your hand and eat?”

He extended his hand out to her and watched her slip off the chair being careful to clutch the teddy close to her chest.

“We can leave your teddy here,” Sungyeol told. “You don’t want to get it dirty, do you?”

Mi Yun glanced at the bear with the big eyes she’d inherited from her parents then to him. She looked like a puppy worried about something that didn’t need to be worried about.

“Teddy come,” Mi Yun said. “I make sure Teddy save mommy and daddy from bad thing.”

Sungyeol could feel confusion build up in him about what she was talking about. Mi Yun turned away and fiddled with the bear’s curled up fur that had tightened up over time from being carried around too much.

“Daddy said Teddy fight bad thing then bad thing no have mommy and daddy.”

His eyes melted into her tiny face feeling a wave of compassion surge through him. He could only imagine how the little girl in front of him missed her parents that she thought about them on a daily basis. How huge the small heart of her was that she didn’t tire of waiting for her dad to come.

“Ok, lets bring Teddy then.”

#####

Namjoo continuously flapped her shirt in hopes of getting some cool air down her sweaty torso. The sun was killing her and she hated this heat wave they were experiencing. The Sky Train rumbled noisily from miles away as they walked along the busier streets on the other side of the Lotus Mall.

There were too many cars driving in and out of the parking lot that if they didn’t watch out they’d probably get run over. Loud music was coming from a direction Namjoo couldn’t depict and she could feel sweat drip out from her pores.

“Drink up,” Luhan handed her the water bottle he’d been drinking out of.

At least he looked to be in a worst condition than she. There were lines of sweat dripping from the side of his face down his cheeks. The sight made her feel partially sympathetic for him.

“The heat’s going to kill you if you don’t keep hydrated,” Luhan urged.

Grabbing the bottle from him she planned to take a sip, but ended up gulping down the rest of it. Luhan stared at her tiredly, his brows sliding down his face in disbelief. Namjoo awkwardly let out an apologetic laugh before she walked over to a garbage to toss the bottle. Upon stopping by it Namjoo couldn’t help, but notice the two men sitting against a fence. Their faces dirty with grime and their clothes years old. Even their shoes had holes where some of their toes stuck out uncomfortably.

When her eyes landed on their exhausted expressions she couldn’t help, but feel pity for them. She turned back to look at Luhan who was staring down the street fanning himself with a hand before walking toward them and pulled a few dollar bills out of her pocket. Their dull eyes looked up at her surprised.

“Take it,” Namjoo urged.

“Oh thank you, thank you,” the man in front of her grabbed her hand and shook it. The rough blisters on his hand rubbed against her skin as he held her hand and Namjoo smiled awkwardly hoping to get her hand back in one piece.

A second later she fell a step back when Luhan pulled her arm. Her hand immediately slipped out of the homeless man’s and saw Luhan looking over the two men who quickly shied away. Without saying anything he pulled her after him and they continued walking down the street.

“Didn’t I tell you they’re just feeding off your pity?” Luhan questioned.

Namjoo pulled her hand out of his clutch and wrapped her other hand around it. She shot him a glance, “It’s just a few dollars.”

Luhan turned to look at her with a tiny frown, but didn’t say anything. They were walking down an empty gray looking road with a somewhat dead atmosphere. It was almost as if no light could reach that area behind the Lotus Mall and animals were warned from it.  

Various shops stood along on the side; a salon, a motorcycle repair shop, a seamstress shop, and a candy shop. Most of them didn’t seem very busy and barely anyone seemed to be around. A few children were laundering around outside of the salon and a couple of men were smoking in front of the repair shop, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was just a normal plain neighborhood.   

“Just be careful.”

“They’re just two homeless men,” Namjoo stated. “What could happen?”

Luhan turned around again to look at her before his eyes quickly widened, “Namjoo, look out!”

As quickly as she turned she felt something hard slam against the pit of her belly. Her body arched forward and she flew back into an open garage knocking a table to the ground. The clipboard, sheets of paper, a box of tools, and a staple flew around her landing on the ground noisily. The pain in her belly quickly sprouted through her system almost paralyzing her as she slid into a fetal position.

She was quickly lugged up by the arm and felt someone twist both her arms behind her back before wrapping his huge hand around both her wrists. Barely able to stand she let her face contort into pain before she saw Luhan standing back cautiously in front of the pocket knife someone was wielding in front of him.

As her eyes zeroed in on the perpetrator she spotted the old shoes on his feet. The homeless men had come after them.

Gritting her teeth to bite the pain away she tried to shake her way out, but his hold on her was too strong. She watched Luhan cautiously jump back when the man slashed the knife out dangerously and tried to make a grab for the knife. The knife would go slicing the air in front of him and Luhan quickly dodged.

The sweat now trickling down her face wasn’t from the heat, but from anxiety and nervousness now. Would Luhan be able to take the knife away or would he get cut first?

Her lips parted and hope jumped in her when Luhan finally grasped the attacker’s wrist, twisting it so that he would drop the knife. Her eyes darted back and forth anxiously and saw that the perpetrator’s face was fuming red, which meant Luhan was on the winning end. She was silently cheering for him, but as soon as the knife clattered to the ground she was put in a headlock.

“Uh-uh,” his shook his head from behind and tightened his arm around her neck to literally squeeze her windpipe. “One move from you and I break her neck.”

Concern flickered in Luhan’s eyes and Namjoo quickly shook her head ‘no’. If he hesitated they were done for! Both of them!

But Luhan lowered his hands to his side cautiously watching them. The attacker on the other side of Luhan bundled his fist up and she wanted to scream out a warning, but she couldn’t even utter a noise. This man’s arm was too deeply pressed into her windpipe he could crush in an instant. She could die this way, she knew it, and she knew Luhan knew it so he was afraid to make a move.

Namjoo watched the fist slam into Luhan’s face and he flew back against the concrete walls. The man walked toward him reaching a hand out to grab the collar of his shirt, but paused when footsteps floated into the air. The owner of the place was finally returning, but he’d find strangers in his garage and his table broken, his place disoriented.

A lanky man in a black shirt appeared and stared at them wide eyed, frozen in spot as if he’d seen Medusa and been turned to stone.

Luhan’s attacker quickly swept up the knife from the ground and threatened, “Leave or I’ll kill you!”

The lanky man’s lips trembled before he quickly turned to dart down the street. The attacker quickly turned back to look at Luhan, who’d risen to his feet and slammed an elbow across his face.

Pinning him to the wall he held the knife underneath Luhan’s chin, “Where’s the key?”

Luhan let out baffled laughter. “I should’ve known.”

His upper body belted forward when a fist lunged into his stomach. Watching hopelessly made Namjoo’s blood boil and she wriggled in her perpetrator’s arms.

“Tsk…tsk…tsk…” he cooed behind her. “I wouldn’t try that if I were you. Be a good girl and stay still.”

A hand grabbed Luhan’s shoulder and he was pinned tiredly against the wall. Luhan looked almost breathless and for a second Namjoo began to worry that he might really get beat up.

“The key,” the man repeated.

Luhan’s eyes seemed dazed when he gazed into the man’s eyes and released a few breaths before grabbing the hand with the knife and wrenched his arm to the side. There was a scream before Luhan head butted him. Within a split second he lunged at her knocking both her and her perpetrator to the ground.

“Come on, lets go!” Luhan raced to his feet and grabbed her hand to pull her up.

When he twisted around the man who’d had him down earlier was lunging at him with the knife in hand. Luhan released her hand when the knife plunged across his arm and flinched back. Namjoo’s jaw dropped, but Luhan grabbed her hand with his other arm and pulled her out of the garage.

They raced along the rest of the road before turning the corner where she forced him to a stop. There was fresh blood trickling down his arm, lots of it.

“Luhan, you’re bleeding.”

“Forget about that,” he grasped her hand again to continue pulling her along. “We need to get somewhere safe.”

She let him pull her down the street before they ended up by a dirty stream brigaded by a wall of bricks. The road on their left was less busy than the road they’d come from and there were houses across the street. Finally in public they stopped and Namjoo immediately grabbed his injured arm where the blood was already dripping from his fingers.

Namjoo looked around as if a tissue box might appear from somewhere.

“Forget it, it’s ok,” Luhan tried. “We can treat it later.”

“You could be infected!” Namjoo raised her voice. “Who knows where that knife’s been?! We have to stop the bleeding…”

Her eyes darted over Luhan’s shoulder when she spotted a familiar face and saw Luhan’s eyes grow wide as well. A shout belted out of her when she felt someone mercilessly pull her hair from behind. The same knife from earlier appeared at Luhan’s throat before she saw a smirk appear on his attacker’s face.

“Give me that wrench.” He ordered. 

***Luhan wants to get close again, but he can't say it. Namjoo feels it and she misses the family they used to be, but she doesn't want to act on her instincts. And Mi Yun wants to protect her parents more than anyone else ;A; 

***Uh-oh! Too bad Namjoo and Luhan don't stay like this for long. They're about to start another war!