I felt a slight relief when the store now came into view but that feeling disappeared when I heard the footsteps coming closer behind me.

“Na Ri!” The voice yelled out.

I turned around at the familiar deep voice. I stopped and watched the person run up to me.

“Bang?” The fear quickly left my body when I realized who it was. “Why are you here?” But besides the relief, I couldn’t help but feel that I was caught and now I can only await my punishment.

He placed both hands on his knees and hunched over. I have been seeing more than the cold and in-control Bang in front of me. His usually well-kept and neat suit was all wrinkled, his tie loosened, and a few of his top buttons were ed. What made me more surprised was the Bang I usually saw was calm or irritated but now he was panting and coughing in front of me and his usually collected face was now covered in sweat.

Why did he look like that? I panicked. “Is there something wrong with Chin Ho?” My bad feeling was right. “Did Chin Ho’s fever get worse?”

He swallowed and straightened up. “My God, where have you been!” He gasped out when he caught his breath somewhat.

“Does it matter right now! Did something happen to Chin Ho while I was gone?”

“You’re asking about him right now!” He yelled in between pants. “He’s fine! He’s still out of it but, he’s fine!” He straightened up but his breathing never calmed.

“Then, why are you here?” I looked up at him curiously.

“I told you never to leave the house by yourself, didn’t I?” I could see the anger on his face now that he wasn’t too tired to show it.

“Bang, you were nowhere to be seen today and Chin Ho is sick.”

“So, you left by yourself?” His voice quickly rising, I should have seen this coming…wait I really did.

“He was getting worse and I couldn’t wait until you were home!”

“Why couldn’t you just wait!” He was now yelling at me at this point. “It’s not that hard to wait!”

“I didn’t know when you were going to be home!” Talking to him calmly was now out of the question. I have already pushed him so far and there was no going back now. I took a deep breath, maybe I can still save myself. “I’m sorry but I just couldn’t, Chin Ho was getting worse and I was worried.”

He looked at me for a moment and caught his breath. “It’s fine.” I saw him reach out towards my arm slowly but then let his hand fall back to his side before he touched me. I didn’t know what that was all about but that wasn’t what surprised me the most.

I stopped and stared at him in awe. The words I could only dream of him saying actually left his mouth. “You mean what you meant to say was that, ‘when I get home, I’m going to lock you in your room.’” I think all the running really tired him out to the point he doesn’t have the energy to think of a punishment for me.

“No, you’re safe…so it’s fine.” He turned around and walked back down the sidewalk. He said it again. He said it was fine. I didn’t move from my spot from the shock of what I heard. But, he also said I was safe. Was he worried? Nah, he’s not one to be like that. He stopped and turned his head slightly. “Don’t you have to get home to Chin Ho?”

“Oh!” I fastened my pace to catch up with him. We were walking for a while and I realized that a car was nowhere to be seen. “Did you run all the way here from the house?”

“What do you think?”

“But don’t you have lots of cars?”

“Can you stop talking?”

I looked at him and realized he was still tired from all that running. I decided to not push anymore of his buttons after getting out of this punishment, so I stayed quiet. After a while, I noticed his breathing completely slowed down. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Him Chan? I found her.”

“…”

“We’re heading back now.” He shuts off his phone and puts it away. “Why was there blood on your bed?” Bang spoke again.

“Chin Ho got a bloody nose.”

“Why was he on the floor when we found him?”

“He must have been too tired to get on his bed.”

He looked at me in disbelief. “Are you serious? Oh my God.” He grabbed his head and I stared at him weirdly.

“What?”

“It was all that simple?” He voiced in irritation a