The restaurant was called Maam, located in Gangnam. The building was a traditional Korean building used by the last Chosun king's grandmother, located between the US and British embassies. The smell of neo-Korean cuisine surrounded the building, blinding my senses with hunger and nervousness with each closer step that I took. Yongguk stood in front of me, a smile decorating his lips as he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. 

"I want to go home," I mumbled, running a hand up and down my arm. 

He grinned and shook his head. "We just got here, Mone. Calm down, alright? Everything will be fine." The smile on his lips was calming, one filled with happiness and the complete opposite of worry. 

I took a deep breath and nodded. The waiter showed us to the table as Yongguk's hand rested on my lower back. My eyes scanned the restaurant, hoping that something tragic would happen so I could escape. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to go home and watch foreign TV shows with Yongguk, help Junhong with his math homework, try a new recipe Daehyun was making, even help Himchan decide on the decorations for the new house.

Jung Munhee sat with Cheon Dae Ho, her husband, and two older people at the back of the restaurant. I immediately froze when I noticed who the older couple were—my dear patents. I looked up at Yongguk once again and shook my head. "Oppa, those are my parents. I can't be here, we need to leave."

"Mone," he breathed, laying his hands on my shoulders. He leaned down and looked into my eyes, and grinned widely. "Calm down, okay? We can get through this, you and I. We'll get through this like we got through Youngjae's cooking." He took my hand and pulled me to the table, immediately bowing when my parents looked up at us. "Hello, I'm Bang Yongguk."

My parents said nothing and turned their heads the other way. I sat down in front of them with Yongguk and stared down at the glass of wine that a waiter served as soon as my touched the chair. It was quiet between us, except the constant babbling coming out of Cheon Dae Ho's mouth as he spoke about how his job had him traveling all over the world. It was a constant reminder that he was making more money and that he was buying everything that he and his family wanted, including a bigger restaurant and house for my parents.

"Just last week I was in New York for a meeting," he laughed. "Now they want me to go to Hong Kong for another meeting with one of our many clients." Munhee and my parents laughed, which I found annoying. There was absolutely nothing funny with his comments or his stories; they were all completely boring. Daeho then turned to Yongguk and smiled. "What do you do for a living, Yongguk-ssi?"

They all turned to look at him. 

Yongguk leaned back slightly and twirled the wine in his glass. "I own a business," he divulged.

"Oh?" Daeho raised a brow. "What is your company called?"

"Empire Group," Yongguk answered with a smile.

"I don't think I've heard of it," Daeho mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "I have heard of almost every company in Asia and part of the West."

"Well, we are exclusive." Yongguk kept his smile. "We are not known that much throughout Korea, but we are making our way in. Mostly, we are in Thailand and the Philippines, parts of China and Japan, and we're currently building in India."

I looked at Yongguk with utter surprise. Since I met him, I didn't know what he did. I knew that he had a job, obviously, but I didn't know what it was exactly. After his conversation with Daeho, which caused Munhee to become quiet and red, I couldn't help but smile. After months, I knew the work Yongguk was in. After years, I was finally on top in the pyramid that Munhee created. I was on top of her.

"What is it that you plan to do with my daughter?" My father spoke up, his eyes on Yongguk as his hand held the fork tightly. "You are rich, yes, but why is it that you have my daughter?"

"Excuse me?" Yongguk choked, furrowing his brows. "I... I don't understand..."

"I've met many men like you," my father continued, "and they have all been horrible. The men like you think they have all the money in the world, and that is how they get women. Did my daughter fall for you because of money? We stopped paying for her tuition, is that why she's with you? Aish!​ Is this what you have come to, Mone? Dating men for money? I thought you would have changed since you came to Seoul."

"Abeoji!" I hissed. My fists clenched on my lap, anger making its way all over my body.

"Sir," Yongguk cleared his throat and let out a soft scoff, "Mone is the second woman I have ever been with, I can guarantee you that our relationship is not based on riches. She has her own job at the hospital, she has her own money. No, Mone is not with me because of the money, unlike your other daughter and her husband. We are together because we have strong feelings for each other. We create happy memories everyday, we value our emotions more than the amount of money we spend and make. When I asked if she needed help to pay for tuition, she politely declined and said she had her own money. Mr. Jung In Hwan, I suggest you find out the truth before commenting on lies you were told." He stood, bowed to my parents and took my hand. "If you excuse us, we'll be the first to leave."

"No!" My father snapped, hitting the table with his hand. "You are not leaving till I say you can leave, do you understand?"

"Abeoji!" Munhee stared at him, surprised. The people around us stared for a few seconds then went back to whatever they were doing, but there were still the small few that kept their eyes on us. "We're in public, calm down."

"Calm down?" he laughed. "You want me to calm down? Jung Munhee, it has been a year since I last spoke to my daughter, a year since she left our home and decided to come to live in Seoul with her uncle, and you want me to calm down? It's been a damn year and now she is with this bastard!"

I shook my head as each word left his lips, anger running through my veins. The heat rose from my hands, to my neck, and to the back of my ears. As my father spoke, Yongguk's hand tightened around mine. When I looked over at him, I noticed that his eyes were glaring at my father. But Yongguk said nothing. His mouth was in a straight line, his head was held high, but the anger was still in his eyes. 

I took it upon myself to stop my father, then. So, I turned my head to look at him and spoke calmly. "This man is not a bastard." 

That caused my father to stop is rambling and glare at me. "Aish​!" he yelled, standing up. "This girl keeps being disrespectful!" He raised his hand and swung it to my cheek. The loud sound of his hand touching my cheek rang in the restaurant, everything becoming quiet except for the soft music. 

My mother hissed his name just as Munhee yelled "appa!"

I held on to my cheek, blinking back the tears that were threatening to spill. The look on my fathers eyes was one I had seen only a few times in my lifetime—surprise. He was surprised at himself. It wasn't the first time he had hit me, but it was the first time he did so publicly. He looked at me, at his hand, and then back at me. "M-Mone..."

I put my hand away from my cheek and wrapped it around Yongguk's. "Oppa, can we go now?"

He looked at me for a few seconds then nodded. Pulling me closer to him, he looked at my father. "I thought you would have been a bit more nicer to the daughter that does everything you say." Without a response, we left immediately. Inside the car, the silence between us was big. The only sound was the engine, the cars passing by, and Yongguk's finger tapping against the steering wheel. 

"Are you okay?" he then asked, breaking the silence. 

I nodded, running my hair back with my fingers. "I'm fine."

"He hit you, Mone!" He slammed his hand on the wheel and let out a big sigh. "How can you be fine after that?"

"It's his form of discipline," I sighed. "Parents hit their children to discipline them, oppa."

"Parents don't slap their children," he stated, his fists closing tighter around the wheel. "Maybe a smack to the or on the arm, but not a hard slap to the cheek. It rang throughout the whole restaurant. He shouldn't have done that, Mone. It's just not right." After a few seconds of my silence, he began to talk again. "When we first met, you told me you came to Seoul because your parents wanted you to study better. Was that a lie?"

I looked down at my hands, letting a sigh escape my lips. "I'm sorry, oppa."

"So, you did lie to me..."

"How could I not?" I sighed. "It was my first time meeting you, do you think I'd trust you within a few minutes? I lied because I didn't know we would have gotten this close; I didn't want you to know about how awful my father is and how my sister thinks she can rule the world with the snap of her fingers. We got close, Yongguk, so close that it hurts because I never imagined that we would be like this. I never imagined that my sister would search for me, or that she would have a dinner set up with my parents, or that I would be having these feelings for you when you never told me a thing. You also lied to me. So, don't blame me for something we both did."

"Mone, did you say feelings?"

I furrowed my brows and thought of everything I said, realizing that I did say that I have feelings for him. My mouth opened and closed with words that I was trying to say, they came out as breaths instead of a sound that would be understood as words. I did tell him about my feelings, which I planned to keep hidden for some time. But, there they were, out in the open for him to know. I was red, I could feel it everywhere in my body, the embarrassment. 

"I..." I ran a hand through my hair and bit my bottom lip. "I said nothing. Don't change the subject!"

"Mone, do you have feelings for me?" Yongguk asked once again. I looked at him to see an amused look on his face. "I guess I should have expected that, you falling for me. I am quite the attractive guy."

"You are annoying," I mumbled, "not attractive."

"Not even one bit?"

"Not even one bit." I stuck out my tongue at him then turned my head to face the road.

He chuckled and let out a big sigh. "Jung Mone," he began, "don't be embarrassed, okay? Feelings are feelings. The heart is strange, it sometimes wants to belong to the person you least expected."

"Does your heart still belong to Im Yoonhee?" I asked. As soon as I realized what left my lips, I covered them with my hand. "Oppa, I'm so sorry. That wasn't supposed to come out."

The car stopped and Yongguk's hand stayed on the steering wheel as his eyes looked to the front. His was still, once again, and his lips were in a straight line. I looked down at my hands and let out a breath that was captive in my throat. Once again, I apologized and got out of the car as fast as I could. The tears, this time, fell free from my eyes without my consent. I wiped the tears away, noticing that my makeup was smearing. The good thing was that I was in front of the door when I looked down at my hand and noticed the black marks of the eyeliner. The door opened and Daehyun stood there with a confused look. 

"Noona, are you okay?" he asked, moving to the side and allowing me in. "You're crying, and your cheek is really, really red."

I wiped away the tears that kept coming and forced a smile. "I'm fine," I forced out, looking everywhere but him. "I'm going to wash up." As fast as I could, I walked to my room. The door closed behind me, and my back leaned against it and slowly slid down. I wanted to know the reason behind my tears; why did they decide that it would be a good time to fall? My emotions were all over the place: rage, sadness, confuse, and a bit of numbness. Every emotion circled across my head, causing me to let out small sobs into my wrist. 

"I'm a doctor," I said out loud, "why don't I know what's happening to me?" The more tears spilled, the more my chest caved in. It came to the point where I began to intake fast breaths That was when I seriously wanted to know what was wrong with me. I was a doctor. I helped people feeling like I was, so why couldn't I understand the reason of why I was feeling that way? It was a feeling I never felt in my life. 

After some time—I didn't know whether it was minutes or hours—passed, there was a soft knock on the door behind me. "Mone..." The voice was calm and sweet, deep—Yongguk's voice. "Are you asleep?" I tried to be as quiet as I could, but a sniff gave me away. "You can't sleep either... It's bothersome, isn't it? Trying to close you eyes and having these images plague your mind instead of the gentle sleep?"

I stayed still and quiet. 

"You surprised me when you mentioned Yoonhee," he began. "How would you know who she is? I don't like speaking about her, I don't like speaking her name. Her name brings a sour taste to my mouth, like medicine or that horrible Chinese herbal tea Himchan makes us drink. In other words, I didn't know how to react when you asked me that. How could I react? It was sudden. I thought it would be better if you didn't know about her. If you didn't know, it would be easier for me to forget, and I wouldn't have to feel guilty every time I look at you and remember her." I heard the sound of him sliding down the wall. His voice came right behind me, almost as if he was in the room with me. "I understand if you don't want to see me for some time, Mone. Honestly, I don't even want to look at myself."

Once again, I didn't answer. I kept my eyes closed, my arms around my legs, and my hair all over my face. I couldn't answer him; I didn't have the courage. 

"Mone," Yongguk sighed, "don't feel sorry or sad. None of this is your fault. I'm the one that should feel sorry and sad. I can't return your feelings because I still like a dead girl."