CHAPTER TWENTY

Jenny finished her meal and found herself enjoying her time at the coffee shop. She stayed longer and observed her photos and carefully studied them. She pursed her lips and remembered what Seunghyun always asked her whenever she studies her photos. 

"Why do you keep deleting such great photos?" 

She chuckled as she decided not to delete any more pictures. Remembering Seunghyun, she checked her phone if he had replied, but unfortunately, he didn't. She pouted a bit and sighed. 

"Aish, why am I even acting like this? He's not my boyfriend, why would he be obligated to reply to my text messages?" She muttered as she placed her camera down on her lap and sipped coffee from her cup. Suddenly, the ahjumma who worked in the coffee shop approached her. 

"Are you done eating, dear?" 

Jenny looked up and gave her a smile, "Ah, neh. I'll be leaving soon, and I'll clean it up after, thanks for the meal ahjumma." The ahjumma shot her a smile and shook her head, "Ani, I'll clean things up and just stay here as long as you'd want. I don't mind at all!" 

Jenny nodded and said, "Neh, thanks ahjumma!" 

The ahjumma smiled and nodded, but she looked at Jenny as if she remembered something. Feeling like Jenny looked really familiar, "Uhm, excuse me dear, but may I know your name? You seem really familiar." Jenny chuckled and nodded. 

"Park Jenny-imnida." 

The ahjumma nodded and said, "Ahhh, foreign name, I see. Then you must be just a look a like of my son's best friend." Jenny giggled and said, "Ohh, is that so, ahjumma? May I know what your son's name is? Maybe I know him." The ahjumma was about to answer when the landline of the coffee shop rang. 

She looked at the phone and then back at me. She apologized, but Jenny shook her head, telling her that it's not a problem. Jenny watched her get the phone with a smile on Jenny's face, but she noticed that her smile faltered a little bit. 

Not until she heard her exclaim, "W-What?! I'm coming! Arasso! I-I'll be there!" She slammed the phone down and Jenny couldn't help but get worried. She stood up from her seat and said, "Ahjumma? Is there something wrong?" 

The ahjumma was in panic. She walked everywhere and threw her apron over the counter, not knowing what to do. Jenny gathered her things and said, "Ahjumma?" The ahjumma looked at her with tears in her eyes and said, "I-I'm sorry Jenny-shi, but I'm going somewhere and I have to close the shop." 

Jenny nodded, understanding her. "Neh, I understand." 

The ahjumma took her keys to the shop and Jenny immediately followed her out. Seeing she was in panic, she bit her lip and wanted to accompany where she's going. "Uhm, ahjumma? I was wondering if you'd want company? I mean... you're not in the right mind, so you might calm down when you have someone with you." 

The ahjumma looked at Jenny and smiled slightly, "If you insist and I guess I could use a company." Jenny nodded and smiled. 

~•~•~•~

"Dara noona?" Jiyong called as he noticed that Dara was spacing out for quite a while now. Jiyong looked at his Seunghyun hyung and his hyung just gave him a shrug. They looked at Dara, who was still blanking out and Jiyong sighed. He snapped his fingers in front of her and she immediately snapped out of her trance. She looked at the two men staring at her and blinked before realizing that she had spaced out. 

"Oh... mian." She said shyly while Jiyong chuckled and Seunghyun  gave her a small smile. 

"Where were we?" She asked quietly.

Seunghyun pursed his lips and said, "Erm, I asked you why was your real father chasing you and Bom..." Dara shot Seunghyun a glance and heaved a deep sigh before closing her eyes and answered his question. 

"Because he wants to kill both of us." 

As soon as Dara revealed the painful truth about her father's intentions, she felt a sharp pain stab her heart, while Seunghyun and Jiyong were confused, but both of them were feeling the pain that Dara was feeling. They both understood why she was pulling up a strong facade after all these time, and they both understood why she had to hide from them, but yet again... 

They were their close friends. Why would Dara hide from them? 

"Why does he want to do that?" As hard as it is, Seunghyun just had to ask this question to keep Dara going. Dara opened her eyes and looked down at her hands and fiddled with it, finding distraction with her slender fingers. "He wants to kill us because..." 

"Hyung..." Jiyong looked at Seunghyun as if he was warning her, practically being protective of Dara because he knew Dara was having the hardest time of her life right now. Seunghyun looked at Jiyong and just stared at him, while Dara looked up and saw the two having a staring game. 

"Hey... I'm fine, don't worry. I'd have to explain it either way. Might as well finish it now, right?" Dara smiled slightly while Jiyong gave her a concern look. Dara smiled at him, giving him re-assurance. Jiyong sighed and nodded, "Okay, go on." 

Dara nodded and said, "He wants to kill us because... our real mother owns a multi-millionare company that our grandparents gave to her. He wants us killed because that way... our mother would stop hiding and fight him. He wants the company for himself. He knows my mother is weak, and I do too." Suddenly, Dara glanced back at the ahjumma who stood frozen by the counter. 

The ahjumma briefly looked at Dara and gave her a painful look, while Dara had to look away.

However, the two young men were blown away. They didn't know that Dara had to hide from them because of this. Jiyong just wanted to hug Dara because he knew how hard it was for her; okay maybe he didn't know how she felt because he had never experienced this before, but basically hiding from your parents... he knew the feeling. He was disowned