A cop?  Someone had come in the house and he declared to be a police.

After that the person who opened the door was dragged away…

 …out of the house. Gone, Amber thought relieved.

Finally Amber managed to relax her body. She let out a long breath, as if she had been holding her it for a long time. Also her pulse started to calm down and go back to usual. She noticed that the same didn’t happen to Woohyun – he was still a bit horrified.

As if he realized he had done something wrong, Woohyun let go of Amber and sat up. He didn’t dare to look Amber in the eyes when doing so.

‘’What was that?’’ Amber asked, referring to earlier.

‘’Reason why I didn’t want to bring you here. Now sleep,’’ Woohyun said coldly.

‘’Do you really think I can sleep right now?’’ Amber grabbed Woohyun’s wrist. She planted Woohyun to sit on the bed next to her.  ‘’Now you explain everything to me,’’ she said holding Woohyun tightly when he was constantly trying to get up.

‘’You don’t have to know,’’ he said and started to seem a bit indignant.

‘’You’re not going anywhere before you explain to me,’’ Amber said determinedly. She stared at Woohyun who was avoiding her gaze. She got up from the bed and now stood in front of Woohyun, holding him down by his shoulders. She stared straightly at his eyes.

‘’Woohyun! I know you don’t want to tell me, but you can’t assume I can sleep soundly after all that.’’

Woohyun glanced at Amber who was still staring at him. He couldn’t refuse anymore.

‘’Was the person earlier your uncle?’’ Amber asked.

Woohyun stared at her and nodded slightly.

‘’Drunk?’’

‘’As usual on Friday nights,’’ Woohyun answered. He swallowed and explained how every Friday, after they returned from South Korea, his uncle had come and… ‘’…released his anger on me.’’

Amber’s eyes widened and she stared at him first in shock and then pitifully.

‘’Is that where the bruises were from?’’ Amber took pieces from the past and put all of it together.

Woohyun nodded as an answer again.

It was then an awkward silence for a while when neither of them said anything. Woohyun stared into nothingness and Amber stared at him.

‘’So that’s why you didn’t want me to come and stay the night…’’ Amber mumbled under her breath.

‘’He has always focused his anger only on me, not ever on my mom. He has never started fight with random strangers either. I think he’s revenging it on me, what my dad did… Because of what my dad did, he started drinking and ever since he has beaten me,’’ Woohyun revealed. ‘’My mom never comes in between because she’s afraid she’ll get hurt. What a mom…’’ he ended bitterly and kept staring into void.

Amber didn’t know what to say or do. Woohyun has never wanted anyone to comfort him because he thinks it’s the same as pitying him and he doesn’t like that either. No matter how prohibited it was, Amber still wrapped her arms around Woohyun. She only hugged tighter when Woohyun tried pushing her away.

After a while she let go and asked, ‘’Why haven’t you gone against him? You have done martial arts for years and can taint even the biggest and strongest guys on our school. Your uncle shouldn’t be hard opponent.’’

Woohyun let out a little laugh and Amber wondered how was any of this matter of laughing. ‘’It would only make it worse. Better I let him do what he does, I get away with less.’’

Amber didn’t want to believe what she just heard. ‘’You have no reason to take hit when you haven’t done anything wrong!’’

‘’My father did. I have to take responsibility of it.’’

Now it was Amber’s time to laugh in disbelief. She was going to protest but kept it in and instead she asked, ‘’What did your father do then?’’

‘’Took the money from the company he and my uncle used to work in. And then he ran away with all the money, leaving my uncle with nothing. All he had left was the company and the money he invested in it and because of my dad, it is now gone.’’

Amber’s eyes grew wide again. ‘’Your father wouldn’t do anything like that.’’

‘’But he did.’’

‘’I’m sure he had a good reason to do it, then.’’

‘’Maybe,’’ Woohyun shrugged his shoulders. ‘’You got the information you needed. Now you can sleep soundly for the night. Police took him so he won’t bother us anymore today,’’ he said and left the room.

Amber noted that Woohyun said anymore today instead of saying ever again. So, he was going to continue to take the beating?

Amber would’ve wanted to ask and say more but kept closed. Woohyun had already opened up more than usual. ‘’Goodnight!’’ she waved to him and looked closely when Woohyun closed the door.

She collapsed on the bed and thought through everything that happened today.

She finally started understanding this all. The things in the past started to make much more sense too. If only Woohyun would always tell her if something was wrong and not keep everything for himself. It hurt Amber to know how much burden he must be carrying because he won’t speak them out.

Eventually she ended up thinking how close she was to Woohyun in the bed, how he held her hand, how she could feel his heart thumping in his chest, felt his warm against her skin…

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! The voice in Amber’s head yelled and she shook her head. No, I can’t be thinking about it. It was nothing. He just came to protect me. That’s it. I can’t be thinking it was something else, she kept telling herself and pulled the bed covers on her.

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I'm really really really really sorry I haven't updated in such loooooooong time! It's just that I have been so tired (because school...) and I tried writing to update a lot earlier but had to rewrite sentences over and over again because they sounded so weird... But I finally finished this short(ish) chapter. Hope you liked it! ^^

(I'm afraid there will be another longish brake because I have tests for the next 2-3 weeks coming... and there's some additional homeworks(?) I have to do too  D:)