Caking my face with a generous amount of concealer concentrating on my swollen eye bags, I slipped on my Dior shades before plucking my car keys off the side table and heading towards the hospital as planned. I had woken up early that morning to the smell of fresh coffee and scrambled eggs, courtesy of Mrs Kim who had found me and Myungsoo asleep on the couch; me lying on top of her son. I regained consciousness and turned red immediately, embarrassed of the position Mrs Kim had found us but she simply smiled warmly and asked me to wake Myungsoo up because breakfast was ready.

Checking myself again with the rear-view mirror to make sure that there wasn’t any trace of evidence to indicate that I had indeed gone through a whole night of crying, I started the engine and headed towards my destination; Seoul hospital. The drive was smooth with it being an early weekend morning and everyone else was probably still in their cosy beds. That thought caused a horrible image to pop into my head; was Woohyun cuddling with that after a night of ? Turning up the volume of my stereo, I distracted myself from the negative thoughts and focused on the road instead, allowing me to reach my destination safely soon enough.

Arriving at the familiar suite within the medical institute, I wasn't surprised that I wasn't the first guest of the day. Seated on the couch were my parents and Mrs Nam, looking in a better state than I last remembered them to be and I was only glad for that fact. Unwilling to dampen the mood, I smiled graciously at them as I greeted good morning.

"Where's Woohyun?"

It took all my willpower to prevent myself from wincing at the expected question before replying in a nonchalant manner, "He overslept, so I decided to leave him a note and head down here first. I wanted to be here as early as possible. I miss you guys."

"Aww, we miss you kids too," Mrs Nam replied as she pulled me into her arms and placed a kiss on my forehead.

I spent the morning catching myself up on all the family matters; Mr Nam's condition, the company, other family members and most importantly the state of mind of my closest family. It soon approached lunch and Woohyun was still nowhere in sight. With the need to fill our empty stomachs, my parents volunteered to go out and pack some food back for Mrs Nam and I while we stayed behind to provide some company to the patient within the room.

As soon as my parents stepped out of the suite, Mrs Nam turned to me with a serious expression on her face and I started becoming worried over what words were going to pour out of . 

"Yuri-ah, I love both you and Woohyun equally, you're as much a daughter to me as Woohyun is my son."

I reached my hand over to grasp hers in mine, a silent comforting gesture to let her know that I felt the same way.

"Sweetheart, please tell me the truth. What is going on with Woohyun?"

I snapped my head to face her with glistening eyes; there was no hiding from mothers was there? An image of Woohyun from the night before flashed across my mind and I failed to prevent the first drop of tear from escaping.

"Did he hurt you Yuri?" 

I instantly shook my head, blatantly lying to her. 

"Woohyun's changed. For the past few months he has been avoiding all our phone calls and messages, living in his own world. It's not like him at all to pull a stunt like this; he was not contactable these days even after his dad fell ill. He has always been a mummy's boy and I'm worried. What exactly happened to him Yuri?"

I remained silent, unable to answer her question personally as the same question had been haunting me for the past countless nights. 

"Mr Kim dropped by to visit my husband."

My attention was immediately caught again as the name of the owner of the house I had spent the previous night at was announced. I held my breath as I waited for Mrs Nam to continue her speech.

"He didn't tell me the whole truth but he accidentally let out that Woohyun was in his office a while back pertaining his studies and soccer. What exactly is going on Yuri? Is Woohyun doing badly in his studies? Is it because of soccer?"

I guess it was. Or his soccer friends rather. But I could not tell Mrs Nam the truth that her son had been reduced to a delinquent after about a year of studies. 

"I bumped into Woohyun at Mr Kim's office. He told me that he flunked all his mid-semester papers. I'm sorry for not telling Mrs Nam."

"Oh sweetheart it's not your fault," she remarked as she hugged me seeing that I was going to break down.

"He's...he's been a bit distant these days..." I sobbed and she immediately proceeded to rub my back as a form of consolation.

“He’s so different…I don’t know what happened but he’s changed. We don’t even spend enough time together anymore,” I ranted on as the walls of the dam broke and unleashed the high volume of water.

Pulling away from me for a moment, Mrs Nam eyed me suspiciously, “Did he hurt you Yuri?”

But before I could answer her with probably yet another lie, the door swung open and the person of conversation stumbled in untidily. Both of us had our heads turned towards the direction of the entrance as our conversation was halted. Woohyun swayed over before indifferently shooting us the first words of the day, “how’s dad?”

Mrs Nam opened to answer but a loud beep disrupted her and the three of us sprinted towards the direction of the room the sound had originated from. The panic button seemed to have been triggered as doctors and nurses came pouring into the room within seconds; one of the perks of having a personalized care unit. Everything happened in a quick blur and all I could remember was a flash of white, some pushing, my heartbeat in my ears and we were back outside on the same couch we were on the whole morning with an additional member.

His heart had stopped. That was a known fact amongst us as the pale faces stared right back at me as a form of evidence. Tears had started flowing down my cheeks in fear as I sat in between a sobbing Mrs Nam and shell-shocked Woohyun. Enveloping Mrs Nam with my left arm, I reached my right hand over to Woohyun’s and pulled him towards me. We established eye contact and Woohyun leaned into my body until our foreheads touched before we closed our eyes and let our bodies join as one with cheeks, shoulders, arms and hips plastered against each other.

My parents soon entered the doors with food in their hands; food which was immediately left on the table untouched and forgotten as the doctor chose that same timing to waltz out of the patient’s room. Questions were being thrown everywhere with the majority of them in the direction of the doctor who patiently tried to remain composed before delivering the bad news.

“His heart stopped. He is still alive as we speak and we are doing our best to prolong it. However, I must stress that should his heart stop again, it will be very hard for us to get him back. I’m sorry.”

The rest of the day was spent in painful silence as we all wallowed in the sadness of Mr Nam’s plight. It was only late into the night when Mrs Nam voiced out that the two of us should get some rest; Woohyun and myself. She insisted that I let Woohyun drive the both of us back to our home to get the much needed rest and I could not even protest since I was exhausted and nothing sounded better than the comfortable bed I had been missing for months.

However, before I could exit the room behind Woohyun, a gentle grip was felt on my wrist as I turned to face Mrs Nam.

“I’m ready to let my husband go if god has decided that it is his time. But I know that the biggest worry he has left behind is the company and as a wife I intend to fulfil his last wishes. If Woohyun doesn’t prove himself worthy of it, the entire empire will lie in your hands. I trust you Yuri.”

I felt the immense pressure descending on me as I quietly left the room and followed Woohyun to his car. Millions of thoughts were running through my head as I pondered on whether I really could it, or if I could convince Woohyun to pick himself up, or…

“Are we ok?”

Woohyun’s voice interrupted my thoughts as I remained frozen in my seat. What was he asking?

“Can we get back together?”

Are you kidding me? He actually thought we were ok after what he had done.

“This changes nothing Woohyun. I’m sorry about your loss; our loss and I will be here as a friend. But I don’t think I can forgive you just yet for what you did.”

Knock Knock.

It was too early for visitors.

Knock Knock.

I buried my head deeper into my pillow, hoping to block out the sound so the intruder would go away.

Knock Knock.

It was getting louder and more annoying.

"Yuri!"

He knows my name.

"Open up!"

That voice is familiar.

"Lee Yuri!"

Nam Woohyun. Why the hell was he disturbing me so early in the morning? Wednesdays have always been my sleep in day as classes only started later.

Trudging over to the door reluctantly, I yanked the door open, ready to shout at Woohyun. However, before I could even open my mouth, he threw himself on top of me, attaching his lips onto mine.

"Yuri, you're mine," he slurred, obviously under the influence of alcohol as I detected an all too familiar stench emitted from that mouth.

"Woohyun, why are you even drunk so early in the morning?"

He ignored my question, locking the door behind before coming onto me once again, muttering, "You can't leave me, you can't."

I was confused over his incessant incomprehensible ramblings, what exactly was he trying to do? On top of the desperate words leaving his lips, his intentions were coupled with equally intimate body contact. His hands were roaming all over my body, groping my s, and sliding it up and down my back and arms. His kisses alternated between my lips and neck, each peck turning more and more aggressive as his teeth joined in the abuse. Gently pushing him away from me, I attempted to get him to explain himself despite knowing his drunken state.

"What are you doing Woohyun?"

"Why does everyone want to leave me?! I don't want to be alone! You're not allowed to leave me Yuri! No, you can't..."

"No one is leaving you Woohyun," I softly cupped his face and assured him of my presence. I may be angry at him for cheating on me but my heart would never allow me to ignore him when he was in such a bad state. I guess his father's death was having a huge impact on him after all.

"Come on Woohyun, let's get you into bed alright?" I coaxed him, putting my arms around him as I pushed him towards the said furniture. 

However, as we reached the foot of the bed, Woohyun suddenly reversed our position, pushing me down onto the bed instead before climbing over me.

"Woohyun, stop it."

"No Yuri, no. I must make you mine. You belong to me. I'm not letting you leave me," my fiancé rebutted as his administrations increased in vigour. 

Pinning both my hands down with a firm grip on my wrists, Woohyun continued his abuse on my lips and neck.  As he let go of my hands to catch a firm grip of my t-shirt and yanking it upwards, I knew exactly what was going on.

Pushing him off me by his chest with my freed hands, the only thing I achieved was to further fuel his lust as he captured both of my hands with a single one of his as he began ripping my clothes off my body one by one. Every action I carried had a greater opposite reaction, every act of defence only led to a stronger attack. There was a limit to what I could do to defend myself without hurting him; something I knew I could never bring myself to do.

As tears of agonizing pain cascaded down my cheeks with each rough of his manhood within me, I kept assuring myself that this was all right.

Woohyun was my fiancé; this was bound to happen sooner or later right?

The contract was now inked with blood.