"Miss Jieun..." Sehyuk's voice called out to me. "Miss Jieun..."
    My eyes opened to the view of the sky above me. Clouds slowly drifted above us like balloons without a string. Late blooming flower petals floated down like feathers of an angel.
    "Jieun sshi!" Sehyuk shouted this time.
    Surprised, I got up and looked at the settings around me. I had fallen asleep on the porch of my family house.
    To my left, a younger Park Sehyuk called out to me. "Jieun sshi! It's time for your tutoring lessons." He motioned for me to come closer before I was lectured for missing another session.
    Sehyuk lifted his hand for me with a smile as sweet as the smell of honey on his face.
    Slowly, I placed my hand in his. He gripped it tightly and pulled me into a soft embrace. Grinning, my arms wrap around his waist and I rested my head on his shoulder. We stayed still like this for a long time. I wasn't sure how long, but it felt like a lifetime had gone by when I finally looked up at him.
    To my surprise, he had turned into Jun Myeon!
    Suddenly I opened my eyes in reality and found that Jun Myeon was holding me in his sleep. His arms loosely slid around my waist and his face buried in my shoulder.
    Tired, I turned my head to look at the clock, which told me that it was two in the morning.
    For some reason, I no longer felt tired.
    As I laid in bed with Jun Myeon holding on to me, I stared at the ceiling while thinking about Sehyuk.
    When he left the family home, he had left me behind. Everything that I knew about him had disappeared the instant I saw him again. He was different. But through that brave front, there was something underneath that still touched the side of him that lived with me.
    Sehyuk stayed in my thoughts the rest of the night until Jun Myeon woke up at six am for work. He was even busier than usual; rushing to wash up and dress himself.
    "Good morning," He said with his angelic smile. "Sorry if I constricted you last night. You must have been uncomfortable..."
    "It's okay," I smiled back at him, unsure if he felt the same way about my smile like I did about his. "Jun Myeon...?"
    "Yes?" He turned to look in the mirror as he fixed his necktie.
    "Do you hate Park Sehyuk?"
    Jun Myeon's hands paused and he turned to me with a disappointed look. "You don't understand, Jieun ah. I don't hate him."
    "Oh..." I looked away from Jun Myeon, seeing as I had destroyed his good mood.
    Without another word to be said, he left me in the room for work. But I think it was for the best. I knew he didn't want to talk about Sehyuk, and yet, I brought him up. What was I thinking...?
    Suddenly, Jun Myeon quickly came rushing back into the room. "Jieun!"
    I looked at him with surprise and curiosity. "What's wrong?"
    From behind Jun Myeon, my father appeared with his predecessors, following Jun Myeon into the room.
    "Father?" I rolled out of bed and ran over to him. "Father, what's going on?"
    "Take her." Father said to them.
    Immediately, they took action and grabbed me by my arms. Without a word, they dragged me away from Jun Myeon, who was fighting his way through to get me.
    "Jun Myeon!" I shouted as I was being pulled away.
    Father walked in front of us, stomping down the stairs and through the halls of Jun Myeon's house. Through every room, Jun Myeon's businessmen watched as I was being dragged away. None of them even tried to stop my father from taking me away.
    What was happening?
    The predecessors brought me outside and carefully placed me in the back of a family car, sitting beside me and slamming the door shut.
    "Drive." One of them said to the chauffer in the driver's seat. 
    He obediently started the car and drove away just as Jun Myeon ran out of the house. For as far as he could run, he chased us down - calling my name the entire time.
    I shut my eyes and kept listening until I couldn't hear his heavy footsteps anymore. Until my name was no longer being shouted. Until Jun Myeon was gone.

    "Father, I demand to know what's going on here!" I shouted angrily at the man sitting beside me in the family meeting room. He nodded his head to the predecessors around him and waved them away.
    Clearing his throat, father placed his hand on mine and explained calmly. "I understand that you've only been married for a week now, my child, and I want you to know that I have given you away for the wrong reasons."
    "What do you mean...?"
    Again, father cleared his throat. "You see, a while before you were born, the EXO company had bought me over. I struggled for years to keep myself tied with good business, but before I knew it - I was finally giving in. And then when I heard that the EXO company's CEO was having a boy, the perfect idea popped out of my head!" He placed his hand on my arm and smiled happily. "If we gave you to the EXO company's CEO's son, then he could save us from bankruptcy!"
    "To save the business?" My eyes grew wide. I had never felt so betrayed in my life! I looked my father in the eyes and grinded my teeth. "So I was a pawn...?"
    "Child, don't take it that way." He brooded me. "It was a safety precaution. But now that the EXO company is going bankrupt and I will not have my daughter falling down with it. I married you over to that man to save our own family business, but I never dared to imagine that they themselves would collapse."
    My eyes squinted into a glare and I pushed my father's hand away from me. "What an outrageous plan! How dare you marry your daughter off to someone just to save your pitiful business!" I stood up and walked out the door, only to run into the one man that I wished I could see.
    Park Sehyuk.
    "Se-Sehyuk!?" I shouted in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
    Father's hand gripped my shoulder from behind. "He helped my business to rise back up to its original place. I'm glad you've come back, Park Sehyuk."
    All he did was smile acknowledge father with a smile, but he kept his focus on me.
    "If you don't mind," Sehyuk slipped his hands in his pant pockets. "I'd like to speak to Jieun alone."
    "Whatever you wish, Sehyuk." Father bowed his head and walked away.
    As he disappeared around the corner of the hallway, my hands gripped the area of my chest above my heart. It was beating with excruciating pain. I was running out of breath and I felt like I was going to faint.
    "What's wrong?" Sehyuk's hands found my shoulders. "Jieun?"
    "It's nothing," I said as my eyes watered. "I'm just heartbroken."
    And just as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared. The pain stopped and my breathing became normal again. But still, tears fell from my eyes.
    Swiftly, Sehyuk led me to a seat in the family meeting room and placed himself right beside me. His hands continued to stay glued to me.
    "I'm sorry..." He began.
    Confused, I looked up at him. "Why are you sorry?"
    "Because I couldn't save you in time." He stared down at the ground beneath him. "When I ran away, I swore I would come back for you before you were married off. But it seems I was too late."
    I kept quiet, unsure of what I could say to him.
    "I just knew I had to do something after I met you and Jun Myeon in the parking ramp." Sehyuk looked me in the eyes. "I couldn't stand you being married to him."
    There wasn't even anything for me to say. I liked Jun Myeon, but I couldn't go back to him now. After finding out why I had been married off, I didn't even know if I wanted to be with Jun Myeon anymore. I didn't even know if I wanted to be married anymore.
    "When I saw you two again in the cafe," Sehyuk paused to wipe a tear away from his cheek. "I just couldn't hold back any longer."
    His hands slid from my shoulders to my hands, squeezing them tightly. "The way you kissed him... It shattered my heart into pieces..."
    "I..." My hands squirmed under his hold. "I'm sorry..." I looked away awkwardly.
    Sehyuk spoke again, firm and serious. "But now that you're back, I want to know everything all over again."
    "Everything?"
    "Tell me," He said nervously. "Did he... Do.. anything to you...?"
    Again, I became confused. "What do you mean?"
    "Never mind." His cheeks bloomed into a bright red. "If you don't know, then he probably hasn't done anything to you."
    "Have you figured things out yet?" A voice called out from behind the door. "Hyung, we've got some work to do."
    Unhappy with his work, Sehyuk sighed heavily. "I'll let you get settled back in. I have some things to take care of." Putting back on his tough attitude, he strut out the door shouting at the person who came calling.

    It had only been one week, so I hadn't expected many changes within the house. As I walked around, I realized that it seemed a little more empty. Maybe because we were back in business, the people around the house went to work.
    Curious, I slid the door open to my room and peeked inside. Nothing seemed to change here either. The furniture arrangement was still the same.
    "Welcome back!"
    Surprised and shocked, I jumped at the voice behind me. Quickly, I turned around and looked a familiar man in the eyes. "Kim Hansol-oppa!"
    "It's good to see you!" He exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around me for a hug.
    Hansol was always a good friend to me when I lived here. I always talked to him whenever I needed someone other than Sehyuk (who could hardly understand me at all).
    "I'm happy to be back, but..."
    "But?" Hansol loosened his embrace to look at me.
    I looked down at the ground and then back up to him. "Although it's only been such a short time away, I feel like I've been gone for years."
    He smiled and released me from his arms. "You think of it like that, but it feels like you just went on a short trip. I'm glad to see you back."
    Agreeing, I nodded my head with a smile. He didn't seem to change either.
    "So tell me!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me into my bedroom to sit. "What was it like being married to Jun Myeon?" As always, he was a gossipy boy.
    At first, I wasn't sure how to put it. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good. I just stated how I really felt about it. "I don't know what to say first."
    "Tell me about Jun Myeon. Is he a good person?" Hansol seemed excited to know everything about my married life.
    "I honestly don't know how to describe him..." I pursed my lips and searched for words in my head. We hadn't been together for long. I hardly had a chance to get to know him.
    "Well, that's okay." Hansol looked at the time on his cell phone and sighed. "I need to get to work now. Sehyuk hyung needs us to start working more frequently these days. I just stopped by to see your shining face! Bye now!"
    With a smile, I waved goodbye as he walked off alone. All the men seemed to be working a lot these days. Especially Jun Myeon...
    "Jieun?" A familiar female voice came from behind me.
    I turned around and my eyes caught the one person I had been hoping to see ever since I had come back home. "Mother!" My feet dragged me over to where she stood and my arms slipped around her for a hug. "Oh, mother! I missed you so much!"
    "Jieun! I missed you!" She squeezed me into a hold so tight that I thought I could have suffocated from it. "My dearest daughter..."
    As she loosened her arms around me, she looked down into my eyes. She didn't show it, but she had worried so much about how things would have turned out. And for her, they turned out for the better.
    "Jieun," Sehyuk called out from down the hall. "We need to talk."
    My hands released their hold and I peeked over her shoulder. There stood the one man that held my heart in his hands.
    "Mother, I'll leave now." Although the moment had been quick, my mother dismissed me. Whether I liked it or not, I had unfinished business with Sehyuk. I could see mother any time I wished - now that I was finally back home.

    Awkward silence floated in the air around the two of us; Sehyuk and I. We sat side-by-side on my bed without a single word spoken yet.
    My teeth fiercely biting my tongue because the words I wanted to say wouldn't come out. But as I sat beside him, he didn't speak.
    From the corner of my eye, I peeked at him. He was either looking down at his sock-covered feet or the polished, wood floor beneath it. But whatever he was staring at, I just wished he would say something, or we would stay like this until he became busy.
    Inhaling a deep breath, I finally summed up the courage to say the first words.
    "So..." In unison, the both of us spoke.
    Simultaneously, our eyes met and we stared at each other for mere seconds before bursting into laughs. I hid my flustered face away.
    "I apologize, Jieun." Sehyuk started. "I feel like I've hurt you. Taking you away from Jun Myeon like that. Even after you two became married. I just... I couldn't stand the sight of you two being so close to each other."
    He paused in his speech to swallow his saliva.
    "I really, truly, seriously, like you Jieun." Sehyuk looked straight into my eyes. Oddly, I had never been this close to him before. Before he moved away, I was always a certain distance. But why?
    Back in the moment, the color of my face changed from milky peach to a bright cherry blossom pink. This was the first time Sehyuk had ever confessed to me.
    "I..." My voice cracked with just one letter. "I don't... I don't know what to say..."
    Sehyuk suddenly looked worried. "I apologize." He looked away from me and back to the ground. "But don't force yourself to say anything right now. I just felt like you had to know now, or else I would never get another chance to say it."
    "Don't be sorry." Slightly, I touched his hand. His skin was rough, but smooth. "If anyone, it should be me apologizing."
    Our eyes met once again. "Why would you be sorry?" He asked.
    "Because of my family, we never had the chance to be together in the past. I'm apologizing to you for the way they hurt you. I know that what they did was unacceptable and can't be given back."
    I could tell that Sehyuk was carving every word into his heart. The way his gaze was so focused on me, it made it obvious.
    "But I also want to thank you for everything..." Suddenly, tears began to burst from my eyes. My chest began to feel a little heavy. "Ah... I don't know why I'm crying..."
    He quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled at me. "It's okay." Just those two words from him made me cry even more. I didn't understand why the tears began to fall, but whether I knew or not, I felt like it was because of something deep.
    Sehyuk wrapped his arms around me. Gently, he pulled me into his chest and brushed my hair. He rested his chin atop my head. "It's okay, Jieun. It's okay."
    Those two words (and also my name) grew inside of my heart. In this moment, I finally realized why I was crying. It wasn't because I was sad about our interrupted past.
    I was crying because of Sehyuk's honest confession. A reply was too hard.
    I realized that I had taken a liking to Jun Myeon on the day of our marriage. But Sehyuk had been with me longer. My heart didn't know how to feel about them both.
    The tears stopped spilling from my swollen eyes and I pushed myself away. Now that he had finally admitted his feelings to me, I saw him in a totally different light. Everything he did would change. I would avoid him.
    "Jieun?" He looked down at me, but I hid my face away in embarrassment.
    "I-I'm sorry. But you'll have to leave." I turned away from him. With the way I was feeling now, I would rather no one saw me. Especially him.
    Just when the moment was right, Sehyuk's cell phone rang loudly. Within seconds, he swiped the screen and answered the call.
    "It's me." His voice had become serious. "Yes, I'll be there immediately."
    Still facing the opposite direction, I ignored what I had heard and kept my eyes fixated on the wall.
    "I'm going." Sehyuk said in a more normal voice. He waited for a minute with me (still not facing him) and then got off the bed. Without another word, he walked out of my room, quietly sliding the door shut behind him.