“Appa, is this really our new house?” The 10 years old Min Ho widened his eyes as he walked around the apartment with a disbelief expression. Lee Seong Gi laughed as he held his son’s hand and pulled him to his new room. Min Ho smiled happily when he saw his room and threw himself on his new bed. “Yeah! I have my own room from now onwards.” He shouted excitedly.

Kim Yun Jin who was standing at the doorway laughed softly looking at her son. She slowly walked towards her husband and linked her hand onto Lee Seong Gi’s arm. “After so many years of hard work, we finally have our own house.”

Lee Seong Gi squeezed his wife’s hand softly as he let out a smile. “Yes. The house’s price in Korea is increasing like crazy every day. Even though this is just a small apartment, but at least it’s ours and so much better than the place we rented all these while. Min Ho can have more space to run around and have his own place to study.”

Kim Yun Jin smiled as she leaned her head on her husband shoulder, looking happily at her son.

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Min Ho’s eyes opened slowly when a roll of thunder was heard, waking him up from his deep sleep. He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes lazily. More and more thunder and lightning crashing, making Min Ho flinched at the loud sound. He looked down at the bed he was sitting and felt that it was shaking slightly. He lifted his head up and looked around the room. He saw few cracking lines on the wall and he started to panic. He quickly ran to the door and by the time he was outside of his room, he saw his parents were already standing outside.

“Appa, what happened? How come the apartment is shaking? The wall in my room is cracking.”  Min Ho asked nervously.  Just then, another thunder crashed loudly, making the whole house shakes even more. The wall around the house was cracking too. A lot of screaming and yelling was heard outside the apartment.

Lee Seong Gi quickly held tightly onto his son’s and wife’s hand and ran to the door. “I think something is wrong with the building. We got to get out of here now.”

When the door was opened, they saw a lot of people were already running towards the emergency exit. Lee Seong Gi looked down at Min Ho and pulled him closer to him. “Stay close to appa and run as fast as you can. Arasso?”

Min Ho nodded his head fiercely as he followed closely to his parents. They quickly ran out of their apartment and follow the crowd, running towards the emergency exit. But just before they could reach there, they heard a loud discouraging cracking sound and within a second a huge chunk of the ceiling crashed into the ground, knocking them all to the floor. More pieces of the ceiling were caving in everywhere.

Min Ho felt his leg snap painfully as he hit the ground and every second he tried to move, it put more pressure on his injured leg. He was so scared and looking everywhere for his parents. “Appa! Eomma!” He tried to shout.

Looking up, the last thing he saw was his parents, who were covered with blood looking at him weakly before the entire building collapsed and everything went dark.

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Lee Min Ho’s eyes flipped open as he pulled himself up in a quick move. He groaned in pain when he tried to move his left arm.

“If you want your hand to be broken completely, try to move again.”

Min Ho turned his head to the voice beside him. His face softened when he saw Woo Bin sitting beside him. It was a dream or to be exact, it was a memory that was replaying in his mind. A memory that has been haunting him for 17 years. He inhaled deeply as he looked at his left hand that was wrapped with bandage. He turned to Woo Bin in confusion.

“What happened? Why am I here? Where is this place?” He asked.

Woo Bin leaned forward and looked at him worriedly. “Yah! You don’t scare me. Are you having some kind of memory loss or something? The doctor said you just hurt your elbow and just a minor injury on your head. You are in the hospital now.” He narrowed his eyes at Min Ho. “You don’t remember what happened? Park Shin Hye was attacked and you were in the car with her.”

“Hospital? Park Shin Hye was attacked?” He tilted his head, still confused before the memory slowly invaded his mind. His eyes suddenly widened in shock before he looked back at Woo Bin. “The bomb.”

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“There is a time bomb in the car.”

Shin Hye’s face turned pale as she gasped in fear. Her whole body started to tremble and she bit her lip hard. “What are we going to do now?” She asked softly, trying to sound calm.

Min Ho looked down at her shaking hand that he was holding and let out a sigh. “If I’m not wrong, the bomb was connected to the car engine. Once the car’s engine started, the bomb will be automatically activated. And when the car stopped, it will explode.”

Shin Hye swallowed hard before she asked again. “Which mean as long as we continue to drive, it will not explode?”

Min Ho inhaled deeply as he shook his head. “No. The bomb was set in 30 minutes time and even if the car didn’t stop within this 30 minutes time frame, it will still explode.” He squeezed Shin Hye’s hand softly. “The bomb has already started ticking and we only have 15 minutes.”

“Oh my god! What are we going to do now? I don’t want to die.” The driver said in a quaver voice as the car starting to move unstably.

Min Ho looked out of the window to check the location outside and they were in a quiet and dark road heading back to the beach house. He moved slightly forward and patted on the driver’s shoulder. “Try to slow down the speed and maintain in 40km/h. We have no other way now except to jump off the car while it’s still moving.”

“What?” The driver looked at him in horror through the rear view mirror.

Without replying him, Min Ho turned back to Shin Hye. “The time is too limited for me trying to disarm the bomb. So we have no choice but to jump off the car.” He moved his hand from her wrist to her palm and held it tightly into his. Her cold hand froze his heart at the same time. “I told you that my responsibility is to protect you and keep you safe. If you trust me, hold tightly onto me and I promise you I’ll bring you out here safely.” He paused as he tightened his grip on her hand. “Can you trust me?” He asked, looking at her gazeless eyes.

Shin Hye lifted her head up as her other hand slowly moved to his arm and clenched on the sleeves tightly. She bit her lip as she nodded her head. “I trust you.” She said softly.

Min Ho caressed her hand that she was grasping on his arm before he turned to the driver again. “When I say okay, slow down the car to 20km/h. On the count of three, open the door and jump off the car immediately. Arasso?”

The driver nodded his head nervously as he quickly unfastened his seatbelt and pressed the central lock to unlock the car. He held the steering wheel with one hand as another one holding onto the car door handle, prepared to open it after the count.

Min Ho pulled his hand away from Shin Hye as he stretched his body to the front and opened the glove compartment. The time on the digital clock that was attached on the bomb was ticking away and they had only about 3 minutes left. He turned to the driver for one last time and patted his shoulder. “Ready.”

He pulled himself back beside Shin Hye and helped her to unfasten her seatbelt. He looked up at her pale face. “Hold tightly onto me no matter what happen later or what sound you hear. Just hold tight. Arasso?”

Shin Hye took a deep breath before she nodded. She gasped heavily when she felt Min Ho’s hand pulled her forward by her nape and wrapped his arms tightly around her. His hand was holding the back of her head firmly in place. She moved her hands up and gripped tightly onto his coat collar as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. This was the first time she was this close to a man. Although the situation now was very dangerous and frightening but for the first time, she felt secured. She doesn’t understand why but she has confident that this man she was holding onto now could protect her. She could feel her breath getting more hot and rapid with the ticking sound of the bomb and with him so close to her. She breathed in his manly scent as she closed her eyes tight, waiting for the worst to happen.

“Okay.” Min Ho instructed loudly.

The driver nodded as he stepped on the brake, slowing down the car speed to 20km/h.

Min Ho tightened his arm around Shin Hye as he moved his hand that was holding her head to the car door handle, getting ready to open it. He took a last look at the bomb in front. It was only left 30 seconds now. He inhaled deeply, tightened his arm around her even more before he counted. “One… two… three… now!”

Shin Hye gasped loudly as her shaking hand clenched tightly onto Min Ho’s coat when she felt the strong wind blew into the car the minute he opened the door. She screamed in fear when her whole body was flown of the car with Min Ho still hugging her tightly in his embrace. Just seconds after their bodies rolling and landed on the hard ground, she screamed again when she heard a loud exploding sound not far away from them. She felt that her whole body was covered securely by Min Ho’s body.

After a long while, the arms around her loosened and she just felt heavy breath fanning against her face. Her eyes flipped open when she heard Min Ho groaned in pain. She tried to pull away from his hand that was underneath her and get up in a sitting position.

“Are… are you… okay?” Min Ho asked weakly, panting heavily. He bit his lip hard trying to endure the pain on his hand and his head was heavy and spinning. He tried to stay conscious and scanned Shin Hye from top to toe, making sure she is okay.

Shin Hye just felt some minor pain here and there but she was more concern about Min Ho now. “I’m fine. How about you? Are you okay?” She asked nervously as her hand moved forward and touched wherever she could reach. She sighed in frustration that she couldn’t see anything. “Did you hurt anywhere?” She asked worriedly. She was sure he is hurt because his breathing is heavy and his voice is shaking. She remembered she landed on his hand very hard just now as she quickly moved to another side, trying to reach hi