Days passed since Sarang left and Luhan blamed himself for giving in so easily, for getting attached to her so easily. He tried to clean up the house, but it ended up looking too soulless so he decided to mess it up again. When he looked around, it felt like the little girl would pop out at any time. He sighed, turning on the TV. On the couch, was Sarang's bear. It had been kind of impossible for her to take it home since it was so big, so the bear stayed with him, in the end.

"Bear, move!" Luhan motioned for the bear to move, but he ended up sitting down next to the couch and watching a new episode of "Little Einstens". Bitter.

At that moment, Professor Kim entered with a bag full of groceries.

"Won't your wife be upset? You seem to be spending more time with me than with her.", Luhan said as he was trying to focus at the TV.

"We've been married for over thirty years, do you think she would still fuss over matters like this? I'm a doctor, you brat."

Luhan got up and went in the kitchen, starting to help Professor Kim with the cooking. It was still an unbelievable thing that the old man figured out his password code, but it was not like he was in a hurry to change it. He liked when he was in someone else's presence.

"You're too lonely, kid.", Professor Kim said, "You miss the little girl, don't you? Didn't she contact you? You said that you gave her your phone number. Didn't she call you yet?"

Luhan shook his head. "She didn't." Seriously, he didn't even believe that she would. The things were so confusing, but he wasn't feeling too Sherlock, at the moment, so he brushed things away.

"Luhan, don't you think that is time for you to move on? I'm not talking about Sarang, specifically, I'm talking about your fear of losing a patient again." Luhan sighed. "Listen to me, in a doctor's life this is an unfortunate event, but it is also something common. As long as you do your best, and I know you did since I was there and I saw it, there's nothing that can be done. The family knows it too, and I believe that if they had the slightest doubt about your skills as a doctor they would've sued you immediately."

"Sue me?" Luhan gasped. "Why would they do that? It isn't like my intention was to kill the patient. My intention was to...", he stopped, realising that Professor Kim was right, "... save him."

"You can start your shift tomorrow morning."

"Sarang, the only option left for me is to call your parents." The teacher sat down next to Sarang on the bench set outside the principal's Office. "You know that what you did was wrong, do you?"

Sarang looked down at her blue dress, which was a gift from Grandpa Kim. She missed him so much. Biting her lower lip thoughtfully, Sarang looked at the crumpled piece of paper that stood inside her right hand. "Teacher Oh, can you please call at this number?"

The teacher looked at Sarang's eyes which were sparkling with hope. "I think the best we can do is to call your parents, though."

Sarang looked around nervously, and added, "It's my daddy's number, actually." The little girl looked down, feeling bad for lying, but she felt that it was a necessary lie.

The male teacher dialed the number, and after a few moments he was greeted with a questioning 'hello?". "Yes, I am, Oh Sehun, Sarang's teacher, and I want to ask if you could please come to...", the teacher looked at Sarang for a moment, intrigued. The girl barely answered his questions, she barely did anything, but now she actually fought with a classmate that stole her pen. It was the first time that he heard the girl speak a full sentence. 'It's mine, it's not nice to steal other people's things.', those words surprised him and he realized that probably something changed with the girl, and actually, he wouldn't find her behaviour strange if she wouldn't have started to pull her classmate's hair. Something was happening, therefore he decided to not tell Sarang's dad what happened through the phone, especially when they didn't even meet once. Teacher Oh coughed and continued, "Sorry. The thing I wanted to ask was if you could come to pick up Sarang. I would like to talk with you about something."

Luhan arrived in a heartbeat at the kindergarten. He didn't expect for such a call to come, it was weird, and he was taken aback. It was a half an hour after his shift ended and he was looking forward to his long-awaited time of rest, but Sarang came first. Honestly, his head was filled with all kinds of thoughts. From what he remembered, 10am was definitely early for picking kids up from kindergarten, so something definitely happened. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw Sarang playing with someone, who probably was the teacher. Her short legs were wiggling as she giggled, obviously having fun in the swing. He missed her so much. The condo felt so empty that he needed to raise the TV's volume so it could wash away. He could have stayed frozen at that place watching her for hours, if she hadn't noticed him. He waved at her, with both hands. But Sarang, as soon as she landed eyes on him, she ran in his arms. Luhan was surprised, but still caught her at the right time, spinning her around. Sarang hugged him tightly, and Teacher Oh ended up smiling, feeling relieved at the thought that Sarang's dad looked as a nice person.

Luhan looked at Sarang as he held her with his right hand only, caressing her hair with the left one. He smiled, but his expression turned into one of utter surprise as the girl placed a kiss on his right cheek. "I missed you."

Luhan laughed and pinched the little girl nose.

"As you know, Sarang is a very quiet girl. Her classmates always used to make fun of her or steal her things.", Luhan watched the girl playing on the playground, while he was listening to Teacher Oh's words, "However, today, when a girl took her pencil, she immediately went to retrieve it claiming that it was hers and that it wasn't a nice thing to do."

Luhan looked at the teacher, nodding, "Well, that seems as a good thing. I mean, she stood her ground, after all."

"She did, but what worries me is what came after."

Luhan handed Sarang a handkerchief as she happily continued to smile at the big ice-cream cup in front of her. He needed to have a serious talk with her so he bought her an ice-cream and they were both sitting down at a table from the ice-cream shop. Actually, he wanted to spend more time with the girl as well. Opportunities like this would probably be rare from now on, so he did everything to make the girl happy. However, a serious talk was still required.

"Sarang, do you know what this is?" Luhan said as he waved a piece of paper in front of the little girl.

She cutely shook her head, and Luhan took out the phone, starting to type a phone number. "This is your friend's phone number; Ji Hyo's phone number."

"Ji Hyo's phone number?" Sarang asked as she dropped her spoon. She frowned and looked down, recalling the events from today.

Luhan motioned the girl to come to him. He took her in his arms, sitting her comfortably on his lap. "You did well today by defending your rights. Ji Hyo stole one of your belongings, and as you said, stealing is bad. However, what you did was worse." Luhan explained, trying to fix the girl's clothes  because they were more crumpled than ever. "Who do you think got hurt the most from this situation? You, who would have just lost a pen, or her who was hit? Violence is not an option."

The little girl looked at her hands, starting to tear up. "I'm sorry."

"I am not the one who you hurt, so you shouldn't apologize to me." Luhan waved the phone in front of Sarang. "You should apologize to Ji Hyo instead."

A couple of hours later, Luhan had to take Sarang home, and he was secretly looking forward to it. He didn't think that Joohyeon would be pleased to see him, but he had to ask her some things. Sarang's behaviour was strange, and he doubted that the woman knew about her daughter's disease. It wasn't his responsibility, but he kind of jumped over the limit when he agreed to take care of Sarang, so it didn't matter anymore.

"How comes that you know the road home so well? I don't think I knew this much when I was four-years-old.". Luhan said as he lightly held Sarang's backpack with his left hand, and her hand with the other hand.

"Well, mommy and I always took this road to the kindergarten, and I learnt it. Besides that, I am five-years-old now." Sarang proudly said.

"Mommy couldn't pick you up today?" He carefully asked.

"Well, it's been a week since I've come home alone, so I got used to it." The little girl shrugged, as Luhan gasped. Sarang was definitely too young and it was too dangerous for her to walk the whole distance alone in a neighborhood that didn't look too safe. It was hard to believe that Joohyeon would do this. First, she dropped the girl at a stranger's house - even though he wasn't too much of a stranger for Joohyeon, but for the little girl he was totally a stranger-, and second, she let her come home by herself from the kindergarten. He was dumbfounded.

Suddenly, Sarang turned around and bowed. "I will go in, now. Truthfully, my dad doesn't like when stranger come and visit, so I have to say goodbye now." The girl hugged Luhan's leg, catching him by surprise. "Actually, today was my birthday."

"What?" Luhan knelt in front of the girl. "Why didn't you say so?" Panic took over Luhan as he realized that he didn't know a thing, and he even scolded the girl on her birthday. More than that, he felt sad for her as she definitely didn't have the best birthday.

"It's okay since I already made my wish while eating the ice-cream." Sarang tried to wink, but her face crumpled in a funny way.

Luhan laughed and ruffled her hair. "Happy Birthday!" He said as he hugged her.

The hospital was a total wreck when Luhan came in. The hallway was full of nurses who were screaming and fretting around. One of them came to him, frightened, "Doctor, a crazy man keeps yelling since early this morning saying that he wants to take his wife home. But what do we do? The woman cannot even move because of the heavy injuries."

"Why would you call the police? It's my wife, so I do whatever I want with her!" The man yelled, while he kicked a chair.

"Mister, please, calm down!" Luhan kindly said, approaching the man. Frozen in place, he stared dumbfounded at the man in front of him.

"I want to see my wife! I'll kill her if you don't do so! Just wait and see!"

Luhan grabbed the man by his arm, in an intent of calming him down.

He couldn't believe that Sarang's dad was in front of him, he couldn't believe that he still cared about what happens to Joohyeon. But, when didn't he? If his wife is in the hospital, it means that on one of the hospital beds lays Joohyeon. He immediately saw red in front of his eyes and threw a punch at the man, knocking him down. "What did you do to her?"

Luhan was quietly standing next to her. The silence was deafening, and Joohyeon's stare on him was burning his insides. Minutes passed, Luhan thought that probably the minutes turned into hours already, as for Joohyeon... Joohyeon stopped counting a long time ago. Mostly because there was no time or space when she looked into Luhan's eyes. It was like a free ticket to those happy times. It was a journey she didn't want to come back from. It was a journey that she would repeat over and over, despite the pain. Unfortunately, she alone decided to leave the boat and let it sink. They both let it sink.

"It hurts?"

"A bit."

The change of replies was so dull that Luhan scrunched his nose in disapproval. Of course, it hurt, and he knew that. Joohyeon was just good in the art of lying, that's all. He cried so much when he first saw her that there weren't any tears left to fall. She had three broken ribs, cuts all over her body, bruises all over her face. True, those would heal in time; Joohyeon would probably no longer remember having them. But Luhan knew better than that. The scars on her heart would still remain. Looking back and realising that he could have had a saying, that he could have helped for the things to take another turn, was hard to bear.

"I'm sorry." Luhan's hand found Joohyeon's and they both looked at the way their fingers automatically fit together.

"What's there to be sorry for? It wasn't your fault."

The man awkwardly coughed. "You know what I am talking about."

"I know." Joohyeon softly squeezed Luhan's hand, and nodded reassuringly, "That wasn't your fault, either."

Luhan sat on the edge of Joohyeon's hospital bed, not letting go of her hand even for a second. With the other hand, he started to caress her black hair. The motions were becoming faster, and Luhan realized that his hands were actually trembling. The hurt he hid inside his heart all this time was coming to surface, and he felt a sudden sensation of freedom. The tears were blurring his vision and he was starting to have a headache, but he didn't care about anything. In a swift movement, he took Joohyeon in his embrace. Her hands were blindly clasping on Luhan's shirt, and she was desperately trying to compose herself. However, she gave in. It felt the right thing to do. It was the same thing they should have done at that time, and even if it could be easily considered as late, they both knew that is never too late for closure. And, they needed it more than ever.

Joohyeon was comfortably resting in Luhan's arms. It felt surreal, something that both never thought of experiencing again. That feeling of safety after all the yearning and desperation. Is the same feeling as that one you get when you come back home after years of wandering around. They both felt like home in each other's embrace. Luhan's fingertips were slowly caressing Joohyeon cheek and everything was like a puzzle that finally found all of its matching pieces.

"We never did it, didn't we? We never cried for our Yu in each other's embrace. We fought, we yelled at each other, we cursed each other, we blamed each other..." Joohyeon closed her eyes, as if all of her mistakes would wash away if she did so. It's funny how , in our attempt of proving ourselves right, we make mistakes and we keep pushing people from us, ending up pushing our happiness away, as well. When our journey becomes tiresome and we feel lonely, we realize that, maybe, we did wrong. That feeling of remorse is the worst. Ah, if I did things differently, perhaps I would be at a different place today; I won't ever be able to go back to that again because of my mistakes. Those thoughts had been eating Joohyeon alive for such a long time, but in Luhan's arms she felt secure again. "Is he still outside?"

"Did he do this to you?"

"Luhan, please, go and take Sarang from him. Sarang doesn't deserve this kind of life."

Joohyeon said as she looked at Luhan with pleading eyes. "Luhan, please."

Luhan got up from the bed. "Why? So you could succeed in killing yourself?"

The woman gasped, and swallowed hard. Luhan knew the truth and she suddenly felt ashamed of herself. She hated how Luhan always made her feel like this. "I..."

"What? Did you think that I didn't know? I am a doctor, I read your file before entering this room." Luhan messed up his hair in desperation. "I don't get why! Why would you do something like this?" The man approached Joohyeon and cupped her cheeks. "Why would you kill yourself when you have a reason to live for? Me, a person who didn't even have a reason to live, lived, but you... I just don't get it."

Joohyeon started to cry and pushed Luhan's hands away from her. "Go! Go and take her away from there!"

Thoughts flood Luhan's head as he stopped the car near the neighborhood were Sarang lived. He looked at the surroundings, and exhaled heavily. He wasn't very rich himself, but he still found it impossible for a human being to live in houses like those. The roofs were destroyed, probably letting the rain to fall inside the house. The walls were stained, and threatening to fall. All of the houses looked the same - on verge of falling.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he started to walk towards Sarang's house. His heart felt heavier with each step, as he thought of the bad scenarios regarding Sarang. He remembered Joohyeon's desperate pleadings, how she begged him to go and take Sarang away from her dad. It was easy, though, since her father wouldn't be an obstacle, as of now. The situation was so confusing, and Luhan couldn't shrug off the way that Joohyeon mentioned Yu in front of him. The same Joohyeon who yelled at him...

"Stop, you bastard! You have no right to pronounce my baby's name, so stop it!" Joohyeon yelled, as she threw towards Luhan the glass of flowers that had the role to enlighten the dull hospital room.

"It was our baby! How can you tell me to stop pronouncing his name?" Luhan yelled back, frustrated. The last hours have been the most painful hours of his life. The worry, the guilt, the anger, they all took over him the moment he met Joohyeon's murdering glare. It was hard to believe that it was the same Joohyeon he left at home before departing to Manilla, where the conference was held. He was an intern, and it was known that, in the medical field, the internship was a decisive period, so the fact that he achieved the honour to participate in such a conference was extraordinary.

"It was?!" Joohyeon screamed. Her tears wouldn't stop falling. Luhan suddenly felt the urge to hug her and tell her that everything would be alright, that they would overcome this, like they overcame her mother's opposition. But, did they? The truth is that they didn't. Again, Joohyeon's mother meddled with things like she always did.

The story went like this. Luhan was a Chinese boy who obtained a scholarship in South Korea, mostly because it was close to home, and because his aunt needed someone close after she lost her only son because of a terminal disease. Luhan gladly accepted the idea, thinking that he needed some fresh air, and he wanted to focus only on his medical career, thing which was kind of impossible to do at home. Time after that, he met Joohyeon. His aunt decided that he needs someone authorized that could teach him Korean. Apparently, Bae Joohyeon was only a student at that time too, but because she needed money, she worked as a tutor in her free time. There wasn't much to say about the way they fell in love; a stare, a caress, a kiss, a touch. They simply fell in love. Maybe it was because of Joohyeon's warm smile, or because of Luhan's ability to cuddle, but they seemed to be perfect for each other. It was kind of a fairy tale, and as in every fairy tale there has to be an evil character who ruins everything. For them, the evil character was Joohyeon's mother. Well, it's kind of wrong to categorize her as 'evil', but Luhan often thought of her as an evil person.

However, as every parent, Joohyeon's mother wanted only the best for her. Most of the parents want their child to achieve what they couldn't. Joohyeon's family was poor, mostly because her dad used all of their money on drinking and smoking, stopping the family's improvement. He was a good person, yes, he was, but his addictions overtook him. So her mother put all of her faith in Joohyeon's future. Falling in love was out of discussion. Falling in love meant the possibility that Joohyeon would give up on her studies, and that wasn't a good idea. 'A man, is a man, he uses you and leaves you.'. Joohyeon never focused on this saying that her mother always threw at her, but once she got into a relationship with Luhan, the fear started to flourish inside her.

Joohyeon didn't give up on her studies, nor Luhan left her, but she did get pregnant. Making love is something natural, and it often tightens the link between two lovers. Luhan believed that more than anything, and even if he was a student who came in South Korea only to focus on his career, he couldn't give up on his child. He did believe that one day he would marry Joohyeon, but the girl pushed those plans aside, waiting for her mom to accept their relationship.

Apparently, her mother started to accept their relationship, but only with words. Words that she told only to Joohyeon because she denied the idea of meeting Luhan. The first time they met, it hadn't been too pleasant and Luhan avoided her, too, even though he always asked Joohyeon about her parent's health.

Still, Luhan couldn't give up on his dream. When he was allowed to participate at the conference from Manilla, things went down.

"Yes, it was! Because you decided to go on that damn plane! You gave up on us, you gave up on me! Your jealously went overboard, that's why it is 'it was', and not 'it is'!" Luhan yelled at Joohyeon who started to cry hysterically.

"Get out, you jerk!" She yelled.

That's how Luhan walked out of Joohyeon's life. They loved each other, but the pain was bigger than their love.

Joohyeon was standing on the couch inside Doctor Lee's medical office. She hated hospital, it made her sick, it made her go insane. In the same hospital, she lost the most precious thing she had ever had, and it hurt like it happened yesterday.

"So, what happened after that, Joohyeon?"

"I had to stay at my mom's house because I was pregnant and I constantly needed someone with me. I used to get angry easily, and throw up frequently. It was a difficult pregnancy. I had to be very careful. The fatigue almost made me lose the baby once and since then he never left me alone. It was hard to do all of it: to study, to work, to be pregnant, to be a girlfriend... When I arrived at my mom's house, I had to be a good daughter as well. But, I wanted him to do well. I knew how hard it was to get an opportunity like that and, besides that, I loved him, I wanted the best for him. But, my mom had a different opinion. I was very nervous because of the pregnancy and I was constantly hearing things like: 'This is only the beginning, you will see", "For sure, he has another woman since he left you like this.' To be honest, I heard about Luhan's flight to Manilla, over a phone call from his mentor, Doctor Kim. Apparently, things moved on fast, Luhan found out on the last day that he could go, too. From Luhan I received only text messages, and I thought it was strange. I shouldn't have because I knew how concentrated he was when he worked, and the fact that he was constantly sending me text messages was already a distraction. But, I was afraid. I was poor, pregnant, with a nagging mom and with few chances of succeeding in life so if he broke up with me, probably, the only option left was to kill myself."

Noticing that Joohyeon's tears started to fall, Doctor Lee gave her a handkerchief. "It's okay, we can end the session her, and we'll continue..."

"I lost the baby. I had to go to all kinds of appointments at the doctor so I didn't have time left for studying, so I failed several exams. Mom went crazy. I wanted to leave from my parents' house. I called him. For ten times, I think. I lost my mind. I sold everything I could find and I bought a plane ticket to Manilla." Joohyeon covered with her hand, trying to stop herself from crying. "Our Yu couldn't handle it. We named the baby Yu, we often talked with our baby, you know? Luhan even read him stories. I was so stupid for trusting him, and then when I found out I lost my baby I was even more stupid for blaming Luhan for something that had definitely been my fault."

"Joohyeon,", Doctor Lee said as she went to sit next to the sobbing woman on the couch, "it's okay. As a mother, you felt things differently, and it was a big loss for you."

"Yes, but I should have stayed with him. I should have let him hug me and comfort me, but I yelled at him. I wanted to cry and to grieve and to scream, but I couldn't because my mom begged me to help her. My dad drank so much that we were on the verge of losing the house. Besides that, I had to pay my college fees... That's how I ended up marrying that bastard.", Joohyeon started to gaze into space, numb to the pain. "I was forced to have a child, I was beaten, but it was okay... Since I deserved it. But, Sarang didn't deserve to witness those. That's why I took her to Luhan."

"Why did you take her to Luhan and not to someone else?"

"I am giving him back his hope. I want to do that.", Joohyeon nodded, "And my mom wasn't an option since I lost touch with her. She lives in misery, like I do. Apparently, my rich husband was also a gambler. He lost everything. I can bear hunger, but I cannot bear for my girl to don't have a new backpack or new clothes. She's my daughter, after all."

It started to drizzle. The roads were getting wet with each passing second, and Luhan hurried to Sarang's house. Yet, he was surprised to find the girl outside, on the street, drawing on a wall. Her backpack was next to her feet and pieces of chalk were thrown around her. On the wall, a monster was drawn; with fangs, furrowed eyebrows and a scary appearance. Luhan didn't think that it was normal for a kid to draw something like that at such an early age.

"What are you doing here? You'll get wet by the rain." Luhan said as he approached Sarang.

Sarang's features molded into a smile the moment he saw him. He took her in his arms and noticed that her eyes were puffy and red. She cried.

"The door is locked. I can't go inside. Dad said that mommy ran away from home and no one is allowed to come in until she comes back. Because it's too messy and we have no food. He said that to me this morning."

Luhan hugged the girl tightly. Thankfully, Sarang's dad was at the police department because of the scandal he made at the hospital. Luhan was planning to make him stay there as long as possible.

Sarang was patiently waiting on the hospital bed. Luhan thought that she should see her mom before he takes her back to his condo. But, Joohyeon's bed was empty and Luhan started to panic.

"Let me die, Luhan, please." Joohyeon said as she approached the end of the hospital's roof. "I am giving back what I took from you, so just let me die."

"Didn't you even think even for a moment that actually the thing that I wanted the most in my life was you? In all these years, whenever I felt alone, I wanted you next to me. We were weak, but we can also learn how to be strong. So, please..."

"Do you still love me, even after what happened?", the woman asked.

"When you knocked at my door with a girl in your arms, after years of not seeing each other, I could have said that I don't want to do it, but I still did it, didn't I? That's because I love you. I never asked any questions because I thought you still hated me, and I recognize that it was my fault too. We both were at fault, but we shouldn't do wrong to Sarang, too. There's still time left to make things right." Luhan watched shocked how Joohyeon slowly lost balance.

Cliffhanger. I will write an epilogue later on, so please, keep watching this story!

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Also, I want to mention that this story is based on real experiences.

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