I~I~I~I~I

Namjoo turned around to stare throughout the convenience store before turning back to Jinwu, who still couldn't choose between what ice cream flavor he wanted. While they shopped she also picked up some canned foods, chips and crackers, and sandwiches for Luhan. 

"Sorry Auntie," Jinwu apologized, fumbling with his fingers in front of the freezer. 

"It's ok," she assured, "take your time. Why don't you pick one to give to Uncle when he comes back later? I'm sure he'd be very happy."

His eyes brightened and he turned to observe the various ice creams some more. Namjoo turned to stare at the time, becoming immersed in the secondhand ticking away. For some reason she thought she could hear it echoing inside her ears tick tick tick. The louder it became, the more faded her surroundings became. All of a sudden it was as if Jinwu didn't exist, the store clerk wasn't there, and she wasn't in the store but on some flat ground with no existence. 

Tick, tick, tick.

"Hey," she slightly jumped at the voice and the finger poking her shoulder from behind. 

Swerving her head back she caught sight of Luhan's good friend, Sehun, towering over her. He smiled in greeting. 

"It's a surprise seeing you here," he greeted. 

"Oh...hey..." Namjoo heaved a sigh of relief. 

"Did I scare you?"

Relieving herself through a smile, she nodded, "I didn't expect to run into you, but what are you doing here? Don't you live on the other side of the city?" 

"I was running errands around the area and got hungry."

"Is that so?"

"What are you doing out here? Didn't think you'd be home alone today."

Jinwu tugged on her hand to draw her attention and held up two ice cream popsicles.

"Lets go home, Auntie." 

"Looks like I'll be going now. I'm babysitting for the day," Namjoo smiled. "It was nice seeing you." 

They started toward the counter, checked out, and exited the store. Jinwu grasped onto her shirt tightly as they headed back. She thought he seemed nervous, but didn't press him about it, assuming he apologetic for taking so much time with the ice cream. It was only when they stopped by the street lights, waiting for it to give way, that she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. 

Instinct told her someone was watching them. 

The warning signals she received from it sent her heart racing in fear. Turning around she glanced back to discover no one suspicious. A was man talking on his phone; pacing back and forth, and among him were others quickly rushing to catch their bus stops and head elsewhere. Namjoo scanned the faces of every stranger, but didn't see anyone who she could deem dangerous. 

Afraid and paranoid, she grabbed Jinwu's hand before hurrying him across the street. Once the apartment building came into view she quickened her steps toward it; her heart yearning for a sense of security. Running up the stairs she rushed toward her apartment; fingers trying to concentrate on unlocking the door. Silent Jinwu clasped her hand tightly in return and whether he had also felt the danger or not, she didn't want to know. 

Once the door swung open, heavy footsteps charged at her. Before being able to step in, hands lunged at her shoulders to pull her forward. Namjoo could feel her heart lurching out of her chest while trying to make sense of what was happening. 

"Where were you?!" Luhan bellowed into her face. "I thought I told you not to go anywhere! Why didn't you listen to me?!"      

Her eyes widened in natural response before Jinwu started to whimper and break out into a cry behind her. Upon looking back at Luhan she caught deranged fear in his enlarged pupils. He looked barely petrified.   

"S...sorry," was all she was capable of saying at the moment. 

Luhan looked disoriented, so bewildered she wasn't sure what to say to assure him of comfort. Clamping his eyes shut for a few seconds as if make sure this was reality, he ran his hand up her forehead into her hair and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. 

Namjoo was baffled. 

"It's ok," he breathed, his voice quiet but armed with relief, "I was just scared for a moment. At least you're ok." 

Without being given the chance to ask of what, he stepped aside and bent down to take Jinwu into his arms. 

"Did Uncle scare you?" His voice, now gentle, coaxed. "Sorry about that. Come here."

The little boy wrapped his arms securely around Luhan, continuing to weep against him. Namjoo liked watching the interaction of the two, but couldn't enjoy the sensation of the moment. The expression in Luhan's eyes bordering the line between fear and paranoia wasn't one she'd seen before. Then again, the way her hair had stood on end freaked her out too, but she couldn't speak to him about it in front of Jinwu. 

Suddenly it didn't matter how Luhan had acted. All she cared was that now everything felt normal again. The fear experienced earlier was now gone.

I~I~I~I~I       
                                                 
Luhan could hear the water running from the shower and little Jinwu staring at the television screen from the couch. It was late, they'd just had dinner, and he'd been able to convince Namjoo to go take a shower and let him do the dishes. 

He was happy she was still here; that even though she'd come out, she'd come back without a scratch. Even though all was affirmed to be fine, fear was still quivering through him. 

Drying his hands he walked over to sit with Jinwu. His mother would be back any time and he was ready to spend some time alone with Namjoo. The weight of the cushion sunk when he sat beside Jinwu. Measuring the boy's tiny frame against him made Luhan feel tingly. He'd wanted a child running around the house someday. After spending numerous evenings with Jinwu, both he and Namjoo had decided on having a baby...that which they'd lost. 

It was...such a regret. 

Running his eyes over Jinwu, he wondered how his and Namjoo's child would look like; if it would have been a boy or girl. How pretty their baby would have been. 

Unable to help himself he ran his fingers through Jinwu's well grown hair and smiled. 
"Uncle," Jinwu turned to look up at him with his big eyes. 

"Hmm?" Raising a brow attentively, he leaned forward. Luhan had always imagined the things he'd talk to his kid about; dragons, fairies, robots, and monsters. 

"Meet bad uncle today," he told, "he scary." 

The words sent a slight chill through Luhan. He wasn't sure what Jinwu was trying to talk about nor was he aware that the boy knew what fear was at such a young age. The way his voice relayed exactly his feelings made Luhan wonder what all this was about. 

"What uncle?" Luhan pressed on, but the knock on his door interrupted. 

It was Jinwu's mom and without receiving an explanation from the boy, had to let him go home. While waiting for Namjoo to come out, he ran Jinwu's words over in his head. 

What had he meant? Had they met someone while they were out? Who? Why was this person bad and scary? Had anything happened that Namjoo didn't tell him about? 

For a moment, Luhan could feel his mind jumping to assumptions way before his brain could think logically. His eyes drifted to the movie and the box of popcorn he'd arrived with earlier. They were supposed to have a nice night, but his head was completely bombarded with new unleashed questions. Thinking so much wasn't his forte and it made him feel sick to the stomach. 

"Why are you sitting there looking like that?" Namjoo's voice surprised him as she walked out from their bedroom. 

His eyes brightened up at once and he patted the spot beside him. A smug smile arrived on her face as she moved over to plop down beside him. Extending his arm out he locked it around her shoulders to bring her close. 

"So what did you go out to do today?" Namjoo wondered, picking at her nails. 

"Don't do that," he pushed her hand away, "that's dirty." 

"Tsk..." 

"I just went here and there," he answered. 

"Where exactly?" Slightly tilting her head up, she stared at him. "Meet some girls?" 

"Of course," he smiled mischievously, "I met a woman today." 

Namjoo's elbow poked his rib, but they laughed it off jokingly. 

"Did you go to the convenience store today?" He wondered. "You bought a lot." 

"Yea," she nodded, lowering her head to lean against his arm and played with his fingers. "The one by the corner, a few blocks away. Why?" 

"Jinwu said you met someone." 

"Oh...that," Namjoo pressed her lips together. 

"Who?" He was curious about who this bad, scary man was. 

"Sehun." 

Now that was a surprised and completely unexpected. 

"Sehun?" Luhan repeated. 

"Yea," nodding she glanced at him. "Why? What about it?" 

"It's just," Luhan started, "Jinwu said you met a bad, scary man. So nothing happened?" 

"Bad, scary man?" Namjoo repeated with a funny smile. "Nothing happened." 

She let go of his fingers and quickly turned to him again, "But now that you say that, Jinwu did seem a little nervous when we left the store. I thought he was just sorry about taking so long with the ice cream, but when we got to the stop lights I felt weird, like someone was following us."

Luhan's mind suddenly grew aggravated and reminded with a deep voice, "You said nothing happened."

Pulling her shoulders up to shrug she insisted, "Nothing did happen." 

Upset, Luhan revoked his arm from around her and stood to look at her. Unintentionally, he started yelling, "If you experienced something like that on the way home, it means your instincts were telling you something was wrong! You should have been more careful! This is why I told you specifically not to go anywhere. You're lucky you were with Jinwu, at least he could tell something was wrong. Do you know what could have happened to you?!"

Namjoo stared back at him bewildered at how he was blowing up over a small matter.

"What could have happened to me?" Suspicious anger underlie her voice.                                             

"I don't know!" He shouted, majority of him didn't even want to think of the many possibilities there were of her getting hurt. 

This time her brows furrowed together at his absurd behavior, "Will you calm down? Nothing happened, ok?"

Luhan could feel his heart raging like a roaring tsunami and part of him knew he was going overboard, suddenly yelling at her as if it were her fault. He couldn't help it.  

He was afraid...

"I know..." his voice dropped in volume, "you don’t know how scared I was waiting for you, thinking someone could've done something to you."

Looking apologetic, forgiveness eclipsed over her eyes. A smile appeared on her face before she stood up to wrap an arm over his shoulder. His eyes trailed down her face; part of him weeping tears of joy that it was really her here with him.                                                                                              

"I'm still here," she spoke and he didn't think she knew to what extent those words made his heart flutter; the warmth and the sadness that came jumbled together with it as a pack.

The emotions rolled through him like a roller coaster. It was such a blessing to be able to look at her like this. 

He held her tighter when their lips locked and they kissed for a long portion of those minutes ticking away. 

Later that evening when he stepped out of the shower, Namjoo was already lying under the sheets with her eyes closed. Flicking the bathroom light off and shutting the door he started toward the bed gently crawling onto the bed. A pure smile of innocence stole his expression upon peering down at her. Playfully leaning down he gave her a quick kiss on the lips and watched her eyes open. An immediate smile climbed onto her face before he lie down beside her. Sliding up so that part of her back was propped up against the pillow she clutched onto his arm, leaning onto his shoulder. 

They hadn't had a normal evening like this before she suddenly left. They'd both been so busy working that all they did during the evenings was sit around and chat before taking to casually lying on the bed, drifting off into a slumber once settled in. 

"I think something's wrong with me." Namjoo began, tracing her finger along his arm. "I can't seem to remember what's been happening these past few weeks. It's a total blank to me." 

Because you weren't here the past couple weeks, but he couldn't say that to her. 

"I don't remember either," Luhan replied. He didn't want to ever remember the past few weeks without her. 

"My memory's not short like yours." 

He playfully hissed through his teeth before leaning his head against hers. "So? Sometimes I don't even remember what happened the month before. Does that mean I'm ill?" 

"Seriously..." she muttered. 

"You're just uselessly creating problems for yourself," he told. "There's nothing wrong with you." 

Within his mind's eye he could see her rolling her eyes at his statement, realizing he wouldn't take her seriously. Luhan didn't plan to take her seriously, because there was completely nothing wrong with her. 

"Jinwu's cute, don't you think?" He asked. 

A smile erupted on her face, "Mmm..." 

For a minute, silence passed between them as if the conversation had continued underneath their breaths. 

"Luhan," Namjoo called, "was there something about a baby lately?" 

A few weeks' prior to the murder when her period was overdue she'd bought a pregnancy test that came out positive. Before that they'd had small talk about planning a family, which eventually went into motion. After the pregnancy test they were scheduled to confirm the news at the hospital. 

Would Namjoo be able to remember that? What kind of things would she remember before the time of her murder? Or had some of their memories been taken from her? 

"Why?" He wondered, unsure of how to reply to her. 

What kind of things could he say about the baby? If there had been one at all...and if it had really existed...

"I feel like I missed something." 

The back of her head touched the cave of his neck when she tilted her head up to look at him, as if he'd be able to give her an answer. 

Offering a smile he touched her face, "Don't worry about it. We still have forever." 

He became lighthearted upon listening to her laugh, "Forever...right. There's no such thing as forever." 

"There is." 

"No there is not." She enunciated each word. "There might not be tomorrow or you might not be here tomorrow or I might not be here tomorrow." 

"If I say there is, then there is," he insisted and wrapped his arm around her to squeeze her. "If you don't believe me now, I'm going to keep kissing you." 

She laughed when he forcibly leaned in; the both of them wrestling playfully with Namjoo trying to shove him away while he tried to grab a hold of her. As long as he was graced by her presence, he'd make sure they enjoyed every second together till the memories touched the very cells that made up their heart. And he swore, he'd never stop teasing her till he heard her wholehearted laughter echoing in his ears even when they were miles from each other.

Knotting his legs around hers he pulled her toward him, brushing his hand over her cheek into her hair and kissed her again and again. Their teeth clicked before they erupted into laughter. Easing the joke away as she traced a hand up his back, the mood transitioned into slow passion when they pulled closer together. Extending his arm back he turned the lamp off, so that not even the world could break them apart.   

Always with him, even if the whole world turned its back on him, it was only acceptable if she was in his arms. 

When he awoke in the middle of the night he sensed a presence watching them. No one else was in the room with them, but the moon outside their window. Night was still daunting and the room quiet. The soft of Namjoo's breathing entered his ears and his eyes swung over to the digital clock on her side. For a long period of those minutes ticking by, his eyes only focused on the numbers flipping to the next; counting the hours down till sunrise.

Shadows in the room seemed to dance around them, teasing him for the worst. It was as if they were saying, his days wouldn't last; luck wouldn't be on his side for long.  

"We'll be here watching," they seemed to murmur, "your time is up, your time is up."  

A light weight of fear settled into the core of his chest. The thoughts broke when Namjoo slightly moved, shifting her smooth back into his chest. Tightening his arm around her to hold her close as if to tell the silence he wouldn't let her go to anyone. And again, like everyday that had gone by so far, he assured himself that Namjoo was still alive and here with him. 

"I love you," he proclaimed quietly into her ear with a soft kiss into her hair.  

"I love you too," he wanted to hear her say, but only her breathing answered.