Chapter 13 - The ending

When Emma wakes up, she panics for a few seconds feeling arms around her but the moment she remembers last night she relaxes back into Minhwan’s arms. After a few moments of feeling safe, she starts to move out of the bed while trying to not wake him up. When she succeeds she rushes as quietly as she can, while she is gathering clothes into a bag. The moment she realized how safe she felt in Minhwan’s arms was the moment she decided to go back to Jason. ‘I can’t let anything happen to Minhwan Oppa, or the other Oppas.’  After leaving a note to Minhwan explaining that she can’t stay and see them get hurt when she can prevent it from happening she leaves with a long last look at the guy she started to fall in love with. Even if she tried to deny it over and over, she is tired of not admitting what she is feeling. ‘Not that it matters anyway.’ She thinks bitterly to herself as she walks out of the door, ready to face a scary and painful future.

She walks out of the building when she hears someone running behind her. Before she can turn around to see who it is, she gets pulled into a hug. “Where do you think you’re going?! How can you leave like that?!” Minhwan yells at her. “Noa is so close to grabbing the guy, why would you go?!” “Oppa, I can’t breathe.” Is Emma’s response. He lets her go enough to breathe more but he still holds her in a hug. “Promise me you won’t go Emma. Please don’t go.” “I have to go Oppa, how can I not go and let him hurt you or any of the other people I care for?” Minhwan lets her out of the hug but he still holds her by her shoulders as if he is afraid she is going to run off if he lets go. “Did you not hear me? Noa is just a few days away from getting him out of your life!” And he pulls her back into the building. He doesn’t let go of her hand even when they are inside Emma’s apartment again. “You can let go now Oppa. I won’t run away.” With a look at her face he lets go over her hand and walks towards the kitchen. “Sit, I’ll make breakfast.” Instead of sitting, Emma starts to clean up her bag of stuff, trying to get her mind of everything. After some time, Emma starts to smell something burning. When she walks back into her kitchen, she sees Minhwan desperately trying to stop the black smoke from coming in her direction. “Oppa! What did you do?!” she runs towards the kitchen and turns the stove off. On it is a pot with unidentifiable black goo. “I was making breakfast, but your stove is broken.” Emma starts to laugh and doesn’t stop for a few minutes. After she finally can stop laughing she sees a pouting Minhwan staring at the pot. “Note to self, never ever leave Oppa alone in the kitchen again.” Emma says with a small smile to Minhwan. She pushes him aside and cleans up the mess he made. After she is done, she grabs her bag and pulls sad Minhwan towards the door. “Come on Oppa, let’s get breakfast outdoor.”

Two days later, Emma is calling with a possible venue for a concert in London when Noa runs into her office without knocking. Emma looks up in surprise and askes to person on the phone if it is okay if she calls back in a few minutes as something urgent came up. The moment Emma hangs up, she gets dragged to her feet by Noa. “Come on Emma, faster!” “Noa, what is going on? Where are we going?” Noa doesn’t answer, and just keeps pulling Emma with her until they arrive at a door to a private room. Emma has never been in this part of the building before. “Noa, can you please tell me what is happening?” “We caught that Jason guy, Emma. All you need to do is say that it’s him and then the police will handle everything.” Before Emma can respond, FT Island walks around the corner. The moment Emma sees Minhwan she feels better about facing Jason. ‘If facing Jason makes everyone around me save, than I can do it.’ And without another though she walks through the door.

Even though she hasn’t seen Jason is a while, the moment she lays eyes on the guy she recognizes him and everything in her screams for her to run away, fast. Two seconds later she realizes that Jason can’t see her and that there are police officers in the room with her. Both Noa and Minhwan walked into the room after her and they are standing on either side of her. “Hello, my name is office Choi. Are you Emma?” “Hello, yes I am. He can’t see me right?” the officer looks at Jason. “No he can’t. You know who he is then?” he asks Emma, while pulling out a bundle of papers. “Yes, his name is Jason, he is from the Netherlands and he is my ex.” Emma answers while looking at the guy who ruined her life once. She feels someone holding her hand and squeezing it, as to give her strength. When she looks up, she sees Minhwan giving her an encouraging smile. “Okay, then if you could fill out these papers, we will take him away and he will be deported back to the Netherlands. It seems there are a few court cases against him there, so he shouldn’t be able to bother you here anymore.”

When Emma is done filling out the papers she feels drained but satisfied. When she walks out the room, the guys and Noa are waiting for her. The moment she wants to thank them for waiting on her, Jason gets taken out of the room. Before she registers it, there is something blocking his sight to her. When she looks up, she sees the guys forming a human walk between them. She can feel the back of her eyes getting stingy as if she is going to cry soon, but before she can blink it away Jaejin pulls her by her wrist away with the rest of the group following them. They arrive at the practice room for the guys. “We were looking for you because we want you and Noa to be the first to hear the new song we wrote.” Hongki says while he pushes the two of them down on the chairs that are set up right in front of them. “We need honest opinions, so no fangirling… Noa.” Jonghun adds with a look to Seunghyun who is looking with puppy eyes to Noa, who turns bright red. After a few moments of tuning, the guys start to play their new song Puppy. When the song is over Emma and Noa can’t help themselves but clap really loud. “Whaaa, it’s such a fun song! It makes you happy just by listening to it!” Emma is ecstatic, becoming all happy and giggly after listening to the song. “Sooo it’s good?” Jaejin asks with a small smile. “It’s better than good! When are you guys bringing out this song?” Noa says. “It’s going to be on the new album. By the way, we start promoting next week, so we will be away a lot.” Seunghyun answers with a sad smile to Noa. Even though Emma is happy for the guys they are putting out a new album, she will miss not seeing them randomly in the company.

*Two weeks later*

“Come Emma, time to go for your schedule.” Emma jumps up, remembering she has the Running Man shoot today. “Noa! I’m nervous! What if I make a fool out of myself, or out of the Oppas?!” telling Emma not to worry, Noa starts grabbing her stuff. “Time to go, you need to get to the salon too, remember. Let’s go.” Still feeling burdened with the thought of making the Oppas embarrassed Emma walks out of her apartment.

“Please give a warm welcome to today’s guests! FT ISLAND!” Jaesuk says. When the guys are running in, saying hello to everyone, Emma feels her stomach getting more nervous. Soon she will have to go out there as well! After some joking around with the members, the PDnim is explaining what they’re going to do today. “Today is the international day, the first mission is getting your foreign friend here and having them introduce themselves.” “Aahh, that easy PD, the missions are getting easier.” The Running Man members are having fun already. As all the friends are here already, it was decided to have the friends enter in order of that the cast is standing. Unfortunately for Emma, Minhwan is standing at the very end of the line so she will have walk in last. After a few minutes of everyone introducing their friend, it is finally Emma’s turn. Minhwan starts off; “She..” and before he can continue the RM cast starts to woop. “She? A girl? She is your friend and she is a girl, so she’s your girlfriend?” Jaesuk asks with a big smile. “Ahh, Hyung!” Minhwan gets shy at the mention of Emma possibly being his girlfriend. “Okay, okay, keep going Minhwan-ah.” “She is FT Islands, sasaeng fan.” Minhwan jokes, and Emma can’t hold back; “Am not!” making the cast laugh. “She is my friend Emma.” And with that Emma is walking towards Minhwan, while making sure that she bows to the rest of the cast. When she reaches Minhwan, she gives him a light smack. “I’m no sasaeng Oppa!” making the cast laugh even more. “Anyonghaseyo, Emma-imnida. I’m 22 years old and I come from the Netherlands.” When she is done introducing herself, their asked how they know each other. Emma wasn’t prepared for the question ‘Is it okay to say the truth, or would it be really wrong?’ but before she has to make a choice, Minhwan is already answering. “We met at her doorstep.” Making everybody raise their eyebrows. “She lives in the apartment building that my Noona lives in, and I went to the wrong house once.” Jaesuk can’t seem to let it go without making a joke. “So it was faith for you two.” Before they have to respond they are saved by the PDnim. “Minhwan-ssi is the winner!” “What, wait, who, why?” the RMcast is in chaos while FT Island is just laughing, that their group won without knowing why. “His friend, Emma-ssi, is from the Netherlands making her the person here who is the farthest from home. For the second misson, we will move to the next location.”

When the cameras are off, Minhwan asks Emma how she is doing. “I’m a bit nervous about the rest of the day, I’m afraid I might make you look bad.” Emma admits while they’re walking towards the van that will take them to the second location. “Don’t worry, the only one that can make me look bad, is me.” He squeezed her hand for a second before letting her into the van first.