Jong Kook is released from the hospital today. But he doesn’t feel at all good. His back is surely healed but his heart somehow feels uneasy. Ji Hyo has disappeared since yesterday. He called her for more than a thousand times but the phone keeps going straight to voicemail. He left voicemail as well as text messages but she hasn’t returned any of them. He even attempted to escape from the hospital to look for her but got caught by the doctor.

Just what happened to her? Does she have second thought about dating him? No way. She was perfectly fine and happy when she brought him the ox tail soup. The blush, the shy smile of her, there are no way that she changed her mind that fast. He was positive that she was just as excited as him about his released day. Then is something bad happened to her? He can’t help but feeling worry.

He is released early in the morning. The first thing he wants to do is running to her apartment but his secretary stops his plan. The company has an emergency situation that needs his attention. His secretary even brings the suit to the hospital for him to change. With the thought that she is probably at work anyway, he decides to go straight to the company.  

As soon as entering the company, he purposely walks by financial department but Ji Hyo’s chair is empty. His stomach sinks in worry. He hopes that she only gets to work late even though it is totally not her style for ever being late at work. The emergency meeting takes his entire morning. He only absented for three days but the company seems to be a mess. Too many problems to resolve and too many plans to approve. He tries his fastest to take care of the situation but some issues just can’t be overlooked. Finally after 6 hours of continuous discussing and problem solving, he leaves the meeting room and comes back to his office.

The first thing he does after sitting on his chair is turning on the monitor and looks for Ji Hyo. Her chair is still empty. He searches around for her but again, hopeless. His stomach is burning the whole day. He only waits for 5 P.M so he can get out of the company and looks for her even though he still has a bunch of document to take care of. He knows that he won’t be able to get anything done if he can’t find out what happens to her.

 They decided yesterday that he would take her to the restaurant they went to on their first date. He called that place to get the reservation just in case. He still has a great hope that she may be just sick and her phone got stolen. Those situations are definitely way better than the hundreds more scenarios that he has been drawing in his head.

Ignoring his mother asking how his back is, he runs straight to his room, gets change and drives away fast as flash. Despite the heavy traffic of Seoul afternoon, he gets to her apartment in less than 15 minutes. Standing in front of her apartment, his heart beats fast and furious. He is anxious. His hand is about to touch the doorbell and all he is praying for is her behind the door.   

First chime – no answer

Second chime – no answer

Third chime – no answer

And he keeps pressing nonstop to the thousandth time but there is still no response, not even a footstep. From pressing the doorbell, he changes to pounding on the door and there is still no response from her. Just what happened? As if she vanished in the air. He sits there, in front of her door for the entire night, waiting for her, hoping she will come home or step out of her apartment but no … she has never appeared.

Just where is she?

He keeps on waiting until he is too tired and falls asleep on sitting position in front of her door, isn’t even aware that people start getting out of their house to go to work and staring at him as a weirdo.

“CEO Kim, what are you doing here?” – The male voice wakes Jong Kook up.

He realizes that he is still in front of her apartment. Rubbing his eyes, he looks up at the person just woke him up. – “Jin Hyuk? What are you doing here?” – Jong Kook asks in surprise, seeing Jin Hyuk in his suit, ready to get to work.

“I live right here.” – Ji Hyuk points to his apartment. – “Why are you sleeping out here?”

Jong Kook stands up and fixes up his entire. Without even looking at the mirror, he can tell that he is more than pathetic at this moment. – “I came to look for Ji Hyo. But she was not home. I was worried and waited for her and fell asleep before I knew it.”

“Oh really?” – Jin Hyuk asks, trying to put on a social smile to his boss even though his blood is boiling hearing a man has been waiting for his girlfriend the entire night in front of her door. Jong Kook is obviously very determined on taking his woman away. Jin Hyuk can’t blame Jong Kook since he has no idea about the relationship between Jin Hyuk and Ji Hyo. But don’t worry, just a little bit more, Jin Hyuk will tell the world that Ji Hyo is his girlfriend and no one better dare to come close to his woman. – “She asked for a vacation the day before. She already left for America early yesterday and will be back in a week.”

Jong Kook scowls – “Why did she go to America all of suddenly?”

“Family emergency was what she said.” – Yesterday when she woke up in his place, she told him that she had to go back to America for a week to get over the anxiety from the burglary. She had never experienced the terrified situation like that in her life. It frightened her too much that she couldn’t sleep. She wanted to see the psychologist that she trusted in America also to give time for the security company to install new security system for her apartment. He didn’t want to let her go at first but seeing her emaciated face, he believed it was best to let her have a several therapy treatments. She also told him to put in her absent notice in the company so in case anyone asked, only tell them that she had family emergency. She didn’t want anyone to now about the burglary.

“What kind of family emergency? Why didn’t she tell me anything about that?” – Jong Kook raises his voice, frustrated.

Jin Hyuk tilts his head, and narrows his eyes. He is surely trying very hard to not throw a tantrum at Jong Kook. Who he thinks he is to want Ji Hyo to tell him about her family situation? – “With all due respect CEO Kim, I don’t think you are at any place to require her to tell you about her family emergency. She is only an employee in your company and I believe that she only needs to report to her direct superior about her absence which is me. I don’t think a CEO as you need to be bothered about little thing like that.”

Despite how much effort Jin Hyuk putted in disguising his jealousy, Jong Kook can feel irritation in his voice. Jin Hyuk obviously is very frustrated about the relationship between Jong Kook and Ji Hyo. He shouldn’t have any business in concerning about how Jong Kook feels toward Ji Hyo but it seems like he is bothered big time about how much Jong Kook concerns about Ji Hyo. Taking a step closer to Jin Hyuk, Jong Kook crosses his arm in front of his chest, staring at Jin Hyuk, intimidating – “I am not bothering about her as a CEO but as man that very much wants to get closer to her, understand her, and love her. Is it a problem with you?”

Jin Hyuk pupils dilate wide for a moment from anger. He has to hide his hands behind his back so Jong Kook can’t see how tight his grips are and how ready he is to throw a punch. Taking a deep breath, he spreads a friendly smile – “Why should I? You two definitely look great together.”

Jong Kook smirks. He is not a fool to not see through a mask that Jin Hyuk put on – “Thank you and by the way, congratulations on your engagement. You know who you are engaging with right? Don’t you dare to hurt my sister! Or else…” – Jong Kook pauses, giving a minute for his smear – “Or else, even I can’t image what I am going to do to you.” – He states, staring straight to Jin Hyuk eyes, cut throat as a high power laser.

Jin Hyuk takes a step back, feeling the intimidation from Jong Kook. It takes him more than a second to calm himself down and tells Jong Kook – “Why should I hurt her? I love her more than anything and I can’t wait to take her as my wife.”

Jong Kook throws another sharp glare at Jin Hyuk – “I hope you truly love her not her money.”

Jin Hyuk is offensive. Even though he truly loves her money, not her but hearing it from someone else is still irritating. He tries hard to not biting his lips and explodes his frustration. He still has to play nice for a little bit more, until he gets what he wants. Just a little bit more and he won’t have to lower his head in front of any one any more. – “To rich people like you, money is probably everything but there is still love in this world.” – He throws that statement to Jong Kook, he learned it in some drama that he watched before then walks away when he is still able to control his temper.

Jong Kook releases a sharp breath and also walks away. At least he knows that Ji Hyo is okay but his heart is still uneasy. He feels as something wrong is about to happen. And his instinct is barely wrong.