Park Shin Hye shifted slightly, eyes still shut even though the sunlight had filtered through the little gaps of the window’s curtain. The morning sunrays radiated a warm sensation on her pale, flawless skin, making her groan. With her eyes still closed, she slowly come awake with the soft thumping under her ear, wormed their way into her consciousness.

Wait, where am I?

She opened her eyes softly, blinking several times as dryness sting in her eyes. After a while, after her vision was completely restored, she glanced around and the familiar place confirmed that she was in her room. But… the bed that she is lying down now doesn’t feel like the one she used to sleep. It felt… harder… warmer… and… it felt… human.

A soft gasp escaped her lips uncontrollably as she froze on the spot and in a sudden it seems like everything stopped. Something is not right. The slow and steady thumping sound under her ear, the warm and soft breaths that fanned against her forehead, she… she is in her room, on her bed… but… there was another person too.

Taking a deep inhale of breath, she slowly pulled her head back slightly and looked up. Her lips parted as her breath instantly hitched in , shocked at the sight of Min Ho’s fast asleep face. She gently turned to the side, her eyes glancing around at the same time. She was right. Both of them were sleeping together, Min Ho lying flat on the bed with her body half-lying on top of him, her head lying across his chest.

What happened?

Shockness and confusion etched onto her face as her eyes were still locked on Min Ho’s sleeping face, puzzled and her gaze unable to tear away. What happened to them? Why are they sleeping on the same bed? When did he come back? Why does he look so… tired?

As she took a clearer look at him, something on his face immediately caught her eyes. He was injured. A dark, blue and purple bruise had formed at the side of his forehead, and it appeared painful. Her eyes nervously glanced down to check further and her brows furrowed to see the corner of his lips were also bruised with some dry bloodstain still sticking on it. The dark circle under his eyes indicated lack of sleep and he looked… hurt and exhausted.

What happened to him?

Gently without wanting to wake him, her body shifted softly and glanced around to examine herself. Everything seems to be fine by as soon as she lifted her hands up, she could roughly guess what happened to them. She found some familiar fresh biting marks covering her right forearm and just by looking at those marks, the memory of what happened from last night comes rushing back to her.

~~~~~

It was almost 9pm the moment Shin Hye came back from work. There will be a meeting with the DH’s marketing team tomorrow and with the sudden changes in some of things in the agenda, she has to rush and redo almost the whole presentation. If not because Jun Won insisted to send her home, she would still be in the office now to finish up everything before she come back. Since Jun Won threatened to fire her if she doesn’t go now, she has no choice but to bring back her work to do at home.

After she came back, she quickly took a shower and brought all the documents to Min Ho’s study room so that she could borrow his laptop. Putting all the files on the table, she the laptop and while waiting for it to start; the photo frame that was sitting at the side of the table caught her curious gaze. It was Min Ho’s photo. He was wearing graduation gown and cap, smiling happily. It must be his graduation when the photo was taken. Although he still look the same but the smile on his face make him look young and boyish in the photo.

Her hand reached out to take the photo frame up and her eyes were staring at him for a long moment. Without realizing it, her eyes were glued at the photo, mesmerizing Min Ho’s handsome face and recalled everything that had happened between them since they met. It was an undeniable fact that he is a good person. But life seems to play a cruel joke on them. They were destined to meet, to know each other… but at the same time their roles were destined to be enemy too.

She dragged her fingertips along the surface of the photo frame, as if she was really touching Min Ho’s face. She wondered… if they were born differently, born in a different family and meet each other in a different situation… he is not Park Doo Jun’s Lee Min Ho, she is not Yoo Hyun Sook’s Park Shin Hye, just an ordinary man who met with an ordinary girl… how would they be now?

A small smile slowly curled onto her lips as she imagine the kind of simple life it could have been between them. If they are really two different people, without so much complication, she will not be like who she is now. She will blush whenever she see him, she will smile whenever she is close to him, she will be gentle to him, she will… fall in love with him. But all these are just an imagination. They are who they are and nothing could ever change the past.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and forced herself not to think about him anymore. She keeps reminding herself that nothing is more important than her revenge. No true feeling is allowed to be involved in her plan. She can’t let her heart waver just because of a man. Putting his photo faced down on the table, she quickly starts working and distracts her clouded mind with her work. And it was very effective. Once she started, she was completely lost in her work, and didn’t notice how much time has passed.

As she was concentrating on doing her work, suddenly a very loud thunder roared, which makes her literally jumped of her chair. When she turned towards the window, she saw flashes of lightning lit up the darkened sky followed by the strong rain and howling of wind. Few more loud thunders continued to crack through the room as her body began to tremble.

Without bother to save what she had done on the laptop, she just closed it and wanted to run back to her own room. But before she could even took the first step to walk away, another giant thunder roared and at the same time the lights in the study room suddenly went off.

“Ahhh!!!”

Shin Hye screamed in fear and quickly ran to the corner behind the table, squatted down with her hands covering her ears. Tears began to roll down her cheeks uncontrollably as her body continued to shake tremendously.

“Ahhh!!!” High pitch screams escaping her lips as another loud crash of thunder boomed through the room again.

“S-Stop… please stop…” She cried, allowing more tears to leave her shut-eyes and tucked herself in a ball. She whimpered as sharp teeth sank into her bottom lip, piercing into the soft flesh.

“Eomma… eomma…” Her chest heaved as her body was wracked with painful sobs. Flashes of memories started to replay at a slow pace, all the pains rushed back to her, torturing her unstable emotions.  

Thunder continued to roar, rain continued to spat, lightning continued to splash. Time was ticking away as Shin Hye was still trembling badly at the corner, crying hysterically. Her breathing is getting heavier by the second, anxiety rise in her, feeling sadness and… and… pain. Pain? Yes, it’s pain. Her hand felt painful because her teeth have now found a new place to bite and it was her forearm. Good. This is what she always do, distracting her fear by inflicting physical pain on her body. And it works every time. 

Shutting her eyes very tightly, she increased the pressure of her teeth until the skin on her forearm turned white, tearing the flesh apart as the blood slowly oozing out from the fresh wound.

Pain… pain is the only feeling she recognize since she was very young and since then it has never left her. She always asked herself… that night… that painful night sixteen years ago, was it a mistake that she scream when her mother tried to kill herself? If she didn’t scream, the heartless man will not come back into the house and found her injured mother. If he didn’t save her mother, she might have left to bleed till death, no one know, no one find out and she will also be left there alone, die together with her mother. If that night, her mother was dead, she was dead, everything will stop there and all the pains will also stop at that moment.

She is very angry. She hates her mother, she hates that heartless man, she hates his family… and… and she hates herself. Why? Why must she work so hard all these years and her mother still give up so easily, leaving her alone to face everything? Why must she be the one who endured all the pains because of their mistakes? She doesn’t understand and will never understand.

Pain is the only thing she could feel now and it consumed her completely. She tried… she really tried very hard to stay strong, to show the world that will not be defeated. She will show everyone that no matter how much they hurt her, she will not be beaten. But why is it have to be so hard? Why does the pain just wouldn’t go away? Why?

“Shin Hye…”

Who is calling me?

“Shin Hye… are you alright? Shin Hye…”

No… I’m not alright. I feel like dying.

“Shin Hye… look at me.”

She felt someone pulled her head up but she couldn’t see anything. The room was too dark and her vision was blurred with her tears. But… it felt very warm. Her freezing cold skin felt very warm under the touch. Those hands were rough against her cheeks and it makes her feel safe.

“Shin Hye! Stop!”

Stop? Stop what?

“Let go!”

The warmth by the touch suddenly left her face and the next second, her hand was harshly pulled away from and once her teeth left the flesh on her forearm, more pains rushed into her. The biting wounds sting badly as her heart ached painfully. But just after a few seconds, she felt the comfortable warmth back to her face once again. Her face was gently lifted up and as she tried to blink the tears away, she found a pair of worried eyes looking at her.

Who is this person in front of her?

“Shin Hye! Can you hear me? Shin Hye… I’m Min Ho… Shin Hye...”

What did he say again? Min… Ho…? No, he is not the person she wants to see. She want to see her mother, not him.

“Eomma…” Shin Hye sobbed painfully. And just when she wanted to say how much she missed her, another loud thunder echoed through the room and make her shut her eyes tightly once again, letting more tears to stream down her cheeks.

“Eomma… please… please make the thunder stop… p-please…” She begged in a soft cry. “Shin Hye will be a good girl. Please make the thunder stop. Eomma… where are you? Please… don’t leave me alone…” She swallowed hard and before she could open her eyes again, her trembling body was suddenly pulled into a pair of strong arms, hugging her tightly.

Dup-dup… dup-dup… dup-dup…

Is that a sound of heartbeat? Shin Hye pressed her face tightly to the place where the soothing sound came from and let herself drowned into it. The soft thumping sound was very calming, making her slightly better.

“I’m here. You are not alone. I’m here and I’ll keep you safe.”

Keep me safe? Who are you? Are you my mother? In this world, it was only her mother who will keep her safe. The others… they were all lies. People make promise with no intention to keep it. That’s how people lie to get inside your heart and tear it apart.

Shin Hye inhaled deeply, trying to pump sufficient air into her suffocating lungs. But no matter how hard she tried, her breathing still getting heavier and uneven by the second. She felt breathless and suffocated. Her heartbeat raced, got tight and making it harder to breathe. Her body keep shaking, so badly that she couldn’t feel anything except the fear inside of her. On top of that, the sound of the heavy rain and loud rumbling thunder keeps stinging into her ears. She couldn’t stand it anymore. 

And without any warning, she shoved him harshly away as she quickly sank her teeth into her forearm again. Pain was once again piercing into her senses and felt expectedly better.

“Shin Hye!”

The same voice shouting her name again. Who is he?

“Stop biting yourself. Shin Hye, let go.”

She felt a strong pull on her hand but she will not let go this time. She doesn’t want to let go. She wants to feel the pain. How can she make this person understand that she feel so much better for doing this?

The harder he pulls, the deeper she bit herself. The more he wanted to stop her, the more she wanted to hurt herself. Finally, after few more struggles, the pull finally stopped. But it doesn’t stop for long. The hands that were trying to pull her were now shifted to her face, forcing her head to lift up, forcing her teeth to leave her forearm at the same time. And just then, she felt something warm and soft brush at her lips.

What is that? Why… why does everything seems to stop and… the fear, the pain… everything just gone.

Shin Hye was completely frozen by the sudden foreign feeling as all the struggles stopped instantly. The soft brush against her lips continued to trigger her senses as it slowly turned into something more intense. The softness on her lips started to press tighter against her, her lower lips were pulled between something that feel like teeth and something soft began nibbling her gently. Although the feeling is alien and unfamiliar but… but it felt good. Her body started to relax as her hands naturally moved up and pressed against the strong, heaving chest. One of the hands that were cradling her face slowly slipped behind her neck and tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck. A soft gasp slowly escaped her lips when something warm and wet against her, coaxed her lips open with a gentle pressure as something slipped into , meeting her tongues in a slow dance.

Her hands fisted around something that felt like soft fabric and held it tightly before she melted into that embrace. The sensation was overwhelming but it felt so good at the same time.

Don’t stop, please don’t stop. But… what is this? She has never experience something like this before? Who is this person?

After what felt like an eternity, Shin Hye slowly opened her eyes and her heart skipped a beat the moment she saw the familiar face right in front of her.

Min Ho… it’s Lee Min Ho. His eyes were tightly closed, their noses were touching and his lips… his lips were kissing her, so softly, so tenderly, as if she would break if he kiss harder.

She blinked her eyes several times as she tried to bring herself back to her rational senses. She was completely drowned and melted into his embrace, into his manly scent and… into his kiss that her mind couldn’t think straight.

Why is he here? Did he come here for her? Did he come here to save her? Did he… NO! Something suddenly hit her mind and reminds her who he is. He is not here to save her. He is her enemy. He is Park Doo Jun’s son. He is a tool that she planned to use for her revenge. He… he is not supposed to kiss her. He is not supposed to… make her kiss him back.

With her eyes slowly darkened and turned into a sharp glare, she suddenly catches his bottom lip between her teeth, biting down so hard that it was enough to tear the flesh at the corner of his lips apart. The taste of his blood slowly dives into .

Min Ho’s eyes flew open at the sudden piercing pain, causing him to gasp as their eyes locked at each other. There was a pause, which held for a moment, until he finally gaining his senses back and quickly pulled away from her lips. With his mind churning in shock, he could only stared at her and totally forgot about the stingy pain on his lips.

“You kill my mother…”

The moment those words came out from Shin Hye’s lips, Min Ho’s eyes widened and his lips parted, a look of shock spread across his features.   

“S-Shin Hye… what…”

“It’s you…” Shin Hye bit her lip hard, tears continued to flow down her drenched cheeks. “You are one of them. You are one of them who helped that heartless man to kill my mother.” She screamed at the top of her lungs as she struggled and tried to pull herself away from his grip at the same time.

“No… Shin Hye…” Min Ho tightened his arms around her, worried that she will do something to hurt herself again. “Please listen to me, okay?”

“Go away!” She shouted at him as she continued to struggle. When she couldn’t free herself from his tight grip, she hauled herself to her feet, pulling Min Ho up together with her.

“Shin Hye… calm down. You will hurt yourself.” Min Ho wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to his embrace again and trying to calm her struggles.

“Let go of me! You are the one who will hurt me. He sent you here to hurt me. Let go!” Shin Hye pushed his chest hard, as she fell back against the table behind her. When she saw Min Ho moved forward, trying to hold her again, her hand moved to the back and quickly grabbed something from the table. Without even looking at what she was holding, she threw it directly to him and it hit his forehead hard. Shortly after, the sound of shattering glass erupted the room.

Ignoring the pain on his forehead, Min Ho glanced down at the floor and saw broken glasses covering his graduation photo. It was his photo frame that she threw to him just now. He took a deep inhale of breath before slowly looking up at her again.

Although the room was dark but he could still see the trembling figure standing in front of him. Her face were drenched with tears, her eyes wide open in horror and looked completely shock.

“It’s okay.” Min Ho said softly, trying to comfort and calm her down. “Listen to me. Everything will be okay. I won’t hurt you.”

Shin Hye shook her head violently, letting more tears escaping her eyes. She felt her body trembled even badly now, and her shaking legs went completely weak. Her senses were overwhelmed, her racing heartbeat thumping loudly in her ears while her head was spinning. What has just happened? What is wrong with her?

“Shin Hye…” Min Ho took a step forward but stopped immediately when she looked up at him.

“What is wrong with me?” She gasped, inhaled deeply at the same time. But her breathing became shallower by the second as her vision blurring. “I…” And before she could complete what she wanted to say, her body turned to jelly and lost her consciousness.

“Shin Hye!” Min Ho quickly held her in his arms before her lifeless body hit the floor.

~~~~~

A soft gasp escaped Shin Hye’s lips as her eyes were gazing guiltily at the bruise on Min Ho’s forehead. Why didn’t he avoid the photo frame when she threw it to him yesterday? In fact, why didn’t he leave when she was so out of control and keep hurting him last night?

Stupid man.

Taking a soft breath, she gently lifted her hand up and brushed her fingertips against his forehead where the bruise was formed, in a feather light touch. She couldn’t deny how much she hated his adopted family, how much she hated to have anything related to them and how much she wanted to avenge them by using him. But no matter how much hatred she has, this is not the way she wanted to hurt him.

With her fingers still tracing soft touches along his forehead, her eyes stared at him with a guilty gaze. “Why didn’t you listen and stay away from me?” She didn’t realize the words slipped out from her lips in a soft whisper until she saw Min Ho’s brows furrowed and followed by a groan.

Shin Hye let out a startle gasp as she quickly shut her eyes close and pretend to be still sleeping.

Min Ho slowly opened his eyes, feeling the warm heat surrounding him. A deep groan escaped his throat when he tried to stretch his hand. His body was so numb and almost couldn’t feel anything. He wanted to lift his hand up, only to find a warm body next to him. His eyes instantly widened as he froze in place, all the numbness and pains were gone immediately. The heat that he felt was coming from Shin Hye, who was lying in his arms. No wonder his hand was so numb. Her head was laid on his shoulder and she was still sleeping. Everything that had happened last night come rushing back to his mind, bringing him back to his senses.

As he recalled last night’s incident, his gaze quickly moved down to her forearm and his chest instantly tightened at the sight of the obvious biting wounds on her pale skin. He let out a deep, breathy sigh; a pang of pain hit his chest hard. It was his fault. He should have noticed her weird behaviour during the time he found her under the rain and should have come here earlier when the rain just started last night. The incident that happened sixteen years ago was a trauma to her. She was scared of heavy rain and thunder because it reminds her of the night when her mother was trying to kill herself. So whenever there was a thunderstorm, she will lost her control and hurt herself.

Traumatic childhood, painful, tough teenage life and now… what else had happened to her, which he still doesn’t know yet? His heart are bleeding and aching for her.

Leaning closer to her, he took a clearer look at her beautiful sleeping face. She looked pale, her eyes were swollen from all the crying last night and faint lines creased between her brows. Is she having a bad dream right now? He laughed silently at himself. Of course she is having a bad dream. It was always a bad dream since her father left and put all the burdens onto her tiny shoulders. How can she not look pale and tired after what happened all these years?

Taking a deep breath, he gently pulled his body up, wanting her to sleep in a more comfortable position. As he tried to pull his arm away from her head, he suddenly lost his balance and almost fell on top of her. Luckily his other hand was fast enough and pressed against the mattress, supported his body weight before he fall. But with his arm still beneath her head, their body was pressing so close together and their face was only inches apart.

As he gazed at her, he