It was early in the morning, but a boy collapsed from the rigorous training. He was most probably not used to working out, so he had to be pulled to the side to rest. Wooyoung eyed the scene from the tail of his eyes, twitching in jealousy inside to see Minsun tending to the junior club member. Minsun helped him to a drink and even fanned him patiently.

Psh. She wasn’t so nice to people back then.

Time seemed to pass by in a blink when Wooyoung’s mind was filled to the brim with thoughts of the training and Minsun since the morning. It was now lunch hour. Everyone was so hyped up at the sight of appetizing meals. Honestly, the dishes were rather simple but nutritious and plenty. But then, the boys were all depleted of energy from their training and any kind of food seemed ten times more delicious in their eyes, and their throats.

Wooyoung tried not to look too eager as he entered the dining hall, but inside he was worried of something. His worries quickly faded when he saw an empty seat next to Minsun. She was chatting happily to Munhwa and the girls who all sat nearby. Keeping a straight face, Wooyoung claimed the seat next to Minsun.

“There is a Korean cultural group there as well, so I still get to dance there. It’s even more exciting when you’re performing for foreigners. They seem much more interested in the performance.” Minsun told the girls.

“Don’t you have any cute white guy hitting on you, unnie? I mean, there’s got to be someone who is interested to someone cute like you!” Juni teased. Minsun laughed and shook her head.

“What cute guys? The audiences are always middle-aged people.”

“Ah, not that! I mean at school! I bet there are a lot of Prince William look-a-like!”

Minsun laughed and shook her head, “They are all nice, but I don’t have much friends at-”

Minsun suddenly stopped talking. The girls all looked at her curiously, thinking that MInsun might have something interesting to tell.

“A-ha! I knew it! There’s someone, right?” Juni blurted her fantasy out loud.

Minsun’s cheeks pinked. She shook her head.

“No. There is no such thing,” she smiled.

“I don’t believe you. Your smile is saying something else...” Juni narrowed her eyes suspiciously towards Minsun. The rest of the girls joined in the laughter, but Minsun stayed calm and quiet while smiling throughout the whole conversation. Wooyoung who was sitting next to her had been eating quietly. However, Chansung and Junho who sat across him noticed something out of ordinary about him.

He was eating with his left hand.

“Wooyoung, have you always eaten with-”

“Shut up,” Wooyoung quickly cut off Chansung’s innocent enquiry. Chansung and Junho exchanged glances, smiling giddily to each other. Something was going on right here. They was sure of that, but what they, or anyone else in the room for that matter weren’t sure was that Wooyoung actually had his right hand clutched tightly onto Minsun’s hand underneath the table.

After they finished their lunch, everyone helped with clearing up the hall. Everyone moved about in a lazy pace, muttering quietly of their satisfied lunch. The boys thanked the girls for their part before they returned to the gym hall. The calm afternoon turned to a complete silence when there was a surprise visit from a middle-aged man in a suit, approaching Minsun with a deep bow.

“Mr. Kim?” Minsun’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden appearance of the head butler of the house.

“Miss Seo, I’m afraid I have a bad news to tell you.”

-

Minsun ignored the nurses’ stern gazes and gentle warnings as she ran through the hallway. Her rushed steps took a sudden halt, almost sending her tumbling forward when she saw her father – her step father to be exact – leaving from a room with a grim expression on his face. He barely spared a glance towards Minsun as he passed by. There wasn’t a word exchanged between them as if they were total strangers passing by each other on a common day. He seemed like he was in a bad mood, which gave Minsun a bad feeling about everything that was happening. Her parents had been fighting a lot these days, but they couldn’t still be fighting when her mother was sick, would they?

Minsun shook the thought off her head and then slowly pushed the door to the private ward opened. She stepped onto the lush carpet of the suite noiselessly, and then ventured further to see her mother lying limply on the hospital bed, crying quietly.

“Mother?” Minsun called gently while she watched her mother in quite a distance. She wasn’t sure if it was okay to get closer when her mother was in that condition.

“Please leave me alone for now. You should be ready for your flight back to UK tomorrow.” Jihee replied in her hoarse, croaked voice. She wasn’t trying to hide the fact that she had been crying or trying to look strong, but she was treating Minsun all the same like every other days.

Minsun stared at her feet in guilt. Even though hesitant, Minsun slowly turned back, ready to leave the room but paused midway. She wasn’t sure the right thing to do at this moment, but she reminded herself again, that she might regret her decision if she listened to her mother in this situation. So Minsun turned to her mother again and slowly stepped closer to her until her hip touched the frame of the hospital bed. Her mother stared at her in wonder as Minsun reached out her hand and finally wiped away the tears on JIhee’s face with her very own fingers.

Minsun shook her head. In muted, gentle voice, Minsun said, “I’m not leaving. Not when you’re like this.”

-

Minsun woke up when she heard the loud notification alert noise from her phone. She had to squint her eyes at the sudden intrusion if the bright fluorescent light on the ceiling before she forced herself up from her bed and looked at her phone. It was 7.00 p.m. She had passed out for a couple of hours right after she got back from the hospital, with the lights still on in her room.

‘Can we meet? I’m waiting outside your house.’

It was a message from Wooyoung. Minsun rushed to her window and saw Wooyoung down there, bouncing restlessly on his feet as he looked around the neighborhood. Minsun left her spot, briefly pausing before a mirror to straighten her hair and what not and rushed downstairs.

“Halmeoni, I’m meeting Wooyoung outside for a bit.” Minsun shouted to her grandmother who was watching tv at the living room as she rushed to the front door.

“Oh, Wooyoung is here? Tell him to get in,”

“I will,”

Wooyoung was standing just outside the small metal gate in front of her house; her grandmother’s to be exact, squirming and swaying in his spot to kill time. He didn’t notice Minsun’s presence until the girl finally unlocked the gate and stood right in front of him.

“Oh, hey,” he greeted first despite being surprised at Minsun’s sudden appearance.

“Hi,” Minsun smiled. She wasn’t exactly in the best mood, but somehow, when she saw Wooyoung’s face, she just naturally lit up.

“Are… are you okay? How’s your mother?”

“I’m okay. I would have stayed at the hospital longer, but my mother seems to not like it much that I’m around.  I don’t want to make it hard for her, so I’m staying away from the hospital for the night.”

“Oh,” Wooyoung looked down. He was always quick to pick any underlying meaning between the lines so he knew that Minsun was hurting. She was truly worried for her mother and yet the older woman still regard her as the rebellious daughter who kept disappointing her.

“Are you going anywhere?” Minsun asked, her head tilted a bit to the side. Wooyoung bit his tongue from cursing because she looked so damn cute like that. Minsun had never tried to be cute, he doubt she even know what being cute was but ever since their kiss that night, she just turned into a child. As if she had never been one, which was probably the case with this one weird girl. The worst thing about it was how her little changes drove him to the edge of his sanity.

“Uh, yeah. Actually, Coach Cho is treating everyone to some meat tonight. You, know? At that usual restaurant we go to? It was actually Seo Jin’s father’s so we get a big discount for tonight. Would you like to join?”

Minsun nodded.

“I’d love to, but I need to change first. Come inside. You can watch Gag Concert with my grandmother in the mean time.”

“Really? That’s my favorite show!” Wooyoung lit up.

“I thought so.”

-

Everyone was having a great time. Smiling and laughing while having a great meal together, Minsun loved the atmosphere. Probably more so because she had never had the chance to grow up in a family which eat together happily. Wooyoung noticed the improvement in Minsun’s mood, but he also noticed that she didn’t really eat all the juicy, appetizing meat. In the midst of the roaring laughter and busy chatter, Wooyoung dropped a piece of finely grilled meat into Minsun’s bowl.

Minsun noticed his little gesture and then smiled at him.

“Eat up. It would be a shame if you didn’t. The meat here is the best.” He told her.

Minsun nodded and picked up the meat Wooyoung gave her with her chopstick. While she consumed the small piece, Wooyoung generously grilled more meat for her and continued filling her bowl. In fact, he wasn’t trying to be subtle at all. Everybody saw what he was doing. Chansung and Junho slapped each other’s shoulder in giddy excitement that there was a new couple found in their radar.

Later into the night, everyone slowed down on the eating, patting their filled tummy. Seo Jin’s father insisted on more servings, saying that it was a special service.

“You didn’t even that much!” The tall, buff guy in his mid-forties said to Minsun in his loud, carefree voice, putting another serving of raw meat right in front of her plate. He could sense the type of people who didn’t eat much, and always urge those people to eat more.

“Dad! Everyone is about to explode! Stop serving!” Seo Jin declined, but he earned a hard knuckle on his head from his father instead.

“I’m serving your friends. How dare you tell me to stop serving. Here! Have some more!” The restaurant owner even went as far as personally grilling the meat for Minsun. Seo Jin tried his best to push his father away from the table after much convincing that he would make sure that Minsun would eat more. It was late into the night so there weren’t much customers anymore. The restaurant turned calm. The basketball members who had been too full all carried their conversations in soft murmurs now.

“Sorry,” Seo Jin said to Minsun as soon as he returned to his seat, “my dad can’t stand skinny people or people who don’t eat a lot. He always tells people to eat. Well, he’s a restaurant owner anyway.”

Minsun laughed lightly, “It’s okay. I really like warm people like that.”

“Minsun,” Taecyeon suddenly called her name. He was smiling, but Minsun could tell that he had something to tell her.

“Yes, sunbae?”

Everyone turned quiet and exchanged glances with each other. It was as if they were all hiding something from her nad had been waiting for this time to reveal it to her.

“We think we found your father,” Taecyeon told her.

Minsun froze in her seat. She didn’t know how to react. Should she be happy or...? Suddenly her heart was racing.

“We were all very surprised too. We didn’t know it would be really quick, and he was so close by all these years too,” Munhwa added and then gently squeezed Minsun’s hand. Her gentle voice soothed Minsun’s anxiety a bit.

“H... How...?” Minsun bit down her lower lip. She couldn’t even form a simple sentence now. Her mind was all jumbled up with anxiety, anticipation, shock.

Everyone turned their eyes on Seo Jin this time. The boy cleared his throat.

“Actually, I heard about your father from Munhwa sunbae last time. It reminded me of someone who once told me that he had a daughter from his previous marriage.”

Seo Jin pulled out something from his pocket.

“He said he kept a picture of his family, so I secretly looked for that picture.” Seo Jin placed the photo on the table, and then slid the faded photo towards Minsun. Minsun didn’t budge an inch from her spot, instead she just stared at the old, desaturated picture.

There was a young guy she didn’t recognize in that picture, leaning closely to a woman in a bed. The woman had an uncanny resemblance to her mother, Jung Jihee. In that picture, she was dressed in a hospital gown, smiling at the camera, with a small baby in her arms.

“Is this person... my father?”

“At the back of the photo, there was a writing. It was a bit unclear, but it says ‘My beloved wife and my little princess, Seo Minsun.’”

“Minsun, you told me before right? Your father’s name. Seo Hanbin,” Wooyoung said. Minsun looked up at him and nodded. Wooyoung glanced over Seo Jin, and the younger guy nodded.

“That guy in the picture is Seo Hanbin. My father.” Seo Jin told her.

The restaurant owner. The tall guy who insisted that she had to eat more just now. He seemed much younger and slimmer in the photo, but Minsun could trace the similar strong jawline and sharp eyes with the restaurant owner she had met just now. The buff guy with the loud voice and warm smile, Seo Hanbin, appeared across the dining area again, waving goodbye to his regular customer. He saw Minsun staring at him, and then smiled wider and reminded her to eat more as he made his way back to the kitchen.

“He is... Seo Hanbin?”

Seo Jin nodded. “I haven’t spoken to him about you yet. I- I can tell him about you if you want me to,” Seo Jin kindly offered.

“I...” MInsun left her words untrailed. Wooyoung noticed how her fingers began shaking under the table.

“Minsun, are you ok-”

“I need more time,” Minsun abruptly stood up and then left in a hurry. The guys all called her name. Taecyeon and Khun was about to leave their seats as well, but Wooyoung had left already. He simply told the rest of the people there, “let me.”

Minsun ran as hard as she could, because she couldn’t stand her heart pounding against her chest. She didn’t want to feel her body shake in fear. She didn’t want to be enveloped in this overwhelming anxiety that was eating her from inside. When her lungs were totally squeezed out of air, Minsun finally stopped at the road side, breathing heavily. All her body was craving right now was oxygen, there was no space to react to those negativities. She managed to get distracted for a while, but when her breathing gradually turned even again, she could feel her body turned weak again. She looked at her hands, they were shaking again.

“Yah, Seo Minsun!”

Minsun heard Wooyoung’s voice from the distance. She turned around and saw Wooyoung panting as he made his way towards her. He stopped about a foot from her and bent his waist, his palms resting on his knees.

“Y-You’re... You’re quite a runner, aren’t you?” Wooyoung asked between his ragged breathing.

“Wooyoung...”

Wooyoung straightened his posture again. He looked at her carefully this time, and realized that she was shaking.

“Hey, Minsun... Are you okay?”

“Wooyoung, I... I don’t know...”

“Why are you shaking?” Wooyoung grabbed her hands and squeezed into his own. Her palm was wet with sweat, but they were cold.

“I don’t know...”

“Are you scared?”

Minsun nodded.

“But I shouldn’t be, right? Just like how you told me, I don’t want to be scared. But... my heart feels like it’s going to jump out. My... my hands can’t stop shaking. What... what should I do?” Minsun asked him, her voice trembling as if she was freezing to death. A tear escaped her eyes, slowly rolling down her smooth cheek before it dropped to the ground.

Wooyoung grabbed her shoulders and pulled her slim body towards him. He wrapped his strong arms around her, squeezing her a bit just so she knew that she would be safe in his arms.

“Don’t be scared anymore. I’m right here, don’t be scared.”

“I’m sorry...”

“Why are you apologizing? Don’t.”

“Did I let you down? For running away like that?”

“What are you talking about?” Wooyoung’s tone sounded sharper this time. It bothered him how easy it was to make her blame herself for nothing like that. Was it because that was how she was raised? Being blamed at for every single thing that she was not? Maybe because of her mother’s high expectation, Minsun was always too hard on herself. She always had this destructive thought that she wasn’t able to fulfill anybody’s expectation.

“I’m sorry,”

Wooyoung sighed. “I wasn’t angry. Not at you.”

Wooyoung rubbed his hands up and down her small back, comforting her. He was relieved that her breathing had returned normal. She seemed relaxed now, and she wasn’t shaking anymore. Wooyoung wasn’t planning to let her go just yet. She needed as much support as she could have right now.

“He seems like a nice person. But I don’t want to get my hopes up. He might... he might hates me,”

“He might not.”

Minsun closed her eyes and buried her face onto his shoulder.

“Let’s take this slowly. Let’s not take things too far ahead, okay?” Wooyoung suggested, his voice calm and quiet unlike the loud person he was every day.

Minsun nodded on his shoulder.

“Thanks, Wooyoung.”

-

“So everything is my fault, now?! Do I need to be there in my hospital gown and solve everything else by myself?!” Jihee screamed into the phone, causing Minsun to flinch in shock.

“Mother…” Minsun called her but she didn’t seem to hear it. Maybe Minsun’s voice was too slow, she was too timid. She wasn’t always like this but right now her mother was sick but she just didn’t stop being intense now that the company was having a major breakdown. Some of it was caused by Minsun’s scandal last time. Plus, the rumors that her mother might have a divorce with her step father didn’t help the company since a lot of share holders were from the side of Minsun’s step father’s family.

“I don’t get sick on purpose! If I could go to the office right now, I would!”

Jihee stopped yelling all of the sudden and bent her body as she clutched onto the cloth at her chest. Minsun rose from her seat, worried. Even though hesitant at first, she decided to confiscate her mother’s phone. She could still hear the faint murmur of her step father’s voice at the other end of the line but she cut off the connection anyway.

“What are you doing?” Jihee sneered despite the pain. Minsun winced too, as if she could feel the pain Jihee was having.

“Mother, you’ve been on the phone for two hours,” Minsun briefly glanced at the hospital food on the tray, “you haven’t had your dinner yet.”

Jihee watched quietly as Minsun reached for her bowl. The young girl scooped up the rice porridge and offered it to her mother. Jihee sighed before she helped herself to Minsun’s feeding.

-

The next day wasn’t any better. First thing in the morning, a representative from the company and a lawyer came. They weren’t visiting. They were there to discuss about the company, and the divorce between Jihee and her husband. Minsun didn’t know much of the details because her mother told her to wait outside. It had been at least a couple of hours until the two guys finally left. Minsun took a deep breath before she entered her mother’s ward.

Minsun didn’t speak a word as she tried to read the situation. The ward was quiet as always, so the smallest noise was audible to her ears. Her mother was sobbing. The tough woman she had known through her whole life was crying quietly in her bed.

“Mother!” Minsun rushed to Jihee’s bed.

“Get out,” Jihee calmly told her in her croaky voice.

Minsun froze in her spot, about a couple of steps away from the bed. She had never seen her mother looked so vulnerable, so much in pain. It worried her. She couldn’t leave. She wanted to be there of her mother, to do everything she could to ease that pain at least for a bit. Minsun stayed glued to her spot.

“It’s the end,” Jihee suddenly said, as if she had forgotten that she asked Minsun to get out just now.

“I have failed. As a leader, as a wife, as a mother. Everything’s gone. It’s the end.”

“No... No, it’s not. Don’t say that,” Minsun walked closer to Jihee’s bed.

“I always do my best. Push myself beyond my boundaries. But it all came to this.”

“Am I... a failure to you, too?”

Jihee stared at Minsun for the longest time with her blurred vision. Tears fell off her cheeks endlessly. This was her first time looking at her daughter carefully. She thought her daughter was pretty. Well, all mothers thought that way towards their children. Minsun grew up well, she thought. Most of the credit went to her grandmother, of course since Jihee spent most of her time abroad during Minsun’s childhood. Minsun had good grades too. In fact, the best among her peers. Unlike other mothers in Jihee’s circle, she didn’t have to deal with much credits or alcohol or social issues for her daughter. Minsun had always been obedient, until recently. Thinking about it again, Minsun had always stayed out of trouble until Jihee returned to live in South Korea, and interfered with her daughter’s life.

Jihee looked away and stared at the wall. To be honest, she was ashamed of herself. She had always set herself as the best example for Minsun, expecting her daughter to follow her footsteps, but look at her now.

“Mother, do you hate me?” Minsun asked. She seemed timid, but she wanted to know the truth. She wanted to be honest with her mother now, and see if she could still keep that hope that one day her other would understand her, that they could be a happy family again.

“Just so you know, I love you, mother. You might have lost everything else, but you still have me, so please don’t say it’s the end. Or... am I not enough?”

Minsun’s confession caught Jihee by her surprise. She had always been too serious about having the best daughter, sending her to the best school, everything was so superficial that she had forgotten the sincerity in their relationship. She forgot to love her daughter.

Minsun couldn’t look straight ahead. She couldn’t look at her mother. She didn’t know why, part of it because she was ashamed of herself, for not living up to her mother’s expectation, part of it because she was disappointed that she was not enough for her. With heavy steps, Minsun turned around, ready to leave her mother alone for a while.

“Minsun...”

Her dreaded steps stopped in the middle of her tracks when her mother called her name.

“Mother?” Minsun turned around and saw her mother stretched out her hand, as if telling her to come closer. Even without another word from Jihee, Minsun trusted her instinct and came closer to the bedridden woman. Minsun reached for that stretched hand. To her surprise, Jihee gently pulled her into a hug.

“Mother?”

“I’m sorry,” Jihee whispered in her sobbings, “I’m so sorry... for everything. Please don’t go.”

Minsun swallowed back her tears, trying to be strong for her mother. She gently placed her arms around her mother, her hair.

“I won’t. I will never leave you.”

-----

The story is actually already finished a few weeks ago. I'm posting the chapter one by one on purpose, orz. Sorry for being selfish people. Posting the rest of teh chapters right now, zoom! Sorry for any errors, too lazy to fix anything right now.