*** Let Me Love You ***

“Eunmi-a, are you sure that you do not leave anything behind?”

“Yes, Mom,” the little girl nodded enthusiastically. “I have packed everything in my backpack,” the six years old girl proudly tapped on the bag that was hanging on her back.

“Listen to your teacher and do not wander on yourself during the visit to the museum, okay, sweetheart?” the young lady crouched down to level herself with her daughter, fixing the girl’s bangs, and making sure that her one and only child was dressing properly and fit for the cool weather.

“Yes, Mom. Don’t worry. I am a smart girl, you know. I can take care of myself,” Eunmi was posing a tough gesture, fixing her cute little snapback that matched her style as a little baby gangster. She might have been six only, but she already had a style on her own.

“Say that to me when you’re at least as tall as me, okay?” the lady chuckled and stood up, making an obvious difference in height between the both ladies.

“But, Mom,” her little girl protested. “You are over 1,70 meters. I’m not even your half yet, when will I ever…”

“That means you still have a long way to go, Princess,” a man stood beside her mom and gave an obvious sign that he was in favor of the older lady. “You’re not even graduating kindergarten yet.”

“I’ll be graduating soon,” Eunmi replied immediately. “And in no time I will be as beautiful as Mom.”

The lady could not help but laugh. “Ohmy, Eunmi-a. For that one thing, you already beat me..”

“Hmm??” the little girl tilted her head cutely in confusion.

“Princess Kim Eunmi is already more beautiful than Park Elena. That’s not a doubt,” the lady stated.

“Really?” her pupils dilated in delight.

Elena nodded profoundly.

“Is that true, Uncle Joonie?” the girl asked the man beside her mother.

“Yes, My Lady,” it’s Namjoon’s turn to crouch down. “You are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” he gently caressed the girl’s cheeks. “Even your mom is nothing compared to you,” he added by whispering.

Eunmi giggled. And by then, the school bell rang, noticing that the little Eunmi must hurry to her class if she did not want to be late.

“You be a good girl, okay?” Namjoon kissed her forehead and bid her farewell.

“Of course, Uncle,” the girl then moved to grab Elena and hug her. “Bye, Mom. I love you…”

“I love you too, sweetheart,” she replied without hesitation. “Bye, take care.”

“Bye, Uncle Joonie,” the girl waved her hands for the last time that morning before she dashed to her classroom to join her friends, leaving the two adults watching over her until she vanished into the building.

The two then moved in silence when the man opened the door for the lady and closed it for her, before he turned around the car and entered the driver’s seat. Their next destination was the college where the lady would be giving her lectures.

She was a newly appointed professor in her department, and she was so proud of that. She taught English. Being born in a multi-racial family, she was undoubtedly gifted with multi-language too. Her father was Korean, and her mother had a Cuban ancestry although she grew up in the States. With no one forgetting their hereditary, Elena was fluent in Korean, English, and Spanish. Not to mention that she had mastered Japanese and Chinese too.

Kim Namjoon watched silently as the lady he loved was busy managing her papers in her office. Oh yes he loved her. He loved everything about her. Since years ago when she was still an assistant professor, and he was just a mere college student, he had fallen head-over-heels into the lady. Meeting her gave him the perfect definition of the ideal type of woman he had dreamt about. He did not care that the lady was older than him. She was beautiful, and smart, and that Latin girl look she inherited from her mother was perfectly blended with Asian beauty she got from her father. Her eyes were green. Her hair was long, a bit wavy, and looked gorgeous in its dark brown color. Her skin was a bit darker than average Korean girl, but it was tanned in healthy and natural way. Combined it all with her well-proportioned body and those inviting S-lines, this lady in her early thirties was the perfect description of beautifully y in Namjoon’s dictionary.

Yet it’s not that he was falling for her only for her looks. Those are just the package. The first thing that caught his attention was her smile. It was so sweet as if she was having a perfect life, and Namjoon even wondered if she was an angel descending from above. She was so kind, and always there to help her students to have better understanding about the lessons. She was so smart as if she was a walking dictionary, that everything her students asked, she could answer it almost immediately.

And the main thing that made Namjoon completely helpless before the lady, was that Park Elena was a faithful woman, whom in spite of a large number of guys approaching her, she kept her loyalty and devotion only to her lover at that time, Kim Seokjin, a mere salary man who was doing his hardest to create a better future for their life.

I need someone like her in my life.. who will look only at me…

How he would wish for the heavens to make him able to have her in his embrace. The way Elena affectionately looked at Seokjin, Namjoon always wished that she could look at him that way too. But needless to say, she was out of his reach. Apparently, being a chaebol’s heir did not make him get everything he wanted. Although it was all part of his consciousness of not becoming a total jerk just because he was born with a golden spoon.

Elena had rejected his confessions. Multiple times. Perhaps the lady had already been sick to explain to him that she had only one man in her heart, which is Eunmi’s father, although they were not married yet that time, and Eunmi’s existence was still far way to go.

But, even now when Kim Seokjin was just nothing more but name and memories, Elena was unbelievably stubborn and pig-headed.

“Namjoon, please… I can’t…” Elena dropped her papers on her tables as she noticed that the younger man was still staring at her instead of leaving her to mind her own business and heading back to his company.

“Why are you still rejecting me, Noona?”

“I have had my own life, Namjoon. I have Eunmi. I have steady income, although it’s not that much, but it’s enough for us. Eunmi is no longer crying over her father’s passing. We are happy.”

“But she still needs a father figure, Noona. What is the problem with remarrying and having a husband who can help and support you right by your side?”

Elena took a deep breath. “What will your family say if you are marrying a widow with a kid, Kim Namjoon? Not to mention that I am five years older than you.”

“I don’t care with what they say. I have my own life anyway.” he replied instantly. “I love you, since that first time we met, even until now. You are the girl of my dream, and you know it.” He took a step closer. “I was lost once because you had been in relationship with Kim Seokjin, and eventually married him. But now, I won’t lose you again.”

Elena scoffed. “So this is why you are coming home from Canada?” she chose to ignore her ex-student and back to concentrate on the materials that she was going to teach in a moment.

About a year ago, she had had enough shock when Namjoon showed up by her apartment door, saying that he was giving his condolences for Seokjin’s sudden passing because of cardiac arrest. And since that moment on, the man never fail to fly around her life.

Namjoon never stop loving –wanting- Elena. Since he was sure that Elena was the lady of his life, he was never tired of expressing his feelings to the young assistant professor. Elena, though, she only had Seokjin in her heart. And the fact that Namjoon was a chaebol’s heir and he was never far from glamorous life, truly made her had not a slightest chance of interest on him.

But Namjoon being Namjoon. Giving up was an unknown word in his vocabulary. Although the lady was soon engaged to Kim Seokjin, he never withdrew. He was persistent in his best way because as much as he could have taken Elena by any means he was able to conduct, he tried his best to be a gentleman. He was aware of the lady’s resentment towards persons who liked to do anything as they wished just because they had all the money and resources for it.

However, a man was just a man. And even Namjoon could not escape the fate, which had left a scar on Elena’s perfect humble life, and shattered her pride into pieces, although she was trying her hardest to keep it concealed.

“If I know you are going to be this way, I should have never let you come too close to my daughter. I shouldn’t have let you poisoned her mind.”

“I poison her mind?” Namjoon widened his eyes. “How could you say that? Your daughter likes me. Perhaps she already accepts me and takes me in as a replacement for her dad.”

“Stop it!” Elena snapped.

“Why are you so mad, Noona?” Namjoon could not understand that the woman showed irritation out of nowhere, and he did not want to lose. “I love Eunmi. I know you will hate me for saying this, but I already think of her as my own daughter. I wonder why, but that’s how I feel. It’s as if.. we have this.. connection.. between us..”

“She is not your daughter, Namjoon. She is Seokjin’s.”

“Well… I know that. But even if you lie to me and say that she is my daughter, I will believe it,” Namjoon did not hide his sassy grin. “But too bad you had never let me touch you…”

Elena closed her eyes. She could not believe he actually said that. She was holding her breath, trying her best to calm herself, because only heavens knew that she was so mad that the man in that branded black shirt was saying those words indifferently. Yet with all her rationality, she did not want to lash out on Namjoon. In split seconds, she just decided that she just needed to leave from his sight.

“My class will start in a moment, Namjoon. You had better head back to your office. Don’t give bad example to your employees by showing up very late like this.”

“I’ve told my secretary that I’ll be late,” Namjoon replied. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

But then Elena dropped her papers in her table with obvious noise, and she was glaring dagger at the younger man. Her rare badass expression most likely wanted to say something like ‘Get the hell out of here now before I banish you out of my life forever.’

Namjoon understood that look. It’s not the first time he received that kind of gaze. Only heavens knew how many times he got that already. Yet he always knew his limits before the lady truly kicked him out for good. He would spare everything just for another chance to stay around his lady.

He heaved a long sigh, and was about to turn around when his arm unknowingly hit the calendar that was sitting nicely in the corner of the desk, and it pushed the glass vase beside it. With the table being not too big, when the slim vase lost its balance, it dropped freely into the floor, and splattered into pieces.

“Oops, sorry…”

Elena heaved another sigh. “Still a God of Destruction, aren’t you?”

Feeling guilty, Namjoon bent down to take the flower from the remnants. It was artificial, because it was just an accessory, but it was a tulip, Elena’s favorite flower.

“Just leave it. I’ll ask the office boy to clean it later. The glass shards are sharp,” Elena reprimanded.

But of course Namjoon did not always listen to her. His fingers were aiming for the purple tulip, but inevitably, he was pricking his own finger with the glass shards.

“Ouch…” he was not really hurt, he was just shocked, although the tiny scratch actually made him bled his whole fingertip.

“Really, Namjoon,” Elena finally abandoned her papers on her table. “You really should not touch anything,” she grumped, but she eventually went for her bag for some first aid kid she always carried since she had an active and energetic baby girl.

Namjoon had just received the band-aid from the young lady when suddenly her phone rang. She read the caller ID, it was her daughter’s homeroom teacher.

“Mrs. Park… I’m so sorry to inform you…” she heard the female teacher sobbed in silent weep.

Elena's world turned black in an instant.

*** to be continued ***