“Soojung, please don’t be ridiculous” Jieun said as she stopped aiming the gun at her daughter and ex-husband.

“Yes, Soojungie” Jung softly said and Krystal turned to face him. “Let me take care of this just like I should’ve taken care of everything else that happened” He finished and gently moved her to the side.

“Jieun, I’m sorry that things got out of hand like this… I know how much you hated me for letting them go to Korea by themselves and I know how much you despise me for letting our precious Jessica get killed out of my carelessness. But you’re not the only one that’s grieving. You don’t get to monopolize grief like this and kidnap me, tie me up and threaten to kill me in front of our youngest daughter” Jung said, gaining composure and looking straight at his ex-wife’s glassy eyes.

“I have no shame whatsoever and I feel no guilt anymore. As much as I wanted our girls to live a happy life, all they had was suffering and that could’ve ended in the first place if only you stayed with us. I don’t want to minimize your feelings and accuse you of things you may or may have not done, but I stayed with Soojung until my last breath”

“Dad?” Krystal interrupted him, furrowing her brows. Don’t do this, she thought.

“Let me finish, sunshine” He said, tenderly smiling at her. “I don’t blame you, Jieun. And I still care about you. I know you don’t want to kill me because you’re not going to be able to keep on living if you do and as much if I want this to be over, I still need to be sure that Soojung is going to have a family left”

“Dad, please” Krystal softly sobbed.

“Listen to me, Jung Soojung” Jung sternly said trying to catch her attention and slowly freeing himself from the grip of Jieun’s man. “I might be the worst father ever, but I can’t leave you without saying this first” He continued, now with Jieun’s men untying him. “Sunshine, I need you to know that this past month was the best I’ve had in a long time. I know we did some pretty nasty stuff… and that’s why I want you to cut ties here and now” He finished and grabbed his youngest in a fatherly hug.

“I love you, dad” Krystal said, buried on her father’s chest, sobbing.

“I love you too, my little girl. Now promise me you will take care of yourself” He said, as he rubbed the girl’s back. “I know this hurts sweetie, but you’re going to be okay, everything is going to be just fine” He continued and broke the hug to face his crying daughter as he placed both of his hands on Krystal’s cheeks. “Now listen carefully. After this, the company will be yours, you don’t have to worry because since I will be gone, nobody is going to target you nor make any trouble, it’ll be clean”

“Dad, I can’t!-“

“Yes you can! You’re a Jung after all” The man sternly said. “You can do this, Soojung. Trust me on this one, I told you I was going to make it right, remember?” He smiled.

And that’s when Krystal understood the whole situation. It was true that when it involved her dad or her family, there were never surprises and this time, it was no exception. She remembered the time they stepped on the plane on their way to L.A, when she told him that she wasn’t sure about building a family with Amber, when she opened to him.  He knew it since he came to say goodbye in Busan… she thought, and indeed, she was right. Jung knew beforehand that Jieun was the one pulling the strings and chose to make Soojung believe he didn’t have a clue, that way the girl wouldn’t get hurt and she could’ve enjoyed her time with her father. After all this time, although the ice-looking girl was surprised, she wasn’t amazed. Once again Jung made her believe she was selfish, when in fact he was the one who wanted to spend the last of his time with his little girl, to teach her how the real world worked, teach her how to prevail. While all of this hit Krystal, she couldn’t help but to sob uncontrollably, the man she thought to be despicable, the man she thought to be the strongest, the man she thought to be cold-hearted, the man who actually cared and raised her… was about to die.

“My gun, Soojung”

But the girl couldn’t move, she refused to give her dad the gun, she refused to keep on going with this madness, she refused to let more people die just because of her, she couldn’t do it.

“Amber” The man called the tomboy and she understood, walking slowly to Krystal she tried to talk her back to reality.

“Soojung… soon it will be all over… please” She cooed, but the other wasn’t listening.

Unlike the other times, an immense sorrow filled her chest to the point where breathing was unbearable. The woman that didn’t feel a thing while stabbing people, was feeling everything in this exact moment, without even moving a single muscle.

“Amber, there’s no time” Jung hurried.

“Please, just give up the gun Krys… then we can go home and-“

“If you love me… then get the out of here” She coldly said, rising the gun once again, aiming at Amber.

“You won’t shoot”

“Try me”

“You didn’t”

“I’m running out of patience”

As a reflex, the tomboy put her hands in the air and started making slow moves, but before she could reach Krystal, her phone’s ringtone made her flinch, firing the gun.

Amber ducked but was speechless. Why did she shoot? She wasn’t supposed to be shooting, she thought.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE” Soojung cried in a deafening tone that made everyone flinch, even Amber herself. Before the tomboy could make any excuse to keep being beside Krystal, the ice-looking girl pushed the other out of the factory, tragically whispering “Go Amber… leave” before closing back the doors.

“No, no, no, no, NO…” Amber cried as her fists banged on the door. “Soojung, please…!” She frenetically knocked, kicked, ed on the door, but there was no use. Before she could do any other move, her phone started ringing again, this time she took it out of her pocket to put it on silence mode but double thought it when she saw the name on the screen. Victoria was calling her and by this time she had a missed call from Luna.

“” She said as she picked the call.

“What’s wrong, Victoria?”

“It’s Hwa-Young…” As soon as Amber heard the little girl’s name, a cold shiver ran through her spine. Something was wrong.

“What is it???” She frenetically asked.

“Wendy’s building burned down… her and Hwa-Young were inside…”

“I’m coming” And with that, she hung up. Her heart was feeling divided, but decided to go to Hwa-Young right away. As much as she wanted to bring Krystal home tonight, this ‘family reunion’ was going to last a while and Amber didn’t have a while to stick around and besides all of that, she was hurt, hurt that Soojung did fire the gun at her.

She quickly ran to her bike and made it to the airport where she moved heaven and earth to find the soonest ticket to Korea. With no luck on finding a flight within the next our, she sat on a bench and called Victoria once again but she didn’t answer, “” she cursed as she felt the world colliding and dialed Luna’s numbers to test her luck.

“Amber, Oh my God-“

“How’s Hwa-Young?” The tomboy cut her ex.

“She’s fine, Victoria and Wendy are at my apartment now, they have her”

“I was getting worried since she didn’t pick up” Amber said, letting out a sigh while she rubbed the back of her head.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to make it to Korea before you do, I’m going to take care of her”

“Thank you, Sonyoung” The older exhaled as she hung up. It was a little bit less tense now that she knew her little girl was okay and under the supervision of two adults, but she still needed to come back home to her.

“Kai” Jung said and before Krystal could fight him, she was grabbed.

“My gun” He said once again and this time, Kai managed to take it off of the girl’s hands and give it to his former boss.

“I will end this Jieun” He said, determinately, aimed the gun to his head and breathed a few times as he tensed her finger on the trigger.

“Fine, because I was getting bored of all this ‘lovey-dovey’ interactions. Good thing I burned down that kid’s building, otherwise Amber would’ve never left” Jieun teased with a devilish smirk, looking straight to Soojung.

“You did… what!?” Soojung raged, freeing herself from Kai’s grip.

“Well, she didn’t want to leave so I had to pull some strings” The vixen before her said.

“This isn’t fair, Jieun, you’ve crossed the line” Jung snapped but before he could do anything else, Jieun walked towards him and shot him on the head.

“NOOO, DAD!” As Krystal shouted at the top of her lungs, she was being dragged out of the factory by Kai. She kept on sobbing and crying as she saw with her blurry vision the now corpse of her father hit the ground as everyone else started to shoot. She saw everything in slow motion until she regained consciousness, sitting on the dirt, right in front of the factory where the shots can still be heard.

She tried to reincorporate herself but failed and kneeling down she uttered a long pain filled moan. Her hands ran on the dirt, fists punching the ground, tears running uncontrollably, heart sank in agony. She didn’t know it and she wasn’t stopping to ask, but this was her first time really dealing with grief like a normal person would do. This time, she wasn’t repressing her feelings, she wasn’t entering a numb state, she was crying her eyes out, cursing the heavens and her own mother.

“Soojung…” Kai called her, trying to make her snap out of it, but it was no use, the girl was grieving and at this point no one can make her snap out of it, only herself. Ignoring the fact that it wasn’t the right moment, the tall guy walked to where the sobbing girl was and squatted to pull her into a strong embrace. But Krystal wasn’t having it.

“Get the off of me!” She snapped as she pushed Kai to the point where he landed on the ground.

“Krystal, we need to go” Kai said, accepting the rejection but still hurrying the mourning girl. “The cops are coming and trust me; you don’t need to be here when it happens”

“Leave me alone” She whispered in her broke voice.

“I won’t” He said, stood up and helped Krystal stand up too so they could call another cab and make it to the golden dragon hotel. When they arrived, Kai accompanied her to the hotel room, where he gently pushed Krystal on the bed, signaling her to have some rest.

“You really need to go, I don’t want this” She said, lying on her right left side, giving her back to Kai.

“Listen, I’m not here because I want to make a move on you, I’m here because your father asked me to make sure you were going to be fine, that’s all” The tall guy sternly said.

“And I am fine. Now go away” She sniffed.

“I’m not leaving until tomorrow. I can sleep on the couch” He said and started walking.

“What is it with all of you??!!” Soojung snapped as she bolted out of the bed while he pointed her index finger at a very clueless Kai.

“I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about…” He excused himself as he waved his hands on the air.

“You, my dad, Amber” She ranted. “You think you can come and tell me that I’m weak, that I can’t take care of myself. Do yourself a favor and get lost Kai, I don’t want you here. You’re dismissed” She shouted.

The tall and fit guy couldn’t refuse and started walking out of the room while he said to himself, great job, Jung. She’s going to be just fine.

As Soojung heard the door being gently closed behind her, she collapsed on the bed and sobbed as she adopted a fetal position. The only thing the girl wanted was to be held by Amber again, she wanted to cry, curse, be mad at the world but only in her tomboy’s arms. It was true for her that you never know what you have until you lose it, because now she was mourning all by herself. But how could this have gone right? She thought. All this time she did cruel things to protect Amber from the only villain in this story: herself.

She stabbed her, left her, confronted her and told her she didn’t love her anymore to the point of shooting her brains out just to prove a point. She was no better than her father. She kept on sobbing and screaming while her still aching heart wasn’t recovering at all, all she wanted to do was to come home, but what home? She asked herself. Los Angeles was never a place to call home from her perspective and the only location left was Busan which by now she had ruined to the last brick. It was unfair for her that in the past six years her life made a horrifying turn, making her lose everything she once had for the sake of the once she loved. And how was she supposed to come triumphant from this one? How was she supposed to walk back home while ginning if she knew that she hurt Amber? How can she return to her friends when her own mother burned down their hopes and dreams?

“I’m a traitor” She said and expected no other treatment than despise.

But still, she wanted to make things right for once in her life, just like Jung did, but only a little sooner. She wiped her tears, tried to calm herself down and prepared for a long night before returning to her last home.

Twelve hours later, Amber was running through Seoul’s airport to make it to the parking lot in which she left her famous black Camaro. She hopped on the racing machine and bolted to Luna’s apartment. Once she got there, she wasted no time and entered the small building to find her little Hwa-Young sitting on the couch, with a few bandages on the arm and eating some ice cream.

“Hey, little sunshine” Amber greeted her daughter.

“Appaaaa!” The little girl ran to the tomboy and threw herself in her arms as she lifted her.

“How are you doing, Hwa-Youngie?” The parent asked while inspecting her daughter’s bandages.

“I was a big girl, Appa. I didn’t cry!” The little girl hyped, satisfied with herself.

“That’s my baby” Amber praised the little one and planted a kiss on her forehead as she carefully put her back on her feet. “Go finish your ice cream, I’m gonna talk with auntie” She instructed the toddler and playfully patted her back to which Hwa-Young obeyed and ran to her previous position on the couch.

“Hey, Lun” Amber greeted her while entering the kitchen. “How are you?” She hugged her ex.

“We’re doing fine, Am” Luna said as she hugged the tomboy back.

“Oh God, Wendy” The older said as she approached the sad girl. “I’m so sorry” She apologized. She knew it was hard for Wendy, the one who put all of her efforts to maintain that building.

“Don’t worry, Amber. It’s going to be fine” The short therapist said, accepting Amber’s warm embrace.

“We need to tell you something” The hug was broken when the tomboy turned around to face Victoria and Onew, who were just entering the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“We came back to Wendy’s building because the firemen told us it was caused from a melted fuse… but when we did some research… we found out it was actually burnt down by Jung’s men” Onew explained and all of his audience stood silent.

“Amber-“

“It can’t be” The tomboy cut Luna off as she looked to the kitchen’s floor, replaying what she witnessed in that factory. “He was going to kill himself… just for the sake of Soojung… it can’t be him”

“Amber, we know that man always had a trick up his sleeve” Luna tried to make the other reason.

“But why attack me? Why attack Wendy? He never knew about Seungwan”

“Although we don’t know why he did this… Onew recognized one of his men” Victoria said sadly.

“Appa…?” Hwa-Young called and popped Amber out of her thinking bubble.

“Coming, baby” She replied. “Look, I can’t deal with this right now, I need to be with Hwa-Young for a while, but I promise whoever did this to you won’t get away with it” Amber continued, looking straight at Wendy’s eyes to try to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, to which the younger just nodded.

For the rest of the evening, Amber stayed with Hwa-Young, they played a little and were now watching movies as they munched on some grapes. Hwa-Young adjusted herself on Amber’s arms and yawned as she tried to stay awake to watch the rest of Frozen. The little girl finally fell asleep and the tomboy was about to pass out when she heard a knock on the door. She turned to see the clock that was on the table next to her and thought, it’s almost midnight, who could it be?

She carefully stood up trying not to wake the toddler up and walked to the door, as she opened it, the look on her face drastically changed as she uttered the words “Now you’re the one who has to leave”