“Isn’t it the most wonderful feeling in the world to have someone you love constantly loving you? How many people are given that chance?”

Note:

1 Nicolas Sarkozy is the President of France.

 

The Present

 

And finally, the day arrives.   Flic drives me off to his house in his police car. The five-minute-journey is quiet until we reach the Choi’s household. Views of the southwestern part of France never failed to give me a rather melancholic feeling, which took me back to the past.   When Flic raises the hand brake after he parks the car and it comes into a halt, I return to the present. I’m about to get out when my eyes catch the sight of a certain someone pacing at the walkway outside the house.   “Isn’t that Henry?” Flic muses.   “Yeah,” I reply, watching the Paediatrician stand there like an idiot. I narrow my eyes to see what he is doing here. My eyes nearly pop out of the sockets when I see a small object in his hand. My breath quickens and, a second later, anger takes over. I almost fly out of my seat when I see him take a step towards the door. “What the ? What the hell is he doing?” I exclaim loudly.   “Sung Yeol!” Flic calls out, but I have already reached Henry’s side and grabbed his collar roughly.   “What the are you doing here?!” I snarl at him angrily.   Irritated to be treated this way, he shoves me away with a lot of force. “Why the hell would that be any of your business?” he shoots back.   “Guys!” Flic tries to interrupt.   “Why are you holding a ring box?!” I ask furiously as I glare daggers at him.   The bastard ignores me and walks off towards the front door. My competitiveness gets the better off me and I yank his shirt too gruffly that I swear it would have ripped if I don’t hold back.   “Get your hands off of me,” he warns.   “Answer me!”   “I’M PROPOSING TO HER!” he shouts in anger. “Do you have a problem with that?”   “I do, actually!” I tighten my grip and pull him close. “Because you’re in my way!”   I don’t care what Amber and Henry have had together because all I know is that I don’t want her to be with Henry for whatever reasons. It’s either me or nobody at all.   Flic comes and tries to separate us. “Guys, break it up! Don’t act like kids!”   Ignoring him, we just glower at each other until we could feel each other’s gazes ripping each other apart.   “Guys!” I hear Flic’s bark, but we continue ignore him.   I don’t want to lose this staring competition from Henry Lau out of all people, even if it’s childish!   “Just in case you forgot, I have a gun you know,” Flic’s stern voice warns us as he uses all his strength to pull us apart. “Mind if I drop in a comment?”   “Sorry, Min Ho. What is it?” Henry asks after collecting himself together. His polite demeanour makes me scowl. I have a lot of reason to like this man, but one reason makes me ultimately dislike him. Amber.   But then again, not that I know him that well.   ”I think you’ve forgotten the most important person here,” Flic says, earning an eyebrow lift from me. Who else is more important than Amber? Sarkozy1? When the two of us stare at him speechless, he states the name, “Paris.”   Henry and I exchange glances. Not that we want to, it is coincidental. And that’s when Henry knows, somehow. He narrows his eyes at me. “You’re proposing to her as well, aren’t you?”   I cross my arms and smirk. “Scared, Pedo?”   He rolls his eyes in dismay. “It’s ‘Paed’. Paediatrician becomes ‘Paed’.”   I roll my eyes back at him, not interested at all. Of course he knows I’m playing on words there. He’s a Paediatrician and I know it’s shortened to ‘Paed’, I’m not an idiot, but I call him ‘Pedo’ from e.   Flic grabs our attention back to him. “Paris. You need to think about her. Are you sure she wants a replacement? And—”   “But she has never met her dad, Min Ho,” Henry points out, “and she needs one. Amber would think of what Paris wants, what she needs, right?”   This moron wants to use Paris to get Amber? What the ?!   “Hey! Don’t get Paris into this!”   “I’m not,” he counters defensively. “I’m just saying. Paris is ten, she needs a father figure—”   “That may be so, but definitely not from you,” I object smugly.   Instead of feeling beaten, he lifts the corner of his lips to a triumphant smirk. “At least I’m more qualified than you.”   What the hell?! Just because he is a doctor, he thinks that a chef—a professional chef—like me isn’t qualified to be Paris’ dad?   “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m her dad’s best friend. She’d like me more because she knows I know him.” It’s a lame excuse, but I am not going to retreat.   “Guys, that’s not what I meant,” Flic demurs exasperatedly. “I meant think about how Paris feels. Yes, she wants a dad and yes, she needs a father figure. But all her life, she has been with Amber who has been waiting for L to come back. She’s also waiting for her dad to come back.”   “But she needs to be told the truth, Min Ho,” Henry insists. “There’s no news. Nobody knows where L