The movie finished, and I didn’t even know it. I kept my face hidden in his chest, trying to think happy thoughts. It didn’t work too well. I felt Yong Guk’s arm tighten around me. I opened my eyes wide, and stared at his red that was all of an inch from my face. I felt him shift his weight, to get more comfortable, as he changed the channel. It was the most awkward silence, which seemed to go on forever. I didn’t dare to break the silence. With my face in his chest I could smell the cologne that was in his bathroom. It did smell nice, and for some odd reason it complimented him.

His hand moved up to my shoulder, and he rubbed my upper back. “Are you going to come out of hiding?” His deep voice asked, but it was soft and comforting.

“Is the movie over?” I said still hiding my face in his chest.

“Yes, it’s been over for fifteen minutes.”

I slowly lifted my head up, and pulled back. “Oh thank God!” He looked down at me, his arm still around me. “Heh heh hehe,” I laughed sheepishly, “I didn’t mean to grab on to you.” I closed my eyes, and tried to avoid making eye contact with him. “I’m sorry.” I said, I felt my face get hot. “Please don’t be blushing!” I thought to myself.

He chuckled, “It’s fine, you don’t have to be sorry.”

“But I am, I shouldn’t have done it.”

“It’s fine, you were scared. The guys abandoned you anyway.”

I looked down and pouted, “They said it was lame, and not scary. I think they’re crazy! It was scary!”

He laughed at what I said, “It really was lame, and it wasn’t scary.”

“It was too… or at least I thought it was.”

“Obviously, you thought it was scary. Since you kept getting closer to me until you hid your face in my chest.” He said teasing me

“Like I said I’m sorry I didn’t even know I was doing it until now.” I dropped my head looking down at my hands, as I fidgeted with them. A long silence passed, and he stared at the TV.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” He said, I looked up to find him looking at me with soft eyes. “I shouldn’t have acted that way. Its just…” he paused. And looked away from me, and sighed. Yong Guk turned to face me. “I’m really sorry about the other night too.” And he placed his large hand over the bruise that was still visible on my arm. “I don’t know what came over me,” and he sighed again.

I just stared at him, blankly. I couldn’t believe the words I was hearing come out of his mouth. His voice was sincere; his eyes were soft and sympathetic, as he lightly caressed the bruise on my arm.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” he said, “I don’t blame you either if you don’t, but you don’t know what I’ve been through.” I just sat there not saying anything. I didn’t know what to say. I saw that in his eyes, he was truly sad; all the anger in his face had disappeared. It was like the vicious wolf had turned into an innocent puppy dog. I could see in his eyes that he was hurt. Hurt by something that made him this way, and it was something that he couldn’t let go.

I moved toward him, and wrapped my arms around him. I didn’t know why I did it, but I couldn’t let him sit there like that. Yong Guk was startled by my reaction to what he said. He paused before he put both his arms around me, pulling me close to him. I rested my chin on his shoulder, I felt his arms loosen, and he pushed me back. “Why are you doing this?” he asked, “You should hate me for what I’ve done to you.”

“I don’t hate you.” I said

“That’s a lie, I know you despise me.”

“To be truthful, I did hate you. It was because of the way you treated me, but now I don’t hate you.”

He looked away from me, “What made you change your mind?”

“I don’t know, I guess that now see that you’re only human.”

He looked at me with kind sad eyes, “After what I did to you, I’m the farthest thing from being human.”

“It doesn’t matter now it’s in the past. What happened to you?” I asked moving closer to him again.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“Try me.” I said, “I promise I wont judge.”

He sighed, “Okay, it happened ten years ago. I was twelve; I had just gotten home from school. Eomma was crying, so I went to see why she was.

‘Eomma, wea do you cry?’

‘It’s nothing baby don’t worry, go upstairs and do your homework.’ She said to me, I left and did what I was told. I always did what I was told. I was in my room playing video games, when I heard arguing. I was use to it, my parents would argue about stupid things all the time. This time it sounded bad. I got up and left my room. I heard my younger sister Dambi crying. I went to comfort her, she would always get scared when the argued, since she was only five years old.” He paused.

I saw him smile at the memory of her.

He then continued, “I told her I would go see what was wrong, and there was nothing to worry about. But this time she wanted to come with me, she took my hand and we both went down stairs. There were men I had never seen before in the house. They all had their faces covered, except one, who held a knife to eomma’s throat. He didn’t see us at first, until Dambi cried out to her. That’s when the man looked straight our way. I pushed Dambi behind me, trying to protect her. He said to the masked men, ‘get them!’ I told Dambi to run, but she didn’t move, she was so frightened that she froze. I tried to fend the men off, but they beat me down, and grabbed a hold of me. Eomma cried out to the men and pleaded to them. She pleaded to let Dambi and I go. I struggled to free myself, by kicking. The other masked man, pulled a gun out and said, ‘Move again and I’ll blow her brains out.’ And he put the gun to Dambi’s head. I was so scared, I did what he said, ‘now that’s a good boy, be obedient like you should.’ He said to me, and the man who held me forced me forward. I didn’t know who they were or why they were there. ‘Who are you?’ I demanded from them. The one in charged laughed an evil laugh, as he pressed the knife into eomma’s neck. Blood began to flow from the small cut, ‘You don’t need to know, any other questions will get your beloved eomma killed.’ My mother cried, ‘It’s okay honey, listen to the man.’ I didn’t know what else to do, I was only a kid. I didn’t see appa anywhere. They took us into the basement, where appa’s body laid lifeless. He lay in a pool of his own blood. He was dress like he had just come home from work. My heart sank, and Eomma cried out. Dambi began to sob; I just stared at appa’s body. I couldn’t comprehend what had happened, there were bullet shells that lay at my feet, from the struggle that happened earlier. My breath escaped me; I found it difficult to breath. I watched my mother as the man pushed her toward appa’s body. She backed up against the table, where I had left a pair of scissors, that I had forgotten to put away. When the men weren’t looking, she picked it up discreetly and held it behind her back. Dambi cried, and the man let her go to eomma, she ran to her and hid behind eomma. The man without the mask, gestured to the man who held me to let go, and he did. The man, who held me, was stupid enough to not notice that I had taken the gun out from the strap on his pants, and placed it into my own.” Yong Guk explained, and then stopped to breathe.

“How did you manage to do that?” I asked him wondering.

“I was a mischievous little trouble maker, I had gotten good at playing pranks on people, and pickpocketing them.” He explained, “That’s how I was able to get the gun from him, without anyone taking notice. Once the man who had me backed away, the unmasked man, grabbed me by the arm, and said ‘you first!’ telling me to turn to face him and get down on my knees. I thought I was going to die as he raised the gun to my forehead. Eomma cried out ‘Jaebal! Please let him go, take me instead!’ the man laughed with an evil laugh, ‘don’t worry you will be joining him soon.’ And he took his eyes off me, he told the other men to go stand on the look out for police. They then left the room; it was just the unmasked man, eomma, Dambi, and I. When he looked toward them, I took the gun out of my pants, and held it toward him, ‘LET US GO!’ I screamed, firing the gun. The gunshot sounded, and Dambi cried. The man fell to the floor dropping the gun, and it slid across the floor.  I had hit the man in the leg, and he cried out in pain. The door to the upstairs opened and the other men came running down. Eomma took the scissors and attacked the one man, stabbing him, causing him to fall to the ground. ‘Run!’ She cried to Dambi and I, ‘Yong Guk take your sister and run!’ she yelled trying to fend off the other man. I did as I was told, and as we ran upstairs, I pushed Dambi first. I heard a gunshot, and then a second one. We both jumped, and continued to run. Dambi tried to run back to eomma. I had to drag her away, I knew eomma was gone; I heard loud footsteps behind us. I hid Dambi in a closet. I knew I had to protect her, I still held the gun in my hand, trembling. I hadn’t noticed, that I was bleeding.  Until I saw the blood drops on the floor. I looked down, and saw that I had been shot. I didn’t feel any pain. I began to fear that I too would be killed and Dambi would be left alone. The man who I shot in the leg hobbled up the stairs, laughing and he said, ‘I underestimated you. You’re just like me when I was your age’

‘I will never be like you’ I cried, tears filled my eyes, I had lost both my parents, and I was about to leave my sister and join them. She would be alone, and I couldn’t protect her.”

 As Yong Guk told me the story a single tear dropped from his eyes. “I began to feel weak, but I didn’t give up. I wouldn’t give up fighting for my life and Dambi’s. My parents didn’t sacrifice themselves for that reason.

‘You!’ he said to the masked man, ‘Find the girl!’ the man then turned to look at me, ‘It’s over.’ He said to me with an evil grin.

His eyes glowed red, but I knew that it wasn’t humanly possible for him to have red eyes. That’s what I thought I saw, I must have begun to hallucinate from the loss of blood. I began to feel light headed, and the room began to spin. The simple task of breathing became hard for me.

‘Boss, I found the girl!’ I heard the other man say, as he dragged Dambi in the room, ‘She was in a closet.’ He too had red glowing eyes.

Dambi cried when she saw me, ‘Oppa!’ she cried, ‘you’re hurt! Don’t leave me! Don’t let them hurt me!’ and the man pulled her by the hair and she screamed.

‘I’m alright Dambi, I’m alright!’ I cried back to her. I tried to make her feel comfortable, but I knew it was over. We both were going to die.

‘Where’s your appa’s research?’ the unmasked man asked me, with his blood red eyes.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ I said, confused. I dropped to my knees; I was so weak I couldn’t support myself anymore. The man, who I had shot, walked over to me like he had never been shot. And then grabbed my up by my neck.

‘Where is it!’ he growled, ‘tell me or she will die!’ I looked over to Dambi, she was crying uncontrollably.

‘I don’t know!’ I said truthfully. ‘I really don’t know! Try appa’s office!’

‘We already looked there, if you know where it is tell me now! Or she will pay the price!” he looked over to Dambi, who struggled to break free.

‘I really don’t know!’ I cried

‘You don’t know? You say….’ He stopped, and then looked at the other man, ‘Kill her!’

‘NOOO!’ I screamed, but it was too late, the man snapped her neck, and she was dead instantly. I began to cry, I had lost everything that meant the world to me.

‘As for you, you have one last chance, where is it? If you tell me I’ll let you live.’ He laughed

‘Even if I did know I would never tell you!’ I screamed back at him, ‘You took everything from me, there’s nothing left for me!’ The room began to become dark. I was blacking out. The man shook me, to keep me conscious. ‘I’d rather die.’ And those were the last words I said before I fell into the black. I felt a pain in my neck, and then felt numb. I couldn’t move, death was coming any moment. I hoped it would come sooner. I sat in the black abyss and saw all my memories flash before my eyes, and then everything that happened to end it. I heard a voice, ‘keep fighting oppa, keep fighting.” It was Dambi, and she came out of the darkness in all white.

‘I can’t without you, eomma, and appa’ I said to her with tears in my eyes.

‘It’s okay oppa, eomma, and appa want you to keep fighting, don’t let us down….” She said as she disappeared back into the abyss.

I began to feel again, the numbness went away. I could breath easily again, and my eyes began to flutter open. It was bright in the room I was in, the light burned my eyes, and a nurse ran out to get the doctor. I was in the hospital. I some how managed to live, and the doctors were surprised that I did, they thought that I was going to die.” He said, his eyes were sad.

He looked me directly in the eyes. I never noticed how beautiful they were until now. He had dark chocolate brown eyes, which were now kind.

I didn’t know what to say, so I hugged him. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know.” I said, and he hugged me back. I rested my chin on his shoulder, looking at his neck. There was a faint scar, and I assumed it was from the night he lost his family. “If you ever need to talk you can trust me.” I whispered in his ear.

He pulled me against him; I felt his warm breath on my skin. “I know.” He whispered back, “You’re the only one who knows the full story, besides the police.”

“How come the guys don’t know?” I asked him.

Yong Guk squeezed me, “because I don’t want them to know.”

“Himchan said you own this house? Is this the one where….” I didn’t finish my sentence.

“No, I sold it. I couldn’t go back to that place.”

“But how can you afford it? You don’t have a job, and you’re a college student.”

“My family was extremely wealthy. When they died, it was all left to me.”

“Oh… I hope you don’t mind me asking, and I don’t want to put you through anything that might bring back bad memories, but…”

“But what? All the horrible memories never leave me anyway, they follow me around.”

“Oh… Why did those men kill you’re family? And why did they want you’re appa’s research? And did they ever…”

“Get arrested?”

“Yeah.”

“The police never found them, even after the character sketch they asked me if it looked like the man in charge. I don’t know why they decided to kill my family, it probably was to get what they were after.” He said, “as for the research, my father was a biologist who studied DNA. I don’t know why they were after it either, I wish I knew where it was, if I did I would have told them, at least Dambi would still be alive.”

“You were only twelve, and if you did tell them where it was they most likely would have killed you and her anyway.” I said

“That’s what the police said, but if there was a slight chance that they wouldn’t I would take that chance to save her.” he said sighing. “Come with me.” He said creating space between us, and getting up from the couch.

 He held out his hand for mine, and I place mine in his. Yong Guk’s hand was warm, and it comforted me. He led me to another room on the main floor. He opened the door and walked in with me, closing the door behind us. He released my hand and walked over to a closet. In side it was a safe, he entered the code and unlocked the safe. He pulled out a thick file, and walked back over to me.

“What’s that?” I asked

“It’s the file they wanted, I found it hidden in my things.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was in with all the art work, papers, and awards from when I was young. Appa must have hid it in with my things just to be safe. I guess no one would think of looking there.” He showed me the papers, all the hand written notes, and findings. “I guess it has something to do with a genetic mutation, and possible cures.”

“Wow… This is what they wanted? I don’t think it’s all that important, unless they wanted to stop your appa from finding a cure for this mutation. Do you have any idea what that might be?”

“No, I have no idea. I’ve tried researching it, and deciphering it, but it’s no use.” He said closing the file, and walking it back to the safe.

After he put it back in there and locked it, and walked back over to me. Yong Guk wrapped his arms around me. “You can’t tell anyone you know I have the file. It could put you in potential danger. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt because of me. Promise me you won’t say anything.”

“I promise. I won’t tell anyone a word. It’s between you and I,” I said hugging him back.

“I truly am sorry for the way I treated you… I just wanted to keep you away from me, so you would be safe.”

“Wae wouldn’t I be safe if I know you? The guys live with you, and you’re not to worried about them.”

“It’s different with them, they know my family was murdered, but they don’t know why. And you’re a girl, they might think it will hurt me more if they harmed you.” He said, still hugging me, I knew he wasn’t going to let go.

“Okay I promise I’ll be more careful, and I’ll take this secret to my grave with me.”

“Please don’t talk about that. You’re going to live a long life, I’ll make sure of that.” He said looking in my eyes. He really did care about my wellbeing.

“I’m sorry, I meant that I won’t tell anyone my whole life, evenwhen I die of old age.” I said restating what I already said.

“I know. I just don’t want you to talk about you dying.” He said softly caressing my cheek.

There was something about him: something that made him different than the other boys. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it. Yong Guk had a dark past that only I knew of. He confined in me, and he trusted me enough to tell his story. What made him trust me? I didn’t know the answer to that either. I still don’t know the answer to that. All I knew was that he was troubled, and I was the only one who could help him.