As soon as you arrived back to your home, you began packing your bags as fast as possible. You had to leave before he reached your place. While reaching for your hairbrush, you noticed that you had a message on your answering machine. Being curious, you checked the number and realized it was from your mother. You sighed. If anything could ease your pain at this moment, it would be your mom. You the machine and listened to her voice echo through the empty room. Her voice was no longer bright though, it was cold and emotionless. Although she pretended to be cheerful, you noticed there was a slight tinge of pain in her voice.

“Anyeong, Mei Ri, dear. I hope you are doing well. I am not sure if I could call you. She told me not to. Honestly, I was hesitating to tell you this since I don’t want you to worry but your father made me. He said you need to know the truth. I had told you we were visiting your aunt but that is not true. Mrs. Lee . . . she forced us to leave our house, dear.”

Your jaw dropped and you fell to your knees, grief-stricken.

“She threatened to call all the loan sharks whom we borrowed money from to come and force us to leave. You know how that will be. They will be charging in with bats and guns in their hands. We couldn’t let that happen. We had to take care of Mei Lin. She is too young to witness something like that. Please don’t panic, sweetheart. You know that’s not what I want. We are fine. We are in your grandparents place in the countryside. Do not worry about us. Once Mr. Lee wakes up, we can get all of this settled. You just stay with Donghae. He will take care of you. And please erase this message as soon as you get it. I don’t want her to find it. Mei Ri dear, please take care of yourself. Your father and I love you. We will be together soon. Goodbye sweetie.”

You couldn’t believe it. What had you done? There you were sitting so comfortably in that luxury mansion and here, your family was suffering! You had thought that agreeing to this marriage could help your family pay of their debts and live peacefully but it had only brought more pain. Because of you, they had to give up their own house. It’s all over now. Mr. Lee had woken up, but he can’t fix this. He doesn’t even remember you.

Your eyes traveled to the clock in the living room and that was when you realized that Donghae would be here soon. You pulled yourself together and raced towards the door.

Donghae sat beside the bed and gently dabbed a small warm cloth over his father’s forehead. He was still unconscious from fainting a while ago. He was still a bit worried for his father. He was also a bit curious. He wondered what sort of memory he has locked up within his mind. Why was it so tortuous that it caused him to become unstable?

These thoughts continued to ramble within his head. He glanced over to the bed beside him and noticed a woman taking care of her husband and almost instantly, he thought of you. He felt disheartened by the fact that you had to witness his own father not remembering you. It must have hurt so much. Donghae understood you though. You had always put others before yourself. It was one of the reasons why he fell for you in the first place. He remembered your exact words.

“Your