Eun Hae’s POV

“Eun Hae . . . I – I’m sorry. We’re sorry. We really regret what we’ve done to you. Can you forgive us and come back to us?”

I stood there, frozen. Lu Han next to me wasn’t moving at all either. Did we just hear right? Did my parents, who dared to stand before me, ask me to come back to them as their daughter again? Are they sure they’re in their right mind?

“Say something,” my father pleaded after a minute or two of silence.

What do you want me to say?

“Won’t you come back home with us, darling?” my mother added in a soft voice. “I’m sure you’ve been waiting for this day, haven’t you?”

I nodded slowly. I had always dreamt that one day my parents would come and ask me to live with them again. I always imagined that I’d say yes. But I also always thought it would be impossible. Now that it’s actually happening, I’m not sure of what to do. Should I go back? But why would they suddenly tell me this after the other day at the café when they told me that they never had a daughter?

Just then my dad noticed Lu Han. His hopeful smile turned into a sour frown. “What are you doing with this punk?” he scowled darkly.

Lu Han looked as though he wanted to snap at him but I tugged on his hand not to and he turned to me with a pained expression. I knew he was hurting for me. I hugged him and he wrapped his arms around my shoulder. “This is my boyfriend,” I told them.

Umma shook her head. “This rude punk is your boyfriend?” she asked incredulously.

“That ‘rude punk’ is also a hundred years older than you so be respectful,” Lu Han muttered darkly under his breath so low that only I heard. I nudged him. “I don’t trust them, Eun Hae. Why would they suddenly come up to you? You have to be careful.”

I nodded in agreement with him, glaring at her. “Yes, Umma,” I snapped back testily and he squeezed my shoulder gently while she winced at the tone of my voice. “He’s my boyfriend. And I l – love him.” I winced as my voice quavered. This was the first time I actually said that aloud.

He turned to me surprised the same time my mother gasped, covering with disdain, and my dad shook his head.

I glared at my parents. “If you want me back, you’re going to have to accept him as my boyfriend,” I told them. I don’t care if they were my parents. For the past few months, Lu Han had cared for me so much more than they ever did in my whole eighteen years of life. They should at least respect him.

“So you’ll come back?” my mother asked, eager hopefulness in her voice.

“Not quite,” I said, holding my hand up and her face fell.

My dad frowned. “I don’t understand. We miss you and you want us to recognize you as our daughter. What’s so hard about saying yes?” he wanted to know.

“I want to be sure of my decision,” I explained to him. I hesitated. “Could I . . . at least be reassured that you guys really mean what you said?”

My parents exchanged glances before they turned back to me and nodded.

“Why don’t you come by the house one day and we’ll talk?” Umma asked. She handed me a piece of paper. “You know, catch up and get to know each other once again. It’s been since so long since . . . well . . .”

“I wonder who’s fault that is,” Lu Han mumbled.

This time my dad heard him and gave him a scowl. “Eun Hae, teach your boyfriend manners,” Appa scolded me.

I raised an eyebrow. So fast and he’s already criticizing me? It looked like nothing seemed to have changed, after all.

Umma nudged him. “Don’t be rude,” she chastised.

Lu Han snorted.

I knew that Lu Han was being rude and all, but honestly I didn’t blame him and I wasn’t irritated with him. I was completely on his side. My parents don’t deserve respect from us until they’ve proved themselves.

“Will you please take the paper?” my mother asked me sweetly and it was only then I realized that I didn’t take it from her.

I reached out to take it but Lu Han took it first. He deliberately let his fingers touch her and she flinched back, quickly letting go of the paper as if she was electric-shocked. I knew it wasn’t his doing, but hers. She didn’t like the idea of touching him and felt disgusted when he did that. She sighed and tried to recompose her posture.

Lu Han opened the paper. “It’s an address,” he said.

I leaned over to see and recognized the address. It was my old house. They never moved from there, even after they kicked me out of the house. Strange, I would have thought that they would have moved to take away the memories of having a burden of a daughter living under the same roof as them.

Appa nodded. “It’s the same house.”

“We never moved,” Umma added.

“Waeyo?” I wanted to know.

Appa checked his time and I knew he had an appointment to go to. He looked me and smiled ruefully, something he never did. “I’m sorry but we have to go,” he said, sounding almost reluctant to go. “Please do drop by one day.” He steered my mother away. “And please, Eun Hae, think about it. We really do miss you.”

My mother nodded. “Call us. We still use the same number. I hope you remember the number, though,” she told me, calling over her shoulder.

I nodded. I still remember the number. How could I forget, when I’d spent so many nights by the phone, punching in the numbers but never dared to punch in the last number? And when I do pluck the courage up to punch in the number, I would always hang up on the first ring because I was scared.

“Eun Hae.”

I blinked and realized that I’d been standing there for awhile. My parents were gone. I looked up and saw Lu Han glancing down worriedly at me, wondering what I was thinking about, how I was handling this situation.

He hugged me wordlessly and kissed my forehead. “Let’s go back home, hmm?” he said and I nodded.

We paid for the groceries and walked home in silence. My head was pondering with so many questions over that little visit.

Why would they ask me back?

What’s their motive?

Why now?

What do they want?

Do they really mean what they said, about wanting me back?

They did look sincere when they asked me to come back to them. Or were they acting?

But if they were acting, then what is the real reason why they want me back? Could they really want me back?

This doesn’t make any sense.

I was thinking so hard about all of this that I didn’t notice it when we finally stepped back inside the apartment. Lu Han took the groceries from my hands and he began putting them away in the kitchen while I went to the living room and sat down on the couch, thinking and frowning.

I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them tightly, still in a daze.

My parents came to see me. They want me back. They said they missed me. They even seemed to reluctantly accept Lu Han as my boyfriend.

I held a strong pair of arms wrapping around my lithe body and turned my head, burying it in his chest as he held me tight. I began to cry but I didn’t know why. Could it be because the hurt of wishing and wanting my parents back could finally be over? Or is it because I don’t know whether I should say yes?

Why?

Should I say yes? I want to say yes so badly and feel the comfort of my parents that I’ve been missing ever since I was a little girl, even before they kicked me out of the house at the age of twelve. But at the same time, I was angry with them.

I was angry at them for thinking that a simple sorry could make things okay, that a simple sorry would make me come running back into their arms, that they thought by asking me to come back to them could actually erase the times when they were never there for me, for never loving me.

I felt Lu Han kissing me on my lips and I closed my eyes.

Miraculously I forgot about the pain and everything and just gave myself in to him. Somehow, with Lu Han here, I always feel so much better, especially whenever he kissed me because his kisses always reassure me, letting me know that someone still cares about me.

Lu Han, I love you. Thank goodness that you’re here to make me feel better even when I’m in the darkness pit of a hole.

When we broke apart, he smiled. “Feeling better?”

I nodded. “A bit . . .”

He kissed my forehead. “Well, that’s good to know,” he replied softly. “I remember someone once said that my kisses heal her pain.”

“I said that?”

He nodded and chuckled, remembering that memory. “Yeah you did. You were so cute,” he remarked.

I blushed when I remembered that particular memory as well. “Right,” I said weakly.

“Do you have the ability to heal?”

He frowned, bemused. “What?”

I shrugged and blushed, looking down. “I mean . . . well, you can control dreams and you have telekinesis. But I was wondering . . . do you have the ability to heal? Because . . .” Now I was starting to blush even more. Lu Han raised an eyebrow at me but I avoided his gaze, embarrassed.

“Because?” he pressed.

“Well . . . when you kissed me just now” — my face turned pink — “I felt a bit better after everything that happened just now, like all my problems disappeared for a moment. . . .” My voice was nothing but a mere whisper now.

I blushed, looking up to see him smiling smugly at me. Then he leaned down and kissed me again and I hugged him. “What are we going to do?” he asked me after we came back up for air a few minutes later.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to visit them and see what’s going on,” I told him. I snuggled up with Lu Han.

He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my hair and I didn’t want him to stop. He kissed my lips her long and deep. I loved the feeling of his lips on mine, the way he buried his fingers in my hair, holding me close, the way his body crushed to mine, the way he smiled during our kisses. He was so amazing.

He broke apart and looked at me. “Did you really mean it when you said that you love me?” he wanted to know.

I nodded shyly. “I do,” I replied, blushing. “Do you love me?”

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Ohohoh! Her parents want her back?! Does Lu Han love her? xDDD