Five days later, Yul walked into his penthouse and Rosie was standing in front of the door pacing. “Rosie?” Yul said.

“I’m glad you’re home,” she told him, stopping her pacing and facing Yul. He quickly shut the door behind him and tossed his keys on the table by the door. “What’s up, Rosie?” he asked.

“She’s been crying all day.”

“Why?” he asked, striding towards the room Yoona had been staying in. Rosie was right behind him.

“I’m not sure. She told me she just wanted to be alone.”

“Okay, thanks, Rosie. I’m all set.”

“Okay,” she said, returning to he won guest room.

Yul slowly pushed Yoona’s bedroom door open and said her name softly. She was lying on her side, facing away from him, and he saw her look over shoulder at him. She looked back away, her head resting on her pillow with her hand beneath her cheeks. “Yoong?” he said again, walking further into the room. He heard her crying softly and sighed. He walked over to the side she was facing and sat down at her waist. He brushed the hair back from her face.

Yul was starting to get really worried about her. The longer she was here with him, the more she withdrew, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was gone most of the day or if she was starting to regret her decision to let him take care of her. He had to admit, he was doing a lousy job of it. He figured that if he wasn’t around as much, she’d be able to stick it out longer, and that would mean he’d have her here longer. Now he wasn’t sure. “What’s the matter?” he asked tenderly.

She sniffled and wiped at her runny nose. He grabbed a tissue off the nightstand and passed it to her. “I want to go home,” she said softly, blowing her nose.

He blinked a few times. “How come?” he asked?

She sighed deeply and awkwardly rolled over onto her back. Her cast made any movement difficult. “Because I don’t like it here, Yul, I can’t leave this place in case someone sees me leaving Kwon Yul’s penthouse and starts asking questions or digging, and then… you’re gone all day,” she whispered brokenly.

“Rosie’s here with you,” he said, pushing her hair back behind her shoulders. The doctors had told them that it was common for depression to set in when you were bedridden, but Yul hadn’t known that it would happen this quickly.

“Yes, and Rosie is really very nice, but we don’t have much to talk about,” she said. “That leaves me stuck in front of the television all day, and there’s only much of that I can take.”

“I know,” he said softly. Yoona had never been one to just sit around the house and do nothing. She’d always liked to stay busy. “Look… I only have two more days of meeting, and then I’m done,” he promised her.

She shook her head. “No, maybe this was a mistake. I can’t depend on you, Yul,” she told him.

“Yes, you can,” he said firmly.

“Okay, well, then I shouldn’t depend on you,” she amended.

“Yes, you should, Yoona. You should depend on me,” he said softly. Forever.

She shook her head again, little wisps of hair getting stuck in the stickiness of her tearstained cheeks. She hastily pushed them back. “I can’t depend on you now and then just walk away, Yul.”

He shrugged. “Then don’t,” he told her.

“I’m trying not to,” she said frustrated.

“Don’t walk away,” he clarified gently.

Yoona took a deep breath. “Yul, why am I even here?” she asked the question that had been on her mind since she arrived.

Yul sighed and took one of her hands. “You’re here because I love you, Yoong,” he admitted. He hadn’t been sure how he was going to answer the question. he debated on giving her a vague answer about responsibility, but at the last minute, he’d decided on the truth. It had been something that they’d really worked hard to provide for each other in their marriage, and he didn’t want to change that now.

“But you don’t even know me anymore,” she said with a hint of desperation in her voice.

“Yes, I do,” he disagreed. “I know you, Yoong. I know who you are. That didn’t change in four and a half years.”

“Four and a half years is a long time,” she reminded him.

“Not long enough for you to become a complete different person,” he said.

She sighed, and then made up her mind to ask another question, one that had been plaguing her for four and a half years. “If you love me, why did you leave me?” she asked her voice thick with emotion. He watched as her eyes filled up with tears and she swallowed past the lump in .

He knew it had taken a lot for her to ask that question. It was the first real question she’d asked him since she’d been there.

He cleared his throat and looked deeply into her eyes, willing her to understand. “Because it never crossed my mind that you wouldn’t come with me, I waited in that airport until the last possible minute, Yoong. They made me board the flight or I would’ve waited at that gate forever for you. Always and forever,” Yul took a deep breath. He remembered it like it was yesterday. “When Jesse told me you’d left for Stanford, I was devastated, but, really, what else would you do without me to hold you back?” he asked.

Yoona put her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. “I wasn’t so much running to Stanford as I was away from you.”

“But why?”

Yoona shrugged. “You know me; I always need to have a plan. And at that time, that was what I needed. A plan… something to focus on, but I didn’t have one, so I fell back on the Stanford plan, but not because it was what I wanted. It was because it was all I had,” Much to Yoona’s dismay, she burst into tears once again; as she realized how true that statement had been at the time. Her parents had been in an RV travelling around the country, Yul Jr. had just passed away, and Yul had left for New York. Yoona had been all alone. Sure, she’d had her friends, but they all had their own lives, and she, Yoona, was all alone.

Yul pulled her up so she was sitting, and then into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder while he her hair. He could feel his shirt dampening with each tear she shed. He swallowed past the lump of disappointed in his throat. He hated that he couldn’t make her feel better. And that she’d ever thought at any point her life that Stanford was all she had. Hind sight was 20/20, and Yul knew now he’d been selfish as hell to come to New York, but then, all he’d thought about was getting them out of North Carolina, and he thought he’d been doing Yoona and him a big favour.

“I’m sorry,” she said through her tears. “I really am over everything. I am just so over-emotional right now,” she explained.

“Sshh,” he said, rubbing her back. “It’s okay,” he said, remembering when he found that Yoona wouldn’t be joining him in New York… not then, or ever.

FLASHBACK

Yul had just had an intense practice with the Knicks… his second week with the team. He walked into his apartment and flung his bag down by the door. Jesse was already in his apartment waiting for him.

“Hey, big brother,” he said, flipping through his mail. “What are you doing here?” He put his mail and his key down on the stand by the door, unconcerned with Jesse’s presence. Jesse had made it a habit to randomly fly in and check on him, so there was no need for alarm.

“Yoona’s gone, Yul. She left this morning,” Jesse told his little brother softly. He’d only flown in from North Carolina that very morning right after Yoona had left, wanting to give Yul the news in person.

Yul swallowed past the lump of fear that had suddenly appeared in his throat. Yoona really wasn’t going to come to him. “For where?” he asked.

Jesse hesitated. It was a hard job crushing his brother’s heart. “Stanford.”

Yul had shaken his head furiously. “No, she wouldn’t do that,” he said, not believing Jesse.

“Yul…”

“She said always and forever, Jesse!” His voice was almost pleading and Jesse saw the despair in his brother’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. She’s gone Yul.”

“F**k!” He put his head in his hands. “F**k, f**k, f**k!” He snatched the empty vase off the stand that was by the door and hurled it at the fireplace. It shattered all throughout the room. “Get out!” he said, shooting the messenger.

“Yul…”

“I said get out!” Yul yelled.

Jesse had gone without another word.

That was when Yul had hit the bottle, and he had hit it hard.

END OF FLASHBACK

“Yul?” Yoona asked in a whisper, drawing him back to the present.

“Yeah?”

She pulled away and looked up into his eyes. “Will you bring me home?” she asked.

He swallowed audibly. “Is that really what you want?” he asked, praying that it wasn’t.

“Yes,” she said softly.

He nodded slowly. “Then, yeah, I’ll bring you home, Yoong,” he told her.

The next afternoon, Yoona sat up and looked out the window of the private jet as it landed on the runway. She gave Yul a puzzled look. “Yul?”

He looked up from a document he was reading. “Yeah?”

Yoona shook her head. “This isn’t LAX,” she told him.

He looked back down at what he was reading. “I know,” he said simply.

“Yul?” He looked up again. “Where are we?” she asked, clearly upset. She expected him to anticipate the question.

He unbuckled his seat belt and moved to sit down beside her. He put his arms around her and kissed her on her left temple. “We’re here in Charlotte,” he informed her.

He eyes flew to his. “Why are we in Charlotte?”

“Because you wanted to go home,” he reminded her.

“To Los Angeles,” she told him. “I wanted to go home to Los Angeles.”

Yul nodded. “I figured as much.”

Yoona swallowed past the lump in . “Then why are we here?”

Yul sighed. “Because if you go home to Los Angeles, then I won’t be able to stay there and take care of you, the paparazzi will be camped outside of your apartment, and there’ll be absolutely no chance of us being spotted. I’m not ready to let you go yet.”

“Yul, I…” Yoona started her voice choked with emotion.

“I know,” he said softly. “You think you don’t love me and I’m okay with that. For now,” he told her.

“Yul, I don’t want you to think I’ve led you on when I leave,” she told him.

“If you leave,” he corrected.

She shook her head. “No, Yul, I am eventually going to leave,” she said firmly. “And when I do, I don’t want you thinking that I lied to you.”

“A lot might change while we’re here, Yoona, so I wouldn’t be too quick to make any decisions yet,” he told her.

One of the uniformed men came in and let Yul know that it was okay for them to get off the plane. Yul put his lately ever-present baseball cap on and put one on Yoona, too, and then, side by side, they exited the plane, Yoona on her crutches. She was getting used to them now, so there was no need for Yul to help her, but he styed glued to her side anyway… just in case.

There was already a rented vehicle waiting for them at the curb. Yul pulled the keys out of his pocket unlocked the door for Yoona so she could get off her feet, and then he went back in for their luggage. He finally came back out and loaded the SUV, and then got in the front seat and buckled up. He looked at Yoona and smiled. “Ready?” he asked softly.

“For what?” she asked.

“North Carolina, home,” he said.

“Do you really think this is a good idea?”

He nodded. “I do,” he said sincerely.

“Then let’s go,” she said, with just a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“All right,” Yul said, putting the car in drive and pulling away from the curb. When they finally reached the highway, Yul reached over and took Yoona’s hand in his.

They stopped off once to drive through for a bite to eat, and then got back on the road. Yoona fell asleep after they ate, and Yul turned the radio up just a little bit to keep him company during the drive. They finally hit the North Carolina line, and Yul reached over to give Yoona’s knee a shake.

“Yoong?” he said softly.

Yoona took a deep breath and sighed, then opened her eyes. “What?” she asked drowsily.

“We’re in North Carolina,” he told her.

Yoona rubbed her eyes and sat up, taking in the view. “It looks the same,” she whispered.

Yul smiled. “Yeah,” he agreed.

Yoona cleared and blinked back the sudden onslaught of tears.

“You okay?” Yul said, not even taking his eyes off the road.

How does he know? She thought. “I’m fine,” she told him.

“Don’t lie to me, Yoong,” he said knowingly.

“Fine,” she conceded. “I’m a little bit… emotional,” she said.

“Well, you haven’t been in North Carolina for a really long time,” he reminded her. “It’s only normal that you’d start to feel emotional,” he told her.

Yoona turned to look at him. “When did you get to be so perceptive about human nature?” she asked.

He gave her a smirk. “Well, when you’ve pretty much felt every emotion known to mankind, you learn a thing or two,” he shrugged. “Plus, I stayed away for three years after I left,” he told her.

“Kind of been there, done that?” Yoona asked.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

As they drove through the familiar streets of North Carolina, Yoona took it all in, what had changed, and what hadn’t changed and as they passed the first apartment that Yoona and Yul had ever shared, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. She kept her eyes on it until she couldn’t see it anymore, and then turned to face the front again. She swallowed past the lump of memories in and shook her head to keep the memories at bay. She knew that Yul had seen her reaction, but he didn’t say a word to her about it.

When he finally pulled the car into a driveway, it was of her old house. She looked at him questioningly. “Yul, what are we doing here?” she asked.

“This is where we’re staying,” he informed her.

“What? Yul, you do realize that my parents don’t own this house anymore, right?

“Yeah,” he told her, opening the door and starting to get out.

She grabbed his arm. “Well, did you talk to the owners?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he told her.

“And they’re just going to let us stay here?”

He turned to look at her. “Yoona, I own this house,” he admitted.

“What?” she asked in disbelief.

He sighed. “I bought it when I came to visit Jesse a year or so ago,” he told her.

“You bought my old house? Why?”

“Because it’s… special to me,” he told her.

“Oh,” she said surprised.