Yunho had managed to carry me all the way. All that time, I had kept silent and let the past memories fly through my mind like a zoetrope. From time to time, Yunho would sneak a few comments, just to interrupt my thoughts but in the end, the one same thought would occupy me. Jaejoong had left me, for good.

            "Want me to take you up the stairs as well?" Yunho asked.

            I had just noticed that we had arrived at an apartment complex. I stared at the door leading to the staircase and then fidgeted to be released. "Yunho, we're not kids anymore." I interjected. "You don't have to."

            "But I want to." Yunho pushed past the doors almost making me fall. "Just like good old times."

            "But Yunho-" I broke off when he turned his head to look my way. I saw the resemblance at that split second. The charismatic face was still there, just like how he had first carried me up a few flight of steps. He really was Jungwoo.

            "Just letting you know, Minji. I'm quite fit, you know. Do you want to know why?" Yunho stated.

            "Why?"

            "Well, I thought that I was going to marry a very strong girl so I had to match her in strength. I did a lot of strength training and cardiovascular exercises. But the girl grew up to be so frail that I worked even harder, just so I could protect her in the future."

            I smiled. Yunho had never forgotten me. I couldn't help feeling a little guilty. Why did I have to love Jaejoong? Why couldn't I love Yunho instead?

            "Minji. Everything is going to okay. Trust me." He opened the door to the second floor. "Jaejoong still loves you. There is no doubt about that. There is no way that he is just going to leave you. His heart won't let that happen."

            I began to tear up again realising for the millionth time that Jaejoong had left me. "But he's gone Yunho. He's not coming back." I wailed. "He told me so."

            Yunho dropped me when we reached a door. His thumbs found my tears and wiped them away. "Don't cry, Minji." Yunho encouraged me. "I'm so sorry Minji."

            "It's not your fault." I protested even though I was still crying.

            "No. In a way it is." Yunho began. "Three years ago, when Jaejoong ran away from home, he called me and I told him to come over to stay with me. That's when he started attending our school. I already knew who you were right from the very beginning, Minji. And I knew who he was too. But I told neither of you because I promised to keep both of your identities a secret. Jaejoong told me not to tell anyone who he really was." Yunho took out his key card, opened the door and walked in, dragging me along with him. "Father, I'm home."

            "You're quite late today." The voice was too familiar. I looked in complete astonishment when I saw the owner of the voice.

            "This was the person who told me not to tell anyone anything about you."

            "Uncle." My voice shook a little. "What is happening?" I could tell from his expression that he was not expecting Yunho to let out on this secret, not yet.

            "Nine years ago when my father passed away, your uncle adopted me." Yunho explained.

            "My uncle adopted you?"

            My uncle turned away but nodded. "I pitied him so I decided to give him the life he deserved. He was a good boy after all."

            "But why didn't you tell me anything?" I couldn't help but ask.

            "I didn't want to let you know anything yet. Not until I was certain that you were safe." My uncle chuckled at a thought. "You were quite immature when you were little so I decided not to tell you anything yet."

            I was still shocked.

            "Please forgive me, Minji." My uncle said. "I can ensure you, it was for your safety." I felt slightly betrayed but I trusted my uncle. I smiled and forgave him. "Well since our family has reunited, why don't we celebrate a little?"

            "Sounds good." Yunho added.

            "I'll help you with the cooking." My uncle insisted. "I've been letting Yunho focus only on his studies, so he doesn't know how to touch a kitchen knife."

            "I do too, father." Yunho retorted. "I've been living on my own for how many years?"

            "Yes, but didn't you tell me that Jaejoong had been cooking at your place ever since he moved in?"

            My heart stopped at the mention of his name.

            Yunho eyed me with worry written all over his face. He was also blushing by his father's remark. "That doesn't mean I cannot cook, father." He said hotly. 

                        "Why is Minji crying?" Yunho asked.

            "Yunho, go to your room." His father ushered him as he put Minji on the sofa. "You can't let her know that you're here, remember?"

            Yunho rebelled against his father's orders and planted himself on the rug beneath the couch beside her. He looked at his father with pleading eyes. "She is asleep so she won't know that I was here. Please let me stay by her side, father."

            Minji's uncle nodded agreeably. "Minji has had a rough night. She needs someone by her side at all times. I trust you, Yunho." He told his adopted son. "I'm going to make some phone calls and then I'll explain everything to you."

            Yunho nodded then looked at Minji, tossing slightly in her sleep. Her cheeks were stained with tears. Yunho grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her cheeks softly. Her head tilted low and some hair fell over her face.

            Carefully, Yunho grabbed the strands of hair and put it behind her ear. "Minji." Yunho crooned. "Everything will be okay. I will study hard and get a really good job and prove to you that I am worthy to be with you. I will be as great as your father. I will spoil you everyday. I will love you until the day I die. So don't cry, Minji and wait for me, okay?" Yunho smiled sheepishly at the thought.

            "Jungwoo." She muttered. Yunho was rooted to the spot. "Jungwoo, mum and dad are dead. What do I do?" She continued to rant in her sleep.

            The little boy exhaled, feeling relieved. Wait. Mr. and Mrs. Song are dead? 

            Minji began to cry again.

            "Minji, you have to wait for me." He tried to sound a little spiritual so she would think that his words were from a dream of hers. "Wait for Gu Jungwoo. I promise he will come back to you."

            Her hand started sliding outwards. Yunho took it and clenched it gently. "I love you, Minji."

            Minji smiled in her sleep. "I love you too, Gu Jungwoo." The warm feeling that she gave him never left him.

            "Yunho." His father disturbed their small reunion. "I'm going to tell you what is going to happen to Minji. You have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, okay?"

            Yunho nodded obediently. "I promise, father."

            Minji's uncle relayed the devastating events of that night to him. He told Yunho that Minji was going to live with a family in a faraway town and would probably return to Seoul when she was a legalised adult.

            "Father, I would like to go with Minji too." Yunho suggested. "I want to go and look after her."

            His father smiled proudly at him. "I will let you go when you're a little bit older. Will that be okay, Yunho?" He said. "You need to be a bit more mature than this. I can't let you live on your own when you're just ten years old."

            "How old?" Yunho asked.

            "Thirteen." The man replied after a bit of thought. "Minji will be in good hands. The people she will be staying with are like family to her. Trust me."

            Yunho looked at Minji, sleeping peacefully on the couch. He turned to his father and nodded again. 

                        Narin wasn't answering her phone. Seungheon had a bad hunch so he went off course and turned his car back towards home. His house had no lights on. It was as if there was no one home. He knew for a fact that Narin wasn't home yet. She would never leave this home of hers unlit. So he walked in cautiously although he doubted that there was anything peculiarly dangerous in the house.

            The only sound that he heard were harsh cries dampened by the walls in the house. It was coming from Minni's room. The cries were so loud that Seungheon was starting to empathise with the person's sorrow. He knew straight away who was behind those doors. There was no other sign of life in this household except these painful mourns. He slowly turned the door knob and opened the door a little just to take a peak at his son.

            A black silhoutte of Jaejoong with a gun to his head startled him. Seungheon darted into the room ready to disarm his son but it was too late. Jaejoong had already pulled the trigger. Seungheon would have crumbled to the floor at the death of his son but he didn't.

            That was because there had been no sound of a fireshot breaking the silence of the night. There was only a click of a dead gun. The gun had no bullets to fire. He watched as his son looked at the gun, questioning why he wasn't feeling any pain. Why wasn't he dead?

            Jaejoong was unaware of his father's presence but he had suddenly come to realise that he had taken out the cartridges from the gun just before he had pointed it to Minji. Jaejoong had only meant to frighten her with his black-hearted facade but she had reacted so differently. She managed to surprise him again and almost killed herself in front of him. His concern for her was almost for her to see.

            Jaejoong stared out the window. Minji was out there, far away from him. He really wanted to get up and run to her side at that very moment but he stopped himself before he did so. A sad reminder told him that there was no way that he could be with her. Instead, Jaejoong put a hand in his pocket and withdrew the gun cartridge and put it back into the gun.

            That was when Mr. Kim intervened. The father rushed to his son and disarmed him, taking him by utter surprise. "What are you doing?" He hissed.

            Jaejoong looked up at the man and Seungheon died a little inside at the sight of him. Jaejoong was bloody all over. He looked around and noticed that the room had been fully vandalised. Mr. Kim clenched the gun in his hand tightly. "Where is Minni?" He asked his son.

            Jaejoong's red eyes tried to mask away his sadness but his father could see straight through him. "She left." He croaked softly.

            Seungheon paused, feeling complete sorrow. He knew straight away that Jaejoong had just lost someone dear to him. But why? Why did she leave? Mr. Kim knew the answer after a bit of thought. "You know that she's Song Minji? Don't you?"

            Jaejoong twitched vulnerably under his father's gaze. His father towering over him made him feel so inferior that he started to shrivel. His father knew Minji's true identity. Was he going to kill her like he did to her parents? Terror got the best of him and he looked to his father with pleading eyes.

            "Please, father." Jaejoong panicked. "Please don't kill her. Don't kill anyone anymore. I beg of you." His hands trembled when he grabbed Seungheon's ankles. "I'll do anything. I'll- I'll study harder. I'll investigate more cases and join you in the board meetings at the police department. I- I'll go to all those parties and extend our social circle. I really will do anything." He was technically grovelling at his father's feet. Jaejoong no longer wanted to die, not when he knew that Minji was going to be in trouble. "Please don't do anything to Minji. Please."

            Mr. Kim's heart clenched tightly. Never had he seen his son so vulnerable, not after he had returned home from Song hospital. Seungheon had been waiting patiently for Jaejoong to reach out to him when he needed help. And in the past nine years, this was it. His father could no longer turn away coldly and watch from the sidelines. Jaejoong was at the point where he wanted to end his life.

            From when Jaejoong came back from the hospital, he had changed. His father knew. Jaejoong was strong and determined to please his father. Again at the age of eighteen, after he had run away and come back, Jaejoong still held a stable demeanour. Mr. Kim knew it was all to protect Minni and he respected that.

            She had been his strength but now she wasn't here with him anymore. Who now, would Jaejoong turn to motivate him to grow and fight for, tomorrow? Seungheon's lip thinned. There was no one else but Minni. "Jaejoong." He realised that his voice was still cold and stern, so he tried to sound more compassionate. "Son."

            Jaejoong froze for a second at that one word and then he looked up at his father. Was he hearing things?

            Mr. Kim felt a bit better now that his son had stopped trembling. He finished where he had left off. "I didn't kill Song Minji's parents." 

                        "I would like to have a word with you, Seungheon." Mr. Song said once he had entered the house with Jaejoong.

            "I have nothing to say to you, Jaerim."

            "But I do." Doctor Song was obliged to talk to his old friend. He turned to Jaejoong and smiled sweetly at him. "Jaejoong, why don't you go and get some rest in your room?"

            Jaejoong eyed the two elder men a little anxiously, but seeing that his father was silent, he bowed low at the two men and walked upstairs out of sight.

            Seungheon was outraged to see his son behave so politely. He was a little ticked off to watch Jaejoong follow Jaerim's orders so compliantly, but to be honest, he didn't know what to say to Jaejoong himself. Yes, he had been worried about Jaejoong for the last six months. But he didn't want to show that to the doctor in front of him.

            "Let me show you to the study." Seungheon gestured only out of courtesy. "Would you care for some tea?"

            "I would be alright without any." Jaerim rejected the offer. "I just want to make sure that what I say, gets straight into your head."

            Seungheon rarely saw Jaerim angry. It had been about nine years since he last saw his friend. It had also been nine years that this friend had turned into an enemy. And after the nine years of not seeing each other, Jaerim appeared before him, very mad.

            In the study, the two men sat across each other just glaring for the small time being.

            Jaerim decided that it was futile just staring daggers at each other and initiated the conversation. "Do you want to know why Jaejoong came to my hospital?"

            "I admit that I am quite curious." Seungheon said icily. He was beyond curious. He was disgusted that Jaejoong had disappeared off to Song hospital. Out of all places, why did it have to be that particular one?

            "He came to kill me." Jaerim told him bluntly and watched his ex-friend's reaction. 

            Seungheon froze and did nothing else.

            Doctor Song decided to continue. "He came to my hospital, malnourished and dehydrated, with the intention of killing me and my family." He elaborated. "Why is that, Seungheon?"

            Seungheon fixed a deadly stare at him. "I didn't tell him anything about what you did to my wife." He hissed.

            "Well Jaejoong must have overheard you somehow, or else he wouldn't have known that I killed your wife."

            "You did kill my wife." Seungheon reassured him.

            Jaerim sighed. "I know that I am partially responsible for her death. I knew from the beginning that she couldn't keep the child. I knew that if the child didn't go then she would have to go. I failed to persuade her to abort it. I kept all this from you as well." Jaerim began to rant. "And I am truly sorry for all of that. But you my friend, fail to see reason."

            Mr. Kim was about to rebutt him with a smart remark but Jaerim cut him off.

            "Your reasonable doubt only lies within the police force. When it comes to personal matters, you become too irrational, Seungheon."

            "Jaerim!" Seungheon boomed, feeling quite insulted.

            "Seungheon. Jaejoong is a good boy." Jaerim interjected him again. "But due to your ignorance and lack of love for him, he is living this world with a lot of hate."

            Mr. Kim could not think of anything else to say so he retold his old friend the pain he held in his heart. "I want my wife back. You should have told her to get rid of it. You killed her, Jaerim."

            "And yet, you haven't jailed me Seungheon." Mr. Song had had enough. He rose from his chair and gave the man an angry look. "Instead, you have decided to break our friendship and torment your only son." He retorted.

            Seungheon was rendered speechless. 

            "If you saw your wife's face when she begged me to hide the truth from you, to do whatever it takes to allow Jaejoong to come out into this world alive, you would understand why I did the things I did." Jaerim tried to knock some sense into Seungheon. "I am upset that you are destroying what your wife thought, was the most precious thing to her before she passed on. But I feel most sorry for Jaejoong. He is living a life without love from both of his parents. It must hurt him like crap."

                        "So Jaejoong, I never blamed you from that day onwards." His father told him after recounting that day Jaejoong had returned from his sudden disappearance nine years ago. "I just found it really difficult to change. It made it even harder for me to empathise with you when you were so... so independant."

            "Father." Jaejoong tears were all crusty on his face.

            "Son, believe me. The day that you went to Minji's house, I just had someone follow you so that I could be sure that you were safe. I was doing that for the past years, I swear, I was just embarrassed to tell you so. I felt so useless, watching you grow without even showing you the slightest compassion. I was so frustrated at myself for that, Jaejoong. I regret it to this very day."

            "Father." Jaejoong began to understand his father's state of mind. What his father did next shocked him.

            Seungheon got down to his knees and tilted his head down low in front of his son. "I'm sorry, son. Please forgive this lousy father of yours, Jaejoong."

            Jaejoong's heart melted at his father's confession. He could only embrace him. He was waiting so long for his father to appreciate his very existence. And the day had finally come. Jaejoong was purely happy. He now had someone he could lean on when he was in despair. He had a reason to live again. It felt like euphoria for him.

            Even if Minji was gone, even if his heart was screaming out for her, Jaejoong still had obtained one of his life long dreams. And that was his father's love.

            "Now, can you please go and bring Minji back."

            Jaejoong looked at his father, stunned at his words. "Huh?"

            "I really want her as my daughter-in-law, you know?" Seungheon couldn't help but smile at the thought of his son and Minji marrying.

            On the other hand, the flashback of Yunho and Minji came back to Jaejoong and he shook it off. He tried to smile as cheerfully as possible at his father. "I'll try father. But first, I need to prove that I am worthy of her."

            "Huh?" Seungheon eyed Jaejoong curiously. What was this boy up to now?

AN:

yay, things are running smoothly on Minji side and Jaejoong's side.

please comment, subscribe and vote if you love this story.

I'm actually already quite proud that I have 90 awesome subscribers!!!

on a random note, it's almost christmas... woah!!!

if I don't update before then, I'll wish you all a very merry christmas ><

whitedreamm