He was back in Paris, freely walking down memory lane all by himself.

There was no rush as he took his time to enjoy what he had missed since the last time he was here.

Everything was going perfectly fine until he heard his name being called by a faint voice, more precisely the voice of a woman he loved long ago.

“Changsun?”

He quickly turned around to see Stefanie running towards him with a big smile on her face. Smiling back, he opened his arms to hug her but had his smile faded away the moment she walked right through him. He turned back around and saw a man a few feet away with his arms tightly wrapped around his wife’s waist as he spun her around with a set of giggle escaping her lips.

Once they had pulled away, he recognized the man as himself and looked back with his eyes wide open, confused about what was going on.

They were about to disappear when he decided to run after them, trying to figure out where they were going.

The next thing he knew, he found himself in a complete different place, outside of Paris. Looking around, he recognized the scenery as being their little getaway cottage, away from the fame, away from the responsibilities and away from anything that could disturb their peace.

Nostalgia crept back in when he saw her sitting on the porch with a baby in her arms, comfortable on a rocking chair as she was singing a lullaby to the little child. He started walking towards her but stopped when he saw a car pulling up at the end of the alley.

Watching the scene in front of him, he knew exactly what was going on, creating an ache inside his heart. It only grew stronger and made him lose the energy inside his body. He fell on his knees while clutching onto his chest. He closed his eyes for just a second and when he looked back in front of him, blood was dripping down to him on the floor. He followed the trail and once his eyes were set on the body, he cried out his anger and quickly ran to his wife, lifting her body in his arms while trying to wake her up.

“Wake up! Stefanie! Please just w-wake up! You can’t leave me! Baby, please just open your eyes; I’m begging you, pleas-please!” Tears were pouring out of his tired eyes as he tightly held onto her, hugging her close.

Nobody was around and the place was slowly growing darker by the minute. He was pulling her face away from his neck when he gasped out of surprise to see not Stefanie, but Seonya, dead in his arms.

‘W-what is going on?!’

She was peacefully sleeping when she felt the bed lightly moving. She stirred herself out of her sleep and looked to the side to see Joon’s face, showing a frown as he was still asleep. She quietly propped herself on her elbow and pushed some strands of his hair to get a clear view of his face as it was heavily pressed against his pillow with his front side leaning on the mattress, leaving his back exposed with only the bed sheets covering his lower half.

From where she was, something caught her eyes. She leaned in closer and saw a small tattoo on his back, right under his neck and in between his shoulder blades: the profile of two swans next to each other, the left one being black and the right one being white. It was the first time she has seen it and wondered if it was made recently but soon forgot that thought as she wondered the meaning of his drawing.

A faint cry caught her attention as she looked back at him seeing his expression darkening. She tried to wake him up and as she did, she suddenly jumped out as she got her wrist grabbed by him, heavy breaths escaping from him.

“Joon? Are you okay?”

Letting go, she gently cupped his cheeks to gain his attention and saw how red his eyes were, scaring her. “Joon? It’s me… Seonya…”

A sparkle lit as if he heard her and responded to her gaze before taking her by surprise with a sudden hug, making her fall back onto the mattress.

A sudden knock was heard but without giving the green light, the door opened to reveal G.O looking for Joon. The moment he stepped inside, he quickly stepped out of the room after having glanced at the couple on the bed, closing the door right behind him. “And~ I’m out!”

Joon got out of the bed and quickly picked up his pants before putting them on and running to the door. He saw G.O leaning against the wall across the hall and knew that something wasn’t right.

“What’s going on?”

“We need you… It’s about your sister and-”

“What happened?!”

“They found out. She’s in hiding right now-”

He didn’t let him finish his sentence, Joon quickly rushed back inside his room and changed, completely forgetting about the girl in his bed before running out and shutting the door behind him all the while leaving Seonya with no clue on what was going on.

She heard the commotion on the other side of the door and decided to take a peak on what was happening. She put on clothes she found from Joon’s drawer, walked out of the room and went to the office to find her uncle.

“Ji-Hoon? What’s going on?”

“We’ll tell you later but for now just stay here and don’t leave the house.”

She hastily nodded her head and watched the man rush out of his office, leaving her alone and completely disoriented once again.

Out of town, four black cars were speeding their way to their destination with their weapons prepared and ready to be used. The main one, being the one in the front was getting faster by the mile, backing itself away further from the others in the hopes that he wasn’t too late.

Spotting the small house, he sped up until he was at a reasonable distance and took out his gun before jumping out of the vehicle.

He was about to make a move when his boss told him to stop, angering him. “I’m not waiting! I’m going in!”

“YOU’LL GET YOURSELF KILLED BEFORE YOU EVEN HAVE TIME TO SAVE THEM!”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take!”

He pulled out his ear plug and went through the small forest behind the house, stepping as quietly as he could. He saw several of Hyun Su’s men and cursed to have been find out after hiding his secret for several years. He grabbed onto his silencer and placed it at the tip of the gun and once he was done, he pointed at the four men and shot them one at the time until they were all laid out on the ground.

He got out from behind the bushes and silently stepped towards the back of the house, looking for the secret entrance to the basement. With the dead leaves and braches sticking against the wall of the house, he finally found what he was looking for. He was about to make his move until he heard a familiar cry, making his eyes wide open. He tried opening the cellar door that was leading to the basement but realized that it was locked from the inside.

Kicking it out of anger, he took his gun and pin pointed straight towards the lock, shooting twice before it got completely dismantled. He cleaned the dead leaves out of the way, and quietly opened the door and saw nothing else but darkness. He took one last look out around him and stepped inside before closing the door behind him, shutting it tight.

He slowly and quietly stepped down the small stairs until he was on the ground. He whistled a familiar tune, hoping that the person he was trying to come in contact with would respond. He tried a second time, and three seconds later he got his reply. He carefully stepped to where he heard the voice but got interrupted with the endless yelling from a man. It got louder and louder meaning that the man was coming this way making Joon quickly hide in the dark.

The moment he went into hiding, he bumped into something that emitted a quiet cry. Out of reflex, he pointed his gun right against the skin of whoever was next to him. This time, the cry he heard was from a woman; he lowered his gun and took out his phone to use the light of the screen, placing it in front of him to see his older sister, on the verge of a breakdown.

Without a word, he pushed her in his arms, tightly holding her against him. Pulling away, he cupped her cheeks and stared at her, mouthing out his concern. Understanding what he was trying to say, she nodded her head and backed herself away letting Joon face a curtain that was hanging on the wall, pulling it to the side, he saw a little boy crouched on the floor with his head between his arms as he had his knees brought up to his chest.

He gently caressed the little boy’s head catching his attention and the moment he looked up, he smiled and jumped in Joon’s arms, happy to see him, only to have started crying.

“Don’t cry, I’m here now; everything is going to be okay.” He pulled away from the boy as he wiped his tears away and placed his finger in front of his mouth, telling him to stay quiet. The boy nodded and Joon got back up on his feet to look at his sister, telling her the same thing. From there, he carefully walked out of the hiding and waited for the intruder to come.

A few seconds and a strange smell was affecting the air; it took him a second to realize that it was the smell of something burning and that’s when he heard the door upstairs being loudly shut closed.

He quickly grabbed onto the boy, lifting him so he could be on his back and grabbed onto his sister’s hand before making his way to the same entrance he came from moments ago. He pushed the door open and let the woman climb up first and then let the little child go next. Once it was Joon’s turn, sudden gunshot echoed close to them making him quickly jump out and run back behind the bushes of the forest, ordering them to hide.

He was about to go back when he saw his friends fighting against Hyun Su’s man until his gaze landed on the smoke coming out through the open windows.

“Changsun-ah, they the gas of the oven, if the fire gets any bigger, the house is going to explode!” The panic in his sister’s voice made him act, placing his ear piece back on and contacted the others to give them the update they needed. He got the green card from Ji-Hoon, telling him to leave before they found out that they had escaped.

“We need to get out of here and fast. Hyun Su is not going to stop until he gets his hands on you.”

Lifting the boy back in his arms, he grabbed his sister’s hand once again and made their run back to where he last left the car.

Back at the mansion, Seonya was walking down the stairs, still unaware of what was going on outside.

She was half way through when she saw Joon barging in with a kid in his arm and a woman right behind him closing back the door. She tried to speak but was left speechless as she saw them leaving towards the living room, leaving the girl completely confused.

She followed them until she was at the entrance and called out to Joon making the three heads turn to her.

“Joon? W-who are they? Who’s the boy?”

Glancing from his sister to the boy, he turned back to Seonya while biting the corner of his bottom lip, his hands on his waist, trying to figure out how to tell her this but simply decided to spill it out in one go.

“He’s my son.”