Merely existing…when everything you lived for is taken away from you.

Three years later…

Somewhere in Busan…

“Umma, look at me!” a little girl shouted while dancing and shaking to the music.

From the kitchen, the little girl’s mother looked up from the vegetable she was slicing and craned her neck to see the living room which was separated from the kitchen with a tall cupboard. She watched as her daughter executed a twirl and nearly fell.

“Yah, Sook-Ju, be careful!”

The little girl giggled and the young mother smiled as she watched her daughter dance. She laughed when her two-year old son stood up, abandoned his toys and began following his sister’s steps. They both looked cute and adorable, but they couldn’t really be identified as siblings for those who don’t know them.

That’s because they really aren’t, she thought.

Jung Joo Hyun watched her adopted son fondly, and something pinched her heart, as always whenever she watches the boy. She knew the day would come that they would have to tell him the truth, but until then he is theirs.

Jung Yoogeun came to her and her husband in the time of the year when the trees are bare and the world was covered in a white blanket of snow. He was hours old then; born with a father who doesn’t know of his existence and to a mother who doesn’t even know that he is still alive.

“I’m home!” a young man hollered at the door, cutting off Joo Hyun’s thoughts. She heard the children squeal as they ran to their dad. She wiped her hands on her apron and hurried to meet her husband.

Jung Yonghwa was kneeling on the floor, receiving a shower of wet, exuberant kisses from two little beings when Joo Hyun emerged from the kitchen.

“Children, appa is tired,” she told the kids as both began to climb unto their father’s lap and clung to him.

Yonghwa stood up, carrying both children in each of his arms. He gave his wife a peck on the lips. “How was your day, Hyun?”

She s her arm around his waist. “Oh, same as usual…brought Sook-Ju to school, did the laundry, cooked food, played with Yoogeun, fetched Sook-Ju from school and now I’m preparing dinner.”

“My poor wife…,” he shook his head. “Haven’t you written anything in that story you’ve been working on?”

Joo Hyun is a writer of children’s stories. “I have, but just a little. Yoogeun is a lot more active now and I have to watch him more because he jumps out if I put him in his playpen.”

Yonghwa chuckled. “Were you giving Umma a hard time, huh?”

Yoogeun grinned, pinching Yonghwa’s cheeks. “Umma played with me.”

“Appa, I want to play with my doll now,” four-year old Sook-Ju said, wriggling out of Yonghwa’s hold. He stooped and let go of her and Yoogeun. He watched as Sook-Ju ran to the nursery, Yoogeun following suit.

“Keep the door open, Sook-Ju,” Joo Hyun ordered, craning her neck to see the children as they went inside the nursery.

“How was your day? And your new boss?” she asked, turning to Yonghwa.

He shrugged. “He’s okay. He’s not really rude, but he’s not that nice either…just…I don’t know. I never saw him smile. Not even once, the whole time I was with him.”

“It’s his first day. Of course he’s still not comfortable with you guys,” Hyun said.

“I guess.”

“I heard he’s very young and handsome. Is he?” his wife asked curiously.

“Yah, why are you asking me that? And where did you hear that rumor that he is handsome?”

Joo Hyun laughed. “Don’t be jealous Yong. I’m just asking. I heard that before he even took over the company. Last week when I went to your office I heard some female employees talking.”

“Aish, you shouldn’t listen to gossip, yeobo,” Yonghwa told her, running his fingers on her hair.

“So he isn’t handsome, then? He’s not anything like his father, your former boss? What does he look like?”

“Umma! The plane is coming toward you!” Yoogeun shouted, running out of the nursery and toward them, a toy plane in his hand.

“I don’t know, I guess he’s handsome because my female officemates think so,” he turned to Yoogeun when the child suddenly stumbled and fell. Joo Hyun hurriedly picked up the little boy who looked like he was about to cry. His huge eyes brimmed with tears.

Yonghwa kissed the boy’s forehead. “There now, don’t cry,” he said, looking at his son’s eyes. Then he let out a startled laughter. “Come to think of it, our Yoogeun looks a bit like him.”

“Looks like who?” Hyun asked, distracted.

“Choi Minho, our new boss.”

…………………………………

Choi Minho looked up from a stack of papers on his desk as the door to his office creaked open and closed. He saw the marketing director of their company, Kim Jonghyun.

“Boss, it’s late.”

Minho nodded and looked at the papers he was going over before he got interrupted. “Yeah, I’ll be okay here. You go ahead.”

“Well, I was just wondering if you want to come with us. We’re having a boy’s night out,” Jonghyun said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“No, I really don’t have time for that now, sorry,” Minho answered, not looking up from his papers.

“See, told ya,” he heard Lee Jinki, his secretary, whisper loudly to Jonghyun.

“But you may go if you want to, Mr.Lee,” Minho told Jinki. “I’ll just finish this and I’ll head home afterwards.”

“It’s okay, sir, I’ll stay,” Jinki answered.

Minho nodded again and glanced at Jinki, then at Jonghyun. Jonghyun had that look on his face which seemed to be saying, “Geez, don’t you ever get a life?”

He almost smiled bitterly. He had lost his life three years ago…

Minho woke up to the faint soun