Chapter 5

Yunho heard the water running in the bathroom. It seemed to him that Yuri had been in there for a long time. He knocked on the door, “Yul? Are you okay in there?” No answer. With a feeling of trepidation, he opened the door & saw Yuri lying in the bathtub with her eyes closed. He smiled, thinking that she must’ve fallen asleep while taking a bath. As he stepped closer, he noticed that the water was overflowing from the side of the tub. For a moment, he stood there & stared, mesmerized as the clear water turned bright red. Horrified, he rushed to Yuri’s side & lifted her wrist up. Blood was flowing freely from them. Suddenly, Yuri opened her eyes & said with a heartfelt contempt, “An eye for an eye. You got what you wished for, are you satisfied now?”

With a start, Yunho woke up, sweating & shaking all over. It’s been over five months since Yuri had disappeared & every time he slept, he would have the same nightmare, over & over again. He closed his eyes as he took in a deep, calming breath. His greatest apprehension right now was that Yuri would take her own life, just like Eunhye did. With a trembling hand, he wiped the sleep from his face & went & stood by the window, waiting, always waiting for Yuri, “Yul, where are you? If you can hear this, please know that I truly love you. I’m so sorry to cause you so much pain.” He whispered.

Yunho unconsciously started playing with the yellow gold ION-plated stainless steel two-tone bar-link bracelet that Yuri was going to give him. He had found it during one of his frantic searches through her belongings when he was hoping to find some kind of clue as to her whereabouts. Wearing it made him feel closer to Yuri. He desperately clung to the hope given by the message inscribed on the bracelet, ‘Together Forever’.

He felt his ulcers acting up again, & headed towards the table in the bedroom for his pills as his eyes began to get watery as he looked at the package resting right next to it.

Five months. Yunho can still remember every detail from that fateful day. As soon as he realized that Yuri was gone, he immediately called the police & was told, quite rudely, that he had to wait twenty-four hours to report a missing person. He had cancelled his trip to Costa Rica & called the same detective agency that he had previously used.

“Mr. Jung, from what we have gathered, your wife took your car to the airport & left it there with the car keys under the floor mat. Then she booked herself on eight different flights to different cities & rented cars from three different company. She paid cash for all these transactions. We are following all these leads right now.” The agent had told him. Every single lead had turned out to be fruitless.

At that time, the last known verifiable contact they had from Yuri was when she went to the bank about a week after her disappearance & took out a large sum of money. When Yunho found out about that, he immediately had more money transferred into her account, just in case she needed some more.

Yunho had also tried everything he could to find her. He went to the previous places where she worked, talked to her friends & also went to her old apartment. Finally, after a week of not hearing anything from Yuri, he even swallowed his pride & hatred & called her brother, Yoochun.

*Flashback*

“Mr. Park, Mr. Jung Yunho is on the line.” Yoochun’s secretary said.

“The Jung Yunho?” Yoochun got