Eun Ah woke up the next morning, feeling disorientated. She had fallen asleep by Halmoni's bed last night and was trying to get a hold of her surrounding as she shifted on her back.

She blinked her eyes open and stared at the ceiling for a while before realizing that she was lying flat on her back.

She shouldn't have been on her back since she had fallen asleep on a chair, the realization jolted her into full consciousness.

How did she wake up 10 feet from where she fell asleep?

Her eyes flitted around the room until they landed on Halmoni's hospital bed.

It was empty.

It didn't look like a single person had slept in it. The bed sheets were stripped off and new ones were tightly hugging the mattress. The blankets were freshly made and the pillows were fluffed with no indentation of a head ever resting there.

Did her condition get worse? Did they move her to a different wing?

Eun Ah got up from the small couch she was curled up in and stretched her muscles before stepping out of Halmoni's room to stop a nurse that was walking past.

"Excuse me, do you happen to know where patient Kim Soo Jin is? She's not in her room and I think she might've been moved last night."

The nurse frowned and flipped through a her files, "That's odd, we don't usually move patients at night. Let me check for you."

The nurse walked behind her desk and tapped on her computer, her eyes scanning the documents before an odd look filled her face when she glanced up at her.

"She's listed as your guardian, am I correct?"

Eun Ah's hands started to shake as she nodded, "Is something the matter?"

If the nurse heard her voice crack, she chose to ignore it, because she kept her voice calm and even, sympathy or pity completely absent in her tone.

"It seems that Mrs.Kim has passed away last night."

Eun Ah's heart stopped and a disbelieving chuckle escaped her lips, "No, no that isn't right. Kim Soo Jin. Check again. She was admitted yesterday, she's about 60 years old."

"She was the burn victim, correct?"

Eun Ah swallowed and nodded her head, hoping that the woman would apologize for the misunderstanding and lead her to the room Halmoni was in.

The woman's face remained blank, "Then there is no need to check because there is no confusion. The woman that occupied that room passed away last night."

Eun Ah's eyes watered and started to shake her head, "NO! She was here last night! I was in the room with her! They said her condition was getting better. Check again, please, there's no way that she's dead."

The woman gave her an annoyed look but still searched Soo Jin up on the directory. She turned the screen to face Eun Ah and pointed at a bold and underlined word.

DECEASED.

"You're lying! This is some big joke, isn't it! This can't be happening. Look, just tell me where they took her, I just want to visit her...please."  She fell on her knees and begged as tears fell down her face. "I just need to see her and make sure she's okay."

"M-Ma'am!"

"You don't understand, she is very important to me. She can't be dead! SHE CAN'T BE! I don't know what's going on, but she's my Halmoni, I need to see her. GIVE HER BACK TO ME!" She sobbed as she held onto the woman's ankle.

The woman's eyes widened as she glanced around seeing people staring at the two of them, "Ma'am, please stand up, this is a hospital. As I mentioned before, Kim Soo Jin has passed away last night and she is no longer at this hospital. I am sorry for your loss but there is nothing else I can tell you."

"It's not fair! Why her? How could this have happened?" She cried as she repeatedly hit her head with her hands.

Eun Ah felt her head spin and her ears rang loudly, dulling out all the other noises. She felt her world crash down as one of the closest things to a mother she had, had in 10 years vanished in front of her.

Her dad.

Her mom.

Her Halmoni.

She lifted Eun Ah off the ground before turning away to attend to another room, her condolences just as bland as the look on her face. Eun Ah harshly grabbed the woman's hand, anger replacing the previous saddening disbelief.

"How come no one informed me? She's listed as my guardian, how dare you remove her from her room and ship her body off without telling me? I have every right to have been told."

The nurse narrowed her eyes and shook Eun Ah's grip off, "I'm not in charge of Soo Jin-ssi, but her biological son handled the papers and his relation had precedence over you and he was advised by his friend not to tell you so he didn't. They're taking her body to the States where the rest of her family is to conduct the funeral."

Eun Ah frowned tears still dripping down her face, "But her son is studying in the States, he wasn't supposed to be here for another few days. He doesn't even hold Korean citizenship anymore, how did he discharge her body?"

"His friend co-signed to help with the process and hospitals are more lenient in these cases of lost loved ones."

"His friend?"

The woman nodded and handed Eun Ah a sheet before walking off to her next patient.

Co-signed by: Bang Yongguk

-----

Eun Ah pressed her foot down on the acceleration, going way over the speed limit but she didn't care as she sped in her car towards her destination.

Her cheeks were still damp from tears and was still sore from screaming. The minute she had entered the vehicle, she started slamming her hands against the wheel, screaming at the top of her long as tears fell angrily down her face.

She didn't want to lose someone else.

Not when she was still hurt from her parent's death.

But somehow, she still did.

Life was having a lot of fun ing with her.

She could feel her soul leaving her body, as she drove and she knew that she was no longer Hwang Eun Ah.

She was just a shell of her past self.

The smiling, positive, laughing Eun Ah was long gone and was now replaced with a hollow body filled only with the knowledge of death and loss.

Her jaw clenched and her grip around the wheel tightened.

And it's all his fault.

She took a sharp turn and drove into a parking lot. She scanned all the buildings until she saw a building unit with the sign she was looking for. She roughly parked in an empty space and checked her phone for the address one last time.

She had shakingly searched up the nearest office in the area on her phone after she learned about Halmoni's death.

No matter what she used to feel for him, she couldn't look past what he had done without her permission.

He had no right to step in, not after he failed to protect the woman. Maybe it was an overreaction on her part, but she couldn't just sit by and do nothing while the woman who raised her after her mother became a casualty.

She jumped out of her car and slammed the door shut before walking into the building. She took a deep breath before opening the front door, seconds away from sealing the last bits of her heart and soul away.

-----

Yongguk sat stoically in his study, counting down the minutes before Eun Ah barged into the room, livid, for helping Soo Jin's son discharge her body and telling him to keep it from Eun Ah.

Yongguk felt his heart crack when they entered her room and he saw her passed out beside Halmoni's bed, her neck stiffly supporting her bobbing head. He gently carried her to the nearby sofa and tossed a blanket over her before kissing her head and brushing her eye bags.

He really wanted to savour the moment because he knew that she'd never treat him the same way after she found out what him and her son had done.

Yongguk was at a point where he felt like he had nothing to lose.

But he was wrong.

There was still on more thing that he had forgotten that could still be taken from him.

His back straightened when he heard the front door slam close, the sounds sending vibrations up the wall and he could heard angry steps go up the stairs and toward his door.

His door swung open and he moved his eyes to see Eun Ah standing there with a dead glare, her fingers gripping an envelope as she stared at him. SHe moved closer to him but her gaze just froze colder.

"Where the hell do you get off?" Her voice wasn't loud, but he could hear the deathly calmness in her tone. The other members peered out of their rooms in curiosity.

He gazed back at her with the same blank expression that she had on. "I'm guessing you learned about Halmoni's death."

She flinched and slapped him across the face, anger buzzing through her veins. She wanted revenge. He didn't react, almost as if he was expecting her to hit him.

"You have no right to call her that. How dare you co-sign her release. You're not even related to her!"

"True. But my wife is, so I signed on your behalf."

Eun Ah scoffed at his arrogance, "Who gave you permission to do that?"

He shrugged but stared back at her, she was so blinded by her anger that she missed the blank look he gave her. "The law did."

"You can't just barge in and control my life!" She started shaking as she fisted his shirt shaking him back and forth.

"Bring her back! GIVE HER BACK TO ME! I WANT MY HALMONI BACK! TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!" She yelled, tears blurring her eyes. He watched her as she slid down his body and collapsed in front of him, on her knees.

"Please." She whimpered, "I just want to say goodbye. Bring her back so I can say goodbye." She begged hysterically.

"I can't do that." He said simply.

"Why did you tell her son not to tell me that she died?! Don't you think I had the right to know? You knew how important she was too me, she was the only family I had aside from Himchan who I just met. How could you