No. No! This can’t be happening! Quickly picking up her phone on the concrete floor, Min started her car and rushed to the hospital. Running through the automatic doors, she reached to the front desk. “Yura! Lee Yura! Where is she!?” The girl bawled in panic.

The nurse hurriedly checked her papers, “Room 507, but-” 

“Thank you!” Min didn’t wait for her to finish and dashed down the hall to find the elevator. She pressed the up button, only to keep pressing it repeatedly from her impatience. “Come on, come on!” A second later, she abandoned her position and pushed the nearby door open, running up to the fifth floor. With every step she took, the faster she got, not letting her burning thighs slow her down nor stop her from thinking about her mom. 

Reaching to the fifth floor, Min opened the doors to the hall and right away, she runs to find room 507. As soon as she spots the room, she notices Appa turning into a corner down the other end of the hall way. Where is he going!? She checked the numbers on the door again. Making sure it was 507, she entered the room. 

Yura was peacefully lying on the bed, eyes closed. Min let out the breath of air she didn’t realize she was holding, but the worry never faded. In fact, it grew even more when her eyes landed on the standing doctor beside the bed. He had such a sad look on. No…it can’t be. Min prayed it wasn’t what she thought it was, but as she drew closer to the bed, she realized there was no IV attached to her mom. 

The doctor walked next to a speechless Min, placing a hand on her shoulder, “She had a very serious head injury and already lost too much blood from the car accident. It was in the middle of the surgery before she-” he stopped when saw the girl held up her hand to stop him from continuing. She couldn’t bear to hear it. “She really fought hard until her very last breath. I’m really sorry I couldn’t save her.” 

Strong until the end, huh Umma? Min turned to the doctor and gave him a sad smile, “It’s not your fault, doctor. Thank you for trying.” Min managed to say, eyes looking down. 

“I’m sorry.” The doctor patted her shoulder gently before leaving the poor girl to grieve for her mother.

"Umma…” Slumping to the chair next to the bed, she shook her mother’s arm lightly, “Umma, wake up.” She shook her again, “Please?”

“Stop. She’s already dead.” Upon hearing the deep voice, she let go of her mother. Min didn’t even have to look to know who the voice belonged to and a spark of anger hit her. Was he not even going to let her mourn for her loss? For their loss? “Where the were you!?” She yelled from her seat with closed eyes, too angry to look at her father behind her.

“I came here as soon as I could.”

The heartbroken girl clenched her fists tightly, knuckles turning white. You liar. Opening her eyes, Min returned her focus on her mom, who didn’t move a single inch since she got there. She looked so in peace, there was no way Min was going to let him disturb her. “Get out.”

“What?” 

“GET OUT!” Min screamed as she stood up from the chair. She could hear the man scoff behind her. 

“Watch your language, kid. I’m your father.” 

Min finally turned around and stared dead straight into his eyes with much hatred, “You were never my father! You never loved me nor my mother!” She yelled as she jabbed him with her index finger. He couldn’t help but back a little and push her hand away from his chest, but Min never flinched and kept her glare at him. 

"You don’t deserve to be in her presence. Not before, not now, not ever! So shut up and leave!” Taewoo stood his ground and kept his stern face, but anyone could tell he was intimidated by his daughter. He always had the last say and he wasn’t about to let Min step on his pride. He was her elder! Her father! There was no way he was going to let her talk to him that way. 

“You were always like your mother.” He said with a disgusted face. 

The remark was an obvious insult from him, but Min gladly took it as a compliment, completely turning it around on him. “And that’s the only thing I can thank you for, I never want to be like you.” 

They both knew he had lost this battle. Min kept her deadly stare at her father until he eventually left. She should be happy right? She finally stood up to her father and not to mention, win. Yet, Min didn’t even feel a sprinkle of satisfaction. The victor went back in her seat in defeat. She took a hold of her mother’s hand for comfort, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t even warm anymore. Ignoring the fact that it will never get any warmer. 

The room was nothing but dead silence, which made Min grasp onto reality. Umma was gone. And the worse part was that her father didn't even seem to care. Eighteen years of marriage and he didn’t seem to care the slightest bit. He couldn't even pretend to be sad?… Oh, that’s right. He had another family that he actually cared for. 

Min was broken, like someone had just crushed her into a million pieces. Her head hurt, her heart hurt, everything seemed to hurt at the moment as she helplessly stared at the lifeless body in front of her.

“Umma.” she choked out. Yura never moved, no matter how much Min shook her. It was then when she finally opened the bottle she kept shut. Streams of warm tears fell from Min’s face, slowly dripping sorrow onto her trembling hands which still held onto her mother. “You said you’d never leave me!” She sobbed, “You promised!” 

“Are you out of your mind!?”

Hara rubbed her face, clearly not needing the stress Junhyung was giving her, especially when she wasn’t in her best condition right now. “Can you not? My head hurts right now. I don’t need this.” 

Junhyung scoffed, “You don’t need this? You’re the one who called me here! Why didn't you call your parents instead?” Hara stayed quiet at the mention. “That’s what I thought. What the hell were you thinking!?”

“I-I don’t know! I was just having some fun, I didn’t know it was going to end up like this!” 

“Having fun” meant going out to party and drink. He knew Hara had a low tolerance for alcohol. Even she knew that, which was why he was surprised she didn’t have her chauffeur drive her instead, like she usually did. "You know better than to drink and drive.” The angry boy stated. 

“I wasn’t that drunk and I wasn’t even driving!” She snapped. 

“Who drove?” 

“My friend.”

“Did she drink?” He asked. Hara looked down. 

“Yes.” she muttered.

“So you knew she was drunk and you let her drive anyway?” Junhyung asked her like she was crazy. 

“Oppa! I didn’t drive and I didn’t crash the car!” She responded, avoiding his question. Hara couldn’t understand why he was so angry with her. 

“Not everything is about you and I don’t care if you drove or not! You’re at fault too! You were AWARE that your friend was drunk and let her drive.” 

“She said she wasn’t drunk!” 

“Hara, you knew she was drunk.” He gave her a knowing glare.

“Okay, I’m sorry!” She shrieked.

“Sorry isn’t going to cut it! You guys hit someone!” Junhyung shouted.

“It’s fine, okay? No one got hurt!” She tried to calm him down, but that only made it worse.

“No one got hurt in YOUR car! But what about the other car!? Don’t you know there’s a bigger impact on the car being hit!? What if something happened t-"

“That’s why we’re in the hospital! The doctors are taking care of it!” She groaned, “Just stop, okay? I’m sorry!” 

“No... I'm sorry.” Taking one last look at Hara on the bed, "I don't even know why I came, take care of this yourself." He left the room, ignoring her calls and pleads for him to stay.

All the anger he bundled up in the room left as soon as he exited the room. He loosened his shoulders and tried to relax. That's right, he didn't even know why he came. Hara called from the hospital and said it was a car accident, so of course, being the nice person that he was, he went straight to the hospital, dragging Kikwang, who was hanging with him at that moment, with him. Hara was perfectly fine, with the exception of some minor injuries. 

What had ticked him off was that she lied. At first, he came all scared and worried because she said it was a car accident. Indeed, it was a car accident. A driving under influence accident. What’s worse was that Hara and her friend were the ones drinking. Junhyung shook his head with disappointment and suddenly remembered Kikwang. Pulling out his phone, he sent him a text message. 

JH- where r u

KK- bumped into an old friend

KK- u can go don’t worry about me

JH- k

Junhyung put his phone away and started to walk down the hall. On his way to the elevator, he noticed a girl sitting next to an empty bed through an open room door. Her back faced him and her elbows rested on the bed. From Junhyung’s angle, it looked like she was praying. He stopped at the doorway and he realized she wasn’t praying. She was crying. 

He heard her little sniffles and he felt his heart hurt for her, despite not knowing her. The poor girl was crying all by herself in this empty room and something drew him in. Junhyung walked in slowly and as he got closer, he could hear her cries more clearly. The second he recognized her voice, he stopped. “Minnie?” 

The girl noticeably stiffened and quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeve before she got up and faced him. “Junhyung oppa?” 

Her eyes were bloodshot red, it was obvious she had been bawling her eyes out for a while. Junhyung immediately took her by the arms, gently checking her for injuries. “Are you okay? What happened?” Thankfully, she wasn’t injured, but he knew his friend was hurting. 

“My mom… car accident… she…” 

It wasn’t even a proper sentence, but it didn’t take much longer for Junhyung to understand what she was trying to say. He pulled her into his embrace, hoping it gave her some sort of comfort. “Shhh. It’s okay.” he soothed, letting her know she didn’t have to explain any further. 

For the first time since hearing the hospital call, Min felt a sense of warmth. Her mother’s death was horrible enough, but her father had to show up to make things even worse. He never once comforted her nor did he show any sorrow. The girl was mourning alone for her mother even when the body was being taken away. Life was cruel and Min couldn’t seem to remember anything happy anymore. She clung to him, afraid that once she let go, her only source of light will escape her and leave her in the darkness once again.

In this difficult situation, Junhyung didn’t know what to say nor do, but he kept strong for her sake. “You don’t need to hold it in. Just let it out.” He said, softly the back of her head. It wasn’t long until he felt her tremble in his arms. 

“It hurts. So much.” She managed to croak out. The way her voice was so raspy and broken, broke him. His heart ached for her as he pulled her in tighter to his chest, wishing he could take away all her pain. 

“It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Ding dong. “Hello, may I help you?” the housekeeper asked the six young men standing in front of the door. 

“Is Min here?” the eldest of the group asked. The mention of Min made ahjumma frown even more than she already did. 

“She isn’t, unfortunately.” 

“Where is she?” Junhyung questioned. The ahjumma looked at the boy and immediately recognized him as the one who brought her little master home last night. So these must be her friends she’d always talked about. 

“She went out really early this morning. Poor girl didn’t even look like she slept a wink.” the old woman said, mumbling the last part, but the boys caught it, making them more anxious than they already were. 

“Do you have any idea where she might’ve gone?” Kikwang inquired.

“I don't, she could be anywhere.” the housekeeper sighed as the boys wore worried expressions. 

“When she comes back, can you let her know we stopped by?” Hyunseung asked.

“Of course.” the ahjumma said, gently closing the door after the boys thanked her and walked away. 

“So what now?” Dongwoon asked his friends as they walked out the front gates. Min could be anywhere right now, doing who knows what. Hopefully, not anything reckless.

“We need to find her. ASAP.” Leader Doojoon answered, already thinking of the list of places where she could be at the moment.

“She’s not picking up any of my calls.” Kikwang said after failing to get a hold of her for the nth time.

“Her car is still here.” Yoseob observed, pointing back at the house. 

“So she couldn’t have gone that far, right?” Everyone wanted to say yes to Kikwang’s hopeful question, but they didn’t really know for sure. They could only hope she was near. 

“She could be anywhere in the streets, for all we know.” Hyunseung said. 

“Okay, everyone split up and look for her. Call me if you find her. Got it?” Everyone gave a nod to their leader and went off to different places she could be.

2 hours later… 

Doojoon quickly opened the front door, revealing a disappointed Kikwang. The six gathered around the living room. They searched everywhere, every place where they could think of. Yet, no one had any luck in finding her.

“Where could she possibly be!?” Kikwang groaned in frustration.

There was a pause of silence until Hyunseung decided to break the ice. “Maybe we should stop.” 

Kikwang was the first to react, “Why?” 

“What if she doesn’t want to be found? You ever wonder why she left in the first place? I think she needs some time alone to clear her mind.” Hyunseung explained.

“Hyung is right.” The maknae said after giving it some thought. 

“Where are you going?” Yoseob asked as Dongwoon got up. 

“I’m going to look for some flowers. For Aunty Kim.” After hearing Dongwoon’s response, everyone else seemed to realize that even though they couldn’t help her, there were other ways to help her. In another short wave of silence, they finally decided to stop their search. Most split, thinking about what they can do for Min without being with her, leaving two of them on the couch.

Junhyung never moved from his spot, staring straight to nowhere. “I was with her last night… She cried.” 

Doojoon turned to his emotionless friend, “Did she.” No one had ever seen Min cry before, or at least not anyone from within the group. Not until now, at least. Whether she got injured or insulted by others, she never cried. She was strong. Not even a drop of tear. From all they knew, Min has probably never cried in her life. 

“She needs someone right now.” Junhyung said.

“But what if she needs some time alone like Hyunseung sai-”  

“I know, but you didn’t see her last night.” Junhyung shivered from the memory of the fragile girl he held yesterday, still feeling her trembles and hearing her broken sobs.  

Doojoon took note of his friend’s expression. “We still don’t know where she might be.” 

“I don’t think she’s going back to her house anytime soon.” 

“Why not?” 

“i don’t know. She didn’t seem like she wanted to go back home last night.” Junhyung recalled. There were a few possibilities why she wouldn’t want to go back there just yet. One, the house would remind her too much of her mom. Two, Mr. Kim. Three, Min wants to be alone. Four, she has somewhere else to stay. Junhyung suggested it was probably three which led to four.

“Someplace else to stay?” Doojoon asked. “Like where?” 

“Well, it can’t be any one of our houses ‘cause she’s been avoiding everyone… Maybe it’s-” 

“Her grandparents’ place.” Doojoon finished with Junhyung in unison.

“No one checked their place yet!” Doojoon said in a hopeful voice. 

“Do you still have the spare key Halmeoni Kim gave you?” 

“Of course!” Doojoon fished out his keys from his pants and found an old fashioned golden key with a K on it. He held it up for his friend to see and yelled, “This is it! This is it! Let’s go!” 

As they reached to Doojoon’s car, Junhyung stopped. “Wait, I can’t go.” 

“Why not!?” his friend barked impatiently. 

“I’ll tell you tomorrow. Just go.” 

Junhyung was hiding something from him. Something important. But Doojoon decided to let it go because his top priority was Min right now, not to mention that his friend did say he’ll tell him tomorrow. “Fine.” 

“Drive safe and make sure she’s okay.” Junhyung bid him a goodbye and headed his own way.

The sound of the door opening brought Doojoon up to his feet. The door locked followed by some footsteps, and the girl he’s been waiting for who knows how long, came to view. Min stopped upon noticing the familiar figure near the living room couch. 

“What are you d-” Min’s question was cut by a sudden embrace from the visitor.

“Min, don’t you know how scared I was?” He wrapped her tighter in his arms, “You just disappeared and…” he sighed as he recalled his stressful day, “Don’t ever do that again, okay?”

Getting no response from his sign of his affection nor his words, he pulled away, hands holding onto her shoulders, taking a good look at her. Her eyes were staring back at his, but he saw nothing behind those chocolate orbs that held so much life in them from what he remembered. Gone was her bright cheery face, replaced with a pale face with noticeably dark circles. He didn’t think it was possible, but she felt even smaller than when he last shared a hug with her, which was only two days ago. 

“Everyone looked for you today. We were all really worried.” She didn’t move, but she did tear her eyes away from him. With everything going on, she still had the decency to feel guilty.

Doojoon sighed and pulled her in a hug again. He couldn’t bare to look in her eyes for what he was about to say, “I’m sorry… about what happened.” 

He felt her stiffen, followed by a light push against his chest and just like that, she was no longer within his hold. She walked up the stairs until a gentle tug on her hand kept her from walking any further. “Have you eaten yet?” 

Once again, there was no response. The man sighed for the nth time today and rubbed soothing circles on the back of her frigid hand. With his free hand, he softly took a hold of her chin and turned her to face him, “Go up and take a nice warm bath, okay? I’ll be back in half an hour and if I don’t see you sitting on the couch in fresh pj’s with wet hair, I am going to take you up there myself and make sure you take that warm shower, you understand?” 

This time, surprisingly, Min responded, but only with a small nod. He gave her a approving smile and patted her head, “Good.” Letting go of her hand, he watched her head upstairs, happy she listened, but a frown soon took over his face when the girl was no longer in view. It was going to take a lot more than a warm shower to take the cold away from her.