“You broke your promise.”

She looked up at the woman in front of her and inhaled a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“You promised that you will not come back no matter what. It’s only 3 years and you are back now.” The woman said.

She bit her lip and looked at her sadly. “I didn’t mean any harm. I will leave Korea once everything is settled here.”

The woman chuckled softly. “It was lucky because I was the one who bump into you at the restaurant this morning. Do you think you can still leave Korea if he is the one who saw you?”

“I promise you that I’ll be very careful. He won’t know that I’m back and he won’t be able to find me.” She said nervously, trying to assured the woman sitting in front of her. “He can’t even track where I was for the past 3 years.”

“Do you think I still can trust you?” The woman looked at her with a stern gaze.

She took a deep breath. “It has already been 3 years. Do you think I will wait for this long to come back if I really want to see him? I promised you 3 years ago that I would leave and never see him again. I will keep my words and will not let him see me either. You don’t have to worry.”

The woman looked at her for a long moment before she averted her gaze. “You better keep your promise and leave Korea as soon as possible. I don’t want your reappearance to cause another mess again.”

She inhaled deeply and swallowed hard, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to roll down her eyes.

“I will not let the same mistake to happen again.”

--------------------------------------------------------------        

Park Jeong Su slowly walked towards the couch and handed a cup of hot tea to Kang So Hyun who was sitting there, buried in her deep thoughts.

“Hot tea?” Jeong Su asked, bringing her back to the reality.

So Hyun looked up at him and smiled slightly. “Thank you.” She said as she took the cup over from him. She took a small sip of the hot tea before placing it on the coffee table.

“Are you okay?” Jeong Su asked as he sat down beside her. “You have been sitting here for hours since dinner. Is there anything that bothering you?” He asked again.

So Hyun turned to him and sighed deeply. “How long do we still need to stay in Korea?”

“We just reached here last week. The fundraising event will at least take another month before we can go back to Brazil.” Jeong Su looked at her worriedly. “Wae? Anything happened? Did anyone of them found you? You saw him?”

So Hyun shook her head. “No. But it doesn’t mean we won’t bump into each other. Seoul is not that big. And he might find out very soon that I was back to Korea.”

“But you have changed your name. No one except me know about your new identity. I don’t think he will know about it and find you.” Jeong Su assured her with a warm smile. “Don’t think too much. It’s late now. Finish up the tea and sleep earlier. We still have a lot of activities to do tomorrow.” He continued again before looking down at her leg. “Do you need me to help you?” He asked, pointing at her prosthetic leg.

So Hyun shook her head with a smile. “It’s okay. I can do it myself.” She sighed softly, looking down and touched her fake leg. “It has almost been 3 years. I had already treat it as one part of my body.”

Jeong Su let out a soft sigh. “Everything will be better when we go back to Brazil after the event. You had already decided to leave 3 years ago and started a new life. Nobody could hurt you again. You will be alright, everything will be alright. Trust me.”

So Hyun smiled again. “Thank you. Without you, I don’t know how I could survive for the past 3 years.”

Jeong Su took her hand and squeezed it softly. “That’s what friends are for.” He stood up and patted her arm. “Don’t think too much. Sleep early, okay?”

So Hyun nodded. “Good night Jeong Su oppa.”

Jeong Su smiled at her.

“Good night, So Ra.”        

---------------------------------------------------------------

3 years ago…

“Her name is Kang So Ra.” Lee Min Ho begins his story.

Park Shin Hye’s eyes fluttered open instantly when she heard the name. Her heart started to race tremendously fast, waiting impatiently for him to continue.

“She is my fiancée.” Min Ho said in a hoarse voice.

Shin Hye turned her head slightly to the side but she couldn’t see his eyes because his face was hiding in her neck. There was a long silence before she asked him. “W-What happened to both of you?”

Min Ho heaved a deep sigh as his arms tightened even more around her before he replied. His voice was almost painful to hear.

“She went missing on our wedding day.” He said as he inhaled a sharp breath and at the same time, his arms that was wrapped securely around Shin Hye tightened.

“That day, our wedding ceremony was supposed to start at 8am and I waited for her in the church on since 7am till the next morning.” He chuckled sadly. “I was so happy and was the first one who arrived that morning. I witnessed the church slowly filled up with all the guests, giving me their congrats greeting and blessing smiles. I started to get nervous when the clock touched 8am and she hasn’t arrive yet. My sixth sense told me something was not right. I waited and waited until the priest told us that the next couples had already arrived and needed to perform another wedding ceremony.”

Shin Hye slowly turned herself around and looking at him face to face now. She felt her chest tighten when she saw his painful gaze. That hurt and disappointment in his eyes pained her heart.

Min Ho met her gaze and looked at her sadly. “Everyone came to me and asked me not to worry. They will help me to find her and everything will be alright.” He chuckled again. “For 24 years of my life, I have never been so lost and helpless before. They tried to find her in our house, everywhere that she might go but no one get to find her. My mind was totally blank and I can’t even think of a place that I could go to find her. I just stay in the church mindlessly like an idiot waited for her. I keep telling myself that she will come.” He exhaled sharply, still looking at Shin Hye. “She told me that marrying me was the best dream that ever happened to her.  She love me very much and I love her too. She wouldn’t be possibly leave me without a word.”

Shin Hye just looked at him helplessly without knowing what to say. She brought her hand up and gently caressed his face. “I’m sure she won’t.” She tried to soothe him and think of an excuse that could explain why she disappear. “She… she… I mean… something might had happened to her. Did you report to the police, check the hospital records or…”

“Do you think I won’t check all that already?” Min Ho cut her off. “When I got back my senses the next day, the first thing I did was rushed to the police station and report her missing. I already did whatever we can and need to do for the past 3 months but we found nothing. Nothing at all. She just disappeared as if vanished into the thin air. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find anything.” He stopped and inhaled a deep breath. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers, needed to be close to her for support.       

There was a long silence and neither of them make a single sound. Shin Hye bit her lip lightly, looking at his painful expression. “Tell me more about her.” She finally broke the silence.

Min Ho slowly opened his eyes and locked into her gaze.

“You said I feel like her. What does that mean? Does we look alike?” Shin Hye asked.

Min Ho pulled back slightly in order to look clearer at her. He scanned her face for a long minute before he shook his head softly. “No. You don’t look like her. Although both of you have very similar features but both of you were totally two different person.” He said as his hand slowly move up to her cheek, it very tenderly.

Shin Hye inhaled softly before she asked again. “How did both of you meet each other?”

Min Ho held her gaze for a moment before he smiled inwardly. “You like to ask a lot of questions.”

Shin Hye pursed her lips and looked down. “You can ignore my question if you don’t feel like answering it.”

Min Ho tilted her chin up before he sighed. “I thought with this agreement between us, I could make myself better and find a temporary peace for my life but it seems the opposite.”

Shin Hye looked back at him in confusion.

“You are very difficult.” Min Ho said, his fingers lingered on her smooth skin. “You always have a way to make me feel guilty over you.” He then smiled. “But this is also the ability you have that could make me forget about everything and just concentrate on you.” He leaned down and kissed her soft lips. He smiled again when he felt her body squirmed when their lips touched.

“She is an orphan.” He begins to answer her question. “Her parents was my mother’s childhood best friends. Our two families were very close and we already know each other since we were kids. I still remembered that year when I was 15 years old, all of us went to Switzerland for Christmas holiday. Her parents was killed in a skiiing accident after crashing into a metal drifer that supporting a snow cannon. She was only 12 years old when her parents passed away in that accident. She lost both of her father and mother in one night.”   

Shin Hye held her breath and felt her eyes heated by her warm tears. She can understand her feeling because she lost both her parents in one night too. She was devastated when the police called her grandmother and informed them about the car accident. Since then, her life was totally changed.

Min Ho took a deep breath before he continued. “My mother promised her mother before she died that she will take care of her like her own daughter. So after everything was settled, So Ra moved in to our house and stay with us. I was there with her the entire time, taking care of her and make sure she is not alone. As time passed, our relationship became closer and very naturally both of us started to date after I graduated high school.” He paused and his lips slowly curled into a soft smile. “She is very beautiful. Whenever she is happy, her eyes can smile. She have a very beautiful and kind heart that I’m very sure anybody will fall in love with her if they get to know her. She can laugh very happily with just a small surprise and she can also cry very badly just by watching a sad drama. She is very carefree and cheerful. She like to help people and always think about others before herself. She is a pure goddess.”

Shin Hye parted her lips slightly, unable to say a word. She doesn’t understand why but her mood suddenly turned very sour. The way he described about his fianceé make her chest thighten and difficult to breathe. She looked away and smiled sadly. “The way you describe about her have nothing that is similar to me. I’m not beautiful. I’m plain and simple. I don’t laugh because there is nothing in my life that could make me happy. I definitely not cheerful. My moody personality will only make the people around me feel unhappy. I don’t help people because I was always the one who in need for people’s help.”

Min Ho’s jaw clenched when he heard what she said. He cupped her cheeks and forced her to look at him. “You did it again.”

Shin Hye looked at him, confused by him again. “Did what?”

“You make me feel bad and guilty.” He replied.

She chuckled softly. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I was just curious…” She paused and inhaled deeply. “… why me? I don’t understand how you could link both of us together when we don’t look alike and have so much differences in our personalities.”

He looked at her for a long moment before he slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m confused too. Something about you reminds me of her. But at the same time, something about you make me forget about her.” He paused again and moved closer to her. “The first time when I saw you in the night club, I couldn’t take my eyes off you.” He smiled as his gaze slowly dropped to her lips. “You was so clumsy that night and fell on me. Your face was blushing when you saw me and when our eyes met. That night, for the first time in that three torturing months, my heart felt alive again. As I said before, you have the ability to numb the pain in my heart.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips again.

“You are not plain and not simple. You are very beautiful.” Min Ho continued.

Shin Hye felt her heart pounding extremely fast against her chest. The way he was looking at her now make her whole body shivered. “I’m not.” She disagreed. She never consider herself pretty.

Min Ho smiled. “You are. Although I’ve never see you truly smile or laugh before, but I love to see when you are nervous around me.” He the side of her cheek gently and smiled again. “You looked very beautiful when you blush. That was why I told you that you are not suitable to work at the night club. You were very dangerous to work at a place like that. You just look like a prey surrounded by wild animals in that club.”

Shin Hye laughed softly, looking at him. “Are you saying that you were also one of the animals too? Because if you are, then I was captured now.”

Min Ho caressed her cheek and looked into her eyes. “You are laughing.” He whispered.

Her face reddened instantly as she bit her lower lip.

“You are right. I was one of the wild animals and you are the pity little prey that was captured by me.” He said. He continued again when she looked up at him. “I’m sorry. I promised you that I wouldn’t hurt you but that night, I know I did hurt you very badly, physically and emotionally.” He inhaled a deep breath. “T-That day… something happened. My emotion was very unstable and I really needed you to calm me down. When I reached home and didn’t see you here, I was totally out of control.”

Shin Hye breathed softly before she asked. “Can I know what happened that night?”

Min Ho gritted his teeth and closed his eyes briefly. “Another female body was found near Namsan.”

Shin Hye creased her brows and looked at him worriedly. “What do you mean? Is… is the…”

He shook his head and cut her off. “No. It was not So Ra.”

She let out a sigh of relief. Just then, she recalled something in her mind. She remembered that night in the club when Min Ho got crazy and offered her the deal, she saw the news of a female body found near Namsan too. Now she understand what was the reason that triggered his unstable emotions. Every time when a female body was found, he will be in fear, scared that the body would be So Ra.

“There was another news of a female body found near Namsan 2 weeks ago. I-Is that why you were so angry when you couldn’t find me and make a scene at the night club?” She asked, looking straight at him.

Min Ho nodded softly. “Everyone told me not to worry. So Ra might just have some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder before the marriage. She need some time to be alone and that was why she disappear.” He chuckled sarcastically. “Does that even make any sense? How could she have any stress before the marriage? Everything was planned by me and she just need to be there and be a beautiful bride on that day. If there is something wrong with her, I will notice it but everything was just normal.” He paused and took a sharp breath. “The only one reason that I could think of to explain her missing is… she was taken by someone.”

Shin Hye pursed her lips. Taken? No wonder he was so worried whenever he saw some news like that. “I-Is… is there really no other way that you could find her?”

Min Ho smiled slightly. “If you have any good idea, I’m all ears.”

Shin Hye sighed silently, doesn’t know what to say anymore to soothe him. “I’m sorry. I wish I could help you.” She whispered. But if a rich man like him couldn’t find a way to find her, what could a useless person like her do to help him.

With his elbow supported his body, he hovered on top of her and looked deep into her eyes. “Accepting this agreement was the best help you offered to me. I know it’s very unfair to you even if I pay you but I really don’t know what can I do before I completely fall apart.” He confessed honestly to her. “You have no idea how I gone through that 3 months. The business world is very cruel. I have to manage the whole corporation for my father and I can’t let anybody see the weak side of me. I can’t give them any chance to attack my company during the lowest point of my life. I have to pretend everything was alright and nothing could affect me. I cannot let my parents worry about me.”

He pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “I was souless and the only place that I could hide myself was at the night club. I can drink myself to dead every night and numb all the feelings that torturing me with alcohols.”

Shin Hye felt her heart pained for his sadness. She slowly moved her hand upward and gently caressed the back of his neck.

Min Ho opened his eyes and looked at her again. “But everything feel so much better when I saw you. Please don’t ignore me and think of run away too. I really need you. I really need your help.” He pleads and his voice was almost painful to hear. “The reason of tellin