*This story is purely fiction and is no way suggesting that any of the events happening in the story will ever happen in real life! 

Seohyun and Yonghwa met outside the Seoul University Hospital, "armed" with their guitars. Seohyun greeted Yonghwa with a bright smile, thanking him again for coming with her, and Yonghwa smiled back, but it was forced. "What happened?" Seohyun asked directly. Yonghwa looked at her in surprise, shocked that she had noticed his unhappiness but replied her honestly. "Shin Hye rejected me. She said she had another man, and she told me her past. It's not her fault and I'm not blaming her, but I'm just disappointed, I guess." Seohyun patted him on the back comfortingly. "It's alright, Yonghwa oppa, you're an attractive man and a rich one at that, and look! You even know how to play the guitar!" She pointed to the guitar he was carrying and her attempts to cheer him up made him chuckle, a real one, nonetheless. "Let's get started!" Yonghwa led the way, a lot happier than he was a few minutes ago. The couple entered the white hallway and made their way straight to the oncology department. Seohyun's steps got heavier as she approached her cousin's room but Yonghwa pulled her along the way. He opened the door of the room cautiously and peeked his head in. There were 2 beds in the room, one occupied by a young woman and the other occupied by a middle-aged woman. Seohyun opened the door more widely and walked in with a big smile on her face. "Sunny Unnie! I'm here!" She walked towards the young woman who pulled herself up from her sleeping position with a little difficulty. She was pale and looked very thin but the smile on her face was so bright it immediately brought life into the gloomy room. "Seohyun ah! I missed you so much!" The cousins hugged tightly and Yonghwa stood around, a little awkwardly. He looked around the room and his gaze fell on the middle-aged woman sitting on her bed and staring blankly out the window. She must have been beautiful in her younger days, Yonghwa thought wistfully, as he observed her beautiful eyes and smooth skin. Now her eyes were seemingly dead and her face was expressionless. 

"Yonghwa oppa!" At Seohyun's call, he stopped looking at the other woman and turned his attention back to Sunny. "Hello, I'm Jung Yonghwa." She smiled at him as she introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Seohyun's cousin, you can call me Sunny!" She looked at her hospital mate and introduced her. "Seohyun and Yonghwa, this is my roommate, Kang Jiyoung sshi." The two young people bowed to Jiyoung respectfully. She acknowledged them briefly with a nod but turned away from there immediately after. Sunny didn't look surprised at her actions and instead asked Yonghwa about himself. "Unnie, truthfully, Yonghwa oppa came here with me today to sing something to you. Your birthday is coming soon and in your honour I wrote a song for you." Sunny clapped her hands in delight at Seohyun's words. Seohyun and Yonghwa took out their guitars and Seohyun nodded at Yonghwa to start the intro. He played the opening chords softly and slowly and Seohyun started to sing. 

Even when time and tears flow
I will only be waiting for you
I smile even if it hurts, tears flow even if I smile
I am at the place where your memory remains

The arms reached out for me and grabbed me silently
The heartwarming smile that looked at me
The love that even made tears beautiful

When they had finished their mini performance, Sunny clapped loudly for them. She reached out for Seohyun and hugged her tightly, wiping away the tears that had appeared as Seohyun had sung the song. "Unnie, no matter what happens in the future, I'll remember you forever and everything that you've taught me. You taught me to smile even when it hurts because smiling makes everything better, and you're showing me that even now. Thank you for everything Unnie, and I don't want you to worry about me, I've grown up now." Sunny pointed at Seohyun's tear stained face. "Yah Seohyunie you tell me that you've grown up when you're still crying? Stop crying no-" Sunny started to cough violently, unable to finish her sentence and Seohyun patted her back, trying to ease her coughing. "I'm sorry that you had to see me like that..." Sunny started to apologise, red-faced from the exertion, but Seohyun shushed her. "It's alright Unnie, it's alright to show your pain at times. It'll be okay, Unnie, you have to trust in yourself." 

Seohyun had just helped Sunny back into bed when the room door was opened quietly. A young boy with adorable glasses and messy hair walked in the room and headed to Kang Jiyoung. "Omma! How are you feeling today?" He set his bag down on the chair next to his mother and held her hand as he asked. He glanced around the room briefly at all the unfamiliar people and caught Yonghwa's eyes, which brightened up instantly. "Kang Minhyuk!" Yonghwa headed to Minhyuk with a big smile on his face. "Oh, hyung! What are you doing here?" Minhyuk properly recognised Yonghwa and jumped up to greet him. Yonghwa was his senior in high school and although they had lost touch over the years, they used to be rather close. "I'm here to visit Sunny sshi! Oh, is Madam Jiyoung your mother?" Minhyuk eagerly nodded. He cheerfully introduced Yonghwa to his mother as his close high school friend, to which Jiyoung responded as she had earlier. As Seohyun spent more time with Sunny in private, Minhyuk took Yonghwa to the hospital canteen for some coffee. 

"Don't you need to spend time with your mother?" Yonghwa asked. Minhyuk shrugged and said dismissively, "We visit her everyday anyway, one day away won't make much of a difference." He realised the rudeness in his tone and apologised. "Ani, I didn't mean it in that sense, don't misunderstand me, hyung. I love my mother very much, it's just that she's very hard to deal with these days...when Appa died 6 years ago, Omma couldn't accept it...and she became very depressed. She tried to kill herself several times, but now she is in the hospital because she contracted cancer a while back. With this new illness she has totally withdrawn into her shell and any attempts my noona or I make to talk to her have failed. It's wearing both Noona and me out..." Yonghwa sighed as he heard Minhyuk's story. That was the thing about life, even if he wanted to help Minhyuk so desparately, there was nothing he could do for him. It was a pity that Minhyuk had to go through so much at such a young age. "What did your dad die of? If it's not too sensitive that is..." Yonghwa asked suddenly. The expression on Minhyuk's face stiffened but he answered the question. "I was pretty young when it happened so I don't know a lot, but it was an accident. My father was kidnapped and my mother worked day and night to come up with the ransom, but when the police went in to save him, a police officer ended up shooting him and killing him. To be honest, I'm not too sure of the details but my sister would know better, in fact, there she is right now!" He pointed at a woman who was approaching them. She was as freshfaced as Minhyuk, but she had an added maturity and elegance to her. 

"Minhyuk ah, what are you doing out here? Where's Omma?" Sora questioned her younger brother. She failed to notice Yonghwa, who was standing awkwardly next to Minhyuk. "Chill, Noona, Omma could use some time alone anyway. This is my high school senior, Jung Yonghwa!" Sora blushed as she saw Yonghwa and greeted him. "Hello, I'm Kang Sora." 

It was the end of the working day and Jongsuk glanced around at all the empty tables in the office. He rolled his eyes as he thought about how his co-workers were all slackers. All of a sudden, he felt someone hug him from the back but he didn't feel shocked. He grinned as he grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. "What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?" She playfully flicked his hand away before leaning in for another hug. "Ani...just that work is over...so I was thinking...do you want to have dinner together? Like a date?" His eyes twinkled at her as he took her hand. "What are we waiting for?" 

It felt so good to be walking down the streets with Shin Hye again, and Jongsuk realised how dearly he had missed her the past few years. As they made their way to a famous restuarant nearby the TV station, they held hands and walked in a peaceful silence, the both of them enjoying each other's company. "Aren't you going to tell your father that you remember?" Jongsuk broke the silence with his question. Shin Hye's smile disappeared from her face as she admitted, "I was actually intending to never tell him and go on living as if he never existed." Jongsuk frowned at her response and stopped walking. "You can't live like that forever, you know that Shin Hye. No matter how much you don't want to admit it I'm sure that you miss him, right?" Shin Hye nodded, knowing that there was no way for her to lie to Jongsuk easily. "But...he caused so much trouble in the past, I don't really want to revive all that again. He did tell you to stay away from me, didn't he? Back in that alleyway." Shin Hye reminded Jongsuk. He sighed as he stared at his shoes before asking her a different question. "Then...if you don't want to reunite with him..do you want to help me seek justice for my father? I don't mean in the avenging sense, I mean finding evidence to clear my father's name. Even though this event has passed, I just want the world to know that my father was innocent." Shin Hye nodded before Jongsuk could finish the sentence. "I want to help to clear his name as well." 

As they slurped their hot noodles, Jongsuk started to jot down some notes. "First off, we need to find out what happened to the original victim. Who he was, what relation he had to both our fathers, why he died. How should we do that?" Shin Hye pondered for a moment, then replied, "I know that the victim's name was Kang Hee Gun, he was a colleague of my father's, or let's just say he was an underworld figure alongside my father. From what I found out during the time, Kang Hee Gun sshi was held hostage by my father and his family had just come up with the ransom. My father was preparing to release him when the police stormed the place and apparently your father shot Kang Hee Gun and killed him. At least, that's the story that my father came up with. I overheard him on the phone a few days after that where he admitted to killing Kang Hee Gun intentionally." Jongsuk shut his eyes in anguish at the story but opened them again, continuing systematically. "Is Hee Gun sshi's family still alive?" 

The couple made their way to the library where they searched through the newspaper archives. It took them a lot of effort to find the news from 6 years ago, but luckily for them the both of them remembered the date of the occurance, making their search a lot easier. They finally located Kang Hee Gun's orbitary and they quickly scanned the page for his family members. When he saw the name of Hee Gun's daughter, his mouth fell open in shock. There, printed in black and white, was her name. Kang Sora. 

A/N: My longest chapter to date yay! So yesterday I received a comment about how the story should be more exciting and I really thank you for the reminder! I started off intending to write a tension filled thriller but I realised that I was doing a really lousy job. My writing style leans towards the rom com section so I really apologise for that! To make up for it I restructured my story and from this chapt on I'll try to make it more exciting and thrilling. I've largely planned out the rest of the story so I hope that you'll stay with me till the end! Please do leave comments on how I can improve as well! :)