It was 9 a.m in the morning when I woke up. Haneul was still fast asleep. I picked up my phone to see five missed calls, two from Jenna and three from Loco, I called Jenna back. “Hello?” “Ah, Jenna you called?” “Ma’am! I have to tell you something in person, it’s very important!” “Ok, I’ll be at the Korean Folk Village in ten so meet me their.” “Yes ma’am, bye.” I put my phone back on the night stand by my bed and gently shook Haneul. He awoke rubbing his eyes then stared at me blankly. “Haneul, do you wanna go to the Korean Folk Village with mommy?” Haneul’s sleepy eyes suddenly woke up excitedly “YES!” After I said my goodbye’s to Mr. Bang me and Haneul ending up in front of the Korean Folk Village, five minutes late. I saw a happy child in traditional Korean clothing running by, it made me smile. The child ran up to his mother, she looked at me, it was Jenna. She walked towards me holding her child’s hand and bowed. “Hi Haneul, do you want to play with my son Jung?” Haneul nodded excitedly and the two children ran off, just far enough to be seen. Jenna smiled pulling an orange envelope out of her bag “Read this.” I took the paper out of her hand and opened it, my mouth fell open in shock. “T-these are-” Jenna nodded her head “I met with a man who saw the whole situation first hand.” She looked towards her child “You know as well as I do that this information could get me killed. If they . . . just so happen too” the words were hard for her to say “just please take care of my child.” I put a hand on her shoulder and smiled “nothing is going to happen to you, I promise.” I could see that the answer wasn’t good enough, she wanted confirmation “But if something does, I’ll treat him as if he were my own.” Jenna smiled bowing almost a hundred times “Thank you.” “Jung” she called for her son who came running over almost tripping on his long clothes. She grabbed his hand “let’s go.” She bowed then walked off. I turned and grabbed Haneul’s hand; I had something to take care of. I was in the car driving way faster than the speed limit when I decided to make a call. “Zico?” I heard an exhausted voice answer back “Erica?” I smiled feeling happy to hear his voice, weird. “Where are you? I need to meet you, tonight.” Zico coughed a little “where?” “Han River, like last time.” “Ok, I’ll be their by seven.” I was about to hang up but stopped, being caught up in emotion “Thank you, for everything.” I heard a light chuckle “No problem.” I hung up feeling like I wanted the conversation to last longer but I had no time. I pulled into my house’s driveway at 5 p.m, I wasn’t planning to stay long. I left Haneul in the car and walked into the house, the orange envelope in my hand. I found my husband sitting in his office with a pile of papers. I threw the envelope down to announce my presence. “You were the monster.” Loco took a minute to process the situation and picked up the envelope, he read every word carefully then looked at me, with fear in his eyes. “E-Erica, I can-” “What? Explain that you killed Zico’s whole family?” Loco seemed to look off into the distance “If this is the end of us . . . then at least let me tell you the full story.” WHAT THE ENVELOPE UNVEILED/LOCO’S PERSPECTIVE I fell to the floor having the air punched out of me. I was being punished, punished for wanting out of this stupid gang. “How bout this, you kill the girl or we kill you.” They were talking about Erica, when I thought we were good friends, I’d tell them all about how much I liked her, I wish I didn’t. “No, she didn’t do anything wrong. S-she doesn’t even know me, I never confessed my feelings for her.” My words were followed with another punch to my gut. The misery would never end. The gangster who was once so nice to me leaned down and put his hand on my shoulder “Kill her or I kill you.” It finally sunk through my skull, I didn’t have a choice, she had to die. I just finished the last day of college before spring break, and I was running. “Wait!” I yelled to the beautiful figure two feet ahead of me. When I finally caught up to her she just stared at me in confusion. “Will . . . you . . .” I took deep breaths before every word “go to dinner . . . with me?” That was it I’d finally did it, my mission would soon be over. “No” she replied then kept walking. I ran after her like a puppy chasing it’s owner “Why? You don’t even know me, how can you say no before even finding out how cool I am?” She did a little smirk but kept walking, I followed. A couple minutes later we ended up in front of her house, I was begging for a date the whole way. She looked at me seeming to want me to leave, I wouldn’t give up that easily. “Please g-go on a-”, I fainted. It was probably around 8 when I woke up in the hospital, she was there staring at me. She was so beautiful. “Yah, are you feeling better?” She looked so concerned, I was honored. I felt my head “What happened?” She made an annoyed face “you happened” then she got up to leave. I laid back down frustrated, I failed. Just before I could punch my cot in frustration, she turned around. “Come pick me up at 7, tomorrow night . . . or no date” then she walked off, obviously proud of her coolness. “When are you going to kill her? It’s been a whole month!” I stared at my mad gang leader “If you don’t kill, her theirs no out of this gang!” I was on my knees with two gang members, I used to be close with, pointing guns at me. “Soon, I’ll kill her soon. What does it matter anyway? Not like she did anything wrong, just can’t wait to see me suffer?” Rule number one, don’t speak your mind to the gang leader, I was smacked in the head with a gun. I walked down the street holding Erica’s hand, tonight was the night I killed her. “Loco, thank you for walking me home.” “No problem, it’s super dark, I could never send you home alone.” I had a gun in my back pocket, a girlfriend who was forcing herself to love me, and the mind of a murderer. My life was ruined, if I killed her or not. We were finally reaching her house and I felt a cold sweat run down me neck. “Here we are” I pointed my hand towards the door. She turned to me and smiled “Thank you.” I watched her turn away, this was my chance. I put my hand on the gun in my back pocket, I couldn’t do it. I chose her life over mine. “Erica” she turned around giving me her full attention “I love you.” She just smiled, I looked at her precious smile thanking god I got the chance to know her before I died. A year later me and Erica were madly in love, engaged, and most importantly alive. I never returned to my gang and gave myself the permission to leave, nothing ever happened, I was free, or so I thought. Erica had a stalker, his name was Zico, I had to protect her, and I grabbed a knife. I was going to chase after him. A few minutes later, we were on a roof, facing death itself. “I was ordered to kill you” Zico said, it finally all made sense. I wasn’t surprised but more disappointed “I knew it, they would never just let me go.” “I just want to kill you and get this over with, I’ll take care of Erica.” “What did they threaten you with, a lover . . . your family?” Zico looked down, I guessed right. “Let’s make a deal, fake kill me and I’ll go into hiding so they’ll believe you, or attempt to kill me and I’ll kill your family instead.” Zico looked down at the gun in his hands “No, No, I’m going to kill you.” He seemed to have a plan as he looked up with a new fire in his eyes. “Let’s stick to your first deal, whoever dies has Erica.”I stood in position realizing he wasn’t going to give up and was ready for war, his family would die. After I left the hospital, I told Erica I had to go away on a one month business trip to get the role as a Co-CEO for a really good company, not a total lie. I spent two weeks planning on how to kill Zico’s family . . . through a fire. I wasn’t serious about killing them at first, but the gang contacted me again a few weeks ago. They said if I killed them I was free to go and with a baby on the way that’s all I needed. Of course I’d have to go through being a suspect but it’d happen while I was away from home so I didn’t have to worry. It would all go the way I wanted, I just couldn’t have Erica find out. PRESENT/ERICA PERSPECTIVE I put Haneul in the car then walked around to the drivers seat. “Erica, wait!” yelled Loco walking up to me, grabbing my hand. I pulled my hand away furiously “No, get off me!” I got in my car, starting the engine. “Erica, I can explain!” Loco pleaded but I didn’t answer. I drove off onto the night highway. Tears began to fall down my eyes as I thought about the past with my false lover. Was it all a lie? I refused to believe it was fake. I looked up at the street as I tried to shake the thoughts and was surprised by a fifty pound truck driving directly in front of me. “Haneul!” I screamed, as I realized it was too late to drive out the way. Before I could even blink an eye the car crashed into mine, shooting excruciating pain through my body, then slowly everything went black.