Chapter 12 – Breakthrough of heart

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Dark had fallen by the time Minho left the study room. Dr. Park had come and gone long ago but Minho's head was still swimming.

It was weird to have his memories back after so long and at first he hadn't been sure if it had been for the best. Memory-less….Minho had been quite happy, peaceful even, he had planned projects and a happy prospect of life ahead of him with his wife.

That was the thing, Jinri. Minho had to figure out how Jinri fit in his life now. Honestly once his memory was suddenly returned, Minho was quite confusing and he had tried to remain apart from Jinri while he sorted out his thoughts. Minho didn't want to say something to hurt her just because he couldn't make sense to what was going on in his head. He was well past the time when he had tried to hurt her. Memories or not, he was tired of that.

The last few months had been like something out of someone else's life. Minho had become the type of man who wasn't ashamed to look at himself in the mirror. He had a wife who loved him and filled his days with so much love and laugher….and the …. with Jinri was like nothing he had ever experienced before, it was more than a rush of pleasure and the subsequent satisfaction… and he had never felt so peaceful afterwards.

And as the more he looked back, Minho realized that he had missed Jinri a lot more than what he dared himself to admit. From the past of those days apart from her, Minho had missed her friendship and the security it provided.

Minho had tasted what life could have been with Jinri and he liked it.

He liked loving his wife and having her close all the time. He liked having her smiling up at him and only for him in a way of love and caring. He wanted her healthy in his bed and they cuddled each other every day and night.

He loved how she always fixed his coffee at breakfast just the way he liked it and prepared everything for each meal he'd want. Minho liked taking care of Jinri. He liked the fact that Choi Jinri was only his and that he was perfectly entitled to feel happy when she was with him. There was no guilt or remorse when she was in his life.

As Minho climbed the stairs up to their room, he was ready to talk to Jinri, to tell her that he was truly sorry for the past, very sorry for hurting her again and again. He wanted to kiss her pain away and tell her that how much he still wanted the future they had been planning together, that he wasn't going to hurt her again if she could trust him… and that, the bottom line, he loved her, he really did. It had been true that morning and it still was as night settled.

Minho knew that he was a jerk, that was true and he might have been a lot of things but after all he wasn't fickle. Once his resentments had been whipped away with his memories, Minho had fallen in love with Jinri….No corrected that, he had fallen more even deeper with Jinri. He fell hard for her trueness, sweetness, kindness and all the little things that made her Choi Jinri.

Minho pushed open the door and was surprised when he didn't find Sangchu to come running at him, barking his head off like usual as a matter of fact there was no sign of Sangchu anywhere, nor was there any sign of his wife.

"Mr. Kim!" Called Minho loudly.

Oddly, Minho felt something not right. Instinctively he went to the dressing room and his heart started to beat faster once he found out something. Though many things still remained, it was obvious that some of Jinri's things and her clothes had been removed.

"Did you call, sir?" Asked Mr. Kim with an air that he had been waiting for Minho to call him.

"Where is my wife?" Asked Minho.

"Mrs. Choi felt that her presence would no longer be welcome here now that your memories are restored." Answered Mr. Kim.

"So where is she? Did she move to another bedroom? Which one?" Asked Minho frantic.

Mr. Kim sighed. "No sir. She went back to Busan. She thought that it would be your wish, so she left earlier this afternoon."

Minho was surprise yet confused. "What? Leaving to Busan? And how did she know about my memory returning?"

"She eavesdropped when Dr. Park came and she left immediately afterwards."

"And why didn't you tell me then?" Demanded Minho.

"Mrs. Choi didn't want me to."

"So what? She just up and left?!" 'Left me?' It was what Minho really wanted to say out loud but it would be too humiliating to admit it.

Jinri had left him in an ironic twist of fate. She had left him just like he had left her all those years ago. And she was gone again like when one morning Minho had found her note telling him that she was going to remove herself from his life and saying that she was sorry for ruining everything.

Minho still remembered that day, once he found Jinri's note, it had felt like a knife wedged into his side for a long time. He knew something had died inside of him that day when she had left him, the same way something was dying, maybe it was his heart….right now.

Minho sank into the bed, holding his head in his hands, barely aware that Mr. Kim had left the room. He laid there looking at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep, not without Jinri snuggled up to him, tucked safely at his side, keeping him warm.

- - - -

From the distance, Minho was looking toward a quiet house and then he saw her. It was his wife, she was with someone whom he recognized she was the maid of the house. They seemed to be arrived from somewhere and they walked a little bit faster, talking and laughing on the way.

Minho looked up to the sky and realized that it was about to rain soon and as just when he settled his gaze back to the women, panic instantly made a flop in his stomach when he saw Jinri tripped and instantly fell to the ground.

Minho wanted to expose himself right away and rushed to help Jinri up, only to stop abruptly when he was sure that she was just fine with the elder maid by her side.

"I'm much clumsy, true enough." Said Jinri as she laughed a little.

"No you are not my little lady. Please try to be careful." Said the maid worriedly as she helped Jinri wiped the dust from her pants. She sighed. "I shouldn't have brought you out. You need a plenty rest. Your condition isn't that good recently."

Minho felt sudden twinge in his heart to know Jinri wasn't in a good health. And he also realized, she really looked paler and skinnier from last month he had seen her. It had been a year now after Jinri had left him and Minho constantly took a secret escape from Seoul, just all the way to Busan once or twice per week, just to be sure to himself that Jinri was fine.

Though luck wasn't fair enough to him every time he visited her because it was like not more than 10 times, he could see her. Entire years, Jinri wasn't allowed to go out frequently and no difference to this situation that she wasn't out much and he surely knew the reason why.

Most of the time, Minho would just relax and slept through nights unless he saw the maid at his constant visit. Her normally daily activities were all the reassurance to Minho, knowing nothing was going wrong with Jinri.

"Nothing serious. I'm fine unnie. And well, I just want to be out once in awhile." Said Jinri as she smiled. The same sad smile which never reached her beautiful eyes that Minho was so used to it yet he still hated to see that kind of smile like it had been graved on her face whenever she smiled, though he knew, he was one of the big reason behind it.

Drops of rain started to fall and Minho didn't realize it until he saw Jinri looked up to the semi-dark sky with the 'O' formed over . He couldn't help but to smile at her innocent cuteness.

"It's raining!" Said Jinri.

"Yes, obvious enough and we aren't going to stand here forever. Come on, let's g