Seokjin nibbled his bottom lip at the sight in front of him.

Almost all children were crying, their faces were red as lava and eyes pushing tears into a river. None of them agreed to let go of their eldest sister. They had disapproved the decision from the beginning and now, they hugged her arms, her legs, her waist tightly, begging her not to leave them.

As much as he wanted to butt in and explain, he was more scared of Yoon Min; the one with the obscure face since morning. He didn’t approach her all day because she seemed to be fighting mentally against something. No matter what, he couldn’t read her thoughts or understand her emotions. He thought she would be crying, but she wasn’t. She was standing stone still and let the children plead her. She tried to convince them, but who can win against the stubbornness of kids?

“Interesting, isn't she?” Mr. Choi's elderly voice rung beside him.

Seokjin shrugged his shoulders lightly, his arms folded over his chest, “I just find it hard to understand her.”

“That's because she's hiding her true feelings.”

Mr. Choi seemed to see through her, “See, she wants to cry with them. She doesn’t want to leave them. But look, she's holding herself. If she cries, the children will think of this as an emotional farewell. So she's keeping that unreadable face and acting strong. I assume she's breaking down inside.”

Was that it? Was that what she really was doing?

He found it impossible sometimes to think how much of a good heart Yoon Min had. She sounded perfect to him. But no one in this world is perfect. So what was she? How did she learn to be kind and strong even though there was no one to teach her?

His thoughts broke when the manager started speaking,

“I might want to give you a small advice, CEO Kim.” He turned towards him with a serious, pale look. “Yoon Min is someone who'll help you out a lot. She will doubt herself every second, but she will try her hardest to make you believe in her and give her best in everything.”

“She'll take care of you unaware to your realization. And one day, she'll became so precious to you. I'm saying it because I've felt it and I know you'll feel it too.”

The manager gave a soft smile, his eyes were quiet but they begged the man wholeheartedly, “So I request you not to be harsh on that child. Don't scold her too much, don't hurt her, don't break her trust. She'll bury everything inside her poor heart and act fine, but that's how she'll suffer on her own. Please be kind to her, CEO Kim.”

Seokjin was silent by the words of his advice, the way he was telling him about her as if he'll start to treasure her more than anyone in Earth, confused him. Why did it feel as if she will grow to be precious to his heart?

He nodded and gently answered, “I-I understand, Mr. Choi.”

Finally, Yoon Min was done bidding goodbye to the children after she swore on her life that she would pay them a visit every once in a while. She hugged all of them tightly in her embrace for a long time before telling each of them to be kind and brave, to help out each other and grow to be a good person.

Leaving them in front of the orphanage, she came out through the gates with her bag and found the men outside waiting for her.

As soon as her eyes met the manager's, she gave him a straight bow and spoke up, “Ahjussi, t-thank you so much for having me and taking care of me.” her voice sounded broken while speaking.

“Don't say that, my dear.” Mr. Choi patted her head and gave her a light hug. “Without you, this orphanage wouldn’t be the way it is today. You turned this loathing place into a family. Thanks to you, the children had a happy childhood and they were well taught of manners and duties. You should forgive m-me for not taking enough care of you.”

Seokjin smiled softly by their heart touching moment and decided to give them a minute. He took her bag from the ground to put it in the car. But upon realizing the bag only had two of her dresses and letters, drawings, notes from the children; his heart truly broke for them.

Yoon Min was their mother. He was separating her from them.

Guilt took over his mind. But knowing sometimes we need to sacrifice our needs and our happiness for a better life, he avoided the thought and put her bag on the backseat. After all, she will be visiting them time to time. It won't be a big deal.

Their bittersweet goodbye came to an end as well. So Seokjin opened the passenger door for her and waited. Yoon Min understanding his gesture, quickly bowed to the manager again respectfully and turned towards the children, gave them a bye-bye wave with a forced smile and finally got inside the car with a deep breath.

He closed the door and suddenly, he started to feel quite nervous.

Mr. Choi smiled sadly at him and asked politely, “Please take g-good care of her.”

“I will.” Seokjin replied. “I promise.”

And then, he walked around and got inside the driver's seat beside her before shutting the door. He started the engine and slowly, the car began to drive away from the orphanage gates.

Yoon Min watched from the sideview mirror that the children were waving continuously at her with sorrowful faces and the distance growing longer and longer. She was going away from her home, faraway. The moment made her heart clench in pain and she looked away in order to stop herself from crying.

The reason she didn’t cry were a few. She didn’t want the children to feel she was sad. Most importantly, she didn’t want to act weak in front of Seokjin. She didn’t want him to pity her, because if he did, he would do many things to cheer her up. But she didn’t want that. She was afraid her heart might fall for him when she wasn’t supposed to.

Suddenly, after driving for a few blocks, the car slowed down to a side and stopped.

Yoon Min glanced at him. She saw him not talking and taking of his seatbelt for some reason. Did they arrive already? Should she get out too?

Being more confused, she opened up her mouth to ask. But he was fast before her and she shivered when his warm voice vibrated into her eardrums,

“Cry for a while. I'll wait outside.”

Like that, he opened the door, got out and closed it for her privacy.

Somehow, that one kind action of his shook her whole heart and she found her eyes dropping tears of agony. She wanted to cry since a long time but couldn’t as she promised she won't. The pain in her heart had to stop so she cried and cried until she didn’t feel the need anymore. She emptied her heart that was already missing the orphanage and tried to comfort her by herself.

Destiny might had played cruelty here by separating her from the kids, but it also blessed her a guardian to protect her from now on. A person she could trust and lean on for eternity. Now it was only the matter of time how their relationship will fade into.

-----------

The ride to his place was quite but the silence was appreciated. None of them wanted to talk anyway. They even didn’t dare to look at each other. Yoon Min wasn’t crying anymore and she was watching the tall buildings in fascination. Like a child, her eyes were sparkling in wonder by the new inventions and modern apartments she only saw in magazines.

Seokjin glanced at her without her knowledge and had a tiny smile on his lips, finding her excitement.

Finally after almost three hours of non-stop driving, the car finally stopped at a certain spot in a busy city.

Yoon Min's jaw dropped by the amazing height of the tall building in front of her. She immediately started to count the flats with her finger, which made Seokjin chuckle quietly. He parked the car in the garage and stood beside her.

“This is a penthouse apartment.” he pointed his finger at the top. “I live on the highest floor. You'll be living below my floor.”

She made an O-shaped mouth and nodded.

“A branch of our hotel is recently being constructed in Seoul. My office is also nearby so I moved in here a few months ago. Basically, I have a few mansions across the country and--”

He talked about some things which she couldn’t understand but pretended to listen. As he walked inside while talking about buildings and lands he owned, her head moved everywhere in wonder. The place was luxurious. Upon reaching the lobby, every staff and employee there stopped their work and bowed to him.

“Good evening, Sir.” most of them greeted.

Yoon Min was surprised to find so many people bowing to him. Did that mean he was a famous man?

Seokjin didn’t bow back though as he walked pass them without caring.

They entered inside an enclosed place. He called it an “Elevator”. A nice machine that could carry people up and down to different levels in a building. Yoon Min gasped lightly when it dinged and started to go up. She gripped the pillar for support and looked everywhere curiously. Cool.

After some seconds, the doors opened again to a whole new place. Seokjin walked out of the elevator, so she followed him out too. She wrote a mental note to ride the elevator again some time.

The floor they were was pretty empty. It had clean, white walls with marble floor. He led her to a door which she assumed to be her new home. He looked at her,

“Are you ready?” he had a playful smile.

She nodded excitedly.

He pressed some numbers on a device beside. “This is pin-protected. Which means none can open your door from outside unless they know the Pin. I put 1111 for now, you can change it later.” after pressing them, the door opened automatically. 

Yoon Min thought her eyes were going to pop out from her face. The flat was so spacious and wide with so many rooms and necessary furnitures. The shiny marble floor had a high-gloss appearance and the glass windows were open with beautiful curtains hung.

She stood there with her mouth open.

“Feel free to--” before Seokjin could finish his sentence, she already started to explore while exclaiming “Wow”, “Whoa” time to time. He smiled at her behaviour before entering inside and gave her a whole tour of everything.

His tour not only included introduction of her rooms, but how to use modern technologies as well. She almost freaked out when she saw the automated light sensor system everywhere in her flat. She couldn’t believe the lights could detect her movement. Also when the air-conditioner was turned on, it took Seokjin a minute to drag her away from it, she loved the idea of how the AC could produce cold air; it scared him if she would put her hand inside in curiosity.

Her kitchen was almost thrice larger than the one in the orphanage. It had so many shelves, kitchen units and items such as ovens, dishwasher, sink, refrigerator, stove top, what not. She wanted to open the fridge first but he didn’t let her because he hadn’t provided food inside yet. He led her to her living room instead.

The living room looked so cozy. Many couches and armchairs were placed circling the coffee table. There was a fireplace too. He bragged about the flat-screen LG's 50-inch Z9 OLED TV mostly but seemed like she wasn’t interested in it. In fact, she was literally screaming by the size of the huge bookcase behind the armchair which contained almost 70 books of all genres.

“Oh my God, look at all those books!” Yoon Min exclaimed in delight and placed her hands on the glass door.

Seokjin added, “I especially ordered them for you. I don't know what types you usually read so I put every genre inside. You can throw some out if you don't like them.”

She had the widest smile he ever saw on her as she turned around and her eyes squeezed in happiness. “Seokjin-ssi--” could she hug him?

“I know, you're welcome. Let me show you your bedroom.”

He smiled warmly before leading her to the bedroom.

The bedroom surprised her most. It was a platform bed with latex foam design that causes exceptional pressure relief and support; along with mattress toppers, soft sheets, fluffy comforters, down pillows, and pristine room décor to create a comfortable ambiance. There was two night stands, a full-length mirror beside the huge closet, a cute dressing table and another TV as well. The en-suite was spacious and clean. She wanted to hop on the cozy bed and fall asleep.

He taught her how to use the shower cubicle and some other important things. Lastly, he stood in front of her closet and was going to open it.

A part of her was too excited to see what was inside, but soon became disappointed when it appeared to be empty.

“I need to take you shopping soon. You need some clothes.” he murmured as if it was no big deal.

He closed the doors and looked at her, “It's weekend tomorrow so hopefully, we can go to the mall and buy you whatever you need. You just have to manage a night.”

Yoon Min felt ashamed to be dependent on him so much. But she couldn’t help it. She had no money or experience to live in a city. For now, she had to take his help unwillingly. She promised to herself that she would pay him back for his unnumbered kindness. So she nodded with a smile.

“So did you like it?” Seokjin asked innocently while walking out of her flat. “I didn’t have enough time to arrange everything perfectly, also I wanted you to decorate your own home by yourself so I just kept everything simple.”

Yoon Min wondered how much kindness he had in his heart to call the place he bought, her home. She didn’t even do anything.

“I-I am speechless, Seokjin-ssi. I imagined a little house but you gave me so much more; and everything is so expensive and good...” she trailed off with a faint smile. “I don't deserve all this, do I?”

He took a second to process her question. No, she deserved way more.

“I promise I'll repay you after I settle here. Do not worry about it.” she grinned at him.

Seokjin didn’t help her so that she could repay him. He did everything on his own will. But he knew how Yoon Min was; genuine and polite, so she obviously would say that. So he didn’t refuse her offer. He let her take her own decisions.

He nodded with a little smile.

As his eyes noticed the night sky, he realized it was past 8 p.m. and decided it was time for him to leave. They spent enough time together today.

Seokjin took a look at his watch before saying, “I'll order dinner for you so wait for a few minutes more, okay? And I live right upstairs so if anything happens, just run out of your apartment and take the elevator to mine.”

She nodded like a good student. Hopefully no such thing will happen by which she would have to ask for his help. Wait, dinner could be ordered?

“So...”

Yoon Min met his eyes and her thoughts broke, “Ah, I understand. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. You can go now. Thank you.”

He nodded and hesitantly turned around. He took a few steps and felt like he shouldn’t leave yet. Although he was arguing whether he shouldn’t or couldn’t.

But a sudden question popped inside his head. He immediately turned around to look at her,

“Is today 18th June?”

Yoon Min didn’t expect a question like that at this moment so it took her some seconds to nod.

Seokjin blinked in surprise and lost words for what he was gonna say.

It's her birthday.

Breaking out in dismay, he immediately rambled out, “God I forgot! Happy Birthday!”

Somehow that one little, cute action fluttered her heart and she couldn’t help but to admire his good heart. She was wished rarely on her birthdays throughout years. She didn’t care too. After all, it’s just the day she was born. And her being born wasn’t very helpful to her parents and to the world. Unlike some whose birthdays are very special because they have a meaning.

But him, a complete stranger who felt so dear to him for the past weeks, wishing her made her feel a tiny bit special.

“Thank you, Seokjin-ssi. So nice of you to wish me.” she avoided eye-contact as much as possible.

Seokjin however had noticed those different shade of colours on her cheeks. There was no possible way she was blushing, right? It was just a wish.

He smiled at the thought and was going to blush as well. But conscious him cleared his throat before straightening his back,

“Goodnight, Yoon Min.”

She nodded her head with a sincere smile, “Sleep well, Seokjin-ssi.”

As Seokjin leaned against the corner of the elevator, his mind was dancing with the thought of creating a list of things he was going to do with her. He wasn’t this excited for anything in his life before. He just knew he had to take proper care of her so that she could smile more.

Yoon Min was now his responsibility.

So he would do anything for her as her only guardian.

The only thing he had to worry about was how will Jisoo react to this news.