Seokjin paid head to his smart secretary's advice and met his father again. They tried their best not to share any sad, awkward moments between them, rather spend some time together like a father and son. They talked mostly, learning about each other's life and stories. Mr. Kim even brought him home, where Seokjin met his stepmother for the first time and even encountered two sisters younger than him. There was an obvious tension among all of them, but they never showed it and pretended to be kind, caring towards each other.

By the end of the evening, Seokjin and his father bid goodbye to each other in a proper manner. Mr. Kim apologized sincerely which moved his son's heart and he even hugged his son warmly. Seokjin couldn’t react properly that time, but he too had hugged back his father in an emotional way. After sharing a few smiles, they finally separated on good terms, hoping never to see each other again and live their lives on their own.

Like that, they returned to South Korea after a few weeks in Canada, successfully finishing their business tour.

Jisoo didn’t call him again. Seokjin sent her texts almost every hour and callied her a few times. But she didn’t care to receive any of them. Not surprising. He knew it would take a few days for her anger to calm down and finally talk to him again.

Till then, he planned to spend his time with someone else.

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

Seokjin was on his way to visit his ill, old mother in the hospital. It was his first time going to see her after two years. So he was very nervous although he knew well she wouldn’t even talk to him, or worse, look at her son.

The reason he was here was due to a specific reason. He wanted to tell his mother about the encounter of his father and explain it to her. He wanted her to know her husband regretted for leaving her and tried helping her financially at first. She never accepted his money out of rage and hate for him.

Mainly, he missed his mother unexpectedly, maybe after meeting his father, he realized he shouldn’t act like a coward and visit his mother regularly. He should do his responsibilities as a son. So here he was with a bouquet of flowers to see her after a long time.

Seokjin read the number of the room, and proceeded to walk inside. Pausing his breathing, he gripped the door handle and waited for his fear and anxiety to go away. He was going to meet his mother after so long. He should look good and handsome as well. So he fixed his outfit and hair, then took a long breath before finally sliding the door open.

But he stopped when the door opened slightly and a familiar voice could be heard from inside. A very beautiful dear voice. He immediately recognized the voice and his lips eventually formed a smile for her; a smile of gratitude and pride for the girl who was already inside with his sick mother.

Yoon Min.

Seokjin decided not to enter as of now and peaked through the opening to see the atmosphere inside. Inside a white wall room, there was a bed on where an elderly woman was sleeping with her arms injected with various machines. His heart throbbed after getting a glimpse of his mother. And beside her bed, there was she sitting on a chair, staring at his mother with a sweet smile and talking to her as if she's...alive.

“Are you doing well, Mrs. Kim?” Yoon Min asked politely. She didn’t receive any answer but she continued as if his mother was actually answering her, “That's good to know. Your son is also doing fine. He had a fight with his girlfriend again, but I'm sure they'll reconcile soon.” she giggled like a child.

She placed her hand over the woman's wrinkly, old hand and softly held it and brushed her thumb on her skin slowly, “I know you want to meet your son. He's gonna come one day, don't worry. He's a very big businessman and he's got loads of works so he barely finds time for himself.” She tried to sound like she wasn’t lying.

Seokjin watched how his secretary was chatting with an unconscious woman peacefully. Somehow, his heart was touched by her kind gesture, wondering how she was doing it. How was she able to pretend his mother was talking to her and acting normal in that situation? If it was him, he would stay only for a few minutes and leave.

How more perfect could she be?

“Then, there's Park Bo Gum. He's so cute when he smiles. Oh, I forgot about Ji Chang Wook. He's so sweet and handsome. Ugh, I can't help myself when I see Lee Dong Wook. I think you would also fall for his charms, Mrs. Kim. He's hot by the way.” Yoon Min laughed by herself. “In short, I don't know who's my favorite actor. There are so many handsome fellows out there, wrecking my poor heart.” She placed her hand over her left chest with a small pout.

Some minutes passed in silence except for the continuous beeping sound coming from a machine. Yoon Min licked her lower lip and glanced at his mother's face with a sad smile. She leaned on the edge of the bed more and stared at her face as if she wanted to say something but was afraid.

“Mrs. Kim...” She called out her name innocently. “I know it's hard, but please hang in there. I know you can fight your way back. Please open your eyes one day.” She held her hand again softly. “I-I don't have a mother. So I want to call you my mother a lot. But I can't do that without your permission, right?”

Seokjin turned around and leaned against the wall after hearing her. His heart was breaking to see Yoon Min respecting and taking care of his mother like her daughter, when he should've been there doing all those. He sighed heavily in sorrow. He never felt too much overwhelmed by her personality, she was so caring towards his mother.

“So wake up soon and grant my wish, okay? I promise I'll be a good daughter to you.” she smiled sweetly, secretly hoping the other would reply.

“Your son also misses you. He doesn’t show it, but I can feel it. He's so lonely and hurt and unhappy. He pretends to be fine but h-he's not. I know it. He needs you in his life, Mrs. Kim. He needs your love, your touch and your voice. Can't you come back for him?”

Yoon Min had no idea there was someone standing behind the door and sobbing silently by her words. She didn’t know her words were affecting a person so hard that he ended up crying unexpectedly. He himself didn’t know why he fell weak by her attempt to make his own mother open her eyes.

“Your son has a strong, fearless heart, Mrs. Kim. You would be so proud of him today. If only you would open your eyes...” she sighed and closed her mouth. The fact she wasn’t even listening to her was something not easy to avoid.

Yoon Min tore her gaze away from his mother before mindlessly looking at the door, slightly open. She furrowed her eyebrows, upon seeing a shadow of a presence behind the door.

She asked with a hint of confusion, “Dr. Seo? Is that you?”

When she received no answer from that person, she stood up and walked towards the entrance to see who the person was. Before she could touch the door handle, someone else slid open the door completely, and shocking her to the point she gasped loudly and her eyes widened.

There stood a Seokjin with a tiny smile and a bouquet of flowers, but his face looked wet and different.

“CEO Kim? Oh my God, you--” Yoon Min couldn’t finish her sentence out of surprise. She was mostly overwhelmed by his presence all on a sudden, unexpectedly.

He flashed another smile, hard to tell whether it was fake or not and said, “Goodness, you don't even bring flowers for my mother, Secretary Song? I'm disappointed.” he obviously teased her and walked inside.

She couldn’t move for a moment, both shocked and surprised by his unexpected visit as she turned around and stared at him more. He was really here. It wasn’t a daydream. She saw him putting the bouquet beside the bed and sat on the edge of the bed, close to his mother and he stared at her just like a young son.

Knowing it wasn’t the right time to ask, she still opened her mouth, “Sir? Did you come to see your mother?” She still couldn’t believe he was actually here. He was always scared to visit his mother, unable to accept the fact she was half-dead and feared she would leave him soon.

“I think it's time for me to stop being a coward.” He answered, glancing at her for a split second.

Yoon Min smiled and walked closer to the bed, as she sat on a chair on the other side of the bed.

When she saw Seokjin doing nothing but staring at her for a long time, she noticed the skin of his face dried with tears and his nose slightly red. It was no doubt he cried. But when did he? And how long was he standing there anyway? Why was he crying?

Questions filled her head so she shook her head sideways and blurted out, “Talk to her.”

He glanced at her face with a blank expression, as if a boy was asked to say Hello to his relatives. She instantly understood his problem and tried guiding him first, “Start by calling her.”

Seokjin sighed lightly before changing his focus on his mother. She seemed in peace, breathing stably with her eyes closed, stuck in a dark place. If he would be given the opportunity to swipe places with her, he would happily do so. His mother never complained or made him work in his childhood, she did her best to raise him on her own without anyone’s help. A little sacrifice like this was nothing.

With a soft blink, he didn’t break his gaze away from her as he softly spoke up, “Eomma...” His throat was dry and itching like stone. It's been a while he actually called her name. “I'm here.”

Once he started talking, he didn’t have to be told to what to talk about or not. He eventually got the hang of it and continued his conversation with his mother in a calm mind. He didn’t feel awkward like he thought, rather he was very comfortable and glad while being with his mother. The presence of a mother could make any problem disappear.

While Seokjin was there beside his mother, looking at her face and talking to her after a long time, Yoon Min occupied herself in watching dramas on her phone. Not that she didn’t care, she just thought to give the mother-son some privacy so she was in the room, but in a different spot.

After about an hour, the door was slid open and a female doctor entered inside with a few interns and nurses behind her. Seokjin stood up from his seat and bowed to the doctor who bowed back quickly with a bright smile.

“Omo, CEO Kim. Quite a surprise to see you here.” Dr. Seo exclaimed.

He gave a nervous smile, “Uh yes, I've been busy a lot.” He didn’t feel the necessity to give long answers.

Yoon Min noticing their presence walked to the bed and exchanged greetings firstly. Since she came here before a lot of times, the doctors knew her as Mrs. Kim's guardian, not her son. So she did all the talkings with the doctor.

“Patient Kim Hee Nam's condition's been same for the last few years. No improvements or deteriorations. So we cannot properly say anything about her health. We need to be patient and see how does this go.” Dr. Seo calmly stated the facts.

The doctor informed Seokjin about some things he didn’t know of his mother so basically, the next few minutes continued with her telling him about medical things.

After doing a daily checkup on her, the doctor and her team bowed to them before leaving the room to visit another patient. But Dr. Seo stopped midway and turned behind to him,

“CEO Kim, someone needs to take care of your secretary over there.”

Upon being her name mentioned, Yoon Min was startled and without delay, she ran to the doctor and hugged her arm like a best friend. The doctor didn’t mind, it seemed like they had grown closer like friends.

“Aigoo, Dr. Seo. You're hilarious. I'm totally fine. Nothing's wrong with me, right?” It looked like she was begging her to keep quiet.

But Seokjin had to interrupt, “Why, Dr. Seo? Is there any problem?”

“No! Nothing. She's kidding. I am--” Yoon Min couldn’t finish her sentence before the doctor answered, “She doesn’t sleep properly and stresses a lot. Which is very bad for her health. As she has Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, things like this are very bad for her. I assume you've seen her breathing fastly many times, right?”

Seokjin couldn’t process too many information at the same time. It took him a whole minute to understand everything as he nodded his head vigorously. Yes, he indeed saw her trying to breath many times, especially if she was running or taking stairs or doing any physical work. Not like normal people, she would literally behave like she couldn’t breathe at all.

“It's one of her symptoms. Along with that, she admitted that she feels dizzy a few times a day. Thank God, she hasn’t reached any serious level now, but if these continue, she will have a hard time in the future. Her heart might fail and blood clots might form in her heart.” Dr. Seo kept complaining while the secretary dropped her head in disappointment for herself and walked to a corner of the room.

“As she doesn’t have any family, you're the one close to her so though I usually don't suggest a boss to support his secretary, but please make sure she isn't stressed, eats healthy food, rests well, sleeps enough. She was born with a weak heart and it's not her fault. You must make sure to take care of her both physically and mentally.”

Seokjin glanced at Yoon Min, only to meet her back facing him in a corner. Was she that embarrassed? He licked his lips and nodded his head obediently, “Yes, I understand, Dr. Seo. Thank you. I-I'll take care of her myself.”

Dr. Seo smiled, “Good.” Then she took a glance at the secretary with a smirk before finally leaving the room.

“Hey, don't listen to her. She says unnecessary things most of the time. I'm totally fine and healthy.” Yoon Min explained with a nervous smile.

Seokjin crossed his arms over his chest, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Ugh, Sir, nothing's wrong, okay? I'm fine and I can take care of myself! Sure, I do feel a bit of weak and dizzy often, but who doesn’t, right?” She clapped her hands out of nowhere and laughed to make her words look logical. Although that made her look stupid.

He rolled his eyes and told her strictly, “From now on, you're forbidden to stay awake after 12 a.m.”

She widened her eyes in shock and exclaimed, “What!? No! What about my dramas?”

“Don't care. You're lucky I didn’t spill anything to the doctor that you stay late at night till 2-3 a.m. and watch dramas! This concerns your health, Yoon Min. Please be serious about it.”

Yoon Min pouted sadly and wanted to give a thousand excuses, just to watch her dramas. But she knew her health mattered more. Though he didn’t know the actual reason she couldn’t sleep at night. And she didn’t bother to tell him either.

She had traumas. Since the night in the orphanage when the male caretaker sinfully managed to touch her, she couldn’t sleep properly due to fear and loneliness. If only there was someone by her side every night; guarding her, protecting her, holding her till forever...

But she was unlucky. She could never have anyone like that.

“Okay.” She seemed like a baby whose parents didn’t care to take a look at her drawing. That soft, little whisper with her head lowered and sad pout were enough for the other to pity her and take back his words. He could've said it a bit nicer, right?

So Seokjin walked to her and placed both of his hands over her shoulders, startling her as she faced his eyes with an expression of confusion and surprise. It would take just a few seconds for her heart to go crazy.

“I don't have anyone else beside you. So I don't wanna lose you to some sickness, okay?”

Yoon Min blinked slowly, her lips parted away to say something but only air escaped her mouth and he didn’t stay long, he showed a faint smile and walked away from her side to his mother again.

Well, no kidding her heart was weak. It was all because of him.