Pay With Your Heart

Dan-Han didn't waste any more time before returning to the hospital. When he returned to the hospital, Eun-sun was still sleeping, and she looked peaceful. He had for a moment on his way back thought about Eun-sun absconding before he returned to the hospital. Well, he wouldn't be too surprised because she had done it before. But there she was, still sleeping.

"Good evening sir" A nurse stood up to greet him the moment he walked into the room. She was the nurse had requested. He replied with a curt nod, and said, "You can leave now" He was going to look after her, and he wasn't going to let her out of his sight till he was sure she was okay. He knew she'll be having a hard time when she wakes up. Been betrayed like she was, was the last thing anybody would want to experience, most especially by their parent. And according to what he knew about the drug, he doubted if she'd remember what happened last night. The drug had a CNS effect, that blocks the formation of short-term memory once it reaches the brain.

Dan-Han placed his palm on her forehead and scrunched his brows when he realized she was quite cold. He felt her palm and it felt the same. He pulled up the quilt to cover her and increased the temperature of the air-condition to a favorable one.

Dan-Han lolled himself on a seat close to her bed and held her small cold palm in his warm large hands. Looking at her small heart-shaped face and imagining the number of hardships she must have endured, he felt heartbroken for her.

He knew life could be cruel, but he couldn't imagine how cruel it would be when your loved ones bring you the worst of pain. Her mother was about to give her away to a low-life scum just to settle a debt? What kind of hardship has she been enduring all her life? It seems he hasn't been paying attention to the woman he claimed to love or like. He had indeed failed in this aspect.

He looked at the time and it was really late, but that couldn't stop his curiosity. He picked up his phone and called Chang-wok.

Chang-wok who has not been able to return to sleep after his boss called him, had decided to stay awake just in case he decided to call back. He immediately picked the call the second it vibrated.

"Sir" He greeted politely.

"Get me everything you can find about Ms. Park, in 30 minutes" He ordered, before hanging up.

Chang-wok almost felt like passing out the moment his boss dished out his order. Just thirty minutes to get the full information of a person? Was his boss trying to kill him? He understood what the boss meant by his order, when he says everything, he meant 'everything'. Which included how many times she took her baths in a day, how many laws she had broken, and even the nurse who delivered her mother and cut up her placenta. That was what 'everything' meant. And he dared not be a second later than thirty minutes.

'It seems his workload had just increased by a thousand tons since the boss fell in love. His life was going to fall apart soon. 'The pathetic life of the secretary of President Lee' should be the title of the book which should be written in his honor.

.....

Thirty minutes later, sitting on the couch at the side of the room, Dan-Han received a mail from Chang-Wok, and immediately he started reading it.

His countenance changed after he read through the first page, and with every detail, he read after that the more sullen his face began. His mood turned sour so much that the temperature around him dropped to a freezing point. At this moment he felt like plunging a dagger into someone's heart and twisting it till he made some irreparable damage.

Was he reading a tragedy series based on fiction or someone's real-life experience? He asked himself.

This felt like he was reading the sad ordeal of an aged woman, but who would believe it was just a brief biography of a small girl who had only started living a few years ago. She hasn't been living, and according to this report, she had barely been existing... struggling and fighting for people who didn't deserve her one bit.

The last ten years of her life have been nothing but painful, and filled with extreme hardship. Looking at the number of jobs she had done in such a short time, he was sure most people did them in a lifetime.

His heart bled for her. Also looking at the number of debts her family was buried deep in, and seeing the number of multiple jobs she had worked all these years and the number of debts she had struggled to refund in such little time he fully understood why she was so cautious of being indebted to people, and why she was so defensive. She already had enough debt to last her a lifetime.

Dan-Han looked lifted his eyes to look at her, and he gently ran his hand through her hair, his eyes looking at her so lovingly. His admiration for the girl had just gone over the roof.

She was indeed a fighter.

"Everything will be better from now on, I promise," He said before kissing her cheek so gently.

.....

Next morning.

Because of the effect of the drug Eun-sun slept all through the night. She shook her head in her sleep and her hand tightly gripped the sheet. Beads of sweat were forming all over her head.

"Please stop" She mumbled out in her sleep.

"Mom please, save me" She begged, a tear rolling down her cheek.

At that moment Dan-Han who had walked out of the room to answer a call walked back in, and he saw her 

"Don't touch me, please" She continued to mumble out in her sleep. Her actions made Dan-Han frown. She was having a bad dream.

With hurried steps, Dan-Han sauntered to her side. He placed one hand on her head and another held her hand, and with a gentle voice, he spoke, "Hey wake up. It's just a dream" He muttered softly, but the girl was unresponsive.

"Eun-sun, wake up" He shook her a bit harder and that woke her up.

Her eyes immediately flicked open as she forcefully and frightfully jerked up to sit on the bed, snapping her hand away from whoever was holding her, her breathing was quite fast.

Dan-Han understood that her reaction was normal because of the unfortunate situation she had been in last night.

"Calm down, it's just me," Dan-Han said softly, as he tried to comfort her. He wouldn't lie, he was feeling really sad about her all she had passed through and endured, and even now she was still having a hard time.

Eun-sun looked at the man that was standing by her side, as she tried to calm herself down.

"Mr. Lee?" She called in a small voice like she wasn't sure she was seeing the right person.

"It's fine. It's just me, relax" He raised his hand to pat her hair but he stopped himself midway.

Eun-sun looked at him in a daze before she looked around the room, and she looked at herself. Looking at the familiar environment, she looked back at Dan-Han.

"You brought me here?" She asked him.

"Yes, I did" He replied. "Wait let me call the doctor to check on you," He told her, before turning to leave, while her eyes followed him. He paused at the door and looked at her when he remembered something.

"Don't leave I'll be back" He didn't want her to abscond again, especially when Jae-Hyun hasn't confirmed the state of her health.

Understanding what Dan-Han meant, she nodded her head, while Dan-Han walked out.

Eun-sun looked herself over the moment Dan-Han walked out of the room. How was it that he was the one that had brought her here? What happened last night?

The memories of what had happened at her mother's place stormed her brain, and realizing what could have happened to her, Eun-Sun felt her heart clench against her chest. Her eyes turned red and teary, and tears controllably rolled down her cheeks. Not just because she might have been molested by an animal, but because she had been betrayed and humiliated by her other. Her Mother had torn her heart into shreds and humiliated her. She couldn't remember the later part of the night after she passed out on the floor in the sitting room, so she could only imagine the worst; that she had been taken and defiled by a monster and her mother had aided this devilish act.

Eun-sun felt like her heart was breaking into pieces. The betrayal and pain she had endured were making the wall of her heartache so much that she felt breathless. The pain was too much Eun-sun gasped for air, she had one desire right now and that was to die. She couldn't continue like this. What was the essence of fighting for someone who doesn't want her? And treated her worst than an animal? Wasn't calling her cursed enough? Why did she have to betray like this too?

The more Eun-sun cried the more her heart ached and the pain was so much that it was piercing through every part of her. Even her throat hurt that she couldn't even cry out. She just kept hitting her chest hardly so the pain could go away. She thought she was getting used to her mother's treatment, but no, she wasn't. And now her own mother just had to make her dirty.

Dirty with the hand of a man like Carlos.

Dan-Han who had just returned from calling Jae-Hyun stepped into the room and he was welcomed to a heartbreaking scene of Eun-sun weeping bitterly and forcefully beating her chest.

His heart flew out of him as he ran to her bedside. His hand flying over her and pulling her into a hug with no care if she would like it or not.

"Why are you crying like this?" Dan-Han asked with a tone that was very sad and broken. Even he couldn't find his voice seeing her like this.

Eun-sun gripped his shirt tightly and placed her head on his chest, "Mr. Lee, I just want to die" She cried as more tears rolled down her face.

Yes, she'd rather die, than stay in this world where she was been treated cruelly.