Pay With Your Heart

Eun-sun didn't know how to feel after she had gone to her mother's place and found out her father wasn't there.

She was beginning to doubt herself if truly he was the one which she had seen. Maybe it wasn't the one. Her father couldn't see her and walk past. He couldn't come to the same city and not come home. Though a part of her told her she had seen correctly and part of her wanted to believe her Father wouldn't act in such manner. He was a loving and caring father. He had shown her the best of love while she was a child. Countless times had he told her she was his princess and he would never leave her and her mother.

But he broke his promise and left, but she still didn't think he was a terrible father. She had always believed he had a reason for leaving, his company had shut down, and the loan at the bank was huge. She had felt he had been overwhelmed with everything and would be back soon but it was now ten years and counting but he still hasn't come home. The answer was why?

Didn't he want her again? Didn't he want to be with her and her mother anymore? Was she really the reason her father had left home like her mother had said? Did her father resent her so much that he wouldn't come back because of her?

Her mother had changed since he left, she had treated her in the worst way any mother would treat her child but she still believed she might change if her father returned. They might return back to normal but she could gain her parents back.

She missed waking up to their noises at the kitchen, she missed the family nights out, the park stroll, the time at the dinner table, the kisses, the care. She was twenty five already but she didn't any child could outgrow the love and care of their parents. This yearning wouldn't go away.

Dan-Han looked at her as he opened the door for her to step down from the car, but she was still in a daze. He couldn't imagine the number of thoughts she had going through her head.

He bent down and grabbed her hand and that brought her back to reality. She looked at him before looking at her environment. They were at his place already? She remembered he had said that there was something we had to show her, but she hadn't asked him what.

Honestly, she wasn't in the mood for anything. She was feeling tired and sad. Not entirely because of her dad, but also because she had heard her mother laugh and giggle happily, and that made her more sad. Sad because her mother who had birthed her hated her so much for reasons that were unknown to her. Why was she being hated this much? Why was her life always attracting the negative feelings of people. Thinking about this also made her feel sadder because she even Dan-Han's father didn't like her. Why does no one want her? Why do they all hate? She had so much love in her heart to give but why does no one want her? She could be a good child, she had worked really hard these past years to take the burdens on her family away, she worked and lived selflessly so that her mother would want her, and so her Father would return but nothing she did worked. Rater, it looked like the more effort she made the more she was despised.

She had lingered in so much darkness and gloominess. She had led a melancholic life until Dan-Han came in. She gazed at his face one more time and she couldn't stop a tear from falling down. Yes, she has indeed become a cry baby in front him.

Dan-Han sighed wearily when he saw her cry again. He didn't need to ask why she was sad now but he already knew. It had to do with her father, and this made him regret taking her there. He had felt like things wouldn't go well with his father and that was why he had wanted to cheer her up by taking her out, but who knew it would turn out like this?

Her father's action tonight made him realize she was being followed. He'd have to fix that problem. Father or not, no one had the right to tail his woman, even he didn't do that.

Dan-Han didn't say anything, he scooped her into his arms and walked into the house. He carried her to his private study and placed her on the couch. He sat by her side and just held her against his chest without saying a word. He hugged her comfortingly, silently assuring her he'd always be there for her. And they stayed that way for a long time.

After a while Eun-sun pulled away from his hold and Dan-Han looked at her concerned eyes. "Are you okay now?" He asked in a concerned tone, his hand cupping the side of her face with his large warm hand.

"I'm okay, just thirsty." She told him in a slightly hoarse voice. He stood up from the couch and walked out of the office. He returned with a bottle of water which he uncapped from her. Eun-sun took a huge gulp of it before capping it back.

She looked at the man who was staring at her with his hands deep in his pocket.

"Are you okay?" He asked again.

Wiping the side of her mouth with the back of her hand as she nodded, "Yes I am."

"Are you sure?" He asked again while she confirmed she was fine. "You said you wanted to show me something." She reminded him. She didn't know it was but she hoped it was something that would liven her mood.

Dan-Han didn't know if he should still carry on with his plans of telling her the truth about her dad. He didn't want her to cry again, but then even if he didn't tell her now she'd still cry whenever she found the out about it. He might as well get on with it. He walked to his desk and picked up a file from one of the drawers. He walked closer to her and looked at her intently, his actions were making Eun-sun nervous as she stared at the file in his hand.

"Dan-Han was is that?" She asked while staring at the file.

"Promise me you won't cry because I think you've had enough of it." He told her.

"What is it? Just show me already?" She nervously urged making him nod as he passed it to her.

Eun-sun sat up and grabbed it from his hands, before taking a look at it. She froze when her eyes fell on the first photographs. She looked up at Dan-Han before looking at the next and she felt shocked. Eun-sun couldn't believe what she was looking at.

"W-hat...is this?" She asked in a quavering voice.

"That's who your father truly is."