Chapter 47
Home16 year old Eun Ah shoved a piece of burnt toast into before running towards the front door. She was late, again, and if she didn't leave the house now there was a good chance that she wouldn't be able to make it to school before the gates closed.
"Woah! Where's the fire, bunny?" Her mom asked when she almost collided into her daughter.
"Late. Detention. Leave. Now. Love you." Eun Ah spat out as she tried to lace her shoes up while slipping her bag on.
"What time did you go to sleep last night? I thought I told you to stop sleeping so late, this is why you never wake up on time."
Eun Ah gave her mom a sheepish smile, not giving her an answer and walked past their living room. She glanced to the side and stopped when she saw her dad bent over his phone with a frown on his face and what, at the time, she didn't realize was fear in his eyes.
"Dad? Is everything alright?"
Ah Min snapped his head up, the fear expertly masked with a light hearted smile. "Everything's fine, bun. Just work stuff."
She tilted her head, she was never good enough to read her father's poker face. "Are you sure?"
Her dad gave her a flat look and exaggeratingly rolled his eyes. He checked his watched and raised his eyebrows.
"Don't you have to be at school now?"
Eun Ah's eyes snapped open. "Oh right! I almost forgot! I gotta go!" She kissed her dad on the cheek and raced out the door.
"Bye! Love you guys!"
Ah Min shook his head with a smile before checking his phone again.
"You can run but you can't hide HAM."
His smile fell off his face as his heart started to race.
'I need to protect her. I need to protect my little girl. Whatever it takes.'
Eun Yong stepped into the room, her face freezing over when she saw his clenched jaw. "Is something wrong?"
Ah Min looked up and softened at the sight of his wife. He didn't care what they had to go through as long as he had her by his side.
Her and his little girl.
'My little girl and -'
"Sweetheart?"
Ah Min snapped out of his thoughts and let his shoulders sag. He could never keep anything from her.
"He's back. I think he's here in Seoul too and we're still his target."
Eun Yong's face didn't reflect panic or terror, but instead her eyes hardened at her back tensed. "We can't let him touch her. He's taken too much from us now."
He walked towards her and held her in his arms. She loosened up and relaxed into his chest. "I know, byul. He won't touch our bunny. But we can't just sit back and wait for him to make a move."
He could feel her heart beat speed up but he knew it wasn't because she was scared.
It was adrenaline.
Old habits die hard.
She nodded and pulled her head away. "You know what we have to do."
He brushed his thumb against her cheek, determination flaring in both their veins. "It going to be risky. I think it's worth it, but there's no guarantee."
Eun Yong knew what he was talking about but ever since she had learned about the threat she had let her heart accept any and all possible outcomes. " She'll forgive us. She'll survive, she's a strong girl. We raised her well Minnie. We have to protect her."
He sighed and kissed her forehead.
"We have to protect her. No matter what."
Eun Ah wondered, later that night, if it was worth it.
If maybe she should've spent more time with her parents that morning and just gotten detention.
If only she knew that it'd be the last time she ever saw them.
Eun Ah stared in shock as Yongguk gently led them to the living room where everyone could talk. He started feeling sick in his stomach when he saw the look on Woon's face and the way Eun Ah just locked up. He left a little gap between them, wanting to give her space to breathe, but he reached over and laced their fingers together, she immediately squeezed back.
He couldn't imagine a way that Woon could know her parents.
"M-my parents? You know my parents?" She breathed out as Woon gingerly sat down across from her.
He gave her a pathetic smile and nodded, "Very well, actually. I'm sure you must have a lot of questions and I promise to answer them all, but I need to clear some things up first. How much do you know about your father's job?"
She frowned, not seeing the relevance. She just wanted to hear what he had to say. How someone so distant from her could know about something so important to her.
"His job? He was a cop. He quit his job when I was born, he said he didn’t want to be doing something dangerous when he had a family."
Yongguk's back went stiff and his eyes slowly moved to lock onto her profile as things started to click.
The grip on her hand slacked a bit as his heart raced.
He didn't know that many people that he and Woon had in common.
But he knew one.
Woon nodded and glanced at Yongguk from the side of his eye. He could see the gears in his head moving.
"What do you remember about the accident?" He asked quietly, trying not to rile the young girl up.
Eun Ah's frown got deeper, but she tried to hide her impatience.
"Not much actually. The court appointed psychiatrist said that I had repressed a lot of my memories due to trauma. I just remember seeing the car go off the road and the next thing I know I was standing in front of the wreckage before I out and woke up in a hospital."
Woon opened his mouth to comment but she cut him off, unable to take the suspense.
"How do you know my parents?" She said, snapping at him by accident.
Just like her mother.
His eyes flickered to Yongguk one last time before he stared into her confused eyes.
"He was my partner."
"P-partner? You both were on the force together?"
Woon nodded and slid a photo across the table to her. It was a picture of her dad, who look like he was in his late 20's sporting a buzz cut and a police uniform with his arm slung around Woon's shoulder, both of them smiling into the camera.
Yongguk's eyes drifted to the picture in Eun Ah's hands and felt his world slow down.
He knew that man. For sure.
He'd known his love's dead father.
He had met his father-in-law before he had even met his wife.
"I know that man." He said quietly, hoping she didn't hear.
But she did.
"Wait, what? You know my dad? B-but how is that possible?" Yongguk looked at her with a sad expression, unable to find the words to speak.
"Yongguk has been working with me for the last few years. He would give us intel on any sort of criminal activity among gangs when I was still in OC. It was usually big stuff that he'd help us with." Woon explained carefully, letting the information sink.
He was suddenly doubting if she was ready for everything he was going to dump on her.
Yongguk cut in. He felt the need to explain it himself, instead of have someone talk for him. "For the most part I'd work with Woon directly, but there were a few times when he'd have too much on his plate so I'd work with his partner…your father."
Eun Ah looked stricken as her hands started to shake. He immediately pulled her to him and cupped her face so he could meet her eyes.
"But I swear to God, love, I didn't know he was your father. I never even learned his name and I never put him in a position of danger. I'd call him Woon's partner and he'd called me kid boss." He pleaded.
Eun Ah scanned his eyes and softened a bit. "Did he like you? Did my father like you?"
"He called me a smart- punk a lot but he was always laughing when he said it. He just wasn't as comfortable working with me as Woon was. Your father was a clean man who loved his job because he loved putting people in jail and serving them with justice. If I wasn't helping him lock people away, he'd probably arrest me too."
Eu
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