Ha Eun opened her eyes and realized she was in a hospital room. She had a mask over her face and an IV drip on her arm. Light was coming in from the window, next to her. She wondered if what happened to her was just a dream. She could have sworn she died.She turned her head to the side and saw Woo Yeon sleeping on the chair next to her bed.
"Woo Yeon" Ha Eun said in a whisper. Woo Yeon slowly opened his eyes, then looked over at her. A smile appeared on his face.
"Ha Eun, you are awake, right?" he asked her "Do you know me? Do you know who I am?" his eyes started to water. Ha Eun smiled which let him know that she remembered him. He smiled back and kissed her on the forehead. He started to caress her cheeks and pa.s.s his hands through her hair.
"I"m so glad you"re okay" he said with a smile.
Ha Eun was happy by his expression. Is this what it"s like to be loved? This is the expression of someone that truly loves her, right?
Woo Yeon grabbed her hand, kissed it and told her "I"m going to go get the doctor" he said. Ha Eun though, looked at his hands. They were dirty and scratched. She looked at his face, he had a band-aid on his chin. As he walked away towards the door, she noticed how his pants and the cuffs of his long sleeved shirt were wrinkled, compared to the rest of his well pressed clothes.
When the doctor came in, so did Mr. Oh and Woo Yeon.
"You are very luck little miss. If it wasn"t for Woo Yeon here, you wouldn"t be here with us" the doctor said.
"Oh, thank goodness you"re all right" Mr. Oh said as he went in for a hug. Woo Yeon went to grab her hand but Ha Eun quickly moved it towards her legs.
"It"s not possible" she said to herself "It"s not possible, right?" Ha Eun didn"t want to believe Woo Yeon would do something like that but all the signs were there.
"Seriously, jumping into a pond, at night, with no supervision. You"re alright but I"m still worried" Mr. Oh said.
"They think I jumped in?" Ha Eun asked herself. She wanted to tell them that someone pushed her in and was trying to kill her but it was dark, the police would just a.s.sume she was hallucinating and not look into it.
Ha Eun wanted to speak alone with Mr. Oh but all she could say was "Alone…Mr. Oh"
Although it was just two words, they all understood perfectly. Once the two were alone Ha Eun said "School…far…now…"
It didn"t make much sense to Mr. Oh. She wanted to go back to school, right after waking up in a hospital?
"You just woke up. I don"t think you should be thinking about going back to school" Mr. Oh told her. Ha Eun grabbed his hand.
"I want…far away…please" she said. Mr. Oh started to piece things together. She wanted to live far away, not just a boarding school. She wanted to live farther. Mr. Oh didn"t know what brought up this sudden urge to move far away but it was what she wanted, and he didn"t want to press her to answer why.
"Ok. First get better. Then, you can go wherever you want" he told her.
After a few days, she could speak normally and stand properly. While Mr. Oh was watching the news, Ha Eun sat next to him. They suddenly started to talk about OG Group and their rise in the stock market. She got to learn a bit about the company thanks to the news report. She started to wonder if she would later become the CEO of OG Group seeing as she is his daughter, but of course there is Ji Seok and Ji Su. Any of them could be CEO.
"What did you study to get the CEO position?" Ha Eun asked Mr. Oh. He was surprised by her question. He had no idea she was interested in the family business. He thought about it and he wasn"t going to live forever, Ha Eun and the other kids would grow up. He should leave the company to one of them.
"I studied business management" Mr. Oh said.
"But it"s also good to study whatever you want. I wanted to make OG Group flourish and I thought it would be best for all of them if I studied business. I know how to take care of my employees and since I also minored in finances I understand how our numbers work and what to do to keep them steady or to get them to go higher" Mr. Oh continued to talk about his job as CEO and what he does but Ha Eun knew exactly what she had to do if she wanted to take over as the next CEO. Studying finances and business management is good but none of that is worth anything if the media have control of the whole world. One word from a reliable source in the media and a person"s life can be ruined or a business can go bankrupt.
"I"ll study broadcasting" Ha Eun told Mr. Oh. He was surprised by this. He could tell why she thought of that.
"You are a quick thinker aren"t you?" Mr. Oh asked her as he ruffled her hair.
"Mr. Oh. Don"t tell Woo Yeon where I"m going" Ha Eun told him "Please make sure he never finds me"
Mr. Oh looked at Ha Eun sadly. He thought she didn"t want Woo Yeon to know because she knew how much Woo Yeon liked her and she didn"t want him to wait for her.
"You"re always worrying about others, aren"t you?" he asked her. Ha Eun smiled. In reality, she didn"t want Woo Yeon to find her because she was scared of him.
Back at school, kids in her cla.s.sroom asked her what happened and if she was okay. Kids that wouldn"t even make eye contact with her suddenly acted like she was their friend. Woo Yeon was next to her, smiling. Ha Eun wondered if he had something to do with this.
As the days went by Woo Yeon spent every day with her and kids would approach them and talk to them, then go on their way. She wondered if this is what life would have been like if no one bullied her to begin with.
"Are you feeling okay?" Woo Yeon asked her. Ha Eun looked at him, then looked down and nodded. She couldn"t bring herself to look at him for long because every time she looked at him, she would be reminded of that night in the water. Thinking back to that night. It wasn"t really that dark. It took her a while to remember but she saw that person"s face, through the water. The person that held her down. It was none other than the boy sitting next to her.
She wondered what he would say if she told him she saw him. If she told him she knew he was the one that held her underwater. Would he deny it? Would he tell the truth? Would he apologize? But Woo Yeon wasn"t the type to apologize.
She spent what was left of the school year trying to avoid Woo Yeon from finding out she was moving away. She would slowly take pieces of clothing from her dorm to the house and by the end of the school year she had everything packed and ready to ship to Germany.
On their last day of school, during lunch, Ha Eun asked Woo Yeon "Did you know demons exist?" Woo Yeon looked at her confused. He was talking about their next cla.s.s, yet she brought up something like this.
"I don"t really believe in that sort of stuff" he answered her "I only believe in things I can see"
"Demons are real though" Ha Eun said "You see one every time you look in the mirror" she looked at him dead in the eyes. Woo Yeon felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
"Chung Woo Yeon, let"s get one thing straight. If you try to contact me, I"ll ignore your calls. If you try to find me, don"t bother I"ll be gone to a different country if you do. And if by chance you do find me and want to send me packages, I will send them right back" she told him "I hope I never see your face again" She packed her food and rather than go straight to cla.s.s she went straight to her dorm to pack the rest of her things because Mr. Oh would be waiting for her by the school gates.
Woo Yeon went back to cla.s.s, not understanding where that outburst came from. He wanted to ask her when she got back to cla.s.s but she never did. As he thought back to her words, he realized she was basically telling him she was moving away. She was saying goodbye.
Woo Yeon left the cla.s.sroom without excusing himself and ran to Ha Eun"s dorm. He ran past the guard and when he went to open Ha Eun"s room, he saw it was already open and to his surprise, it was empty.