Hello dear readers... I hope at least a few of you are waiting to know what is going to happen in the story. I am extremely sorry for not being able to keep up with my words (as usual). But I am back and recharged with beautiful memories of Kim Hyun Joong's Isshoni Take My Hand Japan tour :). I have joined a 'Creative Writing' course recently, and to my horror, I am finding all the stupid mistakes I keep on repeating in my writings. I don't think you will see a drastic improvement in my writing, but I will slowly and steadily try to incorporate the things I am learning. Anyway, enough of my rants. Let's get into the story. This one is quite action-packed. Enjoy!

...

Jae Kyung sat in the car as Do Jung drove them off his restaurant. It was a nice cozy lunch at his restaurant, and they talked about her new project and his new recipes. So, overall, it was not bad to spend this afternoon with him, she wondered. Yiruma's piano music was playing in the car, and in a few minutes, she felt sleepy and closed her eyes.

When her eyes opened, she found herself in completely unfamiliar surroundings. She was sitting on a chair, her neck tilted uncomfortably against the head rest, ending up in a dull ache. She opened her eyes wide rubbing her neck and saw Do Jung sitting on a chair, gazing intently at her.

"Do Jung? Where are we? Why are we here?" she asked him in confusion.

Do Jung kept staring at her strangely, without replying. Jae Kyung wriggled and looked around. It looked like an abandoned warehouse, with some old rickety machineries scattered around. Through some holes on the tall roof she could see the sun light coming through.

"What's this Do Jung? What kind of a joke is this?" she spat out and stood up.

He stood up leisurely and his lips slightly crooked up at the sides.

"It's my birthday. So, will have a tiny little party here," he replied.

"What the…? I told you I have a flight to catch this evening. I have no time for your birthday party, I am sorry, Do Jung. Please show me the way out, and I will get myself a taxi," saying that angrily, Jae Kyung started walking away.

Do Jung grasped her wrist and with a sudden pull brought her back to him. As she looked at him with shock, he tilted his head slightly and observed her intently.

"Not so soon, Jae Kyung-ah. There's so much I have to talk about today. How can I let you go so soon?"

….

Woo Bin could not shed off the clench in his gut on his way to the farmhouse. He pressed the gas pedal hard, and sped through the expressway, away from the city limits. Loud rock music was blaring off from the speakers in his car when suddenly his phone started ringing. He pressed the button on his steering to pick it up.

"Hey Min Ji…"

"Oppa… Oppaaa…" only wailings could be heard.

"Min Ji… Min Ji-yah? What happened? Why are you crying?" he exclaimed hearing her crying.

"Oppa save us… Opp…" and the line went dead.

….

Ga Eul strolled along the walkway by the Han river. The day was indeed nice and sunny, and in spite of the chill in the air it was pleasant to walk with the slight warmth on her skin. At the end of the path she looked up at the highly arched bridge that would take her across to the other side of the river to the Seonyudo Park.

The moment she stepped on the bridge she spotted Yi Jung standing at the top with a gorgeous bunch of pink lilies. He was leaning on the bridge wall, facing the river, away from her. Ga Eul could not help but smile bright as the sun shining high up on the sky. Suddenly, it seemed like the new beginning both of them had been seeking all this while. She paced up, but the steep arch of the bridge slowed her down, and by the time she reached at the top, she was a bit out of breath.

"Are those for me?" she panted while speaking.

Hearing her voice, Yi Jung turned to her instantly and beamed from ear to ear.

"Yes, they are," he replied and gave her the bouquet.

Ga Eul smelled in the fresh flowers and hugged the bunch close to her chest.

For a moment, both of them were at loss of words.

"Uhm, have they come already?" spoke Ga Eul to break the awkward silence, "I mean, Eun Jae, Young Jin and…"

"Yes, they are there at the park. I just thought, uhm… maybe we could spend few moments here before joining them. But if you want, we can go there now," he promptly replied.

A slight blush appeared on her cheeks.

"No, it's fine," shyly she replied and looked down at her toes.

He gently held her hand in his palms, and uttered, "I am sorry, Ga Eul, for all the pain and tears I brought to you. Would you please let me explain everything once?"

She looked up at his eyes and in a soft yet distinct tone asked, "Can we skip this 'saying sorry and explaining' part, and just start everything afresh?"

For a moment, Yi Jung could not believe what he heard. He stared at her in amazement and slowly a smile crept in his face.

"I never thought I could fall more in love with you than this. Guess I was wrong," he spoke and brushed his lips on her delicate fingers.

Had it been a couple of months before, Ga Eul would definitely have dismissed his confession as a playboy's 'smooth talk', but at that moment she did not doubt his sincerity. Just that she did not have words to reciprocate her feelings.

Yi Jung sensed her unease, and assured her calmly, "It's ok, Ga Eul. You do not have to say it in words. I can feel it," and pulled her in an embrace.

She felt the heat emanating from her cheeks, and hid her face in his chest.

And then it all happened in a fraction of second.

Yi Jung was whispering some sweet nothings in her ear, when suddenly his eyes rounded up, and he shouted, "Ga Eul!" before trying to cover her and duck down.

All Ga Eul could hear was a very swift 'swoosh' sound, before she fell flat on her back on the bridge, with Yi Jung on top of her.

"Yi Jung! Yi Jung? What happened?" she exclaimed as she tried to push him up.

His body weight seemed to push her down further, as he lay on top motionless. She pushed him with all her strength, and he rolled on his back to her side. A small trickle of bright red colour seeped out of his chest and slowly spread on the white dress shirt he was wearing beneath his cashmere jacket.

"Yi Jung-ah!" was the loud scream that Eun Jae and Il Hyun could hear from the park across the bridge.

….

Woo Bin scampered inside the farmhouse and searched around desperately for his family. It seemed a storm had passed through the property. Everything was turned upside down, thrown astray. Even the pool was dumped with broken chairs and anything that laid by the poolside.

He screamed out his sisters' and the bodyguards' names but only an eerie silence replied back. He pulled out his phones and frantically pressed the numbers of his PA and other associates under him. But none of the calls went through.

It seemed as if he was the last man standing on this earth.

For the first time in his life he felt fear.

A shrill ringtone of a tacky pop song blared from behind him. He spun round and pushed away a heap of cloth before picking up the ringing phone.

"Who's it? Speak up!" he screamed.

"Whoa whoaaa, Prince Song! That's not the way to greet your old friend, huh?" mocked Kim Seok followed by an evil laugh.

Woo Bin shook in anger and yelled back, "Is it Kim Seok? What do you want, you bas****? Where's my family and my men?"

"Me? I don't want anything. I have everything I want. But maybe you need to know if your little sisters or old parents are alive yet, isn't it?" replied Kim Seok with a snigger.

"I'll kill you if you touch them, you bas****!" screamed Woo Bin with all his might.

"Good joke, man!" jeered Kim Seok, "they are there in front of me, tightly tied up and writhing in pain. Touching them? Not a problem at all. I can even kick their life out if I want."

Woo Bin could not hold up his anger and frustration anymore.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" barked Woo Bin, "Tell me what you want and where they are. Once I get them, I will make every cell of your body scream out in hellish pain. You will pay for this, Kim Seok!"

"Hmm, let's see. For the time being choose between 1, 2 and 3. Come on, palli," replied Kim Seok in a nonchalant tone.

"What?" blurted Woo Bin.

Kim Seok rolled his eyes and repeated, "Just choose one number, man. We don't have all day."

"1," replied Woo Bin without thinking any more.

"Hmm, interesting. Ok, come to the rundown warehouse in Incheon. Will see you there then, ciao," spoke Kim Seok and the line went dead.

Woo Bin dashed to his car and drove off immediately.

….

Ji Hoo hummed as he strode along the corridor towards his office. The last surgery went well in spite of all its complications. Now all he needed to do was take a quick shower, change into clean clothes and head to Ha Jin's home.

He stopped by his desk and picked up the mails that had arrived that day, when his pager started beeping. He frowned and looked at it. He had already informed that he was off for the rest of the day and there were enough doctors on duty to take care of any emergency. Unless it was a dire emergency.

He sighed and walked to the nurse station.

"Dr. Yoon, you have been called at the ER immediately," informed the head nurse.

"Okay," he mumbled and marched to the elevator.

As he reached the floor and the door opened, the sight in front stunned him for a second before his instincts took over.

Ga Eul was leaning against the wall, barely holding herself up, with blood smeared all over her arms and clothes. And the hollow stare in her eyes just reminded him of the night they had found her in her deranged state.

"What happened, Ga Eul? Are you ok?" Ji Hoo blurted out in concern as he rushed to her.

"Yi Jung… Somebody shot him… Blood everywhere… blood coming out… Save him, Ji Hoo… Please save him," were all the words she managed to mumble before collapsing in his arms.

….

Ha Jin looked at her phone for the umpteenth time. Still there was no reply from Ji Hoo. All her calls went unanswered. He was supposed to call her once he started from the hospital. Various thoughts swarmed in her mind, racking her nerves.

Was he having second thoughts?

Stop! Don't let such thoughts get into your mind, Ha Jin. He is a dutiful doctor, there must have been some emergency. He will call you as soon as he can.

She turned on the television and started surfing through the channels mindlessly.

Her mother entered the living room and seeing her sitting on the couch, announced excitedly, "So Bin's parents are coming in an hour to discuss the wedding date and all the preparations. Get up, palli. Put on a nice dress and make up. I will prepare some nice snacks quickly."

All blood drained out of Ha Jin's face as she stared back at her mother who immediately started busying herself in the kitchen.

….

"Welcome, Prince Song! What a pleasure to have your glorious presence in my petty den," hollered Kim Seok from his chair as he watched Woo Bin's hurried strides through the entrance of the warehouse.

"Where's my family? What have you done to them, you scumbag?" roared Woo Bin, as Kim Seok's men started frisking his body for weapons.

Kim Seok raised his brow in mock concern and replied, "Your family? But you didn't choose them."

"What the s*** are you talking about?" retorted Woo Bin.

"I gave you three choices, and interestingly, you chose 1, which is not your family," Kim Seok responded shrugging his shoulders.

Woo Bin could not believe his guts.

"I will wring your neck myself, you bas****!" he screamed.

"Good plan! The thing is, your Song Tower is on fire now, and most of your men are either dead, or too broken to stand up. And the rest are already in my team," informed Kim Seok calmly, while scraping off an invisible dirt from his cuff, "So, you do need to do things on your own from now. Until your last breath, which could come any moment from now."

Woo Bin stood dumbstruck for few moments before everything seeped in his cognition.

"Why are you doing all these?" he whispered finally.

"Now that's the only intelligent question you asked in a long time," drawled Kim Seok with a smirk and stood up from his chair.

He walked up to where Woo Bin was standing at gunpoint held by his men.

"Remember, few years back when you suddenly had this enlightenment to dissolve your so called 'nefarious mafia activities' and get into clean business? I had told you, once you are a mafia, you are always a mafia," he hissed at Woo Bin's face," And there is no escape from it. But you did not listen. All the associate gangs started facing troubles because you stopped shielding us from our opponents. What did you say at that time? 'There would be some collateral damages, but we have to accept that to cleanse ourselves.' Do you know what collateral damage I paid for your foolhardiness? My mother and sisters were kidnapped and tortured mercilessly at various spots, and I was left with no choices to be able to save any one of them. I could save none. None!"

Woo Bin glared at him, still unable to believe his words.

Kim Seok's fierce expression immediately turned cunning.

"But I gave you choices. It's your bad luck that you chose the wrong one. I just need to make a quick call and tell my men to finish off your family quickly," he spat.

"No! No! You cannot punish my family for my mistakes. Spare them. Kill me. Take whatever you want," shouted Woo Bin instantly.

"Nah! Killing you will end all the fun in an instant," replied Kim Seok thoughtfully, "But, how about you give me 1, and I will spare 2, which is your family. 3 is already gone by now."

Woo Bin looked at him in confusion and blurted, "Yes, spare my family, and take whatever you want."

Kim Seok guffawed loudly at his immediate submission.

"Won't you spare a look at 1 yourself? Don't you want to know what I got from you?" mocked Kim Seok and pointed to a person standing behind with the head covered and limbs tied.

Woo Bin for the first time observed the rest of the people standing around. As one of them pulled up the head cover, he gasped out loud.

"Jae Kyung!"

Do Jung strolled to the front from behind her and pulled her head back by her hair.

"See, Jae Kyung. I told you. You fell for the wrong person. A despicable mafia lord. This man thinks of nothing but himself. Even now he did not hesitate to abandon you. And you gave him your heart, body and what not," he hissed near her ears, loud enough to be heard by everyone around.

Woo Bin stared at her unbelievably.

All he could see was deep loathing and distrust in her tearful eyes.