Shall We?

Eight

For the next few days, it was a disastrous. Ha Eun should've seen it coming.

She came in for work late, she misplaced her patient's file and she got scolded a few times by her senior for being careless and clumsy for not being properly able to get a simple blood test done.

"If you don't feel like working, leave!" One of her seniors barked at her.

Ha Eun apologized. She had been apologizing for the entire week non stop and earlier on, one of her patient slapped her hard, accusing her for being rude.

Hyo Min came in to rescue her while she remained quiet.

"It's not your fault," Hyo Min said to her eventually, "She's the one who was being difficult. I mean, why come over here if she doesn't want to get any treatment done?"

Sighing heavily, Ha Eun pretended she wasn't listening. Instead she flipped through her patients' chart absent mindedly. Her mind was not cooperating either. Still feeling down to the guilt on what she did to Woo Sung, Ha Eun lost track of the time. She missed out her lunch and checking on the time, another 5 hours left until she can finally go home and rest.

The rest of the afternoon passed by quite smoothly for her and by the time Ha Eun was done, it was already at the end of her morning shift and she was glad that she finally can call it a day.

Stomach grumbling, Ha Eun headed out, decided to stop by at one of her favourite place for dinner nearby her house. Considering herself lucky, she occupied the last vacant table at the corner and placed her order.

The small eatery was packed with customers, most of them came by in a group of 4 and 5. Ha Eun's order was served about 10 minutes later. For once, her mind was not occupied with other things. Perhaps she was hungry and all she could thing of was on having dinner and packed some food back later on.

It was already half past 7 when Ha Eun had finally left, with two containers of extra food. Heading home, she passed by her usual convenient store but she didn't stop by when she saw two large beefy men, in suits standing at the entrance. She felt unease when she saw them and they seemed to be checking her out as well.

Ha Eun ignored the feeling but when she realised the two men were tailing her from behind, she was beginning to start feeling scared and terrified. The alley was deserted and poorly lit.

One of the them managed to overtook her and made her stopped.

"Do i know you?" Ha Eun asked.

"No, but i think should be enough," the taller one said, handing her an envelope.

Ha Eun fished out the contents and to her horror, it contained a photostate copy of her identity card, her driving license and an agreement which was registered under her name.

"What is this? How did you get this?" Ha Eun asked, feeling both terrified and angry.

"Read it," the shorter one said from behind.

It was a loan agreement. A million won with 5% interest had been taken out using her name.

"What is this? I've never taken any money loan let alone this much-"

She stopped dead when she saw the signature on the agreement. It was her stepmother's signature and her name was clearly written at the bottom of the page.

"I'm not paying this," Ha Eun said, shoving back the agreement to the taller man.

"Your mother came to us and she told us that you'll be paying for it," he said.

"And you believed her?" Ha Eun asked, "It's your own fault for believing the lies that she told you."

"Lies or not but here, she clearly stated that you'll be paying for it," the other man said, "Whether you like it or not, you still need to pay up. Time's up."

"We're tired, we've been waiting for you since afternoon," said the other, "Why don't you make it easy for all of us, pay now and we'll leave."

"Instead of wasting your time waiting for me, why don't you look for her yourself?" Ha Eun said angrily, "Now, excuse me, i want to go back home."

The taller loan shark grabbed her by the arm hard, and said, "We're not leaving until you pay us up."

"I. Will. Not. Pay. For it," Ha Eun said clearly, tugging her arm away but failed, "Let me go or I'll scream."

Both of them exchanged silent looks and it was terrifying. Without thinking twice, she bit his hand as hard as she could and the moment his grip loosen, Ha Eun sprinted. Running away as fast as she could but the shorter loan shark managed to stop her by grabbing her hair, and Ha Eun screamed in agony. A hard slap made Ha Eun fell onto the ground.

"We're merely following what was stated in the agreement," he said, bending over and pulled her back to her feet by pulling her by the arm hard.

"I haven't got that much money and why would i want to pay for something that i didn't do?" Ha Eun said quickly.

"Okay fine," said the other, "There are other ways for you to pay us back and honestly, judging from the look of your body and your pretty face, maybe about a week should be enough."

"By selling your body," said the taller one, "Just in case you don't understand. Your stepmother did that a few times until her debt was cleared. Now, come on."

Both of them dragged her to their car but Ha Eun wouldn't want to make it easy for them. She screamed, as she struggled to make them loosen their grip on her. Ha Eun managed to break free but only for a moment. She fell down face first and was about to be lifted up once more when she heard the two men grunted in pain.

Ha Eun glanced over her shoulder and the two loan sharks were unmercifully being beaten by none other than Choi Seung-hyun.

For once, she was glad to see him. The two loan sharks scrambled up to their feet and ran away as fast as they could, leaving behind the brown envelope which they had given her earlier on.

Seung-hyun bend over to help her up back to her feet.

"Are you okay?" He asked, "Are you hurt?"

His deep voice sounded like heaven and Ha Eun cried without herself realising it.