When I Loved You

But she grabbed his arm tightly. “Where are you running to?”

Her grip on his arm automatically grew tighter. “You made Uncle Sangsu act like my real uncle before. You told the housekeeping ladies to treat me like a sick niece, and you told Seungah to act as if she was traveling alone.”

Muyeol always thought about her; it was always about her. Yiyoung knew he did it, perhaps because he was genuinely worried about her. And while she was grateful for being able to have fun in her life because of him, she didn’t want to let him off so easily.

“Don’t tell me you planted someone at the culture center, too…” As she spoke, Yiyoung increasingly felt like he had done exactly that. There had been these two people who attended half the same classes as her…

Muyeol’s face flushed even more. He looked like he didn’t know what to do.

“No way. Are you serious? At the culture center, too? Not just one, but two people?” Yiyoung exclaimed.

In truth, there had been three people there. Muyeol had asked Sangsu to assign a bodyguard to her because he didn’t know who she would bump into, and she needed someone to constantly protect her.

Yiyoung’s face grew still. Though she understood his intentions, she felt like he was being a bit too much. She knew all of them must have reported everything about her daily life to Muyeol, and now it felt like a live camera had chased her constantly. It left her annoyed and upset.

“Excuse me, Mr. Cha Muyeol. Let’s seriously talk about this matter now,” Yiyoung hissed through her clenched teeth.

As Muyeol slowly backed away, Yiyoung grabbed his arm even more firmly. “If you can’t trust me, what should we do? You really are something else!”

“I was worried about you. I’m sorry.”

“Then you should’ve told me!”

“I thought you wouldn’t agree with me.”

“So you just decided to do it the way you wanted? Are you going to continue being like this?”

Muyeol didn’t respond, which surprised Yiyoung. “Aren’t you going to reply?”

Muyeol laid his hand atop hers, the one which still held onto his arm. “When you were stabbed, I vowed to myself in front of the operation room that I’ll never let you be alone.”

To prove it, Muyeol had established the security system in the ER to make it three times more secure.

“When I saw your blood-stained clothes and your phone… I lost my mind.” It was Muyeol’s first time talking about how he’d felt then, and Yiyoung listened to him quietly. “I wanted to do whatever I could to protect you. I wanted to make sure you were okay, and I’m going to do the same in the future.”

Muyeol clasped Yiyoung’s hand with both his hands. “I can’t live without you. Even if you say it’s too much, I’m not going to stop. If you were me—”

“I would’ve done the same.” Touched by his words, Yiyoung was no longer annoyed or upset.

“I’m sorry for not telling you about it. I apologize. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know what to do if you disagreed with me. But starting from this moment, I’ll tell you if I do it again.”

“A personal bodyguard won’t be allowed at the ER. I can’t let that happen. There should be trust between all the medical staff and patients. I don’t want to make patients think they’re potential criminals or something.”

Muyeol suddenly looked disappointed.

“I mean it,” Yiyoung added, “And I’m much stronger than you think.”

Muyeol let go of her hand and swept his hair back. “Because I’m so weak… It’s because I’m so fearful.”

Yiyoung smiled. “No way. You’re my guardian angel. The reason why I’m so courageous is all because of you, so you shouldn’t talk about yourself like that.”

Muyeol stared at her smile and thought about how confident it always was, and how beautiful that made it look.

“Let’s talk more about it as we drink coffee and eat bread here.”

Yiyoung put her arm around his. “Let’s go. My guardian angel.”