The woman, a striking brunette with a concerned expression, simply gave a polite, confused smile. She didn't speak any Korean. Hana quickly switched to her not so limited English. "Hello," she said, her accent thick. "You... you need something?"
"Is Alex here?" the woman asked, her voice tight with what seemed like a mix of anxiety and impatience.
Thinking she might be a family member, Hana nodded and stepped aside. "Yes, come in. Please."
As the woman stepped inside, Alex emerged from the bedroom, a clean, folded bandage in his hand and the plush robe still wrapped around his body. He was talking on the phone in rapid Korean, his back to the front door. "I forgot the bandage," he said into the phone. "I'll just grab a new one for my side…"
He stopped dead in his tracks. He had heard a familiar voice, a voice that was from a past he had worked hard to leave behind. He slowly turned his head, his eyes widening in a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"What exactly is going on here?" Jess asked, her voice turning cold and hard as she looked at Hana, then at Alex's robe, and finally at the blood-spotted bandage in his hand. Her American accent cut through the quiet apartment like a serrated blade. To Jess, the scene looked like an intimate, domestic retreat, and the irritation in her posture was palpable.
Hana, completely oblivious to the deep history between them and the simmering hostility in the room, stepped in. She saw a woman who looked close to Alex's age and remembered his stories of family. "Alex, is this your sister?" she asked in Korean, her tone friendly and genuinely curious. A small, hopeful smile lit up her face; she was excited to finally meet a piece of the life he kept so guarded.
Alex didn't answer. The warmth Hana had seen in him just moments ago vanished, replaced by a stern, almost menacing hardness she had never witnessed. His jaw was set so tight the muscles pulsed. He walked past Hana, his gaze locked on Jess, his posture stiffening despite the pain in his side.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded in English, his voice low and dangerous.
Jess didn't flinch. She crossed her arms, her eyes flashing with a mix of worry and wounded pride. "You weren't answering your phone for two days, Alex. I'm still listed as your primary emergency contact on the insurance policy," she replied, her own voice taking on a sharp, defensive edge. "I got the notification from the Seoul surgical center. I thought you were dying."
"Don't you dare," Alex interrupted, his voice rising, vibrating with a raw, jagged anger that made Hana take a step back. "Don't you dare act like that means anything anymore. You don't get to check up on me. Not after what you did."
Jess turned her gaze away from Alex, her eyes narrowing as they settled back on Hana. The look was clinical and dismissive, the way one might inspect an unexpected piece of furniture.
"And who are you?" Jess asked, her English slow and punctuated with a sharp, patronizing edge. She didn't wait for Alex to answer, stepping further into the living room as if she still held a key to the place. Her eyes flicked toward the kitchen, noting the tea mug and the open refrigerator. "Is she the, the help? Or just some local distraction to help you forget you don't belong here?"
Hana felt the sting of the woman's tone even if she didn't catch every syllable. The word "distraction" felt like a slap. She looked at Alex, expecting him to correct her, but his face was a mask of pale fury.
Jess took another step toward Hana, her heels clicking sharply on the hardwood. "You should probably leave," she said, her voice dropping to a condescending murmur. "Alex and I have years of history that you couldn't possibly understand.
Alex's hand shot out, gripping the back of a chair to steady himself as his breathing became shallow. "That's enough, Jess," he growled, the English words coming out like a snarl. "You don't talk to her. You don't even look at her."
He turned to Hana, his eyes softening for a fleeting second, though the storm was still raging behind them. "Hana, please," he said in Korean, his voice strained. "Go into the kitchen. Or the bedroom. Just for a minute. I need to get her out of here."
Hana didn't move. She didn't retreat into the kitchen or hide in the bedroom like a "distraction" should. Instead, she took a step forward, placing herself firmly at Alex's side. The language barrier was there, but the fire in her eyes needed no translation.
"No," Hana said, her voice small but steady, meeting Jess's icy blue gaze with an unwavering stare. She looked at Jess, then at Alex, and finally back to the woman who thought she held a claim to Alex's still. "I am not leaving."
Jess let out a dry, incredulous laugh, her eyebrows arching toward her hairline. "Oh, you speak more than just greetings? Listen, honey, I've been through it all with this man. I've stitched him up in places I doubt you've even seen. I know every scar, every nightmare, and every reason why he's hiding out in this city. You? You're a temporary comfort. You don't know the first thing about the life he's actually a part of."
"You are wrong," Hana countered, her English sharpening under the pressure of her indignation. She stepped closer to Jess, her stature smaller but her presence suddenly much larger. "You may know his scars, but not all of them. You do not know him. Not now."
Hana gestured to the room, to the quiet haven Alex had built. "You weren't there two nights ago. You weren't there when he stood in front of a blade to protect me. You weren't there when his heart stopped in that hospital." Hana's voice trembled with a mix of fury and protective love. "You say he is hiding? No. He is finally living."
Jess's face flushed, her composure cracking. "You think because he played the hero for a night that you understand the weight he carries? I bet you don't really know who he is, does she?" Jess gives an accusatory look at Alex. "Do you know his family? You thought I was his sister? Alex doesn't have a sister. He'll eventually realize that slumming it here, with people like you, is beneath him."
Alex stepped forward, the movement sharp enough to make him wince, but his eyes were like cold iron as he moved between the two women. He placed a protective hand on the small of Hana's back, feeling her tremble with indignation. "That is enough, Jess," he said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, quiet rumble that vibrated with finality. "You don't get to stand in my home and weaponize my history against her. You don't know who I am anymore because I chose to leave that world, and you, behind. Hana knows exactly who I am today, and that's the only version of me that matters." He looked Jess dead in the eye, his jaw tight. "If you ever mention my family or try to diminish what she means to me again, the insurance contact will be the very last thing connecting us."
Hana faltered in her stance for only a second, the realization that she truly didn't know the details of Alex's past or his family stinging like a fresh wound. But just as quickly, her gaze became as hard as flint as she felt the steady weight of Alex's hand on her back. "Alex is a man who deserves peace, something you clearly don't know how to give. If you actually cared about him, you wouldn't be attacking the person who stayed by his bed while he was fighting for his life."
Hana felt the tremor in Alex's hand and saw the pale strain on his face. She realized that as long as they both stood in his living room, he would keep fighting, regardless of his stitches or his exhaustion. Taking a deep, stabilizing breath, Hana stepped forward, gently but firmly disengaging Alex's hand from the chair. She took control of the space, her voice calm but layered with a newfound authority.
"Alex, stop," she said in Korean, her eyes softening as she looked at him, before shifting back to Jess with icy precision. She switched back to English, her words deliberate. "She came a long way. Many hours on a plane. It would be... rude... for you not to hear what she has to say."
Hana felt Alex stiffen beside her, but she didn't waver. She turned her full attention to Jess, her expression shifting to one of sheer, pointed accusation. "You think I do not know things? I know enough. I know you were the one who walked away. You cheated on him, broke the trust of a man who would have died for you, and now, many months later, you think a hospital call gives you a 'say' in his life?"
Hana took a step closer to Jess, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You haven't come here because you care for him. You came here because of the wrong you committed. Because when someone like Alex leaves your life, there is sure to be a void that never fills. That is not love. That is pride and regret."
The room fell into a deafening silence. Jess's mouth opened slightly, her poised exterior finally shattering under the weight of Hana's blunt honesty. Alex looked at Hana as if seeing her for the very first time, not as a woman to be protected, but as a force protecting him.
Hana turned back to Alex, her hand lingering on his forearm one last time. Now speaking only in Korean, "Talk to her, Alex. Finish it. Close the door to the past so it cannot follow you anymore." She offered him a small, sad smile that promised she wasn't going anywhere, even if she was leaving. "I will go now. Call me when you can. Please... stay sitting and guard your wound."
She didn't glance back at Jess as she crossed the hardwood floor. She grabbed her coat and her bag, her head held high. At the doorway, she paused and looked back over her shoulder. Her gaze met Alex's, a long, lingering look that carried the weight of the kiss they had shared and the "certainty" she had felt in the hospital. With a final, sharp look at Jess that signaled her claim was far from over, Hana stepped out into the hallway and let the door click shut behind her, leaving the man she loved to face his demons alone.