Full Circle Chapter 1
When Isabelle stepped off the plane that day, she was expecting to go home, unpack, pick up her son from the day care, then go to dinner and spend some quality time with her son and husband.
Now she was sitting in her husband's boss's office, cold cup of coffee in hand, trying to process what had just happened.
*flashback*
There was a car waiting for her when she got off the plane.
That wasn't surprising, Jun Ki often sent cars for her when he was busy on set.
She loaded her bags into the trunk of the car, and soon they were on their way. She did notice that they were taking a different route than usual though. This wasn't the road to the house, and it wasn't the route to the studio either.
"This isn't the way to the studio," she said to the person sitting across from her, "Where are you taking me?"
"We were instructed to take you to the main offices before driving you home, ma'am" The man said.
'That's odd', she thought, 'Jun Ki usually either picks me up or has me taken straight home. Maybe he's got another movie deal or something....'
When they arrived at the office building, she went straight to the 7th floor, to Mr. Park's office. She looked around expectantly for her husband, disappointed when she found no sign of him, but she settled down in a chair to wait for him anyways.
Nothing could have prepared her to hear those words.
"Isabelle.... Jun Ki..... isn't going to be here tonight. He..... he died, last night. There was a fire at the day care... He went in to find Chin Ho.... He didn't make it out. Chin Ho died at the hospital as well...... I'm sorry......"
*end flashback*
Isabelle looked up at the feel of a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to see Mr. Park looking worriedly at her.
"Isabelle, do you want someone to take you home? You're more than welcome to stay here or go to my place, you know the Chung Ae would love to have you over for a few days."
"I- I don't know," Isabelle started, "I suppose I should go home, but I don't know if I can handle an empty house....." She drifted off, looking like she would break down and start crying.
Mr. Park lightly rubbed her back comfortingly. Lee Isabelle was a strong woman. Few people could hold a marriage together with a famous man as well as she did. She didn’t mind that Jun Ki was gone a lot, nor did it bother her that he had fans who might want her out of the picture. All that mattered to her was that Jun Ki was happy with his life, and that he loved her. If such a strong woman were to start crying in his office, he didn’t think he could handle it.
"Look," he said, "I'm only going to be here for about an hour before I leave. Why don't you let me take you home? You can stay with us, that way you don't have to be alone. Alright?" He asked, concerned.
She nodded, getting up.
"I’ll wait for you in the lobby. Take as long as you need." She told him quietly as she walked out the door.
Rather than taking the elevator where she’d be stuck alone with her thoughts, Isabelle decided to take the stairs. Three flights down though, she started getting tired.
‘Maybe this wasn’t such a brilliant idea’ She thought to herself. But the exercise and the burning in her legs had kept her mind off of her lost family, so she kept going. Rounding the corner to start the last flight of stairs to the lobby, however, she collided with what felt like a brick wall that was coming up the stairs and fell. Glancing up from her place on the floor, she found herself looking at one Kim Jaejoong, of the popular boyband TVXQ.
"Are you alright?" he asked. Isabelle had to grin. The absurdity of the question in the situation was just too amusing for someone as sarcastic as her to pass up.
"Well," she started, "My husband and only child are dead, I don’t have a job, I can’t go home because I don’t have a car, and I’ve just been knocked flat on my ass by one of Asia’s finest. But other than that, I think I’ll be ok."
"Well, allow me to remedy at least one of those problems." He said, reaching to help her up. She took his hand gratefully, allowing him to pull her up. "Is Mr. Park still in? I was supposed to go meet with him."
Isabelle raised an eyebrow.
"You’re going to climb six flights of stairs to talk to him?" she asked.
"Well, you just came down several flights of stairs yourself" he answered.
"Good point. He should still be up there. He said he’d be around for about an hour before he leaves."
Jaejoong nodded.
"Thanks. Y’know, if you ever need to talk or anything, I’ll be around." He said before he took off up the stairs.
Two hours later Isabelle was well fed and asleep in the spare room at Mr. Park’s home, wanting to get a good night of sleep before dealing with all the drama the next morning.
She wasn’t counting on the nightmares.
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kk, my first TVXQ fanfic, don't kill me if it sucks....