Here Without You

Daniel and Liam were still at The Fortress at 6 in the evening.

The club was starting to get a lot of customers from employees who just got off work. Liam was no longer drinking, he's sitting at the bar with Daniel on his right who's about to finish his 2nd bottle of wine after drinking 2 shots of whiskeys.

"Okay, that's enough.", Liam grabbed the glass from Daniel's hand.

A woman in a skimpy dress walked towards the bar and ordered her drink. She noticed Daniel by her side and checked him out. She recognized the most eligible bachelor in front of her, Daniel Cho. He noticed someone staring at him so he turned his head but after a very quick glance, Daniel turned his head away and looked at the bottle in front of him debating with himself if he should finish it or not.

The woman found Daniel hot and without second thoughts, she placed a hand on Daniel's arm coquettishly, "Hey..."

Daniel moved his arm away as he glared at the woman, "Don't touch me."

The woman retracted her hand and smiled, "Are you alone? Why don't you join me over there with my friends?"

Daniel's expression darkened, "Get the hell out of my face.", he said before he picked up the bottle of wine. But the woman was still unfazed, "You're very sexy when you're mad."

At this point, Daniel was very annoyed. He raised the bottle and smashed it on the ground about a meter away from them. "AAAHH!", The woman screamed and the other customers looked at their way.

Daniel stood up and walked towards the exit. Liam instructed one of the staff to help out before he followed Daniel out of the club.

"Nancy, my gosh! Are you okay?", said one of the woman's friends.

"Yeah, I'm fine.", she smiled.

"Who was that?"

"Just some drunk guy.", Nancy didn't want to admit that she tried to flirt with Daniel Cho.

Luckily, no one got hurt from the broken bottle of wine but Liam's having a headache because of his brother.

"I don't mind going out for a drink with you, bro but please don't scare my customers away. It's bad for business.", he said as he helped Daniel inside his car from the backseat.

"Bring him home, Ahn.", Liam said to Daniel's assistant before closing the door.

When Daniel arrived at his penthouse, he took off his coat and shoes and dove into his bed. He sighed as he grabbed a pillow and hugged it. "Where the hell are you, Samantha?", he whispered as he closed his eyes.

Daniel has been helpless for the past few months since Samantha left. On normal days, he'd be working overtime and on days when he'd feel the worst, he'd end up drinking which has been happening a lot lately. Samantha has been away from him for far too long, she's been away even longer than they've been together and Daniel's not taking it very well. He's angry and he's sad and he's hurt and he's... longing for her very much.

'What did you do to me, Samantha? What the f*ck did you do?'

-------

Meanwhile, Andrew and Isaac arrived at The Fortress just after Daniel and Liam left.

When Nancy saw Andrew coming over to their table, her smile widened. "Andrew... I thought you said you weren't coming?"

Andrew Park sat down on the sofa and pulled Nancy to him. "We're just dropping by before we leave."

Nancy whispered to Andrew, "Are you going to see Holden?"

He smirked and then he grabbed Nancy Jung's face and kissed her in front of her friends for a few seconds before he whispered to her ear. "Don't talk nonsense."

"Nancy, you are so lucky to have President Park as your boyfriend. He's very sweet. I wish I had a boyfriend like that."

Nancy just giggled and leaned into Andrew's embrace.

"You can have me?", said Isaac and the woman blushed.

Andrew freed himself from Nancy and stood up from the sofa. "Let's go."

"But we just got here?"

"You're leaving already?", Nancy pouted.

"You enjoy, my treat.", Andrew said as he patted Nancy's head and headed to the bar to settle the tab.

When Andrew and Isaac left the club, the women huddled and gossiped.

"Did they tell you where Holden Xuan is hiding?"

"Yeah, they must know where he is. They're friends, right?"

Nancy shrugged her shoulders and sipped her drink, "I don't really know. Andrew doesn't tell me anything."

"Tsk. I wonder where Chairman Xuan is hiding his troublesome son."

"I bet he's not in the country. Out of all the people he offended, he chose Chairman Kim's son."

Upon hearing about the Kim family, Nancy Jung's blood boiled. She's imagining how Samantha must be living very comfortably right now.

"Let's not talk about that, we're here to have fun. After all, my boyfriend's paying.", Nancy boasted as she raised her glass and clinked it with her friends'. "Wooooh!"

"Congratulations on your first movie, Nancy!"

-------------------

A few days later, Daniel Cho just finished his lunch meeting with some clients when Assistant Ahn rushed to him with a grin on his face looking very excited.

When Daniel saw his assistant's grin, his brows scrunched up. "Wipe that weird look on your face. You look funny."

But Assistant Ahn still smiled cheerily, "Boss, you'll never believe what I just found by chance."

As soon as Daniel heard his assistant, his heart throbbed. Although Ahn hasn't said anything yet, he was already expecting an answer that he's been waiting to hear for 3 months.

"Stop wasting time."

Ahn pursed his lips and prompted them to walk towards the car.

"My cousin who's a vlogger had visited Country D a few weeks ago. He updates his videos timely and I watch them whenever I feel bored but because of too much work lately----"

Assistant Ahn realized his chatter when Daniel Cho glared at him, "Not that I'm complaining, I love my job."

"Cut to the chase."

"Right. So anyway... while you were in the meeting, I watched one of his vlogs from a few weeks back and I saw her."

Daniel didn't respond. He was still quite unsure about what his reaction should be. He feels elated but at the same time nervous. Is he finally going to see her again?

Seeing that his boss didn't say anything, Ahn took out his phone and opened a video. He searched for a specific time before he pressed the play button. Voices were heard from the phone and some music played in the background.

Two men were in front of the camera talking very comfortably, "Yow what's up everyone! It's yo boy Zac and Tyler and we're currently at a bar right now just beside the resort where we're staying and check this out... This lady has an amazing voice!"

One of the men changed the angle of the camera so that it faces the small stage of the bar where a man and a woman were sitting in high chairs while playing an acoustic song.

The man on the stage strummed and plucked his guitar while the woman held the microphone and sang the song with her eyes closed.

"The waitress said her name is Kira and man can she sing! It's been a long time since I've heard 'Here Without You' by 3 Doors Down and her version is quite smooth!! I think... I'm in love!"

"Pssh! You're always in love!", said Tyler.

The video focused on the stage once again and Zac zoomed to the woman who was singing the chorus of the song.

The clip was cut and another scene played where the vlogger showed another scenery from their trip the next day.

The very short part of the clip that Daniel saw was probably the most satisfying 15 seconds of singing that he had seen for the past few months. He rewound the track and played it again. He's been replaying the same part for a few times and he was still not satisfied.

Assistant Ahn was silently cursing and missing his phone already, 'Boss, why don't you use your own phone if you want to watch it over and over?', he thought.

After some time, he paused the video and stared at the singer and sighed.

"Find out where this is ASAP."

Ahn felt very proud, "Boss, I already contacted my cousin right after I saw the video but I haven't heard anything from him yet."

"Keep trying."

"Yes, Boss."

Daniel hesitated for a bit before he returned Assistant Ahn's phone to him. "Also, cut that portion of the video and send it to me."

"Understood."

"Your bonus is tripled this month."

"Thank you, President!", Ahn screamed and danced silly in his mind but kept his composure in front of his boss. 'I'm seeing better days ahead of me now.'

For the past few days, Daniel tried not to think about her and not "search" for her. And now...

Daniel closed his eyes as he sat in the backseat of his Maybach. He thought deeply about what he's planning to do soon. 'I finally found you, Samantha. I'm coming for you.'