Hyunjin
For the next few days, Taesung and I tread carefully around each other. Neither of us wanted to discuss, what had happened between us in the kitchen. The tension was palpable, like an unspoken question to which we both knew the answer, but were afraid to voice.
He avoids my gaze.
I avoidl the silence.
And yet we keep meeting everywhere. On the stairs. In the gym. At the table. In the hallways, where our shoulders brush past each other by inches. Neither of us asks. Maybe that's worse than if we tried to talk about it.
But I'm afraid to bring it up. I don't know, how he might react. Despite the fact, that I would have kissed him if the dogs hadn't started barking that night, I know he wasn't going to turn away from me.
I care about him. I've already admitted that. But could it be something more?
The silence between us was broken the day Sunhee knocked on my door, saying that someone was following her.
„Someone was hanging around the house last night," she said, as I let her in. Taesung was standing by my side at that moment, determined to help me protect my sister and her daughter. Sunhee's husband, Takashi, is currently in Tokyo. He owns a pharmaceutical company and had to leave urgently last week.
The feeling, that someone is watching her is like poison under my skin. It spreads slowly. Without warning. We went out to investigate, that same day and left a few of my men from Saturnia there to be on the safe side. It's all just a game. Mishimoto's game.
Psychological.
Dirty.
And effective.
Taesung notices it, too. One evening, he finds me sitting in my study at 4 a.m., watching the footage from the cameras that Takashi has installed around the house. He sits down in the chair opposite me and stays there for fifteen minutes, just watching me and saying nothing.
„It wasn't an attack, but a warning," he whispers after a few minutes, breaking the silence. „You know that as well as I do." I look up at him. „If he wanted to hurt her, he would have done it by now." At that moment, I realise how quickly he is maturing. How quickly he is learning to read the world he lives in.
„You're probably right." My gaze wanders back to the camera footage. There have been no movements around my sister's house for three days. „If something happened to her," I begin out of the blue, revealing my fears to him.
„He won't do it. He just wants to provoke you. He wants to restrict you and keep you busy with something else." His words burn into my brain. I know deep down that he's right. And yet, I can't shake the feeling that if Mishimoto gives a single order, my sister or Sophie will end up six feet under.
„Hyunjin?" He pulls me out of my thoughts. Hearing my name from his mouth breaks my train of thought. „If Mishimoto so much as points a finger at her, I'll kill him." There is no heroism in his voice, just calm determination. He turns and leaves my office.
He is becoming someone, who will stand by my side. He will kill not because he has to, but because he wants to. I created such a person.
... ༺༻ ...
From the moment Mishimoto turned his attention to the people around me, my nights became a battlefield once more. The nightmares returned. Again.
The ones I had naively thought I had buried.
I sleep irregularly. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by exhaustion, but at other times I force myself to stay awake because I am afraid to close my eyes. I know what awaits me there.
Tonight, the nightmare came quickly.
I am standing in a narrow alley, surrounded by cold walls. Everything is unnaturally quiet here. I can only hear my own breathing and my footsteps echoing behind me.
I turn around.
Byun is kneeling on the ground in front of me. He is covered in blood. He looks exactly as he does in my nightmares. His eyes have the same expression they always do in my dreams. Surprise. Not understanding. I want to run to him. But I can't move.
Mishimoto is standing behind him.
He's holding a gun. Calmly. Confidently. As if it were routine, not an execution. Byun looks at me one last time. Then a shot rings out.
This time, however, Byun does not fall to the ground. He simply disappears.
I am standing in his place. That's new. The nightmare didn't used to play out like this.
I can feel the blood pounding in my temples. I take a step back. Another. My back hits the wall. There's nowhere to run. Mishimoto slowly approaches me. Each of his steps is precise. Measured.
„This is what you chose, Yoone," he says calmly.
I try to breathe, but the air is heavy and suffocating. I can't utter a single word. I already know that I'm going to fail this dream again. Just like last time.
He raises his gun. He points it under my jaw.
I tilt my head back and close my eyes.
A shot rings out.
But it's not me, who falls. The world around me shatters like broken glass and the scene shifts. The alley disappears. The darkness is replaced by a bright light.
Suddenly, I am standing on the porch of my sister's house. I recognise the place immediately.
Then I see them.
Mishimota and his men emerge from the shadows like ghosts. Their footsteps are silent, synchronised and deadly certain. The door of the house opens. The lights come on inside. A scream is heard.
Sunhee.
I see her backing away, gripped by fear, her hands pressed tightly against her body. Then I see Sofia. She is standing by the staircase in a nightgown, a small, terrified, confused child with wide eyes.
She doesn't understand what is happening. She just senses that something is wrong.
Mishimoto enters the house like a king among ruins. He is holding a gun. He points it at my sister and niece.
„One for you, Yoone," he says quietly. „And the other is a message." My sister screams my name. Sofia bursts into tears. At that moment, someone rushes between them.
Taesung.
I don't know where he came from. He's just suddenly there. He grabs Sofia in his arms before anyone can shoot. Her hands cling desperately around his neck.
„Run!" he yells at Sunhee.
A shot rings out. Glass shatters. Taesung turns sideways to shield Sofie with his own body and runs away down the seemingly endless hallway. I see him stumble. I see him stagger. I see the bullet miss him by inches.
I want to go to him. I want to go to them.
But I'm still just a transfixed observer. Mishimoto turns to me and smiles.
„See?" he whispers. „I'll always take you, what you want protect the most." Suddenly, I feel a hand reaching under my pillow. I grab my gun and shoot. At that moment, I am wide awake.
... ༺༻ ...
BLOOD DEBT (피의 빚)