Still, on the roof, SolHi received a message from DooSan. „See you in the parking lot in ten minutes.” A text message that made her frown because, even if she didn’t know why, after the threats she heard from him before that, she wasn’t in the mood to see him. Yet, she had no choice because he was her boss eventually and had to do whatever he asked her to do. That’s why she went to the parking lot, but saw nobody there.
„He said to see him here in ten,” SolHi growled, frowning. „Yet, he didn't show up! What? Is he trying to make me wait for him more recently?”
Suddenly, when she heard a noise of something falling, somewhere to her left, SolHi winced. After that, she frowned and, looking toward that place, she carefully tried to see what was happening next to that Nissan Qashqai from where the noise was heard. A deaf noise eventually, which had been heard again shortly after this. And, determined to catch that bastard in the act, she started to sneak toward that place because only a thief could be there for sure.
Two steps from the car, she stopped and sneaked toward a gray sedan, a BMW, which was right in front of the Nissan. Once in front of the BMW, SolHi squatted and carefully looked toward the Nissan again. Thus, she saw, right next to the rear right wheel, somebody, curled up. Yet, instead of a thief trying to steal a car, SolHi saw DooSan, something that made her widely open her eyes. Moreover, when DooSan spotted her and started to make desperate signs to her to approach him. He even whistled to make her attentive because even if he was doing what he was doing, secretly, DooSan was still aware that it wasn’t legal and right. That’s why he needed an accomplice. Yet, instead of helping him, SolHi shook her head.
Her stubbornness made DooSan sigh. After that, moving from his place, and somehow sneaking around, he approached her. One step from her, he stopped and, both still squatting, hissed through his teeth, „Watch my back!”
„What?” Came SolHi’s dumb question. This made DooSan show her his fangs, a hint that he was ready to bite. Seeing him grinning at her, SolHi shook her head, to clear her mind, then asked, „What do you have in mind right now, DooSan?”
„None of your business!” He grinned. After that, he headed toward the Nissan again.
Halfway to the car, DooSan stopped when he heard SolHi hissing through her teeth, „The one who said I’m the troublemaker in the prosecution does this! I? The troublemaker? I’m sure that’s a lie because here is the king, whistling and sneaking around only to vandalize others’cars.”
„Are you looking for a fight right now?” DooSan asked, staring at her.
„It might be if you don’t tell me what’s your problem with that car.”
„As I said: none of your business! Just… watch my back! Like a real soldier, not like a mummy!”
„I make a pardon? Am I a mummy recently and I’m not aware of that?”
„Ian SolHi!” DooSan almost shouted. „I really don’t have time to fight with you. So… be nice and watch my back! I don’t want to be caught doing such things! And… give me that!”
„To give you what?” She asked, somehow scared when she felt his hands looking for something in her pockets. Then, when she realized that DooSan touched her without permission, SolHi slapped his arm, hissing through her teeth, „What are you doing?”
„Looking for problems!” Said DooSan, showing her his fangs, after taking a dagger from the front pocket of her parka. „If someone sees me, you are dead!” He said, turning his back to her eventually.
Reproachfully shaking her head, SolHi slapped her forehead. „We are the laughingstock recently if this one has gotten to threaten me with my own dagger!” She was definitely upset and decided to tell him something good after that. Yet, she forgot about her anger when she saw the blade of the dagger deeply biting from the rear tire. „To be damn!” She whispered, widening her eyes while looking around to make sure nobody saw them. That parking lot was empty at that moment, something that made her breathe a sigh of relief because… „I can’t believe I’m part of this right now,” she said eventually, staring at DooSan this time, who cut the front tire too. Then, when he moved to the other side of the car, to take care of the two left tires, SolHi shook her head again and, looking once again around, she mumbled, „I’m definitely not the weirdest of the group.”
She suddenly jerked to her feet when she felt someone tapping her shoulder. She didn’t look back after this, but swallowed hard while a thought crossed her mind, „We are dead!” Eventually, when she got some courage, she looked past her shoulder where she saw Han DooSan happily grinning at her. SolHi didn’t grin but showed him her fangs, a hint that he really scared her. Moreover, when she heard him saying, „We are done here! So, as we are free, we can go now!” After that, he headed toward his black BMW, parked not that far from the Nissan.
Looking behind him, SolHi sighed. Then, she puffed when she understood that even if she didn’t want this she was still his accomplice. How not to be when she was right next to the Nissan when it flipped to the left and when the rear tires started to whistle, hinting that Han DooSan used some strength when he cut them. Looking at that vandalized car, SolHi felt itches on her skin because „I’ll pay for this for sure!” she murmured. After that, seeing DooSan stopped next to his car, pointing her with his head to approach him, SolHi headed toward him, still mumbling, „He’s definitely the devil! Otherwise, I can’t explain why he’s so happy even after destroying someone’s car!”
***
„Are you happy now?” SolHi asked DooSan, the two of them in his car when she heard him whistling, satisfied.
„Why shouldn't I be happy?” He calmly asked her, looking in front, at the line of cars that seemed to form a traffic jam. „I didn’t kill anybody eventually.”
„If this was a hint addressed to me, let me inform you that it leaves me cold,” SolHi growled. „And… stop smiling! I hate your devil smile, even if it’s not the case. Actually, having this smile on your face, you definitely can kill someone, something that will give you a nickname for sure.”
„Like that „Devil” you gave to me?” SolHi cooked her nose. DooSan smiled. „Yeah, I know it. Just as I know all the nicknames that you have invented for me, by the way. God knows only what else I’ll hear from you.”
„I’m not the only one nicknaming people. I also know a few you’ve given to me.”
„None of them you didn’t deserve.”
„Actually, I have the same thought because only a Devil can do what you’ve done, just what.”
„Do you think so?” SolHi squinted at him. „That only the devils can destroy cars? Of course not. There are normal people doing this. People you should say thank you not argue with them.”
„Really? Should I thank you? For what? For destroying someone’s car?” She asked, still squinting at him. Seeing him grinning, she shook her head. „Not a random car seems to me, but of someone in particular.”
„You’re absolutely right because that Nissan was San DuSik’s car.”
„Tell me something new!” SolHi mumbled, staring through the window. A reaction that made DooSan attentive. Even so, SolHi didn’t look at him but kept staring through the window.
„You knew whose car I destroyed, right?” He asked her, hissing the words through his teeth. „Even so, you said no word.”
Suddenly, as though receiving an order, SolHi changed that glance of „Give me a break!” to an innocent glance, like, „I really didn’t know! I swear!” A glance that made DooSan stare even more carefully at her and tell her:
„Don’t look like that at me, Ian SolHi, like the innocent cat that swears she hasn’t drunk the milk! No, I’m not stupid to believe you. So, tell me: how did you find out whose car was that Nissan? Or no, wait, better answer this one: why this dagger was in your pocket while you were in the parking lot?” After that, seeing that SolHi still plaid the fool, DooSan really got angry, growling eventually, „Ian SolHi, answer that question for me!”
SolHi shrugged, then innocently looked at him when she said, „I just… have it. For fun!”
„No, no, no! I know you too well to believe that you wear such things only for fun. Rather, you had it for somebody. So, tell me whom exactly you want to hurt until I don't lose my mind! You know very well what I can do when I’m mad, right?”
„Yeah, sure: I know this, just like the wheels of San DuSik'car know this too. Or, are there others that know this too?”
Deeply breathing in when he felt that he was about to lose control, DooSan said, „Ian SolHi, don’t drive me crazy and tell me what you have needed this dagger for! Or will you tell me where exactly to find DuSik’s body rather than this?”
SolHi smiled while looking at DooSan with those cat eyes, a cat that wasn’t capable of destroying anything. After that, seeing that DooSan insisted on finding out an answer from her, she said in a bad tone, „For nothing strange, I’ve told you already! I just… needed it to cut some… wires!”
To her great surprise, she hadn’t been punched by DooSan as she'd expected, but she’d been about to hit her head off the glove compartment when DooSan hit the brake pedal right in the middle of the road. Then, paying no attention to the other drivers, who kept honking to show their anger for being so suddenly forced to brake or surround the car, DooSan stared at SolHi with wide-opened eyes. „Wires? Whose wires? Don't tell me you cut the wires of San DuSik's car just because he's slapped you today!”
„It wasn’t just a slap,” SolHi said, damn calm, even if she was struggling with her laughter when she saw DooSan’s scared face.
„Even so: I don’t think that it’s the case to cut his car’s brakes just because he slapped you. For this…”
„…you’ve taken care of this, I know. Just as I know how the wall of DuSik’s office suffered when you punished him for what he did to me.” DooSan cooked his nose, seeing that his secret was discovered so soon. „Anyway, why should I bother with such revenge when it can be solved quickly and cleanly?” She said, slowly caressing the dagger.
„Ian SolHi,” said DooSan in a shaking voice. „At least tell me how much you’ve cut from those brakes. Not the other, but I don’t need ghosts haunting me.”
The terror seen on DooSan’s face made SolHi finally burst into laughter. This didn’t amaze him, but scared him more, thinking she lost her mind. That’s why, with a shaking hand, he took the dagger from SolHi’s lap, swallowing hard while he said, after this, „I think I’ll keep this thing in my pocket. You don’t look too healthy to carry it all day long because God doesn’t want this and someone’s neck can be cut instead of someone's brakes.”
„Are you serious right now?” SolHi asked him, staring at him while feeling a certain irritation in her stomach. „Do you really think I’m that crazy to cut someone’s brakes when I can be blamed for this later?”
„What do I know?! I didn’t get to know you that well!”
„Something damn good for you. Why? Because, if you had gotten to know me that well, I would have cut your brakes first, for sure.”
„Still, I say to tell someone to take that car from there. Or at least to block his way! Otherwise, he can kill himself for sure.”
„He has to start that engine first to be able to kill himself after this.” DooSan pumped his eyes again. Unlike him, SolHi was the calamity itself because she confidently said while taking her dagger back and staring into DooSan’s eyes, „I didn’t cut the brakes, but the battery’s wires. That’s why I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to turn that engine on. At least not today. And, in case you’ve forgotten this, even if I had cut his brakes, he wouldn’t have been able to use that car today either. Why? Because someone, here present, took care of his tires. So, Han DooSan, stop blaming others when you aren’t that Saint, ok?”
„Whaa,” DooSan let the air suddenly exit his mouth, after keeping it in his lungs for a while. „I can’t believe you’ve called me devil after confessing this. You are the queen of devils for sure. Worse than I am, thousands of times.” Suddenly hearing a strange buzz in his ears, DooSan started to tap them with his palms, whispering, „I think San DuSik discovered our bad joke. I can hear him swearing from here.”
„His problem,” replied SolHi, smiling. „He’ll need steel nerves to take that car out of the parking lot today. Better to say, it’ll cost him a lot of money to take it from there. Well, it’s what he deserved!” After that, both laughing, DooSan turned the engine on because they still had an urgent thing to solve.
***
HIGHSCHOOL. YARD.
A little bit bent in front, over the body of the teenager that fell from off the roof, GhiYon sighed because, even if he’d been called to such tragic cases before, he couldn’t get used to the death of such young victims. Especially, he felt pain in his heart if the dead ones were young people, who had barely started their life and who would have had a whole life in front to be happy, but ended so tragically. Like that young girl, whose body he was checking at that moment. And yes, he had a good reason to feel sorrow for her because she had a lot of wounds caused by falling.
Thus, too focused on the case, with many CNS agents and police officers around him, GhiYon didn’t feel someone’s footsteps approaching him. That’s why, when someone’s hand touched his shoulder, the poor forensic doctor jerked up, scared to death, thinking that the victim touched his shoulder because he just turned his back to her at that time, to look for something in his bag. Seeing DooSan in front of him, grinning and happy that he managed to scare him to death, GhiYon showed his fangs, threatening the prosecutor with the scalpel. „Never ever approach me like that again,” he hissed through his teeth. „Only if you insist on taking the victim’s place. And, also keep her away from my body!”
DooSan, smiling, looked in the same direction as GhiYon, not understanding who exactly was bothering the forensic doctor. Seeing SolHi not that far from them, staring at them with an innocent glance, DooSan started to laugh because he considered his friend’s joke really good. Yet, spotting GhiYon’s bitter face, he raised his hands, hinting that he gave up on fighting. After that, he stepped to the side, offering the forensic doctor a better view of SolHi.
She, to DooSan and GhiYon’s great surprise, instead of arguing with them or scolding them for that bad joke, only reproachfully shook her head. After that, at a slow step and yawning, bored, moved away from the two men because she did not intend to bother with them. Her reaction made GhiYon cook his nose at first. Then, slowly turning toward DooSan, he frowned while asking, „Did you train her? She’s too calm!”
DooSan laughed. „Honestly, I still wonder who trains who.”
„I see some progress at you.”
„At what?” DooSan asked, in amazement.
„At accepting that a girl can train you.” DooSan slowly growled, hearing his friend talking like that. Because of this, GhiYon pulled a little back, aware of what Han DooSan could do when he was tempted. And, to avoid being DooSan’s source of jokes after that, GhiYon rushed to say, „By „trained,” I meant to control her when I thought that she’d control you eventually.”
„Would you be so kind to keep your mouth shut?”
„Why exactly? It’s funnier this way. More than that, by saying this, I can at least imagine how you and her… and yeah, I have great imagination, by the way.” GhiYon winced eventually when he spotted DooSan grinning. „What do you have in mind this time, old devil?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
„I?” DooSan asked, still smiling. „Who has great imagination is you, not me. Yet, even if I don’t have such a great imagination, I still imagine certain things about you. Like… you, „choosing your bodies.” I mean, you always look for something new and fresh. Is it because you have a great imagination?”
„Absolutely: just like you have a perverse imagination. Why? Because it’s not my fault that this poor girl is here. She did that to herself by jumping off that roof.”
„Was she high?”
„There aren’t signs of this, even if I can’t exclude it. I’ll be able to tell you this only after the autopsy. Yet, what interests me more than the drugs are the source of these scars.” Saying this, GhiYon showed DooSan a few scars on the girl’s arms, many of them almost healed. „There are a few on her hips too, but… I don’t think I should show them to you here.”
„Did she do that to herself?”
„I’m not sure. I can say more if you find out what kind of friends she had. Especially, who was around her the last few days before her death because… I think she was the victim of bullying or any other kind of violence.”
„No, she did that alone,” SolHi told them confidently while approaching them. Only two steps from them, she stopped and, taking her jacket off, only a little bit, showed them similar scars on her forearm. What she didn’t expect when she showed them those scars was to see the surprise in their eyes. DooSan even widely opened his eyes when he saw it, a view that made SolHi smile. After that, she said, „If you look like a ghost after only seeing the scars on my arm, I can’t imagine what you’ll look like if I show you the rest. That’s why, before you have a heart attack, I better keep them for me. I don’t really want to see you as this one’s „doll.”
Saying this, SolHi turned her back to them because she still had a lot to check around that place. She left them alone, thinking that this would be easier for them to come back to their senses. And she was right in thinking so because, right away she was out of their sight, DooSan hiccupped, then hissed through his teeth, „To be damn if I understand something of all of this.” He was definitely confused because SolHi’s confession wasn’t something he had ever expected. More than that, he had never thought that SolHi was capable of hurting herself in the past or that she suffered.
***
SIX YEARS AGO. A FEW DAYS BEFORE TRIAL.
That night, SolHi was alone in the cell. She was alone with the darkness that was surrounding her after her cellmate had been released that day. Thus, abandoned by everybody, SolHi was forced to face reality and loneliness alone. At the same time, she was forced to ask herself questions about her future, one that was uncertain for her at that moment. Especially, she was unsure about people, those who kept blaming her for everything, sentencing her even if none of them was sure that SolHi was guilty of what they accused her of.
Yes. People kept accusing her even if they weren’t sure of her guilt. The reason? It was easier this way. Thus, blaming her, they weren’t forced to think about the real criminal, just as justice preferred to be blind too. It was easier for them too to accuse her of crime than look for the real assassin. It was better for them to bury her and the case along with her. Then, considering the case solved, to continue their lives and forget about everything.
What about SolHi? Nobody cared about her. At the same time, nobody thought about how she would live after that. All that mattered to them was that she was there that night when Han YuSan died and, once he was dead, it was her guilt for sure. „What if she also suffered that night? She deserved it,” people kept saying, convinced that they knew the truth better than God. That’s why they didn’t care about others but only about themselves.
The same thought SolHi had: she also cared about her. She cared about her reputation and the pain felt in her heart. At the same time, she feared tomorrow, that day that kept grinning at her, weird, so many times lately because, each time she thought that the sun would rise tomorrow, darkness was falling over her. Yes, it was so dark around her that day when she realized that only five days were left until the trial, a painful one that was about to break her heart and make her cry again, surrounded by mean people and watched with bad eyes only because she was considered a criminal. And, at the same time, she feared for those few friends who still believed in her.
That trial turned SolHi’s life upside down completely. Because of it, she started to fear light and her freedom. The reason? Yun Marie, who hunted her and left her spooked all that time, threatening SolHi with her own life if she was left free. Yes, SolHi started to fear her freedom, considering it a nightmare, forced to look over her shoulder all the time and this was because Marie told her that if she was released from prison one day, she would always be forced to fear for her life while being on the street. SolHi even started to fear eating something in prison, thinking that Marie went too far to order someone to poison her meal.
Because of this thought, that she could be killed any moment, SolHi considered each event a kind of red flag. She got to always look around and, when she was in the yard or at showers, she tried not to be alone there. She started to fear even the guards, who she knew that were capable of doing certain favors to the prisoners or to those from outside who wanted to get rid of someone from inside the prison, like Yun Marie, who wanted SolHi dead. Something strange for SolHi because she knew that her worst enemy was the General Attorney, an enemy that worked for justice, even if, behind it, she got to threaten someone with death only to bring justice to her son.
Nevertheless, SolHi never blamed Marie for wishing to do justice to YuSan. She was aware that Marie suffered and, by threatening her, the one considered the assassin, she was taking the burden off her shoulders. Even so, she felt injustice because she didn’t have a single day in prison when she didn’t hallucinate, wasn’t attacked or threatened. Thus, because she was forced to fight all the time, SolHi ended up in solitary confinement, in that narrow, cold, dark, and wet room that asphyxiated her each time she was closed there. Even so, in time, SolHi got to consider that room her cell because she spent more days there than in her cell, something that let her know that her punishment wouldn’t end soon and that maybe she’d end her life in big pain.
That thought made SolHi shudder again that night. „Just leave me alone, for God’s Sake!” She begged. After that, powerless, she covered her face with her arms, feeling, deep in her chest, how the wild bird with the name Anxiety was struggling, a bird that was scared of itself and of the world at the time.
Nevertheless, even if she wanted peace, SolHi had never been able to feel it or run out of reality. Aware of this, to breathe again freely, she raised her head and looked around. She did that, afraid, because, everywhere, was dark and cold, the perfect place for something bad to happen to her. This made her shudder again, moreover when she remembered that when night fell, she started to hear strange sounds, like the one of a chair with metallic legs dragged on a cement floor. A sound that always reminded her about that night when her life was changed forever, a night of terror when she lost her baby and her soul.
Yet, it’s been silence for a long time, until the moment she finally heard the footsteps of the guard approaching her cell. The sound of the footsteps made SolHi wince and look at the guard, who squatted next to SolHi, on the other side of the bars. Then, so suddenly, the guard threw a dagger at SolHi’s feet, something that made SolHi shudder with all her body and stare at the 45-year-old woman, who was strangely grinning at her.
SolHi knew that guard very well. She got to know her face and the sound of her footsteps, even the way of being of that woman she got to know. At the same time, SolHi knew that the guardian, a woman who got to hate SolHi even if she didn’t do anything to her, worked in that prison for years, earning a lot of money from doing favors for the prisoners or others, who had „a message” to send to someone from inside. „Favors” that SolHi had never been able to have because, even if she also offered money to that guard, that one never accepted to help her. This probably happened because of Yun Marie, an enemy that used her influence not to allow SolHi to give a simple phone call while she’d been in jail, a right that had always been denied to her.
Nevertheless, SolHi never complained about this. She always waited in silence, aware that her nightmare would be over eventually. Instead of this, things got worse, especially lately, when she started to receive „messages” like the one the guard sent to her after throwing that dagger, „Do us a favor, Ian SolHi: use it to kill yourself! Thus, you’ll make the life of all of us easier… the moment you get to hell, where you belong.”
Hearing these words, SolHi said nothing. She only looked at the dagger’s blade, which was shining, illuminated by the blind light of the prison. And, while she stared at that instrument of death, SolHi felt paralyzed and that she couldn’t do a single movement. She didn’t move even when she heard other footsteps approaching her. Not even when the second visitor squatted behind her, SolHi didn’t turn to look at him. SolHi only winced, making a weak sound when that someone grabbed her by the throat, forcing her to touch the bars with her back. Only then, when she felt the bars hurting her back, SolHi tried to release herself. Yet, not being able to do this, she froze again when she heard, right into her right ear, how the intruder opened the dagger.
The sound of the opening blade, right next to her ear, made SolHi’s eyes fill with tears. After that, shaking like hell, SolHi asked in a shaking voice, „Who are you?”
Nobody answered that question. Only a strange laughter, somehow muffled, was heard in her left ear, and SolHi turned her head toward there. She winced again after that when she felt the dagger’s blade deeply biting her right forearm. Then… it bit again and again. Yet, even if it hurt like hell, SolHi didn’t scream or ask for help. If she had done this, it would have been worse the next time. All that she did was gnash her teeth, trying to ease the pain this way.
The third bite had been the last. After that, a weird voice, who let SolHi know that a woman was her butcher, whispered to her, „It’s not over! So, don’t relax! It’s only the beginning!”
Those words hadn’t been simple words eventually because, after that night, SolHi met her butcher several times. Each time she met her, it wasn't a crowded place, but a dark one, where SolHi was somehow forced to get to. Even so, even if she knew that everybody wanted to hurt her, SolHi never told anybody about this. She knew that it was useless to say something and that nobody would have helped her. She preferred to suffer, in silence, convinced that it would be over, one day, the moment she’d be free again.
Even when she’d been released from prison, SolHi never mentioned those attacks. She never showed anybody her scars, not even to Mina. Until that day when she showed them to DooSan and GhiYon. She felt that she had to do that as though the death of that young girl, which they investigated at that moment, was something that had to happen… as a trigger for an event that was meant to make justice for her for everything that happened to her in the past.
***
PRESENT. THE HIGH SCHOOL’S ROOF
The moment DooSan appeared on the roof, screaming, „Why do you have such scars on your arms?” SolHi understood that she’d been wrong showing them to him. Why exactly? Because, even if she wasn’t yet used to DooSan’s manner of doing things, she still heard about his obsession with finding out secrets at any cost, especially those secrets that had something to do with him, and her secret was definitely one of DooSan’s interest.
Yet, SolHi wasn’t ready to talk about her past. More than that, she felt that DooSan was only pretending while asking those questions. An interrogatory that made her wish to hide those scars more instead of showing them or talking about the reason why she had them. No, she definitely didn’t want to remember those times, just as she considered it useless to talk about them because she suspected that DooSan was also involved in this, in one way or another. Yes, she wanted him to stop pretending, to accept his guilt. Thus, SolHi would have stopped suffering, considering her sufferance a Fate’s will. Yet, DooSan didn’t accept it. He was stubborn in not accepting the truth, something that made SolHi say eventually, „That’s not something important for you. Just… something of the past.” After that, not to let him know that she was lying to him, she turned her back to DooSan, pretending to check the place from where the teenager jumped.
By avoiding answering his question, SolHi managed to drive DooSan crazy. He even considered her silence a kind of challenge. Thus, feeling the worm of curiosity deep inside of his bones, DooSan approached her. And, grabbing her arm, he forced her to watch him while demanding, „Tell me about the scars!”
„Which ones?” SolHi pretended that she didn’t understand the question. „I think you should ask such questions to the forensic doctor, not to me. Your friend, „the doll lover,” is capable of answering such questions. So, I will be grateful to you if you release my arm to be able to work.” A request that DooSan denied, who squeezed her arm, letting her know he wasn’t ready to play. This enraged SolHi, who shouted, „What do you think you are doing now, Han DooSan?”
„Finding out the truth?” DooSan replied, cynical. „The truth behind your scars, SolHi because I don’t think it’s a coincidence you’ve shown them to us. Or… am I wrong?”
„Yes, you are wrong. Why? Because I showed them to prove that the victim hurt herself, not to give you another track to investigate.”
„Yet, you managed it, even if it wasn’t your intention. So, tell me: why have you hurt yourself when you’ve always said that you aren’t guilty of YuSan’s death? Did you really feel guilt? Or… remorse?”
His cynicism made SolHi feel nervous and gnash her teeth. After that, staring at him like an eagle at his prey, SolHi said, „I did them? Don’t be a hypocrite, DooSan! You know very well the reason behind these scars! So, stop pretending not to know it!”
DooSan stared at her in amazement. „Do I know it?” He asked, confused.
Seeing that he kept denying an obvious thing to her, SolHi released her arm by struggling a little with DooSan. After that, taking a step toward DooSan, who kept staring at her, she told him, looking at him with hatred, „Yes, you know it because this is the product of your mother’s huge „love” for me. Or maybe… was it because of your „love” for me?”
„An order? My order? What the hell are you talking about, Ian SolHi? Why are you blaming me or my mother for this?”
The confidence in his voice and the indignation felt in the shaking of his vocal cords when she accused him of this, made SolHi feel confused. She even asked eventually, „You really didn’t know that? Are you sure?”
„To be sure of what?” DooSan yelled. „Speak at once, SolHi, and don’t play with me because it won’t work for you to make me guilty for this!”
„This is what you think I’m doing? That I’m looking for your sympathy?”
„What do I know?! It seems to be a game. And the reason? I don’t know it, but I want to find out! To know what you know!”
SolHi burst into laughter. „What I know?!” She asked in a mocking tone. „I don’t know anything, OK?! The only thing I’m aware of is that I’ve always been hated for something it’s supposed I’ve done. For a crime for which I’ve been punished before the judge has sentenced me, before proving my guilt. How exactly? Very simple: by threatening me that if I got out of prison, I wouldn’t survive. Who threatened me? Your mother, Han DooSan!” Such words made DooSan shudder. „Yes, Yun Marie is the one who „predicted” to me such a future, who told me that if I manage to be declared innocent, she’d take care to be punished differently. She not only threatened me, DooSan, she did that because I was hurt in jail, each time Marie came there to see me. How? Getting new scars on my skin!”
„You are lying!” DooSan yelled, furious, grabbing her by the arms and then hardly shaking her. „My mother isn’t capable of this!”
„If you believe this, then you are really stupid, Han DooSan. You’ve never got to really know Yun Marie!”
„Of course, I know my mother. I’ve got to know her better than I know you. That’s why I’m sure you are lying, even if I don’t understand the reason why you are doing this.”
„I’m just trying to break that illusionary bubble into which you are living and see reality,” SolHi shouted. „To make you see the truth you’ve asked for. Even so, you don’t believe me because you are so blind, Han DooSan! You believe so much in others and never in those who know that truth. So… I don’t see the point to keep talking about this.”
Hardly pushing DooSan away from her, SolHi intended to leave. She couldn’t go eventually because DooSan grabbed her by the arm again and squeezed. Staring into his eyes, SolHi saw hatred sparkling there, hatred she thought was gone but which was still there, alive. She even felt that hatred, the moment DooSan squeezed her arm more, hissing through his teeth, „Don’t think that such dirty games will make me forget the hatred I feel for you, SolHi! Such scars don’t mean anything to me, just as they won’t be a reason to forget about my revenge.”
Smiling, even if disappointment sneaked inside her soul, somehow between those tears that shadowed her eyes, SolHi asked, „Do you think this is what I want?”
„What?” He asked, confused. „What are you talking about?”
„I talk about your revenge,” SolHi calmly said. „A revenge I’ve waited for so long. Yes, I still wait for you and your mother to finish your revenge, as you’ve always promised me. A revenge that’s late, DooSan because you’ve always been a coward. Yes, you’ve been a coward, who preferred to stay in the shadow, lurking on what was going on and enjoying each moment of suffering I lived. Even so, it hadn’t ever been enough for you. For me, it had been more than enough. I’m tired, ok? To fight with you, with your mother, with the whole world, and even with me. All I want is this to be over, you hear me? I want this to be over… this damn life I’ve gotten to live because I’ve believed in others. So… do whatever you want to do! I won’t do anything to impede you on doing this: not even if you want to break me into pieces or drag me to jail again. Do whatever you want, Han DooSan, no matter what the monster from inside you doesn’t ask you to do.”
The calmness in her voice and the tears from her eyes made DooSan shudder. Later, when he felt something strange in his chest while looking at SolHi’s teary eyes, DooSan finally understood the truth: SolHi didn’t lie to him about Yun Marie and that she wasn’t afraid of him anymore. He understood a truth that made him say, confused, „It can’t be! This can’t be true!”
„Do you really think so? No, it is true… that you and your mother dragged me into this hell, looking for revenge, not knowing that Fate revenged you already. The whole world punished me in your place. The same world that hated me for something it’s supposed I’ve done. You’ve been revenged through each insult addressed to me, through each wound from my soul or from off my skin, even if the worst of the punishments I could live was the one that happened to me the night Han YuSan died, in that abandoned warehouse. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter to you. That’s why you hired someone to attack me in jail. Not only once, but over and over again, probably hoping to drive me crazy and make me accept a crime I don’t remember. Yet, you’ve been wrong because I’ve resisted your hatred. At the same time, you’ve been wrong by allowing me to live, Han DooSan. Why? Because of the hatred! That hatred I started to feel for you! A hatred that won’t ever allow me to stop looking for the truth and prove to you how wrong you’ve been all this time. Until this happens, you have the right to hate me too, DooSan. You have the right to keep hurting me, I won’t oppose this. Why? Just to have a chance to double pay you back the moment it’ll be possible for me to do that.”
Saying this, SolHi mechanically wiped her tears, which flowed over her cheeks until then. After that, she just left: without looking back even for a second. She just left, leaving a stunned Han DooSan behind her, an overwhelmed DooSan, who kept murmuring, crazy, „No, it can’t be! My mother isn’t capable of this! She couldn’t have done what she said. SolHi said that only to hurt me, to break my heart.”
Eventually, powerless, DooSan sat down on that cement floor and burst into crying. A lot of things crossed his mind at that moment, bad memories from those times when he lost his brother. Memories that took him to a rainy night when he suddenly returned home, after another day of looking for evidence, without finding something. Then, entering the house and then starting to climb the stairs to get to his room from the second floor, he heard his mother talking by phone. The serious tone of her voice, heard through the open door of the terrace, made DooSan stop, halfway through climbing the stairs. Thus, he got to hear Marie saying, „I don’t care if she dies in prison. Just do as I said! I’ll revenge my son only this way and I’ll also stop feeling pain if this happens.”
After this, Yun Marie hung up and, folding her arms over her chest, kept looking at the roses that were blossoming at that time. DooSan didn’t pay too much attention to her words that day. At the same time, he didn’t ask Marie to explain what she was doing. Actually, it didn’t matter to him what Marie was doing to get revenge for YuSan's death because, in that period of time, the two of them thought the same. They only wanted revenge and nothing more. Not like at that moment when, being on the roof, after the fight he had with SolHi, DooSan felt that he just hurt himself not looking for the truth that day.