Minjae clutched the handles attached to the palanquin's roof to steady herself as it ascended a steep path. Inside her, a strange dichotomy of quietude and bedlam reigned. She was exhausted and rattled.
And terrified. Her heart thundered. Nervous, she gulped air. Everything that she feared about Hanyang came rushing back to her. She could do it. All she had to do was to inform this person. She had four men with her who would defend her with their lives, and she was far from the helpless Choi Jina she used to be in another life.
Boat captured. Secrets sold. Captain Park arrested.
Her first thought when she learnt it the previous day had been to tell Seung. He would know what to do.
Yet when the time came at night, she could not. Seung had known she was agitated. He asked her point blank, and her tongue had turned to lead.
"Can we go back to Ganghwa?" She had asked instead.
"Not yet, I am not ready yet," he had replied before taking her in his arms.
She was not ready, either. She had already realised she could never leave Seung again - Kang Do had been right; her fate had been sealed. She would find a way once they were back in Ganghwa but didn't tell him.
Since the night she had adamantly refused to continue their relationship once they returned to the island, something monumentally had shifted between them. Their stay in Hanyang was extended indefinitely. Seung's questions about her past had grown more frequent and pointed. When she told him she was in Hanyang to rescue another woman, he stared at her, his eyes unreadable.
One evening, he stormed out, frustrated by her refusal to divulge details about her past, only to come back and make love to her like a demon possessed. Another night, she woke up to find him rolling the beads of the green bracelet with his fingers, the lines on his face burrowed deep in strain. Her heart had thudded at the sight before she collected herself and asked what he was thinking. Seung replied that he wanted to find the girl so he could give the bracelet back. Minjae's heart had jackhammered as she looked away.
"Help me, Minjae," his throat had been raw. "Help me save you."
Collecting herself, she had reached out to him. "You have already saved me in ways you will never know. Whether we are together or not, I will always be your Minjae."
He had come to her and blanked her mind to oblivion with his passion, both tender and fierce at the same time. Seung had played with her without letting up for hours until her mind could no longer differentiate between agony and ecstasy. He made her fall apart until pain segued into lightning bolts of sensations unparalleled, squeezing out every last bit of pleasure from her body as if he could make her spill the part of her heart she kept secret from him through it. He had then driven into her as if he wanted to imprint himself inside her to read what she would not tell. All through it, he had told her over and over how he loved her, that he would die if something happened to her.
Only, it had not felt like love. It had felt like desperation and something else that had troubled Minjae more than everything else - rage.
Yet he had taken her to more beautiful places, treated her to exquisite food, and bought her more silk hanboks.
Then came a twist in her life she had not anticipated. Minjae often stepped out in the mornings to enjoy the sunshine in the small yard facing the river. This time, voices drew her attention, and she noticed a familiar-looking man arguing with the inn's owner about getting a room. The landlord turned him away, but not before the man met her eyes and motioned for her to follow. Hesitating only briefly, Minjae followed him. It was Ra Jungi, Ko Yoon's cousin, who had helped rescue Ko Yoon's sister and several others since.
Once alone, Minjae couldn't help but ask how he had found her. He explained that Ko Yoon had instructed him to watch out for her before leaving for Ganghwa.
"Noonim," he said, his voice trembling with fear, "we are in trouble. I took a lot of risks to meet you." He revealed that their boat carrying escapees to the North had been captured. He also learnt that their network had been infiltrated by people who took bribes to exchange information with the Barbarians. Captain Park had been arrested.
"What?" Her heart plummeted. "It has to be a mistake!"
Mistake or not, it didn't matter, and they both knew it. Ra Jungi needed to inform the others, but he was being hunted, so it fell on her to do it, as no one would suspect or question a woman. He had arranged for a palanquin to take her to another group member, who could then alert the rest in Hanyang and send word to other cities to lay low.
Minjae was shaken. Was Ko Yoon in danger? Kim Seo Jun? Kim Da Bom? Han So Ye? She covered her face with her hands, shivering. How did this happen? Everyone had been thoroughly vetted, only involving those whose families had been rescued.
Captain Park had managed everything. Without him, they were lost. She kept the accounts, and Han So Ye handled the money. Ganghwa had been their safest hideout.
What would happen now?
Fate had a cruel way of playing with her. Again, and again, and again.
She had to return to Ganghwa to warn everyone else.
Minjae did not have time to dwell on anything more. The palanquin had stopped. It gently touched the ground.
Minjae took a deep, steadying breath, and stepped out, reflexively blinking against the harsh light after being in the inky interiors of the palanquin.
Tall green trees came into view. Thick vegetation stood as a wall behind her, through which someone had cut a hole large enough for a palanquin to pass through. Minjae was standing in what looked like a small clearing.
In the middle stood Lee Seung, his hands locked behind his back, his expressions dark and unreadable.
Her heart jumped in relief. How was he here? Did the men carrying the palanquin inform him? Her face curved into an involuntary smile.
A smile he didn't return. At the flick of his eyes, the men behind her picked up the palanquin and left.
Ahead of her, a large rock with a flattened top jutted from its outcrop
The clearing. The rock.
Time slowed into one endless, horrifying, neverending beat.
Images flashed. Sickening, gut-churning images. Of her fifteen-year-old terrified self.
Her eyes fixated on it while Seung's eyes were fixed on her.
Something nauseous ballooned in her gut. Spiders crawled on her flesh as visions of gnawing fingers digging into her chest flashed in a non-stop loop.
"The site seems familiar, does it not?" Seung lifted his face and breathed into the air. "We saved each other's lives that day," Seung swallowed.
Minjae turned her stupefied eyes on him, her fingers clutching her throat as if somehow it would help her to breathe.
He stretched his arm so her eyes were directly focused on his open palm.
"I have been looking for you for half a decade and never found you. Yet you knew me from the first day you met me in Ganghwa, didn't you? What reason could you have to hide from me?"
Minjae looked at the object on Seung's outstretched palm.
Silver encasing.
Green gems.
Opal leaves.
She stared at it, her feet rooted.
Seung took in her blanched face but didn't move his hand. Her breath hitched, and she stepped back as if the bracelet would jump and bite her.
"Why?" The tortured cry tore from her.
"Because you didn't leave me a choice, Kim Minjae," Seung gritted out.
"How - how did you know?" She asked, something crushing her chest, but she didn't know what.
Seung continued to speak as if he didn't hear her. "I told you not to lie; I will catch you. We shared something beautiful that day. In this past year, I gave you everything I had. The time spent with you in the inn was -" Seung swallowed and closed his eyes, "I gave you my everything. I hoped you would at least accept that it was you who had saved me - that it was you I had...." His throat moved again while a pulse jumped in his jaw. "What do you have to hide so desperately that you would pretend that day from five years ago never happened?"
His words jumbled around her head. She understood them individually, but she could not string them together. She could only shake her head in disbelief.
"How does it feel to be kept in the dark, Minjae? Knowing that I have known something all along while you didn't?" His eyes were chips of black ice.
∞
Two weeks earlier, Hanyang
The promise of the morning light clashed harshly with Seung's face, which darkened like a night reluctant to cede its way to dawn. Wang Jung cowered before him.
Across from them, Sim JunHo's gigantic frame lounged on the mattress. He bit into an apple with a loud crunch, with a heavy 'tch tch' punctuating his aggravating chewing.
Seung pressed Minjae's sketch on the table as if he were holding down vipers, pumping venom into his existence by force.
A rivulet of sweat snaked down his spine.
"You told me you didn't see her face," his voice was quiet. Furious.
Wang Jung wiped his forehead and dropped to the floor on all fours. "Commander Lee, Sir, forgive me. I wanted to make sure it was not a mistake -" Wang Jung's sentence petered out. Lines carved his forehead into messy folds.
"You didn't trust me, Wang Jung," Seung said.
"That's not true, Commander Lee. But that house technically belongs to you; the men following her were His Excellency Choi Si-wan's slaves and now are dead, and you are sheltering her. It does not look good for you, Dari," Wang Jung argued.
Seung went as still as a statue. "How did you know she is with me?"
Wang Jung's shoulders stiffened, but then they stooped once more as he bent his head, his knees digging into the floor. "I deserve to be punished for following you, Dari," he said.
"I can have you whipped for that, Wang Jung," Seung knew he was being unreasonable, but fear and anxiety ate him from inside. "Did I not already tell you she almost died that night trying to save my life?"
Wang Jung's back twitched. "I understand. We need not take this to His Excellency Choe Myeong Gil. But I cannot sit by and let you be in danger by association, Commander Lee, Sir," Wang Jung suggested.
"I have reasons to believe her," Seung's voice was flint.
"Then why did you not tell us the woman in question was Kim Minjae?" Sim Junho asked, his loud crunching filling the silence that followed.
Wang Jung forged on. "Intel confirms an underground group is using rescue network as cover to smuggle sensitive information to the North. Kim Minjae is a part of it, and you must give up on her!"
"I didn't ask for your advice, Wang Jung. Leave Minjae to me," Seung snapped. "If she is guilty, I shall arrest her myself," Seung said, his voice dangerously soft. Even though he was looking at Wang Jung, Seung's warning was directed towards Sim Junho.
"Lee, no use taking your frustration out on poor Wang Jung," Sim Junho returned. "And you sound like a bad song on an irritating loop in the brain. You have been with her for quite a few days now. Yet you didn't update Jung about that either," Sim Junho pointed out amicably from his seat, enjoying himself thoroughly. "The two men who we caught have confirmed what Wang Jung said."
Seung argued that they could be lying, suggesting that someone might have paid them to do so or forced them to confess through torture.
"Or they could be the culprits, as they claim. Worst crimes have happened with lesser motivation," Sim JunHo polished the other side of the apple with his sleeve. "This apple is gigantic." He raised his hand as a salute to Seung. "Thank you for getting one for me," he said as if they were discussing the weather.
Lee Seung, choked by tendrils of dread, could barely speak. "They were rescuing women, and I find it hard to believe they would undertake actions that could endanger the entire country and its people."
"Aieesh! Speaks the man, addled by a woman!" Sim Junho scoffed.
"What part of 'Kim Minjae almost died that night trying to save my life' do you not understand, Hyungnim?" Seung's jaw was so tight it could snap.
"The part where I see you were fighting off her assailants," Sim Junho made more loud, crunching noises that grated on Seung's nerves. "It made sense for her to try to save you. Perhaps she didn't think she would fall off the cliff, a miscalculation on her part in the rush of adrenaline, stress and the night," Sim Junho countered affably.
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"I was there. You were not. For someone who does not know her, you make an awful lot of assumptions," Seung challenged, a nerve ticking furiously in his jaw. Sim Jun Ho was older than him in every way, age, rank, and experience. He was the hyung Seung never had, the mentor who had shaped him into who he was, his lifeline when his world had been a grey mush of despair. But none of that would keep Seung from punching a face if it deserved it.
"Not assumption. Hypothesis." Sim Junho gave Seung a side glance from his perch, his gaze mocking, knowing. "The question is, what would someone as powerful as Lord Choi get from killing a mere female?"
"I do not know. Unless we open an investigation on my father-in-law, it's a question we will not get an answer to," Seung said.
Junho chuckled. "Or a one-to-one session with Kim Minjae could yield some interesting results."
"Lay a hand on her, and I will forget every relationship we ever had," Seung's eyes glinted dangerously.
A pregnant pause followed. Sim Junho rose to a sitting position, his eyes no longer amused.
"Behaving like a brat will only get you and that woman of yours killed. There are seven rescued women living on that island, Lee Seung. All six checked out." Sim Junho tapped Minjae's sketch. "Except her. She is not the woman who was married to Jo Sung Ha. This woman came to the island claiming to be Kim Minjae. Her 'husband' followed her six months later; interestingly, he did not refute that she was his wife. Some witnesses suggest Jo Sung Ha forcibly tried to carry her off. He has not been seen since he left the island, yet a divorce decree is recorded in the offices of both Tosan and Ganghwa. Quite convenient, I must say. Does it not sound odd to you?"
Seung swallowed.
Kim Minjae, what are you truly hiding? Why? Seung sat still, trying to control the agonising breaths ripping through his chest.
Sim Junho peered closely into the seed of his apple as if mysteries of the universe were inked in it before tossing it in a bowl. "Forgive me for saying this, and I mean no disrespect to her as a woman I am not related to, but a woman of her beauty appears suddenly in Ganghwa with no history? Isn't it suspicious that she claims to be a runaway slave yet is wealthy enough to start a complex secret network and is better read than an average Yangban scholar?" Sim JunHo was no longer nonchalant.
Seung closed his eyes, his gut churning with acid.
"Kim Minjae is self-taught and possibly from a Yangban family. You forget, she is also a physician -"
"Lee Seung, she is not a physician. She is a merchant. Even if she were, the women trained in this field can barely read Hangul and seldom read anything more than a few pages of basic procedures," Sim Junho's eyes were edged with glass as he stared at his junior, whom he loved more than a brother, yet made no effort to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "Kim Minjae funds an elaborate rescue network sponsored by unknown people with unaccounted-for money. In the last two years, this same 'rescue' network helped stow away at least two hundred defectors from Ming and Joseon to the Barbarians. And now we have her meeting with Choi Se-min, which is very interesting."
"There is nothing on Choi Se-min either," Seung refuted coldly.
"Not yet," Sim Junho said in a hard voice.
Lee Seung clenched his fist.
"This is not the work of a novice, Lee Seung," Sim Junho said softly and unrolled one of the scrolls from the mountain on the table between them and unrolled it. Within minutes, the tabletop was littered with sketches—many different kinds—of the interior of Seung's house, his mother's chamber, his chamber, Choi Jina's and Gil-ae's chambers. There were details of other homes and government offices, plans, and maps. Roads, exits, entries. Number of guards in each unit, down to the exact amount of guns and ammunition on the island. Records of conversations between many different officials. The most telling details were the location and number of each ship, the men, and every other fact possible guarding the island. Only two people in Ganghwa had access to such information - Lee Seung and Captain Park.
Ganghwa had been laid threadbare.
Under his watch.
Seung's ears rang. Stones weighed down his heart, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Sim Junho sat up straighter. "We already spoke about this last time we met. It's not your fault, Lee. I am aware you were there to command the army unit, not catch spies."
"It sure feels like it," Seung exhaled.
"But your reason for being in Hanyang was to learn about Se-min. And don't tell me you believe she came to Hanyang to rescue someone. You have spread your web around Se-min, so I know it's not out of love for your brother-in-law. Do you want to have a bloodbath in Hanyang by publicly accusing Se-min while trying to shield your woman? You are one of the best I ever trained. You could sniff out a traitor in the wind. What happened? Logic has deserted you? She could have been a plant from the very beginning!"
Sim Jun Ho produced several pieces of paper with Chinese instructions on them. "These were retrieved from Kim Minjae's room in Ganghwa."
The messages were cryptic and written in ancient Chinese. They all had different messages, but one that stood out was "Engage Lee Seung. Neutralise."
No! No, no, no!
Unpleasant shrill whistled in his ears, and liquid rage turned Seung's blood into ash. Sim JunHo was still speaking, but his words blended into a murky marsh of grey and black muck he was sinking into.
"Someone must have planted them in her room. Why would she keep something so incriminating with her?" Wang Jung ventured, trying to cool the blazing embers around him.
Sim Junho leaned back without answering, locking his gaze with Seung, his glittering eyes mocking the question before it left Wang Jung's mouth.
Seung looked away.
Holding incriminating evidence was always the safest threat to have a hold over someone.
"None of this has come as a surprise to you, has it, Lee Seung?" Sim Junho's voice dropped several decibels as realisation dawned.
Seung looked down at his clenched hands on his knees, a dark flush marking his blade-like cheekbones.
"You fool!" Sim Junho hissed, his eyes raking Seung, who sat still like a rock. "You utter, bloody fool!"
Sim Junho slapped the book in front of him shut and threw a scroll at Seung, which hit him on his forehead before sliding down and dropping beside his knees.
Not a hair moved on Seung. "No one touches her."
Sim Junho expelled a frustrated breath and inhaled deeply.
"Fine. I won't touch your woman. She's fortunate that our ministers' inflated egos can't handle the idea of a woman leading anything, so you still have a chance to keep her from getting crushed. It's up to you to control her."
"I understand," Seung said.
"I have already spoken to His Majesty and Minister Choe Myeong Gil. Your father-in-law is, of course, throwing a fit, but you don't go back as the Commander of Ganghwa. Because of the mess you have caused, now we have the incompetent Kim Kyongjin helming the reins of that island."
Seung's mouth tasted of copper. "I am sorry," he said.
"That bastard won't be able to inspire a single soldier to pick up a sword when the time comes!" Sim Junho was furious.
"Is it any worse than having Kim Chajhom as the Supreme Commander who refuses to see the Manchus as a threat and treats the commoners like sheep to be fleeced?" Seung retorted.
"You should learn to shut your yap, Lee Seung. You are not off the hook yet. Kim Kyongjin is the prosecuting official and has no love lost for you. You will return to Ganghwa as the Supreme Royal Guard and royal security Chief of Staff." He pushed a scroll that Wang Jung quickly collected and unrolled. It was Seung's new orders signed by King Injo. "But before you leave Hanyang, I need this network dismantled, Lee Seung. You have ten days. Leave Choi Se-min to me. I'll handle his surveillance from here. Currently, neither Kim Minjae nor Ganghwa is included in any investigation regarding the network. But I am warning you. One mistake and I will not hesitate to crush her bones myself."
The rivulets of sweat had now become rivers pouring down his back. But when he spoke, his voice showed none of the emotions shredding his innards. "Thank you, Hyungnim. You have my word. Put out a search. We need to find a man with a limp and a scar and a woman named Soo Hyun, who could be a slain minister's daughter. and every man on the family tree of Soldier Ko Yoon."
What Seung had in mind was diabolical. It was not his proudest moment, yet he had never been one to pretend that the straight path was the only route to success. But first, he had to confirm something, and hoped he was wrong.
Seung was a wolf on a hunt, and the sands of time slipped faster than he could blink.
∞
"How does it feel to be kept in the dark, Minjae? Knowing that I have known something all along while you didn't?" His eyes were chips of black ice.
Seung had counted on her visceral reaction to this site. He waited until her guard was down, until she trusted him completely.
Bile coated her throat. "You planned this all...."
He stepped closer.
"It helps when you know your opponent too well," Seung's lips twisted in a humourless smile.
The glass shattered, and jagged shards eviscerated her veins. Anger spread through her like venom. She shook with its force.
"How dare you!" She spit.
"You have no idea of the extent of my dare, Kim Minjae. Why," he paused, his eyes hard, "did you meet Choi Se-min that night?"
Too late, she realised Seung didn't miss the flicker of panic in her expressions at Choi Se-min's mention. His eyes went over her white face and terror-rounded eyes. Something nasty flashed his eyes, and granite edged his voice into ragged points.
"Are you really that gullible to think I just chanced to be on the rooftop that night? Or do you take me for an utter fool?" Seung stepped closer. "It was right in front of my eyes. The espionage, the defectors...you always had the most elaborate network and the perfect cover, and here I was, the sodden fool who chose to disregard it. Who are your accomplices? Choi Se-min? Kang Do? Your reaction to His Excellency Choi Se-min told me more than I could have imagined. His slaves knew to kill you on sight. What do you have on him? His son?"
Minjae tried to speak, but her throat closed up. Seung's treachery fanged its way into her blood, curdling it. Black hazed her eyes.
"You lied about everything—your name, your age, and—" he swept his hand around the place, "this, and would have kept doing it if I hadn't seen you that night with Kang Do. What does Choi Se-min have on you?” Seung’s expressions darkened. “Your body was untouched before you came to me, so that marriage story is also fake. Yet why do I feel we always had another someone in the room whenever I touched you?"
A green film of disgust coated her skin.
"You bastard!" She didn't recognise her own voice. Her palm swung, and it connected with his cheek. A crack echoed around the woods.
Seung's eyes turned into flint. He grabbed her by her arms. "Do not attempt that again. Do you understand?" He shook her until her teeth clattered. "And do not spin stories about being a slave or," his voice cracked, "win my sympathy by claiming to be the daughter of my father's murderer." He pushed her so she stumbled back, barely able to balance herself, her heart thudding. "The woman named So-Hyun was years older than you. She was a corrupt Interior Minister's daughter who was executed three years before my father was murdered. So don't!"
"Has it occurred to you that Lord Choi might want to kill me because of you?" She spat.
"Nice try, Minjae. In any case, you now have a much bigger problem than my father-in-law trying to kill you. You traded your soul with the barbarians. You smuggled people -"
"Yes! Yes, I did," She lifted her chin, and the black of her eyes distended into fiery coal chips. "We helped men who wanted to leave Joseon. They paid good money. Did I ever pretend all our sources were clean and above board? And I don't care if it was illegal. Among those were also men who were legally being crushed! Men, boys as young as ten, used and abused by their masters and debt collectors - how is it different from rescuing abused women?"
Seung gripped her by her arms. "You think they were being crushed in Joseon? Do you know what those barbarians are capable of? They are animals, Minjae!"
"Then at least you know who they are upfront. Far better than the animals who dress up as angels!"
"Angels?" He scoffed. "I thought you were an angel too. You and your group have handed Joseon's secrets to those murderers for money. And my word, you started young. Do you remember the two men who accosted you that day? They were killed a few days later. They blamed you for trying to cheat them of their money. Did you have Kang Do take them out, too?"
Her eyes widened with hurt so vicious that she thought her head would splinter into fragments. Her grip on her skirt was so tight that her knuckles turned bloodless.
Seung looked away, swallowing, as a blade of light washed his features with a look akin to self-loathing that disappeared so quickly that she thought she had imagined it. When he turned back, his gaze was unreadable.
Fury and raw fear ravaged her insides. "Were you behind Captain Park's arrest?"
His silence culled her heart.
She lifted her chin. "The brave Commander Lee corners a woman he claims to love in the wilderness. Why not arrest me and force a confession instead?"
Seung was now so close that she could see the gold flecks of sunlight in his black eyes. "And spook your accomplices?" He gave a humourless laugh.
Minjae was slowly recovering her composure, her mind working overtime to find a way out. She levelled her stare at him. "Are you sure it's not because you won't be able to stomach my skin ripped off and my bones splintered, Commander Lee, as you mentioned that night?" Her voice dripped with acid and hurt so deep that she felt blood seeping out of her body. She watched with satisfaction as the area around Seung's mouth turned white. But when he spoke, his tone had nothing but disdain.
"You hold yourself in too high an esteem, Kim Minjae, far from it. You don't fear death, so torture won't work for you. So I had to know what else would. I know how those bastards operate. Once you are useless to them, they will erase your existence without blinking. Choi Se-min is under investigation for being a barbarian spy. And so are you. And a dead spy is no use to me. You will help me trap the rest." Seung said, his voice devoid of emotion.
Every word felt like a death knell to her heart. Minjae closed the gap between them until their clothes rustled together. She looked into his eyes.
"I am not a spy. Choi Se-min is not a spy. You don't want to know my secrets, Commander Lee. If you ever did, no amount of regret would ever erase what you have done to me," hot tears pooled in her eyes, "to us."
Seung flinched, and then his eyes turned obsidian. "What do I have to lose, Kim Minjae? You were prepared to sever ties when we reached Ganghwa. I am doing it here." A nerve ticked in his jaw.
"Is that what this is about? Your revenge on me for refusing you?"
"Did you refuse me, though?" Seung asked, pulling her into his arms in one sweep. "Do you really think you would have been able to hold out on me?"
Their hearts crashed against each other, desperate to break free. Minjae curled her fingers on his handbok. Seung's fingers dug into her waist. When his head eclipsed the light, her mind erased.
She was in a nightmare. She would wake up and find Seung looking at her tenderly.
His kiss deepened. Everything would be all right. Her senses, exhausted from the onslaught of a past she could not escape, a present that spiralled out of control and a future that was as murky as the nights she spent shutting out the world for so long, sank their teeth into the pleasure of his feeling, the headiness of his smell, the security of his broad chest....
"Have I proven how empty your words are, Physician Kim, or do I need to take you here on this wretched ground to prove it more?"
It was as if Seung dumped icy water on her. Stung, she stepped back. Seung laughed. "I spent more time with you in bed than any other woman, so 'refusal' is hardly the word I would use, Kim Minjae. I enjoyed it, and you should thank me for making you enjoy it, too, because this was the last time I would ever touch you."
A physical slap would have felt less debilitating.
She looked at the rock. Last time, this place had destroyed her life. This time, it crushed her soul.
Curiously, Seung had not let her go completely. His hand still cupped a side of her face, and a thumb gently circled her skin, at odds with the harshness of his tone. "Now, you will do as I tell you, Physician Kim. We will head back -" Seung stopped mid-sentence as Minjae flicked the needle in her hand and aimed at Seung's neck.
Seung swiftly sidestepped, slapped her wrist away like he was swatting a fly, and in a dizzying blur, her wrist was in his grip. He pressed a nerve, her fingers went slack, and the needle fell from her limp fingers, a cry wrenching from her. Seung pulled her up against him.
"You are not the only person who knows about pressure points, Physician Kim," he twisted her hand and turned her around. Her back was flushed against his thundering chest, and his arms clamped around her in a vice grip. "Try that again, and you will find yourself in a cage. I will get to your secrets, Minjae. You will willingly lead me to them."
"I will die before you wring anything out of me, Commander Lee," she struggled, trying to free herself from his grasp.
"Your efforts to save the rats are commendable, Physician Kim. Do you think people like Se-min give a damn about bottom-feeders like you? You can run all you want, Kim Minjae. I will find you and then hunt Se-min like a dog."
"Please, Dari, leave Choi Se-min alone. I do not know what you suspect him of, but he is innocent. I will do whatever you ask me to," She pleaded.
"Even though I find your defence of that brat offensive, I will let it slide because you will do what I tell you to irrespective, Kim Minjae, and you do not get to lay down conditions. I do."
"Was everything you said and did these past few days a lie?" Minjae asked brokenly.
"Are you surprised I chose to lay with the enemy, Kim Minjae? I guess you can call me morally dubious."
His words speared her like a hot poker.
"I will never forgive you for this," Minjae felt the wet haze overwhelm the tender barrier of her lashes.
Seung's laugh in her ears was filled with an emotion she had no difficulty recognising: pain.
"Trust me, Physician Kim, the feeling is mutual. You see, I, too, have sold my soul to the devil. I had to pick a side, and I have picked you. I hate myself as much as I hate you, so don't fight me."