Chapter 12.2

“Huu…”

Eunha trembled on the cold cement floor as if she was freezing. The drug’s effect was definitely taking hold of her body as it spread through her veins. KyungHyun grasped both of her arms as he softly whispered.

“Get ahold of yourself, Lee EunHa.”

They were currently locked up in a room one floor below the room where EunHa had been given the drug. The room looked like a dreary prison cell with no light. Beyond the steel bars, they could see two of Li Kahui’s men playing mahjong at a table as they smoked their cigarettes.

“Haa… Huu…”

He had already managed to untie the restraints around his hands and feet. It wasn’t that KyungHyun couldn’t take down the men outside and escape this place. The problem lied with EunHa, who hadn’t been able to wake up from the effects of the drug.

“S… Save… me.”

Her teeth chattered as she muttered. EunHa’s eyes were unfocused as she gazed at him. KyungHyun couldn’t endure the pang of regret and a curse burst out of his lips.

“Damn it…”

“S…Save me, please… Please… D…Don’t kill me!!”

EunHa rubbed her trembling hands together as she begged. Not even aware that her thighs were rubbing against the floor, she backed away from him, her eyes full of terror.

“M…Mom… Mom, save me. Dad… Dad… Ugh… Uuugh…”

Her pale cheeks were covered in dirt as fat tears dripped down. KyungHyun recalled what Li Kahui had told him earlier. There was no doubt that EunHa was currently reliving one of the most difficult memories in her life. KyungHyun clenched his teeth and approached her.

“You’re hallucinating, EunHa. Lee EunHa!”

He whispered through his clenched teeth, but EunHa’s eyes didn’t see him. Her gleaming eyes were only filled with fear. It was as if she had returned to her trembling sixteen-year-old self who had just escaped her house.

“I’m sorry!!!”

Just as KyungHyun was about to embrace her, EunHa began to struggle frantically against him.

“Let me go! Let go!!”

“It’s all a dream. A hallucination. It’s not real. EunHa…!”

KyungHyun spit out bitterly as she raised her hands and began to scratch him like a wild animal, causing him to pull her away from him. She was panting for breath. She could go into cardiac arrest at any moment. KyungHyun clenched his teeth until he felt pain as he fiercely shook her shoulders.

“Get ahold of yourself, Lee EunHa… Lee EunHa!!”

He slapped her cheeks as he tried to meet her eyes. Just as EunHa seemed to take in a deep breath, her eyes seemed to grow even more helpless. A thin voice flowed out of her trembling lips.

“You can hit me. If you want to hit me, you can hit me, so… Ahjussi…”

KyungHyun froze. EunHa licked her dry lips. Her body trembled like a leaf.

“Please give me some water, Ahjussi. I think I’m going to die. Please, I’m begging you.”

KyungHyun’s frown twisted even deeper. Her face was drenched in tears as a sixteen-year-old Lee EunHa began to plead.

“I can’t even pee anymore, so there’s nothing left to drink… So please…”

KyungHyun almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His breaths became rougher. EunHa continued to speak in a pitiful voice.

“I won’t say something like that ever again. I won’t ask you to send me back to Korea again, so… Please give me something to drink…”

“…EunHa.”

KyungHyun’s voice cracked as he called her name. However, his voice didn’t reach EunHa as she continued to suffer within her memories.

“You can hit me. I’ll do anything… anything you ask… So… Please, don’t leave me here… It’s too dark and scary… I’m hungry… I’m so thirsty… Huu… Ahjussi… Please… Please save me… Ugh…”

Unable to endure it any longer, KyungHyun fiercely bit the inside of his cheek as he brought her to his chest in a tight embrace. His chest rose and fell with his rough breaths. Now in his arms, EunHa began to speak in a thin voice that sounded like a tired bird.

“If you want to sleep with me… you can, so…”

“Haa…”

A raw groan burst out of KyungHyun’s lips. He could only hug her even tighter. There was nothing else he could do to help her. He felt disgusted and ashamed at his helplessness.

“I’m a rag.”

EunHa spoke with no emotion. At these unexpected words, KyungHyun’s brows twisted. She sounded as if she had given up on everything. This helpless voice rang in his ears.

“I’m a dirty whore.”

“EunHa…”

His arms around EunHa began to loosen on its own. With a trembling hand, KyungHyun grasped her cheek. A single tear escaped his twisted eyes.

“If I leave this place, there’s nothing I can do.”

EunHa’s unfocused eyes looked far into the distance as she mumbled.

“I’m a useless bitch, so no one will take me.”

She was repeating the words that someone had commanded her to say. Someone had ordered her to repeat these words so that they could clip her wings at an early age and break her will.

“If I leave the organization, I’m a traitor. Traitors will be killed. There are no exceptions.”

KyungHyun had heard something similar from SungHo when he first entered Serim. He brought her back into his embrace and roared out.

“EunHa…!”

[Hey, you son of a bitch, shut up!!]

One of the men on the other side of the iron bars shouted out at them in Chinese. Because they had been ordered to stay out of the prison cell, the man took a long wooden stick that had been embedded with protuding nails and fiercely dug it into KyungHyun’s back.

“Uugh!!”

As a pained groan left his mouth, EunHa’s eyes suddenly met his. It seemed as if she was returning to her senses.

“Are you okay…?”

“EunHa.”

KyungHyun called her name with a pained face. Still in a crouched position, EunHa held out her slender hand.

“Don’t make a sound. Or else you’ll die. Be good.”

What was EunHa seeing now? A tear rolled down KyungHyun’s face. However, he wasn’t aware of it because of the petrifying pain.

“You must be hungry too. Here… But don’t bite it too much, or else it will hurt… So only a little… Just a little bit…”

She gave him a sweet smile as she held out her finger to him. Watching her, KyungHyun burned with regret. He should have killed Kang SungHo when he had the chance.

“EunHa…”

Maybe if he bit her finger hard enough to draw blood, she’d return to her senses.

“Haa…”

KyungHyun could not put his thoughts into action. The person in front of him was not the strong, bold Lee EunHa that he knew. This was the young EunHa of 10 years ago who had to endure the pain and violence all on her own.

“After enduring it all for 10 years, you can’t even wait the small amount of time it takes to lay a trap?”

“…What do you know? How dare you talk back? Do you even know what I did these past 10 years?”

He recalled the way she had screamed at him. She was right. He should have kept his mouth shut back then.

“If you haven’t seen it with your own eyes, you don’t have a right to say you know.”

“I fully understand. When I joined the criminal organization, I had to do many dirty things as well.”

Instead of telling her that he understood her pain so thoughtlessly, he should have just brought Kang SungHo to her alive and given her the knife.

“Haa…”

If only he had done that. Then he wouldn’t have had to see the woman he loved endure such pain in front of his eyes.

“Don’t cry.”

EunHa whispered in soft voice as she looked at him with her large, wet eyes.

Drip.

Despite her own words, her own tears continued to drench her small face. EunHa lied down on her side and gently embraced him. Tap, tap. She began to pat him on the back as she mumbled.

“Don’t cry, EunHa.”

EunHa whispered softly as she tried to console herself. KyungHyun felt that putting a gun to his own head would have been better than this. He was now being given a glimpse of the unknown history she had tried to keep hidden away. His whole body was shaking in pain. The thing that drove him insane was the fact that even after having gone through all this, she was still able to joke around and laugh.

“This is like a movie. It’s not real.”

EunHa softly murmured. KyungHyun heard this and began to bite the inside of his cheek even harder. He was just grateful that this young girl hadn’t completely lost her sanity. KyungHyun whispered to her.

“Yeah. This is all a dream.”

Feeling limp from the shock, KyungHyun mustered the last of his strength and hugged her back. He held her to his chest and repeated the same words over and over again. Whether she could hear him or not, EunHa’s convulsions didn’t stop.

It was completely dark. The old storage room of the flat was filled with the smell of urine.

Click.

When she heard the door open, EunHa lifted her head from between her knees.

“Please save me. Ahjussi, please give me some water…! Please…!”

The man frowned at the stench.

“Seeing as you still have enough strength to shout, I think we’re far from finished.”

No way.

She felt like she’d die if she had to stay locked up in here any longer. She’d rather be hit instead. It would be better than starving to death in this suffocating darkness.

“You can hit me. If you want to hit me, you can hit me, so… Ahjussi.”

Her tears flowed as she mumbled. As if he had been waiting for this, the man’s large hand grabbed her throat and dragged her outside. He began to beat her. She couldn’t even close her eyes. SungHo wouldn’t forgive her if she was hit on the cheek and fell onto the ground. When she got up and looked at him, he rubbed her cheek as if to tell her she did a good job. Then he grabbed her hair.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

“I won’t say something like that ever again. I won’t ask you to send me back to Korea again, so…”

SungHo had confined her immediately after she told him she’d return to Korea and join YongSung. Despite what he had promised her after having been appointed the new leader of Serim, it didn’t seem like he was interested in capturing YongSung’s boss. Frustrated, EunHa told him to send her back to Korea so that she could fulfill her revenge on her own. In the end, this was the result.

“I think I’m going to die of thirst. Please give me something to drink…”

SungHo began to hand her a chipped cup. He poured out the water. The tap water smelled like disinfectant, but EunHa hastily held out her hands and drank the water. However, her thirst didn’t go away.

“You can hit me. I’ll do anything… anything you ask… So… Please, don’t leave me here…”

The room had no windows, and not a single ray of light entered inside. It was too dark and scary. She didn’t know how many days she had gone without food, how long she had been locked inside. Two days, no, three days? Either way, it didn’t matter. If SungHo decided to leave now, she didn’t know when he’d return to this apartment.

“You’ll do anything I ask? You should have done so from the start. But what can you do?”

SungHo looked at her with gleaming eyes. Eunha shivered before opening her dry lips.

“If you want to sleep with me… you can, so…”

Even in this hellish situation, his body reacted without fail. After taking one look at the bulge in his pants, Eunha blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. Even though she said it with her own lips, something lurched in her chest and a cry burst out.

SungHo frowned and looked at her with disdain. Then his lips stretched into a smile.

“Rag bitch.”

Drip.

“You sure are good at offering your dirty body.”

EunHa’s tears flowed down as they drenched her face. She hadn’t drunk anything, so she didn’t think she could even urinate. She thought she had already cried out all the tears she had, but it seemed that hope had stabbed her in the back once again.

“Repeat after me. You are a rag.”

“…I’m a rag.”

SungHo bit his cigarette and clicked his lighter.

“Do you know what it means to be a rag? You stupid girl. It means you’re a whore. It’s what we call bitches like you who spread their legs for anyone in order to get what they want.”

Even though this was the first time she had heard such an ugly term, the word being drilled into her ears didn’t shock her. There was no strength left in her body.

EunHa thought everything was fine. As long as she wasn’t locked up in here any longer. As long as she could eat and drink something, she would do everything he asked. She weakly nodded her head.

“Yes. I’m a whore.”

“Haha, what did you say?”

SungHo coughed as he burst into laughter. He closed his eyes as he laughed, as if he was truly enjoying this. EunHa didn’t hesitate as she looked up at him and repeated the words once again. If saying this would take her out of this hellhole, she’d say it as many times as she could.

“I’m a rag. I’m a dirty whore.”

“Puhahaha…”

Convulsing with laughter, SungHo wiped his tears as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. At the realization that she could finally leave the storage room, she didn’t even feel the pain in her arm.

“If you try to escape one more time, I’ll really starve you to death.”

SungHo’s snake-like eyes gleamed right in front of her face.

“If you leave this place, you won’t be able to do anything.”

“Yes, sir.”

As if to reaffirm her words, she frantically nodded her head. SungHo shouted out in a piercing voice.

“Say it clearly with your own lips, you stupid girl!”

“If… If I leave this place, there’s nothing I can do.”

She quickly repeated his words. Her eyes were filled with fear and dread.

“No one will take in a useless bitch.”

EunHa repeated SungHo’s words immediately. She repeated them a few more times for good measure.

“If you leave the organization, you’re a traitor. Traitors will be killed. There are no exceptions.”

Then SungHo left her in the apartment and told her not to take a step outside until he came back for her. All he left her was two boxes of cereal.

The starving mice no longer hid themselves in the apartment as they ravaged the moldy bread. They squeaked as they scurried across the old, wooden floorboards. Their long tails left streaks in the dust.

The door was locked. The only way she’d escape was by shattering the windows and jumping outside, so leaving the apartment was impossible. No one would save her in this city.

EunHa stretched out lifelessly on the dusty sofa like a marionette as she began to think.

She decided that the moment that door opened, she’d kill who she used to be and live on.

Like this, the crybaby, scaredy-cat sixteen-year-old girl was slowly being killed off.

 \n