Everywhere hurts.

I don’t want to move so I squeeze my eyes tighter.

The sound of papers being rifled through beside me.

“Youngmi,” an elderly man calls from beside me. “Jang Youngmi. I know you’re awake.”

Caught in the act, my eyes snap open to shoot an annoyed look at the man. He is an old doctor with a face that screams “I need sleep!!”

“How are you feeling? You feeling better compared to yesterday?”

“Yesterday?” I probe my brain for memories of the previous day. “Did…did we talk yesterday?”

The doctor looks at me before nodding. “You’re under a lot of stress right now. So I don’t expect you to have full consciousness. Yesterday you seemed a little out of it too while talking to me,” he explained. “I’m Dr Hong by the way.”

I try to sit up but my back pain is too overbearing.

“What happened to me?” I wonder out loud, falling weakly back onto the bed. “Did I slip in the toilet or something?”

Dr Hong raises his eyebrow in curiosity.

“You don’t remember?”

I my head to one side, thinking hard. “Maybe if you give me a hint, I’ll remember?”

He puts his clipboard down and taps his index finger on his chin. “Do you remember…the assault?”

As if the gate has been waiting to be unlocked, the memories flood back in and I start shivering in fear.

“You’re safe now, Youngmi,” Dr Hong assures me, covering me with the blanket. “You’re fine now.”

I got beaten up twice by Jun Ryeol and a stranger.

And…

“Where’s my sister?” I ask, grabbing Dr Hong’s arm in alarm.

Jang Hanna was bleeding so much.

“I don’t know much about her,” Dr Hong admits.

“What?” I glance around the room. “She should have been hospitalized with me. We both—”

“Her company moved her to a private hospital.”

YG? It makes sense. If word got out that she got in trouble, well, that’s another scandal waiting to erupt.

“When can I meet her? When am I getting discharged?”

“Probably not too soon,” Dr Hong truthfully says. I look at him in disappointment. “Anyway, the police will drop by anytime. They came here yesterday but you weren’t too conscious yet…so they might interview you again for more details.”

“Okay.” I nod weakly. 

Details? I recall the traumatizing memory.

Jun Ryeol…the stranger…

The stranger took Hanbin’s book from me. Why? He seemed desperate. What is he going to use it for?

I grab my bag from the side table and rummage through it. I try switching on my phone but it doesn’t light up.

Most of the stuff in the bag are heavily damaged because of Jun Ryeol.

There’s no way I can contact anyone.

I close my eyes, emptying my mind in the process but Sunmi’s words keep floating back in.

Whoever owns this book committed a crime.

Hanbin found the book at his house, but does it mean that his father owned it? Did he commit a crime? What type of crime?

What did we get ourselves into?

I haven’t even got the chance to tell him about what I found out.

Now that I think about it, does anybody know that I’m being hospitalized right now?

I press the button for the nurse. A young nurse walks hurriedly me.

“Yes, Youngmi? Do you need help to go to the toilet?” she asks, already lifting my legs out of bed.

“Um.” I guess I need to pee too. “Yeah. Also, um, have I gotten any visitors?”

“When?”

“Throughout my stay…” I trail off. “How long have I been here?”

“Three days?” she says doubtfully. “About that long.”

I was out of it for three days? That’s quite a long time.

“Did anybody come to visit me?”

“Aside from Mr. Yang, I don’t really know about anyone else…” she replies with a reluctant smile. Unknown to me, I’m secretly hoping that someone notices my absence but why would they? “I’m sure they’ll come when they find out.”

So only Yang CEO knows that I’m here and he got Hanna into a private hospital. My priority is to find out how Hanna is doing.

I borrow the nurse’s phone to make a phone call to Yang CEO.

The phone rings endless before it gets picked up by a rather familiar voice.

“Hello, this is YG entertainment CEO’s office,” Da Eun greets with her professional phone voice. “Who am I speaking to?”

“This…” Does Da Eun even know what happened to me? “Da Eun ah, it’s Youngmi.”

“Youngmi?” Her pitch rises in surprise. “When did you wake up?”

“Just…” I can’t wallow in self-pity right now when I have bigger concerns. “Do you know what happened to Hanna? Can I go visit her?”

“Youngmi…” I hear a rapid sound of tapping in the background. “I don’t know if I can tell you.”

“What are you talking about?” I say, upset. “She’s my sister!”

“After what happened to her…” she says in a quiet voice. “We need to protect her from journalists. It’s better if nobody knows where she is for now.”

I feel so helpless knowing that they’re hiding her from me.

“Can you tell me what’s her condition?” I beg, a pool of tears gathering in my eyes. “Is she…is the baby…”

A deafening silence falls over the phone.

“Just tell me…” I beg desperately. “Just tell me…”

“Youngmi,” Da Eun says in a tone so pitiful.

I don’t even need to hear anything else from her to find out more.

I hang up, not wanting her to hear me cry childishly.

This is all my fault.

Mr. Hyuk was right from the start when he met me. My life brings misfortune to others.

My parents, my best friend, my sister, her baby, and now possibly Hanbin. What is the common thing that links us all together? Me. I’m probably indirectly the source of their despair.

Two policeman enters the room suddenly, snapping me out my thoughts.

They look taken aback by my horrible state but keep themselves composed.

“We heard that you were conscious now from the doctor so we came her as soon as we can,” the senior officer told me. “I’m Officer Choi. This is Officer Nam.”

“I know this is a stressful time but we really need your cooperation to find out who did this to you,” Officer Choi continues.

“I understand.”

I tell them about everything they wanted to know and give them a description of the stranger to help them in their search.

“Why did he attack you?” Officer Choi questions.

“He wanted a book…” I gulp apprehensively. “A book that might implicate some people in some things…crime…but I don’t know much about it. I just kept it with me.”

 Both officers exchanged looks at each other.

“Where did you find the book?”

It takes me awhile before I can get the answer out. “Somebody gave it to me.”

“Who?” Officer Nam presses for further clarification.

“I don’t know.” I stare into his eyes. “I really don’t know.”

A few minutes after the interview ended, a sketch artist came in to show me the complete picture of the stranger that he came up with.

“Is this how he looked like?” Officer Nam questions, looking at me for confirmation.

The cap…the figure…why is he so strangely familiar? The familiarity is prickling but I can’t put a finger on when and where I’ve seen him.

“What’s wrong?” Officer Nam asks, noticing my pained expression.

“He just looks really familiar,” I tell him, frowning. Officer Nam stares at me suspiciously. “But I don’t know him. Really.”

“These kind of details are important for any investigation,” he says, nodding appreciatively. “This could help us narrow down the suspects.”

That could help them and it could help me too. Who is he exactly? What is he planning with the book?

Mr. Hyuk makes an entrance, surprising the officers.

“I’m her legal guardian,” he states authoritatively. They then finish up their interview, leaving us alone to speak.

“Are you feeling better now?” he asks.

“When can I meet Hanna?” I shoot back. “I have a right to see her.”

“We’re not hiding her to destroy your relationship,” he says gravely, taking a seat by the bed. “As you know, she was…”

“What?” I’m boiling from his expressionless face. “She was pregnant?”

“So you knew.” He picks on a dust sticking on his coat. “Well, yeah, we need to protect her reputation for now.”

“You need to protect YG’s reputation,” I correct him sharply.

“Do you want your sister’s career to die?” He rolls his eyes, annoyed. “The decision benefits her too. Anyway, we shouldn’t do this. You just woke up.”

“Why are you even here?” I ask him distastefully. He just reminds me what a failure I am in life. “We both know you hate me.”

“I’m here to tell you stay low,” he replies plainly. “Until everything’s fine again. YG was planning to send you abroad too but I thought that took up too much expense for a temporary worker. So I suggested sending you to your aunt.”

When I don’t make any sort of reply, he continues, “It might take a while, especially with all the injuries you both sustained.”

“Why does it sound like a threat?” I mutter, dispirited.

He openly sighs, seemingly exhausted with my attitude.

“Just leave when I tell you to. Don’t tell anyone,” he says, standing up. “And I mean it. Yang CEO told me to remind you that firmly. Don’t tell anyone, especially… iKon, about what happened.”

It’s clear what they actually want me to do.

“So you want me to disappear without a trace…?”

“It’s what’s best for everyone.”