「13」

Seoul, South Korea

He didn’t expect her to be there, but there she was standing next to her cousin’s hospital bed. Her long blonde hair cascaded down the middle of her willowy back. Maybe god had answered his prayers this time. She was talking to someone, but he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, but it was in some other language, neither Korean nor English.

He knew without asking who she was and when she asked him who he was, instead of answering he threw the question back at her. He walked closer to her and that was when he really saw her eyes. They were fierce, powerful, and beautiful even, but they were cold. He felt as if those emerald cold pools were pulling him into its darkness. He didn’t know why he told her that she was his godsend, but he did and the flashed confusion in her eyes caused him to feel satisfied with what he said.

“I’m your what?” she said with a hint of annoyance.

That made him smirked. He stepped closer to her, which caused her to back up against the edge of the bed. He stopped just a few inches from her and leaned in to whisper into her ear, “Princess, do you want me to explain? Then let’s go somewhere quiet.” He walked to the bedside table, opened it and pulled out the recording device, “Some place where we wouldn’t be recorded.” He pulled out the small disc inside and threw it at her. He needed her help, which mean he must tried to gain her trust.

She caught the disk in her palm, looked at it and then pulled something out from the brown messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder. She inserted the disk into the device. Her voice and conversation before he removed the disk emitted from the device. Placing it back inside her bag she then turned to look at him with her cold eyes, “Princess ... I hate when people calls me that. Just because you reviled the recording device doesn’t mean I should follow you.”

“That choice is yours,” he made his way toward the door. “HyunAh is in charge of Victoria, but when she gets all the information that she needed out of her ... you know what she would do to your cousin, don’t you? My little sister thinks that she’s has all the power here, but that’s what I led her to believe. The nurses and the doctors here work for me. Any new information about Victoria gets to me first before it is relay to HyunAh.”

She didn’t move or reply, but he knew that he caught her interest. She turned to looked at Victoria on the bed, “Why would you do that?”

“You want to know? Follow me and I will tell you. We can’t talk here,” he left her in the room and walked out.

His heart pounded so fast in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this nervous, but the sound of her footsteps behind him slowed down the rate his heart was beating at, “How do I know this is not some kind of a ploy?” She had caught up to him. He glanced at her, intrigued by the way she looks. He didn’t expected her to looked the way she did, blonde hair, pale skin and the cold emerald green eyes.

She followed him in silence. When they arrived at his car he opened the passenger side door for her. She hesitated and scowled at him before she entered. She sat there with her arms crossed, as he sped through the busy streets of Seoul. He drove out of the city and she continued to sit there in silence. It took hours before he reached his destination – a cemetery by the beach – the only place where he felt safe from the world, “We’re here.”

He got out of the car and she followed, but cautiously, “A cemetery?” she asked.

He led her to a small grey tombstone underneath a large tree. The night was engulfed by the darkness, no stars or moon in the sky, just the darkness. He heard her stumbled and cursed under her breath a few times. He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling at her clumsiness, “You need help back there princess?”

“I’m fine,” she retorted. “Are you trying to kill me? A cemetery, off all the places you can take me to.”

He ran his hand on the tombstone in front of him. It was so dark he can barely made out the writing on it, but he didn’t need to see it to know who the tombstone belongs to, “I brought you here to see the reason why I need your help, meet my mom.”

“You’re mom?” she finally found her way through the darkness and caught up to him. He nodded.“What kind of help?” she tilted her head to the side as she frowned at him.

“I need to take him down. I been trying to do it all my life, but the opportunity never presented itself, until now.”

“Take who down?”

“My father,” he turned and faced her. “Help me and I will help you with your cousin. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours?”

She turned and walked toward the edge of the cemetery, where its end and the sandy beach started. She was deep in her own thoughts when he followed her. She turned and stared at him, “You haven’t clearly explained yourself. What did he do to you and your mother?”

“He ...” the screamed echoed louder in his head. The flashed back of the beginning of his journey for revenge played in his head. “She never wanted me to grow up in this world, so she took me and we ran away. She never thought he would follow her, because she’s just another one of his many mistresses,” he clenched the shirt over his chest. “He found us, no matter how far we ran, he found us. He was going to kill the both of us, but she protected me with her body. He shot her at point blank; the bullet went through her body and embedded itself in my chest.” He felt a single drop of tear ran down his face. He hoped that the darkness hid that from her. “He took me and raised me, but I can never forgive him for what he had done. I never saw him as my father and I never saw the others as my siblings. All I want is revenge.”

“Revenge ...” she muttered. The wind blew the hair out of her face and for a split second she reminded him of someone. She placed her hand on her head and slowly turned toward him. “That word had been running in my mind for two years, but I don’t really know what for. I found Victoria. She’s the reason I’m here. Should I help you take this guy down? Should I destroy Jae’s family because he left me when I needed him the most?”

She stepped closer to him, so close that he could smell the faint lavender smell on her and then he felt something pressed against his stomach. When he looked down at the object – which he now saw was a gun – she traced it from his stomach, up his chest and pressed the cold barrel of the gun under his chin, “I’m sorry for what happened to your mother. Believe me I know how it feels to lose someone, but tell me honestly who killed Jae? I hate the man, but he made Victoria happy. So tell me who killed him?”

What should he do? If he told her the truth he could lose her, but there is something about that cold eyes of hers that made him want to tell her what really happened, “I never meant to kill him.” A lied, “We fought over the gun and I shot him through the heart.” That was the truth.

“I should kill you right now,” she said as she lowered her gun. “But I need your help with Victoria. She’s awake, but very weak. I can’t transport her right now, but if HyunAh knows that she’s awake ... I don’t even want to think about that. Help me with that and I will help you with you revenge. However, it has to be on my terms.”

The drive back to Seoul was filled with silence once again and he couldn’t stand it, “You know I wasn’t supposed to be born in the first place.” She didn’t reply, so he continued. “Jaejoong was a few month older than me. I’m the mistress’ son. Jaejoong’s mother died giving birth to him, but according to my mom, father never shed any tears for her. He never loved any of his wives or mistresses. She said they were just his toys, but even she knew that she couldn’t help falling in love with him. There was only one woman he loved; the one that got away, my mother said her name was Josephine.”

He though he saw a flashed of surprise from the princess’ face, but the reaction was so quick that he didn’t know what he really saw.

“I’ll contact you,” she said as she closed the car door when he dropped her off at the side of the Han River. I never got her name. He thought to himself as he drove off.