Twenty Three
Remnants Of The Heart
She can barely feel her legs anymore, she can barely hear her ragged breathing as the rush of blood pounded against her ears – her mind felt like being pressed and squeezed. If she wasn’t so breathless, she would have chanted Jiyong’s name under her breath but she was, and so, his name was circling around her mind like a plague.
She pulled to a stop when she reached the cave, her eyes scanning the place for Minwoo but her eyes found no sign of the guy. Instead, her eyes zoomed in on Jiyong who was standing over a fallen body on the ground with a gun on hand. Not even sure why, but she scanned him to see if he was hurt anywhere and upon seeing that he seemed to be in perfect condition, she let out a choked sob and ran to him. She was just so relieved to see him standing like the bully that he is that she carelessly threw her arms around him that it threw him off balance.
“Is this your prelude to me?” he asked, lying flat on his back on the ground.
“I hate you!” she choked out. For some reason, she can’t understand why she was tearing up but she was.
There was a long silence. “I know,” Jiyong whispered silently.
“Don’t do that again!” she scolded, tightening her hold on him.
“You should not hold on to me like this,” he whispered. “Seunghyun might see it differently.”
Dara froze, her face still buried in Jiyong’s chest. She could feel all the color draining from her face. She’d forgotten all about Seunghyun! How would he see her as? What would he think of her in the current position that she was in?
“Aish!” Jiyong then said in a loud voice, pushing her away. “You’re such a klutz! You should watch where you’re stepping on so you won’t fall over! Hey Seunghyun, can you please pull your clumsy girlfriend off of me?”
Dara felt hands on either side of her shoulders. She didn’t resist the force that pulled her away from Jiyong. Her common sense was slowly coming back and she was starting to realize how. . . unjust her actions were. What came in to her? What’s with the overreaction? What’s with the hug thing and don’t do that again speech with a choked sob?
“Are you alright?” Seunghyun’s voice asked softly in her ear.
She blinked several times before realizing that Seunghyun was talking to her. “I. . . .” she started. “Seunghyun, I. . . .” she trailed off then stopped upon seeing him smile at her kindly. An unexplainable guilt suddenly came over her. “I’m fine,” she heard herself say.
Seunghyun then turned to Jiyong. “What was that?”
“She’s one of Minwoo’s. . .” Jiyong shrugged.
“What?” Dara exhaled. “Huh! I knew something was odd about that girl and you even thought of. . . of banging her up, huh? I bet she tried to cut yours or slit your throat before you even realized it!”
“I knew from the moment I saw her who or what she was,” Jiyong said, standing up and dusting some dust off his pants.
“Oh yeah?” Dara rounded up, arms across her chest as she stepped forward. This was safe, she knew this was a safe zone. She can confront and look at Jiyong when they’re both being warheads. “If you knew, then why did you bring her here? You could have been followed or. . . or she could have some sort of that bug that or tracking device that. . . we should get out of here now!”
“Jeez,” Jiyong huffed, rolling his eyes. “Did you seriously think I haven’t thought of those? Like seriously? I didn’t grow up like a normal kid going to school, you know. When you were taking your dinner or doing your homework or going out on weekends with your adopted parents somewhere, I was being trained how to kill without feeling remorse, how to deal with heartless people like me and how to think like them.”
“Jiyong, Dara was just worried. . .” Seunghyun said.
“Worried my ,” Jiyong scoffed. “Don’t mind me. I should have known better. I’ll never really become a good person in her eyes and I’ve already accepted that long time ago.”
“Jiyong, you don’t really have to talk –.”
“The truth?” Jiyong intervened. “Just admit it Seunghyun, your girlfriend can be judgmental sometimes.”
“Can you really blame her when all you ever did before and is still doing right now from time to time is bully her?”
Jiyong looked like he was about to argue but decided against it. A soft chuckle escaped him as he shook his head. “Forget it,” he said. “This is getting tiring.” Jiyong turned away and started dragging Sunhwa by her ankle away from them. “I’ll just bury her somewhere. . .”
Silence enveloped Seunghyun and Dara. The girl was watching Jiyong drag the dead body away with stiffness. She was standing so stiff she felt like her whole body has been locked up and frozen for more than a year. Gentle hands squeezed her shoulders, rubbing. Slowly, she felt the tension easing up until her body finally relaxed.
“I can never understand how his mind works,” Dara whispered in frustration. “Why am I even bothering anyway?” she asked more of herself then sighed. Without giving Seunghyun a glance, she slightly shrugged his hands off of her and marched towards the cave.
Seunghyun didn’t follow her. Dara realized that the guy didn’t follow her a few minutes later. She was leaning against the cave wall, her eyes closed as she tries to sort out the tangled emotions inside her. Guilt and relief ruled her body that she just have to take a few minutes alone time, thus, she was a bit thankful Seunghyun didn’t follow her. A soft sigh escaped her lips. The guy must have known she needs time alone.
“Ah, Dara where did this guilt feeling come from? And why are you so relieved to see that he wasn’t harmed in any way?”
She bit down on her lower lip as she can’t find an answer to her questions. Or maybe has answers but is refusing to acknowledge them?
“Ah no. . . not possible,” she whispered, shaking her head.
After some time, she decided that she had enough alone time and that she needed someone to talk to. Standing up and dusting off the dirt from her pants, she went out of the cave and searched for Seunghyun only to find him nowhere. A frown marred her forehead as she was just about to call him when she heard low voices from her left. She suddenly had this weird suspicion that she should not let her presence be known and so, she slowly followed the sound of the voices with light steps, hoping that she won’t be as clumsy as what Jiyong thinks of her.
“. . . she’s not a kid anymore, Seunghyun!” Jiyong hissed. “She –.”
“Can you just imagine how hurt she would be if we tell her –.”
“Dara isn’t a weak person,” Jiyong said. “Yes, she might look physically fragile and she might cry or bawl her heart out but she isn’t going to break.”
“I don’t like seeing her cry. . .” Seunghyun softly whispered.
“I know, she looked like an overgrown baby when she cries, it’s ugly,” Jiyong sighed, making Dara gasped, her nose flaring. “But Seunghyun, she can’t go on living like this – on the run. You and I are now also being hunted down by the cops and my uncle’s after me as well.”
“If you’re getting tired living like this and you would want to leave, that’s fine with me, I won’t take it against you.”
“Are you serious?” Jiyong scoffed, staring at him in disbelief. “Is this really about not wanting to hurt Dara or is this something else? Look, if you don’t have the guts to tell her, I will.”
“This isn’t the right time yet,” Seunghyun hissed.
“When would it be the right time? When I drop dead or when you drop dead? She needs to know, Seunghyun.”
Dara could no longer take it. “I need to know what?” she asked, watching as Jiyong and Seunghyun exchanged looks. While Seunghyun went stiff and pale, Jiyong went to being his cocky self.
A smirk curving his lips, he turned towards her. “That I’m the iest man alive,” he said.
“No, tell me,” she said in a firm tone.
Jiyong looked at Seunghyun. “I think your boyfriend just fainted while standing.”
“Kwon Jiyong,” Dara warned.
“Jeez, why do I always get caught in lover’s quarrel?” he said. “Ya, Choi Seunghyun, stop being so rigid. She already heard everything, might as well tell her.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Seunghyun hissed.
“You make it so complicated,” he countered then turned back to Dara. He took in a deep breath before launching to his story. “Well, I knew Sunhwa for who she was the first time I saw her. She acted all cute and pitiful to me although I have to say, she’s really cute and she smelled like strawberries and. . . erm, what’s with the evil stare, Dara? Anyways, I didn’t bring that much weapons with me so when she started acting lost, I, of course being the gentleman that I am offered my assistance and used my handsome face to lure her to come with me although I knew she knew who I am I acted like I’m innocent as a pup and just a kind soul. Of course, I discreetly started checking if she had any devices on her while we were making our way here to –.”
“How?” Dara interrupted.
“Huh?” Jiyong asked blankly.
“How did you inspect her?” she asked through gritted teeth. It irks her knowing how he must have taken advantage of the girl.
“Err, that’s private,” he evaded.
“Kwon Jiyong!”
“What?” he blinked innocently. “Anyways, going back to my story – I was able to discreetly take off a few devices from her without her knowing and don’t ask me how I did it because it’s private. So when we arrived here, well, you know what happened. The moment you two left, I brought her inside the cave and so, I had her pinned down. I have to say though, she put in a fight but anyways, I was able to pin her down. I’ve got some things in the cave that I needed to extract the truth from her so I brought her in. It took me some time to extract the truth from her but then –.”
“You tortured her?” Dara asked. Jiyong only shrugged. “How could you! Even if she’s an enemy, she was still a girl!”
“Yes, a girl that could have caused your life,” Jiyong countered. Dara went silent, her eyes flying to Seunghyun and back to Jiyong. She heard it and she knew Seunghyun heard it too even if Jiyong didn’t say it out loud. But all three of them knew the unspoken words that should have followed his sentence. The girl could have caused Dara’s life to end and Jiyong can’t afford that to happen – those were the unspoken words that left Dara tongue-tied.
Silence enveloped them. Dara wasn’t too sure if she should get back at him in any way to break the awful awkwardness she was feeling and the awful silence that surrounded them. It was weird as she felt like she was only hearing her slow breathing and the pounding of blood in her head. She blinked at Jiyong who suddenly turned stiff and still. His forehead creased as he looked like he was concentrating on something.
Her heart then started beating in her chest when his eyes suddenly changed. Gone was the playful Jiyong. All she can see in front of her right now was the cold-blooded Jiyong who tried to kill her before. A hiss then came out from Jiyong as he suddenly pushed Seunghyun away, making the latter drop to the ground and Dara could only stare wide-eye at the bullet in the trunk of the tree were Seunghyun’s forehead was paralleled a while ago. She felt herself being pulled down followed by hearing Jiyong’s firm instructions to Seunghyun to take her away to a place that she can stay for the meantime. It wasn’t really sinking into her at first but the next words from Jiyong’s mouth triggered her off.
“I’ll hold them off,” he told Seunghyun. “Don’t stop no matter what happens and. . . don’t wait for me.”
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