Chapter 33

[Promises]

Special thanks to the lovely beta of this chapter: the_soshified_one

His fists struck the punching bag that was hung in front of him powerfully. Beads of sweat rolled down his skin; nearly drenching his simple white shirt. His knuckles were bruised due to the amount of punches he had delivered, and his breaths were labored. Every drag of air he took set his lungs on fire, but he couldn’t stop.

“You’ve just gotten out of the hospital. Is it alright for you to overwork yourself like this?”

Kangin stopped his activity and looked up at the newcomer. His oldest cousin, Kim Heechul, had just invited himself into the private gym the Kims had in their estate. As if challenging his older cousin, Kangin delivered another punch before he let the reply roll out of his mouth. “I just like to prepare for the worst.”

“The worst?” repeated Heechul questioningly as he experimentally tried to move the punching bag with his index finger. Brute exercise was what Kangin preferred; Heechul favored a more elegant physical exercise like fencing –and even that was only when it became necessary.

Kangin wrinkled his forehead, not used to his cousin’s passiveness. “Yeah. We’ll be facing more danger from now on, won’t we? As long as the mystery of Der Märchenclub remains, we will always need to take extra precaution. You’ve faced the horrors a couple of times already. You should know it better.”

Heechul crossed his arms before his chest. He let his gaze drifted away. “Actually, what I want to know is just to rest. Fighting the inevitable, what is there to win?”

Kangin’s eyebrow rose and a chuckle of disbelief escaped his lips. It was a valid assumption. The person standing in front of him did not sound like his normal cousin. “That’s so not you. Since when does Kim Heechul accept defeat?”

Heechul did not respond –he found it useless to say anything. Kangin might have experienced first hand the terror of Der Märchenclub, but after that, he had become comatose. Kangin had not seen nor felt the other tremors afterwards. Kangin did not know how the club was not merely playing with their lives, but also with their feelings, with their rationality… everything.

Perhaps, if Heechul looked at it from Kangin’s point of view, he could have seen how ridiculous he must have seemed at the moment. Kangin was right; it was not like him to be defeated that easily. But ever since the incident involving Yoona and Donghae, Heechul admitted that a great part of him was ruined. A part of him just wanted to put everything in fast forward (so fast, the oblivion). Sometimes, an unlikely and absurd thought invaded his mind: perhaps he would need to rest in his grave before everything could become normal.

Kangin snickered. “You lose hope too fast, Hyung.”

The indication was not missed. Heechul knew that Kangin was trying to imply something. The oldest heir of the Kim family chose not to open his mouth, but his dark brown eyes still reflected the silent inquiry nonetheless.

Kangin’s smirk went wider. “This all will end soon. I hold the key of the game,” he exclaimed rather dramatically. The lack of reaction (apathy, it was apathy) from Heechul urged Kangin to elaborate more. “You’ll see, Hyung. We’ll win this game. Nothing beats the Kims, correct?”

Heechul narrowed his eyes, feeling more cautious rather than excited upon hearing Kangin’s optimism. “What are you planning?”

The gleam in Kangin’s eyes showed the satisfaction he was feeling for finally catching Heechul’s interest. He took a deep breath and spoke authoritatively, “In the next meeting of Der Märchenclub, invite everyone. Our parents, the police, the members. I will reveal everything there.”

“Kangin seems to have a plan.”

Kibum looked away from his computer screen to the door of his private library, where his cousin, Heechul was standing up. It was quite a rare sight to find Heechul initiate a conversation again. He had been awfully quiet since the incident involving Yoona, and for the past few weeks, the Kim estate had become quieter. Not that Kibum minded such rare tranquility, but he had to admit he was relieved to see Heechul slowly becoming his usual self again.

Kibum’s relief was momentarily overshadowed though, when he realized the look on Heechul’s eyes and the creases on his forehead.

“I thought you were researching the Der Märchenclub issue?” said Heechul in a tone that he wished would not sound that accusative.

Kibum only shrugged at the screen which displayed the documents he had hacked from the Kim Enterprise. It was the data involving the Kim Enterprise oil spill incident a couple of years ago. Kibum knew Heechul was not pleased to find out that he was digging up the family’s old scandal again. But the guilt had never existed in his heart anyway, so Kibum only stared back at Heechul innocently.

Heechul was not in the mood to have a debate about the Kims with Kibum, so letting the issue pass, he brought the focus back to his original intention. “Kangin,” he only allowed himself to say the single name.

“What about him?” Kibum asked as he stretched his arms, trying to relax his sore muscles.

“He asked me to call the police and everyone to the next meeting of Der Märchenclub.”

“Oh, he found out something that we couldn’t?” asked Kibum eagerly.

“Seems like it,” Heechul said with a low sigh. “I don’t like it. I have a bad feeling about it.”

“Let’s just wait for his plan to come into force then,” proposed Kibum. “And if his plan fails, I still have the chance to ask Leeteuk Hyung about the hint. I’ll figure out something from that.”

Heechul raised an eyebrow. “You mean you haven’t asked the hint from Leeteuk Hyung?”

In the last meeting of Der Märchenclub the week prior, Kibum had been the lucky one to correctly guess Sunny’s role as Rapunzel. To have Kibum bet his answer on Sunny’s role alone had been quite puzzling –especially for someone who continuously claimed not to have any interest in the game. But what confused (and sometimes irked) Heechul the most was how Kibum acted as if the winner who did not want to claim the prize on purpose. It was surely not the first time Heechul realized how apathetic Kibum was to the whole ordeal, but if Heechul were in his place, he would not waste time to ask for the hint.

“I’ll save it as my trump card, when I need it,” Kibum said pleasantly.

Heechul snorted. “You still think of this as a game, don’t you?”

“No, but a challenge.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“I’m not underestimating this, Hyung,” stressed Kibum upon noticing the grumpiness that sepeped back into his cousin’s mood. “But whoever we are facing, they’re pretty smart. I just don’t want to act recklessly. If Kangin Hyung has a plan, I’d like to see how it works first. If it backfires, I can still play some interrogation game with Leeteuk Hyung. But for now, I’ll just wait and see first.”

Heechul shook his head, not exactly comprehending how someone could have zero sense of danger when faced with such a situation. “Whatever. But I don’t want to wait and see anyone die anymore,” he muttered as he turned around and exited Kibum’s room.

“Oi, little girl. Wake up,” Kangin said as he poked her cheek.

Taeyeon’s eyes snapped open. She had not really been sleeping anyway. Over the past few days, since she had became Kangin’s “hostage”, her instincts told her to never lose her guard. The second oldest heir of the Kim family had actually been pretty civil towards her. Although he never loosened the ropes around her arms and legs, he kept her in a luxurious hotel room, he ensured she was well fed (at the risk of being humiliated by being force-fed by him), and he found it no longer necessary to plaster .

Regardless of all his ‘kind’ treatment, she glared back at him. “What now, ?”

Kangin took a seat on the chair beside her bed. “What are you, actually?”

“Someone who will make you regret your decision to trap me here.”

He chuckled. “Your threat sounds empty in your current condition, little girl.”

Despite how enraged (humiliated, again, always) she was, Taeyeon chose not to show it out loud. Instead, she stared back at Kangin. When they had all been assigned to this project, Taeyeon had paid the least attention to the details of the plan. Unlike the Storyteller and the Circus Master, Taeyeon did not find it important to study her target’s background. In her defense, her job consisted more of real action, rather than observing. The Circus Master had once mocked her for that, but she had never really cared for what the Circus Master thought about her anyway.

She chose that moment, when she was facing her first target in a tied position, to observe him for the first time. After a long minute, Taeyeon muttered, “You really don’t know what you’re meddling in, don’t you?”

“I know I’ll be crushing whatever plan you or your companions have, that’s one thing for sure.”

“You think you can win that easily?”

“To give you the credit, no, I couldn’t win that easily. You scored once against me when you managed to push me off the balcony. But I’ll turn the tables against you for now,” Kangin remarked as he pulled out his revolver from his suit’s pocket. It was an act of trickery to make her scared (with her being tied and he held the complete reins by holding the gun). But to his mild dismay, the girl did not look deterred at all. “You’re not afraid to die, little girl?”

“You won’t kill me.”

“What? Because you’re supposed to be the antagonist and only the antagonists can kill?” he challenged. “For your information, little girl, in this cruel world, no one can totally be a saint. I won’t hesitate to kill you when the time comes.”

She laughed.

“Don’t talk about how cruel the world is, Rich Brat.”

“Villains think that they have the reasons to do cruel things because they’ve suffered in the past. I’ve never believed in such justification.”

To his surprise, the girl actually agreed to him on that. “I’ve never either.”

He stared at her.

She stared back.

Going against his earlier intention, Kangin then put his gun back to the nightstand. He then reached for a bottle of alcohol and a bottle opener. The cork was pulled off and he greedily drank the content of the liqueur straight from the bottle. Letting the familiar taste of alcohol inside his system, he then questioned again, “Then why did you commit those murders?”

“The same reason why you’re holding me hostage, and why you refuse to tell the police until the time comes.”

Kangin frowned. “I don’t see the relation between your heartless acts and my sense of justice.”

“In the end it’s all the same. You and I…we’re both doing what we think is the best for one reason.”

“And that is?”

“To prove our existence.”

Wednesday night finally came. Another meeting of Der Märchenclub was to be held again.

The last meeting of Der Märchenclub, Kangin assured himself. With this, he would put the end of everything.

Everything had been planned out, everything had been prepared. He already knew the back passage to the Bluebeard Chamber that would connect him to the stage. His gun was safely tucked inside his suit’s pocket. He had the hostage tied to the wheeling chair. He had ensured his oldest cousin, Heechul, to call the police, the members, and the parents. His father would be there. Jung Soo would come and before the whole audience, Kangin would make Jung Soo confess everything –using his weakness: the little girl J