28

My eyes were shut. She held my face in her hands and I could hear her words loud and clear. “You’re not dead, silly.”

I opened my eyes, to see her rattling away, “And neither are you, Yuri. What is wrong with the two of you?”

Yuri opened her eyes finally. She was standing in front of me like a human shield, and her face looked slightly surprised as she turned to glance at me.

“Not dead,” I offered.

I glanced, “But he is.” The guy who tried to shoot me had a hole in his head and Taeyeon was shaking her head as she walked to examine her handiwork, “Aigoo, see? That’s why one should never learn to play with guns if their shooting skills are that lousy.”

She pointed to the guy’s missed shot to my far left. It was indeed rather far off the mark.

But that wasn’t the main point. Where did Kim Taeyeon go, again?

Why was ‘she’ back?

Abruptly, Taeyeon turned to me and hugged me, “But Thank Heavens that his shooting skills are horrible and mine is wonderfully good. Aren’t you proud of me, Tiffany?”

I stared back at eyes that were twinkling hopefully at me. It looked too hopeful, I couldn’t really bear to dash that hope.

Sighing, I nodded, “Where’s Sunny? Taeyeon, could you go and fetch Sunny, please?” I rubbed my temples tiredly and Taeyeon acknowledged loudly and quickly ran away like a kid that she is.

We were alone.

I looked at Yuri who was placing her dark jacket over Yoona’s body. I stood quietly behind her, “Why don’t you hate me?”

Yuri sighed loudly, she turned around, “You were trying to make me hate you? Or were you trying to cut Yoona some slack by ending her pain earlier. Which is it, Tiffany? Would you rather want everyone to believe you’re using your brains for evil, or for good? I don’t know, I can’t tell, or perhaps, all of us are just too blinded to see the truth, or perhaps we choose to be.”

“Maybe it’s a bit of both Yuri.”

“I could never hate you, Tiffany. I know you think that you want me to disappear far, far, far away so that Taeyeon would never be harmed again. But the truth is…. I can’t.”

I was frowning, “Why, Yuri?”

After everything that I’ve tried. After treating her like an invisible stranger for the past 2 years, why did she still hang around me.

After…. What I’ve done to Yoona. Even though, a bigger part of my objective was to end her suffering… but still, I did used Yoona as a tool to push away Yuri -

Why, Yuri. Was your ‘love’ that great?

Yuri smiled ruefully, “I’m here to stay, Tiffany. Nothing you can do will push me away…because,: she paused, the smile still hung on her lips, “I’m what’s left of your family, Tiffany.”