94
Their Kingdom Panorama
/\_____/\
“What were you trying to do last night?” Myung Soo questioned Victoria who sat beat up in her corner.
“I don’t want it, take it away,” Victoria turned away from the tray of food beside her.
“You’re being stubborn now, aren’t you?”
“If you haven’t noticed, I’ve always been stubborn.”
Myung Soo chuckled.
“I wasn’t intending to end you this way,” Myung Soo told, “but have it your way.”
/\_____/\
“Donghae,” Mi Sun called his name from Victoria’s old desk.
Donghae turned to look at her silently.
“You and Victoria discovered a necklace at the site of murder,” Mi Sun began, “do you know anything about it, or if Victoria knew anything about it?”
Donghae thought for a particularly long time, “No. Why?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Is there something about the necklace?”
“So Rae kept the necklace in her room, but now it’s gone,” Mi Sun explained.
“The necklace?” Donghae repeated. “Does the necklace have something to do with Victoria?”
“It’s a possession of her mother’s.”
Donghae’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“What kind of importance does the necklace have?” Donghae wondered. “It has to be important if someone was after it.”
“I’m not sure,” Mi Sun honestly answered. “It’s an expensive piece of jewelry that’s been with the Bang family for generations. That’s all I know.”
After laying awake last night, he’d thought for a long time before he was sure he’d heard someone scream his name before leaving Myung Soo’s house.
“I went to Park Myung Soo’s place last night,” Donghae said, “I heard someone call my name.”
Mi Sun raised an eyebrow.
“If I know Victoria, I know she values her family,” Donghae began, “if the necklace was a part of her family’s treasure and now it’s missing, if she knew about it, she’d look for it.”
“Wait,” Mi Sun interrupted, “what did you say?”
Donghae paused and turned to look at her.
If he tried to put the picture together it would be that they’d seen someone murder Bang In Tak. And right after they discovered the necklace and had it delivered to So Rae they were hunted down then kidnapped. The center of all of it had been the necklace which had been forgotten till now. The one goal all this while was the necklace.
“Do you think Victoria took the necklace?” Mi Sun asked.
Donghae wanted to deny the answer. Victoria wouldn’t have taken the necklace…she certainly wouldn’t have…
“I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood,” Victoria said, “my position right now is what I’ve obtained with my own hands. You weren’t there, so you don’t know. I don’t care if you quit or not. Seeing your face won’t affect me. I won’t be as silly as to be sad or hope for more from you. I’m not naïve.”
His heart dropped, it sank further and further down. Had he driven Victoria all the way to recklessness?
“You think so, don’t you?” Mi Sun asked again.
Donghae couldn’t say it.
“Lee Donghae,” Mi Sun’s voice suddenly became so full of authority.
“Victoria might have taken the necklace a while ago,” Donghae almost whispered.
“What do you mean?”
Donghae lowered his gaze. He didn’t want to make Victoria look bad. He didn’t want the truth to be that Victoria really had taken the necklace and had gone back for it. There was no way that he wanted Victoria to look bad because of some decisions she’d made.
“I finally remember some things Victoria said to me after she agreed to the proposal,” Donghae admitted disappointed and troubled, “and after she got the VP position. She wouldn’t have gotten it in just one night, could she?”
Mi Sun waited for him to go on. Her stare was petrifying.
“I think Victoria bribed Park Myung Soo with the necklace.”
Mi Sun shot up from her chair starting toward So Rae’s office. Donghae immediately followed and blocked the doorway.
“You can’t tell So Rae,” Donghae told.
Mi Sun stared at him.
“All that’s going to matter to her is the necklace,” Donghae fought, “the necklace isn’t the center of attention. We need to find Victoria first.”
“So Rae needs to know,” Mi Sun stated. “We’ll look for both of them after we decide what to do.”
“And what are you going to do then?” Donghae questioned. “Worry about the necklace and push Victoria aside?”
“This is not the time for this, Lee Donghae,” Mi Sun warned. “President Bang and So Rae are searching for the necklace. If we find it, Victoria will bound to be near it as well.”
“It’s just an item!” Donghae shouted.
“Move, Lee Donghae.” Mi Sun warned again.
“Why do you say it like it has no meaning to Victoria?” he asked. “It was her mother’s! Victoria’s missing because she went to retrieve it!”
The door from behind him opened.
“What about the necklace?” So Rae questioned.
Donghae froze when he saw her.
“We need to make a trip to Park Myung Soo’s.” Mi Sun said.
/\_____/\
Victoria lie on the ground tired and energy-less. Was anybody coming for her at all? Her eyes began to close as she began to wonder about what time it was. The door opened and someone pulled her up.
“What are…” she started before he taped shut, tied a rag around her eyes, and untied her hands from the front to the back.
She squirmed and tried to scream, but it only came out as muffles. She suddenly became alarmed. Were they preparing to kill her? What was going on?!
/\_____/\
“Is this a Friday night or what?” asked Myung Soo from behind his desk.
The smile on his face chilled So Rae.
“Can you excuse your men? I can’t speak with all of them staring.”
Myung Soo smirked and raised his hand waving it. The men left toward the back one by one. When the room cleared up he turned back to them.
“I only came for one thing,” So Rae started. “Where’s the necklace?”
“Necklace? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Victoria took it out of my drawer and now you have it,” So Rae explained, “I want it back.”
“Oh? That necklace?” he cooed. “The one Victoria traded me for her position upon one request?”
So Rae’s eyebrow twitched.
“Do you want to know what that request was?”
So Rae stared at him not amused.
“She wanted to overpower you then get rid of you. The anger and the hatred seething from her was so amazing, it reminded me of you,” Myung Soo explained getting up and out of his seat, “but I wonder who was it that told you about the necklace? Was it Mi Sun or Lee Donghae?”
He smiled when he found that they turned away from his stare.
“But Bang So Rae, the necklace doesn’t belong to your family.” he said.
So Rae clenched her teeth together.
“I’ll tell you a dirty secret,” he stopped before her. “One that everybody knows, but you. I’m beginning to wonder why everyone has kept it from you for so long.”
He eyed Mi Sun who stared back.
“Man Shik, are you still interested in knowing about him?”
So Rae’s ears opened up.
“We only came here for the necklace,” Mi Sun spoke up.
“I’m not talking to you,” Myung Soo warned then turned to So Rae, “Man Shik, Man Shik. When you first came to me about him I was quite surprised as I’ve been told to keep it a secret.”
“What are you talking about?” So Rae’s heart was ready to explode from curiosity.
“It’s not worth it, lets go.” Mi Sun tugged her arm.
“Tsk, tsk,” he muttered. “don’t tell me you were one of them.”
Mi Sun turned to look at him, “Stop with your games. We only came for the necklace.”
“Man Shik, who is he?” So Rae cut in, her gaze on the crazy man in front of her.
“Are you certain, you want to know?”
So Rae gulped. Mi Sun who was beside her had disappeared from view. The information she’d been waiting on, the information about Man Shik Mi Sun was supposed to look up, this man before her had the answers.
“The father you most look up to, are you ready to forget him as well?”
Her eyes grew dark.
“Just tell me what you know! Why do you keep trying to talk in riddles?!” So Rae screamed.
Myung Soo smiled satisfied, “Before your mother and father decided to get married with the pact your grandpa had made for them, your mother screwed up. Hee Young and Dae Jung had been ready to pull apart the marriage, but plans were ruined when Hee Young became pregnant with her dead boyfriend’s child. With much begging, Dae Jung married your mother leaving Victoria a fatherless child. And who was this child that Hee Young had?”
So Rae felt her world crumble. Denial took a hold of her. It was suddenly so unbelievable. Her father, Bang Dae Jung, was her father. No one else…no one else…
“You’re lying.”
Myung Soo smiled and shook his head, “You live in too much denial. Have you seen Dae Jung talk to you the way he talks to Victoria? Have your parents gotten along, ever?”
So Rae felt tears well up in her eyes. She shook her head. The shock was spreading into her brain, into her heart so intensively.
Turning to Mi Sun she shouted, “He’s lying! He’s lying, isn’t he?! Tell me he’s lying!”
Mi Sun stared back at her frozen.
So Rae grasped her arm, “Man Shik…someone who’s dead can’t be my father! It’s impossible! Father was the only one who had an affair! Not my mother! Victoria’s mother was the one who tore apart my family! Tell me I’m right!”
Images of Bang Dae Jung flew through her memory. Her father, the man she always looked up to, was a fake? Unbearable pain shot through her and she began bawling on spot.
“The necklace and Victoria aren’t here, please leave.” Myung Soo started toward his desk.
He paused halfway and turned around. Lee Donghae was missing from the picture.
/\_____/\
Luckily the hallway was empty. Donghae started for the stairs quietly and found the hallway at the top of the stairs empty as well. Where was everyone? Checking around him he started down the hallway quietly to find that rows of closed doors surrounded him. Moving forward he opened each one cautiously to take a glimpse inside.
Most of them were empty so far. How long had it been since he’d been up there? He hoped that Mi Sun and So Rae were still downstairs talking with Myung Soo. Hopefully, that guy hadn’t noticed that he’d gone missing just yet.
His heart began to beat anxiously when he turned to face a door in the middle of the hallway. He hoped he’d run across Victoria in there. Pressing his lips together and exhaling for the 30th time he gripped the doorknob pushing it open. His eyes grew wide when he saw a blindfolded Victoria sitting there with a piece of tape over her lips.
Caught by surprise he didn’t realize the footsteps behind him. Something thick whammed into the back of his head and he dropped onto the ground with much pain spreading throughout his body.
Victoria began to make mumbling noises from where she was and turned her head around. He wanted to reach a hand forward to touch her and let her know it’d be alright, but he was yanked up to his feet and shoved across the room. Donghae slide across the floor before he collided into the wall. He didn’t have the chance to look up into his attacker’s face before he was blindly pulled up again. This time the man’s fist dug into his stomach. A loud heave escaped him before he fell onto the ground drawing knees up to his chest.
Again, the mumbling noises from Victoria ran into his ears. She sounded scared, panicked, and worried. Even if he tried he couldn’t get a word through his mouth. Gasps escaped him, though, before a score of footsteps rebounded off the hallways.
“Put your hands ups!” were the last things Donghae heard before he out.
***We're almost done
***I did a lot of editing and rewriting. This was the best I could do.
***And while I was editing and adding some bits of stuff into the story, I did cry while writing a certain part. Not that that part was super touching, I just felt like what I had down held a million feelings behind the words.
***Anyhow, ignore me and do enjoy.
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