“So, you were spying on us?” I scoffed.”Geez, Jiyong. If you wanted to see me you should’ve just asked. Why are you dragging Kris into this?”

My present situation wasn’t looking very good. The man who had barged into Luhan’s office was exactly who I had expected him to be. Ugh.
So here I was, tied up to a chair in a room submerged in darkness, in a house I was way too familiar with. Also, my dumb excuse of an ex-boyfriend was just hovering above me. I couldn’t see the expression on his face but I’m sure he was frowning.

Strangely enough, he hadn’t said a word to me yet. Even though I ran away from him so spectacularly, he has no comments. He didn’t even utter a noise when I attempted to escape from Luhan’s office and then just gave me a blank stare as he covered my mouth with a cloth doused in chloroform.

I woke up tied to a chair in a room that was in Kris’s mansion. I did remember him telling me that it wasn’t safe to go back to the mansion. I guess Jiyong was the reason.

The deadly silence was more frightening than threats. I couldn’t bear it. I was trying my best to rile him up to say anything. Nothing seemed to be working.

“You really did plan this out very carefully, didn’t you? You were probably going to kidnap whether or not I ran away from the wedding. Everybody would be busy with the ceremony; no one would notice that Kris Wu’s fake fiancé suddenly disappeared, right? Hah, Jiyong , you’re one step ahead of everyone. I’m stupid too for making it easier for you. You stupid prick!”

That seemed to get a reaction out of him. He didn’t say anything but shifted positions. I didn’t want to push him too far though. He most likely has a gun on him and if he snapped then it might be the end for me. I’d like to keep my life till I saw Kris at the very least.

“…I sent a message to him.”

“What?” I blurted out impulsively. Hearing Jiyong’s voice after so long made me kind of nostalgic but those feelings were devoid of any affection.

“…I said I sent a message to Yifan. He’ll be here soon.”

I sighed heavily. “This is unnecessary Jiyong. I admit that I don’t know what happened between you and Kris, but to go to this extent just to take revenge from us? That’s too low, even for you.”

Suddenly, he burst into laughter. It almost made me jump out of my skin. I hadn’t heard Jiyong speak for a while, but damn I hadn’t heard him laugh for ages. It wasn’t even a happy laugh! It was a wicked, wicked laugh.

“Stop making yourself the victim here, Taeyeon.” He said in between giggles. “You very well know why I’m back. Honestly, I couldn’t have even cared if you’d just started a new life somewhere, but then you went and made your move on my childhood friend. Unbelievable!” Just then his phone began to ring.

He answered it, “What is it?...Oh he’s here already? That’s faster than I expected. Send him inside. Make sure he’s alone and unarmed.” The call disconnected.

I felt Jiyong caress my cheek and it felt absolutely disgusting. “Looks like your Prince has arrived. Let’s invite him here, shall we?”

He walked away from me and switched on the lights. I had to shut my eyes because of the sudden transition. It was painful to even take a peek, but I could hear him open the door.

“Don’t struggle, Yifan.” I heard Jiyong say. “Tie his hands at the back. I can’t risk him using physical violence. I mean, even if he did I would shoot the brains out of his girlfriend, but better safe than sorry right?”

Ugh, Jiyong’s attitude is really pissing me off. It was better if he hadn’t opened his mouth after all.

I was afraid to open my eyes. Actually, I was afraid to see Kris in front of me. The expression on his face, the sight of him being tied up and helpless, it hurt to even imagine it.

“Why don’t you look at your boyfriend, Taeyeon?” Jiyong spat. “See ho w low you’ve reduced him to? He’s begging on his knees.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes shut after that, however, the sight before me was as I had expected. Kris was on his knees and his hands were tied at the back. He wouldn’t even meet my eyes. What have I done?

“You know the funniest part though?” Jiyong said. “Both of you betrayed me. You both stabbed me in the back. Hah! I was a fool to trust you, Yifan. But you,” Jiyong looked at me straight in the eyes. “You should be charged with murder.”

Hah, of course he would bring this up. At the worst time possible.

“Enough, Jiyong!” Kris yelled out suddenly. “I did not betray you. You told me to just watch over her. You didn’t love her! Is it really my fault that I cared for her? I thought you were over her”

Before Jiyong could respond I blurted out, “What? Watch over me? What are you talking about?!”

Jiyong smirked. “Ah I see what’s happening here. You both claim to be in a relationship but aren’t you hiding way too many secrets from each other? Let’s bring out the truth right now then.” He continued. “Listen carefully, Taeyeon. I knew you were going to run away. I was aware of the date and time you were going to leave and your destination as well. I was done with you but I just wanted you to re-adjust in a new life. So, I asked my old pal, Yifan here,” Jiyong dangerously put his gun on Kris’s temple. “To take you to Seoul. Well, at least see to it that you reach safely because the airport road was his territory.”

Jiyong grabbed a fistful of Kris’s hair and pulled him back hard. “However, this ungrateful bastard decided to make my discarded object as his own, didn’t you?”

“You were never going to make her happy, Jiyong. You deserved it.” Kris hissed in pain. “You were a cheating . No wonder Taeyeon ran away. She was right to do so.”

Jiyong chuckled. “Is that the story she told you? Hahaha I should’ve known. And you believed her like a naïve fool.”

Kris’s face went blank at Jiyong’s words. All I could think was that the truth had to come eventually. Kris looked at me with a pained expression as if asking me to deny Jiyong’s accuses. I couldn’t do it.

Jiyong began to circle me menacingly. I wasn’t afraid of what he was going to say. I never lied to Kris, I only told him what I believed and kept the rest away from him. It was wrong of me to do but I didn’t want him to bear the burden of it. I didn’t want anyone to know about my past.

“Well, since Taeyeon isn’t willing to tell you the truth, then let me do the honor. Taeyeon ran away from England not because I was cheating on her, but because she found out that I was a part of the mafia and then killed my child that was growing in her womb.”

Kris let out a strangled noise.

“Don’t exaggerate things, Jiyong!” I screamed. “I did NOT kill that baby. If there’s anyone to blame then it’s YOU. You were the one who stopped talking to me and become so aloof and indifferent. Hell, you would even run off late at night or never return back home. How was I to know that it was because of your “Boss duties” and not because you were meeting other women? You never told me anything. How could I have killed it when I hadn’t even known that I was pregnant? It was a miscarriage. A miscarriage because of all the stress I was going through. If I couldn’t cope with it, how could the baby?”

“SHUT UP!” Jiyong’s voice thundered. “Don’t you dare disrespect my baby.”

Jiyong was going insane. I had already suspected it but now I was sure of it. Kris had his head down again. I don’t know what was going on inside his mind, but I knew he would be blaming himself for all this. Was this the end? What are we going to do now? Jiyong’s condition was very delicate, one wrong move and he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot either of us. I had to carefully choose my words to pacify him.

But before I could even utter a word, Jiyong beat me to it.

“You know…I saw that little girl you were with. You became so close with her. Would you have treated our kid the same way?...I guess not.” A profound look of sadness came over him as he spoke. “It doesn’t matter. If I can’t have my happiness then you can’t too. That child’s father is dead. I ordered my hitmen to kill him.”

“No!” I yelped. “No, Jiyong! She has no one else! Her grandmother’s hardly alive! Why did you do that?!” Just thinking about Eunji all alone brought tears to my eyes. She was just a small child. I never thought I could harbor such intense feelings of hatred towards anyone but what I felt for Jiyong was much, much more than that. It was almost the equivalent of pure rage.
I couldn’t hold back any further. I wanted to do something…anything, to wipe off that smug look on his face.
How did I get into this situation?
Why couldn’t I just be happy and live a normal life without getting involved with not only one Mafia but two?
It was too late to regret anything. My supposedly new life had already taken a turn for the worse.

“That’s the look I wanted to see on your face.” Jiyong said as he walked towards me. “That look of defeat on your face knowing that there’s nothing you can do…I craved for it.”
I glanced behind him and immediately retaliated by saying, “Hah… so you really think you’re the winner here?”

“Of course I-”

“But are we really defeated now?”

Kris was already on his feet and was pointing a gun directly at Jiyong’s head. While Jiyong had his back towards Kris, he undid the ropes that bound his hands and exposed the gun that he had been hiding under his coat.
Jiyong was shocked and spontaneously turned around. “I’ll kill her!” He threatened Kris by pointing his gun on my temple. “Or better yet, I’ll kill you!”

Kris slowly began to walk towards us still in his offensive stance. “Let me tell you something Jiyong, when I came into this room, my main aim was to save Taeyeon’s life even if I lost my own life in the process.” Kris was hardly 3 feet away from us. “And I’m sure that Taeyeon’s not afraid to die either. The only one who’s afraid is YOU. You’re a coward, Jiyong. Neither could you keep your henchmen happy, nor your girlfriend. The only reason you lost your child is yourself.”

“Stop! STOP!

Suddenly, we heard the noise of the front door being knocked down.

“Oh and for your information, your henchmen just sold you out. They were done having such an incompetent boss. From now on, your people work for me; Just like Uncle Jihoon wanted.” Kris smirked. “All those years ago, your father saved me not because you asked him to, but because he saw potential in me. Jiyong, you’re scared to kill anybody. You’re weak and pathetic. That’s why even your own father was against the idea of making you the inheritor. The SNC is already here, there’s nothing you can do.”

In that moment, Kris tackled Jiyong to the ground and the the door to our room was torn down. At the same time I heard a gunshot. Everything went a little hazy after that because Jiyong knocked my chair over and my head hit the marble floor quite hard. I could only remember that I was screaming because Kris was on the floor as blood gushed out of his abdomen. Jiyong looked like he was having a seizure as SNC members flooded into the room. I don’t know who untied me and I don’t know who helped me out of the house.

My final memories of that day involved me having a severe migraine as I watched Yifan lying immobile on the stretcher. It was past midnight, we were outside the house and the ambulance was almost ready to leave, but they called me out because Kris had something to say to me.

“You idiot…” I mumbled, gently his hair. “You could have easily dodged that bullet. Why didn’t you?” It was so hard to keep myself from crying.

“…I did him wrong.” He answered back groggily. “It’s a sort of penance.”
“And since when did you become a saint?” I tried to smile but it only made the pain worse.

“Listen, Tae.” He took hold of my hand. “Go away and never come back. Take that girl with you. I’m sure Kang would have wanted that. This country isn’t safe for you anymore… Jiyong’s allied mafias are going to be after my head. I can’t risk…” He coughed up blood. “I don’t know if I’m going to survive, but all I want to give you is a new life that you always wanted.”

“B-but Kris” I was sobbing. Why did it feel like this was the last conversation we were ever going to have?
“Take this.” His limp hand touched the gun that was lying next to him on the stretcher. “For your sake, I hope you don’t ever have to pull the trigger, Taeyeon, but I can’t leave you undefended. At the very least, let this gun protect you in my place.”

I wanted to say so much to him but there was no time. Yoona interrupted us by saying, “Yifan, you’re bleeding heavily, we can’t delay any longer.”

“Take it, Taeyeon” He urged me as I wearily took hold of the weapon. “Hey,” He said touching my cheek with his bloodstained hand. “I love you. Don’t ever look back.”
With those words, I parted with the only person whom I had loved more than anybody else. I didn’t say goodbye.

…

Two days later, I was put on an airplane with Kang Eunji, holding on to nothing but adoption papers that authorized me as her legal guardian. We were sent to a country far away from the influences of the underground world and were ordered to never leave there.

…The last time I ever saw Wu Yifan was when he was on a stretcher, unconscious and drenched in his own blood.
I couldn’t even get to say that I loved him.