C h a p t e r  2 5

- Ten Years Ago -

It was getting late as Josephine wandered the streets, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head and along her arms. She walked along blindly, detached from her surroundings as she wondered what to do next. Earlier, she had woken alone in bed, an unfamiliar roof looking back down at her. She could not remember how she had gotten there, her memory failing her as she tried to recall what had happened after she threw Henry into the table. As she sat up in bed and noticed the wounds on her body for the first time, she realised that she must have had a psychotic episode like the time her mother had just been killed. However, in her last tantrum, she did not manage to hurt anyone but herself yet this time, she had injured Henry, someone she now suddenly realised that she truly cared about. Josephine came to the conclusion that she could not stay at the orphanage any longer, lest she injure him or anyone else unintentionally. Crawling out of bed, she made her way over to the window and slid it open, jumping the small distance down onto the gravel path that ran alongside the building. With one last look back up at the window, Josephine had run off as fast as she could with her injuries.

She came to a stop now at the corner of a busy night district, the streets buzzing with hardcore clubbers and fun seekers alike. The vibrant neon lights of the various clubs and bars illuminated the slowly darkening sky, bringing to life another way of living. Josephine proceeded down the street, glancing with little interest at the people she passed. She felt a slight sense of loathing for the way these people seemed to live life without a care in the world. The way they abused drugs and alcohol, shouting together in glee or breaking into violent fights, drunken men pursing the skimpily dressed bargirls, who themselves allowed the men to harass them. Josephine wondered whether her mother had put up with this kind of behaviour when she had the same occupation, only tolerating the harassment just so she could feed her daughter and good-for-nothing husband.

The thought of her mother brought up another rush of pain and sadness, mingled with a strong sense of hatred. She thought back to what she had found out earlier today, about the one who had murdered her mother being set free. That only served to fuel her rage even further. Her eyes blinded with fury, she did not see the man who suddenly emerged from a bar next to her, swaying drunkenly before he fell onto her.

“Heys theres little girlie… Yous a small one tonight... hic! Whaddya say we goes and gets downs and dirtys with it, huh? Name your p-rice, hic!” slurred the man with a leering smile, gripping Josephine in a tight hug.

Josephine steadily began to grow panicked and she began to thrash in the drunken man’s tight grip. “Let go of me, you bastard! I’m no goddamn e! Let go of me, you e!” she screamed.

At Josephine’s last word the man loosened his grip on her, squinting down at her as he tried to see her properly. “e? Yous underage?” He then gripped her tightly again with a foolish smile. “Don’t try to lies to me, girl, hic! Whats a kiddie doing ons da street ifs she don’ts wanna get laids? Don’ts worry, ‘kay girl? Papa heres will takes good cares of yous. And ifs your first times, Papa will doubles the amount!” The man continued to laugh drunkenly as he began to drag Josephine along with him.

“No!” shouted Josephine, growing desperate. She began throwing all her strength against the man, kicking and scratching him where possible. She even bit his arm which earned a large shout of pain from the man, but he retaliated with a slight punch to her solar plexus, winding her.

Josephine fell limp in the man’s arms, groaning as she clutched her abdomen in pain. The man pulled her up to face him by the hair, opening the wounds she had inflicted on herself earlier. “Stupid brat! Now I’m pissed. Yous not gonna get a cent once I’ms done withs yous!” spat the man.

He then hefted Josephine over his shoulder and was about to walk unsteadily over to the edge of the path to hail a cab when something suddenly rammed into his back, sending both him and Josephine falling onto the ground. The man released Josephine, peering around him to see why he had been knocked to the ground.

“Whadda hell happens?” he shouted, his eyes coming to rest on a young man standing nearby in a black suit, peering down at him with a cold glare. The drunken man pointed up at this newcomer. “Did yous do its? Whadda hell you dos that for, you bastard?”

Josephine stirred in her spot a small distance away, having recovered slightly from being winded and from the fall she suffered. Blood was oozing out of her wounds, slowly soaking the bandages that covered the length of her arms. She peered up just in time to see the young man throw a kick into the drunken man’s face, connecting with his chin. The young man then spat into the man’s face before strolling over to Josephine.

“Men like you should not even breathe in this world,” said the man coldly over his shoulder. He crouched down beside Josephine and she peered up into the guy’s face, glaring at him suspiciously. “Are you alright, ?” he said, studying her through cold eyes.

Josephine continued to stare at the man, who seemed to be the same age as Henry,. She then nodded slightly and the guy’s face suddenly transformed into a bright smile.

“Good! Then you can take care of yourself from here. I have more pressing mattters that I have to deal with first.”

The guy then patted her head and her glare soon became a look of confusion as she wondered at his sudden change in attitude. As he was about to stand up, Josephine noticed that the drunken man had gone to pick up one of the bar’s sidewalk signs and was now charging straight at him. Josephine pulled the man down beside her, rolling along with him as they dodged the drunken man’s attack. She felt something hard hanging from the side of the young man’s hip and her hand travelled down to wrap around it as she realised it was a gun. Pulling it out of its holster, she took aim at the drunken man who was getting ready to try and hit them with the sign once more.

It was as if everything was in slow motion. Josephine’s mind was absolutely clear as her finger slid onto the trigger, the surrounding noise reducing to a faint buzz. The only sound her mind managed to register was the crack of gunpowder as the bullet was fired, lodging itself straight into the man’s heart. As soon as the first blood flew from his chest, everything around Josephine returned to its normal state and she continued to stare at the man, shocked at what she had just done.

“,” swore the young man who had saved her. He stood up onto his feet, pulling Josephine up with him. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

He led her away, shoving his way through the crowd as Josephine allowed him to drag her along, her mind numb from shock. She had done it again. She had killed someone again. The blood from a wound she had caused was spilling once more. Her hand suddenly grew limp and she dropped the gun.

The man stopped running as he heard the gun clatter to the floor, a mobile at his ear. He hung up while rolling his eyes as he bent to pick up the gun. “Geez, girl; you don’t leave the evidence behind for the police to find. Idiot,” he snapped, returning the gun to his holster.

Josephine peered up at the man and he could see that she was truly frightened at what she had just done. He suddenly felt sorry for her. “Why are you trying to help me?” she asked in a small voice.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he reached out to grab her hand and drag her along once more. “There’s no time to explain. Let’s just get going. A car is waiting around the corner.”

Josephine pulled her hand out of the young man’s grip. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, staring back up at the man defiantly. It was as if all the shock of having just killed a man had instantly disappeared from her eyes. The man smiled down at her foolish courage.

“Alright then, fine. I don’t have to drag you along with me. Just stay here and wait for the cops to arrive. You just walk right up to them and ask them to handcuff you straight away.” He then turned around and began walking off, counting down from five within his head. As he reached one, he stopped walking and turned to look at Josephine who was still standing in the same spot, staring back at him. “Well? Are you coming or not?”

Josephine continued to stare at him, before saying, “Then tell me: Who are you?”

The man grinned widely, looking away as he shook his head. “You sure are suspicious.” He then turned to look back at Josephine. “My name is Kris. Now can we get going? The driver is going to be wondering where I am.”

Kris mumbled something else under his breath, but it was too quiet for Josephine to hear. She continued to gaze at him, trying to size him up but she didn’t have much time left as the sound of sirens in the background could be heard. Kris heard them also and he rushed over to Josephine’s side, grabbing her roughly and dragging her around the corner.

“Shoot, they’re already here. I thought my mens said we had at least another fifteen minutes, the unreliable bastard. Come on, into the car you go,” he said as he opened the door to a black limousine and threw Josephine into the backseat, following in quickly behind her.

Josephine sat up properly in her seat as the limousine pulled out. “I thought you said this was a car…” Her voice trailed off as she then noticed the other occupants of the vehicle.

One was an older man, who seemed to be staring at Josephine with mild interest, a deep sadness in his eyes as he then turned away. The other was a guy who seemed to be roughly the same age as her, glaring back at her with a mixture of disgust and hatred. He then shifted his gaze over to Kris, still glaring coldly.

“What trouble have you brought upon us this time, Kris?” said the guy, his voice commanding authority over the older man. “You were supposed to be looking for father.”

Kris smiled back lazily. “Oh, I was doing just that, but…” He then shrugged. “I guess I just felt like being a hero, Master Key kibum.” He then nodded in the old man’s direction. “But it seems you did not need my help after all.”

Key glared at Kris, his right eye twitching slightly with suppressed rage. “You felt like being a hero? Kris, this is not the best time to crack jokes. You just brought a horde of goddamn police officers into our territory. Don’t you think you should be a little less cocky and Show some remorse?”

Kris continued to smile at the young master, jerking his thumb casually in Josephine’s direction. “Technically, it was her who brought the cops in. She took my gun and shot the bastard who was assaulting her.”

The older man suddenly turned away from the window, glancing at Josephine with a renewed interest as he studied her intensely. Their eyes met and she continued to stare him off before she averted her eyes, growing slightly frightened at the intensity of his gaze.Key watched the exchange with some annoyance, his brows furrowing slightly.

“What is it, Father?” he asked, peering at the girl which had caught his father’s interest.

Lee Soo Man leaned forward, still staring at Josephine. “Did you really just kill that man?” he asked in a soft voice which threatened to send shivers down her spine. She peered up at Lee Soo Man before glancing away, not answering. A mysterious smile erupted on his face as he leant back in his chair.

“What is your name?” he asked.

It was nearly a minute before Josephine decided that she should reply. “ Josephine Liu.”

Key stared at his father, growing slightly worried. He hadn’t seen his father Show this much emotion in nearly a year since his mother had passed away. Kris also stared at his boss, wondering what was going through the old man’s mind. Whenever he had seen that smile on Lee Soo Man’s face in the few years he had been working for the man, it never meant anything good for his enemies.

The limousine finally arrived outside the gates to a large mansion and as the occupants waited in silence for the gates to swing open, Lee Soo Man suddenly said to Josephine, “Welcome to the SM Mansion, Josephine Liu… our newest member of the Syndicate.”

Henry had been wandering the streets for hours, figuring that Josephine would not be at the hut because that would be the most logical place anyone would look. He knew Josephine wasn’t stupid enough to go and hide in a place like that. Donghae and the twins followed him closely, also searching the streets for any sign of Josephine. But they had long given up any hope of finding the girl, only following along out of loyalty to their older brother.

They walked down a street that looked the same as all the others and Donghae decided that they had searched for long enough. He went to grab Henry’s arm, spinning him around to face him.

“Henry, it’s getting late. I don’t think we’ll be able to find her tonight.”

Henry pulled his arm roughly out of Donghae’s grip as he proceeded down the street. “We will find her. You don’t have to search for her if you don’t want to. Just leave me alone.”

This time, Chanyeol was the one to stop him, running to block his path. “Donghae’s right, Ge. We’ve been looking for her for hours. If she wanted us to find her, we’d have found her by now. But we haven’t. Who knows where she’s gone by now?”

Henry glared at Chanyeol, shoving him roughly out of the way. “I don’t care. I’m not going to stop searching for her. So get lost if you don’t want to help.”

Baekhyun then spun Henry around, throwing a punch into his face. “Have you gone mad, Hyung? I can’t believe that you’ve gone all crazy over that lunatic of a girl, crazy to the point that you’re even lashing out at us, your brothers!”

Henry glared back at Baekhyun, the corner of his split lip as he wiped it with his thumb. He let out a sad laugh as he glanced down at the blood on it. “You’re right, Baekhyun… I have gone crazy. I don’t quite understand it myself but I know I can’t leave Josephine out there all by herself. I have to protect her.” He stared at his three friends, meeting their each of their eyes for a full minute before he turned to continue walking down the street.

Something suddenly connected with the back of his head and he was sent into a dark abyss. The last thing he heard was Donghae apologising and saying something about hitting his head being for his own good. Then he heard no more.

tbc.

lol, Word hated my drunken character. Red and green lines everywhere...

Anyway, poor Josephine ran away only to kill another man. Sigh... it's just not her day. And it's not Henry's day either, for that matter.  Key also made an appearance, lol He's very different from his present self, huh? Hmm... Kris's character seems to be growing more important than I originally had planned for him. Oh, that reminds me. If you recall, in chapter 7 I said that Kris was introduced to Amber by Lee Soo Man. I kinda went and changed that so it says something along the lines of 'when he met Amber because I realised that only after writing halfway through the next chapter, and being the lazy me, took the easy way out ^_^; So, yeah... hope it doesn't confuse anyone.

Next Chapter: Josephine is taken into the mansion and Henry wakes up (it's still the same day).