The familiar and distinct scent of metal and disinfectant reaches her nose as Chaerin stands in the hallway. It hadn’t been that long since she had been in one these rooms herself and she finds herself wondering if she were destined to be in a hospital. Her heels tap against the checkered tile floor as she peeks intermittently into the window of the room before her. From where she stands it’s difficult to see the patient in the room and she’s not sure she wants to.  

“When we were at the station, Jiyong’s mother mentioned Yang Hyunsuk.” Chaerin mentions through sips of beer. “We need to learn more about Youngbae’s time there and how Yang Hyunsuk is involved in it all. Since Lee Yejin knew Youngbae in America she can help connect the missing pieces.”

“She’s in love with him?” Lee Soohyuk laughs, noticing the disdainful tone in her voice.

“She sits by his hospital bed every day praying he’ll wake up.” She murmurs and Soohyuk sighs, reading her unspoken words of guilt.

“That’s not what he needs from you.” The lawyer tells her as she stares ahead blankly.

“Lee Chaerin.” A voice calls out and startles her. “It’s been weeks, why are you only visiting now?”

“I wanted to talk to you but your phone has been off.”

“I couldn’t look at you, much less even hear your voice, I was so angry.” Yejin bites back with a cold and calm voice.

“I’m sorry.” Chaerin apologizes weakly. “It’s not over yet, Dong Youngbae could still be in danger.”

“What do you mean?” The older girl tries to pry it out of her. “How?”

“I need to talk to you in private.” Chaerin insists. “We can’t talk about this in here.

Yejin opens the door to the room Chaerin had been haunting, motioning for her young cousin to follow her inside. The scent of medicine hits her hard, stronger than it had been in the hallway.

“Is this private enough?” Yejin asks, pulling up a chair for Chaerin though neither of them sit down. “He can’t hear us.”

Chaerin can’t bear to look at the man in the bed, hooked up to tubes and machines like a science experiment. Yejin follows her line of sight and sighs. They remain standing, the tension in the air as tangibly thick as the clinical stench.

“What was it like when you two were in school together in New York?” The younger girl asks suddenly, receiving a sharp and startled look from her cousin. “I’m sorry, I was actually hiding in Teddy Park’s apartment that night. I’ve known since then.”

“The damn cat.” Yejin grits her teeth before sighing and flipping her hair off her shoulder. “I’m only a bastard, unlike you, so my father dumped me in a New York boarding school with other unwanted baby diplomats. Taeyang oppa was there for a while so that’s where we met, going to the same academy and eventually going to college together.”

“What was it like growing older with him?” Chaerin asks selfishly and Yejin laughs bitterly.

“What was it like to be children together, before he became broken and cold?”

“It was the best time in my life.” Chaerin answers softly, watching his blanket covered legs because she can’t bring herself to look at his face. “But I know now that he was suffering then, too.”

“I used to hate your guts.” Yejin confesses suddenly. “Did you ever guess that?”

Chaerin nods slowly, remembering their cold and awkward interactions as teenagers.

“Yang Hyunsuk was brought in for questioning after Jiyong’s mother mentioned him in her interrogation.” The younger girl changes the subject. “She said they were in his adoption in America together.”

“As far as Dong Youngbae knowns he was rescued by his brother because of his mom.” Yejin tells her. “Do you think I’m somehow involved in some conspiracy plot because I’m your father’s secretary?”

Chaerin laughs, moving a strand of hair from her face, giving her only a coy smile as an answer.

“I don’t blame you, of course.” Yejin reassures her with a wave of her hand. “I wouldn’t trust me, either, if I were you.”

“I should probably get going, I have a meeting with some realtors.” Chaerin tells her as she stops to leave but the older girl stops her by grabbing her wrist.

“When I found out I was angry. I was angry and I didn’t like you at all.” Yejin laughs humorlessly. “I still don’t really like you but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. We’re family, blood is thicker than water.”

“I love you, too.” Chaerin tells her with a small smile. “I’ll see you soon.”

Yejin sighs as she softly places Youngbae’s hands together across his torso, softly the back of his hand with her own.

“I should probably get going soon, too. I can’t sit here all day like this. Not when I don’t even have a right to be next to you.”

As she gets up to leave her eyebrows rise as she sees a familiar figure approaching through the small window on the door.

“Chaerin already left.” She reports to the tall lawyer quickly, not sure why she feels on edge.

He nods a quick greeting.

“I know, I saw her on my way in. I’m here to visit with Taeyang.” He answers in a low and calm voice.

“I feel dumb for not realizing it earlier but you and Chaerin never had an affair, did you?” Yejin asks with narrowed eyes. “It was Youngbae oppa she was talking about.”

“Is that what she told you?” Soohyuk laughs. “It probably would have been easier for everyone if Chaerin had loved me instead of Dong Youngbae.”

“Then, what is she to you for you to be staying this closely?” Yejin asks in suspicion.

“To me, she’s someone I need.” He answers with a thoughtful shrug as Yejin nods slowly and continues to eye him carefully.

“I was on my way out.” Yejin excuses herself with an awkward bow as he tells her goodbye.

She leaves the room quickly, the door shutting behind her soundly. As he carefully sits down in the chair Yejin had pulled toward Youngbae’s bedside he lets out a deep sigh. His sigh turns into a subtle smirk at the pair of eyes looking up at him warily through narrowed eyelids.

“What?” Soohyuk’s smirk widens as he crosses his long legs. “Did I make you jealous?”

“I still don’t understand your motives.” Youngbae speaks finally, his voice hoarse and lips chapped.

“I said I’d tell you in time.” The lawyer starts, the smirk gone from his face. “But I still don’t think it’s time yet. I’m sorry, I know I don’t give you much to trust me.”

“Forgive me if I no longer trust I’ll be able to live long enough to hear your explanation.” Youngbae tells him with a dry laugh, turning his head on the pillow to face him. “It’s enough for me that you’ve held up our deal and protected Chaerin.”

“It’s not completely for your sake." Soohyuk admits quietly to Youngbae’s shocked expression and laughs briefly. “I feel indebted to Chaerin and also, I… pity her.”

“She asked Yejin about Yang Hyunsuk’s involvement in my adoption, did you find out what I asked?”

“I’ll still working on that.” Soohyuk reassures the injured man. “I’ll have Park Hongjun come see you. Do I ever disappoint?”

“No, you never disappoint.” Youngbae laughs. “I don’t understand you but you’ve helped me greatly from gathering the evidence for Kwon’s arrest to clearing my brother’s name. I think part of the greatest revenge is that Jiyong still trusts you, doesn’t he? And you’ve been on my side since the very beginning.”
 

“I used to think Kwon Jiyong was evil.” Soohyuk answers after a while, his expression pensive. “But he’s really a lot like a child, isn’t he? It’s not that he ever had ill intent but that he never knew any better. How could he?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Chaerin’s visit earlier reminded me.” Youngbae begins slowly and Soohyuk’s eyebrow perks in curiosity.

“What is it that I’m not already chasing the trail?” Soohyuk jokes. “Another secret mission?”

“The day of her wedding, I overheard a conversation Chaerin had with her father. They were talking about you.” Youngbae tells the lawyer, who in turn uncrosses his long legs to lean closer in surprise. “Mr. Lee was curious as to why you wanted to get ahold of some ledger and I admit that I am, too.”

“There are two ledgers, actually.” Soohyuk answers honestly, taking Youngbae aback. “One proves that Kwon hired Lee to kill your mother and the other one… Chaerin has yet to show it to me. But I assume that it has to with a murder committed in the year 1990.”

“That murder, in 1990, do you know much about that?” The man in the hospital bed asks carefully.

“Why is your tone like that?” Soohyuk questions suspiciously. “What do you know about it, Youngbae?”

“I think that’s why Kwon wanted me dead. Because I overheard him one day when I was hiding in his office.” Youngbae studies the other man’s expressionless face. “The Mr. Lee that was killed in that boating accident in Paris in 1990, he was your father, wasn’t he?”

“It wasn’t an accident.” Soohyuk quips back harshly.

“It’s strange that I never remembered that day before now. Maybe I had been too scared, maybe I never wanted to remember. All I know is that weeks after I overheard that conversation my mother was dead and I was running for my life.”

Lee Soohyuk doesn’t speak, only watches as Youngbae’s eyes slowly close and his head turns back onto the pillow to face the ceiling.

“I do have another favor.” Youngbae says with his eyes closed. “The nurses have the jacket I was wearing when I was shot. In the pocket there’s something I want you to give Chaerin.”

“I’ll do that when I go see her this afternoon.” Soohyuk promises as he stands up slowly and leaves without another word.

Powerful gusts of wind roar around a parked vehicle, picking up what remaining leaves have fallen onto the ground in the early winter chill. The trees along the path seem sickly in their state, bare branches swaying in the harsh wind against a grey sky. Chaerin knows they’ll be revived in vivid color in the spring but she can’t help but think they look like decayed and dying remnants of what they had once been. Their leaves will grow and shroud everything around them in shade, just as they had during the worst tragedy in her life.

The day she lost Dong Youngbae and her childhood had ended.

Chaerin sits in her car at the neck of the path, putting a document folder into her bag to go over with Lee Soohyuk later and finalize her plans for the Estate after she’d met with the realtor. She gets out her phone and sees a missed call and unread voicemail. Assuming it’s from the tall lawyer, she’s surprised to see it’s from her cousin.

“Chaerin,” Lee Yejin’s voice says over the phone, her tone alarming the younger woman as she sits up straight in her seat. “I don’t have long to talk but I found something out and I need to tell you immediately. Why aren’t you picking up?”

Chaerin listens to the message in shock. Yejin breathes heavily over the line, sounding as if she’d been running.

“Listen to me carefully, Chaerin. Mr. Lee is not your father, he lied to us all.”

The message suddenly ends and Chaerin checks the time of the call. She must not have heard her phone when she was in her meeting. It’s already been a few hours since Yejin had called.

It doesn’t make sense, even if he weren’t her father he stilled raised her. He was still to her mother, still gave her his name. What different would it make if he weren’t her real father? Chaerin tries to call Yejin again, desperate for answers, but the older girl’s phone is turned off. She sits in confused silence for a moment before starting the ignition and pulling out onto the unpaved road. Her phone begins to ring again and she prays it’s Yejin, only to see Soohyuk’s name on the caller ID.

“Where are you right now?” Soohyuk asks suddenly, not giving her a chance to greet him.

“I’m on my way to the office.” She answers in confusion. “What’s going on? Is everything alright”

“Don’t go.” He nearly shouts over the line before clearing his throat. “The hotel a couple blocks from the office building, can you meet me in the parking garage? Make sure that no one sees you. Please, it’s important.”

He hangs up as abruptly as he had called. She goes to where he had requested she met meet him, pulling into the parking garage and driving around but she doesn’t recognise his car. A familiar figure emerges from a row of cars as Soohyuk waves her toward him by a vehicle she’s never seen before. She parks next to the black sedan and he walks toward her, his face somber and features pale.

“What’s going on? What happened?” She asks as she gets out of her car. “Why do you look like that?”

“I went to your apartment and there were police cars everywhere. They even called to see if I was with you, there was still a patrol car at my apartment when I left. I only got here after I was certain I wasn’t followed.” He tells her in a low voice, his eyes wild. “Chaerin, something terrible has happened.”

“What is it? You’re scaring me.” Her heart hammers against her chest as she hits him with a balled up fist. “Just tell me!”

“Lee Yejin was killed.” He tells her carefully, gripping onto her arms to steady her as her steps falter and she sways uneasily. “My contact with the police said she was in your apartment and your fingerprints were found all over the murder weapon. The CCTV was erased and you were the last person she had called.”

“No.” Chaerin manages to whimper. “No, that’s not true.”

“Switch cars with me, this one has a plate that can’t be traced. I packed you a bag so you should have everything you need for a while.” He tells her carefully as he still grips tightly onto her shoulders. “You need to disappear for a while until I can get all of this figured out. Do you have somewhere you can go, where no one will find you?”

She nods weakly as she gets into the sedan with Soohyuk’s help.

“I’ll protect you, so wait for me.” He promises her with a hand soothingly held on her shoulder as if he’s afraid if he lets go she’ll fall apart.

Her fingers grip the steering wheel until her knuckles turn white. The metal door is shut as Soohyuk disappears from her line of sight. She exhales sharply as she drives away, her eyes burning with tears she won’t let fall.

- - -

Author's Note: And there we have it! Thank you to everyone who has subscribed and commented. I want to welcome all of my new readers as well as give me love to the old. Can you believe it's been two years since I started this story? I have the last few chapters outlined so after my final exams next week I'll start writing the end. There will be 27 chapters in Monster and the story should be finished around mid-December. I'm not sure how I want to pace out those last chapters so let me know how you'd like that to go. All at once or over a few weeks?

As always, I love and appreciate comments so let me know what you thought of this heartbreaking chapter! (I almost cried writing it!)

EDIT (1/1/2016): I'm working on updates as quickly as possible but I don't want to rush the ending. Thanks for being patient, I know waiting is hard!