Chapter 40 : Revelations

“Well, sit down and get comfortable. It's a long story.” She patted the space next to her and he crept underneath her woollen blanket.

“How-”

“Eunji told me. I knew it was time.”

“Naeun, I'm sorry.”

“I want you to know. This time there's no more secrets. I'm not going to withhold anything else from you.”

“I don't-”

“And you don't have to actively deny that you aren't the least bit curious about my past and also ab-about Kai.” She stuttered the last words.

“I'm not forcing you to talk about him.”

“And I'm not being forced.” She sighed, capturing his hands in her delicate palms.

“Orphaned at the age of 12, my mother, Eunbin was adopted by a distant cousin and lived in Italy. Though in a faraway land, she did not live a life of luxury, she scraped by working full time and garnering scholarships with her hardwork and talent. She used her life savings to go to ballet school. My mother was a ballerina, she eventually became a principal dancer.”

“A prima ballerina.”

“Yes… She was a prima ballerina, the youngest in her company. She received her fair share of acclaim, touring the world with her troupe. My father was Son Seunghoon.”

“The heir to the Son business empire.”

“Yes. The Sons' are family built on relationships with French and English politicians and also the oil money of the Arabs. We have quite a big pride in that history. My father continued these relationships, but he wanted to his own legacy, as another symbol of the Son symbol, like my grandfather and his ancestors. He expanded the trade until Southeast Asia and Russia.”

“I understand that.” He returned her smile with his own sheepish grin.

“It was in Prague where he met my mother, at the opening night of Giselle. Infatuated, he attended her performances whenever he could. He had a private jet at his beck and call anyway. Why not put it to good use? My mother was unperturbed, she turned away his advances, rejected his flowers. Until one day she actually said yes, and then it began, the endless bouquets, the dinners incognito, the rendezvous'. She became the subject of malicious gossip at the company: that my father was sponsoring her for 'favours'. The press in Korea caught a whiff of the news and the scandal made the stocks drop. She begged him to marry her and he agreed under the pressure of his parents. They had a shotgun wedding right here in Paris and he whirled her away to Seoul. One year later I was born, my mother gave up all hope of going back to ballet. She wanted to be a good wife and a devoted mother, even if her husband paid her no more attention. But she was never made to be a dutiful wife of a CEO. She was to wild at heart, too free with her emotions. She became a bird with her wings clipped."

Naeun sighed shortly before continuing, this time her eyes didn't sparkle.

“The marriage began to crumble, the romance and rush had evaporated. They were not young anymore. He stopped coming home and I watched her stop waiting for him to. My mother began to sink into depression before my own eyes. I witnessed it worsen day by day, she would only weakly smile whenever I demonstrated a new ballet technique I had mastered or when I could finally go on pointe. Even ballet gave her little happiness, she had lost her youth to a man she didn't love and sacrificed her life to a child that had no father.”

“She loved you.”

“Because she had nothing else in her life to love.”

“That's not true-”

“If she really loved me she wouldn't have- ” Naeun stopped herself when she realised her voice had turned cold. She didn't want to lash out at Myungsoo… At least not about a touchy subject that he wasn't involved in.

“When I turned 15, my mother committed suicide by hanging herself on the balcony of her bedroom.” He gasped but did not say a word. Naeun distracted herself from delving too deeply by braiding and unbraiding her hair.

“The maids didn't let me see the body but I caught a glimpse of her pale hand from the first floor. She was still wearing that stupid wedding ring, even when she found out that he had a mistress. My mother was no saint, but she did not deserve such a death. When the time came, I laid flowers over her grave, even if I was mad. I was angry at my mother then, she had left me alone in that house to rot with the roses in their crystal vases. She left me alone in a cold empty house with nothing. Not even her ghost would haunt that blasted mansion.”

“But that changed in the next Spring. My father remarried his mistress, she had a son, Kim Jongin.”

“Kai.”

“Yes, Kai. She made my life a living hell but her son would defend me. Kai would always defend me. We grew close as children and my parents were never home, he became my guardian, my brother. It never really bothered me that we weren't related, he loved me and I loved him as if we were really siblings. He took care of me and in turn I helped him. I idolised Kim Jongin as my brother. He was the first to show me undying love, he cared and that was something I never experienced before. I trusted him wholeheartedly. But even that was shattered.”

“I had just turned 19.It happened around 2 in the morning, I was tired from ballet rehearsals and I didn't hear him come in. I only awoke when he kissed me.”

Myungsoo clenched his fists but did not interrupt.

“I woke up startled and tried to push him off but he was strong, Kai had always been strong. I didn't know what was going on, it was all blurry behind my tears and the storm outside drowned out all the noise. The maids probably didn't hear my screams from their quarters at the back.” She shivered slightly and he draped his jacket onto her shoulders and she clutched it tightly around herself until her knuckles turned white.

“I could tell he was drunk, I could smell the alcohol on his breath which didn't make sense to me. Kai had never been the type to get so drunk. Until now, I still wonder what could have pushed him to that state.”

“You think he didn't intentionally get drunk?”

“I'm not sure… I've asked myself that a lot.” Naeun whispered, shaking her head slightly.

“I told him to stop but he didn't hear me. I slapped him but that made him even more mad, he wouldn't stop gripping my hands. I managed to grab a pillow and smother him, I overpowered him for awhile but I was scared, I would've have asphyxiated him. I would have killed my own brother with my bare hands. When I let go, he stared at me with those eyes that still haunt my mind. As if he was upset or frenzied. I accidentally knocked over a vase of lilies and that snapped him out of his trance. For a moment, I thought he had realised what he had done… But he didn't.” Naeun wrung her hands in anxiety and she let out prolonged sharp breaths.

“Naeun, you don't have to tell me-”

“Yes, yes I do.” She gritted her teeth.

“He pinned me on the bed and ripped my nightgown-”

“Naeun stop-”

“And he laid his hands on me and I screamed and I cried. He showed me no sympathy and I did nothing.”

“It's not your fault. Now, please-”

“But you have to know! I need you to know!” She burst out.

“That morning I woke up to one of the maids screaming. They had found us intertwined in bloody sheets.” Myungsoo flinched at the mental image and cupped her cheek softly.

“He apologised to me profusely that morning, with such agonising eyes that they hurt me. But I couldn't look at him again. I still can't. Without breaking down into sobs.”

“You didn't have to tell me.”

“I wanted you to know. I needed you to know. So you won't delude yourself that you're in love with someone sane.” She pulled away, staring off at the glittering lights instead, and brushing away her tears.

“Naeun, I don't care.” He said soflty, bringing her back into his arms,

“You don't understand-”

“No. I will never understand. But I don't care. I never did. I never will. I love you.” He smiled at her with the same smile he always did to make her feel calm and miraculously, even in her unstable state, she managed to breathe properly again.

“You… Don't care?” She breathed.

“I'm in love with Naeun. You're the girl I bumped into at the flower market, the ballerina that is so graceful, so afraid of thunder, so in love with art. You're the women I have come to love unconditionally and unequivocally. I don't care about your past. You never cared about who I am.”

“You're Kim Myungsoo. You're the third son of the Kim conglomerate. You are loved and despised by many people. You're so annoyingly handsome that it drives me mad when I look at you, or when other girls look at you. You like to take pictures and whisk girls off their feet like the notorious playboy the tabloids say you are.” He smirked and played with a strand of her hair.

“There's only one particular girl.”

“You fell in love with the runaway daughter of the Son empire.”

“So sue me.” He laughed before pulling her into his arms and kissing her on the rooftop with all of Paris at their expense.
With all the romantic dreams of lovers at their feet.

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A/n:

I don't have a lot of time before I go back to school this Sunday ( God save me )  So I don't know if i can update the next chapter soon.

Yes... so some of you guys guessed it. But theres still a few surprises so wait for it !

Lastly, I like to wish everyone a happy new year! Let's pray 2016 will be better! Me and editor-nim will be sitting for our big exams so pray we do well! 

Thank you for all the support and love this year even though I seldom updated! I really do love comments! ^^

P.s , the song is dedicated to editor-nim and Tassha, coz they're army's. <3