Chapter 33

Author’s POV

Jessica had Yuri in her arms. Her face right above where Yuri’s heart was. Jessica lost the use of words and decided to convey her thoughts through actions. She held Yuri in her arms. It was a bold action, indeed but that wasn’t important now. All she thought about was making Yuri feel better because that’s exactly what she wanted. Jessica wanted Yuri to be better. She wanted him to be okay.

Yuri kept his cries almost soundless which broke Jessica’s heart more, her hold on him tightened. Yuri kept his hands on his sides. He didn’t move at all. Yuri quietly let himself sink inside Jessica’s embrace.

They stayed like that until Yuri was able to stop his tears from falling. Jessica fought hard to keep her own tears and somehow she won.

Yuri gently pulled away from Jessica’s embrace but didn’t completely move away from her.

“I’m sorry….I should go.” Yuri was about to turn away when Jessica grabbed his hand and with the little strength she had, turned Yuri around.

“I know your house is just a few blocks away but I really don’t feel safe letting you go like this. Come inside, just for a while.”

Yuri shakes his head

“I’m okay. Besides, it’s late and Kris—“

“No. You’re not okay and Kris won’t mind. I won’t take no for an answer, let’s go.” Jessica tightens her grip on Yuri’s hand, refusing to let go.

Left with no choice, Yuri slightly turns his body and reaches for the box that was on top of his car and silently follows Jessica inside their apartment complex.

They went through the lobby and hopped onto the elevator. Jessica still had Yuri’s hand in hers, she simply refused to let go. When the elevator doors opened, Jessica went out first with Yuri trailing closely behind.

They walked into the middle of the hallway to reach Kris and Jessica’s unit. The latter only let go of Yuri’s hand when she needed to punch in the code to open their door. A beeping sound came then Jessica opened their door, revealing their home to someone who isn’t Tiffany for the first time.

Jessica went inside first but quickly turned around to face Yuri. Fortunately, Yuri hadn’t runaway the second Jessica let go of his hand. Yuri stood still outside the door.

When Jessica was about to grab his hand to drag him inside, Kris came out of his room and noticed Yuri.

“What are you doing just standing there? Come on in. Jess told me you were coming.” Kris says with a smile. Even though he didn’t know the reason behind Yuri’s sudden visit, he wasn’t exactly the type to drive people away. For all he knows, there could be something really important for Yuri to discuss with Jessica at this late hour.

Yuri complied and finally entered their apartment. He removed his shoes and awkwardly stood at their living room. Kris went ahead to his room and said goodnight to Jessica and Yuri.

“Take a seat. I’ll get you something to drink. Will tea be okay?” Jessica asks

“I’m really fine. You don’t have to…”

“Tea it is then.” Jessica says before disappearing to their kitchen.

Yuri sighed and placed the box on the small coffee table in front of the couch. He took a seat at the very edge of the couch. He wasn’t exactly comfortable being in another person’s house at this late hour.

His eyes caught sight of the box. He begins to lean towards the idea that maybe it really was his mother that gave him the box. Inevitably, accepting that idea would also lead him to the possibility that his mother is alive and well. He is fairly certain that the truth he seeks lies within his unknown past.

Questions flood his mind. He begins to wonder why he doesn’t remember that much from his past in the first place? As far as his memory brings him, he doesn’t ever recollect a time where he was in any accident that could’ve affected his memories. It’s either he really was in an accident and that he just doesn’t remember it or something else.

The possibilities are endless without leads.

Jessica comes back from the kitchen with two teacups of warm honey tea. She sets it down on the coffee table and sits beside Yuri.

“Yuri...” Jessica softy calls out

The former turns his head slightly and shifts his gaze from the box to the girl beside him. In Jessica’s hand was the second letter, Yuri handed to her earlier.

“I don’t have to read it. I can just be here beside you.” Jessica said as she gives back the letter to Yuri.

Yuri shakes his head “No. I want you to read it with me. If anything, you’re the next person after me who deserves to know the truth. This could change the way you feel about me…so you need to know whatever it is that is in that letter.”

Jessica kept quiet. She wanted to say something but she knows all too well that he could be right. Her feelings might change even though right that moment she felt like it would never happen.

Yuri opens the envelope and to his and Jessica’s surprise, a picture was attached to the letter.

The photo shows a young Yuri with a bright smile alongside another boy who was a bit taller than him. Jessica immediately thought of the name Choa told her.

Jung Taekwoon.

Looking closely at the picture, Jessica also noticed the necklace that the boy beside Yuri was wearing. Without a word, she stood up from their couch and rushed to her room. From her drawers, she grabbed the necklace that was placed inside Yuri’s locker. She sat herself beside Yuri who was still deciphering the picture. Yuri looked at the picture with such an intensity.

“Yuri… the necklace. Look…” Jessica opens up her palm and reveals the necklace.

Yuri looks at it for a second and recognizes the similarity between the necklace the boy beside him was wearing and the one in Jessica’s palm.

“I…don’t…”

“That boy… I think I know his name. Here…” Jessica flips over the necklace and shows the engraved letters behind it. “JTW… Jung Taekwoon. Have you ever heard of that name…?”

Once Yuri heard the name, he looked back at the picture and tried to remember the boy beside him. For a few seconds nothing came up but then something in his mind clicked. A surge of pain spread through his head. It started with mild throbs then it shifted into overdrive. The pain started to go into one direction and settle on one side of Yuri’s head. Different images were starting to flicker in his mind but everything went by too fast to be recognized.

He sets down the letter and the picture on the table. Yuri lies back down on Jessica’s couch, holding his head tightly.

“Yuri! Yuri! What’s wrong? Are you okay?!” Jessica panics and tries to touch Yuri but he backs away and squeezes himself further at the corner of the couch. Yuri made no sound even though he was immensely in pain. The only sound that came from him were his uneven and fast breaths.

Jessica kept her distance and let Yuri deal with what he was feeling. She wanted to help but Yuri refused to even let her touch him. Her heart took a beating that night. It hurt her so much to see Yuri like that and there was nothing she could do.

Yuri kept his silence. He sat right back up and took long and deep breaths. The pain in his head was still there but he chose to pull through it

“I…I’m okay…” Yuri says in a hitched voice. Sweat started to drop from his forehead, down to his neck.

Yuri grabs the letter this time and finally decides to read it.

Dear Yuri,

Do you remember the boy beside you in the picture? That boy was your best friend. You met him the park one day when I took you there. Your friend was a very shy boy. He was your exact opposite but the two of you got along because you both liked to draw.

That boy was older than you and ever since you met him, you went on and on about wanting to have an older brother like him or having a younger one so that you could be like him. You often told me and your father that he was a nice person and that even though he doesn’t say much, he plays with you well.

That boy’s name is Jung Taekwoon.

By the time you read this letter, I don’t expect you to even remember him or even the incident that happened. That man may have already twisted the truth in his favor. Before I tell you everything, I want to apologize again for not being by your side. I have failed as a mother but I was left with no choice, that man never gave me any other choice.

Taekwoon was a good boy but he was slightly different than the others, different from you. He was sick. He had a mental condition that altered what he sees to be reality. Taekwoon continuously received treatment for his condition and that’s why he was able to play and interact with you well.

There was a time when he invited you to their house but on that day, you and your father were supposed to pick me up from the airport so you didn’t go. As fate would have its way, my flight had to be rescheduled because a student of mine lost her passport.

When you got home from the airport, you went straight to Taekwoon’s house. If you remember, it’s quite a travel from our house to theirs but you didn’t take anyone with you that day. You walked all the way to their house alone and on that same day, Taekwoon died.

You were in their house and exactly in the same room where his body was found. From there, the police had suspected that you had shot him with the gun that was found in the room.  

Ever since that incident, you refused to talk at all which made the investigation hard. Your father had to do everything in his power to stop the case from progressing, mainly because he was trying to protect our family and as well as my past. If your involvement with the case had been revealed, it would be a catalyst for the media to dig around our family and especially my background.

It took me a few days to get back to Seoul but once I got home from Jeju, your father told me everything that happened, including the fact that my friend who was a doctor was offering to help you deal with your trauma but it wasn’t just that. Eventually, I found out that your father had also agreed on allowing that doctor-friend of mine to use unorthodox ways to treat you. In short, he was gonna make you forget everything about the incident. Your father agreed only because he was blinded. He was blinded by his fears of the possibility that you may have actually shot Taekwoon. I hope you can forgive your father. It wasn’t his fault that he gave into his fears. Someone put him in that direction.

I didn’t want you to get treated in that way. I believed that you didn’t do it and so I tried everything to make you talk to me about what happened in that house but I failed. You never said a word. Like your father, I became weak and gave in. I gave my consent to get you treated.

Your father arranged everything. On the official case files, you were only listed as a witness to Taekwoon’s suicide. What your father couldn’t control was the court mandating you for a psychological evaluation. I didn’t know then but my doctor-friend was able to get your case and make himself your resident psychiatrist which made things easier for him to get in touch with you without it looking like you were seeing him for unofficial reasons.

Several days passed and you already had started your sessions with that doctor. One day, I found myself wandering in your room. I found most of your toys and books untouched, mainly because you lost interest in everything. I sat on your bed that day and accidentally found your drawing notebook which you kept under your pillow. I haven’t seen you draw ever since the incident so I decided to look back at the old ones you drew.

As I flipped through it I saw a lot of pages that were crossed out. It seemed like you were trying to draw something but couldn’t get it right. At the very last page of your drawing notebook, you drew something that you shouldn’t have seen.

You had a drawing of a very special mask. It was special because I was the one who designed it.

I was confused as to why you would have a drawing of that mask because it was impossible for you to have seen it. I didn’t have the mask then and I kept on trying to think where you could’ve seen it but came up with nothing. When you got home that day from your session with that doctor, I took you out of the house and to the park nearby to ask you about that drawing. I remember you looking so afraid that day but then eventually you gave in.

You told me that there was another person in the room besides you and Taekwoon, on the day of the incident. You didn’t get to see the other person quite clearly because it was a bit dark in the room and the other person you mentioned was wearing the mask.

The masked person stood behind Taekwoon and eventually gave him the gun. You got so scared that you didn’t dare to move. The masked person kept whispering in Taekwoon’s ear then suddenly he pointed the gun at you. He told Taekwoon to shoot you several times and when you thought he was about to pull the trigger, he retracted his aim and shot himself instead. My heart broke into a million pieces, hearing you tell me that story.

To be honest, I didn’t want to believe you at first but then everything came back to me. I remembered who I gave the mask to and that person is the same person I entrusted you to…

It was my friend, the doctor… The person who had been treating you for several days already, Doctor Kim Dohan. I gave him that mask as a gift because he grew fond of it when he came to my play back in college. Everything didn’t make sense to me then because I didn’t want to believe that my friend would be the one behind the incident.

My greatest mistake was giving him the benefit of the doubt. I should’ve believed in you when you said that you saw that mask the night of the incident. After you told me the truth of that night, I did my investigation but found no connection between Taekwoon and Dohan.

I was so confused, I really was because each time you came from your sessions with Dohan, you’d seem a little bit better than yesterday. You were able to talk again bit by bit but I knew I should confront Dohan about what I know and so I did. I had no proof of what he did but as a counter measure I made sure to invite him somewhere that would be far away from you and our family.

I confronted him with what I knew so far. Without showing any signs of guilt, he admitted everything. He was the masked person you saw. He was the one who made Taekwoon invite you to their house and he was also the one who made Taekwoon point the gun at you.

He never told me his reasons. When he confessed everything to me, I thought I had won but I was dead wrong. He had the upper hand. It turns out he wanted me to find out and was waiting for me to confront him. He left me with a disc and told me to watch it before I decide to say anything to anyone about what I know.

I did what he told me and watched the contents of the disc. It was a video… A video of you openly admitting that you were the one who killed Taekwoon. The video was taken inside in his office. I didn’t know why you would say those words but I suspected that you weren’t yourself then. He must’ve done something to you. Somehow, he was able to unknowingly make you say those words but the video wasn’t all he had. He knew about my past and the unspoken mistake of your father. I wasn’t afraid of people shunning me away because of my past but I was afraid that people would do that to you. I was also afraid of others finding out about your father’s secret, something that I would prefer to tell you in person when the right time comes.

So I decided to play by his rules and asked what he wanted in return to make sure the video and everything else would only stay between us and there he asked me something he knew I would be willing to do because our family was everything to me…He asked me to leave you, leave our family but it wasn’t exactly just disappearing from your lives.

Dohan wanted me to kill myself for his own amusement.

I had no assurance that he wouldn’t release the video after I did what he wanted but he only gave me a week to decide. During that time, I was at my wits end. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t consider doing it because I can’t begin to imagine the life you would have if the everything gets out but at the same time I didn’t want to leave our family just like that so I had to take risks.

After 3 days, I left for Jeju. I prepared a letter that was set to be sent to your father a week later. I wrote him a letter telling him how I sorry I am for doing what I was about to do however I spared the details about Dohan and you. All because I thought that would be for the best.

I arranged to meet Dohan in a small house that was at the secluded part of the island. I had bought this house without your father’s knowledge. I planned to burn the house down with me inside it and truthfully, I had hoped that I would take Dohan with me that day but it didn’t go as planned. He was able to escape from the fire while I stayed to meet my end.

I don’t remember much after the fire had started but when I came to, I was in another place. A local diver was able to pull me out from the fire just in time before the whole house broke down. Luckily the local didn’t know who I was or had any idea about anything outside the island.

I knew that if I didn’t do anything Dohan would eventually find out that I was still alive so I had to set up a trap. I had made a fake burned body with traces of me on it. In the letter I left your father, I made sure to tell him to make my funeral go by as quietly as possible. All the details of my “suicide” was in the letter. All your father had  to do was believe it and do my requests.

My “death” received little to none media coverage and that was exactly what I needed. I needed to be erased from this world quietly so that I could go about planning on how to get our family together and to make sure that Dohan would pay for his crimes.

Spending time away from our family made me realize how lucky I was to have you and your father but I also realized how much of a burden, I really was. Each day that came was also a chance for my past to get revealed. Even though I knew your father had connections, somehow I still felt that my past would eventually catch up to us and ultimately ruin us, ruin you. That is why I put this box together.

I wanted you to eventually come and find me. I knew that there was a chance that, that day would never come because for all I know Dohan could’ve done something to make you forget me but I believed in you. It is selfish to put all this on you but I didn’t know what else to do. I wanted to keep my movement to a minimum to make sure that Dohan does not find out that I am still alive and even your father. Your father is a great man but just as man is, he also makes mistakes. For once I wanted to be the one to protect your father and that’s why I couldn’t tell him any of this.

This is the truth, Yuri. Anything Dohan has told you is a lie. I want you to fight through the hold he has on you. Remember what I said…

You are your own person, Yuri and no one else’s.

When you’re ready, please come and find me, my son.

I love you and just like I said before, I’ll be waiting for you. 

--

Welcome to all the new readers! 

I would like to know about what you thought about this chapter! It's a pretty heavy one lol with all the revelations! 

Thank you for all the support! We're almost at 300 subscribers! Thank you again everyone!

Till the next chapter!

Peace!

-ymllama