제47회 

"What?"

She repeated her words albeit the burning fire in his eyes. Yuri had no means to surrender, not this time. "You heard me." Even when her lips are quivering, she choses to continue. "Jiyong's gone. He's no longer here so stop comparing me to a dead person."

Her feet nearly lose balance when President Kwon's hand landed on her right cheek. The sting from was unbearably painful and for a brief moment it made her dizzy. While she managed to hold back tears, the old man too apparently had reached his limit of patience. "H-how dare you..."

Her gaze landed on the portrait hung in the living room, featuring her, Jiyong and their parents.

"I'm sick of you always looking at Jiyong. I'm your child too!"

"Kwon Yuri!"

I'm sorry. The blame was never on Jiyong. She had no intention to use his name as a defense. Despite the circumstances, Jiyong was once her brother.

A father hopes for his son to continue the family's legacy. A daughter will someday marry into another home thus her place was always entitled with insignificance. While Jiyong lived with privileges as the heir to Kwon family, Yuri was the family member who always got left behind.

"Yes, I am Kwon Yuri. I am now the heir to this family and the only child you have left. Are you aware of that?"

Her voice resonates within the large space, filling the room with pure frustation. The maids became their only audience. They were undoubtedly terrified of the drama unfold, although the family feud has been going on forever thus their involvement were nothing new.

"It was you," His face darkened. Eventually, fighting fire with fire became his last resort; a method of condemnation he used all these years. "He would still be alive if you didn't ask him to take you to that Howon boy. You killed him."

This means she’s defying her father. Defiance is the opposite of obedience but looking from their point of view the factor sounded more irrelevant by her judgment. She had lived years of endurance with her father reminding her every single day of inabilities and also being blamed for her brother’s death. Jiyong died; the fact became his weapon.

Today was the last straw.

"If that's you want to believe, fine then. I killed him. But do remember, we both know what really happened that day." Having said those words, she walks out of the room with a brand new feeling. It was something she should’ve done a long time. Jiyong was right.

Revenge is not sweet, confrontation is. She knows that now.

= = = = = = =

Dealing with the truth is never easy. Yejin might have a thought that her skills of listening to other people’s problems does not come in handy in this conversation.

Yejin was right. Matters of heart turned her into a wreck herself.

Seolhee has a method of her own in comforting people. Sometimes it was not words that are needed. The pain from her stitches does not become a hindrance when she embraces her one and only best friend. “I know skinship between girls isn’t your thing but-“

“I know.” Yejin reciprocates her gestures, fascinated by the soothing effects that came with it. It is similar to how she felt in Hoya’s arms, during the time he rescued her, and it gave her security whereas Seolhee has her way delivering warmth as a shoulder to lean on- Whoa! That's going off the topic. Back to the real deal, please! “I feel so much better. Thanks.”

“You cried because you knew you look pretty even when you’re crying, didn’t you?”

Wow. I never expected that coming out of this friend of mine. Oh, well. “It’s better than you saying I look ugly when I cry.” She wiped the remaining tears, expecting the inevitable appearance of puffy eyes very soon. Yejin let out another sigh, a deep one, releasing whatever she has left inside her chest. “This is so unlike me. Honestly, all these drama doesn’t suit me.”

This is your drama, Seol. You’re the leading lady, not me. “Why not?” Despite being rhetorical, Seolhee questioned anyway.

In years of our friendship, Seolhee’s the prettier one. She’s the girl everybody falls in love with. Numerous guys wanted to be with her, they still do. She would’ve beat Seolhyun and Suzy if she wanted to. Yes, she can.

For Seolhee, she had a different take on Yejin. Discomfort from the stitches no longer bothers her, she adapted to her current condition. Her priority is to restore Yejin to her old self by reminding who she really was. “Remember when we first met? I had no guts to talk to anyone and then you came along.”

She recalled the day Yejin introduced herself in class. She remembers the young girl who showed a bright smile at her introduction, noticing a timid girl sitting in the corner and then smiled at the girl.

It changed the girl’s life from there. Yejin changed her life.

“Look, you’re full of wits; a talented artist, even your cuteness is irresistible. Ask anyone." If that does not suffice, she got three guys falling for her at the same time. Adding one more to the list would be expected at this point. Yejin herself is in the middle of processing her words, some might be true except the irresistible part. "Do you know how I came to like sunflowers?"

Yejin was unsure of how to answer the question. As far as she knows, Seolhee always had images of sunflowers around her; sunflower hair pins, sunflower printed notebooks, even sunflowers saved as her phone wallpaper et cetera. "Because they're pretty?" She came up with a simple answer but then Seolhee shook her head. The latter had something else in mind.

She took the paper bag sitting on the side table, finally pointing to the printed logo of Cafe Bloom where she reveals her answer, "It's