Chapter 3: More Reasons

Narrator POV

“I think you should go back inside Miss,” she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder.

“L.Joe isn’t here, you can just drop the formalities and call me Inna Chunji,” she spoke as she walked away from the door, “Just how many time do I have to tell you that? It’s been five years.”  

The butler closed the door and chuckled, he was a few years older than Inna and was one of the older servants who had moved all the way from Korea to America with them. But to Inna, he was someone who she could have heart-to-heart conversations with, he was close to her age and since L.Joe never seemed to be around during the day, it was Chunji who had kept her company. Overtime, the two had developed a tightly bonded friendship but of course, in front of L.Joe and others, they had to keep up the act.

Inna went into the kitchen and stared out the window longingly, “It’s almost summer, wouldn’t it be nice to visit the beach?”

“Maybe you can convince young master to take you to the beach when Master Lee visits,” Chunji suggested.

“I thought butlers aren’t supposed to eavesdrop on their master’s conversations?” Inna smirked and pretended to get mad.

Chunji just shrugged as he continued to make Inna’s favourite mint chocolate chip milkshake.

“And besides,” Inna let out an inaudible half snort half choking noise, “You know what he’ll do if I did that…”

Chunji placed the cup gently in front of her as the young girl kept on staring out of the window. L.Joe had forbid her to go outside, at first she found it ridiculous and completely ignored it… Well she got her punishment, and once was more than enough. The house had wired CCTV cameras and made it impossible for Inna to sneak away, although once in a while Chunji would hack into the system and let her out to breathe some fresh air, it was never over thirty minutes.

“Chunji,” Inna suddenly turned to the butler and asked the one question he could not, would not answer, “Why does L.Joe hate me so much?”

*                                  *                                  *

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“What do you mean?”

“Five years… five years Top, and not a single thing has changed.”

“How do you know that?”

“I saw L.Joe flirting this morning, and don’t act like you didn’t see the new scars on her this morning.”

“…”

“You said that she would be safe under the Lee household!”  

“Would you have rather watch her body rot in Busan then?”

“You…”

“So what do you want me to do then?”

“Get her out of there.”

“You know that is impossible. Stop being so naïve.”

“Me?! Naïve?! I’m trying to save someone here!”

“Don’t worry she won’t die under him.”

“But she’s not exactly living either! I can’t take it, seeing her like this everyday, getting hurt over and over again.”

“So you start feeling guilty now huh?”

Her eyes dimmed, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means what it means.”

“Five years Top… and you haven’t changed a single bit.”

“I told you to stop calling me that,” the male resisted the urge to growl at her.

“Oh right I forgot it’s Seunghyun now…” she let out a hysterical laugh, “You can change your name as many time as you want, but it will never change your past, Whether it is Choi Seunghyun or Top, I only see the man who killed my sister, the man who wrecked my life. That won’t ever change.”

“