\\\\\

The shock in Hayoung’s eyes was satisfaction to Namjoo’s injured core. Keeping her eyes from straying to the surrounding audience Namjoo started down the aisle, making sure to keep Hayoung’s gaze.

If it was going to be like this, she wouldn’t be taken down easily. Not in Choonhee’s name. The apparent threat in Hayoung’s eyes drove her to keep going.

In no time she had already climbed up the short flight of stairs to the platform. One last stare at Hayoung and she turned to face the speech table, ignoring the girl she’d pushed to the side. Pulling on the most confident and sly smile she could summon she greeted the press.

“Good morning,” Namjoo started, “I am Lee Choonhee.”

Cameras clicked and flashed, a mutter travelled around the room in a wave. For once, Namjoo ignored it all. She was going to do what she had been set out and told to do. And she would damn hell complete her job.

“I’m afraid there must be a misunderstanding,” Namjoo went on. “I will start from the very beginning. From the time I was born I was adopted at Namsanwon by Lee Eungi and Lee Kwan, my father and mother. I have lived and have been raised by them from then on. In the entirety of my life I have been aware of this fact, that I was adopted.”

She made sure to look over the crowd and continued. “A recent while ago I became curious and went back to Namsanwon to trace my origins. In fact, many adopted children remain curious about their biological parents. That is where I discovered I have a twin sister who is known by Kim Namjoo, who I met recently. Someone anonymously sent my parents information regarding my twin who wishes to keep her life private and out of the public eye. Due to this nuisance, she is extremely worried about being harassed by unneeded and unwanted attention.” 

Someone their hand up, “How do we know you’re not lying? You said you’re twins.”

“Yes, I did,” Namjoo confidently answered. “What I’m about to say will sound like nonsense, but these have been my private affairs. I can prove to you I am Lee Choonhee. If you wish to investigate further more to verify my truth, you can question Oh Sehun, whom I recently dated.”

She felt Hayoung’s eyes burn into her, but blatantly ignored her.

Gently clenching her teeth together to ready herself she held onto the speech table and continued rolling. “Oh Sehun approached me with ulterior motives, which I came to realize later on in our relationship. He did not love me, but my money. His father’s ambitions drove him far enough to try and use me to improve his wealth. In this time of distraught, I was comforted by my friend, Kai, who gave me the strength to leave the relationship. Because I love him.”

She purposely glanced at him to find him staring, his expression strong yet blank. At the back of her head recalled thinking of him as a onetime fling and nothing more. It was true.

Breaking off eye contact she went on. “I have known many people approach me because of my money, but I have been kind enough to forgive them. I do not wish for any of these problems to be mentioned in the future, as I would like for my sister, Kim Namjoo, to live quietly and happily. And from now on, I would like to take matters into my own hands. In regards to this upcoming wedding everyone has been talking about, I would like to give my voice. I will not be ignored in talks about my own wedding, which I would like to delay. I am not ready and would still like to learn more about the company. This is what I, Lee Choonhee, have to say. I am sorry for any inconvenience I, my family, and my friend,” she purposely glanced at Hayoung then turned to the front, “have caused you this early morning. Thank you.”

Without anymore word she gave a bow and exited the stage. As she walked out of the building her heart pounded superbly fast and she nearly hyperventilated when she stopped outside the front doors. Seeing all the cameras and investigators had frightened her mad. She didn’t believe she did what she just did, but she felt proud and relieved.

An unready gasp extorted from her lips when she was whipped around and abruptly dragged along. “What…” she recognized Kai’s back and began tugging herself back. “What are you doing?!”

In just a moment she found herself tossed into the passenger seat and the second he slid into the driver’s seat they were off. Namjoo pulled her seatbelt over her and clutched onto it all the while trying to calm her racing mind. Being Choonhee was so tiring.

“Where are we going?” she asked after finally managing to muster up some courage.

Kai ignored her, his silence being her reply. Biting down on her teeth she turned to stare out the window and watched as they pulled up to a towering hotel building. Realizing the situation she was in she began panicking and as she opened the door, nearly fell out. Without wasting a second Kai grabbed her hand and lugged her after him.

“No…wait…not this…Kai…no,” she begged, lowering her head whenever a man or woman walked by. Within a second’s span of time they were at the front desk and embarrassed, Namjoo hid behind him so as not to show her face. Then she was pulled along again into the elevator, this time.

To her luck they were stuck in the lift with another couple who gave her chills. Keeping her face out of sight she darted her eyes around, void of a solution to the situation. Once the doors opened to the eleventh floor Kai pulled her after him, the strength in his bare hand menacing. Namjoo barely tripped after him as they made it to room 1112 and he worked to unlock the door.

Her heart pounded insanely inside her heart with what he was going to do with her. Surely, he wasn’t like what she feared? Namjoo silently prayed as he closed the door after them and tucked the key into his pocket.

Letting go of her Namjoo quickly backed up, simultaneously glancing behind her and to him. “W…wait…I have a disease you know. You really don’t want to do this…” when she plopped onto her on the bed Namjoo immediately screamed when he grabbed her hand. On instinct she curled her fingers up and struggled with him.

“Shut up, I said be quiet!” he shouted into her ears.

Drawing her shoulders up she clamped her lips and looked down when she felt a cold object touch her finger. A plain gold ring sat around the tip of her finger. Namjoo shot her eyes back onto his face with her heart jumping.

“No, wait, Kai…” she pleaded and fought to pull her hand back. She quieted when he fiercely tugged her toward him. Her face nearly knocked into his.

“Why? You said you love me.”

Namjoo shook her head, realizing she’d done wrong. “I’m sorry. You know I don’t mean it. I don’t want it. Please don’t make me wear it.”

“No.” he stared her directly into the eyes. “You will wear it.”

The poor muscles in her fingers were wearing out, threatening to cramp if she further resisted him. Her insides whimpered and she let out a short cry. Then she shamelessly clutched onto his arm and buried her head into his shoulder, “Please, I beg you. Don’t do this to me. I’m…I’m not Choonhee.”

Something inside her broke when Kai managed to slide the ring onto her finger at last and she pulled back to glance at him. The cold glaze in his eyes made her feel even less than an ant. Getting up he walked over to the window to look beyond the city while her eyes drifted back to the ring sitting magnificently around her finger. Namjoo had never felt so unloved before.

\\\\\

When Sehun drove into the bend toward his house a stream of investigators standing on his yard like nosey reporters floated toward him. He was bewildered by how many surrounded him the instant he stepped out of his car, unable to understand what was happening.

“Oh Sehun?” one of them asked.

“Yes?”

“Lee Choonhee said you used her for your relationship,” the scruffy man said, “is she telling the truth? Or is it a lie?”

“We need to verify the truth.” Another said. “Lee Choonhee showed up at today’s press conference. Are you aware of that?”

Another tape recorder shoved ruthlessly into his face, “Why weren’t you there? Were you aware she was going to sell you out?”

“Is she telling the truth?” the questions continued rolling. 

Sehun’s eyes locked onto the reporters swarming around him like bees, an unimaginable feeling washing through him. Just last night he’d warmly hugged Namjoo to sleep. In one night he had felt all the affection and love in the world for her and in the flash of an eye, betrayal.

“Oh Sehun?” their voices now were a distant echo to his ears.

\\\\\

“Why aren’t you eating?” Kai questioned from the other end of the table.

Breakfast had been ordered to their room. Plates of fried eggs, pancakes topped with butter, and muffins sat on the table before her. Namjoo, shockingly, hadn’t touched a bite of her food while Kai deliciously dug into his plate without a worry. The ring now warm against her skin was like an arrow to her heart.

Somehow, for some reason it didn’t make her feel so good.

Looking up at him she asked, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“You said you love me.”

“You know that’s not true. Everything I said was a lie.”

She watched him chew on his food, grab his ice cold water, chug it down, and set it back onto the table. The closer she got to him, the less she understood him. Then setting his hands onto his lap he finally looked at her.

“Why? Am I not good enough for you?” he asked. Namjoo stared back, unamused.

“Is it because I know what you did,” Namjoo finally said. “That’s no reason to be afraid of me. I can’t jail you for not wanting to raise your own child.”

“Whoever said that?” his voice was the utmost calm. “I’ll tell you something, Namjoo. This world is the cruelest. A lot of things change when you open your eyes. You’ve only just got here, so you don’t understand yet. If you stick with me a little while, you’ll come to realize just what I mean.”

Of course she didn’t understand. All along she hadn’t understood a single thing. Keeping her lips shut she waited a moment then looked back at him.

“Aren’t you curious? Where Choonhee is?” Namjoo asked.

He remained without a word. Not a speck of curiosity resided on his facial expression.

“You…got her pregnant, didn’t you?” she asked again. “If you loved her even a little bit…”

“Again, on what claim are you pushing your own beliefs onto me?” he cut her off. “Don’t be a fool, Namjoo. It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t take a matter of love for two to sleep together. Do you understand?”

“Why are you being so cold?” she asked. “You know what you did. That’s why you’re being like this. Isn’t it? I’m not a fool. I might not have reached your level of education, but I have my intuition.”

He stared directly at her, his eyes hot with impatience.

“I’m asking you again, aren’t you curious about where Choonhee is?” Namjoo asked.

He gave her no reply again.

“What if I tell you that she’s not here anymore?”

Something flickered in his eyes but he refused to let it scatter across his expression. “Did Hayoung tell you that?”

Namjoo’s throat closed up. What did Kai know about her that she didn’t? Did he…had he known all along Hayoung had put her into Choonhee’s spot? What should she do?

“You believed her? That’s exactly why you’re a fool.” Kai stated.

Namjoo felt insulted but didn’t know what to say.

“Even if you’re telling the truth, I’ll find out later.”

“Later?” Namjoo repeated. “How can you wait until later? She loved you! She was carrying your child! Even if it wasn’t to that extent, you can’t lie to yourself forever that she was nothing to you.”

“I’m warning you,” he told, “don’t put words into my mouth I didn’t say myself. The matter doesn’t concern you.”

“Doesn’t concern me?!” Namjoo couldn’t help but raise her voice. “Choonhee was my sister! You might not know it, but I’ve met her before.”

“I won’t tell you again,” he said, his voice deep with a pit full of caution, “you don’t have time to care for others right now, even your dead sister.”

Namjoo was appalled by how he could even say that. How coldblooded was he?

“Today might not have worked the way Hayoung wanted it to, but it doesn’t mean she’ll give up. It doesn’t take an idiot to see that you’re of no use to her anymore. So either you keep being a fool or you come to my side,” he explained. “Why don’t you think about yourself first?”

\\\\\

Lee Kwan along with his wife carefully trotted to the car, careful to avoid curious prying eyes. They were more than prepared to head to their quiet sanctuary for some quiet and peace after the press conference failed to continue. As a father he was at an utter loss, but he could not show it. Shaking his wife further more would only make it worse in public and he could not yet open his mouth.

He was both devastated and frustrated. The company was hanging on a line right now as well as the relationship with the reliable Kim’s. He could not lose his fortune, everything he’d worked so hard for all because of some imposter and his missing child. Without Choonhee as a chip, the merge would not work for them. The trusted relationship between them and the Kim’s would break. He could not afford to pay millions for violation of a business contract.

“Sir,” Hayoung followed along, “I can still…”

“No, not right now.” He waved her off, opened the car door for his wife and let her into the car. “I want to be alone. I will call you if I need you.” Which really meant I won’t need you for a while.

“Yes,” downtrodden she bowed and watched him get into the car before it drove off. Once they were away from the nosey secretary Lee Kwan turned to his petite wife.

“I have a plan and I’m going to need you to listen, honey.”

\\\\\

Locked away into the silence of his room Sehun slumped into his chair with his face buried into his hands. He was at a great loss, experiencing both the emotions of being crushed and disappointment in a depth he never felt before.

“Yes,” he said, “everything Choonhee said about me is the truth.”

Sehun never imagined there would come a time in his life in which he’d lie for anyone at the expense of his father’s ambition, but he had. For Namjoo…to protect her…even if she had done it for selfish reasons.

The door swung open and the heavy footsteps he recognized as his father’s entered his dark room. The lights flickered on and the door shut. Sehun assured himself it would only get worse before it got better. Lifting his head up he found the broad man staring down at him with fire in his eyes.

“You…what exactly did you do?” he questioned.

Sehun had two options. He could either smart his way around the situation or give up once and for all, but giving up meant one thing – being unable to pursue Namjoo as fake Choonhee. He still needed an excuse to enter the company and linger around her, save her from the marriage with Kai; from the doom of Choonhee’s unhappy life.

Rising to his feet he stared at his tall father, the two of them shared the same height. “I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

He was tugged forward by the snatching of his shirt. “Do you know what they’re going to think about me now?! My reputation! Your mother! You deliberately gave me away for a woman?!”

“Father,” Sehun grabbed onto his father’s hand and eased it off him, “it’s true you wanted Choonhee too.”

The man’s face constricted with flashes of anger and frustration at both the truth and lie.

“You act like it’s good we’re still in relation with her, but in fact you’re very much like mother,” Sehun pointed out courageously for the first time. “You want Choonhee in the family, so you continuously pushed me toward the family of conglomerates. Father, you are just like them! And you made me just like you! Greedy for power and money. How much is going to be enough?

“We already have more than most ordinary families out there! Mother has enough clothes that can’t even fill up her closet anymore! Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing in life! Do I live for myself or do I live as you? Today, if I hadn’t spoken up do you know what might have happened to the Choonhee both you and mother wanted? She was going to be kicked out of her home and sought after like a criminal! So I did the only thing I could!

“And I realized today, I don’t want to live as the younger you. This is my life, so I wish you’d leave me alone. I’ll still hold my position at the company and I’ll still make an income for you.  That should be enough, right?”

And for them to leave Choonhee alone. For the first time in his life he stood face to face with his father, refusing to step down from his ground. He had marked a line for Choonhee, but Choonhee was not Namjoo. Now he needed a leverage to make her his despite the odds.

As he stared at his father he recalled his grandfather had refused to let him be born out of wedlock, thus his parents had been pressured to tie the knot. What if Namjoo was pregnant with his baby? 

***Best lies Namjoo has told yet! She wove her own story from all she gathered so far and even sold Sehun out in the process, proves she can be cunning like them. But now Hayoung's not the only one threatening her, Kai also holds a rope around her neck, if you think about it though, he's actually helping her in a way by keeping her out of Hayoung's reach. Everyone's motives are slowly changing.