Three
Remnants Of The Heart
*banner by nabi_chi
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He stood still, not moving. He heard her gasp, followed by what seemed to be the sound of a labored or surprised breathing. He slowly opened his eyes and lowered his arm holding the gun. He took a deep breath first before turning around. And she was there. His eyes immediately went to her forehead – no wound or anything. The girl had her head bowed while her hand was resting near her shoulders. His eyes then darted towards the direction of her left shoulder and saw that her shirt was stained and wet – with blood. She was bleeding.
He looked down at his hand holding the gun and felt a bit disappointed for missing his target. Never had he missed his targets before, never. But why did he miss it this time? He looked up at the girl again and saw her looking back at him. He cocked his head to the side upon seeing some traces of blood in her face that he didn’t notice a while ago. In that instant, an image of a bleeding and dying swan suddenly appeared in his mind. He could see it inside his head – an image of a swan lying at the riverside with its whiteness stained with red. The image, for some reason made him smile a little – he had always found white and red an odd combination. But nevertheless, it was pleasing to the eyes.
He then slowly lifted his eyes from her face to her eyes. She was looking back at him. And what he saw in her eyes made him pause. There was pain and fear in her eyes, he already expected those. But what made him pause, what caught his attention was the look of utter disbelief in her eyes. If her eyes could speak, it could have said to him: I can’t believe you really did that.
Everyone back in his hometown thinks he’s a stubborn, bully and a pain-in-the- kid. Even his playmates and classmates think so. He was pretty used to it already. He never really had considered anyone as areal friend as well. Some, he thought, just wanted to be around him because most of the kids were afraid of him, some just wanted to do some bullying as well. If there were two kids before that were not scared of him, he would have to say Seunghyun and Sandara. Well, Seunghyun’s not afraid of him, that’s for sure. As for Sandara, he was not really sure. Yes, she did try to tell him off everytime he’s bullying someone but she would always end up crying and running to Seunghyun. But there was something weird with the way Sandara thinks before. He could just remember how everytime he’s going to mock-ask her to play with her, she would always say yes, which was weird. He had already asked her several times to play with him but he was just actually planning to bully her and scare her. But she never said no to any of his invitations even if she knew she’d just end up crying again. At that time, he really thought she was the stupidest thing that ever walked on earth. He even compared her to a cockroach for stupidity!
But looking at her with her eyes wide opened in disbelief made him think that Sandara Park didn’t see him as that bad after all.
For some reason, he just felt himself dropping the gun to the floor and running towards her. Without saying a word, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the basement to his room. He immediately headed towards the direction of the bathroom and placed her on a bathtub. He sprinted out of the room and came back seconds later with a handful of things in his arms.
With nothing but silence, he tore off her shirt and threw it aside. He pushed the straps of her bra off of her shoulder and went to inspect her gunshot wound on her left shoulder. He was about to start working on her wound when he heard her whimper and sob. He looked down at her face and saw her eyes closed while biting her lips down. He couldn’t help but smirk. She still had the same look when she’s crying, especially the way turns downward in a grimace.
“Still a crybaby, huh?” he commented as he went to draw out the bullet out of her. She whimpered again and clutched his shirt tightly.
“It hurts,” she sobbed.
He sighed and reached out for something on the floor. He uncorked it and took a sip first before handing it to her. “Here, drink some of this.”
With her eyes closed, she just shook her head. Her tears, freely streaming down her now blood-stained free face as it was washed away with her tears.
“You have to,” he said. “It’ll lessen the pain a little bit.”
Despite herself, she opened her eyes and looked at the bottle he’s holding. With her free hand, she started reaching out for it but her hand was shaking too much that Jiyong just decided to hold the bottle and let her drink from it.
“I don’t really drink alcohol,” she managed to say after taking a mouthful of it.
“I don’t really care,” he answered.
-o=o=o-
Teddy was on the phone, talking to his friend. The others were gathered around the table, all wearing the same look of a mixture of disbelief and blankness on their faces.
“What just happened?” CL asked.
No one answered.
Unable to contain himself just sitting down, Seunghyun stood up, grabbed his jacket and was about to leave when his friends stopped him. “Where are you going?”
“I have to find her,” he said.
“Seunghyun, I think we should plan –”
“That girl is my friend,” he snapped. “It’s bad enough that I kidnapped her. But whoever took her, I can’t tell if she’ll be safe or not. I don’t know if whoever that person is will be gentle enough to her, or become cruel to her or . . . damn it!”
“I think you’re being reckless,” Teddy interfered, who looked like he’s done talking with his friend. “How will you find her in the first place? Do you know where to look for her? No, right? We need to think of things first.”
“Think?!” Seunghyun exclaimed. “What if something already –”
“It’s useless to go searching for her if you don’t even know where to look for her as well.”
Seunghyun wanted to argue but he knew Teddy got a point. But he just couldn’t stay still thinking that Dara could be in danger. He’s not coming clean or anything. He never intended to hurt her anyways; he just needed the money that’ll be given to them. That’s just it.
He covered his face with his hands, feeling as if he’s going insane. “Tell me, what are we supposed to do now?”
“We have to meet with Dongwook,” Teddy said.
“Will he be able to help us?” Seunghyun sarcastically asked.
“Technically, no,” Teddy answered. “We still have to do the action, of course. But he might have some information that might help us.”
“Let’s go, then.”
-o=o=o-
The light from the full moon was streaming through the glass door that leads to the balcony. Topless and only wearing a short, Jiyong lay flatly on his back, sleeping. A shadow then hovered above him, blocking the beam coming from the moonlight. The type of job he has made his senses more alert compared to a normal person. But as much as he knew that he should be on guard and on alert, his instinct somehow tell him that there’s just a lion cub trying to be a full grown lion hovering above him. Still, a shadow is still a shadow. He then opened his eyes and saw Sandara Park standing beside his bed with his gun on her free hand. She was staring down at him with what seemed to look like hatred and determination. He pushed himself in a sitting position, making the gun point to his forehead. He leaned forward and let the tip of the gun touch his forehead. “Do it,” he said.
“You shouldn’t be asking of things like that,” she warned. “I might just give you what you need.”
“Do it,” he urged her again.
“I will,” she said. “But I just wanted to ask who hired you to kill me?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he said. “I don’t even know that myself.”
“Aren’t you even going to do or say anything to save yourself?”
“No.”
“Fine,” she said.
Seconds ticked by but she just remained on her spot, pointing a loaded gun at his forehead. With this, Jiyong stood up, lifted his hand and pulled the tip of the gun to his heart. “Do it,” he whispered.
“I will do it,” she answered.
“Do it now,” he said, marching forward while the girl was stepping back. She jumped a little as she was cornered in a wall. “Do it.”
She was determined enough to do it but then, she remained motionless. Jiyong then smirked again. He lifted his hand and inserted his pinky together with her finger on the trigger. “What are you doing?” she asked with wide eyes.
“I’m going to pull the trigger myself,” he said. “To tell you the truth, my blood is not worthy to stain your hands.”
“You’re. . .”
“Now before I pull the trigger and die, I want to ask a question,” he said. “I’m really curious.”
“About what?”
“When we were kids, eventhough you knew I’d just bully you and you’d just end up crying, why did you still keep on playing with me everytime I asked you to?”
She didn’t say anything. She had a reason, yes. But she couldn’t tell him. Not now that she’s in a very compromising situation. “I don’t know,” she lied.
He was silent for a moment. But then, he slowly nodded. When she felt his pinky started to move, she suddenly pulled the gun away and threw it to the floor. And then, as much as she didn’t want to, she started crying. It was the oddest thing in the world, but she leaned her head forward and rested her forehead on his chest as she placed her balled fists in her chest and just. . . cried.
“Are you scared of me?” he asked. But even before he could answer, the sound of a car parking made them both look out through the glass sliding doors. Jiyong froze and pulled the girl’s arm at once. Without really thinking of her left shoulder, he pushed her inside his walk-in closet and locked the door. He walked towards the door and was about to check who came in this late when it opened from the outside – it was no other than No Minwoo.
“Hi Jiyong,” he smirked. “Am I right in assuming that you failed again?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Uncle asked me to check on you,” he said, shrugging and letting himself inside the room. “Hmm, been playing with your toy?” he asked, nodding towards the gun on the floor.
“I must’ve dropped it a while ago,” he said and went to pick up the gun.
“Dropped it?” Minwoo echoed. “Since when did you become clumsy?”
Jiyong just shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s really none of your business, is it?” he chuckled and went to place his gun in the safety of his drawer.
“By the way,” Minwoo went on. “I saw some blood-stained things in the garbage, have you been wounded?”
“Trying for a different career path, huh?” Jiyong calmly returned facing the older guy. “I didn’t know you wanted to be a garbage collector. But it totally suits you, so go ahead.”
Minwoo just smiled. “Oh, how silly of me to ask a question when the answer’s pretty obvious,” he then chuckled. He then nodded to Jiyong’s topless state. “You obviously weren’t wounded but the blood-stained articles I saw in the garbage were pretty much for nursing a gunshot wound. So tell me, to who do they belonged to?”
Without waiting for an answer, his eyes swept around the room. He then walked towards the bathroom, only to find it empty. As he went back, his eyes then landed on Jiyong’s walk-in closet. “Hmm,” he thoughtfully murmured and started heading towards it.
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Yay! It seemed that AFF is working. . phail!
NO MINWOO!!
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