Gaelin pressed her hands to the side and tried to use the walls of the deep hole to push herself up.  He had left her, that fool had left her out here because she had rejected him. The rain was mixing with the soil and rising up. There was something solid beneath her and splashing around at the bottom of the whole she brought up a shoe. What the hell was going on, this was the other half of the missing shoe that was found yesterday. It was her shoe. Could this be where she had ended up that night? 

"That night," Gaelin looked up. Woo Minjae crouched at the hole, "That night I was running from Hoseok and I saw them taking her away. They placed her in this same hole. I guess the judges knew it too." 

"You knew all this time and said nothing?"

"I didn't stay long enough to see what happened in the end. I continued to run, I was afraid that Hosoek would finally let out his anger on me that night. You saved me Gaelin from him." 

"Because I didn't think you deserved to die but I was wrong. Oppa you have done some terrible things. Why didn't you tell us what you saw? How could you keep it a secret all these years?"

"Because I was protecting the Consortium. Nothing was more important to me than all of you. I had a dream that we would remain friends forever, that you would marry me and that Soo-hyuk, Yoongi and Hosoek would remain close by. I imagined our children and spending our lives together. That girl didn't feature in those plans. She was not Consortium material." 

"So you told Hoseok's father, didn't you? It was the Chairman who had the girl taken away. Those men we saw that night, were not robbers attacking the compound. They were just there to take her away." 

Minjae smiled ruefully,  "I too figured out what happened a while back. Then Soo-hyuk betrayed me and you followed him, I knew that Hosoek didn't' deserve the truth. I watched him suffer all these years. Having to marry Sarang,  but always thinking about her and wondering why his father can't be in the same room as him. I have known those answers but I held it in because Hoseok turned his back on me." 

"Oppa..."

"Yoongi ssi always the calm one. Taking responsibility for everyone's actions. Always alone and incapable of finding someone to love him. I was the one who told the Consortium about his girl at the little restaurant. Another outsider thinking they could enter our world? I wouldn't have it happen again. I wanted to stop it before something like this happened again."

Minjae stared down at her, "The only one who didn't suffer for his sins was Soo-hyuk. Beloved by all from the moment he took his first breath. They all whispered about what a beautiful baby he was. As he grew, I doted on him too. He was talented and gifted. Everything he tried he succeeded in. Anything he wanted, seemed to just come to him. Even when my own parents gossiped about how they wished I was more like Soo-hyuk, how he was probably going to be the next holder of the Golden Quill. I still loved him." 

Gaelin saw that he was crying and she grew quiet and stood still. He was finally confessing what was deep in his heart. All the hate and hurt was coming out. 

"I didn't once have any doubts about him. I would have given him anything, but not you. He knew how I felt. That is what no one knows. He listened to me confess my love for you over the years. Plan our future. Design the perfect ring for you. He was there when I picked ou