Chapter 8: Unloved

Two months later, a day before the wedding.

Naina anxiously paced around her room, worried written all over her otherwise calm face. She intermittently looks out of her window to the decorations in the garden for the wedding as her eyes draws a deeper shade of concern. Immediately, she reverts back to her restless stroll. She looks at the wall clock, its 6.30 in the evening. A heavy layer of dread spread over her heart.

I am running out of time! Otteoke?

Plethora of thoughts playing havoc inside her head, churning her already disturbed mind and pushing her slowly to the edge of breaking down. 
She dropped down on the bed, eyes desperately wondering to break free from this mental turmoil. 

Oh heavens! I have to stop this…But..But how?

She buried her face in her hands, frustration engulfing her slowly. That moment she realised there was no other way but to tell the truth.
Yes, this is the only way out.

Now she knew that she has to do it. It would be little confronting at first but never the less, coming from her would make it a more compelling and credible. The evidences could end it all. They cannot deny the facts.

She quickly picked up her phone and started typing a long text. The message was directed to Kim Hyung Joong. Then, she dialled Sia’s number numerous times to no avail. She picked up her bag and rushed out of her room. She cannot afford to waste anymore time waiting for her to return home. 

Naina reached the banquet hall where the Kim family has thrown a traditional Korean dinner party to mark the initiation of the wedding. She entered the hall and realised she was not appropriately dressed for the evening which gained her few stares from the guests. She quickly strode past them while looking out for Sia. It was a herculean task to locate her friend amidst the sea of people.

There she is..

As Naina was about to call her out, she was tugged on her arms and turned around. She almost staggered on her feet with the sharp pull and crashed against a hard chest. Who she saw lifting her head up, brought a little peace to her troubled mind. 

“Hyun Joong Si!”, she left a sigh of relief “Thank god I found you! I hope you saw my text. But first I have to talk to Sia…” She explained in a sincere voice before turning on her heel to leave only to realise that Hyun Joong did not release his hold.

“Before that…” HJ meticulously glanced across the hall before bringing his eyes back to her as he moved his hold from her arm to her wrist “We have a business to settle”. Naina’s confused face flung back at him. 

As his grip on her wrist got tighter, colour started fading off her face and before anyone noticed, he slipped out of the hall yanking Naina behind him.

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“What are you doing? Let me go!” Naina struggled, twisting her wrist in the guy’s firm grip as he dragged her out of the hall. “What the...” she stumbled as he threw her in a private room secluded from all the commotion of the party, before shutting the door behind him.

Through the crack of the closing door, she saw four bodyguards followed them and line up right outside the room. She felt an unknown apprehension taking over her heart. 

She fought the rising panic and asked in a higher tone “Mr Kim, do you care explaining what’s going on?”

HJ turned his back to her, stripped off his jacket and threw it furiously on the floor. Naina hitched a breath and involuntarily flinched back a step by his actions.

“M..Mr Kim?” She stuttered staring at the piece of cloth chucked on the floor before bringing her gaze back at him. He remained quiet with his back facing her. She could see his muscle stiffening up as he clutched his fingers into a tight fist.

From their very first meet, she has closely observed this man and over the past months she has been able to read his body language enough to understand that this demeanour of his is screaming that something terrible is going to befall. Dread twisted in her gut and she nervously gulped at the thought of it. She supressed her fear and continued “Mr Kim! I need to speak to your sister. Are you listening?” 

Again silence greeted her. The eerie silence of the room was broken by HJ’s fuming breaths, which had Naina hanging at the edge of her perturbation. 

“Kim Hyung Joong! She finally snapped loosing her patience and her filter of honorifics. “I cannot waste my time speaking to a wall. I am leaving!” She sighed in frustration before making a move towards the door.

“You cannot” his authoritative voice stopped her.

She met his unrelenting eyes when he turned and started taking slow steps towards her. “What?” Naina asked flabbergasted. Her voice turned weak and unconsciously she retracted back.

“You cannot leave this room until..” he loosened his necktie while moving dangerously close to her and muttered in a low vicious tone “until I allow it”.

His threatening aura sent shivers down her spine. But the brave girl held onto her strengths.

“You got to be kidding me!” She scoffed “I don’t have time for your games.” She hissed back at him with equal annoyance and turned to leave.

HJ was swift enough to grab her by the arm and ruefully push her against the wall. She winced in pain as her back came thrashing against the hard wall.

“What do you think you are doing?” she yelled at him, outraged by his behaviour. “Don’t you understand how critical the situation is? I need to tell Sia to stop this wedding….”

“ENOUGH!”  HJ’s ballistic roar cut in and she flinched with the sudden outburst. “I have heard enough,,,,, listened enough,,,,,, and seen enough.” He spat through his gritted teeth, which left Naina dumbfounded. Frustration and disdain wrapped in his words.

“So now,,, you listen to me” he warned throwing a deathly glare at her emphasizing each of the last three words.

“This wedding is happening tomorrow morning and nothing is going to stop that” 

Naina’s eye widened, aghast at his statement. “I am,,,I am not following you” She struggled to reason his statement. Her desperate eyes swam across his face for justification. “I told you the whole reason why this wedding should not happen in the first place.” 

She searched for her phone in her pocket “I thought you read my text” and quickly scrolled through the message box, “Look here…here it is…”

“SHUT UP” He snatched the phone from her hand and smashed it on the floor, which had Naina shrieking in terror, gobsmacked. 

The next moment he grasped her cheeks in a painful hold making her wince. “Shut your filthy mouth before I rip it off your face.” He growled, menace dripping from his voice. Naina could do nothing but crumble in pain as his fingers bored into her cheeks. “What is wrong with you? You are hurting me!” She firmly pushed against his hand in a desperate attempt to relief.

“DO NOT talk about hurt when you haven’t left any stone unturned to hurt my family” he spat releasing her in a jerk, which threw her off balance.

“What do you mean?” she asked visibly hurt with his demeaning tone. 

“I am talking about your plan to sabotage Sia’s wedding”

“W,,What?” she murmured in absolute startle, staring at him in disbelief.

“I guess, a couple of months of living with us gave you the taste of comfort and luxury” his voice turned cocky “but it wasn’t enough for,,a leech like you” distaste taking over his words as he let out a dirty chuckle “That’s when you planned to go all the way even if that means going behind your best friend and seducing her fiancé” he finished with a tone of disgust balling his fingers into a fist.

“I,,,I have no idea,,,w,,,what are you….” She struggled to articulate as she felt the world came crashing down around her. Tear moistened her eyes. Her mind couldn’t make sense any more, the hateful words ringing in her ears making her dizzy, disoriented, extremely nauseous. She wanted to throw up.

“Is that your thing?” HJ scoffed in a low dark tone “Going after taken men?”

“STOP IT” Naina yelled. She inhaled sharply as she wiped off her tears “ I am not going to stand here and watch you accuse me wrongly” she hissed pointing her finger at him. “You are disillusioned. On what grounds are you making such claims?” her voice wavered a bit but the words were strong.

HJ looked down at her trembling lanky finger “It doesn’t surprise me at all” he continued his loathly remarks totally unfazed by her. “After all for a girl like you coming from an average family Gong Min Hyung is like a ticket to paradise.”

Her nails dug deep into her skin with the insult she was being exposed to. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and she kept staring at the floor. The accusations of adultery and being called a traitor were too much for her to bear. 

“And to answer your questions, I have ample evidence to prove my claims. Forget evidence, I have seen you in his arms with my own eyes begging him to leave my sister” HJ pointed out with confidence.

Naina battled her tear-glazed eyelids trying to recollect the memory with Gong Min. “But that,,, that was” her words fainted away as reality dawn upon her that the interaction has conveniently been twisted and misinterpreted. She gulped, stepped back and braced the wall for support.

 “Aren’t you proud of your achievements?” He squinted his eyes in repugnance before spatting out “Throwing your body as a temptation to lure rich guys!  Apparently Hyung fell for it. Or may I say…” he paused to measure her top down in contempt and muttered “Hyung fell for the poor troubled damsel you pretended to be.”

“Hyun Joong Si” she weakly called his name lifting her drained eyes “You are misunderstanding something, I never had any such vile intentions.” Her voice choked to supress the intense pain growing inside her. Her contorted face reflected how humiliated she felt. She paused to let the tear roll down her yes. “Sia is like my own sister, my baby, I would never hurt her” Her voice breaking.“ Please trust me, please!”

“Trust,, huh!” He scoffed with a bitter smile, lowered his gaze before bringing his eyes to her again. His expression softened as he stepped closer to her and cupped her face softly. 

“Honestly speaking after knowing you, there came a point where I actually thought you are different.” The sudden warmth of his skin made Naina look at him with lost eyes. Her finger unknowingly found its way over his while he continued, “I was slowly coming to believe that you are apart from the rest, that you are someone I could confide in, I could trust.” 

She was speechless seeing him pouring out his emotions unlike his usual indifferent self. His unfazed gaze fluttered as he muttered “someone who makes me feel warm” making her heart leap a beat higher with each of his words. 

He then lowered his head down to press his forehead against her’s “Naina...after all these years” his voice trembled with a moment of hesitation before continuing “After all these years, I was finally starting to see that light in my life again, my heart...my heart…” he couldn’t finish as he swallowed the lump in his throat. His longing damp eyes gave away the unsaid words. Naina eyes glazed with tears, emotions clogging . 

“But You,,broke my trust”, he sighed closing his eyes as vulnerability and pain overcame his words. “I have seen you in his bloody arms Naina.”

Her heart wrenched and sank coming to face his sincere feelings. Something deep inside her wanted to hug him tightly and take away all this pain. She pressed her eyes tight to let the pool of tears flow down. 

A moment of silence followed which was quickly interrupted by HJ

“So,,,You…” he shot open his eyes detaching their foreheads “ You are no different”. His eyes fiery red turning his face rigid, his brows furrowed into an angry frown, his voice turning lethal as the reality overpowering his memories.

Fright coursed through her veins as she witnessed the aggressive side of the guy shaping up. She gulped her fear.

His fingers travelled to the back of her head clutching her hair into a fistful and tilting her head up to face him. “You turned out to be just like those girls,” he said clenching his jaws.
“Ahh” Naina’s face contorted from the sharp sting in her scalp. She tugged onto his hand struggling to release herself from his grasp but the guy did not budge an inch.

“I should commend you though, this innocence mask of yours lead me almost in,” he mocked in a low dark tone before bringing her face closer “but you know what, I only have revulsion for the likes of you.” Her skin burned up red with the shameful remarks, his lips curled into disgust “pretty faces are just a façade to hide their ugly and rotten soul” He loathed before pushing her as she dropped down on the floor.

Naina remained unmoved as she shut her eyes in an attempt to erase the pain and embarrassment she is being forced through.

“You don’t have anything to say? The silence disturbed him. “Don’t you feel the need to apologize?” he reiterated in a higher octave.

She opened her eyes hoping the terrible moment had passed. Regaining a semblance of control over herself she stated, “I have already been character assassinated so anything I say will be deemed a lie and I am not going to apologise for things that I have not done.”

 
“Well, then this doesn’t leave me with any options” his tether hanging in the edge. “If you are stubborn, then I am none the less” He challenged watching Naina’s expression turning hard with each words. “You played with the wrong person here. I will have no regrets for what I am going to do now.” He concluded in an unforgiving tone.

“I don’t have any regrets either for I know I have done nothing wrong and,,,” she said sternly looking into his eyes while she pulled herself up on her feet “I will continue doing it for Sia’s good” she declared firmly.

HJ tilted his head in frustration and sighed, “It’s my last chance to you – admit and promise to leave them alone and I will let you go.” He folded his arms across his chest and spoke in a lazy arrogance. “This is the nicest I will ever be Naina. So take it while you still have it.”

“I will stand by what I said before.” She stayed rooted to her spot “ but you are making a big mistake. I hope it's not too late before you realise” she stated in a guilty regret.

“Alright” he nodded, evidently frustrated with the constant denial “I guess asking for honesty from a gold digger like you is an ambitious demand”. He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed Naina by her arms “may be I have to stoop down to your level and give you a dose of your own medicine to stop you from around my brother in law” He warned in a low intimidating tone before yanking her towards the door. 

She jerked herself off his hold as his threats gripped her heart “W,,,Where are you taking me?” Naina asked stuttering, unable to comprehend what’s coming at her.

“Congratulation Miss Naina Dewan,” He smirked darkly, sinister echoing from his voice, as he grasped her wrist to pull her closer “you have just dug your own grave” while his other hand made its way around her waist in a tight suffocating embrace as he leaned into her ears and whispered. “We are getting married tonight”.

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Hello Readers,

I am back with another update. And it is a bomb chapter with a cliffhanger !!! :P

Please show some love by commenting. I need to know your thoughts about the chapter. 

As I said before this will go on a flashback and flashforward for a little while.

I hope you enjoy reading it. Please feel free to upvote.

Continued to Chapter 9

The story has reached a very crucial stage. I am sorry for the suspense at the end. But it is going to be revealed very soon. Stay tune to know what happening next.