Wonyoung barely caresses Chaewon’s cheek when the lass turns her head to avoid contact. “Does it hurt a lot?” Wonyoung asks with a grimace in place of Chaewon. Although Chaewon denies it, with caution, Wonyoung fans her cheek using both hands to hopefully extinguish the pain. “Your cheek is red. It must hurt a lot. Who was that lady anyway?”

Chaewon sighs, “She’s my sister,”

Wonyoung’s jaw drops and she nearly made Chaewon repeat herself, “Your sister? But why did your sister slap you? And I thought you’re an only child?”

The older woman smile, “I thought I was too,”

Uncertain of what to say, Wonyoung can only make an awe sound. Then soundlessly, she again checks the spot Chaewon was hit. And before she or Wonyoung can say another word, they hear Chaewon’s phone ring. Slowly, she waits for Wonyoung to move back and give her some space so she can delve into her pocket, and pull the loud thing out.

She notices it’s her father calling. Wonyoung, who catches a glimpse of Chaewon’s gaze uses the restroom as her excuse to leave the large, glassy room. Once Chaewon is alone, she takes the call and holds it near her lips. “It’s rare for you to call me twice a day,”

Her father gives her remarks no love and immediately discuss work, “I heard there’s a group of people protesting outside of the building. The police have been called but you’ll need to talk to that landlord. If he gives Soul Group a bad rep I will make it so he won’t ever see the sun again,”

Chaewon sighs as she walks around her desk and heads toward the window. Glancing outside and four stories down, she sees people gathering as securities were outside making sure no citizen gets through their barrier of caution fences. “Did you call just to tell me something I already know?”

“No, this call is actually about that woman who stopped by at the house a few months ago,”

“Which woman?”

“Kwon Eunbi,” Chaewon’s heart skip a beat when she hears that name. And the fact that it came out of her father’s mouth made it viler. “After her unwelcome visit, I ran a background check on her. Turns out she’s Hokjae’s daughter, and you knew about it. Yet, you never reported it to me,” there’s a pause as Chaewon process every word her father spits out, “I hear she’s in Busan and that you’ve met again. I knew I shouldn’t have overlooked Busan as it was that wench’s hometown. I was reckless. I should have searched outside of Gwangju even when that’s Hokjae’s hometown,”

There’s a brief pause before Chaewon figure it’s her turn to reply, “No wonder. You sent me here to find Hokjae through his daughter, didn’t you?”

“You’re getting sharper. Unlike the past, now I say little and you know a lot. Good for you. Get to work and keep Kwon Eunbi in your sight. You never know when she will contact her father or vice versa,”

Without further ado, her father hangs up the phone, and it made Chaewon scoff. Then quietly she thinks to herself. So he wasn’t interested in Hyewon and Mira, huh? The man he planted was only so I would keep my distance from Hyewon. No wonder, I thought it was fishy that he would watch her so openly. Chaewon runs a hand down her face, “How far are you going to go, dad?”

Down below, Chaewon observes and sees her men throw Eunbi onto the ground as the folks gather around help her up seconds later. She sees Eunbi yelling but couldn’t hear a word she’s saying. Chaewon studies as Eunbi turn to the group of people and appears to be calming them down.

Chaewon didn’t notice she was staring intently until she senses another presence in the room, standing beside her. It’s Wonyoung who has returned from using the restroom. “Are you okay?” Wonyoung asks once more.

Chaewon doesn’t answer her as holds out her hand, “You came in your car right? Can I take it for a drive to get some fresh air?”

“Oh,” Wonyoung meep, “sure,” noiselessly she opens up her purse and gives Chaewon the key. “Should I come with you—”

“No,” Chaewon interrupts her, “I’ll have my driver take you to my place. Stay there and wait for me,” Wonyoung nods with resistance. After taking the key Chaewon ruffles Wonyoung’s hair again, “Thanks,” 

When the front doors were open for her, the two men greet her with a bow of their head. Not only did her appearance stiffen up her employees, but it halted all the screaming and yelling. Chaewon takes a deep breath before she takes a few more steps closer to the bunch. “Kwon Eunbi,” she begins, arresting the other’s undivided attention. “What do you say we take our fight somewhere else?”

Before Eunbi can say a word, the elders and people around and behind her starts cursing at Chaewon:

“Soul Group may have done a lot of good deeds but this is wrong!”

“Where is your chairman? Call him out to settle this! Hundreds of people are about to lose their homes because of you!”

“Whose idea was it to kick us out in seven days? Was it you, you wench!”

“Explain yourselves, how evil can you all be to do this to us?”

“Answer us, you witch!”

To Eunbi’s surprise, Chaewon scoffs and wears a smirk. “Fine,” she shouts, causing everyone to quiet down. “Let’s fight. Where?”

Chaewon gestures for her to come forward and for her men to let Eunbi pass, “Follow me,” she says. Everyone watches as Eunbi is allowed to pass and walks toward Chaewon. The lass with wavy hair doesn’t say another word but motions for them to start walking away from the building and all of the witnesses.

When they arrive in the parking lot where Wonyoung parked car is, Eunbi slows down a bit as Chaewon unlocks the car and goes to the driver side. As she grabs the handle, she notices Eunbi has stopped in her tracks. “What are you doing not getting in?”

“Where are we going?” Eunbi asks, feeling strange about the whole situation. After all that she’s done to Chaewon, there’s no way the lass can be so calm unless she has something in store for Eunbi.

Chaewon sigh as she walks around the car and opens the door on the passenger side, “Get in, sister. Unless you want to go back and tell all of those people to start packing their bags,”

Eunbi hates Chaewon with a passion. She hates how cunning the lass is. How uncaring and rash she is. When Eunbi finally settles down in shotgun, Chaewon shuts the door for her with little strength. Once Chaewon gets into her seat, she rolls her eyes at Eunbi. “Put your seatbelt on or are you waiting for me to do that for you too?”

Eunbi does as she’s told then she watches as Chaewon skillfully backs out of the parking slot and leaves the lot. On the road, Eunbi couldn’t deny how cool Chaewon looks driving with one hand on the steering wheel and another on the manual stick. Chaewon’s profile made Eunbi blush a little. Although she did think Chaewon has all the negative traits in the world, she can see why Jisun often and openly brags about Chaewon. However, there’s something Eunbi couldn’t quite understand, “Why are you in Busan now? Why didn’t you come to your mother’s funeral?”

“Because I was mad at her,”

“Why?”

It’s only when Chaewon pulls over that Eunbi notices they were at the oceanside. “Let’s go,” Chaewon says as she gets out of the car first. Eunbi blinks a few times before she unbuckles herself and exits the car. When she looked over to Chaewon, she sees that the woman is already making her way toward the crashing blue and white waves.

Eunbi keeps her distance for a while until she sees Chaewon stop to take off her heels and set them beside her. Striding over, her feet sinking into the sand, Eunbi wobbling approaches Chaewon. When they were aligned, Chaewon reveals. “When I was six, I found out that my mom, Jisun, has been seeing another man. For years, I hid that fact from my dad. I knew he had his suspicion because he often came to me about it. To prevent them from arguing for long durations at a time, I kept my mom’s affair a secret and deny my mom was doing anything to hurt their marriage.

Then my paternal grandparents got involved. They told me that if I side with my mom I would be in the wrong. That siding with my dad was right because I was an unplanned child and he could have given up on me as I was not a son. I learned that they had me after a one-night stand and when my paternal grandparents thought my mom could possibly be pregnant with a son, an heir to Soul Group, they forced my parents to get married.

I’m my dad’s first and only child although my mom was his second wife. His first passed away due to cancer at a very young age and that was how my parents met. My mother worked as a nurse at the hospital his first wife was hospitalized in. Mira, Hyewon’s mom, is my mom’s best friend. My dad approached her knowing this after my mom left and somehow coerced her into becoming his third wife. They were happy and they had me convinced that they married for love. However, when my dad couldn’t persuade Mira to give up the whereabouts of my mom and your father, Hokjae, his anger, and trust issue spiraled out of control and left him a merciless man. And it made him an unbearable father,”

By the time Chaewon is done talking, it’s sundown and they were sitting in the sand. Shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm.

“You asked why was I mad at my mom right?”

Eunbi hums softly as she studies Chaewon’s profile. She sees Chaewon swallow the lump in before the other replies.

“I was afraid of what my dad would do if he ever found her so I didn’t look for her. I couldn’t betray my dad. And in the least, I thought I was doing her a favor. I thought she would be living well and happy since she was free from a toxic home,” Eunbi notices a teardrop flowing down Chaewon’s cheek. “I was mad that I set her free only for her to suffer till the end. I didn’t want to hear that she was sick because of me. I wanted to hear that she was thriving because I wasn’t around to cripple her,” Chaewon hangs her head and begins to cry. “I’m sorry, mom,”

Eunbi couldn’t help it when she rests the side of her head on Chaewon’s shoulder and reaches around to embrace the lass. To see Chaewon’s wall crumbles down and her shivering uncontrollably, Eunbi got teary eyes and squeezes her a little. Eunbi wanted Chaewon to know that she wasn’t alone and that she was understood. Little did she know, it was all Chaewon was asking for from someone—anyone.