A/N : 🎶▶️ : Play the suggested song/music.

🎶⏸ : stop the song.

 

 

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Chapter 7

 

 

 

 

 

🎶▶️ Misfortune - The Great Seducer OST.

 

 

 It's funny how life slaps you every time you think your suffering has come to an end, as if it were telling you:

 

 'We're just getting started.'

 

 In fact, I knew that this wouldn't last. But a small part inside me, wanted to believe so bad, that I will finally.. live.

 

But who am I fooling?  Every person was born in this world, with their life already decided and destined for them, some of us are destined to live it with prosperity, others are destined to spend it with disease and the other with poverty while others live it in the dark side, in criminality and harming others. Although I believe that the last one is not something destined but rather a mess of a bad choices and circumstances, what surrounds them and the people around them somehow made them turn to this side.

 

And I was destined to live among people who gave me nothing but pain. All they knew was take, and give was only for themselves.

 

They all wanted something from me in return!  All of them reached out to me and had something they would like to have, altered motives and disgusting intentions. Even that old man who owned the pastry shop, who saw me looking at the candy with sadness and gave me some of it. after which I discovered, After he put his hand on my head and then slide it to my neck in a weird way, I realized something inside my head: My father doesn't touch me like this, that that man only saw fresh fruit and wanted to harvest it before anyone.

 

I was 8 years old and I didn't know what it meant and why he was touching me in a strange way, but my senses and all the cells in my body were telling me to get away immediately and run, to run with all my strength without turning back and so..I ran.  I ran to the farthest place I know, ran and ran until my feet weakened.  Years after, I grow up and knew then that what I had experienced was ual harassment and was against a child as well.

 

'Disgusting .'

 

I hated sweets ever since, and I didn't stop in front of any sweets shop after that. kept passing them by, without even looking.

 

I hated all the men who looked like friendly fathers but in reality they were only hungry wolves, I hated their grins and I felt disgusted whenever they were claiming kindness. If only I could burn them all and clean this world from them.

 

My father on the other hand, drowned himself in drinking soon after my mother passed away, drowning in his sorrows. At the beginning I didn't care much about the matter. I thought that he would get back as he used to be once he gets used to my mother's death and that time would be enough for that, just like how my mother always used to say, but it was getting worse and worse over time.

 

His irresponsible actions and his neglect for his duties caused his dismissal from work.  And the remaining money we had was going to his drinks and gambling games. So I had to find something quickly along with my studies to support myself and to stay in school. After all, it was the only thing that separated me from those uneducated, empty narrow minded people.

 

I had neither the time nor the energy to care for anyone else. Despite the confessions I got in high school, I didn't care about any of them.  In the end, I knew exactly what they wanted from me.

 

By the time I was sixteen years old, I started working as a waitress in a restaurant near our village, the money I was getting was enough to buy one meal, I had no other choice but to continue with it.  I reduced my expenses and also my meals to only small one, which made me lose a lot of weight.

 

 I didn't buy new clothes unless the old ones become weary and raptured. Despite this, I took good care of my clothes, I didn't like them to look worn out or dirty, so I always washed and ironed them and put them in a clean place.  I was poor but not homeless. My clothes were old and cheap but tidy.

 

This continued until my father started working with those people, he started coming with a lot of money. Money in that amount and in that short time although he was just at the start of his work, of course, is not from patient care or normal work.  He would hide it under his pillow whenever he sleeps so that no one could take it.  However, I had to steal from him once to pay the electricity bill since he was not giving me anything from it. It was all spent on bears. Even sometimes I had to go to their place and bring him from there when he stayed too long for the night.

 

His debts increased, and our house became known in the village because the people who wanted their money kept coming a lot. The house wages accumulated and the owner of the house was threatening us every time to throw us out.

 

At first, I managed with the money I was saving, but it wasn't enough.  I had to work more and so I left school while I was in my senior year of high school to work as a waitress in a club. Yes, a nightclub, this time the salary was much more than my previous work yet I didn't leave it.

 

I had to adapt to the atmosphere of that place and to the eyes of hungry men towards me. Ironically, the girl who was running away with just a hand touch is now accustomed, she stopped running away and learned if any hand was extended to her..she would break it.

 

Sometimes in the middle of those nights, I used to return from work and find my father passed out at the door, drunk. Apparently , he couldn't do it to the inside.  I Pull him inside and change his clothes, wipe his face and chest with a piece of wet clothes and put him in bed. After all that happened, he was still my father and I couldn't stand the smell of alcohol, nor his miserable appearance, remembering how he was a respected man once and had a face in the village.

 

At some point in my life, I thought, what if I stopped breathing and ended all this nonsense? I'm not obligated to live this way for my entire life. Why should I suffer?  Why can't I be happy?  happiness! Why can't I just live without worrying about tomorrow and what if it will be the last night I will sleep on my bed?  I don't even remember the last time I truly, genuinely smiled.

 

I tried to kill myself but I couldn't do it.  Suddenly, the love for life poured into me, and I was scared to end it. Ha, how pathetic I am?  Still having this spirit with this miserable life.  Despite my great hatred for it and the great eagerness to leave it, I couldn't do it.

 

It was so sad that I didn't feel the hot water drops on my cheeks until the air hit me. I was crying..crying for myself and feeling pity for her. I hated her weakness and cowardice, I hated her for how helpless she is, I hated her for her love for life despite all that.

 

I hated her and hated all those around me; I hated the ice cream seller who always annoys me with his ridiculous music every morning; I hated our neighbor who always comes to ask for something that he lacks while I am most in need, I hated my teacher for how she was giving the wealthy students high grades so easily while I was working my off every single chance I got to study and pass! How she put those useless selfish students at the same level as me!

 

 I hated them all. 

 

I hated everyone, but from all of them..I hated myself the most.

 

And to make it perfect, the cherry on top as they say, my father decided to steal the person he works for and escape, that simple.  All he left was a message telling me to run away immediately.

 

I was very confused and didn't know what was meant by it and why I had to run away. Until I heard the door knocking hard and men screaming and demanding that my father go out and return them the ten million dollars. It took me seconds to realize that my miserable life was already over.

 

It was miserable, but there was no threat to me except to starve and it was something I could avoid with the money I got.  I didn't expect that the day would come when I would struggle to keep it.

 

 Now, and at this very moment, all these feelings and memories that I thought have gone, have returned to me. 

 

 🎶⏸

. . . . . . . . . 

 

 **

 

A year ago. In the day that Matthew took over his father's work. They were holding a noisy party at the beach. The place was surrounded by barrels in which the fire was lit. When two men came while they were pulling another man who was bruised and blood was all over his face, he couldn't open his eyes from the large number of beating he suffered. They came and threw the man under Matthew's feet.  Which made him startle and get up from his seat.

 

"Who is this? ​​What are you doing? Why is he like this?" Matthew says angrily.

 

The two men look at each other and one of them starts:

 "Sir, this man is an addict and he tried to steal from the goods and we caught him on site. Your father sent him to you to finish him!"

 

"Finish him? What do you mea-"

 

 He pauses when he understands what he means, his father wants to end the life of this man on his hands.  He wants to make sure whether Matthew will fulfill the work requirements or not. This is a test whether or not he is qualified for his position.

 

Matthew's attention returns to reality when the man puts the gun in his hand and then puts the man they want to kill in front of him on his knees as an indication for Matthew to kill him.

 

He saw his father several times taking the lives of others in front of his eyes with all cold blood, but this time it's different. This time they're asking him to do it himself.

 

 As he slowly raises the gun towards the man, Matthew thinks that now he is the head of this organization and sooner or later he will have to do it, trying to convince himself.

 

His hands are shaking a bit and his forehead is sweating, his pulse is accelerating. And his index finger hovers near the trigger and moves away and then back on it, hesitate. He says to himself that he has to pull it together, he must become strong or he will not survive in this kind of world if he remains the same. 

 

Meanwhile, Jennie comes to this place in search of her father. It's already passed midnight and her father didn't comeback yet. She arrived here after searching for several places known for those people before and didn't find him. She sees a house at a distance from her , rounded with burning barrels in the front at the opposite side and decides to go check it out as well.

 

Jennie arrives at the house and begins to search around him until she hears the noise behind the house, she turns around the house and sees a group of men gathered, between them a man sitting on his knees, swaying until he is about to fall and one of the men catches him and adjusts his sitting. 

 

Jennie's eyes widen and she panics, feeling her heart as if it's s almost out of his place when she recognizes the man in front of her. 

 

It's her father.

 

Another man is standing in front of him with a gun pointed at him, Jennie finds herself running towards her father involuntarily.

 

. . . . . . . . 

 

 "Dad! Dad! No! Stop!! Please stop!"

 

 Matthew lowers his hand when a girl throws herself in front of the man sitting in front of him as she hugs him and screams at them to stop and to move away from him.

 

It was surprising and happened fast, which made everyone in a state of shock until one of the men besides her father tries to get her away from him while she's still screaming, crying.

 

 The girl keeps trying to loosen herself from the man's grip and goes to protect her father until the man kicks her in the stomach, making her fall to the ground writhing in pain. When Matthew sees that, he shouts at him loudly to stop and move away from her. The girl puts her hand on her stomach and runs back to her father, afraid they would harm him any moment.

 

 "Sir! why did you stop me? We have to kill him! This is the orders from your fathe-"

 

 The man falls dead on the ground when Matthew suddenly points the gun at him and pulls the trigger, right in the middle of his head. Making the girl startle and everyone to freeze in their place, shocked by what Matthew just did. Eyes burning with anger, hands still trembling, he didn't like this man from the beginning.

 

 "You! Move away from him immediately!" He says turning his attention to the girl.

 

 - "Please! Don't kill him! Whatever debt he's in I will pay it! Just don't kill him!" The girl says as she hides her father behind her back, tears still falling from her eyes. 

 

Matthew stays silent for a moment, staring at her as if he's thinking and then turns his gaze to the men.

 

 "Does any of you know who she is? And why is she here?"

 

One of the men raises his hand and steps forward.

 

"Sir, it's his daughter, I've seen her several times before and she comes to take him home with her when he's too drunk."

 

 Matthew brings his attention back to her, staring at them.

 

 "Take him away from my sight and leave. Immediately!"

 

The girl nods quickly, and puts her father's arm around her shoulder and tries to lift it, resists the pain of the blow as she supports her father weight and before getting further, Matthew calls on her to stop and looks at her with intimidating eyes.

 

 "You know what will happen to you two if any of what happened now reaches the people or the police, don't you?"

 

She shakes her head up and down immediately with her tears still running. She turns around and go and Matthew turn his eyes to the men.

 

 "It's the same for you! He wanted me to kill someone and I did.  Just tell him that, clear?"

 

He turns his attention to the man who told him about the girl and departs: "you! Tell me.  where do you know that man?"

 

 - "I used to work with him when your father used to ask from us to receive the goods."

 

 " And..?"

 

- "He was good at his job and your father trusted him, so I doubt that he tried to steal from the goods. He is a drinking addict and when he is drunk he always talks about his family. His name's Hyonsan and his daughter's is.."

 

**

 

 "Jennie?"

 

 "Oh yes.. ok..well goodbye." Jisoo says ending her conversation and then she hangs up and turns to Matthew.

 

"Sorry, I didn't hear you, did you say something?"

 

Matthew stands shocked, looking at Jisoo and then back at Jennie who was standing at a distance behind her.

 

"Came..Sh- she came!"

 

He says louder than his normal tone as he points to Jennie, Jisoo turns around and sees Jennie standing, her face looks pale. 

 

she notices the car keys in her hand.

 

 "Did he send you instead?" Jisoo says as she approaches Jennie. "Where's Min Yoo?

 Aah, I'll just deal with him later." She digresses and sighs, taking the keys from Jennie's hand and thanks her. 

 

Jennie turns around, on her way to go when Jisoo notices her tense walk and her shivering hands and stop her immediately making her turn back.

 

 "Are you okay? Did something happen? Why are you shaking like that?"

 

Jennie looks at Jisoo and swallows hard, then steals a look at Matthew and finds him looking at her with dark sharp gaze, to then she looks back at Jisoo, and shakes her head, no, and signs to her an Ok sign.

 

 "Are you sure?"

 

 Jennie nods and bows to her to then she turns around quickly, and starts walking away with fast steps. Jisoo keeps looking at her direction, still worried, until Matthew calls her, drawing her attention.

 

 "Well, shall we go now?" He says with an enthusiastic tone.

 

"Ah..yeah..let's go."

 

He smiles and stretches out his hand, as a sign for her to go first. Until she does, he stops smiling and looks at the direction in which Jennie walked in, angrily. To then he follows Jisoo.

 

 . . . . . . . . . 

 

 

Jennie runs hastily into her room and closes the door behind her firmly. She falls on her knees with her hands covering her face. Unable to hide their shivering any more, unable to keep her composure as she starts to panic with her eyelids not even blinking. She can't pretend that nothing has happened. 

 

 It's him! She's done for, he found her! He knew her whereabouts!

 

Why did he pretend that he doesn't know her? Will he tell Jisoo? What is she gonna do now? 

 

'God! Tell me what to do?'

 

She doesn't know what will happen when Jisoo returns, she doesn't know what expression will be on her face. 

 

'Where would I go?'

 

 "Oh..yes ... I will lock the door of my room! So no one will come! Ha ha-ha" She laughs hysterically and then starts crying for seconds and then stops suddenly and slaps her cheek.

 

"Stop it, Jennie! This is not the time to cry! I have to act! I have to find a way!"

 

She gets up and goes to Lisa and Chaeyoung's room.  Suddenly, she opens their door and steps in to find each one on her bed and on their lap a plate of nuts. Both of them still, looking surprised by Jennie's sudden entry.

 

 "Yaa!, what are you doing going in like this?" Lisa says, annoyed.

 

"Later! Listen to me now...He found me!"

 

"What? What do you mean? Who found you?" Chaeyoung asks, starting to get worried over how Jennie looks so troubled.

 

 "The men who are looking for me." Jennie answers, breathing heavily. "Their leader, was here! with Jisoo! And he saw me here! Now he knows where I am!"

 

"Just a moment, do you mean the mafia men? Their leader was here? And now he knows you're here.." Lisa says in a calm tone to understand the situation.

 

 Jennie nods quickly, looking terrified.

 

Lisa and Chaeyoung exchange looks a little, then Lisa puts the nuts dish aside and slides under the blanket as if she is going to sleep and so does Chaeyoung.

 

"If you're done, turn off the light behind you when you go out." Lisa says from under the blanket.

 

"Don't forget to lock the door too." Chaeyoung adds, agreeing.

 

"Are you serious? This's not the time to joke!

 Lisa! Chaeyoung!  I really need your help!"

 

 No answer..

 

"Okay! So that's how it is." she says with teary eyes, frustrated. "I will act alone then!"

 

 Jennie goes out and closes the door behind her forcefully.

 

Once she exits, Chaeyoung lifts the blanket off her head and gets up partially, so that the lower part of her body is still under the blanket, and she turnes to Lisa.

 

 "Hey, Lisa.. Don't you think we were a little bit harsh on her?"

 

 Lisa moves the blanket away and sits up, same as Chaeyoung.

 

 "I know.. but what do you expect us to do? We should not get involved with this! They're a criminal organization for heaven's sake!"

 

"Nevertheless..shouldn't we help her? You saw how terrified and afraid she was."

 

 "Chaeyoung, don't even try..we cannot effort  getting involved with such people!"

 

Chaeyoung stays silent while looking at Lisa grimly, disapproving.

 

 "Chaeyoung! Promise me that you're not going to do anything."

 

Chaeyoung turns her head to the other side, annoyed.

 

"Chaeyoung!"

 

"Okay! Fine!" She says in discontentment as she lies down again and covers herself fully with the blanket. 

 

 

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Jisoo and Matthew are in the car on their way to the restaurant after stopping in several areas before it. While Jisoo is driving based on Matthew's instructions, Matthew was looking out of the window, feeling furious, putting his elbow on the armrest and passes his index finger and the middle finger along his lips while he's Thinking.

 

 'Jennie, you little .'

 

 So there where she was hiding. Throughout this whole time, she was in front of them and they couldn't even notice.

 

 He should have killed her when he had the chance.

 

 "Matthew.."

 

 He shouldn't have brought him back to work.

 

 "Mr. Matthew!"

 

Matthew notices Jisoo's calling, urging him to turn quickly, smiling, changing his facial expressions.

 

 "Uh..I apologize. I was a little carried away. What's wrong?"

 

 - "We have reached a crossroads. Should I turn left or right now?" Jisoo says as she turns his attention back to the road.

 

 "Left, please."

 

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At eleven o'clock, Jennie in her room sitting in the middle of her bed, lifting her knees to level of her chest and putting her head between her legs.

 

When she hears the sound of  high heels clicking, she knows it's Jisoo.

 

She is back!

 

Jennie gets up quickly and stands behind the door and putting her ear close to it, she hears the sound of a door opening and closing. Apparently, she has entered her room. 

 

If he had told her, she would have rushed to her room by now or she would have thrown her out or God knows what.

 

Why didn't he tell her?  And why was he at Jisoo's mansion in the first place? How does he know her?

 

 'Damn!' 

 

What does this even mean? What's going on? She's going crazy!

 

This mansion is no longer a safe place for her, coming here with his men is just a matter of time. She have to be smarter and act before him, otherwise, even Jisoo will get hurt!

 

The only option available is to go outside Jeju Island. She doesn't have a passport and so she have to find someone who makes her one or go smuggling; and to do this she needs money. A lots of it!

 

 'Damn, this leads me to only one thing.'

 

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After midnight passes, in her dark room, Jennie lies in her bed, hiding her face with a blanket.

 

She hears the door handle moving and slides her hand under the pillow, preparing herself to get up quickly. The door is locked and whoever is there, he is now trying to open the lock. He succeeds and the door opens, she can feel him entering slowly and carefully.

 

Once he close the door, Jennie takes the cover off and pulls the knife from under the pillow, gets up quickly and stands beside the bed, swinging the knife left and right in the direction of the door.

 

"It's better for you to get away! before I put this knife right in your heart!" Jennie says in a sharp hissing voice. "I swear to god that I will do-"

 

 Suddenly, the light turns on cutting off her threats and she standstills, shocked.

 

 "Shhh..I'm Lisa! Lower your voice!"

 

She says, waving her hand down repeatedly while putting her index finger from the other hand in front of .

 

Jennie didn't wrap her head around what's happening yet, so she was still pointing the knife at Lisa as she looks at her.

 

"Lisa?! What are you doing here? And why are you sneaking into my room?"

 

 "Because It's a secret matter?" Lisa mocks in a low tone. "Also, could you put the knife down already?! Where did you get it in the first place?"

 

 - "From the kitchen."

 

 Lisa looks at her in disbelief.

 

 "What? I have to be prepared for every possibility." Jennie says in a low stressed tone, then she departs."Tell me. Why are you here?"

 

 "I will help you." Lisa declares as she takes slow steps towards Jennie.

 

"What-"

 

"But first, you have to promise me that Chaeyoung won't know about this." She adds firmly.

 

 "And we will let her out of it."

 

 

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To be continued 

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