Chapter 26

(12 hours ago)

 "That way we can open the new branch in London within January."

One of the assembled members says as she points to the screen that displays the project outline and design, after finishing explaining it.

 - "Good. It would be beneficial for us to promote at the same time." Sehun says, sitting in his chair, he looks at the screen and then turns his gaze to the rest of the members waiting for their opinion.

 "Yes, I agree with you," one of them says, and the rest does the same.

 He nods to them with understanding, then turnes his gaze to Jisoo, who was sitting next to him, and sees her staring into the distance.

"Jisoo?" He starts quietly, but she doesn't notice, "Jisoo." He repeats in a firmer tone, drawing her attention and she turns her gaze towards him, looking taken aback.

 "Oh, yes, dad.." she says sheepishly, focusing her attention back to him.

 - "We were talking about promoting the affiliate, what do you think?"

 Jisoo pauses for a while and follows as she looks at him and the rest of the members, 
 "Great idea.. it would be better if we started early."

He nods to her with understanding, and then proceeds,  "So? can you handle the promotion and opening of the new branch and its management for some time?"

Jisoo stays silent as she looks at him in thought, and when he sees her so, he continues, "I know.. it is in a far place, and you would have to travel and stay far away, so think carefully." He pauses a little, and then smiles. "I'm telling you this because I know that with it under your management, it will be done perfectly," he says, reaching out and patting her leg.

 - "Alright, Dad, I'll go." Jisoo replies, returning his smile.

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 "Dad!"

Jisoo calls loud enough for her father to hear once she is out of the meeting room, striding behind her Sehun to stop him, since the meeting has ended and everyone started collecting their things and gradually leaving.

 Sehun stops immediately and turns around to face her.

 "Yes Dear."  He says in a loving tone, looking at her with question.

 - "Do you remember the tech expert we hired to install the company's security services?"

 Sehun pauses as he thinks, and then replies, "You mean Teddy?  Yes, I remember him. Why?  Something wrong?"

 - "No.. Nothing.. Just need him to install them too for the new house."

He nods to her with understanding and follows," I understand.. but I heard that he retired."

 -"Oh really?"  She says, wearing a surprised expression, her father nods affirmatively.

"Do you know where he went?  Or anything that can help me fine him?" She continues looking at him hopefully.

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 Jisoo pulls over in front of a private library and looks at the anterior for a while, then turns off the engine and climbs down.

 She locks the car and heads towards the sidewalk and to the inside of the library. She walks steadily as she looks around and bypasses the people inside the library as if she is looking for someone until she reaches the clerk's desk and stands in front of him.

 "Excuse me..." she says politely to attract the attention of the man behind the desk.

 -"Yeah?"  The worker says looking at her with question.

 "I'm looking for someone.." she starts as the worker listens, at the same time a man emerges from between the corridors of bookshelves, carrying a box in which he had books, approaching them.

"The owner of this library, Teddy. Is he here?"

She says, attracting the attention of the man who was carrying the box to stop and look at her.

The worker is silent for a while, looking bewildered of what he would answer, looking at her and at the man carrying the box.

The man puts the box aside, turns around and advances towards Jisoo.

 "Why are you looking for him?"  he asks, as he joins their conversation surprising Jisoo.

Jisoo looks at him suspiciously for a moment, and then at the worker and answers evasively,
 "I'd like to talk to him about something. Tell him I'm from Kim Sehun's side and he'll know me."

The man is silent as he gauges her.

 - "Sorry, but let me ask, who are you?"

 "I'm his daughter. Kim—"

 - "Jisoo."  The man finishes for her, nodding to her with admiration.

 "He told me once about you." he elaborates, his features conceal a smile.

 Jisoo furrows her eyebrows quizzically.

 "Mm.. Are you.. Teddy?"

He smiles at her, takes off his glasses, and then turns around partially and says over his shoulder,  "Follow me."

 .  .  .  .  .  .  .

 "So, what would Sehun's daughter want to talk to me about?"

 Teddy asks as he enters his private room, Jisoo follows him to keep up and he turns across from her, leaning on the edge of his desk.

 - "I would like you to create a customized security system."  Jisoo says as she puts her hands in her coat pockets.

 "I apologize, but you came to the wrong place. I left that job a long time ago."

 Jisoo pauses for a while and then says, "I Know that.. this is not work related. It is a special request from the daughter of an old friend of yours. Also..when you hear the reason behind that request you will definitely want to help me."

 Teddy remains silent, staring at her for a while, and then sighs helplessly. Moving off the desk, he heads to one of the office shelves, raising his hand to one of the books and pulling it towards him a little, and when he does, a click sound is heard before he pulls the wooden section that supports the shelves to reveal that it was actually a hidden door, and behind it another door appears, white colored as the walls.

 He advances towards the door, opens it wide and enters, indicating to Jisoo to follow him.  Jisoo enters the room and looks around to see on one side several computers installed and large screens, and on the other side several tables with a clutter of wires and scraps, it looked like a workshop.

 She smiles to herself when she sees this and says in a lighthearted tone, "I knew quitting the job doesn't erase the craft."

 Teddy rolls his eyes on the remark and turns to face her, "Talk."

 Jisoo is silent as she continues to look around the room to meet him afterwards and says:

 "Actually.. I would like you to make something else first."

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Sitting in silence in her car for the few moments that passed since she arrived, Jisoo keeps staring at the gate and the place around her, dreading the one thing that she kept avoiding for years. 

Both her hands on the steering wheel, while staring into space and taking regular breaths, she lowers her head and supports it on the steering wheel and remains like that for a while.

 It has been a long time since she came here..

 very long time..

 Since her first presence here, she hasn't been able to bring herself to come again.

 But now, now it's different.

 Now she needs this.

 She needs to talk to her..

 She raises her head, blinking several times, and takes a deep breath to gather herself, reaches out to open the door and goes out.

 She steps to the dirty stone sidewalk and stops as she looks ahead towards the place and around it as well, takes another deep breath and begins walking down the stone path with steady steps..

 She walks, 

And walks.. 

Until she stops when she reaches the rusty Iron gate and looks at it and at the large sign on which the word 'Seoul National Cemetery' was written.

 She takes another breath, clenches her fist as an attempt to brace herself, and advances to open the gate, and when she does, a noisy screeching sound comes out that fills the place, an annoying sound that violates the sanctity of silence in this place.

 She steps forward and continues her path as she passes the graves one by one, her steps were light and considered so she wouldn't disturb the ones who once were above this land, and continues inhaling and exhaling,.

The coldness here differs. Here is where the coldness of life extends and dreams end.. here is where the laughters subdue.. here is where the smiles disappear.

 Coldness here is different and she was feeling it with every cell in her body.

 She stops when she arrives at her destination, to her absentee, she turns slowly to meet her and keeps staring at the ground at her feet, lengthily, having no courage to see the grave.

 She raises her head after a few minutes and looks at it and at the tombstone specifically, on which the name, date of birth and date of death are engraved, and her chest is tightened immediately, but she doesn't look away.

 "Hello mom.." she begins with a soft tone and her breath is shaken as she puts her hands in her coat pockets.

 "I apologize for not visiting you for years."

She says while lowering her head, ashamed of herself, and then pauses a little and continues raising her head to look towards the grave,

"I thought—" she stops, turnes her head to the other side for a moment and brings it back, "I thought that you wouldn't want to see me.. and that I don't have the right to do so.." She says, lowering her head again.

"I was afraid to face you."

She falls silent and remains like that for a while, and then she raises her head, but her gaze is still elsewhere,

 "I have a friend." She says purely and smiles faintly for a second, as if to tell her mother that she had made an achievement, "three actually," she chuckles warmheartedly at the thought of them, "but this one.. this one is just.." she trails off, not knowing how to describe her exactly, and not even sure that there's any word that would do her justice, so she digresses, "Her name is Jennie."

She pauses a little, looking at the grave,

"She told me that I was thinking wrong, and what I was feeling was not true.."

Silence again before she continues in a faint tone as she turns her gaze downward,

"And I believe her."

Feeling herself starting to get emotional, she says, "And here I am. I am here to tell you that throughout these past ten years the only thing that I remember clearly was the expression of your face that night.. so much that I forgot how you used to look like when you were happy.. and when you were calm.."

She says with disdainful expressions, slowly shaking her head, she continues.

"But yesterday.. yesterday I dreamed of you, and for the first time it wasn't a nightmare.

It was about one of the outings that we used to go out on,"

She chuckles to herself, her eyes starting to burn with tears.

"And you were smiling.. you were wearing the brightest smile I had ever seen."

She says, ignoring the tears that fell from her eyes, "All I want to tell you is..

 I missed you.. I missed you so much."

 She whimpers and allows herself to cry, maintaining her calm demeanor, and then turns her head a little and takes her hand out to wipe her tears and puts it back in her pocket and looks at the grave.

 She remain standing for a few minutes, staring at the dirt of the grave, looking at it through tired eyelids, drowning in the pain that had become resident in her heart.

 A pain that doesn't go away, trying to get used to it.

 She bends down a little as she takes out her hand and reaches out toward the dirt and buries her fingers in it carefully and gently.

 "I will come again.. I promise."

She says and slowly withdraws her hand as she straightens her posture, and with the other hand she cleans it of dirt and dwells again for few minutes as she looks at the grave until she senses the arrival of someone near her.

 "You waste no time, do you?"

 She asks sarcastically in a cold tone without turning around and then she does and sees that Jonathan is standing behind her and on the side, wearing a suit and a long black coat with his hands in his pockets, looking at her with straight and sharp expressions.

 When her gaze fell on him, she felt fear and panic at first, a feeling that lasted for a few moments as she remembered again that night, but this time it flashed in her mind like any other memory and she didn't obsess over it like yesterday.

 She kept looking at him, tightening her fist and feeling all sorts of emotions stirring inside her;  Anger, resentment, fear, disgust, sadness and loss, but she keeps them in tact.

 "We met again." John says quietly.

Jisoo doesn't say anything and just stares at him perceptively.

 "Mr. Park is inviting you to have lunch with him and so I'm asking you to come with me.. calmly and without creating unnecessary problems."

 - "And why should I do that?"

 "For many reasons, the most important of which is; if you want to know about your mother.. things that only Mr. Park knows.. you will want to come."

Jisoo scoffs and follows with a cold smile, "Let me guess, the other reason is that I don't have any other options anyway?"

 "I'm glad we understand each other."
He says casually, making Jisoo look at him deadly again.

 "Your phone."  He adds, holding out his hand towards her.

 She looks at his hand for a while and then at him and takes her phone out and hands it to him.

 "This way.." he says after taking the phone and turnes around and starts to walk.

 - "Why didn't you kill me?"  Jisoo asks out of the blue, making John stop in his tracks.

 "That night..why didn't you kill me too?" Jisoo presses on.

John remains silent for a while as he remembers that night with its full details, as if it happened yesterday, as if he was standing in front of little Jisoo again.. he still remembers how she was looking at him, his panic and his fear at that moment, even though she couldn't see his face.

 That was his first crime in the matter of everything.

That night changed him.. no, It damaged him, eternally.

He can't deny that a small part in his depths is still feeling fear, nor that he expels that slight feeling within him that constantly tells him that his end will be at the hand of that young girl and that he himself still dreams about that night.

 "Let's go."  He says dismissively, ignoring Jisoo's question, and starts walking outside the cemetery.

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 Jisoo gets out of the car backseat, after arriving at the desired address, and looks around, as John gets out as well.

Jisoo remains standing, looking around with suspicion, the place was isolated and surrounded by trees, as if it were a forest surrounding the villa in front of her. 

She spots John taking a few steps and stopping, looking at her for a moment before he turns and walks toward the gate as if telling her to follow him.

She breathes in and goes after him.

All the way, John kept glancing at her as if he was watching her, cautious not to do something, and although she kept her gaze on the road, she could feel his gaze on her. It's not like she was going to do anything.. yet.

 John enters the front yard, followed by Jisoo, past the guards, and into the villa, leading her to the hall, and while they are thus, she glimpses Jang Park standing across from them, placing his hands behind his back.

 When they step into the hall, he turns opposite them as soon as he hears their footsteps and smiles when he sees Jisoo while Jisoo just kept her serious and blank expressions.

 "Miss Jisoo!"

He starts stretching his arms in the air welcoming.

When John watches how Jang is focused on Jisoo, he turns around and walks away from them, leaving them alone in the hall.

 "Once again, you made me happy that you agreed to come."  He follows, as he advances a few steps towards Jisoo, wanting to take her hand, but she immediately steps back and looks at him sharply, alarmed.

 "What do you want?"  Jisoo asks with features that cushion her anger, deciding to cut to the chase.

 Jang maintains his smiling expression for a while, feigning exclamation, then adjusts his posture and wears an innocent expression.

 "A little conversation.. Just want to have a little conversation."

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 Heechul leaves the car, after lifting the reports from the passenger seat, wanting to hand them over to John, as Matthew asked him to act normally and continue his work and continue to pretend that he is tracking him at the moment.

 He continues to walk until he reaches the gate and the guards let him in when he tell them the reason behind his arrival and show them the reports. He walks into the villa, walking with steady steps, He spots Mr. Park and with him a girl who he was able to distinguish after a few moments, they were on their way to one of the rooms.

 It was Kim Jisoo, the girl Matthew had once asked him and his buddies before they died to investigate about her.

 He stops, looking at them skeptically, and then takes out his phone, feeling he has to let Matthew know about this.

 "Heechul."  Suddenly, John calls him while he is walking towards him before he can send the message, making him flinch subtly and raise his head in surprise.

 "What are you doing here?"  John asks when he gets close to Heechul.

 - "Umm..the reports."

He says, nervously raising the reports in front of John and lowering his phone.

 "I'm here to turn in the reports on what has progressed on work for the past week. "

 John stares at him for a moment and then takes the reports and opens one of them, looks at it a little while scrolling through it, then looks at Heechul and closes the report.

 "Ok .. come with me."  John says, then turns around and starts walking to his private office.

 Heechul remains still for a while as he looks at the room in which Jisoo and Mr. Park entered, and then follows John.

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 "Do you see this?"

 Jang says after a few minutes of standing into the room, pointing to one of the paintings showing an artistic portrait of a certain face.

Jisoo looks at it and stares with surprise and bewilderment.  The room was an art gallery, with several paintings of different sizes on its walls, some of which were placed on a wooden stand, and all of them were drawings of one person.

 "This is how she looked when I first met her."  He adds, making her more surprised.

 "Can you recognize her?"  He asks and pauses for a while and then turns around to face Jisoo. "Of course you will, this is your mother after all." he continues, smiling unsettlingly.

 - "Where are you trying to get?"  Jisoo asks, sounding very upset.

 Jang ponders for a bit and replies calmly, 

 "I told you that you looked very familiar when I saw you and that you looked like an old friend of mine.. and when you asked me where she ended up, I felt a strong urge to look for her, and by the merits of coincidence, it turned out that you, in fact, were her daughter."

He says smiling before he stops and looks the other way, seeming saddened, "Unfortunately, it turnd out that she is dead."

He says in a steady tone and a sad expression, and falls silent for a while, and then quickly changes his expressions and smiles weakly as he raises his gaze towards Jisoo,

"So, being a close friend of hers, I felt that I had to tell you about your mother and a lot of things that you didn't know about. "

 He take a few steps forward until he stands in front of another painting and explains to her why he drew it and how and in all this Jisoo was only looking with disbelief, feeling speechless.

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 "What are you saying? they were on their way to the warehouse?"

Sitting in his office with one of the reports in his hands, John asks with annoyance, looking at Heechul who is standing in front of him.

 - "I.. I don't know..when we were informed by the men, we all ran to evacuate the warehouse, but before the evacuation was completed, we got a call that they suddenly stopped and retreated."

He says, making John squint his eyes at the distance with suspiciousness.

 "How did they look like?"  John inquires, looking back at Heechul.

 - "They wore black uniforms and had a wireless earphones in their ears, like professional security personnel."

 "Did you tell Matthew about this?"

 - "No, no, I wanted to tell you first."

  Heechul lies and John nods to him with understanding. Yesterday, as soon as he found out about that, he called Matthew and informed him, who in return understood who was behind those men, most likely Jisoo.

 "Good. The packages were not damaged, right?"  John questions.

 - "No, we kept it safe."

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 "This was your mother's favorite flower, she used to buy it a lot and put it in her room."

Jang points out, after guiding Jiso to the attached greenhouse.

  "Daisies.. I'm sure you've seen it with her, too."

 He says and Jisoo can't really say it's a lie, her mother, indeed, liked this flower.

 "Of course, she used to collect not only this, but many other flowers, but for some reason, this was her favorite."

 He leans down a little to smell the flower and smiles as he does, and then straightens in his stance to follow while holding his hands out in different directions.

 "Do you see all this? I kept it all and I took care of it only because it was related to your mother in one way or another.." He pauses for a while and proceeds as he advances slightly towards Jisoo, "Each painting was an attempt by me to preserve my memories about her, so that I wouldn't forget.

All of this is just because she's worth a lot for me."

"And having met her daughter after so many years, there must be some kind of a reason behind it."

He continues and smiles, holding his hand out to the door, signaling them to leave.

 "it's lunch time."  He adds when Jisoo remains still.

 Jisoo keeps staring at him for a while and then sighs and turns to walk out.

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 Heechul exits the room, walking on a hurry, with John behind him, they stop in place when they spot Jisoo and Mr. Park in front of them ascending the stairs to the second floor.

 "Go back to the warehouse and tell me right away if something happens."  John says without looking away from them and starts to walk behind them.

 Heechul remains standing for a moment and then turns quickly and paces as he takes out his phone and writes a text to Matthew.

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 Matthew was crouching beside the bed as he pushed a box under the bed, after he had added a file to the rest of the other files. He stands up, rearranges the bed, glances at his mother and finds her still staring out through the window.

 "Do you like these sceneries that much?"  Matthew asks as he advances towards her to sit in front of her by the window.

 - "Until Matthew returns, there is nothing else worth looking at."  She says softly, gaining a remorseful chuckle from Matthew.

 - "Hmmm.. how about looking at me?"  He quips in a lighthearted tone, making up a wondering expression.

 She turns her gaze at him, looks at him grimly, and looks back at the window.

 "You're not him."

 - "Okaaay.. but I think we've agreed to be friends until Matthew returns."  He says pretending to be sad.

 "But he's late.."

 She says and remains silent afterwards. He remains silent as well since he doesn't know what to say and is pained to see her like this.

"Here's an idea.." He begins excitedly, getting up, drawing her attention, "how about next time you and I go out and walk in that park, like a picnic, and that way you can look at the landscape closely and breathe in its air throughly as well. "

 He says while looking at her and smiling and she smilies in return also at the idea. The moment is cut by the short buzzing of his phone, announcing a text.

 He takes it out and opens it to see the notification and sees that it is a message from Heechul telling him that John has brought Jisoo to Mr. Park's villa and they are now heading to a somewhere on the upper floor.

 Matthew's expression fall immediately and he calls Heechul as he sprints out of the room.

/ "Heechul! Are you still there? " Matthew says once Heechul picks up as he hurries out of the building.

"I just got out.. I couldn't do anything, the place is tightly secured."

 "Did you know where he took her?"  Matthew says as he gets out of the building and goes to his car.

"N-no, I couldn't."\

 He answers him hesitantly and Matthew hangs up quickly, clinging his jaw with great annoyance and gets in the car

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 Jisoo was following Jang as she walked in steady and cautious steps and looked around with suspicion until they entered a corridor with three men standing in front of a large double door, and who now moved away from it when Jang approached. He opened the door to enter and Jisoo walked behind him with her eyes searching around.

 It was a large, spacious room in a royal style,  furnished classically, containing several seating areas, and on its left side it was opening to another room, the door of which was smaller in advance, fully furnished as well, with a long already-prepared dining table in the center of the room.

Jang stops and extends his hand towards the other room that contains the dining table, indicating that they have reached their destination, to then he starts walking towards it, and as she stays standing for moment, she hears the door opening behind her. She turns her head partially and sees that Jonathan has entered and closed the door behind him and there he remained standing.

 She turnes her head to look back ahead and walks until she's in the middle of the other room, she stops and looks around again and then hears Jang closing the door behind them and steps forward, trying to take her coat out of etiquette, but she turns away from him immediately, raising her hand in the air signaling him to refrain from that, and takes it off herself.

 At first Jang remains surprised for a while, then smiles, nods to her graciously, and walks to the table.

 "Would you please have a seat?"

He says, and then Jisoo drapes her coat around the chair's head and sits without saying a word as he starts eating his lunch.

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 "I know you are still surprised, but don't you think that being so silent is a bit strange?"

 He asks in a cheerful tone as he wipes the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief, trying to ease the tension, and looks at Jisoo.

 Throughout lunch, he kept talking about the 'past nostalgic days' as he called it while he ate and how his friendship with Jisoo's mother was so strong and how she was fond of him too while Jisoo was just listening stoically and didn't even touch her plate.

 - "What do you want me to say, for example?"

 He stares at her for a while and chuckles, he follows, "I don't know.. wouldn't it please you to know all this about your mother?"

 - "Actually.. I began to doubt whether this was really about my mom or is it more about you."

 He remains silent in response to her surprising remark, and then laughs at it with discomfort and follows, "Can't lie. It was about the two of us..I wanted you to get to know me more.. Perhaps I wanted to show you how important our encounter is."

 He says, looks at her dish from which she did not eat anything, and then looks back at her and continues with a questioning tone,

"You didn't eat anything."

 - "I have no appetite."  She replies flatly, staring at him dead in the eyes.

 Jang nods to her with understanding, lowering his gaze, he  pushes on,  "I get it.. you're still wary of me."

He pauses for a moment and follows,

"But you have to understand that there is no need for that..

 I.. I will never hurt you."

He says in a determined tone, looking at her directly.

"In fact, and in case you didn't notice, I really loved Taeyeon.. very much.."

 Jisoo shakes her head in disbelief, chuckling silently with irony, she's tired of hearing this broken record.  She noticed it, of course she did, as he never wasted a chance to hint at it between each and every sentence.  

"Not only as a friend, but.. more than that.. also I have never hurt her before. I won't hurt you either. All I want is for you to see how truthful my feelings were for her.."

He falls silent for a second before adding in a faint tone that differs from earlier, 

"And for you too.."

 "Oh really?" Jisoo snaps impatiently as she looks at him angrily, "Is that why you killed her?"

 Jang eyes dilate slightly in shock and surprise.

"Because you love her so much?

What?  Did that love disappear suddenly when she decided to get married?" She retorts sarcastically, pressing her fingers firmly on the edge of the table.

 Jang remains silent for a while, then smiles knowingly, leans back on the chair, and places both hands on the table in front of him.

 "So.. you do know."  He says carelessly, in a relaxed manner, causing Jisoo to look at him with shock, frowning.

 Was he trying to provoke her from the start?

 "But the real question is.."He looks at the other side thoughtfully, "How?"

He says, looking back at her, and silence reigns between them, after which he quickly follows, changing his facial expressions and smiling, 

 "It's okay. We'll talk about that another time. But.. what you know is not the whole truth.. allow me to enlighten you."

 He pauses and elaborates, 

"I did not kill your mother. Why would I?"

Jisoo gives him a questioning look, furrowing her eyebrows with great confusion.

"That night, it was your father who was supposed to die."

He says and Her face fall, with shock and scattered features.

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To be continued 
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Double update today, so expect another one later :)