Dread gripped at Mari’s heart. She pushed Baekhyun’s arm off of her with all the strength she could muster, mingling with the crowd as her feet took her to her Mother’s side. Everyone already rushed into the exits with the hall roaring with screams and shouts from the other security guards in order to control the mass. She vaguely heard Baekhyun calling after her but Mari couldn’t turn her back, not when people nearly stomped over her Mother’s fallen body.

“Mother!”

Her eyes widened as she sputtered out blood, glistening with tears and regret as she took Mari’s hand. Mari yelped when her blood stained her dress, but she only clutched her Mother’s trembling ones, leaning down when she struggled to say something. “Don’t trust anyone,” she coughed out, the words pained and forced. Her Mother closed her eyes as she winced from the pain as she said, “Less...”

“What? What are you saying? Wake up, Mother! Wake up!”

Baekhyun appeared by her side, his gun now stashed away as he tried to pull her up. His eyes frantically looked around from the chaos that had now settled, and his shoulders were rigid. “Mari, we have to go, it’s not safe. They’ll take her to Kyungsoo’s hospital, but we have to go.”

“I’m not leaving my Mother.”

“She’ll be fine. I promise you she’ll be fine. Now, do you trust me?” Baekhyun forced her to face him and she quivered, her legs wobbling. If it hadn’t been for his hand on the small of her back, she would’ve fallen already. Baekhyun blurred right in front of her gaze as she struggled to crouch back down to her Mother, but he wouldn’t let her go. “I’ll keep you safe, but it’s not gonna be easy for me to do that when the shooter is just out here. We have to go now, okay?”

“Baekhyun! Take my Mom to the safe house!” Chanyeol ordered, his arm looped around his Mrs. Park’s shoulders who paled at the sight of Mari’s mother who barely breathed on the ground.

Mrs. Park fought against her son’s hold. “I’m not going anywhere, my best friend just got shot!”

“Mom, now’s not the time for us to argue, okay? There’s a killer on the loose! You have to get to safety. I’ll handle the media, okay?”

“Chanyeol, you can’t—”

Chanyeol’s hard gaze cut through hers. “Mom. I’m not asking. We don’t know who will be targeted next,” His eyes softened, shoulders slumping when Mrs. Park banged her fist on his chest. It didn’t seem to hurt him that much considering his size, but the defeat and worry was evident in his eyes. “Please. I’ll call you when we get to the hospital. Mrs. Fujiwara will be fine.”

Baekhyun stiffened behind her. He cast an apologetic glance to Mari’s way as he moved to Mrs. Park’s way. Mari stepped forwards and clutched his bicep. “B-Baekhyun, don’t leave me.”

“Mari, it’s okay. I’ll stick with you, but for now, we gotta get your Mom to a hospital,” it was Chanyeol who spoke this time, gently pushing his Mother in Baekhyun’s arms. Mrs. Park reached out an arm just as a medical team arrived along with a stoic Kyungsoo who spared them no glance. Mari wanted to push him away—to scream at him that she didn’t want him to be around, but she felt too weak to fight back.

Nothing made sense to her anymore when Baekhyun left. Her Mother had been lifted off into an ambulance with Kyungsoo barking orders at his staff, while Mari stood stiffly at the hallway. How they made it to the hospital—she didn’t know.

She only stared emptily outside the operating room, their security team hoarding over her with careful eyes and stiff postures. The sirens had long been drowned out except for the crowd of reporters and journalists demanding for an answer in the lobby of the hospital. Kyungsoo had already bellowed to his security staff to keep them at bay, but there was not much of a difference between wild animals and reports hungry for the latest news.

The disrespect made Mari clench her teeth at the same time bury her head in her hands. They were too noisy outside and a little too quiet inside that she could hear every whir of the air conditioning, the hurried footsteps of the medical staff, and every tick of the clock. An hour must’ve passed, maybe two. Mari lost count.

Her Mother’s glassy eyes stared back at her, plump lips coated in red and chest struggling to gasp for air. Mari no longer shook, in fact, she felt so empty. The previous worry had ebbed away and now she was left with nothing but a cold sense of loneliness. Her Mother hadn’t even been around for Mari to get to know her better, to spend enough Mother and Daughter bonding time with her—and she left as fast as she came.

The loneliness was not something Mari was a stranger with. She grew up with it, lived with it, made it her only friend—until Baekhyun came and shone light her way. But he wasn’t there either, and Mari wasn’t even sure her Mother would make it through the night. Even if she didn’t, what would it change? She didn’t know the woman that much. She’d seen her Mother more times on tabloids and magazines than she ever actually felt her touch.

Could it be possible to miss someone that had never been there for you?

Mari had no answer.

A certain airy voice drifted in the silence of the hallway. Her thoughts and the commotion outside had been too noisy Mari failed to recognize the frantic footsteps, but when she looked up, every muscle in her body froze. Then like a creature that awaited a thousand years for its awakening, she felt her blood boil.

Mari pushed past against the security team until she came face-to-face with the vixen herself. Even in such a troublesome night, Evelyn looked flawless, the coral pink dress she wore flowing around until she resembled a floating angel. The supermodel only glanced at her for a split second before turning the other way with a sigh, only to be stopped by Mari’s barely restrained fury. “How dare you show up here. Only friends and family are allowed in this area.”

Evelyn sent an unimpressed glance, as if this conversation bored her. “I’m here for Chanyeol. My boyfriend is completely distressed—”

“Leave,” Mari commanded. “Before I make the guards drag you out limb by limb.”

“You think you’re powerful just because you’re engaged to him now?” Evelyn scoffed, crossing her arms on her chest with her purse resting on the other arm. She scowled. “He will never love you.”

“What makes you think I care? He won’t love you too once he finds out what you did,” Mari fired back with narrowed eyes. She praised herself for controlling herself despite the need to peel away all her layers and to show the world how disgusting she was, but now was not the time, and her patience grew thinner with each minute. “Underestimating me was one of your biggest mistakes, Evelyn. You are nothing and nobody compared to me. You’re not even on my level.”

Evelyn’s eyes shone with recognition, and for a moment, Mari was sure she saw fear. “You won’t tell him—”

“Unless you don’t get the out of here, I can’t guarantee your safety, Miss Wang. Leave.”

“She’s staying,” piped up Chanyeol who appeared from a corner. He glared at Evelyn and the two had a mini staring battle before he sighed. “We need a public figure to help calm the mass down. Word will get out—it’ll reach Tokyo too. Your Mother was a model, right? We’re not sure how your family will handle it there.”

“Since when do you care about my family?” Mari scowled, then rolled her eyes when Chanyeol turned to goo under Evelyn’s hypnotizing gaze. The sight was so sickening to look at and Mari couldn’t assure she’d be able to keep her composure for one more second. As much as she wanted to rip Evelyn’s eyeballs out, her dirty secrets and Chanyeol’s ignorance were the least of her worries now, especially when Chanyeol was so lovesick with the she-devil. She raised her hands in surrender. “Fine. Keep prancing around with her. Just don’t go crying to me when you find out she’s exactly like her pathetic excuse of a father.”

Mari turned around to leave the scene, pausing when the doors to the operating room opened. Kyungsoo shed off his mask, showing a frown with his eyes casted down the floor. “Miss Fujiwara… We did everything we could, but the shooter hit an artery and she bled out profusely. Whoever hit her must’ve calculated everything already. She never would have made it,” he whispered with shame. Kyungsoo opened his palms and handed her a crumpled note with bloodstains. “This was found in her fist. I think you should see it.”

“Someone killed my Mother.”

Of course—there couldn’t be any other reason for it. Her Mother had run away from something—or rather someone. She ran away from her Father, someone who she trusted for her whole life, but Jungwoo and her Mother’s last words rang in her head.

Don’t trust anyone, don’t trust anyone—who else was closely affiliated with them that Mari could potentially distrust? Who else was she with that could betray them? It had to be someone that even her parents previously trusted and it couldn’t be anyone else other than—Mari ran away from Kyungsoo and past the guards.

She turned from one hallway into another, searching for a certain loud girl. If there was anyone she could be with, it would be no one else but Mina. Mari found her leaning against the wall with cold, empty eyes and trembling hands, her attention solely focused on whoever she spoke to on the