“Oh Sojung!”

Johnny stormed into the house, furious. Minah had to be hospitalised for the injuries and she was sobbing so hard at the hospital, telling him what happened. He couldn’t believe how barbaric Sojung was.He started searching the house, with a bottle of wine in his hands, drunk off his head.

Sojung limped out of the kitchen with a glass of water, wondering what the ruckus was about.

“Oh Sojung,” he said when he caught sight of her. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

She walked over to the dining table, hiding the wince with every step. She had requested a skin-tight plaster over her stitches, so it wouldn’t be obvious over her pants that she was nursing a wound. Johnny rushed over to the dining table and slammed his hand down.

“Why did you have to confront and hurt Minah over a harmless photo? She told me everything.”

Sojung chuckled in amusement, “Pray tell. What did she tell you?”

“You are mad at me because I brought her to your father's ward. You are mad over the intimate photo,” Johnny sighed before letting out an amused breath. “If I didn’t know, I would have thought you have feelings for me, Sojung.”

That made her freeze.

She masked that initial surprise with a mocking grin.

“You’re thinking too much, you’re not that charismatic.”

Johnny scoffed, “Then why did you go look for Minah? What did she ever do to you?”

Sojung shrugged, faking nonchalance.

“She touched my family.”

“Are we back at this again?” Johnny threw his hands up in exasperation. “Did you really still think she had a hand in Dad’s incident?”

“I have my reasons, Seo Youngho. You’ll just have to trust me on this.”

“Trust you?” He shook his head. “That’s a mistake I won’t make twice.”

Sojung straightened her back, “What are you saying?”

“You,” he pointed a finger at her face, “and your family, are all bad people. You hurt people.”

She just watched him down the rest of the bottle.

“I can’t believe you needed to drink to gain some guts,” she let out a breath. "You talk about wanting to help me, wanting to be my pillar of strength, but the moment something goes south, you blame me first.”

He sauntered to her, his height towering over the girl. He reached over to hold her chin, tilting her head up so that their eyes met.

She made sure he was staring at her before uttering, “Liar.”

Johnny fumed and threw the wine bottle to the ground before shoving her. Sojung tripped over her foot and fell to the ground, landing on her wound. At the pain she was feeling, she was positive her wound tore.

Wonwoo and Mingyu were on standby outside the door and barged in after hearing the shattering of the bottle. When they saw her on the floor, they rushed towards her but she held her palm up.

They stopped and stood at attention, watching her with worried eyes.

“Fine,” she got up, limping a little, “I’m done with putting up with your nonsense. Wonwoo, get him to the room. I’m going out for a drink.”

“But, Young Miss, your thigh…”

“I can deal with a little bit of pain. Call Jongin, he’ll take care of it.”

Wonwoo whipped his mobile out and dialled Jongin’s number, which he picked up after three rings. 

“Master Kai? This is Wonwoo.”

“What’s up?”

“Young Miss just left the house, they got into a fight again. We--”

“I got it, I’ll go get her.”

“Thank you.”

Jongin hung up and double-checked his duties before leaving the office.

***

"It sure is a sight to see a married woman drinking her weight in alcohol like her life depended on it." Sojung looked up from her glass of wine, peering at the speaker before dropping her head again.

"Can’t a married woman drink? What are you doing here?"

"Wonwoo's worried," Kai sat beside her, signalling for another empty glass. "He called me."

"How'd you know I'll be here?"

"Come on, little lion, have some faith in me, will you?" He chuckled. "Tell me, what's going on?"

Sojung ran her fingers through her hair and sat up. She poured herself and Kai a glass of wine each. He watched her finish that glass, reaching to stop her when she wanted to refill her glass.

"Hey," he whispered. "That's enough. You're still injured."

"I just don't get it."

He gently took the wine glass away from her, "Don't get what?"

"How can anyone have so much trust in a person they haven't met in a long time?" She mumbled. "How do you still trust me after not meeting for so many years?"

"I've known you since we were kids, come on. A few years off wouldn't change anything."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

Jongin pressed his lips together, piecing information together, "Johnny and that ex-girlfriend?"

"You know," she rested her chin on her palm, gazing lazily at him. "I had an inkling that Minah's bad news."

She took his wine and sipped from it.

"Remember the bullet you found in Father's wound?"

Jongin nodded, smoothly taking the glass back from her and putting them on the next table, far away from Sojung's reach.

"I think I know who that bullet belongs to."

He paused.

This was news to him.

"How--"

"Did they really think I won't be able to recognize it?" She chuckled, tears welling in her eyes. "I recognised the bullet the moment I saw it. Just took me a couple of days to remember who it could belong to. No… more like days f