Sixteen
Remnants Of The Heart
“Go away. . .” she whispered.
“What?” he asked in bewilderment.
“This is wrong. . . it’s a mistake. . . we shouldn’t have. . . no, I shouldn’t have allowed this to happen.”
His jaw clenched. “Wrong?!” he demanded in a whisper.
“Yes. . .” she said, looking anywhere but him.
“Look at me and tell it felt wrong to you because damn, Dara! It felt every inch right to me!”
Her heart started beating fast against her chest. She heard him but she refused to take it in. “I’m sorry. . .” she whispered. “But I love Seunghyun.”
Jiyong stepped back, disappointment written in his face. “I get it,” he said with a grim expression. “It has always been like this, hasn’t it? And yet, I’ve never learned my lesson. It’s always the bad guy ending up heartbroken and dead at the end of the story.”
“Jiyong, it’s not –”
“No,” he said. “Don’t comfort me. It’ll only make me feel worst.” He turned away and covered his face with his hands, as if he wanted to wipe his face off. “!” he swore and spat to the ground. He then placed both hands on his waist and threw his head back, his eyes closed.
Dara watched him with a heavy heart. She had a strong urge to hug him and it took all of her efforts not to do. She just had the feeling he’s not going to welcome anything from her. She bit her lower lip as she balled her fists tightly. She looked away in an attempt to control the urge to hug his tensed form.
After some time, he took a deep breath and turned to his left. “Let’s get inside,” he said without glancing at her. He walked ahead of her and she faltered behind, her head bowed. She can feel the warmness in her cheeks. She didn’t really pay that much attention to it before but it was the first time that she took his confession seriously. She knew she was blushing and she can’t understand why. Yes, it’s flattering to hear someone admiring you but she never really expected to hear it from Jiyong, most especially Jiyong to be exact. And why was she feeling the way she feels right now? Shouldn’t she mock him now? Shouldn’t see about it now? Shouldn’t she bully him the way he bullies her? It was the perfect revenge.
However, she did not feel anything closely to revenge. As she pondered upon it, the only name she could give the emotion she’s feeling was – sadness. Why? She knew she shouldn’t be sad but she was feeling it anyways.
Upon arriving back to the house, Jiyong went to the table and started wiping his guns with a cloth again. After some time, he stood up and went out. Dara did not attempt to talk to him. She knew he wouldn’t welcome the idea of it. And besides, she was as confused as hell. If only Seunghyun was with her right now, she probably wouldn’t feel the way she does. She curled herself in a ball in the bed, letting her thoughts drift inside her head.
But she was the type of person who could not live in silence. She stood up and looked outside the window. She saw Jiyong pacing back and forth, his head going here and there with his eyes narrowed. She can see how tensed his shoulder looked and she can’t help but frown at it. Her eyes grew wide upon seeing him turning around and heading back to the house. She immediately climbed back to bed and lied down, pretending to have fallen asleep.
“When is Seunghyun coming back again?” he asked.
She went on pretending to be asleep. He heard him sighed out loud. There was silence. She then felt her being cuddled in bed covers. Her heart thundered inside her chest at the sweet and thoughtful gesture. She bit her lower lip and for a second, thought of standing up and throwing herself to him. But she stopped herself.
She closed her eyes tightly and stayed still. Later on, she heard his footsteps fading away. When there was nothing but silence. She slowly opened her eyes again and looked back – the house was empty. She could hazard a guess that Jiyong was outside again. How she wished Seunghyun was with her so she won’t feel this confused.
Dara didn’t realize she fell asleep until she was being shaken up by Jiyong. “ it, wake up or else I’m going to carry you!”
Dara rubbed her eyes open. “What is it?”
“We need to go!” he urgently said.
She glared at him. “Are you trying to prank me again?” Without saying anything, Jiyong grabbed her up and started carrying her, making her scream. “Put me down!”
“Shut up!” he hissed.
“I said put me –!” she started but stopped upon hearing commotion outside. Her eyes widened as she looked up at Jiyong. He looked tensed and serious. Dara then realized that he wasn’t fooling around this time. She immediately wrapped her arms around him and held on him tight. It was weird because her position made her look like she was actually trying to protect Jiyong. “Ji. . .”
“You won’t die, I promise,” he whispered so fiercely that it made her stare up at him. Her heart hammed in her chest from fear – for him and not for her. It was impossible for them to escape this.
The door opened and Seunghyun came in first. Dara’s eyes widened. “Seunghyun!”
Seunghyun stepped aside and men in uniforms holding guns flooded in. All of them had their guns on Jiyong. “Put her down!” one of them said. Dara knew what will happen if Jiyong will put her down: he’s going to be arrested.
“No!” she said. “You got it all wrong! He’s not a bad guy!” She then looked at Seunghyun desperately. “Seunghyun, tell them Jiyong’s not the bad guy here!”
Seunghyun stared at her then looked away. “He’s Kwon Jiyong,” he said, making Dara’s eyes widened.
“Put her down now!” the officer said again.
Jiyong slowly placed Dara down but she held on to him like a koala bear. “No. . .”
He looked down at her with a frown on his face. Then, he kissed her on the lips, desperately. Dara balled her fists on his shirt, her eyes snapping close. Dara was then pulled away from Jiyong’s arms by Seunghyun. The men in uniform lunge at Jiyong and handcuffed him before he can even move. Jiyong just stood there motionless, looking at Seunghyun.
“Officers, you don’t understand,” Dara said, sounding desperately. “It wasn’t Jiyong who –”
“Miss, Kwon Jiyong has long been added up to our wanted list,” one of them said.
Two of the officers then grabbed Jiyong by the shoulders and started pushing him towards the door. He stopped just in front of Seunghyun. “Do you really think they can protect her?” he asked. “If something bad happens to her, I’ll kill you myself!”
Seunghyun didn’t say anything.
“Wait, Mister, Kwon Jiyong is not a bad guy. He’s –.”
Seunghyun pulled Dara into a hug, his hand coming up to her head and buried it to his chest. “Dara, shush!”
“How could you do this!” she exclaimed, pulling away from him.
“Dara. . . .”
“I’m going to tell them he’s not a bad guy!”
“Even if you do that Dara, they won’t free him!” Seunghyun said.
“Why not?”
“Because I told them he kidnapped you and you’ve been brainwashed.”
“Whaaat?”
“Dara, let me explain.”
“No!” she refused, stepping away from him. “I can’t believe you did this!”
“I have a reason!” he said. “And besides, you’ll be safer now! I already told your parents everything I know and they promised they will protect you no matter what!”
“You told them?” she softly asked. “Did you tell them as well it was you who kidnapped me?”
Seunghyun’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t attempt to hurt you or kill you.”
“At least Jiyong had the decency not to bust you in for kidnapping me.”
“Are you actually protecting him?”
Dara refused to see or talk to Seunghyun after that. She was reunited with her parents again. She told them Jiyong wasn’t a bad guy but they seem to believe Seunghyun more than her. She really wanted to know why Seunghyun did this but she was scared to hear his reason. She was, however, more scared of Jiyong’s safety. She knew his uncle isn’t that happy about him. She knew that No Minwoo hates him. He would be defenseless being all locked up. She didn’t tell them it was Seunghyun who got her kidnapped. She didn’t really want him to be locked up. although, she didn’t want Jiyong to be locked up as well, she just felt like Jiyong can handle it more than Seunghyun.
And she wanted to see him, so bad that it’s making her sleepless.
Her parents hired three bodyguards for her. It was pretty annoying, to be honest but then, she didn’t really have a choice. One day, she decided to go visit Kwon Jiyong without telling her parents. The bodyguards don’t speak much but she can feel they were against it. But she didn’t directly tell them she wanted to visit him, she just said she needed to speak with the authorities directly.
Her eyes widened as soon as she saw Jiyong. “What happened to you?”
A smirk curved his lips as he dropped himself to the vacant chair. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Dara frowned. “What happened?” she asked again as he was covered all over in bruises and cuts.
“Some of them people are my Uncle’s puppets,” he answered, shrugging. “You shouldn’t have come here, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ll inform my Uncle you’re here and he’s going to send some people to get you killed.”
“They can’t do that!” she said.
He leaned forward and whispered in an urgent voice. “Dara, get away from your parents’ house and hide. That place is no longer safe. There’s something more to this than what you think.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “Now, listen to me,” he said, leaning further forward, voice dropping lower. “When you step out of this place, expect to have someone out there ready to shoot you. Now here’s what you need to do.”
Dara’s heart was hammering inside her chest but she was pretty good in making a straight face. The moment she stepped out of the door, she mentally counted three, bowed down and tried to fix her shoelaces when they were perfectly fine. The moment she did that, she heard a thud followed by the sight of one of her guards sprawled on the floor with a bullet on his forehead. She immediately hid herself behind one of the two guards left. Being a tiny person, she was fully covered.
“Get back,” one of the guards said.
Needn’t telling twice, she did and ran to the comfort room as Jiyong instructed. She couldn’t waste a second so the moment she entered it, she immediately went to the fourth cubicle, climbed on the bowl and reached for the ceiling. She could only pray and wish that her guards were out there trying to clear the vicinity. A portion of the ceiling lifted and she quickly pulled herself up, with some difficulty. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. . .” she chanted under her breath as she put the lifted part of the ceiling closed. Darkness then embraced her. She turned around on her knees as the place was too skimpy for her to move. She started crawling forwards and turned left on the first fork that she met. Beads of sweat formed in her forehead the same time tears started flowing from her eyes. She was greeted by another fork and as instructed, she turned right this time and started counting in her head.
She stopped by the time she reached thirty. It was too dark and she can’t see anything but Jiyong told her to feel for something elevated. Using her hands, she started sliding it through the walls as well as the base. Just as she found the elevated portion, a gunshot sounded nearby that made her froze. It was followed by a series of gunshot that her body was frozen with fear.
Her eyes widened upon hearing someone trying to push the elevated part from under. She started backing out but when the elevated part opened, she froze again. she was paralyzed with fear. She tried moving her body but it won’t cooperate. It’s as if her body already knew what’s going to happen and it didn’t want to prolong the agony anymore. With wide eyes, she could only stare at the gun protruding from the hole.
"She's here!" she heard Jiyong's familiar voice called out.
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A/N:
sorry if it took me some time to update this.
kekekeke...
banner credits to matokki! yay!! Thank you so much for the banner gift.. kekekeke...
*evil grin*
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