FIFTIETH CHAPTER
Wicked Fate by Kenzo
To heaven or to hell?
The conversation with her aunt did nothing for Dara’s peace of mind… if anything, it had totally destroyed the equilibrium she had already found in her decision to be with Jay.
“Oh God…” she expelled as she continued to drive around… now near the beach side, her windows lowered down to feel the night air in hopes of finding some sense of peace from it.
She wanted to cleanse herself of everything and for the moment she just wanted to escape and leave everything behind her. “When had being happy become all this hard?” she asked the sound of the rolling waves and even if it would have freaked out any normal person, she would have appreciated for the sea to have answered.
If her mother were alive, she would have easily asked her why she chose her Dad over Judge Kwon and it would have most probably cleared her doubts. But then again, her life would have been far too different from what it was now.
“I’m hopeless” she pronounced and didn’t know if she wanted to go get drunk or have an accident that would cause her amnesia.
She wanted to go run to someone but knew that the only one she wanted to go to was the one she wasn’t supposed to see.It was treacherous to love him in spite of everything. It was completely stupid for her to continue doing so when she already knew that nothing was going to come out of it.
He had put up all sorts of barriers against her.
He had, so easily, pushed her away and into the arms of another man.
He had given her every reason why it was never going to work out with him and why he was never going to be the man for her.
He did not love her.
He didn’t even say that he could love her.
And yet… she continued to care for him and love him – she had to be honest about that.
But she had already accepted that there exist a kind of love where because you love the person, you cannot be with them – this was that love for her. AND she was already resigned to that.
“It was accidental and absolutely unexpected but with everything that was going around, they did and I have never seen your mom happier or more heartbroken at that time” her Aunt’s words haunted her and she felt the same sense of foreboding that had engulfed her when she first heard the story.
Her mom’s first love had become a broken man after she left him.
What had shaken her about this was if the same thing could happen to Jiyong.
It was crazy to even think it because he didn’t love her, she was sure, but somehow it kept nagging inside her mind and she didn’t want him to be a man more bitter than he already was.
He’s a wonderful guy and he deserved to be happy too… even if it wasn’t with her.
She turned and drove towards his cottage. She wasn’t going to let herself think of anything anymore but to just get to Jiyong.
If she even entertained any new thought, she knew she was going to lose her courage.
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Raw
“Are we going to kill ourselves?” Young Bae asked Jiyong as they neared the end of their run on the beach.
“I didn’t force you to come” he answered.“You should have asked me again if I was sure” his best friend growled out.
“You’ll find it harder to breathe if you keep speaking while running” Jiyong informed him nonchalantly.
“You can do it.”
“I’ve had training” he simply answered and sprinted again.He had just come back to training his body the same way he had back when he was in the military. Initially, it had been to exorcise out all the frustration and confusion he’s been feeling in the past days.
Today, however, marked the first day that he was doing this with a clear head and an even clearer purpose. He was in love with Dara and he was going to take the Battle of the Kings very seriously and make sure to win it.
Afterwards, he was going to declare to her, to her fiancé, the whole of the clinic, and the whole of the island that he loved her and that he couldn’t imagine himself falling in love with anyone else.
He smiled at how cheesy he was becoming.
“I’m cramping trying to keep up with you and you’re smiling like we’re strolling in the park?!?” Young Bae sounded like his ego had taken another blow again.
“I’m smiling because I’m in love with Dara” he told his best friend sincerely and continued running.
“What the?!?!?” Young Bae exploded at this revelation and from the sound of footfalls against the sand behind him, he was sure that the other man was running at full speed to catch up to him like the Road Runner. Jiyong was sure THAT had never happened before.
“You have to stop man! You have to say it again! Did I just hear what I think you said?!?”
He turned to face his best friend and ran backward, controlling his laughter because the usually swag Young Bae was running without absolutely any form just to be able to go after him.
He knew the man was on tenter hooks about this.
“Did you just say you’re in love with Dara?” Young Bae wanted to clarify again.
He nodded with a smile.“Man! You’re sprung!”
Jiyong laughed – that was the most “street” way to say it. Young Bae, however, looked like he had been struck by lightning.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Young Bae shook his head as if to will away an unsightly image and shook himself all over. “I just suddenly realized that you’re all going down one by one and Daesung and I are going to be the only one left with a bachelor pad.”
He understood how his best friend must feel. He’d been in the same predicament – envying those around him even if he didn’t admit it. The other man, however, was more forthright. Young Bae had always been like that even when they were younger.
“Don’t be too sure… I still have a lot to do and I don’t even know if she’ll take me back.”
They have both started walking, letting the sea’s wind batter them some more.
“So, you two really were together for a time?”
Jiyong nodded. “I let her go and pushed her to be with that Lawyer.”
“That was really stupid.”
“I know” he answered in defeat and then took on a more hopeful tone “That’s why I’m going to do my best to win her back.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. I think she loves you too… BUT… if she doesn’t get you back, we’ll be right behind you.”
He was really touched. “Thank you man… that’s good to know.”
“Though… I think you’d prefer Dara’s bosoms than ours” Young Bae quipped and Jiyong let out a wallop of a punch to his best friend’s arm. “Oh sh*t!” Young Bae yelped in pain.
Jiyong was about to give him another wallop when they heard tires screeching and a god-awful crash around the road near the beach.
“WHAT WAS THAT?!?”
They both looked around and saw a truck rammed around a tree in that road’s curve. They were about two kilometers away from Seunghyun’s home and cottage and Jiyong knew that this particular curve was one of the sharpest in the whole of the island.
With basic Doctor instincts, he and Young Bae ran towards the truck as his best friend was dialing the emergency number. They needed to clearly see what had happened.
When the truck came into full view, they both saw a man – most probably the driver, scrambling down the driver seat with blood on his face.
“Don’t move!” Ji shouted to get the man’s attention and saw the man turn towards the both of them – white-faced.
“I… I hit someone” the man informed them, his face of a ghastly pallor.
“We’re doctors. We’ll look at you injuries but where’s the person you hit?” Ji asked, fear creeping up on him for the unsuspecting victim. Whoever it was might not survive being hit by a truck.
“It’s a car” the driver informed them as he heard Young Bae reporting to someone over the phone on the condition of the crash “Over there.”
Jiyong felt oxygen leave his body. Stuck between the tree and the truck was a very familiar vehicle.
Like a man walking in very heavy fog, he leaped towards the car and saw what he had never ever seen even in his nightmares.
Dara lay slumped against an air bag with her head bleeding despite the protection, her eyes closed.
“DARA!!!” he screamed and tried to look for a way to reach her.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Not her.
Please… not her, his brain pleaded as he finally got to open the undamaged passenger door.
She was crushed between the car’s motor and the bent steel of the car.
He reached out for her and felt more fear build up. She wasn’t breathing.
“DARA!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed again, willing her back.
“DARA!!!!!!!!!!!”
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