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As much as Mari wanted to throw herself into Hongjoong arms and scream her sorrows away, they didn't exactly have the time for that. There were more important things to handle first.
The whole ordeal was Yeosang's plan, according to San, and was the reason why coming to save her had taken much longer than they expected. It especially took a while to get through when Seonghwa and Hongjoong were continuously butting heads with each other.
Yeosang and San had to return to the current holding of the Seo Faction and inform her father of all the details they could get from the Kim Faction boys about what exactly had happened. In her father's eyes he had only known that Mari was home one day and then disappeared the next, only for a ransom asking his presence to come to him instead of her.
Given how he acted when her mother had been murdered by the Kim Faction assassins, she wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't take action. After all, Yeosang had said to her that the Seo Faction was damaged and wouldn't be prepared for such a large onslaught just to save her. They didn't do it when she asked them to save Wooyoung, so why would they do it for her?
However Mari clearly underestimated the parental instinctiveness of her father after learning that when informed of Mari's kidnapping, he had begun to act irrationally.
The heir of the Seo Faction, his only daughter, the last remaining member of his family besides himself, taken right from under his nose. It had taken the forces of the Underboss, the Consigliere, Yeosang, and San together to keep him calm.
After all, who knows what would have happened if her father came crashing into the Kim Faction's territory without a plan? All hell would break loose and their enemies would have the Godfather of the rival faction right where they wanted him.
While Yeosang and San were catching the Seo Faction up to date with everything that had occurred, Hongjoong's side of the plan was busy trying to figure out where exactly Mari was located.
The red headed boy was now considered a traitor to his own faction and his friends were his accomplices to his crimes, they could no longer receive information from within the faction. Hongjoong had really estranged himself from the Kim Faction and had no power within the place he once called home. However their current ace in the hole ironically had become Seonghwa, the same boy who had stabbed Mari in the back and turned her over to the Kim Faction Underboss.
Because of his dealings with Jaebeom, Seonghwa was deemed more trustworthy than Mingi and Yunho who had not only assisted in Hongjoong's escape, but would knowingly take his side at any given moment. That meant that the boy would know exactly where Mari would be located once Jaebeom dropped the information on him.
Mari assumed the Underboss had targeted Seonghwa in particular to attempt to pit the group of boys against each other and it had nearly worked if what San said was true. Yet Yeosang had a way with words and Seonghwa's loyalty to Hongjoong was a lot stronger than Jaebeom must have predicted and the tables had turned in the group of teenagers' favor.
