HEART LIES

GET OUT

"Sa-rang, I'm sorry. I was so angry at her for what she said about you. I wanted Sonmi to see your side of the story. You're not a villain, Sa-rang. Stop painting this portrait of yourself."

"I don't care, Ji-Seong, my daughter can think what she wants as long as she doesn't blame herself. Now Sonmi must be thinking of all the things she said to me, and she is probably feeling guilty. I didn't want that; I don't desire Sonmi to believe she was a horrible daughter when I'm the one to blame. Look at what you've done. Even In-Sung knows."

Tears started to stream down Sa-rang's eyes as she empathized with In-Sung's pain, which she knew was tremendous. Within a day, the haven of peace he created was shattered. In-Sung lost In-Soo, the love of his life and his unborn child, as he discovered the mascarade.

To add some firepower to the already boiling pot, In-Sung had to refrain from strangling to death the instigator who happened to be his Ex and dying wife.

Sa-rang felt as though she burnt the man alive. In-Sung would never get back on his feet.

If they were someone on earth, Sa-rang did not wish to hurt it was In-Sung. The man had given her so much love and affection. Kyeong In-Sung sacrificed everything to make her happy. Sa-rang felt unworthy of the man's feelings.

She did not show enough love; she had not cared enough.

The moments where Sa-rang said she loved him during their marriage could be counted on her fingers. Whereas, In-Sung distributed the sentence like freebies, in messages, and within his actions.

Even when Sa-rang reduced the man to the rank of a housewife, In-Sung remained the same loving husband devoted to his family.

In-Soo was Sa-rang's gift to him. The woman was the type In-Sung should have met first. Sa-rang was like a bracket in a paragraph set to be closed in the man's life. It was with In-Soo he would write the remaining chapters of his existence.

Now all was lost, and Sa-rang despised Ji-Seong, who she believed was the culprit of all the disaster.

"Get out."

"Sa-rang. I know you are angry."

"You don't know anything about my feelings. Do you think I love you? You're wrong; I kept you by my side because I felt guilty for letting your mother die."

"Sa-rang," Yoona muttered as she stretched her hand to touch the woman's shoulders to beckon her to stop, but Sa-rang shrugged off her hand and pursued her inquisition.

"I let you stay next to me because you are as clingy and sticky as a parasite. You were amusement; that's what Silent knights are, right? You are entertainment for wealthy and lonely women in Seoul's high society. Now get out, don't ever appear before me again."

"I can see right through you; Lee Sa-rang, I know you don't mean what you're saying."

"If you can see through me, then you know what my wish is at this instant. I want to die right now, so I don't have to stare at your face again."

Yoona gulped as she listened to her friend's most venomous words.

The man blinked to stow away the tears which threatened to betray his feelings. Sa-rang's words stung; they shrunk Ji-Seong, who felt like the lost child waiting for his mother to come out of the blocks.

"How can you be so cruel?" Ji-Seong said as his eyes bored into hers.

"I thought you loved me that way."

In her eyes, Ji-Seong could read Sa rang's anger, but what made him surrender was the hatred that slithered under her stare. At this instant, there was no way to reason the woman.

Without a word, Ji-Seong picked up his jacket and left.

"Don't dare call, don't you dare approach me," the woman yelled from her living room.

Usually, Ji-Seong shook off this kind of outburst, but Sa rang pricked his heart with thousands of daggers. A retreat was the only option for the man to tend to his mental wounds. If in front of Sa rang, the man remained dignified, behind the closed door outside of her apartment, he collapsed.

Women had left him before, but never had Ji-Seong felt such an emotion of despair. He got up, went to his car, drove off, arrived at his apartment, and took a shower.

And it was only when he sat on his couch that he assessed what happened and Sa-rang's words.

The drops fell slowly at first, and suddenly they flooded out. There was no stopping them; Ji-Seong cried a lifetime's worth of tears at his mother's funeral. Since his mother's death, his eyes remained dry to the point he had to put in drops to hydrate them. But now, because and for Sa-rang, he cried.

What pained him was to think everything he had done was for her sake. Ji-Seong hoped to reconcile mother and daughter before the fateful moment where there would be no time to save the relationship.

If Ji-Seong represented nothing to Sa-rang, the woman, on the other hand, was his everything; and for her, the man was willing to give up all he had if it meant saving her. This was the resolution Ji-Seong desired to tell her in her apartment, and now all was lost. His gestures were on autopilot. Ji-Seong climbed in his bed and rolled up in a fetal position while he carried on to pour his heart out in his tears.

In Sa-rang's apartment, Yoona sat on the floor, "Sa rang why, why did you say all those things. Perhaps it's the hormones with the baby, and I'm a little too sensitive, but don't you think you want too far."

Yoona was one of the lucky people to have never experienced Sa rang's wrath. Her ears were immunized to her friend's harsh words, but here, even she was shocked by the rawness of Sa rang's speech.

"Yoona, what was I to do?" Sa-rang said, slumping down next to her. "I don't want to see him again; he ruined what is left of my life. I'm so exhausted from living. Why can't God take me now?"

"Sa-rang."

"What's the point? Tell me, Yoona. I worked all my life to climb the social ladder to become someone. I spent twenty years of my existence saving lives, for what? What do I get out of this, Yoona? Disputes and a tarnished reputation, the hatred of all those around me. I might as well die now.