Entranced

Embracing The Title

Mrs Shin's eyes glinted. "Yes," she purred.

Minyoung's eyes shut as she swallowed, placing the paper next to the box of money. "I'll accept your deal."

Mrs Shin looked breathless with happiness. "Good," she murmured, getting up from the desk, walking over and snatching the piece of paper as her daughter lunged for the box.

Mina stared at her for a few moments, pitying the poor sight of Minyoung hugging the box and staring back at her. "Don't ever come back," she said, although, of course, there were some unspoken thoughts in her mind that she swallowed down.

Shin Minyoung. Shin Mina.

Jae Shin must have really wanted her to have a similar name, even giving her my surname instead of his.

Her eyes took in ever feature of Minyoung's, the paper feeling like lead in her hand. The physical similarities were uncanny, even out of Hyejeong and Hyejin, Minyoung seemed to hold the most resemblance to her.

She was feeling mixed emotions in those few seconds as she took in the sight of her first daughter for the last time, wanting to say words that would have been easy if she only knew how to say them.

But the time for those words had ended twenty-eight years ago when she had delivered the child she bore, and she swallowed, looking away from the dark eyes so similar to her own.

"I'll leave now," Minyoung said, and Mrs Shin looked up just in time to see Jiho running for the door, before her eyes fell on the paper. She unfolded them as Jiho and Minyoung left the room, and she realized that they had played her for a fool.

She stared in shock.

There were only two words on the blank piece of paper.

Fuck you.

"What?" she gasped, turning it around in frozen shock. But she had seen the birth certificate! She had touched it!

So where was it?

The butler, old with age, merely stared at the open doors, before looking at her stormy expression. "Mistress?" he asked uncertainly.

Mrs Shin crushed the piece of paper in her hand, replaying the things she had seen just before. "It's in her right pocket!" she screamed shrilly, as the butler attempted to run after them. "Get them!"

***

Hyejeong ran downstairs, towards the study, only to almost run into the doors as they opened. She watched two figures bolting out as fast as possible, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Jiho and Minyoung were gone in a flash, disappearing down the end of the hallway like their lives depended on it, and Hyejeong saw the lacquered box that had held the money in Minyoung's hands; she could even hear her laughing madly as they made their escape.

What have they done?

"Get them!" her mother was screaming, as Hyejin flew downstairs behind her, stunned at the raw, uncontrolled hysterical wails from within the study, even as the doors closed of their own accord.

"I don't care about the money! Don't let them leave the grounds until I get that birth certificate!"

"What's going on?" she cried, hearing their mother shrieking inside the study.

Hyejeong grabbed her hand, looking panicked. "I don't know, but something bad," she said, thinking fast as the doors opened. She shrank back as the butler attempted to chase down the escaping duo, and was relieved that he hadn't seen them out of their rooms. "Hyejin, we have to let them escape!" she cried.