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Hongjoong agreed. It took a while to get him on board with the idea, seeing as he was very adamant about keeping Mari away from both his house and his father. But after a couple of precisely planned arguments and an unfortunate amount of guilt tripping, she was able to make him agree. Despite everything that had happened after the attack on the Seo Manor, she was still mad at him though it may not look like it. So she ended up using that source of anger and frustration as leverage over Hongjoong, just this once.
She knew that it wasn't the greatest way to go about things as she knew that manipulating people into doing things they don't like didn't usually end well. But Hongjoong had tried to kill her on multiple occasions so... she was just going to pay it forward this way.
"They're not sane," Hongjoong had told her over the phone, attempting to prep her the impromptu dinner. "They hide it well, how much they analyze people. If they ask you any questions deflect it with another question, or give a question that satisfies their needs just enough. Watch what you say, how you act, what you see, they're always trying to keep control of what's going on in that house. That includes trying to control their guests who visit as well."
She could see why Hongjoong constantly escaped to Mingi's house when he was talking. They were control freaks, constantly trying to dictate what was happening in that house whether or not something was breathing or not. It didn't matter if you were under the Kim Faction or not, if you had a conscience that could be manipulated they'd take their chances. They were like the bars to a bird's cage, constantly trying to keep their son's free spirit behind lock and key so he couldn't escape again.
And Hongjoong had the audacity to let Mari rant about her family? He had it far worse than her, he had her worst nightmare. There's no doubt about it that everything Hongjoong was doing now to this day was an act of defiance to make his parents realize he was not a piece of property that they could change and control.
"This is going to be... much harder than I thought it would be," Mari mumbled, sitting in the back of the Rolls Royce with her feet kicked up on the passenger's seat. She really shouldn't be, seeing as she was wearing a white dress thanks to the formal dress code Hongjoong's father had pushed on them, but it's not like her driver was going to look at her. They had to keep their eyes on the road and if they didn't? That would be weird. "The fact that returning home isn't my biggest problem is extremely scary."
No one in the faction knew where she was going exactly, except for San and most likely Yeosang by now. The Seo Faction didn't have nearly as much intel as the Kim Faction did on their home base and family residence, so she had the ability to openly talk about the address to Hongjoong's home without worry. To everyone else, it just seemed as though she was going out to do the normal teenaged activities and definitely not potentially leading herself to her demise.
