The two of them got out of the car after another 30 minutes in the car. Both of them calmed their emotions since the conversation earlier.
Donghee looked at the store in front of her. It was a basic clothing store. From the looks of it, the clothes weren't the most expensive but also wasn't the cheapest. Donghee walked inside the store with Mark following behind her.
There was a soft lavender aroma that filled the store. The store was warm compared to the winter weather outside. There were racks leaned up against the beige painted walls.
A vast variety of clothes hung on them. In the large walk space were multiple tables that had small sections in them; rings, earring, necklaces, bracelets, anklets. There were seats and mini couches every here and there in the store.
"Hi! How may I help you?" Donghee turned her head at the voice, immediately looking at the name tag - Hyerin.
"Hey uhm, we were wondering if Lim Sooyoung was here?"
"May I ask who you are?"
"I'm Donghee. I'm familiar with Nam Jihyeon and-"
"Please wait here." Hyerin didn't let Donghee finish before she walked off. Based on assumptions, Donghee assumed that Hyerin was Sooyoung's daughter.
Minutes passed and an older lady came walking beside Hyerin. She had red-brown dyed hair, almost looking natural, with very few white roots. Despite her known age, she looked much younger than she was.
"I'm Sooyoung, you claim to know my cousin."
"Oh uh yes, I'm a placement worker and I help take care of her at the hospital. I'm Donghee and this is my uh..brother Mark, he drove me here." Mark bowed at the elder and so did Donghee.
"And how may I come to help you today?" Sooyoung shooed Hyerin away from them, gesturing for her to continue her work.
"Well uh Miss Nam told me to come to you because you'd be able to answer the questions I had?"
"Well then, let's go talk somewhere more private?"
Sooyoung led the both of them through a door labelled 'Staff Only'. Walking through that room, she led them through to a different door. Inside were two beige plush couches facing each other with a glass coffee table sitting in the middle of it.
"So, how may I help you dear?" Sooyoung seated herself on the couch across from Donghee and Mark. "Well, Miss Nam said that my uhm father holds great power that I shouldn't underestimate but she couldn't tell me what it was." Sooyoung looks down at her hands that were held together in her lap with a sigh.
"Although I don't know how, your father has many connections from all over Neocity. I don't know how he managed it but, he's strong in a way you can't believe. He has power you wouldn't think an average man has. He has eyes everywhere and they're not always his."
"By any chance," Mark started, "do you know anything about his relation with Blood Thorns? I'm aware that their leader also loved Donghee's mother but, is there anything else that goes beyond that?"
"Honestly there isn't much beyond that point, at least not that I know of."
Mark and Donghee sat quietly. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask, but all of a sudden those questions flew out her head and were gone.
"Who's watching? She says that 'they're watching' but I don't know who 'they' is."
"Knowing that your father has connections everywhere, anytime Miss Nam changes rooms, someone will place a hidden camera in there. I don't who works there but you mustn't trust anyone. Unless you know well that they are an ally, you can't trust anyone with anything. If Jihyeon even dared to say something, your father would come to take her and kill her."
"But why? Why does he hate her when she isn't the one that did anything?" It was Mark that spoke this time.
"Sunhee and Jihyeon kept contact even after the arranged marriage. Of course they said they only remained friends but the feelings never left."
"Did he love my mum though? Did he ever genuinely love her enough to have the rights to be mad? It isn't her fault she loved a female. Even if it was arranged. he shouldn't have right t-"
"He never loved her but he swore to not hurt her. Of course Daehyun hated Chanwoo for loving her, Chanwoo hated her family for choosing someone they barely knew over a family friend. But even with their hatred, Daehyun promised that he'd never hurt Sunhee. That ultimately became a promise that he'd never hurt Jihyeon, but he was against it. She didn't have anything to offer him, and so he naturally hated her."
Donghee couldn't believe her ears. Her 'father' was far worse than she thought him to be. She never thought she could possibly die in the hands of her father. In fact, she didn't even know why Blood Thorn wanted her. In fact, why were the threats only towards her?
"Actually, Miss Nam said something to me and I don't quite understand. I assume that it's because of the hidden camera she used indirect words but she said, 'a mirror reflects what you see but never what is on the other side.' I don't quite understand it."
This, this was complicated. From what Sooyoung knew, the phrase itself had two meanings. Both meanings were equally as confusing and conflicting.
"There's two meanings, which do you want to know first? 1 or 2?"
"Uhh..2?"
Sooyoung took a deep breath. She could already tell how conflicting and impactful it'd be on Donghee's life. She knew that too well.
"Blood Thorn aren't the people you want to get rid of. Leave Blood Thorn aside. From what you see, they're bad people but behind everything, they're not bad. They're there to help however, listen to this closely. They will do this and that but it is only a way to make you run and hide,"
"They can't just send you something and say 'run for your life, your father is after you.' They have to find a subtle way to make you run and hide. If they just sent you a friendly letter, your father's little spies would catch you immediately. It's all cruel tricks."
"Wait so, Blood Thorn aren't the enemies?" Mark asked.
"No, no never. Chanwoo loved your mother too much to hurt you physically. He loved her too much to then risk your life. He could only find some ways to make you run away and hide without saying it directly."
"That makes sense, that's why the box was untouched!" Donghee turned her head to Mark.
Slowly, everything was piecing together. Obviously there were still some lost pieces every here and there but it was progress - they were getting somewhere.
"What's 1? You said there's two meanings." Sooyoung felt words clog her throat. This was going to be a hard one to explain, she knew it.
"Your father..he..he only wants you gone. The only child Daehyun wants alive is Donghyuck. The reasoning is..you were a bet, in a way. When your mother was 5 months pregnant, there was a bet placed between Chanwoo and Daehyun on whether you'd be a girl or boy. If you were born a girl, you'd grow up and work with Chanwoo in Blood Thorn and become the future leader. If you were a boy, then you'd be dismissed. Why he wants to kill you is because he lost and doesn't want to give you to Chanwoo. There's no other way of doing that unless he kills you."
Donghee and Mark were both at shock. There were no words that could form in either of their mouths. She was going to die. She didn't know when that some day was. She could only wish that it wasn't this year. It was only October , she couldn't die this quickly.
yk it took me five days to rewrite all 26 chapters and my friend kept telling me to take a break and kept asking- "why do u basically write essays in ur free time?"
when I say I LITERALLY spend the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep writing, I mean it.....