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"I have a question for you," Mari spoke, glancing up at the boy that stood in front of her. Yeosang stared back with his usual stone cold eyes, not a lick of emotion swirling in his irises. It was almost as if he had locked them deep away within his chest and thrown away the key in an attempt to keep himself closed off to others, but she knew that wasn't the case. How could it be, when she was aware of the fact that this was truly not the Yeosang she knew.
The Greek statue she called a friend hadn't spoken to her in weeks, given the fact that she was currently kidnapped and they had fought before the whole situation went down in the first place. "Why do you keep appearing in my dreams? It's always the nightmares, too."
The boy thought about it for a second, contemplating on how exactly he would answer her. "I don't know."
"Are you saying I don't know because you want to," Mari questioned, a weak smile growing on her face as she stared at the dream-state Yeosang, "or are you saying that because I'm the one who doesn't know?"
In that instance, he smiled, not the childish and amused one he'd give her for a statement like that, but a smile nonetheless. For her sake, Mari decided it was probably the latter that was the answer since dreaming state Yeosang most likely didn't have complete control over his thoughts. He was simply a mix of her known knowledge and unconscious thoughts, used as a visual depiction of her dreams trying to warn her of whatever dangers lie ahead.
A small laugh escaped her mouth as she registered the smile on his face, "this isn't a nightmare, I've just been sitting in the void with you for several minutes. I see no dead bodies of my friends, no Jaerin for me to scream at. So why are you here, Yeosang?"
He finally gave her an answer, a small yet decent answer. "Because you're running out of time and you're giving up on yourself."
"Am I dying?" Mari quickly interrupted, standing up to her full height in an instant. "I know I haven't really eaten anything for a week or two but I thought humans could survive at least a month before they finally clock out of existence. I can't die here, that'll just make everything easier for the Kim Faction and I live to spite them for fun!"
Yeosang rolled his eyes, trying his best to keep a straight face as a sigh of annoyance left his mouth. "You're not dying," he reassured you, "have you listened to what I've been saying this entire time?"
Mari sheepishly smiled at him, nervously scratching the back of her neck as she responded, "no not really. I've kinda been... preoccupied with other stuff? You're just a figment of my subconscious, you'd know I wasn't paying attention to literally any of that nonsense you spoke about."
The boy's eyes narrowed as he slowly nodded his head, "I see this now."
"How about instead of you being cryptic, you just go ahead and tell me exactly what you meant anyway? I think that would benefit me a lot more in the long run." She almost couldn't believe it, she could even get on real life Yeosang and subconscious Yeosang nerves.
"Who do you care for more," Yeosang asked, completely switching from the topic beforehand. Of course, the boy wasn't going to give her a straight answer, when was her brain ever going to give her an answer that was useful instead of the stupid ideas that had to lead up to this situation? "Wooyoung or Hongjoong?"
"This question again," she huffed, fainting recalling a dream similar to this one. "Do I have to choose between them? They're both people I care about, it's evil to make me choose."
"It's a little too late to be asking that question," the boy shrugged. He held out his hand and revealed the recurring motif of the lock and key necklace in his palms. The charms were rusted and covered with dried blood, a sight that Mari was a little more numb to than she had hoped. She looked back up at him to try and get a hint of her mind's intention in his eyes but ultimately didn't receive any of the answers she wanted. "Now pick. Lock? Or key? Hongjoong? Or Wooyoung?"
"Right now?"
"Right now." He repeated. Was this the decision her mind had been alluding to for the past several months? If it was, it was a lot more anticlimactic than she would have thought it was. The girl leaned back to examine the piece of jewelry in his hands, having a small debate within her mind (how ironic) about what to do. After a moment to herself, she reluctantly nodded.
"Okay then," Mari sat up straight, cautiously hovering her hands over the charms with a skeptical look on her face. Having brushed past such an oddly important subject like this only gave her so much time to think over her decisions. It didn't help that she normally just did whatever her mind told her first, jumping to action instead of looking over the consequences. But this time it included both Wooyoung and Hongjoong, and she was a bit tired of her actions negatively affecting them. "I'll choose this one then."
After a few moments, Mari was thrown right back into the dreary environment she had escaped from. She almost didn't want to get off of the ground, laying there for a moment longer to try and cling to the peaceful drowsiness of her sleep. She was so full of her original energy in her dreams, but waking up to reality had weighed all of her exhaustion back into her.
Mari was so tired, she was starting to lose track of time. How long had she locked away in the room for now? What time of day was it outside? She couldn't tell, and frankly, she thought she was going to lose her mind.
She had successfully snapped the chain that kept her to the ground but that didn't mean she got it off completely. The bulk of it was still attached to her ankle and without a key, she shouldn't simply slide it off of her like a ring. So Mari was like a ring of bells, jingling with every step she took and causing a lot more noise than she originally planned. The girl would have tried to take the chain off but all that strength she had from breaking herself free from the ground was gone.
Mari was tired, and she met whoever might come to get her halfway already. She didn't even care if it was Hongjoong or her father or anyone who would come to her rescue anymore. There was no step she could take on her own that would help the predicament she was in. Unless her wildly realistic dream of Yeosang could change anything, she was stuck with what she had.
So most of her days were spent lying on the ground, glazing in and out of reality in an attempt to get any sort of sleep. She wasn't granted the time to be alone with Chaeyeon and the Underboss of the Kim Faction constantly switching between who was going to question her or not. Their constant pestering and aggravated actions would force Mari awake, bringing out that little sliver of pride she had left.
Mari was so tired, she had no clue how much longer she could keep up the act. Her brave face and short temperament were slowly withering away the more exhausted she became. The only reason the girl hadn't completely clocked out of consciousness was that she forced herself to remember Wooyoung was in the same situation. He's been in this situation a lot longer than she has.
The boy spent two or more weeks with the Kim Faction before Mari could even come to find him thanks to not only her grievances but the Seo Faction's as well. Whatever hellish torture he had put up with before their enemy could even dream of putting their hands on her was worse than what she was enduring now. Pulling out now would probably make Mari seem more like a coward than anything.
Or maybe she was just a little stubborn for her liking in this scenario, that was always an option as well.
The muffled sound of jingling keys stirred her awake from her light sleep, internally rolling her eyes at the thought of Jaebeom or Chaeyeon coming to interrogate her again. When would they finally get tired of coming in to try and squeeze any sort of information they could from her? The only thing they had gotten from Mari so far was her spitting in their face or making some sort of snarky remark to their words.
One would think they'd finally give up on her, deeming Mari as a wasted effort since she wouldn't give them what they wanted. The only thing the Seo Faction could provide them with was her presence in order to lure her father to them and that's all she would do for them. She wasn't even willingly doing it for them either, but you can't control how someone reacts to your literal kidnapping.
"Aren't you sick of coming in here to talk to me?" Mari questioned, shifting her head slightly to look over her shoulder as the door creaked open. When she didn't receive an immediate answer, she continued to speak. "I sure am sick of you coming here to talk to me..."
Even after her small jab, she wasn't receiving an answer. Skeptical, she unwillingly pushed herself off the ground, the handcuffs around her wrist clanging together as she slouched up against the wall like a prison inmate. When Mari turned her eyes up towards the person in question, there stood Jaebeom fiddling with a hair tie in one hand and holding the door open in the other. The Underboss didn't speak once Mari made eye contact with him, only looking down on her with an annoyed glint in his iris.
"No questions today?" Mari asked him.
"You have a visitor," The Underboss explained, saying the words through clenched teeth and his fist tightening against the door handle. It looked like someone wasn't too happy about giving Mari a visitor or he didn't seem to enjoy the visitor's presence in general. Though it was probably both giving the circumstances.
"I don't want visitors though," The girl complained, narrowing her eyes at Jaebeom, "your visitors are always people who want to fight me."
"That's too bad," he shrugged. The man glanced behind him, calling something out of whoever had come to interrogate her next. She didn't quite catch what he said, but Mari did catch the Underboss's face twist with irritation at the response he had received. If the Kim Faction man didn't tolerate the company of Mari's visitor, how was she going to handle being in a room alone with them?
Mari may be exhausted but pushing the right buttons would make the girl go wild! Especially now that she had freed herself from being chained to the ground, who knows what Mari would do in an angered and delirious state?
The Underboss stepped out of the way as he held the door open, rolling his eyes as he called out for both Mari and her visitor. "You've got fifteen minutes maximum, make it count." Without another word the stranger walked into the room, heels clicking against the cold dirty floor and a condescending giggle echoing against the walls. This was probably the worst decision that Jaebeom could have made to date for Mari's sanity.
"Jaerin," Mari inhaled, taking in the girl's presence. This was the first time she had seen her since the attack on Seo Manor and according to one of the Underboss's men, they were supposed to kill her. Yet here she was, standing above Mari with a nasty smile on her face and playing with the jewelry that adorned her fingers. Funny enough, her mother's ring wasn't among them. "I thought you were dead."
"You thought wrong," Jaerin shrugged, slowly crouching down to Mari's height. "My my... isn't this a sight for sore eyes though? Someone finally put a leash on the dog."
She did not have the energy to get into a catfight with Jaerin, she barely had enough energy to keep herself awake during the day! Who knew when Mari's sharp tongue and attitude would finally give out on her and give the Lee Faction girl the satisfaction she had been reaching for.
"Where did you go?" Mari demanded after a second, the cuffs around her wrists jingling as she sat up to show at least a little display of strength. "I was told you were supposed to die that day at the Seo Manor, and then you disappeared where no one could find you. Then suddenly, you're here? With the enemy again?"
"Enemy?" Jaerin repeated. "They were never my enemy, they were just pawns in a game of chest I was playing. They've captured the queen and knight pieces for me and all that's left is snag the king and it'll be game over."
"That makes absolutely no sense," Mari told her, not even trying to process what Jaerin meant correctly.
Why bother when everything that came out of that girl's mouth sounded like utter chaos and idiocy? She'd like to keep the brain cells she had left instead of losing them to the broken gears of Lee Jaerin's words. "Where did you go after the Seo Manor attack and why are you here? I mean, you're definitely not here to give me back my ring, after all, you don't even have it with you. That being said I kinda don't want to do any business with you."
"Your ring?" Jaerin questioned, trying to recall what exactly Mari meant. Watching the girl feign ignorance to her misdeeds. Just looking at her face made Mari's blood boil, if Jaerin did absolutely anything to her mother's ring she'd choke her out right then and there without any warning. "Oh! The snake ring, right? Lovely piece of metal it was, but I threw it away. You didn't uphold your part of the deal, Hongjoong didn't die."
Mari nearly jumped from where she sat, all of the energy she had lost throughout the days she was stuck with the Kim Faction members coming back in a flash. The girl grabbed a hold of the shirt Jaerin was wearing and nearly shoved her to the ground, her body trembling as she growled at the Lee Faction girl. "You're lying," she insisted, "you're lying! Where is my mother's ring? Where is it!"
"Do you see it on me?" Jaerin laughed, holding up her hands to show off all of the sparkly accessories she adorned. "I don't have it anymore, it was a waste of time to even take that thing from you when you didn't even care about it as much as you did for Hongjoong? So why bother keeping it if you wouldn't do anything for it?"
Mari completely blocked out the girl's voice from her ears, trying not to come onto the brink of tears as her anger continued to grow. Oh, how she wanted to end the girl's life right then and there. The only piece of her life back at the manor, the only piece of her mother that had been able to survive the attack on the Seo Manor, was gone because of Jaerin's disdain for her. Did she even have any morals at this point? It sure didn't seem like it to Mari.
"You're so sick," she managed to say, fighting past every single intrusive thought that was swirling within her mind. Mari only pressed Jaerin down to the ground even harder, her grip on the girl's shirt intensifying as spoke, "you're the worst person I've ever met. All of this over some boy who doesn't like you back? You're pathetic."
"The moment I learned you were the heir to the Seo Faction—" Jaerin explained, pushing Mari off of her so that there would be a good bit of space between the two of them. Now that she knew Mari wasn't tied down to anything, she didn't want to be anywhere near her. "—it wasn't about just liking the same guy anymore."
That seemed to tip Mari over the edge, a piece of her sanity that kept her from making irrational decisions snapped in her mind. "Tell me who you gave the ring to and I might try to resist the urge to kill you," the girl explained, the chain that jingled against the cuffs beginning to look like it would be nice jewelry around her neck. After all, Mari could make anything a weapon if she tried hard enough.
"You're going to die in the next few days, Seo Mari, don't you know already?" Jaerin insisted, trying to put up a front despite looking rather horrified at the thought of dying because of her sheer will to get back at the Lee Faction girl. "Your father took the bait, he's coming to try and save you and when he does the both of you will die. Why would you need that thing when you're going to meet your mother together, hm?"
Mari's spirits shattered upon hearing those words come out of Jaerin's mouth. Her father had accepted the ransom that the Kim Faction had given him to come to get her? That couldn't be right, he wouldn't do that knowing the dangers he'd face if he even dared to step anywhere near the Kim Faction. Even then, Jaebeom had promised Wooyoung nothing would happen to her, but she didn't put it past him not to break a promise. "You're lying, you always lie to get me worked up."
"I'm not," She smiled, "you and your father are going to die, Mari. I win!"
Just before the two could get into a catfight, before Mari could wrap her arms around the girl's neck and watch her take her last breath, the door opened. She immediately scrambled away from Jaerin in fear that it might be Chaeyeon or Jaebeom coming, not wanting them to discover that the Seo Faction girl had somewhat escaped her bonds. Both of them turned to the door expectantly, a smug smirk growing across Jaerin's face at Mari's submissiveness.
"Hello? Is this the right room?" A voice questioned, the familiar moon crescent eyes of San peering through the crack in the door. Both Jaerin and Mari's faces twisted with utter confusion at the boy's presence as he finally registered what exactly was going on before nodding his head. "I see you're busy, I'll come back later then."
"Don't just open the door and pretend like you didn't see me!" Mari screamed, her voice cracking and her body feeling as though it was going to give out at the sight of the boy. Out of all the people who decided to meet her halfway, it was San.
"How did you even get here?" Jaerin grimaced, the situation settling within her mind at San's sudden appearance. The boy closed the door hastily as the girl ran toward it, trying to keep Jaerin from running to the other Kim Faction members about his presence. Mari would have tried to stop her, but she was a little busy being grateful over the fact that San even attempted to save her.
He was the one who encouraged Mari to go find Wooyoung after all, so it seemed like their little trio just kept following each other one by one.
Jaerin swung the door as quickly as she could, searching for wherever San had snuck off to get evidence of his presence. Though she was only met with the grinning sight of her fellow Lee Faction member, innocently waving one hand at her with a baseball bat in the other. "What—?"
"Long time no see! Are you looking for someone?" Jongho asked her, properly taking a hold of the baseball bat he brought with him. "I'm sure I can point you in the right direction."
With one swift and heavy swing, Jaerin was out like a light. Mari had no idea how much strength the boy had poured into it, but it had to be a lot. The girl fell to the ground like a brick and made no sound of pain when she collapsed. She couldn't help but realize it was probably the right idea that Mari had decided to get on Jongho's good side instead of immediately accusing him of crimes he didn't commit.
"Mari!" San's voice echoed against the walls as he entered the room, pushing past Jongho completely and running toward her. He skidded onto his knees as he took a good look at her face, making sure she wasn't severely injured before a deep sigh exited his mouth. "I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry we took so long, we would have come faster if we had the chance, we just had to figure out where you were in the first place." San explained, wincing at the bruises she had gained.
"That's what I'm so confused about," Mari responded, her body relaxing at the familiar presence of her friends. Jongho twirled the baseball bat in his hands as he approached the two of them, his proud expression faltering at the sight of the wounds she endured. "How did you get here? How did you even figure out where this place is? I haven't even completely found out where I am yet."
"Well...," Jongho thought for a moment, gesturing toward the door as he spoke, "we had a little help to even get this far." All three of you turned your attention to the door when the jingling of keys began to echo within the room, finding Hongjoong and fiery red hair leaned up against the doorframe with the keys to the room twirling around his ring finger.
When he noticed that he was being stared at, he stopped and smiled. "Now that that's all said and done," Hongjoong began, holding out his hand to show off the snake ring that Jaerin had supposedly thrown away, "you ready to get out of here, princess?"
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there was supposed to
be more to this chapter,
but my brain was tweaking
out trying to write for
domino again. I hope you
enjoy its come back tho :D !!