Hae Soo gasped and looked up from the document she had been reading. Her eyes, wide in shock, shifted between Wang So and Wang Yo.
Eun noticed first. "Noona, what's wrong?" he asked alarmed, turning everyone else's attention.
"This!" Soo responded visibly shaken, her hand trembling as she held up the stapled set of papers. "This is just...just..." Her voice cracked, and she bit her lower lip with a teary-eyed look at So as she extended the document toward him.
He frowned warily, and hesitated for an instant before he took it and started reading.
"What is it?" Yo questioned apprehensively when, after just a few seconds, his brother's face lost all color.
So didn't reply at all, merely got up off the table with an unconcealed wince, tossed the papers in Yo's lap and walked away.
"What the..." Baek Ah swallowed the expletive, and jumped up to go after him. He halted, however, when the front door slammed shut, and cast a worried look at Yo. "What the hell is in those papers, Hyung?" he queried uneasy.
"Proof!" Yo choked out, as he flipped through the pages, his face as pale as So's had been. "Proof of what we already knew, but didn't want to believe," he added barely audible.
"Proof of...what exactly?" Baek Ah pushed the issue, and shortly after, for the second time in one hour, he regretted having opened his mouth after Yo handed him the papers.
Twelve pages, containing financial records, phone records, transcripts of recorded conversations, as well as intercepted emails and text messages—an overwhelming amount of condemning evidence.
"This...this is...She caused all this?...Your own mother?" Baek Ah sputtered, shaking his head in disbelief. He didn't resist when Soon Deok took the papers from his hand.
"Yeah!" Yo nodded, audibly grinding his teeth. He leaned back in his chair for a moment and stared at the ceiling, but then suddenly sat straight up. "Eunie, go see where So-yah went," he commanded urgently.
"Why?" Eun squinted baffled. "You don't think he..."
"Just GO!"
"Okay, okay!" Eun started to move, yet by the time he made it past the table Baek Ah was already out the front door. Eun caught up with him on the patio.
"Check around back, I'll check out front," Baek Ah ordered. "He couldn't have gone far...all the cars are still there."
"What do you want me to do if I find him?" Eun questioned meekly.
"I don't care! Tie him up, knock him out or whatever. Just don't let him out of your sight," Baek Ah retorted harshly.
Eun gulped. "You're kidding, right?"
Baek Ah rolled his eyes. "Just go and find him," he snapped, pushed Eun in the direction of the deck behind the house, then turned and nearly collided with Hae Soo.
"Oh!...Sorry!" She startled, and instinctively took a step back. "Can...can I help?"
"Yeah, come on!" He waved her along and sprinted down the stairs.
Soo hurried after him, mentally thanking whatever deities might have given her the foresight to wear flats today instead of high heels.
"Check the garden and the gazebo over there," Baek Ah directed her toward a narrow path to the right of the driveway. "But don't wander off too far, to where we have to go looking for you too later, okay?"
"Okay!" Soo confirmed and started in the direction of the path but then halted for a moment. "Yah!" she called out to Baek Ah. "Do you want me to just tie him up if I find him, or should I knock him out?"
"Ah, you're so not funny, Noona!" he scolded with the most serious expression he could muster, though belied by the slight chuckle he failed to suppress before he took off down the driveway in a fast jog.
He only went about 200 meters, however, before it occurred to him that they were going about this all wrong. His Hyung had quite obviously been in pain whenever he moved, even just slightly, so there was no way he would be going for a lengthy walk. The garden, maybe, but the air was quite chilly and So had been wearing only a t-shirt. Baek Ah nodded to himself and turned back, as he realized where the most likely place to find his brother would be.
He grimaced at the squeal of the door when he opened it, then steeled himself against one of So's glares and stepped inside the dimly lit garage.
"You know," he started out, casually walking up to where his brother was sitting, sideways on the plush leather seat of his Harley with his left arm propped up on the custom backrest. "Considering you had a collapsed lung, it's probably not a good idea to be smoking."
"And you know," So countered, almost dangerously calm, "it's probably not a good idea to lecture me about it right now."
"Wasn't meant as a lecture...just as an observation." Baek Ah gave back evenly, though avoiding to meet his brother's eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing! Just following orders...Yo-hyung told us to find you."
"And tie me up or knock me out?"
"Oh!" Baek Ah grimaced aghast and unwittingly shrunk back. "You heard that?"
So merely bestowed him with an impenetrable gaze and didn't reply.
"Mianhaeyo, Hyung," Baek Ah muttered contritely. "It was just a joke, because Eunie asked me what to do if he found you... Mianhae! I really didn't mean anything by it," he added when his brother continued to remain silent. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! He inwardly scolded himself. So-hyung don't ever joke around like Eunie and me, and this was so uncalled for. And of course he heard it when Noona yelled it, but I can't even blame her, because I said it first. Stupid!
"I bet the look on Eunie's face was priceless when you told him that," So suddenly remarked, a hint of a grin on his face.
Baek Ah almost physically felt a weight lifting off his shoulders. "Oh, yeah!" he chuckled subdued, trying not to let his relief become too obvious. "I think he'll be glad that he didn't find you, and have to worry about what to do."
"Where did you send Hae Soo to look for me?"
"I told her to check the garden and the gazebo..."
"It's starting to get dark. You better go get her, before she gets lost out there," So advised him, now serious again. "And tell her where I am...I need to talk to her."
"Are you not coming back inside?" Baek Ah frowned, getting concerned again.
"I will, after a while, don't worry!...But I'd like to talk to Hae Soo in private."
"Okay, I'll go get her..."
"Oh, and don't keep Eunie running around out there looking for me for too long," So added with another almost-smirk, getting a thumbs-up and a snicker in reply as Baek Ah left the garage.
So still rolled his eyes behind his brother's back, knowing Baek Ah would never endanger Eun in any way. Yes, he took every opportunity to tease the younger one—or 'pick on him' as Hae Soo referred to it—but at the same time he would also defend Eun against anyone or anything that might try to harm him. The two of them were only a year apart in age, and Eun's mother had basically raised Baek Ah after his own mother had passed away when he was three years old. Though only half-brothers by birth, Eun and Baek Ah were closer than So himself was with his own, full brothers. Granted, his circumstances were different, as he had grown up far away from his family and his brothers, but still—
"Hi!"
Hae Soo's timid greeting ripped him from his dismal pondering, and he inwardly scolded himself that he hadn't even heard her come inside.
"Baek Ah said you needed to talk to me," she continued guardedly. "Is everything okay?"
"Not really," he sighed, "but that's not why I wanted to talk to you."
"I'm sorry about the way I reacted earlier," Soo hastened to interject. "I probably shouldn't have read those papers. It was none of my business what..."
"That has nothing to do with it," So quickly assured her, then continued solemnly. "Just listen to me for a minute...Since Lady Hae had to leave, where are you planning to stay? Wook is still on the loose, and it wouldn't be safe for you to return to their house. When you got called away earlier...where did you go?"
"Well, actually..." She hesitated uneasy and averted her eyes.
"It's okay, Hae Soo-ssi, you can tell me...I promise, I won't get upset, no matter what it is," he gently urged her.
"Actually...can I show you something?" she asked, still without looking at him.
"Sure! What?"
"It's out in my car..."
"Is it really, or are you just trying to lure me out of the garage?" So queried, yet with a joking undertone in his voice.
Soo missed the hint. "No, no, seriously!" she insisted. "I'm not trying to trick you or anything."
"Yah! Lighten up, Hae Soo-ssi," he chuckled softly. "I was only kidding,"
"You were?" Soo carefully glanced up, unsure what to make of his declaration. She knew by now that 21st century Wang So wasn't much for 'kidding' about anything — not even on a good day—and under the current circumstances it seemed even more out of character for him. What's going on with that?
"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not used to you kidding around," she muttered. "That's usually just Eunie's and Baek Ah's thing..."
"Okay, I'll be serious then," So shrugged, and managed to push himself up off the bike with only a slight flinch. "Let's go see what kind of secret you're hiding in your car."
She cast him a dubious squint as he started toward the door. He's really weirding me out now. If I didn't know better I'd say he's… Her thought didn't go any further when, at the next step, So's knees buckled and he dropped to the ground.
Soo reacted instinctively, and barely caught him before he hit the concrete garage floor with full force. At the instant her hands made contact, however, she gasped at the vivid, yet already familiar image her mind once again showed her—herself, dressed in a 10th century Royal Court Lady's attire, kneeling on the ground, and Wang So in his golden dragon embellished, black hanbok in her arms. This time, though, there was no blood, and Soo would have sighed in relief, if not for the fact that there were also no approaching footsteps to indicate the arrival of help.
Soo braced herself, covered So's ears with her hands, then did the only thing she could do—scream on top of her lungs!