Here I am with chapter 5! I'm not going to guess yet how many chapters this will have, I don't think it'll have a lot but I don't want to say that it'll only have 10 chapters when perhaps (most likely) it'll be around 14 or 17 chapters. Right now I still have to introduce all the other characters, so far we only have Ga Eul, the Song family and Nigari with a small appearance from Yi Jeong.
Now, we will get back to the story! Have fun
With Yi Jeong passed out in the back of the car, I was driving through the streets of Gangnam where I would first drop off Woo Bin at the estate before going on to the So estate to drop Yi Jeong off. Woo Bin had asked specifically if I'd drop him off first so he could talk to his father and Nigari first alone and then bring me in.
"What will you do if your rapist really is alive after all these years?" Woo Bin asked once we were on the road.
I shrugged, "I don't know, to be honest. Run, I guess. I'll probably go to Japan for a while, hide out there and come back once I'm sure that the man cannot get to me again. Call me a coward all you want but I do not want to go through that hell again, I do not want to risk ever seeing him again. If you're right, then he was probably the reason I froze earlier. He was already so close to me, I don't want to risk it again."
"Trying to be safe is not the same as being a coward, Ga Eul. I'm sure that Nigari will insist on either staying here with you or agreeing with your plan and taking you to Japan with him. If you do feel the need to go to Japan, don't do it alone... Take my mom with you or something but just, maybe it isn't a bad idea to avoid going anywhere on your own now. At least until we have more certainty regarding this situation. My guess could be completely wrong but in case that I'm right and this man is still alive and going after you again, I don't want to increase the risk on you by letting you go somewhere alone."
"Nigari will never let me leave alone if this is true. Even after he had killed the other man and we thought that he was dead and couldn't hurt me anymore, Nigari hovered over me constantly. Now that he is most likely going to be actively hunting, I won't be surprised if he is going to put three men on me at least." I stopped in front of the door to the estate, "I'll text you once I dropped Yi Jeong off and am on my way here again."
"Thank you." He said and got out of the passenger's seat. I waited until I saw the door close behind him before pulling out of the driveway again and speeding onto the streets.
The car was quiet for a while, I didn't turn the radio on or create some sort of noise. The quiet was welcomed and nice, even if it left me alone to think of what Woo Bin had told me. Even if it left me alone in my fantasy world and made me imagine all the things that could happen to me. And not just to me but to the girl he'd been harassing earlier and even though I knew that Woo Bin had one of his men drop her off at her home, I couldn't help but worry about her next couple of days.
Would that sick man go after her again? Seek her out? Look for me perhaps?
Or would he go after another girl, another one who resembled me and do the same things to her as he had done to me when I was young. Would he ruin her too?
Would he go from girl to girl, discarding of his victims when he was tired of them until he got back to me... Even if he got to me again, what would he do? Lock me up again? Violate me again and again as he had once done? Or was I too old for his tastes now?
What about Nigari? Would he find me again? Would he save me again?
I shook my head to escape from my imagination and looked at Yi Jeong in the rear view mirror. "You are one terrible actor, So Yi Jeong. I know you've been awake the entire time."
Slowly he opened his eyes. "The entire time?"
"From the moment I saw you on the couch in the club." I told him, "You're a terrible actor, luckily for you the wheel is your real calling."
"How old were you?" He asked quietly.
"How old was I when what?" I asked. At his glare, I huffed, "You heard a lot tonight, Yi Jeong Sunbae, I don't know what you're talking about right now. How old was I when what?"
"When it happened to you? When you were..." He looked sick having to say it but in the end he bit it out through gritted teeth, "violated."
"It was six years ago, Yi Jeong. When I was 13."
He turned dangerously pale at my words, not knowing where to look but never looking at me. I knew then, in that moment, that I'd lost yet someone else and that he only looked at me as a victim now. If I even had a small chance in the past, that chance was now gone completely. Never, not even in 10 years, would he look at me and see the woman he loved. No, instead he'd look at me and see damaged goods.
The realization of that made me close my eyes briefly and focus on the road ahead instead of occasionally looking in the rear view mirror to check in on him. I'd seen the look many times before, the look of pity and I'd had enough of it. I wasn't a victim anymore and I didn't want pity, I wanted people to see me for me and not for this little girl that I'd been back then. Or even worse, seeing me only as damaged goods.
I stopped in front of the gates of the large house, "You're home."
"Hmm, what?" He looked up and saw the mansion. "Oh, right. Thanks for the ride."
"Sure." I said, not looking at him but rather out at the road through my window.
"See you around, Ga Eul."
"Uhu." I noncommittally murmured. As soon as his door closed behind him, I sped off into the night and drove around for a couple of minutes before stopping at the side of the road. I sat in the car in complete silence before remembering my promise to Woo Bin. I quickly fished out my phone from my pocket and dialed his number, "Hey, Sunbae."
"You sound... tired."
A humorless chuckle escaped me, "Exhausted is more accurate. I just called to let you know I dropped Yi Jeong off at the So estate and am on my way back to you."
"Okay, thanks for letting me know." He released a deep sigh, "Perhaps a warning before coming back here would be good for you so you can be prepared for when you come in here. Nigari... did not take the news of your rapist's survival very well and is like a lion in a cage right now, if you know what I mean."
I frowned, "No, I don't know what you mean."
"Well, he's pacing and looks very angry. Well, angrier than his usual self. Not to forget his voice... I don't know how to describe it."
"It's gotten deeper with an angry huff to it? Sort of husky as well. Sounds as if he could actually growl at any minute?" I proposed while speeding back onto the street and into morning traffic. It was just past 6 at the moment and streets were starting to fill up with people on their ways to their work. "Make sure he stays inside, I'll be there in 5 minutes at the most."
"I'll try my best."
I threw the phone onto the passenger's seat next to me and swerved through traffic, switching lanes at every possibility I got to get to the Song estate as quickly as possible. Nigari in his normal 'state' was already bad enough but Nigari on edge? Feeling as if he's failed? Not having me around? That Nigari was dangerous as hell, possibly deadly. That Nigari lost all sense of rationality and would use force wherever possible. It is the reason there is a whole hallway of dented and broken lockers in a school in Kyoto.
About a year ago, the younger sister of Noshimuro had been in an abusive relationship which she managed to hide for as long as possible. However, one day after school her then-boyfriend lost his mind and started beating her without thinking of the repercussions. When he went to look for something, Nigari never told me what, she'd pulled out her phone and dialed the first number she came across which was Nigari's. He'd shown up at the school and had litterally thrown the jerk all over the hallway which was now ruined. Of course he'd paid for it all but the school hadn't bothered to fix it yet.
I didn't bother locking the car when I finally arrived at the mansion but rather ran out of it, through the open doors, past the housekeeper and up the stairs.
"Nigari!" I called.
Immediately a door opened and the man in question stormed out of Song Li Bin's office, charged to me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. "You're not leaving my side again. Not until I get this bastard."
"Okay." I agreed.
He released a deep breath. Over his shoulder I could see the Song family exiting the office and I smiled to assure them he was fine, "I'm so sorry."
"Why are you sorry?"
He pulled back and looked me in the eye, "I failed to protect you before, I put you in harm's way again but I promise you... I will not rest until this man is gone and I will do that for you. Noshimuro has given me the green light to do whatever is necessary in order to catch this man... Hear me now, I will end this man for what he's done to you and other girls. I will not fail you this time."
"We will protect you, Ga Eul." Song Li Bin said, inching closer to us, "This man will not come close to you."
"I believe you, all of you." I turned to Nigari and looked him in the eye, "But believe me now, Nigari, when I tell you that you have not once failed me. This was an honest mistake, even I- his victim- believed that he was the man that you had killed. Which leads to the question: Who did you really kill and how come he was the one you ended when the man you captured was indeed my rapist?"
"Not a clue." Nigari sighed, "We called Noshimuro about it as well and he's going to investigate there in Japan while I should investigate here in Korea. There will be some rules now, until we catch the man."
"Okay." I agreed, "Whatever you guys think is necessary."
"First rule I propose," Woo Bin spoke, "Is Ga Eul moving into the house with us, at least for a while. Ga Eul, let's be honest, your apartment is not in the best part of town and I don't trust him not going after you when you're at home. In here, you're protected by us and by the guards present here. I believe it is the best option for you to stay with us and always have someone when you leave the house, even if it is to go to school."
"I'd rather you not go to school, Ga Eul." Li Bin said, "I know it is difficult but we cannot send someone with you on school grounds and that would make the risk bigger nor do I want you working. I will call your school and see if you can do your work here, at home but no going to school and no working. Not until this maniac is off the streets."
"My rule is simple: If I'm not with you, I want you to let me know at all times where you are." Nigari said, "I know it sounds controlling and it is but it is for your own safety."
I nodded, "Okay. You all know best about these situations so I'm going to listen to you. If I'm going to be staying here, we might have to go to the apartment and grab some stuff for me though. I appreciate the clothes you'd prepared for me but I cannot ask you to give me an entire wardrobe and everything else I would need."
"Okay, let's go." Woo Bin said, pulling me with him.
