I just finished writing ch6 and I honestly did not plan it out like that but I believe it to be right for the story. From the first sentence I wrote, I imagined the whole gang (minus Jan Di but with Ha Jae Kyung) to be in a diner somewhere and for GE to play with JK. She did not really mean any of what she said. I didn't plan to have it end so darkly though, I imagined that Ga Eul would leave with Woo Bin to his house for dinner but when I wrote that in the first draft, it didn't seem right so I erased the entire thing and started over. I did rewrite the diner scene but instead of her leaving safely, I let her run out on her own and it seemed right.
I hope you like this chapter, from Yi Jeong's POV. I don't think I'll write GE POV for a couple of chapters because it might be too triggering.
She was gone. I couldn't see her anywhere. I knew that as soon as I said those words, that it was wrong and that I'd crossed the line. I wasn't even anywhere near the line anymore. It was terrible and I felt horrified by myself. It is why I instantly followed her when she rushed out of the diner. I knew both her ex- whoever the bastard was- and Woo Bin had also shot up to follow her but I hadn't seen or heard them come after me when I left the diner.
Did they really trust me to keep her safe while that maniac was out there after what I just said?
One moment I'd seen her though and the next she just wasn't anywhere anymore.
I quickly texted Woo Bin to tell him that and he exploded. He told me to rush to my car and start searching, the guys would as well and so would both Woo Bin's and Jae Kyung's men. Driving around made me feel even more anxious than I already was because no matter where I looked, she was nowhere to be found.
The words had left my mouth before I'd fully processed them myself and as soon as I'd said them, I'd regretted them. It just hurt that Ga Eul, sweet, innocent Ga Eul was not that innocent after all. No, I wasn't talking about the sexual assault because that's something she had no choice in and she was not to 'blame' for that as she was to blame for the stuff with Nigari... Her relationship with Nigari was what I was really angry about.
Hearing her talk so freely about everything she'd been doing with him made me angry and i had no idea why.
Well, I did know... Ga Eul's feelings for me were no secret but I didn't deserve it, I was not worth her love. My heart reciprocated though and I longed for her, I wanted to love her.
I wasn't worth that though, I was too much like my father and Ga Eul deserved more than what my mother had been forced to live through with him. With me, as well.
She'd never talked about her past with some Japanese guy though, let alone the hitman of the Yakuza. Who knew that sweet, little Chu Ga Eul had once upon a time been his girlfriend... better yet, had been really close to saying yes to his proposal.
According to Woo Bin, who'd gotten to know a lot about the duo since they'd moved into the Song estate, when Ga Eul had turned 16, her boyfriend had proposed to her but had given her time to think about it. A year later, right before they broke it off for good, she'd almost said yes because it was the safe and comfortable decision.
Who'd have known? Chu Ga Eul had almost been engaged when we'd met her, to a damn Yakuza member for goodness sake.
My phone ringing brought me out of my musings, "Bro?"
Hope filled my chest, "Did you find her?" The silence was answer enough, he hadn't. "What do you need, Woo Bin?"
"Come home, we're not going to find her right now. We need a strategy."
"I'm not just going to-"
"I know, Yi Jeong." He interrupted me. "So come here so we can come up with a proper plan, instead of just driving around aimlessly."
"She needs us now, Woo Bin. Who knows, maybe that man who had her then, has her again and who knows what will happen to her! I'm not just going-"
"So Yi Jeong!" Song Li Bin interrupted, "Come here, now."
Reluctantly I agreed, "Fine, I'll be there in five minutes."
"Make it two." Another voice, Nigari, snapped.
The phone call was ended before I could say anything and I sighed deeply, briefly closing my eyes. Making a most likely illegal U-turn, I sped down the streets of Seoul to finally get to the large house belonging to the Song family. I didn't lock the car behind me when I hurried into the foyer, before being led up the stairs to the office of the Song patriarch.
Before I could open my mouth, someone's fist collided with my face. Due to the unexpected force of impact, I fell to the ground but before I could see who had the nerve to hit me, I was hit again and again. Vaguely I could hear someone yell for the person who was hitting me to stop but the hits kept coming. I was too tired, too worried about Ga Eul to worry about myself so I just took them. The pain kind of numbed out the gnawing in my chest about my guilt. The guilt I felt for what I had said to Ga Eul.
Dear, sweet, innocent Ga Eul.
Finally though, whoever was on top of me, was pulled of and pushed away. A hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me up, I looked around in bewilderment, seeing some of the Song's men holding an enraged Nigari back.
"What the hell!" I spit some blood out, my jaw throbbing terribly.
He was breathing very deeply, almost like an angred animal who was capture. His focus was solely on me, his eyes were fully blazing with anger and I feared for my own life because if looks could kill, he'd have killed me already.
"Enough!" Li Bin ordered, "Ga Eul won't get anywhere if the two of you keep fighting each other, so you both need to get your head into this situation! Now!"
"Yes, sir!" We both agreed.
He nodded, "Good, now... Woo Bin, the girls he's bothered in your clubs said he was Japanese, right? No knowlegde of Korean whatsoever?"
"No, I spoke to two girls and both said that the man was not talking to them in Korean at all but Japanese. The first girl had no knowledge of the language at all so we don't know what he said to her but the second girl studied Japanese in school and understood enough to know that he was talking about some girl. She remembered every word he said though which I have written down." He took out a piece of paper and handed it over to the Japanese man in the room.
Nigari unfolded it and read out loud, "Hmm, my flower. After all this time I can finally have you again. Our time in Osaka had been too short and ever since then I've been looking all over for you. I know you want me to, that little boy you've been with is nothing against me. I can finally do what I've always wanted with you. We can finally go to paradise together."
"Paradise?" I repeated, dread filling me. Despite Ga Eul not being religious, paradise most likely referred to the Paradise. "Do you think he's goi-"
"No!" Nigari cut me off, "No, Ga Eul said something back in the day, after we'd first gotten her out of the warehouse. The man who had taken her- the man who has her- he talked about the place that he kept her in as paradise. Well, more specifically, he'd talked about that place when he drugged her as paradise."
Li Bin looked in thought, "So it might not be the place that's important but rather the drugs. He might be drugging her up, that's his paradise."
The Japanese Yakuza member looked doubtful but nonetheless nodded, "Yeah, could be. I just wonder where he would keep a drugged up girl in a country he's not familiar in. A hotel is too obvious, I think they'd report seeing something like that."
"Motel?"
"Are there many of those around here? We got to think about transportation as well... Did he rent a car or something?"
"Good question." Woo Bin agreed, "There are too many unknown variables in this story but the thing is-"
"Comfort." I cut in. Everyone looked at me as if I had grown a couple of extra heads, "Look, I don't know a lot about the minds of rapists or criminals. I do know that if I want to have sex with someone, which he does as well, there's no denying it, I want to be comfortable. Having said that, where in this foreign country would he go where he knows he can get comfortable enough to... perform?"
"Nowhere." Woo Bin said, "Location is important."
"It is." I sighed, "He's either on his way back to Japan or he already arrived in Japan. He went home."
"I'll get the jet ready." Li Bin sighed, "Everyone pack a bag. We're leaving in twenty minutes. Move!"
"I'll call Noshimuro to let him know to start dispatching teams into the streets to look for her."
"Good."
