<---GIVE ME BACK MY HUSBAND!!! Part 4
For all that I knew, I could probably be dreaming. Never had I imagined any of these could happen in my blissful life, not before I met Taemin uppa, not after I was blessed with a life having him as a big part of me. It was an impasse, with no turning points. It all seemed outrageous, yet so true. There was only one way out, and that passage could lead either to an open door or just another wrong turn in the maze. One slight mistake could lead to fatal consequences. Another life could be put at stake at every decision that I make.
I knew, from the very beginning that I made the decision to just go with Victoria’s scheme, that it was never going to be anything easy. I was in this alone, no matter how the uppas would want to help me with this.
The rest of the world seemed insignificant to me. Time seemed to stand still, the clock stopped ticking the minute I saw the recorded scene in the tape. I could never get the screeching, taunting sound that came out of the speakers the minute the tape played out of my memory box, and I knew that never in my whole life would I find a way to forget everything that I saw just now.
I gripped the armrest of the mahogany chair for support, using too much force that the white knuckles of my hand could be seen clearly under my translucent skin. I could hear Onew uppa and Minho uppa’s voices calling out to me, I could feel the warmth of their skin as they shook me, trying to get me to respond to them.
“Soo Jin! Lee Soon Jin-ah!” Minho uppa knelt so that his face was right in front of mine, so close that I could feel his breath on my face. It seemed to startle me to wake.
Slowly the words I’d heard from the tape dawned on me. They settled in my mind, forming a chain of unrelenting emotions.
A small, yet so crowded room. Thick, grey smoke shrouded the atmosphere. The details of the room were laid so clear to see from the angle the tape was recorded. Black walls, the floor was covered with nothing but a thin white sheet that spread wide across the linoleum. High up, near the ceiling, a small window was painted shut. But all of these were nothing to me. I didn’t even care to figure out where it might be, or find any clue that could lead me there. I knew better not to. Instead, there was only one feature that really caught my attention, gnawing at my conscience. There, perched in the small, wooden chair in the middle of the room, beaten unconscious, was the person that I would go to hell and back for. I recognized his familiar features the moment I laid my eyes on him, looking so weak and helpless, probably being starved by his inhumane captor. My heart almost went out my mouth. A growl escaped from my throat, more like a feline ready to leap to attack. My insides burned, I could feel the anger seeping through every inch of my skin. I itched in my seat, wanting more than anything to run out of the doors and run frantically in all directions, to search for her. To kill her.
He was still dressed in the cream shirt he was wearing the morning that he disappeared. It was the one that Luna unnie gave him for his 17th birthday, the day we first met. I could remember every fine details of the shirt, awed yet traumatized of how it had completely altered since the past hours. It was no longer a bleached, soothing crème color I remembered it to be. It was now covered, drenched with the redness of his blood, and I could see that he was still bleeding. I couldn’t bear watching this any longer, yet it was very important.
A whimper escaped from his parched lips and I suddenly wanted to jump right on the tv and smash it to pieces, but just remained silent in my seat, my fist clenched tight at my sides. My fingernails dug into my palm, red liquid oozed through the open gashes. It was painful, but the pain that I felt from watching him in that condition was more impossible to bear.
“Taemin uppa,” I croaked. Silence. No response from him. Of course, I was an idiot to expect him to hear me. He wasn’t here. Worse, it could be that he’s not there with them too.
But I was wrong, or sort of. As if he heard my thoughts, listened to my deep ramblings and cries of despair, his head tilted up, looking anxiously, weakly, around the room, and finally, his gaze rested on the camcorder before him. For a minute I thought that he could see me here. Our eyes locked for an instant. I sensed hope. Hope that maybe this was about to turn out fine. That even though we might not be able to save him yet, he’s still hanging on, he hadn’t give up. He’s still there, breathing, alive.
“Lee Soo-Jin,” Suddenly a voice broke the eerie silence. Onew uppa peered closer without knowing, while Minho uppa stayed where he was, his eyes glued to the screen. I knew this voice. I knew her. Of course I did. It was impossible to dismiss the familiarity of the tone, the excitement I could sense in it, happy that she was finally doing something right, something that was breaking me down, and something that was hurting me. Finally. I could almost hear her jeering and taunting at me, dancing happily as she watched me burned slowly. So Victoria. So common of her to feel just that about me.
Silence. And then laughter escaped from her invincible lips. It screeched in my ears like the sound of nails being raked on a blackboard.
“Soo-Jin ah, I’m here.. Soo-Jin dongsaeng,”
“Soo-Jin! Don’t listen to her!” Taemin uppa groaned.
“Don’t mind the dog, he’s very impatient,” She jeered. Bitch.
“Anyways, I can see that we have something in common now. You know what I want, dongsaeng. Deary little dongsaeng, unnie wants…. You.”
I froze. The uppas’ heads turned to me, and then back to the screen, knew better not to ask anything at the moment.
Unnie.. I was surprised that she even considered her that way to me anymore. Bitch.Bitch.Bitch.
“Soo-Jin dongsaeng, I’m sure that you want him safe more than anything else right now,” she trailed off. “Even if I ask you to jump off a building in order to let him loose, you wouldn’t have said no to that, will you?” She said the last words with a flourish, like she was smiling ear to ear as she said this.
“Let’s not make things too complicated.”
A loud band rang in the background. Taemin uppa, he was lying limp on the ground, having fell of the wooden chair. His face was scrunched up in agony. His fringe was plastered to his forehead, the blond shade stained red. “No! Soo-Jin! Don’t listen to what she says, she’s tricking-“
Taemin uppa didn’t even manage to finish his last word. Suddenly a group of gangly men rushed to his side and tugged him off the ground, using too much force that the collar of his shirt was ripped apart, revealing a thin slit on his chest that trailed down his stomach…
God, I couldn’t take this anymore.
“Oh, you know how dogs are when they’re starved, Soo-Jin. You should know that better than I do, having lived with him for what? A month? O, how terrific. My little sister is married off to a canine. Yet I wasn’t even invited to join the wonderful occasion,” she giggled hauntingly. “I told you you’re going to be sorry for what you did, Soo-Jin. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”
“Soo-Jin!!” A shrill scream. I could see the men towering above him, one by one, taking their turns on hitting him. His head, his chest, his stomach, again and again. “Soo-Jin!!” and then, he vomited. Sickly, red, liquid.
“Uppa!” I jumped off my seat. “Uppa!!!”
“I don’t want to push myself any further, Soo-Jin. You know how I hate to be the only one trying. So let’s get this over with. You know where to find me, dongsaeng. Unnie will wait for you. No cops, no company. Just the two of us. Arachi?”
And to that, the screen went pitch black. The end.
“Hey, you guys, I was wondering…” Key uppa came in from the front door, shaking his shoes off at the threshold as he struggled to shrug himself out of his overcoat. The uppas didn’t even look at his direction; I could sense their eyes boring at my back, wondering whether if it was right if they start to fire me with questions, asking for answers to the many enquires that screamed in their head, waiting to be intended to, and waiting for answers. I knew what they must be thinking of, what they wanted to know.
“Hey, I’ve been calling Jonghyun hyung many times; he hadn’t answered, and didn’t even reply my texts. I wonder if he got himself into trouble at the company or something. Don’t you think that the president might have…” Sensing that he wasn’t being paid attention to, he looked up from the phone in his hand, and stared at us, bewildered. “What happened?” His eyes gaze fell on the TV screen and the black tape which was sticking out from the player, and suddenly happened to understand the situation.
He quickly went to my side, kneeling so that his face was just level to mine. He smelt faintly of cologne and sweat.
“Soo-Jin ah, let’s just call the cops, okay?” Minho uppa totted.
“There is nothing that we can do about this without putting someone’s life at stake. Soo-Jin ah, we’re sorry, but we think that it’s best that we just give this case up to the police and see what they can do about it, it’s the safest way possible,” Onew uppa coaxed me.
No, it’s not going to be that easy. Victoria is never going to let me get away with it if I call the cops. She’s a slick bitch. She knew all the ways to escape, all my soft spots, all my weaknesses. If I were to go against her words, that might prove to be a challenge that I send her way. Victoria -shi hated challenges. She hated anyone that could be foolish enough to take her words lightly. She would make me regret it if I did anything beyond her command. She would.
“Anni,” I said sternly, behind gritted teeth. “Uppa,” I looked up and scanned each of these faces, trying to cast a strong look on my face, to look stern. “Uppa, believe me, I have my own way to deal with this.”
Frustrated with my denial, Onew uppa got up angrily and trudged out of the living room into the kitchen. We listened as he banged and cursed to himself, sending pots and pans off the cabinet, making sure that his anger was heard. It was the first time that Onew uppa ever let his anger overcome him. I flinched as I heard him banging again and again on the kitchen counter, as a string of profanities finally escaped his mouth. Key uppa rose up and held his palms over my ears, trying to block them out from me. He smiled sorrily, silently apologizing of his inability to do anything about the situation, sorry that I had to go through all of this. I blinked back a tear, and smiled in response. The first one. My lips felt sore as I strained myself to curve my lips upwards into a tight smile. It’s so used to a frown now.
Minho uppa got up from his seat and went to the kitchen. “Hyung! Stop this!” I heard them arguing in the kitchen, probably pushing each other, or even hitting, hurting themselves. Great, now they’re even fighting because of me. I’m a monster.
“Uppa, you have to help me,” I looked up to find Key uppa’s tired face, and suddenly felt bad about the whole situation.
“Yeah?” He stared back at me, fighting to put on a strong expression. But he failed. I could see through his façade, I sensed that this was killing him just the way it was doing to me. It was as bad for him as it was for me, suddenly being a refuge, running away from the company, missing schedules, watching his members breaking up little by little. What was I doing to them? What was going to happen to their dreams?
“Uppa, please take me to this place,” I took out a pen and a writing pad, and wrote out the address for him to read. He watched as I messed the page with my messy scribble, my bad Hangeul. Finished, I let him take the pad from my lap and watched his face as he read the address and assessed the small piece of information. “The Notre tower?” He asked, I nodded assumingly. “What for? They’d been out of service for years..”
“Believe me,” I said this sternly. “I’m sure this is where she wants me to find her.”
Key uppa beckoned for a while, reassessing my words. And then, his face lit up questioningly.
“She?”
* * * * * *
GIVE ME BACK MY HUSBAND!!! --->
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