by Con Template
How sorely mistaken he would be to find out that Soo Jin had promised herself that she would never return to that feeble state in her life.
She would never be human again.
“I did,” he confirmed, the warmth still present in his eyes.
Her heart hammering, Soo Jin knew she had to put the hostility back in the air between them. She didn’t need the one opponent she had spent her entire life training to fight to soften up on her.
“Then you know what a big impact I made on you?”
He nodded, a hint of desolation entering his eyes. “You were the one who spread those rumors and brought me back.”
“I am the reason for your entire life right now,” she agreed vehemently, wondering why he was being so civil to her when he knew all this. What would it take to push this guy over the edge? “I’m surprised that you’re still pursuing me when I was the reason you came back and killed your brother—when I was the ultimate reason you weren’t able to stay in your precious 1st layer with your friends.”
“The guilt of killing my own brother resides with me and only me,” he responded calmly. “With or without those rumors, I would’ve found out sooner or later, and the end result would’ve been the same.” He took a second to pause before raising a brow at her. “I didn’t realize I made such a big impact on you as well though.”
The way he said this left Soo Jin feeling uneasy.
“Then you know that you mean nothing more to me than an obstacle to get my coveted throne?”
“I know where I stand with you,” he answered instead. “But all of that aside, there is something I want to speak to you about.”
Soo Jin folded her arms and slanted her head. “What is it?”
“The tape of your father’s murder,” he began seriously. “The one that shows Young Jae working with my brother . . . I need to watch it.”
She arched a defensive and skeptical eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because I want to know why my brother was working with yours.”
“Why?”
What more could she say? She was a bitch in every sense of the word, and she didn’t plan on handing anything over to Tae Hyun unless she felt it was appropriate to. At that instant, it wasn’t necessary to give him anything. It wasn’t appropriate until he convinced her with his next statement.
“Because it’s my life, and I’m tired of being surrounded by secrets that everyone seems to hold from me.”
Despite her best efforts to combat his statement, what he said resonated with her. Secrets. Her life was surrounded by them. Secrets of her own, secrets of her unforgiving society, secrets of others’ pasts, others' actions, and others' mistakes that she not only had to pay for, but her future also had to pay for. Simply put, she was tired of all the secrets as well.
Just show it to him, her frustrated conscience urged. Just show it to him and leave. He does too many strange things to us anyway. If we throw him this bone, then he’ll leave us alone.
“It’s in here,” she said with exasperation, throwing the necklace back at him. She couldn’t believe she was giving in.
Although he caught the pendant easily, he did not catch on to the concept the same way. “There was only one video file in here.”
“It’s hidden,” she told him, grinning pompously. She sauntered back and grabbed it from his hand. With teasing amusement, she asked, “Not such a gorgeous genius now, are you?”
The insult and unintentional compliment came out together before she could filter herself. She mentally cursed at herself and tried to remain cool and collected. Uncomfortably gathering her loose curls to one side, she bent forward to stick the USB stick into one of the ports of the computer.
He laughed amiably at her insult, his eyes lingering briefly to her butt just as she straightened up after inserting the USB stick in.
“I suck with technology. I guess that’s why I have a thing for geeky computer girls who are talented enough to hide files in a USB stick.”
“Was it not part of your training as a 1st layer heir?” she asked caustically, ignoring the unmistakable flirtatious tone in his voice. She turned on the computer and looked up at the 60-inch, flat screen TV hanging on the opposite wall. “Is that the monitor for the computer?”
“Yes,” he confirmed as she opened the file. “And yeah, they did train me. I just wasn’t good at it.”
“Ah yes, you would’ve been the perfect guy. If only you were skilled at that,” she mocked, loving that the guy wasn’t perfect and that she whooped his ass in matters pertaining to technology. Soo Jin was competitive like that. In all aspects of her life, she found it a necessity to be the best, and if she weren’t, then she would do anything to get rid of anyone who was better than her. Of course, the majority of the people in her enigmatic society shared this character trait as well. Since everyone’s arrogance and cockiness went through the roof in her world, she did not feel like a tool for harboring such a competitive mindset.
“I guess I’d have to settle with being stupid and charming,” he humored, knowing all too well that Soo Jin was rejoicing in the fact that he was crippled in the technology department.
Soo Jin hid a smile and kept her lips sealed. The bantering would have to end here. Any further playtime with Kwon Tae Hyun was dangerous.
Double-clicking on the second video icon in the folder that just appeared, Soo Jin pivoted around the table and stepped into the center of the room where Tae Hyun stood. Standing beside him, she mirrored his demeanor and folded her arms as well. Soo Jin made sure she was far enough away from him so that he didn’t get any ideas that they were chummy. She was only showing him the video because his bastard of an older brother was involved, and she felt like he deserved to watch it. But after the video ended, she would leave him. She did not plan on running into him again until they met for their war in front of the Underworld. By then, any residual feelings, which she knew belonged to her human counterpart, should subside. She would be able to kill him with ease and take the throne that was rightfully hers.
By then, she would officially be a God.
“That’s your father?”
His voice jarred her out of her reverie.
She dragged in a pained breath as her eyes landed on the monitor. She felt the strings of her heart tug for the person she saw on the screen. “Yes.”
A quiet, companionable silence waltzed between them while they observed the video. Her father was walking out of a warehouse with his men in tow. Watching this video still made her heart clench. Nevertheless, for a reason that she hated to admit, the simple and unexplainable fact that Tae Hyun was standing there, approximately two feet beside her, somehow made the experience less painful this time around.
Tae Hyun remained quiet as he watched, his eyes focusing with intensity on not only her father, but also the entire area the camera lens could catch.
Soo Jin eyed him and instantly saw that something had crossed his face—a knowledge of sorts when the video ended.
“What?”
The look on his face was making her curious.
Without saying anything, Tae Hyun went back to the computer, replayed the video, and returned beside her. His eyes were still locked on the monitor.
“What?” she prompted again, curious with his bizarre behavior.
“Who was recording this?” he inquired. When he asked this, the camera shook at an angle as her father walked out of the warehouse.
“Tony,” she answered, reciting what Ju Won told her. “Earlier that day, Hee Jun was planning on executing a small attack on my father. They were planning on recording his moves to anticipate future fights and to determine how Scorpions are trained. But before they could do that, they were unexpectedly interrupted when another attack occurred.”
Just as she said this, sounds of sniper shots rang out again, killing her father’s men and shooting her father down.
She glanced at Tae Hyun after he returned to his desk and replayed the video again. Only this time, he started t
he video at the moment when the shots started to fire. Curiously, he did not focus too heavily on the scene where Ho Young and Young Jae shot her father; he simply set up the media player to loop the beginning scene where her father was walking out of the warehouse and ending where he and his men were shot.
Chills continuously chased each other on her body as she watched the dawning light of realization shine brighter in Tae Hyun’s eyes.
“Suddenly seeing my father’s men getting shot will tell us why Ho Young and Young Jae were working together?” she asked skeptically, still focusing her attention on Tae Hyun. She was getting annoyed that he wouldn’t divulge what he was doing. “What is it? Do you think Ju Won lied to me, and Tony wasn’t the one recording?”
Then finally, after an extended moment of ignoring her, he decided to enlighten her with his findings.
“Sometimes when we watch recorded videos, we focus too much on the event of what took place and too much on the insignificant things like who was recording. By doing so, we miss important clues altogether.” He pointed at the monitor. “From the camera’s direction and how far they had to zoom in to get a measly shot of what was happening, it shows that Tony and Hee Jun were pretty far away from the scene. From their angle, you can see there are no buildings closer than theirs. This indicates that the sniper was at least another building behind, if not further, to better conceal themselves. Now if you pay attention to all the shots and how windy it was that day, then you’d see how accurate all the shots were, despite the turbulent weather. The sniper successfully killed the other men with clean, accurate shots. With your father, the sniper shot your father in such a way that would only handicap him, not kill him. The sniper was setting your father up for Young Jae and my brother. He was basically putting your father on a platter for them.”
“What are you getting at?” Soo Jin asked, even though in her mind, she knew the chills she was receiving meant that she was heading towards the same conclusion as Tae Hyun.
He faced her with knowledge running through his eyes. “This sniper was extremely skilled. It was incredibly windy that day, but he still shot with perfect accuracy.” Tae Hyun’s voice grew lower, more solemn. “There’s only one sniper in our world skilled enough to shoot from that range and with such precision, especially shooting against that type of violent wind that would surely throw others off.”
And then the truth slapped her like a whipping tornado.
“Lee Ji Hoon,” she whispered, her eyes widening at this revelation. “You’re insinuating that Ji Hoon was working with my brother and your brother?” Her head was spinning. The insinuation absolutely made no sense to her. “Why? Why would the three of them work together?”
Tae Hyun sighed incredulously. Everything was finally making sense to him. “Why did Young Jae disappear to Japan for three years?”
“My brother grew up and was trained in Japan,” she answered him. “He has close ties to the Underworld there.”
Tae Hyun nodded. “My brother grew up and was trained in China. He had close ties to the Underworld there as well.”
In the road that Tae Hyun was slowly painting for her, Soo Jin finally saw the destination they were headed to.
“Young Jae and Ho Young never wanted Korea’s Underworld,” she began disbelievingly. “Young Jae wanted to rule over Japan’s Underworld, Ho Young wanted China’s Underworld, so that meant—”
“In their agreement, Lee Ji Hoon gets Korea’s Underworld,” Tae Hyun finished for her. His voice held a mixture of amazement and disbelief. “It was a conspiracy. They weren’t enemies. The three of them were working together the entire time. They were conspiring with one another to garner control over the three Underworlds.”
Soo Jin was still utterly gobsmacked by this revelation.
“That was why Ji Hoon never made the effort to get on to Ju Won’s good side when I was around, because he knew that he’d have the Underworld regardless. Nevertheless, he wanted to break me, to make me think he cared about me more than the Underworld and that he was willing to sacrifice everything for me. He wanted his coveted throne and his trophy girlfriend.”
“Anna wasn’t the only one who betrayed you,” Tae Hyun provided shrewdly.
“No,” Soo Jin conceded. “Anna only knew a bit, but Ji Hoon knew the whole plan. The bitch never realized what I was planning to do to her husband. She only thought I was betraying him; she could’ve never imagined that I had planned on killing him. It wasn’t until Ji Hoon divulged everything to them.”
She felt the rage brew like an unstoppable storm inside her.
“He was the one who told Young Jae, he was the one who was working with them, he was the one who helped kill my father, and he was the one who betrayed me and ruined everything.”
“No matter who protects you, we will annihilate them.”
07: The Meeting of Gods
“I’m going to fucking kill that bastard,” Soo Jin seethed, gazing at the video of her father’s death with an entirely new outlook on what took place.
The more she watched, the more she wanted to rip Ji Hoon apart limb by limb. Fucking bastard. He was right in her grasp the other night, and what did she do? She let him go because she felt that she “owed” him for all his help. In actuality, the fucker was the primary one who screwed her over!
“He’s already left the country.”
She faced Tae Hyun. He was now sitting calmly on the edge of his desk, his eyes on her. For the first time, their hatred for Ji Hoon matched in intensity.
“What?”
“I’ve been trying to find him for the past few days,” Tae Hyun shared as the beginnings of the setting sun began to descend behind him, “to kill him once and for all for what he did to my father. But my Cobras told me he left the country after the war. He hasn’t been in Korea for a while.”
“Where is he right now?” she inquired, suspecting that Tae Hyun probably knew.
He inclined his head at her. “Where do you think?”
A resurgence of fury flashed through her. After all these revelations, after what had transpired since her return to the Underworld, and after the war’s commencement, she knew all too well where Ji Hoon was.
“He went to my brother.”
Tae Hyun nodded. He took a slight pause to ponder something before he released a dejected sigh. He abruptly whipped out his phone from his pocket.
“Who are you calling?” Soo Jin asked watchfully, her stern eyes locked on his phone.
“Your brother.”
The force of the simple reply nearly had her stumbling in her black pumps. What the hell? Before she could accuse him of anything or ask if he had been working with them all along, he promptly explained himself.
“Young Jae contacted me the day after Ju Won’s birthday. He gave me a number to reach him and said that whenever I was ready to talk, I could call him anytime.” His shoulders lifted into a shrug. “It seems befitting that I do so right now.”
“Why would he give you a means to contact him? What does he want with you?”
“Why do you think?”
Soo Jin inhaled sharply, suspecting that Young Jae gave Tae Hyun a means to contact him because he wanted to work with Tae Hyun—to possibly work out an agreement or form an alliance. Either way, it didn’t comfort Soo Jin to know that there was a chance that Tae Hyun and Young Jae were working together.
“Were you planning on calling him and working with him?”
He raised a brow at her, his expression unimpressed with her question. “After my spiel to you about winning you back, you think I’d stoop so low as to work with your brother? If you truly believe that, then you’re not the geeky computer genius I labeled you to be.”
There was humor in his voice, but she didn’t miss the offense in it. Tae Hyun was too prideful to ever consider working with the likes of her brother—or Ji Hoon for that matter—and the accusation was just insulting.
Unwilling to offer an apology, Soo Jin kept her lips sealed while Tae Hyun place
d the phone on speaker. Soon, the ringing of the phone infiltrated the office room.
Her brother’s voice came on the line after the third ring, and Soo Jin could swear she felt her heart clench and the air around her dissipate. Regardless of how much she hated her brother and wanted to kill him, she couldn’t deny the heartache she felt hearing the voice of the person she grew up with and loved. However, she hadn’t forgotten that he murdered their father. She hadn’t forgotten the promise she made to avenge the Siberian Tigers family, she hadn’t forgotten that he was prepared to kill her when she was Yoori, and she definitely hadn’t forgotten that she had plans to kill him. Complications of the heart aside, she knew when to get down to business. At the moment, Young Jae was a cancer in her life that needed to be eradicated.
“Tae Hyun,” Young Jae’s warm voice greeted, acting as a stimulant to the boiling of her already heated blood. After bearing witness to her father’s death a moment ago, the fact that he was so carefree infuriated her. “I’m glad you called.”
“I’m with your sister,” Tae Hyun said swiftly, getting right to the point.
God, the guy is too much of a straight shooter at times, Soo Jin thought with annoyance. She had hoped to eavesdrop on their conversation before she planned on revealing herself. Now, obviously, that plan had been shot to hell.
“I know you are,” Young Jae said serenely, shocking both Tae Hyun and Soo Jin with knowledge that he already knew they were together before the phone call. “I was planning on calling both of you. Luckily, you called me just before I could dial you.”
Soo Jin smirked, amused that this entire city was seemingly under Young Jae’s surveillance. “You still have your spies all over the city, don’t you, oppa?” Soo Jin said sweetly into the phone.