Chen Linyun"s smartphone received message notifications four times."I"m going to spend some time with my other brother after school."
"Please don"t wait for me or look for me."
"Don"t even try to stop me, too. I"m the only person he has."
"I"m safe with him. Set your worries aside. He would not inflict me any harm if that"s your concern."
All four messages came from Kang Sola.
Chen Linyun removed his eyegla.s.ses and rubbed his face with his palm. He reclined on his office chair. "What am I gonna do with you, Sola?" He thought.
Her affinity to her other brother was too strong. Chen Linyun, at first, was dumbfounded by it. "How can they click so easily? Do they know each other from years back?"
Even if she did not admit it, Chen Linyun knew that Kang Sola had been upset with what happened to her father. He understood that Kang Sola must have seen the logic behind it, but at the end of the day, she lost a parent.
He decided to go easy on her and just let her be.
"Okay. But please inform me of your whereabouts or your condition or activity once in a while."
She did not respond to that.
----
After school, Kang Sola went straight to her Fengyu-Oppa"s abode. She found him in his study. The whole house was dim and emitted such a lonely, spooky vibe.
"Fengyu-Oppa." She called.
The big chair behind the desk turned around. "Go home." He said to the girl despondently.
"No. I will be spending the night here. How about I live here with you?"
"Are you crazy?" Was his curt reply.
"I"ll keep you company." The girl suggested with feigned enthusiasm. She smiled at him warmly.
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai snorted. "My advice to you is to keep your distance from me. I don"t know if that good father of ours will drag me into his mess. After all, I hold a significant position in his corporation. If he identifies me as his accomplice, then that would be the end of me."
"And my lawyer notified me just now that some douchebag pressed charges of a.s.sault against me. I remember that sissy in the gym – the one I vented my anger on when I lost it."
"The police might come at any moment and seize me. Do you understand the severity of the situation?"
Kang Sola scowled. "Not you, too."
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai laughed boisterously. "You"re probably the only one who"ll have that kind of a reaction."
"In that sense, we should maximize your visit, shouldn"t we? Follow me."
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai left the study with Kang Sola tagging closely behind. They transferred into another room. It was the same bedroom where Kang Sola used to sleep in when she spends the night in his house.
The brother went to a corner and retrieved a box around ten inches in length. "Keep this for me. It"s my mother"s."
"Huh?"
"I don"t want to impose on you, Sola. But I cannot rely on anyone else with this one important task." He turned serious. "If indeed they take me away, can you visit my mother in the hospital once in a while? I have all of her expenses covered. I have enough savings for that. I just need someone to see to it that my mother is well taken care of."
"Okay." Kang Sola was nearing tears. She bowed her head to hide the welling tears in her eyes as she blinked it away. "It feels like you"re saying goodbye."
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai opened both his arms and invited his baby sister for a hug.
The girl dragged her feet and sulked her way into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist and locked it around her wrist. Finally, she could not hold her tears anymore and cried indulgently.
He stroked the back of her head. "Live well. Don"t be like your Oppa. Don"t repeat my mistakes, you hear?"
The girl nodded.
"Now go." He mildly pushed her away. "Scram."
Kang Sola obediently did as she was told.
However, the very next day, she returned to the same place after school.
"You"re here again, huh?" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai was immensely annoyed at her presence. His face was scrunched from exasperation.
"Hihi." Kang Sola showed a good white set of teeth in a wide taunting grin. "I brought Chimek [1]"
They sat by the pool and opened the box of the smoking hot chicken. s.h.i.+ Fan Hai popped open a can of beer. He pa.s.sed one can to Kang Sola.
"Do you drink?" He arched a brow.
"Of course."
"Then, cheers."
Kang Sola poked with her index finger some of the crumbs that were left on the box. Hesitatingly, she proposed, "What if we go back to Korea together? Let"s take your mother with us."
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai"s eyelids drooped as his mouth stretched into his mischievous lopsided grin. "Not a bad idea."
He gulped from his beer then he added, "But I would not be able to go under the current circ.u.mstances. My name must have already been on the banned-to-travel list. Unless we escape like fugitives."
"Are you lacking excitement and complication in your life, Sola?"
"I bet you would not enjoy it no matter how much you"re lacking right now."
"I"m flattered, though."
Kang Sola raised her head and stared at the myriads of stars. "Is there no way out?"
"None legally." He took another gulp. "Don"t come back tomorrow. I won"t open the doors for you."
"I am the only person that you have." She insisted.
"Hahahaha! You are so naïve, Sola!" He picked up a chicken and devoured it shamelessly. "Yes, you are. But I don"t deserve your pity. In fact, I don"t want your pity. There must be a reason why I am left to my own devices."
The atmosphere was stifling. It was a summer night, and the humidity had risen. The air grew heavy as the night dominated the surroundings.
In the middle of the peace of the night, rustling noises were heard from the bushes. Not shortly after, a succession of footsteps was heard as well from inside the house.
s.h.i.+ Fan Hai immediately jolted upright, and coldly called out, "Who"s there?" His devil"s voice reverberated in the summer air.
One by one, several men revealed themselves. They all surged forward at once.
Kang Sola saw a bulky, buff guy hit her brother"s head.
"NO!!!!" She struggled but met resistance.
Everything happened so fast that she did not notice that she was. .h.i.t as well. Her vision blurred and her body grew heavier and heavier. She collapsed on the ground by the pool and tried to be awake as hard as she could until her eyelids could not stay open any longer.