When It Began, It Never Ended Ch. 26 Pt. I
A/N:Sorry I don't update as frequently. This chapter is just another connector. God, I wouldn't even want to read this, but for the sake of the movement, it's needed. Anyway, it summarizes things up and brings about a new insight of how things are doing on both sides.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eunjung, Boram, and Jiyoung were lounging in the group's bedroom while everyone else was outside occupied with their own activities.
“Unnie, what do you think about these letters? They’re creepily romantic and not even addressed to her.” Eunjung was flipping through worn folded papers, scanning lines she could barely comprehend. “'I’m sorry we can’t meet, but always remember my love for you~'” She mocked what was written on the mysterious pages.
“Just give them back to her. They obviously must mean something to the girl.” Boram was counting the money Jessica had handed her for expenses and other necessities.
“But I don’t trust her.” Eunjung put the letters down on her desk.
“Why not? She seems perfectly fine - sort of insane, but fine.” Boram picked up a pencil and started jotting down notes.
“Couldn’t she just live by herself and take that little girl with her?” Eunjung’s tone held a tint of annoyance.
“Ham, if you got a problem, go talk to her. I don’t really give a damn about your thoughts on her right now, especially after she just handed me a boatload of money. Now shut up or go away. Or both.”
Boram continued taking notes and counting bills.
“Unnie, I don’t think she’s that bad. By the sound of the letters, the worst she could do is suffocate us with her love.” Jiyoung spoke up through the blanket covering her head.
“Ugh, whatever.” Eunjung opened her desk drawer and shoved the letters in.
“I’m going out to eat.” Eunjung grabbed her jacket off her chair and left the room.
*
“Sir! My sister is missing! You can’t make me go through a marriage without having her there! It was part of the deal!!” Kangin was worrying himself to death, his words hardly comprehensible through his sputtering saliva.
Machii sat behind his desk holding his temples between his fingers.
“I have my men searching for her. Please stay calm.” His blood pressure was rising and he could hardly tolerate one of his subordinates yelling at him, much less the unpleasant spray of spittle.
“But Sir, she’s the only family I have left. You promised to keep her safe.” Kangin was on his knees in front of Machii’s desk desperately holding himself together.
Machii heaved a heavy sigh before picking up his phone, “Gather the Ginza police. I want every gang, abandoned building, factory, warehouse, and ship searched. We’re looking for a Suji Bae… And when you find her, tell her she’s attending her brother’s wedding.”
He put down the phone and looked back at Kangin, regarding him with distaste.
Kangin had brought his hands down from his face and was staring at Machii with hope shining through teary relief. He immediately bowed fully to him from his knees.
“Thank you Sir!” He was in tears.
“Get up. Go attend your duties. And call Stephanie here for me.” Machii was rubbing his temples again, getting ready to deal with his oldest daughter.
“Yes Sir!” Kangin left and after several minutes, Tiffany entered warily.
“Miyoung-ah, your marriage date is set.” Without looking into her eyes, he could feel the burning pain emitting from his daughter’s being before she silently stalked out.
*
“Since she’s in a coma, can we just give her a nickname? Like Charles or something, since she’s a cat?” Hwayoung was hanging out with Jessica as she went through revolutions of workouts.
“Charles is a boy’s name, and I’m pretty sure she’s female.” Jessica made friendly conversation with the kid.
“But I can’t think of a female cat name.” The girl was sitting in front of the comatose kid.
She continued inquiring for a name though, “Mmmm, how ‘bout Tiffany. That’s a type of cat too, isn’t it?”
Jessica froze in mid-stance. Her nose felt an oncoming burning sensation and a shiver ran up her spine. “That’s the ugliest name I’ve ever heard.” She continued her swift movement through the air as Hwayoung stared at her, slightly scared at the split-second change.
Jessica’s voice sounded uncannily stale, as if Hwayoung had stabbed her with a pencil, but she shrugged it off. She didn’t like the uncomfortable feeling; maybe it was just an awkward moment.
Eunjung suddenly came rushing down the metal staircase and hopped on her motorcycle by the backdoor.
Nothing seemed to faze Jessica anymore as she continued her training in the middle of the warehouse.
Barely a minute passed before the cat-girl on the couch began squirming, Jessica pausing to inspect her. Hwayoung clenched her fists to her face excitedly as she was about to meet her new best friend.
The cat suddenly shot up from the couch, instantly finding Jessica’s eyes in the room before grabbing her head in intense pain. “Oouuh.”
Jessica approached her and leaned her against the couch, “You shouldn’t get up so fast.”
The cat immediately tried swatting away her hands, but she ended up hurting her hands against Jessica’s hard limbs.
Hwayoung continued to stare expectantly at the other kid.
“Stop hurting yourself and calm down.” Jessica took off the girl’s stupid cat headband and threw it at Hwayoung.
“Ah!” Hwayoung caught it and inspected the item before sniffing it and putting it on.
The un-kittened girl shrunk under Jessica’s gaze.
Jessica grabbed her head and stared into her eyes, effectively calming the girl down.
“What’s your name?”
The bewitched girl’s mouth hung open as she whispered out syllables, “Su...ji.”
“Why were you in a prostitution rink?”
“My boyfriend put me there.” The younger girl started to tear up.
“Fuckin’ pre-teens and their hormones. The clock stops counting their age, and all of a sudden they think they’re old enough for anything.” Jessica released her grasp on Suji and got up from the sofa.
“Hwayoung! Build me my room!” She commanded the twitching little girl who was about to berate the other young girl with nonsensical questions, excitedly holding back.
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?!” She spluttered at Jessica, stopping all movement as the older girl shot her a spiteful glare. “Are you disrespecting your elders? Go tell Boram and get started on my room.”
Jessica left the bouncy girl to bounce and threw the extra clothes at Suji.
“Put these on, we’re going shopping.”
*
“Fany Fany~ My one and only Fany~ Let me be your pony! I’ll take you anywhere! Way up there! On a magical pony ride!~ AH!”
“SHUT UP YOU DAMN PRE-PUBUSCENT SHIT. She gets one girl’s attention and now she thinks she’s in love!” Sooyoung was fuming at the door frame of what used to be Jessica’s room.
“I’ll whoop your ass harder than the mighty fist of God if you keep trying to sing that shit!”
Sooyoung stomped into the room with Seohyun holding her hand and following meekly.
Taeyeon and Sunny were already situated on the couch as Yoona and Yuri finally walked in, closing and locking the door behind them.
“Did you all get your wedding invitations?”
Everyone in the room nodded.
“Wait, the anklebiter’s in on this?” Yuri gestured to Nana with her chin.
Sooyoung grimaced as Taeyeon spoke, “Oh, she knows where she stands.”
Nana pursed her lips as she looked down defensively.
“It’s not my fault she looked like a damn skank when we went to go fetch her.”
She quickly flew deeper into the bed before the lamp Sooyoung threw could mar her beautiful features.
“It was a misunderstanding!” Taeyeon defended. Sunny flinched and everyone in the room caught it.
“Sorry…” Taeyeon mumbled before Sunny shook it off.
“No, she really didn’t love me though.” She weakly smiled while looking down in defeat.
They could all tell she was reminiscing.
“Was she that great?” Nana inquired, really questioning if Jessica had a romantic side to her.
Everyone glared at her, but Sunny looked up at her with an exasperated smile, “She really was. In fact I’m still trying to process the shock.” Sunny met Nana’s eyes and everyone in the room could feel the burning sincerity.
Nana turned away, uncomfortable with the atmosphere and Sunny’s words hanging in the air.
Yuri clapped her hands, bringing attention back to the situation at hand.
“How are we going to find her, and how are we going to bring her back? We don’t even know what happened in the office, all we know is that she left and there’s no information on her ever returning.”
Taeyeon fidgeted and trained eyes tracked it.
“What do you know?” Sooyoung questioned her as Yoona, Yuri, and Seohyun already had their eyes on her unblinking.
Nana quickly caught on and Sunny followed their stares, pressuring Taeyeon for an answer.
Taeyeon tried controlling her expressions and body language, but everyone in the group had already begun their training under their father’s best members. Psychology happened to be part of the training.
Acknowledging that she was cornered, Taeyeon bobbed her mouth open like a fish, trying to word how she should tell them Jessica stole her father’s car.
“She stole my dad’s car; I don’t know if I should be telling you though, I might get in trouble.” Taeyeon scratched her chin, feeling a little nervous she might get scolded for spilling information about a gang member runaway.
Or worse.
“She shouldn’t be hard to find if we just put out a wanted poster, right?” Sunny queried gulliby.
“Do you understand where you are?” Yuri spoke as someone had to break it into Sunny’s skull.
“You can’t expect me to understand when I’ve barely been here a week.” Sunny glared back at her, suddenly feeling angry and more out of place than ever.
Yuri sighed, knowing she shouldn’t be too harsh on the small girl in front of her. “Sorry, too much stress. Yoona, can you break it down for her and the anklebiter over there? She’s asking for a death wish with that ignorant look on her face.”
They heard metal clink on the other side of the room, Seohyun holding Sooyoung back from advancing on Nana.
“We’re all daughters of a Kaicho, a gang leader, or mob boss. Yes, we’re all girls. Girls make better assassins, you know. We’ve been training since a young age for combat, psychology, and war. Jessica is a slightly special case. She follows the same story line, except Machii murdered her parents. The little girl you might see wandering around the house that resembles her, that’s her little sister and her only family left. She was brought here to take care of Tiffany and…” She paused, she never really knew what else as she looked around the room; searching for an answer from someone else. “What else is she here for?”
Nana sat up on her bed, her expression also displaying a sense of loss. “I thought she was just here for Tiffany?”
“But Tiffany’s getting married soon, and to one of the guys around the house. So why’d Machii take Jessica in?” Sunny spoke up this time, genuinely wondering what was going on in the room.
Something clinked on the other side of the room again and Soohyun spoke, “Her parents were friends of Machii's. We never probed for the connection on why she might be here due to the fact we implied there was a connection between the two.”
The room fell into silence.
“Can we go to Tiffany for more answers?” Sunny questioned again, gullibly.
“No, she doesn’t know anymore than we do.” Taeyeon spoke softly to her.
Sunny gave her a weak smile and grabbed her hand.
“Do you know where Jessica could have taken your father’s car?” Nana’s voice hung in the air as it was answered almost disinterestedly.
“We don’t have any motives to bring her back anymore. She took care of Tiffany while she could, now the job’s up. We were all sisters in a way, but it’s more understandable now that she’d never even want to come back. There’s no point in trying.” Sooyoung spoke as tears brimmed in her eyes, all the fight drained out of her voice and stance.
Nana’s attitude simmered into remorse.
“Tiffany doesn’t want her back?” Sunny hopelessly pushed the question out, hoping this one wouldn’t be as useless as her others. Suddenly, she felt all eyes on her.
Seohyun’s tone cut through everyone’s emotional barriers, “If she wanted her in the first place, she wouldn’t have agreed to the marriage. She would have told Jessica she didn’t want to marry Kangin, and Jessica would have made it her duty to save her. Without Tiffany, she has nothing here.”
Sunny’s feelings were stomped on, used, and hit by a train. Never has she felt like such a fool.
Taeyeon tried comforting her, but Sunny pushed the older girl away. “Stop pitying me, it makes me sick.”
She walked out the door with tears streaming down her face.
There were weird noises coming from the other side of the room again and Sooyong’s head was in Seohyun’s lap as she ran her fingers through Sooyoung’s hair.
Nana got up with a heavy sigh and left her room.
Yuri and Yoona joined Sooyoung, and Taeyeon sat idly on the couch. Memories flooded their minds as loneliness and desertion weighed down on their hearts.
*
‘Kaicho, we’ve found Suji Bae…’ Machii listened carefully as Yesung's report crackled through the phone.
‘And we’ve found Jessica. Sir, they’re currently living together with six other women.’
Machii’s lips twitched.
What a nice surprise.
Should he send his daughter down to collect Suji? They’re both female after all, and an adolescent girl like Suji wouldn’t want to be escorted by rough, unsanitary men.
The marriage would not be for a couple more months, allowing things to dissipate first with time.
“Put the mission on standby, I’ll retrieve her on my own time. Tell Kangin his sister is safe, but withhold the fact she’s with Jessica by all means.”
*