Jin's Mistake • KSJ

Forty One

"Has there ever been a moment you just thought about being a good wife and daughter? Putting aside your grandiose dreams and doing what's best for the family?" Your mother was standing with her back to you while you fumbled with the bra she'd handed you in the stack of clothing. It was clearly one of your cousin's or aunt's and it wasn't the right size.

Tears started falling all over again, at the ridiculous struggle of wearing someone else's clothing, knowing that this was such a foreshadowing of your fate. The tears turned to choked laughter at how you could have gone from believing you were winning against the bad guys, to at the mercy of your mother and a bra that was a size too small.

"I don't know what you think is so funny." Her sharp tone dried the giggle on your tongue.

"No, it never did cross my mind to succumb to being a shadow of myself to please this family. I am ashamed of everything each one of you are, whether you directly caused others harm or just closed your eyes to it." You yanked the straps up, what did it matter what you wore or how it felt?

"You were given such a easy match, handsome actor husband," she continued, ignoring your accusations, "I know Chinhae was difficult but hiring that security guard cleared that stumbling block right out of the way." She was tidying up the bathroom behind you, seemingly regressing into a state of mind that if she pretended things were fine, they would be.

"An easy match? I guess you missed the part where he beat me senseless. Do you know that wasn't even the first time he put his hands on me?" You refused to speak on Ji Hoon around her, you weren't ready to think about what might have happened to him.

"You aren't an obedient wife. You have aunts and cousins who are paired with men who greeted them with fists despite being subservient and tolerant. Yes you had an easy match." You knew she was justifying decades of abuse on the premise she'd tried to give you better.

She was right, you'd been given the easiest match, Seungho not at all the caricature he was currently playing. The evening you'd argued about Jin at his father's had been the first time he'd even lost his patience with you. He'd spent almost the entire three years being kind, loving, supportive of you. The first time he'd had to hit you he'd been brought to tears, Seungho was even now risking himself to get you out of something you'd buried yourself in. Even if he was right and you loved Jin, your husband meant the world to you, and you'd been lucky he'd been yours.

"I guess you're right, he was so permissive I was able to plan the destruction of an empire behind his back." You said it with as much taunting and pleasure as you could muster, if his plan didn't work the best you could give him now was immunity from your failure.

"You're naive and just a girl. You never stood a chance." With that she walked away carrying the towel wrapped around your dirty clothing.

~

Trigger warning violence

You'd sat on the bed, trying to think through every scenario possible about what Kyulee could be planning but your head throbbed and each prospect seemed worse than the next. No one returned to the room, it must have been hours, and the silence outside the door loomed heavy. Gulping some water from the sink had helped ease some of the pain in your head, but the tension of not knowing how everything would play out made it return.

When the door finally opened you rose to your feet, determined to meet whatever happened next upright and with as much dignity as you could muster. If they won you'd at least go down fighting and believing that what you'd done was worth it.

"He's here." Your father strode into the room, flanked by your brother and Seungho, neither met your eyes.

The entire way down the hall you stared at the back of their heads, wondering what they had discussed after your bath when Seungho was called away to meet with them. A tiny part of you wondered if your father would lift a single finger to save you. Had Seungho's gut feeling your father intended to kill you been his way of sparing you worse?