HER || [Chaerji]

{6}

In a room with only a few dim lights, a place where all things are quite organized neatly and cleanly, shelves with types of guns on display, bullet crates on the corner of the wall, and different kinds of daggers shown in display cases.

A light pop sound was made when Yeji pulled out the cork of the red wine, then she poured it into the unique wine glass.

She took the glass and went to sit on the black leather chair, gently swirling the glass of wine as she observes how the wine follows the motion. Then she thought of that one person, her target.

"Should have killed her right away," she whispered lowly.

The creasing of her eyebrows shows how frustrated she is. There was something strange about the girl. Something that Yeji finds weird, but she couldn't really tell what was it, and that bothers her.

"The mark..." her mind wandered off to reminisce the scene where she noticed something on the skin beside the girl's ankle.

As soon as Yeji finished the alcohol, she placed the emptied glass on the table and headed to the bedroom. Sitting down at the end of the bed, she was facing the mirror in front of her.

She took her shirt off, leaving her upper body half-naked, only wearing a brassiere. Intensely looking at her own body, her gaze traced all over the scars on her body. Those obvious marks that were drawn by deep cuts below her collarbone, abdomen, waist...

A low exhale of breath escaped her mouth when her gaze reached to the outer side of her right upper arm, where there laid a burnt mark that probably had a meaning. It looks like a logo: A circle with a triangle in the centre.

"It is the mark. I am not wrong," she spoke lowly to herself.

•=•=•=•=•

Chaeryeong's POV

"Miss Lee, you shouldn't—"

"Alright, alright, I know what you wanted to say. I shouldn't run around the place without any guards. I know. Would you just stop nagging the same thing?" I creased my brows, feeling annoyed.

"Instead of complaining, you should appreciate our concern for you, we were all deadly worried because of you! *sighs softly* Sorry for the misbehaving of my attitude toward you, Miss Lee. I'll leave for now." Seonju lowered his head on his way out of the door. "Yah—" I was cut off when Seonju decided to not stop his steps and left the room.

I let out a frustrated groan and Jisu unnie only chuckled on the side.

"Why are you laughing? It's not even funny, unnie." I looked at her.

She placed down the book she was reading the whole time as she was here in the room on the counter and walked to where I was. "You know, Seonju is right. You shouldn't be mad at him for nagging you about your safety. It was true that we were all very worried about you."

"I know! But—" I stopped my sentence, hesitating if I should share my thoughts with her. I don't want to receive any more nags. "Hm? What is it?" she raised her brow in curiosity.

"But it's suffocating me when there are so many people guarding beside me sometimes. People eye me whenever I go out, drawing mostly everyone's attention. I don't like it..."

"I think I understand how you feel, Ryeong. But your safety is most important, I'm sure you know what I mean. It's too dangerous for—"

"It's too dangerous for me to be out alone. Especially in the situation right now. I get it unnie, this sentence has been repeatedly told for a lot of time. I know what you mean."

Jisu unnie let out a sigh, her hand then placed on my back, stroking gently. "I don't want to lose you. In fact, all of us don't want that to happen."

"I get it, unnie. Understood." I mumbled and left my seat, heading off to my room.

I may be stubborn for not listening to them, but they don't know how I feel. They don't understand. I dislike this kind of life.

People may be envious of what I have, but just because of how rich my family is, I get what I want. This is what they say about me all the time, jealous of me because I'm 'lucky' to live a life like this.

But no matter how much money I have, I would never be able to get or buy one thing that I've been longing for in my life: Freedom.

I have never liked the idea of having guards around me all the time. I don't like receiving so much attention from people all around the place either. I prefer being low-keyed.

Even attending an event would be spread out like big news to the world, "The Lee's attended the *** event"... Don't you think that the more your life is exposed to the outside world, the higher risk and danger you have? Isn't this the reason why I am in danger right now?

Sometimes a few thoughts may come into my mind, and I would think that maybe dying is better than forever feeling suffocation.