Picture Perfect | k.th

Chapter 26

Sohee POV

God, am I supposed to hear my head throbbing? Surely that can't be normal. What kind of morning migraine was that bad?

I slowly opened my eyes, met with a dark void eerily lit with one off-center candle.

Oh right, I totally got knocked out.

I blinked a couple more times, eyes adjusting to the painfully dark room, straining to see anything. As I tried to wiggle my arms free, I realized that they were caught. Tied up unnecessarily tight in a rough rope. My legs were bound too.

Beside me, the muted sobs of the other hostages became clearer.

My head was pounding, but I tried to ignore the pain, focusing on the others around me.

"Did he hurt you?" I asked them.

A menacing chuckle answered for them, "Did he hurt them, she asks! That's hilarious. No. No he did not hurt them. But if you don't play your cards right, he might just, before turning on you."

I could barely make out Hyungseo's outline in the dark, but I could feel his frame looming over me, breathing uncomfortably into my ear.

I rolled my eyes, "Can you back up? I don't appreciate having your nasty breath all over me."

He scoffed, "Wow. You're seriously going to keep up the attitude. I have all their lives and yours in the palm of my hand, and you're going to continue to challenge me?" He slammed his hands on the walls beside me, getting real close to my face.

"When you act like a goofy, cartoon villain without a proper plan or common sense, it's pretty easy to call your bluff," I stated.

He laughed once. Then a few more times. And even more until he devolved into a deranged series of cackles.

"You were always a league above, weren't you, my dear Sohee."

I flinched ever-so-slightly when he bashed something against the wall, right next to my head. A bat. It just gets even more cartoonish every passing second.

"Not scared yet? No, I should think not. You were always quite resilient. A spirit very rare in people your age these days. It's probably why I fell in love with you," he sighed.

"Oh please, get off your high horse. You're so annoyingly fixated on this non-existent thing between us. At best, you feel acknowledged after being ignored your whole life. I certainly do not love you. I'm being honest because I want to help you. And I want to help these people here. And I think people only deserve honesty because it helps them heal faster. Believe me, no one knows it better than I. This issue is between you and me, let's not involve other people in it," I tried to negotiate firmly.

"You don't get it, dear girl. You were never a part of this narrative. As soon as I figured out what the paper could do, it was always about them. They need to be expunged. I was a great person growing up, and they dragged me down to what I am now. This is because of them," he ranted. He stopped for a moment, pressing a calloused hand on my cheek, uncomfortably caressing it, "You my dear, were a happy accident. You should've never seen the bad. You were a loyal student who understood me. Understood the true artistic vision. Your perception was skewed, and now you're no better than these people are." He paced the room in a frenzy. I watched him carefully, making sure that he never angled too close to the hostages. "You see, I had this magnificent plan. Something only I had the power to do. Something God must have ordained me to do. Replacement. Correction. Execution. It was simple really. Kill the former, defective weaklings, and replace them with a perfect, receptive version of themselves. It was simple. The portraits were already carrying out my will as it was. Ah, but of course, someone had to meddle with it right. You see, I had a gift for you that I wanted to show you that I had hidden in my art room. I was really quite excited to show you. And instead, what do I find? Black. A void on the canvases where my creations—my children once rested. You did that. You, Kang Sohee. The most frustratingly complicated woman in existence. You inspired me to pursue my dreams and then you ripped it out of my hands just as fast. I was lucky Dae was out of the portrait and knew better than to try to go back in. But my other children are gone. Hours of creation gone down the drain. As someone interested in art, I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating that is."