Ransomed Fiancée (Michaeng) ✔️

Summary (Part 17)

Chapter 17:

Tzuyu hesitated. "Chaeyoung wanted to tell you. She waited for you, but the authorities were already involved, and you locked yourself away. In the end, she decided it was better if you didn't know at all."

"You had four years!" Mina's voice rose, trembling with anger. "Four years, and you hid it from me. Did it never cross your mind to tell me the truth? Or was I supposed to live in blissful ignorance forever? If I hadn't come to South Korea, would you ever have told me?"

Tzuyu met her glare with an unsettling calmness, "Would it have made a difference?"

Mina blinked, taken aback by the question. "What?"

"If Chaeyoung had told you then... if I had told you sooner, would it have changed anything?" Tzuyu's tone was almost as if she already knew the answer.

Mina's chest tightened with irritation. "Yes!" she shouted, her voice growing louder with every word. "It would've changed everything!"

"What would you do? Would you have stopped her from turning herself in? Could you have stopped her? Would you have testified against her in court? Would you have willingly gotten involved in that mess?"

"I wouldn't have stopped her," Mina said, rising to her feet, "But I would have been there for her! I would've stood by her every step of the way. You and she stole that choice from me!"

Tzuyu exhaled sharply, running a hand through her hair as she met Mina's furious gaze. She had never seen her this angry before. "We thought it was the best decision at the time," She said, her voice tinged with frustration, "Did you even see yourself back then, Mina? You were barely holding it together. You shut everyone out, locked yourself in your room, refused to talk to anyone. It took me six months just to get you to leave that state. You could hardly handle what was happening. How could we have expected you to handle something as massive as this?"

Mina's jaw clenched, her fists trembling at her sides. "You don't get to decide what I can or can't handle. It wasn't your choice to make."

"Maybe not," Tzuyu shot back, her voice rising. "But you weren't in any state to make that choice either. You think I didn't struggle with this? Watching you fall apart while knowing the truth, wondering if telling you would destroy you even more? Do you think it was easy for me?"

Mina's eyes glistened but she refused to let the tears fall. "Easy? This isn't about what was easy for you, Tzuyu! You lied to me! You watched me cry over her, despise her memory, convince myself that she was such a coward while you knew the truth all along and you said nothing. Nothing! How could you stand there and let me feel like that for so long?"

Tzuyu softened, guilt crossing her face. "I thought it was the right thing to do."

"Well, you were wrong," Mina whispered, her voice tight, barely containing the emotion.

Tzuyu took a step closer, "Mina, we never wanted to take that choice from you. Chaeyoung made her decision because she didn't want you to suffer more than you already are. She thought.....she thought it would be better if you didn't have to know."

"Better for whom? For her? For you?" Mina's voice cracked as the anger shifted to something deeper, something more painful. "You really thought it was better for me not to know? Years of believing she just vanished, that she abandoned me, tossed me aside, chose power over me. You let me live with that lie. You let me think that."

Tzuyu pressed her lips into a thin line.

Mina chuckled bitterly, "And now I come back, clinging to my pathetic dignity, thinking I could show her what she lost, thinking I could prove myself through some stupid revenge. And all the while, she holds no malice, no hatred, no jealousy... just staring at me with that damn, apologetic eyes!" She turned away, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. She pressed her hand to her chest, as though trying to stop the ache that felt unbearable. "Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused me by keeping this from me? How it's made me feel?"