Rabbit Hole

VI. Epilogue

The quiet night made the faint sound of spurting blood all the more disturbingly deafening.

“...So you were…that woman's child…”

“Indeed.” Heejae nodded. “Your murder was planned, but this entire reunion wasn’t.”

The absurdity of the situation couldn't help but make Lee Hyejin laugh wryly. Her voice was weak and trembling, which was nothing surprising considering what had just transpired, on top of the torment she endured from Heejae beforehand.

Lee Hyejin had killed her father with her own hands.

Lee Su-il was ready to lunge at his daughter to shut her up for eternity out of uncontrollable anger, but Hyejin was able to get a hold of the knife Heejae had put down and immediately swung the blade at her father's throat, resulting in a bloody mess. Her strike was accurate enough to slash through the carotid artery, making his seemingly infinite blood splurt and flow from the deep, wide cut.

Supposedly, Heejae planned on killing his father himself. But after remaining on the sidelines and observing the two talk, he figured it would be interesting to let her noona do the deed instead. Why, she bore more hatred towards him compared to himself. In fact, Heejae considered Su-il to be a small stain in his least favorite shirt. He'd only get rid of him when he found it convenient, and it happened to be this night. While the young man found it to be a shame that he wasn't the one to kill him because of his original goal, he wasn't at all regretful of passing the knife to Lee Hyejin.

“...I did hear that…she got pregnant…but to think that I'd get to meet her child, after all these years…”

Heejae shrugged. “Same here, but life is unpredictable afterall. Even I didn't expect that the person that mistook me for his girlfriend was my cousin,” he scoffed.

Hyejin's eyes widened upon hearing about Yoohyun. “Hah…I'll be damned…”

Their whole situation was so ridiculous it made Heejae chuckle. Meanwhile, Hyejin was horrified by what she just heard.

“...”

Heejae observed her sister with a serene look. “Do you think that has lessened the burden in your heart?” he asked as he gently tucked her hair away from her sweaty pale face. The woman reacted with a small shudder from his cold touch.

The only strength left within Lee Hyejin sufficed for her to just bite down on her lip, enough to make it bleed. With a look of dread and a hoarse voice, she replied, “...I feel…disgusted. Even now, I can still hear him shouting,” she spoke with gritted teeth. The feeling of blood splattering all over her and a spasming carcass about to go into rigor mortis still inside her was eating away at her psyche, not to mention it belonged to the person she loathed for almost her whole life.

She slowly turned her head towards Heejae. “...If you're gonna kill me either way…do it now.” A single tear ran down her weary face. “I've had enough.”

The two looked at each other with a blank expression. While words weren't exchanged, the two had a silent agreement.

Heejae hummed. Right, there was no need to drag things any further. He stood up from his seat and took the bloody knife from Hyejin's limp hands.

“You should live a better life next time.”

“...I don't wanna hear it from you.”

Using the same blade Hyejin used to kill her father, Heejae slashed at her throat, leaving a cut deep enough to open up the jugular vein, making dark red blood slowly gush out from the wound. With her shaking hand, Hyejin instinctively reached for her neck to try and stop the bleeding, but her effort was futile. There was no recovery from such a severe cut with no one to help her.