.05% | lty

53. What Happened That Day

Yuna fed Yejun, who was now sound asleep in his crib and Taeyong had cooked for the two of them. After they ate Yuna sat curled on the edge of the couch. Taeyong pulled up a chair in front of her and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

"What's with this weird seating arrangement?" She squinted her eyes at him. "I feel like I'm being interrogated."

He stared at her blankly.

"I want to see you clearly. I want you to see me clearly so you know that everything I say is sincere."

"This is making me worried..." she said under her breath. He ignored her comment and continued. She prepared herself for everything he had to say, whatever it may be.

"I know we have never had a conventional relationship..." he began. "And I don't think either of us started out expecting anything, but somehow it turned into everything so fast. We met and said goodbye and met again and there wasn't really any question. We were just...us. At some point I wondered what does that mean exactly and how far can we get living the way we are now? To me, the only answer was getting rid of all that was toxic so that we could flourish."

She listened attentively; watching as he got lost in his explanation, his facial expressions and his hands working to explain the emotion behind each word. Between the stiff movements of his fingers and the way his eyes had trouble staying on hers, she thought he almost seemed nervous.

"I had my doubts when Soo Man gave me his permission to distance myself from the family and when he asked to meet you, of course I did. I would be stupid not to. But I was also stupid enough to let myself ignore it because of the history we shared. He raised me. He moulded me. It's not a stretch to say that I was a prize to him at the very least. I was wrong though."

He pushed his hair back and his eyes seemed lost for a moment, perhaps thinking back on the faint feeling of sadness that came with the betrayal by the closest thing to a father he had known. The thought quickly disappeared and he continued.

"I knew for sure when Mark wanted to meet that the problem was on a much bigger scale than I had imagined. The head of his family, Joon Suk, and Soo Man had been partnering up and building their business on an international level. Joon Suk started destroying his family as soon as he came into power and at the same time, somehow lured Soo Man into it too. They both wanted me dead because I had the potential to stop it. They had planned from the beginning to kill all of us that day. Soo Man wanted to keep his hands clean and not make enemies with the majority of the family that did support me, so he sat back as Joon Suk made plans to come in and get rid of us."

"Why did we go then? Why didn't you tell me?" She asked.

"Because it was the last chance I had to make a clean break. I went there to kill him."

His bluntness took her by surprise. She knew full well that Taeyong had blood on his hands but to hear something like that out loud was unsettling.

"The whole night before we tracked down Joon Suk's most likely candidates hoping to buy us time, but we could have never got out of there on our own. I had to rely on Mark. He was supposed to get whoever he could to come and give us a step up in the situation. I didn't know everything would happen so quickly. I didn't know Soo Man would want to take care of me himself."

Yuna thought back to that day. Her mind scanned over words and expressions that had a different meaning, looking back now. Maybe if she would have known, things could have been different. She was angry at him for keeping all of this from her.

"The plan was always to get you out no matter what. There was a back up plan for every scenario so I could make sure you got out safely. Even still, every day I have regretted putting you in that situation."