Secrets Aren't Lies

Chapter 21

I'm rendered speechless. I cry silently as my hands grip the paper tightly, finally understanding and knowing the truth. After all these months of being hid away under a blanket of lies, I'm revealed the true knowledge of this bullshit! I hold the paper against my heart, somewhat feeling entirely guilty that I could do nothing to stop it, or even help with the money. My chest wrenches with pain. This is literally Hongbin's sign that I shouldn't get involved with Ken any more, otherwise I might have the same fate he did.

Wait, if Hakyeon knew that Hyuk killed my brother, that means he found out about my family history. But, why wasn't Hongbin's debt piled onto me? Probably because he knew I was finagling with Ken that Hakeyon knew everything would fall into place according to his plan, I was already in deep shit no matter what. "Fuck!" I scream aloud, infuriated.

I fold up the letter and shove it safely back into the envelope, hiding it in my purse. My heart races and my blood thickens, not knowing what to do. I'm in denial and complete disbelief that our parents would go through such lengths, and that Hongbin kept quiet about it the whole time! I guess he was doing it for the best, especially in my sake, but I still ended up being sucked in. All because of Ken.

I reach my hands up to my head so my fingers can rub my temple, trying to organize my thoughts thoroughly. I feel like I let my family down, they tried so hard to keep me away from it all, but I unintentionally ruined all of their hard work. This makes me really want to stay away from Ken, but my heart pulls me out of those thoughts. I'm really hating myself and this decision, but I pull out my phone, struggling to fight against myself. I sigh.

'I'll be late.' I send a text to Ken a quarter before noon and I leave silently, needing to find this out for myself. I feel strange and stupid, like this is so wrong to do. I can't be hanging around a killer! My instincts take me to the nearby store and pickup some pepper spray, just to be safe. I'm not the type of person to carry a knife or a gun, so this is the protection route I take. I start heading to my work, desperately wanting to find some information.

Nobody is at work since it's on a day that we are closed, thankfully. I unlock it and go inside, rushing to the filing cabinets. I hurriedly flick my fingers through all of the files, going to the year that my parents died. I search through all of the dates and find the exact same day Hongbin told me about them. My heart immediately drops as I pull out the file slowly. I take a deep breath and open it up, skimming my eyes all across the papers. Mr. and Mrs. Lee killed right outside their home. I read the headline. It's true. The mafia did kill them, it wasn't a car wreck. My hands grip the folder tightly, shakily. I can't stop staring at the front picture of them. I've been drowning in all of these lies, I can't take it. I bite my lip to hide myself from my tears, and I just shove the folder back in the cabinet. I lock up the building and leave in an outrage. I head to the assigned destination.

I finally make it to the marketplace at twelve-fifteen P.M and wait impatiently on the bench right by the statue. I figured Ken would be here by now, but I haven't even gotten a text from him. I watch the busy crowds march by, some people looking at directories and small maps about where to go and what to look at, coming in and out of shops. It's quite interesting, but all I'm focused on is looking for Ken, my knees shake uncontrollably. 

Ken P.O.V

I try my best to contain my excitement about seeing Jiyeon again, it's felt like ages and I have so much to talk about and apologize for. I just have no idea where to even begin. Is there anything she wants to say? Of course there is, ugh, I'm almost there. I push my way through the mass of people, seeing the statue in the distance. Suddenly, I am groped and pulled between two shop buildings, the person behind me, covering my mouth. I gasp between their fingers, my eyes wide and my heart stopping. Right there I thought I was going to be dead, but the person talks lowly.