Hold My Hand || The King Eternal Monarch

CH. 8.5

A/N: I just HAD to make the plot more complicated than it actually was...well whatever. This is just to help explain further because even I got confused writing this haha. Also sorry this is not really a new chapter per se.

[Two years ago]

(Sooji POV)

I slowly opened my eyes and immediately winced in pain. I thought I was dead? But I guess I somehow lived...where did Eun Seob and the rest of the squad go? Wait where am I? I looked at my surroundings; the room was lit with eerie, dim lights with no windows. I presumed that it was some sort of small makeshift hospital.

"I see you have awoken," a strange man donning a black coat walked up to the bed. "You were in bad shape, but one of my men was able to fix you."

"Who are you? Where am I?" I questioned with a sudden, confused voice.

"My name is Lee Lim, pleasure to make your acquaintance. You are currently in one of my hideouts. Now, since I saved you from the brink of death, you owe me a favor."

I paused, what was this man's deal? "Ok, what do you want?"

"I want you to impersonate someone in another world. If you do that successfully, I'll let you see your friends again," Lee Lim dropped a picture of Eun Seob and the police squad in my lap. My eyes widened in both disbelief that he knew of them and relief that they were safe, if that was even possible.

"Why would I do that? I'm sure that my colleagues will come find me."

"Well, they all think you're dead," Lee Lim began to explain. "I replaced you with another dying woman during your surgery. I have men everywhere, even as hospital workers. Well, in the end, it's your life to live. If you don't follow my orders, I'll kill all of them."

"No! I'll do whatever you want! Just don't kill them, please!" I pleaded desperately. They were my best friends and colleagues, I had to protect them at all costs. They couldn't suffer and die because of me.

"Great that you know what you value. I also need to get something I value," Lee Lim then left me alone in the hideout.

Two weeks or so later, after I had fully recovered, one of Lee Lim's men handed me a 2G phone and told me that I would receive further orders through it. I went about my new strange life, living as a person proclaimed to be dead. I had to hide my face at all times and never approach the police station.

[Two years later]

Somewhere along these past two years, I've lost my sense of identity. I lived everyday just wandering around the streets, hoping that somehow I would get out of this complicated situation I was dragged into. *Bzzt bzzt* the 2G phone buzzed. "Hello, Sooji. I hope you are doing well. Tonight, at midnight, meet me by the abandoned building on H Street. We are carrying out the mission, get ready," Lee Lim ordered on the phone and hung up.

[In Corea, Royal Hospital]

I was led down a hospital corridor of several dead bodies, presumably killed by Lee Lim. My eyes widened in shock and disgust that this man would do such a thing, but I dared not say a word due to the menacing aura Lee Lim was emitting. He stopped at a certain room, opened the door, and was greeted by the doctor. "You did well. This is the woman we are replacing her with. Say hello, Sooji. Remember what we promised."

"Of course," I replied with lifeless eyes. 'Anything to see him again.'