Chapter 25 Monroe
I’m jostled awake by a hard bump and the crunch of gravel. My head’s pounding and my thoughts hazy, but right away I recognize I’m in a moving car.
I’m lying tied up and steeped in darkness in what must be the trunk. How I got here or where I’m being transported to—I have no clue.
My bound hands come up to my face as I struggle to remember what happened. It comes to me in fragmented bits and pieces.
It started this afternoon when I was packing and came across the Saenggang-cha tea. Kelly convinced her boyfriend Hyun-woo to test it in his lab after hours, and it came back positive for some kind of sophisticated, borderline untraceable poison.
Administrator Noh had been poisoning me for weeks; he had been behind my miscarriage.
I choke on my next breath as the rest floods me all at once. Black Shell showed up and not only stabbed Sang-cheol, he possibly killed Kelly and Hyun-woo. I didn’t even have a chance to respond before he must’ve knocked me unconscious.
It’s no mystery why he’s kept me alive—he’s going to use me against Jin to the fullest extent possible.
The car slows to a halt, the gravel crunching under the tires ceasing. The engine cuts off next and then what must be the driver’s side door is creaking open.
I wiggle in place, pulling at the frayed rope that binds my wrists and finding no give. If only I could get the rope loose enough so that I could slip my wrists free…
More crunching meets my ears, this time from footsteps rather than car tires. Black Shell is coming around to the back of the car.
The trunk pops open in the next second, and I find myself looking up at the disconcerting blank slate that’s his shell-textured mask.
Noh Myeong-su is no longer the kind-faced older man who brought me ginger tea and asked about my pregnancy with grandfatherly concern. Ironically enough, by donning his mask he’s unmasked who he really is.
The kind, compassionate administrator was the costume all along.
This is who he really is.
He pulls me out roughly, his grip bruising on my arm, and I stumble on shaky legs as I get my first look at where he’s brought me.
The location is immediately recognizable.
A traditional Korean hanok sits perched on a narrow strip of land near the sea, weathered and abandoned but still standing after all these years. The landscape around it is as hauntingly beautiful as I remember.
Sand swept smooth by the tide and dark sea-glossed stones scattered across the beach. In the near distance are jagged rocks that jut from the churning water like broken teeth and cliffs that overlook the sea.
All under the dark, angry sky heavy with storm clouds.
It’s not until I’m on my feet outside the car trunk that I realize it’s started drizzling. The tiny cold specks splatter against my skin as the wind blows in harshly from the sea.
This is where Jin’s family was murdered. This is where it all began.
Myeong-su wastes no more time. He says no words, merely slamming the trunk shut and dragging me toward the hanok. I stagger trying to keep up with his brisk pace, forcing myself to be as alert and quick-thinking as I can be in this kind of situation.
My gaze travels over the dark, isolated landscape around us, searching for any kind of weak point I can exploit. Anything I can possibly use to my advantage.
But my hands are bound tightly by the rope and my head throbs like it’s been split open. I’m pretty sure I have other bruises too, like the ache in my cheek and neck, which make me wonder if maybe I’d fought back before he knocked me out.
It all happened so quickly it’s hard to say.
I’m sure if I did try to break free right now and run for it, Myeong-su would make me pay. He’s obviously skilled enough to take out multiple people and pose as a worthy adversary for Jin.
If I’m going to attempt escape, it’ll have to be smart. It’ll have to be at the exact right moment.
So I stagger half a step behind him as he drags me the rest of the way up to the small, modest hanok.
It’s been well over a year since I’ve been here, but I remember the intimate moments Jin and I had shared during our time under this roof.
It was where he first told me he loved me. Where he finally opened up and told me the truth about his family and tragic past and why, at the time, he needed to send me away.
Though I recognize its tragic history for him, it holds a special memory for being the place we solidified our love for each other.
Some light to chase out the dark memories of the past.
Myeong-su unlocks the door and then shoves me inside so roughly I trip over the threshold. I stagger forward, catching myself just in time before completely tumbling to the ground.
He couldn’t care less as he strides in after me, locking the door and ripping off his featureless shell mask.
Sure enough, it’s Noh Myeong-su in the flesh.
The same seemingly harmless administrator who often wore cardigan sweaters and loafers. Never would I have imagined him in some military-like uniform, the long black coat and pants and boots giving him an authoritative and menacing air.
But that’s exactly what he counted on. He knew no one would ever suspect a thing.
I curse myself for ever having trusted him. If only I’d refused to drink the damn tea or let him in the way that I did.
He stalks past me, moving across the empty main room of the hanok. The ondol floors are smooth but cold due to no heat, and the ceiling lights are dimmer than the last time we were here, but these things seem of no concern to Myeong-su.
He stops in front of the wardrobe and props the doors open. He’s moving as if checking items off some mental checklist of his. Clearly he’s prepped extensively for tonight.
I need to keep him talking. Buy time and figure out a way out of this.
As he peels off his leather gloves and then starts digging inside the wardrobe, I begin furtively working at the ropes binding my wrists, picking at the knots. The motions are subtle and small enough not to draw attention to what I’m doing.
Meanwhile, I start dropping questions. Things meant to be a distraction.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask plainly. “What did Jin ever do to you?”
Myeong-su laughs in answer, his back to me. “Really, Miss Ross? Are you that slow and dim-witted? I expect better of a Suyeong Academy teacher. Even for an expat.”
I resist the urge to scowl and press him on it. “If it’s so obvious, then why don’t you tell me?”
“This was never about Jin-tae. Not directly, anyway.” He turns to face me, his expression almost conversational, as if we’re having a pleasant chat over tea instead of... this. “This is about his father. Seo Jung-hoon.”
Already knew that. Already know more than you think I do.
But I play along, frowning and acting clueless.
“His father?” I ask innocently. “Jin’s dad has been dead for thirty years.”
“Yes, I know that. I’m the one who killed him.” His face lights up in a chilling smile that doesn’t reach his cold, crinkled eyes. He turns back to the wardrobe and stares inside as if deciding what to retrieve. “Seo Jung-hoon deserved what happened to him and his family.”
“No one deserves to be slaughtered in their own home.”
He laughs, the sound sharp and dismissive. “Oh, but yes they do. Jung-hoon deserved it. He was one of us—a trusted associate of the Hyeonmudan. We were brothers-in-arms, bound by blood and the oath we took. Or so I thought.”
“He… betrayed you?”
“He more than betrayed us,” he spits, throwing a glare in my direction from over his shoulder. I go still, pretending I haven’t been fussing with the rope at my wrists. “He sold information to our worst enemy. The Baekho Pa.”
My brows jump slightly, though I quickly recover from the surprising revelation. That’s part of the story I didn’t know.
Dok-su hadn’t mentioned anything about the Baekho Pa being involved…
“He sold us out for their protection. He saved his own hide while he participated in our extinction,” Myeong-su explains, his eyes darkening. He turns back to the wardrobe. “The Baekho Pa used that information to slaughter us. They came in the night and killed everyone they could find.”
My stomach twists into tiny knots as I can’t help wondering if Jin was aware of that detail. But he’s never indicated his family had anything to do with the Baekho Pa. Does he even know about his dad’s supposed betrayal?
“They killed members of the Hyeonmudan,” says Myeong-su. “But they also killed some of our families. Including my brother. Including my wife. She was pregnant with our first child.”
Another tremor of shock rocks through me, so sudden I’m once again forgetting about the rope binding my wrists. My fingers go still, and I process the fact that there’s more to the story than I ever imagined.
I think about the time I was in Mr. Noh’s office after the mugging and I’d seen the photo on his desk. It was of a much younger him and his pregnant wife. I’d thought it was just a sweet throwback photo he kept over the years. I didn’t know it was probably one of the last they took together…
“Yes,” he chuckles darkly, glancing at me again. “They murdered innocent women and children in cold blood. So, as you can see, the good guys weren’t so good after all, were they?”
“Jin had no part in it! He… he was just a child.”
“His father did!” he roars back. “His father caused untold devastation! He needed to pay for what he did to us. He thought he could hide behind the Baekho for protection like the coward he was. But I found him.
“I tracked him down, and I made him watch as I took everything from him. He kneeled on the floor and watched me slit his wife’s throat as she sobbed for mercy.
Then I killed his mother. Then his brother and uncle.
I killed them all and let them bleed out on this very floor.
Everyone he loved, dead at his feet before I finally ran him through too. ”
I swallow hard, sick at the grim barbarity of it all. “But you missed one, didn’t you?”