Chapter 224.2

Chapter 224.2

“Maybe.”

“Then why did you pretend not to?”

“You really have to ask?”

Kia tapped his temple twice with his index finger.

“You think I’d let myself lose my place to brothers who don’t even remember me?”

“…!”

“Don’t scold me, Sonya. Those kids were different from us. They had forgotten, and they had been forgotten. I put off killing for their sake and kept cleaning up so they could live carefreely. If anyone remembered the Sakhalin children, I went and killed them, again and again. I did that much for them, so wasn’t it okay to lie to you?”

Seoryeong hardened her expression.

“You pushed my hand aside too.”

Kia snorted and added a bitter laugh like someone remembering the rails.

There was a chasm deeper than a valley between the person who needed to be saved first and the one who had been pushed aside second.

Kia’s face, knowing that nothing could bridge that gap no matter what he did, wore a deep, carved defeat. For some reason Seoryeong felt like she had become Maxim, Daria, Rigay, and Joo Seolheon all at once.

Even as she witnessed Kia’s despair so vividly she could almost reach out and touch it, she could not clumsily embrace them all and carry them away. Her eyelids trembled; she squeezed them shut and opened them again.

“Answer me clearly this time. Where is Lee Wooshin?”

“Is that truly the only thing you have left to say?”

“Is he dead?”

“I kept him alive.”

The tone felt oddly off. But because Kia looked detached the whole time, the arm that held the pistol began to tremble slightly. She could not even guess what he had done.

“Sonya, no matter what I do, I can only mimic. I could never do what Lee Wooshin did and let you live alone. I only saw you one step ahead, and I knew how to pull only you. So when you plunged to the ground, how could I leave you and shoot someone else? It would feel unjust and stupid. I could never do that.”

“Answer me! Where did you put Lee Wooshin?”

Seoryeong shouted, panic rising to her throat. The muzzle wavered.

“So, you should try being heartless at least once.”

“What?”

“Welcome to my circus.”

He flung open the stained glass like a door, the panes flashing in the moonlight. Had she just heard that right?

Cir…cus?

Kia was dredging up the most horrific past again. She felt sick of that behavior, yet at the same time her stomach froze so completely she could not move.

At last, a heavy glass door creaked open with a dull sound. Kia pulled down a lever on the wall and, pop, hundreds of lights came on at once. Seoryeong endured the whitening blast of light for a moment, then her voice trembled.

“…!”

An old fear climbed her spine as she stepped onto the stage that seemed to skip time. It was the most terrifying sight she had ever seen. The same dull eyes, lips tightly sealed. People sat motionless in chairs like audience members. Their lifeless gazes all fixed on Seoryeong as the door opened.

How many of them were there… How many Lee Wooshins… No, how many Kim Hyuns… A cold shiver ran down her spine.

Dozens of Lee Wooshins, dozens of Kim Hyuns, and dozens of unfamiliar faces sat mixed together in identical postures.

Her pupils darted back and forth. He had been the husband she had missed so desperately, yet seeing him felt like looking at a stuffed figure. Every face in her field of vision was either Kim Hyun or Lee Wooshin. Tears welled up for the faces she had longed for, but she could not tell which one was the real Lee Wooshin.

“What is this… What on earth have you done!”

Seoryeong could hardly form words and only panted. She felt sick to her stomach though she had not drunk any alcohol. The faces of the two men she remembered and loved stared at her like gloved scarecrows.

Even after looking again, it felt unreal. Or was she the one on stage? A cold blade rose in her mind.

“You can take only one person out of here.”

Kia laughed like he was crying at the sight of her frozen face.

“Except for the one you choose, I’ll burn the rest.”

“They’re Americans anyway,” Kia added. He started splashing oil hoses over the knees of the captured people. She wanted to scream, but no sound came from her frozen lips.

One choice always twisted fate. Seoryeong climbed onto the platform again as Maxim, as Rigay, as Joo Seolheon, as Daria. Her heart shook as if it would stop, and her stomach clenched.

I… I…

Her mind went black.

That was the thing Seoryeong did worst. It was the one thing she had wanted most and failed at most miserably.

“Now. Go find your husband.”

She had vowed to spend the rest of her life searching for him, but she was the one who had stood right in front of him and failed to find him. That bitter failure came back to life before her eyes.