AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart
Chapter 42
written by LoveCR2 -- 2005
edited by All-About-AAE -- 2017
"It's all your fault, Jin Sun-Mi! But I'll get my revenge... I'll take everything from you, or I'll die trying!" -- Huh Young-Mi
SEOUL, THAT NIGHT…
“It wasn’t my fault Kim Woo-Jin died...”
Young-Mi glares venomously at Bae In-Soo’s reflection in the mirror, but he just shrugs off her anger. “When a guy get hit with a truck, anything can happen.”
She ignores his protestations, instead focusing her attention on fastening the sparkling dangle to her right earlobe.
“They’re real diamonds, not something cheap,” he boasts.
"Really?" she scoffs, turning her head side-to-side to see how the earrings look. " How does a broke ex-con get money for diamonds?"
"I got a cash advance on a new job," he boasts, "and there's more coming before it's done. So where are we going out tonight?”
“Nowhere,” she snaps, picking up a lipstick and opening the tube. “I can’t take a chance on being seen with you.”
As In-Soo watches, Young-Mi expertly applies a layer of bright red gloss over her lips, then stands up from her makeup table and turns to face him. He runs hungry eyes down her dress, from the plunging neckline, across the shiny black fabric molded to her curves, to the abbreviated hem that bares long, slender thighs.
“You look good...” he drools, “real damn good.”
Young-Mi throws another ice cold glare his way to show neither gifts nor compliments can affect her.
“Look... It’s not like you actually cared about him, right?” In-Soo tries again, reaching out to caress her cheek with his finger. “So what difference does it make, anyway?”
She brushes his hand away, irritated. “You’re not the one who has to live confined in a convent, that’s what! I didn’t struggle my way up, just to wear dowdy clothes, take care of a bunch of snotty kids, and live like a pious beggar!”
“It’s a lot better than being confined in a Seoul jail, any day,” he counters irritably.
“If it was up to me, you’d still be rotting away in that cell," she grumbles. "But I didn't have a choice.”
“Still, consider the earrings as gratitude for the referral,” he offers.
"Give them to someone else," she rejects his offer and takes them off, dropping the earrings back in their box.
"If you don't want to go back, then don't," he suggests.
“It’s not my call," she reminds him. "I have to dance to the tune that’s played for me, thanks to you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Ruined my life with those pictures, that’s what!” she complains. “If you’d just left me alone, I wouldn't be in this goddamn situation!”
"What situation?" he persists. "What do you know about this job?"
“Nothing!" she declares vehemently. "And I don’t want to know...”
Young-Mi walks away, padding in slippers over to the entrance of her apartment. There, she opens the closet doors and selects a pair of shoes from the crowded rack. Slipping into the sky-high platform pumps, she strikes a pose, checking her reflection in the mirror mounted inside the closet door.
“Why get dressed up if you aren’t going out?” In-Soo raises the point as he walks over to her.
“You don’t realize how much you crave things, until you can’t have them,” Young-Mi answers, approving her appearance with a satisfied smile on her glossy red lips. “I'm not allowed even a lipstick in that goddamn place.”
“Actually, you never struck me as the type who’d make a decent nun,” In-Soo remarks, grinning lasciviously as he runs his eyes over her again. “But an indecent one, maybe...”
Moving up behind Young-Mi, he slips the thin straps of her dress off her shoulders, and slides his hands down her sides to her waist . “I’ve spent so long behind bars with a bunch of ugly toughs, I almost forgot what it’s like to be with a sexy woman.”
“Get your filthy hands off me!” she hisses, pulling the straps back up over her shoulders.
His face darkens at the rejection. “I could wring your pretty little neck right now, if I wanted to,” he threatens.
Undaunted, Young-Mi just stares defiantly at him in the mirror. “Go ahead, hurt me if you want to; I've been hurt before..."
His glares back at her. “Hurt you? I can do anything I damn well please with you,” he warns chillingly, dropping a hand to her buttocks and grabbing hard.
Young-Mi flinches involuntarily, but stands her ground. “I’m not afraid of you,” she declares boldly. “Even if you rape me...”
As if stung, In-Soo backs off, his attitude turning apologetic. “Look... no one said anything about rape.”
“Because you still love me? And believe that I love you back?” she taunts him contemptuously. “What fantasy are you dreaming?”
“Why don’t we both just get out now?” he suggests undeterred, hoping to persuade her. “Go far away, make a new life for ourselves.”
“You think I'd run off with you, live like a street rat again?” she skewers him with a look of pure disgust. “I want a better life than that.”
“Things will get better,” he promises. “I have plans for a new operation, this time legit.”
“And I have plans, too... real diamonds, not some cheap baubles, and a penthouse in Gangnam, instead of a dump like this,” she vows.
“Who’s dreaming now?” he dismisses her hopes with a derisive laugh, retreating back to his hard shell. “A whore will always be a whore. Fancy clothes and cultured words won’t change that.”
“Yeah, and a street rat will always be a rat, living in filthy garbage,” she snaps.
In-Soo smiles. “You always talk dirty when you want me, right?” he hints suggestively.
Young-Mi replies coldly. “You think so? That I still want you?”
He holds Young-Mi by her shoulders, turning her around, and forces a kiss on her lips.
At first Young-Mi resists, then responds amorously, hungrily kissing him back. He pulls her closer, pressing her soft femininity against his firm masculinity. Her hands circle his waist, then slide up his back to wrap around his neck, as they deepen their kiss.
Satisfied conquest is imminent, In-Soo breaks away. Smirking victoriously, he brags, “See, I still know what to do with a whore.”
Young-Mi backs away, out of his reach. “And I know what to do with a filthy rat,” she snarls.
Raising her left hand, she brandishes the switchblade she’d slipped from his jacket pocket. With a flick of her thumb, the blade snaps open, and she waves the knife menacingly at him.
“Don't give me a reason to use this,” she threatens. “Get out!”
He laughs in her face, to show he’s not concerned. “This isn’t the end for us. You and me, our fates are linked together,” he claims.
"My fate isn't linked with scum like you! I'm going to be somebody, have the life I deserve, like Jin Sun-Mi has!" Young-Mi declares, jabbing the knife at him repeatedly."
In-Soo chuckles, deftly keeping clear of the razor-sharp blade.
“I said I’d take care of that bitch for you years ago, remember?” he reminds Young-Mi of his offer the night two of his thugs had accosted her and Sun-Mi in a dark back alley. “Instead she’s still messing with you, here...”
He taps the side of his head a few times and laughs.
“I don’t need your help to beat Jin Sun-Mi; I don't need anything from you! So get out!” she screams, slashing the knife wildly. “Go, while you can still leave as a man!”
Seeing the wild gleam in her eyes, In-Soo decides this is not the time to make arguments, or take chances.
“All right, I’m leaving,” he signals compliance, raising his hands up, palm forward. “You don’t have to get personal.”
Keeping a wary eye on Young-Mi for any unexpected moves, In-Soo backs towards the door. He feels for the door knob, opens it, and slips out into the corridor.
Young-Mi immediately slams the door closed, throws the latch shut and fumbles the security chain fastened. Trembling and breathing heavily, she leans against the door for support, as a tear trickles down her cheek.
The knife drops from her hand, and Young-Mi slowly slips down until she is kneeling on the floor, with her head buried in her hands. Then she looks up, her face hard with cold determination.
"This is all your fault, Jin Sun-Mi! But I'll get my revenge," she vows, "I'll take everything from you, or I'll die trying!"