AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 178

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2018

 

"There was no love lost between us. Sun-Mi and I were bitter rivals to the end. Why would she care for me?" -- Huh Young-Mi

 

 

SEOUL PRE-TRIAL DETENTION CENTER, UIWANG ...

 

"Why do you want to see me?"

 

Hyung-Chul's tone is harsh as he looks across the table in the prisoner meeting room...

 

"For a chance to explain," Young-Mi replies, her words slurred from the nerve damage that has left one side of her face paralyzed.

 

"After all the lies, why should I believe a word you say?" he challenges her.

 

"Because now, I have nothing more to lose by telling the truth," she pleads. "Please, hear me out..."

 

 

A large plaster covers her wound, but Hyung-Chul can still picture the cruel gash inflicted from Bae In-Soo's knife at the wedding, and feels a twinge of sympathy...

 

"Go on..." he allows.

 

"What I did, it was the only way," she asserts. "Bae In-Soo... you saw what kind of person he is."

 

"You could have gone to the police."

 

"I tried that, once, but somehow the charges were dropped," she recounts the situation. "He threatened me if I didn't do whatever he demanded. You know he tried to kill me before... I was afraid to refuse him."

 

She lowers her eyes, as if ashamed...

 

"There's no birth control available at the convent. That's how I got pregnant. I didn't want Bae to know, so you became my ticket to escape from him."

 

She looks up again, imploringly, as she pleads her case, "I risked a lot to help you... I was a victim as much as you. Doesn't that justify what I did, even a little?"

 

 

"A nice story, if it is true," Hyung-Chul remarks skeptically. "But Bae claims that you used him -- it was your plan to fake pregnancy and force a marriage, following up with a fake miscarriage and a fat divorce settlement."

 

"Yes, that's what I led him to believe," she assents. "But finding out I was really pregnant changed everything. Then it wasn't about me anymore. Giving my baby the best possible future -- to be raised as a Yoon -- became my motive."

 

"Do you really think that should absolve you? Bae said you connected him with Director Kim Eun-Ki and his sister, Kim Eun-Hee, to provide the muscle for their plot to take over MBS and Mun-Yung," Hyung-Chul accuses her.

 

"I had no choice then, either... After Director Kim found out about my prior relationship with Bae, he threatened to expose it unless I cooperated with them," Young-Mi gives her side.

 

 

"If all that is true, why not testify against the Kim's?" he questions her decision. "The Prosecutor offered reduced charges and a minimal sentence."

 

"To testify, I'd have to appear in court," Young-Mi answers. "I can't be seen in public again, ever!"

 

"Why not?"

 

"You really don't understand, do you? Look at me... What do you see, a freak!"

 

"You'd let Kim Eun-Ki walk free, while you stay in prison?"

 

"Even if I got out, I'd never be free," Young-Mi contends. "I'd always be a prisoner of this face; society will see to that. Better I'm remembered for what I used to look like -- as the Queen of MBS -- than this."

 

 

"What about your baby?" he argues his next point. "What do you intend to do?"

 

"My child is better off never knowing who I am," she states flatly.

 

"You'd give away your child to strangers?"

 

"No! ... To the orphanage, they're not strangers," she corrects him. "And perhaps to a good home, with loving parents. I may be a criminal, but my baby's life is more important than my own. Having a mother like me would stigmatize my baby's future. I won't let that happen!"

 

Hyung-Chul understands Young-Mi's conviction, and has no more arguments left to sway her.

 

"If your mind is made up, then we're finished," he states, standing to leave. "There's nothing more to talk about."

 

 

Young-Mi watches him walk to the door, weighing if she should say more...

 

"What happened to Sun-Mi... I'm sorry," she speaks up before he knocks for the guard. "I'd retake that day if I could..."

 

"Being sorry is useless," he cuts her no slack. "You can't change the past, or take back the harm."

 

"I told Sun-Mi to leave the wedding, to go away! Besides, if she hadn't tipped off Bae to the wedding, he'd never have been there," Young-Mi refuses to accept blame, "and I didn't ask her to intervene..."

 

"Maybe she did it because, despite everything, she still cared for you," Hyung-Chul speculates.

 

"There was no love lost between us. Sun-Mi and I were bitter rivals to the end," Young-Mi disputes his contention. "Why would she care for me?"

 

Hyung-Chul replies, with a touch of irony, "I suppose you'll have plenty of time now, to think it over, and wonder why..."