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Life on board did not stir at the long-awaited revenge.
The crew didn’t know the history on board with them or the people fighting for something bigger than themselves.ย
It never occurred to Nari that some people would never know the sacrifices they made to ensure no one got hurt the way they had. There was a long history of wounded souls, families and loved ones on their shoulders as they fought to avenge everything they had lost, everyone they had lost.ย
She was carrying the weight of her family, both here and gone on her shoulders. The weight of everyone who had fell treachery to Myeong-gil’s hands.
She was doing this for them.
She was doing this for herself.
Nari had lost so much to Myeong-gil and his crusade. She had hurt so much. He had ruined her. This fight became more than man, it became redemption, salvation and hopefully free her from her guilt. For herself. For her family. For her mother who had died to give her a better life.
Nari would not let them down. Not after all the sacrifices they made.
She made her way deeper through the ship, the night sky glittering amongst the vast darkness of ocean view. She turned down another row of containers until she heard the faint sound of heavy panting and fleeting grunts.
Her interest piqued and then she was moving. Moving faster through the containers, and closer to the sounds until she stumbled into a clearing.
Her eyes roamed over the wide space until she noticed her boyfriend, leaned against a container holding onto his arm. There was blood seeping down his forearm, hair shrevelled and a nasty cut on his cheek that dripped red drops down the side of his face. She didn’t notice a figure teeter to the edge of the boat.
“Why is it always one of us getting hurt?” she frowned, crouching before him. Her fingers faltered hesitantly, hovering over the wound.
“Keeps it entertaining I guess” he mused, head tilted back and eyes peeling open, he gave her a lopsided and tired smile. ” Do I look attractive covered in blood?”
Nari scoffed; she pressed her hand to his shoulder, but he sucked in a sharp breath when she did so. Her brows drew in concern, lips down turning in worry. “Where else are you hurt?” she asked and his head limply lowered, trying to lean forward.
When he moved, Nari noticed the sickening gash that tore through his back. He was struggling to sit up and her anger boiled until she was certain her ears were steaming. She ripped a piece of fabric from her shirt, leaning to tie it around his wound despite his protest. She secured it with a firm knot and leaned him back against the container.
” The view is pretty” he said, eyes lingering on her before closing, his wounds catching up to him. He was fairly certain Myeong-gil was down, but he just wanted a moment to breathe and regroup.
“Can you even see the view?” Nari muttered, glancing at the vast nothingness. Geon-woo nodded tiredly. ” Yeah, I can. I’m looking at it right now”
Nari turned her head back to him in surprise until she simmered into a warming smile when his eyes opened enough for her to realise he’d been staring at her the entire time. Her heart warmed and she let out a soft chuckle in disbelief.
“You really are special aren’t you” she smiled. “But there’s a time and place and this isn’t it”
“For you, time or place is irrelevant.” He grinned.
“Geon-woo” she scolded and shook her head. It was only as his eyes shut and he held his arm a little more loosely did a resounding bang startle her.
Nari shot to her feet, spinning, where she noticed a figure crash into a bunch of small containers that clattered to the ground, his body falling along with it. When she saw Myeong-gil the rush of anger came swarming back.
“Nari” Geon-woo pried his eyes open, reaching for her wrist to stop her from moving.
“I’ll be right back” she told him and gently unclasped his hand from her wrist. She pressed a quick kiss to his palm, ignoring his worried eyes and the way he tried to sit up and go after her but Nari just shook her head with a smile and turned on her heel and followed in the opposite direction, away from him despite his protests that gradually faded.
Nari stalked after Myeong-gil tightening her gloves as he tripped and staggered away from her. She almost found it amusing until he stopped, a wall blocking him, and he spun around, body hunched and limping. Nari gradually came to a stop. He had nowhere to run now. He was cornered.
” It seems you really couldn’t run forever could you Myeong-gil” she said, and he tried to straighten but his body was fighting the urge to just collapse, Geon-woo had really messed him up badly.
” You’re going to actually kill me. Your boyfriend couldn’t do it. Maybe you finally will. ” he taunted, blood staining his teeth and his one eye closed with a purple welt that throbbed.
“Did you really thing it was just threats?” she chuckled in slight offense. Myeong-gil’s face dropped. ” You should know me by now. I mean you must’ve known everything if you were so earnestly ready to rip everything I’ve ever loved away from me. Strangers don’t do that do they” she hummed. ” But we’re not strangers anymore are we”
“If you’re going to kill me just do it. I don’t want to hear your sob story” he hissed bitterly, and Nari lurched at that. She grabbed his jacket and slammed him into the wall before her fist came and went clean across his nose as stars exploded across his vision. He sagged in her grasp, but she straightened him up and pressed him harsher against the wall.
“You don’t get to say that to me” she barked. “You’re the reason all of this happened in the first place, the reason I’m here and the reason your men are dead and you’re next” she spat, and his eyes rounded a fraction at the thought of them being dead. She wasn’t sure if Hyeon-ju had gone through with killing Jun-min and she was quite certain Woo-jin wouldn’t kill In-beom because they weren’t murderers, they wouldn’t take it too far. They weren’t like her. But Myeon-gil didn’t need to know that, she relished in his anger at the presumption.
” You all had it coming” he gritted out and Nari yanked him to his feet and threw him into the side of the boat where he fell like a rag doll. His body was tired, his vision was blurred and all fight in him had seeped into the wooden cracks of the deck.
“How?” she hissed. ” You didn’t even know me. I didn’t deserve any of it.” she muttered, her eyes tearing as all the hurt and pain surfaced. “You took everything from me,ย everything. Just tell me why? I deserve that at least”
He looked up at her, head reeling and blood seeping. “You want to know why” he croaked carelessly. “Because you got in the way”
He was referring to the night everything happened. She was never supposed to be there that night at the gym. She was never supposed to see him or her mother. She was never supposed to dig and find Mr Choi. She was never supposed to go on the manhunt for the man that killed her mother. She was supposed to believe her mother died by suicide and move on.
Nari lost everything simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I may have pulled the tigger and gave the order, but it was you, Nari, who killed them. ” he said and her foot stumbled back. The first tear fell at his accusation.
” Your mother never would’ve agreed to the loan had it not been for you. She told us about her daughter whose dream was to become a boxer. A sad touching story of a mother just wanting to see her daughter succeed. ” the second tear fell. “Tae-ho, the knifers, it was your fault for getting them attached and it was you who made them soft and careless. It was you who killed that woman. You are the reason they’re dead”
Her tears fell like a waterfall of despair.
“You’re insane” she croaked, shaking her head rapidly. ” You’re fcking insane” she choked.
“I’ve never lied to you Nari” he muttered and tried to use his forearms to lift himself, but Nari lunged and slammed her fist into his face.
”YOU BASTARD!” she screamed. ” YOU FCKING LIAR. YOU DID THIS. YOU DID EVEYRHTING. THEIR BLOOD IS ON YOU. COUNTLESS OF LIVES RUINED BECAUSE OF YOU. ”
He grunted as blood pooled down his chin, her knuckled crashed into his face again and again, unrelenting.
” You ruined my life. You took everyone who was good to me. You did. You did it with a smile on your face. I’m not the bad guy in this story, nothing you will ever say will change that.” She spat, shaking her head.
“You don’t deserve to live after what you’ve done. What you’ve taken from me. From my friends, my family.” She glanced to the side, seeing a long rusted pole, she grabbed it without a second thought.
His bleary eyes lingered on the pole and then met her eyes defiantly.
“Do it” he urged with a huff, blood splattering down his chin. ” I liked you for your determination. So do it. Drive that through my chest. Show me you’re not a coward like your boyfriend” Nari gritted her teeth and placed the pole over his heart, she wanted to drag it out as slow as possible. She was shaking, her knuckles turning paper white around the pole but the two didn’t break eye contact.
“Become the murderer I knew you could be” he finally said and she let out a loud scream, reeling the pole back and going to jab it into him before a sharp voice tore through the air. The pole slipped and caught his shoulder. Myeong-gil’s scream mixed with her outcry as a hand closed around hers, preventing her from driving the pole deeper into him and cursing that it had distracted her enough to miss his heart.ย
“Nari!”
“No, no fck let me go!” she yelled thrashing as Geon-woo’s arms wove around her midsection, and taking a few steps back so Myeong-gil who was groaning and spluttering slumped to the ground but unfortunately still breathing, was out of reach.ย
“Nari, Nari stop” he tightened his hold on her, as she forcibly tried to wriggle out of his grasp.
”Let me go. Let me go Geon-woo or I swear to God I’ll never forgive you. ” she kicked and screamed and her nails tried to dig into his skin and grab the pole and finish what she started.
“I can’t let you do that” he muttered in her ear, his heart breaking as the tears poured viciously down her face.
“So help me Kim Geon-woo if you don’t let me kill him, you’ll never see me again” she was hysterical but he was unwavering, merely dragging her until Myeong-gil was out of sight.
“He deserves to rot for eternity. Death would be but a mercy” he tried to justify but Nari didn’t want to hear it. she wanted him dead.
“If you love me, you’d let me finish this once and for all.”
“It’s because I love you, I don’t want to see you behind bars or worse. I don’t want you to live with him in your head anymore.” If she killed him, he’d haunt her until the day she died. He knew her, he knew her enough to stop her even if it meant she’d hate him for the rest of her life.
“I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to me. I have to do this” she cried.
“I care!” he shouted firmly. “I care what happens to you Byun Nari. I can’t let you throw away your humanity the way he did. You are better than him. Don’t stoop to his level.” his tone softened at the end.ย
“He doesn’t deserve it” she sobbed, her thrashing gradually subsiding. “He doesn’t deserve it”
“I know” Goen-woo muttered. “But you made them bleed. You stopped them. It’s all over now. We can go home” he put her down and turned her to face him, his fingers wiping her tears ” We can start over. Start a new life in the countryside like you wished. Away from all of this. Far away from him. They won’t hurt us or anyone again”
“But we haven’t avenged them until he’s dead” she choked out
“They’re already have been and it’s because of you Nari” he assured. ” They wouldn’t want you lose yourself for him. We stopped his empire, and we did it without becoming like him. We’re not bloodhounds.”
Nari released a shaky breath and Geon-woo placed his hand on the back of her head and brought her closer to him until she rested her head on his chest in defeat.
“You avenged them. ” He told her. “And if he ever comes back. We’ll kill him. I promise you that. If he shows his face again, I won’t stop you.”
Her lip wobbled but when she glanced up and saw nothing but sincerity in his eyes she knew he was serious.
They watched as Myeong-gil’s empire burned beneath her feet and she didn’t have to kill him to ruin him. She had done it from the moment she had witnessed him leave her family gym, everything had been put into motion. He was doomed from the start but it didn’t mean Nari was done just yet.
If the day ever came where Myeong-gil and her crossed paths again, she wouldn’t let Geon-woo coax her out of finally ending him once and for all.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
AHHHHHHHHHH
So there’s a reason he’s alive right.
1) Geon-woo’s deep rooted morals, although blinded by anger, would never kill. So he was going to stop her although for a fraction of a second he did hesitate.
2) I don’t know what will happen in season 2 if I continue to write this book into season 2 and Myeong-gil makes an appearance. I wouldn’t know what to do if I wrote him off so for safety I had to keep him alive but kind of stay true to Nari’s character. ๐ญ๐ญ
Had Geon-woo not interrupted do you think she would’ve actually done it seeing her character through the book?๐
Also it seems Nari did choose Geon-woo at the end ๐คญ
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