She gazed at Jae Won apologetically. She felt horrible. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know."
Way to go, dumbass, she thought angrily. If she could shoot herself for her own stupidity, then she probably would've been dead several times over. All this time, she had presumed that Soo Jin merely went missing. But of course Soo Jin was dead. All the conversations that she had with these people clearly indicated that she was dead. Why did it take Yoori so long to come to this conclusion?
He waved his hand as a gesture for her to let it go. "It's been awhile, don't worry about it." He bent down and picked up the luggage from the floor. "We really should go. We shouldn't keep Tae Hyun waiting."
He stopped, reminded of something when he mentioned Tae Hyun's name.
"Yoori," he started grimly.
"Hmm?"
"It is safer," he started, "if you didn't mention to Tae Hyun who you resemble."
Yoori laughed wearily. "It's not something I would – "
"– Just for future references," he interrupted, his voice never losing its severity. "Whatever happens, don't tell him that I had mistaken you to be her. In fact, don't tell anyone that Kang Min and I had mistaken you to be her. Our boss was very well known in this world. There aren’t a lot of people who know what she looked like, but if word gets out that there's a lookalike walking around, your life will be in danger – more so than it is right now. It is safer to keep this between the three of us."
Yoori nodded fearfully. Could Jae Won make this sound any scarier? Her curiosity for Soo Jin grew to unprecedented heights. She was already interested in this boss of his, now she was fascinated.
"She must be something," commented Yoori.
Jae Won nodded distractedly. "You have no idea. An Soo Jin was one of a kind."
Yoori snapped her head up like she had been electrocuted.
An Soo Jin?
Why did that last name sound so familiar?
"An Soo Jin?" she asked to reconfirm.
Jae Won nodded again. He looked like he was really anxious to leave. "We shouldn't keep Tae Hyun waiting.” A sour expression skewed his visage. “The guy doesn't seem to have much patience for anything."
Yoori didn't hear his remark. Her mind was preoccupied with something else.
An Soo Jin.
She repeated the name in her head like a mantra.
An Soo Jin...An Soo Jin...An Soo Jin...
Her heart jolted to a stop.
It was as though a light bulb illumed in her head.
An Soo Jin?
An Young Jae?
Her eyes gradually returned to Jae Won, who seemed unaware of the change in her stupefied eyes.
"What gang were you a part of again?" she inquired slowly, the pit forming deeper within her stomach. Why did she have the feeling that this Soo Jin girl was about to become someone Yoori didn’t want her to be?
He smiled. "Anything I say stays between us?"
She nodded inattentively, more interested in the answer at hand.
"I formed the Dragons gang 3 years ago,” he began. "Before that, Kang Min and I were part of the Scorpions gang, one of the three most powerful gangs in South Korea at that time. We were under the direct order of An Soo Jin. If you've heard her name in passing, then you must know her nickname."
He looked at her briefly before stepping out of her bedroom, utterly oblivious to the fact that Yoori froze like a block of ice.
"She was known as the Queen of the Underworld."
Walking out, Jae Won failed to see the state he left Choi Yoori in.
With her eyes nearly popping out of her sockets, she stared at the doorframe in complete disbelief. The truth was, this day in general had been downright confusing. Yet, this little piece of information, so casually conveyed by Jae Won, took the cake as the most mystifying.
She furrowed her brows, attempting to organize her frantic thoughts.
She was the lookalike of An Soo Jin.
An Soo Jin was the Scorpion girl.
The Scorpion girl was the Queen of the Underworld.
Therefore...Choi Yoori was the lookalike of the Queen of the Underworld?
Her world slowed to a stop.
Running her fingers through her hair, there were only three words to properly sum up Choi Yoori's feelings at that particular moment.
"Shit. Holy Shit."
“Notoriety is everything.”
20: Less than Human
Yoori recalled the moment she woke up from her car accident 3 years ago.
She was in the hospital, in some city a couple of hours from her hometown. The first thing she remembered feeling when she woke up was soreness. There was a bandage wrapped around her head and bandages all over her body. The second thing she remembered feeling was confusion, complete and utter confusion as two strangers she didn’t know, a middle-aged man and woman, leapt up from their seats and came running to her bed.
“Yoori!” they cried, hugging her with relief. “We were so worried! Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
The entire time, as they slammed her with question after question, Yoori could only remember being overwhelmed. Her mind swirled and she tried to search her memories for their faces, their names – essentially any memory she had of them. All she could draw was a blank.
“Wh – who are you?” she asked them, causing them to cease with their screams.
Yoori swallowed, breathing roughly as they pulled away from her, stunned that she asked them such a question. Her lower lip quivering, she tried to recall her own name, her own identity, her own life. When she drew a blank again, her head began to throb.
Brokenly, she whispered, “Who’s Yoori?”
Yoori would never forget the moment the woman broke into tears while the man ran out of the room to get the doctor. When the doctor and nurses came in, they took the man and woman out. After what felt like an eternity, the doctor explained to her that the car accident caused tremendous trauma to her head. For this reason, she had lost any memory she had of her previous life. He explained other things to her but at this point, Yoori couldn’t find the strength to listen. All she could focus on was the fact that her mind was blank. A complete and utter blank.
When she went home with her family weeks later, it worsened. She assumed her parents would do everything in their power to help her regain her memory but it was the exact opposite. Reasoning that all of this was a blessing in disguise, they refused to help her. They only told her that God meant for this to happen because he wanted to give her another chance. She was such a disobedient daughter the years leading up to her accident that they were intent on making sure that she would never revert back to her old ways again. If that meant not helping to regain her memories, then so be it. The most they did when she pleaded for help was show her old family pictures of their happier times. Apart from that small mercy, they were of no help.
Disheartened, Yoori gave up.
If her parents were so disappointed in her the years leading to her amnesia, then Yoori herself reasoned that perhaps it was best for everyone if she became the obedient daughter they’d always wanted. No matter how little memories she had of them, she still respected them as her parents and because of this, she respected their wishes as well. If they didn’t want her to regain her memories, then she would oblige. If she was such a horrible person in her “previous” life, then she did not want to remember either. She was given a second chance and Yoori was determined to make the most of it.
This was the memory that replayed in her mind after finding out that she was the lookalike of the most infamous Queen in the Underworld.
It took Yoori all the physical and psychological strength she had to not fall to her death as she descended down the long windy stairs of her apartment complex. Firmly gripping on the silver railing that curved into the stairs, each dreadful step she took played out as a reminder to the haunting words that churned in her congested mind.
I look like An Soo Jin, she thought while she walked down. Her pulse hammered,
the vibrancy of life draining from her face. And An Soo Jin is the Scorpion girl...Queen of the Underworld...
Each word felt like daggers to her soul.
For Yoori, this revelation felt like it would be the equivalent of her finding out that she’d been diagnosed with some incurable disease.
How could she have been so dense? The answers were all right in front of her. It all made sense now. She now understood why some of Tae Hyun's men reacted the way that they did when they first saw her. She now fully understood the predicament Jae Won and Kang Min were in when they thought that their boss had returned from the dead. The gang leader of all gang leaders had seemingly returned from the grave to plague them once more. It all made sense now.
Well, everything made sense except for Ji Hoon.
His voice echoed in her mind as she took another step down the stairs.
A one-night stand.
He lied. He blatantly lied. An Soo Jin was obviously not a one-night stand.
Bastard lied like no other, Yoori thought with venom.
And if he lied about Soo Jin being a one-night stand, then she was sure that he lied when he told her that she no longer resembled Soo Jin to him. She couldn't understand his motives though. Why the hell would he lie?
When she took the final step off the stairwell, Yoori cast her attention to the biggest catalyst for her headache.
She'd be a fool if she didn't take her amnesia into consideration when thinking about the possibility that she so strongly (in the eyes of others) resembled that girl. In the same token, she'd be a fool if she considered the chances of her actually being the heartless gang leader. How could the spineless Choi Yoori ever be the Queen of the Underworld?
Yoori neglected to thank Jae Won when he held open the exiting door for her. She was still in the midst of trying to organize her thoughts – and her sanity. Thank God for Tae Hyun's hoodie for doing a wonderful job of concealing her face. It prevented Jae Won from seeing how flabbergasted she was.
This could just be a big fat coincidence, she rationalized with a smidgen of hope.
If she had woken up with no family, then she would've taken into account that she may be the Scorpion girl. But no, she woke up with a family who reminded her about her life prior to the car accident. It wasn’t much of a life but it was a life she lived with them regardless. They even showed her pictures for Heaven’s sake! Photographic evidence of her existence as their daughter. In addition to that, An Soo Jin's brother verified that Soo Jin did indeed die. There was no possible chance that Yoori could be An Soo Jin. She was sure of it. No possible way.
Her heart grew heavy when the auburn streak of the setting sun ran over her. It could very well be the chill she got from the wind that flew by, but she could've sworn she felt a hint of doubt course through her. It was times like these when she hated that she had amnesia. Even when she was sure that she couldn't be An Soo Jin, there was still another part of her that doubted the verity of that statement.
All because of the amnesia.
She closed her eyes and stopped walking.
She couldn’t let anyone know about her amnesia. If anyone found out, especially Jae Won or Kang Min, then they'd go back to believing that she was the Scorpion girl. If anyone found out, then only horrifying demons would frequent her future. Her life would essentially be sentenced to death if anyone in this society found out.
The knot in Yoori's stomach tightened.
She couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't let that happen. Even if there was the slightest possible chance that she was An Soo Jin, she wouldn’t accept it. Unless there was 100% foolproof evidence that she was An Soo Jin, she would not accept slight possibilities. Because, truth to God, fearing for her life aside, Yoori was disgusted with Soo Jin more so than anything. Call it naivety, call it stupidity or call it denial – Yoori didn’t want to entertain the fact that she was a psychotic serial killer and she would be damned if she allowed anyone else to tell her otherwise. This was her life and she was going to do what she wanted with it.
Inhaling the fresh air, she swore that this issue wouldn’t bother her any longer – at least for the moment. At least for the moment she would let it go. For tonight and the remaining days to come, she was Choi Yoori. The one who resembled An Soo Jin, but isn't An Soo Jin. The one and only Choi Yoori.
"If you don't let your body rest soon, you'll be handicapped before you know it," a voice said briskly behind her.
Forgoing her headache ensuing thoughts, she scrunched her face at the new distraction at hand. "Huh?"
A strong arm laid itself behind her back while the other reached behind her legs and literally swept her off her feet.
"Ahh!" she cried, instinctively encircling her arms around Tae Hyun's neck as a preventative measure to avoid falling flat on the ground. By doing so, she had also inadvertently relinquished the remaining thoughts about her resemblance to a particular gang leader.
"Holding you like this is fast becoming a favorite hobby of mine," he said jokingly, a smile twinkling in his eyes.
When the initial shock left her that she was indeed fighting gravity, she looked at Tae Hyun with eyes wide open.
"What do you think you're doing?" she cried, her arms tight around his neck.
He smirked, very amused with her reaction. He bent close to her ear and whispered, "Being a good boyfriend."
His eyes traveled over hers as if hoping the little joke would lead her to crack a smile.
The gravity in her expression remained.
"Don't joke about something like that," she said crossly, even though her cheeks grew a deeper shade of pink.
He faked a wounded expression. "Some girls like this, you know?"
"I'm not like other girls."
He laughed. "No need to tell me twice."
She glared. She hated that he was trying to be nice again. He was making it harder for her to dislike him and she resented that.
Moments later, his laughter subsided and his expression gradually grew serious. "You shouldn't put anymore pressure on your legs. Do you know how frail you looked limping out of the door like that?" He eyed her with concern. "Just relax. I got your back."
"I can walk. I don't need you carrying me." She released her hold over his neck and attempted to remove herself from his grasp.
Tae Hyun repositioned himself just in time to keep her within his hold. His expression was uncompromising. "You're not walking. I'll throw you over my shoulder if I have to. It's either I carry you like this or I carry you caveman style. It's your choice."
Yoori gawked at him. She knew he wasn't bluffing. However, she had some fight left in her and she didn't feel like letting him win. With her right arm dangling freely, she held his gaze challengingly.
He tilted his head and looked at her tiredly. "Stop being so stubborn."
Her challenging eyes and free dangling hand remained.
Tae Hyun smirked, leaning in closer to her ear. "If you keep insisting, then cave man style it is..."
He could very well be bluffing, but as Tae Hyun made a move to reposition his hold on her, Yoori yelped in fear. She quickly encircled her hands around his neck, thereby forgoing any challenge or fight she had left. She didn't want to be carried caveman style and have her butt hanging in the air for the three guys to see.
She heard Tae Hyun laugh at her reaction. He steadied his hold on her. "To tell you the truth, I prefer to carry you like this. Bridal style. Much more romantic, don't you think?"
Yoori looked away instead of replying. All of this was pure torture. She hated him but he was making it hard for her to keep hating him.
"Why are you being nice all of a sudden?” she voiced with frustration, hoping that he'd make it easier for her to give him the cold shoulder by being his usual hotheaded self. “This is so unlike you. Stop it. It's freaking me out."
His grasp on her tightened. "Let's just say," he began, staring down at her with a soft gaze, "I owe you for what happened in the warehouse." He smiled. "If my as
sistant can muster up the courage to attempt to save my life, then I can muster up the nerve to be a little bit nicer to her, if only for a couple of moments."
If there ever was a spare moment for Yoori to be touched by the sincerity of Tae Hyun's uncharacteristic words, this was that moment.
Closing her eyes, it took all the strength she had to block out Tae Hyun’s words. She refused to be touched by what he said. She refused to allow him to make it harder for her to despise him. She couldn't let him get to her. She was determined about that.
"Put me down.”
"Choi Yoori. Why are you acting like this – "
"Maybe it'll be a better idea if I carry her," Jae Won spoke up, sensing Yoori’s discomfort.
Tae Hyun turned to glare at Jae Won.
Unaware of the fury blazing in Tae Hyun's eyes (as Jae Won did interrupt him while he was speaking), Jae Won handed both of the suitcases he was holding to Kang Min. He took a step forward with his arms outstretched, ready to help take Yoori off of Tae Hyun's arms.
He only stalled when he saw the death glare Tae Hyun bestowed upon him.
"Don't. Touch. Her," Tae Hyun warned dangerously, taking a step away from Jae Won.
Jae Won gaped at Tae Hyun in dismay. He turned to Kang Min with a “what's-his-problem” look on his face.
Without so much as another word, Tae Hyun took off in the direction of the limo, leaving the brothers behind.
Kang Min merely shrugged, a broad grin curving on his face as he watched Tae Hyun carry Yoori in his arms. He patted Jae Won's shoulder. "I guess the new commandment is that no one touches Choi Yoori except Kwon Tae Hyun." He began to follow them. He threw another look at his older brother before quickening his pace after them. "And no one interrupts him while he's talking to her."
Jae Won scoffed in amusement after hearing Kang Min's interpretation. He took a moment to think it over himself. A small, knowing grin graced his face. Stifling a bout of laughter, he ran after his younger brother and his two bosses.
"Jesus, you're such a psycho!" Yoori cried, tightening her hold around his neck, forgetting for a moment about giving him the cold shoulder. The speed at which he carried her scared the hell out of Yoori. Who knew Tae Hyun could power walk this fast while carrying someone?
Welcome to the Underworld (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 1) Page 23
