She hears the rain - thrashing against glass and thunder rattles her bones. The pain shoots up her knees like flames, setting fire to her blood - searing on her muscles. It vibrates in her throat like a groan, escapes her lips in a hiss. Her limbs are heavy and she lies helpless - just like every other night waiting for the footsteps to come.

“So…” she mutters in her feverish frenzy.

The doors of her mind, shut on the truth are thrown open by the shock of recent events. She sees him clearly now - the man who dragged her into Attorney Yoo’s car, gently placing her on the passenger seat and putting the belt around her. He looks like So - looks so painfully similar that her heart burns. Through the pain, the head splitting ache it is hard to form his name - but at the same time she knows - it isn’t him. This man has no cut across his face, the blood he wears on his skin is not his own.

She flinches when his fingers caresses her face, they run down her throat and wrap themselves around the peony that she wears. “No…” she murmurs, and he ignores.

“You don’t need this - mermaid, forget him, forget this. You are mine.” The fine silver cuts her skin before the chain comes apart, he throws it away and reaches in to kiss her forehead. His clammy breath fans across her face. “Come back soon…”

The doors lock just as she is beginning to wake up, through the pain - her heart writhes in fear. The first jerk feels like an earthquake, it knocks breath off her lungs. The car launches forward as it is hit from the back and she sprints face first into the blooming airbag.

The second hit comes with a crunch of denting metal and she feels the loss of ground beneath wheels. The water she does not hear, but the light is soon cut off.

Somewhere in the darkness a woman screams and voices rise and fall, she can hear the wheels against asphalt, feel the gathering speed at the pit of her stomach and a silent scream chokes her as she imagines herself back in the car.

“Left - left - left!” Someone - a man - exclaims.

“Faster - shit - they are still coming!” Another man groans and she feels the steep turn the wheels make, the jerk almost tosses her against the metal but a hand wraps around her head absorbing the force instead.

“So - we can’t lose them, what is happening?”

It reminds him of the aftermath of lady Oh’s death to see her so broken, small and pale. His arms refuse to let go of her even when it breaks him to see her flinching at his touch, pleading in that hoarse tone not to hurt her. The words that fall from her lips makes no sense to others, but he knows - he knows exactly what moment she is reliving and it kills him to be unable to wake her up from that terrible nightmare. Only faintly he fears what her mind might show her. Does she see his car crashing into the one she is locked in? Does she see him driving it? He would not be surprised, not after he saw that devil with his face - is that the man she pleads to be spared from?

In his own mind he remembers only the darkness, the impact of the collision. He had felt it in his bones just as he was waking up from the fog that had swallowed him and found himself inside the trunk of a car, locked and being pushed into the water. Luckily the hit that had sent it to the water had demolished the lock, even with his bound hands he could push it open and roll out.

He tugs at his bounds with his teeth, the water burning its way into his lungs. When he comes up for air the sunlight blinds him, the wind whips him. He takes only a single gulp, before diving back after her - before the dark depth swallows her completely.

Yo’s voice pulls him back to the present with the nerve wracking jerk of the car taking another sharp turn. Still being chased, still in danger.

“Damn it So - we are going to get ambushed!” Yo berates his lack of attention only halfheartedly as he takes in the condition of his older brother. But then Jung is cursing aloud and they don’t have time for guilt and second thoughts. “How in the world -”

“They must have bugged me -” His eyes remain on Ha Jin when So speaks. “There’s no other way.”

When he looks up and his eyes meet Yo’s the two men exchange a dark look. Yo only had time enough to share the fact that their father was being investigated and tapping and following to the location of Ha Jin’s phone was the last help he could provide them. For the time being they were on their own. So takes a deep breath, knowing full well his presence was dragging the others into peril. But he couldn’t leave Ha Jin like this.

“Give me your phone -” in the end he tells Yo, who throws Jung’s phone at him. “Jung - ah, turn on the Wi-Fi in the car.”

“Wi-Fi Hyung? Is this really a moment to -” Jung begins before Yo slaps him across the back of his head and he flinches. “Okay - whatever.”

“And pull back into that side street ahead, turn off the lights,” So continues not rising his head from the phone.

“Oh yeah the passkey is -” Jung starts, watching him in the rear - view mirror.

“Never - mind,” So mutters tossing it back at him as the engine dies out, having unlocked and completed his purpose.

They hear the jeep that followed gaining on them and exchange a look. The beams of headlight lights up their visions for a moment - but then, the chasers move on along the main street giving no second glance towards the side street where they remained stationed in the darkness. Soon the sounds of wheels on grovel and engines die out and Jung exhales loudly.

“What the hell just happened?”

“A jamming signal,” So replies, leaning back on the back seat and sighing. “They can’t trace location anymore - at least not until they get things cleared up.”

**

She slaps Wook, her palm pricks at the contact but she pushes on with a growl. 

“Why? Why?”

“He tried to kill me Omma,” Wook seems unfazed. “It is only fair. “And Yeon Hwa had betrayed me. If only I didn’t have to deal with her - Ha Jin would still be here. I would have got them.”

Her chest heaves, defeat clawing at her conscious. After so much, after so many sacrifices - her own blood - her own son - had made a mockery of her penance.

“And your brother? Have you forsaken him?”

“Omma - Omma…” Wook, massages her shoulders, an action that would have calmed her under different circumstances. “He is your baby - would I ever do something to hurt him? He needs to be taught a lesson that’s all.”

“Then how?” She sounds and feels desperate.

“Yeon Hwa,” Wook says simply. “She planned it all. Think about it - how solid a story it will make. She and Jun together from the start.”

“But - but -”

“Jun is So. So is Jun. One and only and he is mentally unstable. It was Yeon Hwa who used him from the beginning - used him as means for her own ends. They had a disagreement, she tried to kill him, he killed her. I have enough evidence for you to prove that. Since his mental condition is delicate no one can find fault in his actions. He would be free - but at the cost of everything father had built for So. You will have Jun out living in So’s skin, with no obligations to fulfill - no career to follow. I’ve thought about it all!”

“And what of So? Have you found him?”

“He will die - just as soon as I find him.” His eyes flare wickedly as he curls his fist. “Both of them will die. It was Yeon Hwa’s fault that she released him.”

Yoo Myung Sung draws in a rattled breath, seeing for the first time how unmovable Wook was in his schemes. Feeling the poison of her own broth for the first time. She reaches out a hand and brushes it across the cheek of her first born, willing him to listen, to comply. Wook was always seeking to please her. She refuses to accept that he is lost to her.

“Wook - ah..”

He seems oblivious to her distress.

“Only I would keep her alive a little longer, she can watch him die first.”

“Wook - ah, listen to me!”

When he looks at her, his eyes are glassy, there is something akin to an accusation tainting his look.

“Are you thinking of betraying me?” He asks in a low tone.

“What - Wook - ah NO!”

“You are…” he wiggles out of her hold. “You let Yo escape, you let Jung take him. I saw the cameras, you put all my efforts in danger. Why Omma? Why did you do that?”

His words plunge into her heart like knives, with the realization that fate had placed them on the two sides of the balance all of a sudden. Wook’s rise meant her fall.

“Wook - ah,” she says slowly. “Are you seeking to punish me?”

Wook takes a deep breath, finally noticing the tears brimming in her eyes. 

"No of cause not Omma!" He exhales and she sighs. 

"Then you will do as I say, what I say nothing else."

Her fist curls and uncurls as Yoo Myung Sung eyes the blood pooling at her feet, the memory sinking back to the deep abyss of her mind.  A part of her brain curls in shock - a very tiny part, the rest of it has already geared into motion. Too close - she is too close to give up now.

Wook watches her with a placid expression, gloved hands blood drenched and eyes hard.

“Is everything done?”

He nods curtly, disappointment still colouring his features. This was not the revenge he wanted. But Yoo relishes the cold perfection - one net to capture them all. She crouches low and runs her fingers through Jun’s hair one last time. Her baby - asleep as if nothing is wrong.

“Forgive Omma for putting you through this baby,” she mutters, with her eyes brimming. “But this is the only way to end it all and get you back to your proper place. Hold on Jun - ah, hold on for a little while. I will get you back everything that they snatched from you - and ruin them all. Just a little longer baby - Omma is winning.”

**

“Are you sure you don’t need pain killers?” Park Mun Seong sounds hesitant, her hands shake slightly as she dabs along the cut with a cotton swab. She is still shaken by the chase, of almost getting ambushed by Wook’s men. So shakes his head, his eyes remaining on Ha Jin, he simply closes his eyes when the pain sears through him.

“She is going to be alright,” she says, her tone sympathetic. He looks into her eyes, sees concern instead of the doubt he expects.

“Thank you!” He says. The woman shrugs, keeps her hands occupied. “I know you are not very happy with the prospect of harboring a fugitive. Thank you for everything!”

“Technically it’s not your fault,” she attempts a smile. “And this is not my house.”

So closes his eyes again and nods, his weary body protesting for sleep and rest. But his mind has never been more awake.

News of Yeon Hwa’s death hangs over them like a shroud, heavy and ominous. The guilt he feels leaves him numb and aching. She tried to help and ended up losing her life for nothing. Another life ruined because of him. He feels himself reaching the edge, the weight on his shoulders getting unbearable. For a split second he entertains the idea of handing himself over, proving it in front of their eyes that there are two of them and the man in custody is not him at all. But something tells him it would not be so simple, the man who played such an elaborate hand would certainly have more tricks up his sleeve and he cannot bring himself to leave Ha Jin so broken that it chokes him to look at her. He knows not if she would want him to stay once she wakes up, for suddenly all her nightmares seem to be about him. But he waits, waits like a fool to assure himself that she is alright. He wants her to wake up, he would leave once she does.

Yo throws a blanket at him, scowling when he looks up.

“Don’t think anything stupid,” his brother orders.

So allows him to wonder what he would have done if they had not turned up just in time. His father had tapped Ha Jin’s phone, it was her signal that they had tracked into their location. He hadn’t even bothered to ask where they were bringing him, his senses only attuned to Ha Jin - her laboured breathing, her burning body. Until it was apparent that without his help they couldn’t shake off the men trailing them, not even with Jung’s break - neck driving.

“Are you going to lecture me about being a fool again?” He asks, preparing himself when Yo opens his mouth. His brother looks exhausted himself, there are bags under his eyes. He was under scrutiny himself, things were hardly easier for him. “What I said stands true still, I must go for this place to be truly a safe house.”

“Omma.” Yo says shortly and places the laptop on the table in front of him. “She is the one who planned it all. They’ve found your fingerprints and DNA at the crime scene - of cause it was the place you were held. And there were traces of your DNA in her nails -” His voice breaks and he looks away. The effect of the news is still apparent on Yo, who refuses to take her name. So gulps and holds out his forearm.

“She made this -” he says. Scratches on his skin makes up crudely written numbers. “I have no idea what she wanted to tell me.” He shakes his head then. Yo says nothing for a moment.

“And,” he continues, after a second. “The samples don’t match with the man in custody.”

Mun Seong draws in a breath, her brows frowned.

“What does she want?”

“It has been the plan all along,” So says softly. “She is going to prove I’m the doppelganger who took the place of her real son. One DNA test it would be proved she is the mother of the guy in custody.”

“She is going to blame it all on Aboji,” Yo agrees silently. “On him and probably your mom too. Exchanging the babies, turning her real son mentally unstable. Right now she is playing the part of a mother who brought up another’s child while unaware her own was rotting away somewhere - driven out of his mind. The media will gobble up everything soon. What more a set of captured frames from a CCTV that Aboji supposedly destroyed was found in Mu hyung’s office.”

“What do they capture?” So muses aloud, thinking uncomfortably of the photographs he had seen his father examining with avid interest. “Not the incident I suppose?” No, his mother would not be that bold to risk it all.

“No - it’s turned towards the windows, conveniently to protect the privacy of Omma’s clients, it captures the moment but only Tae Hyung falling and and a single frame zoom up has a glimpse of your face on the glass before it breaks -”

“She has worked well,” says Mun Seong. “To corner Assemblyman Hwang and portray you a murderer -”

“So that’s why they are reopening the case?” So takes it in stride. “Apparently I’m on a killing spree?”

“Uncle Shik Ryom is in cahoots with him, their spin is Tae found out the truth about your identity - you killed him - Aboji covered your tracks. Mu Hyung was going to find out about Tae’s incident and Myung Hee’s chip had evidence on the same…” Yo lets his words trail off and So massages his temple, eyes closed.

“Did they find the chip?”  

“No - thanks to Beak Ah,” Yo sighs. “He told them Woo Hee had thrown it away years back.”

“Do we have it?”

Yo opens the laptop and presses a bunch of keys, “Here…” is the only preamble he offers. “It’s a blessing to have Baek Ah on our side, at least he kept this from darling uncle.”

The pictures as they had suspected captures the back alley, both his doppelgnger and Wook who runs after him. Only they never seem to meet, it is Soo who finds the doppelganger. They remain silent until the pictures finish playing out and Yo shuts the laptop with a snap.

“Omma tried to stage it out in a way that you crashed Ha Jin’s car - she used it to manipulate Aboji. That’s one piece of evidence to break through her current position.”

So shakes his head.

“She has several plans at once. I was in the trunk of that car.” He gives Yo a moment to rearrange his face and mask his shock by stretching and rolling his shoulders before continuing. “She could have replaced me with that person then and there - had I died. This is not enough. This person can still be me and you can’t see her inside the car. She could very well say the driver was Aboji himself.”

“What do you propose to do then?” Yo raises an eyebrow.

“I’m wondering why she wanted this so desperately…” So drags out his words, working out a particular thought his eyes closed. Yo waits until So opens his eyes.

“Time stamp,” he says in the end. “Flipping through the screens until they reach the very first capture of his look -alike.

“You think there’s evidence to place you somewhere else at the same time?” Yo leans closer to the screen and asks.

“He was already gone by the time I went in - I must have been in the lift.”

Yo draws in a rattled breath, tips of his clasped fingers pressed against his lips as he frowns in concentration.

“We need to find the footage from the elevator then,” he says finitely and So nods. “If she hasn’t deleted them.”

“She hasn’t,” So says flatly. “The frames found in Mu Huyng’s office must come from somewhere I’m sure there’s more where they came from. ”

“We’ll hunt it down then.”

“No - not we.” So cuts him off.

“Hyung…” Yo hardly ever calls him that and it is enough to pause him for a moment. Still he shakes his head vehemently.

“No. If it goes wrong I don’t wish to drag you down with me.” He says flatly. “I’ve already caused enough damage.”