“So was kidnapped when he was fourteen,” the senior Hwang calls after Yo, his words enough for him to still on his tracks. Their argument had not been pretty. Yo was still conflicted when it came to the question as to where he stood with his father, whether he still dared to play along his games with ambiguous goals. His fingers curl around the disk carrying the footage and he waits for the man to continue.

“By the time we found him, he had already escaped on his own and recalled nothing of the place or people who held him.” There is a mild detachment in his voice, a sour note of guilt. “You were sick then, my attention was elsewhere. They kept him for a week.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Curiosity gets the better of him and Yo can’t help but ask. When he turns the man gestures to a seat in front of him, his face unreadable as ever but his eyes wary.

“Because someone needs to know.” He says simply. “The truth cannot be held anymore.”

“If you mean to tell me that So is not my twin - it’s been a while since I worked that out. If you mean to say it and drive a wage between us, I’d like you to think again.”

He takes the seat that was offered, but not the olive branch. His father is not the man of soundest morals, and long since his games had begun to weary Yo.
“We couldn’t find him for a week - we didn’t even know he was missing - do you know why?” The older man plays with the glass paper weight set atop his desk, carefully choosing his words. “Because his school was under the impression that he was there - someone had been impersonating him.”

“I’m supposed to believe this?”

“You are supposed to keep it in your mind,” his father nods, hope does not color his eyes. “By the time So was found and we reached back to his school the doppelgnger was gone.”

He says nothing as he rises to leave. He was half expecting to be hauled to the ground by the bunch of guards at the door, instead his father leaves him with unnecessary information. Yo waits a minute longer - filling the conversation away, wondering what he is to do with it. His father answers that unasked question.

“If something that brings this conversation to your mind happens I want you to come to me - without a delay.”

Yo thinks back to that moment involuntarily, fiddling with the document in his hand. Decision had been made for him, rather than him making it actively. He sighs when Mun Seong walks in. She opens her mouth just as he stands up.

“I’m opting out,” he tells her briskly, neatly folding the letter that carried his intentions. “It’s best for all.”

“Prosecutor nim…” She knows that stubborn line of his jaw, and lets her voice trail off in vain.

Silence between them is filled by news playing somewhere - the famed national athlete, currently on the run; suspected for two attempted murders. The office of prosecutors issued a statement yesterday hinting that they would be re-investigating into the Hwang Tae murder back in 2013. This developments could cast a major shadow on motives and justifications of senior Assemblyman Hwang who, according to our sources will be questioned on his involvement in the case shortly…

“That Hwang Shik Ryom -” Mun Seong grits her teeth recalling the older prosecutor who had taken over the case and Yo shakes his head shutting the drawer with a snap.

“Is a puppet of my mother,” he muses aloud darkly. “Brotherly love seems to run in the family.” He knows his uncle nurses a jealousy for his much advanced brother, for this is not the first time his mother had played this card. “The ball is in his court, he can play as he wants.”

“Prosecutor nim!” She calls after him still.

“I’m resigning Mun Seong - ah, you don’t have to call me that.”

“You were right about the Hae inheritance,” she says abruptly. “I found the last will of Hong Ha Jin’s father. The property devolves upon daughters of his son. I don’t think your brother had anything to do with Myung Hee’s death - I think it was the Haes eliminating a pawn.”

“They adopted her because they wanted a daughter?” He tries to mask his disbelief, things falling into place fast.
”The girl - Hae Soo, could be in danger,” urges Mun Seong, and she stops when his eyes flickers back to hers. “Let me come with you. Let me help. My mistake cost you the case, let me make amends.”

He chuckles despite himself. Oh how the tables have turned. He was trying to make amends for his father’s actions that had cost Mun Seong her career and ended up standing before her with their roles reversed.  

“I’m going to my father..” he says slowly. “Do you still want to come?”

She stretches out a hand and plucks out the resignation from his hand. The surprise in his eyes is palpable when she meets his gaze.

“Only if you don’t hand this in,” she offers.

“Mun Seong - ah…”

“Your father doesn’t concern me. You do. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Don’t run away.”

**

He is good in acting. It was one of his gifts. He could imitate anyone’s voice well enough to fool they themselves. It made his Omma proud, Jun thinks warmly. He still remembers her hug, when she told him he could be Tae’s decoy sometimes and accompany his brother to places. He likes to breathe the fresh air, feel the sun, it made him feel good to know that he was helping. But Tae was not a good man - he learns it slowly, learns by spying his mermaid - he picks information from her conversations. Mermaid doesn’t like Tae - he tries to forget its because of the other boy. She doesn’t like Tae because Tae is a bad boy.

But he feels jealous too - he does, when he sees them together; his mermaid and the other boy. She strokes his hair, he kisses her nose. Splayed on the floor of the greenhouse, they have no idea he is watching them as they discuss Tae’s ban, as she assures him how its not his fault. The boy is going away, his spirits soar - the mermaid wants him to leave. Jun is happy, he knows the mermaid doesn’t love the other boy for she wants him gone. But then - then they plan to go somewhere and his mood is bitter again.

He tells Wook, who convinces him that mermaid is mistaken about the other boy’s identity. They look so much alike don’t they? She must think it’s Jun. Wook promises him he would take him to see mermaid so that he can resolve her misunderstanding once and for all. So that she won’t kiss the other boy anymore. So he tells Wook where mermaid would be - where the two of them planned to go, in that other boy’s new car.

But it doesn’t go the way they plan. Tae takes her away, Tae tries to hurt her. He remembers losing his temper. He remembers running away, remembers the sticky blood in his hands, remembers the crunch of Tae’s skull against the glass and his knees are weak, he collapses on the grovel in that dirty back alley. His mermaid finds him there - wounded and crying, she is still beautiful when she embraces him. Soft and warm. He sighs in relief. He could die for her, his mermaid. But then,

“So…” she sobs, her head buried in his chest. “So -” she chants that other boy’s name and something breaks inside him.

But then she stills, her eyes rake his face.

“You are not So…” her lips murmur and she backs away.

He wants to stop her, when she is running way, wants to hold her back, hug her and tell her that he is the one she is in love with - So or not. But she screams, claws at him and sprints off - it happens unexpectedly. He throws at her what his fingers curl around - not really planning - just wanting to stop her. And it hits her on the back of her head. At the same time his mother comes looking for him, in her car. The sound of her crashing into it still resonates in his ears.

“Mermaid -” he recalls crying. Her beautiful face was white and streaked with blood. Her knees were bloodied and so were her palms. He shrugged off his mother’s hold. “You hurt mermaid!”

“Let’s get her to water,” his mother suggests, concerned as he is. “She is a mermaid - so water will heal her.”

“Truly?”

“Yes,” she coos. “But you have to make it look natural. Otherwise everyone will find out she is a mermaid. You don’t want that Jun - ah? Do you?”

The memory flickers through the fog, and he strokes her hair. His mother had been right, she is always right. The water had healed her, just like Omma promised. But she scoots away from his touch, shuddering.

“Don’t touch me!”

“But you have to be punished,” he tells her puzzled. “Wook said it is only fair, you made me lose in my game - mermaid. Come on - give me your hand.”

She tucks herself into a ball and rocks back and forth.

“Let me go…” her voice is pleading. “Please - please!”

“No - no,” he tugs at her hair, hard enough for her to rise her tear stained face and look at him. “You are mine. You are not going anywhere.” She cries and it bothers him. He brushes a thumb across her face, smudging her own blood against her cheek. Wook is right - red does look good on her.

“You are so warm…” he wonders aloud, his hand sliding down her throat. “Why are you so warm? Do you need to go into the water mermaid?”

She screams when he tries to take off that dirty blue sweater that she wears. She screams and fights, pushing him off - trying to run.

The foggy voices are getting angry, he tries to calm them, but she is trying to leave again and the voices aren’t pleased. He pushes her against the wall, trapped beneath his body and his fingers curl around her throat.

She chokes, hands clawing at her throat. Her eyes grow distant as he reaches for her lips.

**

It is her scream that wakes him up, from one nightmare to another. It is a replay of Tae, the same scream that had given him sleepless nights for a year.

“Please! Please - NO!”

He wonders how long it had been, if Yeon Hwa had made it or not, for they were no longer alone. His muscles are no longer burning and his mind is no longer obscured by pain. So takes in a rattling breath and creeps his way out of his hiding place. Somewhere ahead, Ha Jin screams again.

Details flood in and breath hitches in his throat. Finally he remembers from where he knows this place. The closed door - the claws of his mother, her harsh whisper in his ear as she chocked him. “Die! Die!”

Tgat kidnapping had been so long ago, he had been so small and helpless against her, against the men that held him down. He remembers the pain and his lungs burn. Her scream tears through his panic and he forces his body to turn and return to the shadows that it urges him to flee. He will not leave without her, even if it meant dying himself.

It is not Wook, or his mother. The man he wrenches off her makes him pause. Devil stares at him out of his own face, contorted in rage, flushed in fury. The pause costs him, for the man - his look alike - sinks his knuckles into his ribs. His strength is beast - like, his eyes murderous. So slams against the wall and tastes metal in his mouth.

The man gains on him, panting like a panther, a fist against his jaw, a hand curling into his hair, pushing him head first into the wall.

“She is mine!” He growls, “You deceived her enough.”

Endurance is the first lesson he had learned from coach Park and pain does a little to thwart him. Instead So lets his opponent dealt him blows, and keeps his eyes open. Pattern - in his head coach Park barks. Footwork - observe the pattern. Wild, unrefined, fueled by rage - he decides a split second later. There is no pattern, this man is no fighter - a mere beast provoked and blood thirsty.

He lets him come closer, keeping his cover of battered weakness until the moment his head collides with the man’s jaw, a leg swept beneath he throws the man down on the ground - hard on his back.

His roar is that of a wounded predator, he takes him by ankle, bringing him to the same ground, it turns into a whirl of kicks, punches and his hand trying to choke him. So knows, as soon as he hits the ground, time for holding back is over. His knuckles are raw and crack when he folds them before sinking in a hard punch against the man’s collarbone. Blood sprouts out of his mouth opened in a groan and his eyes flicker the hand choking him slides away as darkness takes him under.

“So…” a weak murmur calls him and fear coils around his heart.

She is collapsed against the wall, a pale hand stretched towards him - there’s blood trickling along the sides of her temples and her eyes flutter - unfocused, unseeing.

“I’m going to take you out of here,” he promises, lifting her in his arms. Her head falls heavy against his shoulder and she mumbles softly.

“Please don’t hurt me… Please - please - please!”

**

The sirens wake him up to flashlights and footsteps. His head is heavy, the foggy voices disoriented. Jun blinks at the sudden brightness before a hand fists his collar and pulls him up. It is then that he realizes he is lying on a pool of blood. His eyes trail across the ground to the pale fingers, attached to a white arm. His insides churn - not his mermaid - please no!

He dares to steal a glance and exhales in relief. It is the other girl, he has forgotten her name.

“You have the right to remain silent…”

The metal clicks around his wrists and the man shoves him forward, muttering things that makes no sense to him.

He wonders if this is what his mother meant for him to do when he loses the game. Was he supposed to act like So now? Will mermaid return if he does that?

He wonders, and wonders - for once the foggy voices remain silent.