Walking in silence for a while, Talon looked around him curiously. Since he knew that they were in Hyun-Jae's hometown, he wanted to know more about the environment she grew up in.
'I visited this city twice before. But, I never had the time to actually look around. It still looks really beautiful even after getting completely destroyed.' He thought to himself.
The change of scenery was refreshing, especially since the area they were walking into seemed like a high-class neighborhood for rich families. The streets weren't completely destroyed and many buildings had remained standing against all odds. Some were even titled to the side as if they were about to fall and yet seemingly defied gravity and remained standing.
'They have earthquake mechanisms built into their houses. Talk about being rich...' Talon whistled impressively.
Eventually, the two of them ended up in a secluded area of the neighborhood where they stopped in front of a gigantic gate. To the side, Talon could see the walls of the property stretching as far as his eyes could see. They were also 10 ft tall so he couldn't see anything beyond them.
"This is... My house..." Hyun-Jae announced as she turned around. "I have lived all of my childhood here."
"Oh, it looks pretty nice." Talon complimented honestly as he noticed the sheer details on the wall and the gate that seemed to cost a lot of money. It gave him an even stronger realization of how rich Hyun-Jae's family is.
They were so rich that even in a high-class neighborhood, their mansion stood out like a sore thumb.
'They are truly an international powerhouse.'
"Thank you. Let's go inside." Rummaging through her pocket, Hyun-Jae pulled out a key chain before she approached the door and unlocked it.
The moment she twisted the key, the gate suddenly started opening on its own as if it was triggered by something.
"Woah..." Inside, Talon was welcomed with a vast garden that stretched for dozens of meters. Beautiful trees and a field of multicolored flowers filled his vision. Even with everything that happened, the garden still retained some of its beauty.
"Let's go inside." Hyun-Jae snapped him out of his daze.
"Ok..."
'This is the most luxurious place I have ever been in. It's quite odd.'
Walking through the passage that crossed the vast garden, Talon silently admired the scenery. Hyun-Jae noticed the curious, innocent look on his face and it could only make her smile.
"Most of the rooms here are bedrooms and bathrooms with a gym room, a sauna, and an indoor pool." She explained as she moved ahead while Talon followed in tow. "That room over there used to be my parents' room. The one next to it used to be mine but then I was moved to that one at the end of the corridor. As for that one..."
Eventually, Hyun-Jae's eyes fell on one particular room. "That one used to be... my sister's room."
"Oh... Your sister... You had a sister?" Talon blinked in surprise. "I ddn't know that."
'I thought she was the sole heir to the Ran family. This is shocking.' He mused to himself.
"Yes..." Hyun-Jae replied as she averted her eyes. "But, she passed away a long time ago."
"... I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's fine... She was almost 12 years older than me, so when she passed away, she was well into her twenties. We weren't very close at the time and we used to argue a lot. I don't know why, but we never liked each other. She would call me names, I would call her names."
"Why? You two were siblings..."
"I don't know. She used to blame me for taking our parents' attention from her... And I used to think that I was simply the better daughter. I had the knack to learn anything quickly and that fed into my arrogance even as a child. Our parents' attention didn't help either as it only made me loathe her even more."
Talon listened quietly as Hyun-Jae spilled the truth to him. To think that she had a conflict that ran so deep with someone as close as her sister was something he would never have expected.
"We grew apart quickly, to the point where I wouldn't even talk to her for weeks on end. Then, one day, I was practicing my violin. Since her room was next to mine, I could hear everything from her side. She had loud music booming on high volume and it didn't let me focus. So, I went to her to tell her to stop the music, only for another argument to start between us."
As she talked, Hyun-Jae approached the room that belonged to her sister before she opened it, revealing a rather old yet also beautiful bedroom with an open balcony at the end of it. The moment her eyes fell on the room, Hyun-Jae felt her heart sink in and her breathing turned erratic.
But, she still didn't stop as she continued. "We argued for minutes before she suddenly turned physical and pushed me back. So, in the spur of the moment, I rushed toward her and pushed her with all my strength... She stumbled back till she reached the edge of the balcony before... Falling over the edge..."
"..." Talon's eyes widened to the extreme.
Hyun-Jae slowly turned around to look at him with tearful eyes. "I killed my own sister."
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ????