BLRFC 02

Chapter 02 …

Hae-som seriously considered knocking Sang-hyuk unconscious with a headbutt and running away.

Unaware that she was thinking such thoughts, Sang-hyuk continued spouting his nonsense.

“You and I are going to be living together soon, you know? My mom and dad are already getting ready to welcome their daughter-in-law. Now that you’re an adult—”

“What are you talking about! My mom won’t allow it. She said she would never marry me off to a man like you.”

“Hey. Even though you live with your mother, don’t you know? Your mom is probably going to die soon. Her face is yellow and she’s all skin and bones. She doesn’t look healthy, whether it’s her liver or something else. And she’s already gone completely crazy.”

Hae-som’s mind went blank.

Gyeong-hae did look unhealthy, but Hae-som had never thought she had a serious illness. She had always been sickly.

What should I do? What if she really collapses while I’m gone…? No. Yoon Hae-som.

Don’t let your heart weaken. If you think like this, you won’t escape. You’ll end up living here for the rest of your life as that bastard’s wife.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for your mother to kick the bucket? I’m just waiting for that day. Heh heh. Once that obstacle is gone, we can finally have a proper wedding!”

A thought suddenly crossed Hae-som’s mind.

Even if Auntie Gyeong-hae truly considered me her daughter and therefore refused to let me leave the island…

Why didn’t the village chief or Sang-hyuk’s parents let me leave the island? Why didn’t they tell the electrical construction workers or Marine National Park employees about my existence whenever they came here?

“…….”

The precious young man of the island, Sang-hyuk, whom they all adored.

They were doing it to find him a wife.

Hae-som clenched both fists tightly, suppressing the anger rising inside her.

These damn island bastards…!

Whether it was Gyeong-hae or anyone else, she had to escape.

This was no longer the time to let herself be swayed by the affection she had built over the years.

She could not marry a bastard like that and spend the rest of her life trapped on this island.

Suddenly, she desperately wanted to see her mother and father, whose faces she could no longer even remember, and her brothers.

“Hey.”

“…….”

“Hey, Balbali!”

“Ah. Y-yeah…. What?”

“You’ve seen that man with the horn-rimmed glasses who moved in next door to the village chief recently, right?”

Sang-hyuk suddenly lowered his voice.

“You’d better be careful of that bastard.”

Hae-som barely restrained herself from pointing at him and saying, You’re the most dangerous bastard around here.

“Phew.”

Swallowing her anger, Hae-som thought about the horn-rimmed man who had recently come to the island.

She had seen him two days ago.

While pulling weeds in the field in front of the house at the village chief’s request, Hae-som had seen the unfamiliar man with horn-rimmed glasses drinking and socializing with the village chief and his wife.

“He looks like a bandit, but apparently he used to be a social worker.”

A social worker…?

Hae-som swallowed nervously.

If he was a social worker, wouldn’t he be more respectful of human rights?

If he found out that I had been kidnapped to this island and had lived here for more than ten years, wouldn’t he help me?

“But he says he got cancer and came here to recuperate. Fuck, what kind of cancer patient drinks alcohol? Right? Apparently, he has to go to the mainland once every three weeks for chemotherapy.”

……The mainland once every three weeks?

“Anyway, you’re the only young woman on this island, so take good care of yourself and keep yourself chaste. I mean, keep your body and mind clean and get ready to serve your husband. Heh heh.”

Hae-som suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

“Anyway, big brother is leaving.”

Whether he knew how disgusted Hae-som felt or not, Sang-hyuk gave her a sly wink and mouthed the words again.

Husband.

That bastard! What the hell is he doing, acting all high and mighty? And he’s old enough to know better!

As he turned his back, Hae-som raised her middle finger at the back of his head.

“Oh, right. You….”

Sang-hyuk suddenly turned around.

The moment his eyes landed on Hae-som’s raised middle finger, silence fell.

“What are you doing?”

Hae-som hurriedly scratched the raised middle finger with her other hand.

“Ah, I got bitten by a mosquito.”

“Don’t scratch it. Put some soybean paste on it. Oh, right. Don’t tell your mother that I came here. She might come over to my house and make a scene again.”

Hae-som waited until his head disappeared behind the wall, then hurriedly changed out of her work clothes.

Then she quickly headed toward the village chief’s house.

Judging by how wildly Sang-hyuk was acting, it seemed the marriage they had planned was approaching.

She wanted to escape the island as soon as possible, even if it was only one day earlier.

To do that, she first had to determine whether the horn-rimmed man was someone who could help her.

“Ha.”

But if he liked drinking and had already become friendly with the village chief, there was a high chance he wouldn’t help her escape….

No. Yoon Hae-som.

Still, I should at least try.

Hae-som nervously bit her nails as she headed toward the horn-rimmed man’s house.

By coincidence, the front gate was open.

She opened it and went inside, then placed her hand on the wooden porch and called out to him.

“Excuse me, sir….”

But she stopped speaking when she heard a voice coming from the room.

“Damn it. I’m going to take a boat to China three weeks from now, so tell them to send a private jet or something! It’s getting too hard to move around here!”

……What? Is he running away…?

“Do you have any idea how much what I stole is worth? To the country…! Wait a minute.”

Is he really a criminal?

And a major one at that?

Sensing that something was seriously wrong, Hae-som hurriedly turned around, only to step on some farming tools scattered across the yard.

Clang!

At the metallic sound of the tools scraping against one another, Hae-som nearly felt her heart stop.

And then—

BANG!

“…Who are you?”

The man came rushing out of the room and grabbed Hae-som firmly by the back of her neck.

“Ah! Let me go!”

“You heard me?”

“I didn’t hear anything! Let me go! I was just—”

The man clamped a hand over Hae-som’s mouth and tightly wrapped his other arm around her neck.

“Uuugh! Mmph! P-please let me g-go….”

Struggling was useless.

Heaven must have abandoned me.

“Gkkk!”

Her vision began flickering, and just when her chest felt as though it were about to burst—

BAM!

She suddenly felt an incredible force from behind, and the man was knocked sideways.

Hae-som’s vision, which had been about to go completely dark, became clear again.

Hae-som turned around, coughing as tears streamed down her face.

A tall, handsome, fair-skinned man who looked every bit like a young master was staring at her, tears falling from his eyes.

“W-what… who… are you?”

Why are you crying?

Too bewildered to speak properly, Hae-som kept coughing as she stared blankly at the man.

No, before that… why does it feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before?

“Hae-som.”

“……!”

At the man’s sorrowful calling of her name, the hairs all over Hae-som’s body stood on end.

Since coming to this island, this was the first time someone had called her by the name she had been given before her kidnapping instead of “Balbali.”

“……Our youngest. Your big brother came too late, didn’t he? I’m sorry.”

A ringing filled her ears.

After the high-pitched ringing, her heartbeat thundered wildly like a drum.

“Let’s go home.”

“Waaaaah!”

It was the moment Hae-som woke up sobbing after dreaming about what had happened just five days ago—when she had nearly been strangled to death by the horn-rimmed man.

BANG!

“Little sis! Did you have a nightmare?!”

“Hae-som!”

“Pretty!”

Her brothers opened the bedroom door and rushed inside.

They were tall, handsome men with warm, pleasant features.

They were the three biological brothers whose faces had once faded from Hae-som’s memories—but were now clear again.

Hae-som, who had been kidnapped at the age of ten, had reunited after twelve years with the family she had believed she would never see again.

It truly felt unbelievable.

Her brothers comforted the anxious Hae-som, repeatedly telling her their parents’ names, their own occupations and ages, and how precious their youngest sister had always been to them.

During that process, some details matched the fragments of memories Hae-som had retained, however rarely.

Thanks to that, her confused heart gradually settled down, but a question remained in one corner of Hae-som’s mind.

Her parents.

If her mother and father had loved her so dearly, why hadn’t they even shown their faces after she returned?

She had asked about it yesterday as well, but—

“Mother and Father went abroad for a little while. They’ll come see you as soon as they return. Just wait a little longer.”

She had only received an answer that left her questions unresolved.

Hae-som was happy that her brothers welcomed her warmly and took such devoted care of her, but she missed her parents terribly.

So although she felt sorry for her brothers, who took such meticulous care of her, she ended up acting spoiled like a little sister.

“But, oppas….”

All three answered simultaneously.

“Hmm?”

Hae-som continued with an awkward smile.

“I… really miss Mom and Dad. I’m also so curious about how they’ve changed. Now that I’m home, I vaguely remembered how Dad used to take me to the toy store every time he had a day off. Did they… go abroad and haven’t come back yet? …They know I’m back… right?”

Tae-joo and Geuk-joo wore troubled expressions.

Then Gi-joo, the youngest brother, who had bleached hair and the most striking and pretty appearance of the three, spoke.

“If we keep avoiding telling her because we’re worried she’ll be shocked, we’ll only make her longing worse. Let’s just tell her.”

At Gi-joo’s words, Tae-joo and Geuk-joo groaned uneasily before nodding.