Burning The House Of Cards: taking revenge on my billionaire family
Chapter 43 - 42. Two Twisted Fate

Chapter 43: Chapter 42. Two Twisted Fate

Hajin smiled languidly at the stern words. "Is that an order?"

Sarah stared at the twinkling grey eyes and sighed deeply. "Sure," she drank the rest of her warm drink and crumpled the can between her hands. "Let’s say it is."

Still with an easy smile, Hajin took the crumpled can in Sarah’s hand and walked away to the trash can, not far away from the bike. He threw both of their cans while humming.

"How far have you investigated me, Master?" he asked.

Sarah flinched, and not from the loud clanking sound the two cans made inside the bin. "...enough to know you live alone with your mother abroad."

She knew it wasn’t weird to have a background check on someone working for her, but...she felt somewhat guilty. Was it because she couldn’t find anything incriminating? It felt like she was being needlessly suspicious of a decent man.

Based on her added inquiry, Hajin and his mother didn’t seem to have extended family members helping them while they were abroad. The mother worked tirelessly, but life as immigrants was always harsh, especially for a single mother and a good-looking child. It was hard to earn a decent living, and that conditions alienated Hajin even more from his peers.

The boy, however, wasn’t the type to get bullied. Unfortunately, unless you had other kinds of power, the only way out was through violence. That was how Ryu Hajin went through his childhood: through constant fighting.

In the end, they had to leave the State since Hajin became so notorious, and Sarah’s investigation had to stop there since she didn’t have enough clues and resources to check on all other countries Hajin and his mother had been in. Based on the postcards she sent the pub owner, however, it didn’t seem like she got into another relationship--which meant, until the end, it was only Hajin and his mother.

Honestly...perhaps that was one of the reasons why Sarah decided to accept his offer. Their situation, while wholly different, also felt...familiar.

"Ah, that simplifies things," Hajin nodded, shifting his gaze from the trash can to the twinkling city lights. "She’s the root of it all, after all."

Sarah widened her eyes in surprise before frowning deeply. "Explain."

"You’ve said it yourself, Master: there are a lot of things I could do with my skills--or my appearance," Hajin said shamelessly, with a chuckle that showed that he himself was aware of it. "But there’s not much I could do if I want quick money."

"What for?"

"Hospital fee."

Sarah unconsciously flinched; the story felt more and more like it didn’t belong to someone else.

"My mother needed to be operated on, and there was only a short window of opportunity before it was too late," Hajin said while looking at the bleak sky; his tone was dry, as if he were talking about someone else. "The place that could pay me the most was Helios’s fighting ring--which I heard from my foreigner acquaintances here."

Sure, he could try to be a celebrity, or at least a model with his looks. Any service establishment that didn’t require too much training would be delighted to have someone with his face and figure, even if he was only a dropout who knew nothing but using his body.

But how much would those kinds of work pay? Most places wouldn’t even give new employees their pay on the first month, much less give a loan upfront. Even celebrities had to wait until they got decent offers before the agency gave them a cut.

The quickest way for him to earn millions was through gambling, but he didn’t even have the capital--which he had already used to pay the pre-existing hospital bill.

In that case, he decided to be the target of the gamble.

"Still, if no one bet on me, I wouldn’t get enough money for it," Hajin chuckled. Even an illegal gambling den wouldn’t pay millions for participation fees. "My plan was to get a triple crown while hoping my mother would hang on until then."

The doctor did say she didn’t have long, but what could he do? He knew no one in the country where he wasn’t even born in. If he failed, then...

It was fate--was what he thought.

And so, it was also fate that things changed their course.

Hajin turned around and smiled softly; a brilliant one that did not lose with the sparkle behind him. "But I didn’t have to."

"Because I bet on you," Sarah muttered.

"Yes," Hajin nodded. "And you earned so much that the cut I got was even enough to let her stay in the hospital to receive continuous treatments."

"Ah..."

Then...in the previous timeline, did he fail to do so? Did his mother fail to survive? If that were the case, it would explain why the Ryu Hajin in her memory was so cold and detached, as if he were someone who no longer believed in humanity.

But...

Sarah bit her lips. "Just...because of that?"

Sure, he could pay for the hospital fee because she bet on him, but she was sure people would start betting on him in the second fight anyway. He could probably even ask for a loan from Lee Sol after his first win. In that case, whether Sarah bet on him wouldn’t matter much.

Obviously, Hajin didn’t think so.

"Just?" Hajin laughed incredulously, but Sarah, who lowered her gaze while frowning, couldn’t see how ridiculous it sounded to him.

Biting her lower lip, Sarah persisted. "I didn’t do it to help you."

It was uncomfortable; she did it for herself, and she only bet a lot because she knew Hajin’s capabilities from the future knowledge she had. If anything, it was thanks to Hajin that she could gain a lot of capital at the start, instead of losing it all in a stupid gamble.

Being revered because of something she did for her selfish gain was attacking her conscience.

"Pfft--you didn’t think I knew that?" Hajin laughed again, shaking his head at how ridiculous it was. "How would you know I needed money for my mother anyway?"

Hajin walked closer, sighing at the way his master looked down with a deep furrow.

"It didn’t matter what your reason was, Master. All that mattered to me was that you gave me a chance."

He stopped in front of the girl, who looked as small and vulnerable as that night when he carried her to the hotel room, drunk and sobbing while mumbling about all the miserable stuff her siblings had done to her.

Hajin didn’t want to see her like that. His master, his princess, was more than that.

"You gave me a chance to talk to my mother again, Master."

Sarah felt her hands tremble, something she realized had happened since she found out that Hajin’s mother was in the hospital. She gripped the side of the motorcycle tightly, as if looking for an anchor.

"Before I came here, it had been a year since I talked to her," Hajin continued bitterly, and it managed to make Sarah finally raise her head.

"Huh?"

"We were at odds with each other because she decided to come here without consulting me," Hajin smirked mockingly to himself, an expression Sarah often saw in the mirror. "The next time I heard from her, however, it was from the hospital."

Sarah took a deep breath. How would it feel, she wondered. Fighting with your mother, not speaking for a year, and suddenly hearing she was dying. She recalled the day she woke up and found out from Ethan that her mother did not make it. That she had died, and her body was still in the morgue because no one came to process it.

Did it hurt like that, she wondered. Did he wail and scream in frustration? Did he blame himself every minute and second of it?

"If you didn’t bet on me that day, it would have been too late," Hajin continued, stormy eyes staring straight at her soul. "I wouldn’t be able to talk to her; I wouldn’t be able to ask for forgiveness and reconcile with her."

Hajin smiled gently, a relieved smile that Sarah wished she could have.

Oh, how much she wished she could have that; a chance, an opportunity to see her mother for one last time. Even if she could only say hello, or sorry, or thank you...

Even if she couldn’t say anything, and only stared at her smiling face one last time...

"Tell me," the low, strained voice turned into a gentle whisper. "If someone were to bring you to your mother, so you can spend even just a day with her," Hajin smiled, even with a buried sorrow in his eyes. "What would you do? How would you feel?"

Sarah bit her lips so hard it felt like she would bleed. But the pain of an unfulfilled wish in her heart was even greater, and scalding tears rolled down her blurry eyes.

Hajin brushed the pale cheek and wiped the dripping tears. "Do you still think it was ’just’ something like that?"

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