31 You and I are alike

"You lied to me."

"What about it?" She takes her hand. "Come with me."

Nam Ji Won can't bear to look at the corpses. The image is unforgettable. Her face is covered with tears. She follows Lee Hyo Rin out of the room and finds people dressed up in black suits standing out of the room.

"Take care of the evidence." Lee Hyo Rin points at the door. The men in black suits bow to her. Nam Ji Won notices that it's too quiet.

What she has done is wrong. She can't hear or see anything anymore. Lee Hyo Rin smiles when she sees her in that state. She takes her hand and brings her back to her room.

"Drink this." She gives her a glass of water. "Calm down, Ji Won. We won't get caught. I have paid the hotel manager to keep quiet. The evidence will completely be wiped by the professionals. If you have money, you can buy anything in this world."

Her words snap Nam Ji Won out of her trance. "Why did you do it?"

"Why did I do it?" Lee Hyo Rin's eyes shine. "Have you heard of Cinderella's story?"

"I have..."

"My father died when I was two. I don't remember him. My mother didn't remarry, but she was too weak to handle the business. My uncle and aunt volunteered. He was my father's only younger brother. Then, my mother died. I was three at that time. She was drunk driving. I don't remember her either. People thought that she got drunk because she was missing my father and died in the accident. My uncle and aunt became my guardian."

She drinks the water and sighs. "It's a pathetic story. I believed in those lies until my ninth birthday. I heard them talking about it. My father might have died because of heart disease. But my mother's death wasn't natural. They killed her. They talked about killing me too. However, they couldn't kill me until I became an adult. They needed me to sign everything over to them. I turned nineteen recently. They were planning to kill me next year to avoid suspicion."

Nam Ji Won clenches her fingers into fists. It's unfair what happened to Lee Hyo Rin, but she should not have killed her uncle and her aunt.

"I was pathetic until I met you Nam Ji Won." Lee Hyo Rin holds her hand.

"Before meeting you, I was scared to make a move. I couldn't go to law. My uncle already brought them with money. Everyone in the house was his people. My aunt always kept a close watch on me. I acted like I didn't care about anything other than boys. I acted like a dumb and clueless spoiled kid with bad habits. I was afraid if I acted otherwise, they would finish me sooner or lock me in the house."

Lee Hyo Rin's hands are cold.

"I didn't know what to do. Then, I met you." She squeezes her hand. "Nam Ji Won, you dressed up as a boy to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend...I found it funny how you would take revenge for such a small reason. You are my inspiration."

"Then, one day, I pushed my cousin brother from the top of the stairs. He fell to his death. I went to my room and pretended to be drunk and asleep. Nobody saw me. Nobody doubted me." Lee Hyo Rin grins like a maniac. "I never felt better. Even luck was on my side. I felt happy when I saw they cry for their fourteen years old son. I cried along with them. I cried the tears of happiness."

Nam Ji Won feels worse and worse after hearing her. To her, Lee Hyo Rin looks like a monster.

"I got luckier." She puts her one leg over the other. "Six months later, someone approached me with a copy of my father's real will. With that, everything was mine. I had to make a move. I found out many things about my father and the kind of work he did in secret. It's funny how much I am like him. Then, I started planning. I could finish my uncle and aunt easily, but I chose this way. Do you know why Ji Won?"

"Why?" Nam Ji Won asks in a low voice.

"Because I don't want to be alone," Lee Hyo Rin tells her. "Why should I be alone? I want you to be with me. This is a secret that you and I will share for the rest of our lives. Nam Ji Won, you and I are alike. You are the fairy who gave me shoes at midnight. You are the prince who saved me from my evil uncle and aunt. You are my saviour."

Nam Ji Won have had enough. She jerked off her hands. "Lee Hyo Rin, you are out of your mind. You and I are nothing alike. I never did things for the wrong reasons. I never killed anyone."

"You didn't?" Lee Hyo Rin grabs her collar. "You think that you are honourable? How did you feel when you broke those girls' hearts? How did you feel when you saw your ex-boyfriend crying? You can tell yourself that your reasons were right, but you are nothing better than me. What you did was seeking revenge. Then, you did it for fun because you liked breaking the girls' hearts. You liked it because your own heart was broken. You wanted to make them suffer as you did."

"That's not true." Nam Ji Won whispers. "I am not like you..."

"You want to seek justice now?" Lee Hyo Rin pulls her closer. "If you tell someone, I will kill that person first and let you watch. If you go to cops, they can't catch me because the evidence is already been taken care of."

Her eyes are murderous and hateful. She shows her a maniac smile. The same smile that she showed to her uncle before he was killed by her. Nam Ji Won's breathing becomes erratic.

Has she created this monster?

"Go to your room." Lee Hyo Rin let go when she sees that Nam Ji Won is afraid. "Take a bath and throw away those clothes. Have a good sleep. Think of this as a bad dream and forget about it."

"Okay." Nam Ji Won stands up like a zombie and gets out of there as fast as she can. She finds Tae Il still asleep. She goes to the bathroom and closes the door.

What should she do?