They put the bike in the hotel basent of their ’basecamp’ and returned to the mansion with the car. Sarah still felt a little bit awkward about the sudden intimacy that had happened not long ago, but she was also curious about the part that Hajin didn’t talk about in detail.
Glancing at the man through the reflection in the window, Sarah asked cautiously. "So...she didn’t make it in the end?"
"In the first place, that operation was only to prolong her life," Hajin shrugged.
"Oh..." she turned her head to look at the nonchalant face.
Like before, he said it as if it were soone else’s story. Was it because he had made peace about it...or was it an effort to detach himself from the leftover pain? If he felt so indebted to Sarah for a chance to talk things over with his mother, he should love her quite a lot, right?
Perhaps as much as Sarah loved her mother. After all, both were their only family.
"But you used your triple crown to find instead?" Sarah frowned.
Hajin arched his brow before laughing in the next second. "I told you I earned enough money for the operation and the hospital fee afterward, and I kept earning money each fight," he said after finishing his short burst of laughter that got Sarah furrowing her brows deeper. "I can get the money for the hospital bill myself, but I can’t find you without managent’s help."
"You can use it to try and cure her..."
"Even Song Yonghwa couldn’t produce a miracle, Master," Hajin curled his eyes. "Besides...she didn’t really have any willingness to live long. Three years was enough for us to be together."
Sarah felt her fingers twitch at that. Willingness to live...it stung her heart and made her stomach churn. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to get rid of the anxiety in the corner of her heart.
"...was it...had sothing to do with why she returned here?"
"You can say that," Hajin sneered. The bitter expression was wiped in a second and replaced with a lighthearted smile, however. "I’m already an adult and joining one of the best companies in this country. She was satisfied."
"Oh..."
Right. At that point, Hajin had worked in Aegis, so even without fighting in illegal rings, he would have enough money to pay for hospital bills. Yonghwa did pay his top agents well.
And, well...Hajin did look like soone who would even survive an apocalypse, so Sarah wouldn’t be too worried about his future if she were his mother too.
But it made her wonder...
What about her mother? Was she...satisfied too? Did she die peacefully, or was she filled with regret?
"I think...for parents--mothers--it’s enough if their children are alive and comparatively well," Hajin said in a gentle, soothing voice, as if he knew what Sarah was thinking.
"...Yeah?"
It might be nothing more than lip service, but...Sarah wanted to believe it.
"Yeah," Hajin chuckled. "I an...the first thing my mother said when she saw after the operation was ’Oh, you’re not dead yet?’"
"Pfft--what?" Sarah widened her eyes.
"You know...since I was always involved in fights and doing dangerous work," Hajin smirked.
Sarah leaned back with a smile. "She sounds...fun."
"Kind of, if she wasn’t trapped in her ideals," the bodyguard shrugged.
Hmm...was it about that enslavent thing? But then again, Hajin confessed he adapted the sa idea--which was why they were in their current...situationship, for lack of better words.
Sarah sighed; she understood more about Hajin’s fixation on her this ti, but that didn’t an she could imdiately accept it. She still had so reservations because it felt like obsession, and...
She didn’t have a good experience with it, being a target of soone’s obsession.
But, well--Sarah glanced at Hajin briefly before shifting her gaze back to the street--at least she could trust the man more.
Way more.
Which, for now, was all she needed.
* * *
When they arrived in front of the annex, Sarah and Hajin saw two people loitering around the front door--which was surprising, because they were the last people Sarah thought she would see around where she lived.
Not to ntion, it was close to midnight already.
"What the hell are they doing there?" Sarah squinted her eyes, making sure it was really Axton and Jasper--her half-brothers--and not random house staff careening their necks and trying to peek inside the living room.
She got out of the car and walked to the annex without hiding her footsteps, but the two half-brothers were too busy bickering over who should call her since she wasn’t ho that they didn’t even realize Sarah was already behind them.
"Spying on your sister?"
"Oh, fuck!" Jasper was literally jumped and stuck himself to the wall beside the door.
For soone hanging around with shady people, the boy was surprisingly jittery.
"You surprised !" Axton, the second son, snapped back as if Sarah were wearing a ghost costu to scare them on purpose.
What silly n.
"Indeed, so do you," she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You have so business with ?"
"Well..."
The brothers looked at each other, trying to communicate in silence. "Ahem--so, we want to take you sowhere."
Sarah raised her brow and shifted her gaze to Jasper, who exchanged curses with her just the night before, and pointed at herself. "? You want to take ?"
"More like...I’m taking you both," Axton said, stepping up to shield--or rather hide--the grumbling Jasper from her view.
"Huh..."
Sarah tilted her head, racking her brain to see how these two grown boys ended up stuck with each other, despite their mothers having a war of nerves over the queen’s position.
Were they sympathizing with each other as the less--or rather, least--competent children? Seeing their uncle’s tendency...it didn’t seem implausible. Mason was the heir, and while they weren’t exactly brilliant, Amber pulled her own weight, and Ruby was doing quite well at her university.
The two sons, however...
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Axton was known to be foolish and easily influenced by people. He was given an affiliate company as per tradition, but his decision-making had been nothing but disastrous; the type who easily believed the silliest viral video without any support.
And from how Jasper had been behaving at school...the boy seed to follow the footsteps of the worse older brother.
Not that Sarah was surprised at all.
As Sarah rely observed him in silence, Axton cleared his throat. "Kuhum--you...you know the Circle, right?"
"...huh," Sarah’s brow arched even higher in genuine bewildernt. "You’re taking to the Circle?"
"Well, you went abroad as soon as you beca an adult, so...you haven’t been invited yet, right?" Axton shrugged.
"That’s true, but..." Sarah pointed at the shuffling boy behind Axton. "He’s not an adult, is he?"
"He will be soon," the older brother said quickly. "I’ve already gotten permission."
"I see..."
Jasper, seemingly impatient, snapped with a grumble. "Are you coming or not?!"
"Hey!" Axton elbowed the boy before turning to Sarah again. "Let’s go, Seul--I an, Sarah. It’s embarrassing if soone from our family hasn’t been in the Circle yet."
Sarah stifled a laugh at the way Axton tried to smile nicely, like a salesman throwing a desperate sales pitch.
She glanced at her watch and asked with a sigh. "Now?"
"Why do you think we’re here now, geez?!" Jasper clicked his tongue, and Sarah couldn’t decide if the boy did it because he hated her or because he couldn’t wait for her circle debut.
Well...it was quite interesting anyway.
"Sure," she shrugged and turned around to her patiently waiting bodyguard. "Let’s go, J--ah, we don’t have to go together, right?"
"Do you even know where it is?" Axton tilted his head.
Sarah smirked while pointing at Jasper. "Pfft--you think I’m that idiot?"
"What did you say?!"
She laughed and waved her hand dismissively, entering the car she had just left not ten minutes ago.
"Wow...they worked so hard," she shook her head and sighed in exhaustion as the car drove away.
She had no interest in the place they were going to, but she was intrigued by what these stupid brothers planned.
"What’s the Circle, Master?" Hajin asked curiously after she finished putting the destination on the navigation system.
"Ah, right; you wouldn’t know," Sarah nodded. "Well, it’s just...a social circle."
Hajin gave his master a side eye, and Sarah laughed.
"I know, right?" she shrugged. "Well, it’s a social circle of the next generation 0.1% of this country--the newest generation conglorates, politicians’ successors, future top lawyers and judges, celebrities...you know the gist."
"So...it’s a networking place," Hajin concluded.
"Uh-huh," Sarah sneered. "It’s to make sure the power is kept within the sa circle from generation to generation."
"Nurtured from the seed...is it?"
"Yup," Sarah snapped her fingers. "People already know who will be the next top dogs through this circle, and make their own factions."
"I see..."
"The ones who use this circle the most are actually the lower-level mbers, though..." Sarah tapped on her lips as she tried to recall the circle from the mory of her previous life. "Those who have already been appointed as heirs don’t really need support. They only co when they are bored or need sothing."
Hajin tapped the stirring wheel while narrowing his eyes. "So the first son wouldn’t be there."
"Most of the top of the top dogs wouldn’t be there unless they made an appointnt with soone else," Sarah nodded. Amber was like that too, since going every ti could be seen as a desperate attempt to gain connection--which was a sign of a lower class. "But, well...it’s also a safe place to have fun, so they go for that sotis."
The grey eyes narrowed even more. "What kind of fun?"
"All kinds," Sarah smiled deeply, darkly. "Gambling, drugs...prostitution."
It was a rotten place, but weirdly enough, also containable. At the very least, they made sure the girls and boys servicing these people were not forced to do it, were paid well, and were not being subjected to violence. As for drugs...dical personnel were always available, so perhaps that counted for sothing.
It was a den of scandal, but also where scandal would never leak. The place was protected by the attendant’s parents, after all--the 0.1% of the country.
Who would crack down on such a place?
"Have you attended it, Master?" Hajin glanced at the darkened expression beside him. "In your previous life, I an."
The black eyes flickered slightly as mories ca fleeting by. "Yeah," Sarah curled one side of her lips. "The sa reason Amber brought to Helios."
"To...humiliate you?"
"There’s nothing more humiliating than attending a club when no one is talking to you, and keeps sneering because you are treated like a slave by your siblings," Sarah shrugged.
Hajin gripped the steering wheel harder; so tight his knuckles turned white. "And they want to do the sa this ti?"
Sarah leaned her head against the window and looked at Hajin with a playful smile. "What do you think?"
"Am I allowed to enter the venue?"
"Hell, no!" Sarah laughed. It was a playground for wealthy kids. Being watched by their bodyguards or attendants was the last thing they wanted.
Naturally, Hajin was frowning in disapproval and concern.
"Calm down, puppy," Sarah chuckled. "I’m not the old Seul-ah anymore."
"Still..."
"Don’t worry, I’m not going in alone," she shook her phone, and Hajin could see a familiar number there. When the call connected, Sarah spoke with a mysterious smile. "Sua, I need you to connect to soone."
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