Season one, chapter twenty-nine

"You are murderer,
no matter how beloved"

THEA FELT LIKE her world was falling apart, her mind wandering back to a few moments ago, before Hana told her about one of the people Ji Cheong-sin had recruited. Yes, it was Park Ye-jun, her uncle, the person she least wanted to see of all her remaining relatives. She wasn't ready to face him, but instead, here she was standing in the dark night in a place she barely knew.

"Ji Cheong-sin, Baek Hyang-hui and Park Ye-jun, they three are level-three spirits" Mo-tak said with a serious face

To make matters worse, Ye-jun was a level three and no one other than Hana knew about the relationship between the two.

"The spirits I just saw were level two" Hana added without any expression on her face but with clear concern for her younger sister

"Let's move as a group. Don't fight them alone. I'll be your shield, so stick right behind me... and use me to defend yourself" Mo-tak began to say before looking at each of the three women

"Be careful" Ms. Chu patted his shoulder. Thea took out her flashlight from the pocket of her leather jacket like everyone else before starting to walk "It's like walking into a snake's mouth" Ms. Chu commented

Thea's steps were slow but with a certain determination, shining her flashlight to any side from which some suspicious noise came. She stopped though when Hana grabbed Mo-tak's shoulder, signaling him to stop walking.

"I think it's this way" Hana assured, pointing to her right, so everyone continued in that direction

Thea turned off and put her flashlight in the pocket of her leather jacket when Ms. Chu asked her to and they continued on their way. Although the path had come to an end and they were now in front of a large building. They inspected it a little from the outside and when they least realized it, Ms. Chu let out a loud scream, disappearing from the group's sight.

"Ms. Chu!" Mo-tak shouted, running in the direction in which someone closed a large iron gate

"Ms. Chu!" Hana exclaimed loudly, hitting the metal gate that had been closed before the trio could enter

"Ms. Chu!" Thea screamed with concern, smashing her fist against the iron gate repeatedly

"There's an evil spirit here. He's big. He's quite big in size" Ms. Chu said through the device in her ear

Thea joined the duo as they tried to push the gate open. They put all their strength but it barely moved. Ms. Chu suddenly moaned in pain and made the team even more desperate.

"There are two of us" Corrected a new voice but with a hint of fun

"Ms. Chu, give us a minute" Mo-tak asked with difficulty before starting to push the gate harder

"Mo-tak, Thea" Hana called them looking in a certain direction

"You three, go find Mun. Go find Mun!" Ms. Chu's voice was heard on the other side of the gate

"Okay," Hana said before running in a certain direction without hesitating even a bit

"Ms. Chu, hang in there for a bit" Mo-tak exclaimed before urging Thea to follow Hana, though she was a little hesitant to leave the older woman alone with two evil spirits but eventually followed the duo

Thea regretted leaving her mother figure behind when they finally arrived at where the great battle would take place.

"Honey! Babe! Over here!" The recognizable voice of the crazy woman Thea and Hana had a grudge against echoed

Thea stood next to Hana, glancing at all the evil spirits that Ji Cheong-sin had recruited and among all of them her recognizable uncle, Park Ye-jun, was the one who stood out the most. Suddenly her hands began to shake and the resentment and fury towards the aforementioned did not take long to appear.

"There are five" Mo-tak stated, so the trio began to walk determinedly towards the group of evil spirits

"Hana, Mo-tak, Thea" Mun began to say in a broken voice

"It's great to have everyone here together. It's like a reunion" Baek Hyang-hui deigned to say with a smile from ear to ear, looking forward to getting her hands on a certain black haired girl 

"Bullshit. Did you go to school?" Hana challenged her, thus erasing the smile from her opponent's face

"All my husbands graduated from Seoul National University" The short haired girl exclaimed before running towards Hana with the other three behind her

Thea was clearly nervous, it was noticeable from meters away and thanks to that it was hard for her to concentrate so she abruptly dodged the attacks of her supposed uncle, who seemed to be enjoying this more than everyone else.

"It's good to see you again, Attie." The deep voice of the man she was fighting with reached her ears like small knives clashing against her skin, but she decided to ignore it and finish what she started. "How are your parents? Jun-seo?" He let out a laugh of amusement and Thea didn't stop herself from smashing her fist sharply into her enemy's stomach, Ye-jun replacing his smile with an expression of pain

Although he seemed to recover instantly and with a manic smile that made Thea's hair stand on end, he pounced on her as if he were a damn stray cat. She fell to the ground on her back with her enemy strangling her mercilessly. She raised her arm towards a nearby brick and it immediately slammed into Ye-jun's head, knocking him off her.

Thea got up from the ground almost as soon as she saw that her teammates needed help. She nimbly kicked away the sharp knives of both men before pressing her back against those of her teammates, noticing how they were now surrounded by all those bastards.

"Mun, hang in there a little longer" Mo-tak exclaimed to the boy who seemed to be desperate

Thea sprang into action as Ye-jun once again plopped down on top of her. Hana and Mo-tak were more than fine on their own so she focused more on finishing off her disgusting uncle. In a matter of seconds he was already on the ground like all the others, although she was surprised to see how Ji Cheong-sin broke the neck of one of his allies and consumed his soul. Thus the man's red eyes rested on her.

"Long time no see" He said in two different voices and in a matter of seconds he was in front of Thea who gasped in horror. Although Mo-tak pushed her out of the way to then raise his fist aiming at the man's face but his fist was stopped midair by the man who agilely raised him in the air before sending him crashing against a wall, breaking it in the process

"No. No! Mo-tak!" Mun began to say desperately

Thea stepped aside when Hana agilely pined him against the floor and before she could try to help her partner when she noticed how the short haired girl approached Hana dangerously, someone grabbed her by the hair from behind, throwing her to the ground in a matter of seconds. Now everyone had their own fight.

The brown-haired girl looked up when she noticed the man standing in front of her, her skin crawled and a chill ran down her spine when she noticed the expression of her enemy. A big smile covered his entire face and the blood that fell from his forehead to his cheeks seemed to amuse him even more.

"You dare to hit me when I helped your poor family pay off your school debt, you damn bitch?" Ye-jun exclaimed with irritation, erasing the smile from his face and thus tightly grabbing his niece by the hair

Dragging her across the pavement, she grunted in pain as he threw her hard against the wall. She was sure she would end up with several bruises back there. She quickly dodged the man's attack who instead slammed his fist against the wall, Thea stood up from the ground staggering a little from lack of energy.

But she stood up and positioned both of her hands in front of her, as an invisible energy stopped her enemy's fist in mid-air, she then pushed her hands forward, sending Ye-jun crashing into a cement pillar, breaking it in the process. Though she frowned as he stood up easily without any effect of being tired. How was it possible?

She ducked, dodging his attack once again, but what she didn't expect was for Ye-jun's fist to crash into her face as soon as she righted herself. He repeatedly hit her face, making her stagger backwards. Thea grabbed her uncle's arm, who was tightly gripping the collar of her jacket, and in seconds his memories invaded her mind.

Although she fell to the ground when one last blow was sent against her face, blood was pouring from her nose and her vision seemed to become increasingly blurry.

"Thea! No. Stop it. Stop it!" Mun began to scream in despair when he saw the girl on the ground spitting blood from her mouth, on the other hand Ji Cheong-sin broke a brick against Mo-tak's head. "Stop it, please. Stop. Stop it!" He begged with all his might "Ms. Chu! Ms. Chu. Stop it! Stop! Stop it!"

Thea could barely keep her eyes open, even unfazed when Ye-jun grabbed her hair tightly to make her look at her unconscious mother figure on the ground.

"Stop it. Stop it, all of you..." His eyes rested on the bodies of each of his friends "Wi-gen... it's all because of me, please. Wi-gen. Please come inside me. Just this once. They're all going to die because of me. They're all dying because of me. Please... please help me out just this once. What am I supposed to do?" He cried while the group of spirits dumped the remaining gasoline on the ground "Wi-gen! Please help us!" Ji cheong-sin threw the lighter on the ground and so it started to catch fire

Mun began to scream in desperation while the short haired girl screamed in excitement and thus retreated as if nothing had happened. On the other hand, Thea was fighting to keep her eyes open, she couldn't die like this, not yet. But she couldn't fight any more, she was so tired that she just wanted to close her eyes and rest.

"Mo-tak... Thea... Ms. Chu. Ms. Chu! No, Ms. Chu. I'm sorry. It's all because of me" He started to sob

Although Thea half smiled weakly as she saw how that bright light passed through Mun's body who managed to free himself from the rope without any effort and then she was finally able to close her eyes without any worry.

Thea coughed suddenly, letting those accompanying her know that she had already regained consciousness. The brown-haired woman noticed that she was not on the dirty floor but inside an ambulance.

"Thea..." Mun said with relief looking at her with a hint of worry

"Are you okay?" Jangmul asked with concern, however she turned to look at Mun with confusion, as if all this was a dream

"Chairman, didn't you erase his memory?" Thea questioned, leaning her head on the metal behind her, still not believing the boy next to her was real

"Would you have done it if you were me?" Jangmul questioned leaning forward, he had a great point

"You aren't dead" She exclaimed in a raspy voice

"Thank you, Thea. Thank you for coming" He quickly took her hand in his, then Thea knew that all this was not a simple dream

Without thinking much she pounced on him not caring for a second about her aching body, she was just happy to have him back, to have him with her once again. The boy on the other hand was too surprised by the sudden show of effect but did not hesitate to reciprocate the hug.

"I missed you so much" She whispered softly, wrapping her arms easily around the neck of the boy who was feeling on cloud nine right now "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you too much right?" Thea filled him with questions once they separated a little from each other

"Yes I am, now that I know you are too I feel much better" He admitted taking one of the girl's hands gently making her smile in the process

Then the girl's eyes went to Ms. Chu's unconscious body on the stretcher and worry soon invaded her. She really should have stayed to help her and maybe none of this would have happened.

Author's note;

I think I got too carried away, but what did you think of this chapter? 👀 Now that we know that her uncle is part of Ji Cheong-sin's army, it will be more difficult for Thea to focus on defeating him🥲

Question of the day: What do you think Thea saw in her uncle's memories? 🤔

Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave me your great opinion about this chapter in the comments. See y'all tomorrow, hopefully! 💕