"W-Where..Where am I-I?"

The dimly lit room, coated in the warmth of scented candles calls out to Soojin, who has just woken up from the chloroform.

Her head throbs at an insane rate and her stiff neck feels as though it could snap in half.

Her squinted eyes are trying to acclimatise themselves to her surroundings, just so she is able to make sense of what is happening around her.

She begins to re-trace her memory, only being reminded of how she'd seen Areum close the gates on her face.

She sees flashes of The Cherry Blossom Tree, the one she'd bid goodbye to, in haste.

Just as she's pondering over her current circumstances, she feels her wrists tugged to her back, as though they've been tied by hemp ropes, rather sturdily.

Her shoulders ache from the pain gnawing in her arms and she's sure that her circulation is at risk.

Soojin tries to move her arms, in any way possible but finds herself chained and tied securely.

Was she an animal?

Just as she's rattling the chains that have her ankles tied tight, she hears the door open.

"Soojin-ah!!" A worried, high pitched wail reaches her ears and she doesn't need a reminder of whom the voice belongs to.

Her lips instinctively spell out the person's name.

"E-Eomma??" She wonders, eyes widening as her mother walks out of the shadows and falls before Soojin, on her knees.

She looks as though she'd been worked to her bones, flesh having left her face and arms.

Soojin runs her eyes over her Mother's ruined appearance, her shaggy unkempt hair, dried erythematous bloodied wounds around her cheeks and lips.

She watches her mother's dark and empty eyes, as though she's lost her soul.

What had happened to her?

"Soojin-ahh.." Her mother whimpers, running a calloused and shaky hand over Soojin's face.

Familiarity and warmth fills her Mother's visage.

Her daughter was back home.

"Eomma, wh-who did this to you?" Soojin asks, rage and helplessness clouding her voice, hot tears of wrath filling the brim of her eyes.

"I-It doesn't matter anymore, you are here..you are here with me!!" Her mother speaks firmly, clasping her hands around Soojin's head, forcing her to make do with what was happening.

"I left you healthy and nourished..What has become of you? Who's laid their hands on you?!?" Soojin screams, despite her mother's attempts at shutting her mouth.

"Shhhh, stop screaming...he-he'll come here..." Soojin's mother whispers, teeth clenched.

Soojin's pupils shake as she watches the door to the room re-open.

"Who?" She asks, eyes trained on the shadow looming behind the door.

A low pitched snarl leaves the door.

"Me, of course." The voice booms and causes the elderly woman to shudder in place, holding her daughter tightly in her arms.

Soojin's mother has her arms wrapped around Soojin's frail frame, head hidden in her chest.

She's heard this voice a lot more than she'd wished.

She's heard this voice as she was pinned against the bark of the tree, she's heard this voice as flutters of air tingling her neckline.

It's her worst enemy.

"Y-You rascal! How dare you drag my family into this?!?" Soojin roars as she feels her mother's tears drench her vest.

Yong Sun takes heavy steps and in he walks with a platter filled with food.

He drops to his knees, such that he is now at eye-level with Soojin.

He places the platter on the dirty floor and holds before her a glass of water.

"Soojin-ah, Eomma must be thirsty..She hasn't had a drop of water in 4 days, if my calculations are correct.. or was it 5 days? Aigoo, I can't seem to remember such trivial details anymore.." He laughs as he watches Soojin's mother peek her head out from her embrace.

"Come, Eomma.." He signals with his pointer finger as Soojin watches her mother crawl over to Yong Sun, on her hands and knees, like an obedient dog.

Yong Sun pats her course head of hair as she watches her drink out of the glass, drops of water cascading down the elder woman's throat, with every big desperate gulp she takes.

"See? Even Eomeoni knows better. She knows not to mess with me, she knows who to take orders from.." Yong Sun chides, watching Soojin stare at her mother with an unbelievable unfathomable emotion.

"I know what you might be thinking..Why is my mother listening to a stranger? Why is she behaving like an obedient dog to a master?" Yong Sun leans in, lips touching Soojin's ears.

"I'm not just a stranger..I'm her son-in-law.." He whispers, dropping a kiss along Soojin's cheek as he retrieves himself.

"Never!" Soojin mutters, eyes boring daggers into Yong Sun's frame, teeth grinding over one another.

"Never?" Yong Sun mocks, watching Soojin's mother go ballistic over the platter of food as she nibbles into a piece of Rib, saliva mixed with spices flowing out from the corners of her mouth.

Soojin's eyes fixate over her Mother's desperate figure and she's reminded of just how inhumane Yong Sun really is.

"I-I belong to someone else now..I-I'm married to Jeonha.." Soojin retaliates.

"Darling, that never stopped us before, did it?" Yong Sun mutters, grabbing Soojin's jaw in a hand.

"I can still smell your arousal, from miles and miles away...Remember the day I had you pressed against that ugly tree? I could smell how soaked you were. Sweetheart, you were so desperate for me, the way your nails dug into my biceps..The way your innocent hips were grounding into my pelvis...You were so pathetic, Soojin-ah..getting yourself off on me, using me and my erection to give you that friction you desperately needed down there...I bet you had to go wash your soiled panties that night, huh? Don't worry, I-I'll ruin you for him, for that imbecile, that bastard, that handicap...I'll do you so good, you'll come back to me each and every night with your pathetic little fingers stuffed in your mouth as I make you come for the Nth time that night.." He comments, vulgarly as Soojin's temper knows no bounds.

She spits at him, at his face.

"You're the imbecile..What will someone who killed their own Mother do for me, you bastard?" Soojin screams, wiggling her hands and feet from the shackles, to no avail.

Yong Sun reaches a palm out to wipe the globules of spit scattered over his chin as he lets out a humiliated laugh, almost as though he was suppressing his own anger.

"Bitches like you need to be taught, need to be breeded and trained..Look at your Mother..She too was defiant like you, she resisted authority, had to be beaten up quite a few times to develop some sense of obedience..Don't worry, you'll learn in no time, pup..You'll learn how to please your master and you'll learn to choke on your curses while you're stuffed with me, you'll learn to keep those eyes down when you're out there carrying my child in that fertile virginal womb while your impotent husband watches us, with his beggar bowl..you'll learn to be all mine, sweetheart.."

"You're mistaken." Soojin responds, holding her head high.

Yong Sun looks at her perplexed.

"I'll carry your brother's child, the heir of Baekmin while you watch over us from your Grave...if you're granted one, if Yun Ki doesn't set your body on fire.."