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墨書 Inktalez
Kwangsoo's Family Is Cleaner Than Expected? This is the exclamation made by Park Seok. Anna has actually known since childhood that he has a bit of a cleanliness obsession; it would be strange if it weren't clean.
The house is about 100 square meters, and the decor is exceptionally simple, completely unexpected. Aside from the warm-colored mosaic in the bathroom, the rest of the places are primarily black and white Gray.
“Wow, Brother Kwangsoo, this is so cool.” Park Seok consciously plops down on the sofa, looking around in admiration.
“There’s really nothing worth filming; I already said that.” Lee Kwang-soo brings over two cups of water and places them on the Coffee Table.
“The viewers will be curious, and it has been mentioned so many times in the show. Just consider it a way to satisfy the curiosity of your fans.” Park Seok says with a smile.
Anna stands at the entrance for a while, carefully examining Lee Kwang-soo's shoe cabinet.
“Anna, what are you doing? Come sit down first.” Lee Kwang-soo says.
“Oh.” Anna responds and walks over, then casually says, “Just checking to see if there are any strange shoes.”
“What strange shoes?” Lee Kwang-soo and Park Seok don’t understand.
“Just seeing if there are any women’s shoes.” Anna replies.
Park Seok bursts out laughing.
Lee Kwang-soo says unhappily, “Hey, Anna, is this how you see me?”
Anna naturally nods and says, “Yes.”
“Ah, I’m really speechless.” Lee Kwang-soo says.
Anna smiled and comforted him, saying, "Brother, don't be angry. Since you've already agreed to come for the shoot, we need to create some buzz."
"If we really end up filming something like women's products, I'll hold a press conference and say it's yours!" Lee Kwang-soo provocatively replied.
"Alright, I surrender." Anna immediately raised her hand in defeat.
"Oh~ oh~~ you two! Do you have some untold secret?" Park Seok said with a mischievous grin as he looked at them.
"Yeah, you little brat," Kwang-soo said as he put his arm around Anna's shoulder and laughed, "There are plenty of secrets. Hurry up and spill the beans to the reporters."
"Hey!" Anna shook off his arm and patted both their heads. "You two need to be serious!"
"Anna, we're your brothers..." Park Seok said with a pout. "Besides, who was the one being unserious first?"
"Alright, alright, get back to work." Anna said as she stood up and officially began to tour Kwang-soo's room.
"Brother Kwangsoo, you're a man; why is your home so clean? You don't live here regularly, do you?" Park Seok was increasingly surprised, especially seeing that Kwang-soo had even neatly made his bed with no wrinkles on the sheets. Park Seok stared at Kwang-soo in disbelief and suddenly his expression changed as he said, "It's so clean... and I haven't heard you mention a girlfriend... Bro, you’re not... gay, are you?"
"Hey! You little brat," Lee Kwang-soo smacked Park Seok on the head again and said, "What are you thinking? Who says men can't be tidy? Cleanliness has nothing to do with being a man."
"Of course! I've been to so many of my brothers' homes; as long as they're single, they're all messy. And even some who are married don't keep their homes as clean as yours," Park Seok still couldn't understand Kwang-soo's room.
"Park Seok, don't worry. Brother Kwangsoo has plenty of girlfriends." Anna said in a boyish manner as she patted Kwang-soo's chest and told Park Seok, "He's perfectly normal; he absolutely loves women—he's practically dying for them."
"How do you know that?" Park Seok asked.
Anna pointed to her eyes and said, "I can see it."
"Ah, Anna Zheng!" Lee Kwang-soo said.
"Brother Park Seok," Anna casually interrupted him, walking to the other end of the study and saying, "Let's set up a filming spot here for now."
Lee Kwang-soo was speechless with anger but felt helpless.
"First, let's take a simple look. When the specific games for the show are confirmed, we will need to come back to set things up," Park Seok said.
As they talked and discussed the filming angles, they roughly estimated how many small filming cameras would be needed. It was only when they turned around that they realized Lee Kwang-soo had somehow disappeared.
"Where's Brother Kwangsoo?" Park Seok asked.
"I don't know. Wasn't he right behind us?" Anna replied, puzzled.
The two of them walked out onto the balcony connected to the bedroom and heard sounds coming from the kitchen.
Park Seok laughed happily. "Brother Kwangsoo, are you preparing food for us? I'm just in time because I'm hungry."
"Oh," came Lee Kwang-soo's muffled response from inside, likely still sulking.
"You see, you really made him angry," Park Seok whispered to Anna.
Anna smiled slightly, glanced at his figure in the kitchen, and then deliberately said loudly, "Oh my, Miss Yuri from Girls' Generation just called me."
Sure enough, as soon as she finished speaking, Kwang-soo rushed out with sparkling eyes. "What? Miss Yuri's call?"
After coming out and seeing that Anna hadn't even taken out her phone and Park Seok was grinning widely, Lee Kwang-soo sighed in embarrassment.
"Anna Zheng... I've lost to you..." After saying that, she returned to the kitchen with her head down.
Thinking it would be something delicious, after waiting for a long time, Lee Kwang-soo brought a pot of ramen to the table. Well, there were three eggs in it.
The moment the lid was lifted, Park Seok's expression of anticipation turned into complete disappointment.
"Hyung, it's just ramen?" Park Seok looked gloomy.
Anna was indeed starving; regardless of whether it was ramen or something else, she quickly grabbed a big chopstick full and blew on it twice before swallowing it.
"What kind of eating style is that? It looks like you've been starving for a month," Park Seok complained as he watched her.
"You don't understand. I need to exert myself lately; whether it's mental or physical strength, I need to replenish," Anna said while continuing to grab ramen.
"Slow down, no one is competing with you," Lee Kwang-soo said, then added an egg to Anna's bowl.
"Seeing you enjoy it so much... hey hey, save some for me," Park Seok quickly got lost in the charm of the ramen as well.
Summer was really just a fleeting memory now; the sky had started drizzling again without anyone noticing, and the air began to feel cool. Last winter had been so hard to endure that it felt endless; Anna didn't want to go through that again.
Opening the drawer, she glanced at the bag of black powder in the corner and the transparent liquid in the bottle. Anna truly hoped she wouldn't have to use these things one day.
Some things, even if hard to say and uncertain of the outcome, still needed to be done.
She heard Andy returning downstairs and quickly closed the drawer, locked it, put away the key, and walked downstairs.
"You're back so early today? Have you eaten?" Andy smiled and asked when he saw Anna coming down from upstairs.
"Today I took a break, went to work for a bit, and then came back. I had ramen for dinner at Brother Kwangsoo's house," Anna said.
Andy always felt particularly happy whenever he heard Anna and Kwangsoo together. "Yeah, that's nice."
Anna was puzzled. "What's nice?"
"I mean, Brother Kwangsoo is a good person," Andy replied.
"Stop talking nonsense. You know him; he's nice to every woman," Anna said.
Andy sat down on the sofa and noticed that Anna seemed to have something to say. So he asked, "What's wrong? Do you have something to say?"
Anna nodded silently.
"Then just say it; there's nothing to be embarrassed about," Andy encouraged.
Anna glanced at Andy. At this point, if she didn't speak up, it would only get harder later. "Andy, four years ago, when you left S.M. Company, it wasn't because Park Chan-yeol did anything underhanded or because Mr. Lee Soo Man was deliberately making things difficult for you; it was all a misunderstanding." Anna had thought about this for three days and nights before finally saying these words.
"Really? What misunderstanding?" Andy continued to look at Anna calmly, without shock or anger.
"It wasn't that Park Chan-yeol intended to replace you; rather, Mr. Lee Soo Man had already planned a better path for you," Anna explained. She had considered that Andy might vehemently deny this or be extremely shocked. She hoped to resolve this matter, regardless of whether it was related to Park Chan-yeol or S.M. Company.
This was an obsession; a mistaken obsession over time could become an incurable affliction.
However, what Anna never expected was that none of the scenarios she had imagined in her mind would occur. Instead, Andy wore a relaxed smile.
"I know. Two months after leaving there, I had already figured everything out," Andy said.
"What?!" Anna never expected that Andy's resentment towards Park Chan-yeol and S.M was rooted in this misunderstanding. "Then you should understand that what happened was not Park Chan-yeol's or Mr. Lee Soo Man's fault. Why have you held onto this anger for so many years?"
Andy smiled lightly, as if recalling something, and slowly spoke. "The day after my kidney was removed, I knew the truth. But what could I do? I was already beyond redemption. Even if it was a misunderstanding, it was Park Chan-yeol and Lee Soo Man who pushed things to that point."
"Andy..."
The little hope that Anna had managed to ignite was once again completely extinguished by Andy.
This knot could not be untied; it was Andy who had trapped himself within it, becoming more entangled.
Since it couldn't be resolved, then cut it off... there was no other way.
"Why are you still concerned about Park Chan-yeol?" Andy asked.
As expected, the question that needed to be addressed arose; this was the risk Anna had to bear by speaking up.
"I'm just curious about what happened back then; I have no other thoughts," Anna replied. "Moreover, I'm concerned about this matter because it involves you." Anna looked steadily into Andy's eyes.
In their gaze, one held suspicion while the other maintained unwavering determination. Anna could not show even a hint of hesitation; otherwise, all her efforts during this time would be in vain.
Finally, a smile reappeared on Andy's face as he said, "That's good."
Anna secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She had no time or means to hesitate any longer.
The weather had been overcast for the past two days, with no sunlight in sight. The air turned cold faster than she had imagined, especially when it rained. Although autumn was approaching and thunderstorms were not expected, that night the sky flickered ominously, accompanied by fierce winds and heavy rain.
Anna added sleeping pills to the coffee that Andy often drank.
The entire house was silent, like a terrifying ancient castle.
Anna, dressed in a long nightgown and barefoot, was already quiet, and with the thunderstorm covering her, she moved like a ghost through the dark night.
Originally tense, Anna now felt particularly calm; after all, she had no way out and no other choice. She covered herself in Fir Balsam Resin and followed Jung Kook's method to try to take fingerprints. That night, what she had to face was not just the two bloodthirsty creatures upstairs.
Anna silently prayed in her heart that if fate still had some favor for her, let everything tonight dissipate with the storm.
The door... opened!
Two Monitor Lizards flicked their tongues, and the hissing sound made her hair stand on end. They must have sensed the Fir Balsam Resin on Anna that frightened them; their cold pupils began to show signs of avoidance as they slowly moved away from her into a corner, swaying their long tails.
Anna was already drenched in cold sweat; she finally understood how terrifying it was to gaze into the eyes of a beast... Her whole body felt stiff as if she had used all her strength just to muster the courage to step onto the wooden stairs one step at a time...
The wooden stairs creaked underfoot as Anna approached the bizarre truth that had been unfolding for some time. Another clap of thunder sounded, and faintly, a huge transparent box that looked like it was made of glass slowly appeared before her eyes.
Inside, there was clearly a familiar figure, clearly a terrifying and ferocious face.
The rumbling lightning struck down again, and that face smiled slightly at her.
Anna had forgotten to breathe; her eyes widened as her heart seemed to stop suddenly, causing her to fall directly to the ground...
"You've come, Anna..."
"Jin... Miki..."
Anna almost screamed but quickly covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face, releasing the fear inside her. She gasped for breath, and aside from maintaining her breathing, her mind was blank, her body devoid of strength.
Because inside that glass box was Kim Mi-kyung. Although it was her, she had lost all her hair, and her exposed skin was covered in pink scars—on her neck, left cheek, arms, legs, hands, and feet. The regenerated skin made her look deformed, as if wrapped in a layer of disgusting pink goo.
Anna had thought about Kim Mi-kyung not being dead, but she never imagined that the sounds from upstairs were made by her.
Anna had also considered that she might be injured in that fire, but seeing these shocking wounds with her own eyes would truly become a lifelong nightmare.
"Don't be afraid... I'm not dead," Kim Mi-kyung's voice was hoarse; the smoke had damaged her throat. "I didn't expect you to still recognize me in this state."
The atmosphere was truly bizarre because at that moment, Kim Mi-kyung seemed to have retreated from her previous hostility. Her eyes looked into Anna's without malice or resolution. It was that gaze and her gentle yet hoarse voice that gradually calmed Anna's heart.
"Miki... what happened?" Anna's voice still trembled slightly.
Miki raised her hand to look at the scars and slowly stepped back as if she could see a blurry reflection of herself in the glass.
"That fire... Andy saved me. I never thought I would survive. In fact, what's the difference between being like this and being dead..."
"Miki..." Anna didn't know what to say to express the guilt that felt like it would take her life. No matter what she said at this moment seemed pretentious and artificial. The harm had already been done; Kim Mi-kyung's life could not be compensated by a mere apology.
"Don't feel guilty... I set the fire myself," Miki said calmly. "I knew you would come."
Only then did Anna realize, "Those sounds were intentionally made by you?"
Miki nodded in acknowledgment. "I didn't think I would survive..." She looked around at the large sealed glass box and said, "After waking up in the hospital, I was secretly kept by Andy in this sterile box."
"Kept?" Anna was astonished.
"I have been a dream of hers for so many years. How could he be willing to let me disappear just like that?"
"The lover that Andy mentioned... is you...?"
Miki's smile appeared particularly terrifying because of her face.
Miki slowly unfastened her thin silk nightgown, revealing that her skin was indeed far from perfect. Anna did not believe that Miki was doing this to provide her with greater visual stimulation.
Miki touched the left side of her abdomen and softly said, "There used to be a scar here, but now it is covered by burn marks... Inside here, this kidney was given to me by Andy."
Anna felt a tingling sensation on her scalp. How many more things were there that she did not know? It was truly a deepening layer, increasingly devoid of an end, as if it were an abyss.
"About four years ago, my father had an accident on Jeju Island, and Andy happened to save him. Later, when my father was receiving blood transfusions during Andy's rescue, he discovered that their blood types matched. So, further matching tests were conducted, and they were still compatible. My father made a request to Andy for one of his kidneys, promising to repay him for saving his life. Andy agreed, with the condition that he would work closely with my father. My father appreciated and trusted him. Andy was quite capable and helped my father resolve many issues, both legal and illegal."
"I only found out a few days ago that his kidney was given to someone else; I didn't expect it to be you. Now I finally understand why he could become a core figure in Century Group so quickly."
Miki said helplessly, "No matter how capable he is, my father wouldn't be foolish enough to hastily hand over Century Group to someone so young, especially since he is ultimately an outsider."
"Then who...?"
"Andy must have used some means to take control of Century Group. All I know is that the old shareholders who had built this large enterprise alongside my father for so many years have inexplicably left Century Group. Moreover, my father doesn't even know where he is right now," Miki said.
"The news said Chairman Jin Yu Cheng is seriously ill?"
"If it's a serious illness, after all, he is the former chairman of Century Group. Why haven't there been any follow-up reports? What happened with his treatment...? Perhaps there are reports somewhere, but here, I can no longer know anything."
"Where could he be...?" Anna dared not think too deeply. She slowly stood up and walked to the glass window.
"Who knows, as long as we're alive, that's good enough," Kim Mi-kyung said.
"Are you saying Andy will?"
"I don't know, but it would be best if he could find it..." Miki's eyes were a bit moist. "Now, Andy has directed all his anger about my situation and the suffering he's endured over the years onto Park Chan-yeol."
"Miki, was the EXO drug scandal and the crazy acquisition of S.M. stocks your doing?" Anna asked.
Kim Mi-kyung smiled and said, "Andy told me that you and Park Chan-yeol have broken up... but I know you will find a way to come here sooner or later because you can't let him go."
Anna bitterly raised the corners of her mouth.
"The acquisition of S.M. stocks wasn't my doing; it was Andy acting in my name. As for the EXO incident, as long as you can find some leverage against Andy to use as a bargaining chip, he will naturally find a way to resolve that matter."
Anna was momentarily speechless.
Miki smiled and said, "Andy must have told you that I did all these things... which isn't surprising because even now, in his mind, everything he has done is for me and according to my wishes."
"Miki, how should I go about finding his leverage?" Anna had no idea.
"The top leader of Century Group always has an extremely confidential procedure. The last time I saw my father in the hospital, he might have realized what could happen afterward and secretly told me the password to access this procedure."
"The password can be changed, right?"
"It can't be changed; this password is something even Andy doesn't know. If you manage to access this procedure, my father must have left something inside. The password is Y7B900S."
"Where should I look for it?"
“Century Group, Andy's current office.”
“Okay.” Anna looked at Miki, hesitating to speak.
“Don't feel guilty, and don't think about rescuing me.” Miki said, “Right now, I can only stay in this box because my skin can no longer resist bacteria. And you can't let Andy know you were here, can you? Brother Canlie must really hate me now.”
“No.” Anna replied.
A glimmer of light clearly flashed in Miki's eyes.
“He doesn't hate you, and he knows you're not dead. He's happy. And he said that even if you really did all these things, it wouldn't matter to him because he truly feels guilty towards you.” Anna said.
Miki looked at Anna's serious expression for a moment, then lowered her head, as if she was both smiling and shedding tears, turning away. “That's good. Thank you, Anna.” After saying that, she lay down on the white bed. “You should go quickly.”
“Okay, and Miki, wait a little longer. I will definitely rescue you.” Anna said. Just as she turned to leave, she heard Miki call out: “Anna.”
Anna stopped in her tracks.
“Don't let Brother Canlie know what I look like right now. I'm begging you.”
Anna didn't turn back; tears instantly fell down her cheeks as she bit her lip, trying to suppress her trembling body.
“Okay, I promise you.”
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