Chapter 10:Protected by power
423 Words
The Rin family penthouse was quiet, soft jazz humming in the background.
Eun Rin sat at the dinner table, eating neatly, almost robotically.
Her father—Rin Taehwan, CEO of Rin Tech—set his tablet down.
“Rin…” he said gently, “can we talk?”
She didn’t look up.
“About what?”
Taehwan sighed, rubbing his hands together nervously.
“When I was your age… I was bullied.”
He looked out the window.
“They cornered me every day.
Once… I pushed someone down the stairs.”
Eun Rin finally paused her chewing.
Taehwan continued softly:
“I know everything, Rin.
From the kindergarten girl you hurt…
To the pool incident…
To today.”
Silence.
Eun Rin sat perfectly still.
“You wouldn’t have done those things,” he said quietly,
“if you had a stable adult back then.
Someone who didn’t leave.
Someone who cared.”
A flicker.
A tiny, almost invisible spark in her eyes.
For one moment—
she almost smiled.
Not because she felt loved.
But because she saw something new:
Weakness.
Softness.
Opportunity.
She walked around the table and wrapped her arms around him.
Her voice trembling perfectly—
but artificially.
“Then… stay with me, Father.”
Taehwan froze, overwhelmed.
“I will,” he whispered.
“I’ll try better. I promise.”
She smiled into his shirt—
a smile warm enough to fool God.
But when she sat down to finish her food, her face went blank again.
Her thoughts cold and clean:
“You will always protect me.
Father would not.”
---
Flashback
At Aurelius Crown Hospital, machines beeped steadily.
Yena’s mother slept in a chair beside her, exhausted.
Then—
Yena’s fingers twitched.
Her eyelids fluttered.
A nurse gasped.
“She’s waking!”
Yena slowly opened her eyes.
Her breathing quickened as blurry memories returned—
The race.
The pool.
The cold hand.
The water swallowing her.
She choked out one trembling word.
Not a name she should’ve remembered.
Not the safe, innocent identity.
But the old one.
The buried one.
The forbidden one.
“…Mi Rae…?”
The nurse frowned.
“Who? Honey, who is Mi Rae?”
Yena’s eyes widened in terror.
“Mi Rae… pushed me…”
.............
⭐ NARRATOR QUOTE (Eun Rin)
“I never had a father’s love.
So I learned to cheat my way into it.
I don’t care—
I’ve already done worse.”
Love is a currency.
I just learned how to counterfeit it.”
... Dorkylunastories 💜....
- Writer
