Guilt

After Devin left, Ryu was staring up at the stairs wondering if she would ever come down. He didn't want to intimidate her anymore. Her condition didn't look good enough. 

Dana and Milly had just walked in and saw him in a state of doubt. Dana saw the wound over his shoulder and looked confused but was too shy to ask. She didn't usually approach  him due to his cold attitude that drove women away but Dana always had her eyes on him. He was like a dream prince, the knight in shining armor that Dana always fantasized about. Everything about him from his height to his voice, it was compelling. It was just that she couldn't get closer… It seemed like Ryu had built an invisible wall around him ever since she started seeing him. 

"Mrs Ruo." Ryu called out. Dana pretended to set the plates on the table trying to overhear their conversation. 

"Ask Darah to come down and eat with us." 

Dana scowled, her grip on the glass tight as she poured water in it. What was this newfound care!? He had never shown this care to her when she was bedridden from fever for a whole entire week. What was so special about that girl anyway? 

But then she smirked, realising how things would unfold. She saw how Mrs. Ruo rushed downstairs and bowed slightly as she said something.

"Master, she says she isn't hungry." 

Ryu was taken aback by the words. He knew very well than anyone else that Darah hadn't ate a tiny bit since the previous night. She must be starving by now. 

"I don't know if she's not coming down for certain reasons. But when I leave the house, you must make sure she's had her food in time. Do you understand me?" Ryu ordered with a stern look. It seemed he had somewhere to be. Darah was in her room, resting on the floor near the half opened door as she heard every single word he said. The echo was very much audible and her eyes were drowned in sadness… She couldn't get the memory of injuring him out of her mind. 

"Are you going somewhere?" The old lady asked in concern.

"Yes but it won't take long." He proceeded upstairs to his room but the old lady's eyes were fraught with concern.

"But young master! Your wound hasn't healed yet!" 

"This is nothing close to a wound for me!" Ryu raised his palm and waved slightly but Mrs Ruo remembered darn well how he was trying his best to hold in a whimper when she applied the medicine.  She shook her head and sighed. He wasn't being himself these days. It looked like the stern, alert and cold young man hiding inside him was slowly fading away. As if he was slowly becoming vulnerable and was distracted by something. Mrs Ruo knew very well it wasn't a good sign. 

He came down a few minutes later in his formal attire consisting of a grey blazer, stepping down the stairs like a crown prince. Without any hesitation and pretending his wound wasn't there, he grabbed his car key and threw it to a guard. The man caught it and followed behind Ryu silently. As the car started, he felt the pain over his wound and was reminded of something from a distant past he wished to forget. It all started with a loud scream, just like Darah's. It pierced into his heart that day about ten years ago.

'Lyra! My child!! Run!! Don't look back!" 

The lady was screaming, keeping her hand pressed against the wound which was bleeding endlessly. Being a mafia lord's wife, she expected this fate one day. It was a fate she couldn't escape. Even though a tough lady herself, she fought but still lost to one of the enemy's men. She was cursing her husband for having no one to save her little girl. Both her guards were numb in the rain, lying dead as the murderer approached her innocent child with a knife and an upsetting grin. 

"Run Lyra!!!" She screamed again in fear seeing her child frozen in the rain, shocked at her mother's bleeding self. 

Lyra stood at the same spot, the killer approaching her feeling the distance between them slowly fading. Her eyes were so full of fear that she couldn't even utter a word in the heavy rain. The sound of the man's laughter was muted by the raging downpour. She almost gave up, that was until she saw a familiar face behind the tall man. He had a knife in his hand and his gaze was sharp. She closed her eyes...

"Ah!!!" The man shouted in pain feeling a painful stab at his back. He fell on his knees, unable to breathe and only had a split second to look behind until something broke into his skull… What seemed like one blow, turned to two and then three and it went on till the man fell silent and lifeless. Above it was the boy shouting "Die! Die!" numerous times till his hands tired off. Lyra stared at him with fear in her eyes, at the boy whom she thought could never do such a thing. But then she saw something that made the hair all over her body stand up.

He was smiling… Ryu Sheng was smiling.