Chapter 120
Seoul, Korea
NuStarr Talent Management Headquarters
Lula patiently waited; she knew this was coming.
Everything she assured Chairman Hu would not happen, has.
The only thing that hasn’t happened is physical harm to the client from an outside source.
But if Chairman Hu saw what Rain’s hips and back looked at the moment after attempting to spar with her bodyguards, they would be fired.
Training with Kita and Lucien was proving to be much more dangerous for them than Rain; she was truly uncoordinated in a dangerous way.
“You do not like Dae-Ho’s idea or suggestion any more than I do,” Chairman Hu said at length, looking to Lula. “Of my niece and your brother having an in front of the camera relationship outside of the working relationship they are supposed to have.”
“I do not,” Lula agreed. “It is extremely unprofessional and will cause much unwanted scrutiny from more than just the media and fans. It is dangerous.”
“Why did you allow them to set it up that way?” he asked.
Lula shook her head. “I did not, and it went beyond my control. Gang Moon was a problem. We can all agree on that. And he would have continued to stalk the client until he either inserted himself back into her life in a way she could not get rid of him, or her unidentified stalker would have taken care of it. Either way, it would not end well for Seon Rain. Your niece harbors guilt and it would destroy her if Gang Moon, or anyone, was hurt because of her… Why did you allow him into her life? You know what he’s about and that it wasn’t consensual,” she asked, curious.
Chairman Hu closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair before looking at the ceiling. “Death has come for Seon Rain more than once. Over and over she has unknowingly fought Death and won. I hoped that Gang Moon’s infatuation with her would have put someone there that could help her battle Death when I couldn’t-”
“You gave that vile man more credit than he was due,” she interrupted.
“I did,” he agreed, to her surprise.
“Have you purposely kept your niece from growing and maturing, where she can be stronger than she was before we entered her life?” Lula asked, curious.
That, she had wondered about, and Will had said some things that made her question it even more, as did Dae-Ho.
The growth, the new sense of independence, and the backbone Seon Rain suddenly has, seemingly happened over night. But that type of growth so rapidly isn’t possible without some type of outside influence of a traumatic nature.
To Lula’s knowledge, Seon Rain hadn’t been traumatized since being in their care.
“Your son made many good points in regards to your niece’s growth in such a very short time,” Lula pressed. “And it leaves me concerned.”
“What I’m about to tell you cannot be repeated, to anyone, including Rain or Dae-Ho,” Chairman Hu warned. “You are correct, in a sense, when it pertains to me trying to keep Rain in a controlled environment, a sheltered box. I wanted her world safe and small, but it kept getting larger and larger, and soon I couldn’t contain her in it anymore. But I’m scared, so, so scared that the past, that what I’ve tried so damn hard to protect her from, will come back and take her from me.”
Lula gave him a look. “What past? What are you scared of?” she asked.
Nothing Lula had found in the background dossier she complied suggested Seon Rain had a criminal background or a concerning past. She only found heartache, but nothing that was of her making or control.
Chairman Hu looked at her. “Seon Rain is her mother’s child, and I have prayed every day that she would never be like her mother.”
“Your sister?”
Chairman Hu nodded. “She was a very troubled young woman when she died,” he explained. “It was as if overnight, once Rain was born, my sister became a stranger and started acting in a way that caused great concern. Rain believes that it was a car wreck that killed her parents. And it was to an extent. But it wasn’t an accident. Her mother was unstable, and because of that Rain’s parents fought often. It was not a happy home, and I did everything I could to get that little girl out of it, as did her father. Rain spent more time at my home with her cousin than she did her own.”
Lula waited for him to continue.
The tear that rolled down Chairman Hu’s cheek warned that the truth wasn’t something he had spoken of in years, or ever for that matter.
“Seon Soo, my sister, was not in a right frame of mind when she picked her daughter up in the middle of the night from my home. Ji, her father, chased her down and jumped in the car after Soo tried to run him over. They were fighting about it, and she threatened to kill them all… I only know this because Rain spoke of it in her sleep for the first years after their deaths. Her father was a loving a man, but his temper got shorter over the years from having to deal with his angry, out of control, wife that was seemingly targeting their daughter.”
The police report hadn’t mentioned what lead up to the accident, just that there was one. Lula didn’t dig deeper because it wasn’t of concern…
Apparently that was premature thinking.
“Ji had turned around to help his sleepy daughter get buckled in,” he whispered, wiping away another tear. “That was when Soo slammed into a tree at a high rate of speed. Rain was buckled in seconds before the impact otherwise she would have gone through the windshield just as her parents did.”
Lula’s eyes widened; nowhere did the reports suggest it was a murder-suicide.
“I fear that Rain will follow in her mother’s footsteps,” Chairman Hu whispered. “Rain is now the same age her mother was when she started to lose her faculties. I cannot handle that again, my heart can’t. That’s why I have tried to keep Rain’s world small and contained, something safe where she was protected and monitored. My sister was a good person and then she wasn’t. When I lost her, I blamed myself because I told her no marriage was perfect and that it just needed work.”
Now things were making sense.
“You didn’t realize that Soo was the problem in the marriage and your attempt at offering support caused her husband and daughter to be kept in a bad environment, ultimately resulting in two of their deaths,” Lula surmised.
He nodded. “I swore I would do better for her daughter, to be more for her, and to keep her safe. Being left to her own devices meant the risk of her being like her mother, changing as drastically as my sister had in such a short amount of time, would increase and I would lose her as well.”
“The journal?” Lula asked, curious.
Chairman Hu cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know about that?”
“It was a personal affect that was removed from your residence. The entries from her mother are nothing like the woman you state nearly claimed her daughter’s life. Is that because they were not written by her mother, and instead were written by someone that loves her very much and wanted to give her a sense motherly normality?”
He nodded once. “Very astute.”
“It was a noble endeavor,” Lula commented. “The medications she hasn’t taken, to my knowledge, since being in our care. Was that in an attempt to keep her in an almost sedated like state?” she asked, appallingly.
“It was to keep her from getting overwhelmed and turning into her mother,” he admitted in a whisper, wiping away another tear.
Lula shook her head. “Seon Rain is not a little girl any longer, Chairman Hu, and she does not need protected like she once did. I have seen her after drinking her weight in sake and not once did a mean word leave her lips nor did she hurt anyone or herself. She was smiling, giggling, and simply wanted to dance. She does not drink outside of kidnapping my brother and forcing him to watch marital arts films, drink sake and eat sushi,” she quickly added when his eyes widened.
He chuckled, wiping away another tear. “The anniversary of her parents’ death rapidly approaches… Please keep her safe. I can’t lose her like I did her mother.”
Lula offered a small bow. “Of course. It is what you are paying us for,” she reminded him with a smile.
Chairman Hu prayed that it was enough to protect his niece where he had failed his baby sister.
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