They were hunters, but he was. He was assigned to her man in China and he was there to protect them now. Her man. Heechul. The hunters. There were three or four of them. Li Hua remembered most of them died but now that her memories came back, surging, she remembered that there was that one that got away. The one in a hoodie, of whose profile she was only able to briefly see before she too passed out. The profile she had engraved into her memory yet was never able to fully recall. To put a face to a profile to-
Could it have been him? No, that made no sense. She did not think it logical that that hunter would go as far as fetching her all the way in Seoul. That was impossible.
Suddenly, the whole world started to spin. She could hear his words, she could hear her boyfriend’s name leaving his mouth, she could hear Chun Hua squealing to get out of her arms, asking for baba, she could hear people talking somewhere and a car passing by. Her head felt light, so light. Her heart pounded in her head. She felt like the only thing that could ease the headache that started to throb in her temples would be to unscrew her head completely off her shoulders and find another one.
She felt weak. Oh, so weak. Dear mother in nature, help her.
By instinct, she stepped away from the man who identified himself as a hunter. She was not even aware of the motion her body did but legs took control over her body and distanced her from the man it viewed as a threat. “Don’t,” she inhaled a deep breath. It felt like she had been holding her breath for a long time. As if her brain was deprived of oxygen for an unknown amount of time, it did not welcome the sudden surge of air entirely so she felt dizzy again. Her body fell a bit back and she ended up pressing against the wall. ‘’come anywhere near me. Chun Hua!” she raised her voice at the child who kept moving around and hearing her mother’s yelling made Chun Hua burst into tears.
She screamed. Li Hua felt like screaming with her. She could not take this. Everyone needed to be quiet. The hunter needed to-
“die. I wish you all would just die. What have I ever done to your kind?” her words came venomously, eyes fixed on the man she was now terrified of. It felt like history was repeating itself. She remember how her mother did her best to protect her remaining children while the bounty hunters were after their heads. She remembered the terror of her mother watching her children being slaughtered. Tears welled up in her eyes while horror washed over her. She needed to protect Chun.
“You didn’t know Heechul. Don’t pretend like you were gym buddies, you son of a-” deep inhale. Exhale. “Who do you think you’re protecting? You should protect yourself. If she wasn’t in my arms, I’d gladly bite that head off your damn shoulders. How dare-” suddenly, she felt breathless. Her throat dried, squeezing in anguish, an ache raising in her chest, Li Hua was left speechless. Wordless.
Pained. Once again pained but this time bewildered. And angry. “If you come near my daughter again, I’ll eat you whole. I’ve eaten the likes of you many times in my life. And it will be painful.” But, that was as much as she could say because her headache became stronger and only then did she remember that one of the hunters had managed to shoot an arrow of something in her. Was it…a sedative? A weird kind of poison? She had no idea. What she did know was that her vision was slowly going blurry.
