For four years since Father and Chang had left Seoul and moved to Italy, I have been in charge of running the affairs in the estate, but it had never crossed into my mind that Tae Ho has the gut to do something as wicked and selfish as this.
I thought Tae Ho was too softhearted and emotional, but I have been wrong about him. Tae Ho has been sacrificing our girls and carrying out a drug experiment on them right under my nose. I wouldn't have cared if the drug experiment was being carried out on gang members and criminals. But one thing that goes against my personal principle is killing innocent women or hurting children.
If I had known that this is exactly what the T33 drug will be used for, I wouldn't have listened to Father's order and allowed the production to take place at Royce Pharmaceuticals.
This is just weak and pathetic!
I'm sure that Father himself wouldn't have allowed it either if he knew that Tae Ho was going to be testing the drug on innocent young girls.
All the blood of those girls are now on my hand. I'm equally responsible for their deaths for failing to protect them from Tae Ho and Peter. I should have investigated all the previous deaths of those girls and notice this happening sooner.
"Why isn't she waking up?" I ask, moving closer as I take a look at the heart monitor that has been unsteady since the last four minutes. "You said she will wake up four to six minutes after the drug administration."
"Give her more time Jin. It hasn't been up to five minutes. Just take a seat and calm down." Tae Ho responds while Doctor Han takes a syringe and injected her IV bag.
"Her heart is still unsteady. She might die at this rate, she's not fit for such experiments." I sigh out of worry and exhaustion.
"It's just the side effect of the drug. I told you she's not going to die, just relax brother." Tae Ho says, watching me restlessly pacing around the laboratory.
"That girl, Ji Hye almost made it through the experiment," he continues, "but the girl was tough headed, she took some aspirin to reduce her abdominal cramp even when Doctor Han warned her not to, and she ended up killing herself. The two drugs combined together poisoned her system."
I don't bother to look at Tae Ho because I can't stand him anymore. I'm so disappointed in him. However, I'm surprised that I'm much more pissed and disappointed in Peter, my personal assistant, — for going behind my back to smuggle the drugs from my warehouse.
"If this girl dies, know that I will make sure you become the next victim." I throw a dirty look at Peter. He's still nodding his head and avoiding my gaze.
While Tae Ho and I were in Milan, Peter was the one who performed the experiment on the girl Ji Hye. She use to be his lover, but he used her as a test subject because he's such a heartless jerk. And now that she's dead, he's still smuggling the T33 drugs from the warehouse to continue with the experiment without seeking my permission. He has no sense of remorse or shame, I'm beginning to suspect those three of being a bunch of psychopaths.
"She will not die, Sir. We've come a long way to get to this stage. We've learned a lot from the previous test subjects, and none of the past mistakes shall be repeated." Doctor Han begins to explain. "I've been trying to come up with a solution to reduce the side effect of the drug so that we won't have to administer pain killers to the patients. There's success in my research."
Old bastard. I curse him under my breathe. He should use his daughter as a test subject if he's so sure that the drug will work out.
The girl they're currently testing the drug on is Ji Hye's roommate and closest friend. Her name is Julie, and she's just seventeen. I don't know if what I feel now is empathy towards her, or if I'm just worried because of the promise I made to that Hana, — that I'm going to save this girl no matter what.
That promise makes me feel so restless. I can't just sit and watch the girl slowly dying. This experiment has got to stop immediately.
I move to her bed and stand over her, hoping she will wake up and put an end to my restless feelings.
A few minutes pass and the girl suddenly begins to have another round of a violent seizure. Doctor Han looks a little bit shocked at the unexpected reaction, but he tries to hide it behind a calm and deceitful expression.
I watch the lines on the heart monitoring device going flat.
"She's dead." I mutter.
"Do something! Don't just stand there!" Tae Ho yells at Peter who hurriedly begins to pump the girl's heart, while Doctor Han went to get the defibrillator.
I stay in suspense as I watch all the struggles unfold. They desperately try everything to revive her heart but they still failed in the end.
Another innocent girl has just died under my watch.
A rush of anger rises in me and I don't realize when I grab Doctor Han and throw him across the table, his weight breaking all the bottles and experimental tubes. I went after Peter and grab his neck in my hold, but Tae Ho attacks me from behind and I kick him on the legs, not caring about hurting him.
I make sure to destroy the lab before I walk out of it. I take my car out and leave the estate with four of my personal bodyguards.
I'm going to the warehouse to destroy all the T33 drugs. If I don't do this, Tae Ho will never stop his breakthrough madness.
None of the girls will be safe as long as the drug is still in existence. So I have to take responsibility for being born into such a family of selfish bastards. Not that I'm any different from them but at least I have my principles.