The Image

Han Meixiu inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled as she tried to calm herself. If her cousin wasn't seriously asking her, she might have thought she was being pranked.

She took the paper and the pencil from her. Based from Han Mingxia's drawing she really couldn't get anything from it.

"Try to describe the image you're talking about. I'll draw." She casually said.

At first she just said a letter B and a dot. But through probing several times, she was able to improve the image into something more noticeable. It took them more than an hour before the image shaped into a real logo.

"Yes! It's like this! You're so good!" Han Mingxia exclaimed.

Han Meixiu glared at her cousin. "Your drawing seriously sucks!"

"Hey, yours just a little better. Don't be cocky."

"What the.. you said a little better? Hah!" She normally wanted to argue more but she wanted to know the importance of the image. "So what about this image? Where did you see it? What's the connection between this and the Han Family? Or with my father?"

"Wang Jinyi died five days ago." Han Mingxia answered as she solemnly looked at the image.

"Wang Jinyi?"

"You know her, right? The woman who exactly looked like your mom." She continued. "She was killed. Someone found out where your father was hiding her. We were late. She was still warm when we arrived. And that image was the last she drew using her blood." She said those words as if each weighed more than a ton. She could still remember how gruesome the scene was. Until now it could still evoke a nauseating feeling to her.

"But, she was in coma.."

"Maybe she woke up or was forcefully woken up. Or maybe she was just pretending all along. We really didn't know. But when your father saw this, he froze and turned white. He was clearly shocked." She wanted to add, 'I was shocked, too.' But before she could say those words, Han Meixiu spoke.

"Why are you with my father?" There was a little envy on her voice.

"We belong in the same group. All of us were looking for answers."

"You're looking for answers? About what? You're supposed to be happily married with what's his name again, Daniel? David?"

Han Mingxia let out a dry laugh seemingly mocking herself. She lied down again on the floor as she removed her necklace. She held the chain and let the two rings that served as the pendant dangled down.

"Our wedding rings." She said as she complicatedly stared at the two white gold rings that differed in size.

Han Meixiu wanted to ask why she used them as pendant and wasn't wearing them but seeing her melancholic expression she waited for her to continue talking.

"He was just..." It was hard for her to continue. She took several deep breaths before she calmed her surging emotions.

"Huh?"

"Yes, we got married. We went to his country. After a few days we divorced." She flatly said. Her voice was devoid of emotions as she's painstakingly trying to hush her restlessness.

"What? Didn't you love each other?"

"Love? Do you even know the meaning of that word?"

"Well, you always said that you guys were in love so it was inevitable for you to get married."

Han Mingxia didn't answer. It's true. When she attended Han Meixiu's graduation, she said those words. She said those when she was still a naive little girl.

"Why did you guys divorce?"

"It was his mission to make me fall for him and eventually marry him." She wanted to sound as detached as possible but her voice was slowly betraying her. It started to tremble. Every word she said cut deeply inside her heart adding fresh wound from the existing ones.

She could clearly remember how heartless Daniel told her that his mission's over and left the divorce paper on the table in their newly acquired house. Out of anger she signed it right away and submitted to the registry that same day.

But if she could go back to that same time and day, she wouldn't sign it. She wouldn't mind even if she would beg him to stay with her after his mission.

"He could have disappeared after telling me that I was just one of his mission. He could have let me hate him until eternity and cursed him all my remaining life. He could have..." She closed her eyes. Her hand that was holding the necklace started to shake as her grip became tighter that turned her knuckles white. Her body started to remember how painful those days were.

"But he appeared again, when I was in the midst of hating him. When I was tormenting myself for being a fool. He was just always there but I wasn't aware. While I was busy wasting my life away to ease the pain, he was protecting me." Her tear started to become like an endless falls screaming of painful sadness. "Until the end." The last words were spoken just like a soft breath of a person fading away.

"He...died?"

"In my arms as he continuously said he's sorry." In the end she wasn't sure if he really loved her or he was just guilty that's why he's been following her.

She wanted to erase that fateful night that turned into her worst nightmare.

"He didn't have a family or even friends. I was alone during the entire wake. Nobody knows him. It was as if he didn't exist. For someone like me, a foreigner, I couldn't really get much information about him. I was only given the basic details. I found the place where he stayed after he left me. I saw that image. But I didn't really take note of it that time. I checked his passport, aside from our country, he frequently visited K Country. I thought I could find his family here but I found something else. I found a support group as I was searching blindly on my own. Someone took pity on me when I was bordering insanity because of hopelessness. That was your father."

"Meixiu, Uncle might be in danger. That's why I want to ask you, have you seen this image? Or similar to this? Your father knows it, maybe because it's somewhat related to Han Family? If we know what's this, I might be able to find some answers."

Han Meixiu didn't answer at first as she stared blankly at the image drawn on the paper.

"I saw this but not in the Han Family's house." She finally said. She didn't expect she would see this image again.