Albert and Karin were sitting on the ground, knees up, as heavy rain pounded down on their bodies. One of the five muscular thugs intruded with a maroon umbrella. There was a mischievous grin on the man with the umbrella's face as he watched Karin's father's body fall.
"Karin, no one can beat me. Your father should already know this, " He half-yelled to try to drown out the sound of the rain. "Your father wouldn't have died for nothing if he had agreed to give you to me in the first place."
Karin cried loudly on and on as she saw her father's body slowly lose blood.
The wooing is over; "I own you now." The umbrella-carrying man signaled the other four individuals to advance beside Karin.
Karin's screams drew the attention of a large black dog, which ran up to them. The dog growled, revealing a full set of fangs and dripping with saliva. He cautiously made his way toward the group of thugs, his eyes jet black. The criminals took a watchful stance, with some brandishing weapons in the hope of frightening the dog. Nothing, though. Without stopping, the dog kept on walking.
Karin didn't care about the scary dog; all she wanted to do was hug her dead father's body. The four bad guys, meanwhile, shouted at the dog to leave, but it instead approached them and grew more aggressive. The umbrella-carrying man had been hoping desperately to bring Karin with him, so he kept a close eye on the black dog until he discovered a collar around its neck. The letter K was engraved on the pendant. When he saw it, the umbrella man's face suddenly became white with terror, and he threw away his umbrella and fled with his men.
The dog went up to Karin as she cried over her father's body, long after the five bad guys had left. Karin looked in the dog's direction and noticed the dog's dark, piercing eyes.
* * *
"Mom, what is this?"
Elsa took a photo of Karin's new tattoo on her neck this afternoon, and Karin showed it to her mother. After dozing off for a while on her bed, Laksita got out of bed. She looked closely at the picture and then asked Karin to part her hair.
Laksita's curiosity grew as she ran her finger over the tattoo. Since Albert has departed, she has been cold and expressionless. She barely speaks to or even acknowledges her own daughter, Karin. When Laksita finally got to spend some quality time with Karin, she recalled what Albert and Katon had said to her on Karin's first day of existence.
"These are your initials. They were first carved by Mom and Dad," A sour grin spread across Laksita's face. No. She was well aware that those were not Karin's initials but rather Katon's. This proved that Karin was under Katon's protection and discouraged any other demons from pursuing her.
"Why is it only showing up now?" Karin wondered.
This time, Laksita didn't say a word. Karin had good intuition, no matter how long she and Albert attempted to keep the secret. Maybe her kid could tell there was something off about her parents.
"Rin, you just found out,"
"No, Elsa said that too,"
"You'd better get changed and go to sleep," Laksita stopped talking and gently told Karin to leave her room.
* * *
"I'm still sleepy Rin!" Elsa was making a fuss on the other end of the phone.
"Please accompany me, El. Do you know how scared I was of that place? Still, I have to meet the dog."
"Why? What's the point of meeting a dog?"
"I'll tell you everything if you want to come with me."
Elsa finally gave in and said, "Okay, okay." "But you have to work today, don't you?"
"No," Karin quickly replied. "I knew something was wrong and that my mom was lying. What was going on? I had to find out."
"I'll pick you up in 5 minutes," Karin put down the phone and quickly got dressed and cleaned up.
Karin chooses to work full time at Ann Cafe, where she works part time, on Saturdays and Sundays. But especially today, she asked the manager of the cafe if she could not come to work because she wanted to look around the area as soon as she woke up. Karin quickly walked to Elsa's apartment, which wasn't far from where she lived.
"Go ahead, I'm all set," Elsa moaned, her eyes still half closed. Despite the fact that it is just 6 o'clock on a Saturday morning, Karin is eager to ruin Elsa's day off.
Together, Karin and Elsa walked to the spot where Bondan, an awful man Karin's father knew, had killed him. He's a loan shark who has his eye on Karin and plans to make her his third wife. Karin's dad, Albert, was strongly against it, and he paid with his life. Since no one was willing to be a witness to aid Karin's family, Bondan was able to evade the authorities.
Elsa asked anxiously, "Aren't you afraid of meeting Bondan's thugs?"
"They won't bother me again," Karin said with a firm shake of her head.
"Why?"
"We'll know the answer when we find the dog."
Elsa asked annoyed, "Whose dog is he, really? Is he like a guardian angel or something?"
Since Karin didn't know the answer either, she simply shrugged. Once they arrived, Karin's eyes searched the area for the dog. Elsa, meanwhile, stood beside Karin, biting her lip because she found Karin's attitude unusual this morning.
"Don't you find it?" Elsa couldn't wait and asked.
Karin pointed to a closed shop and said, "Yesterday, the dog came from this way." For Rent was written on the front of the shop, which meant that it was empty. Karin walked up to the shop and looked at the front, hoping to find a clue.
"The guy in the shop might be the dog's owner." Karin muttered.
"People usually give phone numbers, but this isn't it." Elsa pointed to a piece of paper stuck in the middle of the shop's harmonica door that said For Rent.
Someone yelled, "Karin Nevada..." from behind Karin. Karin and Elsa abruptly turned around and saw Bondan and his two guys approaching. Bondan beamed as he saw Karin again.
"You miss me huh? You came here because of that," Bondan joked with confidence.
Karin spit out her saliva quickly. He hated Bondan so much that she wanted to tear him apart. Bondan didn't get mad when he saw how Karin reacted. Instead, he smiled even more.
"You're acting now because you think Master will marry you," Bondan said, and for a few seconds, he surprised Karin and Elsa.
"MARRY?!" Elsa exclaimed, unable to contain her surprise.
Bondan's smile turned into a snort of irritation. He moved forward a little and lowered the volume of his voice.
"I'm sorry, Karin. Please don't kill me! Don't tell Master about this!" Bondan suddenly got down on his knees in front of Karin, folded his arms, and begged for forgiveness. Karin had no idea what was going on and instinctively pushed Bondan's hand off of her leg.
"What are you saying?" Karin told Bondan to get away from her by snapping at him.
Bondan, who was scared at first, went quiet when he saw Karin's reaction. He could already tell that Karin had no idea that Katon was going to marry her.
"He didn't tell you, did he?"
"Tell me what?" Karin asked in a bad mood.
"About Mr...." Bondan stopped talking and turned his head left and right to make sure it was safe. He suddenly smiled and said, "He'll be here soon."