SeoJoon was racked with worry.
Therefore, despite his better judgement to stay out of it, he resolutely decided to go and search for Taehyung. He damn well knew he'd regret it but went for it anyway!
His first stop was the penthouse. However, as much as he rang the bell and banged the door, there was no answer. His second stop was the office but still no sign of him. His last option was the club.
As he stood by the small, iron entrance at the back alley of the Black Swan, he took in a sharp breath and took out the phone from his pocket, calling one specific number.
The voice on the other end was bleeding and the words echoed in his head like stabbing knives. When the person finished talking between curses and sobs, it took the man every ounce of strength to respond.
" Don't worry. I got this. Nothing will happen. I'll send help. Hang in there." Then he hung up and lifted his head to the night sky, blinking his heavy eyes and reining in a mixture of anger and sorrow.
The situation was becoming more and more complicated and he was merely a spectator which was the worst.
Without further delay, he went through the back entrance from the alley, climbed down the staircase and straight in front of Taehyung's office. The sharp smell of spilled alcohol hit him immediately.
The door to the office burst open, heavy and loose on its hinges. Inside, the slightly dim room looked like a warzone. Shattered crystal spread on the marble, expensive, silver pens snapped in half, files and paper lying in the jumbled heap, stained with streaks of amber liquid and the leather chair laid on its side with a broken leg.
" Taehyung...? What the hell is going on?"
In the middle of the wreckage, Taehyung was fumbling for something, leaning over the chair, his broad shoulders heaving with curses and rage. His grey, Italian suit was wrinkled, covered in smudges and sweat, his dark hair a tangled mess.
Seo Joon quietly stepped over a pile of scattered documents and broken glasses. He didn't gasp. He didn't flinch. He didn't utter another word and he certainly didn't rush forward to play the thoughtful comforter.
His narrowed eyes scanned the room, taking in the profound, aggressive magnitude of Taehyung's breakdown while, completely unbothered and obviously snooty, flounced over to the side bar, grabbed an unbroken bottle of vodka,poured two fingers in each glass and walked towards his friend.
He didn't hand it to Taehyung.
He simply set the glass on the edge of the desk then pulled up a brown, leather armchair, taking a seat directly across the 'madman' he had as a friend.
Of course he didn't fail to notice the blood stains littered on the floor or his hand but still didn't talk.
Seo Joon crossed his right leg over his left, rested his jaw on his fist and waited. Thirteen minutes passed in total silence, Taehyung 's figure standing absolutely still, phone at hand, disturbed only by the crackle of the air-conditioner, the distant hum of music and Kim's choked gasping.
Eventually, Taehyung fell on the floor next to the chair, dragging both hands down his face, leaving a path of blood along his right cheek. His eyes darted, shooting through with crimson, his jaw tightened and covered in dark, messy stubble, his skin an unhealthy, corpse-like grey.
" They took him... he's gone SeoJoon." His voice sounded hoarser than usual." Someone.. kidnapped him... five days ago... gone... he's gone SeoJoon... my Jungkook..."
Seojoon's fingers squeezed the glass, his brow violently twitched but his expression kept a stoic mask as he kept scanning Taehyung's face, letting him bleed out the truth.
" You were right! I was blind." Taehyung wept, a sharp, hysterical laugh rippling through his raspy throat." Jungkook was innocent. He was telling the truth and I... I never believed him... I thought he was... lying... called him a cheater... a filthy who -" He clenched a fist over his heart, his chest pulping under the weight. " And now he's gone... my baby is gone..."
SeoJoon scrunched his lips, swallowing a couple of nasty curses and a loud growl. But still he didn't say a single word and his friend was too out of it to understand that the revelations didn't come as a surprise.
Taehyung clutched his chest, fingers brutally digging through his shirt into his flesh like he was trying to rip out his own heart just to make the pain go away.
" And the baby... the baby..." Taehyung hissed out, lips quivering, wiping the stream of tears spilling down his cheeks. " Oh God SeoJoon! My baby... "
Seojoon's hand froze over his knee, his sharp eyes widened in shock." What? What baby? Taehyung what the fuck are you blabbering about? Have you completely lost it?"
" Jungkook was pregnant." The words were gushed out, the sound raw and totally broken."He has a rare genetic condition... he was carrying my baby... my own flesh and blood the night I threw him out! He bled on the bathroom floor and lost our child in a hospital. Alone... I left him alone... I was too consumed by my own disgusting pride and... and I killed our baby! SeoJoon... I killed them both!"
The man hugged his knees, burying his face between them, his body fiercely trembling in terrifying spasms while sobbing for the family he had slaughtered before he even knew he had.
Seojoon's tall frame slumped back in his armchair, gorging down the whiskey he was holding in his hands, the liquid burning his throat. He was thunderstruck, unable to process what he had just heard.
A baby.
Taehyung's baby. From Jungkook of all people! A man!
The same man, his idiotic friend rejected even though he was dying of love for him!
He thought of Jungkook in a cold hospital bed, alone, hurting and bleeding the child growing inside him. And that freaking man crying across the room!
God! He wanted to kill him!
He fucking wanted to kill him!
But he didn't reach down to Tae.
He didn't offer empty comfort.
He simply gazed at the pitiful billionaire choking on his own tears, his lips curving into a hard, ruthless line. The need to grab him by the collar, shake him, scream at his stupidity and damn ego was clawing against his ribs with such strength, it made him dizzy.
" I told you, didn't I? How stupid are you, really?" Seo Joon said as calmly as possible, his icy voice cutting through Taehyung's cries like a blade.
Kim's shoulders stiffened but he didn't lift his head from the floor.
" Didn't I warn you that your pathetic ego will destroy everything you touch?" Seo Joon kept saying, landing one devastating blow after the other." We knew. Jimin and Yoongi knew. Everyone at the club knew. They saw the way he was looking at you. What he was hiding in his heart. Everyone except you! The only person who was supposed to guard his life. I told you Jungkook was innocent. And I knew it even before I found the proof. Yet, you... the man sharing his bed, holding his heart, was acting like a spoiled brat nagging at his parents for cutting his allowance. The cost was your baby and his life. "
He sucked in a slow, deep breath before continuing to press the dagger in Taehyung's heart." Now you're sitting here, on the floor, surrounded by broken glass, drowning in regret, expecting someone to comfort you, to tell you it's not your fault." SeoJoon said, leaning down, elbows resting on his knees."Those men in that room nearly raped him. Those men in that alley pulled the trigger, Taehyung. But you were the one loading the gun and handing it to them. You did this. You. With your own hands. Jimin is right. Their blood is on your hands."
Taehyung's lips parted, a strangled, breathless growl escaping while squeezing his eyes shut and the truth blazed his soul, raw and scorching." I know... I know SeoJoon... I don't expect anything... just him alive and back to me."
The other man bitterly laughed." Back to you? Are you fucking kidding me? Why on earth would he come back to you? You had the nerve to flash your own nephew as a lover! One deadly mistake after the other. You let him walk out of your life as if he meant nothing. You pushed and pushed until he broke. If I were Jungkook, I'd spit on your face!"
" Please... don't..."
" Can't handle the truth?"
" I'm sorry... I fucked up."
" You think? You know I don't get you. " He rubbed his throbbing temples. " Despite your monstrous behaviour, Jungkook came back to you. He begged you, sent you food, claimed you and what did you do? You made him feel cheap, insulted him and on top of that you deliberately led him on into thinking your own nephew was your lover!" Seojoon stopped for a moment and breathed deeply." Is this what you want Jungkook to think of you? If anything... happens to him, this is his last memory of you."
" Seojoon... please... please... stop... " Taehyung completely broke down. His pride, his ego, his obsession with facts were crumbling down like sandcastles washed away by the waves.
The man shook his head, set the empty glass on the floor with a quiet clink and glanced at the fragile figure inches away, his gaze devoid of any form of sympathy and tenderness."Should I pity you, Tae? I don't. I pity the boy you broke. The boy who lost his baby because of you and them. The boy who's missing because you failed to keep him safe. And screw you Kim fucken Taehyung! Fuck you and your freaking empire!"
The man massaged his temples again but the headache clawing him was ramping up, his sharp mind shifting into gear." All that is irrelevant now. Jungkook's missing and finding him must be our first priority. Use your remaining brain for a second." Seojoon slashed sharply." Who benefits from erasing Jungkook? From breaking your mind and sending you into a self - destructive tailspin? Who mostly benefits from your destruction?"
At a snail's pace, Taehyung's head craned, his red rimmed eyes empty and feral." Yoongi told me Jungkook got threats, messages and calls telling him to stay away from me... and a miniature coffin with a doll and his face on it. Maybe... they finally decided to fulfill their threats."
" This ain't just personal, dumb ass!* Seojoon replied, narrowing his eyes." Your enemies are his enemies as well. Look at the evidence we've got. The illegal transactions, the money laundering, human trafficking, your accident, Jungkook's threats. Someone's using this club as a global washing machine and Jungkook was their leverage against you. He was in the way."
" There's something else..." Taehyung lisped.
The other man didn't respond. Simply waited, holding his breath.
Taehyung's shaky hand pointed at a few flipped photos by the couch and Seojoon stooped over, stretching out to grab them. He should be shocked but nothing stunned him anymore.
The photos showed Tae hugging a young man, not particularly good looking - rather plain and indifferent - in a hotel suite. His brows frowned and lips curved at the corner.
" Who's that?"
" Damn if I know. Somebody sent them to Jungkook a few months ago. That's his friend... Minhun, I think... he came to Seoul to find him. He never said a word about any of these. And he never... believed I had a thing with that boy."
" Because he loved you, you dumbass!"
" I know... I know..." Taehyung stared at his pricked hand, the blood was dry but his heart was still bleeding. A paralyzing grief began to ignite within the hollow ashes of his chest. "They used my stupid pride to get him out of the way." he murmured breathlessly.
" And you walked right into their trap. He was left unguarded and vulnerable for them to grab him." Seojoon countered bluntly, having no intention to sugarcoat the truth, simply to make him feel less guilty." So now, quit crying on the damn floor like a corpse. If you want to burn in hell for what you did, do it after you get Jungkook back. In one piece."
Taehyung's mind went round and round in circles. Seojoon was right. Finding Jungkook was the first and only priority. His teary eyes darted left and right then landed on the phone abandoned next to him.
He had to do something, act rationally and quickly before it was too late.
Five days.
Jungkook was missing for five days and nights.
The clock was hanging above their heads like a ticking bomb and time wasn't on their side.
His trembling fingers clutched onto the phone as he pressed a button, the screen flashing to light. The person picked up on the first ring as if he was expecting the call. " Deploy everyone. Every guard, every operative, every contact in the underworld. I want the entire city on lockdown. Find Jeon Jungkook or I'll have your heads. " His voice dropped into a lethal, utterly broken roar, taming the urge to scream but the man could easily catch the dominant order and tremble in his voice.
" Got it, boss." the man replied in a professional tone then coughed to clear his throat." I found that woman. It wasn't easy. Check your emails. I've sent you her location. Just...boss don't go alone. "
Taehyung nodded as if he could actually be seen, hummed and cut the call.
Seojoon avoided asking. What difference would it make?
He steadily rose from his armchair, stood at close proximity above Taehyung 's fragile figure, shoving both hands in his pockets. " Do what you have to do. Spare no one. Stop at nothing. Kill if you have to. And do it quickly." He spun around and in wary moves opened and shut the door behind him, sparing no glance at his friend.
As soon as he stepped out of the club through the back door and got into his car, he slumped back in the driver's seat and closed his heavy eyes, deeply sighing.
He had to think quickly. His phone was on fire for the next twenty minutes.
He sent his men over to Jimin's apartment to evaluate the situation and immediately notified his friends. Their connections could come at handy.
He specifically asked Wooshik to call in for a favour from Damiano De Luca. The notorious Italian Godfather everyone feared and whose husband, Lord Caspian Montague,he had saved after a deadly attack at the docks two years ago.
Wooshik didn't waste a minute and immediately contacted De Luca who offered his resources and men to help them.
For a Godfather a debt is a debt. And he owed Wooshik his husband's life.
Seojoon only hoped and prayed it wasn't too late.
___________________
Kim Taehyung found himself standing in the centre of his dark, wrecked office, his phone still pressed tightly against his ear, his chest panting uncontrollably as if he was having a heart attack.
He flinched the moment the phone rang and vibrated between his fingers. Without looking, he answered." Yeah?"
" Boss." Jae Hee's voice came through the moist speaker, raw and urgent." I've got the unedited internal servers from the hotel. The whole footage from that night. I'm uploading it to your secured server as we spea - "
" No need." Taehyung 's hoarse, broken voice cracking into a bleeding whisper.
There was a moment of silence from the other line." Boss... are you sure?"
" Don't send it. I don't need to see it. I know... I know the truth. I was wrong... God help me I was fucking wrong." The man clutched the phone so hard, his knuckles cracked white. He shut his eyes, tears glistering as they traced shimmering paths across his wan face but at the same time flashing a dangerous, feral fury.
Jae Hee paused, sensing the absolute ruin in his boss's voice. " Understood. What are your orders?"
" Keep my men standby. I might need you again."
" Okay boss." The man disconnected the call and Taehyung snarled, his entire body trembling with an odd mixture of insufferable pain and violent wrath.
A sharp chime echoed through the office as an email arrived. Taehyung's wet eyes dropped to the screen. He anticipated an address to a luxurious apartment downtown, a house in the suburbs.
Instead, the address was in the centre of the city's dark underbelly. An infamous strip club called ' Red Velvet.' The name sounded oddly familiar but Taehyung had never explored its potentials as it wasn't to his liking.
However, he didn't hesitate for a second. He bolted out of his wrecked office, his personal guards following him, brushing past his stunned staff without a single word or glance, leaving only a trail of lethal aura in his path.
Fifteen minutes later, the three sleek, black SUVs screeched into a halt outside the club's main entrance. The heavy bass of music from inside vibrated through the curb. Before entering, Taehyung turned around to one of his men.
" Give me a gun."
The man, despite his initial surprise, took out a Glock 20 from his back side and handed it over to his boss. " Boss... are you sure?"
Taehyung grabbed it, hiding it behind his back, in his waistband." Don't follow me. I'm going in alone." Ignoring the bouncers who instantly recoiled at the sight of his wrathful face, Taehyung shoved the door open and burst inside. The air was thick with cheap cologne, stale alcohol and the stench of sweat.
He cut through the pulsing floor and wasted crowd, grabbing the manager by his brown leather jacket, tugging him closer. " Where's Arspa?" His voice was an undeniable, violent whisper.
The manager, a sleazy middle aged man, flinched." Wh - who?"
Taehyung's patience was running out. He had no time to play silly games. He shoved his phone into the man's face, growling through gritted teeth." Her. Where. Is. She?"
The manager blinked his eyes before landing an answer." Oh... That's not Aespa. That's Sora.. she's in the main dressing room down the corridor... third door on the right.."
Taehyung's grip dropped, pushed the guy back and marched towards the corridor like a predator. He didn't bother knocking. He simply thrashed his hand against the door, slamming it open. The room was empty with the exception of a woman sitting at a mirrored vanity table, casually applying blush on her already pink cheeks under the bright bulbs.
Sora.
Or Aespa.
The woman didn't flinch at his intrusion as if she had expected his arrival. Before she could even react, Tae closed the distance separating them in three strides. He stretched his long hand, reaching her throat, fingers clutching around it.
In an abrupt, explosive move, he lifted her completely off her chair, her red heels dragged helplessly against the floorboards as he pinned her hard against the cold wall, trapping her in place, the vanity mirror rattling beside them.
" Sora..." Taehyung moved closer, his face a breath apart from hers. His dark eyes were crimson red, glistering from a violent rage, his breathing ragged and heavy against her overly makeup skin. " Who the fuck are you? Where's Jungkook? Who hired you to trap him? ANSWER ME GODDAMN IT!" Taehyung barked, his slender fingers tightening the grip around her neck, his voice dripping of deadly venom.
He expected her to scream. He expected her to cry, beg for mercy or deny everything. However Sora's brown, heavily painted eyes simmered with contempt and a lazy, twisted grin clung to her red lips.
A dark, rumbly laugh surged out from her throat, expanding into a loud, vicious, nearly hysterical laugh that echoed through the walls of the dressing room. Her gaze dropped at Kim Taehyung, the ruthless, untouchable billionaire and broke into a laughter.
" Well, well, well!" Sora gasped out through her wicked laughter, her eyes glowing with raw malice. " Look who finally decided to show up. I was wondering when you would come, Mr CEO...Honestly, I expected you sooner."
Taehyung's finger squeezed harder on her throat, his knuckles nearly breaking from the force, the veins in his temples and neck throbbing. His red rimmed eyes fag holes in hets with an acute intensity that coykd set fire to the room.
" For a brilliant, self-made billionaire,you sure are slow." Sora continued, an irritating smugness on her face. She definitely wasn't the innocent, pure angel Taehyung had met before but a calculating, vicious viper.
" Shut the fuck up, bitch!" Taehyung boasted, his voice a threatening rasp that made her shiver. " Cut the crap and start talking. Tell me everything. Who are you? Who the hell hired you? Where's Jungkook?"
Sora's sneer didn't fade but her breathing turned sharper as her red heels furiously kicked against the baseboard. She grabbed the man's wrist with shaky hands, her acrylic nails sinking into his skin. Her eyes peered at him with a malicious amusement.
" Let... go.. " she clipped, baring her white teeth in a glass edged tone but the mocking grin remained tugged on her lips, infuriating Taehyung further. " Hard... to... talk.. when you're squeezing... my windpipe, Kim.."
The older glared at her for a brief moment, his jaw locked so hard a few muscles aggressively twitched in his cheeks. At a measured pace, with a loud, dismissive growl, he loosened his fingers and backed out two steps.
The woman crumpled to the ground with a sharp clatter of her heels, stumbling back against the vanity, holding onto the edge of the mirror, fingers catching her neck while letting out a throaty, dry cough.
Sora brushed the front of her black dress, revealing more than it hid but her gaze never drifted from the man. " You were totally blind, weren't you?" " she lisped, wickedly chuckling as he hoisted her head." You had no idea what was going on under your nose. I surely hope your business skills surpass your personal judgement."
" Give me the fucking truth." Taehyung's dominant order m, forced a dry sneer from her lips." If you don't, I'll simply put a bullet through your skull!"
She exhaled, casually pulling a thin cigarette from a silver case on the vanity. She didn't light it, just rolled it between her fingers, gazing at the unlit tip. " I was never a model. My parents weren't doctors, obviously. The agency? Fake. My background? Fake. My little encounter with Jungkook at the bar? Staged. Every single second was orchestrated down to the last minute."
Taehyung was rooted to the spot, his chest rising and falling under the wrinkled, stained suit. " Continue. " Come to think about it, was he even surprised? After everything that had happened he always had the feeling their lives were simply strings carefully pulled by an invisible force.
" Everything about me was a lie. A well organised lie. I was hired to get close to Jungkook. To smile sweetly, play the role of the fragile damsel in distress that needs saving and make him fall in love with me. The goal was simple from the start. Gain his absolute trust, climb into his bed and then tear his life from the inside out when I was ordered." she gloated, looking up, her eyes narrowing into icy, merciless slits and Taehyung wanted nothing more than to gauge them out.
But he needed her.
For now.
To get the infos he needed.
To save his man.
The truth landed with a cruel intensity, crushing the last shred of logic in his mind and breaking his heart.
Schemes, plots and cruel calculations. They were surrounded by an enemy that went to every length to ruin them. A sickening, nauseous stirring bloomed in his stomach, spreading in every pore of his body." A name. Give a name,Sora. Tell me why. Why target him? "
" Can't tell you. Because the truth is... I don't freaking know." Sora simply replied, throwing her left hand up in a mocking, dismissive gesture.
" Don't fucking lie to me, bitch! I'll slit your skull in half if I don't get an answer." Taehyung's upper body panged from the roaring that echoed sharply off the dressing room tiles, making the vanity bulbs flicker.
" I'm not lying." Sora fired back, her eyes flashing with sudden irritation that she had to justify her horrific actions." I never saw his real face. He's no fool, you know. I never heard his real voice. Every order came through an untraceable burner phone with a voice scrambler. Every payment and we're talking about big cash, was wired into an offshore account each time I completed a task. Every time I was with him, fed him a lie, I got paid."
She leaned back against the vanity, throwing the unlit cigarette on the table with a quick flick of her wrist. She stared at Taehyung, her expression blurring from vicious amusement into something darker and deadly.
" You two pissed off the wrong crowd,Kim. " she hissed, voice dropping into a faint, ominous purr." Whoever is behind this..." she let out a soft hum." They weren't simply looking for a scandal. They were obsessed. They were determined to break the two of you off. Rip your bones to shreds. Destroy your reputation and utterly ruin, even wipe out Jungkook till there is nothing but ash left."
Taehyung felt the air completely abandon his lungs, his blood turned cold in his veins and his heart was thumping against his ribs in a chaotic, defending pace." The men... at the hotel." the man murmured, voice shaking as the terrifying realization locked into place." The attack..."
" Guilty as charged ! That was me!" Sora admitted with a cold, bothered nod, sounding almost proud of her accomplishment." Not that I had to try hard to get him to that hotel. That damn fool agreed without hesitation. It didn't even cross his stupid mind, it was a trap."
She continued, stripped of guilt and sympathy as if she hadn't destroyed a person's life for pure profit.
" I was instructed to make it look like an infidelity and set up a scene so disgusting and repulsive that an arrogant, proud asshole like you would never look at him again. You'd kick him out. I set the date in that hotel, knowing he'd come. I hired those thugs. I spiked his drink. I put him in that room." she paused." You wanna know the funny part? Jungkook was trapped in that bed, crying and screaming and calling for you!" And then she laughed, a dry , mocking roar of amusement for what she had done.
Taehyung's patience was hanging by a thread. He wanted to shoot her right then and there and watch her brain scatter all over the place."You fucking whore! You'll pay for this! For everything!"
As if nothing had happened, she approached Taehyung, her red,high heels clinking on the floor, her heavy, disgusting perfume smashing his nostrils, twisting his stomach from a sickening feeling and her eyes staring straight at his shattered, red rimmed gaze.
" I supplied the blade,Kim." Sora let the words ghost from her lips, her tone devoid of tenderness." But someone else built the maze. Someone who knew exactly how pigheaded and stubborn you were, how fragile your ego was and that the moment things got dark... you'd be the one to drive the blade straight into his heart. And you did exactly that."
Taehyung's heart stopped beating. The world narrowed into a tiny frame made of stone ready to crack. Her words hadn't simply dropped a bombshell.
They had detonated a massive, atomic bomb inside his shattered soul. Each sentence, each wicked detail she threw at him was a piercing blade tearing through whatever remained of his broken heart.
The truth, the one he had dismissed so lightly, laid bare before him.
The dreadful conspiracy.
The fake background.
The untraceable money route.
The dark entity lurking in the shadows.
The deadly trap taking Jungkook away from him.
It was real.
But as he stood there, stiff, his long, broad frame trembling violently under his wrinkled suit, no amount of context could wash the blood from his own hand.
Jungkook's and their baby's.
Somebody else had dug the grave for Jungkook.
Somebody else had laid the trap, hired those bastards and engineered the horror.
But it was Kim Taehyung who drove the final nail into his coffin.
He was the sole executor of his own happiness. He was the one who had stared at those big, innocent, tearful eyes and had seen a liar, a cheater.
He was too unbearably arrogant, too disgustingly unreasonable to even consider the possibility of being wrong. His stupid pride had been a blindfold, his rage a sledgehammer, his jealousy a deadly blade and his hands had destroyed the purest, most delicate thing he had ever possessed.
The love of his life.
He hadn't just lost Jungkook.
He had killed the love they could have.
He had cast out a traumatised, drugged, bleeding boy and had forced him to endure the unbearable loss of their baby all alone.
Taehyung slowly lowered his heavy head, his veiny eyes flashing with rage,a wild roaring fire burning from within. His hand was raised, fingers clutched around Sora's throat, abruptly lifting her in the air and pinning her against the wall. He drew the gun from his back and placed the muzzle onto her forehead, growling.
" If anything happens to him, if they touch him, if even a single hair is harmed, I'll gauge your fucken eyes out, slit your fucking throat, pierce a knife into your heart, twist it and watch you bleed to death, you heartless whore!" he snarled through bare feet. He sensed her body shaking uncontrollably, her breathing coming out in ragged gasps, her eyes blinking at the force of the grip.
Sora tried to shove him away, putting her trembling hands on his chest but his strength was inhumane. And she had no visible way out. " What... are... you gonna do?"
" Use your imagination." The muzzle pressed harder on her forehead, steady and resolute. "I've got no fucking reason to keep you alive, bitch. You are of no use to me."
In that precise moment Sora finally understood that she no longer held all the cards. She had nothing to bargain with. Her existence was entirely in Taehyung's hands and there was nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.
" Disappear. Hide. Tonight. If I ever see your face in Seoul again," his voice a cruel, threatening whisper of a promise he intended to keep, causing her smug expression to instantly vanish. " Because if you don't, I won't hand you over to the police. I won't call my lawyers. I will personally use your body as a target and bury you six feet under the ground where no light will ever find you and let you rot in the dirt. "
Without expecting an answer, he released her, her body smashing against the tiles,turned around and stormed out into the dim corridor of the strip club, tucking the gun back in place and pulling out his phone, dialing a number.
" Got a job for you. Red velvet strip club. Sora. Break her. Kill her if necessary. Dump her where no one will look. Now." And he hung up.
He burst through the front doors into the starry night, cutting straight past his personal guards, throwing himself into the driver's seat of one of the black SUV's, slamming the door shut.
He dismissed his men's questions and bizarre looks. Taehyung jammed the ignition button, slammed his foot on the accelerator and tore off into the dark streets of the city.
He drove nowhere specific.
The vast city was a smudged blur of bright lights and slick asphalt in his teary eyes. Taehyung had nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. No shelter from the tormented anguish snarling inside his skull.
He couldn't return to his penthouse. The silent luxury felt like a mausoleum of ghosts, carrying the lingering memory of Jungkook's laughter and the strong, sweet scent of his skin.
He obviously couldn't go back to the club where Jimin and Yoongi's final curse still hung in the air. He couldn't even step foot in his company. His worthless empire built on his arrogant pride and greed that had no meaning now.
Taehyung wanted to die.
He wanted to disintegrate, to dissolve into the darkness, to be dragged straight into hell and atone for his sins. Pay for everything he had done to Jungkook.
For every tear he had shed because of him.
For the pain of losing their baby.
" He loved me... Jungkook loved me..." he whispered breathlessly, a ragged choked gasp slipping from his dry throat while tightly gripping the steering wheel till his knuckles cracked. "The boy from that cafe... the boy I fell in love... actually loved me... God! What have I done? What the fuck is wrong with me?"
Jungkook hadn't used him, hadn't betrayed him. Even when he received those grotesque, fake photos with his best friend,he had never doubted him. He had held onto his faith, guarding their contracted relationship with his own soul.
And how had Taehyung repaid his unconditional love, faith and devotion?
By accusing him of cheating, condemning him without listening, by believing his own idiotic, blind eyes instead of the heartbeat of the man's true love for him!
Taehyung didn't want to understand.
He certainly didn't want to see or believe him.
That was the sickening, monstrous bottom line.
He was so petrified of showing vulnerability, so damn obsessed with being right, so terribly jealous that he had chosen his ego and pride over the life of his lover and their child.
While Taehyung was partying and flirting, drinking aged whiskey and picking up strangers from sleazy bats, men he couldn't even touch, trying to erase Jungkook's ghost, he was fighting his demons alone.
Healing from a vicious attack, hurting from his rejection, drowning in alcohol and clutching his own belly, bleeding and grieving for a lost baby neither of them knew existed.
" BASTARD! YOU STUPID BASTARD!" he screamed, tears wetting his eyes, blurring his vision and dripping down his ashen cheeks.
The profound, excruciating weight of that precise realization, cracked Taehyung's remaining sanity.
" AAAAAAAAAAGRH!"
A guttural, primal, nearly hysterical roar surged from his throbbing chest, rattling the glass of the windshield and windows. He raised his right fist and started savagely bashing it on the steering wheel.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
He banged his fist against the leather again and again and again, bowling at the top of his stinging lungs, his face flushed crimson red, hot streams of tears gushing unrestrained down his cheeks and jaw.
He swerved the vehicle abruptly to the right, tires violently screeching against the slightly moist road as he plunged the SUV into a narrow, pitch black alley, the first one he spotted near the river.
He jammed on the brakes, threw the transmission into park and collapsed forward on the wheel, forehead touching the leather cover.
He didn't give a fuck about his image.
He didn't give a shit about his status.
Taehyung buried his face deep against the cold leather, his broad shoulders heaving in brutal, tormenting spasms while weeping, ugly, raw, utterly broken wails of heartfelt despair.
Then as if an invisible force was guiding his hand, his huge palm aggressively landed on his right cheek over and over till his face painted red, the corner of his lip spitting blood but feeling no sting of pain.
Another earsplitting roar rattled the windows in the car as he repeatedly thrashed his forehead on the wheel, earth - shaking cries of despair blending with whip - cracked rumbles.
He sobbed for the boy he had destroyed. He cried for the child he would never see and hold. He wept for his own criminal foolishness. For the love he had ruined and the boy he had lost.
He sat alone in the dark car, drowning in his own tears and guilt, knowing that his sole purpose in this life, the only reason to keep breathing, was to find Jungkook, kill those who hurt him, drop to his knees and implore for forgiveness.
He'd spend the rest of his pathetic life shielding him from danger, proving his undying love and making him happy, no matter the cost.
" I will... find you... baby... kill everyone... who dared... touch you... I'll find you... " he cried out between sobs and sniffles, his entire body quivering uncontrollably.
But how?
Where would he start?
He had no leads, no names, just masked faces in the dark.
And it was insufficient to offer him the help he needed.
He had to think fast. Act fast.
But it was a dead end...
( Next chapter we dig into Jungkook. And the plot unfolds. You'll finally learn who's behind everything and the reasons. Do tell me if you have already guessed😉😉.)