Her Name | pjm

December .C h a p t e r N i n e t e e n.

"Dan... I thought we talked about this. I can't be a part of this, I don't want to be a part of this." I whispered quietly. I knew I was being selfish, after everything that he did for me, but I could not wrap myself around the idea of getting into this mess. Dan smiled at me and instructed the twins to help him sit up. I tried to protest but I was quickly dismissed. Dan rested his back on the frame of the bed and looked at me. "Nobody is asking you to take over. I planned to have this conversation much later, however, SOMEONE" he gave the twins the side eye "doesn't know how to listen to orders. I guess now's a good time as ever." He took my hand into his and pressed it. "Kieran, I want you to learn. Not to take over, but in case something happens to me, to protect our family. To protect what dad has built. Just in case this would repeat, and the assailant would not spare my life, I'd need you to be able to take over, and keep going, until you could choose a proper successor from the crew." He explained calmly, whereas I jumped into a defensive stance. "Well, why can't you just choose a successor now? Someone who'd be here to take over in case..." I started to stumble on my words, not being able to say their true meaning. "In case you would not be able to? You know your crew best, you have Sungwoon, you have the twins. You'd be able to make the best decision, Dan." He played with my fingers, looking at them and avoiding my eyes. After a couple seconds of silence he exhaled. "I believe there is a mole, Kieran. Someone had to leak this information to Hammer. I don't know who it is yet, and I don't want to put myself in a position, where I couldn't trust my family, but the fact is there. I don't know if Hammer knew about the will prior to this, but he definitely didn't know that I had the key. And now he does. I've found the key not longer than five months ago, and suddenly a whole brigade of people break into my home and threaten me for it? I cannot name a successor now. And that's where you come in. I'll be taking care of business as usual and will do my best to sniff out the rat. In the meantime, I want you to study with the twins, learn everything there is to learn about our family and prepare yourself. I need you to be ready at any time, in case I don't get so lucky." Dan closed his eyes. I could see that this decision was hurting him too. He never wanted this for me, neither of us did. But even I understood that his plan was the smartest. He will probably try to sniff the rat out with his life on the line, and in case his plan doesn't work out I'll be able to take over and prepare a successor.

We sat in silence for a while, when Dan instructed the twins to leave. As soon as we were alone he pointed to my phone and I took it out. He raised his eyebrows when he saw that my lock screen was a picture of me and Jimin and I just hid my eyes. Dan giggled, opened the notepad and began typing. He turned the screen to me. I trust the twins. I trust them and I trust you. Nobody else. I raised my eyebrows, he instantly understood my question and typed in the answer. No, I don't trust Sungwoon. I looked around, and looked back at him with narrow eyes. Dan began typing again. I'm not sure, but there is a possibility that we're bugged. I can't risk it. I kept staring at him, while fear and anxiety kept crawling up. For a second, I wanted to ask him why did he speak so freely about the mole and sniffing them out if he had an idea of being bugged but then it hit me. This way he can protect himself. If the rat knows, that Dan suspects people and that I'd been left as a successor, killing him and blowing their cover will be useless. I looked at him, wondering what he could want to tell me in secret from everyone. My eyes started to widen at the realisation. He began typing again, and my suspicion was proved. I want to give the key to you. Everyone, even the mole, knows that you're the most important person to me. That's exactly why, they will think that I would never leave the key with you, for your own safety. I scrunched my nose. I was annoyed at how smart he was. A knot formed in my stomach, if Father believed that Hammer was much more fitted to be a leader, how cunning was he then? I nodded and took my phone. Where is it? I turned the screen to Dan, and he quickly grabbed the phone. As he was typing his face turned red and I wondered what in the world was he saying. When he turned the screen to me, he turned his head away. In your bathroom. When you left home, you left your... woman products in the cupboard of the bathroom. I put it there. I really simply thought that they would look for it in our safes, books and maybe on people. My cheeks blushed. This idiot put the key to Fathers will in my goddamn tampon box. He finally looked back at me and I rolled my eyes. I couldn't deny - the plan worked. I kept thinking about how Dan would make the weirdest decisions ever and it would still work out for him. I decided to trust him this time too, and went to my room.

I understood, that the news of me coming into the family business has spread amongst the crew as all of them were finally looking at me. Before that, most of Dan's subordinates were taught to pretend that I didn't exist, in a way making sure that in the worst case scenario, I could easily swear that I did not know most of the people. But now, they all acknowledged me. Some were smiling, some weren't as happy, but they all understood that change was coming and I was at the centre of it.

I climbed up the stairs avoiding the broken railings and went to my room. It was all turned upside down, but the bathroom was left intact. Dan was right, whoever searched the place saw, that the bathroom obviously belonged to a woman and decided it was not worth their time. I opened the cupboard and found the tampon box standing in plain view. Carefully, I put my hand inside and wiggled my fingers. Well would you look at that, the dimwit was right. The key was laying at the very bottom, untouched. I took it out and wondered where I should put it. I took off my shoes and ripped up the inside of the sole of the shoe and placed the key there. This should suffice until I came home, I'll think of a better place then. I put my shoes back on and went out. The twins were waiting outside of my bedroom door. "Are you ok? " Yu-jun asked, while I simply nodded sadly. He hugged my shoulders with his arm and walked me downstairs. All three of us felt like the easy going and simple life I've been leading was coming to an end.

We went downstairs and inside Dan's office. Everything was turned upside down, but the three chairs, one in front and two behind of the table were fixed. The twins gestured, that I should sit in front of the table and I listened. They sat in opposite of me, and we simply stared at each other for a moment. Neither of us were happy about the positions we were in. "We need to teach everything to you as soon as possible." Ye-jun began. I nodded in agreement, but was ready to set some ground rules. "That is true, however, I cannot quit my studies or spend too much time here. If there is a mole and my schedule will change too much, people might understand this as actual shift in power. In this case, I would be openly putting my life in danger. I need to learn quickly, but silently, without making too many waves while we still keep Dan as the obvious head of the family." The twins looked at each other, impressed at my instant efficiency. I couldn't help but smile. I knew they were worried, they probably expected me to cry, nag or argue, but Dan raised me differently. I never showed this leading side of me to anyone, but it was always there, hoping, that it could stay hidden forever.

We spent the next few hours planning where to begin and how much time I could spend on it before ruining my life completely, still keeping it a secret from my friends and not creating waves for people who are correlated with this. "If Dan's business partners find out about this, we might be in deep trouble. They could simply retract their investments and find someone else as a supplier. We need to be very calculative about our actions." The twins didn't argue, I saw pride in their eyes. Their shoulders relaxed a bit, when they realised that even if I didn't have the details of Dan's business, I did know how to plan and lead.

We finally came up to a decision. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I would come back home straight after classes and dig deeper into the documents. This would give me a strong amount of hours per week to learn, but still keep the suspicions of those surrounding me at minimal. The main idea was to make Dan's injury public, but mask it behind a simple accident. This way, it would not seem too weird that his sister would come visit ever so often. I had simply left to decide, what lie I will tell next to Jimin and Kaia for my scheduled absence.