Her Name | pjm

December .C h a p t e r T w e n t y.

The twins drove me home late at night, and to all Gods I thanked that it was Saturday. Checking my phone I expected to find messages from Jimin, but to my pleasant surprise there were none. I was incredibly thankful towards him for neither pushing nor prying. On our ride home, the twins introduced me a bit to the outside of the business, so that I would be able to come up with some sort of lie to my friends. Most of the information presented, I already knew. Dan had a few gambling casinos, which had many investors. Of course, all of it was a facade for the actual industry, but gambling was the easiest way to launder money for their actual activities, as there were many incoming and outgoing transactions in various volumes. Together with the twins we came up with a story - we decided to keep true to the fact that my family owned these places and that Dan got hurt. Since he we decided to announce that Dan is bedridden and will stay so for about a month, it was obvious that he needed some help with the documents and other basic day-to-day procedures, so I, as a good sister, agreed to come and help. Of course, this left me in a tight spot, as I told Jimin that Dan was somewhat in law enforcement and these two professions did not correlate at all.

After a couple minutes of silence, Ye-jun suggested that I'd feign ignorance. I looked at him with a puzzled face, and he offered to tell Jimin that Dan kept this from me. I laughed at the idea, in no way Jimin would believe this. More to that, I believed it would raise his suspicions towards me even more. Then Yu-jun offered to play the victim card. I was getting tired of their riddles and gestured to explain himself. "Well, you can just say that you were ashamed of it." I sat with a puzzled expression again and stared at him. "Why would I be ashamed?" I inquired finally regaining my voice. "Well, generally, everyone that has a head on their shoulders know that gambling companies, especially land based gambling like casinos, do not always do everything legally. You can just play the card that you were a little bit ashamed that your family lived off of the struggles of others and decided to lie." For a second I wanted to laugh, but that made a lot of sense. As I was about to relax, another knot formed in my stomach. "He heard our conversation. The very first time I spoke with Dan in university and introduced him as Lee Jiminie, he heard me asking Dan no too look through his records. That's where the lie about law enforcement began. How will I explain Dan's ability to check such sensitive information, if I knew that he was in a completely different business?" Yu-jun thought for a moment, weighing the situation and lit up again. "Well, since you will have to tell him that you have an inclination that the company might be flushing some illegal funds from illegal gambling sites, it would make sense that Dan has some accesses to such information. Not necessarily by himself, but maybe he has friends in law that he paid off, to keep his business as clean as possible." I leaned back and couldn't contain the surprise on my face. I always knew that the twins were especially good at brawls and threats, but apparently they were great liars too.

This whole story had some plot holes, but it was good for the beginning. It was a strong statement, that could have it's holes filled as time went by. I kept thinking why were they helping me - I actually expected them to ask me to break things off with Kaia and Jimin, yet here they are, helping me figure out a lie to tell them so that I would not lose either. I bit my lip and asked them why. "I mean, honestly, you breaking things off with them, moving out of campus and coming back home would be the best solution, I can't lie" Ye-jun began, "But there are a few reasons why we're helping you." Yu-jun continued. "Firstly, since we know that there is a mole, we do not know how many more there are, and if they are watching you. Making such drastic changes in your lifestyle would be a proof, as you've said yourself, that the power in this family is changing, and we cannot allow that for the obvious safety reasons. The other reason is simple." For a second both of them stopped talking and I waved my arms around showing that I have no idea what they're suggesting. "Wow Kieran you are the smartest, dumbest person ever." Ye-jun exclaimed, while Yu-jun laughed. "Kieran, we simply want you to be able to come back to the life that you're building for yourself. Your brother wants it too. We are all hoping that this will be a momentarily thing and you'll be able to jump back into your studies, friendships and romances in no time. Also this Jimin boy, it's obvious how much he means to you and we can see that you're happy, which shows that he's treating you well. Dan wants you to be able to hold on to that. We all want that." Complete silence fell over the car, and for the first time today I felt a tear fall down. "Thank you." was all that I could muster out, and the twins laughed. "Just look at this as learning of your family history. You won't need to make any decisions, and we will try to provide you with only the upmost important information. At the end of the day, no actual responsibility of leading or deciding will come on your shoulders, I'm sure Dan will take care of everything." I leaned back on the seat and closed my eyes, hoping that their words would come true.

When I jumped out of the car and started to walk towards the housing, I lifted my head expecting to see Jimin in the balcony as always, however, this time it was empty. It's the middle of the night, obviously he's asleep, dumbass. I quietly ran up the stairs and opened the doors. Jimin was half sitting half laying on the couch in the most uncomfortable position. It was obvious he was not planning on falling asleep. The TV was playing in the background, some musical show was coming to its end. I took of my shoes and stood still, wondering what I should do with the key. After a few minutes of indecisiveness, I put it in my pocket.

I firstly walked up to Jimin, to make sure that he was asleep, and as I was about to go to the bedroom and hide the key I heard him murmur. I instantly changed my position and pretended that I was walking towards him. I trusted Jimin completely, but I couldn't put his life at risk too, by having another person know about the keys location.

"Kieran? You're home.." He murmured still somewhat still asleep. The tiredness on his face indicated that he spent the whole day worrying. "Hey, I'm sorry I took so long" I whispered and sat next to him. Jimin stretched his arms and turned to me with narrowed eyebrows, as if waiting for me to tell what happened. "Can we talk about this tomorrow?" I asked carefully. "I'm really tired, all I want to do is to just lay down with you." I mustered the best puppy eyes that I could and saw that I won him over. "Is your brother ok?" he asked, and I simply nodded. Without another word he hugged me and we both walked to the bedroom. I wasn't ready to lie to his face again, all these secrets were eating me up. I also was really tired, and an unclear mind is the biggest enemy of the liar - I couldn't allow a single slip.

Since the very first time we slept together, Jimin has fully moved into my bed. Whereas his became almost as a couch for Kaia and other friends who came to visit. Jimin quickly undressed and hid under the covers, obviously still half asleep, while I stood next to the bed thinking profusely where the hell I should put the key. I surely couldn't keep it in my pocket the whole time, but also couldn't leave it at home. I sat down on the side of Jimin's bed and began rubbing my temples, waiting for the best idea to hit when I heard that Jimin started to snore. This indicated that he was in a deep sleep and I could move more freely.

Oh my God Kieran, the locket-pendant! The goddamn pendant! The idea crept into my mind on its own. I remembered how Dan bought me a locket-pedant for my sixteen birthday. It was fairly big and in a form of a rectangle. I started to dig through my jewellery box in hopes that I brought it with me when I moved. It was there. Thank God! I always disliked the locket, it seemed too big to fit my style and I never had anything to put in it. Dan suggested, that I can put a picture of my boyfriend there once I had one and I simply frowned at the idea. Now when I looked at it it didn't seem too bad - it was a bit harshly shaped, the frame was made out of white gold, and the filling was black onyx, making the locket look even antique. But liking it wasn't enough.

Please fit, please fit, were the only thoughts racing through my head. I took the key out and opened the locket, I felt myself holding my breath as I put the key inside and closed it. I heard a tick coming from the locket, indicating that it closed and secured. Oh God, this is the best locket in the world. I found a longer chain made out of white gold in my jewellery box and hung the pendant on it. I instantly secured it on my neck and felt a sense of relief flush over me. Together with that, the absolute exhaustion hit me too. Without any thoughts, I removed my clothes and went to sleep, clinging to the locket with my fingers like to life itself.