Her Name | pjm

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

For the first time, since Dan told me about his brother, I was sitting at the opposite side of the main table in Dan's office. Jimin sat on my left, while Dan took his rightful seat as the head of the family. After my short speech, Dan instructed the twins to retreat and invited Jimin and I into his office. He stared at us in silence, neither of us spoke too. Every single one of us seemed to be still lost in our thoughts a bit. I couldn't tell what Jimin was thinking, his face was stone cold, but I assumed he was weighing everything that happened today. Especially, the news of my involvement. Dan seemed like was shuffling through his mind, trying to come up with a best solution. I, on the other hand, kept trying to calm down the feeling that I was more comfortable sitting in the main chair.

"Let's be frank here. How much do you know?" Dan began, looking at Jimin. Scanning my brother now, after sitting in the chair myself, I couldn't help but think that he didn't look too confident. "I don't know anything for sure." Jimin answered, but in a much calmer tone than before. Dan shook his head, showing his disbelief. "Don't lie to me, Jimin. I'm not a fool." Jimin sneered at his own words thrown to him. He spread his hands slightly. "I am not lying. I have no facts, no proof. But I am not an idiot also. I've hear talks about the twins for quite some time now. I, as most of the people, knew that the twins were thugs for hire, but I assumed that they were working alone. But when Kieran called them her family for the first time... I think that was the first clue for me. Then she mentioned that she was living with her brother, and some of his friends were living in the same house too. This was the second one. And once you got hurt, constant lies began. Where she was going, what she was doing. Her mental and physical state. I saw her changing. This was the final piece of the puzzle for me. It doesn't take a lot to understand that whatever you all are doing here, is shady business." Jimin finished, and lowered his hands on his lap. I really wanted to hold him, I wanted to hug him. I wondered, why he never told me anything, why he didn't try to talk to me alone, why did he decide to create such a scene here.

"And what is it exactly that you want?" Dan inquired again. His voice was filled with curiosity, he seemed to be as lost as I was. Jimin smiled, and for the first time in a while took my hand. He circled around my palm with his thumb, as if collecting his words. He looked me in the eyes and turned back to Dan." I want your trust. I want to help her. I'm not asking to be involved, I'm not asking to be a part of this. But I want to be able to listen to her, I want to make it easier for her. I want to remove the stress of lying, hiding from me." Dan eyes softened, and I felt butterflies forming in my stomach. "Why then, didn't you ask her yourself?" Dan asked, as if reading my mind. Jimin giggled a bit, surrounding the room with melodic echo. "That would have put her into an ever tighter position than she was now. She would have had to choose - lie to me again, or break your trust. Of course, I didn't assume that she had... importance of such level in this house, but I knew that she had her fair share of information. Me asking straightforwardly would have either led to her betraying you, or leaving me. And I didn't want either." All of us sat in silence again. I was doing everything I could to hold back my tears and not jump in his arms, Dan seemed to be baffled too. I was apparently, better at keeping my emotions still.

"Jesus Christ.." Dan exhaled simply, and I couldn't help but let out a small giggle. If anyone would have asked me how I felt right now, I wasn't sure if I would have been able to explain. Happiness mixed with guilt and gratefulness were the most prominent emotions, though. I couldn't believe that I had such a man sitting next to me, holding my hand. I kept lying to him this whole time, and he knew. And instead of blaming me for it or pushing me into a corner, he figured out a way to make me confess without hurting anyone in the way. I don't know if he understood the situation he was in clearly, but I knew that he risked his life doing so. I tried my best to ignore the crimes that my family was into, but the facts were written on paper - many of the people here were ruthless. If by chance, Dan would have reacted differently, the twins would have probably made Jimin disappear quickly and quietly.

"Jimin," Dan spoke again, "I can see that your heart is in the right place. What I deal in.. what I do is my job, but it doesn't define me. I have empathy and I understand your situation. And there is not a person more important to me in this world then Kieran. But what we do, who we are, we can't simply share this information with outsiders. I will give you some time to think about it, but if you want to be a part of this, you physically need to become a part of it. You either join us, or you never speak of this again. Not to me and not to her." Dan finished his sentence calmly. I wanted to protest, I didn't want this. Jimin was not supposed to get entangled in this, but I knew that Dan was right. No matter what I felt for him, or what he felt for me, knowing such sensitive information without getting your hands dirty was too risky. If by chance his feelings would change, he could bury us all.

"There's nothing to think about." Jimin exclaimed in a heartbeat. "Sign me up."

"Jimin please, think about it." I protested. Even if I couldn't argue with my brother, I could argue with Jimin. "This is not a decision that you can make so easily. And Dan, there are flaws in your logic too. In case you forgot, I am ...erm... staying here for a short time only. This is not something that I will be .. entangled in for a long time. Making Jimin join us, to only let me go later is not fair." keeping my ground, I stared at Dan, and I knew that he understood me. The only person allowed to leave Dan's business so easily was me. If Jimin would learn more about us, Dan would definitely not let go of him.

"I understand what you mean, but if Jimin would have agreed to my proposal, I wouldn't have left the decision of taking him in for myself. I would have allowed you to make this choice." Dan explained calmly, while I kept starring at him with a puzzled expression. "I wasn't planning on taking him under my wing, Kieran. He is here because of you. He is your responsibility. If he chooses to come with you, I will allow him to leave with you too. However, you need to look into your heart, and figure out if you can trust him, and if you can, to what extent. While you were taking care of things in my absence, word has reached me about your.. skills. Even if you don't want to admit this, you're great at what you do. I'm sure you will be able to make a correct decision again. After all, you are my tactician." Dan smiled softly.