Her Name | pjm

January .C h a p t e r T h i r t y T h r e e.

"Are you sure you didn't leave it there yesterday? You did take some jewellery out to wear." Jimin asked me, slowly standing up. I kept still, eyes peeled on the jewellery box, unable to move. The key. Without even thinking, I clutched the left side of my hip, to my relief, feeling the pouch still there. I finally turned to Jimin, who was already standing next to me. "I'm sure. I always put it away. My jewellery is quite expensive, I'd never leave it out in the open. Somebody was in my room, Jimin." I stated firmly, raising my hands to my temples. Jimin showed me a puzzled expression. "Why would anyone look in your jewellery box? If they'd be looking for goods to steal, I believe they'd find better things than a few earrings." I didn't know what to say. How do I explain it to him, without telling him about the key? Not daring to look him in the eyes I walked up to my table. "I'm not sure." I finally mumbled, pretending to check if anything is missing. "All of my things seem to be here." Jimin rested his palms on his hips, showing clear inclination of distrust. He reads you too well, Kieran. You need to make a better lie than that. I turned to him and smiled. "Can you please just trust me on this one? I really don't know how else to explain this, except that I have an intuition. Someone was in my room yesterday and they were searching for something. Maybe they thought that Dan hid the key in my room. Maybe they fixed everything, but forgot to place the box back to its place.. I don't know, but trust me on this." Jimin lifted his arms in surrender. "I trust you, Kieran. Do you think it was Yu-jun?" I shook my head. "No, I don't think so." Jimin tilted his in response. "If it would have been Yu-jun, he would most definitely had placed everything back. And his..." I stopped for a second, swallowing the burn in my throat. "His injury doesn't make sense. He is a muscular, highly athletic man. Why in the world would he need to hold on to a railing for walking up one flight of stairs. When was the last time you ever held on to a railing when walking up the stairs?" I asked him, somewhat as a question, somewhat as a statement. Jimin nodded his head and cupped his chin. "That's true." He agreed. "Even in university housing, we live on the fifth floor and I don't hold on to the railings. So what are you implying?" He asked and turned to me. I took another look around the room. "He caught someone. Most likely he caught them walking down the stairs. And I believe they tackled there. Maybe on purpose, maybe by accident, but I believe the assailant pushed Yu-jun and he fell. I really can't explain it otherwise. Does it make sense?" I turned to Jimin, not too sure if my ideas were logical, but his serious expression told me they were. Neither of us spoke another word for a couple of minutes, until I finally made a decision. "I will need to see all the files that we have about our crew. No exceptions."

I took off my dress, looking at it sadly. Yesterday could have been such a good day. I was supposed to come home, we were supposed to have some alone time with Jimin. We would have had breakfast today with the twins, I would have told them everything about the party. We would have laughed at Harry, Yu-jun would have probably popped a vein for his disrespect. We would have begun the new year together. It was supposed to be different. I felt the burning sensation climb up my throat again, and swallowed once more. Not now, dumbass. You need to be strong. As soon as I repressed my hurt, anger started to rise instead. What the hell is Dan doing? Why hasn't he come home? Why is he stalling? Why am I still in his shoes? How could he have not figured out a mole in a whole month? Most of Fathers friends were at the party, so who the hell was he looking for? I felt my hands begin to shake. I'll do it myself. I'll find the mole, and I will tear this house brick by brick if I have to. And I will make them pay. I will make them pay for hurting Dan, I will make them pay for hurting Yu-jun. With a new, clear resolve burning in my heart, I got dressed, put the key back in the pendant and hung it on my neck next to Jimin's necklace, and went to find Ye-jun. For a second I remembered that I'd promised Jimin to meet his friends today. Silently, I sighed. I think my normal life will have to wait again.

I sat down in the main chair in my office. Your office, huh? Ye-jun grabbed all the files that he could find from the safe and placed them on my table. There were many of them, most definitely over fifty. "Some of them are not with us anymore, I could help you separate those, if you'd like?" Ye-jun asked silently, but I shook my head. "Go be with your brother. I wouldn't want him to wake up alone." Ye-jun flashed me a sombre smile and left the room. Hiding my face in my palms, I took a deep breath and straightened my back. You've got this. You'll read it through, and later you'll delete all of it from your mind. You can come back from this. I opened my eyes and took the first file out of many.

I really can't say how long I've been reading them through. Ye-jun brought me coffee a few times, once called me to eat but I shooed him away. I wasn't going to get my ass off of this chair until I read through every file. Most of the people were added to the team while Father was still alive, but a few were new comers. The thing that caught my eye was one thing the old crew had in common - their origin. Most of them were orphans, that joined Father when they were in their teenage years. I giggled at the thought of Father working a charity case, it was as if he collected kids with no place to go and provided them housing for felonious work. Men who joined the team since Dan took over were a bit older, some of them with already criminal activities in their records. With every file I felt the knot in my stomach growing bigger. There's nothing here. All of them were simple men with bad life decisions, but none of them gave me any inclinations that they could be working for Hammer. I took my phone out and called Dan for the fourth time today. No response again. What is that dimwit doing?

I was going through the files for a second time when I heard a knock on the door. "Come in." I spoke, but my voice cracked a few times. I realised that I hadn't spoken in a couple of hours already. Jimin walked inside with a cup of tea. "How's it going?" He asked sheepishly, obviously sensing my mood. I pushed the files to the side, providing some space for the cup. "Not good, Jimin. I can't find any information that would hit the spot for me. Neither of these people have any reasons to be working for Hammer. They earn good wages, Dan treats them well. I'm sitting here, reading and re-reading every file and there's nothing, Jimin. Nothing! I feel like I'm starting to lose my mind, I'm tired, I don't know what to do, Dan is not picking up his phone, Yu-jun is not waking up, we're not even sure if he ever will, and the bastard that did this is walking happily around MY house. My life seems to be getting further and further away from me, slipping through my fingers, I don't know what to-" Jimin shot up and hugged me, while I felt the rising anxiety, threatening to spill out at any moment. He wrapped his arms around me, pulled me into his chest and held me tightly, while I started to hyperventilate. I wanted to let the tears go, I wanted to let all of the emotions escape, but they didn't. My eyes stayed dry and anger mixed with fear were traveling around my body, overtaking every single nerve I had.

"It's going to be ok, it's going to be fine." Jimin kept repeating, caressing my head. "Yu-jun will wake up, Dan will come back soon, he will come back with good news and we will leave this place. We will go back to our housing, we'll take the term off. We'll travel somewhere away. We will take a long vacation and leave everything behind. You'll be laying on beach, sipping on your cocktails, basking in the sun and I'll be there with you. You will not have a single worry in your mind, I promise. Just hold on a little bit." His words were painting a beautiful image in my mind, and without even thinking about it I started to relax. "You promise? Please promise me, that you will stay with me till the end. We will go through this together." I asked, like a child, catching the fear of losing him throughout all of this rising in my heart.

"I promise." Jimin pulled back, took my hands into his and placed his lips on them. "I will be with you, we will live this through and we will leave this place, all of this mess together. Baby, I made this decision the moment I realised how I felt about you. I love you, Kieran. I'll be with you throughout every step of the way."