If You Love Me

27: The Madam's Web of Madness

[Attention! This chapter is a bit, and objectively speaking, creepy. It's unsettling, and there is a specific scene that has themes of corpse mutilation. Please read on responsibly.]

Murderer?

What does that mean?

Just exactly what did Bora mean when she said those words then?

A murderer is someone who relishes, laughs in the face of death when they drain foregin blood from the cold bodies beneath them. They antagonize, instigate pain and hurt upon others. This is not Yoongi.

How could he have possibly killed for pleasure?

You saw his face on the rooftop that day. It was a look of desperation, displeasure — he did not desire to kill Yoonhae, his own stepmother; rather, she pushed him over the edge of human sanity.

He drowned in the cruelness of this world, not in the blood of his abusers.

That day, he observed as the life flowed from her limp and stiff body but there was no smile on his face. He was remorseful for the cycle of violence he had perpetrated and knew it would one day come back to haunt him. His eyes were blank, devoid of the hope for happiness in the future because he understood he would never be able to forgive himself for the bullet lodged in her abdomen.

Now, as you stand side by side Yoongi in the morgue where The Madame's corpse lay, sprawled in its bruise-blue nakedness against the metal plate of one of the wall's numerous lockers.

His pupils shrink, rimmed with the complexity and emptiness dashing through his mind. Those thin lips are curved, almost menacingly and knowingly — itching to spill the cries hidden behind soft laughter.

It's the look of a man who's yet to confront the conflict between his illusion and reality.

He mutters stiffly, "Why is this so funny? For the longest time we struggled fighting for who should die first, and I- A part of me always wanted to see this, so why... does it feel so empty?"

He turns to you blurry-eyed and a cool shiver pours down your spine as he spirals in low, emotionless laughter.

"Her ambition killed her." he says, "I thought all my problems would be solved when she disappeared, yet I'm the only one who fell."

"Yoongi..."

"She cut all my ties and didn't even let me cut hers... She should have suffered."

He flinches as you rest your hand against his, but he doesn't refuse your touch and instead cooly gazes on at the body before him. "It's not enough..." he grumbles dully, eyes burning in rage. "It will never be enough."

❈

The procession to the burial site was a treacherous one. The dewy grass, sleek with an overcoat of rainwater, swishes beneath your toes with muddy dissatisfaction. It's as though the oncoming thunderstorm lathers resentful eyes on you — warning of a greater chaos.

"Today we honour the life of Min Yoonhae. Ms. Min was not merely a butterfly encased in glass for the spectators to watch, instead her presence demanded attention and admiration. She was not merely an individual but a loving wife, sympathetic mentor," Yoongi pauses, chewing out his next words in a dark tone, "a mother."

His slender figure, clad in a black suit and two-striped yellow armband, trembles as he continues on from one section of his speech to the next. The corners of his mouth are downturned, appropriately so in the perspective of others, but in reality, you know he is deeply resentful.