The Road to Defeat

FOUR

Suffocating change

The time was late, 10pm to be exact. Emily was alone in her room, thinking over everything that had happened earlier that afternoon. She anxiously shook her leg impatiently waiting for Taehyung to come home. It was a bad habit Emily had always had, but she'd never been able to get rid of it. Emily hadn't seen Taehyung all day and she hadn't even had time to text him. Honestly, she barely even had time to take in everything. Since they hadn't spoken, Tae had no idea about the information Emily was exposed to. She was upset with everything in that moment, she felt naive for not suspecting anything of her friends or even asking about what they had been up to the past few days. More importantly, she felt lied too, everyone had known about this but her. Now she couldn't help but question everything about these people she called friends, hell she even questioned why they were really in Italy right now.

Thirty long minutes later, Emily heard the front door open hoping that it was Tae, she straightened her back and took a deep breath. The bedroom door soon opened and in walked Taehyung.

"Hey Em," Taehyung smiled happily at her. Emily looked at Tae but she couldn't bring herself to hold eye contact with him. She didn't know how to approach the conversation and she didn't want to let her emotions get the best of her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Emily asked softly. She was scarily calm when she was upset, but Tae recognized that she was more distraught than she was letting on. It wasn't often that Emily was upset but Taehyung loved Emily, he couldn't help but hold a record of everything about her. Her unusually smooth tone of voice was a key indicator to him.

"So... you know about the mafia?" Tae asked softly, leaning his back against the closed bedroom door. Her statement took Taehyung by surprise, however he didn't have to think long about what she was referring to. Taehyung told Emily everything, when it came to her he was a completely open book. Well ...mostly.

"Of course I fucking know Tae!" Emily yelled at him, now having built up the courage to hold eye contact with him. However, for once, Tae wasn't up for a staring contest; he just looked down and fiddled with his hands. He felt awful about keeping this from Emily for so long, but he was going to tell her. He just wished she didn't find out this way. "Why would you keep something like this from me Taehyung? I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other." Emily let out a quick huff after accidently letting her anger slip. She hated fighting with Tae, but she really thought this was a valid reason to be upset. Taehyung and Emily frequently had deep late night conversations about anything and everything. One night in particular was on Emily's mind at this moment. On that night, Tae had specifically talked about his past and he was very firm about not lying because of something that happened before their relationship. Tae claimed that if Emily were to ever lie to him that he wouldn't be able to handle it, and their relationship would end.

The two sat in silence for what felt like forever, before Taehyung could think of the right words to say.

"I know I should've told you, and I really wanted to. But this is all so dangerous Emily. People die. And I don't want you to be one of them." Emily watched Tae as he spoke, and she couldn't avoid the emotion in Tae's face. Taehyung was upset with himself, disappointed.

"I understand." Is all Emily had to say for Tae to start tearing up. Taehyung was known to many as unbreakable, but everyone has a weak spot. Taehyung's weak spot was Emily.

~~~ <> ~~~

The boys were scattered around the living room. Tae, Emily, and Jimin were seated on the couch. The only sound that could be heard was Namjoon paced across the room.

"Can you stand still for two fucking seconds Namjoon!?" Yoongi snapped at him. Namjoon glared at him but paused his movement. Everyone eyed the two men. Emily had never been in such a tense room before, it was like the negativity and anger were suffocating her. Yoongi sat in a chair on the right side of the room, elbows on his knees and his head down. He was thinking, contemplating how this all was going to play out. Now that Emily knew about the mafia things were bound to change, things had to change. The Mafia had rivals and once they found out about her, they could use her to their advantage, and harm her for their own gain. Lauren quietly joined the group's conversation, leaning against the doorframe behind Yoongi.

"So... can anyone tell me about the mafia?" Emily spoke up, breaking the room out of it's tense silence. Namjoon sent a glare Emily's way.

"What do you want to know?" Jimin asked Emily politely. He was sincere, he actually cared about Emily's feelings in this situation.

"Um... well... have you killed people?" Emily asked timidly, afraid of the answer to come. The boys all looked at each other, silently discussing who would be answering the question. Taehyung placed his hand on Emily's knee and from that alone she knew the answer. The world seemed to stop before her eyes. These seven boys that Emily had grown to love were murderers. She looked toward Tae, tears threatening her eyes.

"We don't choose to kill, but we do whatever is best to protect our family." Jimin spoke, noticing that Emily was thinking too much over this.

"We don't just kill people for no reason, please don't think that." Jeongguk said to Emily, afraid to lose their close friendship. Emily was slowly starting to wrap her head around all of this. "Okay, I have one more question. Who is the mafia boss?" The boys all looked toward each other before looking toward Emily. Emily shook her head at the group, of course, no one was going to speak up.