Caged Princess| KTH

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵

Y/n

I thumbed through the articles on the online newspaper, not finding anything of significance to read. Hyun Ki had been laid down for a nap and the streaming service that Taehyung's TV provided didn't hold any sort of appeal to me today.

So, I had turned to the cell phone he had given me, still disbelieving that he had blocked any way for me to make calls or connect with my social media accounts. I could read the entire internet on it, but I couldn't let anyone know that I was there.

It sucked.

Still, it was more than I had a few days ago. I had thought that I could placate him with kindness, make him feel like he was important to me, and that he might lessen his restrictions on his wife.

It hadn't worked and honestly, I would have been shocked if it had.

I moved to June's column, my heart hurting as I saw her smiling face in the corner. I didn't believe that she wasn't looking for me and Hyun Ki. June was not the type of person to give up at all. It was part of her drive to be a great journalist, to never rest until she had uncovered the entire truth about whatever she was investigating.

I could only hope she wouldn't give up on us either. I missed my friend. I missed the ability to just talk about anything and everything with her.

Sighing, I scrolled to the bottom, pausing as I saw the invitation to make a profile and leave a comment for June. My heart started to pound in my ears, and I sat up on the sofa, stealing a glance around to see if anyone was watching me. I could leave her a comment.

could let her know what was going on and maybe find a way out of this life.

Did I dare? Taehyung had explicitly told me not to contact anyone but him through this phone, but I was desperate. He was trying to control my life, my every move, and all I wanted was to talk with my friend.

Pushing aside my worry, I quickly created a profile with a fake name, a name that was a joke between me and June. Before she was a hotshot columnist, I used to go onto the websites that she would send articles to and pose questions to her so that it looked like someone was interested in her work. The name Jezebel was my handle, and we used to laugh about it.

Only June would know that it really was me.

Biting my lip, I fired off a question and hit send before I could think about it any longer, hoping that I hadn't just signed my death sentence by doing so. Taehyung didn't understand. He lived in a harsh world, but there were people who cared for me, people I loved and that loved both me and Hyun Ki.

Well, namely one person, but I wasn't about to let her think that I had just sat up and disappeared in the middle of the night.

She deserved to know that we were okay.

I reached up to close the browser, but an article caught my eye and I started to scroll. It was one about a body found in the Han River, by an owner of a Japanese restaurant that was highly popular with the wealthy Soul. I had walked by the storefront numerous times, but the food was far too expensive for my budget, so I had never eaten there. The commissioner, Kim SeokJin, was stating that there was no foul play expected.

I snorted. No foul play. No one just showed up in the Hans without it being foul play. That was how the Mafia worked.

Oh God. My mind immediately went to Taehyung and I scrambled to type in the owner's name, scrolling through the search to see if I could find any link to him and the restaurant.

After a few minutes of searching, I found what I was looking for. It was an article buried within the pages of the Soul Post, one of those articles that people just glossed over, thinking it was put in there to fill the pages. According to the article, the owner was in cahoots with the Byun family, one of the premier Mafia families in Soul.