The Afterlife

26) From Friends to Foes

Much like their departure from their homeland, the arrival back to it was quite the journey. It was long, for some, but for the rest, it was a whole other trip to enjoy, although there was not much to revel in, what with the impact of the party.

It had only been two days since it happened, so it was easy for everyone to clearly remember what went down during the ceremony. For all of their plan's success, Sihyeon could not practice the peace that should have come after at all; no one said a word, but the air was heavy all the same.

If her parents had not known anything, they did now, and while they spoke nothing of it, Sihyeon could see how they barely spoke at all. It was different, their silence, than how it had been before the party. While they were mostly viewers of all the chaos before, they were even more so now, and it was deafening, said silence, but Sihyeon did not know what she wanted them to say after all.

"He had proven nothing, Sihyeon," Taehyung had told her while they waited for their second plane; he sat by her while she disappeared some terminal far from theirs, and he spoke to her when Yeonjun could not leave Siwoo's side to look for her, "what do you worry about?"

With not much to be said, Sihyeon shook her head, both in denial and refusal to speak. She knew what Taehyung said was true, but even then, she knew that Namjoon was the very person to tell her parents that she committed unspeakable crimes, and now he was also the person to define said crimes. It was easy to conclude that they would believe him, since they already did when he wanted to break their hearts, and since there was nothing to not be believed.

Even more terribly, Sihyeon despised herself. She knew she had no right to be so distant or try break herself free from the reality, for it was all of her making, but she could not handle speaking to the two people who always looked at her as a child, a pure one, of the endless killings she had to make.

It was tough, returning home with so much weight, and with no one to carry it for her, Sihyeon drove home from the airport with a bleeding heart, a terrible ache eating on her insides as the silence spread all over the ride home.

Taehyung refused to leave them alone even with his own fatigue marring his brows; he looked tired, just like the rest of them, but he rode Sihyeon's car with Siwoo on his lap till they arrived, and he put the kid to bed gently before he stood outside to finally leave.

"At this point, we really have no choice but to interrogate your parents, Sihyeon," Taehyung said, picking the folded picture Sihyeon had given him the night before the party, "everyone else is dead," he looked around the picture, and his eyes met with all the past and its tales, "and even though they are not in the picture, Kim Namjoon had kidnapped them for a reason, and they must know something."

Sihyeon only nodded, her own weariness paying respect to none of the heaviness that caught the breaths inside her, "handle them with care, then," she sighed, "and stop if it is too much on their mental health."

"I will be there tomorrow night," he looked between both his colleagues, dividing his sympathy between them fairly before he stepped away from their door, "rest, for now."

With her parents staying in the penthouse with Yun and Mia, Sihyeon was able to allow herself to easily slip into her bed. It was terrible to think of how they would spend the night thinking of her, but she promised herself she would but an end to it when time comes and Taehyung sits with them.

Until then, she wanted to stay as sane as possible, so she put her head over her pillow and allowed drowsiness to savour her like a long-lost meal, a fair share of bread after hours of starvation.

She thanked herself for it, as well, when she woke up the next morning feeling better than she had expected herself to be. With all the jetlag and lack of sleep, she was sure some headache would keep her company as she opened her eyes, but it was not the unbearable kind; it was easy to shrug off with some painkillers, and Sihyeon was able to fare far better than she expected.