The Sky Ablaze | Park Jimin

Chapter 3

Jimin

He was in the garden when his father joined him. He bowed to him before going back to staring at the flowers that were blooming.

"My son, you suggested a spy in our ranks, and I'm tasking you with finding him." His father stood straight with his hands behind his back, and his guards stood a few feet back from him. He didn't look at Jimin once with any sort of affection when tasking him with this job. It was like he was talking to one of his men.

"Of course, father."

"I want to share with you my plan." Jeonghoon lifted his arm to grab Jimin's shoulder, but Jimin flinched slightly. "Last night, I sent three men to retrieve Princess Eunjin. She will be our prisoner." He laughed. "I may even take her as my own wife. That will keep the whore under control."

Jimin dared to look at his father. "A prisoner is fine, but I do not think she will do well as your wife."

Jeonghoon surprised Jimin by considering his words. "That may be true. We shall see when she arrives. She may be too ugly to be my wife."

Was his father joking with him? He couldn't tell, and he didn't want to risk any sort of fake laugh in the event this wasn't a joke at all. He also did his best to imagine what Eunjin looked like now versus 10 years before. She was pretty to his eight year old eyes, and he thought she would still be pretty today. His mind could not comprehend Princess Eunjin as ugly, and his chest ached as he remembered all of her letters and kind words that painted an image of her in his mind. No, Eunjin was not ugly to him at all even if she did betray him.

"Let's hope that is the case. It could get complicated warring with her country and then marrying her," Jimin offered. "I will find the spy, father. It may take time, but it will be easier when she is here. I don't want to alert anyone that I'm searching."

Jeonghoon placed his hand on Jimin's shoulder this time, and affection filled his voice for the first time in Jimin's life. "I have complete faith in you, my son."

Jeonghoon and his guards left Jimin in the garden. Jimin was shaking a little, and his breaths came in rapid succession. He couldn't tell if he was angry or afraid, but he knew that soon enough he would come face to face with Princess Eunjin. He feared what he would do when he saw her, afraid he'd be too much like his own father.

He closed his eyes and wiped at a tear that escaped. "I'm so stupid," he said through clenched teeth.

When he managed to calm himself down, he returned to the palace in search of Seokjin. Perhaps there was the smallest grasp of hope that everything about Eunjin was wrong, but when he found Seokjin, nothing was contradicted.

"She made no indication she was in any danger. She seemed off when her uncle and cousin first arrived, but she was grieving still. She became the ward of a man she barely knew, but I've met with him several times, and he seemed well enough," Seokjin explained. They were hiding in the stairwell Seokjin had found Eunjin and Jimin in all those years ago. "I'm surprised she would do anything like this, but she could have been hiding that side of her from me."

Jimin sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "Yes, well, she really fucked me over."

"We've narrowly avoided death," Seokjin agreed. "You said she will be a prisoner though?" Seokjin tutted. "I'm not surprised your father is resorting to kidnapping. I am surprised about her interest in marrying Yoongi."