Heartless || •OG• ✔️

Chapter 47 - Jimin

"We need not be adversaries," Madam said, reaching one hand into her sari. Jimin held his pistol tighter and prepared to spring to action, but she pulled out a piece of paper folded in half. "Mr. Seong, it's an honor to meet you."

"What the hell do you want from me?" he asked, her swatting the air.

"Nothing other than to give you the truth." She held out the paper. There was ten feet between them. Jimin made it nine.

"Jimin, don't trust her," Jericho said.

"I don't trust anyone. It'll be fine. What's in that paper?"

Madam pretended he didn't speak. "I'll be honest. I've sent my best teams after you, and yet all I've gotten in return were dozens of bodies, only one of which yours. Mr. Byun, a real shame, he was a wonderful assassin. Killing you? It's hard. I'm no fighter. I'm not defenseless, but I was always better at rules and regulations than self-defense. I come here to offer you information you've always wanted. Don't tell me that's not tempting?"

"It is, but there's one problem with that." She quirked a brow. "I don't know what information you're talking about. I've never cared about information since the day I got into this job. Throughout my whole mafia life, I only wanted to know..." A cold bit Jimin's skin. The heat inside the castle did nothing to combat it. His eyes slowly turned up to Madam's neutral face. "One thing."

Nine feet became eight. Then seven. Six. Jericho was shouting Jimin's name, but he took the paper and crumbled the edges of it from his firm grasp. His pistol went back into his waistband, him amazed they didn't shoot him as soon as he put it away. Madam held her man back from shooting, and he glared, but he obeyed. Jericho and Ariel made sure to keep their guns on the two threatening them. Jimin paid it no mind.

What he saw when he unfolded the paper was his face staring back. Next to him was Aria's face. 'Case 613' was spelled out on top in black ink that looked like it had been copied a hundred times. It was the kill order for Aria and Jimin. The order that caused Jimin's life to be a living hell.Jimin was a fluke, he was supposed to die. The details of how they would die were written out. Flames for distraction, search the house, kill the occupants. Dig up the information. So it was buried on his property, likely while he was at work and Aria at daycare. They destroyed him and took what they wanted without pausing to consider the consequences. Without pausing to consider they were taking a child's life.

Jimin's eyes flooded with tears until they soaked the paper. With trembling hands, he rubbed his lips together and searched through it all. All the details that were written. Such intricate planning to kill them. It was insulting. Vile. But not as vile as the name on the bottom. The one who signed it, the one who authorized and detailed the death of Seong Jimin and his daughter.

Jericho Novak.

The paper fell from his hands, Madam's lips curling up into a smirk as her and her guard backed away. Why they were leaving them was beyond Jimin. He didn't care. There wasn't a cell in his body that gave a damn about the High Council, Madam Amara, or even Charlotte. His mind was focused on Jericho. On the one who had been lying this whole time.

"Jimin, listen to me-"

"When I told you my story," he said, shifting his head back to stare at Jericho, his left eye twitching. "Did you know I was the Seong Jimin you signed that order on?"

He was quiet for a moment too long. "Yes."

"You were the one who authorized the death of my daughter?" Jimin asked, Ariel's eyes expanding. She backed away from Jericho, holding the pistol up at him instead of at the receding Madam and her guard.

"Jimin, it was a long time ago-"

"Answer me!"

More hesitation. "It was me."

All Jimin saw was his wrath. It slithered its way up his spine, fuzzing his vision to the point where he clenched his hands into fists. They trembled by his sides. There was ten feet between him and Jericho. He made it nine. Then eight.

"I didn't kill your daughter," Jericho said.

"But you found my address," Jimin replied. Seven. "You searched for me... you hunted me." Six. "My baby girl would be alive if it wasn't for you. You signed that order, you signed off on the death of my child!" His body convulsed, saliva launching out of his mouth and on the floor. Five. "I watched the love of my life die in my arms, and it's all because of you."

"You're my best friend," Jericho said, his voice cracking while tears flowed down his face. "I never meant to hurt you, I was a different person back then. I'm so, so sorry. There's no apology in the world that can make up for it, but I promise you I would never do that to you now. Or to anyone, for that matter."

Jimin heaved, his vein popping on his neck. "I'm the parent. When you're a parent, your child becomes the most important thing to you. I knew one day, Aria and I would have to fight. One day the mafia would come into our lives and try to rip us apart. I knew, it's how my parents were. Petty. Stubborn. Weak. But I dreamed anyway. I dreamed of a life where my baby and I would live in that house unbothered. I dreamed I'd take her to school and not have to worry about her being killed any second she was away from me. I was already raising her without a mother, which was hard enough, then I had to never take my eyes off her, not once. Every single moment of every day, I lived in fear. But nothing came. No mafia, no assassins. No death.

"And my dreams became real. I got away from my parents and raised a beautiful baby girl who I watched Dumbo with every day of the week. But... I took my eyes off of her for one minute. Less than that. And after, my life was never the same. It was that day I realized I'm not allowed to dream. I'm not allowed to be happy. Even with Charlotte, the woman I thought was the love of my life, I wasn't happy. The pain was - and still is - there. Every time my heart beats, I hear Aria screaming for my help. Screaming and begging for mercy, for me to come and save her. But I didn't. I wasn't fast enough."

Jimin stared at Jericho, the distance a mix of too close and too far. They both weren't sure if there was anything left to say. No, actually. There was one thing left. A question. A question that had plagued Jimin's mind for years, and one he never thought he'd get to ask.

"How many other fathers deal with this pain, Jericho?" Jimin asked. "Who else have you robbed from their parents? Who else have you put through this pain?"

Empty halls replied to Jimin more than Jericho did. Although the response he got was far from the words he expected. Egotistical pricks like Jericho had histories of torturing others for their own gain, yet the universe had other plans. Jimin was the tortured soul.

"Only you," Jericho whispered.

There were seconds of quiet. Then, Jimin nodded with moisture coating his face. He staggered back, Jericho raising his hand for Jimin to take. Jericho's hand basked in the light that acted as a ray of hope. Jimin ignored it, chuckling. The chuckle turned into a laugh. It echoed down the halls until it decayed into a fit of sobs. His body ached from him falling to the ground and not caring who saw.

Wails wrenched themselves out of his throat, the shrieks sending slices of misery down his neck. Ariel came over and went by his side, rubbing his shoulder. "Jimin, we have to go. We can't stay here. She left for a reason, they have to be trapping us. The longer we stay here, the more likely we die," she said. All logic and reason flew out the window the second Jimin saw Jericho's name on the kill order. The kill order that descended his life into the nightmare-induced coma he felt like he was in.

"Let me die," he said in a choke, coughing out the words.

"I'm not leaving you!" she shouted, Jimin opening his swollen eyes at that. "I'm not losing you. Please, old man. Anyone but you." She reached forward with her thumbs, wiping his tears away. "Not you." Staring at her was like peeking into a mirror. It was near impossible to watch her expression, but he did anyway.

"You should go before I fail you too."

"Jimin," she said, her voice soft but stern. "No matter what you do, you won't fail me. And if something happens, if something goes wrong and I die, it won't be your fault. You've given me the happiest time of my life. Not Ivan, not Charlotte, not Jericho - you. For now, can that be enough?"

He got to his knees, embracing her and pressing his head against her shoulder. She shushed him, rocking him back and forth while Jericho did whatever the fuck. Jimin could care less. He held onto Ariel and refused to let her go, squinting his eyes as more cries came out.

"I know," she whispered, holding him tighter. "I can't imagine."

They stayed like that for eternity. Then, gunfire was heard, Jericho fighting it off while Jimin recovered enough to stand. He wobbled, Ariel steadying him. His pistol was in his hand. For a moment, he considered gunning down Jericho. However, he needed the cannon fodder. That way him and Ariel could escape.

"Who else knows?" Jimin asked, Jericho pressing his back against the wall to dodge the bullets. "Tell me or we're dying here."

Jericho huffed out a stream of air. "Ivan, Kayden, and Charlotte."

Charlotte. The woman who touched his scars and saw the darkest parts of him. The woman who saw each nightmare, who laid by his side and witnessed how fucked up he had become. Charlotte Evermore, Seong Jimin's ex-girlfriend and closest friend, knew that the man who murdered Jimin's daughter was living with them.

And she didn't say a word.

Jimin staggered back and shook his head, Ariel taking his hand as if that would snap him back to reality. Ariel did her best, tugging on him and trying to get his attention while Jericho held the guards off as best he could.

"We have to go. We can deal with this when we're safe. Do you trust me?" she asked. Those last words got him to bring his eyes down to her. Her pleading irises were crying out to him. The little tugs she gave him had his adrenaline slowing, his heart calming itself. Wrath was an old friend that stuck with him daily, yet seeing Ariel had his wrath dissipating. For a blink, Jimin was blissfully ignorant to what had just happened. But reality was an old friend too, and it slapped him in the face with the weight of Ariel's question.

"Yeah kid, yeah, I do."

~~~
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