The Symbol Of Darkness

㉞Let Me, Please

 
The same wretchedness engulfed Taehyung’s existence throughout the three-hour surveillance of Ha Eun the next day, and it adhered to him again tightly as he trudged into the mansion to report to Jin Mo. 

He didn’t bother masking his lugubrious mood; it was just the third day of his torment, and he already didn’t have the strength to keep up with any facade. 

“What’s wrong with your face?” Jin Mo asked, frowning deeply, as he trod closer. 

Taehyung plumped down on the couch. “Just tired, don’t worry.”

Jin Mo, holding a glass of whiskey in one hand, sat across from him. His words didn’t sound that much convincing, and the glint of poignancy in his hollow eyes confirmed their mendacity. “You can tell me if something is bothering you, though.”

“I know.”

His short answers hinted he didn’t wish to elaborate or share whatever burdened his heart, and Jin Mo soon realized it. “Okay. What about Ha Eun?”

“He met with your friend today.”

Jin Mo grimaced, as if he had bitten a slice of lemon. “I have no friends in this business.”

“Fine, wrong wording. With your favorite business partner.”

Jin Mo’s squinted eyes lifted in thought, but they soon plummeted on him again. “Joo Eon?”

Taehyung nodded. “They must be planning a deal.”

“I don’t mind. Joo Eon’s business is going well, but he’s not a threat to me. I prefer to have him on my good side, anyway. He has excellent goods.”

“I know, but that’s not the point. Someone was following Joo Eon, like I was following Ha Eun.”

Jin Mo hummed a ruminative sound. “Is someone planning an attack on him?” he mumbled — a voice used when someone thinks aloud. 

“That’s what I thought too. Either that, or someone just wants information about him.”

Jin Mo seemed to meditate on the matter for a little longer. “I’ll give him a call. If someone strikes his business, it’ll be no good for me.”

“Okay.” 

“Also, I’ll prepare a plan for you to meet Ha Eun. It feels like he wants to expand his business since he even met with Joo Eon.”

“Okay.”

Jin Mo’s frown of thinking disintegrated at the lusterless, meek voice that coiled around his ears again. “What’s wrong, Tae?”

“Don’t mind me. Do you need something else? I’m supposed to meet my hyung in an hour.”

Jin Mo’s chest dropped with a defeated sigh. “No. I hope you get over whatever is going on fast. I don’t like seeing you like this.”

I won’t. “I hope so too.” 

  
His two friends were waiting for him at the exit of the mansion, and Taehyung knew it was because he had ignored their calls earlier. The answers to their questions were fixed and still the same. He felt like shit. No, he wasn’t better. No, nothing changed. No, he didn’t want to do something to take his mind off. He wanted to hurt because that was what he deserved. 

So he simply and silently accepted their hugs and caresses of comfort before he told them he had to meet his hyung. 

He was buzzing with determination as he drove to his hyung’s house. His sorrow had awakened a cold-blooded iron will to force out any scrap of information Jae Wook had concealed from him all these years. And he wouldn’t leave if he didn’t get his answers.