N0 B0DY, N0 CRIM3 | Bang Chan

Tongue tied

"You don't want anything bad to happen to your father, do you?" Lee Know blinked a few times while he waited for Kiera's response. 

Did she want something bad to happen to him? After all, he was her father. On one hand, he was the only surviving member of her family she had left. On the other hand, without him in the picture, she'd finally be free of everything. Did she want to be alone in the world not knowing how to survive on her own or did she want the misery of continuing to live with him? The thought of all of it made her head spin. 

"You can't hurt my father no matter how hard you try. That man is made of ice and nothing can penetrate it. Don't you understand? No matter what you do, you cannot hurt my father. You cannot tame a wild dog." 

His voice softened at once. A look of pity filled his eyes. "You don't think very highly of your father, do you?" 

"It doesn't matter what I think of my father. That changes nothing, you can't hurt him no matter how hard you try." 

"I suppose you must be right. His wife was assassinated almost a week ago and we haven't seen him shed a tear once. He's made a few public appearances and yet he remains unscathed. You'd think someone would look a bit disheveled knowing that their wife of twenty something years was six feet beneath the ground."  

Kiera's fingernails dug into her palms at the mention of the assassination. Lee Know took sight of this and continued pressing her further for information. 

"Why do you think your mother was assassinated?" 

Kiera's voice came out as a whisper, "I don't know." 

"It wasn't because she was Willie's wife?" 

"I think it's because Stray Kids wanted her dead." 

Lee Know shook his head. "We didn't want her to die. Your father? Absolutely, but we had nothing against your mother. It's not our fault that she had an awful taste in men." 

"W-what?" She glanced up in shock. 

"We didn't want Beverly to die. Sure, she was annoying, and insensitive, but a lot of people are. We didn't kill your mother, Kiera. There was no reason for us to go after her. You'd be shocked to find out that we have morals. We don't go after people who don't deserve it." 

"You're part of Stray Kids?" 

He nodded his head. 

"Han and Hyunjin too?" 

"Yes. There's only eight of us all together. Whoever assassinated your mother, it wasn't us. We're not malicious enough to kill anyone without a proper cause." 

"So who killed her?" 

"I'm afraid that I'm not sure. Whoever it was, they were pretending to be us." 

"I don't believe it." 

"You don't have to believe it if you don't want to, but it's true." He leaned forward towards her. "We're going to try this one more time. I've told you the truth and I expect you to tell me the truth too. What do you know about your father?" 

"Not much." 

"Does he have enemies?" 

"Doesn't everyone?" 

"Not as many as your father has." He leaned forward more and pulled a small notebook and pen out of his pocket. "I need their names." 

"I don't know their names." 

"What do you know?" 

She shrugged her shoulders. 

"Who are your friends?" 

"I don't have any." 

"You have to have friends, you're the president's daughter. You live a lavish life and you're now in the white house. I'm sure you have staff members at your disposal at every second of the day. You're living the life that people dream about." 

"Just because it looks like a dream on the outside, it doesn't mean that the inside of it is as flawless as it seems." 

"Then tell me about it." 

Kiera considered it for a moment. She considered dropping her guard and spilling out everything she knew. Her fathers screams and his desperation to grip onto the perfect family. The perfect family living the american dream; bright white smiles and heads held tall. A perfect circle of friends and a well paying job. The kind of life that everybody was supposed to live because that's what they had been told. 

For some, it had been stitched into them since birth. Screaming patriotism and bleeding red, white, and blue. Confusing patriotism with nationalism. Holding your head high and striding after the number one spot in everything because that's just how it was in America. 

Work yourself to the bone day in and day out. If you struggle, don't talk about it, just work harder, and everything will be okay; even if it feels like your world is collapsing around you. Just smile and suck it up. Don't complain, you're living in America. Don't be foolish, everybody wants the American dream. 

Lee Know watched in shock as tears built up in Kiera's eyes. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the security camera on the ceiling. Were the other guys seeing this too? Could they have gotten this whole situation wrong? Maybe Kiera was telling the truth. 

Snapping back into it, she wiped away her tears. She didn't know how much her father cared about her. If she gave Stray Kids all of that information, who knew what they would do with it. If she ended up back home and in her father's grasp, she couldn't imagine what he'd do to her if the news leaked that he was a shitty father. That was something she wasn't going to risk.

She glanced up into Lee Know's eyes without fear. 

"I'm done talking."