THE ORANGE GIRL

chapter eleven

Monday, 2nd November 2015

9:46PM | Seokjin's Car

The line cut out, and Yoongi went deathly silent, thumping his forehead to the glass of the passenger side window. Seokjin eyed the wordsdisconnected flashing on the screen of the cell phone that was laying in a limp palm against the blonde's lap before the message faded to black, pressing the ball of his foot a little firmer to the accelerator pedal and the Chevrolet hummed loud in agreement, spinning the tyres faster into the night. The street lamps swamped the road with orange light, washing over the steel grey body of the car as it darted down deserted side alleys, the driver keeping his eyes on the bitumen while knuckles whitened around the steering wheel, flitting his stare back to the GPS that displayed the destination was no more than ten minutes away.

A thousand questions sprinted miles around the Consigliere's thoughts, tripping over one another in their haste to be asked first, but there was one that stood out like a beacon on the shore. Calling him home, bringing him back to reality. Breathing in, Seokjin parted his lips to release, but Yoongi was already speaking in a voice so quiet, entirely defeated with the answer.

"I lied to you."

The scene felt familiar, alike to the time he was taking you to the abandoned motel on the outskirts of the city, deep into their end of the territory which was now endlessly far away from where they were headed. Tonight, the pair were travelling into murky waters, into the blur of buildings that creates the invisible border between two sides so vastly different from one another, so incredibly unalike that it threw them into the categories of enemies.

But as Seokjin drove, glancing once more over at Yoongi who had his eyes fixed on the moon that was shining brilliantly in the night sky, he was not sure who the real enemy was anymore.

"You knew before you got her the night of her release that she had her memories wiped, didn't you?"

The soft exhalation that escaped the lungs of a fallen King confirmed the words of his best man. Seokjin sunk his teeth into his tongue, biting down until the taste of copper was stuck between his teeth and coating the insides of his cheeks.

"Yoongi," The man breathed steadily, sniffing once. "I am your goddamn Consigliere, so why didn't-"

"Only she and I needed to know about it. Nobody else. It would have become too messy if we let anyone know that it was all a fucking facade, another game that she designed. We needed to have everyone convinced, and the only way was to remain silent."

Seokjin winced at the use of the term we. It was something that normally applied to the Boss and himself, used to reference the very own flesh and blood of his gang. But now he was using it on you, and Seokjin could feel thick, hot tar building up in his throat as he tried to control his stressed, betrayed tone. The hard right turn that he took made Yoongi crack his forehead to the glass, but he was too numb to care.

"What does she know? Does she remember who she is?" The words were whispered between gritted teeth, a heavy foot pressing harder, the jog of the car charging into a sprint. "Did you tell her everything that night at the motel, let her know the truth since day one?"

Yoongi laughed humourlessly, a bleak and throaty sound that echoed around the small space. "No, she knows nothing. I was supposed to tell her the plan she had created once we were there, to remind her who she was, and once the memories were triggered she would tell me everything that I needed to know to overthrow them. And then..."

"You were going to kill her," Seokjin finished. "But you couldn't."

"Instead, I became just like her. I strung her along in a game of her own design until we were both completely lost and the strings were tangled and I was disgustingly in love. She never wanted this life, neither of us did, and so I decided that maybe only having one of us know the truth would be the safest bet."