Glitch | 김 석진

Seven

The address that Taehyung had given him was burned into his memory. His only hope of finding Victoria was asking her. If anyone knew she did. Or he did...but Jin had to focus on the present task. He would worry about that later.

The old house on the hill behind Seoul's suburbs was rotting away. It was a sight he wasn't expecting, as he always remembered the version of Victoria that grew up in a comfortable mansion-like house.

Jin sighed deeply as he stepped down from his truck and stood before the shack. Flies swarmed around the rotting wood. It seemed as if nobody had lived there for a while. But if her mom was as crazy as Hoseok and Taehyung insisted, then it would make sense that her house was this neglected.

With a trembling fist, he knocked on the wood that was so weak and soft that it made no sound and almost collapsed under the pressure of his hand.

"Hey!" A gruff voice behind Jin gave him a start. He turned around to see an old man glaring at him. "What are you doing?"

He swallowed hard, still recovering from his spiking heart beat. "Do you know who lives here?"

"I did," he responded dryly. "But she's dead now."

"Fuck," Jin swore to himself. He had been doing that a lot lately.

Well, if Victoria's mother was dead, there was only one other bastard he could ask.

Jin drove furiously to the house he already knew, taking side streets so he didn't have to stop. No cop, no stop.

The large mansion came into view as it was flanked by other large homes. It was almost midnight at this point, and Jin knew he had kids. But they were teenagers now. It shouldn't have been a problem.

He parked crooked on the street and ran up the concrete pathway between two expansions of grass. The lights in his office were clearly on while the rest of the house was dark like the night that graced them.

Jin rang the doorbell and stepped back to look up and watch his silhouette leave the room. But he was a bit slow for Jin's taste, so he rang the doorbell three more times. The footsteps became quicker and more urgent.

The man opened the door cautiously. "Who is it?"

"Oh, sir, I just have a question about how to get out of this neighborhood. I'm a bit lost."

"Oh." His guard completely down now, he opened the door fully and stepped out onto the porch with him. "Well, if you take a right up here—"

Jin grabbed him by the hem of his shirt and slammed him against the side of the house, any patience he built in Hoseok's studio having dissipated. "Surprise, fucker."

"What?" his eyes widened when he recognized the handsome man ready to clock him. "Seok—Seokjin?" he stuttered.

"Correct, asshole. Now tell me where I can find your daughter."

-

Jin continued driving, staring numbly at the road. Victoria's father told him where she was, and he already knew he fucked up beyond repair in this reality.

588. The most renowned prostitution district in Korea. How the hell had Victoria ended up there? It was surely an awful fate, but Jin had to see her before he changed things again. He wanted this reality's Victoria to know that she's loved.

It wasn't hard to get directions to the dark place—even the police condoned the illegal activities that transpired there. However, he had to park in the city and walk through the maze.

There weren't a ton of people on the streets. 588 was more of a place where you walked into a joint you already knew about. Here and there were girls standing in windows with an eerie red light casting shadows on their almost-nude bodies.