GOODFELLAS → EXO // WATTYS 2019

[28]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

FANNING THE FLAMES I.
[May 30th, 1982]

-

"You had nothing to do with it, right?"

Ace loosens his silk red tie, though his eyes are trained on his sister. Gogo is pretending to read through documents in the chair beside his office door. The half closed tilt to the blinds shuts out the blinding morning sun, casting an eerie dimness. And Ace has an uneasy feeling as he glances at the newspaper article on Kim Dongwan's death and then back over to his sister, the last known person who had been with that very boy, who's pretending to read of all things.

"Hey-" Ace calls out in annoyance, because Gogo has never been one to be disrespectful and ignore him, but she's been acting really strange lately and it's starting to worry him. The Japanese man snaps his hands then to get her attention, "You hear me, don't you? Tell me you had nothing to do with it."

"And why should I?" Gogo replies finally, dropping the papers in her hands with a huff, the sheets scattering to the floor uselessly as she stares at him, chin raised defiantly.

"Because at any moment a very angry Byun Baekhyun is going to pay me a visit. And he isn't going to be interested in taking his anger out on some seventeen year old girl, Gogo. He's going to come to me. And what will I tell him?" Ace replies, placing his hands firmly on his desk as he stares at her, "Which is why you need to stop fucking around and just tell me. Be honest, you had something to do with Dongwan's death ... didn't you?"

Gogo remains silent, eyes downcast as she holds her peace.

"Didn't you?" Ace presses, sighing in frustration because he already knows the answer. The Japanese boss runs a hand through his hair then, cursing quietly before leveling her with an even look, "Were you following orders, huh? Did he tell you to do it?"

Finally, Gogo looks up at him, and then she nods like an obedient child. And that's when Ace remembers that's just what she is, a seventeen year old girl who had merely done as she was told. And now, he had to protect her. She was his little sister after all. And though he had a soft spot for Dongwan when the boy was alive, he was dead now. And if there was one thing Ace had found in his many years in the mafia, it was that you couldn't protect the dead. So instead, he would focus on the living. And despite doing such low thing, Gogo was still very much alive. And Ace planned on doing his best to keep it that way.

"You've stooped really low, haven't you?" Ace tells his sister anyway, because though he'll protect her until his last breath, he still couldn't support such an act. Why did the man even want Dongwan dead? Was it to get back at Baekhyun? But that didn't make since, weren't they once friends? None of it made sense, which is why Ace sighs, waving his sister away, "Leave, I can't even look at you right now."