Hostage | 전정국

Ten

Victoria regained consciousness slowly, at first. There were voices around her and her vision was too blurry to truly make out anything. She focused in on what they were saying while at the same time worrying about what happened to Jungkook.

"How could you be so careless? I said to bring her alive!" a man shouted. The voice sounded hauntingly familiar.

The other person huffed before responding. "She's alive, okay?"

"How the hell do you know?"

Finally, she was able to see. She blinked a few times, taking in the scene. She was sitting on the floor in the control room. A maskless man was sitting at the switchboard while the person he yelled at was standing up, back to Victoria. She squinted to see the man better. She knew that face.

His eyes flickered to her and he almost jumped out of his chair to join her on the floor. "Thank God!" He smiled widely and cradled her in his arms before brushing a few strands of hair out of her face.

Victoria stared at him in catatonic shock. Her eyes were wide, mouth slightly open as she looked at his beautiful eyes, his nose, his lips. It was really him. After all these years. This is where he had been that whole time?

She was finally pulled out of her state and pushed him away urgently. She sat up fully and scooted away from him, eyeing him warily. He recoiled in dismay. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"You're dead," she croaked, tears spilling from her eyes. "I saw you die."

Jin sighed and neared her cautiously. "No, baby. I'm right here."

"Oh my God!" she yelled, covering her ears with her hands and squeezing her eyes shut. "Am I dead?"

He gently took her hands away from her ears and placed his hands on her face. "Victoria, look at me."

She obeyed reluctantly, opening her eyes to gaze at him fearfully. There was no way this was real. She knew that Jin would never do something like that. He would never join a gang such as this. "This isn't real," she mumbled.

Seokjin wiped her tears with his thumbs and nodded. "It is."

"How?" she whispered.

"Enough talking!" the woman said harshly before moving her foot to come in contact with Victoria's head.

But Jin caught her ankle in his hand and hissed darkly, "Don't touch her." He threw her ankle back at her and turned to Victoria again. "It's a long story, princess, but I promise it was the last thing I ever wanted to do." He smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks as she continued to stare at him. "But you know too much. If you don't join us, I have to kill you."

"No!" she shrieked, pushing him away. "There's no way I'm joining this...whatever it is. I don't even know who you are anymore! The Jin I knew would never do something like this!"

Jin pressed his lips together, eyes glazing in the way she had seen only a few times before. "I can't kill you, baby," he sobbed, desperate for her to understand. "I love you so much. You know I do. I just..." He turned to the woman with wet cheeks. "Ten, I can't kill her."

"I can." She pulled her gun out in a flash, but Jin stood and grabbed it from her hands. Ten eyed him with disdain. "What the hell are you doing?"

He set the gun on the switchboard and nodded to the door. "Get out. I can handle this on my own."

"If you let her go, our entire organization will be jeopardized," she said with clear anger, the mask not doing much to distort her voice.

"Get out," he repeated with no further explanation.