Wick | 민윤기

Twenty-eight

1 March 2017

Yoongi couldn't remember much—only that one moment he was placing an envelope on the bed for Victoria to find, and the next he was being beaten and dragged away, tied up and blindfolded. It seemed like a long time of driving and walking with a gun pointed at his head before he was shoved forward to his knees.

The ground was slightly plush. Like carpet, almost. Harsh hands removed the cloth blocking his eyes and Yoongi blinked a few times, adjusting to the brightness in the room. Part of him knew that something like that would happen, which is why he was going to leave Victoria in the first place. He just didn't realize that it would happen so soon.

After his vision came completely into focus, he noticed that a man was standing right in front of him. Yoongi was still looking down, so he could only see his expensive dress shoes. Apprehensively, he lifted his head to take in the man's entire suit all the way up to his face.

He tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing. Wait...

This man was so familiar that he knew they'd met before. But where? It wasn't the man that chased him into Victoria's shop. He only stared back at him with furrowed eyebrows, blinking slowly.

"It's been a long time, little brother."

Yoongi's eyes widened at the sudden realization. The older brother that abandoned him, left him for dead all those years ago—was standing right in front of him. He was the reason Yoongi had been running, at least from H.S.S. though it could have been longer. He wasn't sure. What he did know, was that Joongi was also the one who sent the gangsters after Victoria.

Yoongi snarled from where he kneeled before him, glaring up at him through his lashes. "You fucking bastard."

"I thought you might say something like that," Joongi said with a heavy sigh, turning on one perfectly polished heel to saunter over to a large, plush armchair against the wall.

He stared straight at his younger brother with no expression, only sipping on the martini his goons brought to him feverishly, not missing a beat. Yoongi looked around and recognized the small rounded windows and the shape of the narrow room they were in.

"You have a plane?" he asked through gritted teeth. "I was left to fend for myself on the streets and you have a fucking plane?!"

Joongi only pursed his lips and tapped his manicured nails on the wood of the side table next to him. "I suppose I should explain myself..."

"Please do!" Yoongi shouted sarcastically, turning his head to glare at one of Joongi's men. "Would you like to hear the story of how a coward abandoned his little brother—basically leaving him to die?"

The older male cleared his throat and nodded toward the door. His men exchanged a look before untying the man on the floor and exiting the room. Yoongi only stared at his brother for a moment longer before getting to his feet. He approached the chair, irked by the way Joongi just looked at him with that poker face.

Yoongi grabbed him by the collar of his dress shirt, becoming even angrier as he still wasn't fazed. "How could do that to mom?" he hissed, bringing his face as close to his as possible without them touching. "How could you do that to me?"

Joongi only stared back. He knew the power he held. He knew Yoongi wouldn't be able to kill him. His little brother was a kind soul, always had been. Even as a child, Yoongi cried when their father would kill a spider or when he saw a squirrel on the road that had been run over.

"Why don't you let go of my shirt and we can discuss this like adults."

The younger let go of his shirt aggressively and stood back, beginning to pace in anger. "Like adults? Do you call sending gangsters after me being an adult? Do you call abandoning me with that psychopath being an adult? Who do you think you are?"

"Yoongi, there were a lot of things going on that you never knew about," Joongi said calmly, taking a sip of his drink. "For example, did you know that the woman we lived with wasn't our mother?"

Yoongi stopped pacing, shooting a wild look at the man. "What? You—you're lying!"

"No," he replied grimly with a slow shake of his head. "That monster killed our real mother not too long after you were born. You wouldn't remember."

The younger sputtered, his head spinning as he failed to process what his brother was saying. He sat in the chair on the other side of the room, eyeing Joongi warily. "Why did you leave me with him, then?"

Joongi sighed and stared back. "You and I are more alike than you know. I, too, was in with a bad crowd. One of my friends pissed off a member of this gang and they came after us. We abandoned our lives and tried to lose them, but they found us every time. Eventually, they cornered us in Gwacheon. She..." He trailed off, averting his gaze as the memories swam through his eyes. "I fought back and they liked my spirit, so they offered to let me join. I was just a scared kid, so I accepted. And here we are."

    Yoongi only pinched the bridge of his nose, almost ready to explode. The anger boiled deep inside of him, carrying the scorching blood through his veins fiercely. "That's it? That's the big story?"

    "Well, I wanted to find you so I tried to get my men to retrieve you. You ran every time, though, so I figured the problem was that girl."

    At the mention of Victoria, Yoongi's heart clenched painfully, causing him to clutch his chest and squeeze his eyes shut. He wanted to change the subject; he couldn't talk about her. "And Namjoon?" he asked quietly, opening his eyes. "You knew?"

    "Of course I knew," he said with a low chuckle. "Of course, I told my men that I was after you because of the drugs you spilled, so when they found out that Namjoon was a sort of double agent..." He trailed off and clicked his tongue.

    Yoongi's chest ached even more as he looked down. "He's dead?"

    "Of course. They wanted to brutally torture him, but he killed himself before they could." His voice was nonchalant and airy. "By the way, I was very amused when my men told me that your name is Sam. Very clever, little brother."

    The younger rested his face in his hands, beginning to shake with sheer anxiety. "I'm gonna be sick..." His stomach soured at Joongi's words and his presence and the plane taking off only made it worse. He wondered if he was going to die. He wondered if Victoria was okay. He wished Namjoon was still alive.

    Part of him imagined that Namjoon had miraculously survived and would burst in any moment to save him like it was some movie. But thirteen hours passed him by sitting in that chair with his head in his hands and nobody came to save him. Namjoon was dead and he knew he would be too, soon.