Lies | Jenbum & Jaegi

two

In the silence of the alleyway under flickering neon lamps, a figure is fast approaching from behind. She tried to caught him off guard by attacking him when he's not expecting it but Jaebum's reflex is much faster. He deftly wade off her hands from his neck.

Jaebum leaned against the mouldy wall and crossed his hands.

"Why do you want to see me?" he asked her.

"You look stressed. What's wrong?" Seulgi asked while feigning innocence, as if she wasn't about to strangle him from behind just now.

"Nothing much, I think."

"Oh yeah?" A swift jab aiming to his ribs could've have the air knocked out of his lungs but Jaebum quickly twist her hands loosely and pull her over his shoulders.

"Put me down!"

He dumped her on the ground and Seulgi glared at him while brushing off her clothes.

"We won't be able to kill each other off, Seulgi. Our way of thinking had been intruded, broken down and reshaped by Scorpio to be the same, a replica of each other. We think and we act exactly like they taught us. No matter how bad we wanted to finish each other off, we just can't. We both had trained together once. The skills we possesed, it was passed down from the same origin, how to attack, how to handle guns. The right way to hurt, to kill and to destroy."

They had tried to kill each other off many times before but both of them knows that neither of them ever intended to hurt each other for real. It's just that action is the only communication method they knew other than to say words verbally. Their body is already syncronised with each other like a pendulum tied to a string.

Jaebum hold up something near to her face that caused her to grit her teeth.

"And things like this isn't going to work on me, you know." He crushed the bug in his hands. It was a tracker that Seulgi had slipped into his suit when he met her in the room.

They sat in the silence for a moment.

Seulgi take out a pocket knife from her clothes. She unsheathed it and traced the blade carefully. It was the first knife she received when Jaebum and her had grew up under Scorpio and befriended each other. Jaebum was always there for her then. But it's all the past.

"I love you, Seulgi."

Seulgi closed her eyes and tuned out everything Jaebum is saying because she's done on getting hurt all over again. Sometimes it feels like Jaebum is grating on her already raw nerves with his lies. His big fat lies that she can't help but foolishly fell for, over and over again.

His love confession is just a lie. The old Jaebum would never throw love words like it's nothing. He knew what's Seulgi's weakness are -that she's holding on to that bleak hope that someday they could go back to the good times. But the word "I love you too" always die at the tip of her tongue because she wanted it to mean something when she finally said it.

She wanted it to mean something to him.

She slipped back the knife behind her back.
"When I thought that you left me years ago, it was devastating. But right now, you made me realise something, Jaebum. Even if we found our way to each other again, I don't think it's possible to pretend that like nothing had change between us at all. I've changed, and so do you. How do I know that you're still the same? That you haven't turn your back on me during those years in the Kim's family? That your loyalty lies to no one?"

"You saw what they did to me, to my family."

The haunting memories from the past invades her mind immediately. It was still painful to remember the tragedy that had happened. Remembering it again is just like poking fingers into wounds that could never heal perfectly.

"Leave Scorpio for me, Seulgi. Leave and betray them first before they do."

"Don't try to manipulate me with your words!"

Jaebum went silent for a moment but something had changed in his eyes. As he bored his gaze deep into her, she could see it then -barely decipherable, there's hurt and sadness in those black orbs, lingering around like a faint scent in the air. She can almost feels it, heavy and suffocating in her chest.

Jaebum grabbed her hand.

"Isn't you the same, Seulgi? You said President Kim used me, but what about you then? In one way, aren't you the one who's using the excuse that since I am not dead it's okay to assume that whatever happen to my family is something to be forgotton and buried over?"

Jaebum is sharp and smart. He had always been that way but this, this is the things that hurts the most. The fact someone could read her like an open book, exposing her dark secrets she struggled to hide for years so nonchalantly.

"I joined Scorpio for a reason. And it was to protect them, yet they still died anyway. Right now, I have nothing to lose. It doesn't matter anymore. One day, I am going to destroy Scorpio. And what is much better than having the daughter of the president in my hands, without they realising it, I can turn the Kims against Scorpio and I'll watch their downfall with my own eyes." The tone in his voice is so cold and she felt the chill down her spine. She's never heard him like this, so deadly and threatening.

She took a deep breath to calm down and lift her head to stare at Jaebum in the eyes.

"Then let's be enemies, Jaebum. Let's kill each other off with our love and hatred."

***

Jennie has been avoiding everyone these past few days and went missing from her family's mansion in Seoul. Jaebum sped off his car towards the outskirts of the city that night. There's only one place he could think of where she could've been hiding all this while.

Not long after, he arrived at her guesthouse and entered the passkey. But when he opened the door, only darkness and silence greeted him. The living room's switch flicked open automatically as he stepped inside and Jaebum let out a soft sigh when he saw a pair of heels perched on the counter top.

The beautiful China vases lined up along the pathway and the phostos littered around on the walls seems to be staring back at him in the gloomy atmosphere.

"Jaebum? Is that you?" He turned around to see Jennie poking her head from her bedroom door.

"Yeah."

Jennie wiped the traces of tears from her face with her sleeves quickly and padded towards him.

"Why are you here?" She stopped right in front of him and tilt her head a little. "Did anything happen?"

"You must come with me Jennie. We'll catch the earliest plane tomorrow so you better get ready now."

"W-what? Why so suddenly? Did anything happen?"

"Don't worry. It's nothing serious. Just believe in me, okay?"

Jennie look puzzled but she still nods her head reluctantly. She wrapped her arms around him and rest her head on his chest while muttering in her breath,

"Of course I do."

who are you rooting for? and why?

jenbum or seulbum