Blood, Sweat And Tears

Part Twenty - Eight

          Myoui Mina and Hirai Momo never expected this.
         After Hwang Hyunjin and Wang Yiren left the estate, they'd been the only ones left in the shiro sakura no bara.
         They'd gossiped about many things - family, the usual. Especially about the growing, budding feelings between the heir of Hwang Enterprises and the daughter of the heads of the Wang Cartel. Everyone could detect those feelings but Hwang Hyunjin and Wang Yiren.
            Mina had saw the interaction between the two that night. If she hadn't known better she would've thought that they were a couple.
             When they received a notification that there was a visitor at the front door, they'd figured it was probably Hyunjin or Yiren, back after forgetting something. But instead, they found a certain lady named Park Jihyo.
           Except, now with more brightly coloured hair.
            "Jihyo!" Momo exclaimed as she threw her arms around the smaller girl.
            Mina just studied Jihyo curiously. It'd only been a few months since they'd last saw each other,but Jihyo seemed to have aged years since then. She seemed so much older and wearier than someone about to approach twenty.
             " You seem so different," Mina noted as Momo released Jihyo.
             Jihyo gave a tired smile and pushed her newly dyed hair out of her face. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes. "I've been hearing that a lot."
             "Why are you here? Not that I don't want you here," Momo hastily added as she saw the pointed look Mina was giving her.
             Jihyo smiled again, that same tired smile that Mina had never seen on her before. It was so different from her usual, cheery smile and it was disturbing for her to see it on Jihyo.
               " Hwang Hyunjin. Wang Yiren," Jihyo said hastily, almost breathlessly. "I need to see them. They're here, aren't they? This is really urgent."
              Mina and Momo exchanged looks. It was Momo who spilled the tea to Jihyo.
              "Hwang Hyunjin and Wang Yiren aren't here anymore, Jihyo."
______________________________
             Jungkook and Taehyung were heading out of the startlingly empty shopping mall with the rings on their fingers, their hands interlocked.
             Seokjin watched the two with pity in his heart. His motherly instinct wanted nothing more than to let them go, let them live and love, but he still had his child Yoongi to worry about. If they failed this mission they'd both be killed. And what mother wanted to see her child die?
             It was strange,how Seokjin and Yoongi met. Hed had been an arrogant, self - centered boy of thirteen, always boasting of his looks and not actually caring about those around him. Yoongi had been a year younger, and had arrived at the cartel after a raid on another.
             Seokjin had initially written Yoongi off as just scum, a boy of another cartel. But one day, just watching Yoongi stare lifelessly at a wall had triggered something in him.
            That motherly instinct had just . . .activated. He just felt the uncontrollable need to protect Yoongi from the world, from all its horrors, be the mother he'd lost.
             He lost his arrogance, his self - centered and uncaring nature, his vanity, that day. And he didn't regret it. Being able to be someone's mother figure, even if he was male, was a feeling he just . . . couldn't describe. But he loved it, loved Yoongi, though not in a romantic way, of course. Their relationship was that of a mother and a son's.
             "Jin - hyung? "
              The sound of Yoongi's voice snapped him out of his trance and back to reality. He glanced up at the younger boy. "Yeah?"
               "Jeon Jungkook and Kim Taehyung," Yoongi said with a hand pointed towards the duo with the matching rings on their fingers. He felt pity for them too,not that he'd admit such a thing in public. He did have a reputation to keep, after all.
              Seokjin sighed as he stood up. He and Yoongi stood high up on a hidden platform of the mall, where they could see everything and anything. The mall was empty, as they had intended it to be. They had a clear shot now.
             "The men are in place," Yoongi reported in a small, soft voice. He had a lot of regrets in his life in the cartel but meeting Seokjin was not one of them. He loved his surrogate mother, even if it was a male one.
             Doing this, doing this because Park Jimin needed a replacement for the sister he strangled to death. A simple boy who was happy with Kim Taehyung. Content.
           Both Seokjin and Yoongi had enough conscience left in them to not want to do this. But they had to.
            Yoongi raised up the gun in his hand. Seokjin took his other free hand and squeezed, a little comforting gesture from a mother to her son. Yoongi closed his eyes, opened them again,then fired.