And so he says with the devil's blood on his hands and the truth coating his cherry red lips - "𝘐𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘛𝘢𝘦𝘩𝘺𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘰. 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘧 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥."
"That's not what it is." Liyah said softly, fiddling with her fingers. The paint was beginning to chip. She needed to see the nail salon soon.
"And I honestly don't feel like talking about it, Chim." She deaded the topic. Jimin had no other choice but to be understanding.
"I get it. Whatever it is, just know you can talk to me about it. You don't have to suffer in silence." He said.
I don't. But it's so much easier to hold it all in. Liyah thought. Her mind had been wired that way ever since she was a kid. She loved her adoptive parents but she didn't share everything with them. So much she wanted to tell them before they passed. Her first kiss with a girl, how she had been slicing her skin to ease her depression, how she cried herself to sleep some nights, how she had began letting Taehyung climb into her window and sleep with her most nights to help her with all of the problems she couldn't talk about.
Fuck, she missed them so bad. So much she could've avoided if only they were still here. If only people didn't leave her when she was most vulnerable. The people she needed the most at that.
Now, only one of them had returned. And she couldn't even let him in all because of who she had become. Perhaps Liyah was ashamed of herself. Ashamed of her thoughts, of her experiences.
It wasn't Taehyung's fault that she had built up this wall. But she was still making him work if wanted it to crumble.
• • •
Taehyung sighed to himself as he closed and locked the door to his condo after a long night. A long night of rejection, self reflection, frustration and flat out annoyance. He wanted to throw a fucking fit but what would that solve? That wouldn't get Liyah to trust him nor would it help him take down bobby faster.
The man massages the back of his neck as he flickers on the light. It brings a calm, dim glow to the living room and kitchen area of his condo. He sinks his tongue into his bottom lip as he slides off his leather jacket, tossing it on the couch while breezing past to enter his kitchen area.
Taehyung liked to think of his condo as his cave. A lair as well. He liked time alone when he wasn't working. He liked to smoke, he liked to watch movies he rented from the block buster down the road. He liked to cook. He liked to unwind just like ever other human being. But he didn't have a lot of time for that recently.
Anyways, his apartment was nice. Everything laid out to his liking, he had every single placement of every single thing down packed and memorized in his brain. He was just that meticulous with his shit. He had no other choice but to be with the life he lived. One wrong move, one chance to forget and your entire life could be stolen from you in seconds.
(A/n: quick visual of Taehyung's condo. Wanted it to closely resemble an 80's condo with the decade's interior design but I also wanted it to be RED.)
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"Ahh, shit." He sighed as he plopped down on the couch. He didn't hesitate to pull one of the cigarettes from the stray pack he had resting on his coffee table in the middle. Sparking it with the lighter that sat beside, and bringing it up to his lips for a pull.
He had drowned himself in work last night. Pieces of paper scattered around the table, phone numbers written down and pictures of people his father wanted him to keep an eye on. Taehyung was stomped with work but it kept him busy so he couldn't complain much.
A cloud of smoke forms around him as he looks down into the pile. It is almost a string of fate that pulls his eyes down directly on to a photo of Liyah. A Polaroid not taken of her by one of his father's lapdog, but one Taehyung had taken of her years ago before he left.
Kissing his teeth, Taehyung pulls the Polaroid from the pile. Holding the picture between his fingers as he placed the cigarette in between his lips. He could remember this day almost as if it were yesterday. He had gotten a Polaroid camera as a gift from his mother and wanted to test it out. His father didn't like to be in pictures and by the time Taehyung had decided he wanted to try it out, his mother was busy making dinner.
So Taehyung went outside and met with Liyah. It was fall. She wore a long red trench coat and solid black scarf to keep her warm. She was around 15, Taehyung was 16. The picture is taken of her as she is throwing up a pile of leaves into the air. So youthful and gorgeous. She would always be an Angel walking amongst demons. No matter how much she had changed.
Her smile is wide and contagious. Present day Taehyung couldn't help but smile at the past. She would always be his sweet little bumble bee.
He is easily distracted by the picture of her for minutes on end, he forgets that the cigarette is between his lips. It doesn't dawn on him until the sound of the phone ringing off the hook captures his attention.
Taehyung jumps up, dropping the picture on to the table and dropping the cigarette on to his arm.
"Shit." He hissed from the slight burn, removing the cigarette and smashing it into the ashtray before standing up.
He strides over to the telephone. He takes it off the hook and places it up to his ear, leaning against the wall.
"Hello?" He answered with an edge to his tone.
"You sound spent."
Taehyung raises a brow at the sound of the familiar voice. He didn't expect to hear from him for atleast another week. This was unexpected.
"Officer Jeon? What the hell? I thought we—"
"You don't have to call me that. I'm younger than you." The officer chuckled on the other end. So like him to always find humor in a serious situation.
"Jungkook." Taehyung corrects himself. "What the fuck? You said give you a week."
"Didn't need it. I got in good with Bobby boy. We're in and I'm ready as long as you are." Jungkook says from the other end of the telephone. He stood in the phone booth on the side of the highway, motorcycle parked a safe distance away. Ready for him to hop on and ride home after he ended his conversation.
"That's good. Great actually. Did you tell my father?" Taehyung asked anxiously. He just knew the man would be jumping over the fucking noon. He wanted this operation to move fast. He needed that money.
"Not yet. He's my next call but I'll take care of it in the morning. Just wanted to let you know that the doors opened. It's up to you to decide when you want to move in."
Taehyung clenched his jaw, looking out of the window at the city lights. Opportunity right below him. Corruption right below him. He was apart of it all. In a way he was staring right into hell.
"I'll get back with you on that tomorrow. I'm spent." Taehyung replied. "I appreciate you for moving quick. We needed that."
"No problem. It's always a pleasure to help a friend out." The officer replied, twirling the tooth pick in between his lips as he spoke. "You have a Goodnight."
"You too." Taehyung says before they cut the line. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. On one hand he was relieved, on the other he was filled with adrenaline. He knew once his father found out about this, there would be no more "scanning the scene".
Taehyung would have to take action.
- A/n: honey snuggled up against me as I was writing this chapter 🥰
