The Sky Ablaze | Park Jimin

Chapter 4

Jimin

Jimin mentally kicked himself as he left the dungeons. He shouldn't have gone down there. He should have waited until the next day, given her some time to really sit in the confines of her cell.

He met Yoongi and his father in the dining room. They were already eating dinner, and he silently took his seat across from Yoongi.

"I understand you went to see her?" Yoongi finally asked after Jimin was served.

Jimin nodded. "Starting tomorrow I'll get to work on questioning her," he told them, and he shared a look with Yoongi that had Yoongi smirking.

"I'm eager to question her, myself," their father agreed. "Jungkook only shared such... positive information about her."

Jimin scowled into his plate. He didn't want to imagine what type of questioning his father had in mind.

Yoongi was pushing his food around his plate, obviously in thought. "What if she dines with us for dinner tomorrow?" He asked.

Jeonghoon stopped chewing and stared at Yoongi. "Dine with us?"

Jimin and his father shared matching looks of disbelief and confusion.

"It may make her open up to us more. She is a woman, and they respond differently to different things. Care, clean clothes, and food may make her share more with us," Yoongi explained.

Jimin didn't like it. He'd been down there; he'd seen her. Despite days of travel, her messy hair, and her disheveled sleep wear she'd been wearing when she was taken, she was very pretty. He didn't want his father to see her refreshed. She may have betrayed him, but no one deserved the things his father would do.

"I think she will respond just fine in the dungeons," Jimin argued. "Make her desperate to get out."

"I'd like to see her at her best," Jeonghoon said.

Yoongi shot a smug, triumphant smile at Jimin, and Jimin held back the urge to stab him with his fork.

The remainder of dinner went by in uncomfortable silence for Jimin. He wasn't very hungry, but he had to keep up appearances. He'd forced himself to swallow each bite, and it felt like sand sliding down the back of his throat. Water didn't even help him.

When they were dismissed, Yoongi and Jimin left the dining room in different directions. Jimin went left to find Seokjin in his small apartment within the palace. He needed someone with a reasonable mind to hear him out.

When Seokjin opened the door, Jimin shoved past him and sat down on his couch. He was in a full blown panic that he'd been trying to keep subdued through dinner.

Seokjin sat next to him. "You saw her," he said quietly.

Jimin squeezed his eyes shut. "Yeah," he said. "And Yoongi and my father agreed that she should dine with us tomorrow night."

Seokjin blew out a breath. "Are you upset because you're worried for yourself or you're worried for her?"

"Both," he admitted. "You know how my father is." Jimin leaned back and rested his head on the back of the couch. He was staring up at the ceiling, and Seokjin let him stay like that for as long as he needed.