Underwater || BBH

36. Innocence

"Happy birthday, sweetie." Saemi smiled joyfully at her daughter, patting her messy bed hair down.

"What do you say we have some yummy pancakes, before we go on an adventure today!" Minho asks his daughter as Saemi moves away from his side, setting in front of the stove.

Saemi poured in her homemade batter with fresh blueberries into the pan, flipping them over at just the right time leaving them a beautiful golden colour. Minho attacked his young daughter in kisses as she was still in her arms, her giggles filled the home causing her mother to smile at the two most important people in her life. "Breakfast is ready!"

Minho turned his upside-down daughter back up the right way, her face flushed from the blood rush. He placed her at the breakfast bar, sitting right next to her. A plate full of light and fluffy buttermilk pancakes were placed right in front of the birthday girl, a blueberry smiley face looking back up at her.

Saemi grabbed the whipped cream can from the refrigerator, creating a perfect swirl in the centre of her pancakes, Chaeyeong's mouth falling open as her mothers hidden talent shinning through, she could make perfect circles with anything.

Minho's pointer finger found it's way to the perfect cream swirls, picking up a chunk of it and whipping it along Chaeyeong's nose. Chaeyeong gasps as her father actions before falling into fits of laughter, her mother noticed the ordeal, handing over the whipped cream to her daughter to use as weapon.

Chaeyeong wrapped both hands around the can before gaining some height leverage, she pressed down firmly and let the whipped cream spurt from the can, hitting her father in the face. Minho immediately grabbed his daughter, smooching his cheek into hers, both of them laughing at their happy family.

~

"Dohwa, please." 11 year old Chaeyeong, listened from the threshold of her bedroom, meant to be asleep in her warm bed, however, the worrisome voice of her father pulled her from her sheets and left her to eavesdrop. "It'll only be a couple hours, Saemi might literally kill me if I leave her for that long."

Chaeyeong left her door and climbed back into her bed, pulling the covers up and tucked them into her face, pretending to be asleep. She felt her dad presence in the room, he walked over to her bed, sitting down and kissing her forehead, saying goodnight and that he'll be back soon.

Minho left the spare key on the porch, slipped into a small crevice in the brick, out of sight. Minho adored his best friend, believe that he meant well and just struggled with certain aspect, he did want to believe that his best friend was a horrible person, so he didn't.

Meanwhile Minho was trusting Dohwa to watch over his only child, Dohwa was cursing out loud. He threw his phone across the room, jolting papers from his desk, sighing out in frustration. "It's not fair! He gets the perfect life, the perfect wife and what I get? Left in the shadows while he forgets about me!"

"You could just kill him." Hoseok, Dohwa's new friend and his new right hand man, leading him down a deep and dark path, spoke up from the couch.

After hours of working and risking his life, Minho stumbled into his home, blood gushing from his leg wound. His target ended up being alert of Minho's arrival, allowing him to prepare his own surprise attack on him, which resulted in a dagger to the leg, twisted and dragged down before removed completely and stabbed in once more. He took down his target success, he was in a lot of pain now however.

Saemi was going to kill no matter what, for leaving Chaeyeong at home and getting himself stabbed multiple times. "Dohwa." He grunted out lowly, hoping and expecting him to be to watch his daughter. When no answer came, he tried to move further into the house, trying not to wake Chaeyeong, yet that seems to fail when his leg gave out and he stumbled into the table, knocking everything down.

Minho heard footsteps from behind him and small ones in front of him, he noticed the glint of a gun as he turned to look at the presence behind him, it was pointed right at him, Dohwa's rage filled eyes behind it. A gunshot was heard from in front of him and the ricochet from said bullet hitting and lodging into the mantel of the fireplace.

Within a millisecond of the first gunshot, a next one rang out, piercing his left shoulder blade, hit his skin, and slowly moving toward his heart. He fell to the ground, a pool of blood forming around him as his 11 year old daughter crawled her distraught self towards him, crying and sobbing think she just killed her father. He used his last breaths to tell her it wasn't her fault.

~

My eyes burned as the tears fell from them, the whole scene of my father's death replaying in my head, this time more details unveiling themselves as if a shadow had been casted over them just to torture myself. My ears rung after I shot my weapon, the sound of the second shot muffling in my ear drums, I beat myself up my whole life, tortured myself over this – just for it to not be true.

"I didn't kill him." I managed whispered out, looking directly into Baekhyun's dark obsidian eyes. "I didn't kill my father, it wasn't me."

He pulled me into a bone crushing hug, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, and holding on for dear life as my sobs were muffled by his jumper, he started to rub comforting circles on my head. "You didn't baby, you're innocent."

"Who did though?" I pulled back slightly, arms still wrapped around his torso, feeling his warm touching my body still.

"Dohwa did." One if his hands moved to my face, wiping the fallen tears. Something I was used to him doing and wished that I'd never cry without him there, he always did this to comfort me, hold me when I was down and make me smile even brighter when I was happy. Everything he did managed to stitch my shattered and broken heart from years of torment, back together again.

"I thought he didn't show up that night."

"He did show up. I went over the file and crime scene photos multiple times; I read the coroner's report and even went to your old house. Forensics show that the bullet from your gun ended up in the mantel piece, while the bullet that was pulled from your father had a giant 'L' engraved." I cut Baekhyun off unintentionally

"The signature of the Lee Gang." I detached myself from him completely, still remaining close. "Why didn't he get caught?"

"Because of his statement, he said you were scared and didn't mean to shoot your dad. There's something more to the puzzles, I just don't know what yet" he sounds and looks frustrated.

"Thank you for doing this, Baek." And I truly mean it, I know he needs as much evidence as possible to be able to get the okay for his last mission to commence fully. He didn't have to dig into my father death, this was strictly just for me, to prove that I wasn't monster I claimed to be.

"I'll do anything for you, Bambi." He placed his hands on either side of my face, warming up my almost always cold skin. "What do you say we go back home and get a good night sleep for a change?"

I smile at his question, missing him and his bed more and more. "I'd love that."

We walked back to the car, hand in hand, before driving back to the Baekhyun residence. Both Baekhyun and myself changed into more comfy clothes before pulling the warm sheets over our intertwined bodies and actually sleeping. For the first time in a few weeks, it felt like home and that nothing could pull us apart this time.