don't go underground | jjk ✓

26. dumplings

"What do you mean pick?" Jimin whispered. "W-What? I'm not... I'm not picking between their fates."

"You will be choosing, and I suggest you do so soon." His father hissed. Jimin stared with wide teary eyes at the four looking at him with confused and scared features adorning their faces.

It was cruel. Four peoples' lives that he knew, that he cared about, were now in his hands.

His father's manipulation was striking his soul again.

"I-I'm not. I won't." Jimin quivered, ripping his limbs away from Pilwoo's grasp. "Please don't make me do this, I'm begging you."

It was pathetic and his father hated it, but Jimin didn't know what else to do. He wanted to focus through the drowning thoughts, find something to grasp onto and gain control of those puppet strings and snip them away.

"Jimin," his father snapped. "If you don't pick, I will choose all four, how does that sound? Better?"

All four.

The worst fates for Lisa and Jennie were most definitely becoming a part of the terrible experiments they ran. As for Namjoon and Jin, it meant prison for a lifetime, surely to be stripped of everything.

How could he wish that on any two of them, all four even? That wasn't fair. It was horrific.

Do something, do something, do something...

Taehyung's voice, seething in resentment of his father, in resentment of him, came to mind.

He wanted was to make it right with Taehyung, and choosing between their hyungs or two family friends of his would leave that impossible.

He wanted to make it right with himself and actually live his life for him.

He had to break the stupid cycle his heart got caught up in, being moved by anyone's demands and using of him for their own gains.

And for the first time in his life, he knew what to do.

"They aren't fucking flowers to just pick for your bouquet." Jimin whispered, eyes closing to relax, as he raked a hand through his hair and ripped his gaze away from the glass. "I'm not toying with peoples' lives and you aren't either."

"They've committed crimes, Jimin, it seems like you've forgotten." Pilwoo continued, a deep satisfied tone of betrayal in his voice. What father did this to his son?

"And so have I, it seems as though you have forgotten." Jimin clenched his fists, pressing them to his sides as he dared to meet his father's gaze.

"I'm done living on your terms so you can ruin my life for the sake of your flawless one. I'm not your perfect son, and I'm not your puppet." His voice shook, but the confidence in his chest grew with the inner child from years ago cheering him on as his father's dark smile faltered. "You're not giving them the worst consequences."

"And what allows you to decide that?" The man's eyes narrowed at the sudden order, the bendable will of his son now gone.

"My ability to ruin your life..." Jimin took a deep breath, not believing that he was doing it. "...by spilling the truth of two days ago and four years ago."

Pilwoo chuckled, shaking his head. "Please, like you would throw it all away. You'd be torn apart."

"I'd do it to ruin you." Jimin pushed on his father's nerves, the amusement on the elder's face falling in seconds at what he had thought was an empty threat. "I'm your son, not a trophy for you to showcase. You've already hurt my friends before, I won't let you do it again."