VALENTINE VIRUS [YM]

ninth.

trigger warning: mentions of violence and death

Yoongi feels like a cauldron of boiling hot visceral, slowly simmering over the past 5 years and just a few more minutes away from tipping over, spilling all over the floor in a hot mess of wrecked visages he had been keeping a tight grip on. He had always known that there was more to it about his sister's death than what she wanted to paint it out to be – that he only knows of half the picture that leads them to the present, the other half burning away and turning to ashes along with her corpse, keeping her secret buried in the burial mound where her body lays. He does not know how many of them are lies and truths. It only irks him and he has the urge to scratch the annoying itch away from his skin until it turned red and raw.

The biggest piece of the mystery sits in front of him, body hunched and right knee tapping anxiously against the marbled floor in a staccato of thump, thump, thump. Yoongi pointedly looks above his head, refusing to linger his gaze upon the face that undoubtedly holds the shape of his daughter's.

Just because Yoongi had taken the title and walked down the path of being a mob boss, facing death and getting his hands dirtied with the grimes of crime he can never wash away from, it never does take away the feeling of fear. The constant paranoia that someone is out to get him and to take away what he holds dear to his heart, he could only hope to grow stronger and be indomitable enough that he could protect the people he loves.

Yoongi fears.

He had never expected that the person who is out to take his life away does not have guns on their hands or knives up on their sleeves but only a memoir of the dead love of his gone sister and the same blood flowing through his daughter's veins. But even so, no greater weapon would equal to the power this man held over Yoongi.

"Yoonji. . . she's really long gone?" Nam Seungwoon asks once again, detached. There is a dissonance of disbelief and grievance to his tone as his features slacken empty.

Nam Seungwoon is soft around the edges, far from the sharp and hard ridges of her sister's profile. The man looks. . . pretty. Peach blossom eyes, thick eyebrows, small nose and full lips, his figure is tall and lithe. Nam Seungwoon looks like a flower he could easily squish between his fingers.

Yoongi nods slowly, patiently after the man have asked the same question after what feels like the hundredth time as if he was in a trance. Yoongi knows what it's like to Yoongi knows what it's like to mourn, but he could not empathize to a stranger who's the closest key to his sister's death.

"Has been for about 3 years now?" Nam Seungwoon inquires, his voice faltering as each word tumbles out of his mouth.

"Yes."

"What happened?"

". . . an accident happened during one of her transactions."

Nam Seungwoon visibly tries to hold back a sob but fails, tears run down his haggard face and to his balled fists, "was it really an accident?"

"There were not any signs of a fight in the location, her autopsy also did not show any signs of struggle. Everyone involving the transaction had also been thoroughly investigated. . . some did say that she was one of the people to leave though."

"So there is a possibility that the accident was intended by someone?" Nam Seungwoon scrunches his face in anger and dread before grabbing onto his hair, rocking his body back and forth on the sofa as he mutters inaudibly to himself.

"The probability is not far off."

"I knew I should have convinced her harder to leave that wretched life!" Yoongi's nerves jump at the sudden frustrated shout of the other man, "I knew the Jopok was gonna be the end of her. She should have listened to me and left! If only - "

Yoongi glares, cutting him off, "Agust was my sister's life."

"She was miserable." Nam Seungwoon spats, "did you really think your sister would want to live a life like yours?"

Yoongi stands from his seat in warning, jaw clenched, domineering. "I would be the first one to know."

"Look how she ended up! She should have just ran away with me!" Nam Seungwoon screams but recoils into himself, as if he was self-aware that he was no match to Yoongi and his only weapon right now is his voice.

"What happened that night?" Yoongi questions instead, trying to steady himself, "the last time you saw each other. She told me that you found out she was part of a Jopok and that you left."

Nam Seungwoon meets his eye and shakingly retells, "That night when I found out she was part of a crime organization, I was scared – but I was most scared of her. How could I not? I could not live knowing that the woman I love the most is constantly living face to face with death. . . that she – she . . . that she was a criminal?"

Yoongi had to stop himself from lunging at the man to speak of his sister as such even if it was the truth. The Min family was never meant to be clean.

Yoongi closes his eyes, "So you convinced her to ran away with you instead? Start a new life and leave the Jopok behind?"

"Of course I had to! I don't know how to protect her with that kind of life! I'm not strong enough to keep her safe. But no matter what I did, no matter how much I begged she would not listen and insisted on staying. I needed her to leave but she did not want the same thing, we were bound to have an argument and fight over our decision and where our future stands."

'It sounds to me like you were a coward. . . that you were only thinking of how can you protect yourself.' Yoongi does not voice his thoughts, keeping away most of his judgement. He could not afford being transparent with a man he just met.

It does not help that he holds a pre-requisite doubt over Nam Seungwoon in his heart no matter how pathetic he looks trembling in where he seats. The image of his bruised and hysterical sister never leaving his mind, overlapping with the view of the man she supposedly loved.

"If that was the case," Yoongi wills himself to seat down, tangling his hand together on top of his lap," then did you fight with her to the point she ended up coming home battered and bloodied?"

Nam Seungwoon freezes, his shoulders going rigid as his eyes widen in a barely concealed shock, "What do you mean?"

Yoongi feels a part of him die inside when he sees the genuine confusion flash before Nam Seungwoon's eyes. There is a growing sense of impending dread at the pit of his stomach as he forces himself to once again say in a deadpan, "After you fought. She went home barely conscious, almost bleeding herself to death."

"Even though we fought it never escalated to the point the point where it got physical. I love Yoonji and the last thing I want for her was to get hurt!"

Yoongi feels his head throb.

Did that mean that his sister had met someone else before going home?

Then, the picture had always conjured up in his head is way bigger than he thought.