I know it's early. Let's say it's compensation for the little break I'll take;)
♟𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐♟
♟𝚅𝚘𝚝𝚎&𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝♟
♟𝙴𝙽𝙹𝙾𝚈♟
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"Betrayal is never easy to handle and there is no right way to accept it."
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[Narrator's POV]
Lim blocks Nicole's chattering out as his eyes lock with a pair of bright green orbs. The verdant irises glare at him with a gaze full of coldness and emptiness, just like the ones he sees every morning in the mirror. The mere glimpse of the woman makes his mouth go dry, sending a wave of sparking shivers through his body.
The next thing he knows he's on his feet, dragging his half-drunk person towards the bar like a mindless drone. He pushes everyone who dares to stand in his way. He needs to get a better view of her. He needs to see her but as he blinks, she's gone like a cloud of smoke in a misty alley. No longer in the range of his vision. Just like that, she disappears like she's never even been there.
What the hell? Is he hallucinating? Is his mind playing tricks on him? Again. No, she can't be here. She's not that stupid. It's just a stupid side effect.
Sitting back in the velvet-covered booth, Mackenzie lets his rough hands rub his exhausted eyes, hiding his face from the outside world. He can't believe that the very kid he used to babysit is creating so many problems for him. How can someone be so ungrateful?
Mackenzie leans back on his booth, placing one elbow on his propped-up knee and the other one on the back of the booth. "Any news about Y/N?"
Nicole scoffs, rolling her eyes as hard as possible, "Your sister and her friends killed seventeen people and vanished from our radars. And all that in just an hour," she lets out a heavy sigh, "If you ask me, she's already out of the country, looking for a new house somewhere in Moscow."
He deliberately shakes his head, biting down on the tender flesh of his lower lip as his long fingers dig out something from his pocket. "No. She's left a clear message last time," he whispers, showing her a feminine ring adorned by an emerald diamond, that catches the light momentarily, casting green sparkles everywhere. "She won't run." He smiles. There is a hint of a victory in the smile surrounded by his stiff cheeks, something like mocking malice. "Or perhaps she will, except this time in another direction."
"Don't you think you're being overconfident?"
Ignoring her remark Lim puts his mother's ring back into his pocket. "We need to find her as soon as possible. We don't have much time."
Time. Why is there always so little of it?
"Why?" She asks again, coming closer to him. "Do you think she'll use what she has?" She asks in disbelief, "Lim, she didn't use it in 8 years, why would she now?" Mackenzie shakes his head again.
Nicole doesn't understand that he simply doesn't have much time. Albeit the reason behind his haste isn't what Nicole assumes it is, but it's one more thing about which he should worry. "I don't know. You tell me. She chose to run all these years and now she's coming back hellbent to destroy me. So tell me, why?" An amused laugh bubbles up his chest at the thought of it.
Destroy? Him? It's ridiculously hilarious, and nothing more. The kid just wants to play, not even realizing that she's a fly trapped in the spider's web. But he has to acknowledge that deep down inside he feels proud of his sister, for finally not cowering away and standing for what she thinks is right.
Finally, the family legacy is showing in her and he's proud. He'd be even prouder if her actions weren't directed against him, but their enemies. He knows the time will come when she realizes that the necessary evil was done for the greater good. One day she'll understand what's good and what's not.
"Well, can you blame her?" Nicole's sharp tone of voice is nothing compared to the glare she's giving him, her face filled with utter fury, "do I need to remind you what you did to her?"
Lim gives her a bored look before muttering, "she deserved it."
She deserved it. The words ring in Nicole's ears, making her snap.
"Are you trucking serious!? Do you even hear yourself? Are you telling me she deserved to be tortured by her own brother to the point she couldn't breathe for...what?" Nicole waves her hands around angrily, "a useless piece of...piece of...what!? I don't even know what it is."
Nicole grimaces at the memory that will hunt her down till the end of her life path. Four years have already passed but the view of CCTV footage of the Lim family mansion's basement is still fresh in her memory.
She fails to suppress the cold shudder as the horror comes back to her along with the image of Y/N, with her hands chained above her head, dark crimson blood coating her whole body and blonde hair, her eyes bruised and so swollen Nicole doesn't think Y/N was able to see anything back then. Mackenzie was adamant that Y/N had stolen something and whatever it was, Y/N made it clear that he would get it only over her dead body.
Nicole remembers how she watched the live image of her friend being cut open by her own brother. She remembers that ghastly feeling of uselessness when she found herself incapable of helping Y/N in any way. And she remembers the terror that squeezes her chest when Mackenzie asked if it was Y/N who put an end to their father's life. But Y/N's answer shocked her even more.
"Evil demands a blood price and he paid it, Mac."
Nicole shakes her head to shove the horrid memory back into the depths of her mind. To this day the circumstances of Mackenzie's father's death are unknown. The man was found dead in his study with a nine-inch stab wound in his heart, all the maids and guards in a deep slumber, and Y/N nowhere in sight.
If one thing Nicole knows about Y/N for sure is the fact that she never lies. Y/N didn't accept it was her, yet at the same time, there wasn't a denial either.
Taking a life can never be easy. Taking the life of a parent, no matter how twisted, must be terrible. Even though the facts tell otherwise, Nicole refuses to believe Y/N was capable of something like that. But if not her...then who?
Nicole breaks out of her thoughts, concealing whatever emotion leaks through her facade. "You don't even regret it, don't you?" She asks Mackenzie.
But to him, Nicole's words have no meaning. The only thing he was, is, and will be aware of is the fact his sister is a traitor. Contradictory feelings recoil over him at that thought. Fury, frustration, fear, grief, shame, and guilt but what dominates the chaos of emotions is the profound sadness nestled in his chest. The sadness that digs a hollow space in the place of his heart, making him feel empty.
He never wanted this. Never wanted to be the reason for his baby sister's struggles and suffering. Never wanted to hurt the very kid he taught how to ride a bicycle. Never wanted to lose the only family he had. Yet he has to do the right thing.
Right. What an idiotic word? It reminds him of what his father told him once.
"There is no rightness in this world. Just profound madness, which is the attribute of the genius."
Absent-mindedly he lets out a low chuckle. His dad was a wise man. Sure he was a tad bit mad himself but no one gets to be the leader of a gang as big as theirs without having the morals of a sewer rat.
Yes, over the years his father changed, especially after their mother's death, which -as Mackenzie thinks- uprooted his sanity, shattered the last drop of humanity in him. But one can never deny the fact that the old man was a true genius.
Mackenzie recalls the first days without his mother in that mansion. He was nine back then. The familial warmth and comfort were exchanged with a scary coldness and emptiness as the shrill cry of the newborn baby came to replace his mother's lullabies.
It was cold, empty, scary. He doesn't want to remember but his mind insists on otherwise. He hardly recalls doing anything other than hiding under his bed, pinching his ears not to hear the cry of the baby and crying himself to a deep slumber.
But the thing he doesn't remember at all is his father.
He was nowhere to be found. He wasn't there for Mackenzie and not even there for his newborn daughter. And that was the difference between his father and him. His father chose to turn his back to the innocent child, blaming her for his wife's death. However, Mackenzie chose to love and cherish that same child, viewing her as the last gift his mother left him before parting ways.
And that's what hurts the most. Mackenzie loved -still does- his sister with all his heart and she backstabbed him the first chance she got. He isn't a saint, never was, never will. But cutting the same hand that fed you? It's something that he'll never understand, nor will he accept.
His train of nostalgic thoughts is interrupted when the glass is harshly snatched out of his grip. He turns his eyes to Nicole. She takes a gusty gulp of the strong alcohol and instantly regrets it. Scrunching her nose, she makes a disgusted face.
"You don't regret it." This time it isn't a question but rather an assured statement. Nicole rubs her tongue to the roof of her mouth, still feeling the unpleasant taste of the burning whiskey. How can someone drink something so nasty? Nicole thinks.
With every day she spends like this, one thing becomes clearer and clearer for her: This life -soaked in blood up to the knees- isn't for her.
Mackenzie bites down on his lower lip, lowering his head. "No amount of regret is going to change the past," he speaks as if tired of the topic already, "I don't have much time, and I need to find her quickly. I think it's time for me to make a move."
"What do you mean?"
"Y/N thinks she has the gut to keep pace with me, but she's too..." he ponders over the right words for a moment, "predictable." He states, taking the glass from Nicole again, "there are too much humanity and compassion left in her which will eventually be her doom." Sipping from the golden liquid, he flashes Nicole a knowing look, "I know where she'll go."
Nicole's stomach twists at the intense gaze Lim is giving her, but she masks her worry behind an expressionless face before speaking, "and where?"
"Oh," Lim laughs sadistically, "you know them too. What were their names? Seok-Seok...." Closing his eyes he snaps his fingers repeatedly as if trying to summon the forgotten memories.
"Seokjin?" Nicole suggests feeling how her lips burn from pronouncing his name.
"Yes! Yes," Lim exclaims wearing a toothy grin, "and the weird one who'd never shut up about his fairies."
Nicole snorts, "Not fairies," she rolls her eyes, doing her best not to lash at him, "It's Harry Potter and his name is Namjoon."
"Yeah, whatever, never liked them anyway. They were a bad influence." He shakes his head. "She'll go to them, if not for help, she'll go there to make sure I didn't touch them. So we should be there first. I know you were friends with them..." he croons, his voice dangerously sweet, "but I hope you left the past in the past-"
He gently tilts his head, eyes narrowing slightly as his cold fingers neatly put her hair behind her ear. The corners of his somber lips tug upwards, creating an affectionate smirk that soon mourns into a full-blown grin, showing his over-whitened teeth. Nicole freezes, not daring to gulp. She knows better than anyone else what exactly means to be at the receiving end of one of these smiles. Smiles so tempting, enticing, and seductive that can lure the devil out of hell with ease.
"-because taking them out will be your task."
Nicole doesn't breathe. She doesn't answer. She doesn't even turn to look at him. She just focuses her stare on the performer. Nicole knows exactly what he's doing. He's showing his possessively toxic nature. It's his power game, his way to scream on her face. I own you, and I can make you do anything and you'll obey like a little puppy you are.
And the painful part is that he's right. She'll obey, not out of loyalty but out of pure terror. Nicole knows that if Lim didn't spare a couple of blades on his sister, for her, there'll be no such thing as blades but a single bullet, right between her eyes.
"Roger that," Nicole replies coldly, preparing to stand up, but a painfully strong grip on her upper arm that pulls her down, stops her. She freezes in her place, when Mackenzie's hot mouth comes close to her ear, sending chilly shivers down her spine.
"Nicolia Smirnova," Lim hisses quietly like a snake, addressing Nicole with her full name, "should you become a turncoat and switch sides," he purrs softly, "you'll be out of the game sooner than you manage to say 'friends'."
He loosens the bone-crushing grip on her arm, and finally lets go. She still feels his handprints burning on her flesh, a painful heat rising to her cheeks joined by a dull buzzing in her ears.
"Don't worry," she manages out and almost jumps from joy when her voice doesn't break. "Maybe I don't agree with your methods, but I agree with hers even less," is the last thing she says before standing up and leaving him behind.
As Nicole moves through the crowd of drunk people one thing becomes crystal clear for her: Lim Mackenzie doesn't trust her anymore, and that can be fatal for her.
Meanwhile, Lim doesn't seem to be bothered by anything. He places his feet on the table in front of him, using his hands as a pillow to admire the delicious girl showing her flexibility under the dim lights of the club.
If Mackenzie thinks of Nicole as a vixen, he can't say the same thing about his sister. He'd describe her as a tiger, more precisely, a white tiger. Y/N just like a white tiger is rare, beautiful, captivating, tempting yet dangerous, and deadly. She's a predator waiting for her prey to put their head in her mouth. And no matter how absurd it may sound, the idiots she usually chooses as victims eventually give in. That's why he needs her by his side and not as an opponent.
However, he doesn't even consider the chance of losing the battle. He knows his sister better than anyone else: she doesn't know how to play the instrument of war, she doesn't know how to paint in blood. In that field he sees her more as a toddler, learning to draw straight lines with her tiny hands. All this is a little challenge for her, and nothing but a way of entertainment for him.
"You wanna play?" He mutters under his breath, closing his eyes and letting pitch darkness invade his mind. "Let's play then."
But perhaps underestimating his opponent will be the most lethal thing for him.
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Hey Angel!
I'll be taking a little break as there are lots of things I need to do.
Now what you think about our antagonist? Remember there's no such a thing as a villain, just a different storytellerت︎
You know there are enough hints in these two parts to figure out the 70% of the background story;)
Till the next time. Purple yaa...🧸