- Carafes of blood red wine -
Dinner time is chaotic. Jimin and Jungkook keep bantering loudly about video games and the best weapon against triple-stars zombies while Mrs Park complains to Mr Park about the neighbours and their bad habit of letting their crusty white dog poop on their front lawn. I receive a gigantic portion of turkey, green beans, and potatoes, smiling towards Jimin's mom as she keeps piling up more homemade ketchup on the side of my plate. Taehyung is looking at me from the corner of his eyes, amused by my obvious bashfulness.
"I think that's enough ketchup, Suzy," he says and Mrs Parks apologizes as she realizes the amount of red now covering the rest of my food.
"So sorry, Darling."
I'm on the verge of digging-in with a giant spoonful of mashed potatoes, but Taehyung grabs my wrist, and I realize that everyone is grabbing hands and looking down.
Oh.
I let go of my spoon and grab Taehyung's palm on one side, then Mr Park's hand on the other.
"Jimin, darling, you want to say grace?" asks Mrs Park.
"Sure."
I forgot that Jimin's family is highly religious. They go to church every Sunday morning and invite the town's priest, Father Lachaise, every Monday evening for dinner and tea. Mrs Park leads bible study meetings while Mr Park is the biggest donor to the church's funds and bribed the town's gym manager to only play christian music.
They really are intense in their believes, which I completely forget when I hang out with Jimin. He's one of the less holy persons I know and I'm sure if his parents knew about all the crap he's been pulling, they would disinherit him on the spot.
"Father, we thank you for this food that you provided. Thank you for meeting our physical needs of hunger and thirst..."
Jimin's voice sounds cheeky and I can't help but open an eye. He has both eyes open and is wickedly grinning towards Taehyung who is barely holding back his laughter.
"We are indeed, very thirsty, and absolutely starving today," Jimin continues, winking towards me, "bless this food to fuel our bodies. We pray that we will be energized for the very tiring nights we have ahead of us. All in the name of the glory of your kingdom. In Jesus' name, Amen."
"Amen."
Taehyung hides a laugh with a cough, his warm palm slipping away from mine.
Everyone soon digs-in and I have the time to take one bite of meat when I suddenly hear the sound of an engine roaring outside, followed by very loud metal music as a car parks right in front of the door. Jimin frowns, trying to peep through the living room window through the blinds.
"Who's this," he asks, turning to his mom.
"That must be your brother and his friend."
The silence suddenly weighs heavy around the table.
"What? I thought they were only coming for Christmas dinner?" Jimin exclaims as his knife brutally clicks against his plate.
"Namjoonie called me today. His work schedule changed and he decided to come early."
The reaction around the table is immediate. Jungkook narrows his eyes at the door while Taehyung freezes, on edge. Jimin looks at his mom like she just announced Christmas had been cancelled and I try to make myself as small as possible, folding onto my chair.
The front door opens with a bang and Mrs Park runs to welcome the newcomers with a shriek of pure happiness.
"My baby's home!"
A minute later, Namjoon and Jin enter the room, hair still covered in snow as they remove their scarves.
"Hello everyone!" says Jin, scanning the room.
He frowns when his eyes fall on Jungkook, then looks around the table with interest.
"Little brother," says Namjoon with a smirk, then makes a show of rubbing Jimin's head, making a mess of his hair, "Did you miss me?"
"Nope," answers Jimin with a scowl.
I swallow with some difficulty, a lump growing in my throat. It's only when Namjoon's eyes meet me and he smiles with recognition that the memories hit hard, the hair rising at the back of my neck.
He's tall and dark with narrow eyes and thin lips always ready to grin sardonically. His dimples would have been cute if they didn't remind me of the horrible grin he was sending my way while talking to the police all those years ago, accusing me of first degree murder; she was with them too, I saw her push him in front of the train.
He was a bully back then; impulsive, explosive, violent. He's a lot scarier now, more controlled but still the same asshole, the only difference is that he makes six figures a year, wears suits, and goes to the gym five times a week.
Jin follows, softer and a little naive, giggling at everything Namjoon says. His big dark eyes are darted on him like he is his idol. I'm surprised he still lets himself be a sidekick in Najoom's story, walking around the table like a shadow behind his best friend's massive aura; a satellite orbiting around its planet.
I hate them. They ruined so many things for us. The feeling lets a coppery taste on my tongue.
Suddenly, avenging ourselves and finding a way to give them as much crap as they gave us seems like an impossible task.
"Come here mom, give me a kiss," says Namjoon, leaving a wet peck on Mrs Park's cheek while Jin squeezes Mr Park's hand in his.
Chairs are added to the table and both men get squeezed at Jimin's side who looks like he's about to puke.
"So, brother, how are you?" Namjoon asks, "Still a loser?"
"And you, Joonie, still an asshole on steroids?" retorts Jimin.
"Language!" immediately shouts Mrs Park, then she turns to me, "So sorry for your ears, my darling, he's not usually like that..."
I let out an awkward laugh. Taehyung clenches his jaw.
"Sorry," Jimin finally lets out.
"Yeah, you better be," whispers Namjoon.
It's difficult to explain the level of aggression both men are exuding just from eating their turkey, but I can feel the waves of hostility coming from them all the way to my side of the table. Jimin is actively sweating and Jungkook isn't eating a thing, the tension steadily rising while Namjoon and Jin eat with appetite.
I don't know how the parents are so blind to such obvious animosity but they continue to chat as if absolutely nothing is wrong in the world, asking questions to Jin and Namjoon while Jimin answers in monosyllables to every all-to-obvious threats Namjoon throws his way.
"So, still being rejected by all the girls your age?" Namjoon asks Jimin.
"No..."
"What about you, Joonie, don't you have a girl that you would like to present to us? You know that I've been dreaming of the moment you will finally get married," Mrs Park adds with shiny eyes.
"Leave him be," his dad says,"He will find the one in his own time."
Jin clears up his throat, then talks with a smirk, "He actually already has someone..."
"I knew it!" Mrs Park says.
Namjoon blushes.
The rest of the meal is almost unbearable. At some point I drop my fork and plunge under the table to grab it only to notice that Namjoon's steak knife is pointed towards Jimin's thigh, barely grazing the skin. I have no idea how or why Jimin stays so stoic while he's being tortured, but I don't say a thing, biting my lower lip and feeling like I'm on the verge of crying.
"Can I be excused?" I ask the Parks while giving them my best fake smile.
"Sweetie, you didn't even touch your meat!"
"I - I don't feel so good..."
"Do you want a cup of hot water with lemon?"
"Huh... no thanks, I'll just go lie down downstairs if that is alright with you..."
"Of course!"
Everyone looks at me in silence while I stand up to leave promptly. I hear them whisper behind my back but don't turn back as I find the basement door.
I finally breathe when I'm downstairs, sitting in the stairs with my head in between my knees.
"Are you alright?" Taehyung asks beside me and I nod.
"Sorry," I say, "Seeing them again makes me physically ill."
"I know..."
"Namjoon had a knife on Jimin under the table the entire time..."
"I know..."
My eyes are wet when I look up at Taehyung.
"Why would Jimin not do anything about it?"
"It's conditioning at this point. Jin basically raised Jimin to never go against anything he ever did or he would beat him up."
"Oh wow..."
Jungkook loudly runs downstairs to join us.
"What are you guys talking about."
"Nothing you don't already know," Taehyung breathes.
"What do we do now? What's the plan," Jungkook asks, "This is such a mess, we were supposed to figure this out before they come here!"
"Maybe we should just abandon the idea entirely," I say, "Jin and Namjoon have to go back to the city as soon as the holidays are over, so maybe Jimin should just stay somewhere else in the meantime and we should talk about this again in a year."
"That's such a victim mindset," spits Jungkook,"We should do something about it now!"
"You have a better idea?" asks Taehyung.
Jungkook scowls but doesn't say a word.
"Hey guys!"
Jimin runs down the stairs to find us. He doesn't seem too shook by the events that just unfolded which makes me think it wasn't his first time being threatened with a knife by his own big brother.
What a lovely family dynamics.
"Jin, Namjoon, and my parents just went out for a walk, this is now or never!"
"Now or never for what?" asks Taehyung.
"We should go upstairs and search their suitcases!"
"For what?" Jungkook asks.
"Drugs? Guns? Anything that could make them look bad. If we find anything incriminating, we can call the police on them!"
We all look at each other.
"That's actually a good idea..." Jungkook conveys.
The chances of them having something illegal in their bags is quite high.
"Ok! Let's go then! It's now or never."
We all jump through the stairs, going to the first floor then to the second floor where Jimin leads us to a large bedroom which must be the guest room. Two single beds are pushed against opposite walls while heavy cream curtains hide a large window. Another door leads to a walk-in closet, used by the Parks as a storage room. Two heavy suitcases are displayed, one on each bed.
Jimin runs to the first one, unzipping it and going through some clothes.
"I'll watch out for anyone coming back this way," Jungkook says, deciding to keep guard in the corridor.
Taehyung opens the second suitcase, belonging to Jin, and starts grabbing handful of clothes and throwing them on the bed.
"Anything?" I ask, looking over Jimin's shoulder.
"Nope..."
"The only thing I know now is that Jin uses a lot of hair gel..." Taehyung says, throwing a clear bottle on the bed, then a second one.
"What's that?" Jimin asks, pulling some kind of weird clamp from his brother's bag.
I inspect the object. It's made of solid metal wires and has a big screw at the bottom. It's in a V shape, the top part presenting some kind of weird clasps, curled towards the inside.
"A torture instrument?" I ask, wincing, "No idea where this goes and I don't want to know."
"It's a cooking instrument, no?" asks Taehyung, grabbing it from Jimin's hand.
My eyes fall on the other bed, where Jin's clothes are now piled up in a mess. The clear gel bottles catch my eyes and I walk closer, grabbing one in hand to then immediately drop it back.
"Eww! That's not hair gel! That's lube!"
"What?" exclaims Jimin with a grin, "Jin really is a sicko to bring these during a family holiday. I don't know when he thinks he's going to get the time to use these but..."
His sentence is cut off by Jungkook, running inside the room with a wildly alarmed face.
"They're coming!" He whispers as loud as possible, eyes bulging out of his head," They're downstairs, they're coming up now!"
We all look at each other in pure horror. The room is an absolute mess.
"Shit, Shit, Shit," whispers Jimin while running to the first suitcase and putting everything back inside as fast as he can, "Why are they here now? They have barely been gone 10 minutes!"
We help, just shoving everything back in. At this point we can hear voices downstairs, slowly getting louder.
The first suitcase is zipped up but the second one doesn't want to close and Taehyung is practically sitting on it.
"Oh my god, this is how we die," Jimin says, his shaky hands trying to close the suitcase unsuccessfully.
"Go away!" Jungkook pushes him, zipping up the suitcase in one swift movement.
"Guys!" I say, "They're coming up!"
I can hear the stairs creak.
At this point, we don't have the time to leave the room without them seeing us. In utter panic, we all run to hide. Jimin rolls under one of the single beds, the one far away from the door, while me, Taehyung, and Jungkook all run into the walk-in closet, closing the door almost all the way and hiding deep within the mess.
For a second, the only thing we hear are the erratic breaths we let out before Jin and Namjoon tumble inside, slamming the door behind them.