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The words hit me like a truck. I knew what he was saying, but when the words came out, it really hit me hard.
I'm related to the man that I've been trying to kill all my life? He's my uncle? My father's brother?
I look around. Everything is silent. The only sound is the heavy wheezing from Taehyung's chest. I feel eyes burning into my soul as I feel my hand begin to shake.
"You're lying."
"No."
"Then why?!" I cry out. "Why would you murder your own brother? Just because you didn't like how things were running, you decided to just kill him in cold blood?"
"You think I did it for only power? He was driving our company into the ground! Hell, he was actually about to take everything that everybody has worked hard for and leave town with it. How do you think that made me feel? If the others found out, worse things would have been done to him than just being shot in the head."
"What about my mother and sister? They were your family too!"
"They got in the way. Witnesses were the last things we needed."
"You already have some. Sorry. One. Because you murdered the only thing in the world I had left." Tears slide down my cheeks without even realizing it.
"Taking me or killing me is one thing. I'm not in any position to lead. But Seho? If you were trying to find the next heir, you failed. He would have been the next to take over. After the rebellion, he practically would have saved you all."
Hyunsoo clicks his tongue.
"See now that's where you're wrong. Seho wasn't even considered. You would have been next."
"No. He was the next male in the family. That doesn't make any sense to just kill him off like that."
"No, Y/n. He wasn't." He sighs, staring at me. "Piece it together."
I narrow my eyes in confusion. He's not really saying...
"No. Thats not even possible. He's been there my whole life.. my parents were never apart."
"Who's to say that was really your mother?" He tilts his head and a lump forms in my throat.
"That was my mother." I shake my head, not believing it.
"Not biologically."
"What.." I say, it barely comes out as a whisper.
"Your father was married to somebody else before you were born. A beautiful, truly talented woman. A great solider. She was a lot like you combat-wise. She entered the company about seven years before she and your father got together. They fell in love. Inseparable. But then she got pregnant. With you."
"You're lying." My voice shakes. My whole life was one whole lie? Even my parents?
"Afraid not. After, she died pretty soon. Your father was grieving and had a one-night stand. Let's say he forgot to pull out and nine months later, out came Seho. Your father didn't want to just leave the woman behind with his child because he got attached. She refused to give him up, so they settled on living together. They hated each other for a couple years. Eventually they fell in love and stayed together because they wanted to. That's when he was starting to get soft on us."
I bite my lip, tears steadily streaming down my cheeks.
"It was all... just.."
"A lie. Yes."
"B-but-"
"But nothing. Seho was only your half brother. He wasn't full into the bloodline, so he was expendable. I need you because you're a purebred. You're family."
What he says disgusts me. How am I related to such a monster?
"You will hate me for the rest of your life, I'm sure if it. But you can't change the fact that we're family. You and I are very similar in a lot of ways. We'll do anything to protect the ones we love and care about."
"Is that why you murdered your own brother in cold blood?" I snarl.
"He was putting us all in danger by leaving like that. I couldn't let him."
"So what's going to happen to me then? You're going to lock me up? Torture me for being his spawn?"
"No, no nothing like that." He laughs a bit. "The thing is we're running a little short on said bloodline. We can only hold so much power for so much time, which is why repopulating is vital to our company."
I look at him in disgust.
"You want me to... breed?"
"Nonono. Partly, yes, but that's not the main goal. We want to show everybody... you. The daughter of our once great leader Y/FTH/N. The amount of power you hold right now is absolutely incredible across the country."
"Reputation." I nod. "Got it. So what? I just get to stand around and receive praise or rotten tomatoes that are thrown my way? You get to walk around with the satisfaction that you captured the last of my bloodline and expect others to respect you? Pathetic."
"Not standing around." He chuckles and I cut him off.
"You don't need to sell this to me anymore, Hyunsoo, I'm already on board. We can leave right now."
Muffled voices mumble through gags as the boys look at me nervously, trying to convince me otherwise, but I ignore them and close my eyes. Opening them again, I look at Hyunsoo and block out the others.
"We could potentially leave right now, but I have something that I need you to do first."
"Name it. Then we'll be on our way."
"You have no idea of the damage you have caused my company for years. You've killed dozens upon dozens of my men. Now Hyun-Shik is dead too. Forced by my hand!" His voice shakes in anger in his last sentence.
"I'm pretty sure it was mine." I shrug. "It's a vivid memory."
"I sent him to you knowing how dangerous you were and when you have him captive, I never tried to stop you and negotiate. Because I knew that securing you was more important than letting you get away again. So I had to let him go."
"What. Do. You. Want?"
"I want you to feel the pain that I've felt." He growls, stepping to me, but still far away. "I want you to experience the guilt and know what it's like to make a choice."
He gives me a hard stare, dangerous even.
He raises his hand and tilts his fingers forward.
"Now you're going to know what it's like to make a choice."
Suddenly two people from either side and kicked forward from their places, groans leaving their lips. I recognize Jimin's dark black and slightly wavy hair and chew the inside of my lip. He looks like he's in a lot of pain. He's clutching his stomach and one eye is practically shut in pain. He lifts his eyes to me and I feel a pang of guilt through my heart. He scans me and narrows his eyes.
"What did you do to her?" He growls, aiming his eyes at Hyunsoo, but one of his men gives Jimin a warning, putting the nozzle of his gun to his head to shut him up.
I look to the right at the other man, who's head is still down.
He slowly lifts it and I recognize who he is. My lip twitches in anger. His eyes meet mine and they widen in recognition.
"You." He growls, trying to stand, but is forced back down by getting hit in the head with the butt of a gun. He groans and grips the grass underneath him.
"Y/n who is that?" I hear somebody ask.
I just stare at the man. I thought Jin took care of him?
Jin's eyes are full of rage.
"This game is pretty simple. All you have to do is make a choice."
He jerks his head to the side and somebody approaches me. I tense up, taking a step back into the water, but then they drop something in front of me and walk away. I slowly walk back, eyeing what he placed there.
A gun?
Why?
"Take it, Y/n. It's all yours." Hyunsoo says.
I pick it up, standing cautiously.
"There's one round in there. You have a choice to make here. Park Jimin or Jeon Ji Ran."
I look at Hyunsoo.
I cock the hammer back and point the gun at him. All of his men yell something of a warning and point their guns at me, but Hyunsoo holds his hand up.
"Stand down!" He orders and they all slowly return to their positions. He looks at me and tilts his head. "You do have a choice here. I'm not in the draw, but hell, following the rules is something you don't exactly go by. So by all means take the shot." He shrugs, holding his hands up in submission.
Tears fill my eyes and my hand shakes. I could do it, right here. Right now. Take my revenge. For my family. For Seho. For all those innocents. But I know that it's not that simple.
"But think. If you pull the trigger, you're not the only one that will suffer. These boys who are so precious to you will be taken back and killed. But before that, it'll be so much worse, they'd wish they were dead. These innocents will be shot in the back of the head on the spot here. My men will retaliate. Make your choice."
I choke back a sob, my hand shaking even more.
"Why are you doing this to me?" I cry out.
"I'm only letting you know how it feels. But shooting me right now isn't the right choice, Y/n. I'll always be there to haunt you. Your friends will pay the price."
I chew my lip, trying to hold myself, but I can't. I drop the gun to my thigh and let out a sob.
"Good girl." He says quickly, obviously relieved. "Look at me."
I slowly lift my head to look at him, my whole view blurred from either tears or from hitting my head so much tonight.
"We can be done with this quickly as long as you cooperate. Make the choice."
I look over at Jimin and the man from the alley.
I raise my gun to the man and Hyunsoo clicks his tongue.
"Are you really going to kill an innocent man, Y/n? Over a guilty man? That's low for you."
"He's not innocent." I growl. "He's your man."
"As matter of fact, he's not." I look at him, confused.
"How poorly behaved do you think my men are? I wouldn't send somebody like that to capture you. He was hired."
"How did he know who I was then?"
"Let me tell you a story." He says, walking behind the man. "Once upon a time, there was a man named Jeon Ji Ran. His family of three kids and a happily married wife don't know his secret about how their financial situation is. He makes a living off of a low wage until a hero named Hyunsoo approached him. Told him that he can feed his starving children if he did a little job for him. Like the poor man he is, he accepted under the terrible conditions because he knew how much his family needed it. But I won't lie. He's done things similar to what happened to you in the past. He was punished with jail time, but now is a man trying to make it right for his family."
I clench my jaw. He's not even an agent?
Agent or not, he tried to rape me. Beat the shit out of me and tried to rape me.
"Believe it or not, I thought that you would kill him for sure. I guess I was wrong. That's what makes everything here so much more exciting." He grins and I cringe a little bit.
"Now onto our next contestant!"
He walks over to Jimin, who sits still, but groans when Hyunsoo grips the back of his neck roughly. In disgust.
"Park Jimin. Well known around the industry. Born in Busan, moved to Seoul when he was about seven years old with his father after the death of his mother. At the age of eleven, he had experienced his first kill; his father who was ruthless for years. If you ask me, I think that was his trigger. In his whole life I'd say our friend Jimin over here has killed about 130 ish people in total. Not all of them deserved it. Some were purposeful while others just got in his path."
The information is absorbed by my brain, my expression blank, but my gun lowered.
"Out of the 130, about 40 of those people didn't even deserve it. Our boy over here is a murderer on different levels. A practically well-known drug-lord. Whereas Ji Run over here is an innocent man with a wife and three children." He stands in the middle of the two men, hands on his hips.
"Y/n let's just think here." Jimin says. "Take me. He doesn't deserve this. Hyunsoo is right. I'm guilty." He says, holding his hands out slightly. "He hasn't done anything."
I stare at the man, rage running through my veins.
"If you kill an innocent man, there's no going back." Jimin continues. "You have to trust me on that."
"He's no innocent." I say before raising my gun and firing.
Screams ripple through the small crowd of innocents as the man's body crumbles to the floor. Jimin's mouth hangs open and he tilts his head to get the splattered blood off the side of his face.
"Y/n.." he whispers before he's dragged away and thrown back into the lineup.
"Very good, Y/n." Hyunsoo chuckles. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"
I just stare at him, glassy eyes.
"Next." he says.
My eyes widen.
"Wait what? What do you mean next?"
Two more are pushed forward, but the boy on the left lets out a pained scream while clutching his stomach. Namjoon. On the right, a woman is pushed out. She's young, that's for sure.
"I mean that it's not going to be that easy, Y/n. Like I've said, you've done unspeakable damage. I'm not going to let it slide that easily. You're going to suffer." He growls. "You're going to make the choice."
"They have nothing to do with this! Their innocents." I shout, pointing at the strangers.
"Not according to you. Look at him." He points his eyes to the dead man.
"That was different." I snarl. "He was guilty."
"Who says she isn't?" He tilts his head. "Teressa Hope. 19 years old. Moved to Busan two years ago and started dealing drugs for money. Two months ago she delivered for a teenage boy who OD'd with three other friends 48 hours later. All under the age of 15."
Hyunsoo circles around the crying woman. I squint my eyes. She seems to have a bump on her stomach, but I don't think it's fat or anything.
"I notice you see her... exciting twist. Yes. She's pregnant. Six months. Conveniently around the time she met those teenagers. She's a murderer just like our man Namjoon over here plus the extra fun underage But she's been trying her hardest to turn her life around so that her child can see the world without looking over its shoulder. She's changed. Just like Jeon Ji Run. Does that matter to you? Or are you going to kill her and the baby to protect a gang leader?"
"Namjoon. A man who's tortured and killed more people than I could have kept track of? Such a violent man would be great to have off the street considering he much of an issue he is to everybody around him. Even you."
"You wouldn't know that."
"I do know that. It's not hard information to get ahold of. I heard you two barely even get along. I see the way you look at him. With such hatred."
Namjoon's head raises and we lock eyes. I turn back to Hyunsoo.
"Fine. Maybe we don't get along. Maybe we get in each other's throats every minute of every day but that doesn't make him any less of his worth. He's a great leader. He's sacrificed a lot of his guys even if it didn't make him happy, but that's because he looks after them. He's better than you and all of your men combined."
"Then I'm guessing you choose the second option." Hyunsoo says, unsure how to retort.
"No. No I'm not."
"If you don't make a choice then everybody suffers."
"I am making a choice. Just not what you've given me." I say, my hand shaking as I raise the gun once again and put the barrel to my head.
Screams erupt from the boys, yelling at me to put it down. Even Namjoon and Taehyung choke something out, but are all hit with their assigned guard's gun to shut them up.
"Y/n please just think about this." Hyunsoo says.
"I already have." I shake my head, my breathing getting faster and my heart pounding harder. "You don't know how guilty I feel because of everyone who has died. Dragging all of these people into something that should have been settled a long time ago. I'm not going to kill the people who have helped me and taken care of me. And I'm not killing a woman who made a mistake. It's not my place. But this is. This will end it."
"Y/n." I hear somebody wheeze. I look down at Namjoon who is struggling to speak. "Stop.. trying to-" he breaks into a coughing fit. "Be selfless. Don't do this." He finishes in almost a deep and strained growl.
"I'm doing this to help you." I shake my head, tears falling.
I look at Hyunsoo who says nothing.
"Our deal stands." I choke and he nods.
"Y/n don't." Jimin starts to rise, but is hit again.
I make eye contact with each of the boys who's eyes are glassy. Yoongi has a blank, shocked expression. Hobi is frantic but calm. Jungkook's doe eyes are wide and he's pinching his wrist like a child, trying to wake himself. Jimin is crying silently, tears visibly sliding down his bruised face. Taehyung is slumped still from the pain, but his expression is obviously defeated. Jin's mouth twitches as he tries holding his tears back, but a few escape his eye.
Then I look at Namjoon. I see something in his eyes I've never seen before. Not to me at least. Devastation. I never thought I'd see that. He shakes his head but I nod, sniffling.
"Thank you."
I'm ready to do what's right.
I close my eyes and without second thought, I pull the trigger.