Chapter 108

“Keep this away from Suho and Haein. And I repeat nothing happens to my son. Even a single scratch to him, you are dead.”

And then the message ended. Silence. Jungkook slowly lowered the phone from his ear.

His grip loosened. The phone slipped from his fingers and hit the stairwell floor with a hollow thud. The sound echoed up and down the empty staircase.

He didn’t pick it up.

He just stood there. Back against the wall. Eyes fixed on nothing. The word turning over and over in his mind, slow, disbelieving, like his brain was refusing to process what his ears had just heard.

His mother’s accident.

The amusement park.

Only Hyesuk should get into the accident.

His mother hadn’t died by a fucking accident but….. His father had planned it.

“It… it can’t be….” he breathed. Barely a sound. He stood there completely still. No tears. No anger. No sound. Just nothing.

Just the quiet, devastating, absolute numbness of a person whose last remaining foundation had just been pulled out from under him entirely.

Meanwhile, Eunwoo’s phone rang. He looked at the screen. It was Kim. He sighed and answered it.

“Where is Jungkook?” Kim’s voice came through immediately tight, controlled, but the worry underneath it was impossible to miss. “He’s with me,” Eunwoo said quietly.

“Bring him to the mansion. Soon.” A pause. Then the line went dead. No other questions. No explanation. Eunwoo stared at the phone for a moment after the call ended.

He could hear it even through those few short words. The fear in Kim’s voice. The desperation barely held beneath the surface. Whatever Kim Yoonseong was, whatever he had done the worry for his son was real. Eunwoo could hear it clearly.

And that confused him.

It genuinely confused him. If this man cared this much, if he was this desperate to find his son, this afraid of something happening to him then why? Why had it come to this? Why had Jungkook been standing on the edge of a twenty floor building tonight, convinced that no one in the world wanted him alive?

How does someone that loved end up that alone?

Eunwoo didn’t have an answer. He just pocketed his phone and pushed the stairwell door open, heading back down.

He was halfway down when he stopped.

Jungkook was there. Standing completely still in the middle of the staircase, back against the wall, his phone on the floor at his feet. Not moving. Not crying. Just standing there. Eyes open but seeing nothing. Empty in a way that was different from before. Deeper. Quieter.

“Jungkook.” He called out. No response.

Eunwoo stepped closer and placed both hands on his shoulders, shaking him gently.

Jungkook blinked. Slowly turned his head and looked at him, like he was returning from somewhere very far away.

Eunwoo studied his face for a moment, uneasy in a way he couldn’t name.

“Your appa called,” he said carefully. “He wants me to bring you to the mansion. Come on let’s go.”

Jungkook stood there. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just looked at Eunwoo with those hollow, unreadable eyes, and said absolutely nothing.

Eunwoo frowned slightly and tightened his grip on Jungkook’s shoulder. “Jungkook… did you hear me? We need to go.”

A long pause. Then, slowly, Jungkook bent down and picked up his phone from the floor. His fingers trembled slightly as he held it, his eyes fixed on the screen, unblinking, unreadable.

“Who sent this?” he asked quietly. Not really to anyone.

His voice was calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that doesn’t come from peace but from something shutting down inside a person.

Eunwoo’s frown deepened. “Who sent what?”

Jungkook lifted his gaze. His eyes met Eunwoo’s and they were completely empty. No tears. No anger. No pain. Just nothing.

“Someone sent a voice message,” he said. A little steadier this time. Eunwoo hesitated. “I don’t know…. maybe a wrong number—-“

“It’s his voice.” The words came out flat and final from jungkook.  Jungkook swallowed hard, his jaw tightening. He looked back down at the phone.

“Who’s” eunwoo asked, slowly carefully.  “Appa’s.” Jungkook whispered. He could feel his heart beating loud.

The air between them shifted. Became heavier. Neither of them spoke for a moment, just the sound of rain somewhere above them and their own uneven breathing filling the stairwell.

Then Jungkook let out a laugh. Short. Dry. Completely hollow, the kind of laugh that had no humour in it at all.

“No….” he muttered, shaking his head. “No, this is stupid. This is fake.” He started pacing slightly, one hand running through his soaked hair. “They edited it. That’s what it is. Someone’s trying to mess with me. Someone’s trying to—“

“Jungkook.” Eunwoo’s voice was careful. Quiet. “What did you hear?”

Jungkook stopped pacing. He stood with his back to Eunwoo for a moment. Then he turned, slowly, and when he spoke, his voice came out measured and deliberate, like he was forcing each word out one at a time.

“It says…. appa tried to kill eomma.”

Eunwoo stared at him. Those words hit him like a wave of shock. His hands had already started trembling without him realising it.

Silence swallowed the stairwell whole.

“Eomma didn’t die in an accident….” Jungkook’s voice cracked slightly now just barely the numbness beginning to fracture at the edges. “It sounds like…. like h-he planned it. Like he ordered it.”

“What are you saying–&” Eunwoo’s voice rose sharply, disbelief pushing through. “I heard it!” Jungkook snapped. His voice cracked and echoed off the stairwell walls raw and jagged and desperate.

“I heard him say it! Italy…. the accident…. the amusement park…. everything!” His breathing came faster now, uneven and shallow. “But…. But” he stopped. Stepped back. Shook his head again, harder this time. “No. No, he wouldn’t. He would never. He can’t…..” He stopped mid-sentence.

The words died in his throat. Because even as he said them even as he stood there soaking wet and shaking, trying to build the argument that it was fake, that it was edited, that his father could never. Cuz, deep down, He knew.

He had always known that Kim Yoonseong was capable of things that couldn’t be spoken out loud. He had grown up in the shadow of that knowledge without ever letting himself look directly at it.

And his father could go to any extent if he is benefited.

But now he had heard it. In his father’s own voice. In his father’s own words.

And there was nowhere left to look away to.

He just stood there in the stairwell, the phone clutched in his trembling hand, the rain pouring somewhere above him completely and utterly shattered. For the second time that same night.

Eunwoo stepped closer carefully. “Jungkook… listen to me. We don’t know if it’s real yet. Let’s go home first, we’ll figure it out—-“

He stopped speaking when Jungkook held out his phone. “Hack it,” Jungkook said quietly. “Find out who sent it.”

And then he walked past him and down the stairs. No more words. No backwards glance. Just gone.

Eunwoo stood there holding the phone, staring at the screen. “….Ani.” he whispered. “It can’t be.” His thumb hovered over the screen for a second. Then he pressed play.

Kim’s voice filled the stairwell calm, deliberate, speaking in Italian and Eunwoo listened to every single word.

When it ended, he sat down right there on the stairs. Not because he chose to. His legs simply gave out beneath him.

He sat there confused and broken and completely still staring at nothing while the rain hammered the building outside. Tears slowly felt. “It can’t…. It can’t be…” He mumbled slowly.

Meanwhile, Jungkook ran. He burst out of the building and into the rain and just, ran. He ran to his home. To meet Kim. To get answer from his appa.

“It can’t be…. He wouldn’t do that…. He didn’t do that….” He kept mumbling it, over and over, like a prayer, like if he said it enough times it would become true. He ran like something was chasing him or maybe like he was trying to outrun something living inside his own chest.

People on the pavement stopped and stared umbrellas tilting, eyes following the soaking wet boy sprinting through the rain like a man possessed. He didn’t see them. He didn’t see anything. He didn’t mind about the rising ache in his chest. He just ran. For the answers. For the years of pain.

Meanwhile. With Jin:

He was still in the car.

Still numb. Still empty. Still sitting in the exact same position as before, like his body had forgotten how to move on its own.

His eyes were red now, dry and raw and aching, because there was nothing left in them to cry with. The wound in his head was covered with dried blood now. The only sounds were the quiet hum of the engine and the rain falling steadily against the windshield.

After a long moment, he reached for his phone.

He looked at the screen.

Missed calls, too many to count. Yoongi. Tae. Jimin. Namjoon. Hoseok. His samchoon. His father. Even Haein.

He stared at them for a moment, then pressed Yoongi’s name.

It rang once. Twice. Then the screen went black. His phone was dead. “Ahhh, shibal!!!” he muttered under his breath, dropping it onto the seat beside him.

He looked out at the rain for a moment. Then he sighed, long and slow and completely exhausted, and reached for the ignition. He started the car.

He was more than fifty kilometres from home. He pulled out onto the road and drove.

It wasn’t that the pain had left him. It hadn’t. Not even close. It was just that he had cried until there was nothing left, until his body had gone quiet out of pure exhaustion, not peace. The grief was still there. Heavy and permanent and settled deep into his chest like it had always lived there and always would.

And his eyes….. his eyes that had always been bright, always warm, always the first thing people noticed when he walked into a room…. were dim now. Quiet in a way they had never been before.

Like something in them had simply gone out.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Kim was already back at the mansion. He had informed Hyunwoo that Eunwoo had found Jungkook. And hyunwoo  informed others. The moment he stepped through the doors, Tae and Jimin were already there pacing, restless, unable to sit still.

The moment Tae saw Kim, he rushed straight to him. “Where is Kook?” The panic on his face was raw and filled with concern and worry. “He should be on his way home” Kim spoke but stopped when…..

“APPA. APPA!!” Kim froze.

That word. That voice. He hadn’t heard it in years. And yet there it was unmistakable, desperate his son’s voice calling for him. After years.

All three of them turned at once.

Jungkook came running through the entrance of the mansion, completely drenched, chest heaving, rain still dripping from his hair and clothes. He stopped the moment he saw Kim standing there.

For a second, no one moved.

Tae and Jimin rushed toward him immediately. Tae grabbed his arms. “Jungkook, where were you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Tae desperately asked, worried.

Jungkook didn’t answer. He gently but firmly removed Tae’s hands and took slow, deliberate steps forward. Toward Kim. Toward his appa.

“Appa….” Kim’s mouth wouldn’t open. He stood there, looking at his son’s eyes, scared and hollow and hurting in a way that cut straight through him. He saw those eyes every day. He was the reason for those eyes every day.

But today something was different. Today he didn’t know what had put that look there, and that unknown, that helplessness, made something crack deep inside his chest.

“Appa….” Jungkook’s voice was quiet. Trembling. “D… d-did you…. Did you ask someone to kill eomma?” He swallowed. “You didn’t…. right?”

The question landed like a thunder. Kim felt his entire world stop. “What…. What are you asking?” Kim said slowly.

“Eomma….. Hyesuk eomma.” Jungkook’s voice barely held together. “She died in an accident…. or did you…. did…. did you order someone to….”

“Jungkook” Kim’s voice came out strained. “Appa. Did you?” Jungkook asked again, desperate and helpless.

Tae and Jimin looked at each other,  wide eyed, breath held.

Kim hesitated. And that hesitation, that single, terrible pause, was its own answer.

Jungkook stared at him. His breathing grew heavier. His eyes filled slowly, against his will. “So…. So y-ou…. did.” It came out as a rasp. Broken and disbelieving all at once. “You did.”

At that exact moment, Namjoon came through the door, running, panting, stopping short as he took in the scene before him. Tae and Jimin standing frozen. Jungkook soaked and trembling. And Kim, head dropping,  unable to meet his son’s eyes.

Something Namjoon had never seen in his life.

“Appa….” Jungkook breathed out. “Y-you…. You….  K-Killed e-eomma….” His face crumpled. His breathing became ragged, too fast, too shallow, each inhale shorter than the last.

“Jungkook, let’s talk later, hmm? Come and rest first…” Kim stepped forward, reaching for him. Jungkook stumbled back. Away from his hand.

“D–don’t” he rasped. Then his hand flew to his chest as a wave of unbearable pain shot. “Ahhhh”

It came out as barely a whisper, strained and pained and small. Kim crossed the distance between them in an instant, hands reaching out. Tae was already moving. Before he could hold his brother, Kim was there holding him “kook-ah, what’s happening baby—” Jungkook weakly pushed him away. “D-don’t…. Don’t t-touch me–“

But the pain hit again… harder this time. Like a knife driven straight through his sternum. His whole body reacted to it, a sharp, broken sound tearing from his throat. “Arghhh, “

His knees buckled. Kim caught him before he hit the ground. Both arms wrapped around him, pulling him in, holding him tight against his chest.

“Kook-ah…. Kook-ah, baby…. Look at appa…. Is it hurting? Tell me where it hurts” Kim’s voice cracked as he spoke, one hand pressing gently against Jungkook’s chest, rubbing slow circles. His eyes were glistening now,  visibly, undeniably.

Tae saw it. Jimin saw it. Namjoon saw it too. They rushed forward. Jimin ran to the kitchen to bring water.

Jungkook whimpered again as another wave of pain rolled through him and then his body simply gave out. He went completely limp in Kim’s arms.

“Jungkook…. K-kook” Tae’s voice broke. “Jungkook-ah.” He grabbed Jungkook’s hand, rubbing it desperately. “Kookie…. Look at hyung, please….”

“Kook-ah….” Kim’s voice was unravelling now, all composure gone. He patted Jungkook’s cheek gently, again and again. “Hey…. Hey, look at appa. Baby, look at me. Appa is sorry…. I’m so sorry, Kook-ah…. Please. Please don’t do this…. Look at me….”

Namjoon was already on the phone, voice tight and urgent, calling for an ambulance.

Jimin ran back from the kitchen, water in hand. Kim took it immediately, carefully splashing it against Jungkook’s face.

Nothing.

Jungkook didn’t stir. Didn’t move. Completely still in his father’s arms, his face pale, his lips losing colour, turned blue, his chest rising slowly. Too slowly.

Tae kept rubbing his hand, and then stopped. His little brother’s fingers were cold. And his hand fell down limp. Like lifeless.

Tae looked up at Kim. Kim looked down at his son. And for the first time in a very long time, Kim Yoonseong was afraid. Not of an enemy. Not of a consequence. Afraid of losing his son. Tears slowly fell. “Kook-ah….” He whispered slowly. More tears fell.

Jimin saw. Namjoon saw. Tae saw. The strongest person who cried only for his love’s deathwas crying in front of them years after. Just for his son. Just like he always cried when jungkook cried when he was little.

And that exact moment, jin entered the house, he saw the scene in front of his eyes. His little brother was lying limp against his dad’s embrace. He just stood there unmoving. Still and numb.

Hey guys! How was it!

And again…. My kook….  I am sorry!

So…. THANK YOU ALLLLL! woahhh I asked for just 80 comments and you all have me 90+! Ahhh I am on cloud nine!

So I must treat you all well right! Your comments and your excitement for reading upcoming chapters make me write so fast!

So I actually woke up at 1:40, I wrote the whole chapter in just 2 hours!  You believe me! I never ever wrote this fast!

So anyway share your thoughts all over the comments section!

Okay…. Maybe 80+ comments again for a faster update?