AERI

I don't know why I'm here.

My eyes glower towards Rin, who shoots me an awkward smile. I'd come so fast because her voice had been so urgent over the phone— but instead I was now here, surrounded by V's friends and feeling insanely pissed off.

"So what do you want?" I sigh. "There must be a reason why you got me over here like this, yeah?"

I still wasn't in a good mood from how I'd ended things with Baekhan. He hadn't done much— but that look of pure betrayal after I'd told him had stuck with me.

Jungkook and Jimin glance at one another.

"Let me explain, Miss Aeri." Jungkook speaks up first, his tone serious. "And— please, just hear me out for at least a little."

"V hyung has gone down to the Underground."

...okay? Probably for one of his stupid street fights. He really hadn't learned his lesson from last time, had h—

"He's gone to your place. From before." Jungkook continues, and I slowly lose all words as he goes on. "He's gone to find your brother— Shin Aemin's records of a prototype that he and his class developed in Seohan University, six years ago. He thinks that your brother must've hidden it somewhere in the house."

The color slowly drains from my face.

Aemin?

Aemin.

I'd never expected to hear his name again.

Flickers of him slowly begin to claw its way up from where I'd buried it deep in my mind. I see flashes of his easy smile, his smile now covered in his own blood.

"...Miss Aeri?"

I look up, expression blank. All of their faces are dark with concern.

"Are you alright?"

I nod, but it feels like my own body isn't mine.

Jungkook continues softly. "He's gone down there by himself, and he doesn't know that his father has put a trail on him. He's going to lead them straight to the records if he finds it."

"So?" I whisper. My voice comes out so much more harshly than I mean to.

"I thought they were all together on this," I snarl. "V killed my brother, didn't he? Who cares about the fucking records or whatever anymore after six years?"

"Because it's a prototype for a bomb."

Jungkook closes his eyes, hesitating. Then he looks towards Jimin, who nods with an exasperated expression.

"V hyung didn't kill your brother, Miss Aeri."

I still.

...what?

"His father did. And it's because of guilt that he's let you believe this until now. He blames himself, that he could've stopped this from happening to you. Even though he never would've been able to."

My thoughts seem to freeze inside my head.

V...didn't kill my brother.

V never killed Aemin.

And I'd called him all those things. Just an hour ago I'd hurt him, when he'd only ever tried to do the right things for me. He'd never done anything against me after all.

That day, in the ring.

I could've killed him for something that he hadn't even done.

My voice is breathless. "So why...the bomb, I—"

"V's father is so desperately after that prototype because it may just be the thing to finally bring the Underground to ruins. He has always wanted to level the entire place, and that explosive is going to be the key to his plan if he finds your brother's records." Jungkook murmurs quickly.

"We need to hurry, Miss Aeri. I'm sorry I can't explain this any further."

For the first time, I'm so lost that I'm speechless.

Then my thoughts flow back to the past, when I had been twelve. Aemin had been comforting me because I'd fought with a friend and had been completely under the weather. He'd taken me to a place, overlooking the ashen slums of the Underground.

I remember walking for miles that day, complaining relentlessly to my brother. I remember him carrying me on his back the rest of the way.

He'd taken me to a green meadow. The first green I'd ever seen in the Underground, and I had been so stunned by its beauty. There had been the largest willow tree in the middle, and it had been peaceful. The air had been clear.

I remember a deep hole, in the roots of the willow tree. He had showed me, and I remember him talking about it when he really had no absolute reason to talk about this random hole in a tree.

Now I realize.

I had been the one person he had told.

"I...know where those records are." I whisper softly. All eyes turn to me.

"And they're not in the house."

_________________________________

The Underground

V

Where could it be?

The house is silent, lifeless. It hadn't been occupied for the last six years, and I'd nearly missed it the first time because of all the ivy that had grown across the dirty walls.

My eyes sweep through the living room. Everything is the same— nothing had changed. Not even the untangled noose hanging from the ceiling, when I had taken the body of Aeri's father to give him a proper burial in the past.

I breathe.

Move. You don't have much time.

I turn towards the first door on the right. It's a cramped room, with a tiny bed and a shaky desk tucked into the middle. The desk drawer hangs open.

My entire body freezes when I see what's inside.

A dusty, small pink pair of earmuffs. It rests on top of a pile of pictures, next to a wrapped square of chocolate.

It's like I'm being pulled forward, when I see the corner of one of the pictures on top of the pile.

...Aeri?

It is her.

When I'd taken her to the Skygrounds for her thirteenth birthday. And an unexplainable pain slowly claws up my throat as I pick up the neatly organized pile of photographs.

The first picture is one of her. The innocent childishness of her smile beams back up at me through the dust, next to the fountain. She is waving happily at the photographer— I must've taken this.

I sift through the pile, having completely forgotten why I was here in the first place.

There are only three.

The second shows the top of her head, the picture having been taken above her. Her arms are wrapped tightly around my waist.

She barely comes up to my chest.

The last one is of me.

I look unaware of her in this picture— she must've taken this, when I wasn't looking. My eyes are focused down on the Skygrounds below, hands clasped together on top of the railing.

There is a rough heart drawn around my figure, in red crayon. In the margins of the photograph, there's a messy scribble of words.

I love you, V. I'm going to marry you one day, so just you wait. You better not look at anyone else except for me.

A broken sound tumbles from my lips.

And the photos slip from between my fingertips, fluttering back into the drawer.

Killer.

I can see her, her dark eyes full of hatred and voice tinted with poison. I see her in my mind.

He's no one.

I slide the drawer back close. It shuts with a muffled noise, and I look up at the ceiling. A deep, heavy sigh runs through my lips.

Focus. Please.

My steps are brisk as I walk out of Aeri's room. I had to find those records— the ones that her brother had made. I had to burn them to the ground.

If that ever got into my father's hands.

I didn't even want to think about what could happen.

But then the moment I step out of the doorway of Aeri's room, something cold touches the skin of my neck. And I've been down here too often, to know that it's a knife set against my throat.

My eyes flicker.

Who—

"So you're the one who made me come all the way down to this shitty place."

A familiar scowl. And I instantly tense as I quickly recognize one of my father's assassins. His vicious scowl melts into an amused grin, while my mind slowly blurs with panic.

How.

How is he here?

Had my father...

"Hold still," He hisses, and I feel him press the blade another millimeter deeper. A thin line of blood trickles down the curve of my throat.

"Your father is very unhappy with you." He laughs, and I struggle to calm my rapid breaths as his narrow gaze searches my expression.

"So just give in. Haven't you realized that your father isn't worth going against after all this time? You're his damn son."

His voice suddenly sharpens. I can feel the heat of my own blood, and it distracts me from trying to think a way out of this.

But my father handpicks his assassins, for their ruthless viciousness. Jungkook had been chosen for the same reasons, after all.

He would kill me without hesitation.

"So just tell me, will you?"

"Tell me where those fucking records are before I gouge out your eye, Kim Taehyung."