His father just stared at him. Jungkook’s back was still facing him.
“This is a pretty pass we’ve come to, when you won’t even turn around and look at me. Or give me the respect I deserve.”
Jungkook did turn around then. “Respect? Your business is ruining lives. What’s to respect? You make money off of other people’s misery. I will never respect that.”
“If you feel that way, then why are you here asking for my help?”
“Because if he takes me down, he takes you with me.”
His father’s steely stare cut the air between them.
“He wants me dead.”
“Why?”
“Because I love his daughter. And don’t think about touching one hair on her head. She’s tied up in the same instructions I am if any evil befalls her.”
Jungkook’s own stare was just as piercing. He didn’t lack for courage, his father had to give him that. The boy had always been too headstrong for his own good. Or for his appa’s either. He should have left him with his eomma. Of course, he would have landed in his lap eventually anyway. She hadn’t lasted much longer. She’d died within a year after Jungkook left her to move in with his appa.
And now Jungkook had cut himself off from his one remaining relative. His father.
“You’ve never liked me,” his appa pointed out.
Surprised by his father’s remark, Jungkook nonetheless kept his face blank. He had learned long ago that showing weakness in front of his father was simply an invitation for it to be exploited.
“I’m not here about you. I’m here because I wish to free her from her father.”
“As you freed yourself from me.”
It wasn’t a question.
Jungkook lifted his chin before dropping it once.
His appa’s eyes challenged him.
“Just exactly how do you plan to do that?”
Jungkook sighed. Here was the rub. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t have the advantage of twelve years in his company to compile evidence against him, huh?”
“The most likely outcome is that I’m going to get myself killed. I just thought you should know. I’m not going to remove my security measures. So if I die, you’ll fall too.”
“You came to me because you want me to help you plan your escape.”
“I came to you because he wants you dead too.”
Once again, his appa just stared at him.
“He has, in fact, made it the price of his trust in me.”
That moved his father’s face. “He asked you to kill me?”
Jungkook nodded. “He has stolen his own daughter away from me, and he will not let me see her again until he can confirm you are dead.”
“You’re trying to figure out how to make this work to your advantage.”
“You know I have no bloodlust. Not even for you,” murmured Jungkook.
His appa cracked a smile. “Not here to end me, then?”
Jungkook’s blank face suffered a tremor suddenly. “I don’t know what to do. Without your cooperation, I’m sunk. The truth is…I don’t know what he’ll do to her if I do nothing. I don’t know him well enough.”
“The man is ruthless. But what he does to his own flesh and blood is none of your affair.”
Jungkook turned towards him then, and every feeling in his heart bled into his face. “I love her! I can’t live without her!”
“Oh, stop being dramatic! You’re not a boy of sixteen! Nor are you Romeo to her Juliet!”
“How do you know?”
“Because you are made of sterner stuff than that. You outwitted me. Surely, you can outwit Lee Kwangjo.”
“Not without your help. How am I to fake your death when you are obviously still living?”
“I could go on vacation,” his appa shrugged.
Hopeful, Jungkook lifted an eyebrow. “Would you?”
His father’s gaze pierced him. “Probably not.” His eyes probed the depths of Jungkook’s. “I owe you nothing.”
“You owe me EVERYTHING!” Jungkook ground out savagely. “She died because of you! You broke her heart!”
Gwan Bongju stilled. “She was a foolish woman.”
“She was my eomma!” His eyes suddenly stricken, Jungkook stared at his appa. “How can you be so heartless? Now that I’ve found the one my heart longs for, I understand you even less. Have you never known love? Is there an ice cube in the place where your heart should be?
“She had one love in her life – me – and you ripped me from her! She didn’t even last a year without me!” Jungkook’s passion was all displayed flowing across his countenance.
“You want to know why I hate you? You want to know why I worked for twelve years to free myself from you? She’s the reason. Because you despised the best woman I have ever known.” He stood, fists balled, chest heaving, as he stared down at his appa, who was still seated.
The older man sighed and instantly appeared twenty years older. He reached up and rubbed his brow as he bent his head. “I did not despise your mother. I loved her. That’s why I let her raise you. She came to me when you were fourteen and told me she’d been diagnosed. She knew she was on borrowed time. She asked me to give her a year with you, but that when things got too bad she wanted me to take you, so that you wouldn’t suffer watching her fade away.”
“You lie!” Jungkook shouted. His whole broken heart bled into his countenance. It crumpled in an instant, and he began to sob. “You lie.” He sat down in the chair in front of his father’s desk. “You lie,” he whispered pathetically.
But for once, he believed his appa. Because it was just the sort of decision his precious eomma would have made. To spare him from further pain.
