Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

RYUJIN[CHAPTER 5]

I’LL BE FINE, MY ASS.
Yeji's words, spoken with such confidence a month
ago, had come back to bite her, and by extension me, in the
proverbial behind. After looking into the concert venue, I’d
expressly told her not to attend the performance, which took
place in some sketchy warehouse that should’ve been shut
down for breaking a thousand and one safety code
regulations. The building was one strong gust of wind away
from collapsing.

Yet Yeji had gone against my orders and snuck out in
the middle of the night to attend the damn concert, only to
get kidnapped afterward.

Thats right. Fucking kidnapped by a mercenary who’d
grabbed her and Minjeong off the street.

It wasn’t even the concert that pissed me off. If Yeji
had insisted on going, I would’ve gone with her, because she
was the client. I couldn’t physically restrain her from doing
what she wanted.

No, I was pissed about the fact she’d gone behind my back
and the whole kidnapping incident could’ve been avoided
had she been honest with me.

I glanced in the rearview mirror to reassure myself
Yeji was still there. As furious as I was, the sight of her in
the backseat, bruised but safe, eased some of the icy terror
that had gripped me since I woke up and realized she was
gone.

Luckily, I’d had the foresight to plant a secret tracking
chip in her phone a few weeks earlier, and it’d led me to
Philadelphia, where I found her and Minjeong tied up and at the
mercy of a gunman for hire. The whole situation resulted
from a long, sordid saga involving Yu Jimin, Jimin's
psycho uncle who’d kidnapped Minjeong as leverage against his
niece, and years of secrets and revenge.

I honestly didn’t give a shit about the drama. All I’d cared
about was getting Yeji out of there safely, and I had, if
only so I could tear her apart with my own hands.

“Minjeong's staying with us tonight.” Yeji smoothed a hand
over her friend’s hair, her brow knit in a worried frown. “I
don’t want her to be alone.”

Minjeong lay curled up in her lap, her sobs softer than before
but still frequent enough to make me wince. I had no clue
what to do around crying people, especially ones whose now
ex-girlfriend confessed to lying to her during their entire
relationship to get revenge on the man she’d thought had
murdered her family. And that was only the CliffsNotes
version of what had happened.

It was fucked-up shit, but Yu Jimin had always been a
little fucked up in an I might murder you if I’m in a bad mood
kind of way. At least everyone was alive…except for her uncle
and the gunman.

“Fine.” The word ricocheted through the car like a bullet.
Yeji flinched, and a small kernel of guilt took root in
my stomach. It wasn’t enough to drown out my anger, but it
was enough to make me feel like an asshole as I pulled up in
front of her house. She’d been through hell, and I should let
her sleep off the events of the past twenty-hours first before
I laid into her.
Keyword: should. But I’d never cared much about what I
should do. What mattered was what I needed to do, and I
needed Yeji to understand she couldn’t fuck around with
my rules. They were there to protect her, dammit, and if
anything happened to her…

Fresh terror stabbed at me.
We entered the house, and I waited until Minjeong retreated to
Yeji's room before I jerked my head to my right.

“Kitchen. Now.”
Yeji wrapped her arms around her chest. Another
wave of anger crashed over me at the sight of the raw,
reddened skin where the ropes had dug into her wrists.
If the mercenary weren’t already dead, I’d carve him up
myself, and I would take a longer, sweeter time than Jimin
had.