Kang Enterprises
Atlanta, GA
United States of America
May 2017
Tony was sure that Jin-ho’s choice to let
go of the darker and sketchier path was the best damn choice he’d made in ages.
“It’s about fucking time,” he muttered. “Maybe I can regain my peace of mind
this time around and stop thinking of whether your father will rise to murder
me or not.”
“He won’t do that, he’s cremated.” Jin-ho
waved off the other’s worry, though Tony could very much see the traces of
relief crawling back into the other’s expression. Tony liked that more, if he
had to be honest—there were times wherein Jin-ho could be a little shit, but
he’d much rather have that side of Jin-ho that the side who was jumpy, wrecked,
and had his hands stained far more than any other person in the company.
He was about to comment on that small slice
of dark humor, but a knock came on the door with Mathieu stepping in quickly.
He stopped, looking at the two others with an apprehensive look. “…bad time?”
“Not at all. We’re more relaxed than ever,
to be honest,” Tony admitted. That wasn’t much to fully ease down Mathieu’s
nervous pangs, but he saw the redhead’s shoulders relax slightly. “Any updates
on what happened to Lee?”
“Nothing. It’s like he just disappeared.”
Mathieu came forward and sunk into one of the two chairs in front of Jin-ho’s
desk, groaning. “I’ve been talking to everyone I could—police connections,
employees at the bar—Jian hasn’t shown up anywhere ever since that incident.”
That made Tony frown. “I thought HQ had
something on him?” Mathieu just shook his head, running his fingers through his
hair. “Your girlfriend’s part of the team that investigated him, right?”
“That’s all she told me. It’s a lost case.”
Jin-ho sighed.
“They had a strong lead on him ever since
he went out and set one of the bigger places on fire, and it went on for weeks.
But he disappeared quickly and none’s been able to catch sight of him. Some
think he’s dead, some think he’s still in hiding.”
“It’s that, or Jian was able to pack up and
go back home.” The two of them looked at Jin-ho, who closed the folder he was
reading. “He has family back in Taiwan. I’d understand why he’d want to go
back.”
“But the mess—”
“We can fix it ourselves,” Jin-ho replied
firmly. “If Jian can’t do it himself, then we might as well do the job for him.
No more third parties, no more weird reinforcements. We fix it. Understand?”
the two nodded and Tony excused himself to go out, most likely to go and take a
shot at glancing at the mess Jian had left behind in Atlanta. Mathieu relaxed
into the chair and exhaled.
“I can hardly believe that we’re really
ending this,” he muttered. Jin-ho shot him a half-smile. “That you’re ending this.”
“It was getting tiring. We were all getting
tired. People were getting hurt.” The Korean gave a shrug, “It wasn’t worth it
anymore. Competing and fighting and being dirty wasn’t worth trying to live up
to my family’s legacy.”
Mathieu hummed. “So it was for your family.
Not anything else.”
“It was for him and ma.”
“Do you think you’ll come clean to her
about it?”
“Ma? No.” Jin-ho shook his head. “She
doesn’t have to know. That’s the only thing I want to hide from her and make
sure never reaches her.”
“But won’t being honest help?” Mathieu
questioned. Jin-ho sighed.
“Telling Aether and telling my ma are two
completely different things, Mathieu. There are some things that some people
shouldn’t know. Your kill count is one. What I did to help the company is
another.” Mathieu went silent. “It’s a small price we have to pay for
everything we’ve done. And they don’t deserve to pay the price with us.”
“If that’s what you think is best,” the
Frenchman muttered.
Jin-ho sighed quietly. “If it’s any
consolation, then I have the greatest amount to pay. Not you. Not Tony. Not
Jian. All of this—it’s completely on me.”
Mathieu didn’t respond. Jin-ho knew that he
agreed.
Eventually, Jin-ho learned that part of the
payment were nightmares. They didn’t stop once they ended the darker parts of
business; in fact, they seemed to worsen once he found out that Jian was
unreachable.
There were nasty every few nights, others
just filled with an uncomfortable feeling he couldn’t shake off. They lasted
and persisted and on the mornings after, Jin-ho found himself downing more
coffee than usual and eating less just as he had done before.
But as the weeks turned into months and
time went on, he learned that they eventually went away, too.
He had damaged almost everyone he
associated himself with; there was Jian for the most obvious part, then there
was Tony and his growing number of battle injuries. Mathieu was yet another who
had been affected; from time to time he and Aether would meet up and she would
admit that she felt that he still wasn’t a hundred percent okay and his heart
would sink a little bit—
She would notice. “But he’s let go,” she
reminded him. “He’s let go of the past. He isn’t mad at you. He just needs to
recover—all of you do.”
(And he wanted to believe, he did.)
Tony convinced him that he was able to
move, as did Mathieu. “You’re the only one left,” Mathieu told him one night.
There were drinks and Mathieu had barely touched any alcohol at all, which came
off as a surprise to him. “You haven’t moved on from all. What we all did was
really fucking shitty, but—you’re making up for it.” he gently took away the
alcohol from Jin-ho, “As much as you think that you haven’t made up for it at
all.”
“Jian—”
“What happened to Jian isn’t your fault,
neither was what he did.” Mathieu’s expression went dark for a second, “He
chose to do what he did. He’s paying the price for it as well.”
Jin-ho remained silent and Mathieu sighed.
“You’re doing better, Jin-ho. You’re a good
person despite what’s happened.”
“...am I?”
“You are. Even if you don’t want to see it.”
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