×Triggering violent themes×

*Rina POV*

My heart was beating so fast I felt like at any moment it could explode from the pressure. It only took me a few seconds to get out of the white, horrid labyrinth these people called a hospital and now I was running down main street to the outskirts of the small town. 

I didn't care that I looked like an idiot, I didn't care that I was running out of breath and slowly burning my lungs from the pace I was keeping. I just knew I needed to see her, make sure sue was safe. It's what I'd been doing all my life and it's what I'll always do. 

Every step closer a different thought chipped into my mind, he could be yelling at her, cursing her…. Even beating her. He gets so mad…and I just make it worse by trying to protect her. Finally the familiar home came into view and I ram even faster than I thought possible, giving all my energy to the last few hundred meters to the gate. 

I nearly came to an instant stop when I saw an expensive van parked outside the house. The sound of flying gravel from my shoes snapped me back from staring at the black,  ominous vehicle. 

I charged up the stairs and nearly broke down the front door getting in. I opened my mouth to scream her name but stopped when I saw her sitting calmly on the couch, staring at the ground with a saddened expression. 

I tried to speak but was drowned out by the sound of my own desperate breaths, I had no air and I felt lightheaded from the stress of possibly losing her. 

The door quietly opened from the office and dad walked out followed by an olive-skinned man wearing a grey suit. I knew he was a foreigner just by seeing his face and the serious look he had on did not reassure me in any way. 

"Rina, say goodbye to Kyung-hee, she'll be leaving us today." Those words so clearly came out of my father's mouth and somehow I couldn't register them in my mind.

"What." I spat out, my eyes narrowing on the form of my dad with malicious intent. He sat down opposite Kyung-hee and cleared his throat. 

"She will be finishing her studies overseas in this here Mr. Ramirez' arts school." He motioned to the tall, tanned man that stood silent in our living room. 

"If this is to punish me…then you're gonna have to find some over way. I won't let you send her away like that. Not by herself." I wanted my tone to sound commanding but seeing the obvious wealth that surrounded the stranger in our home I felt my voice growing weaker and weaker. 

"I'm not doing it to punish you. Kyung-hee is going to be an anonymous song writer for Mr. Ramirez, I will get a commission for every song of hers that is produced." Dad smiled at the word commission and I felt sick to my stomach. 

"You're sending her to work…..so you can get money!?" My voice rose more aggressively and with that so did my fear. Is this why he never hurt her, why he always criticized her songs so much? So that eventually he could just put her to work?  

"How can you trust strangers with your own daughter's future? Her happiness!??" I felt like someone was tying a rope around my throat and making it painful for me to speak. I looked at Kyung-hee and she was still silent, unseen tears streaming down her face as she watched me fight with our father. 

"I don't have to care about her happiness, she's young, she'll find it on her own if she's smart." He rose to his feet and placed his hands in his pockets, giving me a cold glare to shut me up. "Her skills to write music on the other hand, I do care about them, that's why I'm sending her to write for a good school. I'm doing that for her-"

"You're doing it FOR YOU!!!" I yelled so loud that Kyung-hee flinched in fear. The room fell silent and finally the man watching from the doorway spoke in heavily accented English. 

"Excuse me, but can you hurry this up please, me and Miss Kyung-hee have a plane to catch." He held up his wrist and gazed down at the heavy gold watch that adorned it. 

"No, no, no. She's not going. She's only seventeen for god sakes!!!!" I started sobbing and I had no more energy to fight him, I fell to my knees and clasped my hands together, resorting to the last thing I could possibly think of. 

"I beg you. Don't send her away." I stared up at the unforgiving eyes of my father and knew he wouldn't back down, wouldn't show mercy or kindness. 

He opened his mouth to speak but Kyung-hee stopped him. "It's better this way, Rina." Her delicate voice like honey rang out and made me sink down on the floor, my hands dropped to the ground and I felt my body shaking. 

"W..why..?" My voice cracked and I felt spent and broken. She stared at my eyes with a smile and breathed out heavily. 

"Because you're better off without me. I've only ever brought you down." She kept smiling at me as tears cascaded down her flawless skin and onto her lap. Was she trying to say goodbye or was she genuinely happy? 

"No, that's not true…." I shook my head and heard an annoyed grunt of impatience from the man in the suit. Dad sat down while rolling his eyes but all I could focus on was Kyung-hee and how she still managed to smile….even in a situation like this. 

"You always have and always would've protected me, Rina. And that's what always gets you in trouble, what gets you hurt." She sent a timid glance towards dad and I clenched my jaw. It's not supposed to be like this, we were so close to graduating, only a few more months and we could run away and survive on our own...away from dad. 

"Damn it, we have to leave or we'll miss our flight. Good day Mr. Lee, we'll be in touch." The brute man stepped forward and grabbed Kyung-hee by her arm, wrenching her up from the couch like she was a ragdoll and pulling her to the door. 

"NO!!!!' In a second I was on my feet, lunging at her with all my energy but cruel hands wrapped around my waist and mouth and pulled me back. I screamed and kicked at him but he wouldn't let go and Kyung-hee disappeared as the front door closed behind her. 

I started screaming so loud even his hand over my mouth couldn't stop the blood-curling sound I emitted. As I flailed around my hands fell on the bastards coffee mug and I grabbed it, smashing it against his face as the porcelain shredded through his skin. 

It was his turn to scream as I ran for the door, I grabbed the handle and swung it open only to see the van making a full u-turn and taking off down the street away from us. I tried to run after it but angered hands once again dug into my hair and pulled me back into the house. 

His bloodied face was pissed off beyond anything I had ever seen and he looked down at me like I was some sort of disgusting animal that had gotten dragged into the house.

"Now that Kyung-hee is gone, I don't have to pretend like I didn't beat your mother, or that I'm not going to beat you." He kicked me in the ribs and I rolled over and yelled into the carpet, feeling dizzy and weak. 

I turned my head and saw him. Coming out of his office, the shiny glint of a full steel baseball bat caught my eye and finally I figured out how my mother had gotten such horrendous bruises on her body. 

"You're just like your mother…you don't know when to shut the fuck up." He grabbed the bat with two hands and swung it down on my body. I wasn't sure where it collided cause the pain seemed everywhere. My mouth was open screaming but I couldn't hear it, all I felt was the gushing of pain to my leg. 

He lifted the metal object and once again brought it down on my back. I yelled at first and then I heard a sound that made me confused beyond reason. Someone was laughing. 

And that someone was me. 

"What's so funny, Rina?" He crouched down and looked at me emotionlessly. I was limp on the floor, laying on my stomach with no energy or power to move. I turned my head to him and stared up at him while random laughs left my mouth.

"Nothing's funny...I…I'm just happy." It was hard to get the words out seeing as I couldn't even feel my stomach or back. He turned his head to the side with a puzzled look. 

"Why?" He hoisted the bat onto his shoulder and tapped his fingers on the handle. 

"Because you just got rid of the one thing that was keeping me quiet." I smiled wider and started laughing louder. I felt free in that moment and the look on his face was a pure bonus. 

"Are you threatening me little girl?" He stood up, bat ready to hit and eyes focused on me with a death stare. 

"You better kill me because unlike you, I'm not a coward. And if you don't end it now, I'll take you down whether it's through the law or a knife in your skull." I stared up at his eyes and for some reason didn't feel afraid. Had I really made a habit out of daring people to kill me? 

"Alright then." He turned his body and readied his aim to my skull. I knew it was over and the only thing I regretted was leaving Kyung-hee so early but with her gone there wasn't really much left to live for.

Well, except for Namjoon. I never expected I would fall for a man in this lifetime. 

Right before he brought it down, the intent to kill me written in his eyes proved how far that strike was gonna go. But the banging open sound of a door and heavy footsteps had the bat stopped mid-air and me groaning in disappointment. 

A man barged into the living room and for the first time ever, fear was written all over his perfect, arrogant face. 

"Taehyung…?"