~A friend to hold on to~

*UNKNOWN*

“This is getting more fun.” She smirked, twirling her hair around her index finger as she stared at the window. “Knock, knock, prince.”

She blew out some bubbles with the bubble gum, still smirking. After a while, she turned to leave but heard footsteps from behind.

“Who are you?” The guard asked.

She turned around and stared at the guard. “Who am I?”

He let out a sigh of relief as soon as he saw her face. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be inside or something?”

“Do you know there is something called, mind your own business?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, I should be the one asking you that. Besides this is my business. The palace.”

“I warned you.” She said, lifting a gun and pointed it at the guard’s face.

“What… what are you doing?” He stuttered, taking a quiet step away from the girl with a weapon.

“What? Scared?”

“Drop that thing. You…”

“I warned you.” With that, she pulled the trigger.

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*JIMIN*

“Who…who is there?” Jimin asked nervously, scooting to the other side of the bed. He was scared.

He have never been this afraid in his life before.

He thought of an escape but nothing was coming to his fucked up head and mind.

His gaze dropped down to his phone, lying on the table at the other side of the bed.

Jimin stared at door then slowly got up and went closer to the table. He quietly picked up his phone and quickly clicked on the call app, he was going to dial Namjoon’s number when the door to his room was suddenly pushed open.

Jimin dropped to his knees, letting out a loud scream as he shut his eyes close in total fear.

He heard footsteps approaching him but he didn’t open his eyes, he rather tightened his eyes shut, praying for God’s help.

“My prince?”

“Lisa?” He jerked his head up to find his personal maid staring at him in complete confusion. “What are your doing here? Why are you even here? It’s fucking late!” He yelled in anger, coming back up to his feet.

“I’m very sorry for scaring you, my prince.” She said gently. “But we came here to see if you were okay.”

“We?” Jimin looked behind Lisa and saw the other maids and servants, standing in front of his door. They were all murmuring about something, making him worried. “What’s going on?”

“My prince, didn’t you hear anything?” Eva, one of the maids asked, walking inside the room.

Jimin raised a questioning brow at him, wondering what they meant by that.

Were they talking about the thump that came to his door?

Wait, did they hear anything about it?

Or did that murderer sent them a message as well?

“What are you talking about?” He asked slowly.

“There was…” Eva start to talk but Lisa stopped her immediately.

“It’s nothing, my prince.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to get worried about anything. Just go to bed.”

“What are you doing, Lisa?” Eva asked her. “We need to tell the prince what we all heard.”

“And then what happens? We can’t get the prince worried over something we are not so sure about.” Lisa said.

“But…”

“Hello, the prince is standing right over here.” Jimin quickly cuts in. “What is going on, Lisa? What is it Lan wants to tell me? And why are you stopping him!?”

“You don’t have to get all worked up about it, my prince.” Lisa said calmly.

“Wait, do you expect me to sleep peacefully after hearing those incomplete words? I’m already worried, okay?” The situation at hand wasn’t just the only thing that’s making him worried…. The note he just received was making him very worried as well.

And he’s as scared as fuck!

Don’t blame him. Like seriously, who wants to die this early? Definitely not him.

“My prince…”

“Speak, Lisa. What’s going on? what did you hear? Answer me truthfully… it’s an order now.” He ordered, folding his arms across his chest and waiting patiently for Lisa to start talking.

“We heard a gunshot, my prince.” Eva spoke before Lisa could get any word out.

“WHAT?” Jimin snapped, walking closer to them. “What gunshot did you hear? When?” He panicked.

“It was twenty minutes ago, my prince. We thought you heard it also or maybe you were the victim.” Lisa sighed. “We were very afraid that what happened to ma’am Hwasa had happened again.” She added sadly.

Jimin let out a deep sigh, walking closer to Lisa. “I’m fine, Lisa.” He assured her. “I’m fine, everyone.” He said to the other servants. “You guys don’t have to always get worried about me.”

“It’s our job, my prince.” Eva said.

“I know. But don’t also forget my duty as a prince is to protect everyone that works under me and also the people of the city.”

“Yes my prince.” They all said in unison.

“Good. Where is my phone?” He looked around and found it on the bed. Lisa quickly rushed to it and collected it then handed it over to Jimin.

“What do you want to do, my prince?” Lisa asked.

“Call the police. But first, we need to go out there and see if everything is okay.” He said to them.

“Okay, my prince.”

They all went outside, holding any thing as a weapon to use as protection. Some were holding fry pan, some were holding pot while Jimin was holding a lamp.

They went separate ways in search of anything abnormal. Jimin decided to go to his window direction.

He approached there quietly but suddenly stumbled upon something and fell. He groaned in pain, picking up his phone and the lamp and stood up to his feet. He went closer to see what it was that made him fell.

His eyes balled out of its socket as he found the lifeless body of his guard on the ground. Blood were gushing out of his head. “Arghhhhhhhh!” Jimin let out a loud yelp, dropping to the ground.

_

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_

The siren, the voices, everything went to the back of his mind as he just stared at the corpse being taken away.

Tears rolled down to his face. Jimin sniffed, lowering his gaze down to his shaky hands.

He couldn’t breath.

His guard lifeless body was still displaying his head.

Was that how his aunt’s body looked like when he had walked in that morning?

Where exactly was the blood gushing out from?

Why does life have to be this cruel and unfair?

That guard have worked for the palace for close to fifteen years or more. He was an elderly man who had a wife and two daughters.

He love his family so much. The main reason why he worked as a guard was to take care of his family.

He admired the man for that.

And now, he was gone.

How will his family feel?

What will they do?

How will they survive?

“Here,” Lisa handed him a glass of cold water. “You need to be strong, my prince.”

“I’m…” Jimin sighed, grabbing the glass from Lisa. “I feel so guilty.”

“It wasn’t your fault, my prince. He was only doing his job.”

“That’s the problem!” Jimin snapped. “He was only doing his damn job. His duty. But me? I can’t even do my duty as the prince.”

“What are you saying, my prince?”

“I…”

“Jimin.” A deep voice called from behind.

Jimin slowly stood up to his feet and turned around to face the person. “Jungkook?”

“How are you feeling?” He asked him.

“I…” He quickly walked into his arms, holding him tight to himself. “Jungkook, you came.”

“Yeah.” He muttered, patting his back gently.

Lisa quietly collected the glass from Jimin and left.

Jimin pulled away, looking up at him. “This isn’t a dream?”

Jungkook shook his head. “No. What happened?”

He shook his head, sniffing hard. “I…I don’t know. One minute, I was going to bed, the next minute, I received a note and the other minute, I heard a loud knock on my door, and then this.” He pointed at the situation at hand. “Um, but what are you doing here? Do you work as a police?”

“I was with detective Namjoon when you called.”

“Did I just hear Jungkook the almighty call me detective?” Namjoon appeared by their side. “Prince.” He nodded at him. “How are you feeling?”

“Everyone keep asking me that.” Jimin sighed. “Did you find anything?”

“Not really. It’s quite obvious that he was shot.” He look at Jungkook. “I didn’t know you knew the prince.”

“Why should you know?”

“Hey, what are best friends for?”

“Shut up, man. I didn’t even know you were the one taking his case.”

“Why should you know?”

Jungkook rolled his eyes. “Fair enough.” He look down at Jimin. “You look tired.”

“I’m scared.” He admitted.

“Come on, I will take you to bed.” Jungkook grabbed his hand and was about to take him away when he stopped him.

“Hold on.” He turned to Namjoon. “Here,” He gave him the note he had received. “I received this note before the incident.”

Namjoon read the note. “Knock, knock.” He look up at Jimin. “How did you receive it.”

“From the window.” He said.

“From the window?” He looked up at the window and slowly look down at the spot where the guard body had laid lifelessly. “He died right on the spot where you received that note.” He murmured to himself.

“What do you think?” Jimin asked Namjoon.

Namjoon shrugged, stuffing the note into his pants pocket along with his hands. “I think he saw the person who sent that note to you.”

“What?”

“He was shot right on the same spot you got the note. It’s very obvious, prince.”

“What should we do?”

“I say, we watch and wait for the next note.”

“Wait, you think they are going to send another note?” Jungkook asked.

“Yeah. This note only said knock, knock. That can’t be the only message they want to send across. They will surely send more. Who knows, it might be the pieces we really need.” He sighed. “Can I see the CCTV camera, prince?”

“Sure. One of the guards will take you to the control room.”

“Sure.” He smiled then walked away.

He turned back to Jungkook and grabbed his hand, smiling. “Let’s go.”

*****

“Thanks for coming with him.” He said, pulling Jungkook to sit by his side.

“You need to stop thanking me.” He said.

He laughed. “Yeah.” There was a moment of silence until he spoke again. “Why were you both together?”

He shrugged. “No particular reason. I just wanted to get away from home.”

“What happened home?” He asked.

He hesitate for a while. “I got into a fight with her.”

“Her?”

“The woman that gave birth to me.”

“Oh, you mean your mother.” She knitted her brows at him. “Do you hate her this much?”

“I… i don’t know.” He sighed. “I blame her for my father’s death, because… I thought she was the one with him the night he died.”

“You thought?”

“I thought wrong. Turned out I was the one with my father that night and not her. I blamed her for something she knows nothing about.” He ran his tongue along his dried lip, making it wet and plumpy. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I really said mean things to her. But do you know the most funny thing?” He shook his head. “I don’t regret anything I did to her.”

“You don’t?”

“I don’t. There’s still something about her that doesn’t feel right. There’s something in my memory about her that I just can’t remember.”

“But, if you were the one with your father that night and not your mother… then you should remember something.”

“Exactly! I can’t. I can’t remember anything. The memory I have is totally different from the real thing that happened that night.”

“Wait, is your memory messed up?”

“Funny, right?”

“No one is laughing.” He sighed. “But, why do you feel hate towards your mother?”

“I don’t know!”

“Could it be… what if the memory you are having about your mother that you think is wrong isn’t wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen, your memory can’t be that messed up. You are not crazy. You are just… a guy who wants the truth. I don’t blame you for hating your mother or blaming her but, you need to find the missing piece, Jungkook.”

“What?”

“You need to find your missing self. That missing memory. Maybe that’s the only way you can figure out this murderer.”

Jimin sighed at himself as soon as he said those word.

~His missing self…

He also have a missing part. Although he don’t think he lost any memory of his but it feels like he did.

Doctor Woong couldn’t have told him those things for nothing.

He can’t be lying to him.

If he really want Jungkook to take his advice then he needs to play an example.

He need to figure out that missing self of his.

There might be something he needs to remember but just can’t.

There might be something hidden in his fucked up head.

...

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TBC