Officer Jin cleared his throat and spoke,
"Okay, Dr. Amanda, look. We don't yet know what Jungkook has done to Dr. Kim. His phone has had no other activity except incoming and outgoing calls with your phone number. Absolutely no other activity." He shook his head. "So, he is a single entity"

Hoseok nodded.
"Also, if he finds out that we're rounding him up, he might flee and leave us with nothing at hand, or he might harm Taehyung, that is if he hasn't yet done anything horrible." His voice dropped as did my heart.

"Tell me what I have to do now." I looked at both of them.

Officer Jin handed me a small box that looked like a ring box, and I took it from him, my face wearing a confused look.
"What's this?" I asked as I opened the small box.

The two men remained quiet, letting me explore the contents of the box. Inside it was a little button-like device with a small hook, and a tiny flickering red light, and it also had a small slide switch at the back that could probably be used to power on and power off the tiny button device.

"Mandy, this is a hi-tech voice transmitter with a built-in GPS tracker. Keep it with you at all times and make sure it is turned on." Hoseok informed me, and I nodded.

"Should I put it into Jungkook's clothes or something?" I asked the men, and Officer Jin shook his head.

"No. Dr. Hoseok just told you to keep it with you, right? So that's what you need to do. Keep it with you, and by that I mean that you need to keep it on your body and not inside a bag or purse or something that could be separated from you. Do you understand?" Officer Jin asked seriously.

"I do. But what's the point?" I was more confused than ever.

Officer Jin breathed out.
"We want you to confront Jungkook directly. But don't reveal anything about the samples or anything else. Because his samples were collected without his knowledge when he isn't even an official suspect yet, and that by all means is illegal. So, just begin by calmly talking about what you saw him doing yesterday morning and see where the conversation goes."

Hoseok nodded and continued,
"Yeah. We could place the tracker on him and follow him, but if, by chance, he discovers that there is a tracker on him, then he will a) discard it and make it useless, and b) he would work things out quickly and may hurt you, which we don't want at any cost. So you confront him, provoke him and try to make him speak up. It won't be easy, and we can't be sure of his reaction. But it is worth trying, and we will be listening closely and following you at all times."

I nodded hesitantly.
"I get it. I'll have the tracker with me, on me. And beginning with what I saw seems a fairly good starting point."

"But be careful not to tell him anything about the case progress when you're angry. That might make things worse. Our aim is to get a confession from him and then find out what he did to Taehyung. I hope things are clear?" Officer Jin asked me, probably worried after witnessing my consulting room sporting the look of a battlefield this morning.

I nodded reassuringly.
"Everything's clear officer Jin and Hoseok. Thank you for doing this and making so much efforts to help me find my husband. I'm really so grateful to you both. Thank you so much." I spoke shakily, and Hoseok held my hands supportively.

"Mandy, stay hopeful. Taehyung is a strong fighter, and your love is stronger. I've known you guys for so long, and I totally trust in your love. He will come back to you. Do not worry, okay?" He lightly squeezed my hands that were nestled inside his hands and shook them a bit.

I nodded weakly.
"That's the only hope I'm holding on to, Hoseok. I trust in our love, and I hope and believe that he will come back to me soon."

After a brief instruction about how to handle the device and how to charge it up, I left the coffee shop and headed home.

I hadn't showered since yesterday morning, and I decided to go home before Jungkook arrived and take a shower and probably even wash my hair and feel a bit more human than a zombie. I had another mission at hand, after all.

Anything for Taehyung.

Arriving home much earlier than usual, I headed straight to our bedroom, locking the door behind me. I undressed and stepped into the shower and the hot water pouring onto my hair, scalp and body seemed to be relaxing my nerves although the menstrual tap was still running in full flow.

After scrubbing myself clean and cleansing my hair, I proceeded to do my haircare all by myself for the first time in a very long time. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to do it all by myself, and I had quite a hard time fumbling around with the tubes and bottles with my hair flipped over. It took me over fifteen minutes to get all the products in and another ten minutes to clumsily finger coil the gelled curls.

Letting my hair air dry, I wore a T-shirt from Taehyung's closet. Since the day he went missing, I had been wearing only his clothes while at home, and honestly, only those made me feel like I was at 'home'
The place didn't feel like home anymore without him around.

I fed a few pellets of fish food to Mac and Cheese and sat by watching them. It was almost 7 pm, and Jungkook hadn't yet returned from wherever he went to. I felt relieved as well as anxious for some reason. I had to have him around and confront him to find out what happened to Taehyung. If Jungkook doesn't come back, then I would probably never know what happened to Taehyung.

Out of nervousness, I began chewing the corners of my nails.

*Many hours ago*
Jungkook's POV

⚠️
Warning: extreme trigger content ahead. Read at your own risk. If you feel you might be sensitive to torture, psychopathic behavior and sadism, please skip. You have been warned!
⚠️

Just today and tomorrow, I wouldn't have to do this anymore after that. And on Monday, I would start working at the Kim Medical Center and live my life peacefully with Amanda by my side. Coming here and doing the same everyday has been painstaking and laborious to say the least.

Amanda would probably grieve for a few months or maybe a year? Or two years? But that shouldn't be a problem because I would never leave her side and always stick around and make sure she moves on — moves on to me.

Alighting the taxi a few streets away from my destination, I walked down the narrow alleyway connecting the main street to the smaller lane at the back. As the dilapidated building rose into view, my heart began pounding hard.

I still can't believe it that I am capable of something like this. My love for her has made me a madman, and I have even dared to kill for her, to have her.

Walking up with steadfast steps towards the house, I carefully unlocked the rusty front gate while eyeing the parked car that was covered with a huge tarp, and entered the compound, locking the gate behind me. The front door was secured with three different kinds of foolproof locks — a combination of various ingenious, state-of-the-art mechanical and digital locks to ensure that the secret was safe inside.

Carefully punching in the codes, I unlocked the door and entered the house that smelled damp and musty. The walls were crumbling, paint and plaster chipping off at random places, huge patches of mold and mildew lining the walls and corners, a broken floor — the perfect place where no one would ever come around looking for anything or anyone. Buying this house cost me almost nothing, but the fact that I'm putting it to the best use in its current state is mind boggling.

I walked down the crumbling hallway towards the pathetic looking door at the end of it. One push with full force could collapse the door along with its doorframe and reduce it to dust in a matter of a few seconds. But who needs strong room doors when the front door has such tight security?

As I opened the door carefully, I was met with the familiar interior that I had been coming back to every single day for the past week. I scanned the corners to ensure that the surveillance cameras synced with my cellphone were in place. My gaze floated to the small dustbin in the corner that was on the verge of overflowing with used syringes and needles along with the empty injection canisters and used gloves.

Everything is just like how I left them last evening. Perfect!

And then my eyes slowly trailed to the center of attraction in the room. The wooden chair that had a special someone tied to it.

I walked closer to the chair and examined his half-naked form, head hanging and facing the floor, hair disheveled, skin shrinking, limbs limp.

He's dying.

Yet, I couldn't bring myself to lay my own hands on him and take his life away. He was and still is my friend, after all.

Lifting his chin up with my index finger, I looked at his face — the handsome face that lured Amanda and held her captive for all these years.

"How are you, buddy?" I asked him, and he weakly cracked open his eyes.

"Jungkook..." his eyelids fluttered slowly, his voice sounding meek, rusty and feeble. "water.." his lips quivered.

"Alright" I let his head fall and took out a bottle of water from a corner of the room. Bringing the open bottle to his parched lips, I held his chin and carefully poured the liquid into his mouth, and he gulped it down like rain on dry soil after a drought.

"Good now?" I checked with him before discarding the bottle in a corner.

"It won't take too long, Taehyung. Just three more injections and then you'll be free from everything. One today, one tomorrow and one on Sunday. And you know how painlessly I'm administering them to you, right?" I spoke to him as I dragged a chair from the corner and sat down facing him.

"Do you know something?" I lifted his chin up to look at me. "Two nights back, I was this close to having Amanda to myself. But something unexpected happened, and we couldn't do anything." I sighed sadly. "Although drunk sex isn't my style, I still tried. I know I already told you all this, but how can I ever shut up? We're together in the same house now, Taehyung!!" I held his shoulders and excitedly shook his limp body.

"Do you see this?" I showed him the cut on my fingers from last night, and he weakly opened his eyes to look at it, his head lolling about.

"I got this cut while we were trying to clean up the kitchen together, and Amanda nursed this wound so lovingly... and my whole body was burning with her gaze and touch." I could feel myself blushing.

"Have you ever cooked together with her? Or done anything at all to help her out in the house? I bet you haven't once done any of that. You were always that horny and spoilt rich brat, weren't you?" I smirked sarcastically. "But don't you worry, Taehyung. After you're gone, she will be in very strong and safe, helping hands. I will protect her at all times and give her everything she ever asks of me, unlike you who only kept using her for your own desires." I patted his cold cheek a few times.

My eyes widened briefly.
"Hypothermia already?" I nodded a few times. "Well, I guess you won't last until tomorrow night then." I leaned back in my seat, letting out a long breath and stretching my aching limbs.

Jolting up in my seat, I suddenly sat up and leaned forward towards him.
"Taehyung, do you think Amanda will be okay with me?" I dipped my neck to look at his face that was hanging now.

"I wonder why she chose you. Do you have a big package down there? I know you do..... I've seen it." The veins in my neck were ready to pop when the indigestible images of their sex tape came flashing through my mind.

"Amanda was so dumb to leave me alone with your laptop...." I shook my head and sighed, closing my eyes and trying to erase the images from my head. "But she looked so beautiful, and you..." I lifted his chin up with my index finger. "You weren't being gentle with her at all... I hate you for that, Taehyung, and if that's how you've always been with her, then you absolutely don't deserve her.." I abruptly let his head drop down again.

"It's sad that you don't get to reach your first wedding anniversary, but what can I do about it, buddy? I have to make up for nine whole years." I said and got up from my seat and opened the small cabinet in the corner after wearing a pair of disposable gloves.

I carefully loaded the syringe with the exact amount of the injectable medicine and slowly but steadily, pierced the needle into Taehyung's arm where the tattoo was located. He winced and cried weakly, and his muscles were now beyond the point of reflexively tightening. Discarding the used syringe and gloves into the bin, I sat back down on the chair facing him.

"Didn't hurt much, right? I know it didn't. I don't even know how to inject painfully. I could've just injected two doses into your veins and sent you away in a day, but slow death is nice... thank me because I've let you live for a week," I patted his thigh and smirked to myself.

I examined the wound on his wrist from where I drew a good amount of blood a few days ago to accompany his clothes and belongings, and it wasn't healing. Taehyung's body had lost its ability to heal, and it was evident that he was dying.

"I should've eliminated you way back. But you know...I had to first make myself worthy of her love. Just sleeping around with her wouldn't help, right? It might have helped you, but that's not my style." I let out an exhausted yawn.

"It's tiring, Taehyung. Taking care of you and simply watching you all day is hard. I know you can't even move, but what if you make noise from in here and people outside hear you?" I sighed and continued, "And sleeping inside the sleeping bag at night is giving me a backache already. But if that's what Amanda wants, then who am I to fight her?" I let out a long hum and chuckled to myself.

"But you know what? She is missing you a lot. She's wearing your baggy clothes all the time, and it hurts to see her crying and zoning out. You too know how bubbly and energetic she was, right? It is all because of you, Taehyung. You came into her life and ruined her. And now when you're not there, she's losing it. She hasn't even styled her curls properly, and it's depressing to say the least." I shook my head.

I checked my watch and declared,
"Okay. It's time for your daily meal."

Folding up the sleeves of my shirt, I took out the bowl of cold noodles that I brought for him. Gathering a small blob of noodles with the chopsticks, I brought it to his lips, and he took a weak bite, slowly chewing it and swallowing the food with great difficulty.

It took him a very long time to eat up the small bowl of noodles, but I fed him patiently because I still considered him my friend — just not as Amanda's husband — and I didn't want him to die hungry. After the meal, I fed him a bit of water and sat by observing him.

His cheeks and eyes had sunken a bit more than yesterday, and his breathing was shallower. I doubted if he would last anywhere more than 24 hours.

"I need to keep monitoring you closely now because I don't want you to die and rot in my absence, and then the neighbors go about complaining of some mysterious foul stench coming from this house, and finally I could get caught. Nope. Ain't happening." I stood up and placed the chair back in its place. "The police are foolishly following Namjoon, that crazy dork, and it's best if it remains that way." I laughed to myself.

"I'll keep monitoring you. But I'll go out for a while now. Can't really breathe in this moldy air for too long. But don't you worry. I'll be right back in some time." I held him by his limp, cold and weak shoulders and shook him lightly, and he couldn't even lift his head to look up at me.

"So long, buddy!" I waved to him and carefully closed the door behind me and left the house after locking it securely.

It took me a lot of time and mental strength to write this chapter.
🥵

Thank you, Taehyung. I needed that.
Published on : 10/26/2021