7.
7) My muse has survived a great battle, but someone they love has not.
When you grow up in a manor, with maids and butlers taking care of your needs, it’s easy to picture a life where none of this exists. Kibum had been young when he first put a step into this house. Sometimes he remembered cozy afternoons in the old couch of his grandma’s house while the both of them drank the hot chocolate they had made in the morning, but as time kept passing, he began to see these memories as pieces of a life that felt more and more like a dream rather than reality.
So he grew up in an environment of richness, lessons of manners and endless rules. Since he was the youngest, his opinion was never required, and because of this, he never developed a firm interest in the matters of the household or what was expected from him. He was a disposable son, there was no need for him to know where the money came from or went to, and he had always assumed that the empire his father had created was just that: a chain of companies that controlled far too many things because his father had a good eye for business deals.
He had been wrong.
He’s at the end of a loaded gun, and Julian is behind him, insisting on having Kibum out of the way because this has nothing to do with him. And while Julian is right, Kibum can’t let his eldest brother alone. Julian is his brother.
"God damn it Kibum get out. It is an order. You packed your things and left home. You are no longer welcome in here," Julian roars with a voice Kibum had never heard before.
Kibum can see the conviction he’s trying to put into his words with the hard set of his jaw and the blazing eyes. But he can also notice the desperation in the grip Julian has on his wrist and the almost not-visible tremble of his shoulders.
"He has nothing to do with anything related to the Ashetons," Julian says to the attacker as he turns around a bit and tries to put Kibum behind his back. "He is useless. Your business are with me."
But Kibum refuses to budge. The attacker is a woman clad in black, half of her face is hidden under stylish bangs and big sunglasses. Her red lips curve with a sarcastic and cold smile, and her index pulls at the trigger.
The only noise Kibum can hear is that of the bullet hitting something that should have been him. He’s stumbling backwards, and Julian’s body falls in his arms. The woman’s steps are the next thing that follow, she’s leaving, and Kibum’s hands are getting soaked with blood.
"Julian…" he whispers, shaking his shoulders before he sees the place where the bullet entered.
Kibum wakes up, heart about to leave his ribcage and droplets of sweat gathering in his temples. He looks around with frantic eyes, and then his gaze meets Hyeri’s.
"What was that?!" he asks her in a voice far too loud for a library.
Hyeri smiles sadly at him and drops her gaze to the ground. He’s not aware that nobody else can see her, that nobody else knows he’s not talking to thin air, but to his guardian angel.
"Julian said he wanted me to go home… this is what is going to happen if I go?"
Hyeri stays quiet, and he feels tears prickling the corners of his eyes.
