✓ WHERE IT ENDS | JAY

20 - Snakes & Lies

"So?"

Everyone was seated in the living room, staring at Niki as he cleared his throat awkwardly. They were curious, and even desperate to know the reason why Niki came to Korea and lied to them. Or as he said, the reason why he never mentioned that he was the Yakuza's youngest son.

"I was five years old when my parents died," Niki spoke. "It was said that the plane they took crashed due to some malfunctions. They were headed to Korea, and Konon and I stayed with our grandfather."

Kono was sitting next to Niki, listening to every word her brother said. And Y/N stared at her, frowning. She couldn't help but feel like she saw it somewhere. She strangely felt so familiar yet so distant to her.

"I thought that my parents were fated to die like this, that we can't do anything about it because the world wanted for them to have such an end. I was only a kid, I didn't know anything. But then I found my father's diary," Niki's expression suddenly changed and his eyes darkened.

And then, he grabbed the diary that was next to him and stared at it for a while before he smirked angrily.  

Niki was always like a little sunshine. He always looked happy and joyful, full of life. He was a little bit annoying, he liked pranking his friends and sleeping a lot. However, now, he didn't look like that in the slightest bit.

Right then, he looked like the kid who was forced to grow up, who knew too much and held a heavy weight on his shoulders and heart.

"I read about my father's life and realized that it wasn't just another death. But someone was after him, and that someone was probably the one who caused my parents' death."

Jay frowned, taking in Niki's words. "But, why did you come to us?"

Niki didn't say a word, and instead, he opened the diary in his hands and turned the papers until he found the picture that made Jay's eye widen. He felt his heart sinking down as his breath stuck.

"W-what..." He muttered, grabbing the picture in his trembling hand. "How..."

The picture was of three people, a woman, a man, and a little boy. Jat recognized them one by one because the little boy was him, and the two grown-ups were his late parents.

Jay felt his world stop. He missed them. The smile on his parents' faces opened his wounds again. 

"H-how did you..." Jay looked up at Niki with eyes brimming with tears. 

"Apparently, our fathers were friends," Niki said, making everyone freeze. "They were very dear friends, they used to send each other their family pictures. I'm sure your father had our family picture too."

Family pictures... Y/N frowned, memories rushing through her mind. The memories were random, shattered to pieces inside her mind.

 "They were actually three," Niki said, making Y/N look at him in surprise. "My father talked about him in his diary, but he never mentioned his name. He didn't have any pictures of him or his family. It's strange because the three of them were very close."

"Oh..." Jay pulled out a second picture from the diary and looked at it with teary eyes. 

Sunghoon leaned next to Jay to have a better look at the picture, and right then, his face became pale. He froze in his place as his eyes widened. It looked like he saw a ghost. He was shocked and terrified somehow.

"Sunghoon?" Y/N grabbed his arm as she called for him, but he unconsciously yanked her hand. Standing up, he took the picture from Jay's hand and showed it to Niki.

"Who's this?" He pointed at the man with tattoos, his eyes holding so much anger. 

"It's my father..." Niki frowned, confused. "Why-"