KINNPORSCHE: TimeTayTem Story

Chapter 10: Stages of a Crime

Tem

My mother died when I was fifteen years old. She was the lifeline in our family, the string that tethered us together. Barely. Her loss was significant, propelling my father down a path of drugs and reckless gambling. To cope, he wagered everything we had until there was nothing left. When I turned eighteen, I was on my own, and I swore to be different from him. Despite being dealt a bad hand in life, I knew I could never fold.

I was not a gambling man. Gamblers were held together by false optimism, an addiction that always cost them as much as they were willing to wager. They always lost. For this reason, I was a pessimist. Self-preservation was my top priority. I never wanted to lose.

Yet here I was, forced to take a gamble on the two people I loved. I was backed into a corner for love while years back the thought of ‘love’ itself would have swallowed me whole.  I only had two options: keep my word to Tae to protect Time or tell him the truth to save Tae. If I chose to keep my word and Time ended up killed, I would lose and if I didn’t, I still lost. But what if I broke my promise and we had the chance to save Tae?

Everyone was in the living room of the main family’s house. Porsche was sprawled on the armchair next to a stressed-out Kinn, drawing from a cigarette stick, whispering something in his ear. Time paced around in agitation with a glass of whiskey in his hand. The minute I walked in, they focused their attention on me, Time’s desperate hope evident in his striking eyes.

“What did he say?”

Everyone said love is a gamble. I was willing to give all I had or nothing at all to feel Tae’s warmth. There was a fire in Time’s eyes that I trusted, Kinn’s ego was bruised enough at anyone stepping into his territory to attack his friend and I burned with rage and jealousy. Was there a force stronger than the three of us?

“Payu has something on you that he’s holding over his head. It’s bad enough to scare him not to even speak about it to me.” I handed him the phone and showed him the conversation on the note app. “Can you think of anything?”

Time’s brows furrowed. “You couldn’t talk?”

I felt my rage like nails on my throat, stifling my breath. “He’s wired and watched every second. Payu doesn’t even let him out of his sight for more than two minutes. It’s a sick obsession.”

“The one thing Tae is terrified of,” Time added as he read through the conversation. “I always knew Payu was dangerous from the first time he saw Tae years ago. He’s probably been planning how to get him since then and I offered him on a silver platter.”

I hadn’t noticed when he’d moved but Porsche was beside me rubbing my back in comfort. I must have looked like I felt as if my whole world had been shifted on its axis and all I wanted to do was break down. His comfort did nothing to help. It only solidified that this entire situation was a reality and not a nightmare I could wake up from if I just opened my eyes.

“Can you think of anything Payu has on you?” Kinn asked. “Anything that could help us cut him off by the knee?”

Time tried to breathe in and out. Under the strain of intolerable temptation to cause havoc, he clenched his fists. “It could be anything.”

“We don’t have the time to try and figure out what it is,” I chimed in irritated. “The servers were talking… apparently Payu needed to introduce him to his friends because he’s planning to leave the country.”

“When?” Time asked.

“No one knows. Someone heard that they’re leaving next week while another heard next month. I don’t think Tae is aware of this as well because it’s meant to be an ambush and I couldn’t ask him about it. He wants to introduce Tae to his family before the news of their engagement is made public.”