『 POLISHED METAL 』 ⇢ Park Jimin

Chapter 26: Hanging Loosely

•Eunjin's POV•

After Jimin's story time of how he was able to rescue me (which I almost dozed off to), he flashed me a grin and petted Mickey, who was sitting right beside him.

We have left the mysterious place hours ago after my mom was treated by the nurses and I refused to be treated with those, humans. Now, we're in a van and heading home.

Jimin, my mom, Mickey and I were in a different van from the police who had barged in earlier. This was obviously because of my Anthropophobia and being stuck in a van with those...strangers aka policemen, I would have fainted.

Dad and Jaeyeol were in the same van as the policemen since they were needed for questioning. I couldn't go because, again, anthropophobia and Jimin and my mom volunteered to take me home.

I haven't realized that I was spacing out until I heard Jimin screeching into my ear and snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"Eunjin! Eunjin?"

I shook my head and blinked before turning to him, "Y-yeah?"

"So? What did you think of my rescue plan?" He sat up, sticking his chest out proudly "Wasn't I heroic?"

Staring at his face, I studied his facial expressions. He had a smug grin on and his eyes were gleaming like a little child who was about to receive his favorite toy.

I sighed before turning to Mickey, "Did this really happen?"

As I expected, Mickey shook her head as she was unable to speak since her collar was still left unfixed and is still broken and stuffed in my pocket.

I turned to Jimin with an exasperated sigh. His once prideful stance became bashful and embarrassed. His ears turned red as he slouched.

"Okay, okay—not all of it was real," He uttered as he emphasized on the 'all', "But the first part was. When I saw that some men were carrying you away and overheard their conversation. That's why I was able to report it to the police and tell them one of the names of the guy taking you away so the police were able to track these guys. Man, the police are scary."

I chuckled lightly as he leaned back into his seat. Compared to the situation I was in earlier, I feel much more relaxed now. I was on the brink of passing out because of the tense situation I was in and the fact that I was forced to shoot a guy didn't help at all.

"Eunjin," Jimin called out, "That Jaeyeol guy I met earlier, he said he's your fiancee, was he just joking around or—"

"It's real," I interrupted him, "I received a letter about having a fiancee to 'save' the family business, which I didn't really get what he meant by that."

I called out to my mom, who seemed to be deep in thought as she drove, "Mom, do you know what dad meant by, 'saving the family business'."

She sighed at my question as she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, "I can't believe he never told you when I precisely told him to send you a letter about the situation."

My mom took a deep breath before speaking up once again, "We've gone bankrupt—well, almost. We probably still have a million won in the bank, and those men who have kidnapped us and threatened your father, wanted that money. Your father was planning to agree with their demands since he knew they would come after you too but giving up all that money, we wouldn't be able to survive out here. So your father contacted a friend who was willing to give us his money but he was only willing to give it under one condition..."

"And that was to marry his son, Jaeyeol?" I finished her sentence before biting my lip anxiously.

"Exactly. We had no choice but to agree since we couldn't get our money back in any other way." She frowned slightly.