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I stepped out of the room a completely different person.
Everything that had happened felt like a dream, or a hallucination of sorts, not something that had actually happened. Even as I got into the car, my brain felt like it had been sunk into a puddle of water, sluggish and heavy. After all, how could it have been real?
The resolution was too quick, too fast to be true. I wasn't used to getting honest answers, and the conversation was like using the alphabet in a calculator: it simply didn't fit. Jungkook was going to be executed, and I had had no idea. That little detail made the shocking new information much easier for my brain to process. Finally getting rid of the relationship confusion, on the other hand, not so much.
I shook my head and looked out of the window of the car. The buildings blurred together, all gray and black. Nothing to focus on. My eyes were faltering.
"I thought you knew about Jungkook," Vernon said. He was driving, the only other person in the car, which thankfully gave me some more time to process what I had been given to work with. "Everyone else did, so I thought someone would tell you."
"When did this happen, exactly?" I was avoiding looking at him, pretending to be lost in my own thoughts, which wasn't so hard actually. "I'm not pissed or anything. Just wondering."
"Not a long time ago," he replied, turning a corner. "After the little meeting we had with Jennie. When we found out he was practically turning you over to the heir, that's when the obvious course of action became clear."
"We?"
"Me," he said. "And Taeyong."
I froze, waiting for the upcoming reference to the conversation among the three of us, but it never came. Vernon didn't say anything after, driving silently, and I brooded on what he had told me. That was probably why they had been sitting together. To work out the kinks in their plan.
The plan, if it worked, which would perhaps end things once and for all.
I thought about what would happen if they actually ended up killing Jungkook. There would be no one forcing me to stay in this city, so I would be able to run away again, this time with the people I wanted to stay by my side. I could go to my brother—if he wanted to see me. I shuddered at the thought. My only remaining family, and maybe he hated me.
The racers would be done, with both Vernon and Jungkook gone, or perhaps Jennie would take charge. Or would the Lee clan choose to hunt them down for obstructing their path? That seemed the more probable option, seeing how they had tried to kill the others. But I would get away.
What then?
My train of thought hit a wall. Was this all I wanted? To run away? I still felt like there was something missing from my plan—a purpose. Even if I got away, my life would have no purpose. The trauma I had suffered from my repeated exposure to the underworld had damaged me beyond repair, and wouldn't leave me even after this was over. My life was well and truly ruined, no matter what happened after.
