Chapter 178
Seoul, Korea
Gwangjin District
If Lucien were religious, he’d be praying that Pan Jin’s mother wouldn’t be there. It wasn’t the right time to drop this multiple-world shattering news yet. He was already dealing with Kita and Seon Rain trying to pull their little routine in Valencia, and his parents needlessly trying to play matchmaker between them. Then there was the Prince that invited the devil on their vacation, the Devil that followed them to Seoul without permission.
It was a never ending nightmare of drama that Lucien was tired of. All he wanted was simplicity and no responsibility. He wanted to play and live recklessly, answer to no one but himself, and just enjoy life.
Was that asking for too much?
Apparently it was, because here he was in the Gwangjin District, waiting to catch a young man and woman when their worlds fell down upon them.
When Pan Jin tried to unlock the apartment door, her key wouldn’t turn in the lock.
“Really?” she groaned, trying her key again.
“What is it?” Lucien asked.
“My key fits but it won’t unlock the door,” Pan Jin said, looking at the lock.
Lucien looked around then his attention was pulled to the apartment door across from the apartment where Pan Jin lived with her mother.
The doorframe had been recently damaged, a boot print was still visible on the door that was most likely the cause of the damage to the frame. It was a smaller size, most likely from a female or a height-challenged male.
“Has that always been like that?” Lucien asked, pointing to the door behind them.
Pan Jin looked then shook her head. “No. That was a new door and frame. The tenant moved in about a couple of weeks ago but I never saw them. I think they work nights because I’ve never crossed paths with them. Why?”
Lucien shrugged; he wasn’t sure, but it didn’t sit right with him that Pan Jin’s apartment wasn’t unlocking and the one opposite of it had most recently been broken into.
“This should be silver, not brass… She changed the locks on me,” Pan Jin groaned, kicking the door. “Really?!” she shouted at the door. “I know you’re in there!”
Lucien pulled the irritated young woman back. “Allow me,” he said, pulling a lock pick kit from his inside jacket pocket then quickly went to work on the new lock.
“Dang,” Pan Jin said when Lucien effortlessly picked the lock then opened the door a sliver of an inch so not to make a sound. “That’s impressive,” she whispered.
“Growing up our parents taught us very unique skillsets, and picking a lock, hotwiring a car, and wiring a bomb were part of Mother’s lessons when we were children,” Lucien said, pushing the door open then motioned for her to wait a moment to make sure it was safe. “Let me sweep it first to make sure no one is waiting to ambush you inside.”
Pan Jin’s eyes widened. “You think my mother is going to or coordinated some thug to ambush me… Actually, yeah, she would. Flesh wound if you can, but I won’t blame you if it is a kill shot.”
He shook his head with a chuckle; Pan Jin played the role of villain as beautifully as Seon Rain did.
“I’ll keep that in mind, President,” he said, heading into the apartment.
Pan Jin stayed back in the doorway, keeping an eye out for trouble and watching Lucien’s back, as he had requested Dae-Ho do below.
A slight thrill ran through her that she was acting in an operative sense, to an extent, and now she couldn’t fault Dae-Ho for getting excited at the thought of electrocuting someone with his baton.
“Who in the hell are you?”
Lucien offered a smile, holding his gun behind him so the drunk woman on the couch didn’t see it. “Clear,” he called out.
Pan Jin joined him. “You changed the locks on me, again, Mother,” she accused.
The woman glared at her. “I have no daughter. She abandoned me for her rich, globetrotting friends.”
“What?” Pan Jin asked, dumbfounded.
“Oh, I saw the pictures of you with Tae-il on the red carpet in Italy, you little b*tch,” she sneered, trying to get up but she kept falling back into the cushions. “Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to have Gung Haeun of all people to tell me where my own daughter is?!” she shrieked.
Pan Jin shook her head; this was nothing new from her mother, she only wished that it wasn’t being done in front of Lucien. “Mother, please. I was working, nothing more. I’m sorry if the cameras that I weren’t behind showed me having a good time, Mother. I’m sorry. I can’t help that. But I was working in order to keep a roof over our heads and liquor in the cabinet for you.”
The drunk woman’s eyes widened before they narrowed and she hurled her bottle of soju at her daughter.
Lucien’s hand snapped out and caught it before it could make contact then set it nicely on the counter. “That was very rude,” he scolded.
“Yes, it was,” Pan Jin agreed, speaking in an eerily level tone, one that Seon Rain had been using more and more of as of late.
The woman’s eyes widened. “Where are you working and with who?” she demanded; it was as if she was suddenly looking at a ghost, one she helped bury.
“It doesn’t matter, Mother,” Pan Jin said.
Lucien kept an eye on the drunk woman trying to pull herself out of the couch. “President, please grab your things and I will coordinate lodging for you. You will not be staying where you are no longer wanted, especially with a violent drunk that I do not trust.”
Pan Jin nodded; she was in complete agreement. “Most likely she’s thrown out most of my stuff, so it’ll only take a moment,” she said, heading to the patio that she used as a bedroom to grab what she could.
The woman had just gotten freed of the cushions when Pan Jin exited the patio and she grabbed her arm, forcing her around to face her.
“Now you little here you little b*tch,” she sneered in her face. “If you walk out that door you are dead to me and I will make sure you are on the street where you belong.”
Pan Jin jutted her chin out. “I’m not scared of your, Mother,” she informed her. “For the past few weeks I have been around a beautiful, loving, caring, and affectionate woman that has been more of a mother to me in just a few weeks than you have in my entire life. She is lethal, terrifying, and if she were here you would be taking a header off the patio to the street below. And you know what’s sad, Mother? I wouldn’t stop her. I wouldn’t cry for you. I would actually feel relief that I am no longer stuck with you as you have reminded me for my entire life that you are with me. Consider this my notice, Mother,” she said, pulling away from her.
“You little b*tch,” she sneered, pulling back to slap her.
“Sh*t,” Lucien hissed, grabbing Pan Jin and pulling her away from her mother; she wouldn’t have touched her, he would have made sure of it.
“Mother?!”
The woman’s head snapped towards the door and her eyes widened when she saw the interloper standing there. “Dae-Ho?” she gasped.
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