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Recap...
Park Jimin was a good and respectable person---- but not completely honest
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Next Day,
Now, walking in the bright afternoon sunshine, he felt sure that this year's robbery was going to be as successful as all the others. For two weeks he had been studying Maison du Lierre at Shotover Grange, looking at its rooms, its electric wiring, its paths, and its garden.
Unfortunately, he caught hay fever this morning by some weird plant in the backyard of his house, but this stupid hay fever cannot stop him from doing his work which he has been planning for two weeks.
This afternoon the two servants, who remained in the Grange while the family was in London, had gone to the movies. Jimin saw them go, and he felt happy despite a little tickle of hay fever in his nose. He came out from behind the garden wall, his tools carefully packed in a bag on his back.
There were about fifteen thousand Euros worth of jewels in the Grange safe. If he sold them one by one, he expected to get at least five thousand, enough to make him happy for another year. There were three very interesting books coming up for sale in the autumn. Now he would get the money he wanted to buy them.
He had seen the housekeeper hang the key to the kitchen door on a hook outside. He put on a pair of gloves, took the key, and opened the door. He was always careful not to leave any fingerprints. A small dog was lying in the kitchen. It stirred, made a noise, and moved its tail in a friendly way.
"All right, Sherry," Jimin said as he passed. All you had to do to keep dogs quiet was to call them by their right names and show them love.
The safe was in the drawing room, behind a rather poor painting. Jimin wondered for a moment whether he should collect pictures instead of books. But they took up too much room. In a small house, books were better.
There was a great bowl of flowers on the table, and Jimin felt his nose tickle. He gave a little sneeze and then put down his bag. He carefully arranged his tools. He had four hours before the servants returned. The safe was not going to be hard to open. After all, he had seen his father live with locks and safes all his life. The burglar alarm was poorly built.
He went into the hall to cut its wire. He came back and sneezed loudly as the smell of the flowers came to him again.
How foolish people are when they own valuable things, Jimin thought. A magazine article had described this house, giving a plan of all the rooms and a picture of this room. The writer had even mentioned that the painting hid a safe!
But Jimin found that the flowers were hindering him in his work. He buried his face in his handkerchief.
Then he heard a voice say from the doorway, "What is it? A cold or hay fever?"
Before he could think, Jimin said, "Hay fever," and found himself sneezing again.
The voice went on, "You can cure it with a special treatment, you know if you find out just what plant gives you the disease. I think you'd better see a doctor if you're serious about your work. I heard you from the top of the house just now."
It was a quiet, kindly voice, but one with firmness in it. A woman was standing in the doorway, and Sherry was rubbing against her. She was young, quite pretty, and was dressed in red, he also noticed jasmines and roses tucked in her hair which were tied in a fancy bun. She walked to the fireplace and straightened the ornaments there. For a moment Jimin was lost in her beauty, everything slowed around him. The hay fever seemed to vanish now. time froze for a moment, it felt like those cringe scenes in romantic movies but today it didn't feel cringe to him instead it was a surreal feeling he never experienced before.
'How beautiful' he thought.
his thoughts didn't last long as he remembered she might be the Lady of this house and HE IS FUCKING CAUGHT RED HANDED!
"Down, Sherry," she said. "Anyone would think I'd been away for a month!" She smiled at Jimin, and went on, "However, I came back just in time, though I didn't expect to meet a burglar."
Jimin had some hope because she seemed to be amused at meeting him. He might avoid trouble if he treated her the right way. He replied, "I didn't expect to meet one of the family."
She nodded. "I see what an inconvenience it is for you to meet me. What are you going to do?"
Jimin said, "My first thought was to run."
"Of course, you could do that. But I would telephone the police and tell them all about you. They'd get you at once."
Jimin said, "I would, of course, cut the telephone wires first and then...," he hesitated, a smile on his face, "I would make sure that you could do nothing for some time. A few hours would be enough."
gasp.
She looked at him seriously. "You'd hurt me?"
Jimin paused, and then said, "I think I was trying to frighten you when I said that."
"You didn't frighten me."
Jimin suggested, "It would be nice if you would forget you ever saw me. Let me go."
The voice was suddenly sharp. "Why should I? You were going to rob me. If I let you go, you'll only rob someone else. Society must be protected from men like you."
Jimin smiled. "I'm not a man who threatens society. I steal only from those who have a lot of money. I steal for a very good reason. And I hate the thought of prison."
She laughed, and he begged, thinking that he had persuaded her, "Look, I have no right to ask you for anything, but I'm desperate. Let me go and I promise never to do this kind of thing again. I really mean it."
She was silent, watching him closely. Then she said, "You are really afraid of going to prison, aren't you?"
Jimin's heart was about to burst from her intense gaze.
His cheeks were radiating heat and she seemed to notice the color too quickly than Jimin and decided to tease the poor burglar more.
She came over to him shaking her head. "I have always liked the wrong kind of people."
She picked up a silver box from the table and took a cigarette from it. Jimin, eager to please her and seeing that she might help him, took off his gloves and gave her the cigarette lighter kept on the dining table.
"You'll let me go?" He held the lighter towards her.
"Yes, but only if you'll do something for me."
"Anything you say."
"Before we left for London, I promised my husband to take my jewels to our bank; but I left them here in the safe. I want to wear them to a party tonight, so I came down to get them, but..."
For an unknown reason, his heart ached when she mentioned her 'husband'
'he doesn't have any chance on her
Jimin smiled. "You've forgotten the numbers to open the safe, haven't you?"
"Yes," replied the young lady.
"Just leave it to me and you'll have them within an hour. But I'll have to break your safe."
"Don't worry about that. My husband won't be here for a month, and I'll have the safe mended by that time."
And within an hour, Jimin had opened the safe.
"Thank You!" she smiled.
Jimin was flustered for no fucking reason, her smile made him weak. She looked so innocent, so pretty, her soothing voice oh my gawd.
ｏｎｌｙ ｉｆ ｈｅ ｋｎｅｗ ｈｏｗ ｉｎｎｏｃｅｎｔ ｓｈｅ ｗａｓ．
Before Jimin turned around to leave, gathering up his courage he finally asked her. "Um, miss i know, it doesn't make any sense for me to ask this but please may i know your good name?"
she was a little shocked as the thief asked for her name, but threw it anyway,
"Natalya..."
Jimin smiled as she closed the main door on his face.
Jimin's heart was beating rapidly and he couldn't stop smiling.
'Even if i failed a mission, i won another' he thought.
Jimin was back to Cake-a-licious, His hay fever had gone completely and he again started to bring flowers to the bakery but he replaced those Lilies he used to bring to Jasmines and Roses the ones he saw in Natalya's Hair. He couldn't stop thinking about Natalya since that day.
Marie wasn't pleased by Jimin's recent change in behavior. He paid minimal attention to her. Most importantly he started to listen to those romantic songs that he used to call cringe before.
She knew something was not right.
Jimin was casually whipping some cream for the icing of the cakes while humming a tune he listened to recently on the radio but he was interrupted by a strange siren outside his shop and a group of men rushing inside his shop with an unsynchronized sound of shoes hitting the marble floor of his bakery. he put down the glass bowl and the whisk to pay attention to the dangerous amount of customers who showed out of nowhere.
"How can i hel-" Jimin's eyes widened when he looked at the people with handcuffs in their hands.
Police?
.
.
.
"Mr. Park you've been arrested for committing robbery in Maison du Lierre "
"What?"
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BLUE.