#ibdi

The officers take him to shower alone while the other inmates are still locked down, he’s become a sort of target. For his safety, this is what has to be done. He gets dressed in the same dingy outfit and they take him to the room.

Junghyun shortly after.

“Jungkook, are you okay? You look,” He scans him over, “not good—like shit to be honest.” Jungkook only glances up briefly.

“They told me you were in an altercation and got beat up pretty bad,” He takes a seat, eyes scanning him over, “Are you okay?

“I’m fine,” He mumbles.

“Alright,” He sighs, “Mr. Choi will be in soon, he thinks you have a good chance of getting out.”

“Hyung,” Jungkook calls him by his affection title for the first time in years, eyes trained on the table, “Don’t do this.”

“I’m going to help you, whether you think you deserve it or not, you’re my brother,”

The silence pangs, and Jungkook doesn’t even look up.

“Look,” He rests a hand on Jungkook’s bruised knuckles, “I just want to get you out of here, okay? And maybe we can find Kim Y/n-“

“Sorry I’m a bit late, had a few documents to submit,” The lawyer walks in with a nice suit and slicked back hair, “it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jeon,”

“Likewise,” Jungkook replies in a dull tone.

“First, let me ask you a few questions,” The lawyer takes a seat, snatching a few papers out of his briefcase before setting it aside, “I know you have mafia affiliation but to what extent?”

“What do you mean?”

“Could we say that you’re associated or an active member? And if so, how long?”

“I-…I don’t want to do this,” He stands to his feet, cuffed hands pushing him away from the table.

“Jungkook,” Junghyun gives the lawyer an apologetic expression as he goes to whisper something in Jungkook’s ear, “what is going on with you? He has to know these things so he can build your case.”

“I don’t care about the fucking case,” He grits his teeth, “whatever deal you’re trying to make with me, it’s gonna screw me over in the end, and you both know it,”

“Excuse me, but Jeon has a call,” one of the administrative officials peeks in.

“From who?” 

Both Jeon’s say in unison.

“He says he’s an uncle of yours.”

They look at one another, both their father was an only child and their mother had one sister. They don’t have an uncle.

≿━━━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━━━━≾ 

3 months ago

His hands fell from your face, leaving your skin bare to the cool air, “I need to get back out there.”

He steps away from you, unlocking the bathroom stall door. You place your hand over his larger hand before he can fully open the door.

“You probably shouldn’t be seen with me like this…” You trail off, not wanting to further explain. You look at him with weary eyes, and the idea of someone seeing you two walk out of the bathroom together crosses your mind. “I’ll stay-“

“I don’t care who sees us,” He corrects you without hesitation, “let’s go.”

He walks out anyway, leading you out of the cramped stall. The states you get churn your insides. You force yourself to ignore the curious stares from the women inside. No one pays you any mind once you leave the restroom. If anything, they act like they don’t you.

When the hostess notices Yoongi approach with you by his side, she opens the doors with much haste.

“We got the last bid, I went 5 over but it was worth it,” Taehyung is the first to speak and he glances at you. Yoongi nods, ensuring he sits beside you despite your stiff body language.

The night went on and you remained quiet.

Feelings of regret crept their way into your mind. You proclaimed your love to a man before, who said he would die for you, the man you once lived for. But you’re not bound to him anymore, it’s hard to get used to. He abandoned you, he made you feel like a liar—he was insecure, and so were you.

The drive back home was painfully awkward. You rode back with Yoongi and the consequences of your actions started to eat you alive. He won’t even look at you, it just embarrasses you further, forcing you to perseverate. 

"About earlier, in the bathroom," You begin, not prepared to say much more than that.

“It was just a kiss,” He speaks low, to keep this conversation from the driver, "don't look too deep into it."

“Ok…” You gaze out of the window, the engine and the occasional passing of streetlights distract you enough. ≿ ━━━━━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━━━━━≿

The house had fallen into a hush over the past few months, and security heightened significantly. More members were assigned as round-the-clock guards. They patrolled around with vigilant eyes, their fingers never far from the cold metal of their guns. 

Yet, amid this fortress-like home, you found peace. The house staff have embraced you as if you were a long-lost member of the family. They treat you too well, providing clean linens like a hotel, and tasty meals, making you feel like royalty.

Ayeong has especially made this transition easy, she's the reason you're able to get up every morning and find purpose in something. 

When you arrived at the estate, you grappled with a sense of loneliness and haunting thoughts. It was Ayeong's compassionate and motherly nature that extended a gentle hand to pull out of that dark place. 

With ample free time at your disposal, you found yourself shadowing her through the day, mainly in the kitchen. 

She listened to you, not out of pity, but because she wanted to know you. In the delicate ebb and flow of conversation, she provided insights into the complex dynamics of the household. Yet, the lessons extended far beyond cooking; they touched on life, love, and, most intriguingly, the enigmatic figure who led it all, Yoongi.

You’ve unintentionally given much of the kitchen staff a break, making yourself her designated sous chef. It’s been nostalgic to get scolded when you over-season the dish she left you alone with, to get praised when your spontaneous flavor combinations taste good. She’s warm with you, taking you in like a granddaughter.

“Oh wow, this is so good,” Boyoung, her 10-year-old grandson who accompanies her every now and then smiles brightly, “how can you cook so well? This is better than nanas!”

“Boyoung, don’t say that!” You laugh, a bit flustered, “You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

“But it’s true! It’s better-“

"Ok ok, thank you," You shake your head, "Go wash up and I’ll fix you a bowl before you go.”

“Ok!” He runs to the bathroom with haste.

Just as he runs out, Ayoung comes back into the kitchen. “Between you and I, that little boy is going to be spoiled rotten,”

“He won’t be a kid forever,” You stir the pot gently, “it’s ready by the way,”

“Perfect, I was just about to let Yoongi know,” She notices how you always look a bit disinterested at the mention of him, “maybe I can get him to eat outside of that cave of his for once, I swear he’s a spitting image of his father, bad habits and all,”

“Yeah,” You agree awkwardly, “well, I’ll go wash up and I’ll be back,”

“Could you let him know? Tell him he needs to come out, I’m not bringing it this time,” She shakes her head, adamant, “he needs to come up for air,” 

You grit your teeth, “You want me to tell him?”

Ayeong has tried to get you two alone for the last few weeks. She seems to want to see him loosen up a bit, the stress he’s under tends to pull him away from what’s good for him she says. But he hasn’t said more than a simple greeting. You haven’t pursued a conversation either, he’s been too busy. Uninterested in anything that could even be close to a distraction, that includes you.

“If you could, I need to make sure Boyoung washes up this time,” She walks off to the washroom, leaving you with that daunting task.

The leather office chair knows Yoongi better than anyone these days. He’s been buried deep in the contracts, numbers, and logistical crap. Hoseok normally does this but he’s out on a short leave, a family emergency. So he’s doing it all, taking it all on his shoulders—it hasn’t been easy.

A knock on the door takes him from his thoughts. 

“Come in,” he expects to see Ayeong so he only glances up briefly, but he does a double take. There you stand, stepping through the door, and he softens at the side of you.

“Hi,” 

“Hi,” He repeats, “is everything ok?”

“Yes, everything’s fine, dinner is ready,” 

He's still in a dress shirt but the tie is long gone, as well as a few buttons unclasped. You forget that despite the illegal discrepancies of this job, it's still a business, they have to look the part.

He fixates on you for a moment, this is the first time in a while that he’s just looked at you. That dress, one he hasn't seen in ages. Of all the things you could wear, he would have never expected to see this.

He's brought back to his childhood for a blink. When his father was happy to have a son, not just a successor.

His mother would put on this dress sometimes, his father said it brought out her eyes. This dress—he remembered her in it when they were happy. At this moment in time, he remembers what it was like to feel real happiness. 

"What?" You question, bringing attention to his gawking. 

"Thank you," He breathes out, eyes dipping down into his papers again, "can you ask her to bring-"

"You look tired," You cut him off, "You should come out and eat with us, it'll be nice, plus Ayeong said she won’t bring you anything if you don’t agree."

He cocks his head to the side. "Us?" 

"Her grandson, she had to watch him after school," You grin to yourself, "I'm surprised you didn't hear him running down the hall,”

"Right, right she told me about that," He sighs, glancing at the piles of paper that he'd rather not spend any more time with, "I'll join you, just let me close this up, I'll be out shortly."

"Alright," Your eyes brightened a bit and he could swear you were hiding excitement, "I'll let her know."

When you enter the kitchen, Ayeong notices your attempts at hiding a smile. “What did he say?”

"He'll be out shortly," You head to the sink to clean up the remaining few dishes, and that's when you notice her seating arrangements. 

"Ayeong, you only set the table for two?“

"I completely forgot! I have to take Boyoung to his mom, she won't be able to pick him up tonight,"

She planned this shit. You bite your inner cheek, keeping your irritated remark to yourself. "But I promised Boyoung he could have some of what I cooked, he's gonna be upset-"

"Already packed him a bowl," She definitely planned this, "I can't believe he agreed to come out, do you know how many times I asked him to come out of that stuffy office? He's as stubborn as a mule that one," She removes her apron, hanging with the others near the pantry, "I never thought it was possible—he must have a soft spot for you.”

Before you refute any of her nonsense, she's out the door with Boyoung waving goodbye with that adorable smile. 

"Sorry, it took me a minute," Yoongi appears around the corner with rolled-up sleeves, "everything smells great." He takes a look around, surprised to only see you, and only two seats set up at the dining table.

"Ayeong just took Boyoung home, she didn't tell me they weren't joining…” You try to hide your disappointment with a nonchalant tone, "if you want to take your plate I'll just eat in my room-"

"I don’t mind having dinner with you, I could honestly use the break from work,"

"Oh, ok…” You nod with a timid smile, "You can sit, I'll fix the plates,”

"You don't have to do that,"

"It’s alright," You persist, "I don’t mind,”

He does as he’s told and sits at the head of the table, patiently waiting for you.

“Here you go,” You sit his plate down after yours, “sir,” You joke, trying to lighten the mood, “is it weird that all of the staff call you that?” 

“No,” He looked amused, not expecting your playfulness, “it’s protocol, except for the elders of course,”

Quickly, you say your grace and take your first bite. It’s safe to say this is the best meal you’ve ever made. 

“Wow, this is good,” Yoongi takes another bite with furrowed brows, “what did she put in this?”

“I cooked,” You stammer a bit, “do you like it?”

“Did you?” He gives you a look of approval. “It’s good, better than Ayeong’s if I’m being honest, but don’t tell her I said that,” He makes a playfully serious expression, causing a genuine laugh to spill from your lips

“Thank you,” He can see the blush forming on your cheeks, you're grateful he doesn't bring attention to it, “I’ve been helping her for a few weeks, it’s been nice getting to know her,”

“She told me, you’ve been a nice change for her and the other staff,” He sets his fork down, “they’re happy to finally have a normal person to dote over,”

“Normal?”

“Oh, I guess I’m getting back to my normal self then,” You’re proud to say that out loud, there was a point where you never thought you’d say that.

“Your dress,” He comments on the last thing you thought he’d be interested in, “is it new?"

“Oh,” You subconsciously touch the fabric, “Ayeong told me I could pick something from one of the closets, was that ok?” 

“Of course, I only ask because- ” He stares at the necklace on your chest for a moment, his heart jolts, “it looks nice on you.”

“Thank you…” You blush, not having expected the compliment.

When Yoongi speaks, you’ve learned that his words are his true feelings. He doesn’t care to sugarcoat much and he doesn’t talk a lot, but what he does say is meaningful.

Dinner continued in comfortable silence. Surface conversation would come and go in between bites, keeping any awkwardness from settling. Soon, the plates were empty and before you could get up to take the dishes, one of the staff came by to take them during conversation. You furrow your brows, wanting to clean up after yourself.

‘Ana, I’ll get it-‘

“Miss, it’s my job,” She smiles, eyes pleasing for you to let this go, it looks good for her to be insisting in front of the boss anyway. You give in, not wanting to make her feel obsolete in front of Yoongi.

“The food was great and you were,” He pauses for a moment, “you were good company.” 

“You too,” You grin from ear to ear, “we’ll have to do this again,” 

“Definitely,” He offers a real smile before disappearing back to his cave.

As you make your way back to your bedroom, you’re met with the youngest of the housekeepers, Yaerim, Ayeong’s niece. She’s taking the rest of your dirty clothes from the bathroom basket. A task you’ve warned her to stop insisting on; it’s the least you can do.

“Oh, hi Y/n, I’ll be out of your way! I was just getting your clothes washed up.”

“You don’t have to keep doing that,” You exasperate, “if you show me how to use the washer, I can do it Yaerim,”

“With all due respect, the boss asked me to take care of you, so that’s what I’ll do,” She offers a kind smile, “I wouldn’t want to upset him, I’m fairly new so this is my first time meeting him…”

“He asked you to do this?…” 

She nods.

“You should have told me sooner, you don’t need to do this for me, I can do a lot for myself actually, I don’t have anything better to do.”

“To be honest,” She sighs, leaning against the wall, “there aren’t many people my age working here so…It’s nice to be around you- I’m sorry, is that weird to say?”

“Not at all, I like being around you too,” You smile, “I don’t have any girlfriends, I haven’t for a while,”

“Well, we can be friends then!” She exclaims, “I’m 19 and this is my first job, auntie was nice to offer this to me, I don’t have experience doing much else,”

“I used to clean with my aunt before she went back to nursing, I enjoyed it,” You take a seat on the edge of the bed beside her, “I eventually found something I was passionate about and went to college.”

“Did you graduate?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

Her expression turns grim. “Oh, was it a financial thing or was it just not for you?”

“Neither, it’s a long story,”

“I’m not too busy, are you?” She makes a valid point.

That night was the first time you had ever told anyone about your life. There were moments where she looked stunned, others she had to push her tears down. 

≿━━━━━━━━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━━━━━━━≾ 

The news ran rampant on the streets. Notorious arms dealer, Kim Namjoon, was shot and killed in an ambush. Jeon Jungkook was there, he was supposed to die, not their leader. There was a price on Jungkook’s head, it was something everyone knew but no one spoke of. Every day, tensions grew between Jungkook and the group. It was unsaid but painfully obvious, that he was the boss’s favorite even with his wavering loyalties to the job. 

Namjoon’s memorial is today. 

The family came and you could see where he got his looks from, as well as his demeanor. They all mingle, but Yoongi spends a particularly long time with Namjoon’s mother. 

“How could this happen?” She presses a hand to his shoulder and Yoongi purses his lips, looking down solemnly. “I feared this would happen one day,“ She began to weep and you stayed far from the group after that.

After a while, you find yourself outside to get some fresh air, the woman beside you must have had the same idea.

“How did you know him?” She pulls out a cigarette, not bothering to light it yet.

“It’s a little complicated.”

“Hm, he was my brother…” She glances at you, the cigarette lit In between her fingers. “I knew this might happen one day, but I could have never prepared for it—it doesn’t seem real.”

“Can you ever prepare for losing someone? I’ve lost a few people in my life and I’ve never felt prepared…not even a little bit.”

“Comforting.” She scoffs.

“Y/N,”

You look back and see Taehyung lingering in the corridor and beckoning you to come to him. With a heavy sigh, you walk over, excusing yourself politely. 

“What?” 

“You’ve met Geongmin,” He stares, as the woman from another life blows puffs of smoke in the air, he never knew her to be a smoker. “I need to talk to her, privately,”

You glance back at her and just as soon as you open your mouth to say something, he’s making his way over to her. That’s a relationship you never knew of. Namjoon’s sister and Taehyung, you could see that—perhaps.

“I didn’t think I’d see you here,”

“He’s my brother,” She turns to him with a scowl on her face, she wears red lipstick and her cheeks are just as red from the cold, “I didn’t hate him.”

“We haven’t talked in a long time,” He leans up against the patio railing, “it’s been too long, I think,”

“The last time we talked, you were off your meds,” She drops the cigarette in the ashtray, “Namjoon can’t make excuses for you, now both of our favorite people are gone.”

“I’ve missed you,” He confesses, staring off into nowhere in particular, “even more now.”

“Don’t,” She frowns, “I just happen to be the only one left…it’s only convenient to miss me.”

He’s in the car, sitting across from Akane.

“It has to be some elaborate joke…” 

“The shot wasn’t at close range, from what I heard, it could have been a misfire,” Yoongi concludes, “either way…he’s gone, I was with him when he left us.”

“How are you handling that? You’ve known him since you were kids…”

“In this world,” Yoongi sighs against the phone, “it’s just another work day.”

“Who’s taking over the arms business?”

“It can run itself with a few signatures from me, I’m thinking about Taehyung, he knows the business well, he was an understudy,”

“Hm, well, I heard about Jeon Jungkook, what do you plan to do about him?” 

“Nothing.” He takes out a cigarette from the case in the drink holder.

“Cold,”

“He got himself in that situation, he can get himself out. He caused a lot of problems, for innocent people,”

“I didn’t know you cared that much about innocent people,” She scoots close to the door, resting her hand on the handle before showing him an amused smile, “didn’t think you had a heart for people like that.”

She exits the car and he signals the driver to head out.

He glances at the driver who nods, preparing to pull out of the parking space. That’s when Yoongi glances out of the window and sees you approaching the moving vehicle. You were supposed to come with him earlier, you’re late of course.

“Stop the car,” Yoongi scoots from one side of the back seat to the other, to make space for you. He quickly opens the door, letting you slide in.

“Hey, I didn’t see you walk out,” You let out an uneasy breath, "sorry,"

Yoongi puts out the cigarette and you glance at him, knowing if it was for you.

“You’re fine,” He doesn’t say anything after that, he instead takes out a folder and starts reading. You glance over at it, reading a few names.

“We’ll be there within the hour, sir,” 

Yoongi seems a bit solemn, that’s a usual sight to see lately. Soon, you arrive at the destination and you still have no clue what you’re doing here. When he neglects to invite you into where he’s going, you simply watch him leave the vehicle and disappear inside.

“Miss,” He looks at you through the rearview mirror, “don’t be worried, the Min’s have to make difficult decisions and they can be rather quiet, they always have, no need to worry.”

You offer him a smile. He wouldn’t know that your feelings for Yoongi are mixed, that you worry about him in a way you probably shouldn't. In no time at all, you see him walking out with a woman by his side. Yoongi abruptly opens the car door.

“What is this?” You frown.

“I’m dropping you off,” He glances at the woman he brought out, “Sal will pick you up later.”

“Who is she?” You eye the woman.

“Heize, she’s doing me a favor,” upon hearing that, you ease out of the vehicle, “she’ll take care of you,” He presses a reassuring hand to your back, guiding you towards the woman. 

“Let’s go ahead inside, the tests are going to take a while.” 

Tests?

“What do you do exactly?”

“I work in identity,” She walks you inside a small office space, “did he not tell you why you were here?”

“He doesn’t tell me much,” You shrug, shaking your head at the ridiculousness of it all, “I also didn’t ask.”

“We’re making a new identity, as a precautionary measure.”

You didn’t expect to be giving blood, urine, and saliva samples today. After waiting a considerable amount of time, Heize dismisses the girl she had drawn your blood and leads you back to her office. She’s a quiet person. She doesn’t say much, doesn’t look too long, doesn’t move too fast—she sort of a book-nerd type, unsuspecting.

“How long have you known Yoongi?” 

“Years.”

She neglects to look at you, too busy typing away at her computer. 

“How long have you been doing this?”

“A long time.”

You nod to yourself. “Has it ever…Failed? Has someone’s identity been revealed even after all of this?

She pauses, finally looking up at you. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“Shouldn’t I know what the risks are? It is my life,”

“There are risks to everything, it’s no different than being issued a passport, what are the chances of getting your name misprinted?”

“Not high… but not zero.”

“We'll, can’t argue with that,” She shrugs.

You had no clue, but Yoongi had this all planned out. 

Your way out, your final departure from this life. 

You’ve adjusted to some sense of normalcy at his family estate. You read, you cook, clean, and take care of little things around the house. It feels natural, normal. Life here is never too fast or too slow.

It felt reassuring to have someone around, to have stability—and consistency. After a hard day, his comfort was normally found in a glass of whiskey or the next readily available alcohol. Cigarettes, once a reliable source of solace, had dwindled into a boring pastime. After the memorial, he lit one for the first time in what seemed like ages, extinguishing it swiftly as you joined him in the car. 

Now, he prays to heaven for grace, knowing that this new coping mechanism would ignite Jin's wrath if ever unveiled. Grace or no grace, deep in his heart, he knows Jin would have his head if he knew the truth.

You step into the office after a gentle knock, knowing your entrance would be granted either way.

“Hi,” You wave, seeing that his tie is still tight around his neck, and cuff links are still secured and shiny.

“Hey,” He offers a half-hearted greeting, “did you have dinner yet?”

“No, is that the only time you want to spend with me?” You ask a genuine question, your expression timid as you avoid direct eye contact.

“Course not,” He gently closes his laptop, reaching up to pull off his slowly suffocating tie, “but it is a bit of a routine now, isn’t it?” His gaze dips down, seeing that you haven’t changed out of your formal dress. 

“You should get changed, I should be done by then.”

“I think I’ll wait a bit,” You purse your lips, l don’t get to dress up very often,” You rub the hem between your fingers, “I like to enjoy it while it lasts, don’t you?”

When he neglects to give a verbal response, you step closer to his desk, leaning up against the side closest to him. He shakes his head, an endeared expression on his face, now fiddling with buttons on his collar shirt.

“Well, don’t you?” You tilt your head.

“Hm,” He leans back with a deep sigh, “never really thought about it, I suppose it’s nice,”

The longer he’s gotten to know you, the less he desires to be alone.

His life has been everything nonstop, all the time. No time to wade in his thoughts, and daydream about a better life. He used to chastise himself for even thinking about a life without the mafia. He’s never lived a peaceful life, free from strife and trauma, so much fucking trauma. If he were honest, even a taste of it used to scare him. If he were to indulge in even a glimmer of a normal life, he would desire it. He’d kill for it. But he can’t enjoy a life like that. He doesn’t deserve peace, how could he? He’s stolen it from so many people. And here he is, trying to return it to one of his many victims.

There’s another knock at the door. 

“Supper is ready,” Ayeong says from outside the door.

“Ayeong, can you come in?” He beckons her inside, “I need to speak to you for a moment,” 

You quickly get the message to give them some privacy and you slip out, closing the door behind you.

“Yes?”

“Tomorrow,” He gets up to stretch his legs and roll his sleeves to his elbows, “take her out for a bit, she can get clothes, anything she needs.”

“Of course,” Her face lights up, “she’d like that, but Yoongi in all honesty, this doesn’t seem like it needed to be a private conversation.”

“It’s not necessary that she know I’m having you do this,”

“I’m sorry,” She regrets this as soon as it leaves her mouth, “but why?”

“Because I said so.”

“Fine,” She huffs, not hiding her disappointment, "I’ll take her out in the morning.”

“Stay out until after 9, and I only need essential staff here tomorrow.”

"Very well," She turns to leave but stops to look at him. He's already staring down at one of his contracts. "…You know, it wouldn't hurt to tell her how you feel, a woman deserves at least that-"

"Don't," His tone is stern but mindful to be respectful, "don't start that."

"Yoongi, I can’t want better for you?" She stares, disappointed in his avoidant antics. "All I’m saying is, think about letting your guard down and enjoying someone for once, while you’re still young, your father missed out on that-“

"Is that why you put her in my mother's dress? Do you want me to reminisce on the past, give her up to delusions like my father did to my mother?” He quips.

“Your mother loved your father and he changed,” She defends, “she happened to choose that dress, I had nothing to do with that-“

“And the necklace?”

“Necklace?” She pauses dumbfounded. “Yoongi, I don’t even know what you’re talking about, I’m not trying to trick you into anything if that’s what you think-”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m not arguing about this…” He presses his temples, “I know you mean well but she's not going to be here forever, as soon as I can get her out she's gone, and she’s not coming back. Don't get attached, I only say this for your sake,"

She grits her teeth, holding her tongue for what she really wants to say. The last thing she needs is an angry Yoongi. "I care about her, I just want the best for her, after all she’s been through.”

"You don’t think I want that too?” He steps over to the window, looking over at the pristine garden and pool that he rarely touches, “I know what she’s been through, better than anyone...”

“I know you probably don’t believe it, but you are capable of experiencing love-“

“You’re dismissed,” He ends the conversation with a sharp command, already having given her tremendous leeway in this conversation.

You sit at the dining room table, moving your Brussels sprouts around, sipping your wine. This routine of having dinner with him almost every night, it's something you look forward to. 

You knew the subtle looks, the lingering gaze when the other wasn't looking, the laughs—it was a calumniation to something.

"Ayeong," You catch her trying to dash through the kitchen, "is he coming? I've been waiting, my food is cold..."

"Oh," She forced a smile, "I'm sorry dear, I’m not sure, he didn’t say," She leaves the kitchen with a swiftness.

You drop your fork on the plate—suddenly you've lost your appetite.

≿━━━━━━━━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━━━━━━━≾ 

You waited until most of the staff finished their shifts when the guards left the inside of the home and only patrolled the grounds. That’s when you snuck out of your room to confront him.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Yoongi's gaze lingered on you when you emerged from the doorway of the dimly lit room. It’s drafty, the window cracked slightly and you see Yoongi there, sitting with not a care in the world.

You continue. “You didn’t come to dinner, so I thought maybe I did something wrong…”

"I didn't come to dinner because I got caught up," Yoongi explained, his voice low and measured. "You didn't do anything wrong."

The silence that followed was full of tension, and you couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt. A sense of displacement gnawed at you, but you pushed it aside, not wanting to show it.

"You could have at least said something," you retorted, crossing your arms in defense. "Ayeong had to tell me."

“I apologize…Now can you come here,” He beckons you over, gesturing to the couch, “we should talk.” 

You do as he says, walking over to sit a small distance beside him. "About?"

“How are you liking it here?” He throws out his question. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yes, I like living here," 

“Good, I’m glad.” 

On the coffee table beside him, you see cigarettes and a lighter. Impulsively, you reach across him to grab the lighter, and the cigarette box and slip one out. You stare at it for a few seconds, twisting it between your fingers, with the lighter in one hand. Albeit awkwardly, you ignite the flame and hold the white stick to it. The flame danced as you lit the cigarette, it caught fire, and his eyes cut to you, finally curious.

You bring it to your lips, heart racing and nose scrunching at the smell alone. You open your mouth and inhale, very quickly coughing like a first-time rebellious teenager.

“Don’t finish that,” He takes the cigarette from your hands as you struggle to catch your breath. “I avoid doing this shit around you, now you want to try it?” He takes a drag like a pro, blowing the smoke away from you. "It’s a bad habit."

“I know,” You look at him with a playful smile, reaching for it again. “you used to do it all the time,"

“What did I just fucking say?” He smothers it in the ashtray, his displeasure evident, “It’s not funny, don't touch that shit,”

“Why?” You counter, “I’m no different than anyone else here, so can smoke if I want to,”

“Not with me,” He scoffs, almost amused, “there are other ways to relieve your stress,”

“Yeah I’m sure,” You mumble, eyes tracing over his grumpy features. “But I don’t think you would know of any,”

Without a word, he makes his way over to the bar cart. There’s a decanter sitting on the top and one thick crystal cup. He reaches inside a drawer and pulls out another glass. It’s hard to tell what the drink is but when he brings both glasses, his nearly full over to the couch, you question his method of stress relief. 

He hands you the cup and goes to walk back and forth near the window, casually sipping his.

“Seriously?” He nods, predictably. You bring it to your lips.

“You don’t have to drink it,” He sighs, taking a quick sip. He walks back to sit back beside you, black strands cascading around his face like silk curtains when you look over.

"You think alcohol is better than a cigarette?" You questioned, a wry smile playing on your lips.

“It’s the lesser of the two evils, to me.” He picks his glass up, nursing it his eyes fixed on the amber liquid in his glass.

As you started to rise, ready to escape the uncertain atmosphere, Yoongi's hand closed around your wrist, holding you in place. "We're not done talking," He stares up at you, hand not losing its grip.

Reluctantly, you take your seat back beside him. “What is this about?”

“I want you to know,” He stands to his feet, strolling over to the window, “I’m traditional, that’s how things are supposed to be done in the mafia. Whatever the fuck Namjoon and your brother have done, it’s not like that, even I got a little slack.”

"Okay,” You walk over stand beside him at the window, glass in hand, “why are you telling me this?”

“The family you choose comes before anyone else,” He empties the contents in his glass in one chug, then takes yours, “I defended your brother for a long time because of that code, he defiled it and took advantage of me,” He continues, “now I consider you family, in your brother's place.”

“Oh…what does that mean exactly?

“I’ll make sure this organization supports you, I’ll provide protection for you as long as you live," The weight of his words linger in the air.

"Whatever you decide to do with your life after this," he added, "even if it's against your brother, your relatives, anyone—you’re protected." the finality of his statement sends a chill down your spine.

“Even if I’m not with the group, you would still be there for me?…”

“Absolutely,” He downs the rest of your drink and sets it on the window sill, “without question.”

"You’ll be there?” You scoot to stand between him and the window, wanting further clarification.

“Yes,” He gazes down at you and his palm finds its way to your lower back, “I’ll be there for you, in a heartbeat.”

Your eyes dip down to his lips before landing back on his eyes. But only a few seconds, you expression shifts, and the sparkle in your eyes dims. “Jungkook used to talk like that..."

Yoongi's demeanor shifts subtly, a shadow passing over his eyes.

"Did he?" He knows very well that Jungkook spoke like that.

“Yeah,” You step away from him, “I still think he has those feelings for me..." You look down in thought, "I find myself thinking about it, what he would say to me if he wasn't in prison,”

"You're not bound to him anymore, you have to start living like that,” He says gently, “he doesn’t control you, not anymore.”

"Honestly, I miss him sometimes...” You admit, your voice tinged with regret. “That's crazy, isn't it?"

"It’s not crazy Y/n, he was a major part of your life," He sighs, accepting that whatever heat that might have been kindled is long gone. "it's not easy to forget about someone like him,”

“Yeah, it’s not…”

“But it’ll get easier,”

When you stare at him with a look of relief and naivety, he begins to sober himself. You’re not just anyone looking for attention, not a one-night stand he’ll never have to see again —you’re much more than that. You have a pre-existing weight in his life now. Anything that happens gets carried into the future of the relationship.

Blood soaked the antique area rug. 

The meeting was long overdue, the high-ranking capos were looking for answers after the commotion died down. The discussion took place in the old lavish board room, his father used to have it polished and cleaned like clockwork.

At some point in the discussion, Jin came up. He always comes up.

“He’s got his own business going on in that old territory, my men don’t touch it, it used to be a hotspot too,” The capo said, a cigar between his fingers, “did they tell you, boss?”

“I figured as much,” Yoongi replies, “that’s a small loss in the grand scheme of things.”

“We don’t want it back?” Jimin speaks up, and Hoseok looks over at him.

“No,” Yoongi said plainly.

“What about our shipping docks? I think they’ve been sneaking around over there.”

“I want to get most of our product here by a private shipping company overseas,” Hoseok says, “Akane has a few options for us.”

“Boss,” Ryan, a trusted capo looked up from his phone, “Jungkook’s been released, our mole just sent the court ruling to me.”

“Hm, I wonder how he managed that,” Yoongi tilts his head in thought, “get some details and let me know.”

“That motherfucker,” Hoseok makes a low comment to Yoongi personally, “I don’t know who the fuck used their pull to save him.” 

“I don’t think we need to worry about him right now, whoever’s supporting him isn’t flashy.”

Hoseok scoffs, he has developed a strong disdain for Jungkook. Hell, he was happy when he was in prison, life seemed simpler.

“Sai,” Yoongi called the one who seemed to fidget constantly.

“Sir?” He peered up at Yoongi, and instantly lost a bit of light in his eyes.

“Are you fucking using? You haven’t been able to sit still since you walked in here,” Yoongi stood from his chair, calmly approaching the man while the others watched, “it’s distracting,”

“S- sorry boss, I guess it’s just been a while since I’ve seen you,” He laughs, swallowing his nerves. 

“Cigarette?” 

Yoongi offers it with a cold tone, not getting one for himself. 

The man’s eyes widen at the gesture--he knew what it meant. Yoongi takes a seat in front of him and grabs the cigarette, the man assumes he’s meant to take it.

“No please,” He takes it between his lips and takes out his silver lighter, letting the flame dance to it, “allow me.” He takes a puff with closed eyes and blows the smoke into the man's face with a deep sigh.

“Here,” He pushes it in between the man's pursed lips, “this is the good stuff,” 

Tension hung in the air as the room fell silent. The men looked everywhere but the scene before them, they knew they were amid a farewell.

In this world, you can be punished for many things. But the most heinous of them all? Betrayal. You pay for that with your life. Yoongi grappled with that for a long time. He believed that some people were redeemable, worth a second chance, and deserving of mercy. He really used to believe that.

Yoongi rose from his seat once the cigarette was finished. “How was it?”

Sai pleaded for mercy, for the ruthless leader to spare some compassion. Yoongi simply leaned down, offering a gentle caress to his cheek in all his begging. “You know what you did, you knew this had to happen.”

“But- But you let that fucker walk Scott free, for years! He betrayed all of us but you wouldn’t let Joon touch him! You’re a hypocrite if you do this to me! You played dirty, getting his fucking little sister, how can you honor the code now? Betrayal punishable by death- What about ‘family is off-limits’ You did that shit!”

He had a point.

But alas, he and his chair crash to the ground by an abrupt contact of a fist in his face. One of the guards rushes over to hold him down and Yoongi gets down, eye-to-eye.

All that time when Jin was plotting his rise to power, not caring what bystanders suffered in his wake. Yoongi watched it happen. That was on him. As the boss, he was upholding a standard that even he made exceptions to. 

“Those your last words?”

A string of curses fell on deaf ears.

In that moment, all traces of his father, that he spent so much of his life running from came rushing into him like they had never left. It was hard to watch, even for the senior capos who had witnessed tradition unfold many times before. But to see Yoongi heartless, and brutal, was a reminder. He is capable of even the most despicable acts, it comes with the job. The sound of gunshots rang throughout the room, too many times.

“Consider this an act of repentance,” Yoongi stands to his feet, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his bloody fingers. “have this cleaned up before the dinner,” 

Once Yoongi is out of sight, Hoseok can’t hide his disgust for the blood splatter over the floor. “Ugh, did he have to be so goddamn messy?” He muttered. “I haven’t had to call in the cleaners in a while.”

“I didn’t realize he would still…” Jimin speaks up from the chair, where he had been frozen for the entire act. "Do it."

“Yeah, to be honest,” Hoseok dials a number, “neither did I,”

Yoongi’s quick exit from the scene was all so he could get somewhere private and try not to vomit. 

“Fuck,” He unbuttoned a bit of his collar shirt and leaned against the sink to steady himself. When his eyes met the mirror, he looked away just as quickly. His disdain didn’t come from the blood on his hands, but the man in his reflection. 

.━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“Is this too much?”

You stepped out of the dressing room in he third sundress, one a bit out of your comfort zone. It had bright colors and a flattering mermaid shape, something out of a fantasy novel at first glance. But Yaerim insisted, she said it was ‘trendy’ right now, and everyone should have one.

“It’s perfect! Not enough if you ask me,”

These days, you and Yaerim go out almost every day. Ayeong will ask you where you’d like to go if you want some new clothes or want to take up a hobby. At first, she claimed Yoongi had nothing to do with the unlimited shopping sprees, the drivers at your beck and call, but you knew the truth. You just let everyone think you were clueless. Shopping isn’t free, it’s definitely coming out of his pocket.

Over the past couple of weeks, Yoongi hasn’t wanted anyone at the estate during the day. Ayeong mentioned the risks of having meetings with different people going in and out, anyone could connect the dots and make your whereabouts public knowledge.

“Alright, if you say so,” 

With a shrug, you swipe the AMEX again, and again, and once more just for good measure. You buy a few things for Yaerim, you even get something for your aunt, something you thought she’d like. 

Just when you thought you couldn’t buy another thing, you pass a pet store. 

“Oh my goodness,” You gasped, “Yaerim, look at that kitten, isn’t it precious?”

In the window, the gray and white kitten naps peacefully against the glass. 

“Let’s go see! Oh my gosh, I’ve always wanted a cat, you should get her Y/n- oh, I don’t know if the boss likes animals, you think he would?”

“Who wouldn’t love that adorable face?” 

Now, along with a bag full of clothes and a couple of knickknacks, you have a kitten and everything you need to take care of her.

When Sal comes to pick you up, you show him your new prize possession. He smiles brightly and laughs, it’s been a while since he’s served someone so pleased by the little things in life.

Both you and Yaerim nap on the way back. Sal said no one needs to be home until 6, so you had no choice but to shop all day, you thought to yourself.

“Miss, I’ll take your bags up.” 

One of the faithful staff ushers you inside, not giving you a chance to get the bags yourself. This time you oblige, but you hold your kitten close in her carrier. Yaerim went to the laundry room to finish her shift, while you went upstairs to get your new companion acclimated.

“What should I call you?” You gently take her from the carrier and hold her in your hands. “How about Poppy? Do you like that?” She gives you a sleepy blink and you take it as a yes.

When you walked in, you couldn’t help but notice the cleaning van outside and the sound of a high-powered vacuum. It never pays to pry into their affairs, but to deny your curiosity is painstaking.

“Miss,” Ana appears in your doorway, “you should start getting ready for tonight,”

“What’s happening tonight?” 

“He didn’t tell you? The family dinner is tonight at the Min family restaurant,” She looks you up and down, “It’s formal, so I’ll help you get ready.”

“But I just got this kitten, I should probably stay and-”

“Yearim will take care of that, Min insists that you attend. It’s mandatory.” 

“Alright,”

With only an hour or so to get ready, you run through the shower, and all the while, you wonder what this dinner will be like. And why he wants you to attend. When you step out in your robe, you see a black dress and multiple sets of jewelry on the bed.

“Do you like this? Min said to put you in something that suited you best since it’s a special occasion.”

“This is beautiful…” You pick up the dress, “gorgeous, where’d it come from?”

“The vault, he said to bring it all so you could choose whatever you’d like,” She grins to herself, “he was adamant about letting you choose.”

“Oh, wow,” You begin to open up the jewlery boxes, “this is a lot, I’ll choose once I get dressed.”

“Alright, the car is out front when you’re ready,”

When you do get dressed, you’re brought back to those couple of nights in Japan. They dressed you up like a dime piece only for you to sit around quietly and obediently. Jungkook revealed a lot of himself, he gave background on why he lived the way he did. You did’t look back at that trip fondly anymore, it reminded you of how scared you were, how helpless. Now it’s different. Even though this isn’t optional, you’re still being forced to go to an event that has no personal ties to you, you don’t want to test Yoongi’s grace for you. Not yet.

“Knock knock,” The knock is accompanied by a sing-song voice, “It’s me,” You open the door and let Yaerim in, “I heard I’m taking the kitten for the night! Y/n, you look so nice,”

“Thank you,” You scrunch your nose at the compliment, “I don’t know why he wants me to wear this, and all this jewelry,”

“Well,” She begins, petting Poppy as she naps, “I heard some of the staff talking…”

“Yeah? What were they saying…” You put your earrings on, one by one. 

“He’s never brought a date to one of these before, it’s an important dinner, super traditional,”

“Really?” You look in the mirror, loving how Ana did your hair. “That’s interesting…”

When Yaerim puts your necklace on as a finishing touch, you step out of the room. The guard that had been waiting for you outside the door takes your hand and escorts you downstairs. Faithful Sal is waiting for you at the door, he gives you an endearing smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I take too long?” 

“Not at all,” He opens the door and helps you inside the car, “you look lovely.,”

“Wait!” All of a sudden, Ayeong is running up the stairs to meet you.

“Ayeong?” You gasp when she fully embraces you. “Oh, are you alright?” 

“I’m- I’m fine,” she says in the crook of your neck, “I’m just about to get off and I haven’t seen you since breakfast, so I just wanted to give you a hug,” She smiles, and you swore you saw her fighting back tears. “I guess I just, I missed it all sweetheart.”

“Oh, I missed you too,” You smiled brightly, “I’m running a bit late, so I’ll see you in the morning, alright?” 

“Okay, you have a goodnight Y/n, enjoy yourself!” 

As the sleek black car glided through the city streets, your mind swirled with thoughts.

The evening air was crisp, filtering through the cracked window, carrying the faint scent of distant street vendors and the hum of urban life. The city lights painted streaks of gold and amber against the darkening sky, casting an enchanting glow upon the streets below.

Glancing at your reflection in the window, you adjusted the delicate necklace Ana had chosen for you, its shimmering diamonds catching the soft glow of the passing streetlights. In the front seat, Sal wore a calm expression, his hands steady on the wheel as he navigated through the bustling traffic with ease.

Along with your nerves, underlying tension hung heavy in the air. You couldn't shake the feeling of unease, knowing that this dinner was more significant than the other events you'd attended.

As the car turned onto a quieter street, the towering skyscrapers gave way to elegant townhouses and cobblestone pathways. The road exuded an air of exclusivity, with ornate wrought-iron gates guarding the entrance to each luxurious estate.

As you approached the restaurant, a historical building adorned with delicate stone carvings and overgrown ivy, a sense of apprehension washed over you. 

But then you see Yoongi, walking in with the original entourage. Hoseok, Jimin, and Taehyung all follow Yoongi as he steps out of the car, each of them in perfectly tailored suits.

As the car came to a stop, Sal turned to face you, his expression unreadable. "We've arrived, miss," he announced, his voice tinged with a hint of concern.

Taking a deep breath, you gathered your composure. With a nod of gratitude to Sal, he helps you out of the car and Yoongi sees you from a mile away.

“Check her out,” Ryan nudges Jimin, “she cleans up nice,”

“I know,” He walkd over, assuming he’s on ‘Y/N duty’. But Yoongi tells all of them to head inside without him, and Jimin is left pondering thoughts over that.

That leaves you standing on the curb, waiting for the others to walk in. When the last member walked inside , he finally gave you his full attention. He eyes you like he wants to say something about your appearance, but he keeps it to himself for now.

“Stay with me tonight, okay? Don’t wander off with anyone,”

You nodded. Normally, you would inquire about his reasoning, but tonight, he seems a bit off, like one wrong word and you’re history.

Once you walked into the restaurant, you saw so many familiar faces. Some of these people worked at Namjoon’s base, particularly the women. Some you had seen working with Jungkook on those many nights out, making runs around the city. 

The night went on like a true family dinner. 

There was an undeniable buzz in the atmosphere, it was contagious. Laughing, and chatting about the past and the present. As you looked over the room, even the most stoic men were smiling at each other, enjoying the endless champagne and Hors d'oeuvres. Hoseok and Taehyung seemed to have mended the underlying strife between them, even for tonight. Jimin on the other hand seemed less than interested for the first half, but a couple of old fashions changed that.

Now it’s evident why is so important. 

It’s a time and place where the true colors of the mafia come to light. In the day-to-day, where crime and violence monopolize their time, they need gatherings like this to unify their spirits. To remind them that this is family, this is what they traded their souls for. 

Suddenly, you feel a warmth on your thigh. You glance over and see Yoongi’s free hand resting just above your knee, and he continues his conversation casually. 

The more you think about it, the less his request for you to join him makes sense. Why did he want you here? Nothing to say, you’re only here for arm candy and the wondering eye to gawk over. You can’t help but wonder if that was his intention, to show you off. 

“I’d like to make a toast,” 

A hush takes over the room in seconds. All eyes are on the respected leader. His hand leaves you when he stands up, stem glass in hand. 

“To Kim Namjoon,” He holds the glass high, and the room follows suit, including yourself. “May he rest in peace.”

The room followed his every command like a cult of loyal subjects, eager to please their king. 

When he got up, he said he’ll be right back. You thought, does he think you’re just gonna sit here? He should know you well enough by now, to know you don’t like to sit still for too long. 

“Hi,”

You look up at a towering figure in front of you.

“Hi,” You reply.

“I’m Jooyoung, I don’t know if you remember me but I remember you,” He gets cozy beside you, “you used to be the talk of the town, you know that?”

“I know,” You grit your teeth at that thought.

“It’s died down now, no one wants to get in hot water with the boss, he’s back to his old ways,” He sips from his nearly empty glass, “but I’m glad to see you’re doing well, really,”

“Uh, thanks,” You pause, finally processing his statement, “What do you mean his old ways?”

Just as he opens his mouth to answer, Yoongi begins to make his way back and he gets out of potential harm's way. 

“You okay?” Yoongi rests a hand on your shoulder.

“I’m fine,” You nodded.

“How’s the food?” He stayed hovering over you, gaze lingering on you longer than you expected.

“It’s- it’s good,” You peer up at him, his expression hard to read. It’s something in between curious and slightly agitated.

“Do you want another drink?” 

“I haven’t even finished this one-“

“I need another drink.” 

You follow behind him to the bar where he orders a shot of something dark and what he called, ‘an Irish bomb. You’re taken aback when you realize both were for him when he’s already throwing back the second one.

“Anything for you, miss?” The bartender smiles kindly.

“Oh um, I’ll have the shot he had,” You say, innocent of what was in those glasses. The bartender quickly, and as soon as you get a whiff, you regret your decision. Despite your displeasure: you down it anyway. Within seconds, you cough after the burn of it going down. 

“Ugh, that was bad,” You cringe, unable to hide your disgusted expression. Yoongi’s eyes linger on you momentarily and he flashes a knowing smile inwardly. With a firm touch at the small of your back, he leans closer to whisper in your ear. “How do you drink this stuff?”

“Come with me,”

You blink, “Oh, ok…” You exchange glances with the bartender who looks away. He grabs your arm and whisks you out of the restaurant's main haul and into a private room, likely meant for administrative purposes.

As soon as the door shuts behind him, he lets his guard down and relaxes. You observe quietly, folding your arms around yourself, as he takes off his suit jacket and drapes it over the office chair

“I meant to tell you about tonight,” He explains unprompted, “I’ve just been caught up,”

“Why did you want me to come?”

“I thought you’d enjoy a night out,” He walks up to you,“you don’t like it?” 

“You didn’t exactly give me a choice; the staff said I had to come.” You cross your arms.

“Do you like the dress?” He intentionally gets in your space, making you to take a step back.

You scoff, glancing down at the gown. “Why? did you pick it out?”

He gives you a sly smile that you take it as a yes. 

“It’s nice,” You feign being unimpressed, “but if you brought me here just to be an accessory, you could have just said that.” He steps forward, backing you against the wall

“Is that what you think this is?” He snakes an arm around your waist, pulling you close to him.

“Yeah,” You nod, “what else could it be? You want me to stay with you, not talk to anyone? I could have stayed back,” 

“No, that’s not,” He sighs, taking in how dolled up you are and how this could probably be the least interesting thing you’ve done this week. “Honestly, I wanted to be around you tonight, I had a rough day,”

You feel a blush rise to your cheeks, still not used to hearing things like that from him still not accustomed to hearing such sentiments from his mouth. 

Over the past few weeks, the space between you and Yoongi has become smaller. 

He steps forward, hands resting on your waist so he could kiss you. And just like that, you two stay quiet while indulging in your little secret. He cradles the back of your head, presenting the right angle as he searches for the perfect blend of softness and firm. He always sets the perfect pace, and you feel yourself become pliable like water, spilling through his fingers.

“I've been waiting all day for this," he murmurs, his lips lingering close to yours, reluctant to pull away. "We should get out of here; get some privacy," he adds, his tone betraying his reluctance to stop kissing you.

“You’re the boss, don’t you have to stay?”

“I’m the boss,” he smirks, “I can do whatever I want.”

True to his word, he called a car and you two snuck out through the back. He helped you into the vehicle, ensuring you were secure before getting in himself. He tells the driver a location unknown to you. Once it's confirmed that you're en route, Yoongi lowers the privacy screen, continuing to kiss you, as if he had been anxious to do so.

He picks you up to sit you across his lap, eliciting a gasp of utter shock from you. It makes him giggle, the way you react to him as if this were all new to you. 

When he finally pulls away from your lips, he buries his face in the crook of your neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell good, new perfume?" he murmurs between kisses on your chest, leaving damp imprints on your skin.

“Y- yeah.”

 "It’s nice," He's feeling the effects of those drinks now because he’s tempted to say anything that comes to mind.

“Are- are you okay?” You manage to pull away, looking into his half-lidded eyes and noticing the red glow on his cheeks. He stares back at you, taking in your flustered expression and rosy cheeks.

“I will be,” He deadpans, breathing in and out.

“But where-” You pull away again and Yoongi huffs in frustration,  “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can be alone, is that okay with you?” You nod, unsure if that's what you mean or if you’re afraid to say no.

“That’s- that’s okay with me…”

Unbeknownst to you, he made a hotel reservation just for the two of you. He planned to get you out of the house to bail on the oh-so-important family dinner. You would have never guessed that this was his cover-up plan. The thought alone made you feel all sorts of things—excited, anxious, confused. The idea that he wanted to be with you like this, so much so that he carved out a time and place just for you.

“I couldn’t be in that damn house tonight,” He said in the elevator, his hand resting in the small of your back, “My day has been too damn long just to have to sneak around for this,”

“This?" you questioned, urging him to expound. 

"You," he flashed a snarky smile. "Sneaking around at all hours of the night, in my own home? I’m pretty sure some staff are starting to catch on."

“I hope not,” You scrunch your nose at the thought. Ayeong seemed to have a chipper demeanor whenever you found yourself close to the mafia boss. 

"Do you think anyone is suspicious about us leaving together?" you asked, your curiosity veiled with unease.

"I’m sure," he answered honestly.

Eventually, you made it to the hotel room and everything was so grand and expensive. The bed seemed to have no end with pristine white linen, the bathroom was equipped with a large tub and walk-in shower. Yoongi discarded his jacket for the second time that night and gestured for you to sit wherever you’d like. You chose the chair near the French doors to the balcony, hands pressed to your lap. In Yoongi fashion, he had already ordered his alcohol of choice to the room and he went right for it.

"Are you trying to get drunk?" you asked the obvious question. 

"No," he took another shot. "just trying to unwind." With a chuckle, he stalked over and kneeled in front of you. "How was your day, by the way?"

You sat tensed, eyes darting from your feet to his face. He lifted your ankle to rest on his knee so he could remove your heels. He meticulously unbuckled the straps, one hand under your ankle while the other worked on the clasp. When you failed to reply, he asked again. 

"Well, how was it?"

"It was fine, I did a little shopping with Yearim," you swallowed, watching his fingertips linger on your skin despite your heels being long gone. "nothing too crazy."

He paused, staring up at you as if he was truly interested. He couldn’t be, he had to be humoring you. "You do a lot of shopping,”

"Yeah, is that okay?“ You laughed nervously. 

"It’s fine," he placed his palms on your knees. "No one else is using all this money, you seem to make good use of it, so I don’t mind."

"You're really, um," you paused, searching for the right word, "talkative."

"Yeah? I suppose I am, just trying to fill your awkward silence since you're so tense," he said softly, meeting your gaze with a glimmer of desire in his eyes. “You want another drink? To take the edge off,” 

You nod. “Sure…”

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“Sir, I lost all contact with him,” The agent paces in her office, “last time we spoke, we were supposed to arrange a meeting place for handoff tonight, I was sure we had this!-”

“You’re dealing with a criminal, Agent Ban. This may take longer than you think, I told you this wouldn’t be easy.”

“Okay, then what should I do now?”

“Get creative, that’s all you can do.”

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“Oh my God, they’re not letting this go.” 

Henry read through the contract for the second time, attempting to understand how she managed to file a lawsuit against the family. Melinda was not backing down. You won’t be snubbed out of the will, not if she can help it. And Jin, for some odd reason, seems to care about your claim to the fortune.

“We need to get the authorities involved in this,” He closed up the envelope the severance was packaged in, “if she is missing or dead, there’s no sense in waiting around for her to turn up, we need to close this up.”

Jin made a mental note—your maternal family members are all stuck-up pricks, no surprise your mother eloped. As a form of making amends with some of his only flesh and blood, he’s decided to support Melinda in this battle. He has the power he’s always wanted, and a bit more even. His only wish now is that he can safely hide away his flesh and blood like his father once had.

Today though, he’s off to address a burning question of his. How did Jungkook get out? 

Wei arrived with no information to report. All they know is that Jungkook left the courtroom a free man.

“Jin,” Melinda sits across from Jin at the upscale brunch spot, sipping a mimosa, “be honest, why did she choose not to come with you?”

“We weren’t on good terms, and a few people made it pretty difficult for me.”

“Can you find a way for me to talk to her?” She questions.

“Last night, there was an annual event within the organization,” He paused, “I had eyes in there, they saw her there, dressed up like a legitimate member. But I’ll have to see what I can do about contacting her,”

“So they make her attend events,” She shook her head in disbelief, “like a damn show pony.”

“She may have a choice.” 

“Jin, do you know anything about your sister? You talk about her like-“

Suddenly, she gets an unknown call on her phone. Jin takes a glance from past glass.

“Who’s that?”

 “Not sure,” She let it buzz a couple of times, before bringing it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Melinda West?”

“It is,” She glanced up at Jin with furrowed brows, “who is this?” 

“My name is Lisa Ban, I'm an agent with the FBI and I’ve been working on your niece's case for a few months now.” 

Melinda gasps, this is the first she’s heard of any law enforcement giving a damn about you. She puts the phone on speaker, giving Jin a look to start listening in.

“Why is this the first time I’m hearing from you? It’s been over a year since she was abducted.”

“I know Ms. West, and for that I’m so sorry. But the oversight of her case came from the sheer size of the organization she’s involved with. At first, she was a potential accomplice until I did some further digging. Now I’m using all of my resources to find her.”

Melinda lets out an exasperated sigh. “So why are you contacting me now?”

“Last night, the mafia boss who is holding her captive agreed to meet me and give her over-“

“You have her?!”

“No, not exactly. The meeting fell through, we had been contacting each other for weeks and confirmed that he would let her go. Last night he was supposed to give me a location to meet him early this morning, but he never did. In fact, he blocked my number and he likely used a burner phone, so I’m at square one.”

“Okay, what do you plan to do now?”

“I can’t say too much right, I want to meet you. I know it’s short notice, but can you meet me at Le Blanc Bistro at 7 tonight? Then, I can detail the entire case to you and maybe we can help each other.”

“Um,” Melinda looks to Jin who mouths for her to say yes, “Okay, yes, I’ll see you tonight.”

“Thank you, Ms. West. Take care.”

“When you go, don’t mention me but get as much information as you can,” Jin advises

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

You thought this was all just to soothe the stress; that loomed over your head like a dark cloud. But when his voice broke against your neck, eyes focused but half-lidded in ecstasy, his grip tightenuntil his knuckles turned white. You had a front-row seat to his raw humanity, his soul bared in front of you.

When you opened your mouth to say something, you were silenced by a kiss. And it was his, not so subtle, way of telling you to shut up. But suddenly, you tasted something salty and warm hit your tongue—tears? That’s when you yanked your head away and touched your lips, to his displeasure.

"Y- Yoongi," you stalled all movement and his eyes shot open in surprise. "Are you okay?"

“Shit, Y/N,”  he cursed, trying to keep the moment from shattering. “Why are you stopping to ask me that? I’m doing fucking terrific, aren’t you?” He was exasperated, sweat beading on his furrowed brows. You inspected his face with concern, not saying a word.

“What’s wrong?” he touched his cheek to feel the warm liquid.

“Fuck, fuck,” he combed his hair back and took a moment to catch his breath. You tried to move away but he pulled you back, holding you so you couldn’t move not an inch.

“No, no, don’t,” he took both your hands and kissed them. “I’ve had a few too many, that’s all, it feels so good you brought me to tears,” He flashed a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m fine, please.. don’t stop.”

He’d never sounded like this before, so desperate. You chose continue as he watched intently, tonguing at his lips, taking it all in. And at some point, he ascended, went somewhere else, and dragged you there.

Once things settled, you lay on his chest and he resisted the temptation to smoke a cigarette, settling for combing a hand through your hair, delicately pinching the strands between his fingers. You peeked over at the gun on his nightstand; all these mafia boys were the same in the bedroom, vulnerable for a moment but forever guarded.

“Today, I had to do something I haven’t done in years,” he sighed, his voice rumbling in his chest under your ear. “And that shit has been haunting me, all fucking day…”

You glanced up at him, heart aching at his admission. “I’m sorry… what did you have to do?”

His sweet caresses came to a halt. It took him a while to open up, to say more than a couple of sentences. He felt a conflict; while he wanted to reveal his thoughts and feelings to you, he didn’t want you cursed with those images.

“I don’t want you to worry about that,” He pressed his lips to your brow, his breath warm and soothing, “I shouldn’t have to do it again for a long time.”

Little did he know, you saw the cleaning company come into the house…does what he did have anything to do with that? You choose not to pry despite your painful curiosity. Silence hung in the air for a good minute.

“Well,” you grappled for something to lighten the mood, “I bought a kitten today.”

He furrowed his brows, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah?”

“Mhm, her name is Poppy, she’s cute,” you sat up on his chest, eyes brighter just at the mention of her. “Pretty quiet… from what I can tell.”

You sighed, absentmindedly tracing the tattoo peaking over his shoulder. In a moment like this, you can easily forget you’re an ex-prisoner, now a valuable collateral of the mafia. 

“That’s nice babe,” He groaned, eyes growing heavy with exhaustion, “now get some sleep, we have to get up early…”

“Can I ask you a question?”

He sighed, giving up on trying to get some shut-eye. “Go ahead,”

“What does your tattoo mean?” 

“I had to get branded when I joined the organization,” He answered plainly, “it’s a snake because my father had a code, the snake represents transformation. Snakes have to shed their skin to grow, to survive. If they don’t, they die.”

You continued tracing the intricate design, understanding dawning on you. “So, it’s about changing to survive?”

“It is,” he murmured, his voice a blend of bitterness and acceptance. “You have to shed who you are. The old you has to die so you can become who you need to be to survive in this world.”

“Wow, that's so symbolic,” You reply, “it’s big, it must have been painful…” You cooed, still tracing the small part you could see from his shoulder. “Was it?”

“It was,” He hums, “the healing process was the worst part, I couldn't lay on my back for weeks…” He took your hand, leading it to rest on his chest, where his heart beat steadily beneath your palm. “Now that I’ve answered your question, can we please go to sleep?”

“Yoongi…” You pursed your lips, feeling a surge of vulnerability. “How do you feel about me?...”

“Y/N, for the love of God,” His eyes flutter open, “let’s not get into that.”

“Why? Just tell me or I’m gonna think you hate me, that you’re just using me.” 

“I don’t hate you, and I’m not using you,” He yawns, his guard slipping, “trust me.”

“So it’s just the sex then,” You conclude, half-joking but very much serious, “you keep me around for that, is that all it is?”

“Oh, stop. If that’s all it was,” Yoongi sat up, causing you to lift yourself and look at him wide-eyed, “rest assured, we would have been doing this a long time ago,” He brushed your cheek tenderly, “It’s a plus, but it’s not just the sex.”

“Oh,” You blushed, a small smile breaking through. “So it sounds like you’ve always been attracted to me then?”

“Are you on a vanity kick right now?” He pulls you into his lap, hands under your thighs, and the idea of sleep is long gone from his mind.

“Please tell me,” You comb through his hair, massaging his scalp, “when did you start to see me like this? Fine, I’ll go first,” You give an anxious smile, “after you were shot, I helped you clean your wounds and we talked, we had a real conversation…I thought about that a lot, we had so much more in common than I imagined and I realized you weren’t so bad, I started to like you…a lot.“

“Okay,” His hands glide up and down your sides, “you really wanna know?” You nod.

“When I first officially met you, you were a bratty kid obsessed with Jeon Jungkook,” He begins, “You were angry, scared of everything, impulsive, difficult to deal with, you couldn’t fight, still can’t-”

“Damn,” You scoff, "maybe I shouldn’t have asked-”

“I’m not done,” He playfully clasps his hand over your mouth, “you were all those things to me for a long time, and not only that but you were my best friend’s little sister.” He removes his hand, watching you bite your lips. “I had every reason not to want you…But I don’t know, I don’t have an exact time or moment when it started, maybe when you went batshit crazy at the auction and then kissed me in the bathroom,” He snickers at your growing blush, “you shouldn’t have done that, after that kiss I had a hard time getting you off my mind, I couldn’t even make any more excuses after that.”

“Really?” You swallow your nerves. “I’m flattered.”

“Yes really, and I see that you aren’t some kid…there’s so much to you, more than I realized. I take care of you because you are my responsibility, but it’s more than that, I like to take care of you, I like getting to know you, being with you…I wanted to have you, just like this.” 

“What does all of that mean?” You press further, trying to pry out three words.

He presses his forehead against yours, knowing what you’re getting at. “I care about you Y/n,” He brushes your hair away from your face, just, “so much,” He presses his face into the crook of your neck. “

“Y-Yoongi,” You whispered, cupping his face to bring him eye-to-eye, your heart pounding in your chest. “You said we had to get up early, you shouldn’t be kissing anyone if you’re trying to go to sleep.”

He breathed in, his heartstrings giving way to any prior plans or limits he had for himself.

“Change of plans,” He placed his hand over the one you had on his cheek, his eyes locking onto yours. He smirked, “We’re sleeping in.”

Some people are true to the very end. Their path may change, their words may falter, but they remain true to their nature. Jungkook is like that. Amidst shifting dynamics and the ebb and flow of bonds, he stands resolute. He had no regrets from the moment he pledged his soul to this life, severing ties with his blood and swearing allegiance to an organization that masqueraded as family.

He would do it again and again, and again.

When he got a phone call from a man claiming to be his uncle, he understood more why he chose the mafia. After the smoke clears, someone will come to your rescue when you least expect it. 

The phone call from his ‘uncle’.

“Namjoon left specific instructions, if anything were to happen to him, I’d treat you like my own, and that’s what I plan to do.”

The retired mafia kingpin sent all his resources and pulled every string to honor his son's wish.

So after a few weeks, when he appeared in court dressed in guilty orange, he didn’t so much as bat an eye. 

His new legal team rallied around him, professing him as innocent and wrongfully prosecuted on baseless claims. And the judge? Somehow seen unfit to rule over this case, was replaced by a rookie, just barely out of law school. It all fell into place.

Junghyun sat in the courtroom, watching his brother sit back comfortably. It was a misuse of justice, a real shitshow if you ask him. 

“The court rules, not guilty.”

The court was adjourned. Jungkook was uncuffed and Junghyun was the first to approach him.

“What the hell did you do to pull this off?” He stands almost eye-to-eye with Jungkook, and the smirk on his face says it all, he’s gotten away with murder.

Before Jungkook could answer, from the crowd his mother ran up and embraced him.

“Jungkook,” She squeezed her eyes shut, savoring the moment, “come home with us, please-”

“I’m sorry…” His expression saddened, “You know I can’t.” He, for the first time in years, looked at her with love in his eyes.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jeon, after you get changed, we have a car ready for you,” The man positioned at the back of the courtroom with a pressed suit and manicured appearance stands in waiting, “We should get going.”

He hugs her one last time, and she knows he’s saying he loves her. But he has to go, he had to make that choice when he was just a teenager and he has to make it now. Soon, he is checked out and escorted into a luxury vehicle with dark tints, and in the seat beside him lies the items he was booked with.

“Where am I going?” 

“Master Kim’s residence.”

He doesn’t typically get anxious, but his nerves are getting to him today. Even though he’s out in the real world, feeling the sun on his skin and seeing the trees blow in the wind and the birds fly in the sky—there’s this eerie feeling. How did he manage this type of luck? What does he have to do in return for his freedom? There’s always a catch.

A butler of sorts opens the doors and leads Jungkook inside, calling him Mr. Jeon. 

“Please, make yourself comfortable,”

He directs Jungkook to sit in the formal living room in the grand home, he remembers this well. Namjoon brought him here a few times when he was just a boy, he could just taste the silver spoon Namjoon had in his mouth. Privilege, wealth, power—Namjoon was born with it. He always admired that, he wanted to be like him, more than anything.

“I’m glad to see you made it out, Jungkook” 

The elder Kim entered the room, commanding Jungkook’s full attention with just the sound of his voice.

“Sir,” Out of respect, Jungkook gets down on his knees in a full bow, “I’m in debt to you, thank you… This wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for you,’ He stays, headed fully facing the ground, “I don’t deserve this.”

“Favor isn’t deserved my child, it’s simply given,” He stood above Jungkook with a look of his endearment, “Have a seat, please.”

Jungkook does as he’s told. When he’s sat upright, he finally sees the mob veteran’s striking resemblance to his late son. He only recalls seeing him a couple of times in photos, but never in person like this. 

“You know, my son spoke very fondly of you,” 

Jungkook peeks up, resembling a timid little kid.

“He said you didn’t grow up with a lot, but had more potential and grit than anyone he’d ever met,” He continues, “I taught him to choose his family and regard them above anyone else, that’s the key to success in our line of work, you look out for your own,” He paused to sip his tea, “that’s why I chose to help you.”

“But I don’t understand,” He said, brows furrowed, “your son was killed because of me-’”

“Years ago, Namjoon asked me to do one thing for him, and that was to take you into the family,” He said sincerely, “he knew that if anything ever happened to him, he had to take care of you, even in death,”

“He…He arranged this?”

“Of course,” He laughs, “you were his favorite.”

Jungkook's mind raced as he processed the elder Kim’s words. The weight of Namjoon’s loyalty and sacrifice bore down on him, mingling with the relief of his newfound freedom.

“His favorite?” Jungkook repeated, still struggling to grasp the gravity of it all.

“Yes,” the elder Kim confirmed, his eyes softening. “He saw something in you, something worth protecting. That’s why I’ve pulled all the strings to keep you safe. Namjoon’s death was a tragedy, but his trust in you was unwavering.”

Jungkook looked down, the guilt gnawing at him. “I never meant for him to die, I don’t even know how it happened…”

The elder Kim shook his head. “In this world, things like that happen, Jungkook. But remember, Namjoon chose you. Honor his memory by living up to that belief.”

A heavy silence settled between them, broken only by the quiet ticking of a grandfather clock in the corner. “How do I do that?”

“Get some rest,” the elder Kim said, standing up. “Tomorrow, we’ll discuss your next steps.”

As Jungkook was led to his temporary quarters, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the test of his character was looming around the corner. The room he entered was lavish, a stark contrast to the cell he slept in the night prior. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

“Call- what was her name, Miranda?” Verona furrows her brows, not bothering to jog her memory for the correct name.

“Melinda, her name is Melinda.” She’s corrected by her brother.

“Someone should call her,”

“Why can’t it be you?”

“She cursed me out last time we talked,” She holds her toddler, trying to give him the cereal snack.

“That was almost 20 years ago, if we can’t reach her brother anymore than we should try to reach her,”

“We should forget it,” She mumbles, “we haven’t contacted them all this time, why do we have to now?”

“Legally, we have to try,”

“Grandmother always liked to make things overly complicated just to fit that illegitimate child into this family.”

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Agent Ban spent the morning trying to put a face and name to the missing female. How is it possible for a single person so disappear and not even the FBI has investigated her whereabouts? It’s all so strange and confusing. What makes it even more interesting is that for some reason, she seems to be loosely connected to the single largest case in the city.

“Lisa, there’s a missed call for you,” One of the administrative staffs, “came in this morning.”

“Thanks,” She takes the phone and dials the number.

“This is agent Lisa Ban, I’m returning your call,”

“This is officer Go from the police department 9. I know you’re pursuing a missing persons case, I have one that might interest you.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s fairly old and it was made anonymously almost a year ago, but the woman’s name is Kim Y/n. For some reason her case was snuffed. She went missing one night after work, the person who reported this suspects that she was kidnapped. I have pictures and other information on her that I will send your way.”

“Thank you so much, this might be just what I needed to close this case.”

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Jungkook must be dead or dying. Namjoon could be too, you accepted that possibility. After the shock began leave your body, your tears cleared and you stared off into nowhere. Hours must have gone by because the sun isn’t shining anymore.

You were numb, you couldn’t feel the heat surrounding your body. You were so numb that you could not hear Yoongi screaming at you to get out of the car, the burning car. When the smokey glaze leaves your vision, you see the hood of the car is up in flames and the driver is deeply impaled by a pole through the windshield.

“The bastard tried to kill us, and himself,” Blood drips from his black hair and down his forehead and you finally gather what’s happened. You look around, tall trees surround you and you’re being led to run away from the dirt road.

“I’m scared,” You whisper, knowing he can’t hear you and even if he can, he doesn’t have to time have that type of conversation. He is too worried about getting away from the car that just exploded, putting your thoughts to an abrupt stop.

You cry out, falling to your knees, hands pressing to your ears as you tremble on the forest floor. You can’t feel your legs, your heart is drumming, your body says to give up. Yoongi grabs your trembling body and lifts you to stand back up, chilling you to your core. “I- I’m scared, Yoongi, just leave me here!-” You mutter with quivering lips, you know you look pathetic.

“You’re alive,” Yoongi firmly takes your hand and presses it to your chest, making you feel your own pounding heart, “if you feel that, you have to keep going,” despite your shaken up state, you’re following beside him.

The smell of gasoline and burning chemicals makes you sick. Things are going so fast, Yoongi moves so fast. How can he keep going? He doesn’t know if Namjoon made it, it looked like Jungkook didn’t make it—he’s not even attempting to ponder those thoughts. Somehow, he stumbles upon an abandoned shipping container. Cautiously, he steps inside the metal shelter and beckons you to follow. The spider webs and the debris from trees has made its way inside and you stay where you are.

“Come on, we’ll wait in here,”

You step inside with heaving breath, face a bit sweaty and head swimming.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” He looks you over, “we may have to stay put for a few hours.”

You look around you, unable to say anything, even if you wanted to speak you wouldn’t know what to say.

“Jimin is supposed to be with us,” He sighs, leaning against the wall of the metal container, “I’ll tell him to come to us,”

“We have to sleep here?…” You look at what you think is an old birds nest, the ground is hard and dirty with mud—not to mention it’s dark.

“Yeah, doesn’t make sense to look for a hotel, we can’t risk leaving a trail in another town,” He does something on his phone and you brush some leaves aside to have a seat.

Jimin was off with another group but abandoned them immediately to look for Yoongi. He brought the list of items Yoongi requested and l found you two within a few hours.

“Here, sorry it took a while,” He hands Yoongi the bag and his eyes land on you sitting idly in the corner, “I didn’t know she was with you.” He mutters, disappointed.

“Use this to clean up,” Yoongi hands you a pack of wipes and a bottle of antibacterial, “I’ll be back,”

You want to ask where he’s going and why he’s not bothering to clean the blood from his own face. He is more at risk than you are, he already has a serious wound, you only have a few scratches.

Jimin won’t look at you and you can think of a few reasons why. You could care less, you just want to smell a little better than the damp woods and a burning car. With shaky hands, you open up the wipes and begin to clean your face. You take your sweater off and diligently wipe the rest of your body. Jimin sits on the edge of the entrance, not even tempted to look back.

“Where’d you go?” Jimin looks up, inspecting the bottle in Yoongi’s hand and now clean face.

“Water,” He hands Jimin a bottle and holds the other two. Red-faced, you hastily slip your sweater back on right before he can lay his eyes on you. Or maybe he looked away purposefully and only looked when he saw you were dressed.

“Thank you,” You take the bottle and try not to chug it.

“Try to get some sleep,” Yoongi looks at you and Jimin, “Jimin, we’ll take turns watching guard, I’ll take the first leg,”

“You’re sure?” Jimin furrows his brows, “I can take the first few hours,”

You stand up, brushing the leaves off your butt, wanting to offer some assistance. “I can too…”

“No, get some rest,” Yoongi stands near the edge of the entrance with his hands firmly in his pocket, “that’s an order.”

Jimin nods, taking the blanket and laying it out on the floor meticulously. It’s a small blanket and he only brought one, and it’s very drafty. Certainly the three of you weren’t supposed to share it, you thought. You get on the blanket and sit with your knees to your chest.

“You should lay down,” Jimin lays on his back beside you, you won’t look at him, “what? You don’t want to share it?”

You slowly ease down and lay on your side, facing away from him. He’s not used to the silent treatment, yet, he feels he deserves it.

At least 20 minutes went by and neither of you had gone to sleep, to your dismay.

“You didn’t wanna go with Jungkook? Why’re you with Yoongi,” He whispers, curious onto how you ended up with the cold mafia lord and not your obsessed lover, or whatever it was. “I know you’re awake…”

“We’re not together anymore,” You swallow, “that’s why I didn’t want to go with him…”

He lets out a small gasp and you turn to look at him—Why must he looked so relieved? Deliighted even. “You’re free then…”

“If that’s what you want to call it, yeah…” You turn back around, curling into the fetal position to warm yourself.

“It’s cold,” He states the obvious, “you’re shaking, do you want me to—?”

“No,” You insist, “I’m fine, goodnight…”

He doesn’t press any further. Keeping a safe distance, he settles for discarding his jacket and placing it over you.

That night, it poured.

It rained so loudly, it sounded like rocks were being thrown from every direction. By that time, you and Jimin had fallen asleep so Yoongi joined you all on the blanket. He’s not the close proximity type but he also doesn’t care for sleeping on dirt and leaves. He let out a heavy sigh, back against the hard metal behind him.

It seems that every brick lifted to rebuild what they once had crumbled in his hands. They are all together but the unity has only made prominent the differences they have. Namjoon and Yoongi are a different story—they’re a pair. If it were just them, things would run smoothly. Hell, if it were just them and Hoseok, the three of them wouldn’t have any issues. Hoseok was their rock, between Yoongi and Namjoon, they could always depend on him, more than anyone else. The three of them even discussed running off and starting their own thing when they were young, they were so close. Closer than just brothers, they made each other feel safe, secure.

They happen to have soulmates with a lot of baggage. Jin came with the curses passed down from his father. He’s deceitful, selfish, only in it for himself—on the outside. Inside, he’s insecure that one day, the day he decides to depend on anyone but himself, he’ll be let down, forgotten and abandoned.

Yoongi glances over at Jimin’s peaceful expression as he sleeps—he still looks like that same teenage boy. His face is just barely pressed up against the back of your neck in an attempt to gain your warmth. The same boy who let anyone who said they cared about him use him and who used people to fill his many voids. His traumas are unspoken but so very evident even in the way he lives. They’ve always pitied him, it’s something they don’t admit.

And Taehyung, he’s bonded to everyone. Rose was the reason for that, everyone loved her so naturally they loved her little brother. Namjoon loved her as a woman, he loved Taehyung like a little brother. He promised her he’d take care of him before she died, it was a promise he made to himself. Taehyung had terrible parents, a crappy childhood, but a Godsend of a sister. If it weren’t for her pure soul and kind words, he wouldn’t know when to stop, he’d ravage anyone in sight—including himself. One can’t mention Rose without Geongmin, the two were inseparable, they might as well have been sisters.

And then there’s Jungkook. That night, it seemed like the whole world stopped when Namjoon met him. He was smart, strong, exceptional at almost everything he did, he seemed unreal. He made Namjoon proud. You’d think the boy was conceived by Namjoon’s efforts alone. Something about abandoned kids does something for him, he wants to take them in and change their lives—like a savior.

Now there’s you.

A bolt of lightning strikes, causing a loud crack of thunder to jolt you out of your sleep. You let out a startled squeal and you hold on to who’s beside you instinctively. Usually, that someone is Jungkook but even in your exhaustion, you know this is not him. You blink, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness and to the person under our palm.

“I’m s- sorry,” You remove your hands from his side and scoot further from Jimin who you pushed up against you in his sleep.

“There’s a storm passing by,” He looks over at you, “we’re safe in here,”

“About earlier,” You push your hair out of your face and lay flat on your back, “I don’t really remember what happened,”

“We crashed, the driver did it on purpose I think ,” Stress is light in his tone, “I don’t know much more than that.”

“Are you okay?…” You ask so softly.

“Yeah,” He answers quickly, too quickly for it to be true.

You accept his answer, despite knowing the truth. it doesn’t take long for you to drift back to sleep.

Just as soon as you are overtaken by your sleepiness, Jimin wakes up to the pounding rain. “Ready to switch?”

“No need, no one’s coming out here in this storm, go back to sleep,” Yoongi answers, eyes shutting again.

“She’s cold,” Jimin states suddenly, you’re curled up with his jacket almost covering your face, “shit, I’m cold…”

“You’ve toughed through worse than this,” Yoongi’s eyes slip open, half-lidded but more than curious to see what Jimin is trying to get at.

“Did you know that they broke up?” Jimin sits up, voice low and mindful not to wake you.

“Hm,” Yoongi gives up on trying to get some shuteye, “I really don’t care…”

“That’s something I’ll have to get used to, not sneaking around to avoid getting my ass handed to me,” Jimin giggles, “a part of me will miss it though.”

“Getting your ass handed to you?”

“No, sneaking around just to spend a few minutes with her,” Jimin confesses with a giggle, “I guess I liked the chase…”

“That’s pretty sick,”

“Is it?” Jimin’s brows furrow and his puffy lips downturn a bit. His boss doesn’t need to tell him that, he knows he’s got a bad habit. Yoongi’s eyes shut, leaving Jimin to ponder over what he just confessed.

The night went by in the blink of an eye.

Jimin woke you up and Yoongi was already ready to leave when your eyes opened to the beaming sunrise.

“Where’s the car?” Yoongi stretches his arms and lets it a deep exhale.

“A theater parking lot, it’s about a mile from here,” Jimin watches as you reject his offer to help you off the floor, “shouldn’t take us long to get there—I meant to ask, where are we going? I was going with a team to a common area before meeting up with you,”

“My family’s old estate,” He pauses to restate that, “well, it’s mine now,”

“You actually kept that place? We all thought you sold it,” Jimin can recall the very few visits he made to that place. It was huge and extravagant, a bodacious display of wealth, far from Yoongi’s personal taste.

He lived at the estate on and off during his youth. After he turned 10, his father took him and his mother into hiding in a shabby old house.

“I figured I’d need a handful of undisclosed locations to go to one day,” He scoffs, “I was right.”

That morning, after 8 dditional hours of driving, you began to approach a thick patch of the forest. A 10-foot Roth iron gate blocked a white cobblestone entrance. Large hedges seemed to block any view other than the building that appeared to be his home. Yoongi gets out of the car and walks over to a little padlock hidden within a brick—this is the most mafia-style place you’ve ever seen.

That day you learned a lot about Yoongi.

Just from observing the lavish home, the mile long pool in the backyard, the well groomed landscaping—this is the life his father lived and it paid. Dodging bullets, manufacturing and selling drugs to anyone willing to buy. You’re positive he has loads of real estate elsewhere. The home was equipped with a full staff, men and women who were much older than the three of you. The ceilings seem to reach the sky, the floors and stairs are marble, the bright chandeliers made you dizzy.

An older woman greets you all in the foyer, she touches Yoongi’s face affectionately, as if she was reassuring that he was in the flesh.

“Yoongi,” She smiles and pulls him into a warm embrace, “I can’t believe it’s you,” She looks nothing like him but she holds him like he’s her child

“I know,” His eyes slip shut in her gentle touch and you can’t help but stare in awe as he melts a bit, “you remember Jimin,”

“Yes, of course,” Her eyes pass from him over to you.

“This is Y/n, she’s,” He pauses to look back at you, “with us,”

“Nice to meet you Y/N, I’m Ayeong,” Her smile grows brighter, “you all must be exhausted, I’ll take you to the guest room and have supper ready within the hour,”

Yoongi disappears and the kind woman leads you to the bedrooms.

“Here you are,” She points to a lovely room, one lovely room. “I’m sorry, I should have asked, did you want to share a room?”

“No ma’am,” you speak for the first time, “separate rooms, please,”

“Yeah,” Jimin clears his throat, “she can have this one.”

“Alright, there are a change of clothes for you there, I’ll be back when dinner is ready,”

“Thank you,” You give her a small bow and you enter the suite right after, “huh…”

You fall right onto the bed and the fresh smell of linen engulfs your nose, it’s so nostalgic. Aunt Melinda used to have your sheets washed and your bed remade almost every weekend, it was one indulgence you missed dearly.

Your shower is long and drawn out, way longer than it should have been. Supper is served at a grand dining room table, Yoongi declines to join.

“The food is amazing, you’re a wonderful cook,” You offer her a genuine smile, “it reminds me of home.”

“Thank you, I don’t get to do this very often, we haven’t had guests in quite a while,” She refills your glass of water and Jimin’s as well, “and Yoongi’s lifestyle doesn’t allow for a lot of home-cooked meals.”

“Yeah,” Jimin nods, glancing up at you, “you cook right? You told me once,”

“Yeah,” You look at your plate and then smile at Ayeong, “I’m not this good though,”

“Thank you sweetheart,” Ayeong adds an additional spoonful of rice to each of your plates, “if you ever want to cook something, let me know and I’ll get the ingredients ordered.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,”

You felt a genuine smile creep up, you haven’t felt that in awhile.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

2 years ago

“Y/n, your acceptance letter!”

You raced from your bedroom, throwing your headphones off.

“Let me see,” You ran to get the envelope, “wait, no! I don’t want to…”

“You have to open it eventually, come on,” Your aunt teases, “just take a deep breath.”

You’re a bit jittery, butterflies swarming in your stomach. So much as gone into this, hours of late night studying, honors classes—it’s all come down to this.

“I…I got in,” For some reason, fireworks don’t go off, “I was accepted.”

“Why aren’t you happy? You’ve been waiting for this,”

“We can’t afford this, even with my scholarship it’s not enough to cover room and board-“

“Your grandmother wants to pay for your living expenses and any tuition that’s not covered by your scholarships,”

“What? Nana doesn’t have that type of money,”

“Not Nana, your grandmother on your mothers side, you know she’s pretty wealthy. She called me a few years ago and told me to tell her when you started college, she wants to pay for it.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? It’s a good thing-“

“The last time I talked to them, they acted like I was a nobody, like I should have never existed, they’re my estranged family for a reason.”

“Y/n, you know your grandmother has always cared about you, she’s the only one who ever bothered to reach out to you,”

“Yeah, but I don’t need anything from them, they abandoned me.”

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

3 Months Later

“We’ll have a shipment coming soon, one of the capos need to accept it,” Yoongi paces from one side of the desk to the other, “just let Hoseok know who- He’s not taking direct shipments right now, just have it done, do you not know how to follow simple directions? Okay, then do it,” Yoongi hangs up the phone, “fucking idiots.”

Ayeong peaks into the room, she sees the exhaustion in his eyes, the last Min to occupy this office had those same eyes. “Here you are,”

“Thank you,” He takes the cup and has a seat on the desk.

“Y/n is sweet, she reminds me of your mother when she was young, how did she get into this?”

“Her brother,” Yoongi replies bluntly, “her brother is Kim Seokjin.”

“Oh,” She can’t help but inquire further, “why is she with you and not with him?”

“I made a mistake,” The kind that ruins someone’s life.

“I think I’ve ruined dozens of lives, I know I have, but its never bothered me before, I thought I was used to it,” He confesses, “I used her to save her brother- I thought it would save him.”

She recoils a bit, surprised to hear Yoongi be that honest. “It didn’t?”

“I don’t know,” He recalls a tone similar to his if not harsher resonate in this room years ago, “here’s the messed up part, I don’t even know if I would have done things differently,”

“I know there’s a lot you have to carry, your father was the same way,” She sighs, “your mother was the only one who knew what he went through.”

“Huh,” He sighs, “you say that like he confided in her.”

“He did. I know what you saw from them was bad, but before you were born, your mother was actually happy to be with him,”

“That’s hard to believe.”

“It’s true. Did she never tell you how they grew apart?…” Yoongi’s furrowed brows indicates that he doesn’t know the whole story.

“She couldn’t have children for almost 3 years before she had you, that started to strain on their marriage. When she did get pregnant, they were so happy. But not long after you were born, he became obsessed with grooming you into his successor…your mother was against it.”

He knows this, how could he forget? His mother wanted one thing and his father wanted another. This life tends to blur things, push things aside and make you run, it’s painful to slow down and think.

“He got his wish.”

“When he took you and your mother away, we all feared for your life…I’m just glad your back home,” She smiles, brushing Yoongi’s hair out of his face, “and you brought a girl.”

“She’s not safe with anyone else,” He moves away from Ayeong’s hand, already picking up what she thought she subtly put down, “that’s the only reason she’s here.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t, I’m just glad to see you showing a little compassion, that’s all,” She says, as she makes her way out, “I’ll leave you to your work then.”

*

Staying at the estate has been plush and comfortable, you got used to it rather quickly. Hoseok came accompanied by their newest business partner, Akane. She only stayed for about a day, Hoseok stayed and then Yoongi left.

When Yoongi was at the estate, he spent his days neck deep in calls and meetings in his office, or gone for days on end. You haven’t had the chance to shadow him nearly as much, you’ve had no choice but to spend your days trying to be a normal person again.

Today is different, Jimin was teaching you how to fight someone with a knife. You were struggling to keep up, he was going really fast for some reason and before you could ask him to slow down, you were panting to catch your breath. Knife under your neck, flat on your stomach with an arm unnaturally twisted behind your back.

“Br- Break!” You utter out.

Jimin pulls away with a grunt.

“What would you have done had I actually been trying to kill you?” He tosses the pocket knife aside, “You’re promising in the initial attack but you lack tact when you get tired, your endurance is shit,”

You sit on your knees, glaring up at him.

“Stand up,” He gets in position, “we’ll build your endurance, fight like hell, don’t worry about hurting me, you won’t.”

You hit the floor after he sweeps your leg, he uses his legs a lot when he fights. But this time you get up in time to strike his face so hard that he instinctively grants you a powerful blow to your side.

“Ow!” You hold your side and keel over. But he doesn’t stop there, you haven’t said break yet. You grow more and more frustrated the more hits he lands on you. You don’t know if this is building your endurance more than it is him just letting you have it.

“Jimin, wait!” You take another hit and this time land flat on your face. “Ouch,” You feel liquid trickle from your mouth, “you busted my lip,”

“You didn’t say break,” He takes a moment to push back the stray hairs from his little ponytail and catch his breath, “your attacker won’t stop because you ask them to, they don’t care about messing up your pretty face, most of them don’t at least.”

“Yeah, neither do you,” You hold your mouth, “I want to stop for today.”

“You’re gonna quit because of a little blood? You slapped the shit out of me, you don’t see me complaining,”

“You said I couldn’t hurt you,” You shoot back.

“Of course I said that, it was to get under your skin,”

“It hurts,” You kneel down, holding your hands to your mouth, plucking his heart strings, “I might need stitches,”

“Is it really that bad?” You sense him walk up behind you. “Let me see-“

Here’s your chance.

You charge toward him with all of your strength and his back hits the ground, eliciting a wince of pain from his lips. You have him pinned under you, somehow. You have the knife he had thrown aside moments ago and now you’re holding it to his neck.

“What do I do when I get someone like this? Do I actually do it?” You stare down at him, eyes shaking. “Kill them?”

He swallows, eyes trained on your intense expression and rapid breathing. Proud would be an understatement for how he feels right now, turns out you’re actually learning something.

“I’m impressed, you finally got me.” He gives you props for this little stunt.

“Thanks,” you smile, more out of relief that your plan worked than from the compliment. You squeal when the position is reversed and you’re now flat on your back, it was a short lived victory.

“Kill them before they kill you,” He squeezes your wrist hard enough to make you drop the knife, “don’t give them an opportunity to turn the tables like this, your struggle will be in vain if you get yourself killed,” He takes your wrists and stretches them above your head and fear washes over your face, “you left yourself wide open, you had a knife to my neck, yeah, but my hands were free, my legs too if you count how easy it is to push you off,” He chuckles at the frustrated look on your face.

“You did good but you have to disarm the arms and the legs, then you have the upper-hand, you give them a reason not to move while giving yourself as much mobility as possible.”

“I get it,” You knit your brows, struggling to break free as he tightens his grip, “I get it, now get off!”

“I don’t think so,” He lets out a sinister laugh, “free yourself or say the word,”

“No,” You grit your teeth, “just kill me.”

He scoffs, letting you go out of sheer amusement.

“Just kill me? Wow,” He takes the wraps from his knuckles, “that’s what you would say to someone clearly trying to kill you?”

“You let go didn’t you? It was worth a shot,” You mumble, taking yours off as well.

Most of your days went by like this, some days you’d sneak off with Ayeong to talk, some nights you envy Jimin’s ability to leave the house as he pleased.

That night, Hoseok said they had to meet Yoongi at an auction. Something about the industry needing to see that they still had a presence. You asked if you could join them, it was unlike anything you’d ever prepared yourself for. Though, it reminded you of trip you took with Jungkook and Namjoon. But this time, you’re less scared to death.

“Can I ask you a question?” He shifts gears in the car, the acceleration making your heart jump a bit. Hoseok was picked up by a car, leaving you and Jimin and to find your own way.

“Did you really want to join the group? I didn’t think you’d want to live the rest of your life like this but when they told me you joined, I was surprised,”

You subconsciously pull down your dress, a little black dress you found in the spare clothes. The dress code was formal, so you did the works with make up all. “Why?”

“Our members are family, you’re like a sister to all of us,” He continues, “we’ll protect you with our lives and we expect you to do the same. It’s not an easy job.”

“I know that,”

“There are rules you have to follow, though, those rules are probably gonna change again soon, no one follows them like they used to,”

“Rules?” You peer at him, genuinely curious.

“Limited family contact, no going back to your old life or disclosing your true profession, no harming the innocent, no taking consuming the product that we sell, those are just a few of the old ones.”

You nod to yourself, already having considered those stipulations.

He never said you where he was going, he just an auction, not much more information than that. It puzzled you why you decided this was a good idea, you knew it wasn’t wise, but you didn’t want to be wise today, you wanted to be free. You wanted to taste freedom, to feel it.

“Jimin, what the hell are you doing here?!”

As soon as you arrived at the building, you knew where you were, a bar. Anxiety began to pool in your stomach, you weren’t used to this scene. Hostess obviously knew Jimin by the way she practically kissed him when he walked in.

“Mira, shh,” He giggles, keeping the woman from fully smothering him, “I’m glad to see you too but we gotta keep a low profile right now, take us to the gold.”

Mira? The woman who first saw you roaming in Namjoon’s base ages ago. She introduced you to Jiyoon, your punishment for being with two feet of Jungkook.

“Oh my gosh, you,” She clasps a hand over her mouth when her eyes land on you, “I thought you were dead.”

“No, I’m still very much alive somehow,” You laugh awkwardly, “why are you all the way out here?”

“Jimin got me this job,” She places a gentle hand on his shoulder, “I got tired of being pimped out, the house some of us girls stayed in was ransacked right after Namjoon left to join Yoongi, it was time for me to get out of that life anyway,” She shrugs, “I take it you’re out too?”

“Yeah,” You nod, moving to stand closer to Jimin.

“Good for us,” She smiles, “right?”

“Yeah, good for us…”

Mira leads you two to the back of the bar and to an elevator you would have never guessed was back there.

“Enjoy! I think they just started the first bid,” She waves goodbye as the elevator shuts.

Jimin stands tall, confident and relaxed, adjusting his collar a bit, “I didn’t know you knew Mira,” Jimin points out lowly.

“I really don’t know her know her,” You reply softly, “I ran into her a few times.”

“Why did you want to come?” He cuts to the chase, no beating around the bush. “I leave almost every night and you’ve never been interested in joining me before.”

The elevator doors open and once you walk down the hall, you see a grand room. It seems mikes long. You’re immediately offered a glass of champagne you feel Jimin’s hand on your lower back, keeping you beside him.

“I wanted to get out like you,” You take a sip, the frothy bubbles lingering on your lip before you lick it away quickly, “y’know, get some fresh air.”

“I’m glad you came, it gets a little lonely coming to these events all alone,” He combs his hair back with precise hand, “so thanks for joining us, Yoongi and the others should be here soon.”

As you two walked about, he explained the reason for coming to these events.

“It’s not only about the art, while it is a good investment, it’s about the buyers and sellers and their businesses. It’s a way to build, grow, and even end relationships.”

“So that’s what we’re here to do?” You conclude.

“Kind of,” He chuckles, “we’re here to let people know we’re still active, that’s about all they told me.”

You two stand at the bar where he orders an old fashioned in place of his champagne. He helps you sit on the stool and people-watch for a few minutes. You hat to admit it, but you marvel at the way Jimin looks so alluring, piquing the interest of everyone passing by. After about 5 minutes he’s on the second glass, he loves his liquor.

“Jimin,” You give him a shy smile, “Did you mean it when you called me self-absorbed?”

“Y/n, I was hurt when I said that,” He sighs, flashing that charming smile,“but yeah, you can be a bit selfish.”

“You scare me,” You glance away from him, “one minute you’re flirting the next you’re acting like you hate me, I don’t know what to believe…”

“You’re not innocent. You used me and I wanted to make sure you knew that, you keep living like things were just happening to you, like you have nothing to do with it. I wanted to prove a point, you’re partly to blame for your issues.” He attempts to justify his behavior but you don’t believe him.

“I did what I had to do to survive, you used me too,” It’s the truth. Your need to survive quickly morphed into an obsession with Jungkook’s protection, then Jimin’s attention. “You’re much worse than me actually...”

“I know, I do what I had to do to survive, always have,” He tongues at his cheek, “you played the damsel in distress role a little too well. I actually thought I started to love you, you led me on big time,”

“It wasn’t love,” You brush him off, “I don’t think anyone really loves me, not anymore...”

“Don’t say that,” He pinches your chin, forcing your eyes to stay trained on his, “I’ve always liked you…that’s why I have such a weak spot for you,”

“You have a weak spot for a lot of people, at least that’s what I’ve heard,”

“Oh yeah? what else have you heard?“ He tries not to sound too eager to know but it’s all over his face, he’s dying to know.

“It doesn’t matter, I don’t believe everything I hear,” you spare him the lengthy tangents Jungkook has gone on before, “you’re not a bad person, more misunderstood.”

“You’ve said that before, I think you might be lying,” He looks a you through half-lidded eyes, “you’re good at that.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” You snap, gulping down the last bit of your champagne, to Jimin’s surprise, “if I am a liar, it’s because of you, you all gave me no choice but to defend myself the only way I knew how, that’s not my fault...”

“I’m guessing lies are what lead to Jungkook breaking up with you, I assume that’s who cut things off,” He guesses correctly, “it’s a sore spot, I know, he must have gone too far, he’s always been that way,”

You look up at him, bottom lip tight between your teeth. Tears threaten to fall from your eyes but you try yo push them back. The mere mention of Jungkook is causing your body to respond in grief. You shut him out of your mind completely, just to give yourself time to process.

“Hey, I’m sorry, we don’t have to talk about that,” He backs off immediately, wiping under your eye with his thumb, “let’s dance.”

Somehow, that lead to 5 minute dance that turned into a 15 minute dance, as if Jungkook didn’t exist, as if you two were friends simply indulging in a night out. He tugged you closer and you wondered when he had totally lost his good sense, maybe on the second drink? He was talking, a lot. You don’t even know what he was saying, not a word.

“Now that we’re always together, I thought you’d get bored of me,” You whisper, arms wrapped around his neck as his hands hold you at an oddly appropriate distance, you catch him trying to hide his blush.

“Baby,” He mumbles, swaying a bit to bring himself some solace, “I could never get bored of you.”

“What’s up with Yoongi? I’ve been worried,” You ask suddenly, “I keep asking Ayeong when he’s coming back, I haven’t seen him…”

“Why? You have a little crush on him or something?” He giggles. Your expression makes it clear that you don’t find it funny.

“He’s fine…Well, as fine as he could be, I’m not supposed to talk about this with you but,” He swallows, “nevermind,“

“Talk to me about what?,” You hold his face, “what is it?”

“Hey, you two,” Hoseok comes out of nowhere, his flashy suit being as recognizable as ever, “head to booth 7, sit in the back row, Yoongi and I will be in the front with Akane.”

When you get to the booth, just as he instructed you two sit in the back but Jimin leaves you to go speak with someone. When you look beside you , your heart nearly stops. You’re sat next to a familiar face, one way too familiar for your liking.

“You’re a fan of Kimberly Blanc or are you also here for show?”

You know this guy.

“I’m Gwangmin, by the way,” he extends a hand to you, “and you are?”

“Uh, why do you need to know?” You swallow nervously, hoping he doesn’t recognize you.

“You’re undercover then. Do you have an alias? I bet it’s something badass, let me guess,” He smiles, and the man next to him with a practically identical face gives the same smile. Twins?

“They want us to put in a bid at a private booths,” Jimin lifts you to your feet, “excuse us.”

“I think I know that guy,” You look back at the man and his eyes linger on you.

“Yeah, that’s a problem, we want to be seen but not so much by people like him,” He leads you to not just a booth, but an entirely different room with less people but some who are obviously high profile.

That’s when you see Yoongi, Taehyung, Hoseok, Akane and their entourage sitting in a private area. Much like the other groups in here, everyone must have their own organizations. Yoongi is sat in the middle of the group with a burning cigarette between his fingers, Jimin goes up to greet him and you stand off to the sidelines. Taehyung is staring you down, but not in a flattering way, he looks too curious.

“Come sit, it’s about to start,” Jimin beckons you to sit beside him and you go over reluctantly.

Yoongi offers you a weak smile and you’re embarrassed to feel a blush coming on. You have to convince yourself that you don’t look out of place. This environment is suffocating and fascinating. Jimin told you that you may see a $20,000 painting being purchased but what’s actually being purchased is cocaine or artillery, you may never know.

“Here’s your number, sir,” A hostess hands Yoongi the number and he instantly hands it to Taehyung.

“You’re doing the bidding, you know this seller better than any of us,” Yoongi puts the cigar out in the ashtray, relieving you of the pungent smell.

“Look who just showed up,” Hoseok takes a long sip of champagne, “probably won’t even put in a bid.”

You look in the direction they’re all glaring in.

Jaebum, the man who kickstarted this all.

Not only him, but the two men who Hoseok and Jimin took you from, you don’t recall their names. And then the one who found you at the hotel in Japan, Jackson. You stomach is doing flips and your heart threatens to leap out of your chest. You feel anxiety, stress, it’s a trauma you’ve yet to face.

Worst part is, they see you.

“Yoongi, it’s good to see you back out after everything that’s happened,” Jaebum looks him over and his eyes just briefly land on yours, “I’m sorry for your loss, all of you.”

“Thank you,” Yoongi nods and you see Taehyung purse his lips, Hoseok and Jimin hang their heads low for a moment, am I missing something?

“Kim Namjoon,” He says his name, “I’ll actually miss the bastard,”

“You’re not the only one,” Yoongi takes a small sip of champagne, “it’s the name of the game, we’re all risking our lives here.”

“And Jeon? Who would have thought he’d land himself in prison, what a shame,” He sighs, “well, I’ll get back to my booth, maybe we can talk soon?”

“Soon,” Yoongi replies calmly.

I’m gonna be sick.

“I need to use the restroom,” You whisper to Jimin. You get out of your chair and scurry out as soon as the bid starts.

Namjoon is gone. Jungkook is in prison, Jaebum is back—this has to be some sick dream. You find the bathroom and throw yourself in an empty stall. So many emotions are coming at you, you feel a panic wash over you. Calm down, calm down—they can’t hurt you. Jungkook isn’t here but the others are, they won’t let it happen again.

“Pull yourself together,” You breathe in, fanning your face to cool down. With all the strength you can muster, you straighten yourself up and walk out of the bathroom. When you make it back to the room, the doors are closed, locked.

“Miss, that’s a private auction,” A hostess comes up to you, “is your party in there?”

“Yes, I just ran to the ladies room, can you open the door for me?“

“I’m sorry, but when these doors are locked, no one is permitted back in until the bid is over, you’re welcome to join other booths,” She smiles, pointing you in the direction of the public bids. You nod, not wanting to cause a scene or bring unwanted attention to yourself. All you can do is wait until the doors open.

*

“Where’s Y/n?” Yoongi looks and Jimin for an answer, who’s chatting it up with the hostess serving drinks, he’s touched her thigh at least three times.

“She went to the restroom, but they won’t let anyone back in until the bid is over,” He returns to his conversation. Normally, that wouldn’t bother Yoongi but one of Jaebum’s men left, that couldn’t be good.

“Tell him not to bid over 30k, I’ll be back,”Yoongi stands up, buttons his suit and heads out the side door despite the protests from Akane.

*

“Y/n?”

You look up at the call of your name, afraid to even see who it was.

“I never thought I’d see you here,” The familiar looking man walks up to you sitting idly by yourself, “do you remember me?”

You give him a strange look. “Do I know you?”

“Not very well, I did spend a lot of time watching your mom though, it’s Jackson, I met you that night, saved your moms life? Ringing any bells?”

“What do you want?” You tense, blood boiling just from the sight of him.

“Nothing,” He raise his hands in surrender, “I’m just surprised to see you here, I heard the news.” He makes his self comfortable beside you, “Namjoon was shot and killed, Jungkook was arrested, I guess you all were set up,”

“Did you have something to do with it?” You boldly accuse.

“That’s not our style, murder is-… messy,”

“But torture isn’t? Kidnapping isn’t?” You scoff. “Give me a fucking break, you’re all the same, I’m sure you would have murdered me if you had to, or for the right price, whichever came first.”

“Aren’t you apart of this now? First I see you in Japan almost a year ago, now your dolled up in the underground auction, you don’t just come here, these organizations are invited, so are you a member now or a dime piece to keep around? I thought you would have joined your brother.”

“Don’t talk to me,” You get up to leave him but he grabs your wrist, “get off!” You yelp, causing several eyes to land on you.

“Hey, quiet down, this is not that kind of place, word travels fast when you make a scene,” He looks around, lowering his voice, “I’m sure you don’t want that, I just want to talk, can we do that?”

“Fuck off,” You snatch your wrist away and storm your way back to the doors, hoping that they have been opened but you’re sadly mistaken. You look back and he’s hot on your trail, that’s when you run into an unexpected savior.

You gasp, Yoongi pulls you to his chest, easily shielding you from the man coming after you. When you peak over his shoulder, Jackson has made a quick detour and you look at Yoongi with panicked eyes. “Y- Yoongi, that man, he’s the one who-“

“Not here,” He whispers against your ear. He drags you off to the bathroom you just came from. The women inside quickly exit when they see him. He takes a quick peak to see if there are any legs under the stall, when it’s confirmed that it’s clear, he looks at you as if you had just broken the most expensive vase in the house.

“What the fuck are you doing? There are rules down here, you talk to those in your rank, but he can’t talk to you if you’re with me,” He presses his temples, “they didn’t tell you?”

“No,” You look down at your feet, embarrassment sweeping over you, “but he knows where my mom is, he said he’s been watching her.”

“I told you where she was long time ago, she’s safe, why are you so worked up?”

“He was there! He was there when this all started,” You cradle your head as if you’re in agony. “He took her after they almost killed her…I could kill him,”

“You can’t settle your grudges here,” He tries to guide you back out but you stubbornly stand there, “let’s go.”

You leer at him, tomato red in the face and arms crossed tightly. “Jaebum is here…How can you all just sit there like nothing ever happened?”

“You have every reason to be upset, but bitching about it won’t solve anything. If you can’t handle confronting your past, Jimin can take you back,” he grabs your hand for the second time, “now, let’s go.”

“I’m not a child! You’ve been keeping me out of the loop like I’m a child. You say I’m a member but you keep everything from me, only me! Are you the one that told Jimin not to tell me about Namjoon getting killed and Jungkook being in prison? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I have my reasons for that, lower your voice and I can explain it to you-“ You cut him off with an even louder volume.

“No! Because why don’t I deserve to know?! You are just like Jin, you don’t see me as apart of this group, and you know what? I never wanted to be! I wanted to survive, if that meant joining you crazy motherfuckers, I didn’t care about loyalty or reputation or even family, I just wanted to live.”

You pause, gauging for a reaction but you’re only met with dark eyes, that grow darker the more you speak. “Are you done?”

“Fuck no,” You sneer, “I could go on for hours actually, because my life is just that fucked up! I’m like you, Jin, and everyone else here,” You take a breath, “you should just let me die, it’s better than letting me pretend I could actually belong here, I don’t belong anywhere anymore .”

The sounds of footsteps approach the bathroom and he quickly pulls you into an empty stall. What he does next leaves you speechless—he hugs you.

His arms enclose around your waist and he presses his face into shoulder. What is happening? You timidly return his embrace, his grip gets tighter, releasing a swarm of butterflies in your belly. You let your fingers get a feel of his now long hair resting on his nape, it’s silky.

He’s warm, and he envelopes your body—it’s comfort. Your eyes slip shut as you relish in the sweet feeling of being held once again.

You hear a few gasps and giggles from the outside of the stall that quickly grow distance. His fingers dig into your back to pull you flush to him, you can feel his steady heart beat against your chest. A smile creeps up onto your lips, he does have one.

He’s human.

Who would have thought?

“Yoongi?…” You say his name in the smallest voice, resting your palms on his chest to create a bit of distance.

“I can’t lose you too,” He draws back to gaze into your wide eyes, “I lost my best friend, your brother, damn near everything…I couldn’t save them so please, I’ll get you out of this but until then, just let me have this, let me save you.”

Your eyes are glued to his eyes and pink lips, he looks almost delicate. It’s amazing, you’re in awe of the gentle Yoongi that has been revealed to you.

You take his hand from your side and hold it to your face, finally feeling just how big it is, “save me from what?…”

He looks at you, face just centimeters from your own. When he opened his mouth to speak, you took a chance—you kissed him.

He’s softer than he looks.

He’s warmer than he seems and the bitter tang of cigars fades as quickly as you taste it.

His nose is cold against your cheek, just as you expected. What you don’t expect is for your face to be tilted up by both his hands to tenderly meet him, or for his lips to part further, seeking more. Seeking you.

This is crazy, he knows it’s crazy and maybe a little tacky. This is not what the boss is supposed to be doing, he’s not supposed to do this. He is expected to have prostitutes and escorts but not love, affection, he is expected not to rely on those things. His father said he didn’t need it to survive. No doting hand, or comforting words from a sweet voice—he was trained to live without it.

Now, long gone are his fathers teachings, he could care less. He notes that your skin is plush, that your breathing is rhythmic, pleasant to hear and to feel a heat apart from his own.

Is this what he’s been missing? This type of juvenile spontaneity.

When you fail to push down a mewl, he slows his assault. He knew his mind was growing hazy, his own lips felt bruised and tingly the longer he went on. It all ends with an audible smack that should embarrass you, but you can’t think about that now. Yoongi kissed you back, as if he had been waiting to. Has he thought about this? He could have rejected you but he chose to let it happen. He deepened it, he made a real kiss out of it, you suppose you did too…

“Y/n, God,” He thumbs your bottom lip, inspecting its rich color color as your eyes finally flutter open.

Your cheeks are flush and his eyes trace over your puffy lips. “Why-…Why did you do that?” He questions you with labored breath, brows furrowed.

“You did it back…” You counter his question with a statement, then your previous question, “you didn’t answer my question, what are you trying to save me from?…”

His answer is sobering.

“From me.”

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“We’re so glad you could make it, it’s been so long,” Verona takes a pointed sip of her glass, “you look great.”

Melinda was invited to the family estate for dinner, they had no choice, you and Jin were no longer options.

“Thank you, I see your family has grown, you have 5 now, good for you,”

“Well, you know what they say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” she feigns that cheeky smile once again.

“That is what they say,” Melinda, glances at all the old faces at the table.

“So,” Henry interjects the awkward exchange, “I know your son studied medicine, what’s he up to now?”

“He’s a traveling physician,”

“You must be proud,” He tries to draw out a smile from her but he’s only met with a cold expression.

“Very,” She forces a smile, “now could you tell me the real reason you called me here? You all have never reached out to me before, unless you’ve wanted something.”

“Our mother passed away recently,” he explains cautiously, “we had a lawyer come and go through her estate, which is extensive as you know, Y/n needed to be here to represent her mother. Because we couldn’t contact her, we had to have the will reading a few weeks ago, without her. Is there a reason we can’t get ahold of her?”

How could they not have known?

“Y/n was kidnapped a year ago, she has been missing and there’s been nothing I could do about it until recently,” her stomach churns just thinking about it, “there’s an agent looking for her now, I can’t get in contact with her, I wouldn’t even know where to start in attempting to.”

“How did that happen?”

She glares. “There’s a lot you all don’t understand, and I’m not going to waste my time explaining it to you.”

“Melinda,” Verona has an almost comical look of shock on her face, “you should have told us sooner.”

“And what would that have done?” She questions. “Nothing, you would have don’t absolutely nothing, in fact you probably would have celebrated know you selfish bastards.”

She’s not wrong.

Ignoring the insult, Henry seeks to save the already fumbled conversation. “Will you let us know when or if she is found?”

“Why? You all don’t deserve to know anything about her, you all don’t even claim her, and she knows it!” Melinda angrily stands to her feet, already fed up with this family, “the only person who loved her on this side of her family is dead, what could you all possibly want from her now? You want her dead too?”

“Our sister made some mistakes,” Verona stands to her feet, “getting with your brother was one of them, now Y/n is paying for it,”

“Give it a rest m, Verona, you don’t get to talk about my family, especially Y/n,” She defends, “my brother loved his wife before and after Y/n was born, he did everything he could to protect her and he loved her to death. None of you would understand that, you’re the most screwed up family I have ever met.”

The room goes silent, awkward glances are exchanged and Melinda decides to quit wasting her time.

“I’m not doing this shit,” she storms out of the dining hall, grabbing her purse from the foyer and going to her car.

“Wait,” Verona yells for her, but she’s already in the car and pulling out of the driveway, “Melinda! Renounce the inheritance, she may already be dead by now!”

All this time, Melinda has had to deal with your being missing for a year, all alone. Another gang had her under their thumb for months, threatening to kill you if she spoke out. One day they just disappeared. That one day when she was able to speak to you, she was finally able to breathe again because she knew you were alive. She’s heard nothing since then.

She has since moved, found a new job and spends her days setting up your bedroom for when you return.

She makes it to her home with a quickness, glad to be as far from them as possible. When she walks in the door, she flicks the light on.

A shriek leaves her mouth at the sight of a man sitting comfortably in her living room. As soon as she makes out who that man is, her shock turns to anger when he stands to reveal himself.

“It’s been a long time, aunt Mel.”

She drops her purse and without much of a second thought, her hand flies across his face with all of the strength she can muster.

Her nephew.

“Shit,” He holds his face and an man comes behind her to grab her arms, “Wei, don’t touch her!” He steps back from her with no protest.

“Go wait in the car, she’s my aunt, not the enemy,” Wei leaves and the door shuts with a loud click.

“How dare you,” She stares at him, “how dare you show your face here after everything you’ve done, where the hell is your sister? I know this mess has everything to do with you.”

“Well, it’s nice to see you too,” He uses his handkerchief to wipe the little bit of blood from his lip, “I was hoping we could talk.”

“Where is she?”

“That’s what I came here to talk to you about, would you have a seat, please?”

She reluctantly complies, taking a seat on the ottoman. “Talk, I’ve had a long night,”

“Alright,” Jin pushes his hair back, “I’ll first have you know, I don’t know exactly where she is. I recently came into a higher position, that costed me a lot of relationships,”

“How do you not know where she is then? You’re the reason she’s gone,”

“Correction, our father is the reason both of us are involved in this. We were together for not even a day before she was taken, we got back together, then we were separated again.”

“If she’s not with you then who is she with?”

“A big shot mafia recently lost a large portion of their organization to me—they have her, she actually chose to join them.”

Melinda frowns. “Why would she do that?”

“Within an entire year, I’m sure you can imagine someone took a liking to her,” Jin sneers, “bottom line is, she didn’t want to stay with me, she chose them.”

“And you let her?”

“I can’t make her do anything.”

“She probably had no choice, Jin, I’m sure you both chose your own selfish way, I know that much.”

“Look, I came here to talk about potentially bringing her back to you, ok? I don’t want to fight,” He takes a seat, legs crossing elegantly.

“Ever since I was a teenager,” She abruptly goes to the kitchen to pour the hardest liquor that she owns, two glasses, “I’ve kept my brothers life a secret, now I’m keeping my nephews life a secret, and you’re my family so I do it without hesitation.” She sets a glass beside Jin.

“You’ve turned my life upside down, do you know how many fucking stories I’ve had to make up because I had some lowlife thug threatening to kill her if I said she was kidnapped m? Come to find out, they didn’t even know where she was so I wasted so much time under their thumb.”

“Ah, you’re talking about Jaebum, the man that started this all, he’s actually been pushing my buttons a little lately,” Jin sighs, “but I assure you, he doesn’t have a clue where she is because neither do I.”

“Whether you believe me or not, I do want Y/n back to her regular life, I regret I ever brought you two into this,” For the first time, Jin offers what seems like a an apology, “I lost a lot and gained a lot, the least I can do is make amends with you, so please, trust me.”

“Jin, I won’t talk until you promise me you’ll bring your sister—my daughter, home.”

“Melinda, I can’t make any promises.”

“Promise me damn it!” She exclaims, throwing the now empty glass down, “My brother worked for the rest of his life to provide for us and shield her from that hell, he made sure no one even knew about us! As soon as he dies, you decide to have bad blood with everyone and we had to pay for it,”

“What do you think I had to go through?!” Now Jin is standing, vein bulging from the elevated volume of his voice. “My mother abandoned me, I didn’t grow up like Y/n, she at least had you. He forced me into this, while he was sending money to you, I was the one in hell. He was a consigliere but that doesn’t mean the job wasn’t messy, his friends changed to enemies more often than you would believe,” He takes a deep breath before sitting back down, “don’t lecture me about what you’ve gone through, we all have to deal with this shit because of him, I’m just trying to fix what I can.”

Jin rarely brings his childhood up, or lack there of. He’s a victim of this business too, just as much as you or anyone else. But know one will give him that, so, he might as well work until he’s reached the top. And he has.

“I miss her, I think about her everyday,” Tears begin to roll down her rosy cheeks, “I just want her to be safe, you can live your life the way you please but I only ask that you bring her back, if not for me then for your dad, so he can rest in peace.”

“She has to want to come home, but she’s in a bit of a bind, there’s this guy.”

“A guy?”

“I’ve known him for years, she ended up running into him and now they’re a thing, he’s literally obsessed with her. He’s convinced her that he’s the only one that can take care of her, she was vulnerable so she believed it. He’s why I haven’t been able to get her home. The good news is, he’s locked up, the bad news is, now she trusts the group and ran away from me.”

“Why is he locked up?”

“I can think of many reasons why but that’s not important, you just need to know that if he gets out, he’ll be looking for her. Until then, I’m going to try to contact her and let her speak with you, I’m sure that’ll convince her to leave them.”

“Ok, ok,” She wipes her tears, “what do I have to do until then? I want to do something to help.

“You can make sure her family doesn’t renounce her inheritance.”

“They called you too then,” She shakes her head in disbelief, “they’re so desperate for her to be dead, it pisses me off,”

“Yeah, seems like she was left with a little more cash than they expected,” Jin chuckles to himself, “either way, if it all goes as planned she me home within weeks.”

“Thank you, Jin,” Melinda embraces Jin for the first time in years, “seriously, you don’t know how much I appreciate this,” She breathes a true sigh of relief, “I want you both to be safe, you’re my nephew too, I’m sorry if I haven’t shown you that.”

He embraces her with a genuine smile, the first genuine smile he’s had in a awhile. “We’re family, we’re a little broken but we’re still family, I’m on your side.”

“Breakfast is served.”

The officer slides the tray through the window, giving the inmate some of the best food selections in the prison. It is all in vain though, he barely even picks at it.

“Hey, instead of being a picky little shit, you should eat, you have a visitor,” The guard lets out a heavy scoff. Prisoners in maximum security rarely get such treatment, the guy should be grateful.

“Who?”

“He speaks,”

The guard mocks him.

“Who is it?”

“You’ll see,”

He decides to drink the concentrate orange juice but leave the rest. He hasn’t had much of an appetite, how could he?

“Let’s go,” The officer comes back with two others and cuffs. He extends his wrist and the cuffs make that gnawing sound. The man is walked out of his cell, adorned in all navy prison suit that his tattooed body contrasts.

“Have a seat,” They push him into the room and chain his cuffs to the table as soon as he sits.

“You’re scared I’m gonna do somethin’? Whoever this fucker is, I’m sure they’re prepared to defend themselves if I do decide to do something,” He scoffs, sporting that cocky glint in his eyes that the officers have grown to despise.

“Is that a threat?”

Jungkook gives a haughty shake of the head. “Never,”

“Just shut up, your visitor is waiting,” The guard leaves the room, more annoyed than he was before. Maybe this visitation will make him less of an asshole.

There are officers watching from behind the glass and through the monitors. The prisoners looks at the cameras that were supposed to be well hidden and gives a little wave, the one-way mirror gets a cheeky smile.

When the door opens, he’s prepared for anyone to walk through that door. His enemy’s, a friend, a state-appointed lawyer wishing to discuss his case, even Namjoon.

He was prepared for anyone but her.

His eyes went wide, mouth agape and mind void of all thoughts. She stands only so tall, hair dark as night, just like his. She hasn’t changed a day, she still has that youthful face, not the face of a tired mother but a happy woman.

“Jungkook,” She takes a seat across from him and immediately holds his nearly trembling hands, “I never wanted to see you like this, this is what I was always afraid of, you used to say your group took care of you-…If that’s true, then why are you here?”

I’m dreaming.

“Jungkook,” She stares into his eyes, brows furrowed, “please, say something,”

Why would she come to see me?

“Mom, it’s been years…” He utters that name for the first time in years, “how did you know I was here?”

“Junghyun told me everything, the accident, now this,” She takes a breath, “I was so worried about you...”

Of course, he’s behind this.

“Is he here?” Jungkook’s look of awe quickly turns into a displeased one.

“Yes, he brought me here.”

“Let me talk to him,”

“Jungkook, you’ve barely talked to me,” Her heart aches a bit at his cold exterior slowly glazes him over, “he told me you were shot.”

“Grazed.” Jungkook corrects her, “I was grazed, not shot.”

“Ok, what’s the difference? you’re hurt either way. He said you were in an accident with your girlfriend a few months ago and that’s the last time he saw you?”

“Why did he tell you that?” His frown becomes even deeper, so identical to that face he used to make as a kid.

“I asked him about you, and he said you were really distraught when you were separated from her, I can imagine that you’re having a hard time right now.”

Jungyhun pulled out everything he could to get Jungkook to buckle.

“You don’t know the half of it, Mom, you really don’t, he shouldn’t have dragged you into this. I don’t have a girlfriend anymore and even if I did it wouldn’t matter, because I don’t know where anyone is,” He lets out a sigh of frustration, “Now please, let me talk to Jungyhun,”

She can’t hide her disappointment when he practically dismisses her. It’s been years since they’ve spoken, ages. Meeting in prison is certainly not ideal but she never expected him to act disinterested at the sight of her.

“Why are you being like this? You don’t want to talk to me?…” Her voice breaks.

“I’m in prison, ma,” He states the obvious, “I don’t have anything and I don’t know what’s going on,” he hesitates for a moment, “what could we possibly talk about?”

“I- I don’t know,” She recoils, hands moving to her lap and away from her son, “I missed you…You’re so tall now, you have all this ink on your arms, but you have that same face, just like your father-”

“I don’t even remember what he looks like.”

It was true.

“I missed you, Jungkook, I love you.”

“I used to miss you too,” He sighs to himself, “I missed you the moment you left, then I came to my fucking senses.”

She should have known.

“If you would have stayed with me, maybe we wouldn’t be here.”

He used to take everything personally, he still does.

“Are you blaming me for this?... That’s not fair, Jungkook, I asked you not to live like this, I begged you to stop.”

“I couldn’t, even if I wanted to and you knew that.” His fists tighten in the cuffs, his eyes darken too.

“Well was it worth it? Swearing your loyalty to those people?”

“They’re my family! they’ve been there for me,” He furrows his brows, “when you were gone, they took me in, they will always be worth it.”

“I’m your family, Jungkook,” She utters in a shaky tone, “your brother and I, we’re your blood, we love you-“

“Please,” He holds his face with both hands, tension resonating from the back of his neck to the front of his head, “just let me talk to Junghyun,”

She leaves the room, pushing back tears.

“He wants to talk to you,”

With a heavy sigh, the older of the Jeons makes his way into the room and Jungkook eyes him like prey. “What are you trying to do here? Give her a fucking heart attack?”

This kid.

“What am I trying to do? Jungkook, you’re unbelievable,” Junghyun sits down, looking just like the angry sibling in front of him.

“Why did you bring her here? Who put you up to this?”

“You're in prison, and you haven’t seen Mother in years, I thought you’d be happy to see her, hell, given the circumstances, I thought I’d get at least a thank you,”

Jungkook glares up at him.

“It’s not easy for her to see you like this y’know, no mother wants this for their child, how could you treat her so cold?”

Jungkook offers no response.

“I found out that you’re more than just a gang member, you’re what they call ‘high ranking’. I talked to the chief and they want to prosecute you for your extensive rap sheet.”

He squirms in his seat, eyes cutting from his brother to the camera in the corner.

“If you work with me, the chief is willing to cut a deal with you.”

“Why are you cozy with him?”

“I’m in the government, I’m the director of health a welfare,” Junghyun walks around the table, “I’m in high places and I know people, I want to help you.”

“Why would you help me? Aren’t I a disgrace? You’ve always lived life as if you’re ashamed of me, what’s the sudden change of heart?”

“I’m not ashamed of you, you pushed me and your mother away,” Junghyun sighs, “the lawyer will come talk to you in the morning, we can negotiate a plead deal if you agree to share some information.”

“Not interested, thanks.”

“Jungkook, stop being stupid! This life, it’s screwed you over and you’re alone. No one is coming to save you and the only people who give a damn enough to be here is your real family.”

He won’t admit it but he has been waiting for three months to wake up and see Namjoon getting him out of this place. A week turned to two weeks, then three, then a month, then three months. Not a word, not a message, nothing.

“Do you want to see Kim Y/n?”

Jungkook’s demeanor shifts noticeably.

“One of the best agents is looking for her now, once they find her-“

“You can’t bribe me with her.”

That actually comes as a shocker to the older Jeon but he doesn’t show it.

“You're not with her anymore?”

“Why does it matter to you?“

All of a sudden, the door opens and a tall woman with bangs and eye catching full red lips walks in.

A set up.

“Mr. Jeon, I’m agent Lisa Ban, I’ve been heading a case for Kim Y/n, according to hospital records, 10 months ago Ms. Kim was checked into the ER because of a car accident, with you. Do you know where she is right now?”

Jungkook stares at the woman as if she’s spouting out gibberish.

“Was she with you against her will?”

Still, Jungkook just stares at her.

“Sir, Ms. Kim was seen with you, the nurse on staff said you two appeared to be in a relationship, is that true?”

“Jungkook, answer the questions,” Junghyun exasperates, “why’re you being so damn difficult?”

“Mr. Jeon, she went missing a year ago and since then, she has only been seen with you. You have nothing to gain from this, you’re in prison and we need your help to find her, if you cared about her you would help.”

You’ve been outside in the grass for an hour, walking in the cold, just begging for the sun to beat down on you for a little bit. Today was supposed to be your first hand-to-hand combat lesson from Jimin. Your stomach twisted in anxiety all morning. The last encounter you had with him was less than pleasant.

Oddly, he never showed up. Assuming he forgot, you went outside and to do some conditioning on your own. You did small exercises to loosen up and get your blood pumping. It’s nice to have some time to yourself. You’ve spent so much of your time with Yoongi these days. You’ve spent more time with him then you have with Jungkook. Some days he’d give you lengthy lessons on hierarchy, laws and the systems they use to operate the business. Other days he’d fall asleep from the pain medication and you’d quietly leave the room to go make lunch. No one seems to be home much anymore, it’s usually just you and Yoongi, much to Jungkook’s disdain. He’s out with Namjoon a lot, sometimes for two days at a time you don’t see him.

You creep downstairs after a shower and check the office. He’s not in there so you go to his bedroom but you’re met with a closed door, you knock.

“Come in,”

You walk into the room to see him sitting on the bed, removing the wrap on his abdomen and exposing the bullet wound. Your stomach turns at the sight. You fidget with your fingers and stare at the blood littering the bandage, it takes you back to a bad place.

“What is it?” He lays back, trying to catch his breath. You stand near the door, clenching your hands.

He’s always intimidated you but you can’t say you fear him anymore.

Six months ago, if someone told you you’d be with him almost everyday, you’d say they were crazy. Yet, here you are. He’s assumed this mentor-teacher role that surprisingly fits him. Even after spending all this time with him, you struggle to speak to him sometimes.

“Is there anyway for me to get a phone?” You mumble out your request. “I don’t have one anymore so I need to have some way to communicate with- all of you,”

“Not right now, I’ll make sure you get one when we’re in a stable environment, stay with one of us until then,” You try to hide your disappointment with a small nod. Yoongi steps into his bathroom briefly and when he comes out, you are standing in the same spot. He looks up at you.

“Did you need something else?” That’s the nice version of, ‘why are you still standing there?’

“No but,” You mentally cringe, a bit flustered, “do you need help with changing that?” You point to his side.

"Sure,” He breathes a sigh of relief, if he has to do it one more time he might just scream. He lays back on his pillow and waits.

“I’ll wash my hands first,” You scurry to the bathroom and wash with warm soapy water.

More than anyone, Yoongi has been the most consistent. The same person you hated for getting you into this slowly became the person making it easier to be here. You’ve been through so much with him and because of him—the dynamic is weird. He watches your every move, from the way you discard the old bandage to the clumsy way you unravel new goss.

“Ah,” He winces and you freeze.

“Sorry,” You pause all ministrations, “I’m just trying to make sure it’s clean before-“

“You’re doing fine, I’m just sore,” He offers a bit of praise and you smile, hands feeling less shaky. With a cloth, you clean around the stitching with antiseptic, careful not to press too firmly. You discard the cloth and start wrapping with a clean bandage.

Being so close to the damage makes your stomach queasy. All that you’ve seen and gone through is heavy on your mind. You can’t help but feel partly responsible for this, for Jin’s choices. Yoongi’s chest rises and falls, causing your eyes to drift towards his chest and land on a red ink peaking over his shoulder. Since when did he have a tattoo?

You look to him for approval. “Is that okay?”

He massages his temples with a nod, “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Why?”

“Jin shot you…He could have killed you,”

“What he did to me was his choice, it has nothing to do with you. He’s betrayed me before, knowing him comes with the chance of getting stabbed in the back—you didn’t know?” 

“No,” You nod sadly, “yes? I don’t know, maybe I didn’t want to admit it.”

“You never know with him. One minute you can trust him with your life,” He tugs a shirt on and moves to the closet to gather some things, “the next you’re running from him to save your life, that’s who he is.”

“I thought that after my fathers death, we would become close,” You bite your lip, “we’re farther apart now than we’ve ever been,”

“That’s hard to believe, given he acted as if you didn’t exist.”

“He never said anything about a sister, even after our dad was killed?”

“He kept any family he had away from us. Because of that, there was never much Namjoon could do to threaten him—until you. Deep down inside, it almost seemed like he loved you.”

You’ve started to wonder if Yoongi even knew what it meant to love someone. He doesn’t seem like Jungkook or Jimin, happy to have a warm body or a listening ear. Yet, there is something symbiotic about the relationship he has with the group, especially with Jin. He seems to depend on them, even if he doesn’t say it or show it.

“I’m sorry,” He sits beside you on the edge of the bed, “I don’t know if I ever told you that, but I am.”

“Thank you,” Your eyes reluctantly meet his, “you did what you had to do though, I can’t imagine what I would have done in your position,”

He doesn’t respond. The truth is, he wants to survive, he wants what he has to survive, if that means selliing someone to do so, so be it. they’re all like that. If it means sabotaging each other, they’ll do that too.

“Is the relationship with your father as complicated as mine was? I didn’t even know what he did until he died…”

“You could say that, he tried to kill me as a kid so that should give you an idea of what he was like. He called it training but I know he wanted to see if I would survive. He abused my mother and anyone close to him, he was a heartless bastard—I have a ton of reasons to hate him and I did at one point.”

You swallow, the reality of who you’re speaking to sets in. “You don’t anymore?”

“No, not so much anymore. He’s dead,” He sniffs, wiping at his nose, nervous tick, “I killed him.”

Of course he killed him.

“Oh…I’m sorry, I mean I know he was awful to you and your mother but,” You place a hand over his in sympathy, “I’m sure that was painful, I know it was when I lost mine. He died right in front of me, I was sick, hysterical—I never felt pain like that before.”

This is deja vu.

Years ago, he recalls having a conversation very similar to this with your brother. He can’t stop staring at you, his doe eyes linger on you longer than they ever have.

“What?” You look around.

He breaks out of his daze when you bring attention to him staring at you.

“I need to take this call,” He stands up and escorts you out, “we’ll talk later, alright?”

You try to hide your disappointment, “Okay,”

You felt like you were just getting somewhere with him. Gone was his cold leader façade, he looked human.

He looked like you.

It was so late when he got home, he was afraid you’d already gone to sleep. He trudged up the steep stairs and straight to your bedroom. He opened the door softly and dropped his bag in the corner. To his dismay, you weren’t in the bedroom at all.

“Y/n?” He looked around upstairs but you were nowhere to be seen. Then it hit him, you’re probably where you’ve been spending most of your time, Yoongi’s office. He begrudgingly marches down the stairs to go get you, it’s his turn to spend time with you.

Without knocking, he peeks into the office and sure enough, you’re asleep with a pen in your hand and a paper under your face. He stops for a moment to admire how peaceful you look and smiles to himself. 

He could come home to this for the rest of his life.

When you hear the door creek, you sleepily look up and see Jungkook in the doorway. 

“Hey,” You smile, dropping your pen.

“Hey,” He gently smooths a hand through his freshly cut hair, “I’m sorry it’s late, things got backed up and we had to wait.”

“It’s fine,” You visually take in how tired he looks and quickly get up to hug some of his stress away. You hum against his chest.

“I missed you,” He kisses your temple.

When you look up, your heart skips a beat and a cheeky grin forms on your face. “I missed you too,”

“How did your training go?”

“Fine,” He pushes your hair out of your face, eyebrows scrunching.

“Did Jimin teach you?”

“Well…no, I haven’t seen him today, so I just trained myself I guess,”

“Hm,” He squints, touching the abrasion on your skin until you wince, “how’d you get this?”

You shake his hand off and distract him, cupping his face and kissing him. He exhales against your lips and his mouth goes slack. He’s eager but not deliberate at all—he loves to be kissed like he’s about to die.

When you finally separate, he looks at you amused. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

You sigh, hoping he’ll cave in with your persuading, “I don’t know, maybe?”

“I need to shower first,” He thumbs the back of your hand, “do you want to join me?”

“I already showered,” You turn him down, you’re not in the mood to feel the hot water turn cold and for your fingers to start wrinkling up.

“Wait up for me then, so you can finish what you started.”

During his shower, he thinks of what he wants most right now. He wants you, he always does. In his arms and close to his heart, bringing him back to earth. The fragrance of the soap and the warm steam enters your nostrils when the bathroom door opens. In just a few moments, he’s all over you with damp hair and clumsy movements.

“Ah,” he breathes against your ear, “It’s my mom’s birthday today,” He mumbles, eyes half-lidded in ecstasy, a very Jungkook thing to do, “I wanted to call her but-…I couldn’t,”

You hum in acknowledgment, eyes glazing over, body tingling and heart racing when he uses his thumb to coerce you into giving in.

“Ah…there you go—let me know how it feels,” He snickers at your scrunched up facial expression. He suddenly stops his ministrations to knead the soft flesh of your thighs, stretching you a little further than you were prepared for, “I’m a pleaser y’know, I like the guidance,” You look up with pleading eyes, you can’t bring yourself to do it. It’s bad enough that the walls are thin and everyone is home—you are not bringing anymore attention to yourself.

”Talk to me,” he exasperates further, “you’d think I was choking you, don’t hold your breath,” He smirks, hand leaving your thigh to cup your face, “I don’t want you passing out on me.”

”Jungkook,” You gasp for air, “I don’t want anyone to hear,”

You try to hide from his piercing gaze but you have nowhere to turn. Without a word, he leans down to kiss you but you don’t offer much movement back. It could be the overstimulation of it all but you keep spacing out. He’s frustrated. He becomes increasingly heavy-handed, relentless, as if to force your presence to remain attentive to his.

It hurts a little, the scars on your thighs are sore under his fingers. You don’t have the will to tell him to stop. He already handles you like you’re glass, you don’t want him to feel that way right now, you don’t know how you want him to feel or yourself.

He breaks the kiss and continues like he didn’t just sophisticate you, “I ha- haven’t talked to my mother in almost a year, I don’t know if I can hear her voice and not cry,”

“I’m- I’m sure she wants to hear from you,” You whisper, wrapping your arms around his neck for purchase.

“I don’t think so,” He chuckles, “she’s-…It doesn’t matter, I have you, you’re all I need,” His face is like a furnace when he presses his forehead to yours, his necklace tickling your chin, “I love you, I love you,”

When he says things like this, you’re reminded of how vulnerable he can be. For some reason, you feel a tinge of guilt.

A whimper spills from his lips and you feel his whole body go rigid. Then there’s a loud knock on the door. You cringe and Jungkook practically cries out in annoyance, face sinking into the crook of your neck.

“Ignore it, they’ll leave,” he mutters between kisses on your neck, “shh, just focus on me.” he tries to chase the fading feeling as it grows more distant.

There’s another knock on the door, this time louder and harder.

“Put some pants on and come out for the damn meeting!” Taehyung’s deep voice thunders and your stomach drops.

“Fuck off!” Jungkook lets out a sound of frustration, “I’m not going to another damn meeting, it’s the middle of the night,” He yells back and promptly leans back down to kiss you, maybe to reignite what is threatening to flee, but Taehyung interrupts again.

“You don’t have a choice, we’re talking about you,” Tae reminds him, “shit is always about you these days.”

“Kook,” your brows furrow in discomfort when his grip tightens on your thighs and your body shys away from his touch, “that h- hurts,”

“I’ll just pick the lock if you don’t come out, how would you like that?”

That did it.

With a half apology, he jumps out of the bed and rushes to get his clothes. The door opens and slams shut behind him, leaving you abandoned. You can’t make out what he’s saying but you know he’s pissed.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“I knew that would get you out,” Taehyung laughs, taking note of Jungkook’s wet fringe and visibly tensed muscles, he’s visibly winded, “let’s go.”

“I’ve been out all day, I’m not going to another meeting in the middle of the fucking night, why do I need to be there? What is there to talk about? You guys could have talked to me earlier,”

“Namjoon wants to discuss relocating and Junghyun. That prick is your real brother, isn’t he? You should go see about him, it’s your fault we have to deal with him anyway.”

They both look back and see Jimin who has somehow found time to get silver streaks put in his hair. His pretty eyes look glazed over as he scans Jungkook up and down. His eyes roll and he burns with envy—Jungkook goes back into that room with you. Every night.

Despite being upset with you, he still can’t deny your appeal—it’s hard to ignore you.

“He’s publicly calling for your arrest,” Hoseok happens to be on his way downstairs and joins the conversation, “personally, I think you could use some jail time, you’ve caused a lot of problems for us.”

Jungkook tries to open the door to go back to you but Taehyung threatens something worse. He doesn’t get the chance to let you know why he’s gone and the door is left slightly open.

So you lay there, staring at the door and trying to steady your breathing. Anxiety builds in your chest, how can you get to the door like this? You grimace, Jungkook should have made sure the door was closed.

Your heart sinks when you see the footsteps pass the door—then slowly come back.

The door creaks and light enters the dark cozy room, followed by the door shutting.

It’s Jimin.

“Hi,”

You clutch the bedsheets—what does he want?

“I want to talk to you about what I said the other day,” He slowly paces around the dark room, “I said you were conniving, a back stabbing bitch and a fucking liar like your brother…I’m sorry,” He sits on the edge of the bed, a longing expression on his face, “I was just angry,”

You swallow, knuckles white from how hard your gripping the sheets. He’s apologizing but your mind is still stuck on, ‘back stabbing bitch.’

“What?”

“I’m sorry,” He traps you between his arms, one arm on each side of you, “I thought about it and I realized that you- You didn’t do this, he did. He ruined you,” Tears begin to well in his eyes and you look at him wide eyed, “you’re not the same girl I know when you’re with him.”

You try to sit up, but he’s too close, the cover could easily get pulled under his weight.

This is scary—he’s a staring into your soul, tears rolling down his cheeks and dripping off his chin. It’s hard to tell whether this is guilt, an attempt to gain pity, or a mental breakdown—knowing him, it could be all three. “I’m so sorry, Y/n,”

“It- it’s okay…” You look away, too nervous to say anything else.

“Really? You forgive me?” He smiles, tears dissipating just as soon as they appeared.

You put on a convincing face, “Yes...”

“Even if you say that…I’m still being punished,” He leans into you, face just centimeters from your own, “you’re my punishment.”

“Jimin,” You plead, horror in your eyes, “What do you want from me?…”

“I wanted to see you,” He traces a finger from your brow to your ear, “I can have anyone I want, but not you. Why does it have to be you that I can’t have? Jungkook had to fall for you,” He glances down at your pouting lips, “But to know I can’t have you….it makes me want you even more.”

“Jungkook will be upset if he finds out you we’re here,” You whisper, fearing for his safety and yours.

“He doesn’t have to know I was here, he doesn’t have to know anything about us,”

He notices you clutch the sheets really hard, and your thighs squeeze together. “What’s the matter?” He glances at the nightstand and gathers clues to what was happening in here moments ago.

“Oh…that must be frustrating, he just left you like this,” He smirks, “he hasn’t changed, he uses you just like he used Jiyoon,”

“No, he doesn’t,” You frown, trying to push yourself back into the headboard.

“He does, baby,” He coos, condescension in his tone.

“He’s not like that anymore,” You shake your head, tears pricking at your eyes.

He rubs your thigh over the blanket, “I remember having you at arms reach at one point, you have no idea how hard it was to see you every night, laying in that bed all alone…especially those nights you’d ask me to stay with you and you let me hold you. I‘d have to visit a few of my old friends just to get my mind off of you, cold showers don’t work for me.”

You always ignored Jimin’s red flags, it was easy when you were alone. Were you manipulating him or was he manipulating you? It could be both. But Jimin comes with years of experience, he has seen and done more than you ever have. Some might label him as a whore and they wouldn’t be so far off from the truth. A few hours in the red district and he can quickly make a name for himself.

“But even though I’m attracted to you, I don’t view you as an object, you’re a human being with your own life,” He grabs your wrists to pull you up and hug you. Jungkook’s shirt is all you have on and you shudder at the closeness. But you appease him by hugging him back. You hold him tight, as if you were hugging him on one of those terrible nights. He hums over your shoulder, arms so snug around your waist.

“Jimin,” You sniffle, fighting back tears of your own now, “please go…”

“If I told you I loved you, would you tell him?”

Your mouth gapes in surprise.

“I-…I don’t know.”

“I knew it,” He sneers, “you don’t care about me enough to say that you love me.”

“I do care about you,” Your body feels like it’s numb when he finally lets you go. “I don’t mean to hurt you, I’m just- I’m confused…I’m with Jungkook, I suppose I love you too but not in the same way-“

“You made me fall for you, and now you don’t want me…Your so fucking self absorbed, you can’t even see it.“

You fall silent. Nothing you say can change how he feels. You’ve opened a wound, one that he has never been able to heal.

“It’s fine,” He coos, “if this is all I can get from you, I’ll take it, for now.” He tilts your jaw up by your chin and kisses your neck, purposefully leaving a damp spot to make you squirm against him. Then he leaves the room with a lingering gaze on you.

You lean over on your side and fall apart. You start start to cry into the bedsheets and wish this would all end. Why is this happening? You flee the bedroom and head for the only place you know no one will look for you.

*

“I’m leaving late tomorrow night, we decided that I should be the first to relocate,”

Yoongi reminds Hoseok who won’t be joining him to his dismay. The leaders need to distance themselves, being in close quarters for too long is never good.

He shuts the door with an exhale.

“Come out,”

You open the bathroom door and gasp at the sight of the gun. He lowers it as soon as he sees that it’s you.

“I’m sorry! I’ll leave,” You rub the tears from your eyes, only making them look more irritated, “I just-…I knew no one would look for me here.”

“Wait,” He puts his gun away with a sigh, “did something happened? You look like you’ve been crying,” He scans you up and down for injury as you keep your hands on your face to cover your eyes.

“Did someone hurt you?” He questions firmly and you shake your head, “you can tell me.”

“No…” You mumble and he comes down from high alert.

You stand there, tears now rolling down your cheeks. This is not a new sight to Yoongi, panic attacks and breakdowns are concepts he knows well. Whatever or whoever caused this must have made you feel unsafe, that’s the only explanation he can gather.

“Where’s Jungkook?”

“He- he went to a meeting,” You sniffle, “you weren’t with them?”

“No.”

“Oh,”

He looks you over, debating whether he should inquire more. When he looks at you, he wishes he’d think of Geongmin or Rose, but he doesn’t. He can’t seem to figure it out with you. You’re not Jin but he feels that same sense of familiarity as if you were.

What am I thinking?

You start to breathe at a concerning pace.

“You’re gonna pass out if you can’t stop hyperventilating like that,” He stands in front of you to make sure you don’t collapse, “take a deep breath,” He breathes in and out, trying to get you to do the same, “if you aren’t hurt then what happened?”

“I don’t want Jungkook to see me,” You breathe in and exhale shakily.

That doesn’t explain what happened, you know that.

“If the meeting is over I’m sure he’s looking for you.”

“I know, I’ll go, I just need a minute.”

There’s a knock on the door and then you hear Namjoon’s voice.

Yoongi looks at you, then to the door, then back to you.

He waits for him to walk away from the door before whispering to you, “go back to your room, you’ll create more problems for yourself if you come to me like this, you know that.”

“But-“

“Go, we’ll talk tomorrow,” He takes your hand briefly, “I promise.”

He says that for your sake and slips out, door shutting abruptly behind him. It didn’t feel good to hear him say that. You want to be with Jungkook but there’s an unexplained uncertainty that creeps up. You scurry back to the room and catch Namjoon’s eye on the way upstairs. When you retreat back into the bedroom, he’s there waiting.

Jungkook sits in the chair in the corner of the room, no smile detected.

“Where have you been?”

“You left the door open,” You evade the question with a harsh reply, “don’t act concerned about where I’ve been when you left me in here half naked.”

“Shit,” He rubs the back of his neck, instantly feeling regret, “I’m sorry, they were rushing me and Taehyung was going to open the door if I didn’t do something-“

“Anything could have happened.“

His eyes widen. “Did something happen?”

“No, but-“

“Why did you leave the room then? It would have been safer for you to stay in here and close the door. But you left, why?” He stands up and slowly walks you down until your back hits the wall, “if nothing happened then you shouldn’t have a problem telling me.” You glare up at him as he towers above you, so close.

You saw this coming a mile away. The interrogation, the trust fading into the abyss. You turn your head, refusing to answer.

“Y/n,” He backs away, “you’ve been crying,” He cups the side of your face, not knowing that was the second time you’ve heard that tonight. “What’s going on?“

“I just needed some fresh air,” You brush his hand off of your face, “that’s all,”

“Fresh air, you leave the house without saying anything for some goddamn fresh air,”

“I don’t want to be stuck in here all the time, why do you have a problem with that?”

His expression darkens, you don’t know what’s going through his mind—let alone your own.

“We’re in a sketchy town in the middle of nowhere, that’s why.”

“You just want to control me,” You throw a jab.

“Don’t act like you need someone to control you then,” He lowers his gaze, “I protect you, whether you think it’s controlling or not, I don’t care.”

You feel your blood pressure rise.

“I thought you wanted me to join the group and work with you, why are you acting like I can’t do anything without you? I may not know as much as you but I’m not stupid, I know how to look out for myself.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” He tries to get closer but you press your back further into the wall, “I just worry about you,”

“If things didn’t happen the way they did, I don’t think you would have chosen me,” You blurt that out with no real concern for the ramifications, “you don’t want someone like me.”

“What? Why the fu k would you even say that?” He pauses to process what you said, “I love you, it doesn’t matter if we would have met in this life or another, you’re still the person that I love.”

“But I don’t know what love is, I used to but not anymore,” You mutter, “and I don’t think it’s what we have.”

He looks at you as if you were his worst fear in the flesh.

“What’re you saying? How do you not know what it is but say it’s not what we have?”

Every word out of his mouth feels like a gag being shoved down your throat. You want to explain further but even you don’t know what you’re saying.

“Say something, Y/n. You can’t say something like that and then go silent,”

“I don’t know why I thought I could do this, I’ve been trying but it’s not working, I can’t be a part of this. I hate having to put on an act... I’m trying to be brave and strong but I’m not, I’m not like you.”

“Baby,” He sighs, “is that why you’re upset? You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. This is a lot, being a apart of this group isn’t easy-“

“That’s not it! It’s just the group, I just-…I’m not supposed to be here, I want to go home,”

He remains calm, “You are home, you’re with me.”

“No, my real home, with my family.”

You know your words hit him like a dagger to his heart. But you can’t keep pretending anymore, he deserves your truth.

“Today, I wrote a letter so that I could tell my aunt, everything that’s happened to me, she may never get to read it but I needed to get it off my chest,” You’re a bit embarrassed to admit it, “I don’t know when I’ll see her again but I know she’ll have questions, I don’t know what she’ll think if she finds out about you.“

“We’re in this for life. So was your dad and your brother, she‘ll have to accept it, it’s a big part of who you are now. Why are you all of a sudden worried about what she thinks?”

“I just am, ok?” You bite the inside of your lip,“god, I don’t know who I am anymore,” You rub your eyes to clear away any stray tears, “I’m so lost, I feel lost and confused, and I’m not happy, Jungkook,”

“What does that have to do with how you feel about me? You just suddenly don’t know how you feel about me?” His brows knit together after promptly dismissing your confession. He may as well have just said he doesn’t give a damn about your identity crisis. “If you don’t want to be an active member and train, I’ll talk to them-“

“No, I never said-“ You pause, “Are you even listening to me? I don’t feel like myself, that’s what I’m trying to tell you- Just forget I said anything, I’m sorry I even brought it up.” You storm past him to shut the light off and crawl back into bed.

“Hey,” The bed dips behind you and he lets out a deep sigh, “listen.”

To his surprise, you actually look back at him.

“You have to decide,” He plants a delicate kiss on your forehead. “think about who got you through this shit in the first place, think of where you’d be if it weren’t for me.”

Silence pangs throughout the room, giving you ample time to think about what he just said. He eventually sinks down behind you but doesn’t touch you. You got your answer, and it doesn’t feel very good. There’s no epiphany or moment of clarity, you don’t feel grateful, you don’t feel anything. Nothing.

There are defining moments in the lives of every mafia member. Everyone has a unique story that shaped them. Jimin’s story is not tragic like Jungkook’s or privileged like Namjoon’s, his life is more along the lines of a tale of the bad outweighing the good.

Before finding a permanent home with Namjoon, he had a home on the streets. His story began in grade school. He moved from his parent's home in the countryside to an all-boys school in the city. The same school Namjoon and Taehyung attended. He was 10. For a period in his life, he questioned his parent's love for him. Why send him to a city he knew nothing about with no family within reasonable travel distance? He concluded that they didn’t want him.

The last time he saw his parents was at his high school graduation. He arrived in the art teacher's car, not the most appropriate mode of transportation. No one ever knew why she took such a liking to him. He was sure no one saw the glances that were a little too long for the teacher to be on a student. Or the hugs that were a little too tight for a teacher and student. There were nights he would sneak out of the dorm to explore the city with a few bad friends. Those “friends” would use him. They would make him do things that they couldn’t do without a pretty face like his. He’d crawl back into the dorm, drunk and sometimes bruised. He never said what he did those nights, but it was clear it took a toll on him at the tender age of 16.

Namjoon observed how people responded to Jimin. He did that to everyone, every person has a niche. Even strangers would stop to give him a second glance. Older women especially loved him, something about him made them feel alive. The boy was born to be admired. It was at that moment that he realized how special Jimin was.

“My little brothers, graduating!” Namjoon welcomed them into the limousine with a beaming grin, “and just one more to go, you’ll be joining them soon, Jungkook.” He rubs the youngest shoulder.

“Maybe,” Jungkook shrugs, “graduating isn’t that important to me-“

“You might as well finish,” Hoseok rolls a joint with skill and lights it just as skillfully, “if this mafia gig doesn’t work you need something to fall back on,”

“He’s right, Kook,” The leader pops a bottle of champagne, giving the heavy drink his glass first, “make your mama proud one last time before you sell your soul to the mafia.”

It was one occasion where they all dressed up, ready to meet the dinner reservation, hit the clubs, and probably get wasted. Yoongi didn’t join but he sent gifts in the form of letters, Jin as well. Hoseok didn’t have much to do so he tagged along. At this point, his hair was long, to his shoulders, during his sleazy drug dealer phase.

Rose gave Taehyung a big hug but Geongmin was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m so proud of you guys,” Rose kisses her brother's cheek and gives Jimin a kind smile.

“No kiss for me?” Jimin pouts, leaning over to Rose with puppy dog eyes.

“Just this one time, Jimin,” She humors him with a kiss on the cheek and he giggles, “happy?”

“Very,” He flutters his lashes.

That night, they partied like there was no tomorrow. Namjoon insisted they deserved it and should indulge in a good time. Jimin managed to slip away to the strip club, where he ran into an old friend—an old girlfriend.

“Oh my god,”

Her name was Petal, that’s what she went by on stage. She was 6 years older than him and ruined their relationship fairly quickly, broke his heart and dared him to do anything about it.

“Jimin,” She scurries from the pole and over to him with a panic on her face, “what’re you doing here?”

“You look stunning,” He gives her a charming smile, “did you just start your shift? Your little costume is still on, and there are no bills in your…thong,”

“You need to go, please,” She adjusts her fuzzy pink cowgirl hat, “I can’t talk,”

“Hey, get back on the stage, beautiful!” A drunk 40-something yells from the crowd.

“Where’s your husband? I thought you two bought a house and had a few babies already, what’re you doing out here still selling yourself?”

“He left me, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear, now leave! I’m trying to work,”

She struts back on the stage, wishing she could hide from the piercing gaze that lingered on her.

“Oh,” Jimin shakes his head in disbelief, “so you cheated on him throughout your entire so-called engagement, lying straight to his face, claiming I forced you into fucking me and got me beaten unconscious, just so he could leave you?”

She tries to ignore him and focus on the music, it’s painful enough to be found out, let alone have to continue working.

“Petal,” Jimin leans against the stage corner, she ignores him, “Youjin,” She shudders at her real name, “your boss is watching, we both know you can’t keep a job so don’t mess this up by ignoring a paying customer.” He suddenly pulls out a hundred dollar bill, waving it around like a treat.

She crawls over to the edge of the stage and he tucks the bill into her bra strap. “Good girl,”

That night, he got his revenge. She experienced a fraction of the humiliation she put him through.

Jimin had a rough life. He was often placed as an after thought or a secondary option by the people who used him. His identity had been thrown in a blender his entire life, he was different people for so many different people. His pain and vengeance manifested itself in self-destructive habits that slowly ate away at him. To be on the receiving end of his pain, like Youjin and so many others, was a punishment more damaging to ones mind than ones body. He loved to please at any cost, even at the cost of himself. Was it his fault?

His past weighs heavily on him.

A knock on the door interrupts the first sip of his freshly brewed black coffee.

“Dr. Jeon? It’s Agent Ban, I have a 10 o’clock with you.”

“Come in,”

She opens the office door, revealing her tall figure in a black pant-suit and heels.

“Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me this morning,” She takes a seat and pulls out a tablet, “I know you’re very busy with everything that’s going on.”

“Of course,” He smiles, “I assume this is about my brother?”

“Not exactly,” She crosses her legs and pulls out a pen, “I am perusing a separate case that is loosely connected to that one.” ^

”Alright, then how can I help?”

“Your hospital is the most frequented for emergency medical treatment within a 10 mile radius, I wanted to ask if Jeon Jungkook was admitted with anyone.”

”From what I can remember, he had just been in a car accident and I was told he arrived with someone but that person had been checked out before I got to see him. And unfortunately, during the checkout, our systems were down so we have no record of the individual other than the fact that she was a female.”

”I see,” She writes some things down, “that’s all I need to know, thank you.”

“That’s it?” He was expecting more than that but she confirms that she’s gathered what she needs.

“For now, yes, but I’ll be in contact.”

She leaves the hospital and hops back in her car to head to her next location. The police department.

“Can I take a look at all of your current missing persons files? Those who are still missing and those who were found, if you have that available.”

“Sure,” The cop takes her to the file storage and gives her a key, “that drawer has all of the victims who were found over the past year and the bulletin board has the most recent cases that are not yet concluded.”

She takes her time going through the files. There are too many, too many girls not being taken on as priorities. By the time the cops get to them, it’s too late and the damage is done. The more she looks, the farther she feels from her victim. As she sifts through the photos, she has a moment of realization. If the girl is involved with the mafia and they want to keep her identity a secret, there’s no way her relatives would report her as a missing person.

Where could you be?

*

Morning came and the abrupt awakening set your day off in the worst way. The rain is hammering down on the house and Jungkook is waking you with a shake to your shoulder.

“Wake up, we have to go,” He looks you over, “we found a rat last night.”

You look up with squinted eyes, barely gathering what he said. “B- But…I thought,”

“There are eyes on this place so we have to leave. Get dressed,” He hands you some clothes for you go to the bathroom to get freshened up. This is happening all over again. You’re picking up and leaving the place you started to feel comfortable in.

“Wait, Jungkook,” You attempt to grab his hand but he slips away, “I need to talk to you,”

“Be downstairs in 10 minutes,”

The door slams shut and you get dressed with a thought weighing in your mind. If Jungkook doesn’t want to talk, fine. You were supposed to talk to Yoongi, you can’t leave without talking to him.

*

“Jungkook will go with me, Hoseok and Taehyung will go together,” Namjoon relays his plan to his best friend and co-leader, “Jimin should go with you, you need someone with the best combat skills, next to Jungkook of course.”

“And Y/n?” Yoongi brings up a valid question.

“What about her?”

“Where should she go?”

“Wherever Jungkook goes, it’s one a way to keep him under control,” Joon lets out a sigh, “but maybe she should go with you, you are teaching her and Jimin is training her.”

“Yeah, she should,” He agrees, “You tell the kid, I’ll talk to her.”

The kid—Namjoon giggles, he hasn’t heard that in a long time.

No one wants to deal with Jungkook’s possessiveness. That’s why Yoongi and Jungkook never got along. Jungkook was a bit too spoiled by Namjoon. He took Jungkook under his wing and treated him like he could do no wrong. Jungkook knew he had Namjoon wrapped around his finger.

It was his weakness.

*

“Where are we going?”Jungkook asks as he paces idly in the foyer, waiting for you.

“You and I are taking a trip to see a friend of mine in Japan, I think we can discuss moving half of our business over there.”

“How long?”

“Maybe three days? Could be more. We could be there for months, it depends. I like to socialize a bit before getting into the nitty gritty of business, that’s how we keep our clients.”

“Months? Y/n’s gonna give me shit when she finds out-“

“No she won’t,”

“What makes you say that?”

“She’s not coming with us,”

“Why not?” Jungkook frowns.

“Yoongi has really taken her under his wing, isn’t that sweet? He’s taking her with him, it’s best for all of us.”

“How? He doesn’t know her like that-“

“If Jin decides to go after her again, the last place he’ll think to look is anywhere far from you, he’ll think she’s with you but she’ll be with Yoongi.”

“He can find out where she is, if we had a mole then there’s obviously a way he can get that information, it won’t matter.”

“Y/n isn’t coming with us, as a member, she goes where I want her to go or where Yoongi wants her to go, she wants to go with him anyway.”

“How the hell would you know that? Did you talk to her?”

“I saw her leave his room last night, he said they talked, he didn’t say about what but I can put two and two together.”

“She was with him last night?”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No, there’s a lot of shit she’s not telling me,”

As if things couldn’t get any worse.

*

You hold onto the stairwell, walking slowly in hopes to not be detected. Namjoon is the first to see you, the brief eye contact was awkward. What makes it more awkward is Jungkook staring you down. It’s not the sweet, starry-eyed gaze, it’s cold.

“Is everything ok?” You walk up to Jungkook, trying to draw out a sweet expression, it doesn’t work. He stands up, brows furrowed as if you had just spouted out utter nonsense.

“I don’t know,” He looks you up and down, “you tell me.”

“What?” You look bewildered, “what do you mean?

“Have you been cheating on me? Because your stories aren’t adding up, tell me the truth,”

Your chest tightens and you ball your fist to release your sudden influx of frustration. You feel a bit embarrassed that Namjoon is watching this unfold.

“No- no,” You stutter, “why would you say that?”

He grabs your wrist and drags you into a random bedroom.

“Hey!” Ryan, the bleach-blonde buzz cut guy who came with Hoseok was in the middle of getting dressed. Jungkook spares him no mind. “You’re fucking crazy man,” He scurries out, struggling to put his shirt on in a state of shock.

“J-Jungkook, what’re you doing?” You swallow.

“You don’t make sense,” He confesses starkly, “you don’t make any fucking sense and it’s making me crazy,” He presses his temples.

You saw this coming. You wished you hadn’t.

“I used to be so sure about you, about us. I knew you were the one that I loved no matter what, you could do anything and I would forgive you, that’s how I felt just yesterday. Now, I don’t know if I can take it anymore. You don’t know what you want or who you are and you expect me to do something about it and I can’t!” He laments, “I can protect you and I can love you but I can’t fix all of your problems and that’s how you treat me, it’s not fair.”

“I never asked you to fix my problems,” You reply bitterly, “I wanted your support, you get upset when I confide in other people but when I confide in you, you don’t care,”

“Those other people don’t care about you,” He walks up to stand in front of your face, “other than you being Jin’s sister, they don’t give a shit about you, don’t you get that? Just because people accept you into something, doesn’t mean they care, they just want something from you-“

“That’s not true!” You cut him off angrily, “you don’t want them to care about me, that’s the real issue. I’m more than just your girlfriend,” Your nose burns as tears well up in your eyes, “I don’t want to just be yours, I want to be myself again,”

“You being mine, has kept you safe,” His tone sharpens, “do you know what could have happened to you if I didn’t let you stay with me?” He snorts. “You’d be a whore making money for everyone but yourself, that could have happened to you but I chose you. I fucking chose you and now…”

“Now what?” You dare.

“I’m not so sure I should have,” It pains him to admit it, “I wanted you, I wanted you so fucking bad, it killed me not to have you. Part of me was glad you came with no strings attached, no family no friends, you had nothing,” He confesses, “and I liked that about you, I didn’t want you to be someone apart from me, I wanted you to mean us,”

Jungkook is selfish.

To have you, was to love you. Was it not the same anymore? Now, you’re responding as if he has trapped you here and it feels awful.

“Do you hear yourself? Do you know how terrible that sounds to me? I loved you, all this time I stayed by your side because I thought this was love,” You breathe, “had I known you didn’t even see me as my own person and that you like that I lost my old life, I would have left you a long time ago,” You feel tears stream down your cheeks, but you’re unable to stop them from flowing, “and I’m always crying, every time we talk I end up crying,” You bite the inside of your lip.

“I was never a crier before you, I was happy, I was a good person before you,” You wipe your cheeks, anger and frustration bubbling in your chest, “my identity is gone and it’s your fault!You took it from me, you ruined everything for me!”

The emotion that has been harboring inside of you has finally come out.

“Then leave!” He shoots back. “If I’m such torture to be with then fucking leave,” He says with pain and anger in his tone, he’s hurting.

“Go fuck Jimin, fuck anyone- I don’t care anymore, I’m sure you’ve already done that. You keep lying. You lied to me just last night, you were with Yoongi and chances are you were with Jimin too, why did you lie?”

You swallow.

“If- if I would have told you the truth, you would have blown up like this, we didn’t do anything- Jimin is the one who came to me and I couldn’t stop him-“

“Stop him from what?”

“Does it matter? I can’t stop him from doing anything to me! I can’t- I can’t fight him, when he’s around I can’t do anything,”

“Bullshit,” He grits his teeth, “you made me believe he was the one who initiated all that shit, I’m starting to think that you wanted it…”

“I didn’t,” You press, “I just didn’t know what to do-“

“Stop, just stop,” He cuts you off, “I don’t believe you anymore,”

He’s beyond hurt.

All the times he’s found out that you and Jimin met behind his back, it’s laughable.

The first time he did it, you were relieved.

—

“Yah!” You were pulled back by a pair of arms wrapping around you. “Jung-” You tried to call for Jungkook but you were silenced by a hand clamping over your mouth. Now you were panicking, this can’t be happening now.

“Shh…baby, it’s just me.” He let you go. You quickly turned around to see Jimin with a small smile. He smiled at the cute face he once coaxed out of pain.

“Jimin? You scared me…” You stepped away shyly.

“I’m sorry.” He held onto your hands and tilted his head, smiling warmly.

“W-what’re you doing here?” You knitted your brows in confusion, it’s not like you weren’t happy to see him but why was he here and how did he find you?

"I just wanted to see you.“ He was looking you over and you were wearing a familiar jacket that was far too big to be your own, "Jungkook? You’re here with Jungkook?” You nodded.

“Well, I should go before he gets suspicious.” Your heart sank, you knew that Jimin probably knew where Jin was and you wanted to go with him for that reason. “But-”

“Don’t worry baby,” He pecked your cheek, “I’ll come to see you again.”

—

He kept that promise.

He never stopped coming back and it’s only gotten you into trouble.

“Fine, if you’re not going to trust me then what’s the point of us anymore?”

“Y/n,” He says your name like a curse, “all the time and effort I put in to trying to love you, to make things easier for you—and this is who you really are? I fucking liar, did I make you into this?” His voice lowers, “because if so, I won’t do this to you anymore, if this is it, make it clear, tell me you don’t want me so I can breathe again,”

The blame has to go somewhere—you had to choose.

“I don’t want to-“

“Say my name,” He demands, “at least give me that.”

“J- Jungkook,” You utter his name out painfully, “I don’t want to be with you anymore…Not like this.”

He walks up to you and presses his hand against the wall, right beside your head. Your gazes are locked on, you both know this may be the last time you’re this close. He drags his hand from the side of your head to your cheek.

One last touch.

“That’s it then,” He exhales deeply, voice nearly too low to hear, “I’m sorry, you’re not the same person I fell in love with…I don’t know who you are.”

He walks out of the bedroom, leaving you alone. Just like you wanted. Your heart was broken to begin with, not just Jungkook’s doing, but as soon as you left the safety of your family, your heart began to break.

Jungkook storms out of the house and slams the door in his wake.

You walk out of the room but you are stopped by Namjoon blacking the doorway.

“Hey, sounded like things were getting pretty heated in here,” He tilts his head, “what’s going on? Are you two in a fight-“

“We just broke up,” You frown, “so whatever sick idea you had when you forced us together, it’s over.”

You try to push past him but you’re quickly reminded of his size and strength, he stops you in your tracks.

“Wait,” He holds your wrist in his hand, “seriously?” The look on his face in genuine surprise.

“Yes, now let go,” You pull against him, “I need to talk to Yoongi,”

“Is that why you were in his room last night? You told him you wanted to go with him right?”

“Yes,” You lie straight through your teeth, “will you please let go of me?”

Just as soon as you step away, the worst happens. The worst always happens.

“Hey! There’s a van a thugs outside and they’re armed,” Ryan bursts through the doors, “Hoseok and Taehyung left an hour ago, why’re you guys still here!?”

Before a, ‘what?’ can escape from your lips, a group of men in masks and with guns barge into the house, knocking Ryan clean out. About five gives waiting around to guard Namjoon come out with guns ablaze. There’s no time to process anything because Namjoon is already dragging you behind him and out of the house.

Within seconds he stops at the side of the house and you gasp for air.

“Wait,” You grab his sleeve, still struggling to catch your breath, “I need a gun, give me a gun, please! I can’t do anything like this,”

No more being protected off on the sidelines. You have to fight too.

“Here,” He pulls it from the holster attached to his thigh, “you better know how to use it.”

“Yoongi’s still inside,” Your eyes glaze over in sheet horror, “we have to go back, he could die-“

“No,” Namjoon knows this for a fact, “he’ll get out, compared to what he’s used to, this is a walk in the park,”

The Yoongi he knows has done this a dozen times and survived a dozen times, that’s just what he does. You take his word for it, you don’t have a choice.

With all those people in the house, you’d think they’d make some noise but it’s eerily quiet.

“Why is it so quiet?” You whisper.

“Shh,” He holds a finger to his lips, “they’re looking for someone and it’s not me or you,”

You feel your nose burn with the urge to cry at the thought, “Is- is it Yoongi?”

“Hush, I don’t know,”

“But-…” You fall silent when you feel a hand grab yours. When you look back and see Yoongi, your worries are soothed.

“Switch with me,” Yoongi stalks behind you, you and Namjoon share a sigh of relief, “you’ve used this one before,” he takes your hand and switches the guns.

“We need to make a break for the cars,” Namjoon leads the two of you to the driveway and garage.

“Y/N! Y/N!?”

The three of you pause and quickly realize who’s screaming your name.

“What the hell is he doing? Does he want to get killed,” Yoongi sneers.

“He probably thinks you’re still inside,” Namjoon concludes, “You guys go, I’ll get him.”

The car you assumed he was in is still running but no one is in the drivers seat. The closer you all get, you can see blood on the seats, who’s blood is that? You look to see if there are any body’s but there’s no one, did everyone rush inside?

“Yoongi, do you think they killed someone? All that blood…” You whisper as you follow him and he holds his phone to his ear.

“Our driver is down the road at that abandoned barn,” He puts the phone away, “we have to run, you’re gonna hear a lot of gunshots, but keep running.”

Yoongi took your hand and made a run for it. It’s nearly daybreak, the grass is covered in dew and the sun has yet to supply a decent amount of warmth. Just as he said, you hear the gunshots ring and you feel Yoongi’s hand tighten.

“Maybe we should wait for them? I’m afraid something will happen if we don’t stay and help, I’m scared-“

“No, we’re not waiting, we’re leaving now.”

The driver beckons you both over, hands secure on the wheel. Yoongi, despite his condition, pushes you into the car before himself. He tells the driver to go and he pulls off at an ungodly speed.

The car passes the house and all you see is an unconscious Jungkook being rushed out of the house and into the van.

“It wasn’t his fault that she ran in there, he may have been there when she died but that doesn’t mean he didn’t try to save her. He doesn’t talk about it, and that should be some indication that there was nothing he could have done. I don’t know if you realized this, but they were closer than you knew-”

“That’s bullshit. She was my best friend, and she never said she felt anything Namjoon.” She shakes her head in disbelief. “She would have told me something like that.”

“Geongmin, do you even hear yourself? Of course she never said anything to you, look at you.” Yoongi jeered, looking up at her impetuous posture decreasing as she stayed standing. “You’d go against Namjoon until your dying breath, why on earth would she tell you that she had feelings for him?”

Yoongi stands to his feet and walks around the desk to stand directly in front of her, but she doesn’t move an inch. Unlike many people who cross his path, he’s never intimidated her. That’s why she talks to him the way she does, she doesn’t fear him. She narrows her dark eyes, “What’s your point? I’m about 30 seconds away from walking out.”

“She made her choice, and you blame him for it.” He sighs, shaking his head in pity for the kid.

“He won’t talk about how she was killed exactly, not even with me. He told me how you ran in there after things settled down, and you went ballistic when you saw what had happened to her, they had to carry you out. And Taehyung, they said he wouldn’t even look.” Yoongi sighs, seeing that her frown was ever-present but he could tell she was biting her tongue to keep from crying.

Namjoon always said she hated crying in front of people, said it made her feel weak. But the longer they stare at each other, a tear escapes her eyes and she immediately turns away to wipe it.

“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Since I couldn’t make it to the funeral, I went the next morning to pay my respects and I saw you crying at her gravestone, I waited an hour for you to leave but you stayed there, I didn’t want to disturb you so I just left. I know that it hurt you…” Yoongi tilts his head a bit and wipes a stray tear from her eye with his thumb. She backs away, just as he expected and he goes back around the desk to sit down. “You don’t have to do this, I know you can’t stand him sometimes, believe me, I get it. But you can make it right between you two-”

“You know what?” She cuts him off coldly. “Are you gonna help me, or not? I didn’t come here for life advice.”

“Well, you sure as hell need some.” His remark doesn’t go unnoticed, but she could care less at this point. Yoongi has never been one to sugarcoat things for Geongmin.

“Look, I’ll help you because I understand what you’re going through. I’ll pull a few strings and get your name out of the system, but that doesn’t mean I agree with your decision.” He pulls out a form and writes his signature on it and a few other things.

“Lucky for me, I didn’t ask for your opinion, so you don’t have to condone any choices I make.” She pats under her eyes and waits for Yoongi to hand the paper to her.

“Fill this out and take it to Heize, she’ll take care of everything else.” She reaches for the paper but he snatches it away.

“Yoongi, what-”

“Take care of yourself, Geongmin.” He looks up at her, still seeing her as the rowdy little girl who was always challenging Namjoon in grade school. “You hear me?”

She holds a special place in his heart and she knows it, she knows that he sees her as a little sister—she’s family.

“Thank you,” Her expression softened, “I will Yoongi…”

She took the paper and left the room.

That’s the last time he saw her face-to-face and he kept his word. Namjoon never found out about their exchange and that’s about the only thing he’s ever felt guilty for until you came along.