Chapter Text
“When did my respectable establishment turn into some kind of hostel for the city’s criminal underclass?” Jimin despairs, hands held out in supplication.
He’s standing in the middle of Dark & Wild while the rest of the occupants, including his boyfriend, Jungkook; their associates, Hoseok and Taehyung; and the newly acquired Namjoon and Seokjin stare at him and drink his coffee.
It was a very interesting couple of minutes when Taehyung found out Namjoon painted over his warehouse mural, but grudges weren’t held for long. Taehyung quickly realized that Namjoon was just completing his court-ordered community service and without that interference, he never would have met Hoseok. Now they got along like a house on fire.
“I’m not part of the criminal underclass,” Namjoon feels obligated to point out. “I’ve gone straight.”
“’Straight’ isn’t exactly what I’d call it,” Seokjin mumbles under his breath. Taehyung bursts into laughter while Namjoon elbows Seokjin. He’s ducking his head and blushing furiously.
“You have the most arrests in the room anyway, Namjoon,” Taehyung reminds everyone.
“Oi, I’m here, you know.”
Jimin plants his hands on his hips and looks over to the espresso machine. Yoongi is bent over the counter, head resting on his hand. He smiles lazily.
“Oh, shut up, Yoongi. You don’t do anything other than sleep when you’re supposed to be working. That’s a crime in my opinion.”
“And Jungkook may always have the cops on his tail, but he hardly ever gets caught. His rap sheet is so tiny it’s almost nonexistent,” Hoseok adds, clutching four colored pencils in one hand and batting Taehyung’s troublesome fingers away with the other.
“So if you only do a few little crimes, it doesn’t count? Let’s see,” Jimin says, crossing his arms. “We have graffiti artist, graffiti artist, reformed graffiti artist, you, I don’t even know what the hell you do, a lazy employee who may have committed crimes I just don’t know about yet, and the squirrely, smoking, fist-fighting wonder.”
Jungkook grins unrepentantly and sidles up beside Jimin, leaving his mug on the table. It isn’t his table because everyone’s sprawled out around the café. There wouldn’t be enough room for all of them shoved in the corner back anyway. There’s also a very large part of Jungkook, and he’s perfectly willing to admit it, that doesn’t want to share his special place with anyone other than Jimin, not even his friends.
Practiced hands pull Jimin into a side hug. He gives his boyfriend a tight squeeze before sympathetically patting him on the back. He lets Jimin have that moment of comfort before saying, “You’re a criminal too, man. Aiding and abetting when I’ve been on the run.”
“Oh, screw you!” Jimin says, shoving Jungkook away. He’s not actually angry, but his life is turning into a whirlwind of unwillingly witnessing illegal acts, unannounced visits from at least four different police officers, and people he barely knows asking for his Petty Criminal Discount. Which, by the way, he couldn’t bring himself to abolish even after he started dating Jungkook, mostly because these stupid criminals are his friends. It’s fifty cents instead of $1.50, though. He may be nice, but he’s not a sucker.
“Aw, you know you love us,” Hoseok insists, grinning and flicking muffin crumbs at Taehyung with the end of his green pencil. Yoongi’s eyes are boring into the side of his head from the counter. He’s the one who’s going to have to sweep those up at the end of the day.
Jiming sighs and props his hands on his hips. “Yeah, for some reason I do.”
“God help me.”