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Chapter Text

This day started as any other – with almost immediate headache and frantic snoozing of the first alarm. If he didn’t know any better, after that Jimin would go straight back to sleep, chasing the comfort of his dreams.
He did know better though, and with a grown he turned his head on the pillow, willing the last of his sleep away.

God, another double shift.

It’s not that he hated his job, or even mornings in general. It’s just that he knew what kind of day (and night) he would have. Today it was not only full moon, but also the day after long weekend, and on those occasions the hospital was always full of patients and understaffed. Somehow, the nights of full moon were the time when all the weirdest cases came to the small hospital he worked at.

On his good days, when he was rested and full of energy, he welcomed these cases patiently, happy to help people and learn more.

Today, however, was not shaping to be one of those days.

With another pained groan, Jimin rolled out of bed. As a nurse, and one freshly graduated, barely working at Incheon Saint Mary’s Hospital for barely two months, he was bound to get the worst shifts. What didn’t help was that he didn’t know anyone there that well yet, and in his hurry to make friends with another nurse which often shared his shifts, Byul-yi, he agreed to help her out and cover one of hers.

As he was trying to wake up enough to prepare for work, he tried desperately not to hate that decision.

He stared blankly at himself in the bathroom mirror.

In moments like this, looking at himself it was hard to recognize the person looking back. Despite being only twenty-three, Jimin’s face looked somewhat older. He tried dying his hair to make himself look more youthful but ended up kind of hating the result. What was supposed to be warm blond turned up to look more like a washed out brown-ish color. Paired with his dark circles and slim face, he personally thought he looked like a tired, lifeless mouse.

“Well,” Jimin said to himself, trying to muster up some positive feelings, “at least I have some time to make myself look good for today.”

“What do you mean, it’s gone? How can you lose half a ton of cocaine?!”

The man on the other side of the call audibly gulped and murmured with fear, “Boss, I s-swear to you, I have no idea! The drop was going exactly as planned, our men were on site on time, b-but…”

“But, what?”

“…I mean, I can only suppose… But…”

“Sangho-ssi, you better say all you know, because I am not feeling exactly happy.”

That sentence was met with a few moments of terrified silence. Gwan Sangho, while being a very proud and confident man in his forties with almost twenty years’ worth of experience working for jopok, knew very well what the true meaning of this short sentence was.

“I am not happy” coming from the head of the South Korea’s biggest crime empire could only mean “Someone is going to lose their head”.

“Boss, the boys were murdered, all three of them… One of them, the one in charge, remains unfound… But the ones we found, they all had one t-thing in common…”

“Hm?”

“Someone cut off the skin of their chest”.

Well fuck, current head of Jopok thought to himself, hanging up the call. That can only mean one thing.

Someone thinks they can overthrow me…

He smiled coldly and dialed another number, signed only as Monster.

Ridiculous.

It seemed that it was time for the infamous Golden Killer to come back to motherland.

Double shifts suck, Jimin thought to himself petulantly sometime later, while sipping on iced coffee straight from the vending machine. The damn thing was packed with sugar and caffeine, and still did nothing to wake him up.

It was barely after midnight, and with another eight hours ahead of him, Jimin felt almost like a real-life zombie.

He had been right with the weird patients coming today, too. So far, he has counted six weirdos. Most memorable of them being a man in his sixties who came with his wife because of the beating he had gotten. From the same woman who drove him to the hospital.

Jimin shuddered, remembering the man’s swollen face and bleeding crotch. He didn’t want to know what the poor bastard had done to deserve that kind of cruelty from his spouse, he just hoped it was going to stay as the most gruesome out of his cases today.

I can’t handle another one, he thought letting himself wallow in pity for a few moments, but then he shook off that thought. No, I can, and I will, because not only I need this shift, I also need this job. Focus, Park Jimin!

So maybe there was another reason for accepting this cursed double shift. The reason being that Jimin, for all his hard-working and every-won-saving character, was still poor as fuck.

Yeah, couldn’t call it any other way. Basically broke. No won to his name other than what he paid for the shithole apartment in one of the worst districts of Incheon, and what he spent on food.

Part of Jimin’s situation could be explained by his family’s circumstances. A father who worked himself to bone in a small company, and yet was never given any promotion or pay-rise. A stay-at-home mother with poor health who could only bear working part-time when Jimin was old enough to stay alone on evenings and weekends. Then one night, when Jimin was fourteen and on his first ever sleepover, a gas leak in their shitty, never fixed apartment building.

The explosion had been sudden, they said. If anyone had survived that, the fire had taken care of them. No survivors.

And so had begun Jimin’s way-too-soon initiation to adulthood, with unexpected heartbreak and no home to come back to.

Not more than two hours later Jimin felt ready to rip his hair out, his earlier motivational self-talk completely forgotten.

Why, why, why, had I agreed to take that bloody shift?!, Jimin thought to himself, feeling his muscles ache miserable as he reached for his hoodie.

The doctor in charge, seeing how utterly exhausted her protégé, an unfairly handsome young doctor Kim, and Jimin as well, looked told them to get some fresh air and rest for a few minutes. He couldn’t be more grateful for that, the sentiment shared by the dark-haired doctor next to him, who sat down on the nearest bench as soon as they both walked out of the hospital through one of the back exits.

The man sighed heavily, catching Jimin’s eyes again. He really was handsome, tall and slim with dark brown hair styled in kind of a mullet, his face both soft and sharp, almost inhumanely symmetrical.

Just as Jimin started feeling the pangs of envy over the man’s beauty, his companion stretched and looked back at the young nurse.

“Park Jimin, right?” he questioned in a low tone.

“Yeah,” Jimin replied, not really sure why the resident doctor felt the need to address him.

“Fancy a smoke, Jimin-ssi?” the man asked, grabbing a pack from his back pocket.

While Jimin neither was an avid smoker, nor could ever afford spending money on such trivialities, he found himself nodding and grabbing one from doctor’s hand. Exactly in the same moment he noticed a big, almost mocking sight of a sign “No smoking allowed on the hospital premises”.

He glanced at the dark-haired doctor, finding him already looking at the same thing.

“Let’s walk,” the man offered, and again Jimin just nodded. He wasn’t a big conversationalist this late in the night.

If that guy wanted to talk his break time away, he couldn’t have found a worse person, he thought to himself and when Doctor Kim gave him his lighter, he took pity on him and asked somewhat stiltedly. “Long night for you, too, doctor?”

The man smiled a surprisingly wide and rectangular smile and huffed out a cloud of smoke before replying.

“Four bar fight victims in a span of two fucking hours must be some kind of a record, I swear…”, he said, grinning to Jimin like they were two friends on the same side of one joke.

Jimin just laughed along with him and took another drag of smoke, relieved that the conversation started flowing almost instantly after that.

“And, then when I asked her What’s your blood type? instead of just answering like any sane bleeding out person, she says I don’t believe in those blood-type-horoscopes, what kind of a doctor are you?! The way I almost gagged her with the same bandage she-“

A loud noise broke the silence of the night and Taehyung’s story.

That’s right, Jimin thought to himself victoriously, we are now on first name basis. No more Doctor Kim and Nurse Park! My very first work friend, and he is a cutie, too!

The noise repeated somewhat more forcefully after a few quiet moments, making Jimin jump and inhale too big of a puff of smoke in his lungs. He coughed and looked around, noticing Taehyung doing the same. Both his and Taehyung's attention switched to being focused solely on locating the source of the creepy sound. The humorous story was forgotten; the men looked around themselves, still slowly walking forwards.

Their eyes scanned the dark, barely lit streets around. However, nothing seemed out of place, the darkness of the night hiding whatever, or whoever, made this weird noise.

It kind of seemed like a heavy crash, that can’t be a stray cat or dog… It was maybe more of a clang, a forceful hit to something metal…, is someone there?

Just as Jimin started to walk in the direction of another back alley, more on the left than the one the two of them were standing in, Taehyung’s HT buzzed to life. The blonde stopped, and looked back at his friend.

“Doctor Kim urgently needed, ICU corridor six. Patient with a head trauma, multiple wounds to back. Assistance needed, ASAP. I repeat, Doctor Kim…”

When Taehyung head snapped to meet his gaze apologetically, Jimin just shrugged with a small smile and murmured, “Go.”

“Kim, on my way now” young doctor responded out loud to HT, and threw away the last of his cig, adding while starting to walk away, as an afterthought, “Jimin, don’t go walking round the night here alone, leave it!”

And Jimin tried listening to the smart advice, he really did, for as long as it took for Taehyung’s back to disappear behind the corner of the small street next to the hospital.

Then, right away he turned around and went to investigate, his ears almost instantly catching another similar, although much quieter sound. Which was then immediately followed by a pained gasp, and a whimpered “Help… Somebody, help…”.

When Jimin heard that, his careful slow steps towards the sound changed instantly into a jog. He breached the alley, looking around frantically. He almost missed the sight of the man, lying down curled next to a metal dumpster.

Oh, dear God…

He took in a shocked breath, and after that went immediately to the person.

“Please, sir, you need to stand up, there is a hospital right there, come on” Jimin begged the unmoving bleeding man, trying to lift him up, but only managing to bring him to somewhat seated position. The man appeared way more massive than him, even in such poor condition, and Jimin feared he wouldn’t be able to get him to the hospital’s door on his own.

More so, when he moved his hand from the man’s shoulder and noticed it fully covered in bright red blood.

Is that a gun wound?, just as the thought occurred to Jimin, he felt himself paling. He shivered with fear, goosebumps traveling all over his body. That? Not so common even in the seedy district the hospital was located in.

Just as he managed to lift the man to his knees, and lean his unresponsive body against his legs, he heard behind himself a loud, “Hey!” and positively screeched with fright.

“J-jesus, Jimin what was that sound?... It’s just me, it turned out that it was another Kim they were--- Oh my God, is that a dead body?!” Taehyung hissed and rushed closer, while Jimin tried to reign in the growing panic. The young doctor came to him and hurriedly started to look on the body of the man. This arms, forearms, collarbones…

What is he looking for?!, Jimin managed to think almost hysterically, The wound is right there in front of his face!

“Not yet, not if I have anything to say about it, help me get him to the OR!” the nurse strained to lift the man’s arms and torso up, and that sight must have shaken the dark-haired doctor out of his seemingly pointless search.

“Shit, yeah, sure, let me grab his legs…” he muttered and Jimin just sighed with relief.

Together, they could try to save this one, too.

Chapter Text

After last night’s shift the last thing Jimin expected was a phone call precisely at twelve the same day, from no one other than the head nurse.

“T-that can’t be right, I just got off the double” Jimin stuttered his flustered reply, pressing the phone to his ear and rubbing the remaining sleep from his eyes with the other hand.

His shift ended at eight AM. And thank everything that’s holy, he lived so close to work, because twenty minutes later, immediately after he got back home, he was passed out dead in his bed. Showering and switching into his pajamas be damned.

The exhausted boy answered the call almost blindly, while still lying in bed, four hours of sleep doing next to nothing to help his bone-deep tiredness after the double shift.

And now they want me to come back again at four? This can’t be right, Jimin couldn’t believe his own ears.

“Park, I don’t know what to tell you. Half of our staff cancelled today, both doctors and nurses.“ the head nurse didn’t even sound sorry, and that only confirmed his opinion about her. She was a bitch, with a capital B.

Yeah, and with good reason. If they had at least half as eventful workday as I did…

“Don’t waste your time, or mine, just be there on time. Goodbye.”

“W-wait-“ Jimin managed to say, before the call ended.

Just my luck.

“Jimin, hey, Jimin!” a voice called him, just as he was finishing his first round. Jimin raised his eyes and looked around, almost immediately spotting a waving figure coming his way from the main hallway.

“…and remember, don’t scratch the stitches.” he finished what he was saying to one of his elderly patients, and made his way to Taehyung. The doctor patiently waited until Jimin came to him, and only then said with a grin;

“I see you too couldn’t get out of coming tonight… Aish, what’s the point of preparing schedules if they are going to call me in either way?”

“Same,” Jimin replied, his mind already in part analyzing how handsome his friend looked in broad daylight. Yesterday, with it being after midnight and him so tired he could barely see, Jimin couldn’t really appreciate the view.

Well, the shot of adrenaline after finding the guy in the alley had woken him up alright, but he definitely wasn’t focusing on Taehyung’s face then.

And what a face it was!

“Did anyone ever tell you, you could be a model?” he asked without thinking, immediately after blushing deepest red known to mankind.

What the fuck, Park Jimin?!

Taehyung just laughed, and patted Jimin on the back.

“My boyfriend, many, many times” he replied still smiling, and Jimin just cursed himself in his head.

Of course, he’s taken, look at him!

“Sorry, I wasn’t-“

“No, don’t worry, your terrified face made up for that.” The young doctor winked to him. “In all seriousness, it’s both a blessing and a curse…” Taehyung seemed to be kind of saddened with that admission, and Jimin couldn’t help but to feel curious.

What kind of a curse could he be talking about?

“That sounds like a lie,” Jimin addressed that statement softly, trying not to pry, but still wishing he could get some answer to satisfy the questions Taehyung’s statement invoked.

Taehyung just shrugged; his earlier grin gone. In his place remained only a smooth, serious expression. For the life of his, Jimin couldn’t figure out what he was feeling.

Is he angry? Sad? Did I overstep?

The young doctor glanced at Jimin’s worried and contrite face, and just sighed.

“In my experience, people tend to have their own expectations based on how you look. I have been told I lead them on, no matter how I act.”

Jimin gasped, surprised. “That’s awful, Taehyung… How could anyone-“

“It is like that, I have come to accept it” Taehyung said more firmly, “But no matter how fun our little heart-to-heart talks are, that’s not really why I came looking for you.”

Jimin sensed that it was the end of that surprising confession. Whatever fragile, emotional side of Taehyung he managed to glimpse; it was only that. A glimpse. The man in front of him, no matter how welcoming and friendly he behaved, was not an open book. And it looked like it would take Jimin more than a few conversations to really get to know Doctor Kim Taehyung.

“I wasn’t aware you were looking for me,” he replied after a second, actually surprised when Taehyung winced at that and gestured to follow him. Jimin came along, catching up with the brunet’s long strides.

“Yeah, so it’s kind of a weird situation…” the man started his explanation, “Your patient form the alley woke up and-“

“Oh, that’s great!” Jimin exclaimed, wide smile breaking on his face. “How is he? What happened to him?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem…” Taehyung yet again looked uncomfortable, glancing back at Jimin. “He doesn’t speak a lick of Korean.”

Jimin frowned.

I could swear I heard him calling for help, though… Is he lying to the staff? But what for?

The young doctor stopped in front of one of the patient’s rooms in different wing. They have arrived where he was leading them, yet Taehyung made no move to come into the room. Jimin didn’t rush him, feeling that there was still something they needed to talk about.

“I don’t really know what it is that you need me for, Taehyung” he replied genuinely, deciding to keep his doubts about the strange man to himself. He could be mistaken, and there was no way to prove the man spoke Korean in the alley.

“Didn’t you have in your resume that you know Japanese? That’s what the nurse Lim told Doctor Kang, who told me to tell you that we need you to translate…” Taehyung mumbled and looked at Jimin, his eyes filled with worry.

Jimin just smiled back to him reassuringly.

“Don’t look at me like that, Taehyung, that’s true… You don’t need to stress so much about it, I will talk to that man, no problem” blond nurse said and with the last smile directed at Taehyung, he pushed open the door, entering the patient’s room.

What he didn’t see was that his words did nothing to ease the worry in Taehyung’s eyes.

Inside the room, Jimin was welcomed by the stare of both the man lying in the bed, and the doctor standing stiffly next to him.

“Nurse Park,” Doctor Kang said in lieu of a greeting, his dark eyes sharp behind the frame of his outdated glasses. Jimin held his impeding sigh of irritation at the sight of the man.

Kang didn’t look like a nice person, with his permanent scowl and lack of any warmth in his demeanor. He also didn’t behave like one, from what Jimin managed to notice when he was working with the old doctor. Not only short-tempered, but also treating every nurse and younger students and doctors with air of superiority, Jimin disliked working with him immensely, as did most of the staff.

“Hello,” he answered the doctor with the most neutral tone of voice, and then looked at the patient.

In the bright light of the hospital room, the man looked more intimidating than Jimin could have expected. Despite his age, as he looked to be in his forties, he was broad and muscular. Jimin was right in his assumption the night before, that the man was more massive than him, he must have been a bit taller as well.

Even though the man was pumped full of painkillers, his eyes were wide and focused, and he seemed to be paying attention to both doctors, who in quiet voices started discussing the dressing of his wounds as Jimin walked closer to the man’s bed.

“Hello, my name is Park Jimin, I am a nurse here” said Jimin again, this time to the man, in simple, polite Japanese. The man’s eyes slid to him, and he focused his stare on Jimin, so the young nurse felt confident to continue, ”Could you tell me what happened to you?”

“I was robbed.” The man answered instantly, his voice low and sure. Behind Jimin, the doctors quietened. “I didn’t see who it was. They took everything, and when I tried to run, they shot me.”

Jimin nodded along, humming. He tried to control his facial expressions, but he couldn’t stop the thoughts running in his head.

This man is lying to me. He is lying about not speaking Korean, he is lying about EVERYTHING.

Jimin never thought himself a person who didn’t take any bullshit. On the contrary, he sometimes managed to be childishly naïve and land himself in incredibly weird situations as a result of that… and yet, this time he was sure his intuition wasn’t mistaken.

“Can you tell me your name? Do you have any insurance? The cost of the treatment needs to be covered by the insurance company, or you will need to pay it in full yo-“

“Maki Gou” the man cut off Jimin’s explanation, his voice still even and lacking any emotion, “No insurance. I will pay, just need to call my… son.”

Jimin blinked, taken aback. Did the man, really hesitated to think how to call his son in the language he was pretending to be fluent in? Maybe if Jimin wasn’t such a geek in his childhood and wasn’t living and playing with Japanese immigrants’ kids everyday ever since preschool; maybe then he could be fooled by the wounded man’s speaking abilities.

Not one word of his mouth is even close to the truth, what the hell?!

“Can he come to get you?” he continued his questioning, looking at the piece of paper Taehyung handed him sometime in the middle of the man’s monotonous answer. The doctors had listed their inquiries and were waiting for Jimin to translate everything for them.

That insignificant question seemed to stunt the man. He blinked, his face scowling with the smallest grimace of hesitance.

“I d-don’t think he can? He is back in Japan, he is working…” even he was unconvinced by the words that were leaving his mouth. His Japanese was limited enough, that even Jimin who was by no means fluent, could pick up that the man didn’t know what to say, and how to say what he wanted.

Liar.

Jimin looked back at the paper with the doctor’s notes, the thought echoing.

Liar, liar, liar. What. The. Hell. Is. He. Lying. For?!

“Because of the type of injury, we can’t let you leave alone. Also, there is a need for a police questioning regarding the robbery.” he said word for word what Kang had written down.

The man seemed to be even more unhappy now.

“I can call my son now, if you give me a phone.” the man who was pretending to be Maki Gou said with a finality in his tone.

Jimin looked back at both doctors waiting behind his back. Taehyung’s eyes found his and instantly filled him with warmth. The doctor wasn’t doing anything, but his presence was reassuring.

As opposed to Kang’s presence, who as soon as Jimin repeated what he learnt from the man, nodded, and barked at him;

“Call his son. Make him pick up the patient. Maki Gou is your responsibility now, Park.” then, with the same voice, now turned to Taehyung he said “Yours, too, Kim. Don’t fuck up.”

And with that accurate show of his rotten personality, the old doctor left them alone with Maki Gou.

And while Taehyung just looked down at the floor, his expression like a scorned puppy, Jimin just rubbed his brows.

That shift kind of began to suck, too.

Chapter Text

The phone started to vibrate just as Jungkook closed the car’s door behind himself, starting to drive away from the small, private plane landing space. Catching his right hand’s eyes, he pressed the answer button, and just hummed questioningly, not bothering to greet the caller.

“Hello, this is Nurse Park from Saint Mary’s Hospital in Incheon. Am I speaking to the son of Maki Gou?” the soft voice lilted in perfectly polite Japanese, making Jungkook raise his eyebrows and put the call on speaker. He wasn’t sure why the Korean nurse was speaking to him like that, but he played along.

“That is correct.” he answered back in the language, snapping his fingers at Namjoon, grabbing his attention again. The silver haired man just took his own phone and opened the notes app. After many years of working with him, the dark-haired man’s actions needed no words to accompany them. “Can I talk to him?”

“Of course,” the nurse replied after a second-too-long break. Jungkook glanced at Namjoon again, the man already looking at him with the same frown.

“S-son?” the other voice sounded tired, stressed and most definitely in pain, making both men instantly on alert. Namjoon leaned in closer to the phone, and Jungkook did the same. “I will need you to help me back to my house, I have one quite, eh…. far from here, can you come? Your father needs his child to pick him from hospital, and none of your… of your four, eh… four brothers can come, if I remember correctly…”

In the notes app, Namjoon quick fingers typed continuously.

Four men, not far from here, help me get back to The House. Maki Gou is one of our man, Ko Mansu.

“I will be there in a few, are you… well taken care of?” Jungkook muttered, trying to remember more of the code. He wasn’t usually involved in undercover actions which required most words to be encoded, so his knowledge became somewhat rusty.

“Yes. There is one nurse, who can communicate in my first language. I have been robbed, so I will need to speak to the police soon. Can you be there for me?”

One suspicious civilian. Guns. Pull some strings in the police.

The young man took a deep breath and suppressing his annoyance, replied in a sweet, worried tone; “Don’t worry, father. Your son will be there shortly, and you won’t need anyone to translate. I can help you with giving your statement, too, you know I learned Korean and have it on paper?”

The man hesitated, and Jungkook barely managed to hide another sigh of irritation. It seemed that he wasn’t the only one, who should brush up on his code words.

What an idiot, don’t tell me you not only pretended to not be a Korean citizen, but also lost all your fake IDs?!

“Because. Of. My. Mother?” he enunciated clearly, Namjoon smiling behind a hand next to him. His right-hand man had the right to laugh at the predicament Jungkook found himself in.

The Mother was code for Jin, their master-forger-slash-hacker who took care of all documents, paperwork, and any digital aspects of their crime empire. If the idiot had thought that The Mother could make him and “his son” an entire new person, to make sure the enemies and the police didn’t connect him to any gang activities…

Well, he was right. Jin was absolutely able to do that. But, oh the amount of bitching, Jungkook was going to get for asking him to do that much work on such short notice…

Just for that, Ko Mansu deserves another bullet. And Namjoon, a kick in the shin. Dear God, would you stop laughing already?!

“R-right, right, the mother, your mother… She s-sure took care of your schooling, huh?” the man answered, and Jungkook closed his eyes and took deep breath.

Then, he caught Namjoon’s eyes and nodded once, the frown still in place. He didn’t even need to say anything, his right hand knew what he needed to do, his smile dissipating to be followed by a full-on focused work mood.

Call Jin.

This was the most peculiar father-son talk I have ever heard in my life, Jimin thought to himself, but then backtracked. No, I might have thought that he was lying, but whoever the other man on the call is, he knows this guy and can pick him up. Maybe it is his son…

The nurse shuffled on his feet, still listening in on the call, even though Maki Gou was giving him the stink eye. Before even pressing the call number, Jimin had informed him, that the call needed to be monitored by the staff. The older man wasn’t happy about that but didn’t object out loud. It was evident, that the man wanted some privacy, but Jimin was not going to give him any.

You’re my responsibility, get used to it, he thought, wishing he could say that to the older man. I will be damned if you get me in trouble with Kang.

“I can’t wait to see you.” low voice replied from the phone, pulling Jimin back into reality.

He watched his patient gulp nervously, and then reply equally as nervously; “Thank you, Jungkook.”

Jungkook. That is his son’s name?, Jimin thought to himself and tried to commit it to memory. He thought it was surprising at least, to name one’s child a name in language one pretended to know nothing of. But, again, he tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt, even if his behavior from start to finish was suspicious as hell.

Maybe I am so sleep deprived I started developing some kind of delusions.

Maybe.

But Jimin, again as naïve as he could be, wasn’t stupid.

He took the phone back from Gou, putting it off the speaker and to his ear. He looked back at the patient, noticing that the man was sitting almost as frozen, no words leaving his mouth after he muttered expression of gratitude.

“Rest, Maki-ssi.” Jimin said to the man in Korean, not thinking about it that much until he saw the man nod at him slightly, seemingly lost in his own mind. The nurse decided not to comment on that, he was beginning to regret ever admitting to being able to speak Japanese at all. This whole situation was a mess.

Jimin walked out of Maki Gou’s room. There was no need to stress the man out any further, as suspicious as he was, mister Gou remained a patient and needed his rest.

“Jungkook-ssi?” he addressed the man again in his native language and was rewarded only with a quiet sigh as response. “Hello?”

“…I am listening, Nurse Park.” the voice next to his ear was silken and low, and Jimin felt a slight shiver go down his spine.

Damn, this man had a nice voice.

The blond man took a deeper breath in, and just to be finished with this conversation, blurted as quick as he could. “Ah,-your father is in room 402, sir, when you come to the hospital, p-please visit the reception desk to pay the fees and get more information from the staff there.” Jimin tried to will his voice to be as even as Jungkook’s was, but he still felt himself squeaking in response.

The other side of the call was silent for a second, making the nurse gulp with anxiety.

Why am I so stressed? I never even met this man…

Jimin looked around trying to take his mind away from the call. While crossing into the main corridor, he noticed two police officers making their way towards the room he was slowly walking away from. He bowed at them slightly and got a nod back. Maki Gou’s rest would need to wait until after the questioning ended.

“Alright.” the answer was said in similarly even tone, bringing his attention back to the call. Was this amusement that Jimin was hearing in the tone of Jungkook’s voice? Did his voice get even deeper?

De-lu-sio-nal, Park Jimin. Yes, you are!

“When can we expect you? In a few hours? Sometime tomorrow perhaps?” he questioned, trying to estimate how long a flight from Japan could take. An hour? Two? The airport was not that far away, but still, catching a flight this unexpectedly must take a while…

“Try more like, a few minutes,” the man on the other end replied and Jimin stood to a still, shocked, almost crashing with another nurse running behind him as a result.

“W-what? How the fu…?” he asked without thinking and couldn’t help but wince immediately after catching himself. Precisely a second after that, he heard a raspy laughter.

“I have my own ways, Jimin-ssi,” the man said, humor evident in his tone, and Jimin felt himself blushing with unexplainable embarrassment. “See you at the hospital, then.”

The sound of the call disconnecting was jarringly clear in Jimin’s ear as he was trying to get over the mortification of acting as unprofessionally as he just had.

Did he just…? hang up on me…? – that thought as much as it was filled with unbelieving, was still somewhat calm.

The second thought, though, wasn’t.

How the HELL did he know my name?

There was much to say about Jeon Jungkook, but not one person who knew him (or, maybe more accurately knew of him) could call him patient or understanding. Determined, yes. Hardened? Most definitely.

But forgiving? No, never.

Despite his rather young age, Jungkook has been through so many hardships, that he no longer saw the world through rose-tinted glasses. It would be a lie to say, that when he was younger the glasses had been there, at all. No, what the man knew better than anything was the will to go further than anyone else, become more, and mean more if only out of spite.

Not like there were many twenty-nine-year-olds out there, who built their way up from a simple gangster from a minor family to the boss of all the bosses, accepted as the next head of jopok by his own Uncle. Jeon Jinwook, the current Head, had his own children but none of them as feared or influential as Jungkook has proved himself to be, time and time again. Although all three of his cousins were older than him and spent more time working for jopok, the truth was brutal – they lacked somethings that would make people want to follow them, almost blindly.

And those things? Ferocity, loyalty, cunning… Jungkook had those and more, and combined with his natural charisma, he made people hang onto every word he said. The rumors surrounding his kills for the jopok and the name his men gave him, The Golden Killer, definitely added to his reputation.

He never tolerated any mistakes or signs of treachery, and that’s what had him clenching his jaw in annoyance.

Thank you, Jungkook.

Those three words were enough to make Namjoon raise his head disbelievingly from his phone next to him and mutter to himself: “That fucking idiot…”

And Jungkook couldn’t even fault him for that comment, as it was almost a carbon copy of what was running through his head at this moment.

Not only was Maki Gou light-years away from the position that would allow him to speak so informally to Jungkook, but the man had also just put his identity bare for anyone to see and hear – any plans to coming to motherland undetected by the ones who stole his cargo would need to be forgotten.

And, most importantly, Jin would have even more reason to nag him, when preparing his fake documents and new identity. Jungkook could almost hear the man’s voice yelling.

“Yah! Maknae, what did I tell you?! The forgery is meant to hide your true name, not to flaunt it!”

That sounded way too close to his ear and too loud to be just a figment of his imagination. Jungkook rubbed his face and opened his eyes, instantly being met with Namjoon phone and a handsome face of a man in his thirties.

So, he actually could hear Jin yelling and berating him. Exactly what he needed now.

He looked at Namjoon with his eyes narrowed, making the man shrug and say in his defense; “I was already calling him, Kook.”

On the phone Jin was just shaking his head in disappointment, or maybe irritation at being ignored at the moment.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but then another unexpected thing happened.

“Jungkook-ssi?” soft voice called to him, making Jungkook just sigh. He waved at Namjoon to leave, as they stood to a stop in front of the back entrances to the hospital. The silver-haired man said something quietly to Jin and ended the call, while leaving the car.

Jungkook knew that the next fifteen minutes he would need to stay with his driver, who at that point could be also considered his guard, not that he needed one. And during that fifteen minutes his right-hand and Seokjin would: do the quick sweep of the place (Namjoon), got the eyes on Maki Gou and the too-smart-for-his-own-good nurse, all while providing him with the necessary documents (Jin).

“Hello?”

“…I am listening, Nurse Park.” Jungkook said and felt his lips move into a flirtatious little grin, almost a force of habit now.

No one said he couldn’t get his mood up with the help of a little sweet nurse.

Chapter Text

The full sweep of the hospital and surrounding premises didn’t take them those estimated fifteen minutes, Jin and Namjoon were professionals after all. Before Jungkook even ended the call with the sweet nurse, his driver was handing him an iPad with all the information Jin had found on Park Jimin.

The dark-haired man took it from him, mindlessly scrolling through pages and pages of descriptions and other details on the young nurse’s life. From photos hacked by Seokjin from easily available sites like Instagram and other social media, to screenshots of the boy caught by hospital security cameras, his master hacker took care of everything, all while Jungkook was entertaining himself by flirting with Jimin on the call.

“W-what? How the fu…?” he heard an astonished mumble from blond nurse, immediately followed by a horrified gasp, almost too soft to hear over the phone. Jungkook heard it though, and he couldn’t keep his smirk and short burst of laughter after that.

“I have my own ways, Jimin-ssi,” the mafia boss decided to say, curious if Jimin as smart as he had seemed to be, would pick up on the use of his name. If he would pick up on the tone of Jungkook’s voice when he said his name.

Besides, it is such a pretty name for a such a pretty face… I just can’t help it, he thought to himself, his eyes stuck on one of the pictures attached to the file. This boy is too pretty for his own good.

“See you at the hospital, then.” he finished the call, not before hearing another gasp, this time presumably from indignation.

Jungkook felt his smile growing but catching the driver looking at him with a mix of fear and careful interest, he willed his face back to its usual, stoic expression. It wouldn’t be good for his image, for his employees to see him act like a normal, human being.

For them, he was supposed to be the unstoppable force, unfeeling monster on top on of the food chain. Never showing anything that could grant his enemies, or anyone around him who mattered, any insight into his mind.

And he was all that, he supposed. Or at least, he had become that.

The only people, who knew him any better, were Namjoon and Seokjin, who called themselves his hyungs and best friends, even when Jungkook had said time and time again, that men in his position were not ever allowed the luxury of having people close to them. Of caring for someone.

Those two men however had known him well before Jungkook began to raise in ranks. They remembered how he was in kindergarten, primary school, middle school and so on. His hyungs wouldn’t ever be blinded by the excuses he threw at them; they saw through his mask every time.

Didn’t mean that Jungkook had ever stopped trying, though.

The knocking on his window tore his wandering mind away from the thoughts of never being himself. This particular worry showed itself whenever he had a spare time to think and Jungkook hated rummaging over that problem, and yet found his thoughts always coming back to it.

He lowered the window, surprised to see a familiar face, but not the one he was expecting.

“Jay.” he greeted the smiling man, carefully. “What do I owe the pleasure?”

While this man, smiling so wide he was almost shining, was one of his employees, Jungkook would never make the mistake of crossing him. Jay, also known more privately as Jung Hoseok, was a dangerous man with a patience so short it rivaled Jungkook’s own.

Also, he had a particularly nasty tendency to burn people that slighted him, which Jungkook supposed was fair enough since everyday this man behaved like a personification of sun, smiley and carefree. Every man had his own vice, and to behave as freely and happily, the man had to have an equally dark, disturbing side to him.

To balance it out, he guessed.

“Ahhh, Jungkookie! It’s nothing big, no worries. Mother said you are going to handle this matter on your own, and as I know you, you don’t have anything to wear for that!” the man laughed, making Jungkook raise his eyebrows in incredulity.

Excuse me?...

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” he asked, trying not to show the petulant tone that wanted to slip out from him. This was his favorite suit, as black as the night itself, with equally as dark shirt underneath. Paired with his trusted silver rings, an array of piercings in his ears and in his lip, and the ostentatious Rolex on his wrist, his outfit screamed money, power, and do-not-fuck-with-me.

Basically, everything Jungkook ever needed his wardrobe to portray.

“Well, if you are to be Ko Mansu’s, aged 43-and-poor-as-dirt might I add, son… you can’t be Jeon Jungkook, 29, looking like a crossover between a rich chaebol and an obviously powerful gangster.” Hoseok supplied helpfully, his smile never wavering.

Jungkook his robbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming. It was a typical result of spending more time in the company of Jay.

“So, what? I need to be in costume?” he asked the dreaded question and immediately recognized in Hoseok’s eyes what the answer was.

“Just some clothes that youngsters wear nowadays, chill, Boss. You already have a baby face, no need to put in any work in that!” the brunet chirped and showed him a plastic bag he had been holding all this time.

Jungkook sighed internally.

“No colors.” he just said firmly, knowing very well that this was a lost battle from the start.

If the first impression that Jungkook left on Jimin via the phone was strong, then Jimin couldn’t even name the emotions that coursed through him when the young man came to Maki Gou’s room.

The blond nurse was in the middle of changing the dressing of the patient’s wound, completely lost in his thoughts, when he heard the room’s door open with a slight squeak. He raised his face and turned it towards the sound, expecting to see Taehyung or Doctor Kang.

He definitely didn’t expect to see one of the most handsome men he had ever seen before.

And sure, Jimin was in awe of Tae’s beauty, but this man… He was on totally different level. Tall, with long, messy dark-brown hair and impressively muscled. Jimin could see that without even looking closely, that the muscles didn’t come from obsessive overexercising at the gym; these looked functional, like the man was built because he needed to be. Like he used those muscles well.

Ohhhhh, that’s food for thought, Jimin’s traitorous brain supplied. Maybe for tonight?... I could definitely spare some time from my evening routine to think about those muscles… think long, and hard…

Jimin blinked owlishly, realizing that he was staring when the man cleared his throat with a bemused expression.

Shit.

“Oh, sorry… Good afternoon, I’m Pa-“ he started to say, when the man smiled without breaking eye contact with him and interjected;

“I know who you are, Park Jimin-ssi. We spoke on the phone just now.”

Fuck, his voice is even better in person.

Jimin gulped and lowered his head, first to break under the intense stare. He willed his hands to work on the dressing on the wound, noticing how still Maki Gou was under his palms.

The man looked like a marble statue, almost white and absolutely unmoving. Jimin wasn’t even sure the man was breathing.

“Maki-ssi, is everything alright?” he asked ever so quietly, so the dark-haired man near the door could not hear him. “Are you in pain?”

“No, he is quite alright, Jimin-ssi.” The answer came from unexpectedly, from just behind his back. So close that he could now count his eyelashes, Jungkook stood right next to him, dark eyes peering down into his father’s eyes.

Jimin spooked, feeling goosebumps rising on his skin. The man moved without making any sound, so quietly that Jimin now felt his heart pound in his ears.

Or maybe this was just the man’s close proximity.

“…my father is good with pain, aren’t you?” Jungkook switched to flawless Japanese, his voice staying the same, dark and velvety.

Jimin watched surprised, as his patient (still white as a sheet), nodded soundlessly, his eyes downturned.

“He’s just missing his son, we haven’t seen each other in soo-o-oo long…” drawled the man, his eyes back at Jimin. “Since he lives here, and I don’t…”

“How did you get here so fast, then?” Jimin felt the trickle of mortification, just as the words left his mouth, quicker than he could think about questioning the man. “…Jungkook-ssi.” he added hastily to keep the pretense of politeness.

The man smirked, and Jimin tried to not show how the action added to his handsomeness.

That man seemed to be acutely aware of the impact his looks and body language had on others and was using it to its’ full potential. Now, focused on Jimin, his attention positively burned.

Maybe, just maybe… some of that burning could be due to the blush that was spreading from Jimin’s cheeks, down to his neck and collarbones.

It’s not that he was embarrassed of his snapped question, because he damn well knew that underneath the good boy image, he carefully has been showing to the world every day, was hidden his true nature: snarky, sarcastic, a little bit bratty. But it wouldn’t do him well to act like that towards someone, who was essentially a client, since Jungkook would probably be the one to pay the hospital bills for his father. And those weren’t cheap.

“I was already here, Jimin-ssi.” Jungkook answered without even a hitch in his breath to suggest if he was surprised to be doubted so openly. “I am not usually in the country, but I from now on, I’m going to make some changes to my schedule, so that I can spend some… quality time… with my dear father.”

If it was humanely possible, Maki Gou went even whiter, the heart monitor picking up the change of pace in his heartbeat. “Jungkook…” he wheezed.

Jimin frowned at that, but before he could take a step towards the patient, he was yet again disturbed by the sound of the door opening. Two police officers entered the room, and Jimin’s thoughts were already racing.

Why… are they not the same cops, that I had seen before? Just when I was finishing the call, I saw them going to this room, so why…? Who are those people…?

He looked questioningly at Jungkook and was surprised to see the man’s eyes trained at those men, his eye smile betraying the emotions the older male was feeling.

He is glad to see them, Jimin thought to himself, surprised. Shouldn’t he feel at least a bit uncomfortable with the thought of police questioning his father?

“Gentlemen.” Jungkook broke the silence, his voice snapping Jimin right into action.

He bowed at the two police officers and eyed them curiously.

Both were in their thirties, almost unfairly handsome, and tall. The one in the front had dark brown hair, slightly wavy and a slim face adorned with a wide, heart-shaped smile. Although slim and somewhat unassumingly looking, he moved with a quiet confidence, eerily similar to the way Jungkook did before.

The other man was bulkier, with a rounder face and dragon eyes; his already intimidating stature coupled with dark silvery hair and serious expression at his face made him look unlike any other police officer Jimin had ever seen.

And he had seen a lot of them, in his life, both after his parents’ tragic death and in the hospital.

“We are here to get a statement from Maki Gou-ssi,” the taller man said, his low voice effortlessly carrying through the room.

Jungkook nodded at that, and then addressed Jimin.

“Jimin-ssi, let’s leave them to do their job in peace. Let’s talk outside.” His tone didn’t leave any place for disagreement.

Jimin startled at that, not really expecting the way the situation was evolving. He wasn’t sure, what else the man could want to talk about with him; all medical information that Jungkook might have wanted to know was available at the reception desk, and in the chart lying on the desk next to the patient’s bed. With Jungkook standing right next to it, it was impossible for him not to notice that, yet he hadn’t made any effort to look at it, much less read it.

With the last look at the Maki Gou, and the two police officers approaching him, the young nurse followed the older man outside, failing to see the meaningful look the three men exchanged before Jungkook left the room.

Chapter Text

As he was following Jungkook outside the room and further into the hospital wing, Jimin took his time to look more carefully at the man. He must have been in his twenties, although Jimin supposed basing on his demeanor that the man was at least a little bit older than him. The way he carried himself, with the confidence of the person used to being listened to, was betraying that even if his clothing suggested otherwise.

Clad in black jeans, dark denim jacket and a black wifebeater, he could look like any young, rich person who roamed the streets of Gangnam in Seoul. Jimin had yet to see any of those young adults in Incheon, though. The obviously expensive clothes looked somewhat out of place on the person whose father appeared like any and every working-class man, now that Jimin was thinking about it.

The more he analyzed the whole situation, the more his confusion grew.

It's like none of the puzzle pieces fit together, he thought to himself. The more I try to put everything together, the less of the whole picture I can see…

“So, what do you do?” he asked, when the man in front of him turned his head towards him. They were just approaching the main hall of the hospital, and if Jimin’s intuition was correct, he was being led towards the small cafeteria on the side of it.

How Jungkook knew his way through the confusing array of corridors in the old hospital, was just another question that Jimin suspected was going to remain unanswered.

“I dabble in different areas of business.” the man replied a small smile and focused his dark eyes on Jimin’s own, as if looking for his reaction.

That really doesn’t tell me anything…

The blond man just nodded at that, at this point not expecting a straight-forward answer. He was surprised that Jungkook continued the conversation after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence in which it was becoming more and more obvious that the younger man would not continue his line of questioning.

“Jimin-ssi, I hope I don’t startle you with this question, but I need to know - what did you see yesterday, when you found hi-… my father… in that alley?”

Jimin stood to a still, shocked at the abrupt change of topic. Jungkook followed his example, turning his body towards him. In the harsher light of the hallway, his lip piercing looked more prominent, and so did the dark inquisitive look in his eyes.

“N-nothing really,” the nurse answered, wringing his hands. “It was really dark…”

“I will need you to do better than that, Jimin.” Jungkook said with a firm tone, the sudden lack of honorifics surprisingly grating to the nurse. “Tell me more.” The man leaned towards Jimin, and the younger man took a step back, almost instinctively.

That didn’t do him any good, finding himself suddenly backed into the wall. They were now standing right at the entrance to the main hall, the open space a few steps away doing nothing to make Jimin feel less caged.

“I don’t r-really know w-what you-“ he began saying in a shaking voice, just as a slight commotion behind Jungkook’s back caught his attention.

There seemed to be a group of men running through the entrance of the hospital, all of them masked and their hands hidden underneath their jackets.

Military style jackets, Jimin noticed before everything went spectacularly to shit.

“Everybody down!” a voice yelled, and a few things happened simultaneously.

A loud shot rang through the air, making a few people scream in fear.

Jimin felt hands grabbing his waist, and throwing him down at the floor, seconds before something hit the wall where his head had just been. The fragments of wall fell at his aching body, covering his in plaster and dust.

Jungkook, who was now laying on top of him, yelled at the top of his lungs, almost deafening Jimin. “Power down, Jin! Code black, fuck!”

The lights died down immediately after, just for a few seconds. Some of them came back to life blinking, powered by the small backup accumulator. Still, the main hall remained now barely lightened at all.

Jimin coughed through all the plaster covering his face and wiggled under the heavy body covering him.

“Stay down, Jimin!” the man hissed, pressing him to the floor even harder.

“I can’t breathe, asshole!” Jimin answered in the same way, his politeness and professionalism be damned. God, his arm and wrist hurt like a bitch.

Something’s gotta be broken, he thought to himself, but before he even had the chance to ponder on that, Jungkook grabbed him again and pushed him further into the hallway they came from, still crouching.

“What are y--,” Jimin managed to say, before he lost all his words.

Is that a fucking gun?!

Yup, there was no mistaking the thing Jungkook grabbed from the back of his jeans. The gun must have been hidden under the loose-fitting jacket all this time.

Jimin watched with wide eyes, as the man turned around and without even steeling himself, fired at the closest of the masked men… terrorists?, whoever they were. He felt himself paling when the attacker immediately fell, with a surprising amount of blood pouring of him like a waterfall, visible even on the black clothing.

What the fuck, what the fuck…?!

“What the fuck?!” he yelled at Jungkook, who didn’t even spare him a glance.

“Shut up,” he said and pointed his gun at another figure who’d began walking towards them.

BANG.

Jimin whimpered, his ears ringing from the proximity of the gunshot. He didn’t even think, acting purely on instinct and trying to move further from the whole massacre happening in front of him. He forcefully willed his eyes away, when he noticed in the corner of his eye another corpse falling down to the floor.

There were so many shots and screams sounding continuously, that he felt like his head was going to explode.

Fuck this job, and fuck this man, he thought to himself more and more panicked. I am not staying here, what the fuck?

He began to crawl gracelessly away from Jungkook, who loosened his grip on him for a moment to reload the gun in his hands. Using the chance, Jimin raised to his knees and started crawling away faster on all fours.

“…and where do you think you’re going, cupcake?” a low voice asked next to him, and a beefy arm suddenly grabbed him and pulled him up.

Jimin screeched with horror at that and began to try to tug away from the grip, however whoever was holding him was just too strong.

Jungkook’s head turned slightly towards them, and then his eyes went back to the scene before him, ignoring Jimin’s panicked wheezing. “Ko Mansu?” he just asked.

“Taken care of, Boss.” The tall man holding Jimin hostage replied. The young nurse continued to move his body away from the hands holding his shoulders with even more effort. He recognized the man by his imposing height, and sound of his voice as one of the obviously-not-actual-policemen from before.

“Take him back to the car, Monster.” The dark-haired male ordered, and then when another familiar face showed himself next to Jimin’s flailing body, he continued. “Jay, with me, provide backup.”

“Yessir!” the brown-haired slim man, called Jay as now Jimin came to know, answered immediately. His smile widened even more, becoming almost scary as he pulled a gun seemingly out of nowhere.

Jimin felt the hysteria coming closer and closer. Tears clouded his view.

“What t-t-the fuuuck,” he wailed out loud as the man called Monster began to pull him away from the terrifying  scene. The nurse started fighting him again, throwing punches wherever he could reach and pushing the silver haired man away. “Leave me alo-o-one… Oh Go-o-od, please!”

Namjoon just grunted when one of Jimin’s punches met his stomach; “If don’t stop it, I will make you!”

Yeah, that did nothing to stop Jimin’s impeding panic.

“HELP!” he screamed as loud as he could, and the last thing he saw before Namjoon’s fist reached the side of his head, was Jungkook standing to his full height, with smiley Jay at his side, and shooting another man to death with an expressionless face.

Chapter Text

As a contrast to scene that had unfolded at the hospital, the drive back was a much calmer affair. With Jungkook’s driver being shot by the attackers before they even entered the building, Namjoon was the one driving, resulting in Jay’s continuous pout.

“He doesn’t even have a driver’s license!” the man pouted but seeing that the words did nothings but make Jungkook’s frown more prominent, he decided to drop the issue. Just like Jungkook was aware of his tendencies, Jung Hoseok knew how to read his boss and knew when it was the appropriate time to joke and annoy the younger. At this moment, it was not the time.

“It’s not like you have one either,” Namjoon muttered under his breath, but Hoseok heard him and answered that with an indignant;

“But I at least can drive!”

“Not with a bullet in your leg.” Jungkook ended their little squabble with just one sentence, and rubbed his face with his hand, the dried-up blood covering it be damned.

Not only the car was incredible crowded, with Jay injured and snappy in the front, a beaten-up body in the trunk of his car, and Jimin’s unconscious form lying on the back seats, but also the smell of blood, sweat and other unpleasant scents were permeating the air, adding to his growing headache.

Not to mention, that half of Park Jimin’s body was currently in his lap, since Namjoon could drive, but not without hitting every pothole available. As a result, he watched Jimin’s head jumping up and down, banging against the door for a few minutes before sighing and pulling the man into a more secure position. Now, however it seemed like the nurse slipped from unconsciousness straight into exhausted slumber and curled into him more and more.

He checked on his men, but Jay seemed to be focused on the streets they were passing, and Namjoon’s whole attention was on not crashing the car. Jungkook then allowed himself to look at the nurse once again, more carefully this time.

Just like in Jin’s file, Park Jimin had a brownish blond hair and a small face, petite frame, and slim figure. What Jin’s pictures didn’t manage to portray that well, and what Jungkook noticed right away when he’d just seen the nurse, were his muscled thighs and back, full lips and wide, beautiful eyes. Truly, the young man was a beauty, even if the loose nurse uniform, slight, permanent frown on his face and dark circles under his eyes were taking away some of his charm. Even with the dirt on him and the bruising that started to show itself as a result of Namjoon’s punch, Jimin looked serene and ethereal.

In Jungkook’s world, not many people looked like that.

Mindlessly, he took his right hand away from his face and instead used it to push away the fringe from the young man’s face, making a slight face at the dry feeling of his bleached hair.

“What are you going to do with him, Kook?” Namjoon’s voice cut into his thoughts, and he just hummed.

It wasn’t like him to do something unplanned like that, kidnapping a civilian. And yet, when Jungkook had seen the bullet lodge himself into the wall where Jimin’s head had been just seconds after he pushed the blond man down, he knew immediately that this massacre’s point wasn’t to fight any of his men. It was to eliminate Ko Mansu, and kill Jimin, the only witness who could have seen something crucial even if the man himself didn’t realize it at the time.

As he explained his thought process to both men, he saw them nodding through it.

“And so, we need him to be the bait.” He stated and caught Namjoon’s eyes in the back mirror. “He is going to be the key to figuring out who’s behind this and ending the bastard for good.”

Namjoon nodded again and decided against commenting on the way his boss’s hand has been softly petting the nurse’s hair for the last ten minutes.

For a second there, when he began waking up, Jimin thought he was back at home, after another hard shift. It wasn’t unusual for him to wake up feeling like a truck had run him over, however usually the aches in his muscles weren’t that prominent.

Why are my arm and hand hurting so bad?, Jimin thought bleakly and tried to ignore the pulsating pain in his wrist, turning a little bit more on the bed.

That proving itself as a bad idea, as the immediate sting of pain in his arm and temple made him hiss, at the same time tearing him even further away from sleep he’d been chasing.

He blinked his eyes, trying to reorient himself.

That… is not my room.

That simple observation resulted in Jimin hurriedly making his way out of bed, just to be brought to his knees next to it by a sudden wave of nausea the movement had caused.

Shi-i-i-t, that dude hit me hard!, he thought, while trying to convince his body this was not the right moment to puke all over the nice carpet in front of him. Jimin tried to stand again, slower this time.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a voice came from the other side of the room, startling him enough to forget the nausea for a second.

Jungkook was leaning against the doorway, a bottle of water in his hands. The man looked unlike the last time Jimin saw him – gone was the denim jacket, washed out dark jeans, and black wifebeater.

This Jungkook had his hair slicked back, exposing more of his face. He was wearing a black dress shirt and black fitted trousers, no dangly earrings this time, although most of his piercings including the lip ring stayed the same.

Instead of the overall rich college boy vibe he was exuding in the hospital, this time he looked more like the man Jimin was starting to figure out he was.

A gangster.

“You…” Jimin managed to say through the dizziness and his head pounding, “You fucker, where did you bring me?! Where am I?!”

The dark-haired man ignored the questions, and just swaggered closer to the bed. He seemed to be completely at ease, while Jimin started to scramble away from him. Unsuccessfully, since he was still fighting hard not to expel his stomach’s contents.

Jungkook took notice of his state, and tsked; “Don’t you dare vomit again.”

Wait, again???

“Again??!!!”

“Drink the water, take the painkiller and stop screeching, for fucks sake.” He put the water bottle on the nightstand next to the bed and took a blister of tablets from his pocket to place it there, too.

If Jimin felt at least a bit better, he would have screeched back at him out of pure spite.

“I’m not taking anything from you!”

The mafia boss arched one eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Then I guess you will spend the rest of the day like that, on the floor.” He mused, smirking.

Jimin hated the thought of spending another minute at the man’s feet, much less the rest of the day so much that he grabbed the blister, popped two pills out of it and washed it all down with a huge gulp of water in a matter of seconds.

“Good boy…” The man purred, and Jimin let himself forget his self-preservation instinct and said plainly;

“Go fuck yourself.”

He clearly didn’t think it through, though, because just moment after that he was grabbed by the hurt arm and slammed into the nearest wall. He gasped for breath, startled at the slightly unhinged look in the taller man’s eyes.

“Jimin-ssi, you are wearing out my already thin patience,” the man warned him, the tone of his voice dark and low. “I am not going to take insults from you, no matter the circumstances. Are we clear?”

Jimin could only focus on how hard his arm was throbbing in the painful grip.

“Okay, okay!” he whimpered, feeling tears well up. Oh, no, he really didn’t want to cry in front of the man and put himself in even vulnerable position than the one he already was in.

“Now are you going to be a good boy, and behave?” the man asked, his tone going back to the mocking quality of earlier.

“Y-yeah, just le-e-et goo…” Jimin pawned at the hand still pushing his arm into the wall, trying uselessly to lessen the pressure on the injury.

What he managed to do instead, was bring Jungkook’s attention to it. The man slid his hand onto the loose silky shirt the boy was wearing (whose clothes are these???, flew through Jimin’s head) and yanked the sleeve hard enough to expose the pale skin of his, pulling open some top buttons.

Jimin just gasped, and tried to shy away, again not to any avail. The reason his arm had been throbbing crazily became obvious now that he was looking at the huge bruising spreading through all his shoulder down to his arm. Probably his side, too, based on the ache in it adding to his miserable feeling. The young nurse took a shaky breath, trying to control the shiver that was erupting as a direct effect of cool air on his skin.

Jungkook’s hand on his skin was warm though and steady, as the man took into account the discoloration, his eyes focused and brows pulled. Then suddenly he pressed on the joint of Jimin’s arm, pulling another whimper of pain from the smaller man.

“It’s not dislocated,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Jimin hissed through clenched teeth; “I could have told you that myself!”

The answer brought the man’s attention back to his face, dark eyes settling on it for longer.

“Anything else that’s hurt?” he asked after a few seconds, and Jimin just glowered back at him, not that inclined to talk after the rough treatment.

“You want me to look for that myself?” Jungkook asked smirking, and before Jimin managed to splutter his answer, the man’s hand was sliding over his exposed skin, pulling the thin fabric of his shirt completely down, his touch traveling from the shoulder towards the collarbone, and then lower…

“My wrist, my head! Oh God, stop that!” the nurse panicked, trying to shake the wandering hand off. The taller man just grabbed him again with the other hand over the throat, again pushing Jimin back into the wall. He didn’t put that much force into his grip, not seeming to actually want to choke the blond-haired man, just to stop his incessant wiggling. With his right hand spread over Jimin’s fluttering pulse, and his left palm lying against Jimin’s hip, he had him completely immobilized, while looking over the bruising on his face. “Stop it!”

“You’re all bark, and no bite, Jimin-ssi.” The man commented leaning to whisper it into his ear, and Jimin felt himself blushing in indignation, anger, and confusion.

The hell is he doing all that for? What kind of a sick game is that?!

“You want some bite, huh?” the nurse muttered and then with all the fight left in him tried to knee the jerk in the balls. The move didn’t really reach its goal, making the criminal giggle.

Giggle, as if Jimin’s attempt at getting away from him were laugh-worthy at best.

God, I hate him!

With the man’s proximity and obvious strength, it was obvious that Jimin wasn’t any match for him. Still, the young man didn’t know when to quit, and said venomously; “What, you’re some rapist, besides being a murderer?”

That made the soft laughter die down. The crinkle in the man’s eyes gone, instead replaced by a bewildered look.

If Jimin didn’t know any better, he’d think Jungkook was actually offended.

The man was looking at him, like he didn’t know what Jimin was getting at.

It was infuriating.

He tried to mimic the older man’s mocking smirk and raised one eyebrow.

“What, you can’t get your dick wet, so you need to push yourself onto injured and unwanting people?” he taunted and was rewarded by the darkening of Jungkook’s face.

The man leaned into his personal space again.

“Believe me when I say… If I wanted you, you’d be in my bed already.” Jungkook said softly into Jimin’s ear, his breath falling on the exposed neck, pulling shivers from the younger man. Being this close to the dark-haired man, he could smell his perfume, something spicy and fresh and his face was almost pressing into the man’s muscled shoulder.

Jimin gulped, when the hand on his throat moved with purpose, tilting his face upwards. Like the man was going to kiss him.

He stilled, taking in a small gasp of air.

“…and you’d be begging.” The last word was almost purred against Jimin’s ear, Jungkook’s lips slightly sliding on his skin, the barely-there touch electrifying.

And then the man pulled away, completely unaffected and without sparing Jimin’s frozen form another glance, he sauntered out of the room.

Jimin felt his legs giving under him, and for the second time he fell to the floor.

What the hell…

Fuck, Jungkook was having so much fun with that little nurse, it was beginning to become a little bit concerning. From his bratty attitude, quick mind and his wide eyes, always looking at him in disbelief, Jungkook couldn’t get enough.

And it seemed like Park Jimin, for all he could tell himself, had not been immune to his advances, the man mused, feeling his lips stretch in a languid smile. That gasp of surprise he let on when Jungkook held him closer… It was addicting.

“Fuck, that’s terrifying,” a voice brought him back from his musings. “What did you do, Kook?”

The dark-haired man lifted his face to meet Seokjin’s worried eyes. He shrugged, not really knowing what he was asking about.

“What do you mean? I didn’t do shit…, yet.” He answered, and his eldest hyung just sighed and rubbed his eyes, not buying that response at all. With all that drama of Go Mansu revealing Jungkook’s identity, thenmaking him new documents and Hoseok and Namjoon fake police IDs on the go, and then controlling the hospital’s camera feeds and causing the blackout, too, the man looked like his patience levels were running dangerously low.

“He’s right, Boss, the last time you’d smiled like that we had sixteen bodies to bury and three weeks of dodging the feds on our plate,” Hoseok rebutted, swirling on a chair next to Jin. Even though his leg was still bleeding through the makeshift wrapping they managed to make, the brunet didn’t seem to even acknowledge his injury, instead acting like his usual, bubbly self. “If this is this kind of a smile again, I’d like to know beforehand.”

This time, it was Jungkook who sighed. He reclined on the sofa and grabbed his drink, a nice, expensive scotch he’d gotten as a thank-you gift from the Italians.

“It’s not like that.” he repeated himself and didn’t move a muscle when Seokjin plopped on the opposite side of him, on a huge, black leather armchair.

The eldest raised his eyebrows and poured himself a drink, too.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asked softly and relaxed further into his seat, his eyes not leaving Jungkook’s face at all.

“Not really,” the crime boss cut the inquiry short, and just to save himself the lecture Jin was sure to have ready for him, he continued; “I’m thinking what to do with that nurse.”

“Oh, Park Jiminie?” Hoseok asked from the other side of the room excitedly and left the spinning chair to come closer to them. He sat on the arm of the sofa next to Jungkook. “You should probably get rid of him if you don’t want to have a rotten egg smack in the middle of the operation.”

Seokjin scrunched his face in reluctant agreement. Jungkook could only frown.

Didn’t they just agree to keep Jimin as a bait in the car?

“Such a waste of a pretty face…” the hacker muttered and took another sip. “He’s a smart one, too…”

“Knows too much, though, and you of all people know how quick shit can get really messy, if someone says too much to a wrong person.” Hoseok countered, making Seokjin nod in acknowledgement.

Jungkook frowned more, and finished his scotch in one big gulp, putting his glass on the table with too much force.

“No one is killing Park Jimin.” He said firmly, the attention of the other men now focused solely on his stormy face. Seokjin blinked in astonishment, and Jay just grinned back at the black-haired man.

“What do you want us to do, then, Jungkookie?” he asked with a lilting tone of voice as his eyes glinted ominously in contrast.

“You best find him something to do here, Jay. Cause he is going to be one of mine.” Jungkook answered firmly and stood up to leave.

He had some business to talk through with Go Mansu, after all.

One of mine. Mine.

Chapter Text

Jimin felt like eternity had passed before he managed to get his emotions under control after that encounter with Jungkook. He’d spent a good fifteen minutes just sitting next to the godforsaken wall trying to somehow make sense of all his interactions with the older man.

1. I got involved in some sketchy shit, then met a handsome criminal.
2. I got shot at because of that handsome criminal, nonetheless.
3. The handsome criminal saved my life, quite possibly…
4. …and then kidnapped me?
5. …and then flirted with me????

Yeah, no, the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Why exactly was he shot at? Why Jungkook brought him to what Jimin presumed was his house?

Jimin sighed, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. After the man stormed off, leaving him alone, the nurse managed to locate a bathroom connected to the bedroom he was locked in. And Jimin knew he was locked in, because not only none of the windows opened when he tried them, the door didn’t budge either. Accepting his fate, Jimin decided to at least wash off the remaining dirt stuck to him and his clothes and freshen up.

Looking at the mirror after his quick shower, the blond thought that perhaps what he needed was not a shower, but a medically induced coma, for at least a week. His eyes were obviously very tired looking, that came with the job description, but the redness could only come from the panicked crying during the attack on the hospital. The bags under his eyes somehow looked worse than usual, too.

The bruise on the side of his face was an ugly red, but thankfully the punch Namjoon had thrown did not result in any broken skin. His side though, was a totally different story. Bruises covered most of the skin there. He landed fortunately enough not to hurt himself seriously, but unfortunately enough to feel every bruise as he made even the smallest movement.

Well, he hurt his wrist, but as far as his medical knowledge went, it was not broken.

Small mercies.

He pulled the towel tighter around himself and looked at the pile of his clothes lying pitifully on the floor. His favorite scrubs were basically unsalvageable at this point.

Jimin clicked his tongue, irritated.

I will need to borrow somebody’s clothes, because I refuse to meet my fate wrapped in a towel like the world’s saddest burrito, he thought and came back to the bedroom.

And while I am looking for clothes, might as well snoop a little bit. I could use a protein bar.

Or a phone.

Or a gun.

Not that he could shoot, or that he thought he could shoot somebody. But he could probably bluff his way into being let go, if he looked like a threat, right?

They’d probably just end me before I could work out how to shoot these things, he mused, opening drawer after drawer. So far, he found some cosmetics, a lot of art supplies which was honestly kind of surprising, and a lot of notebooks and files.

Those could probably be useful, but Jimin wasn’t really in the place to care about some documents when he was naked in a gangster’s house, having pissed off said gangster during a sexual innuendo filled argument.

At least I have my priorities straight, he laughed a little at the ridiculousness of the situation and went to start his search again in the next wardrobe.

Not much longer after that, he found himself standing in front of a walk-in closet, having missed the inconspicuous door before, in his haste to get clean.

Jimin just stood there, not moving for some time after opening the door, taking in the view. The closet was almost as big as the bedroom it was attached to and furnished in a similar style. The shelves were made of dark wood, the glass in the closet’s inside doors was framed by black matte metallic edges. The whole placed was well lit and not one thing seemed to be misplaced, making Jimin suddenly painfully aware of the mess his small apartment was even at best of times.

The nurse walked around, looking at expensive black shoes, black blazers, black trousers, black shirt, even black ties and black vests in contemplation. It looked like, a) crime paid very well because almost everything he looked at was designer, and b) his kidnapper was allergic to color and comfortable clothing.

Not seeing any other clothes than those, he picked one of the black shirts (and God, it was so silky and soft on his skin…), and some of the pants that looked more like pleather leggings, but still ended up somewhat loose around his waist and thighs. Jimin felt some tension leave him, when he saw himself in the mirror – the shirt was oversized enough that it covered the top on the pants, hiding the outline of his dick. The last thing he wanted was to provoke any more flirting.

I draw the line at wearing a criminal’s underwear.

A sharp knock disturbed the silence in which he was staring at his reflection. Jimin startled, looking back at the bedroom and rushed towards the door. Just as he entered, the door opened and a familiar, unfriendly face greeted his eyes.

“Jimin-ssi, the Boss will see you now.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Jimin said not even ten minutes into the discussion. “I am not doing that!”

“Not really your choice, is it?” one of the men countered sharply, making the nurse give him a dirty look.

It really did seem that way, that was the worst thing. All of the things the criminals had just said to Jimin were undeniably true; he did get himself into trouble by helping a gang member when his opponents had gone back to a car to grab something, he had to have seen something that fateful night which had made him a target, he was more valuable to Jungkook’s group alive than dead, as opposed to their enemy who wanted him eliminated the quicker the better.

They also said he would be the perfect bait. That he would play the role of a jopok member, young and approachable, foolishly being seen coming and going, and meeting with Jungkook’s men. That when their rivals decide to strike, then these men would swoop in and save him, and recover their stolen goods as well.

They said that they needed some medical professional either way, cause their last one was currently at the bottom of the sea, due to his involvement with underage prostitutes. If those were Jungkook’s employees, as well… that Jimin simply didn’t want to know and decided not to ask, straight away.

Better to limit the amount of sure-to-get-me-killed knowledge, the blond thought to himself humorlessly. I already seem to be drowning in it.

“I don’t want to be the bait; how could I possibly trust you?” He objected once again, searching for Jungkook’s eyes. The man sat in the big chair behind the desk and hadn’t said a word since the moment Jimin came in, letting the Monster, Mother and Jay do the talking.

Yeah, they all have codenames, real charming… Jimin honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at the situation.

The silver haired man scoffed at his question, immediately making Jimin’s hackles rise.

“No one said anything about trust, cupcake, you’re just means to an end.”

“Listen up, asshole-” Jimin stood up pissed beyond any reason, voice raised, before the man standing behind his chair grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back down forcefully. 

If not for the immediate shot of discomfort in his hurt shoulder making tears come to his eyes, the nurse would have stood back up again. Instead, he slouched in the chair, covering his face with his hands, feeling the anger change quickly into anguish.

God, Jimin, get a hold of yourself, you can’t burst into tears in front of them!

“Monster, enough.” Jungkook’s commanding voice rang through the room.

Jimin gulped down the sob threatening to escape him. He pushed his fingers more firmly against his eyelids, not letting the tears fall.

“He knows what his role is. He will behave, no need to antagonize him,” the Boss scolded in a bored voice, leaning back on the chair. He focused his stare on Jimin’s slim figure curled on himself and the way the young man was wiping his eyes discreetly in front of him and sighed. “This is clearly a waste of time.”

Oh, he’s gonna kill me, Jimin managed to think panickily before the man raised his voice again, addressing the whole room.

“Everybody out! Jay, you go to the infirmary, Jimin will be there with you in a few, got it?”

“Yessir!” All three said and moved to the door immediately, with Jay leaving significantly slower, aided by the man who’d stood behind Jimin during the talk.

The room suddenly became silent when all three men left, leaving only Jungkook and Jimin inside. Somehow this ended up being the last straw for Jimin, because he let out a loud shaky breath followed by a hysterical sob.

No, no, no, he’s really gonna kill me now!

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” Jimin heard Jungkook mutter before the man stood up and approached him so quickly, he barely had the time to raise his hands up from his face protectively.

“No, no-!” the nurse whimpered before the men grabbed his hands and pulled him up. He tried to free himself from the iron grip the man had on him, but not only was he at an obvious disadvantage, the blond also barely could see at this point with tears clouding his vision.

“Enough of that, Jimin,” he heard the man say before he felt himself be lifted and pulled down onto the man’s lap on the comfortable leather armchair standing further into the room. “Crying won’t change a thing.”

“I d-d-doon’t want tooo--, I wa-want to go ho-o-o-ome-e-e…” the blond sobbed, trying to get away from the embrace even though the man had his arms around him. He felt himself being jostled, and his face landed at the man’s collarbone. “I c-aa-an’t---”

“Yes, you can. It’s going to be scary for you; you will need to be careful, but there’s no other way,” the man pointed out, and as he felt the nurse in his lap ease up with the struggling and instead hide further into his chest, he continued in a soft voice; “Unless you want to get killed as soon as they see you alone and unprotected, of course. You could theoretically try to get to the airport and run away from the situation, but-”

“But I d-don’t have that k-kind of money,” Jimin mumbled, his eyes closed, trying to calm himself down and unconsciously pressing more into the man’s warmth. He didn’t let himself think about how this looked; at this point he was going to take comfort from wherever he could.

Jungkook hummed and moved one hand soothingly up and down the blond man’s back. “So the solution is pretty clear. And as for trust…”

Jimin gulped and raised his face, when the unended sentence lingered. His red and teary eyes met Jungkook’s inscrutable gaze. He realized with a start, how close they ended up, with his whole body spread on Jungkook’s lap, the older man’s hand petting his back.

Their faces were so close he could count the man’s eyelashes and if he raised his chin up more, he could probably press his lips right against his neck.

Jungkook’s thoughts seemed to be following the same path, because his eyes visibly darkened and for a millisecond lowered onto Jimin’s lips.

“As for trust…” the man repeated his voice lowering, “Trust goes both ways.”

His hands tightened on Jimin’s body, making the younger man make a soft gasp.

“So, I guess the question is, Jimin…” the man pulled him up a little bit, making Jimin loose the comfort of somewhat hiding his face in the criminal’s broad chest. Now, they ended up straight face to face, even closer than before, but on a more even eye level. “…can WE trust you?”

Chapter Text

Getting a hold on himself and his emotions had taken Jimin almost an embarrassing amount of time, most of it spent curled under the jacket Jungkook had left him. The man had held him, eased his panic and when he’d noticed how the young nurse was shivering after his sobbing session, he covered him with his jacket, only muttering to remember to find Jay in the infirmary after he felt up to it.

Now, all swallowed up in the man’s clothes, Jimin was meticulously wiping down his face with the tissues Jungkook had left on the table before he left the room. Maybe it was too late to feel embarrassed, after all the mafia members had witnessed his spectacular breakdown. Still, he tried to hold on to the remnants of his dignity, and he decided not to show up with his face all red and wet from tears.

He tried to calm himself and his breathing, too. When Jimin deemed himself somewhat ready to face the outside world, he stepped out of the office to find his first assignment on this new job.

A nurse to the biggest mafia in South Korea.

Jimin never, ever, thought this could be his fate. He daydreamed a lot, sure, but even his imagination couldn’t have conjured up such a twist.

He walked down the corridor, lost in thoughts. If he was in a better place mentally, he might have been gaping at all the nonchalant proof of wealth scattered around the house. Plush carpets that muffled every step he took, walls covered with artworks and framed in golden frames, the sheer size of the building… Everything around screamed of money.

The blond shook the thought away and looked around. Even though he was walking around for some time, even taking the risk of opening some non-descript doors he was passing, none of the rooms were the infirmary which he was searching for.

“Hey, Jimin!” Jimin heard unexpectedly behind himself, and he almost fell down feeling his heart jump to his throat. He turned around, somehow feeling like he was caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.

“Oh, it’s you,” the nurse mumbled when he noticed exactly who’s spooked him. The panic which threatened to grip him eased significantly, when he recognized one of the men from before.

The man in question was taller than him and slim, with nice broad shoulders and a face which could very well belong on the cover of magazines. His hair was a natural black color, slightly wavy and framing his face in a way that made him look younger than he probably was. Jimin heard all the men, apart from Jungkook, addressing him as hyung at some point during their talk, so he was probably the oldest one in the group.

What’s with gangsters being so unfairly handsome??, Jimin wondered absentmindedly, almost mad at the fact that criminals could look so good, and in a quite angelic way too.

“Yeah, it’s me,” the man confirmed with a small, cautious smile directed at Jimin. “You looked quite lost, need some help?”

The way the man acted soothed something in Jimin. The man didn’t seem as unpredictable as Jungkook who one moment cold and silent, another moment could switch to almost caring and soft. He wasn’t like Jay, all smiles and high tones and cute words, the one who Jimin had seen smile sharply at the prospect of killing their attackers. And he definitely didn’t resemble the man called Monster, who as far as Jimin was concerned, was everything his codename suggested.

Jimin exhaled with relief at the offer of help, feeling the last of his distress fade away.

“Um, right,… I am looking for the infirmary? Jungkook said I need to help Jay with his wound… ”

The taller looked somewhat surprised, at what exactly Jimin didn’t know, but then he smiled even more brightly.

“Right, if that’s what Jungkook said… I will show you the way, it’s not that far,” Jimin followed the man who led him with confidence further down the hall and then to the stairs. The man (it felt so weird for Jimin to address a grown man as Mother in his head, so he decided to just think about him as The Man), continued talking; ”…took me almost three weeks to learn where everything is here, but there is a system to this madness! I just don’t know it, only the Boss and Joo—, Monster know this place in and out.”

Jimin’s ears perked at that.

“The Boss?” the younger man inquired carefully. Jimin couldn’t help but hope that he can get some information out of the man who seemed so forthcoming and normal.

The man looked back at him, and just sighed.

“Jungkook’s the Boss, Jimin. Can I call you that? I’m the hyung here, obviously…” the man chattered. “Actually, you might wanna get used to not calling him by his name when there are others around, yeah? It’s incredibly cute that Jungkook lets you do that in private, but when his men are around? Bad idea. It lacks respect and could end up with you getting hurt, or someone thinking that they can disrespect him, too… the last time was enough, I swear it was a bloodbath! Jay was busy cleaning up the Paradise for almost a week, and he kept finding blood in the weirdest places, like…”

Jimin felt like maybe his plan to dig information out of the man was backfiring, with the way his brain was struggling to compute all these new discoveries.

Jungkook is the Boss…

It’s cute??? What does he mean by cute??...

God, bloodbath, another??

What the hell is the Paradise?...

“Hey, um… hyung,” Jimin didn’t know how to address the man, and it showed. ”I don’t really get what you—”

“Ah, right, right…” the man stood to a stop in front of the double glass doors at the end of the hallway. “Hyung will tell you everything inside, come on in!”

Fortunately, the bullet which was inside Jay’s thigh was not lodged deep, so Jimin was able to get it out with no problem. Of course, the wound needed to be stitched and cleaned as well, since the material of the man’s pants was stuck to it, and his whole leg was bloodied. The process was familiar enough to Jimin that he could listen to his hyung’s explanation while working. Jay didn’t seem to mind that he was taking part in some sort of Introduction to Mafia 101 with Jimin, and even refused local anesthesia, instead sitting down and just observing everything Jimin did with laser-like focus.

Jimin, while not happy with most of the things he was learning, was thankful that at least he was getting some answers and wasn’t being left in the dark.

“So… the actual Boss, the Head of jopok, is his uncle?”

“Correct. Jungkook is set to take over soon and has been basically leading the gang’s most important international business and transactions, leaving his old uncle to tend to simpler, more local matters.”

That was the explanation for how he got so fast to Incheon, then. He was already aware of the conflict and on his way to take care of it…

“What’s with the codenames?”

“They’re for general safety, I guess. It’s not like we use them to talk among ourselves, you know? Everyone high enough in the hierarchy knows who’s who, but the small fish know only the codenames so they can never spill our real names if anything goes wrong. And it’s not like we use only one codename per person, but honestly some of them stuck more than others…”

Jimin hummed displeased at that, wrapping a bandage around the stitched wound. For a such a loud man, Jay haven’t even made a sound while he was being stitched up, even if Jimin saw his eyes narrow with pain.

“So that’s why I only know that one codename for each of you? Because I’m a small fish and not trustworthy?” he asked in a petulant tone. So, he didn’t like to feel underestimated, sue him.

“You’re not even a small fish…” Jay said under his breath, but Jimin heard him loud and clear.

The Mother just smiled back at him with an amused look in his eyes.

“Do you want to be pulled deeper into the jopok, Jimin?”

“What?! No, it’s not—, that’s not what I…” Jimin backtracked immediately.

Yeah no, I don’t want to be a gangster, thank you, but no thank you!

“Chill, kid, he’s just kiddin’…” Jay said patronizingly and even patted Jimin’s head like he was a child, making the blond purse his lips to avoid showing his displeasure. “It’s for your own safety, though, so I wouldn’t dig any deeper if I were you.” The man added and then stood up, moving towards the door in a graceful manner despite the injury.

“What do you mean by that, my safety?” Jimin asked, making the man stop before reaching for the door handle.

That sounded ominous…

“Isn’t it obvious? If you get caught, those guys will do anything to make you speak. Information is power in our world, Jiminie, and the more you know, the more danger you’re in.” the man took another step and grabbed the doorhandle, and then turned around with a bright smile, “Ah, almost forgot! Thanks for the help, Nurse Park!”

And with that he left Jimin and the oldest member of the inside circle alone.

“Well,” the man said after a second, kind of uncomfortably. “He’s not wrong. Knowing our names is a privilege, but also comes with a lot of cons.”

Jimin spoke without thinking; “I already know one name, though… And I’m already a target. Does knowing more changes anything?”

The dark-haired man pursed his lips and then shook his head slightly.

“Jungkook’s name is his brand. Everyone knows it because he’s the one who calls the shots.”

Jimin gulped.

Ah, and that’s the man I got into a fight with, accused of being a rapist and then had a breakdown on his lap. Stellar decision making, Jimin, good job.

“I wasn’t talking about him…”

That got the man to look at him more sharply. With all his gentle mannerisms and soft tone of voice, even that didn’t make him less intimidating when he frowned at Jimin.

“Whose name do you know?” he asked and slid down from the table he was perched atop of. He looked ready to pounce, and that made the nurse lift his hands in a placating manner.

“During the attack, I heard Jungkook yelling and—, so I thought maybe that’s okay if know it… if he said it at loud…” he tried explaining himself and when he saw that the man’s expression softened back again, he breathed a little more easily.

Seriously, let me live, I will get a heart attack at this rate!

“Aaah…” the man actually smiled at that sheepishly and rubbed his neck in a gesture of embarrassment. “That one is a nickname, which Jungkook still sometimes uses…”

Jimin blinked at that, and exclaimed surprised; “You’re Jin?”

“Yup,” the man, Jin, confirmed with a smile that made him look especially charming. “That’s me, a hacker and a forger extraordinaire!” he laughed, and Jimin couldn’t help but join in.

“That’s definitely more comfortable than calling you Mother,” he said jokingly making Jin laugh in a cute, squeaky manner.

“Ah, that one is impossible to get rid of! Since I still mother them sometimes, the others just can’t let it go…”

Jimin nodded, trying to imagine Jin ordering or mothering any of the cold men he has met so far. Somehow, it was both understandable due to Jin’s obvious caring nature, and impossible to visualize – like how could someone fuss over or scold a person called Monster?

Wild.

“And you’re the oldest, right? What about the others?” Jimin asked after a few seconds, genuinely curious.

“Right, I’m thirty-four and the oldest, and then you have Jay and Monster, who are both two years younger. Jungkook is the maknae, so to say, and only twenty-nine,” Jin revealed, while gesturing for Jimin to go with him out of the infirmary.

“Twenty-nine?!” Jimin explained and followed the man. “He looks younger!”

“Right?! Ah, but he frowns all the time so the wrinkles are inevitable…” Jin joked, and Jimin again couldn’t help but to giggle. Jin, he already could see, was going to be his favorite one of the jopok.

They both walked in comfortable silence, right until Jin led Jimin to a big, dark wooden door, a few hallways away from the infirmary. Next to the door, a stone-faced Monster was waiting, leaning back against the wall. Just as they were nearing him, he glared at them, irritation clear in his eyes.

Jimin felt his heartbeat quicken.

Oh no, not him, he thought and looked at Jin for some kind of reassurance.

“Yeah, Monie is going to take you home and watch over for the next couple days,” Jin smiled at Jimin with understanding and then if that was even possible, his eyes softened when he looked back at the silver haired man. “Be careful, ok?”

“Uhm,” the man hummed with agreement and nodded to Jin, who left at that, wordlessly waving to Jimin and quickly disappeared in the labyrinth of hallways.

Hello??? What about me? Shouldn’t I be careful, left with HIM?

Having been left alone with the man caused goosebumps appear on Jimin’s skin.

The man looked at him without a word and shoved a black piece of material in his direction.

“Put it on.” He ordered, and just in one second Jimin was fuming.

A blindfold?!

He crossed his arms on his chest, squeezing the damn thing hard in his hand.

“I am not wearing that!” he said with as much resolution as he could manage, standing in front of the giant man with very obvious murder in his eyes.

“You either put it on yourself, or you’ll have a repeat of the last time you didn’t do as I said,” the man said coldly through clenched teeth, making the nurse take an instinctive step back. “Don’t.” the man warned, his tone prohibiting Jimin from making another move.

The younger man took in a shaky breath and with the last hateful glare towards the Monster put on the blindfold, effectively blocking all view.

“Let’s go, cupcake. You have some luring to do.”

Chapter Text

Jimin thought that going back to his normal life and everyday routine after the admittedly crazy events of those two days would be like a salve for his stressed-out brain.

What a joke.

If anything, the last couple days have proved themselves to be equally, if not more, draining. Not only he was working like he used to, shift after shift at the hospital, but now with the added jopok business it seemed like he never had any time to actually relax.

Just yesterday, after finally leaving work at eight PM, hot shower and cup ramyeon were the only things in his head. But did he go home and relaxed, like he dreamt? Hell, no. Jimin managed to take exactly three steps out of the hospital grounds, before a black car with Jay in the front stopped him right there, tires screeching and all. That evening instead of chilling in his house was spent patching up eleven gangsters after some kind of underground box ring fight, in an empty club at the exact opposite side of Incheon than he lived in.

Eleven.

Before he was done with all the broken noses, broken fingers and cracked ribs, it was well past midnight. Jimin could barely see due to tiredness, at this point. As he sent the last criminal home with a firm warning not to get into another fight at least until he can breathe without whimpering in pain, he realized that he was the only one left. No thank you, no nothing.

Well, except Monster.

That’s one guy, that Jimin could beg to leave him alone. And, yeah, he was forced to babysit him, as he reminded the young nurse almost every day, and was equally as happy with his assignment as Jimin.

Well, maybe even less, considering that Jimin has made his life mission for the last week and half to make the silver haired man suffer as much as he could, without even touching him. As a payback for the punch, and for the blindfold, and for the snarky insults that the older sent his way whenever they interacted… The reasons were countless.

So, every shift at the hospital, when the man was forced to tail him, Jimin put special care to change floors as often as humanely possible, and each time he used the personnel-only lift. The sight of the usually so put-together man, panting and sweating after running up and down the stairs between six floors of the hospital made the young nurse feel energized and deviously happy.

Additionally, whenever the man managed to fall asleep on the job, sitting on the plastic chairs in the waiting room in between the patients, somehow someone always managed to spill extra-hot coffee on his expensive clothes.

How was this possible? Jimin had no idea, really.

The presence of his babysitter has even made Jimin enjoy the double shifts! Mostly because as much as they were hell for the nurse, they obviously were more tiring for the man watching him.

Criminals may be used to chasing people, punching people, and doing all the shady things imaginable, but they sure as hell aren’t used to working twelve hours in a row with a measly eight hours of a break for sleep, and then returning to the same grueling work, again. For another twelve hours. Jimin thought to himself as he looked at the passed-out man slouching uncomfortably in the chair near the nurse room.

He was wearing the same things as yesterday, since he clearly didn’t manage to find time to go home and change after watching Jimin tend to the soldiers until almost two AM, driving him home just before three AM, and following him to work barely four hours after that.

Human rights? Ha! Being understaffed means no human rights, bitch, the young nurse smirked and tipped the cup in his hand.

Splash.

“Shiiiiit! Fu--, Jesus!” Monster stood up, yelling, and hissing, waving his hands like crazy. His crumpled jeans were now adorned with a huge brownish stain right at the crotch.

He turned to Jimin with startled look in his eyes. The nurse shoved the half-empty cup at him and smiled sweetly.

“Thought you might need some coffee to wake you up, cupcake.”

Oh, revenge is best served hot.

“And you didn’t see anyone suspicious? No one tailing him at work, no movement next to his apartment?” Jungkook asked, rubbing his brows. He wasn’t expecting that after almost ten days, nothing would happen. Usually, his plans worked quicker than that.

Maybe I missed something… No, it can’t be. We’re being as obvious as we can with Jimin, why are they not falling for it?

“No, Boss,” his right hand replied, exhaustion clear on his face and in his voice.

Jungkook looked at him with clear amusement in his eyes but decided not to comment on the older’s poor state. Hell, this was the first time since high school’s finals that Jungkook has seen Namjoon look so bone tired. He had the whole look: eye bags with purple coloring, ashy skin, clothes that were obviously sweated through, and jeans with… a very unfortunate stain.

Even though Jungkook decided to leave Namjoon alone, Jay didn’t have the same merciful approach.

“Is babysitting duty giving you trouble, Joon-ah? Does Jiminie overwork you?” the brunet asked in a patronizing manner. “Does our Monie want a break?”

“Fuck off, Hoseok” Namjoon replied flatly, and hid his face in his hands, “This kid is some kind of a hell spawn, I swear to God, he has made his life mission to torture me!”

Jay laughed at that, body bending as he shook with laughter. Jungkook just smirked, trying his best not to join in.

Jimin can be a brat, that is one thing I am sure of.

“Maybe he should be called Monster, instead” the laughing Jay wheezed out after a few seconds and Jin, who was sitting next to him on the couch, elbowed him in the ribs.

“Enough, Hobah” he scolded even though his lips were twitching before, too, and looked at Namjoon with real worry, “Do you need to switch? You’re not used to working all day and all night…”

The silver haired man just shook his head at that.

“I can do it, just need him to take a day off from these double shifts. I have no idea how he’s still functioning; he should be dead by now with the amount of caffeine he consumes on the daily and all that lack of sleep.”

Namjoon rubbed his eyes, and when he lifted his head up, he locked eyes with Jungkook, who was sporting a scheming look on his face.

Maybe they somehow missed the way we are baiting them with him…

“Boss?” he asked, warily. This kind of look on the younger’s face didn’t bode well.

“Well… If you say that nothing we did to show off Jimin to the public as one of us is working, then we need to make him seem more important.” Jungkook said, making both Jay and Jin look at him with contemplation.

Hoseok nodded with excitement, always the one to quickly follow up on Jungkook’s ideas.

“Right, you’re right, Kookie… So far they’ve raided our biggest cocaine deal, attacked our most profitable fight club, and set fire to the bar which was known to everyone and their mother, as a safe space for our members – they are clearly aiming where it hurts most.”

That statement obviously made all the men pause and take it in, looking for a solution.

“Jungkook, he’s not fit to actually join the mafia, you know?” Jin was the first one to speak, looking for some support at the other two. “He won’t be able to act like he’s one of us, and he most certainly won’t agree to become one of us…”

“He’s right,” Monster joined in, making the others look back at him with interest. As he was now spending the most time with Jimin, he had become somewhat acquainted with the nurse’s actions and character traits. As much as Jungkook was annoyed by the fact that somehow Namjoon now knew more about the boy than he did, it was all compensated by the way Jimin had been treating his right hand. “He is a petty bitch, but he won’t hurt anyone even for show. No way we can send him to any of our missions without it backfiring spectacularly in our faces.”

“Hmm,” that got the boss stumped, and he leaned back in his chair, biting on his lower lip in thought.

Obviously, a nurse trained to help people and save lives wouldn’t want to suddenly take part in doing the exact opposite. But how to let Jimin’s heart work for us, and not against us?

“Yeah, usually we try not to make anyone a target, not the other way around,” Jin agreed with the man’s thoughtful hum. “He can’t work for us in any other way than a medic?”

Monster shook his head again, not even bothering to address that. They all knew by now from his reports that Jimin shivered whenever there was any horror or thriller playing when he was skipping through the recommended section on Netflix; the nurse started to carry a small flashlight with him for the shifts ending during the night because the threat looming over his head made him more afraid of the dark; and still, whenever he got the sight of Namjoon’s gun Jimin’s eyes widened and he gulped, making sure to take a few steps away from the man. At this point, the silver haired man got them all agreeing, that they wouldn’t ever make a gangster from the young boy.

“Well, we can always bring him to Paradise and get him to work there,” Jay commented off-handedly. “But I doubt that’s going to make anyone think of him as more important…”

Jungkook took a measured breath in. Not the time to comment on how he would not let Jimin work a second in this place, how the nurse was never going to work there, hell step even a foot in Paradise, if he had anything to say.

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to want to become one of your whores, Hobah…” Monster muttered, and got a middle finger in response from the man.

“Unless–,” Jin started but seemed to bite his tongue, already regretting speaking out.

“Unless?” Jungkook prompted and leaned towards the older. His tone didn’t leave any room for discussion.

“Unless he’s your whore” the oldest said with trepidation.

What?

The words made Jungkook frown, but then Jay nodded.

“That could work,” the brunet agreed. “If he’s rumored to be not only your employee, but also your whore… There’s no way they aren’t going to try to get him to hurt you.”

Make Jimin… truly mine? That could work…

“So what you’re saying is…” Jungkook started with a dark voice, feeling an unknown sensation form a tightness behind his ribcage; “…that I have to seduce Park Jimin?”

Chapter Text

It’s always Mondays, Jimin thought to himself with panic, as he was dressing up in a hurry. He had no idea how it’d happened but somehow, he’d managed to miss all his alarm clocks, all seven of them(!). The nurse could, and most probably would, sleep for longer than the eight hours, if not for the terrible feeling of I’m so rested and comfy in my bed, something must be very wrong.

And it was, obviously. He stared with desperation at the clock showing the numbers 8:22.

His shift had started at 8:00. Jimin usually would be already in the changing rooms, pulling on his scrubs and drinking his first coffee of the day. As it was, he was putting on his socks, while trying to brush his hair and find his phone, and bag, and anything to eat…

The blond ran past Monster in the main room and opened the fridge. Empty, if not for the very sad looking, wilted half of a tomato and a bottle of sriracha, also half empty.

Wait a minute…

He paused and turned his head towards the other man, who was looking at him with curiosity. Jimin blinked at him, stunned.

The man blinked back.

“What the hell are doing inside of my house?!”

“Good morning to you, too.” Monster drawled and Jimin took in a deep breath.

“What the hell are–, you know? Don’t answer that! Why, whyyyy, didn’t you wake me up! I have another double today! The head nurse is going to kill m–“ he yelled at the man, who had the audacity to smirk at him in this annoying way that Jimin came to despise over the course of the last two weeks.

“Coffee?” Monster asked and pointed with his face at the huge Starbucks cup on the shelf next to him.

Well, maybe, just maybe I could forgive him, but only for today, Jimin thought and took a step towards the cup with heart eyes.

“You are not going to the hospital today, cupcake.” The man said, making Jimin pause mid-step and look at him with confusion and a hint of suspicion in his gaze.

“And why is that?” he asked, already having a feeling what the answer would be.

“Jungkook wants to see you.” The man confirmed his earlier suspicions and Jimin sighed.

Fucking Mondays.

“Take your time. Dress in something nice, well, nicer,” the man eyed his sweatpants and the first t-shirt Jimin grabbed in his hurry with disdain. “You will have brunch with him, and then Jay will have you for the rest of the day.”

Gangsters have brunches?, Jimin thought to himself and then shook off his disbelief. Not the time, Park, focus!

“What do you mean Jay–?” he started but the silvered man shushed at him, which made the nurse close his mouth and sigh again.

“Less talking, more dressing. Boss will tell you everything you need to know.”

Damn, this man couldn’t even let me finish speaking, Jimin really tried not to roll his eyes at him, but it was hard. He was arguably not the nicest person in the mornings, especially without his first dose of caffeine and Monster wasn’t making it easier for him, either.

The nurse shook his head and didn’t bother to reply. He moved towards his closet, already looking through its contents in his head, trying to find anything brunch-with-a-mob-boss appropriate.

What does one even wear for that???

“And Jimin?” The gangster’s weird tone of voice stopped him. It sounded almost pleading?

No way.

“Hm?” the blond hummed absentmindedly and grabbed his favorite pair of jeans. Well, his only pair of jeans, but semantics.

“Drink your coffee.” With those cryptic words, the man let himself out, leaving Jimin staring at him in confusion.

The real meaning of the words revealed itself to Jimin after he changed and got himself more presentable, managing to take a quick shower and put on some concealer on his face.

As the blond grabbed the cup and brought it to his mouth, no liquid came from it.

He stared at the cup in confusion. It definitely wasn’t empty, but as Jimin wiggled it in his hand, it made no splashing sounds.

He opened it and his jaw dropped. Jimin felt himself make huge eyes at the contents… and then he pulled a wad of cash from the inside.

The blond looked at it and gulped.

This is rent, loan payment and groceries for at least a month, he thought to himself and muttered at loud; “What the fuck?”

There was also a note at the bottom, and the moment he noticed it Jimin was sure his heart was going to stop. There had to be some demand connected to the cash, maybe there was something really despicable that the jopok wanted him to do, and they were trying to bribe him with the money?

But as Jimin pulled it out the cup, the note said in pretty handwriting: You win, cupcake. No more double shifts, please.

The word please was underlined two times, and Jimin smiled slowly. His cheeks bunched up, and eyes turned into crescents as he giggled, looking at the signature below.

Yours truly (tired), Monie.

Jungkook found his mind wandering as he sprawled on a comfy seat in the back of the brightly lit coffeeshop. It was a place Jin recommended, ever the lover of all things cute and aesthetic, and while the man was looking around, he understood the charm of the place.

The café was hidden on a third floor of a building connected to a huge shopping center. At the same time the coffeeshop was facing to the side street, instead of the main street and the gallery, providing some peace and quiet. The place had a welcoming atmosphere, warm cream-colored walls, and dark wooden furniture. Basing on that, and the positive reviews of the drinks and food, Jungkook was sure that the nurse would fall in love with the café.

This early in the morning, there were no customers, so Jungkook felt comfortable to bring Jimin here and talk. And, since Jin worked his magic and changed the opening hours on all the maps, sites etc., where the coffeeshop was listed, the probability of being interrupted by some random people was becoming quite slim.

As he waited for the nurse to show up, Jungkook let his thoughts flow, and he wasn’t surprised when they came back to the topic of yesterday’s conversation.

“So, what you’re saying is… that I have to seduce Park Jimin?”

“Well, you can do what you want, Boss, as long as they buy it.”

“This is crazy!”

“Is it, though? Our Jiminie’s already looking at Kookie like he wants him to-“

“Jay!”

“No, he’s right. It is a good plan.”

“Are you sure you want to do that, Jungkook?”

As Seokjin’s question echoed in his head, he sighed. After the initial spark of annoyance caused by the fact that he had to go back to working in the field and play pretend, Jungkook could admit to himself that he was intrigued. The thought of seducing Jimin wasn’t unappealing, but he doubted the younger man would fall for him fast enough to convince anyone watching of their relationship.

Or that Jimin would let himself show that he was falling for Jungkook, at all.

Because Jungkook was sure that he would be, falling in love with him, that is. The younger was undeniably in a vulnerable place now, and touch starved as well, if his reaction to Jungkook’s calming him after his breakdown was to be believed.

Up to this point, Namjoon has reported no friends, no casual acquaintances and no family. There had been a doctor who’s had some contact with Jimin at the hospital, but as the silver haired man stated, “He was cold towards Jimin the day he came back after the attack and seemed to distance himself from him immediately”.

So, the nurse was all alone, his bravado and approach towards Namjoon nothing more than a big show to hide his fear and uncertainty… and Jungkook could work with that.

Hell, if Jimin had no true attachments to anyone, he might as well be a virgin, too, the thought suddenly came to him making Jungkook moved in place slightly, as he felt himself hardening. The images of the slim body underneath him, moving in time with his thrusts, quivering in passion and plush lips opened in a perfect “O” swarmed his mind.

Jungkook closed his eyes in hunger and licked his lips, committing the lustful images to memory.

If that’s the case… I will have so much fun ruining him.

Walking into a cute café to meet up with a mafia boss was a surreal experience in Jimin’s eyes. The place seemed more like a meeting space for couples or maybe students, with its Instagram-able interior and adorable beverage and food designs. But to see Jungkook, again dressed only in black, with an unreadable expression on his face and a dark look in his eyes?

Surreal.

Jimin slowly came closer and sat on the opposite side of the table.

“Hi…” he mumbled quietly and couldn’t help but to look down on his hands nervously interlaced in front of him. To look straight into the eyes of someone who’d seen him so vulnerable last time they’d met, was in this moment too much to ask of him.

“Hey, Jimin-ssi.” The man responded in his usual tone, which Jimin categorized as mocking and flirty, with some undertone of danger coloring it almost imperceptibly.

“So, what do you–” Jimin started after a few seconds of silence, but Jungkook cut him off.

“Have you eaten?”

Jimin was at loss for words, forgetting to even get annoyed at yet another person not letting him finish speaking in the span of only two hours.

“No?” he answered in a questioning voice, and when Jungkook pushed the menu laying in front of him towards the nurse, he took it and looked at the older man visibly unsure.

“Order first, Jimin-ssi.” The man said in a firm voice, and that broke Jimin out of his stupor.

The blond looked down at the menu and tried to replicate the same tone; “Didn’t know you respect me enough to use honorifics, Jungkook-ssi.”

That earned him a chuckle and he raised his eyes to dart a quick glance on the man. What was supposed to be a short peek turned into a bewildered stare, when he caught the sight of Jungkook leaning towards him, his face propped on his hand and smiling widely. His eyes were trained at Jimin, and even when their eyes met, he didn’t look away. If it was even possible, his gaze seemed more burning instead.

“You think I don’t respect you?” the man asked quietly, and Jimin pursed his lips. As much as he wanted to avoid answering that question, there was no obvious way out of it.

It’s not like I gave you any reasons to…

“Why would you?” he asked back, and Jungkook seemed to mull it over before replying softly; “I have my reasons.”

Jimin raised his eyebrows, but before he managed to ask what that was supposed to mean, the man nodded at the waitress who was loitering around.

“You didn’t even look at the menu,” Jimin said in a petulant tone.

And you didn’t answer!

Jungkook shrugged and replied with a smug smile; “I know exactly what I want.”

Jimin shivered slightly at the look accompanying the words. The nurse didn’t miss the fact, that the man’s eyes were set on him as he was saying that; his dark brown eyes impenetrable and almost black as the dark, hungry look settled in them.

They sat in silence until the waitress came with their order; small black coffee for Jungkook (Black like his soul probably, Jimin thought snarkily) and a big caramel latte with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and a double shot of espresso for Jimin. The nurse decided that if the man was going to be as unforthcoming as he’d been until now, he’d need something with a lot of sugar and caffeine to combat the annoyance. As he was ordering, he thought that would be all – a huge coffee instead of breakfast was a norm for him, when he was too busy to eat anything or too broke to buy anything to eat, but to his surprise the mafia boss took the matter into his own hands and ordered for him.

Looking at the obscenely delicious-looking sandwiches in front of him, and a big piece of mouthwatering creamy cake, Jimin couldn’t even find it in himself to try to seem mad.

The blond grabbed the sandwich and took a big bite, almost whimpering at the taste. He closed his eyes to really appreciate the mixture of different flavors.

So that’s how the elite eats…, flew through his mind.

When Jimin opened his eyes, he noticed that yet again Jungkook was watching him.

He had the coffee cup resting against his lips, but it seemed to be forgotten halfway through the motion. Instead, the man’s eyes were trained at the younger’s lips. This time however, it looked like the man got lost in his own thoughts, as his tongue appeared to lick his upper lip sensually.

Why is he looking at me like that? DON’T look at me like that! Park Jimin, no! Do not think about his lips–, his voice –, NO, do not think about that!

“S-so…” Jimin started and grabbed his own coffee to take a big gulp of the drink. The older man’s eyes snapped back to his, his gaze intense. The blond couldn’t help but to lick his own lip, strangely dry even though he just took a big sip of the latte. “What is this all about?”

Jungkook smiled darkly and leaned back, also sipping his coffee.

“Our plan is not working, Jimin.” He stated and while he was saying his name, the nurse noticed immediately the lack of honorifics.

Before Jimin managed to object at that, a big hand covered his own lying on the table.

The nurse felt his eyes budge in disbelief and gawked at the man.

“They are watching, don’t make a scene.” The older man ordered while placing his coffee on the side, his eyes surveying the café and the terrace outside cautiously. Jimin just nodded, blushing furiously.

Jungkook’s hand was big and warm over his own and covered it perfectly; the same part of Jimin that noticed how lustful the man’s eyes looked throughout their conversation also managed to swoon over his hand. Jungkook had very nice hands, indeed.

“Come sit next to me, here.” the man ordered in the same soft tone and tugged on Jimin’s hand. The nurse obeyed without a word of protest and left his chair to sit next to Jungkook on the couch. Jimin tried to leave some space between them, but Jungkook pulled him closer, their thighs pressed together and their shoulders touching. “Relax.”

How can I relax like that?!?!

Jimin gulped and muttered; “Why are you still holding my hand..?”

To his consternation, that did the exact opposite of what he intended, making Jungkook squeeze his hand more firmly and move it towards his own lap. The man leaned towards him, his lips next to Jimin’s temple and whispered; “I don’t want them to be able to listen, or to read lips. Don’t be too obvious.”

At this point Jimin was sure that his face was the color of fresh beetroot. He felt his ears getting warmer, and tried not to shiver when Jungkook moved to put his left arm around his shoulders while his right hand was still holding Jimin’s hostage.

The blond took a deep inhale and grabbed now lukewarm coffee with his free hand. He brought it to his lips to cover them and asked in a barely-there voice; “So what now?”

The man took hummed in contemplation, and Jimin took in another shaky breath in as the sound traveled right to his ear.

“We need to take this a step further, Jimin.” The older said and then when Jimin widened his eyes and shook him a look from the side, he smiled reassuringly.

Why is he so close…?? I can’t focus when he is being all flirty and touchy and weird, Jimin despaired in his head, as he tried to ignore the warmth of the man seeping through the points of contact between their bodies. From this distance, again, if he moved his face a little bit to the side, their lips would touch.

Why do we always end up in the same position?...

The nurse bit his lip in hesitance.

“T-take what further?” he asked and could not help the shiver his time, when the man’s eyes sparkled with mirth and he shot a burning look down to his lips. “Stop that!” he hissed, but when he made a move to detangle himself from their embrace, Jimin quickly felt the man grab him more firmly and press him into himself. “Jungkook!” he scolded, when his face landed again in the man’s neck, eerily similar to the last time.

“Don’t make a scene, Jimin,” the mafia boss murmured, and he continued; “They are not taking the bait, so we need to make it more obvious that you are an easy target that’s close to the heart of jopok.”

“Do I actually need to be that close?” Jimin countered in snappy voice, mostly into the man’s neck because his grip was steel-tight. The blond rolled his eyes at the chuckle that followed his remark.

“We want to pretend that you’re becoming part of the inner circle.” Jungkook continued his explanation, moving Jimin so that his face was more at his level when it became obvious that the younger was not going to try to break free of his embrace again. “But no-one would believe a mere medic would get to the top just like that. So, we need to add a side to our story to make it more believable… Think, Jimin. How could you get into my good graces well enough to make you part of the inner circle?”

The question should stump Jimin, because he knew nothing about the hierarchy of mafia, and how one could move to the top in their world, or even how their organizations worked. But somehow, Jimin already had a feeling of what Jungkook was asking of him.

“You want to pretend to be dating me.” He whispered, locking eyes with the man, who smirked at him and moved his hand to touch Jimin’s face like a lover would.

“Not exactly, darling.” He replied, and the deceptively sweet tone of his voice, made warmth travel down Jimin’s body. “I want you to be the one seducing me.”

Jimin closed his eyes briefly, trying to make sense of it all. The hand at his face caressing his cheek was not helping him focus his thoughts, at all.

“Why?”

“Because gangsters aren’t known for pursuing anyone. We take, and take, until there’s nothing more to be taken, and then we move on. No one would believe that if I made the first move, after a week or two you’d still be of any worth to me. But if you’d be the one pursuing me… well, that rarely happens. It’d be a good explanation to why I still am interested in you, why I have Monster follow you… If they believe you are making me fall in love with you, then they are sure to fall for the bait.”

The explanation left Jimin’s mind spinning.

I need to pretend to fall in love with him. NO, I need to pretend to make him fall in love with me? That’s… somehow sooooo much worse. How can I convince someone that I made the head of jopok fall for me???

“You think you can do that?” Jungkook whispered and leaned his face towards Jimin’s. The younger inhaled at the way the man’s hand moved from his cheek to grasping his chin.

The intense way Jungkook’s eyes were boring into his own, made Jimin gasp an answer without even thinking about it; “Yes, I can do it.”

The older man smiled at that, and his next words sent Jimin’s heart into panicked fluttering.

“Then prove it, Jimin. Kiss me.”

Chapter Text

Prove it, Jimin. Kiss me.

Jeon Jungkook wasn’t by any means a prideful man, but now he was patting his own shoulder internally. He spent a good portion of yesterday’s evening, and night, thinking on how to play this correctly; he was well aware that even if Jimin had been attracted to him, the nurse would be too smart and too cautious to ever act on that alone. There was also a big chance that if he himself was the one to pursue the younger, it would only make Jimin more wary and eventually could lead to some kind of mistake later on, ruining their whole operation.

But if he made Jimin the one to call the shots, at least in the nurse’s opinion? It was a masterful move.

The mafia boss observed the blond’s reaction carefully. Jimin appeared shocked when hearing his order, and Jungkook could feel the way his body tensed under his hands.

Come on, cupcake, take the bait…

It seemed like million thoughts were running through the pretty nurse’s head and he wanted to avoid that – the more he analyzed Jungkook’s explanation, the more he could argue with it. Jimin clearly needed that one little push to fall into his carefully laid trap and Jungkook was happy to provide it.

He conjured a slow, flirty smile and let his left arm fall to the younger’s waist and loosely grip it. That snapped Jimin out of his shock, but clearly wasn’t enough to give him enough courage as his eyes were still wide and he bit his lip in thought.

Sinfully, in Jungkook’s opinion. He let his gaze fall down to the younger’s lips just for a second.

“Okay,” the blonde whispered to himself and, surprising Jungkook, he lifted his small hand to the criminal’s face. His touch was feather light as he caressed the older man’s face. “Okay.” Jimin repeated so softly that Jungkook could barely hear him and leaned in.

The kiss was soft and innocent, the younger’s lips slotting on his own like they belonged there. There wasn’t even a hint of tongue or teeth involved, but still Jungkook felt how the warmth from the kiss traveled downwards, making him feel aroused.

Jungkook groaned at how delicate the movement of Jimin’s lips was; the younger man’s hand still resting on his cheek. He decided to let himself indulge in the feeling more than he probably should and opened his mouth slightly against Jimin’s own to deepen the kiss.

The sweet gasp of surprise that followed the action was worth it.

Not feeling any resistance, he moved more firmly and took the control of the kiss, pressing more insistently on the plush lips. He tightened his grip on the younger’s waist and moved the other hand lower, to Jimin’s neck, bringing him closer.

The blond whimpered at that, and he used it to lick into his mouth, tasting him more fully. Even as caught in the kiss as he was, Jungkook still had the mind to notice that Jimin was not only not tensing and resisting his advances, but also happily reciprocating.

He was also making those little, delicious sounds as he was returning the kiss, too. Those little whimpers were going straight down to Jungkook’s cock, which was hardening more and more with each second.

He didn’t want to scare the other, though. Jungkook could be patient and wait a bit more before he got those plump lips wrapped around his cock. Even though the plan didn’t need that, the mafia boss knew that he would make the pretty little thing almost melting on his lap, his own. And then…

Then, he would do just as he said – take, take and take, until there was nothing more to be taken.

With that thought in mind, he lessened the pressure on Jimin’s lips, now slick with saliva and puffy. Jungkook grabbed the younger’s lower lip with his teeth and playfully biting it, he ended the kiss.

The sight of kiss drunk Jimin, who was slowly opening his eyes and breathing irregularly, sent one last pang of arousal down his body.

“Good boy,” he couldn’t help but purr and with undeniable mirth watched Jimin blush even more.

We’re gonna have so much fun together, you and me.

While Jungkook left the café not long after the kiss and with a few whispered sweet words, Jimin stayed and stared at the half-eaten sandwich, his now cold coffee and untouched piece of cake with an unseeing stare.

That was quite a kiss.

He huffed at that; what an understatement. This kiss could end world hunger and all the wars, as far as he was concerned.

Jimin was not in any case, an untouched virgin, though his experience was painfully limited to a few make-out sessions at high school and then college parties, and a paticular drunk one-night stand with a girl who’s been crushing on him during first year of uni. All that meager experience led to, was a few sleepless nights which ended with an epiphany of “I am as gay as they come”.

Sadly, life happened and with all the studying and part-time jobs, Jimin never had much time or opportunity to act on his newly discovered urges after that.

Now, he was cursing his own inexperience. Maybe if he had become familiar with the feeling of being kissed and touched like that, he wouldn’t now feel as if his skin was not his own, as if Jungkook took possession of his body and his mind.

“Believe me when I say… If I wanted you, you’d be in my bed already.”

Yeah, Jimin believed him now. Just a few moments earlier he was ready to throw all his previous inhibitions astray, just to feel more of Jungkook’s lips and commanding touches.

If he fucks like he kisses…, he shivered at the thought and closed his eyes in shame. He was not supposed to feel like this, goddammit!

He sighed and reached for the cake.

The sugar would chase off the gloomy feeling if he’s lucky. And he needed to seem more like himself for when Jay comes to pluck him off to shopping and whatever else the unpredictable gangster had in store for him.

“And I need that, why exactly?” Jimin asked, trying not to squirm when Jay was pushing a see-through black shirt against his chest, humming in thought.

“What do you mean, why? Jiminie, you have to look the part to act the part, of course!” the older responded with a bright smile and chucked the shirt into a growing pile of clothes in the shop assistant’s hands. “This, too, in blue, and pink… Do you have any leather pants?”

“Yes, sir, I will bring them right away.” The pile-of-clothing hiding a young girl replied and moved away.

Jimin just shook his head without a word. There was no point in arguing with Jay, because no matter what he said the gangster always had an answer ready.

A pair of stretchy mom jeans? Do you already have a pair? Because they’re a must this season! A black leather jacket costing more than what Jimin earned in a month? Come on, Jiminie, the mafia boss’s lover needs to look rawr! Black jeans that were almost too tight to put on? Jiminie, do it for the booty! It looks great in them!

No point arguing, because how does one even respond to that? Jimin didn’t even really know how he can look rawr (what does it mean???), and his ass looked great in everything, thank you very much.

So he just shut up, accepted that he was basically getting a new wardrobe bought by money from sources he tried desperately not to think about, and did everything he could to enjoy himself. Why not? It’s not like he would get to do this kind of splurging on his own ever again.

Though, he did stand his ground when Jay tried to pull him into a lingerie store. Just, no.

Jimin shuddered at the thought of Jay throwing flimsy G-strings at him to try them on. He would probably die if it came to that.

Thankfully, the older just laughed at his panicked objections and agreed to omit this particular store in favor of getting boba.

Now sitting together at the small table, Jimin with his small brown sugar milk tea and Jay slurping a horrendously large melon one, the younger could finally rest. He expected the shopping to take an hour, maybe two, but it was almost four PM already and he was being dragged through every possible clothing store for the last five hours. He was exhausted.

“Don’t sigh like that, geez! Only one last stop, and then you are free to go, Jiminie!” The brunet said and took a big sip, smiling mysteriously.

“The last stop?” Jimin inquired, almost afraid to ask.

If it is another jeans store, I might just cry.

“Well, the hairdresser’s is a must, surely you know that…” the other said, no gentleness in his tone.

Jimin touched his hair sullenly. He was aware that the bland blond-ish/brown-ish color of his hair was not ideal for his complexion, but it still made him feel dejected to have Jay point it out so openly. He tried his best to dye it on his own, but there were limitations to what you can do with a store-bought dye and no real knowledge of how to actually use it.

Still, he didn’t really want to go back to plain black hair he had before. Jimin had dyed his hair impulsively but in the end liked the feeling of taking some control over his appearance and letting some of his personality shine through it. It was a new feeling for him, and a good one.

“Don’t make that face, you will decide for yourself what you want – I will leave you there and Monie will come to pick you up, you still need to get ready…” The man babbled while swirling his straw in the cup to catch the last tapioca pearl.

“Get ready for what?” Lately it seemed like all Jimin was doing, was asking questions.

But honestly, after the events of today he felt like hiding in his bed for the evening and thinking on how to possibly cope with kissing the Head of jopok.

Kissing Jungkook.

Because that somehow felt different, than just thinking about kissing a criminal. Half of what was making Jimin so nervous about the whole situation, was that it was Jungkook, not anyone else.

So, yeah, I want to mope and maybe scream into my pillow a little bit, and more-than-probably take a cold shower thinking very unsexy thoughts. I don’t want to get ready for anything, especially not tonight.

“Ah, right…” The older man nodded, and then after a cautious look around, he continued to speak in a lower voice; “So today it’s your day off, but tomorrow is showtime. Take your time to prepare, you know?”

“I most definitely do not know, and at this point I am afraid to ask.” Jimin admitted and took a big gulp of his own drink.

Showtime sounds like a code word for something I really don’t want to participate in…

Jay smiled at that honest reply and nodded, as he started explaining everything.

“It may seem a bit soon, but we want to put our new strategy into life as quick as possible. It means that you will be an arm candy for the Boss during the meeting with another… organization.” The man was choosing his words carefully, mindful of the people moving around them. “The meeting is mostly to straighten some… inaccuracies with the distribution of… prized goods on the part of our partner. But, as always, it includes some posturing, some threats, and a whole lot of drinking and mingling – that’s where you come in. Basically, we want to show you off to as many people as we can in hopes of catching someone stupid enough to make a move.”

This may have been the first time Jimin heard Jay speak so seriously, no jokes and no nicknames, only business talk. And if it hadn’t been obvious to him before, it was now – this whole sunshine personality had been just an act, maybe as a means of self-protection, and maybe as a way of fooling people into believing the man was more ditzy and carefree than he actually was. In reality, it seemed more and more to Jimin, that the man in front of him was incredibly smart and had a strategic mind hidden behind all the humor.

Jimin took another sip, considering the older’s words carefully.

He’d made his peace with being the bait for some kind of new upcoming mafia group. However, the thought of being thrust into a meeting where all of the participants were criminals, quite potentially out to get him, wasn’t appealing in the slightest. There was logic to their plan, though.

“Where?”

“There is a club, one of many in our possession, that is the common place for meetings like this one.”

Jimin felt like a lightbulb lit up into his head. “The Paradise?” He asked, remembering the name that he’d heard during the conversation with Jin.

Jay smiled at his quick thinking and nodded approvingly.

“Bingo. Managing it is my main job when the Boss doesn’t need me elsewhere. I control the whole place and the Mother has access to all the security cameras, so we can be sure who is or isn’t there.” He explained, and Jimin to his own surprise realized how business-like criminal word was.

Managing a club is actually a pretty normal job, he thought to himself. If he ignored the memories of Jay shooting someone in a hospital next to Jungkook with a cold smile, he could almost pretend the older was just a normal guy, with a normal life.

Maybe some of it showed on his face, because Jay chuckled, his smile less wide but more sincere looking. “Didn’t expect that, huh?”

“I just never put any thought into how this… side of business?... really works.” Jimin tried to excuse himself. The man just shrugged, as if saying “It is what it is”.

Since Jay seemed to be in a communicative mood, Jimin decided to ask him more questions. Mostly to satisfy his own curiosity, but also because another chance might not come soon.

Or ever.

“What should I expect? Do I need to do anything in particular?” the nurse asked, and then when another thought flashed through his head, he leaned closer to Jay and asked in a panicked whisper; “Do I need to have a gun?!”

That if anything made the man laugh again, but more on Jimin’s expense.

“Do you even know how to use one?” the criminal asked condescendingly and shook his head. “No, Jiminie, no guns for you.”

“And about the other things?” the younger implored, trying to fight the embarrassed blush.

Of course, that no one would give you a gun!

“Just dress nicely, and I mean it, nicely. Show off that twinky body of yours.”

Yeah, that blush is there to stay. Fucking Jay.

“And keep the Boss’s company, basically. Smile. Nod. Grope a feel if you want to.” The man shrugged with a sleazy smile, as if what he said wasn’t giving Jimin heart palpitations. “Try not to look as frightened as you do right now, and it should do.”

Jimin gulped, proving Jay’s words true. He was having some doubts in the beginning, but now they were roaring inside his head in full.

“Am I going to be safe?” he asked, even though it felt silly to do so. Obviously, the situation would far from safe, Jimin knew that, but he needed some assurance that he wasn’t going to be put on a silver plate for some assholes to grab.

Maybe the honest worry in his eyes was convincing enough for Jay to put his joking manner aside once again, because he replied a lower voice; “Jungkook is not going to let anyone hurt you, Park Jimin.”

And that… that Jimin believed.

Having eased his doubts at least marginally, Jay took him to the hairdresser’s almost right after that. Monster was already there, talking on the phone, and barely spared them a glance when they came in. The man fished his keys out of his back pocket and threw them to Jay, so he could put all their shopping bags (and there were many, soooo many) away in the trunk.

Jimin just barely caught it as it was happening, because almost from the minute he entered the salon he was grabbed by the two stylists who would oversee his makeover. They both seemed more excited about it than he was, chattering in his ear about different dyes and hairstyles.

The nurse felt totally out of his depth, and it must have showed, because the older, who introduced himself as Yeonjun, grabbed his hands and squeezed.

“We don’t have to do anything crazy, hyungnim.” He assured the nurse, who smiled at him shyly.

“…But the roots have to go!” the other one, Taehyun, joked, loosening up the atmosphere.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Jimin once again was struck with the thought that he didn’t like what he saw – a tired, washed-out young man who in other circumstances, in some more favorable life maybe, could be a beauty. He had come to terms with it before, but now with all that was happening, the strange way his life changed entirely in a span of two weeks… Jimin let himself want more.

More than just simple existing, work and only work, not wanting something for himself.

And so, he decided.

What the hell, why not. If I am already playing with fire, giving myself to the devil and throwing all my sound judgement away, might as well do it while looking hot.

Chapter Text

Despite being given a full evening and most of the next day to prepare, Jimin found himself feeling completely unready for the event. Sure, Jay helped him buy a suit and even some make-up, and his hair was freshly dyed an (almost naturally looking) light blond, but inside he felt as if he was thrust suddenly into the dark, deep ocean. Everything that was happening nowadays was like waves tossing him around and all he could try to do was keep his head above water.

He applied the final layer of lip-gloss and stared himself down in the mirror. This Jimin looked more put together than what he usually saw in his reflection, but his eyes were equally as wide and terrified. He spent the morning watching different YouTube tutorials and googling makeup technics, and while he was satisfied and almost proud with the result, it didn’t bring him the confidence he hoped for.

Jimin had carefully put on some smoky eyeshadow, and even lined his waterline with some darker shades, drowned his face in an almost insane amount of concealer to hide the dark shadows he had been sporting ever since the massacre at the hospital, and as a finishing touch he painted his lips an alluring, rose pink.

He’d gathered that Jungkook seemed to like them bitten-red and slick, and so Jimin decided that if he was playing the part of a seductress, he might as well look the part.

He glared at himself, disdained. Almost all yesterday’s evening he spent reliving the kiss and he felt pitiful. Where has his fighting spirit gone? Not so long he had been taunting the man while pinned by him to the wall, and now even the smallest thought of his tongue sliding against Jimin’s had desire pooling low in his belly.

Jimin bit his lips, absentmindedly, lost in thoughts.

“You done dolling yourself up, cupcake?” he heard from behind himself, and he rolled his eyes, turning towards Monster.

The man was leaning against the door, all dressed in black – black turtleneck, black slacks, and black belt with a silver buckle. His grey-ish hair was styled impeccably and he was looking better than ever. After two days of not running after the nurse up and down in the hospital and getting more than a measly three hours of sleep, the man’s complexion went back from pale and washed-out to rosy and tan.

Jimin held back a smirk.

Both yesterday and today, Monster had treated him more or less the same, but the new-found respect in his eyes was a new, and a very welcome, change. While the older refused to call him anything other than the stupid nickname, at least he wasn’t grunting or manhandling him.

Jimin would take whatever victory he’s given, at this point.

“This is the best I can do,” he replied and took a second to calm himself down. “I guess that means we’re leaving now.”

The man nodded, while checking his phone.

“The Boss will be here any minute now. We’ll ride with him and Jay.” He informed the younger and turned to leave, before turning back again to the nurse and muttering softly, “Loose the tie and the jacket, cupcake. It’s not prom dance you’re going to, it’s a club. Relax, yeah?”

And with that, he left the apartment, probably to look for Jungkook’s car, and in doing so missed the middle finger thrown his way.

After a second or two, Jimin complied, and even unbuttoned three buttons from his shirt.

I guess it is showtime.

The ride over was almost disappointingly uneventful for Jimin. Of course, he spent most of it looking through the window in order not to stare at Jungkook, but still.

Jay was driving, his leg almost completely healed as he said, and Monster was in the front seat messaging someone for the whole ride. Jin, probably, if Jimin’s guess was correct. The nurse noticed the worry with which the oldest gangster looked at the silver haired male, and the way Monster’s tone softened only when talking to, or about, Jin.

I guess even the worst criminals can harbor crushes, Jimin mused. He stole a peak in Jungkook’s direction.

The man was as handsome as always, if not more. Not unlike Monster, he also was wearing black, but the man looked more sophisticated. The jacket and matching fitted trousers, silky black shirt and his loose, curling hair only added to his charm.

Not to mention the smell of his perfume that attacked Jimin as soon as he’d gotten in the car. The man smelled like sin, something fresh and spicy, citrusy and seductive, but not overwhelming.

All in all, he looked devastatingly handsome and powerful. And Jimin could only hope that his earlier resolution of not giving in to the man’s charm too easily would stay strong.

“Ready, gentlemen?” Jay asked humorously with a sly smile when they stopped.

Jimin didn’t answer, and neither did the other men.

The nurse looked dazedly at the building and gulped.

The Paradise was located in Seoul, in some back alley close to the partying district. The building was white, but the lights pooling from everywhere made it drown in red. The word “Paradise” was written vertically on building, in big bright pulsing letters.

Jimin let himself stare for a moment at the neon lights, noticing the uneven pulsing sequence. Every now and then, instead of the full word, only the letters D, I, E would flare up.

The blond suppressed a shiver and got out of the car, almost too out of it to notice that Jungkook held up his arm to grab for him. He took it gratefully, happy to have something to lean on.

Jimin let himself be led into The Paradise, deciding to observe the surroundings for the time being. Jungkook, however, seemed to be in his element – the man nodded to the bouncers, the waiter they passed, and some other people too, and then even engaged in small talk with the barman before ordering drinks.

“What would you like, love?” he asked suddenly, turning his face towards Jimin, his mouth nearly touching the younger’s temple.

…love?

Jimin felt his mouth dry up and tightened his grip on the older man’s arm almost instinctively.

Showtime, Jimin, remember, it’s showtime. Don’t screw this up!

The nurse took a deep breath and turned towards his date more. As he was turning his face up he ended up brushing his own lips against the older man’s.

Ooops!

“What do you recommend, hyung?” Jimin asked as sweetly as he could manage after the barely-there kiss. It was rewarded with an almost impossible to miss darkening of the criminal’s gaze.

“A French Kiss.” The man said louder to the bartender, this eyes still focused on Jimin’s.

The nurse felt himself blushing under the unyielding gaze, but didn’t look away, instead choosing to touch up the muscled arm he was leaning on.

God, the man is built like a Greek god, he thought trying not to let his thoughts wander any further.

Jungkook didn’t seem to have the same inhibitions, because as he felt the firm touch of Jimin’s hand loosen and travel up and down his arm, he licked his lips and looked down the nurse appreciatingly making goosebumps appear on Jimin’s body.

The bartender disturbed their weighted silence with a chuckle; “A French Kiss for two!”

Jimin eyed the shot with a hesitation, just for a second.

Is it smart to get drunk for such a dangerous event?

Do I trust Jungkook while drunk?

(…do I trust myself?)

The blond grabbed the small glass and looked at Jungkook, who was already staring at him with a smile playing on his lips, his tattooed hand wrapped around the glass.

“To us,” the mafia boss said and raised his glass.

“To us,” Jimin echoed with a weak voice and downed his shot.

Jungkook felt his patience running thin, thin, thin… He had spent the whole day with Hoseok and Jin trying to prepare himself, his men and Paradise for the meeting. Everything needed to perfect, because if he slipped up somewhere, he knew his business partner would use that to his own advantage. Or he’d laugh at him, with the annoying low chuckle and sharp words.

And that’s the last thing I need.

The man he was meeting wasn’t a descendant of an old criminal family, like Jungkook himself. Worse, he was a descendant from a royal family, and while it didn’t mean anything in the outside world, the crime world loved their bloodlines, proud heritages, and historical figures.

He knew he had to be sharp and focused tonight, but his companion for the night was not helping his case. Of all things that could surprise him this evening, Jungkook didn’t even take Park Jimin into the account.

The nurse turned up, not only dolled up to the nines, with soft make up enhancing his best features but also dressed like he stepped straight out from Jungkook’s wet dreams. His legs were clad in a tight black leather pants that also accentuated the man’s slim hips and little waist. Add to that a loose, creamy silk shirt, unbuttoned just enough that Jungkook with this height advantage could look down the younger man’s cleavage almost down to his belly button… The young nurse looked illegal, sweet but sinful.

His behavior was surprising, too, at least to some point. As Jungkook expected, the younger was hesitant as they were entering the club, but quickly turned almost foolishly brave in his flirting.

Ah, well… I’ve always loved a good challenge.

The challenge himself was downing a cute, pink shot with a fierce look in his eyes.

Jungkook did the same, and he held back a wince. The drink was too sweet for his own taste, but he had a feeling that his date would appreciate something else than whisky, and that was all what was served behind the close doors during the mafia meetings.

His guess was confirmed, when he heard a soft, surprised “Mhmm!” of appreciation from the blond, and he suppressed the fond smile that was forming on his face. He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

Jimin had some whipped cream left on the corner of his lips, but wasn’t aware of that, instead looking at the shot glass with a look of amazement. Tequila rose, rumchata, grenadine and a whole lot of sugar seemed to be the way to his heart.

Adorable, the mafia boss thought to himself and reached this hand to Jimin’s face. The gesture made the shorter man look at him with a wide gaze, so sweetly that Jungkook couldn’t help but to lean down and kiss the remaining of whipped cream away, instead of brushing it off with his thumb.

The whimper of surprise was absolutely worth it.

So sweet.

“Let’s go, darling.” He said into the younger’s lips, “We have some business to take care of.”

It took a second, but the blond man nodded to him, pupils wide and his gaze downright lustful.

Jimin’s resolution of not giving in was crumbling faster than he expected. His own anxiety, Jungkook’s voice, the burn of the alcohol and the filthy kiss were all tearing his sanity to shreds.

He grabbed the older’s arm more firmly and let himself be steered away from the bar and further into the club.

The Paradise was one only in name – even its logo was a silhouette of a woman with horns and a devil’s tail. The club was bigger than Jimin expected, stretching far with many rooms, nooks and crannies and private booths. The nurse was thinking earlier that a place owned and controlled by mafia would have a shady vibe and décor, but he was proved otherwise. The inside of a club was spacious, and tall with arches and elegant white walls. Similarly, to the outside, everything was bathed in a red lights.

The walls were covered in mirrors and neon writings. Some looked mainstream and innocent enough, “Not Nice”, “Heartbreaker” and “Drunk in Love”, perfect for the regular partygoers to take a selfie with. Just part of a club’s aesthetic, nothing more.

Others not so much. “Hug your inner demons they need love, too” and “Seduce and Destroy” seemed almost too on the nose.

As he was following Jungkook’s lead towards the back, Jimin let himself sucked into the club’s vibe. All around him there were bodies writhing on the dancefloor, the music was pounding and loud enough to drown his thoughts, but not enough to become intolerable. The flashing lights and the thick smoke from the dancefloor curling around everyone was adding to the hazy atmosphere.

“Still with me, doll?” he heard and snapped his eyes to Jungkook who was looking at him with a small smile. They were standing near a big door underneath a grand arch, guarded by two buff guys. Seemingly, behind this door was the place where the meeting was about to happen.

Why here, rather than some private conference room, or a restaurant, Jimin didn’t know. Maybe it was just like Jay said – it was all about posturing, exchanging some threats, and a whole lot of drinking and mingling.

He nodded at Jungkook and straightened, ready to follow him into the back room.

The guards let them pass without a word. Just as the door closed behind their backs the room became awfully quiet. There was some drum of the music still there, but Jimin had to strain his ear to hear it.

The room was grand, furnished not unlike the mafia house and totally soundproof. The main feature of the room seemed to be a high round table surrounded by leather chairs, all screaming luxury and money. Behind them stood a table covered in alcohol, and with that exception the room was devoid of any important furniture, walls covered in some huge paintings that even to Jimin’s unexperienced eyes looked somewhat tastelessly opulent and kind of boring.

While Jimin was busy looking around, Jungkook slipped from his grip and sauntered towards the small table containing expensive looking glass bottles, all filled with amber-colored liquids. The man filled a glass for himself and took a sip, before gesturing to Jimin to come closer and sprawling on a leather chair opposite to the door they came through.

The nurse did so with some hesitance, and rightfully so. The moment he stood close to the older man he was pulled onto his lap, landing gracelessly with a yelp.

“Yah! You gotta stop doing that!” Jimin exclaimed without thinking and pushed harshly on the man’s chest. It only seemed to amuse the dark-haired man as he chuckled at Jimin’s outburst.

“You dislike this position that much, Jimin?” the man asked, eyes mirthful. “I, for one, quite enjoy it.”

Yeah, you would, you asshole.

Jimin wouldn’t be himself though if he didn’t add fuel to the fire. But he knew now, that letting his temper get away from him in front of Jungkook tend not to end in his favor.

“You’re getting predictable,” Jimin jabbed, trying to control his voice.

Stay calm, just stay calm, you got this.

The man took a sip of whisky from his glass and withheld his gaze with a practiced ease. He even had the audacity to smirk.

“And that’s why you blush so sweetly every time?” Jungkook put away the glass nonchalantly.

Aaaaand there goes my calm….

“Oh, fuck off!” Jimin muttered and squirmed while still pushing on the man’s chest, trying to regain enough balance to stand up without plopping right back onto Jungkook’s thighs.

One tattooed hand snaked around his hips and gripped his thigh firmly. The big hand fit surprisingly well on the junction of Jimin’s hip and thigh and added an overwhelming amount of pressure there.

“Unless you want to take our little performance way further than kissing right in front of my guests, I advise you to stop moving.” The older hissed suddenly.

Jimin shivered at that, which didn’t go unnoticed by the criminal, but stilled obediently.

Shit, yeah, maybe meeting with fellow criminals with a hard-on is not the smartest idea, he thought to himself and tried not to let his intrusive thoughts win and move one last time, but this time with purpose.

“When they come in, you will give them a small show, but after that you are to stand behind me and be quiet, am I clear?” Jungkook said and seeing Jimin wasn’t going to answer him, he added with narrowed eyes. “That means no snarky comebacks, no commenting, nothing.”

Jimin rolled his eyes slightly.

Jungkook was as handsome as he was arrogantly annoying, and while a big part of the younger melted when he was being stared with that dark look, an equally big part wanted to bite back, and talk back.

“I asked…” the man repeated, his grip on the younger’s tightening again. “Am I clear?”

The change from low and firm, but joking voice to the demanding, dark tone, immediately ended any thought of talking back before it even began to bud in Jimin’s head. Whenever the older man used this tone, the nurse knew he meant business.

“…Yes.” Jimin replied appeasingly while looking straight into Jungkook’s eyes. The man’s dark orbs searched his face for a second, before calming down.

“What, not going to call me hyung this time?” the slight joking manner came back to his voice, and he even lifted his hand to push a strand of hair out of the younger’s face, while smiling invitingly.

Jimin’s eyes dropped to the older man’s lips. Truthfully, the feather-soft peck on his lips by the bar had been simply a miscalculation on his part – he didn’t think the Jungkook’s face would be that close, and then he just closed the remaining distance with a kiss mostly to not let himself panic.

He dragged his eyes quickly back up, but the glance wasn’t as inconspicuous as he’d hoped. Jungkook straightened, shortening the distance between their bodies and pulled the younger more firmly towards himself.

“Come on, darling. You sounded so sweet back then…”

Over the sound of his heart’s erratic beating Jimin’s ears caught a sound on incoming footsteps. Judging by the miniscule tightening of Jungkook’s eyes, the older heard it, too.

Remember the plan, Jimin! Kiss, talk, grope a feel like Jay said, sell the lie, and most importantly – don’t let yourself fall for the most dangerous man in this city!

Jimin took in two deep breaths, one in search for courage, second in search of enough guts to follow on his reckless resolve.

Sell the lie, sell the lie, sellthelieselltheliesellthelie…

Just as the doors opened, Jimin leaned in and said in his loudest, sultriest, most convincing voice; “I will call you whatever you like, but that is reserved for when I scream your name tonight.”

And for the second time in the span of two days, Jimin kissed Jungkook like his life depended on it. Deeply, with passion and (he hoped, convincingly) with love. And a little bit of tongue, for good measure.

The man underneath him didn’t sit frozen for more than a second, before his other hand wrapped around Jimin’s throat, making Jimin let out a breathy moan. Obscenely loud, breathy moan.

Oh no, this was so not part of the plan!

Loud clapping echoed in the silence of the room, accompanied by a low, gravely laughter.

“I wanted to apologize for my tardiness, but it seems like you’ve used this time smartly, Jungkook.”

Jimin tensed when the kiss ended with the sound of the man’s voice. He made a small move to stand up and stand back to the side, just like Jungkook told him to, but the grip on his hip tightened.

The blond glanced down and then back up at Jungkook’s face, but the other man had his eyes firmly set on his guest behind Jimin’s back. He looked most displeased.

“I see you brought your mysterious toy out of hiding, as well,” he glowered, surprising Jimin with his tone almost as much as with the emotion visible on his usually controlled face. “A surprising choice, Gloss.”

The man replied in a similar tone, all while sitting down, judging by the sound of leather chair squeaking; “Some of us like them to have both the looks, and the brains, Maknae.”

Jimin’s nerves were fraying all throughout the exchange and with each moment the grip on his hip was becoming more and more painful. He would have bruises tomorrow, that was for sure. But every time the younger made even the smallest move, Jungkook’s hand that was resting on the base of his throat, tightened as a warning.

“Did you ask me there to watch you fuck your new pet or are here to talk business?” the man drawled, and with a start Jimin recognized a slight satoori in his lazy manner of speaking, his voice a strange mix of laughter and disdain.

Jungkook’s hand squeezed one more time, and then Jimin felt himself be let go. He stood up with as much grace and pride one could have but didn’t look up, until he stood right behind Jungkook.

And when he looked up, he almost wished he stayed the whole meeting on Jungkook’s lap, none the wiser, with his back to the crushing reality.

Familiar brown eyes met his own, wide in shock.

“J-Jimin???”

Jimin’s mouth opened in a wordless gasp.

Taehyung?!

Chapter Text

Jimin couldn’t believe his eyes.

Standing right in front of him, looking equally as shocked as he did, was the young doctor he had been so happy to befriend not that long ago.

After the attack on the hospital, when he’d finally found Taehyung the next day, Jimin had been so relieved to see him alive and well that he’d almost cried. But the young doctor had had a strange expression on his face when he'd noticed the blond coming towards him and fled.

Still, Jimin hadn’t let himself become worried yet. His friend could have not notice him, right? It might have been just a coincidence, the look and the rushed departure…

But a similar situation had happened two hours after that, and then again when Jimin’s shift was nearing its end. And Jimin was not only just worried, he was also scared that he’d been losing the only friend he’d had and hadn’t even known why.

Before he had clocked out for the night Jimin had noticed a familiar figure heading to the staff-only bathroom and had made a split decision to use this chance to talk. At that time, Monster was snoring while catching a much-needed shuteye next to the nurse room, and Jimin had decided not to wake him for once and followed the young doctor.

When Jimin had cornered him, to his total shock, Taehyung had seemed cold and untrusting, a complete 180 from his usually bright and cheerful personality.

The man had looked at him in a way that had broken Jimin’s heart instantly.

“Where have you been, Jimin? When we were all hiding, but trying to save anyone we could, where WERE YOU?!”

“What—what do you mean, Tae? I-I-I was here, just l-like you…”

“DON’T LIE TO ME! I looked for you! I ran searching almost every floor, and you weren’t here! Do you really not care about anyone but yourself? YOU JUST RAN AWAY! And left all those people!”

“T-that’s not true, Tae! I swear it wasn’t like t-that, please!”

“No! Do you know how many we’ve lost?! TWENTY-SEVEN PEOPLE, JIMIN! Twenty-seven!”

“Tae, please, let me e-e-explain…”

“I don’t want to listen to your lies, Jimin.”

With those words, the doctor had shouldered the nurse and left him standing alone in the empty bathroom, crying his eyes out.

Because in a way, he had been right. Jimin might have not left his patients out of his own volition, but he had left. And people had died.

Maybe even because of him, if the conversations he had with the inner circle of jopok was to be believed. If all the attackers had in mind was to capture him and Maki G– , no, Ko Mansu – then maybe all of the deaths could have been prevented.

From that moment on, Taehyung treated him as a stranger. Sometimes sparing him a look filled with pain and loathing, such as when they were both called to the Kang’s office. The old doctor told them off for not taking care of their patient, who supposedly died when the power had gone off due to a malfunction in machinery. They spent almost half an hour listening to the Kang calling them incompetent, brainless and uncut for medical field, and many more harsh words.

Jimin called bullshit on Ko Mansu’s supposed accidental death. More likely explanation was that Monster and Jay had kidnapped the man or shot him when the nurse had been busy entertaining Jungkook in the main hall that day.

So as the old doctor had kept on cursing them out, Jimin had clenched his teeth and looked down trying not launch into his own tirade, but Taehyung next to him had been looking as if the man slapped him.

After that, for the past two weeks Jimin have never even seen the young doctor look in his direction. And it hurt.

But there wasn’t anything he could do; not with Monster on babysitting duty with half of jopok on speed dial. The blond wouldn’t want to bring Tae into this mess, too.

Hah, turned out that I shouldn’t have worried about that, after all…

Jimin locked eyes with the man in front of him, and blinked several times, trying to contain all the emotions.

Taehyung, always the louder one of them two, didn’t hesitate though.

“What the hell are you doing here, Jimin?” he hissed and took a step forward, just to stop when the man sitting on the chair next to him reached his hand out to splay it on his chest.

“Enough,” he drawled to his companion, all while looking at the nurse with a cold stare. “We are not here for that.”

Jimin took a shuddering breath. In the corner of his eye, he noticed Jungkook releasing the tight grip on the gun in his left hand, conveniently covered out of sight with the way he was sitting.

Jimin hadn’t even noticed that the man had a gun on him, much less when he managed to take it out. He felt ridiculously out of his depth.

“You keep looking at my doll like that, Min, and I will have to take your eyes for that,” the Head of jopok said finally, after another moment of tense silence.

Is that meant to release the tension in the room, Jungkook?!… Jimin thought to himself hysterically but bit his tongue not to say anything.

Surprisingly enough, the comment made the raven-haired man turn his feline eyes towards Jungkook and answered in almost condescending tone; “Sure you will, kid.”

Both Taehyung and Jimin turned his faces towards the man with and identical expressions of what-the-fuck, which just grew when Jungkook laughed at loud (laughed!) at the reply.

The future head of jopok reclined in the chair more comfortably, and shook with the force of his giggle, nose scrunched, and eyes closed.

“Never change, hyung.” He said with an almost kind tone, still laughing slightly.

Jimin met Taehyung’s eyes with a questioning Do you know what has just happened? to which he received an equally clueless shake of head. They both were left to wonder what exactly the relationship between the gangsters was, while the older men moved swiftly to discussing their deals.

Jimin tuned out of it for the most part, not only not interested in diving more into illegal stuff, but also slightly disgusted with the topic.

Gloss, or Mister Min, was a drug dealer. Or maybe he was the head of a huge drug dealing organization, would be closer to truth.

He glanced at Taehyung finding him similarly uninterested in the conversation.

The young doctor looked the part of the criminal’s pet, that Jimin had to give to him. As opposed to Jimin who decided to listen to Monster’s advice and was wearing only a silky shirt, Taehyung ditched the shirt altogether and was dressed only in a loose blazer, showing a lot of skin. On his neck Jimin could make out a golden necklace with some kind of charm on it, and on his chest just a hint of a dark tattoo. His friend’s usually messy and unruly curls had been tamed to look tidier and framed his face nicely.

Taehyung raised his eyes and noticed Jimin’s staring. What? his eyes asked.

Jimin glanced at Gloss and scowled slightly looking at the way the hand that the man had used to block the younger’s way was now held securely in Tae’s hand, then looked back up to Taehyung’s face; A drug dealer, Tae? Really?

The man raised his chin in Jungkook’s direction and rolled his eyes at Jimin; You’re the one to talk!

The blond frowned and looked down, and then felt himself blushing. Sometime during the long standing, he started to lean on the armchair and now he found himself almost sitting on the side. Curiously enough, Jungkook has shifted in a way to make some space for him there, without even saying a word about their closeness.

The blond glanced at Taehyung and found him biting his lip with a conflicted face. What? he raised his eyebrows questioningly but could not read the look the dark-haired boy sent his way.

It seemed that it would have to wait, since suddenly both gangsters stood up and moved to shake hands.

Jimin stood up and, not really knowing what to do now, followed after Jungkook and grabbed his hand without thinking. The Boss glanced back at him amused, but didn’t comment on the gesture, thankfully, instead choosing to interlace their fingers together and pull him closer.

Moving in closer to the other two, Jimin noticed with a jolt, that Taehyung was a good two inches taller than the raven-haired man. The other seemed to be older than his partner and older than Jungkook, too, and carried himself with the sort of confidence that made him appear bigger than he actually was.

Maybe his slim build and unassuming height could make someone falsely doubt his strength, but just by looking at the older man, Jimin could see that he was cut of the same cloth as Jungkook. Dangerous, deadly…

Most likely also a dick.

Obviously though the man shared a history with Taehyung, judging by how quick and comfortably the younger leaned into the man. Half-hugging his companion, Taehyung looked almost smaller than him, willowy and submissive.

He looked… in love?

Oh shit, the plan!

Jimin was so focused on Taehyung being there that he completely forgot to act like the seductress he was supposed to be for the night. The younger risked a look at Jungkook and found him already looking, one side of his mouth curled up into a smirk.

He turned his eyes away.

The man in front of him was smiling in similar fashion, only his face made it more frightening. From this close Jimin could make out the healed scar going from his hairline down to the middle of his right cheek.

Jimin looked down, intimidated. While Jungkook’s flavor of dangerous-and-deadly was dark and commanding in some moments, most of the time the man had a flirty, almost warm side to him. Gloss, however, was just cold and dangerous, and Jimin felt as if he’d never be as comfortable staring into his eyes as he was staring into Jungkook’s.

“Min, I meant it, don’t look at him like that,” Jungkook laughed and pulled Jimin into a hug. While the blond normally would make at least one comment or straight-up try to move away, this time he took the chance to tuck his face away from the inquisitive stare of the drug dealer. He hid fully into Jungkook’s chest and inhaled the addicting smell of the older’s perfume. “Look, you’re scaring my darling so much, he can’t even run his mouth!”

Oh, I am so going to kick his ass when we get back from here…, Jimin promised himself, but at the same time burrowed further into the man’s embrace. This is so embarrassing…

He couldn’t look up to meet Jungkook’s as he said in a small voice; “Maybe I just want to do something else with my mouth, hyung,” and slid his hand to rest on the older’s belt buckle.

The chest beneath his face rose in a deeper inhale, and Jimin felt more than heard the way Jungkook growled low in his throat.

Maybe if the man wasn’t literally holding him pressed to his body, he’d believe the composed way he said to the chuckling Gloss and silent Taehyung; “Gentlemen, you heard him. The meeting is over.”

To sell his bold lie more while the men were leaving, Jimin moved his fingers back and forth on the hard planes of Jungkook’s stomach just over the belt. Thankfully, they vacated the room quickly, with one last heavy glance from Taehyung towards the nurse.

When it was again only two of them in the room, Jungkook made no move to free Jimin from his embrace, so the younger did it himself, taking a few hurried steps away…

Just to be stopped with a hand on his wrist, and a few dark words; “And where do you think you’re going?”

Meeting Min Yoongi, a.k.a Gloss, the most notorious dealer in all of South Korea, had always required some preparation on Jungkook’s part and some nerves, as well. While the man had never taken sides in any conflicts that had transpired over the years, it was still a well-known truth that Gloss was not to be crossed. People who tried never lived to tell the tale.

Yoongi was one of those people who never said, “I can’t” only “How much?” – with that attitude and his cold, almost frightening tenacity he quickly rose to the top, almost perfectly in time with Jungkook’s crowning as the future Head of jopok. Due to that, they both knew each other well and were close, or at least as close as their lives allowed.

So while Jungkook hadn’t been expecting Min Yoongi to be the one, who had been behind all of his troubles, he was also not expecting him to show up with Kim Taehyung as an arm candy. The young doctor had been thoroughly researched by Jin when they’d learned about his connection to Jimin, but he passed their little investigation with no relation to the crime world found.

The sight of him draped all over Gloss with almost literal heart eyes was righteously unsettling. The older man was well known for his possessiveness and the rumors said he hadn’t taken any new lovers for almost two years now, obsessed with his current one. No one knew who the pet was, as he’d never taken him to any gang-related meetings before.

So the decision to bring him to this one must have been strategical and well-thought through. Maybe seeing Jimin was meant to be a surprise for Taehyung, or maybe Gloss had some other, deeper hidden motives. Maybe the asshole just wanted to taunt Jungkook and deconcentrate Jimin; in that case his plan worked all too well.

Jimin has almost forgotten to play his part, but somehow still managed to convey what Jungkook had wanted him to all along – with the look of uncertainty on his face, grabbing Jungkook’s hand without any hesitance and turning all his attention to Jungkook… The younger seemed even closer to the mafia boss than if he was playing the role of a coquette and flirting shamelessly.

While the embracing and hiding his face by pressing himself into Jungkook’s body was all fun and well, there was only so much the older man’s patience could take.

Jungkook felt himself zero on the small hand playing with the buckle of his belt and sliding over his abs. Not only Jimin had been testing his self-imposed limits before, with the lustful tone he addressed him and another sweet, electrifying kiss… Now he was basically taunting the beast inside the older that wanted to go through with his earlier words and take, take, take everything, and anything, the younger would give them.

As Jimin unwrapped himself from Jungkook, the criminal felt the last remainings of his patience snap.

No, no one plays with Jeon Jungkook like that.

“And where do you think you’re going?” he asked in a low tone, grabbing Jimin’s hand.

The nurse stilled and looked back at him with wide eyes.

“Uhm, home?...,” he started but backtracked immediately when he noticed Jungkook’s eyes darkening, “Should I stay?”

What you should do is get on your knees, Jungkook’s mind provided but he murmured instead; “I think you should make good on your promise, Jimin.”

“Promise?” Jimin repeated with no understanding, trying to discretely free his hand out of the grip the older had on it.

What is he talking about???

The mafia boss seemed almost amused, and let go of it, instead reaching for the half-full glass of whisky. He took a sip, and then asked with his eyes trained on Jimin; “Do you often go back on your words, darling? I didn’t take you for one to play with people’s feelings, but maybe you just like to tease…”

And that statement made Jimin realize what the man meant.

“What, not going to call me hyung this time? Come on, darling. You sounded so sweet back then…”

“I will call you whatever you like, but that is reserved for when I scream your name tonight.”

And then, as if that was not enough, Jimin had even whispered unthinkingly; “Maybe I just want to do something else with my mouth, hyung.”

The blond felt himself redden and opened his mouth to argue but was silenced immediately by the words; “Don’t you dare.”

Oh, I fucked up. That tone is back…

“Don’t you dare talk back now.” Jungkook continued. “I don’t want to listen to any excuses.”

The man put away the now empty glass and focused fully on Jimin, who felt himself shudder under the intensity of the stare. Like his tone, the man’s eyes were commanding and there was no chance to escape their gaze.

“If you want mercy, you can run away now.” The man stated, making Jimin’s all logical thoughts scatter.

Wait, what??? What mercy?

“Run through the door, out of the club and we will forget this even happened.”

Jimin blinked nervously, stuck in place under the dark-haired man’s bewitching voice. His eyes couldn’t leave Jungkook’s serious face.

“But if you stay… I’m going to make you keep that promise, darling.” Jungkook threatened with a sugary sweet voice and took a step towards the younger, not unlike a predator about to jump on his prey.

Wait, wait, wait!

Jimin took a few steps back instinctively.

No way… Is he suggesting… t-that…

“I will make you scream my name tonight.”

Jimin felt his heart jump in his chest and took a shaky inhale to calm his racing thoughts. This is not how he’d envisioned the evening to go, in his most daring predictions he’d never expected the man to just plain and simple proposition him. And in such an alluring way, which made Jimin want to say yes to everything.

God, he had to be crazy or maybe just lack any survival instincts whatsoever… But it was true, Jimin’s inner brat reveled in the way he had been able to make such a powerful man lose his patience and lower the mask of nonchalance. Jimin wanted to see how far Jungkook could take him out of his comfort zone, couldn’t help but to be curious if the older was able to live up to the dirty fantasies that the nurse never shared with anyone, but which had been growing through the years.

Would he really be able to make me scream his name?

On the other hand, the smaller part of Jimin, the same which had kept him safe all these years (which also sometimes sounded like his conscience) was now yelling “Run, bitch, run and don’t turn back!”. It would be probably smart to listen to that part of him, Jimin knew that, but truth be told… He didn’t want to be smart now.

He wanted to feel something forbidden and Jungkook looked like he could give him all that and more.

“Here?” he whispered when he finally found his voice back.

The older man just chuckled (and was that disbelief on his face?) and shook his head, coming closer to the nurse.

“No, not here. As much as you’d look absolutely divine bent over this table and crying my name, we still need to spend some time in the club mingling and showing you off according to plan.” When the man was so close their chests were almost touching, he leaned to whisper in the younger’s ear; “And when we’re done, I’m going to take you home and make sure you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”

Oh, that sounds more like a threat than a promise…, Jimin faintly noticed, his cheeks coloring pink immediately. Why do I like it so much?

With these words Jungkook looped Jimin’s small hand through his arm and took the wide-eyed, blushing boy back to the crowded club.

While Jimin didn’t expect that Jungkook would actually make good on his words right there in the room, the thought was exciting rather than scary. As it was, instead they were making their way to the bar, and the younger was trying to plan how to behave.

Should I still try to seduce him? Or maybe I have already gone too far and anything more than that will end up badly? Should we dance?

(The thought of dancing with the other man, and pressing their bodies together, and rubbing, and… Oh, it was just too much for Jimin’s poor imagination right now!)

“Would you like another Kiss?” Jungkook raised his voice to be heard over the music and grinned at Jimin when he saw his blush come back with full force.

“Um, what?” Jimin asked and looked around them cautiously. Was kissing at the bar their next move? Was somebody watching?

The bartender serving them giggled at his face expression and openly looked Jimin up and down; “I think he’d prefer a Screaming Orgasm instead!” she exclaimed and winked to Jungkook.

Oh, they’re talking about cocktails…

“That I can give him myself, Jessi.” Jungkook drawled suggestively and Jimin fought the urge to hide his face in his hands. He might have agreed to do something very stupid and very exhilarating with the man on a whim, but all that suggestive and dirty language made him feel embarrassed and ready to run instead.

Maybe his face dropping alarmed Jungkook, because he pulled the younger closer and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked plainly, flirty tone all but gone, and Jimin nodded, curling into his side.

“I’m just not used to it,” he explained, a half-truth falling from his lips faster than he could think it through. This whole situation wasn’t something he was used to, one could even say it was totally out of comfort zone, but that was not all there was to his reaction.

He just didn’t want Jungkook to laugh at him. Sure, all the heavy flirting was making it hard to think sometimes, but at least the joke was never at his expense. This exchange, however, kind of was. And it hurt him to admit that something so small could make him feel so uncomfortable.

“Do you want me to order for you?” the older asked after a second, maybe sensing that Jessi made Jimin slightly uncomfortable as well.

The nurse just nodded and instead of paying any more attention to the bar and Jungkook waving Jessi to order them drinks, he raised his head slightly to take in more of their surroundings.

To the left he could see some sort of a lounge, divided from the full dancefloor by a couple of stairs. On the lounge he quickly spotted two familiar figures – Jay and Monster, sitting with glasses in hand and conversing with some more sketchy men, none of whom Jimin recognized.

Not too far from them, leaning on one of the pillars stood Taehyung.

Maybe leaning is not the correct word, Jimin thought to himself kind of amused. His friend was pinned to it, head tilted back, and eyes scrunched tight while Gloss was ravaging his lips. The smaller man had no problem overpowering Taehyung, his hand grabbing the younger’s jacket to pull him closer while the other hand was conveniently hidden from Jimin’s eyes (probably grabbing equally as tightly, somewhere on Tae’s ass).

Jimin turned his eyes away. If not for the fear invoked in him by just the look in Gloss’s eyes, he would have internally whooped for his friend for getting some action. If they were talking, that is. If Taehyung didn’t hate his guts anymore.

God, I don’t even know if we are still friends…

He didn’t want to think about that, not tonight.

Jimin swiped his eyes through the dancing masses, but it was hard to look at anyone in particular with the way everyone was moving together. It seemed like the Seoul elites had merged into one, wanton, pulsating body falling and rising in rhythm with the music.

Maybe that’s why Jimin’s eyes noticed so quickly someone who was standing out, by simply not moving. The man was dressed like almost everyone here, in black clothes and from this far Jimin couldn’t see anything distinct about his features, except…

Except that he was wearing a black mask and looking straight back at Jimin.

“…and here’s your espresso martini!” Jessi said, while a pretty glass slid into Jimin’s periphery. He grabbed it absent-mindedly and took a sip, shooting a quick glance in the direction of the man.

But he was gone, and as Jimin looked around he didn’t notice him anywhere.

Must have been a coincidence. I am becoming too paranoid.

“Ready to act some more?” Jungkook’s words teared him out of his thoughts and Jimin turned towards him. The man was holding another glass of amber liquid, as Jimin had expected containing his favorite – scotch, and he was smiling slightly.

Jimin smiled back at him in, he hoped, confident and sexy way.

“As ready as I can be.”

One drink changed quickly into two, and then three, and then four. At some point Jungkook must have told Jessi to make them less alcoholic for Jimin, because after the buzz of the first two, the feeling of pleasant tipsiness didn’t dive into the messy confusion; a feeling Jimin associated the most with drinking.

Instead, he felt loose and was even, to his own surprise, having fun. The club apart from a very well stocked bar and spacious dancefloor, had dancers and performances too. At first, Jimin thought the sight of so many skimpily dressed individuals writhing and moving sensually to the music would make him uncomfortable, however he spent a lot of the time staring at them in quiet admiration. A lot of them had to have some good dancing background to be able to do all the splits and impressive positions on the pole – none of them had been simply provocatively grinding, there was a lot of art to their movement and evident work put into choreography.

Jungkook hadn’t left his side, chuckling at the gasps leaving Jimin’s mouth and sipping his drinks slowly. The nurse would never admit that at loud if asked, but just the company of the man, free of innuendos and stress coming from constantly fearing of his life… Well, it was fun. It may have been the most fun Jimin had had since his adolescence, probably.

Jungkook himself, had not only proved to be good company, but also a decent partner. Even though the man had whispered to Jimin that he couldn’t let himself be seen so relaxed and dance with him to uphold his reputation (I will dance with you all night long, darling, just the two of us…), he made sure to bring Jimin water and let him sway to the music on the edge of the dancefloor while he was a few steps away, talking business with faceless men dressed in black.

All that buzz coming from alcohol and dancing sensually to some bass-heavy remix of Billie Eilish had Jimin smiling contently with his eyes closed. The man for once let himself just feel, hips moving side to side, and arms raised above his head, threading through the air in tune to the music.

His little bubble was for the most part left alone, people dancing around him, but not with him. That’s why when Jimin felt hands on his hips and someone’s breath on his neck, initially he tensed and prepared to move away.

The calming hum from behind and a smell of familiar perfume hitting his face, when he turned his head around made distress disappear immediately.

“I thought you didn’t dance,” Jimin said, letting his head fall slightly on the chest of the man behind him.

“I don’t,” Jungkook replied next to his ear. He was swaying to match with Jimin’s moves but otherwise hadn’t made any effort to do anything more than that. “This is just for you.”

For me? Ah, because of the plan… Jimin thought with a start. Somehow, he started to detest this plan a just a little bit tonight, with it being always a good excuse for things that could be viewed as sweet gestures or honest flirting other way.

He turned to Jungkook and found himself close to the man watching him with the familiar, almost hungry expression.

Well, if he wants me to dance like I want him to fall in love with me, I can do that, no problem…

(Why does this sound so true??? – echoed in his head.)

Jimin raised his hands to put them around the older’s neck and resumed the slow sway, raising his eyes to meet Jungkook’s dark ones.

The nurse didn’t have any actual experience dancing like that, but… Well. Some night shifts were very slow and watching dancing videos and tutorials may have been Jimin’s passion ever since high school. So while he wasn’t suddenly going to start a whole choreographed seduction dance, he could still move his hips to the rhythm and play with Jungkook’s hair in the meantime. He could slide his hand again down the sculpted chest and abs to the belt buckle and pull the older closer, while letting their legs intertwine together and hips touch ever so slightly. He could do that, and so he did.

(He may blame it 100% on the martinis later, but he even had his blush under control.)

The visible interest in the dark eyes slowly switching to smoldering arousal was a reward enough. But Jimin still appreciated the soft hum against his neck and a whispered; “Good boy.”

God only knew what those words paired with that tone did to Jimin. Well, Jungkook probably was aware too, as his thigh was pressing now directly into Jimin’s slowly hardening cock.

And even with all this flirting, and all these drinks – Jimin knew that what he was doing was stupid and painfully out-of-character, but he didn’t want to care. He felt the attraction to Jungkook from the beginning, but now he was also starting to care for the man, too. The same man, who was viewing all of their interactions as a way to bait his enemies into making a move. Jimin could only guess how much honesty was in Jungkook’s words and actions, and how much was pure acting. It was a recipe for a broken heart, very obviously.

Jimin let himself indulge in the foolishness, despite all that. All that time he spent only ever caring about the school, then his studies, then his work – he never had the chance to experiment with love. He was happy this time to let his selfishness take over the reason.

The blond moved his lips so that they slid against the hot skin of Jungkook’s jaw line and stopped on his neck. “Hyung,” he breathed softly and Jungkook’s hands tightened their hold on his hips. “Take me home now.” And he very purposefully bit down, just enough to sting and kissed the place again, for good measure.

The grip on his hips turned bruising.

“Fuck, Park Jimin, you’re going to be the death of me.”

Chapter Text

“Fuck, Park Jimin, you’re going to be the death of me.” Jungkook’s strained voice rang in Jimin’s ears, when the older grabbed him by the hand and started leading their way out of the club. The younger couldn’t help but feel both ecstatic, and anxious at the same time.

On one hand, he had tried to keep his calm and not let himself fall for Jungkook’s words and touches, as he was painfully aware of potential consequences. He’d failed spectacularly at that. On the other hand, the whispered promises of pleasure were tempting enough to forget all reason and just let himself be seduced.

Jimin bit his lips, looking at their hands. Jungkook’s big and tattooed, holding Jimin’s smaller one by the wrist and pulling him away. It seemed almost like a foreboding, of his fate to come.

The nurse tugged on the grip and when it loosened, Jungkook turning his way with visible questioning on his face, Jimin interlaced their fingers instead. He lifted his chin looking at Jungkook, who just shook his head without a word, smiling.

Maybe it’s nothing much, but it feels like a step into the right direction.

Together they marched into the alley to a small parking space, where Jay parked their car. Jimin looked around the dark surroundings and wrapped his arms around himself, cold in his thin shirt. Jungkook, who has by then stopped holding his hand in favor of looking for the keys, noticed that quickly.

“Here,” he said without prompting and shrugged of his jacket, making Jimin reminiscence the last time it’d happened; in mafia’s main house, when the man had comforted him through his panic attack and wrapped him in his suit jacket to warm Jimin up. Then, the action had been unexpectedly sweet, but Jimin had been embarrassed and on the edge the whole time.

Now, he accepted the jacket without any complains, enveloping himself in the fabric smelling like Jungkook’s perfume, a bit of sweat and the smoke from the club. Jimin smiled discreetly – it could become his favorite smell easily.

The younger stalled, a few steps behind the mafia boss, his feet surprisingly tired after the few hours of dancing and walking around the club.

That’s what you get for wearing new shoes without stretching them out first, Jimin. He scolded himself absentmindedly and as always, his gaze came back to the dark-haired man walking in front of him.

Jungkook swaggered to the black car a few steps away from Jimin and put the key into the door, suddenly standing still. Jimin looked at him, and just as he was about to call his name to check what was the problem, two things happened simultaneously.

Someone yanked him backwards with such force, that he tumbled to the ground.

Jungkook cursed in the background loudly and then his voice was drowned by the huge explosion.

Auch! Oh, what the…?!

Raising his eyes, Jimin gasped loudly at the sight of their car in flames.

He felt himself mumbling incoherently. “J-jungkook, where… Ah, what i-i-is ha-a-appening… J-jungkook?!” his voice shook as he tried to get back to his knees and crawl towards the place where he’d seen the man standing before.

“Not so quick, Park!” An unfamiliar voice hissed behind him, and Jimin whimpered in fear as someone grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him back. Jimin cried out at the burning pain and raised his hands up, trying in vain to loosen the grip. Instead, all he got was another painful yank.

A second hand grabbed tight over his arm, pulling him back into the body of his attacker.

Jimin resisted as much as he could, feeling his face get wet with tears of terror and pain. The man behind him grunted in annoyance at his uncoordinated slaps and desperate wiggling, letting Jimin exhaust his strength for a couple of seconds before turning him more towards himself.

The hand in his hair went away for a moment, but before Jimin could appreciate the lack of sharp pulling, it came back swinging.

The first slap to his face caught him unguarded and Jimin could only try to cover his face after that, when the second and third punch came. The nurse sobbed and took a few steps away, but with the dizziness from the crying and being punched in the head, he managed to stumble mere meters before the man grabbed him again.

“Oh, no, you’re not going anywhere!” the tall man spat, and he threw one last punch, aimed at the nurse’s face again.

Jimin welcomed the darkness that came after that with relief and opened arms.

“….-kook!”

Oh, that hurt like a motherfucker.

“Jungkook! Shit!”

Shit, indeed. Can you maybe, I don’t know, shut up? Your yelling doesn’t help…

“Jungkook, open your eyes!”

The voice was unrelenting and so Jungkook obliged, with great effort. The ringing in his ears was slowly subsiding, and it made the voice of very worried Hoseok less jarring.

“Kook, what the hell happened?” the man asked, pulling the younger upright. “Jin alerted us, that you didn’t show up on any cameras after leaving the club and we got suspicious…”

The dark haired groaned, feeling his left side burn and ache with the movement. Obviously, it took the brunt of the heat and impact from the explosion, but the other one wasn’t any better; he fell on it and so it pulsated with his every breath and move.

“Where’s Jimin?” Jungkook muttered, frowning when the action brought unexpected pain from his jaw.

Did I fall on my face, too?

He raised his eyes to the silent Hoseok. The expression on his face was distraught, and the ever-present smile in his eyes – gone.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you…”

Now, that was not what Jungkook wanted to hear, at all.

He felt rage start to consume him on the inside and quickly snapped at the older;  “What the fuck, Jay! You said the location is one-hundred percent secure, what do you mean Jimin is gone?!” he spat, walking up to the man, who raised his hands in surrender.

“It was, it was secure! But we didn’t put any cameras in the car park, since no-one but our members and VIP guests use it – it’s almost empty today, too – we made sure our men were everywhere-”

“Obviously, not anywhere it counts!” Jungkook knew that unleashing his anger at his close friend wouldn’t help in the long run, but right now he felt the burning need to blame someone.

Someone, that was not himself. Fuck, they dangled Jimin right in front of the beast and failed to protect him when it snapped its jaws. The young nurse must have been terrified, must still be terrified, waiting for them to come, somewhere.

“If he’s not with you, and clearly that’s not the case, then it can only mean one thing,” the brunet said to Jungkook, who was swaying on his legs but still glaring at him with a stare that promised a painful death. “They have him.”

“FUCK!”

Jimin’s waking up was almost as pleasant as Jungkook’s. The blond came to his senses when a bucket of ice-cold water was dumped on his head, soaking through all his clothes.

What? W-where am I?

The blond tried moving around but quickly noticed it was no use – he was sat in a chair and tied to it securely. Any wiggling that he tried was met with only painful scratching of the rope against his skin and growing discomfort.

Jimin looked around, panicked. The water had been freezing cold, and he felt himself shivering.

The room was scarcely lit with a bare lightbulb flickering above his head, making the surroundings hide in shadows. All around Jimin the floor was filled with scattered cartons and plastic boxes, dirty and covered in dust. On the edge of the room visible in the poor lighting he could make out a table and some shelves, their contents hidden from his view.

From what Jimin could see, it must have been a basement or a storage room, maybe. There weren’t any windows in sight and no matter how much he turned and searched for it, he didn’t see any door or escape route.

The man in front of him, who still had the bucket in his hand, laughed at loud at his useless antics. “You think you can run away? Stupid whore…” he cursed at Jimin and took a step closer.

Jimin looked at him and trembled in fear.

The man was tall and well-built, muscled in a way that screamed hours and hours spent in a gym. He had natural dark hair, shaved close to the skin and a face that, while not exactly handsome, could be described as interesting. Dark eyes, large nose and a pointy chin… If Jimin squinted, he could almost see another face in front of him, the one he used to lose sleep over and had dreamt of kissing.

“Who are you?” he asked with his voice shaking, although he already had a feeling he knew.

The man laughed incredulously and grabbed his hair, pulling Jimin’s head up to face him.

“You piece of shit! You cheap, whore-ass faggot…! You think YOU get to ask questions here?! You are the one to answer ours, and hope and pray that we like what you’d say, so that we don’t skin you alive!” he screamed, and all Jimin could do was breathe through the pain in his scalp and the terror consuming his mind.

Jimin may have not been in the know of any mafia secrets, or anything important at all. Hell, he didn’t even know what the man would want to know – but in that exact moment he promised himself that whatever it was that his kidnapper wanted, he would not give to him. He would rather bite off his own tongue and swallow it, than suck up to the man who was not only rage-filled and bitter and violent, but also homophobic.

“Go fuck yourself.” He said as clearly and levelly as he could, meeting the man’s eyes in obvious defiance.

When the man slapped him so hard, he saw the stars, he didn’t regret it.

When the man punched his stomach so hard, Jimin felt the puke coming up to his throat, he didn’t say anything.

When the man grabbed a knife and cut his clothes away, making sure to draw blood wherever he could, Jimin pretended not to hear his questions.

The punches and slashes and curses and taunts were all met with Jimin’s silence.

Only when the man untied him and pushed him on the table, face down and ass-up, while unbuckling his belt and muttering something about forcing Jimin to be of any use – only then Jimin let himself scream.

When the man grabbed his head and forced himself in his mouth, pried his thighs apart and stuffed him full till he was bleeding – Jimin’s head was filled with pain and anguish and one word.

Jungkook.

He screamed for the man to find him and save him, he cried at the unfairness of having his first experience with a man stolen, when he had already decided to give it up freely to one man. The man, who might have been a new addition to his life and an arrogant asshole at times, but who could make him feel small and cared for and safe.

To Jimin’s despair, the man he was screaming for all night, didn’t come for him.

“On the cameras, no suspicious group was seen entering the alley leading to the car park.”

“Right, the club was monitored at the front entrance and the guests had all been checked both by me and your team, Jin. Did the license plate search get anything useful?

“Nothing much, just a plate registered in a small town near Busan, nothing we can connect to Gloss, or any other major gangs we know that could hold a grudge…”

“Monster, what about the youngsters on the street? Maybe some mafia-wannabe teen…?”

“… no reason to attack Jimin…”

“… the cocaine deal was only known to the inner circle…”

“… possible to have a rat?...”

“… know better than mess up with Jungkook…”

“…Jungkook…”

“…Jungkook.”

“Jungkook! Are you even listening to us?” the raised voice of his right hand reached his ears. The younger just slid deeper into his chair.

He was listening, as much as he could focus on their chaotic reasonings. While the ringing in his ear stopped completely, he felt like someone, well… he felt like someone who just had a too-close contact with a detonated car. Achy, bloodied, and out of his mind with fear.

Fear about Jimin.

The ambush had been clearly thought through – no cameras, no witnesses, minimal noise. No gunshots fired if Jay was to be believed. That’s all they knew, which wasn’t a lot.

Jimin was taken by their rivals, but while they’d convinced him that they could protect him, in the end they missed such a miniscule hole in their defenses. A fucking parking lot in the back alley.

No matter how hard Jungkook thought about the ambush, he didn’t remember seeing anyone. The only thing he remembered clearly was the weird clang the key made when he had inserted it into the keyhole in the car’s door.

His sensitive hearing and paranoia were the ones he could thank for still being alive – after all, if he hadn’t stilled and left the key in the door in favor of ducking to the side and by that, hiding his body at least partly from the explosion, he wouldn’t be breathing.

And what smart move it was, to put the explosion in the mechanism connected to the door lock. After all, Jungkook was the perfect gentleman – he would have at least sat inside the car to turn on the AC and move the car from the narrow parking space so that Jimin could open the door comfortably and sit inside.

Only someone who knew him deep and inside out, would notice his mannerisms no matter how small and insignificant they were. Painfully enough, the majority of people who knew Jungkook like that, were in the same room with him right now.

“He’s not listening,” Monster commented, worry coloring his voice. “Like, at all. Boss, you need to focus, alright? Put Jimin aside, put your feelings aside, like you always do and tell us… Tell us what’s the plan now.”

Jungkook grimaced.

The plan? The last plan we’d made resulted in Jimin kidnapped right under our noses.

As much as he would like to dispute Namjoon’s words, he knew the man was right. Feelings didn’t help, they only hindered his work.

Jungkook may be consumed by his rage, worry and feeling of betrayal. The Golden Killer, however, worked best when his feelings were shut off and shoved deep into the deepest corner of his mind.

He took a deep breath and let go, letting his face turn blank and his eyes to unfocus.

Fact one: Jimin was kidnapped in a place without security cameras.

They are worried to be recognized.

Fact two: They knew exactly where and when to attack.

They are privy to the information of the gang.

Fact three: Their enemies knew Jungkook nearly as well as he knew himself.

They are someone close to me.

Fact four: They managed to slip into the club unnoticed, unrecognized or, what was becoming more and more probable, openly without raising any suspicions.

There are only a few people who fit the criteria.

Jungkook narrowed his eyes at his friends, watching them slowly starting to fear his serious expression.

Jay, no smile on his face and clear worry in his eyes, legs shaking underneath the table, was the easiest one to blame and the brunet knew it. The event had been his responsibility, the club his main place of work and arson – favorite means of killing.

… it wasn’t Jay because the man tended to have a poker face whenever he lied. Jungkook spent years learning his tells; there were none and that in itself was a tell, when the man was so expressive and temperamental.

Jin, worried and wringing his hands, eyes wide in his slim face. The man who was supposed to be all-knowing, all-seeing, and present everywhere at once. He had fucked up when giving up the report on Taehyung, not noticing that the young doctor was neck-deep in criminal world. And he still hasn’t found out anything about the kidnapper or the place Jimin had been taken to. To blame him would be as natural as breathing – after all, if not for his mistake, Jimin wouldn’t even be at The Paradise last night.

…it wasn’t Jin, of course not. The man had babied Jungkook since forever, made heart-eyes at Namjoon ever since Jungkook could remember and had a heart too soft for the jopok business. The only reason he was still with them, was because it was them.

That left Namjoon, his most trusted man. His pillar. The only one of his men Jungkook had trusted to take care of Jimin, because of the way Namjoon had always cared for him. Through all those years, Namjoon stood by his side, letting himself be called the Monster whenever he had finished out the kills Jungkook was too young and too skittish to execute. The man had the soul of the academic, enjoyed classical music and read books on philosophy and the meaning of life whenever he had the time. The man who had his first kill at barely fourteen, covering an eleven-year-old Jungkook with his own body.

…it no universe would it ever be Namjoon. Protecting Jungkook was in his nature, written in his DNA. A compulsion the silver-haired man has never fought against.

The only other people, who Jungkook as well as only family could know a person… was his family.

Jungkook met the eyes of pale Jay and spoke with no hesitance; “Gather our men. We are visiting my uncle tonight and getting back what’s rightfully mine.”

Jin and Namjoon looked at each other and gulped.

They were about to start a war.

Chapter Text

“Jungkook, this is, at best, a stupid idea. Most likely, it’s a suicide mission – you know that your uncle’s house is as well-guarded as our main house, if not more! Going there through the front door, guns blazing, blinded by anger is exactly what they want!” Jin wasn’t above begging if it managed to change his youngest friend’s mind.

While Jungkook was an adult now, a gangster with a terrifying reputation and a short fuse, whenever Seokjin looked at him, he still saw the young kid who he’d promised himself to protect.

Little Jungkook had been an adorable sight – with cute doe eyes, big in his slim face and bunny teeth that were visible whenever he’d smiled. His little giggles had always been quiet, but any time he would smile at Jin, the older boy had felt as if a sun shone directly into his face. It was no wonder that his crush, the intimidating-looking but surprisingly sweet guy with a mohawk, had never left the younger to fend for himself, even for a moment.

They had met in middle school, Jin and the duo, but Namjoon had known Jungkook well before then. The lanky boy was a direct descendant from one of the main clans Jungkook’s uncle had defeated during one of the many gang wars. While his family was being killed, the boy had stood by, surrounded by enemies, and watched their execution with an unreadable face. It had been a great surprise to everyone present when he’d kneeled before Jeon Jinwook and revealed that his family had been abusing him and so now, finally free from them, the boy wanted to join the Jeon family and prove himself to be worthy. Not a small declaration, coming from a ten-year-old.

But his promise of loyalty had been accepted. Ever since, Namjoon took on the Jeon surname, leaving his own behind. Jeon Jinwook had not been interested in tending to the new addition to his family, though; he shipped Namjoon off to the smaller branch to be used as just another soldier for the gang.

It was then that he met Jungkook – a seven-year-old boy, who was left on his own, basically. His parents, a pair of low-level criminals, were tasked with transport of all the goods the jopok dealt with – so drugs, illegal medicine, documents etc. Due to that, they spent the majority of their time on the road, only stopping to visit their kid every few weeks. Jungkook grew up surrounded by shady men and skimpily dressed women, who were tasked with babysitting him as a punishment when misbehaving. As such, the young boy never really knew love and affection, and it showed.

The first time Namjoon was supposed to pick him up, he was displeased with the task. He was smart, he was grifty and he was learning how to shoot, after school and doing his homework. The boy thought himself to be above such menial work as babysitting. But when he met Jungkook, he couldn’t help but to feel for him a little.

The little dark-haired boy was completely soaked and covered in what looked like a weird mixture of glitter, glue and… mayonnaise? He was sniffling and shivering, waiting outside his school in the chilly weather of October without even a jacket on. Namjoon stared at him in disbelief for some time before approaching. The kid was obviously being bullied at school, but the older boy thought it was pathetic that Jungkook couldn’t protect himself. He was mafia, for crying at loud!

(So maybe, just maybe, Namjoon cheered the boy up and got him talking about the bullies. Maybe, just maybe, the next day three kids from Jungkook’s class didn’t show up to school. A freak accident, the rumor said. All of them had broken both their legs and arms, and had a long recovery ahead of them, poor things!, the parents cooed and nodded. Namjoon, for one, was pretty pleased with the fact that no one dared to bully his dongsaeng after that.)

Seokjin joined their group well after the fact. He met Namjoon in one of his classes (Advanced Maths, as far as he could remember), and was immediately taken by the duality of the boy – he was smart and intelligent and obviously affectionate towards the people he cared about, but he hid all that under a hooligan behavior, obnoxious mohawk and murderous glares. Somehow, that checked all the boxes for the older boy and Jin found himself falling for Namjoon head over heels quicker than he had ever thought possible.

It took some time for him to get used to the reality of Jungkook’s and Namjoon’s life, but when Jin realized there were only two choices available for him – leave and never look back, or accept his friends, the crime world and become part of it himself… Well, he made his peace with never becoming anyone respectable and pursued his love for computers, hacking and technology, quickly becoming a master at all three.

He'd never regret choosing Namjoon, even if after all those years of pining, the man never reciprocated his feelings.

“Jungkook, I know you’re pissed, and I know you want to kill whoever is responsible, but please, be reasonable!” Jin tried again, and again was only met with silence. “Think of Jimin!” He said, biting the inside of his cheek, when the dark eyes of the man in front of him glared even more furiously, “If he’s in there, he can get caught in the crossfire, they can use him as a hostage… You can’t possibly–”

“I can do whatever I want, Jin.” The man responded in a practiced, emotionless voice, but when Jin just looked at him, pleadingly, Jungkook seemed to realize who he was talking to and sighed. And sighed again, more tiredly. Then he hid his face in his hands for a couple of seconds – the closest thing to break-down that Jin had ever witnessed from the man – before pulling himself back to his confident persona. “Okay, no rushing in.” He promised with strong voice.

“No shooting first, asking questions later, too.” Seokjin warned, and Jungkook smiled in a humorless way.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to your first love, Jin-hyung.” And even though the sentence was meant to sound sarcastic, they both knew that Jungkook said it with honesty. “He’ll stay by my side at all times.”

“He better,” Jin muttered to himself, knowing well how reckless Namjoon could get in a fight, and straightened up. “Well, then I guess we should call a meeting.”

He turned, ready to leave, when an order spoken in a strangely fragile tone, met his ears.

“Before you do that… check who from my family was at the club last night, will you?”

The older didn’t trust himself to turn around and face the grieving man; he was afraid to see the face that had been a common sight for the younger when he’d been a kid. Seokjin didn’t want to see Jungkook heartbroken and rejected by his family, and he presumed that his friend wouldn’t appreciate his worry now.

Seokjin just nodded at that and left the man alone with his thoughts.

Being shackled to a pipe in an empty room, no light, no anything really gives you the time to think everything through, Jimin had discovered. He’d woken up quite some time ago, not like he could tell the exact time, and since his kidnappers decided to leave him alone, he took the chance to try to break free (unsuccessfully, the handcuffs were a bitch), find his phone (goddammit, they’d taken it from his back pocket) and find anything that he could use as a weapon. That task he’s kind of succeeded at; in his hand now, he was squeezing two things – a rusty nail the length of his pinky and a fragment of a plastic coat hanger.

Sure, going against a gun with those would be an obvious suicide, but Jimin held onto them with the thought that if any of these men came closer to him hoping to fuck him until he bled again, they would end up bleeding themselves.

As of now, he was mostly paying attention to the handcuffs – they were tight enough that his wrists were bruised already with tiny drops of blood showing in some places. Maybe yanking on them like crazy wasn’t a smart thing to do, but he just had to try. Jimin sighed, moving the arms around him to free as much of mobility in his head as he could.

Jimin knew it was a long shot, to tear into the old and hole-littered mattress and pull a metal string from it to then open the cuffs, he knew it, okay?

But he was sick of lying down and crying, he had done that already. And as much as it pained him to even think about it, he feared that no one was coming to his rescue. It has been almost a day, changing by how much his stomach was grumbling and the dryness in his mouth and throat.

If there was to be a jopok rescue mission, wouldn’t they do something already?

Jimin growled when the string slid back into its place, cutting the side of his cheek, and rested his head to try and regain his patience. He ignored the tears fighting to fall down his cheeks again (would they even bother to try to find him?) and pushed into the mattress more firmly.

If they don’t save me, I will save myself.

Walking into his uncle’s house, Jungkook let himself be swept by memories. He had first seen the place when he’d been a kid, in passing – not important enough, or cared for enough to be shown into the home of great Jeon Jinwook. Only after he had started to make a reputation for himself as a made man, and then as the Golden Killer, he was given the honor of entering the place. By that time, he had given up on earning his uncle’s attention, his parent’s affection, or anyone’s approval.

That’s not to say he hated any of his family members, not really. Sure, his uncle was a coldhearted person, thinking only about his own interests, but he was just an old man, nothing the god-like figure he tried to paint himself as.

Young Jungkook would give up everything in the world to have Jinwook proud of him. Twenty-nine-year-old Jungkook just wanted the man to stop being such a pain in his ass.

The feeling was only amplified with the Jimin’s kidnapping. The dark-haired man hoped that Jinwook had nothing to do with it and was blissfully unaware of his children’s involvement in the attacks on their men, bars and clubs, and most importantly – shippings.

Because, yes, his hunch had ended up being right – the camera’s caught a sight of a masked man, paying a lot of attention to Jimin and Jungkook the whole evening. With that clue, it took Seokjin not even an hour to pin a lot of the attacks on two of Jungkook’s cousins. They were good, they had to be to be seen as potential future jopok leaders, but Jungkook’s team was better than good. They were excellent and now, motivated, to get their favorite little nurse back.

The cousins in question, Jeon Mina and Jehan had been one of the reasons why, even after being invited to visit his uncle’s house, Jungkook rarely (if ever) had made an appearance there.

Mina was the oldest one, now thirty-two, with big eyes and black natural hair always let loose. The woman seemed soft and nice and lovely… until something stopped going her way. Jungkook knew well how her face could change in seconds from wide-eyed-innocence to fury and cold contempt. She was smarter than most of the jopok members but overlooked and mocked constantly just for her gender. Mafia wasn’t a kind place for women, but she always made sure that people who had crossed her ended up dead and buried, their death never quick nor merciful.

Jehan, was only a year younger, a man with an under-cut and curly dark hair, his face almost always stretched in a smirk. He was, similarly to Mina, considered charming when people met him for the first time, but quickly revealing his problematic behavior with time. He was known for his rude tongue, sexist comments which more often than not made Mina angry with him, and not respecting the word no.

From the three of his cousins, the only one who Jungkook was somewhat comfortable with was the youngest of them, Eunwoo. The man was a few months older than him, but never made Jungkook feel less in the way both Mina and Jehan did repeatedly. His temper wasn’t anything like his siblings, too – he was more serious and calmer, and loved his small routines. Those qualities were what made Jungkook respect him the most from all of Jinwook’s children, but the same qualities were what disqualified him from ever inheriting the Head of mafia title. The man was just too softspoken.

Jungkook was strangely relieved that no matter how hard Seokjin looked, nothing connected Eunwoo to the attacks. That betrayal would hurt more, while Mina and Jehan’s just stung.

It was also, why Eunwoo had been the person whom Jungkook called before coming to the house. His cousin was waiting at him in the entrance, arms crossed on his chest and eyes narrowed in thought.

“Hey, Jungkook-ah,” he said and reached out for a hug, surprising the gangster. He leaned in, barely touching the other and strained his ear to hear the man whisper; “He is not here, I checked.”

Goddammit, that means Jimin can be literally everywhere.

“Good to see you, too.” Jungkook said loudly, mindful of cameras and microphones located near the door. His uncle was paranoid, and the house had probably more protection and bugs in it than the presidential office.

“Come on in, Father is waiting for you in his study.” Eunwoo said with a more normal volume, his face carefully blank.

Following the man through the dark corridor, Jungkook was reminded of how the Main House was furnished and designed. Here, as well, the most prominent colors were black, red and dark brown. His uncle had been inspired by the older generation of Jeon leaders, who had in Jungkook’s opinion, tendency to overlook practicality in favor of mafia-suiting vibe. He personally preferred cleaner looking and minimalist interiors that had some warmth to them, nothing like the Main House or Jinwook’s place.

Eunwoo came to the dark wooden door of his father’s study and knocked. When a sharp, Come in! sounded, he turned to Jungkook and nodded with sympathy in his eyes. Even on best days, dealing with Jeon Jinwook could seriously put one’s mood down.

Jungkook smiled humorlessly at him and entered the room.

His uncle, Jeon Jinwook, looked his age but still had a calculating, focused look in his eyes. The man was nearing his sixties, and the passing time had taken away some of his physical prowess; the man was heavier and not as agile as he used to, but still strong where it counted. Jungkook took note of that, reminding himself never to underestimate the older man.

“Uncle,” he greeted the man who just hummed at him and gestured at Jungkook to take a seat in front of his desk.

“What is it, Jungkook?” the silver-haired man asked unceremoniously, going straight to the point. “You never visit unless the situation is dire.”

The younger carefully chose his words. “As I’m sure you’re aware, there had been countless attacks on jopok-owned establishment and shippings, some of them costing our men their lives.”

The man scowled at the lengthy explanation, always preferring his subordinates to answer in a clear and precise manner.

“To the point, boy. I am a busy man.” Jinwook said in a scathing tone. Jungkook took a deep breath in, trying to remain collected. It was a well-known tactic of the older, to push and pressure and anger whoever he talked to in order to make them loose their calm and say things they’d never meant to say.

“We have a very reliable source pointing that the attacks were held by our own people, trying to weaken my authority from the inside.” The dark-haired man stated and observed Jinwook’s reaction carefully. His uncle was a great actor, but he was just a man. A man who Jungkook spent years observing and learning about, so with full confidence he could say that now his uncle had no idea who he was talking about. “The traitors were the people who could benefit the most from my reputation ruined and my ability to take over and lead jopok questioned.” He hinted and only then his uncle showed any signs of understanding where the conversation was going.

The man reddened and with a snarl yelled; “How dare you insinuate…?!”

The outburst might have frightened young Jungkook, but the older version of him now just took out a USB stick and put it on the desk in front of his uncle’s shaking and spluttering figure.

“You know me well, Uncle. I never insinuate and I don’t point fingers if there isn’t any evidence.” Jungkook reminded the older who grabbed the memory stick as he was speaking and now was looking through all of carefully catalogued photos, plate numbers and security camera recordings. All of them pointed at his own children to be the ones behind the attack, and the man was slowly paling.

His dark eyes turned to Jungkook, and he muttered;  “You didn’t come here to ask me anything. You came here to tell me Mina and Jehun are as good as dead now.”

Jungkook leaned back on the chair, pretending to be calm and bored, even. This however was the most crucial moment of their plan; one wrong word, one a second-too-slow move and it would be all over.

“I came here to inform you, but also to ask for your cooperation. Your children kidnapped my dear Jimin, on top of betraying all of us. If you tell me where they are keeping him, I will show mercy and leave them to be punished by you.” He didn’t add what would happen if the man wouldn’t take his deal. It was clear in the hardening of his eyes and a twitch in his hand what was his decision.

Jungkook jumped out of the chair and dove to the side, whisper-yelling; “RJ!”. The bullet lodged in the leather seat he’d been seating in seconds before making his uncle curse under his breath. The younger stood  upand circled the desk, his own gun ready in his hand.

Jinwook turned the gun in Jungkook’s direction once again and pushed the trigger with no hesitation – one, two, three times.

“Fuck!”

Chapter Text

“Fuck!” Jeon Jinwook screamed, when the bullets lodged themselves in Jungkook’s chest, not even slowing down the younger a bit.

Jungkook came closer, face blank even though his chest under the bulletproof vest was hurting like crazy. His own gun was now pointed at Jinwook’s forehead, barely a few inches between the man’s skin and the barrel.

“You are making a mistake, boy.” The older man snarled, the empty gun in his hand falling from his loose grip. “You kill me now, and the whole jopok will come for your head!”

Jungkook clicked his tongue, and knowing how much it must hurt his uncle’s pride to be powerless in his own house, decided to revel in it a bit.

“You see, that’s where you are wrong, uncle. The one mistaken is not me, but you. If you train a man into becoming a living weapon, a let's say... Golden Killer?... that’s what he will become. And you can’t blame a weapon for the violence it brings – that’s just in the weapon’s nature…” Jungkook mused, eyes trained on the older man’s hateful grimace. While it was common knowledge, that he was to become the next Head of jopok, a lesser-known fact was that Jinwook hated both the younger version of Jungkook, and the person he made him become. “And if you put surveillance everywhere in your house, it shouldn’t surprise you when you become the one who’s surveilled.” Jungkook added after a few seconds and nodded at the camera hidden in the corner of the room, just a few meters from them.

At his obvious sign, the same computer Jinwook was just using to see the evidence of his children’s betrayal lit up again, windows opening and closing, banks, accounts, folders popping up and then disappearing in an almost too-quick-to-notice pace.

The older man gaped at that and made a small move to the computer, only to be stopped by Jungkook unlocking the safety on the gun. That stopped him, only his eyes moving and chest rising sharply.

The computer made a small noise leaving only one window open on the screen after that. A video feed.

Jinwook’s eyes focused on it, his face paling again.

The man on the screen was familiar to Jungkook, even if his face was hidden under a mask, and his voice distorted. His uncle could recognize only the mask, however, and what it represented.

“You set your dogs on me?!” the man snapped; his tone panicked.

Right, as much as Jin-hyung shies away from the violence, as RJ he is one of the most feared people in jopok, Jungkook mused.

“Jeon Jinwook,” the masked figure said, emotionlessly.

Jungkook fought away the smile threatening to show itself, he still had his own role to play, after all. He just knew that Jin enjoyed this part of his job the most, ever the drama queen.

“The Golden Killer has found you guilty of a murder attempt. Justice must be done. As of now…. Your bank account balance is 0.00 won. Your contact list is wiped out. The proof of your faults is being sent to the members of the inner circle as we speak. The punishment for your betrayal is losing everything you’ve ever achieved. The punishment for your children’s betrayal is death. RJ, out.”

The feed shut down, and the computer soon followed.

In the few moments after Jin’s performance, Jungkook let himself enjoy the shocked face of his uncle. It was as if the man forgot to do anything but breathe; his eyes set still on the screen, waiting for someone to yell Surprise!.

No such luck, you reap what you sow.

Maybe it made him an even worse person, than he had already been before, but the sense of satisfaction warmed him pleasantly right down to the core. Jungkook smiled, finally.

“Monster!” he called out, only the sound of the opening door forcing his uncle from the shock. The man moved as if to escape, but Jungkook grabbed him without any hesitance and slammed him on the chair. Namjoon slinked next to him, with his face stony, lips set in a straight line and a gun in his hand.

My, my… His hate for my uncle burns as bright as ever…

With his right hand next to him, Jungkook could relax and set the other part of his plan in motion.

“Eunwoo!” he called out again, louder this time. Jinwook threw him a hateful glare at that but kept his comment to himself.

Someone else making themselves important at his own house must be driving him crazy. Good.

His cousin soon appeared at the door. Eunwoo, as always, kept his expression calm and his emotions in check, but his eyes moved quickly to take in the situation. The man inched closer but came to a still when Monster barked; “Drop your weapons.”

The youngest of Jeon siblings smiled slightly at that and responded with no hesitation; “I put them all away the moment Jungkook stepped a foot in the house.”

Jinwook scoffed, muttering curses under his breath. Neither his son, nor Jungkook paid any attention to him.

Eunwoo lifted his oversized sweater up without any hesitation, showing a pale stomach, littered with old scars and bruises, and a waist devoid of any weapon holsters, which earned him a satisfied nod from the silver-haired man and another spiteful string of muttered curses from his own father.

“Fucking useless piece of shit, I should have cut your mother open when you were inside her, you parasite!” Jinwook exploded at his son, and when Namjoon pressed the barrel harder into his temple, the man turned his glare and his anger onto him. “And you!... You disgusting boot-licking, shameless son of a whore! I should have let you die alongside the rest of your worthless family! I will ki–”

Namjoon haven’t even bothered to talk back. His expression hasn’t changed from the mask of blank calm. He just moved his weapon slightly and, BANG!, shoot a bullet straight into the man’s foot.

Eunwoo blinked in shock at the noise of a gunshot, while Jinwook screamed out in pain.

The older man quietened soon though, just as the barrel moved back to his temple. Only then Namjoon said in a stern voice; “Quiet.”

Jungkook turned his back on the injured man, not interested in him and his suffering at all.

Since Jinwook had been a neglectful parent to his youngest child, one born out of wedlock and unplanned, Jungkook wasn’t surprised that Eunwoo hasn’t shown any signs of distress seeing his father being shot at, or with a gun pointed at his temple. The dark-haired man, not unlike Jungkook himself, moved on fairly quickly from his childhood aim to impress Jinwook straight into the feelings of despise and cold disinterest.

“Eunwoo, from now on, things are going to change,” Jungkook addressed his cousin, who just nodded in acceptance. “Jinwook’s title becomes mine the moment of his death, and that means that his heirs are stripped of all the privileges that come with being part of the main clan.”

“I understand that,” Eunwoo responded immediately, his face still and lacking any negative emotions, a stark juxtaposition to the expression of Jinwook, almost foaming at the mouth. “I am just glad that you are letting me live.”

Jungkook frowned at that, his satisfaction marred by the notes of resignation in the older man’s voice.

“I am not letting you do anything – that the sins of our fathers are visited upon us is not the rule that I’ve ever believed in.” The future mafia boss emphasized that with a clear tone, making Eunwoo open his eyes wider in disbelief. “No one will seek retribution from you, not for Jinwook’s careless attempt on my life and not for your siblings’ faults.”

Eunwoo inhaled sharply; the promise of safety coming from Jungkook meant a lot in their world.

Though all my promises to Jimin amounted to big, fucking nothing. I only disappointed him. Jungkook thought to himself scathingly. Like hell am I going to disappoint another person close to me.

And, sure, Eunwoo was never that close to him, or even particularly nice to Jungkook when his siblings had picked on the younger… But the truth was that his cousin was a victim, too. Always the butt of the jokes of Mina and Jehan, always the one to be punished for basically existing whenever Jinwook was in one of his moods. The man’s body was littered with scars to this day, most of them almost as old as the person carrying them.

Jungkook knew his cousin despised Jinwook but was kept on a short leash by the man, since Eunwoo still lived at the same house and worked directly under the older man. Still, he had hope that a vision of freedom from the bullying of his siblings and anger of his father might sway Eunwoo’s decision in favor of helping his cousin. The ease with which Eunwoo had agreed, almost immediately after Hoseok had contacted him, was as much surprising, as relieving.

“There is however still the case of you being an heir to a wiped-out line.” Jungkook continued, and Eunwoo gulped. His clan was technically alive, all of them… and yet, Jungkook’s words suggested that this would inevitably change, soon. The man believed him, no doubt in his mind. “Which is just unacceptable; you’d be sure to become a target of any potential future attacks. Lone and not bound to be revenged, but important enough to send a message.”

Sure, Jungkook’s words sounded callous and hurtful, painting a depressing future for his cousin. But there was no lie in them – after all, the mafia had clans and bloodlines for a reason.

Strength in numbers, for one.

“So, I have a solution for you, one that you don’t have to accept right away. Or ever.” Jungkook made sure to stress that, having seen Eunwoo nodding throughout all of his explanation. He didn’t want the older to agree out of fear of going against the future Head of jopok. “I remember that you had been particularly fond of math during our childhood and, as far as I remember, you even studied something related to that in university, is that right?”

“I graduated SNU with a major in Accounting.” Eunwoo supplied in a barely-there voice, no clue where the conversation was going.

“And you happen to be straight?” Jungkook asked without any preamble, making Eunwoo blink in consternation.

“I happen to… Yes?” he replied, astounded. Jungkook could swear that he heard Jin snickering in front of the surveillance feed, somewhere.

“And you know Jay?” Jungkook continued asking.

“I know of him; I have never met him…” Eunwoo again answered softly, but then seemed to shake off some of his anxiety and questioned back; “Jungkook, what is this about? I’d rather you just say it plainly, making me guess what this is all about is driving me crazy!”

“Jay had been the one taking care of Paradise and our other investments; clubs and bars and even that one underground fighting ring. He is good at that, but he can’t be everywhere all at once. So, he’s been slowly shifting most of his tasks to his sister, teaching her everything for the last couple of years. She is now leading most of the operations, but there’s one slight obstacle preventing her from becoming his successor…”

Eunwoo gaped at that, awkward silence filling the room. Even Jinwook seemed entranced, paying attention to the conversation despite the wound in his foot bleeding profusely.

Jungkook kept his eyes on his cousin, expecting him to answer in a way that would show his understanding. However, no reply came – the man was too stunned to speak.

“As you know, women in jopok cannot hold positions in the inner circle. The only exception being if–”

“…if they are married and their spouse is also a member.” Eunwoo whispered, suddenly regaining his ability to speak.

Jungkook nodded. It was a good strategical decision on his side – keeping Eunwoo who was skilled and smart rather than treating him like a loose end and disposing of him much like his siblings were to be disposed of. But the only way to ensure his safety (and well, ensuring he could be of use to him) would be to somehow tie Eunwoo down to another bloodline.

And what’s better than one killing two birds with one stone? Killing all of them.

Marrying Eunwoo to Hoseok’s sister would not only keep him safe and close, but could enable Jiwoo, who was too smart and too beautiful for her own good, to work for jopok safely. The Jung clan was one of the most loyal to the jopok, and that kind of connection would additionally keep Eunwoo’s status relatively unchanged.

“…I’ll do it.” The man said after a few moments of quiet. He must have come to the same realization as Jungkook did not too long ago. It really was a solution for all his problems. As much of freedom, as one could get in jopok.

The dark-haired man smiled at that and reached his hand to shake on it with Eunwoo, who while still looking taken aback from the turn his life took in a span of a few minutes, gripped his hand firmly and looked him straight in the eyes.

The respect and thankfulness shining through were a new one.

“Well, then I am done here.” Jungkook said decisively and put his hands in the pockets of his trousers.

“Where do you think you’re going, boy?!” his uncle exclaimed, the clear dismissal of him during the conversation finally making him snap, again.

Ah, right.

Jungkook took his gun out again and then handed it to Eunwoo, with a cold smile on his face.

“I believe this kill is yours.” He said plainly and moved to leave the study and the main house once and for all, leaving behind Namjoon to supervise and clean up.

As Jungkook was leaving, Eunwoo for the first time in many years smiled at his father with happiness filling his eyes, raising the gun.

Chapter Text

“Did you get anything? Jin, tell me you got something.” Jungkook wasn’t above begging at this point.

Namjoon had checked Jinwook’s house with Eunwoo one more time, ensuring there were no signs of Jimin there, or any clues leading to his location. There had been nothing.

His only hope was Jin learning anything in the mess that was Jinwook’s surveillance, a high-end technology with securely protected data. The flash drive Jungkook had handed the man was supposed to act like a door into the system, and while Seokjin was doing the best he could, searching through thousands of recordings and feeds with the help of Hoseok, Jungkook couldn’t help but feel helpless.

“Kook, I’m trying, I promise it will be okay–” The older’s voice was tinged with sympathy, and Jungkook couldn’t handle that, too. He just disconnected the call and fell into the driver’s seat.

It is all taking too long. Jimin could be… He could be–

God, he couldn’t even think about it without a wave of despair hitting him so strong that he struggled to breathe. He was sitting in his car, on the road leading to the mansion, too high strung to enter the Main House, to keep up the air of nonchalance and control expected of him.

Jungkook hid his face in his hands, fighting down the panicked gasps threatening to leave his throat.

God, what is wrong with me? Why… Why can’t I just…

Jungkook sniffed and with a shock realized that there was wetness on his face and his hands. He tried wiping it off, but it seemed never-ending, only adding to the feeling of helplessness.

What… Crying? Am…I crying?

Jungkook hadn’t cried when his parents died in a mission, just a few weeks before his fifteenth birthday. And he haven't cried at all ever since he killed for the first time. Tears never solved anything, they were just another sign of weakness which could be explored, he’d learnt that early on.

Knock, knock.

A sudden sound, even as soft as this, had Jungkook straightening and reaching for his gun, his instincts taking over. Emotions needed to be pushed down sometimes, another lesson from his childhood.

(Jungkook had always excelled at learning.)

“Damn, no need to be so welcoming…” a low voice drawled from behind the window, a slight satoori painting the words a familiar color.

Jungkook relaxed somewhat and shoved the gun back down into the holster. He didn’t bother to wipe his face down. There was no use pretending that he wasn’t a mess; his face not only covered in tear-tracks, but also red and splotchy from crying.

Also, Yoongi was an extremely perceptive son of a bitch. He’d probably been watching Jungkook’s breakdown for a while, looking for the best moment to make an appearance.

Sighing, Jungkook left the car and came closer to the man, who was leaning on the back of it. His own car stood further down the road, a familiar figure sitting in the front seat, with pale face almost pressed to the window.

“He’s not coming to say hello?” Jungkook asked dryly, nodding in the direction of Taehyung, who quickly turned away, clearly embarrassed to have been caught staring.

Yoongi laughed at that, the smile changing his face from a scary mask of indifference to a surprisingly soft expression. “He’s just shy, let him be.”

Love-struck, Jungkook realized sharply. His hyung was in love with a man, whom the whole mafia world knew only as his pet. As his possession.

“Cigarette?” the question tore his thoughts away from that and Jungkook raised his eyes to the older man who was lighting up one himself, his face still looking somewhat softer. “You look like you could use one. I heard what'd happened.”

“…sure.” Jungkook agreed, shrugging. It was (again) no use, trying to seem fine. He accepted the cigarette and even let the man light it up for him.

The smoke clogging his lungs felt like the hurt clogging his heart and anxious thoughts clogging his brain. God, he was suffocating.

Yoongi was smoking silently next to him, his eyes trained carefully on the younger. Jungkook made no effort to return the stare, instead choosing to look down blankly, on his own hands.

“Goddammit, kid…” the older man grumbled suddenly and shoved a hand in his coat pocket to retrieve something from it. The movement finally succeeded in making Jungkook raise his eyes, at least for a moment. “You’re looking like a kicked puppy; it is seriously ruining my mood. Here. Take it.” Jungkook dropped his cigarette in haste to grab the phone pushed into his hands. He looked at Yoongi with wide eyes, making the older become flustered just a bit, and bite out in a grumpy voice to cover it up; “Never, and I mean it, NEVER, mention it.”

The older walked away, before Jungkook could even try to ask what exactly was on the phone. The man could only hope it was something that could lead him to Jimin.

But… Why???

His question was answered almost immediately by the way Taehyung grabbed Yoongi’s hands the moment the older sat inside the car. A stiff nod answered the question Jungkook was too far to hear, and Taehyung’s face changed; the young doctor leaned to kiss Yoongi passionately and then hug him close.

Jungkook turned away from the scene and rushed to his car.

He had to get back to his team.

They had to find Jimin.

At this point in my life, I should probably start praying, Jimin thought to himself and chuckled humorlessly. This weird mood had started a few hours earlier, and kept him laughing and crying repeatedly, one after another.

The man hadn’t come back since the–, the Thing, which Jimin carefully packed and locked inside a small part of his brain and decided to never, ever, revisit. There had been a woman, though. And while she hadn’t been violent, she’d looked at Jimin with disgust and hate so strong it made him shudder. She’d left after a few minutes while yelling like crazy for the man. Jehan, whose face Jimin saved inside the same part of his brain and vowed to lose the key.

I will die here, alone and forgotten… and the worst thing is I will die dressed in a sheer shirt and boxers, with no dignity.

And no pants, Jimin giggled again…

…and then sobbed, one action too similar to another to differentiate between them. He felt himself going crazy in this basement, kept in the dark, for a second day with no food and no water.

I want…

             (Jungkook, his treacherous brain supplied.)

                       I want to go home.

I miss…

            (Jungkook?)

                      I miss my life.

I am scared…

           (For him. Is he alive? Please, let him be alive…)

                     I am scared they will come and hurt me again.

I don’t want…

           (Him to be dead, what if bled out there?)

                    I don’t want to be in pain anymore, it hurts so bad…

No matter how hard Jimin tried to keep himself lucid and conscious, his thoughts seemed to fly away in different directions, always coming back to Jungkook before scattering again. If not for the insistent jabbing of a pulled-out metal string into his cheek, Jimin would doubt if he wasn’t dreaming.

A pulled-out… metal… string…

“That was important somehow…” Jimin mumbled to himself, his voice scratchy and thin.

Metal string… What’s sooooo important in this string when I’m cuffed and locked away …cuffed …and locked away…

Cuffed?

Jimin was cuffed.

Right.

The string.

Was to open the handcuffs.

Holy shit, Jimin opened his eyes and turned his head, a miniscule amount of energy coming back to him, when adrenaline flooded his system. I did it, I pulled it out, but must have passed out sometime soon and forgotten all about it!

The blond moved to sit up and grab the string, groaning when the movement resulted in a sharp pain. In…, in his… (Lock it down and throw away the key, Jimin.)

Everywhere. He was hurting everywhere. Must have been the sleeping on the floor, the nurse mused to himself. It’s not good for the back.

The string was hard to grip in his mouth, slipping away and falling more than once before Jimin managed to bite on it and press his face close enough to his hands that he could try to push into the lock.

Considering the placement of the cuffs, and the weird angle Jimin had to move his head into just to see anything, and the fact he was trying to open the handcuffs, like an idiot, with a metal string pulled from the old mattress…

Well, considering all that, and the spots dancing in his vision, too, Jimin wasn’t exactly expecting success.

So, when the cuff on his left hand fell open and smacked him straight on the face, the blond just blinked in confusion. It took him a few seconds but then he stood up and unlocked the other side, this time holding the string in his hands.

Wa-a-ay easier that way, Jimin noticed and smiled at that. He looked at his hands, finally free and aching from the restraints.

There’s old blood on his hands… So much blood…Whose blood is it?... (Lock. It. Down.)

His hands were so dirty, Jimin shook his head at that. Must have gotten them dirty when I fell down in the parking lot.

Not being cuffed was a feeling that seemed so foreign after so many hours spent with his hands above his head, aching and bruised by the restraints. Jimin moved his wrist around and checked them over quickly; while nothing was permanently damaged, some of the open wounds on his wrist would probably leave scars.

He was trying carefully not to think about the rest of his body, especially his face which felt swollen and tender, having taken the brunt of Jehan’s punches during the kidnapping.

Swaying and dizzy with effort it took to stand up, Jimin began his search for anything useful in the room. He was yet too scared to just come out from the room, and while he wasn’t too hopeful that there would be any weapons laying around, he was hoping to find anything which could be used as that. A rusty nail and a piece of plastic coat hanger were everything that he’d found while being cuffed to some pipe in the corner of the room and Jimin wouldn’t hesitate to use them in self-defense, but he could really use something bigger.

Quietly he was also hoping to find anything to drink or eat. Jimin’s medical knowledge was screaming at him behind the fog in his mind – it was already two days since he had been taken, and he was dehydrated enough that if didn’t find anything soon…

Well, let’s just say that the lack of weapons wasn’t his biggest worry at the moment.

Throwing around empty cardboard boxes and plastic wrappings during his search, all he found was some plastic tape.

Great, Jimin thought, pounding in his head worsening by the minute. Now I can wrap myself and give myself back to my kidnappers. Very useful.

He still grabbed the tape, trying to make a kind of a make-shift rope from it. If it came to the worse, he could maybe try to strangle somebody.

Jimin had never considered himself a violent person, but he had a lot of time to think in the last two days, alone in the dark, cold and bleeding. The blond would gladly give away some of his morality in exchange for freedom. And maybe a bottle of water and painkillers.

Only because he was so focused on wrapping the tape around itself, that he heard the sound of rushing steps and raised voices coming closer and closer to the room. The nurse looked around panickedly and dove behind the largest stack of boxes, covering himself in plastic haphazardly. He even put his hands over his mouth to stifle the sound of his quickening breathing.

Not more than a half minute later, the door to the basement opened. Jehan and the woman, as Jimin thought it must be her basing by the screams she was letting out, ran into the room in a rush and then, noticing that Jimin was gone… They started yelling even louder, making Jimin’s eyes water. The headache was killing him, and their screams and the fear of being found hiding, were certainly not helping.

“You imbecile, how the fuck do you mess up one simple task?! All I asked was that you tied him down after finishing your fun with him!” the female voice raised in pitch, and Jimin blinked away the tears. The woman was screeching so loud he could barely feel fear, he could only focus on the pain throbbing in his head.

“I did tie the bitch down, I swear!” Jehan voice responded, and that… yeah, that raised goosebumps all over Jimin’s skin.

“Then what, did he magically teleport himself back to that fucker?! This son-of-a-bitch will kill us now that we don’t have our leverage, and it will be all your fucking fault, because you can only think with your dick!”

If the situation wasn’t so serious, and the woman a dangerous criminal, Jimin felt like would have left his hiding place and applauded her loudly. As she was clearly the one in charge, Jimin stayed put and prayed that she didn’t think to look in the heaps of trash scattered around the room and between the boxes.

“Fuck off, noona! Fuck, fuck… He can’t be far from here; the door wasn’t locked but it’s not like he could escape unnoticed! He must be still somewhere in the building…” Jehan spat out and he must have been walking around, because his voice sounded much closer to Jimin than before. The blond closed his eyes and bit his lips to fight the sobs threatening to rip out of him.

Oh God, I’m gonna die now. He is standing right over me… Please, no…

“Then what are you still doing here, you idiot? Go find him, and bring him to me – Jungkook has been strangely quiet the last couple of hours and it’s making me nervous… If he finds us before we find his boytoy then it’s over, he won’t even blink before shooting us and everyone here on sight.” The woman continued talking, mostly to herself now, since Jehan had murmured his agreement in a still irritated tone and turned to leave the room.

Is that… Does that mean he’s looking for me? Jungkook is coming for me?

Jimin inhaled shakily and felt some tears fall down his cheeks finally, the feeling of relief almost overwhelming him. Just enough to sigh.

“Shhhhh… What was that?” the woman questioned suddenly and Jimin stilled, feeling like a mouse hiding from a ravenous cat.

Surely, she couldn’t have heard that one little sigh?

“Jehan, shit, did you hear that?!” she yelled out, almost making Jimin jump in surprise at the sudden noise. The woman stumbled around and rushed back to the door, her heels clicking like crazy on the basement’s floor.

Her ragged breathing became quieter and quieter, as she was getting further, letting Jimin breathe more deeply. He felt as if he’d ran a marathon, his head dizzy and lungs screaming for oxygen, hands shaking as he was dropping them back to his lap.

On a second note, maybe it was just a beginning of a panic attack.

What a stupid way to die, drowning in your own fear and barely being to breathe in case all what you are scared of comes to life, Jimin thought and closed his eyes, trying to count his breaths. In and out, in and out, again and again. It was not the first panic attack of his own, having had many of those right after the death of his family and then throughout the early teens.

Naively, Jimin thought he’d gotten better at dealing with those, but clearly, he hadn’t. That sucked.

Seconds passed, and then minutes. Jimin stayed hidden, trying to fight the fatigue that came immediately after the panic attack subsided. The hunger and thirst and the ache spread all over his body didn’t help, at all.

But the room was quiet, not a sound coming from behind all the boxes and trash Jimin had covered himself in, so when the nurse figured he could stand without fainting, he slowly made his way out.

Despite the quiet, the blond still took his time to look around. There was no-one, and the door at the other end of the room was shut, cutting out the outside noises from reaching Jimin’s ears. There was a chance, that just outside of it, were people gearing up to go against Jungkook and at the same time looking for Jimin.

And yet, the nurse felt like he couldn’t stay in this small room any longer. The fear stinked it up, and Jimin could barely breathe while still in it. Even at the cost of his life, he needed to leave.

Jimin wrapped his right hand around the rusty nail and took the makeshift rope in his right one, slowly stalking towards the door. He didn’t know how stealthy he could be while swaying on his feet, but still tried his best to step lightly and quietly through the door.

Jimin thanked all the goods that it was open, somehow, and didn’t even make a creak, when he slowly pushed it and peaked into the dark corridor.

It was empty, only lit by some industrial lightbulbs hanging on the cords every few meters, giving the space a spooky feel. Not noticing any movement, and not hearing anything other than his ragged breathing, Jimin slowly creeped forward.

Shit, this feels like a horror movie scene… Is this the time when someone jumps out to kill me, jumpscare-style?

Every few steps he paused and strained his ears to listen for anything but so far, after passing into the second corridor and coming up to the base of some stairs, there was nothing. Not a sound, no one around… It was honestly, unsettling.

Did they escape and left me here to wander these empty corridors until I die from thirst? Or did they plan to do something to the building with me inside it?

Jimin shuddered. Jesus, his mind was becoming his worst enemy… And even as he was aware of that, he couldn’t exactly turn off his thoughts.

He couldn’t, right?

The stairs led to another door, this one all thick metal and heavy. No matter how stealthy Jimin tried to be, it still screeched when he pushed it open, making the blonde wince and hold his breath.

For completely no reason, it seemed. Just as the door opened loudly announcing Jimin’s presence, a series of gunshots and loud yells came from behind the young nurse, coming from somewhere near the place he just escaped from.

The nurse startled and with no thoughts other than runrunrun! sounding in his brain, pushed into the door and closed it behind himself. Not allowing himself to hesitate, Jimin started to make his way through another corridor, this one better lit and wider, obviously on the surface level, rather than underground.

Because of his fatigue Jimin couldn’t actually run, even though everything in him urged him to do so. The blond settled on brisk walk and even that made pain shoot down his spine and dizziness to take over his brain.

Pulling into a corridor, one after another, Jimin began panicking more and more. It seemed as if the voices and the shots were getting closer, no matter how much he tried to quicken his pace and run away from them.

The nurse kept on turning his head back, every few seconds, again and again. Paranoid that someone was going to chase him and grab him from behind, just like when he had been kidnapped, Jimin forgot to pay attention to one important fact.

He should have also been looking where he was heading.

As he clashed with another body, Jimin couldn’t even try to fight the terrified screech that escaped him. The man grabbed him in a strong embrace, his voice loud and demanding, but Jimin couldn’t understand what he was saying over all the noise.

What is that goddamn noise?!

Ah, Jimin realized after a second, when the man put his palm on the blond’s mouth, effectively blocking the screams of terror. That might be me…

Not even the realization that the man hadn’t been touching him in any inappropriate way, nor was he pulling his weapon and pointing it at Jimin, was any consolation to the nurse. Jimin didn’t even see anything, his eyes closing off automatically on the first contact. He could only feel the tight grip the man had on his forearm and core, and his other hand holding his mouth closed.

Let me go, no, please, let me go!...

The blond trembled and whined at the embrace, helplessness and fear so strong they felt paralyzing. The man was still talking, his voice a low hum somewhere far where Jimin’s consciousness couldn’t reach.

Jimin felt himself being softly lowered to the floor, still in a tight hold, which just made him shake more.

God, please, no, not again…

Jimin tried shrugging off the insistent hands and moving his face away from the grip on his mouth, but to no avail. At this point another fear joined his already gargantuan panic; he couldn’t breathe. All the sobbing made his nose clog, and his quick breaths were blocked by the wide palm.

I’m gonna suffocate!!!

The man’s voice sounded closer to him now, murmuring Jimin’s name into the nurse’s nape.

Jimin blinked away the tears, sniffling. He lifted his free hand, which previously had been pushing on the arm gripping him in the middle, and clawed on the hand blocking his face.

Surprisingly enough, that one loosened its’ hold immediately, instead grabbing onto Jimin’s smaller hand and pulling it closer to his body.

“… Jimin…” the voice sounded low and soothing, and as Jimin inhaled and exhaled trying to understand the situation, his attention was pulled to the palms holding onto him. Those looked familiar.

They weren’t pulling him, they weren’t squeezing him; matter of fact the moment Jimin stopped his panicked thrashing and convulsing, the embrace became looser and looser, turning quickly into a hug.

Jimin inhaled again, deeply, trying to verify what he was seeing his all his senses, almost too afraid to believe his own eyes.

The smell of cologne. The soothing low voice. Familiar strong hands, with tattooes spread over the knuckles and covering the wrists. The broad chest behind his back, and hair tickling his bare neck, where the man was leaning his face against Jimin’s nape.

“Jungkook?” Jimin asked in a broken voice.

“I’m here, my love. I came for you.”

Chapter Text

Pulling traumatized Jimin closer to his chest, Jungkook could only focus on the shivering of the slim man’s body. The last few days have taken their toll on his body, and Jungkook could feel the sudden thinness of the young nurse’s wrists and ribcage.

Having always been slim and petite, even the short time of starvation and torture turned the young man into a wreck. And that was only what Jungkook could notice, while still behind the nurse.

The blond held onto his hand laid over one of his own, and continued sobbing out short, delirious sentences.

“… You came for me…”

“… I missed you so much…”

“… hurt me…”

“… Kook, take me home…”

Each one of them pierced the older’s heart more and more, but the revenge could wait. His men were already transporting Mina and Jehan back to the Main House, precisely to the cell in the basement. Jungkook would spend his sweet, sweet time, taking out all of his anger onto the pair, but for now he could push the dark feelings away in favor of taking care of Jimin.

My Jimin.

When did he start thinking about the nurse as his own? Was it just because the young man had been taken so brazenly away before he could truly taste him?

It must have been before that.

Maybe when the blonde had tried flirting with him as a part of their tactic but believing every word Jungkook had said back to him. Maybe it was even before that, when the nurse had tried to foolishly call him out on the first night, just to fall apart on his lap a few hours after.

Maybe it was when the person who’d answered the call in the hospital turned out to be so beautiful and so innocent, that when the man was laying down on his lap, passed out after the shooting, Jungkook couldn’t help but to stroke his hair and think to himself quietly, beautiful.

The tendency for Jimin to be hurt and put in dangerous situations is becoming quite unsettling, Jungkook suddenly realized. This is why men in jopok don’t date and don’t do romance. They marry out of convenience or for business, they produce an heir or two, they continue the bloodline.

They don’t love, and they don’t go to war for love.

Jungkook felt his lips stretch in a grimace. This ship has sunk already.

But looking at Jimin, curled in his arms, covered in blood, sweat and tears… and a lot of dirt, Jungkook wasn’t feeling all like listening to the old teachings. He just wanted to pull the young man close and not let him go, preferably for the next couple of days, maybe not ever.

“Are you feeling better, baby?” he asked, when the sobs that racked the younger man turned into softer sniffles. The question sounded silly, but Jungkook couldn’t imagine asking anything else.

Why are you covered in blood? Who did this to you? Why are you basically naked? Why… why is there so much blood on your thighs… who did this to you?!

Even thinking those questions in his head, made Jungkook feel physically sick. No way would he ask Jimin that when he was freshly freed from the source of his trauma.

“… better…” the younger rasped, his voice scratchy with the aftermath of the crying fit and the days spent in captivity.

Jungkook took one of his hands away quickly, meaning to grab a bottle of water from his backpack, but as he moved his arm Jimin flinched sharply, gasping.

The man paused, barely breathing in fear of hurting the younger even more.

“You’re safe now, Jimin. I got you. No one can hurt you now, love. You’re safe.” Jungkook settled on murmuring and with more careful moves reached for the discarded backpack and water. Jimin grabbed it out of his hand in a matter of seconds, hands shaking and then drank greedily.

Jungkook used this moment to move from behind to the side of the boy, sucking in a sharp breath at the sight of bruises on the younger’s face. The pretty little nurse was almost unrecognizable with the number of cuts, lesions, and dried blood on his face.

Oh, Jimin… I was so late… I was almost too late…

The dark-haired man exhaled shakily and felt his vision swim with tears. He tried to blink them away, but they stubbornly persevered and threatened to spill down his face.

Small hand touched his face suddenly, and it knocked him out of his stupor. Jungkook tried to smile at worriedly looking Jimin, reassuringly. Just looking the nurse in the face made his chest tighten and hurt, however; a brand-new emotion for him.

“… darling…” Jungkook said, his voice reduced to a sad whisper. Jimin shook his head slightly at that, as if he could read the older man’s mind.

“You came for me.” The blond said simply as if that was enough to heal every wound and take his pain away. It wasn’t, both of them were painfully aware of that.

But for now, they could pretend.

Jimin’s recovery wasn’t by all means a fast one. With the help of Seokjin’s web search and a very persuasive Hoseok, a team of two nurses and three doctors was hired to patch Jimin up and kept careful watch over the young nurse.

The blond was put on a special diet and an IV and spent most of the days in his own house, sleeping like dead because of the number of painkillers being fed to him.

Jungkook came just once, on the first visit, and left pale and shaken hearing the full diagnosis. The young nurse, who’d passed out not too long after the mafia boss had carried him out of the old warehouse, wasn’t aware that all of his demons, so carefully locked in that one small part of his brain, were put on clear display by the well-meaning medical team.

Since that day, the dark-haired man hasn’t shown his face to Jimin even once, and after more than two weeks of that, Jimin has had enough. He had tried asking Namjoon and Jin, who both were by his side day after day, about their boss but they evaded his questions with an ease.

The evasive answers, the silent treatment and that cold, empty feeling in his chest that couldn’t be filled, no matter how much both of his hyungs tried, was pulling Jimin down into a depressive state, where he could barely eat and refused to move from under his covers, plagued by the obsessive thoughts.

He never loved me. It was all for show. He came for me, but he left. Everyone always leaves me. He saw what’d happened to me and was disgusted. He doesn’t want to see me. He can’t even look at me, thoughts like that tortured Jimin day and night.

If not for Hoseok, who visited him one day and promptly threw a fit over the state of the blond who seemed to be getting worse rather than better, nothing would change.

The brunet made a few calls, yelled a little more into the phone, and not even an hour later, a disheveled Taehyung ran into Jimin’s small apartment, throwing himself onto the Jimin-sized lump on the bed. The young doctor had spent the next few hours coaching Jimin out of his bed and then into the shower, even going as far as helping the weakened man to wash himself and making him dinner, the first real meal the blond had in a few days.

“You can’t live like that, Jimin.”

Jimin chewed on the noodles, still sad but feeling mor alive than he could remember being ever since the kidnapping.

“Easy for you to say, Tae-yah.” He countered after a moment. “He basically threw me away from his life, like trash.”

The young doctor shook his head wildly.

“Fuck that! You don’t belong to that man, you live for you, and for you only, Jimin!” the dark-haired man exclaimed, and Jimin looked at him critically.

“So, you want me to believe that you’d be any better in my situation, if it was Gloss leaving you like that?” he questioned, and Taehyung blushed.

“His name is Yoongi…” he said in a softer, infatuated tone. “And I will cry myself to sleep the moment he decides that he doesn’t want me anymore. But I will live on, as Kim Taehyung, and not as Min Yoongi’s pet.”

“Will?” Jimin questioned the certainty in Taehyung’s tone, and the doctor smiled sadly.

“I know the limitations of our relationship better than anyone else. It won’t, can’t, last forever.”

“And you still think it’s worth…?”

…worth the heartbreak? was what Jimin wanted to ask, both for himself and for his friend. The same line of thinking was what had led him to decide to screw logic and let himself fall for Jungkook, but now he was back to doubting everything.

“It’s worth what? To love? To be happy? To demand being loved the way you deserve to be loved?” Taehyung said passionately, waving his hands and almost knocking over his bowl of soup. “Yes, yes, I do. If you want Jungkook back, make him come back. If you want him to talk and then tell him to fuck off, make him talk to you and explain himself and then send him on his merry way! But don’t, don’t you dare, waste away like you’re dependent on his attention. You’re not. You’re so much more than that, Jimin-ah.”

Jimin gulped the tears back and wordlessly pulled out his arms to ask for a hug from his friend.

Was that true? Am I more than that?...

Of course I am, Jimin discovered with a sense of surprise. I am an amazing nurse, a smart person, a man daring enough not to bend to societal norms. A good friend, if what Taehyung was saying, was to be believed.

That was already a lot to internalize; to put self-love into the places of fear and doubt. And yet, there was one more thing that Jimin had to confess to himself and learn how to live with.

I am a survivor. The things that happened to me were not my fault. I can demand to be loved the way I deserve to be loved.

“Tae…” Jimin said after a moment into his friends embrace, “I need to do some things, and I need you to help me.”

The dark-haired doctor pulled away; his eyes filled with hope.

“Anything you want, Jimin-ah.”

Chapter Text

Walking down the street, trying to look ordinary and innocent, and not at all like I am about to have a meeting with a drug lord who controls half of South Korea’s drug smuggling and drug dealing is surprisingly hard, Jimin discovered. Sure, before when Namjoon had been by his side, he didn’t exactly look conspicuous, but Jin had been ready to work his magic at any given moment and disperse any suspicions.

Now, as he was freezing his butt in the cold autumn air, Jimin regretted not preparing better to escape his own apartment and flying under his watchful hyungs’ radar.

It'd happened so quickly; when Taehyung had given him the signal, Jimin had picked the closest clothes lying in his closet and stopped only to grab his phone and wallet and shoes before slipping through the door.

Jimin hadn't even been out of the building, just the empty apartment next to his (thank you, Mrs. Choi for always forgetting to lock your door when you hurry to work), when the yelling had started. The paper-thin walls had done very little to muffle Seokjin and Namjoon’s words.

“Where….he???”

“Fuck!... Find him!”

“Boss is going to kill us!”

Jimin had chuckled at that. Seokjin, a master hacker, would need at least a few hours to log into his computer that he left back at the Main House... (seeing as Taehyung had put some nails on the road leading away from Jimin’s building to the main street).

As both men had been sprinting to their car, Jimin had watched through the small window, happy with his and Taehyung's plan going smoothly.

When the two had disappeared from his view, the nurse'd changed his clothes into a plain pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt. Looking out the window again, just before he'd been about to leave Mrs. Choi’s house, the rainy weather had caught his eyes.

So in the end, Jimin had left the apartment and the building wearing Mrs. Choi’s leather jacket and a black cap, looking like a badass and feeling more like a meek kitten pushing itself into the jaws of an apex predator.

Apex predator being in this case, obviously, Min Yoongi.

A cab had pulled up just as he'd left the building, cautiously looking around, and driven him straight to some rich neighborhood filled with glassy skyscrapers and neatly arranged parks.

So now, Jimin was freezing his ass off and waiting for Min Yoongi to show up, and during that tried not to look so spooked every time someone passed him and stared. His all-black attire was making him stand out in the district, where most of the passers-by wore suits and plain colored dresses which cost more than Jimin’s rent.

Jimin was seriously starting to lose hope when an expensive car pulled up right next to him. The blond looked it over and when the back door’s window opened, and a familiar scarred face peaked from it, he made his way to the car and jumped in next to the older man.

No one said a word, as the blond sat down. Not the crime lord, not his driver who pulled the partition up as soon as Jimin opened the door, and not Jimin himself.

“Hi…” The young nurse finally managed to speak, causing the older man to glance at him. His stare was impenetrable; Jimin couldn’t decide whether the man looked amused or irritated by his boldness.

The awkward silence was overbearing, so Jimin decided to just speak straightforwardly.

“Listen, uhm… Gloss-ssi… I need–”

“Hyungnim.” The man corrected him in a lazy drawl, and Jimin opened his mouth to talk back, just as he’d used to do with Jungkook. However, the glint in the man’s eyes told him to shut up and back down.

Fucking hell.

“Hyungnim, I need your hel–” he tried again, just to be interrupted by the man, again.

“You can ask better than that, Jimin-ah.” Gloss scolded and Jimin bit down on the inside of his lip to stop himself from cussing the man out. Sure, the raven-haired male was scary as hell, and the suit that he was wearing, and the gun strapped to his hip just added to his aura, but Jimin just wanted one simple thing.

One simple favor.

You can do this, Park Jimin.

“Please, hyungnim… If you could spare some time and help me? I would be ever so grateful.” Jimin barely managed to say in a sweet, meek voice and Gloss smiled at that, mockingly.

“Now, we’re talking.” He turned to the side, so he was facing Jimin and asked patronizingly; “What can hyung do to help you?”

“I want the directions to the Jopok’s Main House.” Jimin stated surely, but weathering under the glare of the man quickly, he amended; “I’d like to ask for the directions, hyungnim.”

The man with a scar on his face scoffed; “No can do, kid.”

Jimin felt righteously betrayed at that. All that groveling was for nothing?!

“But Taehyung said…!”

Yoongi glanced at him, a clear warning in his dark feline eyes, and Jimin’s mouth clicked shut.

… God, that guy is terrifying.

“The roads that lead to the Main House are not on any map or satellite. You could try driving around the area for hours on end, but if you don’t know where the house is, you won’t find it. You can thank that smartass hacker for that.” The man explained and Jimin calmed down a bit.

There is still chance… I can still convince him…

“Then how…” Jimin started to ask, just as the man leaned and knocked on the partition, making the driver start the car immediately. The blond looked at him in visible alarm, which Yoongi noticed and smiled, this time less sharply.

“Isn’t it obvious, kid? I’m driving you there.” He stated, and when Jimin started spluttering, stumbling between thank-yous and you-don’t-have-tos, the man’s smile grew and became impressively sweet, and he started to laugh deeply.

Smiling like that, in a wide gummy way and laughing openly definitely made Jimin understand why Taehyung was in love with the man. He looked more approachable and human like this, a welcome sight for the embarrassed Jimin, who’d rather be laughed at than made to deal with the scary and cold persona Yoongi showed to the world.

This is the version of Min Yoongi Tae must have fallen in love with, Jimin mused. He still didn’t know much how the relationship between the two started, Taehyung having been surprisingly tightlipped about it.

“Ah, hyungnim…” Jimin said with a smile, now more comfortable and even okay with addressing the man so respectfully. “I really am grateful for your help.”

The raven-haired man waved his hand at that, still smiling slightly; “Jimin-ah, this is as much for you, as it is for Jungkook; it’s impossible working with him when he’s like that…”

“Like what?” Jimin asked, suddenly not feeling so lighthearted.

“Tortured. Angry. Moping. Take your pick, they all fit.” The man scoffed jokingly.

Jimin didn’t know what to say to that. If Jungkook was missing him as much as Jimin was, then why wouldn’t he come and visit? Why break off all the contact? Why tell Seokjin and Namjoon to keep Jimin under a constant watch and far from the man himself?

Nothing was adding up. Jimin just kept getting more and more confused.

Seeing the thoughtful and tired look on Jimin’s face, Yoongi decided not to talk more on that topic. It was, after all, Jimin and Jungkook’s relationship, and he had done more than enough to help them out in his own opinion. If not for the maknae, whom he considered a friend rather than a partner at work, then for his lover. Taehyung was invested in Jimin’s life and relationship, and simply wouldn’t let Yoongi forget about his troubles.

And maybe his lover was still too timid to ask things outright, but Yoongi could read between the pages of the open book that Kim Taehyung was to him.

“Better rest now, kid.” The older man advised after a few more seconds of troubled silence; “It will take us some time to get to the House and you should really be going in there with all you got…”

Even if Yoongi’s advice was a reasonable one, Jimin found himself unable to sleep. He spent the drive staring out of the window, lost in thoughts. The fight Tae planted in him yesterday was slowly fading away, giving place to doubt.

Maybe I should just stay home. Forget about Jungkook. Heal and move on.

Yeah, nothing of that sounded like something that Jimin actually wanted, and yet his fears were attacking him with full force, making him doubt everything that happened between him and the older man.

Meanwhile, the drive was slowly coming to an end. While Jimin had been blindfolded that one time that he was escorted from the Main House, he knew that the drive took about fifty minutes. Jimin had hoped before that Taehyung would be able to guide him here, but the young doctor spent most of his drive pleading with Yoongi to help Jungkook with finding Jimin, and some of it, crying for his best friend. Understandably, Tae only kind ofknew where the Main House was, having never been inside of it.

Aiding Jungkook was something that the blond still had to thank Yoongi for, but didn’t know how to proceed with it. Thank you for saving me from the most traumatic moment of my life? Thank you for caring for Taehyung’s feeling enough that you could help out a total stranger? It all sounded very awkward, and Jimin was almost 100% sure that the older man was allergic to this kind-of touchy-feely conversations, if Tae’s spare comments were to be believed.

The car took another turn, driving deeper into the woods. For the last couple of minutes, they completely left Incheon, but before actually ending up in Seoul strayed into a couple of smaller roads. Now, they were passing patches of woods and empty fields, some small houses spread around but looking surprisingly empty.

Suddenly, the car screeched to a stop, jostling Jimin up. They were almost out of the woods, a small crossing of unpaved roads in the fields not too far from them.

“Why are we stopping?” Jimin asked and Yoongi looked at him with his usual blank stare before answering plainly;

“This is as far as we can go as the Head of Jopok didn’t invite us into their House. Anything further than that and it’s basically asking to get shoot in the face, no questions asked.”

Jimin’s brows raised in incredulity.

“And you’re telling me this now??!” he hissed, respect for the man who’d saved his life be damned.

Gloss smirked at his panic and answered in a low tone; “If it’s you… I believe you will have a better chance of not being shot on sight, kid. It’s not like Jungkook would let anything happen to you right in his house.”

Jimin nodded, but with no conviction. He didn’t say He’d already let something happen to me, but sure as hell thought it. The scalding hot guilt that followed the thought must have left an impression on his face, because Yoongi glanced at him again, and sighed.

“Look, Jimin-ah… The truth is that no matter how much he tries to pretend otherwise, Jeon Jungkook is still just a man. I’m sure he’s never shown you that part of himself, but he can be scared and doubtful, and… honestly speaking, fucking stupid sometimes. He can make mistakes, too, you know? Just try not to let this dumbass walk all over you, and you’ll be fine, kid.”

How did my life end up like this, falling for a gangster with no emotional maturity and asking drug lords for lift and some advice?, Jimin mused half-heartedly. He couldn’t help but notice that Taehyung’s and Yoongi’s advice might have sounded differently but carried the same meaning.

Meaning being, smack some sense into Jungkook and then maybe have a well-deserved happy-ever-after. Somehow Jimin couldn’t see how this would convince Jungkook to come back to him, but he’d try any line of persuasion just to be taken seriously.

“Thank you, hyungnim.” He said after a moment, not knowing how to put all of his feelings into words. Gloss just nodded, probably seeing that the words extended not only to the words of advice and help given today, but also to the day he helped Jungkook save Jimin.

Jimin left the car, pulling the borrowed leather jacket closer to his body. The gesture didn’t help at all, for his shivers were not only a direct result of the cold wind, but also the nervous energy that filled his body with every step he took to get closer to the Main House.

The House itself wasn’t that far away, coming into view after barely ten minutes of walking. The nurse didn’t let himself gawk at the huge building, somewhat gothic and dark and elegant in its design; even if the House was intimidating it was nothing compared to the man he was coming to see inside of it.

Maybe Jimin was outta his mind, behaving like crazy… 

Isn’t it crazy, to come up to the mafia’s main residence just to demand their boss to explain himself, to demand the man’s attention, and love?

Even if it is crazy, Jimin decided, there’s no other way to get answers, or at least closure. Not if the man suddenly drops from the face of earth and refuses to see me, after saving my life and treating me like the love of his life.

As he passed by the gates and noticed the two men standing guard, Jimin just clenched his teeth and with a falsely brave poker face walked straight to them. Both men were armed, that was for sure, but they made no move to stop him even as he sauntered past them, just following his steps with narrowed eyes.

Yoongi was right, then. Jungkook made sure that none of his men hurt Jimin, even if he himself was nowhere to be seen.

Jimin raised his hand to knock on the door, and then decided against it. Manners were not a thing to be concerned about, and so he just pushed the door open, walking quickly inside and towards Jungkook’s office.

Even as Jimin made his way into the room with a confidence in his gait, a full speech being written and re-written inside his head for the past twenty minutes, the sight of Jungkook sitting by his desk took him by surprise.

Perhaps I didn’t expect this to actually work.

The blond nurse took the few seconds to take in the appearance of the older man.

Jungkook was sitting in the chair, slumped, with his head resting against the back of it, face blank but tired looking. It might have been the first time for Jimin to see this man looking worn-out, his usually put together demeanor nowhere to be seen. He was wearing a white shirt, but it looked rumpled, the top two buttons open and sleeves rolled up on his forearms.

Jimin would have to be blind not to notice the dark circles underneath the man’s eyes, or the downward turn of his mouth.

Jeon Jungkook is still just a man, Yoongi’s words echoed in Jimin’s head as he stared at the older man. He can make mistakes, too, you know?

“Get out, Joon.” the man mumbled, and Jimin’s eyes zeroed on the glass held loosely in Jungkook’s hand. “…don’t want to hear it.”

“Jungkook.” Jimin said softly, almost afraid to make the man look up.

Righteously so, because just as Jungkook does, his face darkens.

“What the hell are you doing here?!”

Right… The plan “smack some sense into Jungkook and then maybe have a well-deserved happy-ever-after” might not be so easy to execute, after all.

Jimin swallowed nervously, but decided to answer truthfully; “If you don’t come to me, then I will come to you – isn’t that obvious?”

“What’s obvious is you clearly don’t care about your own safety, if you can come here and walk around like that. Didn’t the last time teach you anything?” Jungkook spat out, his face marred by a frown.

Jimin tried not to let it show that the words hurt, but he couldn’t suppress the wince at the mention of the kidnapping. The wound was still too fresh.

Jungkook noticed that, basing by the way his eyes lowered in shame for a second, angry for himself for such a harsh remark.

“Jimin, I…” he said, more softly, but then quietened.

The nurse shook his head at the unusual lack of confidence of the older man. It was unlike Jungkook, to react so emotionally and then to back down so quickly.

“Jungkook, I don’t care about the dangers of all this – it’s all worth it, if it’s for you.” The blond stated plainly but seeing the other raise his head and open his mouth as if to argue with him, he stopped it right away. “Do you know what helped me get through all that suffering? Do you know who was the one I thought about when… they… when they raped me?” Jimin asked with his voice trembling.

During all this, Jungkook was looking at his face in sad wonder. Only on the end, his gaze hardened and hatred flickered in the depth of his dark eyes. And yet, the older man held back, and didn’t answer.

“It was you, all those hours. Every minute spent there, I thought of you, and you only. And when you came for me? I knew that I was finally safe.” Jimin explained, feeling his eyes water from the nerves of showing all of his emotions.

Jungkook shook his head, and sighed.

“But that’s it, Jimin – you are not safe, and you’re never going to be, not if you stay with me. I am not the man, who you think me to be. I will never be him.”

The criminal’s words did nothing to persuade Jimin, and it seemed that the mafia boss noticed that, too – he closed his mouth, the jaw muscles flexing in irritation.

“I don’t care! You came for me, and that’s enough. And I wouldn’t want anyone else, you are the first person who made me feel like this, made me have all those feelings…” Jimin revealed, as a last resort to get the man to see his point. The nurse could see Jungkook clamming up and fought back a sob threatening to escape.

I am losing him.

“I want you to leave, Jimin. Leave now, leave me and leave this life behind.” Jungkook said emotionlessly, his eyes lowered not to look at Jimin’s teary eyes. “We’re done.”

The man stood up to leave and as he was passing him, Jimin reached out suddenly and grabbed the sleeve of his white shirt. The strong grip made Jungkook stop in his steps, but he still didn’t meet Jimin’s eyes.

“You’re the one who seduced me away from my life. Take some responsibility, you coward.” Jimin whispered, tears finally falling down his cheeks.

Jungkook grabbed the nurse’s wrist and softly, but decidedly freed himself from the grip.

“Jay will drive you back home.” The man muttered and left.

Jimin stood in disbelief for a few moments after the door’s closing. He couldn’t believe that Jungkook made this kind of decision, to distance himself and throw away all their chemistry, all their interactions, all their closeness just because he was scared of what the future could hold.

The blond raised his hands to his face and covering all of it, let himself cry freely.

I lost him.

Chapter Text

Walking away from a crying Jimin will probably haunt my nightmares more than any mafia-related violence ever could, Jungkook thought to himself gloomily. The last couple of days have been a nightmare on their own, but to see the little nurse crumbling at his words was upsetting to say the least. The man felt as if the whole world was falling in on him, covering him beneath the heavy wreckage of his own mistakes.

Jungkook wiped his eyes angrily. Somehow, the tears started to fall and didn’t stop; never before had he been so easily moved. Nowadays it seemed as if anything that concerned Jimin could make his eyes water and heart tighten in his chest.

He tried to make himself look less shaken, straightening his rumpled shirt and wiping at his face again and again, but no to any avail.

There was only one thing that could make him be okay, and he destroyed that with his own mistakes and careless love. So Jungkook wasn’t particularly hoping that going down to the basement of The House where Mina and Jehun were both chained to the chairs, would make all his troubles disappear.

What he was hoping though, was that making them scream a bit would quieten the screams of his own conscience and lovesick mind.

One can dream, huh.

Maybe it was pitiful, or even just plain sad, but Jimin stayed in Jungkook’s office way longer than it actually took him to recover from his crying fit. He took his time to fight down his sobs and whimpers, but after that he just… stayed.

Sat down in the chair belonging to Jungkook, trying to see if he could feel what the older one felt when he looked at others from behind his desk. Trying to see if it could make him understand the mafia boss better.

It didn’t.

The nurse wandered around the office room, touching down all the little things in his way; trying to memorize everything around up to his best abilities. Somehow, the blond doubted that after tonight he would ever be able to come back.

Jungkook would never let him back.

That realization hit him like a truck, making Jimin bend in half from the pain. Some emotional pain could be so strong it manifested somatically; the nurse was well aware of that after all his uni classes. But still, to feel the sadness like a punch to his stomach, making bile rise to his throat, was a new sensation.

Only Jungkook could ever make him feel things so strong. No matter what it was; wonder, anxiety, comfort, passion… love or sorrow.

It seemed as if Jimin was waiting his whole adulthood for this man to make him feel things. To make him want things. And just as Jimin was starting to let himself feel and want, Jungkook decided to leave him.

Jeon Jungkook is still just a man. He can make mistakes, too, you know? Sure Yoongi, sure, but at this point Jimin just didn’t know anymore what the mistake was – his love, as it seemed, was not what could change the older man’s mind, so what was it worth in the end?

The crying was getting ridiculous, Jimin could admit it to himself. The high-pitched whine was actually quite an unpleasant noise, too, when he focused on it.

When he focused enough, Jimin realized that he was not the one making the sound, because his sniffles paled in comparison to the excruciating agony audible in that voice.

What is that???

Still breathless from his crying, Jimin looked around, but the office was empty, and the noise seemed somewhat weirdly to come from the floor. Just as the nurse was ready to admit again, that he was being ridiculous if not borderline psychotic and hearing stuff, the blond man noticed air vents located near the floor behind one of the leather armchairs.

Not the weirdest thing you have ever done, Park Jimin, the nurse mused to himself while getting down on his knees to put his ears to the vent. As the wailing became more pronounced when he rested his face against it, Jimin grudgingly amended; Maybe in the top ten weirdest things you did, idiot.

But faced with the choice to keep spiraling and dealing with his feelings and realizing his loneliness in depth, or snooping around… Well, Jimin never said he was above making stupid decisions. Some of them just begged to be made by him, that’s all.

With that thought in his head and a weird feeling, like a dark premonition hanging over him, Jimin stood up and made his way out of the office.

And straight into the basement.

Jungkook didn’t think of himself as a criminal, most of the time. Sure, he wasn’t a good person by most people’s standards, and sure, he had been living and breathing crime since he was a child, but still – to himself, he was just Jeon Jungkook.

Seeing Jehan’s smug face, sneering even when covered in old and fresh blood, was seriously making him change his mind. He could be more than a killer; he could torture with pleasure and murder without remorse. He could become the devil himself.

Just as long as the bastard has had experienced the same pain and agony and fear, he’d caused to his Jimin.

Jungkook hadn’t even started playing with them before the last couple of days. At first, he had been too angry; he was sure that he would give them a too-easy death, so he avoided even looking in the direction of the basement, leaving them both to Jay, and sometimes Namjoon and Seokjin if they came back from visiting Jimin.

Then, Jungkook had learned just how malnourished and beaten up the younger had really been during the kidnapping, and he decided to give the pair the taste of their own medicine.

Not too long ago, had he felt stable enough to be able to hurt them without instantly ending their misery.

Today, he felt more than ready. The pain in Jimin’s eyes when he said the word rape… It would be another thing to add to Jungkook’s growing list of nightmares.

“Don’t know what you expect to achieve with this, Jungkook” Jehan spit out, smiling sardonically. “You can cut me and beat me up as much as you want, and it still won’t change that I fucked your little who–”

“Shut up” hissed the mafia boss, fighting himself not to grab the man and work out his anger on him. “You don’t get to talk about him.”

The older Jeon broke into a laughing fit, making some more blood appear at his lips and nose. Jay did a number on him, alright.

“I already did everything to him, though! There’s nothing more! Your little whore toy lost all the value he could have to you!” the man bragged, ugly words leaving his mouth with no thought. “I doubt he’ll ever let you get close, now, Jungkook!”

“Jesus, Jehan, shut it…” mumbled Mina, who up to now has been sitting silently next to him. More concerned with spitting out blood and catching up on a breath from their previous session with Hoseok, her face was bloodied and bruised, and her voice scratchy from all the screaming.

Jungkook glanced at her, and then focused his eyes on his cousin.

“That’s what was your goal?” he asked, holding back a grimace. The gangster knew that while he could get rid of them this instant, a better alternative would be to understand their motivation. To get the answers out of them – why sabotage his work? Why target Jimin? Why now?

All of those questions needed to be answered, before Jungkook took real control and reigned over the jopok; going in blind and trusting not to be screwed over again could only bite him back in the ass in the future. No, he needed to close this problem and their treason once and for all, and to do that he had to make them talk.

“Fucking, what?!... goal?... As if I’d care about some boy toy you’d paraded around town!” Jehan replied, giggling. “It was just cherry on top, to make him cry underneath me!”

Jungkook nodded, sagely, his face becoming more blank with each second. And then without any changed in his expression, he grabbed the closest tool laying on the table next to him, which happened to be a long hammer, and struck it forcefully on Jehan’s bound left hand.

The sound of a breaking bones and Jehan’s wail of pain, while not too soothing to a normal person, made Jungkook feel more at peace and, dare he even say it, somewhat happier.

Not by much, but still.

“Fuckerrrr!” the Jeon cousin screamed out and bent down as much as he could in his tight bindings to cover his mutilated left hand. “I’ll fucking KILL you!”

“Good luck with that” Jungkook answered emotionlessly, and turned towards Mina, who leaned away from him the moment she noticed his attention shift to her.

“G-get away from m-me!” she screamed, or rather tried to, her voice coming out in more of a scared wail. “I didn’t touch him, I swe-eaaa-ar!”

“I know.”

Jungkook took a few measured steps, coming to still on the side of her; just like that, he could look at her and Jehan in one line, and both of them had to push themselves to keep eye-contact with him, the way their necks were collared to the chair.

“I know that, and I also know… that this whole operation was your idea.” Jungkook continued, taking in the way Mina’s face grimaced with regret and then, desperate slyness, if only just for a mili-second.

“That’s not true! He’s the one, who wanted to overthrow you, and he made me do it!” she yelled, and Jungkook almost smiled, when he saw Jehan look at her in shocked betrayal in the background.

There he is… Hook, line, and sinker.

“Bitch!” the man hissed out, starting to struggle in his bindings. “You’re the one who wanted him out of the picture!”

“Shut UP!”

The mafia head straightened and made a caricature of a surprised face.

“Oh my… Seems none of you wants to take any responsibility for that fiasco… Tch!” he tutted, and turned somewhat to Jay, who was standing still, leaning on the wall and observing the whole interrogation with an amused half-grin the whole time. “That’s not really acceptable, is it, Jay?”

“Not at all, Boss.” The man responded and finally moved from his place near the wall; just this movement enough to quieten the angry whisper-yelling of the tied-up Jeon siblings behind Jungkook’s back. Having had the pleasure of Jay’s company for the past two weeks, both Mina and Jehan had learned quickly that the man, even if smiling, was not to be trifled with.

“I think that maybe they need some incentive to talk… How’s that, Jay?” Jungkook played up the notes of humor in his voice, seeing in periphery the way both Jehan and Mina became paler.

“It would be my pleasure!” Jay exclaimed and grabbed the pliers from the table, his cheery approach almost grotesque in contrast with the cold look in his eyes and the situation itself.

Jungkook winced internally at the first scream, when the pliers, handled expertly by Hoseok, ripped Jehan’s nail clean off his uninjured hand. He steeled himself however, so that his face would still stay unbothered.

Instead, he just reached into his pocket for a cigarette, lightning it up quickly. These days he was smoking more than ever, even though he’d been trying to quit for a few years now. Old habits die hard, he mused breathing in the smoke.

The repetitive movement and the slight wave of euphoria from feeding into his addiction helped to stand in the cold basement and listen to Jehan’s raspy yelling and Mina’s desperate wailing. No matter how many times Jungkook had sat through interrogations like this, it somehow never got any easier.

Well, he wasn’t puking his guts out, like he had after the few first ones. Small mercies.

“Go-o-o-d, stop it! Stop it, I’ll tell you!” Jehan screamed out at some point, and Jay stilled with the blade he’d switched to after deciding pliers were just not enough. The gangster glanced at Jungkook with question in his eyes.

Jungkook waved him off.

“I’m listening” he said softly.

“It was her idea, I swear!” Jehan started, and immediately Mina began to screech at him.

Jungkook at the last moment kept himself from slapping her. Her screams were getting annoying, and he hoped they could finish soon, as the pleasant numbness from the whisky had drunk earlier was starting to dissipate.

Instead, he just looked back at Jay, who didn’t need any words. The slim man walked up quickly and gagged the still cursing woman with some loose cloth, finally letting them have some reprieve from the noise.

“Talk.” Jungkook ordered again, and Jehan startled, looking back at him.

“I didn’t even want to, y-you know? But she… she said you’d be bad for business after, after you take the lead, and… And that, that should be us, on the top of the jopok…” he mumbled, his speech slightly slurred from the pain and blood loss. “The bitch wanted you gone, and then the drugs… it was easy to bribe some of the lower-level men, you know… you know the ones, Jungkook? They would do anything for a few hundred thousand won more…”

Jungkook exhaled, frustrated. That was it? All these problems, all these deaths and betrayals, because of some jealousy?

“So… You got some goons to give you intel, and then what? Stole our drugs, some illegal shippings and destroyed our meeting places; what was that supposed to achieve?” asked Jay with a scowl. Jungkook only frowned, slightly.

Jehan rasped out a laughter.

“Well, if your future leader if shit at managing even when half of the work if done by the current one… No one is going to follow him, fuck, people came flocking to us after the first few weeks, they knew what was up!” Jehan smirked, but the self-assured smile slid off his lips completely, when he saw Jungkook reaching for his gun. “Wait, WAIT!”

“I’m tired of waiting and standing still” Jungkook muttered, disgust fresh in his mind. “I might just switch to action-over-words, since it’s the only thing you rats can understand.”

“There’s more! I-I, I swear there’s more I can tell you!” Jehan gasped out, eyes bulging out when the mafia boss raised his hand pointing the gun at his head. “It’s about the nurse, it’s the reason-…!”

“Is it worth your life?” Jungkook wondered at loud, a strange sense of apathy fighting to cover all of his emotions under a heavy veil. “I don’t think I want to hear it…”

He took the safety off the gun, the small click clearly audible in the silence which fell over the basement.

“But I do.” Jimin said with a cold voice, right from behind Jungkook. “I think you owe me this much.”

Chapter Text

“Jimin…” Jungkook sighed in disbelief turning around slowly, surprise etched into his features. “Why are you…?”

Why are you here? Why didn’t you run?

Jimin shrugged, his eyes trained on the tied man sitting behind Jungkook. Even though his face was blank, the wide dilation of his pupils and clearly shaking hands revealed his true emotional state to the older man.

“I can’t let you kill him” the nurse replied after a few seconds of silence. “Not until he explains himself and tells me what the reason for all of that was.”

No, don’t do it, Jimin, this is not worth it…

“Baby…” Jungkook whispered imploringly, almost unconsciously, and Jimin shuddered turning his face away. The mob boss swallowed the next words threatening to escape his lips, and instead just nodded. The clear dismissal on the younger’s face said the younger would not be swayed by any of his pleas. “Alright. If that’s the closure you need to leave this life, then he’s all yours.”

And with these words, he pulled the safety back on and put the gun back into his holster.

“Boss…?” he heard Jay murmur questioningly from the side. The dark-haired man ignored that, silencing the man with a shake of his head and joining him with a few quick steps on the side of the room.

Jungkook knew, what he was now doing was foolish, and yet, he’d argue that this was the only possible way to make Jimin see what he needed to see.

If Jimin doesn’t leave me for his safety, then I’ll make him leave out of fear.

Jay just looked between him and Jimin, and then his face darkened in understanding. Jungkook gritted his teeth and stared ahead, ignoring the piercing stare of his friend.

Shut up, Jay. Let him see what he wanted to see. The true ugliness of our lifestyle.

A few meters away, unaware of the turmoil faced by the two gangsters, Jimin stood in front of his tormentor, unmovingly. In spite of his bold words, now face-to-face with the monster who’d hurt him so badly, Jimin visibly found it hard to come any closer to the man.

Jungkook just took a deep breath, trying to get rid of the guilt threatening to eat him alive.

Jehan, on the other hand smiled at Jimin with his bloody teeth.

And winked.

Motherfucker.

Jimin had the time only to notice the sleezy wink and immediately feel the urge to vomit come straight out of nowhere, before a figure stepped back into his line of sight and threw a punch so strong that the resounding crack of a broken bone reverbed through the room.

Oh my God, Jimin thought, the nausea and mental discomfort somehow blurring his panic into a bleak disbelief. He felt like someone else took the reins of his body, somehow stopping the urge to flee and hide. Instead, all of his body stiffened painfully, and he managed to not move a step back. This is what dissociation feels like, he realized. I’m here, but… I’m not.

Jungkook leaned over the bleeding gasping in pain Jehan and growled lowly; “Watch it, or I will make it hard for you to even blink.”

The man wheezed and nodded dazedly. From the side, forgotten and up to this point, silent Mina, scoffed, catching the attention of everyone around.

“Got anything to say?” Jungkook asked, deceptively sweet.

Mina smiled palely at that.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do” she said, her voice scratchy and barely there.

Jimin just looked at her, trying to find in her the crazed woman, who he had hidden from not so long ago. In her place, only a pitiful shell of a person remained, stripped down to the ugliest parts of her character. 

“You may want to pretend that your whore is blameless in all of this” she started, stopping only to cough up some blood and spit it out. “… but he’s the one who marched right into this life and painted a red target on his own back.”

Jimin shuddered, an ominous chill taking over his body, fighting the dissociation and false calm. He gulped, trying to get rid of the tight feeling of his throat, and asked in a brave voice;  “And how did I do that? Did I somehow forget asking to be kidnapped and… and raped?!”

In the periphery, Jay moved slightly, uncomfortable with the admission. Even Jungkook seemed to still, after hearing the truth worded so off-handedly. Jehan, seemingly in fear of any more violence, just ground his teeth in silence.

Jimin, himself, was just focused on not shaking and not letting it show how much grief the reminder was causing him. The blond would be more than happy to just forget the pain and everything that came with it, but it seemed to be crucial to relive the past in order to gain any information from the Jeon siblings.

Mina, once again, scoffed. The women had the audacity to sneer at Jimin and reply in a vindictive tone; “Right, and what was it that you expected to happen, when you walked right into the execution of a mafia member and stole the bastard right from under our nose?”

The truth took Jimin’s breath away, rendering him speechless for a moment. Same could not be said for Jehan, who immediately hissed panickedly; “Shut up, noona, fuck!”

Jungkook almost growled, next to Jimin, anger making itself known on his features. His hands clenched into fists and body-language would make anyone reconsider crossing the man.

Even then, the woman just giggled crazily, ignoring everything and everyone.

If possible, Jungkook’s eyes turned darker with murderous intent.

Even the ugliest of emotions couldn’t make this man look ugly, Jimin mused to himself and then turned to face the beaten-up siblings again.

“Is that it?” he asked turning his face to Jehan, empty feeling taking over the fear previously residing in his body and mind. In the moment, Jimin just felt tired and void of any strength. To learn that his suffering was nothing to these people, just a choice made out of spite and envy…

It made him think back to the darkest moments spent bleeding alone in the cold basement, in which he’d dream of killing the man with his own hands. Even then, those thoughts, as cruel and desperate as they were, were just that – desperate visions to help himself not break down under the trauma.

Now, Jimin realized that maybe there was something more to them, too.

“Is that true?” he repeated, asking the silent man who looked at him, bloodied and beaten, and yet not showing an ounce of regeret in his expression. “All of that was just for your sick enjoyment and, for what, revenge?!”

Jehan chuckled.

“As good of a reason, as any other” he grinned with an empty look in his eyes.

At that, Jimin felt something in himself snapping. Maybe it was the last thread of his humanity, or maybe sanity. The blond nurse didn’t even fully notice, when he stepped a bit closer and yanked the gun from the holster at Jungkook’s hip.

He just noticed the slight widening of Jehan’s eyes, when the gun was pressed right into his mouth, gagging him.

“Jimin…” Jungkook whispered in surprise, not expecting the move at all. The blond just squeezed the gun harder in his hand, not wavering. The mafia member locked eyes over the nurse’s shoulder with Hoseok, who just shrugged. Let him, his eyes said.

“Jimin, you don’t want to do this…”

The nurse smiled, tears leaking out of his eyes.

“On the contrary, Jungkook” Jimin said quietly, not trusting his voice not to break or falter. “I really, really do.”

Jungkook inhaled deeply, his thoughts running wild. Of all the possible scenarios, this one was not one he’d ever envision happening.

That’s not what I wanted for him! He’ll never forgive himself, even worse he’ll never forgive me if I make him a murderer! I already caused him too much pain, this can’t end like this!

“Jungkook.” Jay’s voice caught his attention, pulling him out of the chaos in his head. The man stood next to Mina, having gagged her again, after she’d started thrashing around when the gun had been pointed right in her brother’s face. Hoseok looked at him, all serious and somber, and said softly; “It’s his kill. And his decision.”

To which Jungkook had no choice, but to nod.

The thought of the pure-hearted nurse dirtying his hands with blood to have his revenge didn’t sit right with him at all. And yet, just as his friend said, ultimately it was Jimin’s choice.

It didn’t mean that he had to carry his burden on his own, though.

“What. Are. You. Doing.” Jimin said through his teeth, when Jungkook walked around him and leaned into him from the back.

I can take some of the guilt from you, just let me.

Instead, what came out of his mouth, was a murmured instruction.

“Hold the gun steadily. Pull the safety catch away, first” Jungkook moved closer to Jimin, almost hugging him, and even then, the blond man did not move, standing as still as a statue. He wrapped his hand around the smaller one on the gun, steadying it, and whispered, again: “Safety catch, darling.”

Being as close as he was right now, Jungkook heard the gulp of fear as clear as day. Nevertheless, slowly Jimin’s finger moved and pulled the safety lock away, the click echoing in the relative silence of the basement.

At this point, the mafia boss could feel the trembling in Jimin’s hand, but just decided to leave it. Instead, he put his other hand on the younger’s hip, securing him against his body. The weapon recoil would surely surprise the younger man, and knowing that, Jungkook made sure to position himself just so that he could handle most of the momentum himself.

Even then, when everything was set-up and even Hoseok moved to grab thrashing Mina to pull her away from Jehan and back onto the chair she was confined to, Jimin still didn’t move. Jehan wheezed underneath his arm, the gun lodged in his mouth silencing most of his mumbles, and that’s why it took Jungkook a second to hear the whispered help me.

Jungkook sighed softly, with relief. That, he could do. Killing was, after all, his forte.

“I can do it for you.” He offered immediately, in similarly quiet whisper, only to be met with a head shake.

“I need to end him myself, or I’ll never sleep safely again” the nurse explained with a pained voice, and then Jungkook understood immediately what the blond wanted from him.

“As you wish.”

With that, Jungkook’s hand on Jimin’s tightened. His own finger pushed down on the index finger wrapped around the trigger and pulled it down, decisively.

Goodbye, Jehan. Say hello to your father for me.