Chapter Text
"Awh, officer, haven't I been a bad boy?" Jimin leans forward.
The rookie officers sitting in for the interview have their eyes widened, while Jungkook makes an attempt at schooling his face into a nonchalant expression.
"Why did you do it? Are you working for anyone or with anyone else?" Jungkook grinds his teeth, ignoring Jimin's comment.
"Because," Jimin said, grin never leaving his face. He knows what he's doing. "Gonna spank me, officer?"
Jungkook exhales loudly, running an hand across his face with a hand, frustrated.
Jimin was a constant in the criminals he investigated, always managing to get into some sort of trouble. This time it was for stealing a car. It was beginning to get on his nerves, he saw this delinquent too often to keep his sanity intact.
"Park Jimin, just answer the fucking questions," Jungkook raised his voice. He was tired, he wanted to go home, and he didn't want to spend a single second more with this ridiculously attractive habitual offender.
Jimin's smile never faltered.
-
When Jimin was trailed and had been convicted, he had to serve four month of prison. Following that, Jungkook had seen to it that the man was brought back into the prison complex.
But what was even weirder was that the next week he escorted a convict there, Park Jimin was not in the criminal records there anymore. At all. He was quite sure the procedures were complete the last time he brought the man there.
Jungkook also had checked if the man was in the cells of the complex, but it was as if he had disappeared into thin air. None of the prison wardens could give him answers about it, either.
He had to get to the bottom of this.
It was as if he was drawn to Jimin's questionable character. It was a strange, basal attraction. Something about him made Jungkook want to find out more about him, in the way he tossed his head, his coy laugh, every small thing pulled Jungkook in hook, line and sinker. How he managed to get out of prison without a single criminal record just fuelled his need to know more about this person whose character suddenly didn't seem as shallow as he made it out to seem.
But how come Jungkook hadn't heard of anybody escaping the cells? Surely news as big as that would become gossip in the station.
Just what game was this Park Jimin playing? What is he hiding?
-
"Officer~" The saccharine voice rang in the room, and one could tell a shudder ran through every other person in the room in response.
Jungkook was interrogating Jimin. Again. This time, he was alone, and by now he was sure as hell annoyed out of his shit. They were going no where, and he was getting no closer to finding out the truth. Something he wasn't even quite sure himself why he wanted to know.
Before Jimin could continue his sentence, Jungkook spoke. "Why do you have zero criminal record?"
Jimin's eyes flashed with something, and then it was gone, too quick for Jungkook to identify. Suddenly the air was colder than it had been.
Eyeing Jungkook, it was as if Jimin was trying to size Jungkook up. All of a sudden, he dropped his casual and playful demeanour, as if it had never been there in the first place.
Jungkook began to question just how much he knew about this man. It was as if Jimin had become another person. No crooked smile hanging off the corners of his lips, no eyes crinkled up and no suggestive words at the tip of his tongue.
This Jimin was different, darker, a slant to his eyes, a default expression on his face like a mask, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
There was definitely something major going on under wraps, Jungkook knew.
But what?
Just then, the door to the room swung open, revealing the hard face of the head of the police station, Min Yoongi.
Jungkook gaped. It wasn't every day he got to see the gruff sergeant barge into a room he wasn't assigned to.
"You're dismissed, Jeon Jungkook," He said, not even bothering to spare Jungkook a glance.
"But-" Jungkook objected.
Yoongi shot him a look from the corner of his eye, and Jungkook shut up immediately. He stood up, shooting one last look at the criminal before shutting the door behind him.
Nothing was ever a coincidence.
-
Jungkook peeked up from the screen of his desktop and looked through the polished glass of his office, just to catch two figures walking out, one with an arm patting the shoulder of the other.
That hair colour and back was no stranger to Jungkook.
It was Jimin.
Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows as Yoongi sent the man out free of handcuffs and all.
How can that be?
Jimin had committed two felonies that night, he at the very least deserved nine months of prison term, right?
Jungkook's eyes narrowed, but he ducked immediately as Yoongi swerved around, nearly catching him spying on them. Eyes trained on the dark font of his computer, he bit his lip as he thought for the umpteenth time.
Just who the hell was Park Jimin?
-
"The fuck?!" Jungkook yelled in surprise, as someone shoved him against a rough concrete wall.
He was on his way home from the graveyard shift, when he was cornered by three men, one already swinging his fist towards Jungkook. Immediately he avoids it, a leg reflexively rounding out to swipe the male off balance.
Jungkook lets his instincts take over, but takes care not to really hurt them; he is a policeman after all. But in the midst of dodging and attempting to handcuff each of them, he catches the face of one particular man.
Jimin.
Jungkook's eyes widen, his mouth already forming the syllables of the shorter's name. But the way Jimin shakes his head behind the two taller men, and the way his eyes take on a pleading look, Jungkook bites his tongue as he blocks an arm and successfully restrains one of the men he could only describe as textbook thugs.
And then Jimin is not fighting back anymore, just stands quietly, watching Jungkook cuff up the two people. As Jungkook hauls them both up to lead back to the police station, Jimin speaks up.
"Do...do you need help?" He says, rather timidly, completely opposite of the Jimin Jungkook knows.
Jungkook is about to ask him if he hit his head and moves to attempt to restrain Jimin as well, when he grabs one of the men off Jungkook's hands.
Jungkook narrows his eyes at the way Jimin's handles the cursing, taller man. A criminal off the streets wouldn't be so experienced with handcuffs.
"You little bitch, I should've known you weren't loyal to boss," The thug hisses, jerking forward. Jimin's does not let up in his tight hold on the handcuffs.
Just as he was about to question Jimin's identity again, Jimin shakes his head, the look on his face making Jungkook gnaw at the inside of his cheek to prevent his words from spilling.
But of course, the large question mark in Jungkook's mind becomes even bigger.
As the two approach the headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency, Jungkook steals a last glance as they head into the building. Jimin had his eyes hooded, blond strands falling into his eyes.
The moment they enter, they are confronted by Yoongi. "What the hell-Jimin?!"
"H-Hyung," Jimin stutters, smiling wryly as Yoongi takes it upon himself to tell a few officers to bring the handcuffed to separate holding rooms.
Jungkook raises his eyebrows, looking expectantly at Jimin, then at Yoongi. But neither say anything, and soon Yoongi breaks the silence with a cough, sending Jungkook home and asking Jimin to stay back for a little. His tone left no room for argument.
-
So that is how Jungkook found himself nibbling on his lower lip as he resumed his interrupted walk back home. His mind was alive as ever, still whizzing from the adrenaline and thinking too much about Park Jimin.
The once crystal clear persona of Jimin that Jungkook thought he had no doubt of had clouded over and became blur around the edges as contrasting qualities came in. Jungkook was no longer sure which one was the real Park Jimin.
And then he was collapsing into his own bed, asleep before his head hit the pillows.
-
The last time Jungkook saw Park Jimin was that night.
Then he disappeared.
For three whole months.
Jungkook had pretty much let go of it after two months of not seeing the repeat-criminal.
Except he hadn't.
For some unknown reason, Jungkook's mind kept wandering to the blond, thinking (worrying). It was just plain strange, how the man made an appearance at the headquarters so often and regularly that it had somehow became routine for Jungkook.
He didn't know exactly where to start in this entire hunt, but to say he didn't try was a understatement. He checked the database, but came up with nothing; just like the criminal record, it was sparkly clean, without a single trace at all of where he even lived.
That was the official dead end. Jungkook was already convinced that Jimin was somewhere lying in a ditch and dead.
But Park Jimin still lived, in the recesses of Jeon Jungkook's mind.
Obviously our story doesn't just come to an end here.
Jungkook receives a call from the headquarters on his day off, and before he can think much into it, his hands are already pressing the green 'accept button'.
"Hello?" He says.
"Jeon Jungkook." The voice he recognizes immediately as Min Yoongi says. "Come to the headquarters asap."
And then the line went dead.
Jungkook, confused as to why Yoongi didn't tell him whatever it was that had cropped up, shrugged on a dark bomber jacket to fight the autumn wind and quickly walked out, opting to hop onto his motorcycle instead of the usual route to the office via walking.
It seemed urgent, the way Yoongi's drawl was shortened into tight sentences, so Jungkook speeds up, weaving his way in between cars.
When Jungkook parks his bike and enters the complex, an officer ushers him hurriedly into Yoongi's office. With arched eyebrows, he clears his throat at Yoongi, who was staring at the bright screen of his laptop.
"Sir." He says, voice firm, training not betraying him.
"Officer Jeon," Yoongi glances at him, the bags and darkness under his eyes surprising Jungkook.
Jungkook hadn't seen Yoongi in a while. The man had always stayed holed up in his office, and Jungkook hadn't had the need to report to him for the past three months, so when he saw Yoongi in this state, he repressed the urge to wince.
"Sit down." Yoongi continued. "I owe an explanation to you."
Brows furrowed, Jungkook hesitantly sat down on the chair before Yoongi's desk. His hands folded themselves on his lap immediately, dreading what was to come.
And that was how Jungkook learned about how Park Jimin was actually a spy of sorts for the police, and was supposed to apprehend a gang of criminals by collecting incriminating evidence for them. Of course, there was also the fact that he had poofed out of existence for two months when he was supposed to 'report' to the headquarters.
But Jungkook completely stopped thinking when Yoongi uttered his next sentence.
"So I'd like you to go and infiltrate the gang to find him," Yoongi deadpanned, as if he hadn't just asked Jungkook to walk into a literal pit of poisonous snakes voluntarily.
"What." Jungkook replies nervously, hoping for a miracle and that he had mistaken twenty syllables for something entirely different.
"Please," Yoongi resigned to say, "I need to know that he isn't dead."
Maybe it was the guilt of forcing Jimin to follow through with the assignment even though it pretty much put his life on the line, but that was for Jungkook to find out and Yoongi to know.
"Fine." Jungkook acquiesces.
For a moment, Jungkook expects Yoongi to break into a face-splitting smile or something like that, but of course he doesn't. The man just hands him a file that looked like it had been sitting on his desk for a long time, and asks Jungkook to look over its contents for a day before commencing the operation tomorrow.
At this point Jungkook already thinks that he is some cliched lead character in a secret service movie already, so of course he sees the "no," coming when he asks Yoongi if he will be accompanied for his mission.
"You'll be alone," Yoongi explains, "So that no suspicions are raised."
And then Jungkook is being dismissed, and he bows once before sauntering out of the office.
-
After Jungkook has gone through the file Yoongi gave him, read and reread it, he sits back, exhaling quietly.
He might as well enjoy tonight, then.
It is his last day as a normal human being, after all.