Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say that Jimin was bored was an understatement. Since his last mission, it had been decided, without his approval of course, that, for his protection, he was to stay out of all missions until the situation was fixed. In other words, he was forced to stay home, stuck between those four walls, until everyone who knew and had spoken of his existence had been dealt with. It was a long process – to find out who knew, to take care of them, to get rid of them.

They had voted on this issue at the last meeting – 6 votes against 1, his own vote being the only one against it, of course – and before Jimin knew, he was being imprisoned by his own friends.

“You are all trying to baby me again,” Jimin whined, pouting at Seokjin as the older man was sat in front of him at the large dinner table in their kitchen.

“No, we’re trying to keep you alive,” Seokjin replied, not looking up from the papers he was busy filling in.

Ultimately, he knew they were right. This situation was difficult for everyone. It slowed down the others’ work, changing all their plans as they had to take care of it as swiftly as possible. It was better for them if Jimin stayed out of the way in the meantime, so they didn’t have to play bodyguards for him at the same time.

Still, when everyone else was outside, he was bored out of his mind.

“Is this always like this for you?” Jimin continued. “Do you not get bored when we’re all out?”

“I’m not always home,” Seokjin said. “And when I am, I have plenty of things to do.”

Jimin spent most of his time with Seokjin now. The oldest member had a completely different role from the others. From the beginning, he’d stayed out of the violence and the confrontations. Rather than partaking in the action, he kept the rest of the gang on track. He was their accountant, their manager, and Namjoon’s right-hand man in making the important decisions. In a lot of ways, he was the one who kept it all from falling apart. He’d grown up in this world – the violence, the rivalry between gangs, the way it teared up families. He knew it all, and it was odd for Jimin that he’d fled all of this years ago just to come back to it, but the man seemed to find comfort in helping them somehow.

“I’ve seen enough of it with my own eyes for a lifetime,” he’d once said. “Now I’m just trying to keep you all alive.”

Jimin loved to spend time with Seokjin. The man still found time to listen to his worries despite the amount of work he had to deal with and was always a good shoulder to cry on when necessary. It wasn’t always easy for Jimin to let himself be vulnerable given their occupations, even in front of his closest friends, and especially after growing up in an environment where he felt like he couldn’t trust anyone. He was grateful to have him by his side.

“I’m grateful to have you keeping me company,” Seokjin said, smiling even though he was still staring at his papers.

Seokjin had been the first one to notice his foul mood following his last mission. He’d sat down with the boy the following day, recalling the events that had taken place and letting Jimin get it out of his chest. Sometimes, Jimin felt like he was the weakest link in the gang, the delicate one that didn’t truly belong. He felt like he shouldn’t have been so shaken up by what had happened – it was far from his first time dealing with a corpse. Hell, he’d killed a lot of people in the past. He should have been used to this by now. Seokjin didn’t seem to agree.

“It doesn’t make it easier,” Seokjin said in a soothing tone. “It’s not your job to be doing this. This is why we have the others. It’s Yoongi and Hoseok’s jobs to keep a straight face in those situations, it’s Namjoon and Jungkook’s jobs to do the dirty work. It’s not yours. This is why we have Taehyung come to these missions with you. You know how to do your job, and it was bad judgement and inconsiderate of Yoongi to intervene before you were done and without consulting Taehyung first.”

Jimin sighed. He was right, but still, he felt like the ugly duckling of the bunch, the one who couldn’t walk straight and struggled to keep up. He wished he was just a little bit stronger.

“And frankly, I don’t think any of us would enjoy having a fresh corpse dropped on us mid-intercourse,” Seokjin continued. “If anyone wants to pretend otherwise, they can come to me and we’ll find out.”

He was grateful once more for the man’s understanding. Still, he could not find the courage to bring up what had happened later in the car, and how it had affected his mood the following days too. He felt childish to still be annoyed after several days, it irked him to see how easily he could be affected by the smallest things. It shouldn’t have been a big deal if Yoongi didn’t like him, if they weren’t close the way he was to the others. None of them had chosen to live in each other’s presence, they were merely here, doing what they had to do. They barely even worked together. It shouldn’t have been an issue, and he did his best to forget about it.  

After a few days, Jimin found himself completely alone again. Even Seokjin was out running errands for the next few days, and deprived of the older man’s company, the house just seemed too big. He tried to stay in his room, but he couldn’t help walking around aimlessly from one room to another. He wished he’d had a hobby growing up, something he could put his mind to when work was slow, like painting or playing the piano. He hadn’t, however, grown up in an environment where he was encouraged to develop any personal skills other than studying, keeping his mouth shut and looking pretty. Still, even Jungkook could draw and this kid wasn’t exactly the poster child for healthy childhoods either. He was jealous. He’d have to ask the kid to teach him some day.

 A week passed, and he started to wonder when he would finally be able to go out again. The others hadn’t said in their last meeting, and he wasn’t fully up to date with what they were doing – it was already difficult to keep up on a normal day, even more now that he wasn’t involved. He’d found himself walking towards the kitchen for the third time since he’d woken up three hours ago. The problem with being at home all the time was that he knew the content of the fridge and the cupboards by heart and the element of surprise was gone. He knew he’d leave empty handed, because he knew he was only trying to satisfy his boredom, but his feet still carried him there as if they didn’t know exactly what he was doing.

To his surprise, however, he wasn’t alone in the big house on this day. How he’d gone three hours without noticing the other man’s presence was a mystery, but then Yoongi had always been the quiet type. And yet, there he was, sitting at the dinner table with a half-finished sandwich, mindlessly scrolling on his phone.

They hadn’t talked at all since the… incident. Even during meetings, Jimin usually stayed silent as he wasn’t involved, and he was merely there just to be informed of what was going on in the gang. He had to admit too that, although it was difficult to follow the coming and goings of all six members, he also felt a little bit disinterested. Since he was out of work, Taehyung worked with Jungkook instead and he felt a little left out. It wasn’t jealousy per say, but at times, hearing them share their stories when they came home every evening made him feel… distant. He knew he had no right to feel that way, and it was childish of him, but it just fed his insecurities about being in the gang in the first place. The others did just fine without him.

Still, despite his insecurities, he still had some pride left. Seeing Yoongi sitting there nonchalantly, not even looking up when he’d clearly heard the boy coming in the kitchen, irked him to no end. He’d told himself he wasn’t mad anymore, but just remembering the older man’s disdain their last conversation, the way Jimin had felt belittled when he was being lectured as if he was a three-year-old, made his blood boil again.

“Why aren’t you with the others?” he said, still standing on the doorway, not bothering with greetings.

“I hurt myself in my last mission with Hoseok,” Yoongi said, still not looking up from his phone. “As you would know if you bothered to listen during meetings.”

Jimin could not help but be on the defensive. He seriously wondered if this man purposely tried to get on his nerves.

“I do listen!” he said, letting his annoyance show in his voice a little too much. “Excuse me if I’m not smart enough to remember everything.”

Faced with blatant silence and ignorance, Jimin just sighed before walking out of the kitchen. One minute and he’d already had enough. He vaguely heard Yoongi mumbling about why he’d walked in the kitchen if it was just to leave straight away, but he didn’t bother responding.

He spent an hour or so working out to distract himself, then showered, and he felt better afterwards. Working out helped his mind settle, it made him feel calmer somehow as he put his agitated thoughts aside and focused on his body for a bit. As he felt less on edge, he went out of his room again. He was already being imprisoned in their house for God knows how long, he wasn’t going to stay confined in his bedroom out of unfounded fear for his fellow gang member.

Unsurprisingly, he found Yoongi sat on one of the sofas in the living room. This time, the man turned around as soon as Jimin set foot outside of his room, somehow drawn by the noise. Jimin was just about to walk passed him when the black-haired man spoke.

“Bored?”

Jimin stopped, looking at him with curiosity.

Beyond the fact that they just didn’t seem to get along, there was something about Yoongi that unsettled Jimin. Aside from the disdain, from the way Yoongi seemed to find just the right way to push his buttons, Jimin still found himself strangely drawn to the man and he could not explain why. He’d felt it for the first time on that night when Yoongi had joined him in his bed, just to ignore him the next day. It wasn’t masochistic, nor self-inflicted. Jimin was not in love, nothing of the sort. But somehow, when the older man acknowledged his existence, he felt his resolution to just move on with his day melt a little bit.

“Yes,” he said, realizing Yoongi was really waiting for an answer.

“Good, so am I,” Yoongi continued as if it wasn’t unusual for them to even be talking. “Let’s play a game.”

Jimin wanted to refuse but curiosity took the best off me. What’s the worst that could happen? He wanted to know how long Yoongi would keep this act up. More so, he wanted to know where this would lead.

“Truth or dare,” the other man said.

They were both sat on the floor now at arm’s length of each other, on both sides of the coffee table, despite the two empty sofas.

The choice of the game was surprising, but not totally unexpected. They weren’t friends having fun during a sleepover. They barely knew each other despite living in the same house for years. Jimin could already tell there wouldn’t be a lot of dares.

“Truth,” he replied, eyeing Yoongi with a mixture of curiosity and caution.

He still was unsure what the other man expected to come out of this. Surely this couldn’t only be his way to pass the time…

“Who in the gang would you say you’re the closest and the least close to?” Yoongi said, his features as composed as ever.

Jimin rolled his eyes at the obvious question. Was this a joke?

“As if you don’t already know the answer,” he sighed. “I’m closest to Taehyung, least close to you. Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Yoongi replied, visibly unbothered by Jimin’s obvious annoyance.

“Why do you hate me?” Jimin asked, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his tone.

He was tired of tip toeing around Yoongi. Sure, it was his doing, his own apprehension towards the older man, but he felt somehow as if the black-haired man in front of him was enjoying this. It was Jimin’s own twisted mind at work surely, making him overthink everything as he always did, but at that moment he was well and truly pissed off. If Yoongi wanted to play with him, then he was going to give him a run for his money.

“I don’t hate you,” Yoongi replied in the same even tone, which only contributed to annoy Jimin even further.

“Then why do you always act all cold around?”

“You only get one question each turn, Jimin,” the man said.

“But-“

“Play the game or don’t play at all.”

There it was. That same condescending tone.

“Fine,” Jimin said, gritting his teeth. “Your turn then.”

“Truth or dare,” Yoongi said.

“Truth.”

“Why did you go back to get Jungkook if you two weren’t close?” Yoongi asked. He then added, looking at the dark look on Jimin’s face: “A genuine question, not a judgement.”

It still rubbed Jimin the wrong way. Everything Yoongi did seemed to rub him the wrong way. Focus, he told himself. You’re doing this to yourself, he’s doing just fine.

“Because I’m not a fucking monster to leave a child in such a shitty environment by himself. I know a gang isn’t ideal either but at least he has people looking out for him now. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Why are you always so cold around me?”

He might as well get the truth out while they were at it.

“I don’t treat you any differently than the others.”

“Bullshit!” Jimin heard himself shout. “You’re either condescending, plain cold or act like I don’t exist. What did I ever do to you? I don’t expect everyone to love me, but that’s beyond the point of plain indifference.”

“The gam-“ Yoongi tried to say but he was cut off immediately.

“Fuck the game,” Jimin said, but his voice sounded a little bit calmer this time. “Just answer me.”

For the first time since the start of the game, the room was silent. It was heavy, uncomfortable, but Jimin didn’t care. He was too much on edge now, too invested, and he just wanted to get an answer. And so he did.

“I… just don’t know where to stand with you,” Yoongi replied, looking away, breaking eye contact for the first time.

If Jimin hadn’t known any better, he would have thought the other man was unsettled.

Yoongi didn’t speak any more and the silence stretched out for another minute.

“Your turn,” Jimin said eventually.

“I thought you didn’t want to play anymore,” Yoongi replied, and when he looked up, he still sported his usual composure.  

“It’s your turn,” Jimin insisted.

“Fine,” Yoongi sighed. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Why do you never speak during our meetings?”

It was Jimin’s turn to sigh.

“Because I do my job separately from yours, because I struggle to keep track of all of the things you do, of your lingo, of all the names and places I should know by now. Because I’m not smart enough to follow all of the gang’s plans. I’m not quick witted like Namjoon, I don’t have Seokjin’s good memory to be able to remember everyone’s missions and plan accordingly. So I keep my mouth shut and only speak when I’m concerned. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Why did you come to my room all these years ago in the middle of the night even though we weren’t close then and we’re still not close now?”

Yoongi was stunned to silence, once again avoiding Jimin’s eyes. At first, Jimin thought the man might not remember, and that he was trying to figure it out, but as the silence dragged along, it almost felt like a confession of guilt.

“I told you then…” Yoongi said eventually. “I couldn’t sleep…”

“Okay but why not Hoseok then?” Jimin said, and he had no idea where that sudden courage to ask all these personal questions came from. “When you two are a lot closer?”

“I don’t know… I…” Yoongi started stuttering. “Fine. Because I woke from a shitty nightmare that night and… for some reason, your presence calms me down. Satisfied?”

It was Jimin’s turn to be stunned into silence. Confusion looked odd on Yoongi, it was unlike him to stumble over his words almost painfully, as if the man dreaded to use the wrong ones. It didn’t suit the image Jimin had made of him in his head.

“You have nightmares?” he heard himself say, realizing as it passed his lips that it was a stupid question.

“Yes, I am a human being,” Yoongi snorted.

“But… you kill people for a living,” Jimin continued, his brain-to-mouth filter suddenly gone missing.

“So?”

“People are terrified of you.”

“Good, it means that I’m doing my job well,” he replied with a smile that Jimin didn’t know how to interpret. “Truth or dare. Are you scared of me, Jimin?”

“Sometimes,” Jimin replied honestly, because Yoongi had been nothing but honest until then. “Sometimes I am.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Yoongi said, and while it did not sound comforting in the slightest, at least it seemed sincere. “I’m never going to do anything to you.”

“Because of your loyalty to the gang?” Jimin asked again. He had to know.

“Because contrarily to what you seem to think, I don’t hate you,” Yoongi replied.

Yoongi seemed to struggle a bit to stand up, but it was a clear sign that the game was over. As the older man disappeared into his room, Jimin remembered him saying he’d been hurt earlier as he witnessed him dragging his leg a little with each step.

The next day, the house was quiet again when Jimin woke up. As he sleepily walked out of his room, he found Yoongi in the kitchen again, apparently trying to reach for something up in a cupboard but he was clearly struggling. Jimin noticed the way his right leg didn’t seem all that stable and he remembered the man mentioning an injury the day before.

“Let me help you,” Jimin said.

Yoongi turned around, visibly startled to see him, but he regained his composure almost immediately.

“I’m fine,” he said, turning back around, but Jimin was persistent.

He joined him in a few steps, pushing Yoongi’s hand off the cupboard.

“What do you want?” Jimin asked. “That cup?”

“Yup,” Yoongi groaned, but he still let him.

He mumbled a thank you when Jimin handed the cup to him, and they both sat down in front of each other. They were silent, not uncomfortably so, but not in a way that suggested familiarity either. They’d probably never eaten together without someone else being there, Jimin realized, which was odd for two people who’d lived together for so long.

“How bad is it?” Jimin said eventually.

He’d always hated long silences, they made him uncomfortable. Somehow, his mood had done a complete 360 from the previous day. He hadn’t learned much from their little game of truth or dare, Yoongi always replying with short, concise answers that only gave him more questions. However, he felt like it had given him some peace, Yoongi’s honesty feeling almost like an apology for his careless behavior on their previous conversation in the car.

“What is?” Yoongi asked, looking up from his phone.

Jimin wondered what he spent so much time looking on it.

“Your leg,” Jimin said in between two bites of cereals. “How bad is it?”

“Ah. It’s a scratch,” Yoongi sighed. “I’ve had worse, but you know Seokjin. This man will force you to stay in bed for a week for a cold. I’m glad he’s not here to nag at me, at least. But the others are not on life or death missions so they’ll do just fine without me.”

Jimin didn’t miss his confidence when talking about his place in the gang. Yoongi knew how crucial he was to the others, he knew how good he was. But then why wouldn’t he, Jimin thought.

“Still, it must hurt,” he said again, just to be polite.

“I’m fine,” Yoongi said. “This will be healed in no time.”

Jimin got lost in his thoughts again for a few minutes. He was wondering if he was the only one who still felt like he didn’t truly belong. He was curious, not out of self-pity, but purely because he wanted to understand where his insecurities came from. Was it only because of his own shortcomings that he felt like a fraud, or was it just the way he’d been built, to be constantly unsatisfied with himself? To need constant validation?

He didn’t know from whom he wanted to get that validation, he certainly didn’t understand why he’d expected Yoongi to give it to him at that instant. He was unsure whether he could push for more honesty. They weren’t playing anymore, and they still weren’t anywhere near friends.

It doesn’t hurt to try, he thought.

“Can I ask you a question?” he said, breaking the silence. “You don’t have to answer.”

“Shoot,” Yoongi said, lifting his head to look at the boy.

“Do you ever… get scared of being killed when you’re in mission?” he spoke hesitantly. “Do you ever have moments where you think that maybe this could be your last one?”

Yoongi thought for a second before answering.

“Scared? Not really,” he said first.

As expected of him, Jimin thought, but the other man continued.

“I don’t get scared, but I’m aware it could happen. There’s a rush of adrenaline that happens though, in that situation, and it keeps me going no matter how bad things turn.”

“Ah, I get that too,” Jimin said. “When I know the person I’m flirting with is particularly dangerous and I could get found out at any time. It does keep you going. Somehow it makes me a better liar too.”

Yoongi nodded pensively.

“I never saw it like that. I don’t know how you… keep your composure in that situation,” the older man said. “That must be a tough job.”

“It’s not the worst part, to be honest,” Jimin continued, smirking. “The part where I sleep with them afterwards isn’t always a lot of fun either.”

“Ah, right,” Yoongi said, pensively scratching his neck.

It was obvious the topic made him uncomfortable, but it was what Jimin did for a living. It wasn’t exactly new information. Although Jimin remembered in the back of his mind that Yoongi was never truly in favor of having someone doing this job in the gang. It was a long time ago, though. And he’s not exactly a model of virtue, to give himself the right to judge me for whoring around.

“It’s a job,” he continued. They were just making conservation. “I prefer that job over yours, if I’m honest.”

“It’s mutual, then,” Yoongi smirked.

“It’s even an alright job as long as no one drops a fresh corpse on you while you’re having sex,” Jimin added.

He enjoyed having the upper hand. It happened so rarely, to see Yoongi look like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Ah, yes,” the older man said. “Sorry about that.”

It wasn’t much, but it seemed sincere enough and Jimin would accept that as closure.

“Apologies accepted.”

“Jimin!”

Before he could turn around to greet his friend, Taehyung had already jumped from the doorway towards him, successfully making Jimin lose his balance, both falling on his bed. It was a common occurrence every single time his friend came home. It was usually a sign he’d had a good day, so Jimin never complained.

“Taehyung,” he tried to say, although his voice came out muffled because his friend was still on him.

“Jimin, I have so many things to tell you!” his friend said excitedly. “We saw a friend of Hoseok that’s super into hacking and stuff and he taught me so many new things, it’s so cool, I’m like, almost a pro now, and then we taped a hotel room to help for Namjoon and Hoseok’s mission, and honestly you should hear them, they’re so badass, honestly I never thought Hoseok could be so cool but if you heard him during a mission, he’s so threatening, wow, you would never guess he could be like th-“

“Taehyung, please get off me before you start a monologue,” Jimin laughed, as his friend obliged.

“I’m sorry,” Taehyung said, before starting off again.

Taehyung was the kind to get excited over all the little things, and it was endearing to see, especially given the not so pretty jobs they all had to do. He would listen patiently to his friend’s stories even though they did not always make a lot of sense as he went from one thing to another in a matter of seconds. A constant theme in Taehyung’s stories recently however was Jungkook. It shouldn’t have been surprising, given that the two always worked together at the moment, Jungkook working as his temporary bodyguard as Taehyung taught him a few tricks here and there. And it wouldn’t have been surprising if it weren’t that the way he talked about the boy seemed to have changed recently, less of the I’m proud of Jungkook because he’s a 12 years old tone that they usually used about the boy, and more of the I’m proud of Jungkook because… he didn’t know exactly. He just knew Taehyung spent a lot more time talking about how “handsome and cool” Jungkook was as his bodyguard than he usually did and this had to mean something.

It was a little odd for Jimin. Even though he was proud of seeing Jungkook grow up into the adult that he was – something he would never admit in front of the boy -, he couldn’t completely stop remembering him as the fourteen-year-old he’d first met behind The Red Room six years ago. But then Taehyung had met the boy much later, at a completely different time.

As Taehyung kept rambling about their latest adventures of the afternoon, Jimin couldn’t help but smile. Jungkook wasn’t much a talker, he certainly wasn’t as talkative as Taehyung, but Jimin was neither stupid nor blind. He knew the kid had had feelings for the brown-haired boy for years, and while he’s done nothing but tease him all this time, thinking it was none of his business, he was glad to see there might be a chance they weren’t unrequited.

“So, when are you going to tell him?” he said, because above all, Jimin loved teasing his friends.

“Tell him what?” Taehyung said, genuinely confused.

“Ah, never mind…” he laughed.

The two boys turned around simultaneously as someone knocked on the door.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” Seokjin said as he opened the door. “We’re having an impromptu meeting in the living room. There’s a bit of a change in the plans going on right now. We need you to join us, if you don’t mind.”

The two friends managed to squeeze themselves on a sofa next to Jungkook. The first ten minutes were simply Namjoon recapping everything that had happened during the last few days, mostly for Yoongi’s sake. Jimin started tuning out a bit. He had no idea how they managed to follow all these intricate plans, never mind make them. They were so many gangs and so many names to remember, and they had to know which gang was close to which other gang, and who hated who, and it was just too much. He supposed he had to be there with them for it to start making sense. He could hardly remember all the people he’d fucked in the last six months. Jimin always followed the good old rule of “never trust anyone outside of the gang, be careful even with our allies” and it had worked perfectly fine for him until then.

He started to pay attention again when he noticed the change of tone in Namjoon’s speech.

“And that’s where the change comes along,” their leader said. “We’re getting closer to solving the whole situation with Jimin. We only have one man left to take care of.”

“Does that mean I’m finally going to be able to see the blue sky after all this time?” he sighed dramatically for effect, although he was truly relieved to learn this might not last too much longer.

“Hopefully,” Namjoon smiled at him apologetically. “But until then, we have to take care of this guy. Now we have his name, we know who he is. We know for a fact that he knows about you, Jimin, so we can’t let you go until we get rid of him.”

Jimin sighed again, sincerely this time.

“And?” he said.

“And we will, problem is: we have no idea what he looks like,” Hoseok continued. “We had a plan already, we knew how we could get him to come to us, but how do we know for sure it’s him? If this guy knows about you, that means you’ve probably seen him at some point.”

“Most likely, yes,” Jimin said. “When Taehyung and I started our last mission, I was introduced to a lot of people. It happens often to be honest, but usually they’re just quick greetings and people forget about me the next second.”

“Well, he didn’t, and he should have, for his own sake,” Hoseok said, smirking. “Now that’s where the change comes along. None of us will be able to identify him except you. If we want to be done with this situation, we don’t want to go around killing the wrong guy otherwise this will never end.”

“Hang on,” Jimin said. “Am I creating you more trouble because of this? You going around and shooting these people when it wasn’t planned in the first place surely is going to have consequences. I don’t want you to get more trouble just to protect me.”

“Nah, don’t worry,” Hoseok laughed. His ability to talk about murder with the lightest tone never ceased to amaze Jimin. “These people didn’t carry us in their hearts anyway. They might not even know it’s our doing, and if they do, it won’t make a huge difference. Sooner or later, we would have crossed their paths anyway.”

“If you say so,” Jimin mumbled, unconvinced. “So, what is the change of plans then?”

“We,” Hoseok continued. “Take you with us. You and Taehyung. We need a spy, and we need someone who can identify that dude on the spot, so we can move quickly. If we get that guy where we want to but we let him go by mistake, it’s over. We’re never getting him again.”

“In other words,” Namjoon said, still smiling gently at him. “You’re going back to work. Just a slightly different kind of work.”

“Don’t worry, you will be watching things from a distance, the way Taehyung usually does with you,” Hoseok spoke again. “But you’ll get a taste of what it’s like on the field, for once. You get to see what we do.”

“Wait,” Jimin asked. “Who is ‘we’? I suppose I’m going with you Hoseok, but it cannot be the entire gang on one single mission.”

“No, it’s not,” Namjoon said, “you’re going with the usual duo. They work well together, just like you and Taehyung.”

“You’re going with me and Yoongi,” Hoseok said, a small smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

Jimin’s eyes vaguely look at Hoseok, unfocused, as he took it all in. He wasn’t entirely sure how it would feel to see his friends as the killers they were, although he’d known it would happen sooner or later. He didn’t have much choice – this was the reality of the world he lived in. It would be hypocritical of him to try to back out of it when he himself was the cause of deaths of so many.

It’s not my job to care, he reminded himself. He liked that detachment. He needed it, they all did.

As he turned his eyes towards the black-haired man sitting next to Hoseok, he found Yoongi’s posture to be, despite his relatively small frame, almost predatory, as if he was already looking forward to this, his cat-like eyes dead set on Jimin.

“Now that’s what I call good news,” Yoongi said in that low tone of his.

For some reason, your presence calms me down.