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Jimin had felt fear before. He had felt it in many ways and it was a sensation that he knew intimately. Much too intimately. Having spent most of his childhood working under Haedogje Pa he had seen horrors that had left him numb to many things, things that would strike horror in the hearts of most people. If it wasn't the occasional memory stirring up like a pit of vipers to strike at him then it was the nightmares, always lying in wait in the darkness to get him. The drugs had helped numb that, as had Jungkook's warm body against his, but still the fear that the nightmares contained was well-known to him.

Yet this was a different kind of fear, one so strong that it would be more apt to label it terror instead. This wasn't flashbacks of seeing other children being hurt by the brothel head bitches, of seeing murder and rape and mutilation. This wasn't corpses with concave heads grabbing at him and screaming his name over and over until he woke up in tears, screaming himself hoarse to keep the ghosts away. This was terror because he was in danger rather than somebody else. What was happening right now wasn't something that would become a suppressed memory or a nightmare, but something much more worst.

When he felt that hard press of polymer digging into his brow, the unmistakable press of a gun muzzle, Jimin felt his body reacting instantly. His heart didn't jump into a quick and hard beat but rather skipped a few first, seemed to almost stop in his chest for a few seconds before clapping back to life at a much too fast speed. The very blood in his veins turned to ice and he lost the ability to feel his fingers, which were numb and dead at his sides. He couldn't even twitch them, never mind feel them. There was a disgusting crawling in the pit of his stomach and he wasn't at all surprised to find that his testicles had tightened up hard enough to hurt. That was a sign of true terror and one that he hadn't felt in forever. Christ, they had practically pulled right up inside him and his bladder felt much too loose.

This would not be the first time that he had pissed himself in front of another man but it could very well be the last.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch."

Hearing those words coming out of Taehyung's mouth was the final thing that added to his sheer terror. Jimin had never heard such words escaping his mouth like that before, especially not aimed in his direction. He knew that he had probably said that and more to other men but there was one startling difference between his situation and theirs. The men on the receiving end of his aggression and threats always ended up dead; tortured and maimed, or with a bullet straight through the head.

Hearing threats coming out of Taehyung's sweet lips, Jimin found that he wasn't at all certain that he wouldn't end up with a bullet through his head.

Jimin managed to drag his gaze down from the barrel of the gun to look at Taehyung. The other man was staring right back at him, unblinkingly. His expression looked somewhat like a mask, emotionless and cold. Despite his words there was no anger present on his face. There was no fear either, or even a hint of empathy. Taehyung was devoid of all emotions and he felt a little moan escaping his slack lips as he stared at him. Jimin didn't want to move, didn't even want to blink or breathe in case Taehyung's fingers moved off the trigger guard and instead slipped up against that curved piece of plastic hard. He had no clue if the safety was on or off because he couldn't see from his current angle. All that he could see was the underside of the gun, his fingers wrapped around the well and the trigger guard.

The silence in the changing room was so thick that it was almost suffocating and Jimin could hear his shallow breathing. He was almost wheezing and his heartbeat was so hard that he wouldn't at all be surprised if Taehyung could hear it too. It was so strong in his throat and temples that he felt lightheaded. For almost a minute he waited to see what the other man would do and yet Taehyung didn't do anything. He didn't speak or move, rather just blinked and breathed in an eerily slow and steady way.

"Tuh...Tae, what are you-"

"What part about " shut the fuck up, bitch" don't you understand, huh?" Taehyung asked in that same flat tone. "I thought you were smart, Jimin. You don't sound very smart right now, you sound pretty fucking stupid."

"Tuh-Tae, please just...just move the gun awuh-way we can talk about this," Jimin stammered, heart hiccuping up into his throat so that he struggled to keep his voice even. "We can talk about-"

"About what? About me being a cop?" Taehyung spoke over him, one eyebrow lifting sharply. "Yeah, I don't think that's a very good idea right now; d'you?"

Jimin tried to hold his gaze but it was much too hard. He kept finding that his eyes were drawn to that fucking trigger guard instead, demanding that he go cross-eyed just to look at it and make sure that the other man didn't move his index finger away. His lips were dry and he stuck the tip of his tongue out to wet them, finding that his tongue was just as dry. His heart was racing in his chest again and if it kept that rhythm up much longer than he knew that he was going to faint.

"Lemme ask you a question, Jimin," Taehyung continued as he shifted ever so slightly. The muzzle ground against his brow as he did and Jimin had to press his lips together to stop himself from crying out from the contact. "When you thought this all out in that pretty little head of yours, what exactly were you expecting to happen. Huh? Were you expecting that I'd admit to something like that and what...run off?"

"Tae, puh-please I-"

"Did you think that I'd run off like a coward with my dick between my legs like a fucking dog? So you and Jungkook could just carry on living your fucked up little game of 'happily married' and that was that?" Taehyung spat at him and now Jimin could feel that anger, that raw anger. It was only a hint and yet that was enough to make him start gnawing on his lower lip to stop his teeth from chattering together in fear. "What? Seriously what the fuck were you expecting, you stupid bitch?"

"Stop calling me that," Jimin managed to mutter weakly. "Stop calling me that, Tae, I-"

"You don't have a single clue about the world d'you, Jimin? You're so fucking sheltered and doped up that you actually thought your plan would work. You honestly thought that an undercover officer would walk away, just like that and-"

"I'm not a bitch and get that gun out of my fucking face!" Jimin shouted at him, voice cracked from his terror. The sudden volume made the other man flinch and jerk his head back in surprise. Taehyung moved fast, slapping his free hand over his mouth. "Get the fuh- out of muh-" His palm clamped in place hard over his lips and stopped him from speaking. For a few seconds this frightened him even more for he couldn't breathe clearly, the other man's fingers covering his nose. So he struggled against him, muffled squeaks and cries trying to escape mostly muted by his palm.

"Shut up, shut the fuck up," he hissed at him, eyes shifting over to look at the changing room door. "Stop screaming or I swear to God, Jimin, I'll shove this between your lips and you'll find it a lot fucking harder to talk."

Jimin knew that he really should stop but he struggled to do so in his panic. There was a gun pressed against his fucking head and Taehyung was saying all kinds of terrifying things, so staying calm wasn't exactly an easy feat. He knew that it was dangerous to start screaming at him like that but his fear had taken over before he could stop it, had sprang out like a defense mechanism to try and protect him. Only it had failed and gotten him into more trouble. Yet after a few seconds of muffled squeaks Jimin discovered that Taehyung wasn't going to hurt him even though he should have. He should have whipped him across the mouth with that gun but he hadn't. No, Taehyung had just covered his mouth to stop him screaming and drawing attention to the changing room. So he stopped struggling and waited to see what he would do, breathing heavily through his nose.

"All done?" Taehyung asked him in a quiet voice, as if he were a misbehaving child. His words stung and yet Jimin bit down on his tongue to stop himself from trying to speak a biting retort around his palm. "If I pull my hand away d'you promise to stop fucking screaming?" He gave him the closest thing to nod that he could manage. It was hard to do so considering the fact that there was a gun pressed against his brow trapping the top of his head in place and his hand was over his jaw keeping his lower half still too. But clearly Taehyung got the message for he lifted his hand off his face, hovering it in place just in case he tried making noise again. "Good."

"Guh...good?" Jimin repeated back in confusion.

"Good, now we can talk."

"So, you're going to shoot me because I know? Is that what you're going to do, Tae? Because if you ask me, the stupid bitch, what I think about that I think that it's fucking stupid," Jimin spat, knowing that he shouldn't do so but unable to help himself. "You shoot me and then what?"

"I didn't say that I was gonna shoot you," Taehyung argued. "I just wanted to ensure that I had your strict attention and I find that a gun in the face is a great way to achieve that level of attention. Look at us, having a conversation right now." Taehyung's lips quirked at the corners in an unsettling way. Jimin didn't like the smile at all because it looked terrifying to his eyes. It looked insane for lack of a better word. "I think that the gun came in handy, don't you?"

There was something wrong about this entire situation. If Taehyung wasn't going to shoot him because he knew that he was a police officer then what happened next exactly? Jimin doubted that he could leave this changing room alive or unharmed in some way with the knowledge that he possessed. Perhaps Taehyung had meant that he wasn't going to shoot him here but that he was going to take him out of the department store to a secluded location instead? A back alley somewhere, a lot where no one would even think to look that Jungkook had taken him to in the past? But the longer that Jimin studied his face the more uncertain that he became about this possibility. He didn't get a feeling coming off Taehyung at all that he was going to murder him but he wasn't at all sure what vibe he was getting. It was incredibly hard to read him right now because he was so scared.

"You...you're not going to shoot me?"

"No," Taehyung repeated without the slightest hint of hesitation. "Well, so long as you don't do something else stupid I won't. I don't need to shoot you 'cos you're not gonna tell anyone about this."

"I will, I'll tell Kookie," Jimin threatened in a rather childish way. "I'll tell him that you're a cop and that you threatened to hurt me. I could lie, I'm good at lying. I could tell him that you assaulted me to try and scare me out of snitching on you."

"Oh yeah? You'll snitch on me, huh?" Taehyung asked in a rather condescending fashion, eyebrows lifting. Both his tone and expression were mocking in the most irritating of ways. "And what if I call up Jungkook right now and tell him about a certain meeting, hmm? A special meeting between you and a certain someone?"

"Wuh-what are...what do you mean?"

"November 17th, 2012, is that date familiar to you?" Taehyung asked him and Jimin could only stare back in confusion. No, the date didn't seem familiar to him at all and he was very confused as to how Taehyung even knew it in the first place. It was three, going on four years ago and he couldn't possibly remember so he quietly told him that he didn't know it. There was a horrible sensation in the pit of his stomach that felt like dread and he didn't really know why. He just found the fact that Taehyung was borderline interrogating him right now incredibly unsettling. It was almost as if he was a suspect, as if they were at a police station. "What if I said that's the day that you walked right into La Zone to do business with Kim Jinwoo?"

That dread sank down so deep that Jimin was convinced that his stomach had dropped to hit the floor. The sensation was so sudden that he was surprised by it, much like a drop on a roller coaster. The room almost started to spin and he had to close his eyes because he couldn't look at Taehyung a second longer. Jimin had to take several quick breaths through his mouth and then out of his nose just to stop himself fainting, sagging back against the wall as he did.

How the fuck did Taehyung know about that? No,this wasn't happening. This was just a bad dream, a nightmare in fact. He would wake up any second now coated in sweat and struggling to breathe only for a pair of arms to find their way around his waist. Maybe it would be Jungkook, who would press a kiss against the curve of his shoulder and tell him that he was alright, that it was just a nightmare just like he always did when the rare occurrence struck. Maybe it would be Taehyung instead, who would drag him back down onto the mattress and mumble something about going back to sleep, breath ruffling his hair as his body settled against his? But Taehyung was standing in front of him right now, gun pressed against his brow, and Jimin had a horrible feeling that this was in fact reality.

"What if I call Jungkook up and tell him that you and Jinwoo have a little history together, huh? One that you never told him about. Didn't tell me either but that's OK, I didn't tell you quite a lot of my dirty secrets either, Jimin. So it's OK. No hard feelings." He offered him another one of those quick and hard smiles and that was when it hit him.

Taehyung was insane, that much was clear. After all of the murder and drugs, the shit that Jungkook had put him through, Taehyung had cracked. That was why he was holding a gun against his head like this, why he was acting so terrifying. The knowledge that he was insane surprisingly didn't scare him as much as it should have. Jimin was used to insanity, it seemed to draw to him like moths to the fucking flame.

"I didn't- nothing happened," Jimin argued, hating how pathetic and whiny his voice sounded to his own ears. To Taehyung it was likely grating and disgusting. "Nothing happened, Tae, I swear-"

"Did you like taking Jinwoo's cock?" Taehyung spoke over him, brushing his protestations aside without a care. "'Cos that's exactly what Jungkook's gonna picture if I tell him. He's gonna picture you, his beautiful and sweet little doll, all spread open for that fucking psychopath-"

"Tae-"

"and he's gonna hear you moaning that fucking name; "Jinwoo, Jinwoo, Jinwoo", over and over in his head like a siren."

"I didn't do anything, I danced for him!"

"Volume, Jimin," Taehyung scolded, gun muzzle pressing against his brow harder to put him back in his place and get him to be quiet.

"I danced," Jimin repeated, voice now at a more reasonable talking volume. "I danced and that's all that happened, Tae, no sex. I swear that there was no sex involved."

"Yeah?"

" Yes, Tae."

Just thinking back on it all, that day, it was enough to make Jimin feel sick to his stomach. His fingers were still numb but he managed to roll them up into tight little fists. That day that Seokjin had called him to his office to talk about this Jimin had thought that this issue would have been solved and disappear but of course it hasn't. That would have been a blessing but there was no such thing as blessings for him when he was cursed. Seokjin had believed him that day, had let him explain it all and had listened. He had understood and that was the important part. Taehyung wasn't listening and he most certainly didn't understand. Was he really going to make him talk about that day? Was he really going to have to revisit that all over again?

Jimin had been sold that day without a choice and yet Taehyung was acting like he had went to that bar for some fun; Like he hadn't had a collar around his neck with Nam's fucking name stitched inside it and he had actually wanted to do it. It was obvious that he had had no choice in the matter and yet Taehyung was ignoring this fact to scare and upset him, to try and make him say or admit to something that he could use against him.

"You danced?" Taehyung repeated back at him slowly, brow furrowing and his lower lip pouting out. "You were a whore, Jimin, not a dancer. D'you mean exotic dancing?"

"I mean dancing," Jimin stated, trying to stand his ground and not give into Taehyung. "Jinwoo didn't touch me, he..."

"He?" Jimin dropped his gaze to stare at Taehyung's chest, eyeing a slight crease in the fabric. The question hanged in the air for a moment and yet he didn't reply. "He what, Jimin?"

"He didn't touch me because he said that was a sin but I-I gave him a lap dance, Tae," he explained in a quiet voice. A weak voice, one that was uneven and breathy. "That's what happened, I swear on Kookie's life that there was no sex."

"I could tell Jungkook absolutely-fucking-anything and there's no one who could argue otherwise, Jimin. Jinwoo's dead, and you will be too if you don't listen to me and stop threatening to snitch-"

"I didn't fuck him," he repeated. "You're a liar, you're a fucking liar and he will know."

"Are you so sure about that?"

"You have no proof I was even in that bar," Jimin argued just for the sake of it, trying to force him to change the topic away from Kim Jinwoo and instead focus on something else. A part of him knew deep down inside that it was useless doing so but he had to at least try.

"I have CCTV photographs of you entering the fucking bar, Jimin," Taehyung declared in a confident tone. "How else d'you think I know you were there? I have proof , Jimin, the fuck d'you have against me?" He could only stare at him, dumb with shock and fear. "You've clearly never heard the idiom, it's a personal favourite of mine and it goes: let sleeping dogs lie. But if that's a little complex I can break it down for you," he paused for a second and then added. "You fucked up, you really fucked up by including yourself in business that you shouldn't have, by snooping around like this."

"Fucked...fucked up? But I didn't..." Jimin furrowed his brow at him, Taehyung's fingers hovering just over his lips. "Tae, I didn't involve myself in this fucking business! You and Kookie did, you both dragged me into this shit!"

"Remember what I told you about the fucking volume?" Taehyung hissed at him, turning his head to look back at the changing room door. "I have proof of you in Jinwoo's bar, in his company, long before you met Jungkook. Now what does that look like huh, Jimin?"

"Nuh...no, it's not like that. It's not-"

"It makes you look like a rat."

Jimin felt his lower lip trembling and the first burning wave of tears started brimming under his eyelids. How could Taehyung say such things to him, such horrible disgusting lies? He was telling him the truth and yet the other man was refusing to listen to him. There was nothing that he could say that could possibly cover his ass now because Taehyung had snared him in a net and he was going to get even more tangled up in his attempt to escape.

"Makes you look like a disloyal bitch," Taehyung added. "And we both know what Jungkook hates the most: disloyalty."

"I'm nuh-not disloyal, Tae," Jimin said, voice hitching as he tried to stop himself from crying. "Don't say that, puh-please don't say that."

"It makes you look like Jinwoo selected and groomed you to sneak your way into Jungkook's life, and then crawl right into his bed," Taehyung continued, blow after blow coming out of his lips and leaving him reeling. "Jimin, it looks like you've been playing Jungkook right from the fucking start. You can see it too, right?"

"I duh-do see it, I do buh-but I didn't- I'm not a rat," Jimin sobbed, lips twisting down at the corners sharply. "I'm nuh-not, I would never do that to Kuh-Kookie."

"But you've got nothing to prove otherwise," Taehyung argued. "You see how much trouble you're in right now don't you, Jimin?"

"I duh-didn't want you to duh-die," Jimin sobbed through his clenched teeth. "That's why I tuh-told you to get awuh-way whilst you could, wuh-why are you doing this to muh-me? Wuh-why would I want to talk to you like this if I was guh-guh-going to snitch on you?" At this question Taehyung dragged his eyes away from the changing room door to look at him, holding his gaze steady. "If I wuh-wanted to snitch I would have tuh-told Kookie but I didn't. I swear that I didn't, Tae."

"Then why'd you threaten to snitch on me, huh?"

"Becuh-cause I'm scared ," he whined, trying to not be too loud and piss him off. "Tae, I'm fuh-fucking terrified right now and you keep tuh-threatening me and I'm-" he hiccuped and tried to catch his breath, "I'm scared you're going to kill muh-me."

Jimin managed to pluck up the courage to look back up at his face. Taehyung just stared right back at him and at first he thought that he still had that emotionless mask in place. But after a moment of study he actually discovered that he didn't, for there was something in his eyes that hadn't been there earlier. They had softened somewhat so they weren't cold and glassy. Was that pity in his eyes or something else? He really couldn't tell.

"...Y'know what, I believe you," Taehyung said and at his words Jimin felt another hard sob escaping. Oh god. He finally believed him, he finally believed him after everything. "But that doesn't matter does it, Jimin? What matters is Jungkook believing you and I don't think you stand a fucking chance."

There was a sudden, crisp click and Jimin knew what that sound was. He knew it far too well and his breath caught in his throat and threatened to choke him.

It was the click of the safety being pulled back.

Jimin wanted to say something, anything, but he lacked the capacity to do so. All that escaped his mouth was a series of high-pitched cries and Taehyung didn't even need to cover his mouth because he reached up to do so with his own hands, clamping them in place as he tried to stop himself. The muzzle was digging into his brow so hard that there would be a mark left behind in his skin, a deep imprint shaped just like the end. That was if Taehyung didn't pull the trigger and blow most of his fucking head off of course.

"You're in so much trouble right now, Jimin," Taehyung said, talking strangely calm all things considered. "The way I see it, this is a mercy-killing, yeah? You don't deserve to suffer and this is so much better than being choked to death, I promise."

"Tuh-Tae, no," Jimin pleased through his fingers. "Please duh-don't, don't-"

"There's nothing that can save you from Jungkook."

"pull that trigger, please don't."

"But there is...something," Taehyung said as he eased up the pressure of the gun on his brow. "Something I can do that might just save you. You have to listen to me, d'you promise to listen, Jimin?"

"Mmm, yuh-yes," Jimin managed to get out from between his fingers. He didn't really think that he could listen very clearly because his ears were ringing and the other man's voice sounded rather tinny. Yet Taehyung was talking to him now rather than threatening him and it also seemed like he might just have been promising him something too. It could be an empty promise but right now that really didn't matter.

"Think about it, Jimin, really think about it," he said in that same low voice, full of authority. It made him feel weak and pathetic listening to him because Jimin knew that he was trapped right now. Trapped with no way out other than to agree with everything that he proposed. "What happens when you get rid of one threat?"

"I duh-don't know, I don't know, Tuh-Tae, please just put the gun away," Jimin replied breathlessly.

"There ain't gonna be peace so long as Jungkook reigns over Haedogje Pa. This gang is like the fucking hydra, you cut off one head and two more take its place. Kim Jintae, Kim Jinwoo, these were just two heads. There's so many fucking more that Jungkook doesn't even know about and-"

"Tae, the guh-gun, please-"

"and now he's murdered the Kims so many things could happen," Taehyung continued over his frantic pleading. "Kim sympathisers might be getting found dead in the streets every day but look at how many have been killed so far, yeah? How many, Jimin?"

"I duh-no, I-"

"Countless dead men, Jimin." Jimin squeezed his eyes shut with another sob as the other man applied more pressure against his brow. It was unintentional but that didn't really matter. What mattered was the barrel was still being pointed right at his fucking face. "How many are left? Is that all of 'em or just a percentage? Are those men gonna all join together and find another man to replace Jinwoo with? Maybe. Or maybe there's already a dozen men eyeing up his space on the chessboard and just waiting to start playing the game?"

Taehyung paused for a moment to let that all sink in and Jimin didn't take a single breath. The knowledge that the safety was no longer on made him much too frightened to move lest the other man pull the trigger. He even had his eyes squeezed shut, tears still managing to escape from the corners and roll down his cheeks.

"What I'm saying, Jimin, is that Jungkook is gonna die if we don't stop him," Taehyung explained in a quiet voice. At this Jimin slowly opened his eyes so he could look at him, so he could read his expression and see if he was telling him the truth. Taehyung didn't look away once or even blink. "He's gonna die."

"How-how is he going to die?" he asked him in a voice barely above a whisper.

"At the hands of his own men," Taehyung replied without a hint of hesitation. "There's too many men that want him dead, Jungkook told me himself. That night that I took a bullet for him in Singapore he told me that none of his men like him and that they'd all be happy to sell him short and let him die."

Jimin knew that Taehyung was telling the truth and he didn't need to look into his eyes to do so. The words coming out of his mouth sounded exactly like something that Jungkook would say. He had heard him that night he had gotten drunk after his father's murder and had cried himself to sleep in bed beside him and he knew that Taehyung was being honest with him. Jungkook might just be paranoid by nature but he was also very perceptive, and the thought that he knew how much he was disliked was one that Jimin could easily believe. Even if he didn't want to do so.

Jungkook knew that he was in danger and yet he had apologised for keeping him locked away in the apartment block. Jungkook knew that his own men could murder him at any moment but he had told him that he needed to hide him away so that they wouldn't hurt him instead.

"We can save his life, but we can't save his empire," Taehyung continued, talking slowly as he did. "There ain't even a choice 'cos he'll die for the sake of the empire, Jimin. You understand that, yeah?"

"I...I understand," Jimin agreed in a quiet and husky voice.

"So that's why I need you to help me complete my operation, to save his life."

"What...why do yuh-you need my help, Tae?"

"The hard drives."

Jimin stared at him dumbly, the changing room falling deathly silent as he did. The only sound that bled through the locked door was the faintest echo of music coming from the store, some bubblegum pop idol trash that he didn't recognise because it sounded the exact same as the rest of the shit coming from the radio. There was no faint voices coming from the rest of the department store and it was almost easy to believe that they were the only people on earth in this current moment. Time itself seemed to stop and Jimin could feel double tracks of tears rolling down his cheeks to his chin, which then dripped down from his jaw to land on the flooring.

The hard drives. Taehyung had just asked for the fucking hard drives, the ones that he had told him about that morning. Jimin felt like he had been punched in the gut and for a few seconds he was uncertain as to whether he hadn't or if the other man had actually hit him. It hurt right under his ribs, his stomach was so tight that it hurt and he really didn't know what to say in reply to his words. Luckily for him the other man broke the silence.

"You need to get me those hard drives, Jimin," Taehyung explained. "The ones that you told me about, in his office."

"No, no I can't-"

"'Cos those hard drives can save his life, Jimin."

"I cuh-can't, Tae, I can't," Jimin sobbed, almost hysterically. "I can't give yuh-you them. Kuk-Kookie would get arruh-rested I-"

"It's you or him, make your mind up," Taehyung spoke over him. "I'd rather not have to waste a bullet."

"Tae, yuh-you're asking me too muh-much," he gasped for air and hiccuped. "I can keep your secuh-cret but I can't-" Taehyung pressed the gun back against his brow hard, hard enough to hurt and he let out a breathless squeak of horror, "fuck, Tae! I cuh..."

Jimin couldn't finish this because the sobbing took over and he could do not more than keen, body shaking from the force of his crying. His mind was racing with things to say and yet he couldn't speak because he was too scared. The stupid gun had robbed him of the ability to speak properly and so he just gave up trying. The other man was silent for a minute, not asking questions or even muttering more threats at him. Then Taehyung pulled the gun away from his brow without a single word and for a few seconds Jimin could do nothing. He couldn't breathe, couldn't blink, couldn't even move. But then his breath left his lungs in a hard wheeze and he felt his knees unhinging to spill him to the floor.

It was as his ass hit the floor that Jimin finally felt his bladder loosening on him and yet that didn't seem to be important anymore. The fact that he had just gone and pissed himself like a baby really didn't matter, it was rather just an awkward inconvenience. He was sobbing like a baby too and so he reached up to try and cover his face with his hands but it seemed rather pointless all things considered. Jimin was crying so hard that he wasn't even able to think beyond his blubbering gasps and weak little moans. His mind had gone completely devoid of thoughts for once in this entire nightmarish confrontation. Taehyung just stared down at him with a hard to read expression on his face, unmoving and unfazed by his hysterics. There was a sense coming off him that he was waiting for him to stop crying and calm down but Jimin didn't think that he could possibly do that.

Taehyung had fucking used him all of this time. That was what hurt the most right now, what made his own fear seem rather insignificant in comparison. From the moment that he had first laid on him in that penthouse suite Taehyung had been planning on using him. Sweet and awkward Taehyung, he of the quick glances and soft touches that had made him seem so innocent and trustworthy. It had all been an act and he had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. So had Jungkook, who had been distracted by his intelligence and ruthless attitude, by his obedience and assistance at cleaning up Haedogje Pa. They had both been used but Jimin was certain that it was much more worse on his end because Taehyung had preyed on his emotions and vulnerability. He had taken one look at him and had just known that he was weak and desperate for attention, that he was just a 'stupid bitch', and he had went straight for him.

And all because Taehyung had been so nice to him, had listened to him and had treated him with affection, he had told him about the fucking hard drives. He had told him Jungkook's biggest secret and now he was going to pay the price for being so naïve and thinking that someone could actually love him unconditionally.

Jimin felt like Taehyung had shot him in the stomach and he hugged his arms against himself as he drew his knees up to try and make himself as small as possible. He wished that he could curl up into a tight little ball and not have to move ever again because the pain was too much to bear. Taehyung had never loved him at all because he was just a whore and nothing more. There to be used and thrown away again. But he had forgotten that fact, had actually started believing all the lies that he had told him.

He really was a stupid bitch.

Perhaps it was pity that made him finally hunker down in front of him. It could have been pity, if Taehyung even felt such an emotion. It could have been disgust that he was sitting in a puddle of his own piss. Or maybe it could have even been guilt, but Jimin really didn't know. All that he knew was that Taehyung hunkered down in front of him to grab hold of his arms and drag him to his feet, pulling him over to the settee as he did. The other man shoved the clothes onto the floor unceremoniously and then forced him to sit down on it. Jimin's trousers were damp and starting to cool, sticking to his skin disgustingly.

"Tuh...Tae-"

"I know, I know, Jimin," Taehyung spoke over him, soft and slow as he placed his hand down on the top of his head. His fingers smoothed at his hair and when Jimin looked up he saw that the gun had finally been put away again in the holster where it belonged. "I know, deep breaths." Jimin closed his eyes and he took a hitching breath through his lips and held it for a few seconds. But then it burst back out his mouth with another hiccup and he found himself gasping again. "Don't speak, just breathe, alright?"

"I cuh...the hard drives, I can't."

Taehyung shifted so that he could hunker down in front of him again, just a little lower than eye-level. Jimin looked down at him and waited to see what he would do and after a minute the other man slipped his arms around his neck and slowly pulled him forward, into something close to an embrace. Jimin hated the fact that he craved the warm contact to calm him down after what had just happened between them. It wasn't fair that he needed this when it would only cause him even more pain but that knowledge didn't stop him from burying his face against his neck and sinking his fingers into his coat to grab tight little handfuls of wool.

"Jimin, I'm doing this for you too," Taehyung said in a soft voice, chin brushing against his hair as he did. He could feel the gentle vibrations of his voice against his cheek. "I'm doing this 'cos you asked me to and this is the only choice that I've got."

"Fuh...for me?" Taehyung shifted at his voice, pulling his head away and breaking the embrace. Jimin almost didn't want him to let go of him, fingers tightening around the handfuls of his coat to trap him in place and stop him from moving too far away. But he stayed close, close enough to place his hands onto his shoulders instead so that he could look at his face whilst they spoke. "Wuh...what do you mean?"

"I'm getting you outta Haedogje Pa, I'm saving you just like you asked," Taehyung explained, thumbs digging down into his shoulders. "You asked me that day if I could get you out and I promised you that I could, remember?"

Jimin did remember because it was the exact same day that he had fucked up and told him about the hard drives. It was the day after he and Jungkook had made it back alive from Singapore and he and Yoongi had gotten a little too deep in their conversations like usual. After all of those bad memories had been stirred up he had foolishly told Taehyung that Yoongi had promised to help him out if anything bad happened and he was trapped. Yoongi had meant if any harm had come to Jungkook of course. He had not meant this. Taehyung has promised to help him too, to get him out and keep him safe and yet Jimin had not pictured an outcome quite like this one.

Did Yoongi have a fucking clue that the thing he had actually promised to help him out of was currently being caused by the hands of Taehyung? Probably not because not even Jungkook had a fucking clue. And yet, despite causing all of this hell, Taehyung was still telling him that he was going to save him. Jimin really didn't know what he meant by that, and if he really was saving him or condemning him.

"I'm saving you before anything bad happens to Jungkook and puts you in danger. But I'm also getting Jungkook away from that danger too, 'cos he needs saving just like you," Taehyung added in that same gentle voice. "Before his men can kill him I'm gonna bring him down."

"Tuh...Tae, you can't...it's not-" Jimin felt one of his hands shifting to go on the back of his head, stroking at his hair softly. The complete juxtaposition of his now caring demeanour from the absolute monster that had threatened to shoot him in the head a few minutes ago was unbelievable. He wished that he could get his words out and yet they seemed to be caught in his throat, choking him.

"Jimin, you're a good person and that's why I'm doing this," Taehyung explained in that slow and soft way; soothing him. "'Cos I need a good person on my side, a person that I can trust and that's you. It's always been you from the start 'cos I knew that I could trust you."

That I could use you, his words sounded like to his ears. Taehyung had such a sweet way with words, why he could make lies sound like poetry.

"But the gun...gun, Tae. Why did you threaten to kuh-kill me like that?"

"...'Cos I need you to understand how fucking serious this is, Jimin. I need you to understand that that's exactly what'll happen to me if you tell a single soul about who and what I am. Except for me I don't get no bargains, I just get a fucking bullet to the brain if I'm lucky, which I know I won't be. You told me once that Jungkook'd strangle you to death. He told me once that he'd gut me like a fish and I know that he'd do that." At his words Jimin cringed and he shifted to press his face against his chest, even when it was hard to breathe. "That's why I needed to threaten you, so you'd understand."

"But I puh-promised to not tell him," he replied, finally managing to get himself under some form of control. "I promised to let you run away so that Kookie couldn't hurt you. Why didn't you run away, Tae?"

Taehyung shifted to pull away from him, both hands going to his shoulders to hold him firmly in place. Jimin held his head low for a moment, too embarrassed and frightened to look up at his face. His cheeks were wet with tears and his nose had ran down to mingle with the drool on his chin. He reached up to wipe at his face roughly with the cuff of his pullover and that was when the other man let go of his shoulder with one hand to prop his chin up. Jimin had no choice but to look into his eyes now.

"Listen to me, Jimin," Taehyung said in a soft voice. "I can't run away, not now, not ever. I'm part of an operation right now and my entire team are reliant on me getting that info to 'em. I can't run away now, not when I'm so close to getting what I need. What I need are those fucking hard drives, and once I have my hands on 'em I can get Jungkook arrested and make sure that he doesn't bite a bullet, yeah? That's why I need you 'cos you can get 'em to the police for me."

"Huh-how?"

"You smuggle 'em outta the apartment under the guise of going out, shopping, to go see Min, or whatever the fuck excuse works that can get you outta there. They never check you, Jimin. Not once have you ever been searched leaving that apartment block and you can get into his office and get the hard drives, yeah?" Jimin listened to him talking intently, trying to find a flaw in his plan of some kind. Any kind of flaw that he could use against him to stop him from forcing him into this. "You ain't going to those locations though, you're gonna go meet a member of my team instead and hand the hard drives over and you-"

"They'll arrest me, Tae, they'll arrest me the second they see me," Jimin argued.

"No, no they won't arrest you. They'll take you into custody and hold you there whilst the rest of the operation is completed and from there you'll get a plea bargain in return for info. You won't go to jail," Taehyung disagreed with a staunch head shake. "No, no my team promised to put you under witness protection as a whistleblower so you won't go to jail, Jimin. You get out, you understand that right? You get the fuck outta Haedogje Pa once and for all, I promise that you will."

"For...for the hard drives?"

"Yeah, Jimin, for the hard drives," Taehyung agreed with a nod this time. "No death, no fighting, just a simple exchange of info to get Jungkook arrested and charged."

"I...I don't know," Jimin said after a moment of thought, "I don't think I can, I-"

"Jimin."

"Kookie will get in trouble and-"

"God damnit, Jimin! " Taehyung shouted in frustration and his sudden yell scared him, made him jump in shock. "Stop jerking me around and just think for a fucking second." He tapped his fingers against the side of his head hard and that was what made him start crying again.

"Tuh-Tae, I can't do it," he sobbed. "I cuh-can't, it's too much. I'll fail, I'll get caught and Kookie will-"

"You're not gonna fail, Jimin, listen to me." Taehyung grabbed hold of his face tightly, thumbs digging into his cheeks. "You're fucking smart. You're fucking talented and you're a good fucking person. You're not gonna fail if you just do what I ask, when I ask you too. Kookie thinks that you're nothing, just a pretty face, yeah?"

"Nuh-no, he doesn't," Jimin disagreed. "Kookie knows me, he knows that I'm suh-smart and not nothing. He loves me."

"If he loves you then why the fuck are you scared he'll fucking kill you?" Taehyung argued in a low voice. "Is that love, huh? Are you supposed to be terrified for your fucking life if you're in love? Are you supposed to spend every single day worried that he'll just snap and do it, huh? Are you supposed to lie there and wait for him to come back home only to find out too late that he drugged your champagne so you won't fight back when he fucking chokes you to death?! " He raised his voice at this and Jimin flinched, shoulders going up to nearly brush against his ears. "Answer me, Jimin. Is that love?"

"Nuh-"

"No, it ain't fucking love," Taehyung spat bitterly as he let go of him and stood upright. "You're...you're mistaking..." He stopped talking for a moment, eyes shifting from his face to glance across the changing room as if he were trying to think his words over, or perhaps remember something. "You're mistaking sexual gratification and dependency for love, yeah? You dunno anything else 'cos you've never been given the chance to know anything else, but lemme tell you, Jimin: this ain't love."

Jimin started gnawing on his lip as he listened to him speaking. He didn't really know what Taehyung meant by that but it sounded like it might just have been correct because be sounded so certain of it. Maybe that was what he had been thinking that night when Jungkook had asked him that he had loved him: sexual gratification and dependency? Taehyung reached over to place his hand on the back of his head again, palm warm and comforting.

"Jimin, you've been hurt your entire life. You've been a slave too, and I'm offering you the chance to get away from that. I'm offering you a chance at living again, without a fucking collar around your neck and threats of death every single day. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Jimin had long such given up the hope of ever getting away from Haedogje Pa almost a decade ago. Yet here Taehyung was, offering him the kind of escape that had been the stuff of his childhood daydreams and wishes and a part of him struggled to understand it. No one got out of Haedogje Pa ever, not the boys and girls snatched from the streets, not the addicts or the men that owned them all. The only way out was through death, that was what he had believed all of this time. But it seemed that he was wrong if Taehyung's words were anything to believe. Hope was dangerous because it made people desperate, made them put themselves at risk, and yet Jimin found himself feeling something in his chest that he hadn't felt in so very long.

He could feel hope again.

"Yuh-yes, Tae, it's all that I've ever wanted for so long now," Jimin agreed in a quiet voice.

"Then why're you trying so fucking hard to stop me from helping you?" Taehyung asked in an exasperated voice, starting to show strain after everything. Jimin could see on his face that he was as drained as he was and though he knew that he shouldn't he felt something close to sympathy towards him. "'Cos of Jungkook? Is it 'cos of him or it 'cos of something else huh, Jimin?"

"It's...it's everything."

"You're scared of living again, aren't you? You've gotten so used to this routine that you dunno anything else. You're scared of the world outside and y'know that you're safe with him, yeah? Well, you're wrong. You ain't safe with Jungkook, you told me so yourself."

Jimin nodded slowly in agreement, feeling rather pathetic as he did. It was just like his thoughts that day in Yoongi's den all over again; his fears about being a child and not being able to cope with reality when he had been living some warped ideal that Jungkook had created for them both for several months now and before that he had been a sex slave with nothing to his name at all. How was he supposed to just throw away the one thing that he had managed to amass in all of those years? A penthouse suite in a luxurious apartment, a wardrobe filled with designer clothes and material possessions he had little want or need for, a lover that more or less ran the entire country with his tyrannical inheritance. A lover that told him that he loved him even with the threat of death hanging in the air.

Taehyung was right. He wasn't safe even in his safe place but not because of Jungkook. He wasn't safe because men that wanted Jungkook dead would kill him too, to destroy Jungkook first or afterwards just to clean up any possible messes. Taehyung was offering him a way to get away from such a fate at the expense of letting Jungkook get arrested and fucking up Haedogje Pa's future at the same time, and it should have been an easy choice but it wasn't.

Because of Jungkook.

"...God, Jimin, you're fucking terrified, aren't you?" Taehyung asked in a quiet voice as he hunkered back down in front of him. Jimin dropped his head so that he didn't have to look at him, eyes stinging again. He reached up to rub at them roughly and then sniffed hard, body still trembling with the occasional hitch for breath. "You're so fucking scared about the thought of freedom that you can't understand what I'm telling you, can you?"

"I-I understand well, I mean, I kind of understand buh-but it's Kookie, Tae."

"D'you want him to die?"

"No," Jimin replied without a hint of hesitation.

"D'you want Jungkook to take a fucking bullet to the head like Lim did in church, huh?"

"Nuh-no."

"D'you wanna have to see his fucking brains paint your apartment suite wall, Jimin?" Taehyung carried on even though he must have been able to sense his distress. Jimin let out a whine that sounded like a disagreement. "Then save his fucking life by giving me the hard drives. Save him and save yourself, Jimin, 'cos you keep seeming to forget about yourself. You're a person too so think about yourself: your safety, your future, huh?"

"If you take down Huh-Haedogje Pa then that means that you," he hiccuped with a soft moan, "you take all of the muh-men down too, right?" Taehyung nodded at the question, eyes not leaving his face once. "Tae, please just let me-"

"Let you what, Jimin?" he asked as he wiped at his cheek with his thumb. Jimin took a deep breath and tried to get his breathing under control so he could speak properly.

"Let me get Yoongi out of this city suh-so he won't get caught."

"No," Taehyung replied curtly. His blunt refusal was like a slap across the face and Jimin actually moved to grab hold of his hand as he pulled it away from his cheek. He seized hold tightly, tight enough to likely hurt but he couldn't help himself. "No it's too risky, Jimin."

"Just Yoongi, please," he almost pleaded. "He always promised to keep me safe so I have to keep him safe too, I wuh-won't tell him about this. I'll just ask him to go to a-a safe house or something and lay low for a month or two. Please, Tae. He's not a bad man, he's just a drug dealer. He helped you too, with the methadone." At this he saw Taehyung's lips twitch at the corners, expression turning rather sour. Clearly he didn't like being reminded of this fact because it meant that he might just owe Yoongi a favour. "He's saving your life right now, from that horrible addiction, Tae. Are you really going to let him get arrested when all he did was try to help you?"

"You said it yourself, Jimin, he's a drug dealer and producer. He's a criminal and-"

"So are you," Jimin interrupted even though he knew that he shouldn't. His words were clipped and brusque and he saw the way that Taehyung froze. "You're a murderer, you've broken a dozen laws so don't pretend that you haven't, Tae. We both have and if we can get out of this as innocent men then so can he."

"If you say a single thing to Min then he'll know something is wrong, Jimin," Taehyung argued as he tried to pull his hands off his, tried to pry his fingers away. "You already said that he finds me strange and I know for a fact that he fucking hates me so the first chance he'll get he'll rat on me. I know he will."

"Not if I don't tell him why ," he disagreed. "I'll lie, I'll be vague. I'll just tell him to lay low because I think he might be in danger and I don't want him to get hurt. I'll lie and tell him that Kookie will contact him with information, he won't know, Tae. Yoongi's not stupid but he's just a dealer, he doesn't have a clue about anything. I never told him my suspicions about you being a police officer."

"Look, Jimin, you're getting distracted from the most important thing here and-"

"If you let me get him out then I'll do it, Tae," Jimin declared. "I'll get the hard drives for you if you let Yoongi go underground and not get arrested."

The changing room fell silent and that was when he knew that he had snared Taehyung. After everything that had happened the other man had probably thought that he had snared him instead, that he had managed to intimidate him into an agreement with no strings attached. But Jimin wasn't going to go down without a fucking fight. After the hell that he had just been put through he thought that he deserved this single demand. Taehyung didn't reply for a minute, thinking his words over intently as he studied their entangled fingers. Surely he could see that this was the best that he was going to get? If Jimin was going to have to bet everything and risk it all then he was going to have to take risks too. It was only fair.

"Why'd you want him out so bad, huh?" Taehyung asked in a quiet voice. "Why're you willing to drop Jungkook and yet get him out?"

"Because Yoongi promised that he would get me out," Jimin replied in a whisper-soft voice. "Because he's my friend, Tae."

"And Jungkook?" Jimin didn't reply to this and Taehyung decided to not press further and instead he got upright again so he let go of his hand. The other man shifted to check the clothes on the floor, hunkering down to grab something. "Y'know, if Min steps outta line I'll have to kill him."

"I know," he agreed with a nod.

"I'll have to kill him and it'll fuck everything up, I might just have to kill you too."

"He won't step out of line, Tae. Do we have a deal?"

"...Get changed into these, they look the same to me," Taehyung instructed as he held out a pair of black trousers to him. They weren't exactly the same but they would do. After all he couldn't leave the changing room in piss-soaked trousers. "We're gonna go buy something, yeah? Pick something just so you don't raise suspicions and then we're gonna go to payphone on the ground-floor and I'm gonna make some calls."

"To your...your team?" Jimin asked as he tore the tag out and shifted to get to his feet. He felt a little unsteady but after a moment he managed to get over the sensation.

"Yeah, yeah to my team," the other man agreed with a nod. "You'll have something to wear to that fucking gala so that'll please Jungkook and uh..." Taehyung turned on his heel just as Jimin managed to undo his damp trousers and pull them down, grimacing as he struggled to get them off. "Jungkook said that there was a...a meeting of some sort on Friday. I think that that's our shot, I think that's it. You'll be left in the suite so you can get the hard drives out and I have a location so..."

Jimin climbed into the other trousers and he pulled them up, quickly fastening them and then pulling the ends of his pullover down to cover the front. Taehyung had stopped talking and he was instead staring at his reflection in the wall of mirrors, one arm folded over his chest and the other up so that he could gnaw at his thumb. So he shifted to go over to the pile of clothes and after a quick study he grabbed another pair of trousers and a shirt, deciding that they would look good enough for Jungkook. It wasn't like he was going to get to see him wearing them at the gala, not if Taehyung was right about Friday being the day that he was going to try and get him arrested. After a minute of silence Taehyung looked over his shoulder at him, studying him for a moment.

"Ready?"

"I guess," Jimin said as he reached up to rub at his eyes. They were red and it was so very obvious that he had been crying but there was nothing that he could do to hide this fact. "Do we have a deal, Tae?"

"...Yeah, yeah we have a deal," he confirmed with a soft nod. "You can contact him after I contact my team. What I wanna know is: do we have a deal, Jimin?" Jimin studied his face for a moment, clothing hugged against his chest, before telling him that they had a deal. "No going back, yeah? When we step outta this changing room you can't take those fucking words back."

"I won't, Tae. I just want to feel safe again and...and I don't want Kookie to die. That's why I won't go back on my word."

"And, Jimin, y'know what'll happen if you say anything, yeah?" Taehyung said as he turned around fully to face him. "I'll shove my gun up your ass and empty the fucking magazine into your intestines so..." He lifted a finger and held it against his mouth, lips softly pouted out.

There was a lump in his throat and Jimin managed to swallow without choking.

Taehyung liked plans. If a plan was thoroughly thought through and replicated to perfection then a plan rarely ever went wrong. He had been witness to a great many perfectly organised raids whilst working in the department office, had overheard Hoseok plotting on conference lines and checking everything over in advance until he had it all memorised. Taehyung had helped gather evidence and had prepared information for case presentations to secure arrest warrants for Namjoon and Sungah in the past and though he hadn't explicitly planned something from the ground up before, he liked plans.

Plans were smart and they cut down risks. They allowed a great many scenarios to be thought through to ensure that the pieces all snapped into place neat and securely. Yet plans needed time, and right now Taehyung was running rather short on that commodity.

Just because he liked plans that didn't mean that he wasn't good at improvising. From day one under Haedogje Pa all that he had done was improvise and the fact that he had gotten so far was a testament of his abilities at winging it. From managing to work his way into Jungkook's line of interest to The Gold Monkey shootout, if Taehyung had not been good at improvising then he would have been dead a long time ago. Perhaps that was what Namjoon had seen in him from the start, what had made him pick him as the inside man. Namjoon must have known that he could handle the pressure and be able to think clearly, to plan and execute in the midst of situations that would make most shut down from information overload. Not him, never him.

Plans were good but they weren't infallible, and without a little room for error then a plan could be rendered useless within seconds of being implemented.

What was happening right now was something that Taehyung thought was a perfect example of winging it. He hadn't planned on this happening today, hadn't planned on it happening ever and yet the situation had caught him out. For a few minutes he had been certain that he was been trapped. Taehyung had even heard the rasping snap in his head as the bear trap had clamped right down on his foot. But he had reacted in the only way possible: by improvising. He knew that he wasn't out of the woods yet but he thought that he could see the path in front of him again. So long as he stuck to it then he would get out of this alive.

Not bad for winging it once again.

However there was a main difference between his usual attempts and the current situation. Taehyung didn't feel like he was taking a great risk with Jimin. He felt like he actually had a legit deal with him and that he wouldn't try and double-cross him. It wasn't Jimin that was the risk but rather the next part of the plan.

Securing the hard drives and organising the raid.

He was no longer scared of getting his foot caught in a bear trap now. No, the next part of the plan was so risky that one false step would be like snapping a wire rigged up to a bouquet of grenades instead.

"I won't say anything, Tae," Jimin said in a quiet voice, pulling down on the sleeves of his pullover to wipe at his cheeks and nose against. The soft wool would be ruined but that hardly seemed to matter right now. "I never told anyone about my suspicions, I never told anyone what you said in the apartment that day. I don't snitch."

"Was that what got you thinking about me being a cop, huh?" Taehyung asked, thinking about how that had been such an elementary mistake to have made.

"No, no it was long before that," Jimin replied with a soft head shake. He asked him what he meant by that and the other man actually laughed softly. "That morning in the store when you told me about your past? About your stint in the military and how you flunked high school and all of that shit? I've heard it before."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, I heard it back when I was fourteen," Jimin explained. "Some undercover officer ended up working under Nam, I'm not sure what he was working towards. A bust maybe? Whatever, he told me the exact same thing one night. He liked me, liked me a lot, a little too much if you ask me. He told me that exact same story and a few weeks later he was dead, he was a bit of a hothead you see." He paused before adding. "I knew the second that I lay eyes on you that you were a cop just like him, isn't that pretty funny, Tae? That's why I wanted to know about you, so we could become friends more easily."

Taehyung stared at him dumbly, mouth hanging open. Jimin just held his gaze without a hint of discomfort on his features, showcasing either a great poker face or that he was telling the truth. It appeared to be the latter rather than the former. So much for a good cover story. His team had sent him in with a copy and fucking pasted background story just like every other undercover officer and it was enough to make Taehyung feel a little sick for a moment. If Jimin had been able to detect it so easily then he had been in so much danger without even being aware of it. He had been completely blind to it because only Jimin had decided to get personal with him. Everyone else had stuck strictly to business only: had wanted to know who his man was, what his skills were, and shit like that.

If Jungkook had suddenly decided to get personal and had asked him then would he have also noticed a glaring problem with his account, just like Jimin? Taehyung didn't know but the knowledge that he could have done so was incredibly unsettling.

"I didn't think that we would end up as partners, so to speak, " Jimin continued before shrugging softly. "But shit happens, I guess? The day in the apartment room was just another sign that my hunch had been correct, that was all."

"Were you ever gonna tell Jungkook about me?" he asked him after a minute of silence. "Was there ever a time that you were gonna rat me out, Jimin?"

"...I wanted to see how far you would go," Jimin replied in a quiet voice as he dropped his gaze to the piss-soaked pants on the floor. "Most cops don't get so far so I wanted to see, I was curious. But then you started getting deeper and deeper into this and I thought...I don't know, I thought that maybe you had ditched them but you hadn't. I was wrong about that so that's why I offered you a way out before you did get caught out. I wasn't going to tell Kookie. I don't want to be responsible for another death, Tae."

"Was this just a little game to you, Jimin?"

"...Knowing about you meant that I had power, you know?" Jimin said as he looked up at him again. "Just a little but still, it was power. I liked having something powerful for once, Tae. It was strange having power after everything and I guess that I just wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could."

"I'm offering you a lot of fucking power right now, Jimin," Taehyung retorted as he crossed the changing room, gathering up all of the cast-off clothes and folding them over his arm. "C'mon, we're leaving."

They stepped out of the changing room together as soon as Jimin had managed to wipe his cheeks dry and get himself under control. His breathing wasn't exactly steady but it was the closest that he was going to get and so Taehyung accepted it. He pushed and held the door open for him and Jimin stepped out to go right over to the till. The woman behind him looked up and was about to look down again when she noticed something, head shooting up so sharply that her hoop earrings dangled like wind chimes. She was so distracted by Jimin's pink cheeks and red eyes to even notice the fact that he had shoplifted a pair of trousers and was currently wearing them.

"Oh, are you alright, dear?" the woman asked as Jimin placed the clothing down on the counter.

"Yes yes, I'm fine," Jimin reassured her, voice slightly husky. He might have said something else but Taehyung didn't hear what as he crossed the store to start placing the clothing back. The quicker that they got out of the store the better. He could see the woman ringing up the purchases just a few feet away as he shoved the clothing back onto the racks and he noted that she was glaring at him. Clearly Jimin must have said something to her and he didn't know what but he didn't like it. Yet the woman just rang them up as Jimin pulled the credit card free to slip it into the machine, fingers hitting the buttons on the device.

"Ready?" Taehyung asked as he went back over to the till, itching to blow the place. Jimin made a noise in agreement just as the woman slipped the transaction receipt into the store bag and slid it across the polished counter.

"Have a nice day," she said with a sniff and Taehyung just grabbed the bag without replying and reached over to snag hold of Jimin's elbow with the other. He guided him out the store and in the direction of the escalators, allowing him to step on first and then getting on the step behind him.

"The fuck did you tell her, huh?" Taehyung asked in a low voice, leaning closer to him and feeling his hair against his lips.

"I told her that you said I was fat," Jimin replied in a flat voice, "and that I needed to lose weight."

"...Christ, Jimin, I said some shit to you but not that shitty." Jimin turned his head slightly to look back at him, unamused and icy expression on his face. Taehyung held his gaze for a few seconds before looking away again. Maybe calling him a stupid bitch constituted as something more shittier, he wasn't really certain. "OK, look I'm sorry for saying that shit to you. Alright? I was scared too, and just like you threatened me I thought it'd be smart to threaten you. You ain't a-a 'stupid bitch', OK?"

Jimin didn't reply to this and instead just stared off across the department store as the escalator carried on rolling down. Taehyung suddenly felt like he was stuck on the spot and that he should apologise even though it was rather pointless. The other man wouldn't accept it and it wouldn't sound genuine in the slightest. Taehyung hadn't been planning on using such levels of threats and intimidation to scare Jimin into this situation. He had been hoping to use his charms instead because they had gotten him so far already. But of course Jimin had went and fucked that plan up on him royally. That was a sign that the other man wasn't even remotely stupid but he didn't think that that would make the pain sting any less.

Taehyung did feel bad about what he had done but Jimin had given him no choice. He had so desperately wanted to get him to choose to give him the information but that could never have worked out anyway. Jimin hadn't been lying when he had said that he was loyal to Jungkook. Had he tried the sweet method then Jimin might not have granted him the luxury that he had today. Instead of trying to persuade him to run away whilst he still could Jimin might very well have snitched to Jungkook at the first chance that he had when he had realised that he was trying to use him. He felt bad, but what happened had needed to happen so that he could complete the operation and help Jimin.

And besides, it probably made more sense to scare Jimin into total submission. His entire life so far had been nothing more than submission to threats so why would he have tried to fight back against his attempt?

"Look, I'm sorry alright?" Taehyung said as they stepped off the escalator and started walking across the ground-floor. "I know that that doesn't mean shit right now but I am. I said some mean shit to you and-"

"Do you think that being called all of those insults upsets me?" Jimin asked in a quiet voice, actually stopping so that he walked into him. Taehyung felt his chest knocking against his back and he also stopped, hovering behind him and studying the side of his head. For a few seconds the other man stared straight ahead and then he slowly turned his head to look right at him. "No, Tae, it doesn't upset me. I've been called much worse things than a 'stupid bitch', trust me. That's not what upsets me, and I think that you actually know what does."

Being threatened with a gun.

Being betrayed.

Being used.

Jimin didn't need to say any of these things because Taehyung could see it all on his face. That was why he was upset with him and he could do nothing more than accept it for what it was. He held his gaze for a moment, waiting to see if he said something else but he didn't. Taehyung glanced across the floor to try and locate the payphone that he had seen earlier upon entering the department store. The floor was packed with people, all of them weaving around the counters, hanging around in groups and checking phones. After a minute he managed to catch sight of them.

The payphones were set across the ground-floor, up against a long stretch of wall and too far from the restrooms. They were three machines in a row, with a glass bubbles around them, black boxes with a matching receivers and long stretches of clear plastic wire dangling down. Stencilled onto the glass bubbles was a symbol shaped like a phone, bright red and strangely like a warning sign. So he guided him across the floor without another word, Jimin not even trying to drag his feet or make a scene. He had been worried that he might just kick off but he didn't and that was a blessing.

"Sit down, I'll just be a few minutes," Taehyung explained as he gestured at the bench just beside the payphone. Jimin eyed it for a moment before shifting to sit down, placing the store bag on his lap and hugging it against his stomach. He didn't say a word but had rather came across all silent. Taehyung turned back to the phone and slipped the coins into the slot fast, listening to them rattling as they slipped down out of sight inside it. Then he hit the buttons with his thumb, entering the number that he had learnt by heart. As he listened to the dial tone he turned to look back at Jimin and he studied him for a moment.

Jimin looked so very small and vulnerable sitting on the bench and he felt a twinge in his chest, a twinge that felt like guilt. But there wasn't enough time for such things right now, he had a very important job to do and feeling guilty was just going to hinder him. If he couldn't handle seeing Jimin then when he next laid eyes on Jungkook it would be too much to handle. It took several seconds for someone to pick up on the other end and the static crackle on the other end made his breath catch in his throat.

" Speak to me, brother, let's not waste any time and just get straight to it, " Namjoon said, not even taking the time to give him a greeting. Good, Taehyung just needed to get this over with as fast as possible.

"I'm in, I'm on track again," Taehyung replied as he shifted to place his free hand on the box, turning away and lowering his voice to a whisper. "I've got a deal going with him so you better be telling me the truth."

" A deal? A deal with...with Jimin? " Namjoon asked and he made a noise in agreement. " Of course, brother, of course we were telling you the truth. He's not going to get punished for his cooperation. Talk, let me know what you know. "

"The way to secure charges against Jungkook could only occur through the hard drives and so I'm going straight for the fucking hard drives, no time to waste," he explained. "Today an opportunity presented itself to me and so I went for it. Luckily for me it worked out in my favour, I'm getting those hard drives outta that apartment and into your possession."

" When you said that you were going to try and get him on your side I must say, I thought that it would take a little while longer than this. Two weeks? "

"Well, last week I was a bit sidetracked running off to Shanghai and murdering Kim Jinwoo so..." Taehyung paused for a few seconds before making a soft noise. "Oh yeah, he's dead too. I forgot to mention that." Down the line he heard something strange and he figured out that it was Namjoon covering the mouthpiece at the bottom of the phone. But he didn't cover it well enough for he heard him talking, announcing what he had just told him. Clearly he was telling the other officers in the department office about this rather shocking piece of news. "Yeah, I had to kill him. I don't think that the police there'll find his corpse, and even if they do I dunno if they'll ever locate his head. I guess that it's pointless telling you but I thought that you should know."

" No, no it's good knowing that, " Namjoon remarked, faint voices echoing down the line. The department office was likely now in chaos because of what he had just said. " And it's even better that you're getting those hard drives, brother. So tell me a little more about that. "

"There's not much to tell," Taehyung replied, shifting on the spot and looking over at Jimin for a second. He was still sitting on the bench, unmoving and silent. "I have a mutual agreement with Jimin to supply you with the hard drives whilst Jungkook isn't present. He's gonna smuggle 'em out and whilst that's going on I'm gonna coordinate a raid on a meeting to get Jungkook arrested."

" OK, so when's this planned raid exactly? "

"Friday, that's D-day, man," Taehyung replied. "I think that's our best chance so we need to seize it. Carpe-fucking-diem. Put Hoseok on, I need to talk operation specifics, go over some basic raid shit." Namjoon told him that he would and the line went silent for a minute. He waited with bated breath, slipping his tongue out to wet his lips. Then came the unmistakable sound of Hoseok taking the call, breathing out before saying "hello?" to him. "I'm sure that you heard the news about Kim Jinwoo."

" I did, but that doesn't matter right now, " Hoseok replied without missing a beat. " What matters is that Namjoon just told me that you've sorted out a deal with our little Honey. " Taehyung confirmed that he had with a soft noise. " Coordinating a raid is tricky business, Tae. You sure you wanna do this? "

"Don't really have any choice, do I? You can bust out a search warrant for his apartment but if you don't get him at the same time too then I'm a goner. Jungkook'll know that it was me that ratted him out, so I need a raid to arrest him before he can figure that out," Taehyung replied as he nursed the receiver in the crook between his neck and shoulder. "So we gotta sort out a raid, yeah?"

"... Yeah, I get you. It's a one shot kinda deal, " Hoseok agreed and he could picture him nodding away on the other end of the line. " Namjoon said that you wanna have this done on Friday, which would be good in normal situations 'cos that gives us time to sort out any kinks. This isn't normal. We can't keep up a two-way communication with you for information exchange so...what the fuck are we doing here, Tae? Start talking, tell me what you're thinking. "

"I'm gonna give you a number right now, yeah?" Taehyung said, as he shifted to look back at Jimin. The other man was just sitting on the end of the bench, eyes on his shoes with his head bowed in dejection. "In fact I'm gonna give you two so write 'em down nice and clearly, alright?"

" Hit me, " Hoseok said, the rustling sound of him shifting to grab something off his desk.

"Alright, this first number is me," Taehyung told him before slowly listening the string of digits to his phone. "That's me, and what I need you to do is contact me on that number. There's a meeting, Jungkook gave me one exact meeting this Friday, 10:30am in Seodaemun-gu. He didn't give me explicit details but that's the one day that I know for sure where I'll be and when. Any other day is fucking guesswork so I'll assume that the meeting holds some importance. Hopefully he'll tell me what but that shit don't matter. What matters is that that is our one shot at this. It ain't gonna get better than this, yeah?"

" 10:30, Seodaemun-gu, " Hoseok repeated back at him to let him know that he had taken note of the information. He asked him the exact street location and Taehyung got his phone out of his pocket to check the calendar and see, reading it out slowly to make sure that he got it right. " We would have to strike during the meeting, the security there's gonna be top-fucking-notch so we're talking ground assault. No vehicles at the scene, we're gonna have to storm the place. That's risky, Tae. "

"Yeah, should be in the middle of the meeting when it happens so I get the message from you guys and I cry off; tell Jungkook that something just came up and that I need to talk to him. You need to message me at exactly T-Minus one minute before the strike, yeah?"

" T-Minus one, that's too close to the bone, " Hoseok told him, a series of static rustles sounding down the line. " Surely you'll want at least T-Minus ten, just to ensure that you're prepared? "

"Nah, the one thing you learn when you spend enough time in Jungkook's presence is that they're ain't no such thing as being prepared. T-Minus one gives me exactly the amount of time I need for what I've got planned."

" A single fucking minute is downright crazy, Tae, I think you should go with at least three, " Hoseok muttered under his breath. " The hell are you even preparing, huh? "

"As soon as I receive the alert I'll pull him aside, into another section of the building and then...then you storm the place."

The other end of the line fell silent and he could sense that Hoseok was thinking it over, playing the raid sequence over in his head to find out any possible flaws with the plan. He knew that there would be a few, probably a lot in fact but it couldn't be helped. Taehyung didn't organise raids, it wasn't his strength but it was Hoseok's. The other man could help him fine tune it but at the end of the day Hoseok wasn't going to be stuck inside a building during the middle of said raid. He was, and Taehyung wanted to ensure that he wasn't going to be caught up in the middle of the chaos in case something went wrong.

Improvisation was a skill of his but improvisation could most certainly not be applied in the middle of an organised police raid.

" T-Minus one means that you wouldn't have to hold him for long, but you still have to get him out. How can you be sure he won't cause any trouble, won't fight back? " Hoseok asked first, picking at a rather small problem all things considered.

"I've got my gun, I'll pull it on him," Taehyung argued. "He won't see it coming and he sure as shit won't cry for help if he wants to keep his head." He shifted to look over at Jimin and he had turned his head to look at him. His expression was hard to read and so Taehyung looked back at the telephone box, eyeing the metal buttons. "It's a single minute, Hoseok, and when your team storm the building that's it; that's all that I've gotta do."

" How many men?"

"Dunno, dunno anything about the meeting."

" How many are present on average? "

"...Usually it's less than ten, between five and ten," Taehyung replied after a moment of thought. "On our side it's just me and Jungkook, on the business partner's side it's usually three for minor transactions, five to ten for more important." His teammate was silent at this, likely jotting everything down in front of him. "Meetings happen in business buildings usually, which are often warehouses. Front entrance, little windows. When the men are inside they won't see you coming but they sometimes leave men on the doors for security."

" Hmm, " Hoseok made a soft noise under his breath but he didn't speak for a moment. " High windows? Could shoot flash grenades into the warehouse, gives us a couple of seconds to storm through the door without being shot at. Men on the doors are nothing, that's a standard issue. What if there isn't another section of the building, Tae? "

"There'll be another section," he reaffirmed. "Ever since Singapore I've made it a habit to memorise all entrances and exits when I step foot inside a building should I need to get the fuck back out again. I'm yet to enter a single room with Jungkook that hasn't had another section connected to the building; too risky to enter a building with only one exit when you're in as much danger as he is. You've got the address, get blueprints, scope the place out." Taehyung let this hang in the air for a moment and he waited to see if he would say anything but his teammate remained silent. He greatly disliked the lack of reaction and so he shifted awkwardly. "What's the verdict, huh? C'mon, just tell me."

" I dunno, Tae, I think this is still too risky, " Hoseok replied. " There's not enough information for me, I feel like I'll be running in blind with my team. I dunno how many men to expect and they'll be armed, there's no doubt about that. I don't want this raid to turn into a fucking shootout 'cos that puts you and The Boy at risk. When those bullets go flying they could go through walls. You're not guaranteed safety if that's what goes down. "

"I know, I know but hey, I've survived one shootout," Taehyung retorted and down the line he heard Hoseok sighing wearily. "So long as Jungkook doesn't take a bullet it doesn't matter. I don't matter. We just need him alive, not me."

" Stop saying shit like that right now. "

"I've taken a bullet once and I'd like to avoid another," he admitted honestly. "But if taking another means that I salvage this fucking operation then I'm willing to take the risk and take the hit, Hoseok. That much I promise. D'you think that we stand a chance?"

" Tae, I think- "

"It's a simple question: yeah or no?" Taehyung spoke over him, tone firm. Hoseok didn't reply right away and instead remained silent, leaving him on edge so that he couldn't even breathe.

"... Maybe, " he finally said in a quiet voice. " That's not yes or no but it's the best that I can do with limited information, alright? "

"Alright."

" Christ, Tae, you know how fucking dangerous this is, don't you? "

"Been dangerous since day one, Hoseok. This is the second number, so make a note, yeah?" Taehyung explained before listing another string of digits. "You get that? Yeah, OK, that number is Jimin's phone. Do not contact him at any point other than the day of the raid. Message him the meeting place in Gangnam-gu. Now put Namjoon back on, I just need to finalise a few things." Hoseok made a noise in agreement and there was a series of sounds and then Namjoon spoke, asking him to explain what was going on. "D-day, whilst the raid is happening I need you to get a team in place in Gangnam-gu for Jimin to meet. Do not send anyone else other than Sungah. I need you to send Sungah, OK?"

" I'll get her on board, can I ask why you need her? "

"She knows how to handle...sensitive issues," Taehyung replied as he soared a quick glance back at Jimin. The other man wasn't even looking his way but rather just staring off across the store floor again. "I think that Sungah will be the best person for the job, who else are you gonna send, huh? Fucking Youngjae?" Namjoon made a noise at this, something trapped between a snort and a sigh. "She's safe, I trust her to take care of the issue and I trust her to take care of him too."

" I'll ensure that she's briefed about Jimin, what are you thinking? Should we get a police psychologist prepared for him at the station? "

"Yeah, yeah he's gonna need support, I'm sure you understand why," Taehyung agreed with a pointless nod. "Just try and get her on everything, I trust you and her to interview him; Hoseok as a backup but no one else."

" Of course, of course, Taehyung, " his teammate agreed. " No interviews will be conducted until you're back in the station anyway, we'll need you to watch them all and give corroborative accounts. What else? "

"What I need you to do is draw up those warrants in advance, we need to strike as fast as we can. Jimin can't smuggle 'em all out, just one. It's too risky trying to smuggle anything more than one. So the quicker you get legit warrants to search the apartment and seize the rest the better."

" I'll get Hoseok to draft them today, one is enough. So long as we have one piece of evidence we've got enough grounds to conduct a full search so don't risk it. Like you said, get a single hard drive out. You sure that he's going to pull through? "

Taehyung turned his head to look at Jimin again, thinking Namjoon's words over. His gut instinct currently told him that he could trust him to do what he had promised, and that had been his instinct from the very start. Taehyung had always looked at Jimin and had known that he would be a deciding factor in making the operation a success, he had just not thought that it would come to this level of importance. There was already a lot at risk right now and Jimin was just another stake in the ever increasing capital that was being gambled on.

But Jimin hadn't told a single soul that he had believed that he was a police officer, even when he should have snitched on him. That was something, that was a sign that the other man was worthy of some trust. Jimin had technically had his life in his hands this entire time and yet he had refused to drop him, had refused to crush him.

"...Yeah, yeah he will," he confirmed. "He'll pull through. I trust him, Namjoon."

" What if there's a change of plans? " Namjoon asked just for the sake of it, just to be sure that they covered all possibilities.

"Then I'll be sure to alert you should it happen but I don't think it will. Look, I gotta go so is there anything else you need to know?" The line fell silent save for rustling paper sounds and faint voices from somewhere in the department office. Taehyung stared at the keypad and waited for something to be said, something that would fuck it all up.

" No, just one last thing, " Namjoon paused and then added, " good luck, brother. "

Taehyung ended the call, placing the receiver back into the cradle. As he heard the plastic clicking he let his breath out in a heavy sigh and dropped his head forward, eyes closed. His heart was racing in his chest and he could hardly believe that he had just done that. Not only had he managed to pull off the fiasco in the changing room, he had also just organised his first and hopefully last raid. It should have left him feeling exhilarated but it didn't, it just made him feel rather nervous. After a minute he lifted his head again and glanced over at the other man.

"Have you ever done anything like this before?" Jimin asked him, not looking up but rather just studying his shoes.

"...No, no this is my first time," Taehyung replied slowly. "Never worked undercover before, never planned something as big as this before."

"First time? Well, you sounded very sure of yourself," Jimin said in a quiet voice. He explained that he had helped organize things but not as much as this. "Hmm, considering how great you are at everything else I'm sure that it'll go perfect for you."

Taehyung detected a bitter note in Jimin's voice but he elected to ignore it after everything. Instead he turned to the phone and collected the leftover coins from the tray, gathering them up into his palm and eyeing them. Next came the part that he was regretting, the part that meant that Jimin could contact Yoongi. He knew that he shouldn't have agreed to it but he had had little choice. If it made Jimin cooperate then it was a good thing, but it also required trusting Yoongi to keep his goddamn mouth shut. That wasn't something that Taehyung was entirely certain was possible. He let his statement hang in the air for a moment before lifting his hand and inserting the coins back into the slot, listening to that same metallic jingle as they landed inside it. He asked Jimin to recite the number and the other man collected his phone to check, reading the digits out slowly. Taehyung hit the keys and then held the receiver out to him and he accepted it without getting to his feet, holding it against his ear securely.

"Hello?" Jimin said. The other man must have picked up and he was clearly listening to him speak. "Yes, yes it's me, Jimin, um," he paused for a moment and glanced over at him and Taehyung just held his gaze without blinking. He shifted on the bench and the payphone wire stretched taut as he turned away from him slightly. "Are you busy right now, sweetie? I really have to talk to you and...no, no finish that I can wait a few minutes." Jimin cupped his hand over the mouthpiece as he looked back at him.

"What?"

"He's finishing off something, should only be a few minutes," Jimin explained in a soft voice. That was inconvenient and irritating but at least Jimin had been smart enough to tell him to finish it. If he had told him no, that he needed to talk urgently then that would have set alarm bells ringing. It was the smart thing to do, even if it meant that they had to wait. After perhaps a minute of silence, in which Jimin wrapped the taut wire around his index finger, he must have finished whatever he was doing for he fell still. "...Yes, hello again."

"Remember what I said," Taehyung intoned in a low voice. "Don't say a word."

"Yes yes, ah...I know it's not my number but I can't use my phone right now," Jimin replied, brow twitching slightly. Yoongi must have been wondering what the hell was going on and had decided to be blunt and ask. That was a bad move on his end, a very bad move. He needed to stop sniffing around too or else he might just find himself in a spot of trouble. "No, no it's OK. Everything's OK, I promise."

Taehyung moved so that he could sit down on the bench beside him, hoping to maybe hear a hint of Yoongi's voice down the line. He couldn't but at least his closeness would deter Jimin off from trying to say anything to him, from trying to whisper.

"Yes, Kookie's busy today, just like always. Come...come over? Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, sweetie." Jimin stopped talking for a moment and he glanced at him before continuing. "I can't come over today and talk to you in person but there's something important that I needed to tell you. That's why I called you like this." Taehyung watched the way that Jimin's fingers carried on pulling on the wire. If he kept that up then he might just tug it out of the machine. "Yoongi...you trust me, right?"

Jimin stopped talking and though Taehyung couldn't hear anything he just knew that Yoongi was silent too. It was obvious on the other man's face that he was because Jimin's expression looked a mixture of things. He looked like he was anticipating something, something that might be good or bad, and underneath that anticipation he looked almost anxious. One second turned to two, turned to three and four and he had reached ten in his head before Jimin let his breath out in a soft sigh.

"Unconditionally? You trust me unconditionally, don't you?" Jimin asked again, just to reassure himself. Yoongi clearly answered much quicker this time. "I trust you too, Yoongi, and that's why I'm talking to you right now. I know that this might sound strange but...but do you have somewhere safe? Yes, safe. As in somewhere that you can stay for a little while that isn't Seoul?"

Here it was, the big question, the ultimatum. Taehyung didn't know Yoongi enough to have a clue how he would react to what Jimin had just said, for it could possibly go one of two ways. The other man could take the hint and decide that his own ass was more important in the grand scheme of things, the way that he was desperately hoping for. Yoongi could duck his head down and just leave it all alone because it was bigger and more important than him, and that would greatly aid the operation. That was for the best but not necessarily what he was going to do. The other man might just start wondering and find himself wanting answers, answers that Jimin wasn't allowed to give. Such vagueness and refusal to talk could arouse enough suspicions to have him start sniffing around and go to Jungkook, which was most certainly not what they wanted. That would be a fucking death sentence and the most worrying part of it was that Taehyung didn't have a clue which way this phone call could go.

But Jimin had told him that he knew Yoongi and that he wouldn't do anything like that. Taehyung thought that he didn't know half of it, seen as they hadn't really known each that long at all. But clearly Jimin saw something deeper that he didn't, just like how Namjoon could see deeper into him and read him like a book. So maybe he should just trust Jimin's instincts? After all he had been blindly following his own so far today. It was just a bigger gamble than he really wanted to take right now, after everything had fallen into place so well.

Taehyung ran his eyes over the department store without really looking, without seeing faces. Beside him on the bench Jimin had fallen very still and silent and he was trying to figure out why. Was it because Yoongi had also fallen silent, or was the other man talking right now? After scanning the floor and seeing nothing amiss he turned back to him. Jimin had stopped playing with the cord and was holding the phone against his ear in both hands, right over the left so that just a hint of his knuckle tattoos were displayed between his fingers. Taehyung dropped his eyes to study his own hand, sitting on his thigh and nervously picking at the material of his trousers to find a thread to pull on, a crease to flatten.

"I can't say, Yoongi, I really can't say but you trust me, don't you?" Jimin repeated the question back at him, tone a little nervous now. He even wriggled on the bench a little, folding one leg over the other. "Then you don't need to know, do you? All you need to know is that you're not going to be in danger. ...No. No, he won't get mad at you."

Yoongi had just asked about Jungkook. It was obvious that he had just asked about Jungkook and that was a sign that Jimin needed to end the call. But if he did then that looked even more suspicious on their end. Taehyung made a noise under his breath, a displeased huff, and Jimin's gaze slipped over to look at him before quickly settling on something else. He got off the bench and placed his hands on his hips, the change of position making his jacket shift and showcase a hint of the holster belt.

"Get him off the topic of Jungkook, Jimin," he warned in a low voice. "Get him off the topic right now or I'm ending the call." Jimin gnawed on his lower lip for a few seconds and he saw his grip tightening on the receiver.

"No no, sweetie, I told you: everything's fine. I'm perfectly safe right now and...oh, well yes I understand that and-"

"Jimin," Taehyung snapped his fingers at him briskly.

"Excuse me a second, I need to speak to the valet," Jimin said, tone perfectly normal and not at all forced. He covered the mouthpiece and lowered it down to his chest. "Tae, just give me a second, I just need-"

"We ain't got a second, gimme the phone," Taehyung demanded, holding his hand out and curling his fingers at him. Jimin eyed his palm with rather uncertain eyes and then he relented and handed him the receiver so he lifted it up and held it against his ear. "Min, listen. I gotta sort this out right now."

" Who the...is that you, Kim? " Yoongi asked in confusion. " The fuck's going on, huh, calling me up with all this weird shi- "

"Y'know that man that Master Jeon murdered in the church?" Taehyung asked, moving away from the bench to get closer to the machine. Down the line Yoongi didn't give him an answer but he knew that he was thinking about it, thinking about how Lim had been shot in the head in front of the entire congregation. "Man was called Lim Dongwoo and I knew him, I knew him well and he was a fucking rat."

"... OK, that's fucking concerning. A police rat? What's that got to do with me though, and what's going on with Jimin? Is he alright, did something happen he ain't telling me about? "

"With the issue with Master Kim sorted out Master Jeon's been having me look into more rats, check out various districts, look up some men and all that shit to see if any more fuckers are hiding away." Taehyung paused and let him process this. "Got a strong reason to believe that there's a rat in Yongsan-gu and he might be connected to your den somehow."

"... Fuck me ," Yoongi muttered under his breath. " Connected to the...shit, Kim, there's gotta be a hundred fucking men connected to this den. What'd you mean there could be a rat? "

"He might be getting info on the sly, a drugs den is a great place to get info and build connections. Just like Lim was doing. That means that he's putting your den and you at a lot of fucking risk. Jimin's kinda scared that you might be put in 'danger' so to speak, so he asked me to let him call you," Taehyung lied, shifting to place his hand on the plastic bubble and lean against it. "Frankly I was worried that there might've been tapping involved, y'know? Like someone put a device in your phone to listen in shit? So I told him to not mention it but that ain't working so..."

Yoongi groaned down the line and he pictured him reaching up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. He sounded like he was going to throw up and Taehyung took that as a sign that he was buying his bullshit. Good, because he didn't have any more to sell and this was his final chance. If Yoongi didn't buy it then he might just need to pay him a visit and beat the shit out of him to get him to shut his goddamn mouth.

" I'm fucking underground, ain't no one that walks into this den that dunno us from someone important in Haedogje Pa. Men just don't walk in off the fucking streets, Kim. "

"You ever have a Lim walk in, huh? One that might just've passed along a nice piece of info to another cop?" Taehyung asked, and Yoongi made a series of noises before saying that he really didn't know but it was possible. "I think that's what happened."

" OK, so what does this mean for me? What am I supposed to do with this knowledge? "

"I can't give names, can't give info, I just need you to keep your mouth shut about this, yeah?" Taehyung instructed in a firm tone. "Anything gets out about this then you'll scare the fucker off before I can catch him out. That's why Jimin wants you outta the picture for a while, you understand, right? Outta the picture, outta danger."

" Yeah, I understand but Master Jeon didn't- "

"Master Jeon doesn't know right now 'cos he's busy working," Taehyung spoke over him. "I got my hands on some info just this morning that he doesn't know about yet. But he will, he'll know as soon as possible and when I tell him I'll tell him that I wanted to cover your ass. You're a valuable partner, he'll understand me wanting to ensure that you don't get wasted by some rat, yeah?"

"... Yeah. "

"I shouldn't have let Jimin call you and risk anything getting out but he begged me to, so just listen to him," Taehyung more or less ordered before pulling the phone away and holding it back out to Jimin. The other man stared at it dumbly and then looked up at him so Taehyung waved it at him.

"You fucking..." Jimin accepted the phone back off him with a head shake and then he held it up against his ear again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but Tae told me not to. Yes, yes, I didn't want to put you in more danger just in case so...that would be smart."

"Hurry the fuck up, Min," Taehyung muttered as he reached up to rub at his brow.

"Bali? Yes, yes I think that...just for a little while," Jimin said in a soft voice. "Is it a holiday home? Oh, oh I see, inherited, mmm. No, no I haven't been there before. Of course, of course you'll have to take me there one day. That would be lovely."

Bali? Jesus Christ, Yoongi really was going to disappear for awhile. If he kept his word and just did what Jimin had told him too then that was one less issue to worry about. Taehyung couldn't see why he wouldn't just do what they had told him after all of those lies that he had just spun him. Pretty great lies, truth be told.

"I'll contact you, I promise that I will so you need to promise me something," he paused and shifted his eyes up to look at him. "Promise that you won't tell anyone what Tae told you and you'll board that plane, Yoongi. You promised that you would help me, so I want to help you too. Please don't break your promise, please don't." After a few seconds Jimin held the phone out to him again so Taehyung took it and placed it back in the cradle, asking what he had said to him. "...He promised to go away. You don't need to worry about him, Tae, he's going to go far away and not fuck up your grand plans."

The ride back to the apartment block was very awkward and uncomfortable for them both. Jimin was clearly upset with him over what had happened and so he didn't say a word to him and instead just stared out of the window. It made Taehyung feel even more guilty if that was even possible, which he didn't think was. Could he really be angry at him when he had let him contact Yoongi like that? It seemed like that should have negated some of his anger but it hasn't done so in the slightest. When the car finally pulled up outside the block Jimin jumped out of the back and crossed the sidewalk to enter the building, leaving him to follow after him. As they rode the elevator up to the suite Taehyung wished that he knew something to say to break the silence but he seemed incapable.

"Jimin, I-"

"Don't," he spoke over him in a flat tone. "Don't go there, Tae. Not now. Just...just leave me alone, please."

Jimin had told him this morning that he was trying to cut down on the Valium and yet just a few minutes after stepping inside the suite he knocked back three of the pills and swallowed without a single grimace; taking the pills without a glass of water, dry swallowing them without a care. Then he went into the bathroom and Taehyung heard the water running for several minutes before it cut, the sound of him climbing into the tub and making the water slosh just a moment later. So he turned his attention back to his phone instead. His mind was racing with thoughts and yet he couldn't seem to figure out what to do. So instead of checking anything he just shifted to lie down on the bed with a heavy groan and stare up at the ceiling mirror.

Taehyung felt like he just stay on that position for a very long time; staring up at his reflection without a single care in the world. Sadly he couldn't do that, but he did do so for some time. When he glanced at his watch he saw that he hadn't moved in two hours and yet Jimin still hadn't left the bathroom so he got to his feet and wandered across the floor. He moved to stand in the doorway and he saw that Jimin was just lying in the bathtub, staring up at the ceiling. His expression showed that he didn't want to be disturbed but his eyes were also glassy with unshed tears. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame.

"Jimin?"

"Yes, mmm?" He shifted at his voice and water sloshed against the porcelain sides. Jimin blinked hard a few times before lowering his head and looking at him, gaze focusing.

"You've been in there for two hours now, maybe you should get out, yeah?" Taehyung suggested in a soft voice, cocking his head. Jimin studied him for a moment and then pulled his hand out of the water to look at his palm. It was wrinkled from the water, little folds and creases in his soft skin. "Get out and lie down for a little while instead."

Jimin stayed in the bathtub for another minute and he didn't know if he was going to get out but then he shifted to do so. Taehyung grabbed the towel that he had left on the rack and moved over to him, slipping the large white towel over his shoulders. Jimin shrugged it in place, arms coming around to hug it tightly around his body and Taehyung reached up to brush his damp hair off his brow for him.

"D'you want me to go to my room? If you want me to leave you alone I will, just say it," Taehyung offered and he watched a bead of water roll down the side of his face to soak into the towel. After some thought Jimin shook his head and then shifted to step out of the bathroom. He listened to the soft padding of his feet and then went over to the tub to drain the water, the scent of milk and honey coming from the tub.

When he stepped back into the main area he saw that Jimin was curled up on the bed in a tight ball, sheets pulled up over him and the towel on the floor. Taehyung considered leaving him alone but his feet propelled him over to the bed instead and he climbed onto it to settle down on the space beside him, staring up at the ceiling mirror again. The suite was silent for quite some time before the other man broke it.

"I've wanted out for so long, Tae," Jimin said in the most softest voice. Taehyung turned his head to study his black hair for a few seconds before rolling onto his side. He drew closer to him, arm going over his side to pull Jimin back against him. "I wanted to get out of this fucking nightmare but when you wait as long as I have you...you lose hope, you know? For so many years I just wanted to die instead because that's the only way out. But then Kookie came along and..." Taehyung placed his head in the crook of his shoulder, so that he could look down at him whilst he spoke. "He wasn't a way out but he made me feel like I didn't need a way out, because he cared for me and he treated me so much better than-than Nam and the other men."

"Jimin, you should stop thinking about shit like that," he said in a quiet voice.

"It's just...Kookie, he's never hurt me before, not like the others," Jimin explained. "I know that he-he would kill me but he's never threatened or hurt me so it just doesn't seem right doing this to him."

"He's never hurt you so stop him from getting hurt too," Taehyung suggested, knowing that it probably wouldn't work but trying it anyway. Jimin didn't reply and instead fell rather quiet, staring off across the suite. After a minute or two of silence he decided to lie back down on the bed and not long after came the soft sound of Jimin's breathing because he had fallen asleep. Taehyung wasn't particularly tired but he closed his eyes anyway, finding himself drifting off into a light nap.

The sound of the door clicking shut woke him back up again and Taehyung forced one eye open to see Jungkook crossing the suite to go to the stairs, carrying something in his hands. His vision was rather blurry so he didn't see what it was and so he closed his eyes again and listened to his footsteps echoing through the suite. He must have drifted off back into his nap because when he next came around it was to the sound of Jimin's voice. Taehyung jerked in his sleep and reached up to rub at his eyes roughly, rolling onto his back.

"...with Tae," Jimin explained, clearly talking to Jungkook. "I found something to wear, for the gala, and then we came back here. That's all that happened, darling."

Taehyung wet his lips as he forced his eyes open, finding that his mouth was dry. He was starting to feel the first hints of his cravings but he felt that he might be able to ignore them for a little while longer. He turned his head to look at them and he saw that Jungkook was sitting on the edge of the bed beside Jimin. After a minute he realised that Jungkook had actually asked Jimin what he had done for the day. He had spoken to him just like he had told him to, he had asked about his day just for the sake of making conversation.

"That's all? But you had a whole day all to yourselves, I thought that you would want to have a little more fun than that," Jungkook said with a laugh. "I thought that you would drag Taehyung off on a dinner date."

"No, no I haven't eaten anything today actually," Jimin replied with a head shake. "I've been asleep since we got back here."

"...Are you alright, babe?" Jungkook asked out of the blue, catching the pair of them by surprise. "You look a little...off."

"Mmm, I'm just not feeling too well," he said in a soft voice and Jungkook reached over to touch his brow before slowly moving his hand down to his cheek. Jimin nuzzled against his palm, cheek brushing against his fingers. "That's all, darling. Don't worry about me." Jungkook looked between them both slowly, expression hard to read. Taehyung just held his gaze and tried his very hardest to look unfazed. Inside however he was very much feeling the onsets of panic starting to appear.

"...Babe, can I talk to you for a moment?" Jungkook said in a quiet voice, getting to his feet to wander over to the staircase. Jimin shifted to sit up and look at him, sparing a quick glance back down at him. Taehyung held his gaze and silently told him to be careful and then Jimin climbed out of bed and followed the younger man up the stairs. They both disappeared into his office and Taehyung was left waiting to see what the hell was going on. After a few minutes of waiting he shifted to sit up and swing his legs over the side of the bed. On the dresser was a glass of water and his Methadone pill so he tossed it in his mouth and swallowed it with a sip of water.

It was maybe ten minutes later that Jimin stepped out of the room and started coming back down the stairs. Yet Jungkook didn't and he stayed on the landing, both hands planted on the glass guardrail as he looked down at him. Taehyung had a strong feeling that he wanted him to step into his office too so he lifted his hand and gestured at himself, tapping his finger on his chest. The younger man seemed to think it over before giving him a slow nod. Taehyung put the empty glass down on the dresser and got to his feet to cross the suite too, taking the stairs two at a time. Jungkook turned on his heel and went into the office, not even looking at him as he did.

"Is everything alright, Jungkook?" Taehyung asked in a quiet voice as he stepped into the room after him. A quick scan of the office showed that there were some objects on his desk that weren't there last time. There was a large black box and two square glasses set beside his computer monitor.

"Hmm, yes everything is fine, Taehyung," Jungkook replied as he opened the box up to reveal something interesting. Taehyung saw a glass decanter inside, one with sharp cut edges and a tall body filled with a luxurious deep amber liquid. Inside the box there was a golden inlaid pattern and the entire thing screamed opulence, so he asked him what it was.

"Macallan No.6, single malt whiskey."

"Never heard of it before," Taehyung replied, eyeing the decanter with a great interest. Truthfully speaking he had never seen any of the champagnes and alcohols that he and Jimin drank before because they were quite obviously not available in stores. "It's got a funny name."

"Imported from Scotland, costs almost four and a half million won for a single decanter without including tax and import fees so as you can imagine, it's not every day that you can get your hands on such a malt," Jungkook lifted the crystal stopper and placed it down on the desk. "I found it in his office this morning," he explained as he collected the two square glasses and placed them down on the desk beside the box. 'His office' meaning his father's office of course. "I've been sorting out affairs all over the city for him this week and today I was back in Incheon. That's where I found this, inside the top drawer of his personal office at home. I've never actually been in there before, just this one time. It was all wrapped up with a label on it, addressed to me."

Jungkook had found a gift for himself in his father's office. A gift that the man hadn't been able to give him because he had been murdered by Kim Jinwoo before he had been able to. Just looking at the decanter of whiskey made a series of chills travel down his spine and Taehyung pulled his lower lip in to nibble on it. He wondered what the label has said, wondered if it had been a simple message of congratulations: emotionless and professional. Or had it been something more warm and loving: a proud father leaving a message to a treasured and beloved son? Taehyung had no way of telling for the label was nowhere in sight.

"You know, despite everything I never got to share a proper drink with daddy," Jungkook explained as he lifted the decanter and added a hard splash into the two glasses, leaving the inch of whiskey straight rather than add anything else to it. The scent of it wafted across the room, heady and oaken. "Not a drink between men. He always told me that when the time came we would share such a pleasure, but I appeared to have missed the opportunity."

Jungkook looked up at him and the corners of his lips quirked up rather bitterly. Yes, he had missed the golden opportunity it would seem and it was obvious why. His father had been saving the occasion and the whiskey for his ascension of course, for the day that he became the head of Haedogje Pa rather than the heir. Yet here Jungkook was, standing in his own office with the decanter in hand and his tie cast off across the room; no father in sight.

"Please," he said as he picked up both glasses and held one out to him.

"I shouldn't," Taehyung said as he shook in his head, declining the offer of the whiskey. "It was for you and him to drink, it ain't right me sharing his glass."

"Who else is going to drink it, Taehyung?" Jungkook asked with a soft shrug. "We've never shared a drink between men either. Don't you think that we should experience such a thing lest that opportunity be stolen from me too?" He eyed the square glass for a moment before reaching out to accept it from Jungkook. The younger man clinked the two glasses together hard. Taehyung took a sip of the whiskey and he tasted a variety of notes on his tongue, a heavy fruitiness that lingered for a moment and then softened to a rather velvety vanilla. It was warm in his mouth even after he had swallowed it, the liquid burning in his stomach.

"I asked him what was the matter and Jimin said that he had been thinking about his family," Jungkook said as he held the glass in front of his lips, not taking a sip yet. "Have you been talking to him about such things? Has he mentioned anything to you about them?"

Taehyung thought this over for a few seconds, brow furrowing in confusion before he figured it all out. Jimin had lied to Jungkook about his current melancholy by mentioning his family in the hopes that the subject would scare him off prying any further. Considering his recently deceased father it was a great diversion tactic and yet Jungkook hadn't exactly been scared off but had instead just approached the matter through him. Taehyung knew why of course, for it was just like that day when he had asked him about the possibilities of Jimin being sad and he had struggled to understand basic relationship essentials.

Jungkook needed help with an emotional topic that he didn't really understand and so he needed him to explain it.

"...He asked me about my childhood a couple of months back, I didn't mention my parents and neither did he. I just talked about school and shit," Taehyung explained and Jungkook took a deep sip of the whiskey, leaving it on his tongue for a few seconds before swallowing. "He's never said a thing to me about 'em."

"Something seems to have...have caused him to start thinking about them," Jungkook remarked as he twirled his wrist and made the whiskey lap against the sides of the glass. "And it seems to have upset him too, I just thought that you might have said something to him."

"Nah, he didn't say a thing about his parents that day but I think he mentioned a younger brother...yeah, yeah said something about a brother for sure. Since then he ain't said a thing about family or the past, doesn't seem like something Jimin thinks about, y'know. But uh..."

"Yes?" Jungkook asked, glass hovering below his nose as he sniffed at the whiskey.

"I think that...that what happened to your daddy might've made him think about his parents, Jungkook." Taehyung let this hang in the air for a moment before taking another sip of the whiskey and swallowing hard. Jungkook didn't reply to this but rather just studied the amber contents of his own glass, seemingly deep in contemplation. "It was a big deal, it was something that hit us all pretty fucking hard and I think that it hit him bad. It's no wonder that he's been thinking about his family again."

"...Jimin doesn't have a family, right now I'm his family," Jungkook said to break the silence. "Who they are, or were, what they do or did, none of that shit matters. They aren't his family now. Jimin's mine and they can't have him."

"I don't think that he wants 'em back exactly," Taehyung remarked as he dropped his gaze to study their feet. That was probably a lie, he didn't have a fucking clue what Jimin wanted but he thought of that photograph of his younger brother that he had seen on Seokjin's computer monitor and felt his fingers tightening around the glass involuntarily. "I think that he's just getting nostalgic, y'know? Like we all do sometimes. Time just kinda creeps up on us and-"

"We're powerless to resist it," Jungkook finished in a quiet voice.

The office room fell silent at this and it seemed that his reply had satisfied Jungkook's curiosity now. Taehyung hoped so because he was tired of lying and the idea of saying something else that was bullshit today made him feel sick and drained. Jungkook took another deep sip of whiskey and then he asked him to check on Jimin, so he shifted to stand in the doorway and look over the glass guardrail at the bed below. Jimin was curled up in bed, Wangbi lying against his legs and he seemed to be deeply asleep again.

"I think he's asleep," he said as he stepped back into the office. The younger man thought this over and then he moved to pull the desk chair out, telling him to sit down. Taehyung eyed it and then went over to sit down in the seat. The leather creaked under his weight and Jungkook lowered himself onto his lap with a sigh, settling back against him comfortably. Taehyung reached over to put the almost empty glass onto the desk and then he placed his hands around his waist. "Y'know, you were asking Jimin if he was alright but the most important question here is...are you alright, Jungkook?"

"Mmm," the younger man rolled his head back for a moment, the weight on his shoulder as he thought the question over. "I suppose I'm alright but I'm not good." Taehyung asked him if he wanted to talk about it, fingers stroking at his side through his shirt. "It's funny, Jimin was thinking about the past today and I guess that I was too, in a way." Jungkook swirled the whiskey around the glass again, the liquid splashing a few times before he stopped moving his wrist.

"You were thinking about your daddy," Taehyung said, more of a statement than a question.

"I told you that day that we went to Incheon, I learnt a lot of things from mommy because daddy was always so busy," Jungkook explained in a quiet voice. "He was always so busy that he was never home. It only hit me today, standing in his office and taking it all in, you know, the...the aesthesis," he paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and formulate them clearly in words, "it hit me then that I didn't really know my own fucking father."

Taehyung studied the back of his head and Jungkook didn't turn to look at him. Instead he was staring at the desk and so he waited for him to continue talking, to explain himself.

"I never saw him, he was like a distant relative that would appear two, three times a month for my younger childhood years and then more frequently as I got older. Only then did I start seeing him more often, talking to him," Jungkook shifted on his lap to grab the decanter again, adding another hard splash of whiskey to his glass before he shoved the stopper back in. "I didn't know my daddy, Taehyung, no more than Jimin can remember his own."

"Y'know why you didn't see him often, right?" Taehyung said as he slipped his arms around his waist in a loose embrace. "It was to keep you safe, Jungkook. 'Cos you were a child and the world's a fucked up place. So many men would've been happy to hurt you, or kill you, just to hurt your daddy. It's the same reason that you keep Jimin so sheltered now: safety."

"The one thing that it seems my daddy taught me was this: love is a weakness," Jungkook said before taking another deep sip of the whiskey and swallowing it hard. He sniffed and put the glass down, fighting the temptation to pour another measure out. "That's why he did what he did, and that's what he taught me. You can protect the things that you love because you want to keep them safe, or you can hide them away because they make you vulnerable. But either way you still fucking lose." He stopped talking for a moment, letting the office fall silent. Taehyung didn't want to break it because he was uncertain as to what he could possibly say. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his chest listening to Jungkook talk like this, especially after what he had done today. "Do you think it's a weakness? Love?"

"...Yeah, I mean I guess it's a weakness in some ways," Taehyung agreed with a soft nod, feeling Jungkook shifting on his lap so that he could look back at him. "It can make you vulnerable, it can cause pain and hurt you so fucking bad, but I think there's a bigger weakness than that." The younger man's arms slowly slipped around his neck just like how Jimin always did. Jungkook asked him what he meant by that, eyes not leaving his face once. "I think the inability to love is a bigger weakness."

"...Why?"

"If you ain't got someone to love, then what's the point in living?" Taehyung said as he held his gaze. "Family, friends, lovers, whatever: everybody needs somebody to love, Jungkook. That's like...the only thing about being human that makes it fucking worth it." Jungkook thought this over intently and he felt his fingers slowly stroking along his hairline and slipping under his collar to touch his skin. "Sure love makes us fucking weak, but power can't make you feel everything. There'll always be this sense of unfulfillment and a...a hollowness to you without it."

"Taehyung, I just wished that I had had a fucking father," Jungkook said in a quiet voice. "I feel like I never got to be a child but I'm never going to...to be an adult because there's just always going to be something missing. I can feel that hollowness just like you said, I've been feeling it my entire life and it's still there right now. I never got to bond with him without it being business related. The only chance that I was ever going to get to feel that was fuh-fucking stolen from me and-" he took a quick breath, "and I keep thinking about it all like...objectively and-"

"Jungkook, hey," Taehyung removed one of his arms from around his waist to reach up and cup his cheek in his hand. At his touch the younger man left his breath out in a heavy sigh and so he lightly stroked his thumb along his cheek.

"I feel like my whole fucking life has been one big test to impress him and prove that I'm worthy of his love," Jungkook managed to say in a whisper-soft voice. "...And I failed."

Taehyung stopped stroking his cheek and he stared at him in dumb surprise. Maybe two glasses of whiskey had loosened his tongue too much but he had never imagined that he would hear Jungkook say such a thing. This wasn't like that morning before the funeral, him voicing a slight hint of uncertainty about his position and abilities. Jungkook had just told him the kind of crushing realisation that had likely been haunting him for so long now. He didn't know how to respond to this. A part of him was telling him to tell Jungkook that he hadn't failed at all and yet under that a voice seemed to whisper at the back of his mind telling him that Jungkook was actually correct, and that voice also told him that his denial would just make the younger man feel even worst.

"He never once said that he loved me, Taehyung, not once," Jungkook said with a head shake. "No matter what I said or did he just never said it. Would he have ever said it to me? I don't think that he would, the more that I think about it the more I think that he never would have said it to me."

"You dunno know that, Jungkook," Taehyung disagreed. "You dunno what he would've done, yeah? So don't think shit like that."

"...I guess you could be right, after all it's like I just told you: I never fucking knew him anyway so what would I know?" Jungkook slipped one arm free from around his neck and he was about to reach for the decanter stopper when Taehyung grabbed his wrist instead and pulled it away.

"Listen to me, Jungkook, and listen well," he almost instructed him. "Men like your daddy, men with power, influence, wealth, all of that shit, they're just like you said, yeah? They're afraid to voice their weaknesses 'cos deep down...they're chickenshit." Jungkook's expression shifted at this, eyes starting to widen in a way that showed that he might just have stepped over a line with that comment. "But not you, yeah, never you. You think love's a weakness but you've told me and Jimin that you love us, and you show that love. Maybe not as much as you want but you try to show it, and that means something. Your daddy was fucking weak 'cos he refused to admit that he loved you and-"

Taehyung felt heat against his cheek and only when his head whipped to the side did he realise that Jungkook had just slapped him across the face. For a few seconds he stayed in place and stared at the wall, cheek stinging and then starting to get hot as it no doubt reddened and created a mark shaped just his palm and splayed fingers.

"...And that's the truth," he finished as he slowly turned his head back to look at him. Jungkook's lips were pulled in taut and he could see that he was trying so very hard to not cry. His hand was raised up, ready to slap him again and yet he didn't seem able to do so. His arm was shaking too much, fingers trembling. "It's the truth, Jungkook, and you deserve to know it."

"Don't...don't you ever talk about my daddy that way, Taehyung," Jungkook almost hissed at him.

"Why? Will you hit me again?" Taehyung asked, reaching up to touch his cheek as he did. His skin felt warm against his fingers. "Did he ever hit you like that? Or was it mommy, huh? I bet that was her preferred method of teaching and-" he managed to grab Jungkook's wrist before he could hit him again, "and I see that it worked." Jungkook made an indignant noise at this and Taehyung just tightened his hold around his wrist. "Children with neglectful and strict parents often develop attachment issues to their 'mommies and daddies', Jungkook."

"Shut up."

"You admit that your daddy never told you that he loved you, you: his only fucking son, and yet you refuse to admit that he was fucking weak," Taehyung argued as he tried to pull his arm free. "You're stronger than he ever fucking was and yet you think you failed him? No, you exceeded him and that's why he could never look you in the eyes and say that he loved you, Jungkook, 'cos then he would have had to admit that he was fucking weaker than you."

At his words Jungkook froze, no longer trying to pull himself free from his grip. Taehyung held on regardlessly just to be sure, waiting to see how he would react when his words fully sank in. After a minute he loosened up again, almost seemed to sag until he was slumped forward against him, head on his shoulder. That was when he let go of his wrist and settled for slipping both arms around his waist again.

"You understand what I'm saying, don't you?" Taehyung asked as he turned his head and felt his nose brushing against his hair. "You understand that I'm telling you this 'cos I love you, Jungkook, and I ain't afraid to say that to you right now. I love you and I love Jimin. Does that make me weak, yeah? Then how am I running an empire with you if I'm so fucking weak, huh?"

"You're not weak, baby, you've never been weak," Jungkook said in a quiet voice as he turned his head to look at him, cheek against his shoulder brushing against his shirt. "Not even that day in Mapo-gu, standing in that shitty yard with the other tributes. You weren't weak, I looked at you and saw exactly what you were: a fucking warrior."

Jungkook shifted ever so slightly and he pressed his lips against his, delivering a soft kiss that tasted just like whiskey on his tongue. Taehyung couldn't help but sigh against his mouth, chest almost aching at the contact. His hand moved to the back of his neck, cupping it securely as if he hadn't just slapped him just a moment ago. Jungkook turned his face as he deepened the kiss, tongue gently lapping out against his lower lip and then slipping between his teeth.

"I saw something then," Jungkook said breathlessly as his tongue stopped exploring and he planted hard and fast kisses against his mouth, "that I don't think you could...could see in yourself. A potential and-"

"Jungkook," Taehyung moaned into his mouth.

"I helped you reach that potential, Taehyung," he finished, "but you weren't weak, you just hadn't...hadn't been aware of that power because you had never been given a chance to use it."

Taehyung snagged hold of his shirt, tight little handfuls of cotton between his fingers, and he closed his eyes and let Jungkook carry on planting kisses against his mouth, his nose and brow; warm lips and breath on his skin, his soft palms on the sides of his neck. That horrible ache was still in his chest and he just wished that it would go away because it made him feel diseased.

"Tell me a story," Jungkook murmured, lips in the corner of his mouth so that he felt them moving as he spoke. "Tell me a story about your daddy, Taehyung." He asked him what kind of story, lips brushing against his again and the contact almost electric. "A memory, the best one that you can think of."

"...OK, give me a minute to think," Taehyung replied as he collected his glass and drank the last mouthful of whiskey. "There's uh, there's quite a few so I need to think pretty hard." Jungkook shifted to get more comfortable, arms around his neck so that he could draw his legs up and fold his knees on his lap. "Oh, I've got one. The day my daddy taught me how to play chess."

"You know how to play chess?" Jungkook asked before making an amused noise. "Of course you do, you're smart."

"D'you know how to play to chess?"

"Bae taught me it, I learnt the rules in a day and I was beating him and his men not long after," he replied with a soft smile at the corners of his lips. "Why did your daddy teach you how to play chess?"

"'Cos, y'know, when I was a kid I wasn't a big fan of sports and that kinda play," Taehyung explained with a grin. "I didn't wanna kick a ball around and shit like that, I liked strategy. But once you get over the age of seven no kid ever wants to play war, they all wanna play football or whatever, so I needed something. Now my daddy, he couldn't really play sport either. Work-related injury, he uh, he worked private security. So he decided to teach me something better than football: chess." Jungkook snorted at this. "Don't laugh, I'm being serious and-"

"Better than football, yes, if you're fucking eighty."

"Says the guy that was also playing chess as a kid too," Taehyung retorted. "So, uh, anyway he...yeah, he came to me with this big fucking box one day when I was sitting outside looking at the other kids playing bored outta my fucking brains and he said "son, I'm gonna teach you the greatest game ever invented". And he snapped the clasps free and opened it up and..." He stopped talking for moment, finding that he was suddenly overcome by his memory. It was so strong that he could almost smell the sweet grass mixed with the scent of Daegu countryside and hear the distant voices of the kids yelling about a foul. Jungkook waited patiently for him to continue. "The chess set was a work of art, Jungkook, a fucking work of art. It belonged to my great grandmother and after all of those years it was pristine. The board was inlaid with ivory and the pieces were, uh, ebonised so the wood was black and glossy. It was like a hundred years old and it was pristine."

"It was loved."

"There was magic in it, I can't really explain it but it was magic," Taehyung shifted to tighten his arms around his waist. "Touching the pieces I felt something like magic and wonder in that old wood, y'know?" The younger man nodded in agreement. "So I spent my entire Sunday learning to play chess, not moving from my spot once even when my mom called that there was ice cream in the kitchen. And listen to this, I've won every single game against everyone I've played but I've never beaten him yet, and I must've played him a thousand times."

"Do you still have the set?" he asked him, fingers stroking his shirt collar.

"Yeah, it's in my apartment back in Mapo-gu, under my bed I think? Gathering dust probably."

"...We will have to play each other one day," Jungkook remarked in a soft voice. "Black against white, a true game of power. Don't you think that that would be fun? I've never been beaten once, you could be the first."

Taehyung held his eyes and he wondered if Jungkook had any clue that his pieces were almost all conquered and he had already plotted his checkmate.