Chapter Text
Sirens. The last thing he would want to hear in situations like this.
His heart begins to race, starting to hit a little too harshly against his painfully clenching chest. His breath is stuck in his throat like a deer between headlights, unable to move past his trachea. He feels himself freeze for a few brief moments, ears starting to ring. He’s always hated it when they rang like that. So loud, they block out other sounds from hitting his eardrums.
He’s never been in a situation like this. One where he has to run and hide like a rat. That is, of course, unless he wants to fuck up the work he’s done for the past decade.
Hell. His whole life, even.
He was always clean and discreet, they all were. They flowed in and out smoothly without once getting caught or even being suspected. It was always perfect. So damn perfect.
Not this time, as it seems.
It felt like everything was going in slow-mo, except for his heart. It still races, beating like wild thunder in his body. He becomes hyper-aware of the feeling. He feels its vibration through his whole body, down to his fingertips, and he waits for adrenaline to kick the panic out of his body.
It’s when he feels the blood rush to his head that he notices how everyone around him flew into immediate panic mode, each person rushing to the cars they previously arrived in, but he’s still frozen to his spot. Although, the moment the man in front of him moves a muscle, it doesn’t take him two seconds to push the barrel of his gun against the side of his head.
He snatches him closer by his collar. “You fucking called on us?!”
“Why the fuck would I do that?!” The man yells out, gripping on the forearm of the hand that was clutching his collar harshly. “Let me go and let’s get out of here. No good will come out of this, Sir!”
“You sly piece of shit…” He trails off, hearing the sound of the multiple sirens starting to get higher in volume the more time passes by.
Hoseok grits his teeth, biting down on his jaw. He looks behind him to make sure that his men took off, waiting until his own car was the only one remaining before releasing the man in front of him with a loud groan of frustration.
Once he did so, the man cowered back to his own minions.
Whatever shock remaining in Hoseok’s body finally forces him to his car, as he pushes the cold metal in his hand back into his pants. He shares one last glance with the man he almost killed a few seconds ago, right as the car he’s in takes off from the scene.
Oh, how he wishes he could’ve just pulled the trigger.
Hoseok can see the red and blue flickering lights getting brighter, telling him that danger was only getting nearer. Hearing the engine come to life with a roar, he pulls his phone out of the inside pocket of his jacket. In a flash, he floors the gas pedal and takes off, one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding his phone to one of his ears.
“Come on…” He murmurs, his eyes going back and forth between the rearview mirror and the road of the highway stretched in front of him. “Come on, Yoongi!”
Right when he hears a click on the other side of the phone, his heart drops. The hand on the wheel turns white as he tightens his grip, noticing the car tailing him in the rearview mirror.
“Why are you calling early?”
“We’re fucked,” Hoseok spits out immediately, the velocity of his car increasing gradually the further he pushes his right leg into the gas pedal. “A police car is tailing me. Someone told on the drop.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m being fucking tailed, Yoongi!” Hoseok yells into the phone, switching lanes to surpass the car in front of him. “I made the big ones go first. It’s just me.” He swerves lanes again, in a failed attempt to lose the driver behind him.
“Shit…” He heard shuffling from the other side of the call “The money, Hoseok-”
“We’ve only got half of it.” Hoseok’s voice was frantic, clear enough through the static and into Yoongi’s ear. “Bastard’s fucked us over.”
“And the drugs?”
“They’ve got the whole thing.” Hoseok licks his lips, his eyes frantically moving from the rearview mirror to the road in front of him again. “I told you this was fishy, Yoongi. You never fucking listen to me anymore-”
“You sure everyone else is gone? Even Wontae?”
“I only managed to get our men out before the cops arrived. I barely fucking got out myself.”
“ If they catch up with you, just pull up,” Yoongi tells him sternly, a few moments of silence falling between the two. Hoseok swallows, pulling his lower lip between his teeth in frustration, biting down hard. “You know what to do.”
“Fuck!” Hoseok throws his phone to the side, momentarily hearing the sound of it meeting the passenger door with a loud thump before it falls in the seat. He gets his other hand on the wheel, his foot pushed harshly against the pedal as he looks in the mirror again, and holds his breath.
The car isn’t behind him anymore.
He looks beside him, locking his gaze with the pair of eyes that met his own.
A pair of hooded, scowling, feminine eyes.
“Pull over!” He hears a shout through his closed, tinted window.
Both corners of Hoseok’s lips pull down slightly, his eyes turning venomous as he switches gears, going past her again. Ahead of him, it looks a little too crowded for his liking that he feels his shoulders slump from their previous tense position. He switches lanes again, further to the left. His eyebrows furrow, the little crowd almost making him feel claustrophobic until he finally passes it and accelerates again.
Except that, he never really expected to find the car passing him again, nor to hear the screeching sound of tires against the asphalt a few seconds later when it pulls up sideways after a sharp turn, blocking his passage. He slams his foot against the breaks, the screeching sound making his ears ring again. He barely misses the woman getting out of the car before his own comes to a halt.
“Fuck,” Hoseok lets out lowly, a hand hitting the wheel in front of him in frustration. He closes his eyes and lets his head drop to his chest, then he takes a deep breath. Then another one, as he pushes the lock button just on time because the next thing he hears is a failed attempt at opening his door.
Looking up, his hands fall from the steering wheel. One goes to the back of his pants to grab his gun, and he pauses for a couple of seconds. Contemplating the options he had here. He can shoot the cop and go, he really can, but that would only cause more trouble. Trouble he can’t afford happening. So instead of pointing it to the window and pulling the trigger, he pulls it out and throws it under his seat, keeping it out of sight.
It’s too dark to make out features, but her face is small and completely emotion-ridden. She already had her gun pointed straight at Hoseok before he looks up at her.
“Out of the vehicle, please,” Her voice is impossibly steady for her sweaty forehead, eyes never shaking once.
She can’t see him through the tinted window, he knows she can’t, but she still points the gun perfectly. When she sees no movement for a few seconds, she takes a steady step closer to the window and starts to pull the hand that held the gun back slightly--
But Hoseok willingly starts to roll the window down himself. Cleaning broken glass out of the car would be a fucking pain.
Again.
Hoseok arches an eyebrow, a hint of make-shift amusement in his voice. “Is something wrong, officer?”
“Get the fuck out.”
“Excuse me?” He frowned, the previous tone long gone.
“I said,” She pauses, shoving her gun back into its holder on one of her sides. “Get the fuck out.”
An amused expression takes over his face as he looks up at her, seeing how her cheeks got a little red from the cold breeze rushing past her. One of her hands is still on her gun, while the other stayed clenched by her side. Hoseok’s eyes involuntary start to scan her face now that she’s closer.
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
“Alright, alright,” He sighs aloud, raising his arms up in mock defeat while stepping out of his car.
But, for the third time in one night, he doesn’t expect what happens next.
He barely has a chance to have his two feet on the ground before she grabs both his wrists harshly, pulling them behind his back to the point that he let out a yelp of pain at the awkward angle she bends them at. She slams his front against the backdoor of his car. He grunts when feels cold metal sealing around both his wrists.
“Didn’t know they recruit the feisty ones nowadays, Officer,” A hint of amusement could be heard in his voice, but he still speaks through gritted teeth. When he looks back, his gaze locks with hers.
“It’s Detective, asshole.” She locks the cuffs on his wrists with a click, before she yanks him off of the car. He tries to shake himself out of her grip in annoyance before her hands leech around him once more. With a stronger hold this time. Almost too strong for a woman . Not like the ones he knew, anyway.
Well, maybe not all of them.
Fuck...Half of them.
He lets her push him into the police car willingly, finally realizing that there’s no use in fighting back if he wants to come out clean. It’s not like he was going to confess or anything, but he knows he’ll get out of it. He has to act by the code, nevertheless.
That fucking code. They’ve lived by it for so long. Too long.
Hoseok isn’t exactly big on being fed bullshit, and neither is Yoongi, nor the rest of their people. So it was an understatement that his first reaction was objection when they were told that the buyer wanted to keep his identity anonymous, and would get the deal done with his second in command.
“This basically spells out danger,” Hoseok’d said, leaning against Yoongi’s desk with an empty glass in a hand. “Probably gonna be a setup.”
“I know,” Yoongi replied, leaning forward to put out his cigarette while exhaling the remaining smoke out of his chest. “But if it were, it’d be good to know who’s tryna screw us to teach ‘em a lesson. Don’t you think?”
“It’s still risky-”
“We’re not the ones to be belittled, Hoseok.” Yoongi cut him off harshly, standing up from behind his desk. He started walking around the desk until he stopped in front of Hoseok, who turned around to face him. “Not back then, not now, not ever.” There was an edge to his voice, both of them staring unblinkingly at each other. Yoongi leaned forwards, grabbing the empty glass from Hoseok’s hand.“Even if it was a setup, we are definitely more than capable to double screw them over.”
Hoseok let out a loud sigh, a hand raising to land on the back of his head, brushing his hair around into a big mess. “What does everyone else think about this?”
“They’re agreeing that it’s a risk,” Yoongi replied, his voice a little raspy. He stood with his back to Hoseok, pouring both of them another drink. “But it’s one to be taken.” He sighed and paused, turning back around. The previously empty cups were filled with a golden-colored liquid. “Besides, those people sound like rookies. They don’t seem to know who they’re trying to mess with.”
“You arrogant fucker,” Hoseok chuckled, grabbing his glass from Yoongi’s hand. “You just leech on any chance to show off power, don’t you?”
“It ain’t arrogance, Hobi,” Yoongi clicked his tongue before bringing his own drink to his lips. “It’s showing everyone their given places. It seems more like I'm even doing them a favor, for fuck’s sake.”
“Yeah, right,” Hoseok snorted, looking to the side while taking a sip. He stared at the empty wall for some time, unblinking, before he looks back at Yoongi. “What if something goes wrong?”
“Nothing will go wrong.”
“Nothing will go wrong my ass,” Hoseok mumbles under his breath, sitting in a square room with one lamp dangling from above him. His hands are still handcuffed, placed on the table in front of him. He keeps fidgeting with his fingers as he waits for someone to come and end his growing boredom.
And he’s highkey hoping it’d be the detective that arrested him.
He looks at the mirrored glass in front of him, knowing well at least a couple of people are watching his every move.
“I’m not exactly a free person, you know?” He lets out, looking around the mirrored glass wall. “If you want to talk to me this bad you could at least be here, for fuck’s sake.”
Behind the mirror, his voice comes out with static through the microphones in the interrogation room.
“I swear I've seen him somewhere before.” A voice boomed through the quiet room, startling the woman leaning her hands on the table in front of her.
“Maybe he was a suspect in one of your cases before or something,” Her voice is quiet but emotionless nonetheless. She’s been staring at the man in front of her, trying to get out a flaw that she could use on him, but she keeps failing miserably. When she hears a snort behind her, she finally turns around. “What? I’m trying to help, here.”
“I’d remember if he was a suspect, Jina.”
“Well, no one’s perfect, Namjoon .”
It was a failed attempt from Namjoon to lighten the mood. He knows for a fact that she looks tense, almost too tense to go start the interrogation like that. He pulls his lips in a thin line, staring up at her with a sigh.
A thin layer of sweat broke off from her forehead by the time she arrived back at the station, after going out alone with a team to the scene. She was pushing the suspect on her hands to move, while he only scoffed and made himself heavier to be more difficult to be pushed. It was probably just to see her suffer, which she didn’t give him the satisfaction of, and dragged him all the way to the interrogation room instead.
Other people were rushed into the station as well, but none of them looked, nor felt as important as the one she had.
The moment Namjoon saw her after returning, he gave her an earful about how she shouldn’t have gone out on this one alone as it seemed ‘Too risky’ By which Jina replied by “Our whole career is too risky .”
Which also allowed him to throw a few curse words at her for the kicks and giggles.
Namjoon opens his mouth to reply, but he is interrupted by the door opening.
“Sunbae,” Jongho says hurriedly. He walks towards Jina in quick steps. He stretches his hand out, holding a file in his hand.“This is everything we found on him. We found a firearm in his car as well.”
She grabs it.“Thanks, Jongho.”
“And uh…” He starts, his hand going up to his nape. “I don’t think this is right.”
“What do you mean?” She frowns and Namjoon stands up to get closer to her. She opens the file and looks at his information, and she doesn’t miss the way Namjoon holds his breath for a moment.
“M&J Holdings.” Namjoon reads aloud, snapping his fingers. “I knew i’d seen him somewhere before!”
“Am I supposed to know what that is?”
“It’s one of the biggest companies in South Korea, basically,” Jongho explains, while Namjoon snatches the file from her hands. He keeps it low enough for her to look with him.
“The bigg est.” Namjoon corrects.
“Why would they do dirty work like this, then?” Jina asks, looking at the birthdate with a slight frown. Although he didn’t look like it, but he was around five years older than she was. Only a few months older than Namjoon. She looks away from the almost empty file to the suspect himself, who was groaning and thrashing in his seat out of frustration.
“No idea,” Namjoon closes the file. “He’s pretty clean though. There’s nothing on him.”
“Seems a little fishy.”
When the door suddenly opens, Hoseok’s eyes snap to it, eager to know who will step out from behind it. When his gaze is met with the one he was anticipating to see, the corners of his lips slightly pull up in a barely visible smirk that disappears just as quickly as it was formed.
Jina pushes the door closed with one hand, while the other holds a thin, yellow file that she places on the table once she reaches it. She walks to the seat across from Hoseok and sits down, never breaking eye contact. She places her arms on the table between them, mimicking his position, and leans forward.
“So, Jung Hoseok.”
“So,” He starts, his eyes trailing down until they land on the ID that hangs down from her neck. He blinks and locks his gaze with hers again. His lips stretch back in a smirk. “Park Jina.” He arches an eyebrow, not earning a reaction out of her again. “I see my file’s looking a bit thin, there.”
“Unfortunately,” She pulls her lips in a straight line and takes a breath, her shoulders raising in the process. “But that doesn’t make me any less suspicious of you.”
He shrugs and leans back in his seat.“Sucks to be you, I guess,”
“What do you think you’re here for, Jung Hoseok-ssi?”
“A speeding ticket?” He guesses, making it sound more like a question. “But I don’t think all this was necessary, though.” He clicks his tongue and tilts his head to the side for a moment. “I mean, I did go a ttiiinnyy bit over the speed limit, but-”
“So there weren’t any drop-offs or drug involvement or anything?” Jina asks casually, arching an eyebrow of her own. She leans forwards a little further, putting her chin on her raised hands. “No absolute reason for you to be in handcuffs?”
“Nah,” Hoseok smiles and leans forwards as well, coping her position. “I’d say this is quite problematic, even.”
“Why did we find a firearm in your car, then?”
“Why would I answer a question like that?”
Her gaze remains intense and unwavering against his own, but he isn’t one for backing out either. Now that he can see her clearly under the warm light of the lamp dangling above them, he could see that her eyes are brighter than he remembered them being. Her nose is small, straight, and pointy, and the shape of her eyes is winged and catlike as if they were drawn by an artist. A few freckles were scattered around her cheeks and nose, only now visible since he’s so close to her. Her hair, unlike when she arrested him, is now falling freely right above her shoulders, a sea of light brown waves. Some strands are darker, yet others seem almost blonde. Maybe the light made it look like that.
She watches him in silence as he scans her face. When his eyes drop to her mouth, he sees how her shoulders fall steady, and her breath hitches. The natural pink color blends perfectly with her skin tone. Her lips are shaped like a cupid’s bow, and the bottom one is a little swollen. Like she was biting down on it a little too much.
And Hoseok wants to sigh out loud in frustration because, under any other circumstance, he would’ve never let this woman go home alone, and those handcuffs would be on her pretty wrists instead.
And for some reason, he can’t help but feel like she looks familiar.
Hoseok feels his face drop all kinds of emotion gradually and he looks up to her eyes again, his lips parting involuntarily. She drops her gaze to the table, hiding her face from his sight for a few moments, and brushes one hand through her hair. The detective lets out an amused chuckle.
“Ah, the stereotype everyone puts for women are crazy,” She snickers, looking back up to meet Hoseok’s eyes again. This time there is a faint red color across her cheeks that would’ve been unnoticeable if he was any further from her.
“Made your cheeks go red like a little girl, though.” Hoseok collects his act once more, an eyebrow arching teasingly. He watches as her face goes emotionless again.
She fights the urge to swallow hard, trying to force her own body to stop reacting to the man sitting across from her. “Tell you what,” She starts, putting both her hands flat down on the file that contains his personal information. “If you tell me what were you doing with the people we caught, I’ll help you get out of here. You don’t have much on you anyway.”
“So I, an eleven-year-old, should believe the bullshit you’re throwing at me and be a good dear boy, right?” He questions sarcastically, a humorless chuckle falling off of his lips. “I don’t receive orders, detective . I give them.”
The drop in his tone at the last sentence somehow managed to trail shivers down her spine, making her almost quiver. “What were you doing there, Jung Hoseok-ssi?”
Hoseok chuckles again, leaning forward more until he could almost feel her breath on his cheeks. “Detective Park…” He lets out in a murmur that only she can hear, flickering his gaze up from the table below them to her eyes. She freezes, flustered at how close he suddenly got. “Do you know what Omertà is?”
She stays where she is, eyes now unblinking, searching for an answer to his unusual question.
Hoseok sees how her eyebrows started furrowing, and it made his lips pull back in a smirk. He finally leans backward in his seat again, letting his hands fall between his thighs. Soon enough, he hears hurried, heavy footsteps getting closer outside the door, and he lets out a sigh of relief.
Jina flinches when the door slams open, revealing a very angry-looking Park Jeongsu.
“Sir,” Jina stands up from her seat, coming face to face with the man. “I was-”
“You were fucking things up, Detective,” Jeongsu scolded lowly, his tie seeming to be a little crooked. His shoulder heave up and down a little bit, his gaze unblinking. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m interrogating the suspect, sir.”
“A suspect?” He takes a step closer to her, keeping his voice steady with ease. “Do you know who that is?”
“I’ve come to know just now, sir, yes.” She folds her hands in front of her and she bites down on her lower lip again. Her way of trying to stop herself from throwing out words like they were timebombs, only to fail miserably. “But that doesn’t make him any less of a suspect.”
Her senior stares at her calmly for a few seconds. “Unlock his handcuffs.”
“But I'm not done with--”
“Unlock his cuffs, Jina.” He repeats, this time through gritted teeth. “Now.”
She stares at him for a few seconds, eyes unblinking. Jeongsu holds her gaze and tilts his head to the side a little before she turns to Hoseok again. She dips her hand in the pocked of her jeans and fishes out a pair of keys. When she looks up at Hoseok, her gaze is harsh and angry.
He plants his elbows on the table in front of him, raising his wrists upwards, a victorious smirk planted on his lips. He waits patiently as she unlocks his cuffs one by one, his expression falling as he keeps his gaze on the woman looking down at the cuffs. When she finally pulls back the cuffs from his wrists, Hoseok stands up straight.
Hoseok’s eyes finally show his detestation purely for the first time of the night. Jina leans back on the table to put more distance between them and stares back at him. The earful she just heard was enough humiliation for one day, and she isn’t going to let someone like him have the satisfaction of making her look away.
“About fucking time, Jeongsu,” Hoseok was the one to look away first. He looks up at Jeongsu, who still stood by the door, and starts walking towards him. As he passes, he bumps his shoulder into Jina’s on purpose.
“I’m sorry, Hoseok-ssi. I only knew just now--”
“Whatever,” Hoseok cuts him off and swings his hand dismissively, walking past him with confident strides.“Just let me get the fuck out of here.”
Jina is the ace of her department.
It took tremendous effort, a couple of bullet scars, along with an uncountable amount of blood, sweat, and tears, but she’d do it all over again if time was to turn back. No matter what else she tried to convince herself with, though, at some point, she started feeling like everyone around her didn’t really feel the same way she does about their job.
During her time in service, she watched the number of corrupt cops being revealed increase gradually, way more than she’d like to admit to anyone. Not even to herself. Especially in her department, which soon made her develop some trust issues.
Not like she needed any more of that already.
It’d keep her up at night sometimes. She knew the world was way fucked beyond fixing, but those people had an oath to keep, and by the looks of it, not everyone gave a damn about it. Whenever a new one surfaces, she starts to wonder what could’ve possibly made someone do the shit they do.
Money? Power? Fear of being stomped on? She could never pinpoint where it went wrong. It may have been none of those things, or all of them combined. She felt like it was sort of understandable, considering the world’s status, but she still didn’t know how their conscious let them do such things.
They all varied. One involved in drugs, another with weapons, sex trafficking, prostitution, and the list only starts from there.It felt like the world was going to hell. Like it’s getting too dirty to be lived in.
She encountered many partners in different departments as an officer, but she never felt at ease with someone until Namjoon was transferred from Ilsan. It was around the same time she was finally transferred to the violent crime unit as she’d always wanted. It took her some time to warm up to him, and he was patient with her. Coming to think of it one time, she realized that Namjoon might have been the first actual friend she had.
They were both starting in division 2, Choi Siwon being their leader. They stayed like that for a couple of years before Jeongsu decided they needed more people, and one by one, Yunho and Jongho were promoted and placed into their division.
“I wanted to punch him in the face so bad…” Yunho grumbles, crushing up a piece of paper in his hands until he forms a ball. “Both of them.”
“Now, we don’t say shit like that about our unit leader, do we?” Siwon glares at the younger, earning a sigh. He turns to Jina. “But yes. He could’ve dismissed you in better ways than that.”
Jina exclaims in frustration. “Thank you.”
“It was uncalled for, period,” Namjoon says. “She’s doing her damn job.”
“It’s because he’s an important person,” Siwon says. “You don’t want them angry. Could get your asses suspended.”
“Bullshit,” Jina says and turns to Jungho, who sat behind his desk. “Did you find anything else in the car?”
He shrugs. “We found the firearm and his phone. Everything else was useless.”
“I’m gonna go insane.” She puts her face in her hands with a whine. “What the fuck are they doing in there? It’s been an hour!”
After Jeongsu put a fucking bullet in her ego, right there for everyone in the station to see and gossip about, he’s had Jung Hoseok in his office for god knows how long. Jina joins her team where they sit, all eyes on her, hushed voices transferring everything that had happened between one another.
“Jina.”
She wants to storm in that room and give the pair of them a piece of her mind.
“Yo!” Yunho throws the ball of paper at her, making her flinch and finally look at him. “Were you even listening?”
“Sorry, what were you saying?”
“Namjoon-hyung was saying we should go for drinks tonight. It’s late already.”
Jina looks in the direction of the room again. “I wanna wait until he comes out,”
Namjoon snorts.“What good will that do you, Ms. my-ego-is-hurt?”
She gives him a death glare while clicking her tongue and throws the piece of paper Yunho threw at her earlier, hitting him in the nose. “My ego deserves to be hurt. That was fucking humiliating.”
Siwon sighs. “Jina…”
“Let’s go,” Namjoon stands up, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair with everyone following suit. “Let’s go over this tomorrow.”
Jina shakes her head in reply and faces her desk, grabbing on it to pull herself closer. Even though she knows how stubborn her friend can be, the least she could do is stand her ground and wait for them to come out. Although, when Jongho pulls her chair back while Namjoon grabs her coat, she didn’t even have it in her to protest. She slumps back against her chair and looks up at Namjoon, who sends her a deadpan.
“Let’s go.” He gestures to the exit with his head, his voice full of determination.
“Let’s just stay for-”
“Let’s go, Jina,” Namjoon repeats, cutting her off by throwing her stuff at her to put his own coat on.“What do you wanna do when he gets out, huh? Punch him in the gut?”
“Oh, it’s tempting, alright.” She grumbles out, finally getting up to put on her coat too. “I wanna slap that smug expression right off of his face.”
“Ahh,” Siwon lets out, already walking away. “You’re gonna be a pain in the ass for a few days.”
With a roll of her eyes, she allows herself to be dragged away by her bigger friend. Frustration was still clear on her face.
“Jina.”
The feeling of her body tensing suddenly was irritating, but she wastes no time to turn her head.
Jeongsu stands by the door to his office, a hand on the door frame and the other on the door itself with him between them. Their eyes meet, and Jina’s shoulders are visibly pulled like a guitar string. He gestures to the inside of the office with a tilt of his head before walking back inside, leaving the door slightly ajar.
Jina looks at Namjoon, dropping her bag again with a deadpan plastered on her face.
“Try not to start throwing fists.”
She flips him off.
Hoseok’s eyes turn towards the door upon hearing the clicking of the detective’s boots, the scowl from earlier still hanging on his features. She closes the door after she enters, and their eyes met for a few moments before she drags them to her boss.
“Yes, sir?”
“Apologize.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Jeongsu sits on the chair behind his desk with a sigh, stretching his legs comfortably in front of him. “Apologize.”
“For what, exactly?”
“I mean, the handcuffs were a little tight.”
Jina turns to him again, eyes hardening. “I was only doing my job, though. I got a call saying there was a drug exchange at a certain time and a certain place. Don’t you think I should’ve given it a go? With me being a detective, and all. Maybe get myself a raise or something.”
“With that attitude,” Hoseok clicks his tongue.“You won’t be gettin’ jack-shit.”
“Well, that isn’t really something for you to decide.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Enough.” Jeongsu jumps in, leaning forward on his desk. “It’s been a long day already, Jina. Let’s get this over with.”
“But-”
“Jina.” Jeongsu’s voice held a warning this time. Jina stares, eyes holding a silent plea for him not to make her do this, but she soon realizes that it was useless. She looks at the wall behind him, her jaw clenching tightly, knuckles turning white.
It takes her a few more seconds to snap her eyes to Hoseok’s.
“I’m sorry, sir .”
Hoseok looks at her, raising his chin up a little as he takes in her appearance one more time before he stands up and walks towards her. His steps were slow and lazy, but confident nonetheless. Jina already hates how much pride he carries on his shoulders.
He stops a foot away from her. “For what, exactly?”
“For my reckless behavior, sir.”
“There we go,” He smirks. Dark, mischievous eyes look down at her. “Was that too hard?”
“You can take a few days off, Detective,” Jeongsu states before she could react.“Looks like you’re a little stressed.”
“ Very stressed, if I may say so myself.” Hoseok pushes. He crosses his arms over his chest, and Jina snaps her gaze to his again.
Jina could hear her heartbeat in her ear, a slight tremor in the hand that she clenches tightly. She no longer was hiding her emotions, letting frustration and anger overflow on her features easily, and she wanted to punch him. Wanted to punch him so hard that she cuts him. Just to leave a mark on him. Maybe that would calm down the fire she can feel eating at her skin angrily.
But she can’t.
“You can go now,” Jeogsu dismisses her, and she barely lets him finish his sentence before she storms out of the room. If she stayed more she might as well drop her gun and ID because she wasn’t going to keep her job after what she does what she wants.
“Didn’t know the day would come when I have to pick you up from a police station.”
“I didn’t either.” is Hoseok’s only reply as he climbs in the passenger seat of his friend’s Audi R8.
His jaw is clenched tightly, a hard grimace stuck to his face. He looks at the person staring at him from the driver’s seat briefly, then proceeds to lean his elbow on the closed window’s frame to stare out of the window.
“You look pissed.”
“You think?!” Hoseok snaps his head to the side. “I had a feeling we’d get fucked over, didn’t I? I kept telling everyone to reconsider, but all you did was try to make yourselves believe that you’re right.” He points a finger to himself then to the driver. “I was put in fucking handcuffs, Seokjin. Handcuffs. Me .”
“I heard you the first time,” Seokjin says, and the engine roars to life. “But we all knew it was a risk, Hoseok. We all knew something seemed fishy.”
“But you still went for it.” Hoseok drops his hands to his lap, a hard glare directed to the side of Seokjin’s face. “And you fucking sent me to do it.”
“It had to be one of us,” Seokjin tells him right away. “With that situation on hand, we couldn’t trust it to go like a usual deal. It had to be one of us to let them know who they’re playing with.”
“Your fucking egos are the only things that are gonna make us fall behind.”
“Says the guy that’s too pissed because he was put in handcuffs for like… five minutes.” Seokjin scoffs, resting an elbow on the window frame to put his head in his palm. He holds onto the steering wheel lazily with the other hand. “By a chick.”
Hoseok pushes his tongue to the inside of his cheek, keeping his head forwards.
“How did that feel like, by the way? With it being the first time being the handcuffed, not the handcuff-er ?”
“This is literally the worst timing ever.”
Seokjin looks at him with a smirk. “Was she pretty?”
“I will punch you.”
“Ahh, she was.”
“One more word, I swear--”
Seokjin raises a hand in mock defeat. “Alright, Jeez.”
Hoseok lets out a long huff, running one of his hands through his brown mess of hair. He leans back in his seat as the car falling quiet. Fluttering his eyes closed for a few seconds, he lets his head fall back to the headrest with a quiet thud.
It feels like he’s crashing down from a high. His bones shook a little too much, and he knew it was the adrenaline leaving his body. His hands shake, and he grabs his thighs to try to make them stop. The fabric is rough against his hands as he slides them down until he barely reaches his knees.
Hoseok tries to take in a breath, but it cuts short when he notices how the air isn’t reaching his lungs. The scent of the air freshener is too pungent, and he frowns. He opens his mouth a little, inhaling one more time to force the air in through his nose and mouth at the same time. He’s a little calmer as he exhales, tension leaving his rigid body ever so slightly.
His mind’s still foggy and he’s still shaking, but he’s a little calmer.
He opens his eyes to look at Seokjin.
Aside from his moving chest and the occasional blinking, the man is pretty much frozen. His eyes are taped to the road ahead of them, his hand tightening on the wheel every now and then. Hoseok doesn’t know how he’s keeping his cool, but he knows better than to ask. He knows the older is doing it for his sake. Because at least one of them has to stay calm, and Seokjin takes that role almost all the time that Hoseok feels bad.
He feels bad because Seokjin never shows anything. Never shows if the pressure is too much or too little, or if there’s any at all. He’d deliver bad news with a steady voice and straight posture because none of them can afford impulsivity. Because there has to be someone that does the grounding when needed. Because maybe they’re all a little fucked in the head.
And Hoseok feels bad. He feels bad because he knows how much of a pain it can be to push it all down. Because Seokjin wasn’t always like this.
“How’d you catch the fucker?”
Seokjin meets his gaze. “When you called Yoongi, Jeongguk turned on the tracker you planted on him. He found him before the police could.”
“And the drugs?”
“They have it,” Seokjin replies momentarily, pressing his lips together afterward. “Some of it, at least. The rest is with the car that managed to escape.”
“Great.” Hoseok runs a shaky hand down his face. “So, what now? 15Kgs of pure shit is gone with half the price? And the fucking government has hands on half of it?”
“Did Jeongsu tell you anything?”
“He doesn’t know shit,” Hoseok spits, looking back out of the window. “That fucking detective went out without him knowing after she got the call.”
“The call?” Seokjin furrows his eyebrows, looking at Hoseok briefly. “What call?”
“Someone called in and told them about the time and location. Jeongsu barely knew what was going on until I was being interrogated.”
“Did the detective let off anything?”
“She just told me about the call.” His eyebrows furrow again upon mentioning the detective. “Not like we needed more proof that that fucker, whoever the fuck he is, fucked us the fuck over.”
“That was too many ‘fuck’s in one sentence, Hobi.”
“Bite me.”
As they draw closer to their destination, Hoseok grows more restless. He earns himself a few curses here and there from the older, but he keeps clenching and loosening his fist rhythmically. His hands are itchy and his eyes were on the warehouse that drew closer. His heartbeat starts to pick up again, and he only takes a breath when he’s outside the car.
The doors creak loudly as they push them open, the sound a little too annoying for Hoseok’s ears. The interior’s quite dark and the ceiling’s high, like they were swallowed by a black hole. It takes Hoseok a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but he picks up his speed when he sees Seokjin’s figure beside him. They walk further inside.
All the lamps dangling from the ceiling are turned off, almost as if no one was inside.
Almost.
While Hoseok’s steps inside are fast and eager, Seokjin walks calmly behind him with his hands shoved in the pockets of his dark coat. He already knows what is about to happen. It’d be a waste of energy.
At some point, they start to get to an area that doesn’t have any windows or high exits, just plain, tall walls, and it feels like they’re walking in a maze. Darkness took over them, engulfing them further into the abandoned warehouse, but their eyes already adjusted to the dark. Only when they started hearing the cackles of fire nearby, they noticed its shadows around a corner.
Hoseok swallows hard, his steps slowing down a little.
“We have to keep the electricity out,” Seokjin tells him, voice echoing in the empty area. “It’s pushed far away. Don’t mind it too much.”
The younger tilts his head a little before straightening up again, rounding the corner, and his eyes can’t help but fall on the obnoxiously bright little fire pushed to the very far corner of the area. He takes his eyes off of it right away, refusing to look for too long. Seokjin told him not to mind it too much.
When he turns his head to the front, ignoring the pathetic hitch in his breath, he finally sees the fucker. Tied to a chair. Blindfolded.
Two other people are present in the room.
There’s a table a few feet away from where Wontae is tied, and Yoongi’s half-sitting on it. One leg dangled in the air and the other’s planted on the dusty floor. One of his hands is in his pitch-black hair as he pushes it back from his face while the other dangles between his thighs, a dark firearm grasped loosely in it.
The expression on his face is unreadable, but it’s calm nonetheless. His eyes are planted on the heaving figure in front of him, studying every droplet of blood on his face and clothes with still eyes.
Jeongguk, on the other hand, is showing much more emotions than Yoongi. His face scrunches up in a deep scowl, his jaw clenching repeatedly to show the wide dimples on each side of his face. His palms are planted face down on the dirty table, displaying his reddened knuckles, drenched with blood that certainly isn’t his. And unlike Yoongi, his shoulders are moving up and down rapidly, trying to tame down his anger.
Upon hearing a new pair of footsteps nearing, Jeongguk and Yoongi’s heads snap to where Hoseok and Seokjin are coming from. After that, Hoseok doesn’t really feel anything until his fist collides with the side of Wontae’s already fucked up face.
“Do you have a fucking deathwish?!” His voice echoes off the high walls around them, making it seem louder than it already was. “Do you know what you just got yourself into?!”
“Hoseok—”
“Shut up,” He throws a look over his shoulder at Yoongi, who holds his gaze in a hooded glare. Hoseok looks at the man in his hold again. “Give me a name.”
“S-sir, I just—”
“A fucking. Name.” Hoseok speaks slowly, a groan vibrating at the top of his throat. He grabs Wontae’s bloody collar, pulling him closer. “Before I fucking tear you to pieces, right here, right now.”
“He isn’t letting out anything, Hyung.” Jeongguk’s voice boomed beyond the crackling of the fire, and Hoseok is reminded of its presence again. “Looks like he’s on a very tight leash.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck,” He replies, still looking at where Wontae’s eyes are supposed to be behind his blindfold. “Who the fuck do you work for?”
“I-I cuh...I can’t—”
“The hell you can!” Hoseok roars after delivering another punch, cutting Wontae off. He grabs the blindfold and tears it off of his face, revealing a pair of pained, reddening eyes. “You know I'll fucking kill you, right?” His knuckle is throbbing, but he still feels like punching the bastard “I was arrested, you fucker! I was arrested while you ran away like the little cockroach you fucking are!”
Wontae lets out a choked sob and leans his face to the side, away from Hoseok’s gaze of fury. “He’s got my f-family. I can’t—”
“You do realize that we’re capable of protecting your family if you speak, don’t you?” Upon hearing Yoongi’s voice, Hoseok gives Wontae collarbones a little push, while simultaneously sending a harsh kick to the chair at his crotch, then the man is falling backward with a loud thud. “We’re also more than capable of burning you alive along with your whole family tree. You’ve got to pick a side here, Wontae. And you better pick the better side unless you don’t want to leave here in one piece.”
Wontae coughs out blood, his eyes squeezed shut. He gasps in a few breaths, the sound sharp against the multiple pairs of ears in the room. “You...You do-don’t know anything…” He trails off, snapping his eyes open, the irises wavering from one person to another. “He’s...He’s got…god. Fuck.”
Jeongguk takes a step closer to Hoseok. “He’s got…?”
“He’s powerful!” Wontae shouts, a sob rolling off of his chest. “He’s too fucking powerful… I-I can’t eh-even risk it! You have to believe me, I’m begging you!”
In a blink of an eye, Hoseok cocks his gun and points the barrel down at him. “If you don’t start talking, I swear to god…”
“N-No! Puh...Please, Sir!”
“Hyung…”
“Hoseok.”
“Start talking,” Hoseok states firmly. “Who the fuck do you work for?” He feels fingers wrapping around the elbow of the hand that wasn’t still pointing the gun at Wontae, but he shrugs it off almost as if it’s a normal body reflex. Jeongguk stands beside him and plants his eyes to the side of his head. “We’re figuring it out anyway, so don’t let your death be in vain, kid.”
“I-I duh don’t even know anything! I don’t even know his name, I swear!!” Wontae screeches out, his gaze locking with Hoseok’s before it weavers to Jungkook, then finally to Yoongi. “All… all i know is that he’s a powerful man and—and he just sent someone to tell me wuh-what I had to do! You have to believe me!”
“And what was that?” Yoongi spares the back of Hoseok’s head a look as he steps closer to them. “What you had to do?”
“I just—” Wontae swallows, eyes turning hopeful. “I had t-to meet you for the dr-drop. I swear. I didn’t even know the cops would pull up.”
Yoongi and Jungkook share a look.
Hoseok tilts his head. “Aren’t you supposed to be his second in command? Whoever the fuck he is?”
“I’m not!” Wontae sobs, squirming uncomfortably. “I’m just a low dog, sir! I am! I don’t know anything!”
“Sir, sir, sir...” Yoongi speaks calmly, a humorless chuckle falling past his lips. He puts his gun in the back of his pants and looks at Joowon. “You’re a very polite person, Jo Wontae.”
Hoseok’s eyes hurt as he keeps them unblinking. The man on the ground looks at him with newly-found hope and Hoseok tries to stop shaking. The sound of the fire crackling is way too loud in his ear, he’s slowly becoming too aware of its presence, and it makes a thin layer of sweat break on his forehead. It feels like he’s consumed by way too many emotions all at once that it feels physically irritating.
He’s going to burst if this goes on for longer. His index finger aches, the touch almost becoming uncomfortable, and fuck he just wants to pull the fucking trigger.
With a sigh, Yoongi speaks again.“It’s a shame you won’t be of use anymore.”
BANG .
The car ride is quiet. Almost way too quiet. On any usual day with the four of them in the same car, the atmosphere would be the furthest from the one they’re stuck in. Jeongguk would be humming quietly to whatever was playing from the stereo while looking out of the window, Yoongi and Seokjin would be busy engaging in a conversation that only the pair of them were interested in, while the sound of the game that Hoseok plays on his phone jumped out every now and then, echoing in the closed car.
It was always like that. They were always like that.
There were times when it was a little darker than that, sure, but it was never so…dead.
Seokjin is driving again, but this time Yoongi’s the one in the passenger seat.
Exactly like when they drove to the warehouse, Seokjin’s expression remains frozen, only blinking every once in a while. His hands are yet again loosening and tightening on the steering wheel, almost as if that was his way of keeping himself grounded, to still focus on the road beyond them. Except that this time around, his eyes keep meeting Hoseok’s in the rearview mirror from time to time.
Yoongi hasn’t noticeably moved at all since the car started moving. His head rests on the headrest and he has his hands between his thighs, blank eyes staring out of the window, unblinking.
Hoseok looks to the side, catching the sight of Jeongguk as he flexed and unflexed his fist, staring down at his bloodied knuckles.
“You good?” He speaks in a hushed tone, the energy left in him not allowing him to speak louder than he did.
Jeongguk looks up at him in surprise, and Hoseok almost chuckles at his expression. It’s completely different from when they were in the warehouse. His eyes are wide and neutral, the deep furrow that almost gave him wrinkles at his young age is long gone. His lips fall apart upon hearing Hoseok’s voice, forming a little ‘o’ shape. Jeongguk looks back down at his knuckles before pursing his lips shut. He gazes back up at Hoseok.
“Yeah,” He nods with a shrug.“Are you?”
Hoseok nods as well, licking his drying lips. He turns his head forward, to look at the back of Yoongi’s head once more.
“Jin-hyung said it was a girl that arrested you.”
Hoseok closes his eyes and throws his head back, taking in a sharp intake of breath while hearing Seokjin’s snort from the driver’s seat. As much as he was thankful for Jeongguk for trying to break the ice, he very much didn’t want to talk about that precise topic.
“That ain’t a girl,” Hoseok groans, his hand clenching slightly at the thought. “It was a fucking bitch. She was so fucking full of herself that I wanted to—”
“Yah,” Seokjin cuts him off, throwing him a look of mockery through the rearview mirror. “Keep it PG 13. Kids are present.”
“Hyung, I'm literally twenty-four.”
“I wasn’t talking about you,” Jin points his index finger, addressing Jeongguk, before pointing it to the person in the passenger seat. “I’m talking about the five-year-old that’s too embarrassed to admit he was wrong.”
“I wasn’t wrong…” Yoongi sighs, his voice slightly groggy. “And I wasn’t right either. This was a 50/50 risk and we all knew it.”
“Not all of us agreed to it, though.”
“Well, what happened has fucking happened, Hoseok. There’s no need to fucking rub it in our faces.”
“I told you something was wrong—”
“I know what you said,” Yoongi cuts him off, taking a deep breath afterward. “I knew something was wrong too. We all did. But hell, Hoseok, no matter what’s the coast, I would never let some fucking scumbag walk all over me and my people.”
Jeongguk sighs loudly, a silent agreement falling over the car.
“We’re getting back at that piece of shit,” Yoongi declares like it was a well-known fact. “Screw the drugs. No one plays us like that.”
__________________
“So, It’s a fucking slumber party, ain’t it?”
“Oh, please…” Jimin fires right away, taking his shoes off. His hands are carefully stretched out with three pizza boxes planted on top of them “It was Taehyung’s idea. I only paid.”
Hoseok freezes a few feet away from the door to his apartment upon seeing the two intruders letting themselves inside without permission. He shifts his gaze to the person mentioned, who raises both hands up as he walks forwards, handing him the two packages of canned alcohol.
“It’s a long night. We have shit to do and it seems like some of us haven’t eaten all day long.”
Hoseok presses his lips in a straight line and throws the towel that he was previously drying his hair with over his shoulder. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he starts to walk in the direction he knew the loud noise was coming from.
Taehyung stops walking where the older man previously stood. His hands still hung in the air with the alcohol still grasped in them, and he stares at the back of Hoseok’s head until he disappears around the corner. Jimin giggles from behind him, bumping his shoulder into his as he walks past him to follow their older friend.
“Jeongguk, lower the volume,” Hoseok calls over the sound of the game the younger was playing. “If you fuck up my levels, I’ll skin you alive.”
“You’re on edge today,” Jimin places the boxes on a coffee table, before sitting between Jungkook and Yoongi on the sofa behind it.
“You don’t think I should be?”
“Let him be, Jimin,” Seokjin steps out of the balcony. He throws a cigarette behind his back, before letting out the last puff of smoke. “His ego is hurt because the detective that arrested him was a woman. Let alone the fact that he got arrested, period.”
Jeongguk pauses the game at that, all eyes falling on Hoseok. Jimin lets out a chuckle but soon covers it up with a cough when Hoseok scowls at him.
“It’s not because she’s a fucking woman, don’t make me sound misogynistic. She just pissed me off. Way too much confidence. I don’t like it when someone looks down on me.”
“You didn’t think just because she's a woman you’d still have power over her, did you?” Taehyung asks, handing him a can of beer before passing him to stand by the balcony. He leans his behind slightly on the back of the sofa that the other three sat on. “They tend to make females a little less feminine in the police academy, Hyung. I thought you came to the realization that not everyone that doesn’t have a dick falls to their knees in front of you.”
“Or if they have a dick, it doesn’t really matter,” Seokjin interrupts, flopping down in an armchair with a teasing smirk.
At that, Yoongi cracks his first smile of the evening.
“You don’t get to laugh,” Hoseok points his index finger at him. “Not today.”
“Your point is irrelevant anyway, Hyung.” Jeongguk shrugs. “We know some pretty strong women. You should’ve known better when you have people like Dahye-noona in your life. ”
Yoongi chuckles. “It’s kinda funny seeing you all worked up because of that.”
“If she was good looking then I guess he really went through a lot today,” Jimin says, grabbing one of the pizza boxes to hand it to Jeongguk. He gladly accepts it before handing a piece to Seokjin, who sat to his left.
“Ahh, that she was,” Jin states, taking a bite.
“You wouldn’t have gotten so worked up if you didn’t, at least, think—”
“One more word…” Hoseok warns, cutting Jeongguk off, and the brat has the audacity to smirk back at him. The older looks up to Taehyung. “Anyways, I think she’ll come looking for more stuff. She looked pissed when Jeongsu made her apologize to me, so I'm gonna need you to dig her up for me. I wanna know where she got all that confidence from.”
“Should we put her down?” Jin proposes, his tone more serious this time.
With a click of his tongue, Hoseok bends down to grab a pizza slice. “I wanna play with her a little.”
“What’s her name?” Taehyung asks.
Hoseok pauses, tilting his head to the side a little. “Park… something.”
“I can’t exactly look into all the female Parks that are police officers, Hyung.”
“She’s in Gwangjin if that makes it any easier.”
“Just send me her name later when you remember it. We have more important matters on our hands now.” Taehyung responds with a dismissive hand gesture and looks down at Yoongi. “What the fuck are we supposed to do now?”
“Well,” Yoongi adjusts his position, looking up at Hoseok. “We don’t have much on our hands, so let’s just start from there.”
“...From where?” Jeongguk mumbles through a mouthful.
“We start looking for the facts, basically,” Hoseok says. He looks at Jungkook “Did you find Joowon’s phone on him?”
“I did.”
“Then we start from there,” He says with a little shrug. “Let’s see who did he call or text in the past forty-eight hours, or something.”
“You told me he said stuff about his family, too,” Jimin states, looking at Yoongi. “You said that the person had them. Let’s look into that too, maybe we can find something.”
“So we don’t have ‘nothing’” Seokjin raises his fingers to imitate air quotes. “We have plenty to get on with.”
The room falls silent. Hoseok looks from one person to the other, and it looks like they were deep in thought like he was. Trying to look for an error, a crack that could help them find something of importance.
“The person that made the call…” Yoongi breaks the silence. He stares blankly in front of him. “We need to find them too.”
“I asked Jeongsu,” Hoseok says, his shoulders a little slumped. “He has nothing. He said only the person that accepted the call has the information on their system. It was registered under anonymous, anyways.”
“And who accepted the call?”
Hoseok takes a sharp intake of breath, realization dawning on him.“The detective.”
Originally, Jimin and Taehyung weren’t there.
When Jimin and Yoongi first met, Jimin was barely twenty years of age. He’d managed one of the clubs they owned. Yoongi hardly knew who Jimin was, then. The younger still had a bit of brightness left in him from his teenage years, but he still managed to be professional and careful with every step he took so he wouldn’t piss off the big bad boss.
Jimin started working at a random club at eighteen because he needed the cash. He didn’t have anyone else to depend on back then, and he took the first chance he got, oblivious of the fact that the club belonged to names that South Korea spoke of, either in praises or utter fear. Depends on the perspective. He’d originally signed up to be a bartender until the former manager took a rather unique interest in him.
In more ways than one. Jimin is a very talented soul.
He knew martial arts. He was taught since childhood, and after a couple of situations in his workplace, it started gaining him extra attention. He was first known as the pretty bartender in an expensive bar, but voices started talking and he started noticing more eyes on him than usual.
At some point, he found himself involved in a gang. It was small, in a way, under the control of a way bigger one. Handled amateur drug-dealing and prostitution in clubs and brothels and Jimin somehow found himself smack in the middle of everything. His name started sounding familiar to nearby ears and clients asked about him. It only kept echoing until it reached the higher-ups.
Not even a year later, he had one of Omertà’s leaders wrapped around his pinky. A couple more years passed and he owned a couple of the major clubs and brothels under Omertà’s business in Itaewon and around, and by then, Jimin was already a part of their little family.
Saying that he fought his way to the top would be an understatement.
Taehyung’s more recent. It was only a few months after Jimin, even though he’d already been in contact with them for quite some time beforehand.
An ex-policeman.
A detective, to be precise.
Before he left, there was an online-targeted organization that they had to track down, and the legal system was too damn limited for him to reach any satisfying lead. Back then, Taehyung felt like Jeongguk was his Christmas miracle when he stumbled upon him, and he may or may not have asked him for a few favors.
However, he didn’t know him as Jeon Jeongguk, who played overwatch and murdered people for fun, but knew him as a fellow skilled informat that got him out of shit-holes when needed. One thing had led to another, and Jeongguk started asking him for favors in return. Info, locations of big heads, intel on cases Taehyung went on, anything.
It wasn’t until Taehyung reached the climax of a weaponry case that he and his partner handled, that he knew who Jeongguk really was, and who he worked with.
It wasn’t a pretty scene, then. Jeongguk with his hands raised above his head as he sat on his knees, with the barrel of Taehyung’s firearm pointed at him. The detective had two options. Shoot his target, drown in self-loathing and grief, or shoot a bullet in the air, and let his conscience eat him alive.
And the choice he took is obvious. It took a lot of effort to reach where he was, and it took even more effort to let it all go.
To Taehyung, it was nothing but a mental, internal fight. Like two different people fought in his head. One was convinced that the legal system’s fucked and already crumbling beneath his feet, and the other was still desperately trying to hold on to the vows he once said. Guilt ate at his whole being the more he stayed, but that wasn’t the only thing pushing him to resign.
It was disappointing, really, to watch almost everyone around him fall to greed and promised power from anyone with illegal authority. That shit played with their heads like yoyos, but he wished that this, too, was his case. At least he wouldn’t have enough human emotions left for him to mentally skin himself alive every night.
It was nauseating. Everything was controlled by upper-hands that loathed one another, trying so hard to enter each other’s territories, and Taehyung finally has his awakening somewhere in between. He watched first hand how he could do more outside the system than inside, and it felt like he was trying to fight in a lost war. His resignation letter was at his boss’s desk not so long after.
Good thing was, even after resigning, Taehyung still kept his connections and access to all the servers he used to have when he was still serving. It’s why he usually handles this kind of stuff in Omerta and is also why Hoseok gave him the detective’s full name to dig her up for him.
It took Hoseok some time to remember her full name, yes, it’s been a hard day for him, but he still managed to remember it nonetheless.
He also remembers the pride she held into her unwavering brown eyes, how it poured endlessly into his own. He remembers the shade of faded pink that took over her cheeks, and he remembers the different shades of brown in her hair.
And fuck, she’s pretty.
A fucking waste.
Upon hearing the buzz of his phone, Hoseok turns his head towards the bedside table. He groans a little when he reaches for it. He scoots a little closer when he notices that his hand isn’t reaching it, eyes half-closed. When he picks it up and brings it closer to his face, his eyes flutter closed with a frown because of the brightness and he pulls it back again. He fidgets for a few seconds, trying to turn it down first before looking at it again.
TAE: hyung
TAE: i found her
TAE: and I don’t think she’s the type of person you want to ‘play a little’ with
TAE HAS SENT A DOCUMENT.
H: huh
H: it’s ten in the morning taehyung
H: I’m not reading shit until I wake up properly. give me the important stuff.
T: she graduated around a couple of years after I did and she’s currently an inspector, nevermind her young age.
T: she’s been closing down on the smaller gangs. some of them are even ours, but the majority isn’t.
T: she’s really good hyung
T: she arrested her own father for drug use and physical abuse, and she even found a connection between him and a gang that self-destructed before she could grasp them. it doesn’t look like he’s getting out of jail anytime soon.
T: she lives with her mom. she also has a brother that’s whereabouts are unknown since their father legally disowned him long ago. no one even knows his name, but he was older than her.
T: she’s dangerous, hyung. I don’t recommend you get yourself involved with her in any way unless you’re planning on taking her out.
H: like with a gun or on a date?
T: ...hyung.
H: how are we supposed to know about the person that made the call, then?
H: I’m gonna have to get involved with her one way or another. if anything goes south I’m gonna handle her my own way.
T: just be careful, for fuck’s sake.
T: don’t let your ego get in the way too much.
H: kiss my ass.
Hoseok sits up in his bed when Taehyung sends him a document. The tiny bit of light coming from behind the curtains illuminates the room enough for him to be able to see well. He crosses his legs under the covers and taps on the file, running a hand down his face tiredly as he waits for it to load.
Her legal picture is the first thing he sees, along with her name, birthdate, birthplace, and position in the violent crime department. He scrolls down, not meeting anything worthy of his interest other than the things Taehyung told him about. He almost reaches the end, but he finds more pictures. These ones were taken without her knowledge.
He scrolls through them carefully and slowly, inspecting the date on each one to realize that some of them were really recent.
Like-earlier that morning- recent.
It’s only when he sees her shot with a dark umbrella hanging above her head that he starts to hear the thunder rolling off of the clouds of Seoul that echoed with roars.
She was walking by Han River, one of her hands shoved in the pockets of her champagne-colored coat. She was looking up at the weeping clouds, and her nose and cheeks too red for her to be properly warm. Her hair barely fell on her shoulders. It almost covered up the turtle-neck of her cream-colored sweater. Her lips were slightly parted away from each other. The expression on her face was way softer than what Hoseok saw the day before. The leather glove of the hand that grasped the umbrella above her was wrinkled, showing how tightly she was grasping on the piece of metal.
He scrolled past the picture, but the one after made him want to stop and stare too.
This one’s older. She was squatted down, sitting nose-to-nose with a huge golden retriever. Her smile was from ear to ear, and her eyes were completely morphed into perfect crescents. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, showing off her face well.
Hoseok didn’t feel it, but his eyes absentmindedly softened.
“Ah, shit.”