Monsters are real.

And they look like people.

From all the Bloody Waves members, Jin had always been the scariest character in the house.

Probably because he could check all the boxes in a sociopath spreadsheet.

Killed his parents. Check.

Grew up in an orphanage. Check.

Never had in his life any sort of emotional connection or relationship with a person out of the gang. Check.

But apart from someone in the clan, he also had one with his knives.

And apart from the deadliest mofo in bloody waves, he was also the cleaner.
And not just in the house.

It wasn't random that Jin wouldn't leave the comfort of the penthouse or his scrutinizing cleaning and cooking schedule and five-step hair routine unless called upon a situation that required the combination of his martial skills, extorting information methods, his 57 convenient ways to murder someone, or simply, the ability he could vanish bodies.

In the sea, of course, Rain had thought at first when she had found out what his most useful skill was.

But then V had confided to her, that Jin's favorite method wouldn't require water. Instead, it would leave ashes.

So much for the happy face, he was wearing all the time, mostly making fun of the others. Especially RM, with who they had formed some sort of group therapy when the one confided all sorts of tormenting thoughts to the other.

As far as it goes to twisted friendships, theirs took the cake.

Jin's dexter-smile was one he hid all his duality beneath. And apart from the bloody waves, anyone who thought he knew him had really no idea.

Lethal beauty. Those were the only words Rain could think of to describe Jin's handsome face, full of powerful lines. Sharp cheekbones and defined eyebrows that could bring Seoul's underworld to their death.

His black hair was trimmed shorter on the sides and longer on the top, smooth with soft edges. He had the darkest, almost black eyes and a slight tan. From afar, he was old-fashioned good-looking. Tall and wide from all the martial arts training, it wasn't random that he followed Nanami around on circumstances, like an unnecessary bodyguard, being the Gogo Yubari to Oren Ishii. As he neared you, though, the dark expression behind those eyes made you want to run the other way. His eyes were always lazily narrowed, vacant of any trace of emotion other than amusement. Almost like if you looked deep enough, you'd see all the horrific things he'd done to his enemies running in slow motion.

Then, there was also the sneer. The challenging scowl of undying loyalty plastered on his face, reminding everyone that all are unworthy puppies before Nanami. Craving the order.

With the car's stereo blasting songs, he kept lowering the volume, only for Rain to keep turning it up seconds after they slithered their way through the night.
Immortal junkies of retribution dressed up as angels of death.

In Jin's black SUV. That Rain might have made fun of, saying he is more of the sketchy van type of guy. That would lure his victims in the back with homecooked meals, then tie them up and do knife-shit with them. She hadn't elaborated on what she meant with knife-shit.

Rain, chewing her lip, looked outside the passenger's window. Thankfully it's not raining.

Seoul's rainshowers were a signal for upcoming shitstorms till now.

Tonight you will go with Jin. Suga had announced her first mission.

Something inside Rain had sparked alive, hearing those words. And not just because they had fun when they trained. Something ensured that going with Jin was not going to be a simple money collection.

"So where are we going?" mindlessly, going through a cigarette—mostly to annoy Jin that had a no smoking in his car rule— she asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. I need to put a song fitting for the mood. If we're going to, let's say, rob a bank, we will listen to mask off." She grinned.

"You think we are going for a robbery because we got guns?" Jin murmured, pressing his lips. "Not to be captain obvious, but we're kinda too rich for that."

Jin had given her his second gun before they left. Rain never had her own— always took whoever's she found close if a situation called for it.

Jin's gun had a small engraving on it. It's too late to apologize.

Well, it certainly is if you are facing this gun's muzzle, Rain had thought.

"Then put on funeral music." He deadpanned. "Because we are going to kill someone."

Rain's smile fell. Kill someone.

Not that she had a say in it. In the short two months she ruled, bloodshed was avoided and contained to the one-time event of the clan massacre. To people that deserved it.

But now...

Blood was going to be on her hands again.

She wasn't naive to think that those deaths weren't on her hands, even though she wasn't the one that pulled the trigger. She had given the order. The clan massacre was on her, same as the guy she had killed to get out. A guy she never found out his name. A guy that was drunk and had blocked the exit. A guy she thought she could fight but had taken a shot on her. A guy she had grabbed his gun then, turned it, put it in his mouth, and shot. Then run, without looking back.

Was that what Suga wanted when he announced she would work with Jin tonight? To do his bidding? Same as Suga had done for Nanami?

A life he kept living even though he hated, for two more months, when he could have announced he was the Oyabun from the start.

No, this was for show. To slap to her face the contradiction of how different her life was and what became of it.

To end up as an eternal servant. From being the underground queen, to slither in the vicious circles of the mob's bottom of the food chain.

From everything to nothing.

Or, as he said, what goes around, comes around.

"So what did he do? Why are we killing this guy?" Rain might have her inhibitions but knew that no random guy was getting a surprise! early-death party if he wasn't mixed with the mob and had given them a good reason.

"Does it matter?" Jin peppered his rhetorical question with a grim smile.

"You don't know? You didn't ask?"

"It doesn't make a difference if he makes videos of killing cats and streaming them on the dark web or if he is a doting father of triplets that goes to church every Sunday. Our order is to kill him. We can't disobey it."

He had blood up to his neck.

"You take an order. Then you fulfill it. This is how it's done. No questions asked." Jin added, taking a sharp left turn.

"We need a good reason to end a man's life." Rain argued.

"Why?" He narrowed his eyes on her. "Because it will make you feel better about yourself?" He paused. Then smiled. "Or because it will make you think better of Suga?"

Both, actually.

"Because I refuse to walk in there and just kill a dude I don't know that has done nothing wrong to me."

"You have us all fooled, don't you, Nanami junior?" He humored. "You're all bark and no bite. Nonetheless, the order to us might seem to come from Suga. But in reality, the order comes from a necessity. To maintain balance in this world. The order must be executed, so we bring stability out of chaos."

"So you want me to kill this guy for ...balance?" Rain scrunched her face, laughing.

"Not me. Suga." Jin smirked.

Trust. That was was Suga was testing tonight. Her trust in his judgment.

"Is that your code? Blindly trust and follow your Oyabun's orders?"

"Yes." He said proudly, not a hint of regrets at all. He even shrugged.

"What about before?"

"Before?"

"Before Nanami took you in. Were you like that?"

Jin snorted, shaking his head. "Of course, it has to do that I was trained for seven years by O-ren Ishii on steroids. But that means jack shit. I don't have her killer genes. I'm an orphan. But the ruthlessness is in my blood. I have no fears. And I had killed way before I met her."

His parents, Rain knew without him mentioning it.

Like Jungkook had. Like others in the clan had, as Rain had found out randomly, here and there.

Killing your parents seemed like a requirement to get in the Bloody Waves clan.

Except for Rain that had grown up believing her mother was dead, only Suga somehow —and weirdly— had skipped it. Chin-hae being the literal living proof.

Jin had burned down his house when he was eleven. With his parents and older brother inside.

Seoul's court had deemed it as a horrible accident and put him in an orphanage until sixteen.

His fate from sixteen until twenty—when Nanami took her under her wing— is unaccounted for.

Jin offered Rain a mysterious smile like he knew what she was thinking of.

"So back to giving you a good reason for balance," he turned to the street again, dark brown eyes reflecting the lights of the night, "The one who turns a blind eye to the abuse is worse than the abuser."

Wordlessly, Rain nodded, agreeing with his statement.

But deep down, knew that Jin, like her, was a child from a proverb.

A child who is not loved by its village will burn it down to feel its warmth.

"As for Suga, giving the order?" Jin shook his head. "He is not a villain, Rain. He is just a sucker for a bleeding heart."

Mine, silently she contemplated, looking out, focusing on the city's little lights flaring bright in the night.

"He has a troubled past. A future bigger than the day. And you have become part of his present, whether you like it or not."

Eternally, Rain added, in her mind.

"Despite that, he is a quiet force. You know what Suga did for Nanami, right?"

"Look really good in black?" Rain said sweetly, batting her lashes mockingly.

Jin exhaled. "Suga is good at finding out things."

"Huh. What kind of things?"

Jin shrugged. "Tech things, background checks, files, hidden people, what Kim Jong-Un eats for breakfast. Every sort of thing. If he doesn't know something yet, it means he doesn't want to know. He found out the things Nanami would request for a target. Then, according to the information he provided, I would get rid of said target."

"You mean, he can find who is behind the trafficking?" Rain turned to Jin.

"He already did." Any amusement had faded from Jin's voice. "He looked at who was responsible for guarding the entrance at the boarders the night the truck with the girls arrived."

"But that was the guy that had requested the payment. Chin-Hae took care of him."

"No. That was the transporter and a front for the guy who is arranging the whole when-and-where. The actual guy is the custom's head guard. Powerful enough to give clearance to someone to pass through. Former cop. Been into the business long enough to know how to pull this off."

Jin slowed the car as it entered a one-way street. "And lives here."

A dark neighborhood with most post lamp lights out and broken glass sparkling in the moonlight underneath them expanded before them, about as seedy as they came. Overflowing dumpster, puddles of undefined liquid on the pavement —beer and piss, no doubt— cat-sized rats were rummaging through the trash and a lingering smell of rust and humidity.

Not exactly as picturesque as Gamnam-Gu.

Stopping the car, Jin looked at a building on the opposite side of the road.

A two-story house. A brownstone build, modern and suburban, screaming new money from afar, sticking out like a sore thumb in this sketchy neighborhood.

Jin killed the car lights and the engine. In the silence of the night, an owl echoed like a death omen. He retrieved a pair of leather gloves from the car box, sliding them on.

Rain restrained herself from commenting is not that chilly, as she immediately knew that warmth wasn't the purpose. More like not leaving fingerprints.

Wordlessly, they got out of the car.

A bunch of wannabe gangsters in red bandanas were crossing the opposite side of the street with their pit bulls and a Bluetooth speaker playing loud, angry Korean rap.
The dogs barked at them, yanking on their chains.
Jin tilted his head on the side, and with an amused smirk on his face, faked a bored bark right back at them. "Woof."

The dogs stopped barking, one of them whined as they retreated behind their fake-gangsta owners, who had stopped in their tracks, eyeing Jin and Rain from head to toe, sizing them up. One even winked at Rain.
The dogs obviously had way better intuition than their idiotic owners.

"Stay here," Jin murmured at Rain.

Amused, she watched as Jin casually as fuck, walked toward them, whistling.

He stopped right before them, his hands within easy reach of his hidden weapons. "Did you see us?"

The three guys side-glanced each other.

"The correct answer," Jin went on, without giving them time to respond, "Is no. No, you never saw us. Now keep moving, unless you want to unburden me from the three extra bullets I have on me." He gave them a sharp smile, then winked back at the guy that had winked at Rain.

It turned out the tree guys were smarter than they seemed because they wordlessly did precisely that.

The street went silent as a cemetery once more.

No windows lined the face of the stone building, only the chrome plaque of an intercom in the entrance, right of a heavy security door with an electronic card-key system. A screen as well was above the ringer button. And that was definitely a CCTV camera right up the left corner.

Too much security for just a "random guy" in a sketchy neighborhood.

"It will take, like, two hours to get through these locks." Rain observed, scouting the building's perimeter for a window or a fence to climb.

Jin stabbed a finger onto the buzzer, ringing the bell.

"Are you crazy?" Rain whisper-hissed, pulling her mask up. "That camera could have got me. I am wanted!"

"No, you're not. Not anymore. Suga has taken care of that." Jin murmured calmly. "Don't worry about the cameras." He added with a whisper, indicating, I'll get rid of the footage after.

A voice echoed from the intercom. "Who is it?"

"I have an appointment for a haircut." Jin grinned at the intercom camera, like the poster boy of a toothpaste commercial.

Haircut definitely was code for something. Like, whatever kind of services the man upstairs provided. Haircut was code for I'm here to buy what you are selling.

In this specific case, girls.

A faint buzz followed, and Jin pushed the heavy door that had opened. He held it open, inserting himself and turning. "You wait in the car." He ordered Rain.

"But—"

"You wait in the car." He repeated, ignoring her protest. Then soundlessly mouthed so that the camera won't catch it, "I'll text you."

Rain flipped him off. But didn't protest further.

Lighting a cigarette, she made her way to the car. Seating herself, she opened the window and watched as the night's breeze swirled the smoke she exhaled to nothing.

Thinking, maybe it was for the best if Jin had decided to bypass Suga's orders and spare her from participating in the killing business, finishing the job himself.

She pulled out her phone, going through the unread text messages.

V: HOW DARE YOU GO TO RR WITHOUT ME?
V: TRAITOR.
V: I FORBID YOU TO HAVE FUN.
V: Even though, let's face it. You can't have fun without me.

She smiled, rereading V's messages.

Before leaving, she had asked RM to tell V she was going to RR if he asked. If anyone asked where she was. Like they weren't all criminals and would judge her for working with Jin.

No, the truth was so she could, later on, erase it from her memory. Pretend it never happened.

RR: Have fun at clan night loser.
RR: Even though, let's face it. It's not clan night without pizza and Kill Bill.
RR: And me.

Rain's smile was sad as she typed the reply.

She lit another cigarette, closing her eyes through the exhale.

Then, opening them, she skimmed through the last messages.

Her finger hovered over the message thread with Suga. The last messages they exchanged, a day before he had announced he was the oyabun all along, ripping away the power he gave her.

S: I know you were trying to say something, but all I heard was: Care, enjoy watching, fucking, way better. I know you can make way more interesting sentences with those words.

S: Let me give you a hand. Use the words: I, to, you, me, way better to fill in the blanks.

Like a reflex, she snorted as a smile crept up her lips.

I care to enjoy watching you fucking me. Way better.

Cunning bastard. Always stealing the best-backtalking-award right through her fingers.

S: And FYI, I don't need karma to fuck up my life. If you had paid any attention, you would have figured out somebody else did that long ago.

Nanami, he meant.
How, was still a mystery.
Suga was whiny from time to time, but his complaint was about something way bigger than the clan life he had pledged himself into.

What could be worse than offering your life till death? Rain wondered, thinking it had something to do with the secret Nanami told Suga the night she "died."

If you had paid any attention. Suga knew JB was about showing her the tape when he texted that. And pointed at her to pay attention. Nanami's secret was indeed what fucked up his life.

Rain also wondered how much trouble she would get in if she threw Suga off that dock for being so good at keeping secrets and deeming her 160plus IQ as entirely useless.

Rain was about to put her phone away when the screen flashed again.

The ominous Exorcist theme song—Jin's ringtone— filled the air.

Jin: You can come up now.

RR: That's why you went up first? To check if it's safe?

Jin: Yes and no.
Jin: Suga said he would make me eat my knives if anything happens to you.

Jin: But I also had to prepare.

Prepare for what? What sort of preparation needs to be done before killing someone? Rain wondered, knowing Jin had also taken care of the cameras.

"I hope he is not cleaning the guy's apartment," she joked, thinking that Jin was like a murderous version of Monica from Friends, as she pushed the now unlocked door of the building open.

A/N

Remember to stay hydrated <3

Drink some water, and grab a snack.

The next chapter will be up in a few minutes.