The Calm Before The Storm.

"Could you not disappear into the dead of the night like that? I almost had a migraine trying to find you. Wait- isn't that one of our trainees? Why are her hands chained- Jimin, what did I say about chains?"

"Not now, Seokjin hyung." Jimin turned around to unchain Laira's hands. "Go to your room," he instructed.

Laira noticed his features had neutralized although he appeared quite weary. The concept of Park Jimin and exhaustion correlating seemed alien to her.

"Is he back?" Namjoon called out, his heavy steps on the staircase announcing his arrival. Jimin, where were you? Oh, Laira? What happened?" He stopped short in his tracks, carefully eyeing the situation and sending Laira a look that she deciphered as "What did you do this time?"

Jimin audibly sighed. "Laira, go to your room. Now." He gestured with his hands for Seokjin and Namjoon to follow him upstairs. "Stand our men outside her room. She is not allowed to sneak out again."

She made a mental note: Exhausted Jimin is worse than angry Jimin.

*

Namjoon followed Seokjin into Jimin's room, tearing his gaze away from the window to present his undivided attention to Jimin, who had slouched on the couch, rubbing his temples in distress.

"I see that you are pretty drained and should probably sleep, but I want an explanation, Jimin. A good explanation as to why one of our cadets was brought into this minka like a prisoner," Seokjin demanded with his hands crossed over his chest.

Namjoon mentally winced at Seokjin's accusatory tone. He was older than Namjoon and Jimin and had a thin patience when something overly complex threatened to become an obstacle in his simple and calculated course of life, especially something or someone as complex as Jimin.

"That cadet, her name is Laira," Jimin said, leaning back on the headrest. "She escaped on an endeavor to save our other cadet, Chloe, from Hoseok's clan, all on her own. I had no choice but to bring her back for her safety."

Seokjin hummed, still unsettled. "With hands bound?" He scoffed. "Why, you couldn't take a few punches?"

Namjoon groaned in displeasure while Jimin threw his hands up in exasperation. "Well, Seokjin hyung, if you care so much about our trainees then why are you still here?" Jimin asked, brows raised. "Shouldn't you already be outside Taiyo clan's training center, keeping an eye on Chloe to ensure her safety as I ordered you to?"

Namjoon was not surprised to see how easily Seokjin managed to rile up Jimin.

It was Seokjin's turn to explode as he turned to face Namjoon with his eyes blown wide. "He," pointed to Jimin, "wants me to go there all alone. Like, what even am I? Hulk? We have a house full of assassins, and he told me to go there on my own!"

Before Namjoon could sputter a response, Jimin scoffed. "I didn't tell you, hyung. I ordered you."

"I don't take orders from you." Seokjin declared, folding his leg on top of the other.

Namjoon was almost prepared to throw himself between the two if they started pulling at each other's hair like teenagers, but to his surprise, Jimin broke out in a laugh. Seokjin soon followed.

"Seriously, hyung, you would not believe me, but this is my third time hearing that in a single week," Jimin said, amused.

"I sympathize with the other two sane people who had the guts to refuse you," Seokjin added, recovering from his chirping laughter.

Jimin shook his head with a smile as if he was shaking himself out of a memory. "One of the two was intoxicated, so it was the alcohol speaking."

"Let me guess, that girl from earlier?" Seokjin asked, suddenly eyes sparking with curiosity.

Namjoon resisted the urge to roll his eyes at their silly chatter, realizing he was the only adult in the room.

Jimin shook his head again. "That one didn't need the alcohol. It was one of Hoseok's boys. The sparkly eyes."

"Jeon Jungkook?" Seokjin asked with fondness on his face. "Do I want to know what he was doing in an intoxicated state around you? That's not safe for him."

"Seems like you know him, do you?" Jimin questioned.

"Seems like you care about him," Namjoon added further, making the other two men realize he was also present in the room.

"I, well, yeah. I have met him before, a few times." Seokjin waved his hand. "Don't you dare remind me he is our enemy. That was all when he was just a trainee. It's been years."

Jimin raised his palms in defense. "I wasn't going to tell you off for hanging out with our enemies." He added with a smirk, "I'm not that possessive."

Seokjin rolled his eyes, not without a smile. "Yeah, so what did you do to him?"

Jimin's eyes widened in bafflement. "You think I would harm a drunk child?"

Namjoon sighed, gaining all attention on himself before Seokjin and Jimin could start bantering again. "I need a full map of what's going on," he directed that question towards Jimin. "I can't seem to wrap my head around things."

Jimin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. "The game's ongoing, Namjoon, haven't you noticed? Hoseok has placed his trap and has been waiting to catch us, but he knows I will not fall for his traps so he was targeting Laira. If I hadn't stopped her tonight, Hoseok would've succeeded."

"You had your eyes on her all this time, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. I knew she'd make a mistake."

"It seems like Hoseok knew that too. But what does he want? "

"I have something of Hoseok in my possession and he will do anything to have it back. He is keeping Chloe a hostage to trade her for this thing. Hence, I'm confident he will tire out of waiting and make his next move very soon."

"But then how do we get Chloe back?"

"I have a plan for that." Jimin looked at Namjoon and added, "Don't worry. Hoseok will not harm her. He needs her alive and well."

Namjoon nodded. "I trust you. What about you? Are you alright? You seemed pretty drained when you returned a while ago."

Jimin quickly dismissed his concern. "I'm fine, hyung."

Namjoon smiled, adding, "Just tell me what you need me to do. Like, burn the world down or something?"

"How about you ask someone to send me a cup of coffee?"

Namjoon snickered. "Here I am offering to burn the world for you and all you want is coffee."

"World on fire wouldn't alleviate my headache, a cup of coffee would."

"Fair enough." Namjoon stopped near the door to turn around once again. "Get some sleep."

He felt a relief wash over him when Jimin nodded his head. "I will."

Seokjin followed Namjoon out, muttering a 'good night' before disappearing into the opposite hallway.

*

"Has he ever mentioned the distance it takes to reach his house?" Min Yoongi questioned, continuing his long interrogation session. Chloe had started to notice the cameo of tiny disappointments slipping past his monotone expressions quite often.

"No. I wasn't his delivery boy, fortunately." Chloe shrugged. She almost wanted to scream at the top of her lungs in frustration because what would he do? Throw her out?

She would very much like that.

Yoongi sighed. "Do you know what's going to happen if you don't reveal anything useful?"

Chloe shrugged once again.

I don't know, you'll feed me your bad cooking again? Although she told herself his cooking was bad, she doesn't remember food tasting so good before.

It's probably because I'm held hostage by one of the most dangerous clans in Japan, right?

Yoongi's sudden intimidating gaze jumped her heartbeat. "Hoseok's going to make a deal to trade you for something Jimin stole from him."

Chloe gave a bitter smile. "Sadly, I'm pretty convinced that Master Jimin will never accept the deal."

"They're not going to make the deal with Jimin," Yoongi said with a pointed look.

Chloe shifted in the chair in alarm. "With Laira? No, Laira will not be involved in this again. She- she must have returned to Tokyo. Why would Hoseok bring her into this?"

"Because all this time Hoseok's been using you as a cheese in the mousetrap, but he knows Jimin is not a mouse. Hence, he's been planning to trap your naive friend, Laira."

"First of all, it's not pleasant to be used as a cheese. I hope I get to say that to Hoseok's face very soon. And second, why would he try to lure Laira here?"

"If Jimin doesn't give him what he wants, which he will not, Hoseok will use Laira to get it."

"That's very unkind and unfair of Hoseok." She stated after long thinking.

Yoongi nodded in mock agreement. "Choice is yours. Either you reveal something I can work with so that I can help you, or you keep being stubborn and your friend will have to enter the danger to save you."

"I don't want Laira to come back here for me."

"Right. I'm sure JK and V will not be as nice to her as they were the first time."

Chloe gritted her teeth. "And if I tell you then what? How can you help me?"

"You asked me why I'm loyal to Hoseok. Well, I'm not. I used to work with Hoseok years ago before we parted ways. We met again a few months ago and he asked for my help so I stayed. But now the thing Hoseok is looking for, I want it for myself.

"So you'll let me go if I tell you everything?"

"I will." He said, clasping his hands together with a glint of fire in his eyes. "But not right away. I have no way of knowing if I can trust you or not, so until I get what I want you're stuck with me."

"First, I need to know what Master Jimin is keeping in his house. The thing for which you are ready to betray Hoseok. If you tell me the truth then so will I"

Yoongi's gaze narrowed with a sly smirk lacing his lips. "Now we are talking. Jimin has stolen a parrot from Hoseok. A wooden parrot."

Chloe frowned. "What's so special about the parrot?"

"You want to know everything, don't you? Well, the wooden parrot is called The Kagi. It was made by a man named Tashiu about 15 years ago before he passed away. Tashiu used to transcribe private meetings between the CEO of Hwanghon company and Gungjae, a freelancer. And inside the Kagi, Tashiu kept the coordinates of a place where he hid all those transcribed records."

"Why are those records so important?"

"You don't have to know that, but Hoseok's been looking for them for a long time. He finally found the Kagi 5 months ago, but he didn't know that the Kagi requires a key to open it, which he hasn't been able to find yet."

Chloe frowned in confusion. "Kagi translates to key in English, so that means there's another key to open 'the Key'?"

Yoongi nodded his head. "Jimin stole the Kagi from Hoseok, so I was sent to your headquarters to find it, but all I got was a coffee machine and Laira's information."

"You were there to find that parrot? Then why didn't you quietly leave our headquarters when you couldn't find it?"

"When I couldn't find the Kagi in Jimin's office, I thought Jimin took it with him and I needed to know where he was. I thought Namjoon might reveal some useful information, but the only thing I got from him was this." He leaned down, tapping on the area under his knee. "A freaking bullet."

Chloe struggled to bite her smile. "Serves you right," she mumbled.

If Yoongi caught that, he didn't show. "Now that you know what's necessary, tell me how to find Jimin's house."

She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know it's in his house? He could've hidden it anywhere. It's a big world."

Yoongi hesitated before saying, "When Jimin stole the Kagi, he left a note to Hoseok, which read 'This parrot will look great hanging in my living room,' among the other things he wrote, so that's the clue."

Chloe couldn't stop her laugh. "He is playing with Hoseok."

Yoongi's lips stretched into a line. "And I wanna play with him. Now that you know everything, you're gonna be a part of this game."

"If I tell you the way to find his house, will you stop Hoseok from making this deal and using Laira?

"No, I can't stop Hoseok without giving him the address. Instead, I'll take you out of this place, so if you're not here then what will Hoseok make the deal for?"

"Well, that sounds appropriate. What use is the mousetrap without the cheese? But what if you kill me the moment I give you the information you need?"

Yoongi grinned. "I could do that. No matter what I promise you, you won't be able to trust me and you shouldn't. But I will hand you a dagger as soon as we are out of here, so you can protect yourself."

"And what if I try to harm you with that instead?"

"I can hold my own." He added a wink.

Her face grimaced. "Yeah, like you did when our sniper shot your leg."

Yoongi scrunched his nose with distaste. "That wasn't fair, you know? An attack from the back is and always will be a cowardly move."

Now that they were on the page of discussing fair and unfair, Chloe had to resist listing in how many ways it was unfair to make a deal with a weaponless lady bound to a chair.

But she decided to save that argument for later.

"Seems like we have a deal, Mr. Vampire Assassin."

If he heard her, just like usual, he didn't show. "Deal. Now, hold tight to everything you've learned in your training. You are going to need it because we are breaking out of here after dusk."