tw: violence,,, please skip forward if you need!

"Oh God, that was one of the most exhilarating missions we've ever done," Jungkook huffed out when they jumped onto his motorcycle.

"You got that right," Jiah laughed, and it could be heard echoing through the empty alley.

"They never know it's coming, I don't understand how naive people can be," she said amidst her laughter.

"Who were they anyway?" Jungkook revved the engine and spun the bike around while Jiah wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder, making it easier to talk in his ear while they were riding.

"Not sure, seemed like they did some sort of delivery stuff, seeing the trucks they had come out of."

"You don't think-"

Jiah rolled her eyes - although she knew he couldn't see it - before cutting him off, "No, it's definitely nothing to do with the drug cartel, Jeon, okay?"

This was a total, and complete lie, however. They both knew it. It could not be a coincidence that they were ordered to get rid of transporters right after their gang's drug business started hitting red flags.

"You know what, you're right," he surprised her by saying.

"What?"

"I'm kinda sure that the trucks belonged to another transport company than the one we've always been using."

Jiah slapped his shoulder in pride, "No way! Jeon Jungkook has a brain?"

"Fuck, shut up," she could hear the eye roll in his voice this time, "It said World, pretty sure. That huge conglomerate company."

"Yeah, see? Nothing to do with drugs."

"We can go and celebrate now," he chuckled, "Our friend's waiting for us."

"He's such an interesting guy."

"Huh?"

"Like, he seems bad enough to be one of us, but at the same time, too innocent, you know?"

"Jiah, he's what you call, a sweetheart, okay? Have you heard of those? Sweethearts?"

"Do you think I'm dumb?"

"I wouldn't know, you are very far from being a sweetheart so..."

"Okay shut up and drive, your sweetheart is waiting."

—

But he wasn't.

When they got to the bar they had agreed to meet at, he wasn't sitting in the table they said to be.

Jungkook sighed, pulling his phone out to call him, "Punctuality is something we gotta teach this kid, fuck, I hate waiting."

"Kid? He's three years older than you, smartass."

"Why is he not picking up?" Jungkook asked after a while. And they both exchanged glances, suspicious, unnerving, confused glances.

"I'll try," she took her phone out this time.

"Oh yeah, he's totally gonna pick up your call and not mi-"

"Hello?" Jiah asked when someone answered on the other side, causing Jungkook to stare back at her with his mouth hanging open. As if to say 'how dare he'.

But the man on the other end of the line was crying.

"I'm sorry Jiah," it was Hoseok's voice.

"Hoseok, are you okay?"

"I'm so sorry I'm gonna be late - no I'm sorry I won't be able to make it," he was sniffing, Jiah could tell he was on the verge of wailing.

"Dude, what happened?"

"It's hyung," he managed to make out, before the line got cut and all she heard was a continuous beep.

"Get up," she ordered Jungkook and he just raised an eyebrow as he was sitting back in the booth, one arm arching on the back of the sofa and the other bent as he held a glass of vodka to his lips.

"I said get your ass up, we're going to find him."

"Find who? What happened?"

"I don't know," she furrowed her eyebrows, "He was crying, and then the phone went dead."

"Hmm," he hummed, getting up immediately, "what are you waiting for? Let's go."

"Problem is, where are we going to go? We don't know him well enough to know where he is. Do you know if he has a brother?"

"Huh? Yeah, he does, of course I know that," he turned to Jiah, "Do you not know that?"

"Am I supposed to?"

"You really are heartless."

"Watch your mouth," she warned, but she knew where he was coming from and normally she would have agreed with him.

"He's always telling us about his brother. He loves him, Shadow. Literally the only reason he's in this gang."

When they exited the bar, they hopped onto Jungkook's motorcycle.

"What do you mean?"

"Seokjin is his name," he strapped on his helmet and passed one down to her, "and he was a super successful dealer."

"They force Hoseok to join because of him?"

"More or less," Jungkook was turning the engine on, "Okay so the breakdown, one of his deals went south, gang turned against him, threatening to kill his little brother-"

"Hoseok."

Jungkook nodded, "And in turn for them not killing him, H-"

"Hoseok had to join us."

"Yep. Plain simple."

"Okay, now how are we going to find him? I'll ride to home base first while you keep calling his phone."

With that, they jumped onto his bike, Jiah at the handles and Jungkook clutching to her whilst dialling his number again and again.

--

And he wasn't there again. Home base was empty. So was his home.

"Oh God," Jungkook hissed when they were about to leave his house and run onto his bike again.

"What?"

"His anklet," he sighed, "his anklet is here."

"What the fuck, Jungkook? We're literally not here to analyse his accessories."

"No," he shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, "You really don't ever listen when he talks, do you?"

"Why?"

"He never goes anywhere without this thing on. He hardly ever takes it off, actually."

"Then why is it here?"

"He must be here somewhere, Shadow."

"Maybe he forgo-"

"Listen to me, he's here."

"Okay, let's search the neighbourhood," stomping to the front door, she pointed to her left, "You go that way and I'll go here, call me if you find anything."

They split up, dashing in opposite directions, searching every nook and cranny of the place. The question of why she was even going to these lengths for someone else had crossed her mind countless times. And the only thing she could say was I don't even know.

She had never looked for someone before. Well not like this anyway.

Unless it was ordered from someone in Kkangpae, of course.

As she turned a corner, she heard a high pitched scream.

Jumping to the direction of the sound, she sprinted its way without thinking.

And there, in the dim light of a street lamp she saw four silhouettes. One's back was against the wall as he lay, limp on the ground. While the other three were standing, it looked like a two against one fight, with the lone person guarding the one on the ground, his arms spread wide. She texted Jungkook a picture of the street sign and alleyway before running up to them silently.

When she got closer, the light was bright enough to illuminate the face of the man on the ground, eyes closed.

Hoseok!

They still hadn't seen her, eyes trained on each other.

But when one of the men took a swing at the one in front of Hoseok, she sprinted forward, gripping onto his arm quick and strong.

Without second thought, her other hand jabbed at his neck, causing him to fall backward.

The other two standing were frozen for a second or two, before picking up speed, and the one who was originally defending Hoseok was now punching at the other.

Jiah kicked her opponent against the other wall and he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach in pain.

Turning to the other two fighting, she tried to remember the features of the one who was shielding Hosok earlier, the darkness of the night not helping her situation. But once she figured it was the one further from her, she took advantage of her position and yanked the other backward by his hair, exposing his torso to the former man who kicked it.

She doubled down, hands on her knees as she tried to regain her breath.

That was before there was another scream which erupted from behind her, and she quickly turned to see the person she had knocked out earlier be whacked in the head with a metal pipe.

By Jungkook.

"About time you got here," she panted, before turning to the other man standing behind them.

Who was staring at them in shock.

"I'm guessing you know my brother?" he asked, pointing at Hoseok on the ground and the pair shrugged.

"And I'm guessing you're Seokjin?" Jungkook was panting this time and the man shrugged too.

—

"I can't believe I let things get this bad," the man who now introduced himself as Hoseok's older brother, Seokjin, said as he sat down in the couch opposite Jungkook and Jiah after passing them a a beer each.

"Who were those men?"

"My superiors," he sighed, "Hoseok accidentally leaked drop locations, and of course they had to come for me."

"So why is he like that?" Jiah asked, pointing at him, wrapped in blankets, sprawled over the couch. They had done their best with band aids plastered over his face and body, but the trauma was still evident. "If they came for you?"

"Because he's an idiot!" Seokjin exclaimed, "Wouldn't let them attack me!"

"Sounds like him," Jungkook sighed this time.

"You guys seem to know him pretty well, are you all good friends?"

Jiah and Jungkook exchanged glances.

"Well, he was just assigned to our subunit, after we were given a new mission."

"Oh, but you came all the way here to help us? Thank you so much."

Jungkook shook his head, "Don't mention it."

"Seriously though it was ni-"

"Please," Jiah cut him off, "really, don't mention it, it was more us trying to find closure because he missed our drinking session."

"Oh," Seokjin's face fell.

—

"Why do you have to do that all the time!" Jungkook hissed at Jiah while they were walking back to their apartment.

"Do what?"

"Shut someone down when they show any kind of emotion towards you! You know, it's completely fine to accept someone's gratitude!"

"If I was that kind of person, Jungkook, I wouldn't be in Kkangpae," she stopped and turned to him, "You're getting too soft, what's wrong with you!"

"I dunno, Shadow, maybe I'm sick of being cold blooded all the time, I wanna be a little human."

She stepped closer to him, lowering her voice and directing her gaze to narrow in on his eyes, "Listen Jungkook, with you and me, there's no going back. We're too far gone. Just live as you've been living, instead of trying to be someone you're not."

And then she spun on her heel, for the door to their apartment building.

Not fast enough to miss what he muttered under his breath, however.

"I bet Jiyoung would be damn proud to hear that."