Hana had just turned two when the Great Gang War of '99 broke out. 

She slept peacefully on brushed cotton sheets as her head rested on a duck down pillow, unaware of the chaos unfurling outside. She would never have understood what was happening.

Six years old, and a witness to far too much too young, Yoongi seemed to understand exactly what was happening as he watched his parents scream at him to hide in the wardrobe.

The doors were made of thick walnut wood. Yoongi traced the knots in them for hours and hours and hours until the screaming stopped. He stayed in his safe place, knowing not to leave until his father came and got him. He thought that this was what the other kids meant when they said they wanted to play hide and seek.

As the night wore on and his tiny body grew hungry, he called out for his father. He called, and he called, and he called, but his father never came. Perhaps he forgot? A young Yoongi thought.

The door of the wardrobe creaked ever so gently as he pushed it open, and he was fearful of getting into trouble for not following the rules of the game. He shouted out for his father again.

His meagre voice bounced from wall to wall, echoing around him. One foot after another, he made his way slowly down the hallway to the living room. He and his father had been completing a puzzle and were only a few pieces left from finishing. Yoongi had never finished a puzzle before. His mum had been preparing his favourite pastries in celebration of his achievement.

He was by the door frame when he felt something wet on his foot. He reached down and peeled the soaked object from his sole and recognised it instantly – one of the corner sections of the puzzle. It was saturated and swollen by a red liquid. Yoongi would later learn it was his mother's blood.

Yoongi didn't know what death was yet. The view from the living room door changed that.

His father was cable tied to a chair so tightly his hands had turned purple. His head was slumped forward, but Yoongi could see marks on his exposed skin, engraved in his flesh like art: Sunshines.

His mother was on the floor, clothes torn, discarded like a ragdoll. She was speckled in the same markings. A pool of thick red blood seeped from beneath her.

He called out to his father one last time. The was no answer. It took him some time to realise there never would be again.

The Great Gang War of '99 changed the fabric of the city. Violence traumatised the city for years as Hae Pa went unchecked, unpoliced, uncontrolled.

The was something sinister about the sunny days in Seoul. Yoongi hated them.

It was only natural that when Namjoon, a friend from the care system, approached him with news of a new gang, one to rival Hae Pa, that Yoongi jumped at the opportunity. It wasn't just about revenge; it was about protecting other kids from going through the same thing he did.

Getting affiliation wasn't exactly hard in the early days. The two of them stuck together trying to make heads and tails of what being in a gang actually meant. Namjoon talked the talk while Yoongi walked the walk; they were a deadly duo and a force to be reckoned with.

It gained them notoriety, respect. Namjoon drank that shit up, while Yoongi was searching for something else. He tried different highs, but none of them worked. He slept around for a bit, but that didn't work either. He even took up gardening for a while, but nothing filled the void in his chest that swelled and encapsulated him whenever he thought of his parents. He never knew love.

Meeting Hana changed that.

Hana had given him purpose. She needed protecting, and he was able to do that. He'd killed for her the first night he met her, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat. He only had two essential criteria for warranting ending someone's life:

1) They'd harmed a woman or a child.

2) They were Hae Pa.

This led to an incredibly intense confusion when Yoongi eventually met a Hae Pa boy who he didn't want to kill. In fact, he found himself very much wishing he would stay alive, for although Hana had stitched up the hole in his chest, the Hae Pa boy made everything else stop; time, money, consequences. None of them mattered with him.

Until, of course, inevitably they did.

Six months of bliss had led to nearly ten years of torture. It's why Yoongi couldn't let Hana do the same thing to herself.

As they sat in their cramped kitchen, the boys around the table and Hana perched on the countertop, Yoongi sat silently and let Namjoon do the talking – after all, it's what he did best.

"Jimin's left hook is wasted on petty crime, and Hana can code better than any damn hacker I've come across," he said with exasperation. "We're meant for better than this. I know it, Yoongi knows it, every damn fucker we've worked with knows it."

"Then why are we still doing the dirty work for the big boys?" Jimin snorted. He agreed with Namjoon; he knew he was destined for greatness.

"We've spent too long being yes men – and women," he added on quickly, flashing Hana a smile so full of charm that it would make anyone who didn't know his dark side swoon. "They say jump; we say how high. They take us for granted, so we need to do something that makes them realise how much they need us."

Hana leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. Her top rose slightly with the movement, briefly exposing her bruised side and Yoongi took note of this with curiosity. She hadn't been on fieldwork – he had made sure of that – and no matter how wild her nights got, she usually only ever had bruised knees or elbows. He stayed silent, checking for any other signs of damage. He felt disconnected from her, and he didn't like it.

"So what's the plan?" Hana grinned, absorbed in his ambitious energy.

"I'm so glad you asked," Namjoon gleamed, flicking over a paper that had been laid flat on the table. It was a photograph of a man, not much older than Hana. His hair was dark and short, preventing any distraction from his deep-set eyes. They were hallow looking, sombre, haunting. His lips were paper-thin, and a small scar ran down his neck straight through a tattoo that Hana knew too well – a crescent moon. "Ku Minsu: Latest Dal Pa hotshot."

Hana sat back up a little straighter. Fucking with someone at the top of her own gang was the last thing she wanted to do. She knew where this was going; what she'd be asked to do.

Yoongi was the only one who noticed her posture change, the sadness in her downturned lips and weakened brows. It's for the best, he told himself.

"The Boss loves him. He keeps seducing Hae Pa girls and gaining intel. It's clever when you think about it," Namjoon paused, considering it. "So we're gonna play him at his own game, exploit his weaknesses and show The Boss who really deserves a seat at the table."

"Won't work," Jimin stated plainly. What point was it extorting someone on their side? Who ranked higher than they did?! It was a deathwish.

"It will," Namjoon countered. "He's getting lazy, complacent. He's so used to winning that he doesn't know what it's like to lose. He hasn't prepared for this. We go in, show he's as bad at hiding intel as his own targets, get out. Jobs a good'un. Catapults us right to the top of The Boss' good books – do you think he'd rather us do it now or a Hae Pa bitch do it later?"

They couldn't argue with this logic.

"What's the protocol?" Hana asked, her face resting in a pensive position.

"There's a charity gala tomorrow that I've managed to get us on the guestlist for," Namjoon began. Tickets to those things cost a pretty penny, so Hana knew he must have been pulling some serious strings to get them in. "Yoongi is gonna be following up on his last op."

Yoongi nodded, eyes resting on the switchblade he was once again flipping between his fingers. He knew the plan, had been over it a million times already in his head. He'd be able to do it blindfolded. The Mayor's Assistant had taken quite the shine to him, so Yoongi knew he wouldn't have to work too hard.

"Jimin's going to be our eyes and ears, keeping an eye on everything. I'll be networking, building our contact list and you, little lady," Namjoon turned to Hana. "Are going to win the hot shot's heart."

"How do we even know he'll be there?"

"Rumour has it he's after Hae Pa's Consigliere," Yoongi spoke before Namjoon could. She had been an acquaintance once, dare he say it, a friend. "She goes by Saffy. Fiesty fucker with connections all over the city, spends her days rolling out ops and keeping gang tensions simmered. She's probably got more influence than their Boss, to be honest."

The summer Yoongi had met Saffy, she was still fresh-faced and full of optimism. She had wanted to do good. '99 had done her dirty too, but she had ended up on the wrong team – at least in Yoongi's eyes, anyways. Like Yoongi and Namjoon, Saffy worked in a team with her best friend; she ran drugs, and he mugged her clients shortly afterwards.

Her ingenuity had seen her climb the ranks. Her best friend wasn't too far behind, sitting at the helm of Hae Pa's most reliable faction. They were still street dogs, but they were gaining notoriety and with that came power, respect and money.

It's part of the reason why his faction had been invited to the same charity gala – but Yoongi didn't know that. Not yet.

"So I'm meant to keep Ku Minsu from his target?" Hana asked a bit confused. If he was as good as he was being made out to be, then she doubted he'd be that easily distracted.

"Yes and no," Namjoon shrugged. "You need to get him curious, get him asking questions. You need to be an itch that he can't scratch."

"An itch he can't scratch," Hana repeated softly. She had missed fieldwork and knew charity galas were just an excuse for the rich to humblebrag. "You know I can't resist free drinks. What's the dress code?"

Namjoon smiled widely, dimples etched into his cheeks as he began to talk them through his plan in comprehensive detail.

Hana listened, enthralled in the excitement Namjoon was radiating. His speech was animated, hands moving to emphasise his points.

As she soaked up the information, eyes glistening in the soft light that shone from the ceiling without a shade, Yoongi felt a pang of guilt burning like acid in the pit of his stomach. The worlds that he had spent so long keeping separate were slowly becoming muddled with one another, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.  

Edit: you have no idea how much it tickles me whenever people comment about it being namjoon earlier on in the story only to read this chapter and be like HOLD UP-

A/N: Okay so this is like... a lot. If anyone's confused, here's a simplified version of events:

There was a gang war in 1999, led by Hae Pa. They were savages and went for everyone, gang-affiliated or not. Lots of people, including Yoongi and Namjoon were affected, which led to the formation of Dal Pa – a resistance gang of sorts.

Ku Minsu is a Dal Pa member who is climbing the ranks at speed. His next target is Saffy.

Hana is going to seduce him to show the strength of her faction, in an attempt to push them up the ranks.

Yoongi is still working on the initial op from the beginning of the book.

A lot of rich people/politicians are corrupt, hence the gang presence at the charity gala.