Once was excusable. 

Twice was pushing it a little bit too far. 

Yoongi drew the line at three times.

"Still ain't home?" Jimin grumbled as he entered the kitchen, where Yoongi had been sitting for the last two hours. Waiting. His bottle of beer had been drunk to the bottom, and he was about to crack open another. It was like a conveyor belt: open, sip, finish, repeat. There was a grumble from the dark-haired man, and Jimin took that as confirmation. "You sure she ain't on some job we don't know about?"

"She ain't on no fucking job," his tone was sharp, confident, words emphasised by the hiss of a bottle that had been relieved of its cap. There was anger in his words, but Jimin knew Yoongi, and he knew that it stemmed from fear.

Yoongi never admitted when he was scared. Truth be told, he rarely ever got scared. He wasn't a pussy. But when it came to Hana, he felt a duty, a moral obligation - guardianship, almost.

Jimin ran his hands through his messy flame-red hair and ruffled it slightly as he sighed and set his body down in the chair opposite Yoongi. A white t-shirt hung off his body lazily, the front tucked into a pair of jeans that had seen better days. All that was missing was his signature leather Jacket. "So what we gonna do about it, then?"

"We ain't gonna do nothin'," Yoongi almost laughed, passing a beer over to Jimin, who prized the aluminium cap off with his teeth and took a swig instantly. Loyal may as well have been Jimin's middle name, but this wasn't his cross to bear. "The idiot is my responsibility, alright? Not yours."

A sharp ping vibrated around the dull kitchen as both of their phones went off.

"Someone's ears were burning," Jimin sighed as he glanced at the lit screen in front of him. A small notification let them both know that Hana had updated files to their cloud server, confirming she was just doing office work. Yoongi barely turned his head to read the notification, instead remaining still. He had been consumed with thoughts in the last few days, hypothesising Hana's whereabouts, what she was doing, who she was with. It had proved useless, and he wasn't one to break the trust and privacy of one of the only people he cared about. Sensing Yoongi's discomfort, Jimin changed the topic. "Any idea when Namjoon is back?"

"Tomorrow," Yoongi growled through gritted teeth. Their friendship - if you could even call it that anymore - had been growing cold in recent months. He was always away on business, hustling, trying to climb the greasy poles of the underworld. Yoongi was content laying low and staying out of trouble, whereas Namjoon never was, and insisted on continually striving to be more than he was - often at the expense of his friends. "Thinks he's got a way in with the big boys."

"Really?" This perked Jimin's attention. He leant forward, elbows on the table, engaged in the words escaping from Yoongi's mouth. He may not have cared much for those at the top, but Jimin was a big fan of playing in their money and knew that if anyone could get the PINs to their cards, then it would be Namjoon.

"I don't know the details," Yoongi lied. He had spoken at great length with Namjoon about his plans; about the men he had been conducting business for, and about the place each of them fit into it. He just knew that if Jimin got embroiled in it too then that would be it for their little safe haven. "Just that it's high risk, low reward."

"Yeah right," Jimin scoffed with a playful grin. He knew all of Yoongi's tells - he could beat him at a game of poker without even trying. "That's horse shit, and you know it. "

"What you don't know can't hurt you, Jimin," Yoongi smirked.

He wished he could have headed his own advice, listened to the words he was saying. Surely what he didn't know about whatever Hana was doing couldn't hurt him.

Except Yoongi could pinpoint the change in Hana's demeanour, the very moment in which she started keeping secrets and telling lies.

He could also recall the thick lines that ran up and down the neck of the man who bought her a drink... or twelve.

He wished he couldn't, not just for her sake but for his too; For the sanctity of the safe distance he had fostered between his faction of Dal Pa, and the dangers of the outside world.

But when the door clicked later that night and Hana came humming down the hallway, he could feel it in his bones. Her aura was radiating at a frequency that could shatter, and Yoongi felt like his eardrums would bleed if it didn't stop soon.

"Christ," Hana laughed, an air of blissful innocence cascading from her smile, a hand raised to her chest in surprise. "You scared me! What are you doing sat here in the dark?"

Her smile began to falter as she took in his rigid shoulders and the empty beer bottles on the table. It wasn't like Yoongi to binge out without a purpose. Sure, they all indulged a little more than they probably should have done on less than holy habits, but Yoongi was good; a saint amongst sinners.

At least that was how Hana had always viewed him.

Yoongi didn't look up towards Hana as he fiddled with his switchblade, thumb nested in its usual spot, keeping his secrets hidden.

"We gotta talk, Han," his words were slow, his voice a few decibels deeper than she was used to. He was trying to be quiet, to mask his words from prying ears. His blade clicked back into place as he looked up towards her, and he could see that there was a sense of panic in her eyes. "Who's the Hae Pa kid?"

a/n: hi sorry for being inactive for like a month. I've had the bones of this chapter for ages but kept struggling to actually finish it. 

In other news, spotify reckons im in the top 1% of all bts listeners, so i guess you could say i like mots:7 looool x