Park Jimin wasn't a huge fan of the smell of coffee. It was bitter more often than sweet and the nutty scent clung to his soft sweaters no matter how hard he tried to scrub it out of them.

His thumb brushed the base of his mug where a latte packed with more vanilla than espresso was sitting untouched. Jimin watched a handsome barista work across the coffee shop counter and stirred his drink mindlessly, the spoon clinking with each pass around the mug.

While he might not appreciate coffee, he did appreciate a cute guy who knew how to brew it. There wasn't much else to do while he waited for Angel - a man who was already an hour late to the cafe. So, Jimin 'appreciated' how the forest green apron the barista wore brought out the brown notes of his dark fluffy hair and how the woodwork of the coffee bar highlighted the gorgeous tan on his skin. He nearly lost it when the man rolled up his sleeves to reveal large forearms covered in tattoos. It made the itch spread to get another tattoo of his own.

He sighed, stretching his arms above his head and an adorable yawn left his plump lips. He wasn't exactly a patient guy. If Angel didn't walk through the cafe doors in ten minutes, Jimin might actually ditch the meeting and get that moon phases tattoo he'd been saving up for done on his back.

Just as Jimin pushed his mug away to get up, the cafe's front door swung open. He'd never met Angel personally, but still Jimin immediately knew this was his guy. There was a general wrongness about the man, like he was stumbling through a bright room after staying in darkness too long. He looked around sheepishly, a brutal scar drawn down his right cheek half hidden behind long black curls of hair that clipped right above his massive shoulders. Jimin cocked his head at his leather jacket sporting a crudely sewn red dragon on its sleeve. There was a peak of tattoos dancing right where that sleeve ended, teasing more ink crawling up the arm.

Jimin smirked, nodding at the newcomer who immediately relaxed when he saw him. He walked over and hesitated by Jimin's seat, waiting for Jimin to stand up to greet him. When Jimin made no sort of movement, the man paled, sitting down awkwardly instead.

The barista with the fluffy hair furrowed his brows at the entrance of the stranger, the leather and scars a complete contrast to the soft cushions and plants hanging around the cafe. He blinked at Jimin next, a flash of worry in his eyes as he took in the softness of Jimin's sweater and his small frame, before going back to work.

It was cute: the barista was concerned.

Angel eyed Jimin, clearly surprised to see him representing The Kims of Busan. Jimin bit back the impulse to roll his eyes. Everyone was the same. Always shocked to find Jimin on his own, away from Kim Taehyung, the son of the Kim Gang's leader, or Jung Hoseok, Taehyung's right hand. Jimin learned to lean into it - the underestimating - and threw the man a dashing little smile.

"I'm surprised you chose a coffee shop to meet in." Angel said, leaning back in his seat causing more of his tattoos to show.

From the notes Taehyung handed Jimin that morning, he knew Angel was the only person holding The Kim's rival gang, The Dragons, together. Though "rival" was a strong choice of wording. The Kims had dismantled nearly every gang left in Busan, The Dragons were simply the last to go. Angel here was their runner - the person who communicated deals between gangs and followed through with information, weapon, or money drop offs. A low rank, really, but it didn't take a lot of digging to find that The Dragon members worshiped him.

"You had a different place in mind for a drop off?" Jimin asked, cocking a brow as he took a sip of his still-bitter coffee and licked the foam off his bottom lip. Jimin felt nothing at the gleam that appeared in the man's eyes or the excited flush in his cheeks as Jimin crossed his legs. He had a job to do - one he knew how to do well. Deflect. Distract. Taehyung always called him the Kims' secret weapon for it.

"More used to dealing with dark allies and ugly men, that's all." Angel said, relaxing into a smirk.

"And what's different, the alley or the man?" Jimin countered, a playful smile on his lips.

"The man, of course." Angel's smirked. His eyes licked Jimin's frame, dipping down his shoulders as if a hand were gracing down it. Jimin tried not to vomit into his coffee mug.

"So, the drop off?" Jimin redirected. "Do you have it?"

"Obviously. I'd lose my hands if I didn't." The runner said with a tone parents educated their toddlers with. As if poor, beautiful, silly Park Jimin couldn't possibly understand how inter-gang negotiations worked. Jimin rubbed the side of his coffee cup again, needing to count his breath to not throw the drink straight at him. All of Busan's underworld knew him as one thing, and it wasn't exactly something feared.

"You're stalling." Jimin noted instead.

"Just surprised the Kims are using their whore as a runner." Angel said as he took an envelope out of his leather jacket, putting it down on the table but kept his hand on it. "Bit bold, if you ask me."

Jimin didn't let his grimace show on his face, keeping his expression set in that soft, playful, smile. "Bit bold of you to care."

The runner grinned and the scar on his face spread with the movement, like it was tearing anew across his cheek. He tapped the envelope again. "I heard you'll sleep with anyone for the right price. I've always wondered what it'd be like to fuck someone from another gang. A rival one, at that. I bet you have too, haven't you? Fantasized about it after they all finished working through you."

Jimin looked down at the envelope, knowing the exact amount of money that was supposed to be disclosed within it. The Kims sold The Dragons an early release of a new drug called Drive they were producing which is a highly addictive, heavily undetectable, hallucinogenic drug. The Kim's had been spreading it through Busan's clubs in the last weeks, micro-dosing party goers and bar dwellers before they start selling it to them directly. It was a gold mine in the making.

The exchange with The Dragons was meant to extend a hand to the last gang with any real strength to hold their own against the Kims - one that was only tied together by Angel. He was a leader in his community who had practically raised the kids in it, giving them a home and purpose, making the gang members' loyalty nearly untouchable. But he wasn't the real head of it, wasn't even the right-hand. Just a runner who The Dragons' Don, Angel's brother, refused to acknowledge had any influence in his gang at all.

By the added thickness to the envelope, Jimin knew there was a significant amount of cash inside that wasn't part of that deal. He leaned back in his seat and Angel's eyes darkened with hunger the same way Drive-addicts starred at the drug before The Kims sold it to them.

The Kim's Whore. That was what Busan knew Jimin as. Didn't get him much respect from the rivals.

Jimin heard Taehyung's voice in the back of his head whispering to just 'get through the job.' How 'I know the truth about you, so why does it matter what anyone else thinks?' Instantly, Angel's taunts and his increasingly watering mouth became more bearable. This was an outsider to Jimin, to The Kims. What he said or thought of Jimin didn't matter. Jimin had a job to do.

Slowly, Jimin used his leg to brush against Angel's own and listened to the man scoff a disbelieving breath. Jimin leveled his gaze with the runner's, tilting his head. His lips relaxed, allowing him to imagine all the wonderful things those very lips could do. "And if I have fantasized about it." Jimin said, flicking his lashes. "I can't act on it. Not without the whole losing my hands part."

The runner's eyes gleamed. "I can pull strings in The Dragons, you know. Get you out of the Kims' hold. Get you free." Angel spoke the word like a smooth liqueur passing his tongue. He pushed a weight behind it that made Jimin blink. God they all always underestimate me. "I could get you safely to Seoul, you could hide from The Jades there. I know of a Don pair that are trying to turn their gang into a proper wine business. You could start over there."

There was almost a kindness in his voice, an understanding that nearly caught Jimin off guard. Like he pitied him. Angel pushed the envelope across the table. "Just one night, baby. That's all it would take. One night and you're out of Busan. Or is that already why they sent here instead of that right-hand, Hoseok? Were you already part of the deal?"

Jimin chewed on the words. "Your price for my so called 'freedom' is for me to do with you what you think I do for the Kims."

The runner grinned. "If you came to a drop off instead of literally any other Kim, you had to have planned to leverage sex, sweetheart." Angel said, picking up Jimin's coffee mug and taking a sip from it. "Look, I'll be straight with you since no one else is." He winked. Jimin didn't laugh. "The Kims are a fucking pain in my ass, but I don't have the men yet to take them on directly. But shit, I mean fucking you, their prized toy, would send a clear message that The Kim's aren't untouchable. So yea, one night with me and it's the last time you'll ever have to sleep with anyone. In return I get you out of Busan. Trust me. Why do you think every other gang has fallen to those assholes but mine? Because The Kims are scared of us."

This time, Jimin did grin. It was slow and the nuance was secret. The darkness behind the expression danced across his brown eyes and Angel misread the mocking look as a seductive one.

"I want the money." Jimin said, tapping the cash for Drive and the additional dollars to pay for Jimin's body. "But I'll do it for free if you can answer one question."

Angel was already soaking in Jimin's body like he owned it. Jimin could see it in his eyes. Already debating which spots to touch first, where to best squeeze, how he'd like to position him. Jimin bit back the absolutely feral, murderous, anger that pulsed at the look. It felt like a knife slashing its way down his spine. Again, he used Taehyung's voice to center himself. 'They're outsiders, it doesn't matter what they think.'

"What's my name?" Jimin said. "Get it right, and I'll do it for free."

The runner coughed. In the entire conversation, Angel hadn't used Jimin's name once - hadn't bothered to even ask. Jimin couldn't describe why, maybe it was equal to poking a bruise, but he wanted to confirm it. Confirm what people thought of him since his dad died and Jimin took on a new role with in The Kim's. What the world saw him as outside of Taehyung. Angel had only used The Kim's Whore or the more recent Baby or sweetheart. It'd only taken six years since Jimin's dad's death to be reduced from Park Jimin to a fantasy.

"Does it matter?" Angel said, raising his brows. "You haven't asked for mine, either. Or were you waiting till you scream it to ask?"

Jimin blinked, feeling a very cold rush flood his mind. It wasn't a hollow feeling, calling it emptiness would be the wrong word for it too. It was a disgust that ran so deep and pushed against him so intensely, that it translated into stillness. Suddenly every flicker of light in the cafe shone brighter, each spilled drop of coffee that much louder. Jimin tilted his head, watching Angel's square jaw clench in anticipation. He had the strangest sensation of watching himself smile at Angel like he was floating above the conversation instead of participating in it.

"Fair enough." Jimin said as a cold rush pushed against his eyes. His body tingled, preparing for hands to grasp at him or wet lips to suck bruises. Jimin always preferred fights to negotiations when working on the field. At least blood you could clean off; the echoes of people's desires were much harder to scrub.

"I'll take the original deal then." Jimin said. "I know a spot where no one will see us, so just follow me out. That cute barista over there doesn't look like the voyeur type, so I'd rather you don't fuck me over this coffee table."

The runner grinned and the scar on his cheek stretched again with the movement. Jimin grabbed the envelope as he got up and Angel followed suit, immediately placing an impatient hand on Jimin's lower back as he guided them out of the cafe. It was colder outside than Jimin expected, the wind picked up since he'd first gotten to the place. At least Angel had his leather jacket, Jimin only had his sweater to warm him.

The runner's hand started to drift lower, hunger coursing through every stretch of his fingers. There was a possessive, victorious edge to the touch. It was also in the way that Angel was staring down at Jimin, at his lips and his neck, that immediately told Jimin the man had no plans of letting him leave Busan after he was done with him.

"This way." Jimin said as he headed down the block away from the cafe where a winding maze of alleys were located. The runner furrowed his brows but chased after, enjoying Jimin's little game of cat and mouse. Angel followed him through the first alley, down the second, taking a right at the third, before finally they stopped at a dead end of walls. Angel noticed this and his grin grew feral seeing Jimin, The Kims' Whore, pinned by the dead end.

"Enough playing, sweetheart." Angel said and this time Jimin did laugh. Something in the air shifted and Jimin felt like a taut rope in his chest finally snapped free. His shoulders rolled back, giggling so freely now that his eyes shaped into little crescent moons.

Jimin shifted his right arm causing a knife hidden in his sleeve to drop into his hand.

The runner frowned and Jimin relished in his confusion before he lunged on him. Really, you'd think more people would be cautious of who they let seduce them.

It wasn't hard for Jimin to knock Angel back, stepping behind him and kicking his knees so that Angel fell onto them, caught by surprise. For as small and skinny as Jimin was, his muscles were incredibly powerful, and his hits were equally as strong. Jimin was strategic, knowing just which joints to go for and where people were weakest.

"It's Jimin." Jimin said into Angel's ear, ripping his head back by pulling his hair. "My name." The name wasn't really the impressive part, but what he said next did strike a cord. "The Kims Assassin."

Angel squirmed in his grip and Jimin smiled, the look cutting across his face just like the scar on the man below him. This was always his favorite part, he thought, when they squirmed. He felt the runner still, could feel the sheer terror rush through him, and relished in it.

Not whore. Not baby. But Park Jimin. It meant nothing to outsiders, not really, but Jimin liked to share his name before he killed his targets. It belonged to a shadow notorious across Busan, faceless and nameless, with nothing but blood and death following it. Jimin was the sole reason The Kims were on top - every target they set their assassin on ended in a precise, controlled, kill. They never expected it either, because while Busan knew The Kim's had an assassin, no one knew who he was or what he looked at. The very last person they'd expect was the man paid to sleep with The Don's son.

Angel stopped moving. When they stilled from fear, that was Jimin's second favorite part.

"What? Not going to scream my name?" Jimin whispered into Angel's ear.

"Please-"

With one clean movement, Jimin flipped the dagger in his hand and dragged it from one end of the runner's neck to the other. The man slowly choked on his own blood, slumping down to the ground as his hands tried to claw at the wound only to go limp along with the rest of his body. His promises of Seoul and wineries dying with him.

Jimin had lured the runner into The Dragon's own territory, right where the Don, a man known for his envy of Angel's influence over his gang, owned a casino. One he often got drunk at and made frequently violent, poor decisions. It was the only reason Jimin had chosen the cafe to begin with, it was right next door. He gave it a couple days before The Dragons destroyed themselves from within once those loyal to Angel found his body in their own territory. The Kims might even absorb some good fighters after.

Jimin hummed, wiping the blood off on the man's shirt, almost annoyed that the kill was so easy. The wind picked up and Jimin put the knife back into his sleeve, pulling out a second one he'd plucked out of The Dragons Don's kitchen the day before. That break-in had also been incredibly boring. The drunk had spun the knife around like a toy, mumbling Angel's name under his breath before he'd tossed the small weapon on the ground. Jimin had bought an exact model the next morning so that the wound would match.

He took out the thin material from his front pocket and slipped the pair of gloves over his fingers. Jimin opened the plastic bag which held the knife with the right hand's fingerprints and dragged the blade across Angel's already stiff neck to coat it with blood before throwing it on the ground. Putting gloves on during their meeting would have set Angel off so he had to use a replica, but the finger prints should be saved on the original knife.

Jimin hummed, satisfied to report another hit completed for The Kims. With the body still pooling blood behind him, he made his way out of the alley and back to the family he would do anything for, would shoulder being called a whore for, would kill for, would burn the world for. He might not be a Kim by blood, but he built their entire empire for them and that was as close to blood as he could get. Nothing and no one would ever get in the way of that.

___________

A/N:
Alright so first impressions?? Hope you guys like it so far!! It's a little cheesy but I'm leaning into the Mafia au.

- Vi