Hot water hit Jimin's back, turning red as blood scraped off his skin. He couldn't remember how long he'd been standing under the shower, Jungkook's shocked face tattooed behind his eyelids.

Jimin groaned, turning the water even hotter. Steam started to choke the air in the bathroom. He closed his eyes, trying to push the night's events out of his mind like it was a poison in his lungs. There were the hit men, hiding thin rifles up above the metro line. There was Jungkook, frozen as Jimin shot the runners. Jimin couldn't get the images to stop. Never had a hit rattled him so completely before, but this one, this one wasn't planned.

Jimin had noticed the hitmen instantly. They were sloppy, was Jimin's first thought. The cargo carts closed off two sides of the meeting point and the ocean hugged the third which left the metro to squat, but the men barely tried to hide. Their visors gave them away as the Parks drove in, their headlights reflecting off the small lenses of their guns looking like a star among the shadows of the abandoned area.

Jimin had pressed the earpiece then and thought about warning Yoongi, but something made him hesitate. Trying to explain and pull the others into the situation when they were waiting on Hwasa would only cause confusion. It might give him up as more than a street rat, but Jimin didn't want to waste time putting The Jeons in unnecessary danger by taking their attention away from the drop off just to keep up his lie. Especially not when the kills would be so easy in the first place.

It barely took any effort for Jimin to reach the ticket booth. The hitmen were loud, talking about how The Jades were going to make The Parks rich. As he neared them, Jimin noted that both men were dressed in full black combat gear and bullet-proof vests. One had a golden snake on his shoulder and the other had no mark at all. Their faces were covered, but the material looked thin enough for a sharp knife to easily cut through. The fabric wasn't attached to the suit either, leaving a sliver of skin between their chest and mask. Shooting them would be too loud. If these hitmen were after Jungkook, then a gun shot could set off whoever sent them in the first place.

Seoul had even dumber men than Busan did, because both hitmen had their guns aimed outside two windows, glass shattered around the floor, with no one watching the entrance to the booth. That, or they were simply confident The Jeons wouldn't catch on that the meeting was a set up. The thing that Jimin couldn't figure out was why The Parks would want to take Jungkook out in the first place. He frowned, seeing a hint of red ink on one of the hit men's wrists as they adjusted their stance. The tattoo was of two thin lines. The confidence was starting to make sense: The Parks weren't working alone.

Jimin sighed, tilting his head back so that the hot water could start to burn newer skin, hitting new parts of his neck and ears so that the sting of it could get his mind off of the night.

Their deaths were quick. The panic for Jungkook that bloomed inside Jimin's chest, a feeling so visceral that it could only be described as alive, blinded him like nothing else before. There was this overwhelming drive in Jimin to protect Jungkook, protect the one person who reminded Jimin how to feel human. Someone who showed him that Jimin could expect more out of someone than cryptic looks and secret nights and desperate conversations. That Jimin was allowed to be a real, full, person.

A separate part of Jimin, a hidden storm in the back of his mind, screamed to let the hitmen fire as he slipped behind each man to cut their throats. If Jungkook died, then so would Jimin's questioning of The Kims and his life in Busan. Because if Jimin didn't laugh with Taehyung, then what was he to him? Kim's Whore was supposed to be a covert title, but if the only thing he was supposed to hide with Taehyung was his love for him, then was there some truth to the title?

Jimin hit his head against the bathroom wall, turning the water another notch hotter. The steam was starting to suffocate him as he slid down to sit on the floor of the shower. He pressed his palms into his eyes, trying to force the thoughts deep down into a cabinet he could lock away. The Kims were his family. They protected him. Taught him. Cared for him.

Beat him. Threatened him. Controlled him. Disregarded him. Wanted to whore him.

Fuck. But they didn't abuse him, at least. Jimin wasn't 'abused'. He couldn't have been.

God Dad, why'd you have to leave? Jimin thought. You'd know what to say about all of it. Tell me that everything had a purpose, right?

Because it had to. Everything had to have a purpose. The beatings. The secrets. The order. The discipline. The ranks. The touches. The kills. The suffocating, suffocating, suffocating -

Jimin should have alerted Yoongi. Should have asked for his help like an amateur fighter would so that his cover wasn't blown by taking out two hitmen on his own. Most of the blood came from that second hitman's neck, Jimin had shoved the knife much deeper than he needed to, pulling both bodies down from the abandoned ticket booth and leaving them out on the ground for the Parks to find and understand that Jungkook was protected. That Jimin's one light in his strange life, no matter how confusing or terrifying or dim, wasn't going to go out anytime soon. Jimin wasn't shaking after the kills and he hadn't cried when he got back to his men. There wasn't even a hint of shock in his face. Jimin could see in Seokjin's clenched jaw that he'd clocked how strange that was.

But Jungkook made Jimin feel warm like no one in Busan in the past six years ever did. It wasn't a hallow sort of warmth, but a burning, breathing, monster of a thing. Jimin didn't know what to make of it but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Jungkook die before he found out. He felt addicted to him the way The Kim's Don was obsessed with Ruby Wine or club goers dreamt of Drive. He was addicted to feeling like a person. Someone who deserved to be perceived beyond sex or use or skill. Someone who was allowed to laugh.

Jimin remembered how quiet it was when he walked out of the shadows, leaving the men bleeding out behind him with his forearms and legs covered in blood from dragging them. He headed straight for Jungkook's voice, then. It sounded clear through the fog of blood and focus.

Jimin got close enough to see two runners, one holding a theatrical, almost comically villainous, grey case in his hand. Like someone had watched one too many episodes of The Sopranos and thought they knew what organized crime looked like. Never in Jimin's entire career had he seen someone carry a case like that to a drop off - and never in a hoodie, either.

"Fuck." Jimin muttered under the water, his head light from the steam. What was he thinking? A complicated mess of an emotion knotted in his stomach and Jimin curled over in the shower as the feeling tore through his chest. He never should have taken those runner's out. The hitmen either. He should have been sloppier, should have screamed or cried or done anything so they didn't question him. Didn't force Jimin to leave once they found out exactly who he was.

Every single logical part of Jimin's brain turned off when he heard the clicking coming from that case. When he saw the confident snicker on the runner's faces, the cigarette casually in one of their fingers. Were the snipers supposed to be a backup in case the Jeon's didn't accept the case? What exactly was The Parks play here? Why a bomb? To clean up the bodies after? Or just to bring the cops attention to the meeting point?

Jimin should have yelled something then. Screamed at Seokjin that the case was a bomb or told Yoongi over his earpiece. He should have feign confusion or fear. But protecting his cover was the very last thing on Jimin's mind. There was only the fear that Jungkook was less experienced. That Jungkook was trusting. That he believed in people, that he wanted strangers to like him.

When Jimin's eyes connected with Jungkook's, a rush went down Jimin's spine. There was admiration and fear mixed in those eyes. That innocence was there too, excitement and worry dancing together like partners in a waltz. This overwhelming feeling of protection washed over Jimin again and then his body snapped into motion. He didn't yell anything to Seokjin, didn't tip off Yoongi, didn't waste time pretending and there wasn't room for missteps, no matter how calculated.

Jimin groaned in the shower. Why? Why had he killed those runners? Why did Jungkook make Jimin want to risk himself? Why, why, why? He hit his head on the wall, the shame and confusion starting to push against his chest like it was a weight trying to suffocate him.

The second runner had started to reach for his gun when Jungkook started to question them, ego like a stench flooding off of him as trigger happy fingers wrapped around the barrel. There were no thoughts then. Just silence as Jimin started to dance within the the shadows, his body turning on his heel as familiar daggers slipped into his palms expertly slashing the men's throats. It was quick and extremity efficient. The runners had no chance.

The case exploding safely away from them and the sound of Yoongi dragging the dead bodies into the light was easy to block out. What Jimin couldn't run from was how frozen Jungkook was after. How strongly Jimin wanted to comfort  him. Wanted to hold his hand and sooth the shock away. How much he wanted to help him and explain that those men wanted to harm Jungkook and Jungkook's family. But he couldn't because the second Jungkook heard the gunshot hit the dead runner's body, his eyes clouded over in disgust.

That was the look Jimin couldn't burn off, no matter how hot he turned up the water.

Jimin shut the shower off, curling into himself as he soaked in the pain from his back and watched the last of the blood wash off his body.

* * *

Jungkook, Seokjin, and Yoongi sat at a table in Jungkook's penthouse, two beers deep with papers scattered around them detailing Busan's crime-network and any information they could find on Park Jimin. Yoongi, surprisingly, was the one to call the meeting after both him and Seokjin had spent the week scavenging anything they could find on him, all three of them still in shock over The Park event.

After the set-up, they all realized the peace in Seoul had officially broken. Jungkook didn't doubt Jimin was on their side, The Park kills proved as much, but it equally showed that Jimin was hiding much bigger secrets than he'd initially thought. In Seokjin's words, Jimin was good, but no one was that good.

Jungkook finished relaying everything he knew from what Jimin had directly shared with him about his past - about his knife collecting father and ditching Busan after the Kims tried to take him on as a sex-worker. Yoongi and Seokjin listened with a concerned frown and Jungkook reached for his beer when he was done, desperately trying to shake the feeling of Jimin's palm slipping into his own when his body froze.

"Here's the thing, I don't know how much Jimin is really lying." Seokjin said. Jin pulled out a cream folder, laying it out on the table. It had dozens of photos taken of Jimin and the Busan Don's son, Kim Taehyung, in various settings. A handful of them were some sort of cocktail party with Taehyung's hand on Jimin's lower back, some with them sitting and his hand was up Jimin's thigh, and some more private photos taken of their silhouettes on top of one another. Jungkook thought again of Jimin's hand in his and cleared his throat. "Kim men are extremely tough to crack but I was able to pay one enough to confirm Jimin stayed in Taehyung's room for multiple nights a week and that the guards could hear them - um - you know."

Jungkook swallowed, not able to look at the photos without feeling a massive pit in his stomach.

"Anyway. Like I said, I don't think Jimin fully lied." Seokjin said, gesturing at the photos. "He was a whore for the Kims. What he did lie about is for how long. You said they only offered the role to him before he left, right?"

"Yea he said his old gang got absorbed by The Kims and that was when they tried to make him into a - when they offered him that role." Jungkook said, feeling his mind start to leave the conversation, like he was floating above it. Suddenly he heard Jimin's gentle voice in his ear again, his hand on the holster of Jungkook's gun. Four men dead around them. The faces blurred with Yoongi and Seokjin's own.

"That part's the lie. He was Taehyung's whore for six years."

"What?" Yoongi said, furrowing his brows. "Six years is a long time. You don't just lose that type of loyalty overnight. What made him run?"

"What if he was in love with the son?" Jungkook said, thinking back on the night he had taken Jimin to the bar. How excited he was to just talk to him. He remembered how nervous he was the entire time, wanting so desperately for Jimin to like him. For him to feel safe with them. "He said something to me once about loving someone in Busan."

"So what changed?" Yoongi said, resting his elbows on the table. "Why come here?"

"That's the million-dollar question." Seokjin said, pointing the lollipop stick in his mouth at Yoongi. He'd been working on the candy since the start of the meeting. "And where did he learn to fight like that?"

"I've heard the Kims are insane about that type of stuff though." Yoongi said. "We've gotten strays from Busan before, no one as skilled as Jimin, but still. They said that anyone up in the ranks or relatively close to The Don and his family are trained like crazy. If Jimin belonged to the Don's son for six fucking years, maybe they wanted to make sure he could hold his own if someone attacked them in the middle of the night."

"It's possible." Seokjin said. "I had some scouts do some more digging in Busan and apparently The Kims have an assassin within their ranks. Some people think the assassin is also Taehyung's whore and others think it's the right-hand. Busan's crime world talks about this so-called-assassin like a ghost story, so he might not even exist, but it is something to think about."

"You think it's Jimin?" Jungkook said, sitting up in his seat. His head was spinning, and he felt like he was going to vomit. If Jimin hurt either of his brothers, if he was a plant this entire time, Jungkook would never be able to recover from it.

"No." Seokjin said. "Strangely, I don't. Why hasn't he killed us already if he was sent here by The Kim's? I think that the answer to all of this is slightly less dramatic. I think that Jimin started as Taehyung's whore, got trained by the Kims because there were several hours of the day where no men were allowed to guard Taehyung when he was alone with Jimin, and then Jimin fell in love with him."

"Why would that cause him to run to Seoul?" Yoongi said and Jungkook chewed over the information. "You're usually killed if you try to leave a gang."

Seokjin grinned then like he was a high-school boy sharing a rumor he heard about the it-couple of class. He fished another photo out from the folder, putting it on top. It showed Taehyung sitting outside on a park bench with his right-hand, Jung Hoseok, next to him. The two were hand in hand with Taehyung's head resting on Hoseok's shoulder and Hoseok kissing his forehead.

"Kim Taehyung is in a romantic relationship with his right-hand, Jung Hoseok, and the only person who didn't know about it was Jimin, according to that guard I bribed. I think he found out, got heart broken and tried to run, so they caught him, beat him since Yoongi said he showed up with bruises, and then let Jimin go. What use does Taehyung have for a whore if he's committed to someone else?"

Yoongi leaned back in his seat, letting out a long whistle. "You really think they just 'let him go?'"

Seokjin shrugged. "Six years is a long time. Maybe Taehyung felt guilty and thought he was doing the right thing."

"So what do we do?" Yoongi asked. "About Jimin? I mean, he's a crazy good fighter. I don't want to let him go but - damn I mean how do we know he isn't still loyal to The Kims or some ploy with the whole Drive Deal we made with them? The way he killed those men...I mean I've never seen anything like it."

"Do you think he even knows about The Drive?" Seokjin asked. He looked over at Jungkook. "Jungkook I know you don't take on anyone for, you know, consensually paid sex, but I'm guessing Taehyung didn't share business details with him."

"That is by far the weirdest way you could have put it. Consensually paid sex?" Yoongi laughed.

"It is not." Seokjin frowned.

"You can just say the word 'whore.' You have plenty enough to go to hell for, I think you can get away with calling it what it is." Yoongi said.

Seokjin threw his lollipop stick at Yoongi who ducked out of the way.

"I don't think this information changes anything, really." Jungkook said. He looked down at his tattoos, thinking of his mom who had inked half of them before she passed away. She was a smart, tactical leader who believed in her people. Jungkook didn't want to become his dad who was the completely opposite, always searching for the next person to stab him in the back. "I think I should still take him to my dad's gala."

Both Seokjin and Yoongi blinked.

"Look, after The Park attack, we can all agree that Seoul's in a tight spot right now. More gangs are going to make bigger moves. Since we have partial control over Drive and are partnered with the only gang running Busan right now, we're an obvious target."

Seokjin stilled. "But bringing Jimin to The Gala? You need someone you trust in there. Now more than ever."

"Actually, I think Jimin is a smart move." Yoongi said. "You know The Jades are going to be there and they're extremely calculative. Having Jimin next to Jungkook will throw the Jades off if they're planning something. They won't make a move if there's a new player on the board, one they haven't figured out yet."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Jungkook said. "It's why I asked him to come in the first place."

Seokjin's lips thinned into a line, eyes darting from Yoongi to Jungkook.

"You want a stranger at your dad's gala?" Seokjin asked and Jungkook looked down at the pen on the table, tapping it. "One you know can kill four men without making a single sound and might be loyal to Busan."

"Or, one I can keep an eye on." Jungkook countered. "We can test his loyalty out." He didn't add that he'd rather keep Jimin close instead of coming back home to another dead body of someone he loved.

"Why is it that when you find a bright kid who can do math and plan schemes, no one bats an eye. But when I find someone who can actually use a gun without shooting their fingers off, it's suddenly suspicious?" Yoongi said, stretching out his shoulder with a groan. "We've all got history." Yoongi looked at Seokjin. "You were born a Jeon, I wasn't. I was made one after I killed my gang's old Don, yet neither of you are waiting for me to kill Jungkook."

"That was different. That Don was a psychopath, I would have killed him if you hadn't." Seokjin said, referring to an incredibly small gang from ten years ago that prayed on helpless kids, making money putting them in fighting rings.

"Is it really that different?" Yoongi said and Seokjin rubbed the bridge of his nose. Seokjin was the one who found out about the fighting ring. Seokjin and Jungkook watched Yoongi fight in the rings for weeks, trying to come up with a plan to save him after the three of them slowly become friends. The Jeons at the time couldn't act fast enough, so Yoongi stole the gun Jungkook got for his twelfth birthday and shot The Don himself.

"Suga. I know." Seokjin said kindly and Jungkook looked away, tugging on his lip ring. Jimin could have let those hitmen kill them, but he hadn't. That had to count for something. "This isn't just some kid who can hold a gun, he's someone who efficiently took out four guys with a fucking knife. That's not normal - for any fucking gang. I haven't heard of anyone here who can do that, not even The Jades."

"I trust him, that should be enough." Jungkook said. Jimin was kind when he was holding Jungkook's hand that night. He could have taunted him, could have stayed back, but he didn't. "We said he's a Jeon after last week. Whore or assassin. He's one of our own now. We need to make allies, not enemies."

"Allies?" Yoongi asked, raising a brow.

"At the gala." Jungkook clarified. "The Jades are going to make a move soon, I can feel it. Plus, if The Kim's move against us for losing that crate, we'll need more protection than just us. And, if the Parks and Jades are actually together, we're fucked. So yea, we have to make some alliances with anyone we can. There's politicians at the gala we can try to convince and smaller gang leaders too. Plus, if Jimin really is a Kim we can use that too if Busan acts against us."

"Just bring me instead, Jungkook. I know The Jades, I'll be able to deal with them." Seokjin said, his voice starting to strain. The Gala was a massive event held directly in the public's eye. It hosted many rich and powerful people - both from clean businesses and Jungkook's world. It was his dad's last gift to the crime world before parting it for the political one - a neutral ground. Seokjin's expression turned sad. "Don't leave me behind on this."

Yoongi rolled his shoulder and Jungkook looked out the window.

Seokjin cleared his throat. "I'm not saying we kick Jimin out from The Jeons, he saved all our lives last week, but The Gala is too important to be taking chances."

"Jimin's coming." Jungkook said, standing up. "Having a new face will throw The Jades off of our tails which means I can put my focus where it needs to be that night. We need allies and a plan. The Jades know the two of you too well for it to rattle them. Maybe Jimin hid the truth about his background with the Kims because he was ashamed of it. I don't think we should immediately stop trusting him just because he ran from an objectively bad situation. And if Jimin does end up betraying us, if he is a secret assassin or police ploy or whatever else, we shoot a bullet through his head and move on."

At least on that last point, the three men could finally agree.

_________
A/N:
Hehe double update 🫶
- Violette