They arrived at the secluded area an hour later and parked a few meters away from the timeworn building. The sun had taken shelter behind a large gray cloud and a light fog blanketed the place, which lent an eerie notion to the already dreary scenery. 

As they advanced with their guns already in hand, Jungkook signaled the team two to check the back of the building. The two windows were dingy and overlaid with thick dust, impeding them from getting a clear visual on the inside. 

Standing to the side of the door, Jungkook held a fist up, gesturing them to wait as he tried to pick up on any sounds from inside. He was met with complete silence, though, something that baffled him a notch.

Forcing out the presentiment that crawled its way up his chest, he beckoned Namjoon to come forward with the Halligan bar. The team two returned then, and Jang Hyuk shook his head, which meant he didn’t find a back door or any other way of entering.

Jungkook motioned Namjoon to wait and reached for the steel handle. He gave it the smallest of pushes, and to his immense surprise, the door was unlocked. 

His eyes bulged as they darted all over his team members, and Hoseok stepped forward with Seung Ho, ready to burst inside. With a nod from Jungkook, he thrust the large door open, and the two poised their guns and sallied forth. 

The two swiftly scanned the place for any presence, but found none. “Clear,” Hoseok yelled, and the rest of the team charged inside as well. 

They scrutinized the dusky big room, finding no indications that someone lived there even for a day. They wended their way further inside towards a black car, but they all soon stuttered to a halt at the gory sight they faced. Arms simultaneously lowering inch by inch, fourteen pairs of eyes gaped at the scene with joint horror. 

“What the fuck?” Jungkook muttered in pure shock upon finding six bodies scattered on the ground with blood pooled beneath them and splattered around. He wasn’t the type to get so appalled by such a sight because — unfortunately — he was used to it, but he didn’t expect it this time at all. He wasn’t prepared for this. 

Forcefully dispelling as much as he could from his startle, Jungkook turned to his squad. “Team two, check the rest of the building. Team one, check if anyone is alive.”

Everyone heeded to his order right away. Jungkook approached the first body and crouched to check his pulse, but he found nothing. 

“Jungkook,” Namjoon called. “Han Misu.” He glanced down at the body, and Jungkook traced his gaze, only to see the said man with a bullet hole in his forehead. 

“Jong Hoon is dead too,” Seung Ho informed as he stood straighter. 

“Someone is alive here!” Hoseok exclaimed, and in seconds, he heard someone requesting for an ambulance. “Hey, can you hear me?” he asked as he tapped his cheek, though he didn’t get a response.

Jungkook kneeled over him and checked his pulse. “He has a weak pulse. How long for the ambulance?” 

“The nearest clinic is fifteen minutes away so...” an officer said. 

“He won’t be alive in fifteen minutes!” Jungkook snarled, an infuriated scowl darkening his countenance as he weighed their options. “Let’s move him to the car.”

“We shouldn’t move an injured—” 

“We can’t wait that long,” Jungkook cut Hoseok off, his tone significantly lower and more agitated than before. “Help me move him.”

And since they didn’t have another choice, they did. Hoseok held his upper body, Seung Ho supported his waist, and Jungkook looped his arms under his knees. They tried to keep his body as even as possible when they carried him to the car, and soon they set him in the backseat.

As the other officers and team two stayed behind to secure the scene and call forensics too, the team one drove off. Seung Ho kept pressing down on the unknown man’s wound as Hoseok maintained his gaze on his chest to make sure he was breathing and often checked his pulse. 

They had already informed the paramedics that they were on the way as well, and several minutes later, they came across the ambulance and signaled it to stop.

After they transferred him to the ambulance, they followed it to the clinic. “What the hell happened there?” Hoseok asked, sighing once more. 

“They beat us to it,” Jungkook muttered, his fingers around the wheel clenching. “They found Jong Hoon before us, and they killed him.”

“But why?” Seung Ho asked, throughout confused about why someone wanted to kill him before the police would find him. 

“Come on, Seung Ho,” Jungkook said in exasperation, but he seized on the opportunity to train his intelligence a bit since he was a newbie. “Who was Jong Hoon looking for?” 

“Kim Taehyung.”

“And why did we want to find Jong Hoon?”

“Because... he killed someone.”

“Why else?”

“Because he had met Kim Taehyung and he could lead us to—oh,” Seung Ho breathed out as the realization began to sink in. His eyes glittered by the mind-numbing awakening as they wandered around the car in mute cogitation. “Jong Hoon had met Kim Taehyung. He knew what he looked like. Jin Mo found out that we were onto him and killed him because he didn’t want Jong Hoon to tell us what he knew about him.”

“Exactly,” Jungkook said with a nod. “But how did they find him before us? And why did they kill everyone?”

“Jin Mo is a lunatic,” Namjoon sighed. “You know he kills for no reason.”

“Yeah. I know,” Jungkook said below his breath as the wrenching remembrance of his hyung’s death floated in his head and lingered there until they arrived at the clinic. 

They rushed the unnamed man into surgery and informed them it would probably take a few hours to finish, so they went back to the scene for the time being. 

. . .

It was late in the afternoon when Jungkook received a call that the patient had woken up, and he made haste to go to the clinic with Namjoon to take his statement and hopefully get some answers. 

The nurse in charge escorted them to his room as soon as they arrived. “His name is Su Han Moon. It was a difficult surgery because of the bullet’s location, but he’s fine now. His memory might be a little blurry, but it’s normal.”

“Thank you,” Namjoon said, and they stepped into the room. “Hello, Han Moon-ssi. I’m Kim Namjoon, and this is Jeon Jungkook. We’re detectives.”

“Were you the ones who saved me?”

“The doctors saved you,” Jungkook said as he took his seat close to the bed. 

“No, someone carried me. I remember someone saying that I won’t be alive in fifteen minutes and then carrying me to a car. It’s your voice. It’s you, right?”

Jungkook diverted his gaze elsewhere as he cleared his throat. “Yes. Everyone would have done the same thing.”

“No,” Han Moon objected softly. “Not for me. The doctor said I would have died if the detectives waited for the ambulance. Thank you for saving me. Because now I can tell you what a monster Jin Mo is.”

“What?” Namjoon asked as he placed a chair next to Jungkook and sat. “You saw Jin Mo?”

“No. But they were his men.”

“Okay, tell us what happened from the beginning.” Namjoon fished his notebook and pen from his pocket then.

“Jin Mo had put a snitch on our side. I figured it out and told my boss through a text when they were together. He killed the snitch, and there was another guy working with him, but he got away.” 

“Are you talking about Jay?” Jungkook questioned. 

“Yes, yes, that was his name. Jay was a snitch, but apparently he couldn’t find out anything and had to bring someone to help him. And he brought a seducer.” 

“Seducer?” Puzzlement swept across Jungkook’s face, filling his eyes as well. 

“You don’t know anything about Jin Mo’s organization?” Han Moon’s brows tipped up in surprise. 

“We do, but we’ve never heard of a seducer before.”

“It’s a whole unit. The group is called Selene and consists of seducers. He sends them to extract information from Jin Mo’s rivals.”

“So the other guy, the guy who escaped that night, is a seducer?” 

“Yes. And the best they have, apparently. That fucker, Taehyung. It’s all his fault.”

“Kim Taehyung’s fault? Why?” 

Han Moon tilted his head to the side as his forehead puckered in consideration. “Kim? Are you sure it’s Kim?”

“Yes. We found his blood at the scene and that name came up,” Namjoon confirmed. 

“Oh. Maybe he had used a different surname because I don’t think that Kim was the one I’ve heard.”

Everything was starting to get more and more mystifying in Jungkook’s mind with each new clue and revelation. “You don’t remember the surname he had used?” 

“No. My boss only mentioned his name once because he was thrilled about meeting him again. He was so good at seducing him that my boss didn’t even suspect a thing.”

“Okay,” Namjoon murmured as he finished writing. “What did you mean before? Why is it that guy’s fault?”

“My boss was looking for him after he escaped. He wanted to kill him for playing him, but he was nowhere to be found. We managed to find one of Jin Mo’s men and forced him to get in contact with Jin Mo to bring Taehyung to us. We negotiated with him, and he agreed, but it was all a trap. The moment we exited the car, someone shot me with something and I blacked out just seconds later. I don’t know what type of drug it was, but I must have woken up ten minutes later or something because my boss was still alive and talking with someone I didn’t recognize.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jungkook let out with an edge of restlessness. “That building wasn’t Jong Hoon’s hideout?”

“No. Jong Hoon never stayed in the same place for more than two days.”

“What...” Jungkook fought against the confusion with a vengeance, endeavoring to understand why Misu went to that location for three consecutive days and even twice a day. “Wait.” He snapped his head to the side, meeting Namjoon’s equally perplexed gaze. “Was Han Misu wearing his watch when we found him?” 

Namjoon’s gaze drifted away in thought, but it fastened on him soon enough. “No, he wasn’t.” 

Jungkook mused over the convoluted mess for a bit more, but pushed it aside for the moment to continue the questioning. “You said Jong Hoon was talking to someone you didn’t recognize. Did you hear his name, by any chance?”

“Yes. I heard my boss calling him Ah In. That guy said they couldn’t let him live because the police were onto him and if they found him, he’d endanger one of their best men. I think he was talking about Taehyung. That’s why I said it’s all his fault. They killed my boss to protect him.”

“But Taehyung didn’t kill your boss. That guy Ah In did. And Jin Mo told him to do it. So it’s Jin Mo’s fault.” 

“Still. Kim Taehyung deserves to die after how he played my boss.”

“Anyway,” Jungkook sighed. “Why did they kill everyone if they just wanted to kill Jong Hoon to protect Kim Taehyung?” 

Han Moon slipped into a state of intense reflection, and his eyes regained focus as he leveled them at Jungkook. “That Ah In guy said something strange. Something like, ‘Our gift should be given with everyone’s blood, not just yours.’”

“Gift?” Namjoon repeated as he jotted it down. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what he meant.”

“And Ah In killed everyone then?” Jungkook asked. 

“To be honest, my boss killed Han Misu. Ah In told him he had made a deal with the police and that they put a tracker in his watch.”

Both detectives stared in sheer surprise, unable to comprehend what was happening. “What?” Jungkook breathed out. “How... How did they know?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know how they do it, but they know fucking everything.”

The new information was startling enough to drag Jungkook out of consciousness for a few seconds. “Anything else you remember? Anything else you know about Jin Mo or Kim Taehyung?”

Han Moon lowered his eyes as he raked over his brain for anything else important. “Ah. I remember that guy Ah In saying to Jong Hoon that he would never find Kim Taehyung because he simply doesn’t exist.”

“He doesn’t exist?” Jungkook worked through the hidden signification of this sentence fast enough. “That means... he’s using a fake identity.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. There won’t be a trace of him anywhere if he uses someone else’s identity. There’s no way to find him. Unless if you find Jin Mo’s hideout.”

“Any idea where—” 

“No, don’t even bother asking me. No one knows. I’ve only heard it’s somewhere in the mountains, but we didn’t find anything when we searched.”

“Okay. It’s important to remember what surname Taehyung had used with Jong Hoon, so if you remember anything, call us right away.” 

“Why, though? He could have used a fake one.”

“True.” Jungkook lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “But anything is important right now.” 

“Okay.”

The two detectives rose to their feet and trod towards the exit, but Han Moon’s voice immobilized them. 

“Ah. That night Jay and Taehyung met with my boss. Did you go to the bar they met?” 

“What bar?” Jungkook’s face crinkled in bafflement. 

“They went for drinks to a bar near the parking lot where Jay died.” 

“I went to every business around there and no one seemed to know Jong Hoon.”

“That bar Merlina was his hang-out place. He had personally requested to pretend that they didn’t know him if someone asked about him because of privacy reasons. If I come with you, they’ll tell you everything.” 

Jungkook preserved eye contact for a spell. “Why are you so willing to help us?”

“Because you guys saved me. And I want to find that Kim Taehyung too. Since I can’t kill him, I want to help to put him in fucking jail for the rest of his pathetic life.” 

“Working for a criminal won’t get him to jail for the rest of his life. Unless if he has killed people.”

“He’s Jin Mo’s man. Of course he will have killed people.”

Jungkook snorted because, of course, he was right. “Anyway. Call us when you get discharged so we can go to that bar.”

“I will.” He watched while the two left the room, and he sighed as he reached for the remote control to turn on the TV. Several minutes rolled by when he decided to flick through the channels. Then, a news channel popped up, and he adjusted his head to read the headline. 

Song Mihyung was found guilty of receiving bribes. 

Song Mihyung? He questioned in his head as he frowned. Song Mihyung... Song Mihyung. Son... Seon. Seon Taehyung. It’s Seon Taehyung, not Kim Taehyung. 

His heartbeat rocketed by the realization that struck him, and he extended his hand to grab his phone, but a nurse bobbed into the room. “Do you know if detective Jeon has left?” Lines of mystification bloomed on his forehead as he viewed the nurse lowering the blinds and then trudging closer while sliding his hand into his pocket. “Who are you?”

“Su Han Moon. We would have let you live if you didn’t run your big mouth. But blabbers like you shouldn’t exist in the first place.”

The horrific suspicion that overcame him turned out to be true and his eyes swam in pure dread in no time. “No, no, no, help! He—” 

The man slammed his hand over his mouth at once and stuffed an injection into the side of his neck. 

Han Moon strained against his grasp, though his body lost its strength just a few seconds later and his breathing began to slow and become labored. “They’ll know I’ve been murdered, you stupid asshole.”

“And what makes you think we care? Of course they’ll know. Even if I didn’t stick this injection directly into your neck, they’d know. Jeon Jungkook is already on his way here again. But you won’t be alive to run your mouth any longer.” A devilish grin painted over his face beneath his mask, and he caressed his head as Han Moon gasped out his very last breaths. 

Only ten minutes after the two detectives departed from the clinic, Jungkook received a text that rendered him a speechless, nonplussed mess. 

Detective. From now on, every person you’ll question about Kim Taehyung will die. Can you handle it? Knowing that it’ll be your fault these people will die? 

“Drive back to the clinic. Now!”

Namjoon was in a similar state once Jungkook recited the text he received, and he sped up as much as he could. Jungkook also called the clinic to check on Han Moon, but unfortunately, he was already dead.

“Fuck, fuck!” Jungkook banged his fist against the dashboard when he hung up the phone. “He’s dead. He’s already dead.”

“What? How is that possible? We were there ten minutes ago!”

“I know. Fuck. We should have been more careful. We’re dealing with Jin Mo here.” Jungkook buried his face in his hands as a devouring feeling of self-blame, achingly tangled with frustration, rampaged inside him. 

🥀

Taehyung drove back to the mansion after meeting Kim Ki Han and his friends. Hanging out with a bunch of druggies was always something he loathed, though he had to do it often. 

He stood in front of the gate and waited until it slid to the side, then advanced, only to espy a frantic Jimin dashing towards him. 

“Tae, he killed him, he killed him,” Jimin said in a rushed, restless whisper. 

Taehyung’s brows sank low over his eyes in mild puzzlement, but they soon flitted up with the tide of awakening that tumbled over him. “He killed Su Han Moon?”

“Yes! I don’t know why the fuck he did that. The six people who died today weren’t enough for him? I really don’t know.”

The spark of fury festered in his gut, and he surrendered to its fierceness; he blazed past Jimin and stamped into the mansion, deaf to anyone who greeted him and Ah In, who attempted to stop him. The cords in his neck stood out in wrathful ridges by the rampancy ringing his muscles, his sharp features roaring with the tirade he was about to rifle at Jin Mo. 

He blitzed the metallic door with bangs of his fists, but a sudden wrench by Ah In sent him stumbling back. 

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Taehyung settled for a glower instead of replying because he truly believed he would be unable to contain himself if he dealt with Ah In at that very moment. So he ignored him and approached the door again, ready to continue with the pounding. 

The door split in two then, revealing a seemingly baffled Jin Mo shuffling closer. “What’s all this fuss about?”

“We need to talk,” Taehyung said in a low, growling voice as he charged inside. “Tell your dog to leave us the fuck alone.”

“Yah!” Ah In spurted forward, but Jin Mo slapped a hand on his chest. 

“I told you to leave the VIPs alone. You don’t question them if I don’t ask you to, and you don’t touch them if I don’t ask you to. And especially Taehyung. So now, leave.” Jin Mo patted his cheek and spun around as Ah In bowed his head and wordlessly exited the room. “You seem mad, Taehyungie. I don’t like seeing you like that.”

An exasperated snort erupted from Taehyung as he rolled his head to the side. “I’m not mad. I’m fucking infuriated. And you know why! How far will you go, huh? Stop killing people because of me! Stop killing people!”

Jin Mo, stolid at his outraged, thunderous voice, seated himself on the couch and reclined, squaring an ankle over his knee. “Aren’t you ungrateful now, hmm? It’s for the protection of your identity,” he spoke in a sweet tone and with a little smile on his face that had Taehyung seething even more. 

“I don’t fucking care. They won’t find me anyway, no matter what they’ll tell the police. So stop killing people.”

“They won’t find you because I put someone to kill Han Moon, Taetae. Not only he ran his mouth to our sweet detective Jeon Jungkook, but he even remembered the surname you had used with Jong Hoon. I told you not to use that surname on your missions.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” Taehyung exclaimed with a frustrated fling of his arm. “You know our first meeting wasn’t planned, and I didn’t have another ID on me. Don’t try to put this on me.”

“Ah, Taetae.” He sighed with a tight-lipped smile. “You’re the best I have. But you’re too soft. Too emotional. Such a shame.”

“I prefer being emotional than fucking heartless like you.” He surged towards the door, but Jin Mo’s stentorian voice stilled him. 

“You better watch it. Your life is in my hands. You know there are still people who are longing to kill you. If you don’t want to end up like Han Moon, Jong Hoon, and everyone else who died today, you really should watch how you behave to me.”

The anger melted into aching emptiness as he swiveled at a creep and laid his desiccated eyes on him. “Why did you have to kill everyone? Jong Hoon was enough. Jong Hoon knew me, so I know he had to die. But... why his men?”

“Consider it as a gift.” Jin Mo’s blithe smile returned fast enough, as well as his dulcet tone. 

“Gift?” 

“Yes. A gift to our dear detective Jeon Jungkook who’s always working so hard.”

“What?” Taehyung’s face shriveled in a weary, mystified frown. 

“Luring him by using Misu’s watch was absolutely brilliant. We wouldn’t have thought that they put a tracker in his watch if they didn’t put a tracking program on your phone. So thanks for telling me that.” He wiggled a brow at him. “I wanted to play with our Jungkookie a little, you know, to mock his incompetence. And killing only Jong Hoon wouldn’t be fun at all. He’d expect that. But I bet he didn’t expect to find everyone dead today. I wish I could see his face. I’m getting excited just by thinking about it.” He grinned as he crossed his arms and rubbed his biceps, feeling tingles run down his skin. 

Taehyung watched him intently, speechless by his demeanor. “I knew you were crazy, but this... this is a whole other level of lunacy.”

Jin Mo shrugged a carefree shoulder. “You’re not that different, you know. You get excited by watching someone fall for your seducing tricks, and I get excited by playing with our dear detectives. Same thing.”

“Yeah, same thing. Sure,” Taehyung scoffed. “I don’t care if you want to kill people. But don’t kill because of me. I won’t put up with it if it happens again.”

“Oh? And what will you do, huh? You’ll quit?” A sonorous cackle slipped past his lips at the absurdity of this thought. 

“Yes. I will.” 

The severity of his voice chopped off his mirth at once, but his sweet smile spread over his face soon enough. “You can’t do that, Tae. This job is perfect for you. It runs in your blood. Your father would be proud of you. You followed his steps like the good son you are.”

“I’m still waiting for any information about my parents’ death. If you want me to continue bringing good results and succeeding in every mission, you have to give me something too. I work for you for money, but for answers as well. Don’t ever forget that.”

Jin Mo sighed as he pushed himself to his feet and trod to the desk to prepare a glass of whiskey. “It’s difficult to find information about a murder that happened nineteen years ago, you know.” He brought the glass to his lips and smelled the intoxicating drink before sipping it. “Isn’t it around this time that they’ll start following you everywhere again?”

Taehyung’s eyes roamed over the floor as he fell into a status of musing. For years now, they had been following him for a month and then stopped for three months before doing it all over again. He had confronted the guy once, and he only told him he should be prepared because they would soon finish what they failed to do when he was eight. And of course, Taehyung knew right away he was referring to killing him. 

But they just resumed to monitor him even to this day. They hadn’t attempted to kill him yet, and that puzzled Taehyung greatly. Why didn’t they just kill him? They knew where he lived, where he hung out, where they could find him at almost any moment. He truly couldn’t understand why. 

“Yes, it’s been three months since they last followed me.”

“Great! Catch the guy and at least find out his name. I’ll put my men to ask around and we’ll find out who his boss is. We have to know who’s the boss if we want answers.”

“My father’s biggest rival was—” 

“Yeah, yeah. I remember. Woo Myeong. And honestly, I believe he put his men to kill him too. But Woo Myeong is dead. There's a rumor that his wife killed him, but why would she? Anyway, my men are still trying to find his wife. I’ll let you know when they do.”

“Okay.” Taehyung dipped his chin in a greeting, but a raised hand from Jin Mo prevented him from leaving. 

“How’s the mission going? You know you have to get access soon, right? It’s dangerous to wait for long.”

Taehyung’s head dropped at the remembrance of that mission. “I know. I’m working on it.”

“Are you?” Jin Mo smirked as he set his glass on the desk and crept closer. “Because from what I hear, you keep fighting him whenever you meet him.”

“He pisses me off,” Taehyung spat out, endeavoring to tame his temper.

“That’s not like you, Taetae. Even if you hate someone, you focus on your goal. You discard all your feelings and get the job done. What’s the problem with him? He’s not an easy target, is he?”

“No, he’s not. And I don’t understand why I have to do this in the first place. Even if everything stays like this, they won’t be able to find me.”

Jin Mo smoothed a delicate hand down the side of his head, smiling softly. “Every trace of you must disappear for your identity’s safety. And he is our only passage to achieve that.” With another gentle squeeze on his shoulder, Jin Mo trod back to his desk. “Your next encounter will happen soon. Don’t be so mean to him. Our lovely detective Jeon Jungkook. He’s a very sensitive man, but he hides it well. So treat him nicer from now on, hmm?”

Taehyung huffed a contemptuous noise of discord. “He’s an egoistic asshole.”

The rumble of Jin Mo’s laughter shook his chest, and he let it spew from his mouth seconds later. “The cruelty of life has made him like this, Tae. He’s trying his best, our pour boy. Get close to him and—”

“I know,” he snarled, his forehead bunching up with the scowl that burst onto his countenance. “I’m working on it, so don’t mention him again.” He pointed towards the door, and Jin Mo chuckled as he reached for the control, then pushed the button to allow him to exit.

───⭒───༺🌑༻───⭒───

So Jin Mo gave Taehyung a mission about Jungkook! Do you think Taehyung knew who he was when they met the first time? Drop your theories 😁

I'm so excited about the next chapters! You'll get a lot of taekook, promise💜