Since the news had broken last night Namjoon had been following it religiously. If he wasn't following it all on a TV of some kind then it was on his laptop or his phone; constantly checking the headlines and relevant sections to try and find what he was looking for. In the past he had followed important news stories often but nowhere near as often as this. This was something else, something a lot more personal than the other world-changing events that had happened over the last few years because this would change his world. Possibly permanently. That was why he couldn't seem to stop checking even when it was driving him crazy. Yet Namjoon knew that he couldn't just focus on his work when something this massive had occurred.

There had been an attack on a casino in Singapore, one that was currently being labelled a terrorist attack by all major news outlets. According to the reports that had come out so far a gang of armed gunmen had opened fire on people inside, shooting the place up and causing mass chaos. The number of attackers was so far undetermined and there were at least thirty-five confirmed deaths and near a hundred injuries so far, some of which were potentially fatal. Yet there was no mention of who the dead were, just details about the location that the attack had occurred at. It hadn't been just any casino but The Gold Monkey casino of course. Haedogje Pa owned, the exact same one that he knew The Boy and Taehyung had boarded a plane to go to at some point in the late evening hours. If that wasn't the worst kind of knowledge to have then Namjoon didn't know what was. He did know that waiting to find out more was even more painful and a part of him wasn't entirely certain if he would have preferred to have not known that Taehyung was in Singapore or if knowing was better; could prepare him for a possible blow.

He was taking a slight break currently, hanging around the small break room on the ground-floor of the station. He wasn't interested in the fresh coffee on offer nor talking to the couple of other officers inside but rather the small TV stuck in one of the corners of the room ceiling. It was set high on a wall bracket and usually always turned to one of several news stations. Namjoon hadn't taken his eyes off the screen, eyeing the red rolling tape without blinking. So far over the past twenty minutes he had seen various stories hastily covered, the main focus shifting constantly back to the 'Singapore Shootout' as it was being labelled. The most popular clip so far seemed to be an interview with a witness to it all, a rather attractive female foreigner who had clearly been enjoying a holiday when all hell had broken loose.

" There were a lot of men, " the translator spoke over the woman. Her tone was rather flat and at odds with the frantic gestures of the witness on the screen. " They were wearing suits and had guns. They opened fire on one of the balconies and then things went crazy. I think men started firing back at them. I don't know if they were security personnel or rivals. I think it might have been gangsters or something like that. Or drug lords. " The reporter asked the woman how she was feeling and Namjoon could practically mine along with her reply in both Korean and English. " Terrified, I'm absolutely terrified ."

He closed his eyes and let his breath out in a weary sigh. It had been late in the night when he had received information from Sungah about how something had been going on with Taehyung and The Boy, something rather noteworthy. She had been rather dangerously watching their apartment building in Gangnam-gu on her own self-imposed night shift and she had decided to risk tailing the vehicle that they had left in. Unlike Hoseok she had been lucky and had managed to track them all the way to an airport without incident, and from that point she had snooped around and managed to snag a few blurry shots of Jungkook and Taehyung before they had boarded a private plane to Singapore. The second Taehyung had stepped foot through the security checkpoints had been the last time any of the team had seen him alive and right now they had no clue what that meant exactly.

Thirty-five deaths and one of those could be Taehyung. Another could be Jungkook too, and as much as Namjoon hated admitting it he also prayed that he wasn't one of them. That would fuck up the entire mission and this had been several hard months of training, preparation and actions that couldn't go to waste, and even more years waiting for the opportunity to arise for the department. He needed The Boy alive because that raised the chances of Taehyung being alive but there was still nothing on the circuit letting him know what had happened to them both. Watching the news over and over and seeing no updates wasn't exactly good, wasn't exactly healthy, but he couldn't help it. He needed to know the second that news broke if Taehyung was a casualty or not, and only then could he truly rest.

Namjoon felt his shirt pocket shifting as one of his two phones started vibrating aggressively. He pulled them both free as fast as he could to find that it was his actual phone vibrating rather than the disposable one. There went that slight spark of hope that he had felt thinking that it might just have been Taehyung contacting him. When he glanced at the screen he saw that Hoseok was calling him instead and that was very strange. His teammate was in the department office right now working, just two floors above where he was. Why would he call him like this when he could just come down and talk to him? He answered the call and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?"

" Shit, Namjoon, you just- you need to get your ass here right now! Forget about whatever else is going on we got bigger trouble, " Hoseok practically barked down the line at him. " Shit we're in trouble, we're in so much trouble. "

Namjoon didn't need telling twice and so he ended the call and hastily left the break room to get to the stairs. He didn't have a clue what his teammate's panicked words meant but he knew that he needed to hurry up and find out. He took the stairs in pairs to get up onto the first floor faster and when he stepped into the department office he saw Hoseok sitting at his desk. His teammate was slouched forward, hands on either side of his head and eyes staring at the wooden surface of the desk rather intently.

"Hey, speak to me, brother," Namjoon said as he moved to stand beside him. "What happened?"

"I was...was sent a bunch of files from another department seeking to identify people in a series of videos a couple of minutes ago. I was kinda taking a slight break, you know, when I got the email so I thought "hey, that's weird, I wonder what that's about?". I just opened an email, downloaded the files and thought OK what the fuck; I didn't have a fucking clue what they were, yeah? Just a bunch of videos but- oh shit, Namjoon, it's bad. It's really bad," Hoseok explained as he twisted to look at him. His face was pale and he could see how panicky his eyes were, wide and flighty. It was big trouble, that much was obviously clear just from looking at his expression. "I opened one of the files and it was Tae. It was fucking Tae and I didn't know, alright, I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?"

"Just...just watch."

Hoseok turned back to his computer and Namjoon saw that a window was open. There were a dozen or so video files present and he didn't even have enough time to eye the names before his teammate was clicking on one of them. A video player popped up on the screen and a second later the file was playing. The main focus of the recording, and completely unmissable right in the centre of the frame, was Taehyung, and Namjoon stared at the screen dumbly as he tried to figure out what he was watching. He saw a rather disheveled and wrinkled shirt and his arms looked to be in front of him rather than behind his back. From the bottom of the frame he could just about make out the white hints of nylon rope bound around his wrists. That was rather worrying and yet...yet there was something off about it all. Namjoon was certain that he could see the metal headboard of a bed in the background.

A hostage recording most certainly wouldn't be recorded in a bedroom.

For the first few seconds of the video he saw that Taehyung wasn't doing anything at all, just staring right at the camera with an expressionless face. His wrists might have been bound but he had no other forms of restraint that he could see. No gag, no tape over his mouth or blindfold over his eyes. Maybe there were lower body restraints, a similar binding of nylon rope around his ankles or knees, but he wasn't at all certain. Then there was sudden movement out of the corner of the frame and he saw a bare forearm and a hand holding a gun. All thoughts of the video being a hostage situation came right back into his mind and Namjoon felt his blood actually run cold in his veins. There was a gun being held right against Taehyung's head right now, a gleaming pistol that could have been loaded for all that he knew. It was pressed against his temple and it looked so fucking huge but Namjoon knew that that was his fear making it look that way.

" What did you do? " a voice sounded from the side of the frame. For some reason it caught him off guard and he furrowed his brow at it. Soft and slightly husky, the kind of voice that was easy to remember rather than forget.

" I wuh-was bad, " Taehyung replied in a rather submissive tone. He shifted slightly at this, eyes still glued to the camera. A nervous reaction, a scared one or...an excited one? It was so very hard to read him.

" Very bad. You know happens to bad boys don't you? " No, there was something about that voice. Namjoon knew that voice but he just couldn't figure out who it was right now because he was much too distracted by the sight of that fucking gun in the frame. How could he concentrate on anything else?

" Yeah-yeah, Master. They get...punished ."

That was when it hit him was what was going on. Namjoon wasn't watching a hostage recording that could have been linked to the casino shootout, he was watching something completely different. The file had been edited clearly for when whoever was holding the gun forced it into Taehyung's mouth it changed to another angle, this one overhead and more focused on his face. Hoseok hit pause at that point and then twisted to stare at him with a rather grim expression.

"Have you watched this through?" Namjoon asked in a quiet voice, staring at the paused image of Taehyung with the gun stuck between his lips. He was struck by how drugged Taehyung looked in the frame, glazed eyes and blown pupils. There was an almost flushed and erratic look to him and he had no doubts in his mind that Taehyung was high in the recording. Not drunk but most certainly drugged.

"No, I stopped playing the second I figured out that it was...was a sex tape," Hoseok explained, chair creaking slightly. "I got to...to a scene shortly after this. Tae is, uh, he's dragged onto the bed and when I saw that he wasn't wearing anything other than a shirt I knew. So I stopped playing the file and I called you."

"I know that voice, Hoseok. I'm certain that I know that voice," Namjoon muttered as he reached up to rub at his lips roughly. Hoseok stayed still and silent in his seat, not offering an opinion and rather waiting for him to continue. Master, Taehyung had said 'Master' and there was something about that that Namjoon kept playing over in his head. "I've got to skip through this and see if we can identify the other guy in the file."

"Oh fuck, Namjoon." His teammate sounded horrified and he had a very strong feeling that he was going to close the file on him before he could move to get hold of the mouse.

"No, we don't have to watch it; just drag the bar along and see if he shows his face," Namjoon explained. "You don't have to look but I need to see if we can identify him." Hoseok murmured under his breath but didn't stop him from reaching over to grab the mouse. "There's something going on here, I know there is. There's something about his voice and...and the 'Master' thing, I'm sure of it."

At first he couldn't see anything beyond the lower section of the other man's body; nothing more than than his forearms and stomach, maybe a hint of his thighs around Taehyung's own spread legs. As he dragged the bar along the image on the player changed. It was eerie seeing it all moving so fast. Eerie and rather disturbing. Whoever it was in the video with him seem to be rough as it was and it just looked even worse when sped up, if Taehyung's face was anything to judge by that was. He saw the gun once again present and pressed against the back of his head and he had almost given up hope of seeing anything when there was a sudden change of position.

"Wait, I think I got something."

Namjoon dragged the bar back slightly and had to settle for hitting play so that he could pause the video at the perfect frame. When it started playing Hoseok dragged his eyes away from the screen with a series of noises under his breath. From the computer came a mixture of sounds because Hoseok had forgotten to mute it. There was the softest creaking of bed springs underneath that of skin slapping together and Taehyung moaning and whimpering. It was hard to tell if it was in pleasure or pain. His teammate cringed in his seat, head still turned away the monitor and he waited until the exact moment that Taehyung was flipped onto his back.

"Shit, pause it," Namjoon instructed and Hoseok hit the space button without even looking at the screen, the loud clicking sound almost echoing through the department room. Right on the frame that Hoseok had paused it on Namjoon could see the other man's face. Not just a hint of his lower face, his chin and maybe his lips. Not a flash of his profile that was nothing more than a quick blur and impossible to distinguish. No, the frame showed pretty much the entirety of the man's face in almost startling clarity. Not HD but not far off it.

There was no way of possibly mistaking who he was.

"Hoseok, I need you to look at the screen and identify someone for me. Please." For a few seconds his teammate kept his eyes averted from the screen out of principle but then he took a deep breath and rolled his eyes over to look at the paused video.

"Holy...fuck, Namjoon. That's him. That's The Boy," Hoseok breathed out, eyes so wide that it was a miracle they hadn't rolled right out of his head and landed on the desk beside the keyboard and mouse. "I'd recognise that fucking face anywhere. The squad must have-have gotten his private stash of films. The kind that didn't get streamed or uploaded onto the website."

When he hit play Jungkook was only visible for another second or two before he shifted and forced the gun back into Taehyung's mouth. But those fair few seconds had been more than enough for them both to identify Jungkook in the video. That was when Namjoon closed the file and stared at the computer monitor silently, at the rather mundane blue office background covered in program icons. As if the appearance of a sex tape hadn't looked bad enough in the first place for their team then it certainly did now.

Explaining all of the complexities of infiltration to his superiors was something that Namjoon knew wouldn't work. It didn't matter that what Taehyung was doing was resulting in information and the chance to bring down the empire once and for all. The second that his superiors found recordings of Taehyung participating in sexual intercourse with The Boy then the operation was well and truly fucked. They wouldn't see manipulation, wouldn't understand how Taehyung had used his body to win The Boy over and earn him much needed power. They would see Taehyung being fucked in a quite violent and questionable manner and nothing more than that.

Namjoon knew that he couldn't possibly protect Taehyung or the operation when it came out that he was in the recording.

"Jesus H. Christ," Hoseok said to break the silence. "Jesus-fucking-Christ, what the fuck?"

Namjoon thought that that summed the entire situation up perfectly.

"Well, we finally have proof why Taehyung is The Boy's new favourite Haedogje Pa man..." he muttered under his breath in reply. "Taehyung's been using sexual manipulation the entire time just like we thought he was."

"Namjoon, there's more than this single video." Hoseok turned in his seat to look at him, sitting back against it in a rather slumped fashion. "The porn server was brought down and it's offline now but that's not all. The squad managed to hack into an online account connected to it, into cloud storage. They've got the videos from the website all saved onto it, hundreds of videos, and I think that Tae might be in some of them," he explained in a voice barely above a whisper. "I've been given orders to identify him in the videos I was sent so each one can be counted towards a criminal offence. A criminal offence, Namjoon. There's like, a dozen or more videos so far man and there could be countless more. I can't watch them. I can't watch Tae being...shit, I can't identify him in them either or else he's fucked. We're fucked."

"Then I'll have to check the files instead," Namjoon said as he shifted to lean against the edge of the other man's desk. "See what the hell we're up against."

"The second he's been identified then there's going to be a charges that will lead to a warrant for his arrest. Shit, Namjoon, this is pornography, gay pornography do you have any idea how much more fucking illegal that is?" Hoseok reached up to plant his hands on either side of his head and he let out a low moan of horror. "The operation is so fucked."

"No, no it's not fucked yet." Namjoon shook his head in staunch disagreement. "For there to be an arrest warrant charges must be filed by the department first. What I need to do is tell Taehyung. The next time he calls I have to tell him what we know and give him orders. I'll edit the database and remove the recording of our conversation, no one will find out because only I have access to it right now." Hoseok stared at him silently, expression confused and hopeful in equal amounts. "He can get the news to The Boy that his server and files are in police possession if he's not already aware of it. Then Jeon will find out about it all from The Boy and be forced to make a move, if he isn't already doing so as we speak."

"Wait...wait are you suggesting we allow info from the department to be-be spread so that the charges will be dropped?"

"The Boy could charged for this bust too, no way in hell is Jeon going to let his heir serve prison time over homemade sex films, Hoseok. If Jeon knows...then the case will disappear. Along with the charges." Namjoon paused for a moment before turning to look back at the screen, at the dozen or so file icons on the download window. "We play along with it, I'll open a complaint against the charges and delay all I can to stop any warrants being filed. Jeon probably already knows about it so we won't really be spreading department information, but Taehyung needs to know that we're looking out for him. I likely don't have a chance with my appeal but let me test those father-son connections and pretend that I don't know about any cover ups."

"Namjoon, do we even know if Tae's alive? Any updates, any news, anything at all?" He shook his head at this and Hoseok sank down into his seat and closed his eyes, breath leaving his lungs in a heavy sigh. "Shit, we mightn't even have to worry about a fucking arrest warrant if he's in a body bag in a Singaporean morgue right now."

"There are no reports of The Boy being killed in the terrorist attack. He wouldn't have gone down without a fight," Namjoon said in a quiet voice. "If he's still breathing then I think that Taehyung might just be too. I'm hoping at this point, truthfully. I've got nothing left but hope."

"...I can't believe we're actually planning on siding with Haedogje Pa to save Tae's ass," Hoseok muttered in that same whisper. "What if it doesn't work, Namjoon? Then what the fuck are we supposed to do?"

"It'll work," Namjoon reassured him. "After all, we both know that Jeon runs the capital."

"...OK," Hoseok nodded at him slowly and then reached up to run his fingers through his hair. "OK, let's try that shit."

"Send me the files, Hoseok," he said as he stepped away from the desk and crossed the office floor. "Let's try and see what the hell we're up against so I can prepare an appeal."

Namjoon also couldn't believe that he was spending actual work hours analysing and watching pornography at his office desk. It was a surreal experience that he had never expected to ever have to go through. A part of him supposed that he was in shock of some kind and that was why he was registering it all in a strangely calm and forward fashion. The shootout at the Gold Monkey Casino had been shocking enough, enough to numb him to pretty much everything. Namjoon was still reeling from it and yet here was a second blow to catch him off-guard, to kick him when he was down and struggling to get back up. There had been confirmation of deaths yet no sightings of The Boy anywhere after several hours, and yet he had another case on his hands to worry about instead.

He didn't want the last time he ever saw Taehyung to be on the other side of his computer screen with a cock in his mouth. That wasn't fair, wasn't right. Yet until either he or The Boy were sighted, or his teammate contacted him, then Namjoon didn't know if he ever would see them again. Taehyung was once again Schröedinger's cat personified, dead or alive, no way of knowing: technically both at the same time. The worst part was that the odds were currently not in his favour.

The one thing that made Namjoon sick to his stomach wasn't the content of the files but rather the titles. Looking at all of the files on his desktop and seeing such wonderful titles as 'Baby's First Playtime' and 'Baby and His Bottle' and he just knew what kind of content it all entailed without even opening the file. There was clearly some game to it, some strange joke that he would never understand. Probably to do with the fact that Taehyung was only ever called 'baby' in the recordings, a submissive title if he ever heard one. He doubted that he would hear the word the same way ever again after this incident.

'Crybaby' was a fun recording to skip through for sure, and skip through it he did. Namjoon really didn't have the mental strength to do much more than skip because he couldn't sit through a ten minute long video of Taehyung drugged in some form of another - be it alcohol or something more potent, literally crying until he was a broken mess about how badly he needed "Master's cock inside him". No, Namjoon really didn't need to hear that at all. A part of him greatly wondered if this was punishment of some sort, if his father had gotten wind of what had happened and had ordered the videos be analysed by their department for identification purposes. It was pretty damn clear that it was Taehyung in the recordings, all it took was for the paper backup files of his suspended police database entry to be opened and looked at; the photograph inside matching up perfectly to the video. Yet here he was, thirteen positively identified videos later and Namjoon thought it was well and truly punishment.

The thirteen videos also featured Jungkook in some form too, be it physical or just auditory; be it just his hands or his lower body rather than his face. There was that other young man in the videos too, the one that had been spotted on a shopping trip with Taehyung: the pretty one. He was constantly in the videos, constantly participating. He was clearly not a business partner but rather an actor for The Boy, and he was a great actor for sure. Namjoon didn't really know what his appearance in the videos meant for it was just one more twisting turn in the maze that was Taehyung's undercover mission. Another unknown face, another possible threat for both him and the operation.

There was no name for him yet, no names on any of the videos in fact. So far Namjoon had only heard play names used, from 'baby' to 'bitch', to 'doll' and 'master'. Once or twice he had heard 'slut' used and Namjoon wished that he didn't know for a fact that The Boy got off on being called 'a fucking slut'. That was the kind of knowledge that he could have lived without and yet he now he had witnessed multiple times. Yet despite having no names it was obvious who was in the recordings. There was no way of mistaking Taehyung or The Boy in them, and the photograph they had of the other man in Taehyung's presence just connected it all together.

Namjoon was just glad that he had been given responsibility for the files. The rest of the team shouldn't have to see this. It wasn't just because he knew that the content would disgust some of his teammates but because of what it meant for Taehyung. Taehyung didn't deserve to come back to them after everything and be treated like a monster. Namjoon didn't give a single damn about what happened in the videos, he just gave a damn about the fact that they had ended up in police possession. So what if Taehyung found pleasure in giving fellatio to another man? Why the fuck did that even matter? So what if he participated in sexual intercourse with multiple men, Namjoon really didn't give a fuck. But he knew that some of his team and a lot of the department would. The kind of things that Namjoon had seen from his time undercover...it made most things people found disgusting almost laughable. Taehyung didn't deserve to have dirty looks and curses muttered his way if and when he stepped back into the office. He didn't deserve to have the entire police department knowing what he had done because this was supposed to stay secret but it had all went so wrong so fast. Taehyung was just doing his job, doing what he needed to do to survive. Last of all he didn't need to be made to feel like his actions were wrong or disgusting, that was the most important part.

Besides, hadn't he been responsible for it all in the end? Namjoon had suspected all along that Taehyung would be perfect for the mission because he had known that he would have been highly tempted to engage in sexual relations with The Boy. Hadn't he observed Taehyung's rather keen interest in Jungkook over the last several months and felt an idea growing at the back of his mind? An idea that had told him that his teammate had a borderline obsession with him as a result of almost stalking his daily life and activities for his job. Wasn't all of this really his fault to begin with?

Almost an hour of observing later, videos played through to identify voices and then skipped to find faces, Namjoon had gotten through them all. There were thirteen videos so far, eleven of them containing Taehyung physically, two of them recorded by him and with clear audio of his voice. That was it, eleven counts of starring in the illegal production of pornographic material and two of filming pornographic material: a grand total of thirteen counts of illegal activity. Namjoon didn't even want to inquire about how high a sentence that could procure. He didn't even want to think about anything like that.

Namjoon pushed his chair out with a weary sigh and he stayed in place for a moment, staring at the same blue desktop background just like Hoseok's. Then he opened his emails and checked to see that he had various ones but only one of real importance. He opened it and scanned the email, finding that he wasn't at all surprised to find that the Chief Superintendent General had called an emergency crisis meeting for tomorrow morning. One that he was very much going to be dragged into to have his ass chewed on. But his ass wasn't what he was worried about right now, it was Taehyung's. The entire mission and his safety were in so much danger right now, supposing that Taehyung was still breathing right now of course.

He glanced across the department room to see that just Hoseok was present like earlier, still unable to do anything more than desk work at this point in his recovery process. His teammate was staring at his desk rather than his monitor, clearly lost in thought. So Namjoon got to his feet and wandered over to sit on the edge beside his files.

"It's all gone to hell now, huh?" Hoseok shifted in his chair with a deep groan and he rolled his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "What're we talking here, man? What's the figure? Just give it to me."

"Thirteen counts, eleven starring and two filming," Namjoon explained in a quiet voice. "That's just from the files you were sent alone, there could be more but I doubt it. I checked the dates of the files, they seem to all be spaced out over the last month or two so I'll assume that's all of the videos Taehyung could feature in so far."

"A fucking pornsite..." Hoseok muttered under his breath. "Of all the things I thought would put Tae in danger, would put the operation in danger, I didn't think pornography would be one of them."

"None of us could have thought of that," Namjoon agreed quietly.

"Shit Tae..."

"Hey, is everything alright?" he asked as he folded his arms over his chest. "You know, after finding out about all of...of that?" His teammate studied him silently for a moment, either trying to figure out his words or currently in the midst of processing them.

"Do I...do I care about Tae having sex?" Hoseok asked as he furrowed his brow at him. "Having sex with another man or men or whatever?" Namjoon confirmed this with a nod. "Well shit man, no. No I don't give a fuck about that, what I give a fuck about is the fact he's in trouble and the fact it's...it's The Boy. I mean-" his teammate stopped talking for a moment as he sat forward in his chair, "I knew that Tae might just have to do shit like this but I didn't want to see it, you know? I didn't want to see the fact that Tae's in such a situation right now and knowing how he might have been coerced into it."

"You think he was coerced?"

"I think Tae had very little power and choice in the matter," Hoseok explained with a nod. "I think that fear and powerplay combined and resulted in that happening. I mean seriously, Namjoon, would you turn The Boy's advances down knowing that he would have your fucking cock cut off and shoved down your throat?"

"No, I imagine that I wouldn't," he agreed.

"So yeah, I think maybe he was. Maybe he wasn't, he might've decided to do it, to initiate it or whatever. Could've been manipulation or could've been the simple fact Tae just really wanted a fuck, Namjoon. I dunno," Hoseok admitted, "but I hate not knowing and always guessing."

"Hoseok." Namjoon shifted to hunker down beside his seat and he saw his teammate staring at him. They were on eye-level now and he could speak much more quietly. "There's another person on the recording, I think you know who."

"The Bitch?" Hoseok asked without even blinking. "Or Boy Toy or whatever."

"He's in the recordings with Taehyung and The Boy. Who the hell is he?" Namjoon shifted to fold his arms on his knees. "Is he just The Boy's lover or bed warmer or what? Is he a nobody or is he somebody?"

"What I know is that I sent a few messages around the department with a blown-up scan of that photograph you showed me. I cropped Tae out and I asked if anyone could positive I.D. him for us. I got something from the cyber squad earlier, not the best but-" Hoseok reached over to grab his mouse and then he hit a few buttons on his keyboard, "I know something. He's the star of the fucking show, and by that I mean he's literally in every single livefeed and pay-for-view video on The Boy's website. We're talking about a hundred videos in total."

"No shit?"

"'Honey', that's what his name is. Obviously a nom de...fuck or whatever you would call it," Hoseok muttered under his breath and then he double-clicked on a file and it opened in a new window. Nom de fuck, that was a great joke but Namjoon wasn't in the mood for laughing right now.

Namjoon stared at a photograph of a young man that was unmistakably the one from the recordings he had been watching. Honey - an apt pseudonym if there ever was one - was lying on gold silken sheets on his back looking up at whoever taken the photograph. It was an upper body angle but he didn't doubt the fact that he was naked in the shot, one hand by his face so that he could tease his lips and the other resting on his lower stomach. His dark hair was strewn across the sheets and his eyes were half-lidded. Honey was only small, in frame and size, but he was muscular for his build. Namjoon supposed that using his body so frequently was a great workout. Simply put Honey looked almost cherubic lying on those silk sheets and it was really of no surprise to find out that he was the star of the website.

"Talk about a pretty boy, huh?" Hoseok remarked as he turned his head to look at him. "That's the kinda face that would be all over teenage girls' walls not on computer screens taking dick." Namjoon didn't comment on this and rather just stared at the monitor. There he was, that unknown man that had just appeared out of the blue. Still nameless but not entirely unknown to them now. "The Boy's kept him hidden away all this time like a dragon hoarding gold."

"He's making The Boy gold," Namjoon agreed. "Always protect your investments. Alright, so we know he's close to The Boy, that much is clear. So what's he to Taehyung? Another aspect of dealing with The Boy, to stay on his good side, or something else? Is this Honey being used like a lure, or is Taehyung luring him in?"

"The Boy could have used him to win Tae over, sure. He's a porn star, Namjoon. I'm sure it's not hard for him to seduce someone. But that just doesn't seem right to me. Unless they're...they're sharing Tae like a fucking sex toy." Hoseok paused and spent a moment collecting his thoughts. "What do you mean about Tae luring him? Like, do you think Tae's trying to use The Boy's bitch against him?"

"It's possible," Namjoon said after a moment of thought. "But how well does Taehyung know him? That kind of manipulation takes time and skill, and all it takes is one mistake and he's fucked. Literally fucked. I'm actually hoping that Taehyung has some other reasons. Or maybe this Honey isn't even important, is just a form of entertainment or whatever. We'll have to try and find out."

"Has this gotten out the department yet?" Hoseok asked as he swiveled in his chair to look at him. He confirmed that it had and for a few seconds he was silent before breaking it. "How long do we have to bullshit our way outta this?"

"Until tomorrow," Namjoon explained. "I've got twenty-four hours until I'm called in for a review of the case. This entire department is in so much trouble."

"Unless Jeon saves our asses..." Hoseok remarked as he dropped his gaze to stare at the floor. "Then we might just live to see another day."

Opening his eyes seemed like an impossible task and so Taehyung came around to darkness first and foremost. It was strangely comforting knowing that he was completely awake and yet shrouded in blackness and for a few seconds it was almost peaceful. That was until his body caught up with his brain of course and he felt the first aches and pains starting to settle down into his shoulder, deep into his bones and radiating over the rest of him in a wave. Hot waves, almost burning hot that made him feel a little feverish. He hadn't even moved and yet his entire body was hurting and the idea of getting up and moving around was even more impossible than that of opening his eyes.

Taehyung slowly unfurled his fingers and he felt something soft that wasn't his skin but rather a warm material on his stomach. Certainly clothing. He managed to snag some of it between his fingers and that was when he figured out that it was a pullover of some sort. Of course it couldn't be his shirt because that had been destroyed last night, soaked through with blood and torn from the bullet and fingers. He let go of the pullover and forced his eyes open to stare at the ceiling. He saw tobacco stained squares floating above him and he could detect the faintest hints of that strange smelling smoke still hanging in the air from the main area of the den. Taehyung wanted to reach up and touch his face, his rather numb but burning face, but that was out of his current abilities right now. God, his skin felt like it was on fire and it was horrible.

Taehyung turned his head slowly to look across the office room and at the movement he felt himself shifting. He was lying in the hammock bed of course, and it gently rocked from his slightest movements. His shoulder gave a soft throb whilst he moved his head but stopped as soon as he had it balanced against the pillow. That hadn't been so bad, had taken a lot more strength and energy than he would have liked but at least he could move. Jungkook was sitting in the leather chair across the den backroom, seemingly bored out of his brains for he looked to be counting the ceiling tiles. He studied him for a moment and then the younger man lowered his head with a weary sigh. Jungkook locked eyes with him and it seemed to take him a few seconds to register their eye-contact.

"Are you finally awake?" he asked as shifted to get out of the leather chair. There was a series of creaks from it and then he was moving over to the hammock. Taehyung could only stare at him rather than speak because his mouth was too dry to possibly do so. Jungkook placed his hand on his brow, brushing his hair back as he did and then he rested his palm on his forehead. Maybe to check his temperature. Whatever the case Taehyung could feel cool palm on his brow and that was a sign of how fever-hot his skin was. "Good, you deserved the rest."

"Mmm," he managed to say, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he did. Jungkook seemed to take this as a sign so he pulled his hand away from his brow and he crossed the office to grab a bottle of water off the desk. He unscrewed the cap and then shifted to sit down on the hammock beside his thigh. It tipped to the side slightly from their combined weight. Jungkook slipped his hand under his neck to lift his head up and then he pressed it against his lips. When he tipped the bottle and the water spilled into his mouth Taehyung almost choked in surprise. It was so cold and his tongue seemed to absorb it like a sponge, leaving just a trickle to go down his throat.

"Wait, not too much." Jungkook lowered the bottle from his lips and a dribble rolled down his chin. Taehyung went to reach up to brush it away when the younger man beat him to it, using the side of his hand and his thumb to wipe his chin dry. Then he allowed him some more water. At least most of this didn't spill down his chin and make him feel like a goddamn baby. "You've been out for a few hours."

"I...I have?"

"Yes, after the removal you passed out. Kang unloaded on me and you missed the show," Jungkook explained. "Apparently it was highly selfish and downright fucking stupid for me to have brought you here. He refused to transfuse my blood and took it as part of the payment instead. I had to call in some favours. Seriously, Taehyung, the man was a war medic and now he's acting like he's a fucking professional surgeon. He cut legs off without anything more than Fentanyl and yet he won't give a simple blood transfusion because it's dangerous and you might get an infection. As if I have HIV or some fucking sickness. He's getting old, he must think everyone's bodies are as weak and useless as his." The younger man huffed angrily and Taehyung could only stare at him in confusion.

Kang had unloaded on him? The idea of any man telling Jungkook off was enough to leave him confused. He imagined that the other man must have looked a bit like a child under his harsh words, a spoilt and rather stupid child. One that would pout in annoyance and maybe fold their arms over their chest, foot just waiting to stomp down on the floor. Clearly Jungkook had expected to have gotten his own way just like always and the fact that Kang had disagreed with him was something that he had not expected. Taehyung had very much expected to have came around to consciousness to find out that he had been injected with Jungkook's blood and yet apparently that was not the case. But why not? Jungkook's blood would have been perfectly fine for him, Taehyung had thought that they had struck very lucky upon hearing their blood types last night and yet...

"I...I got a transfusion?" Taehyung asked in a slow voice, struggling to follow him currently.

"Yes, nearly fifteen minutes after the fucking removal I managed to procure a doctor that was willing to come and give you it. And guess what he told me? My blood would have been perfectly fine, not ideal and there would have been a risk of blood-related infections, but otherwise fine. I think Kang refused the transfusion just to piss me off, and it worked to perfection."

"Not from you? Who's blood is...is in me?"

"I don't know," he replied with a shrug as he allowed him another small sip of water. The movement caused quite a bit to dribble down his face and soak into the pullover. "Does it matter? Probably legal, probably not, let's hope for the former because that's less dangerous." Jungkook snorted at this and it was clear that he wasn't still annoyed by Kang. "Either way I was right and Kang was wrong, I've heard stories of men that have survived things worst than a blood transfusion, Taehyung. The most dangerous aspect of this entire situation is the wound getting infected but you have medication: antibiotics. From what daddy told me about the night he was stabbed it was much more dangerous than last night; Kang had to stitch his stomach up not just a small bullet wound."

The bullet wound had most certainly not been 'small' but Taehyung felt no need to be pedantic about it. So long as Jungkook was convinced that everything was fine, everything was going to be fine. Even when it quite obviously wasn't he would believe it if Jungkook told him it was so. He briefly wondered what Jimin would think if he knew what had happened last night. Did he have a clue? Had the news broken all over the world about an attack in this country yet? He didn't even know what time it was but Jungkook had told him that he had been out for hours and that meant that Jimin likely did know, had probably known for quite some time already. The thought of the other man all alone in the penthouse suite with no one to turn to was unsettling enough to make him push all thoughts about Jimin out of his mind and instead focus on the matter at hand.

"...Oh-OK," Taehyung muttered as he tried to move his head and knock the bottle in his hand, to get more water from it.

"I think I should give him a lower payment for his behavior...he took both money and my actual blood." Jungkook moved the bottle away and quickly screwed the cap on it before bending down and putting it on the floor. Taehyung felt like he could drain the entire bottle but he held his tongue. His tongue that was now most certainly looser in his mouth then it had been a moment ago but the coldness had sadly not brought any relief to his baking skin. "I'm not surprised that you passed out, after everything. You remember what happened last night, yes?"

"Yeah, yeah I remember," Taehyung said with a slow nod. "We were attacked at the casino by a bunch of men, hired hitmen judging from the level of competency. Average thugs couldn't have pulled half of that off, it was too professional. Then you had our driver take us here so I could...could get treatment. I was shot in the shoulder."

Taehyung moved so that he could reach over with his uninjured arm and tug on the neckline of the light grey pullover. It was already loose and when he pulled down on it he saw a thick application of bandages on his shoulder, wrapped around his upper ribs so that it covered his wound entirely; the wound that Kang had pulled a bullet from and had stitched up again of course. Just thinking about it made him grimace, the corners of his lips turning down severely at the corners. He wasn't at all surprised that there was a sour metallic taste in his mouth at the thought of the injury.

"Uh...Seng was killed in the shootout before he could secure the contract, I remember that too," Taehyung added as he let go of the pullover and placed his hand on his stomach again. "Which means we're kinda fucked right now, right?"

"Good, it's good that you remember. Taehyung, I need you to do something for me," Jungkook explained as he shifted to cross the room. Taehyung saw him going over to the desk and then he was grabbing something, something that looked like a small purse. "I can't leave this building currently so I need you to leave on my behalf. It's too risky, if I go out you need to leave with me and that's not a viable option. So you leaving alone is a better idea."

"OK," Taehyung said as he shifted into a sitting position. It was hard to do so on the hammock and he ended up swinging his legs over the side and hunching forward to appease his aching shoulder. The movement made his head spin however and he wasn't entirely certain that he would be of much assistance to Jungkook. He hadn't even tried walking and yet it seemed that he had a very important job to do. "What do I need to do?" The younger man moved back over to him and hunkered down in front of his legs, looking up at him. Taehyung looked down and tried to not too look too dizzy, too pained.

"You need to leave the building, take the right street and at the end of the block you will find a payphone. Go into it and call this number." Jungkook held the purse out to him and he saw a slip of paper on his palm. So Taehyung accepted it, feeling the faux velvet black material between his fingers and the decent weight of coins inside. Then he lifted the paper up to eye the number, vision still a little fuzzy around the edges so that he needed to hold it close to the tip of his nose. It was a scrip of paper just like a business card and he didn't recognise the number remotely but it was a landline: Korean. So he asked him what it was for. "That's my father's personal office number."

Taehyung lifted his gaze from the scrip to look at him and Jungkook held his eyes unblinkingly. Jeon's personal office number? What exactly had he been given it for? Something important, that much was clear. The idea that he was going to have to call the man was one that actually turned his warm skin cold for a few seconds. The thin and small scrip of paper suddenly seemed to have a much bigger weigh to it, almost like that of an anchor. It was something much more important than paper now, Taehyung knew that much. After a moment he lowered the scrip away from his nose and asked him what he wanted him to do.

"Call the number, give the location listed on the back of the card and explain the situation," Jungkook explained. "If daddy asks you anything just answer, if you don't know the answer to any of his questions just tell him that I will explain everything upon our return to Seoul. The phone call is our ticket out of here."

"Wuh...What if he doesn't answer?"

"He will, the number is private. Only a few men have that number so he will answer." Jungkook paused and then added. "I don't want to risk using my cell here, it's so much easier to track calls from it than a public payphone. Though I doubt anyone would be able to hack into mine or daddy's lines I don't want to risk it after everything. We've gotten this far, Taehyung, so now is not the time for silly mistakes."

"...OK," Taehyung folded his fingers over the card to keep it tight in his palm, coin purse in the other hand. "OK, help me up." Jungkook got to his feet and then he reached down to grab hold of him, one hand on his right shoulder and the other on his waist so he could pull him upright without disturbing his shoulder. Taehyung felt unsteady on his feet for a few seconds and he sagged forward against him. Jungkook didn't push him away but rather supported his weight until he could stand without the support. He felt dizzy and heavy all over but he dropped his head and tried his hardest to push the sensation away.

"As soon as he receives the call daddy will sort this issue out, he will have men come and collect us, collect our possessions from the hotel: the suitcases with our passports and documents in. Then we can leave," Jungkook explained. "You can rest and recover in the suite, mmm? Jimin can care for you." Taehyung took a deep breath and then let it out slowly as he lifted his head again. "He will take care of you, for as long as you need."

"Take a right, end of the block," he repeated and the younger man nodded at him. "I'll be right back."

Taehyung left the backroom and crossed the den to exit the building. He didn't know what time it was but there were people inside regardless, smoking away their lives and consciousness. The scent of the smoke made his throat itch and he had to greatly suppress the urge to start coughing for fear of jostling his shoulder. After leaving the building he went through the alley to get on the street and then he started walking. Just walking seemed to make his shoulder hurt so he lifted his arm and hugged it across his chest instead. Less movement, less pain. Halfway down the block the streets started to get busy. It always seemed to be busy in this goddamn capital. Taehyung could see countless people and vehicles zooming down the road and it made it so much more easier to blend into the crowd. Judging from the sky it was late afternoon and he doubted their chances of getting back to Seoul tonight, it seemed more closer to tomorrow instead. He could sense the occasional look falling on him as he passed and the weight of eyes on him made him feel slightly uncomfortable but there was nothing he could do to alleviate the sensation.

The way that he was walking, all hunched over and rather close to a lurch, probably made him look like a fucking drunk or maybe a drug-addict. Combined with his sweating and likely rather ashen skin he just knew that he did and so he wasn't surprised that people were staring at him as they passed, were giving him a slightly wide berth. Taehyung tried to straighten up even when it wasn't very comfortable and he found that biting down on his lower lip helped fight any urges to grimace, which certainly helped add to the allusion of him being an addict of some kind. At least no one stopped to ask him if he was alright and saved him the potential trouble of language barriers.

Taehyung sighted the phone box right at the end of the block just like Jungkook had said and thankfully he could see that it was currently empty. When he reached it he pulled the door open awkwardly with his good arm and stepped inside, dumping the coin purse and card on top of the machine. He didn't have a clue what he was doing, how much it would cost, and so he just fed the coins into the slot as fast as he could before shoving the receiver into the crook of his good shoulder. He had to read the card whilst hitting the keypad, feeling fucking useless with his left arm hugged against his chest to stop his shoulder from hurting.

The second he was finished dialling he grabbed the business card and slid down the wall of the box so that he could sit down, pullover rubbing against the glass with a faint rustling sound. His legs had just simply decided to give up on him and he found that sitting slumped against the telephone box was so much more easier than trying to stand. The wire stretched taut but luckily allowed him to stay seated and he listened to an operator informing him that his call would be put through. After a minute or so of silence there was the dial tone sound and it occurred only three times before there was a static burst on the end of the line.

"Huh-uh hello?" Taehyung rather stupidly blurted out, heart flying up to almost lodge at the back of his throat.

" Who is this calling me? " Jeon asked. His tone was authoritative and shit scary down the line alone. Taehyung couldn't imagine being in the same room as him and having such questions aimed at him without his heart shrivelling up in his chest. This was something else, something that not even Jungkook had been able to instill in him that morning they had met for the very first time. Jeon made his son sound positively angelic in comparison.

"Kim, Kim Taehyung," he replied, trying to keep his voice at a reasonably calm and low volume to not sound too scared. It didn't matter if the man couldn't see him right now, what mattered was that he could hear him and in terms of first impressions and he thought that this was a pretty big one to have to make. "I'm-"

" I know who you are ," Jeon spoke over him and Taehyung detected something unusual about his tone. Was that...fear? Or was it maybe something like anxiety that made his voice sound a little off to his ears? He wasn't entirely certain but both emotions seemed right to him. " My son? "

"He's OK, he's OK, Sir," he explained with a series of pointless nods, wincing as he did. "Jungkook is unharmed, I got him outta The Gold Monkey without a single scratch but I-uh, I was shot." There was silence on the end of the line and Taehyung spoke just to break it because he felt the most pressing urge to do so. "In the shoulder but I'm more than capable, Sir. I can keep him safe, don't worry I'll keep him safe."

Did Jeon have any clue how much pain he was currently in and that he was having to sit down in a fucking phone box on the dirty floor because standing seemed too hard right now? Did he have any idea how much a bullet wound actually burnt and itched, that hideous throb under his skin? Of course he didn't and he was very much planning on keeping it that way. Keep him safe; with what exactly? His Cz75 was empty of bullets and lying in its holster inside the opium den. He was crippled right now, could barely hold a gun never mind shoot someone should he need to do so.

"Jungkook's in a safe place right now, he sent me out to contact you. He didn't wanna do so on his personal phone for fear of the call possibly being tapped on either end for tracking purposes."

" Where are you currently? "

Taehyung turned the card around and eyed the back to see that there was no address on it all, or at least not a legitimate address. But clearly it meant something to both Jungkook and Jeon because he had told him to say it. So he cleared his throat and hoped that that was the case because he didn't know the true address, nor could he give it out lest someone have hacked into the line like Jungkook had been scared of.

"We're in the trenches," Taehyung said, "38th Parallel." A war reference of course, a rather fantastic one at that, Taehyung would admit. He knew that Kang had fought in it, had been a medic. On the line there was a brief silence before he heard the loud and unmistakable sound of keyboard keys being hit. Clearly Jeon was typing something up and fast.

" I require information right now, " Jeon said in that same fashion of his, cold and direct but not necessarily intimidating. It was authoritative enough to make him sit upright even with his aching shoulder.

"Seng's dead, we were present at the business contract signing when someone tried to shoot Jungkook. I saw the gun sight on the wall by Jungkook's head and I just...I acted. Luckily for me I acted fast enough, just not fast enough to secure the deal. Seng was hit however and-"

" Seng's men should have protected him, that was not your job. Seng's men were supposed to protect the three of you yet I see they failed in that regard. " Jeon spoke over him without the slightest hesitation, raw and unflinching power. It was enough to make Taehyung feel awed. " My son said you know men, do you have any idea as to who they were? "

"Hired hitmen," Taehyung said, more a suggestion than an answer but the only thing that seemed right to him. "They were very professional, just not good enough." He thought that he had earned this brag and judging from the amused sound down the line Jeon thought so too. "I recognised none of 'em but they were speaking Chinese and one bastard had a submachine gun. That's something."

"... It is, " Jeon agreed after a few seconds of thought.

"If the men were Korean hired then they didn't get their weapons from Korean dealers, ain't no fucking way Bae or any his men dealt with 'em. I know men and I know he's not a traitor, he's loyal. So that means Chinese weapon dealers to me. What'd you think, Sir?" The man made a noise in agreement, the sound of keyboard keys still clicking away. "Not many men have strong Chinese influence, they're notoriously hard to impress. Sir, I was looking into Lee Yoochun as requested by Jungkook. Did y'know that he's been seen in questionable territory?" Taehyung shifted slightly to lean back against the phone box wall. "'Cos he has, a few times actually. I've got a few backhand deals sent from fake accounts to men you dismissed and of 'em..."

" Yes? "

"One of 'em could've ordered this," Taehyung replied as he watched pedestrians through the glass wall. "Kim Jinwoo." There was even more silence down the line. "He has power, influence and manpower. I can't think of many men with all three or enough of one to pull something like this off. The ones I can are all of your men, and last I checked most of 'em are in danger of being hit like Woo or murdered like Ahn 'cos they're fucking traitors. Who the fuck could corrupt your men or have 'em killed like that? Think about it."

"... I have men organising a boat to collect you, along with an armed escort. Expect them to arrive by sundown. The man in charge will be called Park Dukwon and he will oversee the operation. You will both be in safe hands, Park is not a traitor." Jeon had just avoided his question rather spectacularly. " I want several messages passed along to my son. I require an urgent meeting with both of you as soon as possible, and tell him that the...niggling matter back home will be dealt with and to cease production until I allow him to continue."

"Production of what, Sir?"

" His films. "

"OK," Taehyung agreed even though he didn't really know why. "I'll tell him: urgent meeting, no more films."

" And Kim? "

"Yes, Sir?"

"... Thank you. "

The call ended abruptly and Taehyung pulled the receiver away to look at it rather dumbly. Then there was a series of metallic rattling sounds and he looked up to see the unused coins coming out of the machine and landing in an inbuilt tray. Just watching the coins spilling out brought back a thought, gave him a great idea. Getting back upright proved rather difficult and painful and he ended up having to flex his shoulder a few times as he used the wall of the box as a support. As soon as he was upright he stuck the receiver back in place between his head and shoulder, grabbing the coins and shoving them into the slot as he tried to catch his breath. The fact that he was out of breath and breaking out into a light sweat after such simple physical exertion wasn't at all a surprise to him. He had to dial the number quickly, wanting to hurry up and get back to Jungkook before he looked suspicious. Whilst the call was put through he stared out the wall at the passing pedestrians and waited. Then came the same dial tone and just like Jeon the call was answered incredibly fast.

" Shit, Taehyung, am I glad to hear from you right now, " Namjoon said in the most elated voice he had ever heard. He didn't even give him enough time to reply before he carried on talking. " We've been following the news but there's been nothing, literally nothing and- "

"You thought I was dead?" Taehyung spoke over him before laughing. "No, I'm not dying yet. No fucking way, but I took a bullet brother, in my left shoulder. Had to have it removed by some back alley war veteran but I'm OK. I mean, I feel like I'm dying kinda but I'm OK."

"... You what? "

"I took a bullet, getting outta the casino with The Boy. I was shot in the shoulder but the bullet was removed and I think I'm OK. Unless I get some infection I'm OK, so don't worry."

" You were shot, Taehyung. You telling me to not worry won't change the fact that I'm going to worry, " Namjoon replied in an incredulous tone. " Where are you right now? Still in Singapore? " Taehyung made a noise in agreement and explained that they were stuck in the country for a few more hours. " I've got some news for you, alright? Some pretty heavy news. Our department has files, files that belong to The Boy. "

"...What'd you mean they have files, Namjoon?" Taehyung asked in surprise, a strange feeling starting to stir in the pit of his stomach as he listened to him. "What kinda files?"

" The Boy's pornographic film stash, " Namjoon explained in a quiet and slow voice, " and there's currently charges for multiple arrest warrants being drafted as we speak. "

"I...shit I just spoke to Jeon. He mentioned the films- wait, what the fuck d'you mean by charges?"

" Mentioned the films how, Taehyung? What did Jeon say? "

"To, uh, tell The Boy to cease production and that the matter would be dealt with personally. Namjoon, what the fuck's going on right now, I need you to tell me? Arrest warrants for who ?"

" Cyber squad brought down a server, " Namjoon explained, " a porn server but they also managed to get access into cloud storage, Taehyung, and it was The Boy's. They brought it down, they got all of the videos uploaded and stored onto the account. "

"Shit, the server was brought down?" Taehyung's fingers tightened around the receiver and it was a miracle that the plastic didn't crack from the pressure that he was putting on it. "So that...that means that the department got the..."

" Taehyung, don't worry about that alright? " Namjoon said before he could try and finish his train of thought. " So long as Jeon solves the issue it doesn't matter, yes? I'll act like I don't have a clue, I'll prepare a defense. It doesn't matter. "

But it did matter, well and truly. The department had videos of him in their possession, videos of him engaging sexual activity with Jungkook, with Jimin. They could see him clearly in countless recordings, high on cocaine in the throes of orgasms and if that wasn't something to worry about then he didn't know. Shit, the team might have seen them. Namjoon must have to have this level of information. Taehyung closed his eyes and groaned deeply, unable to press his lips together to stop it from escaping.

"I'm...I'm wanted for pornography charges, aren't I?" Taehyung asked in a quiet voice. His stomach was all tight and hard and he felt cold even with the Singapore heat baking his already hot skin. There was silence on the other end of the line and it was all the confirmation that he needed. "Namjoon?"

" Yes, Taehyung? "

"I'm so sorry that you had to see that shit, brother."

" Don't apologise, I don't need an apology. I'm sorry that I had to analyse them on your behalf, Taehyung. I shouldn't have, those were private files and I breached your privacy. I didn't watch them but I had to scan the content for identification purposes; you understand, right? It's wrong that I had to look at them, not because you made them, OK? "

"Not according to the law," Taehyung muttered under his breath as he opened his eyes and stared at the empty coin purse. Yes, according to the law he had broken so many rules that it was almost laughable. That first night in the suite, when he had been introduced to Jimin he had thought about how illegal the entire production had been and yet he had just learnt to ignore it, to focus on more important matters at hand. But in the end it had been his participation in one streamed video and several personal files that had snagged him and threaten to cause his downfall.

Taehyung had helped murder and torture men, had shot quite a few alone last night. Yet he was looking at charges for starring in pornographic films instead. It was rather surreal in a way.

" Taehyung, who's is this 'Honey' guy in the recordings with you? "

"Honey? What'd you..." Taehyung thought it over for a moment before he recalled something to do with honey. Honey, what Yoongi had called Jimin that day he had went to the drugs den in Yongsan-gu. "Jimin, you mean Jimin."

" Clan name? "

"Dunno, I just know him as Jimin," Taehyung explained. "He used to be a prostitute -well sex slave - under Nam and Jeon but then The Boy got his hands on him and turned him into a porn star-cum-lover. That's all I really know about him but I'm getting closer to him, I'm trying to get him to open up to me but it's sensitive and I can't pry too much, he's smart. So, what happens next huh?"

" I've got until tomorrow to prepare an appeal for an emergency review, " Namjoon explained. " Jeon will close the case Taehyung, just like Ahn's murder, just like countless other cases but I'm still gonna fight for you. "

"I know, I know you will."

" No one is taking you down, no one. You're the one that's going take them all down, right? " The surety in Namjoon's voice was almost encouraging, regardless of everything that he had just been told. There was no saying that this was the end, he could recover from this and carry on, and Namjoon clearly believed that to be the case. Even with all of the odds stacked against him his teammate still believed him. After all, hadn't the odds always been against him from the very start?

"Yeah, yeah I'm gonna take 'em down, brother," Taehyung said, corners of his lips twitching as he did. "I gotta go, alright? Keep the streets safe for me until I get back." His teammate confirmed that he would and so he said his goodbyes before putting the receiver back into the holder.

The last few coins came out the slot, a rather pitiful amount, and Taehyung stared at them for a few seconds. Then he collected them together and put them back into the purse with the card. He rolled his fingers around it to keep it in his palm and then left the phone box. On the slight walk back to the den he thought it all over; the fact that he was technically a wanted man back home. It was a rather unsettling thought but he had been a wanted man from the very moment that he had helped murder Nam. It was just an overdue reaction really. But still...Namjoon had seen the content of the videos and Taehyung was desperately searching his mind trying to recall what had been recorded and what hadn't; trying to figure out how bad the files he had seen really were. When he entered the backroom of the den again he saw that Jungkook was in the leather chair like he had been when he had woken up.

"Jungkook, the server was hacked. Your father's sorting the mess out but it's gone and the files are in police possession," Taehyung explained as he stopped and leaned against the doorway for support.

"...Shit," Jungkook cursed after a moment. "I've lost all of my clients." Taehyung thought that their arrest warrants were much more important but he held his tongue.

"He wants an emergency meeting as soon as possible and- shit," Taehyung closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "and there are men coming to collect us. Should be here by sundown."

"Here, lie down," Jungkook said in a soothing tone as he got to his feet and crossed the room. Then he was gently taking hold of his arm and helping him move over and onto the hammock bed. "Let's chase that pain away, mmm?"

"Please," Taehyung moaned. "It fucking hurts, Jungkook, I tried to ignore it but it fucking hurts."

"I know it does," Jungkook said as he went back over to the desk. He opened a drawer to collect something and then moved to the cupboard that had contained various medical supplies. He returned with a sealed syringe and lowered himself onto the hammock. Taehyung watched him as he opened a small lacquered box and inside were various things. He saw a vial of clear liquid - morphine of course, and several bottles of pills that had prescription labels stuck on them covered in handwritten dosages rather than printed. "But this will help..."

Jungkook tore the wrapper off the syringe and then he pulled the vial free and uncapped both it and then needle. He pulled the morphine up into the syringe and did exactly what Kang had done, tapping it hard and letting a little free before reaching over to take hold of his upper arm firmly. There was no injecting into the muscle this time but rather right into the vein, Jungkook slipping the needle into the crease of his elbow and then dropping the pusher with his thumb. The reaction was so much quicker, almost instantaneous this time. Taehyung let his breath out in a heavy sigh and he rolled his head back against the hammock, the slight movement making it jostle. Jungkook slipped the needle free and then dropped the used syringe on the floor without a care.

"That should keep the pain away until the men arrive tonight," Jungkook explained as he settled back down beside him. The hammock was now gently swinging and Taehyung found the sensation wonderful. "How bad does it hurt, baby?"

"I can handle it, it's just-"

"Tell me the truth."

"...It hurts a lot," Taehyung explained as he closed his eyes and felt that numbness starting to spread out down to his very toes. Warm numbness, a comforting wave that washed away the pain in his shoulder and made him feel less feverish. "But I can handle it, Jungkook. Have you rested?"

"No, I don't need sleep," Jungkook said and yet Taehyung thought otherwise. He looked like he very much needed to, for around his eyes seemed to be a lightly bruised brown: a sign of long overdue sleep. "I told you, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I nearly was last night," he gave him a rather rueful smile, "but here I am."

"Jungkook, get closer," Taehyung said in a soft voice. For a few seconds Jungkook stayed in place, but then he shifted on the hammock. He cocked an elbow up so that he could rest his head on his palm and pressed himself up against his side, slipping an arm over his ribs. "Shit, I don't wanna move ever again...just wanna stay like this."

"I'm afraid that's not a viable option," Jungkook said as he moved his hand up along his chest and then up his jawline to his hair. "But there's a few hours, that's better than nothing, mmm?"

"...What're you gonna do with the bullet?" Taehyung asked, blissfully lost in the numbness that the morphine had induced. He could feel the younger man's fingers stroking and playing with his hair. "You said you were gonna keep it, so what're you gonna do with it?"

"I'm going to have it used in some way, maybe a pendant or melted down to make something new. I want to keep the bullet that almost killed me close to me at all times."

"Like a...a talisman?" Jungkook made a noise in agreement at this and Taehyung opened his eyes to look up at the ceiling. "It might work, might keep you safe."

"I think that you're much better at that than any talisman," Jungkook disagreed as his fingers trailed down the side of his face and along his jawline. "You could have died last night, Taehyung. That bullet hit your shoulder but we both know how close it was. It could have been a neck or headshot. If that bullet had been just that little more on target then you would be dead right now. And so would I." He moved his hand down to his chest and then spread his fingers out across his breast. His palm was so warm through the thin material of Kang's pullover. "I could never have gotten out of that casino alive, not without you. You saved my life and I know I've already said that, but you did."

"I promised that I would," Taehyung explained in a quiet voice. "I swore that I would, remember? Did you think it was just a case of bravado, that I was talking shit to impress you?"

"No man had ever saved my life before," Jungkook said, own voice barely more than a whisper. "Men have sworn to protect me but they have never needed to, and most of those men would stab me in the fucking back if they could. They hate me, I know they do." Taehyung could hear something in his voice, something like venom. "I can't surround myself with sycophants and liars, Taehyung, I need men that respect me and understand me. You're one of the only men that do."

"Who else does?" Taehyung asked as he turned his head to look at him.

"...Daddy."

"And?"

Yet Jungkook didn't say another word at this, rather he just pressed his lips together in a tight pout as he shifted his gaze. Taehyung studied his face whilst the younger man stared at his chest and he saw an emotion that he didn't often see on Jungkook's face: uncertainty. It was not a pleasant sight to observe.

"...Fuck whoever doesn't respect or understand you," Taehyung remarked. "When you take over, they'll have no choice. Follow or die, yeah?"

"That's why they will regret it when I finally take control," Jungkook agreed as he shifted to place his head in the crook between his neck and shoulder. "I'll make them all regret it if they don't."

"And I'll help."

"Taehyung, I...I kind of wish that Kang had given you my blood," Jungkook said in a rather soft voice, almost as if he was falling asleep. "Because then you...I would have been inside of you." His words made a strange shiver run down Taehyung's spine and he wondered if Jungkook felt the way that his body shifted against him. "Don't you think that that's so...so much more intimate. I would have been inside you, keeping you alive just like ...you kept me alive. But Kang was a fucking asshole and he ruined the chance."

"Yeah, Jungkook. Yeah that would've been more intimate."

"I could...ve saved you too," Jungkook said, breath escaping in the most softest sigh against his throat.

Taehyung stared up at the ceiling and the backroom fell silent at this. He could hear the faintest voices coming from the den but mostly he could hear the soft sound of Jungkook's breathing as he slipped into sleep and left him in the land of the living. Well, that was until he ended up succumbing to sleep too. In the warmth of the building and the delightful numbness of the morphine it was incredibly tempting to do so and so Taehyung closed his eyes and settled his weight onto the hammock comfortably. But not before he shifted his injured arm so that he could place his own hand on top of Jungkook's on his chest, just to keep it in place.