For several days now Namjoon had found that his concentration really wasn't as good as it usually was. It actually wasn't that much of a surprise when he thought about it. After everything that had happened last week it was no wonder why his mind kept wandering away on him. But it wasn't exactly helpful nor productive that he kept finding himself staring at his screen or a file and having no recollection of what he had just read a minute ago.

Namjoon sighed and pushed his chair out ever so slightly. He ran his eyes over the office to see that everyone was present save for Daesu. He was pretty certain that he had heard the man saying something about going to check on another department, but he didn't have a clue what one. It was presumably something to do with homicide considering the events of the last two weeks. A quick glance over at Hoseok showed him that he was in the act of writing something up, pen in hand scrawling all over the sheet of paper and head held low. He was clearly concentrating and yet he found that he just couldn't.

It was hard to concentrate on something that wasn't Taehyung.

"More homicides," Daesu announced as he stepped into the office, a file in hand that he was already in the act of opening up. His voice caught him by surprise and so Namjoon turned his head to track him as he crossed the room. The photographs would go all over his desk of course, and then be transferred to the board as soon as they had all studied them. "Haedogje Pa is going through a rough patch, huh?"

"What's that make it now?" Hoseok asked no one in particular, just hoping for an answer.

"Twenty-one confirmed deaths," Namjoon replied as he shifted to sit back in his chair. "Probably a dozen more unconfirmed today or more. That's a little more significant than a rough patch, Oh."

"I'd say," Daesu agreed as he dropped the pile of photographs onto the desk. "I was around for the original ascension of Jeon and I thought that that was bad. This right now, it's making the slaughter back then look like a slight disagreement at a family dinner."

Namjoon might have not been around for when Jeon had ascended the throne, having been nothing more than a baby of two years of age, but he had heard stories; had read the files. He could recall a phrase being used to describe the upheaval that had occurred, something akin to "the streets running red with blood" in multiple districts over nearly a whole year of conflict and purges. But Daesu was right. This was something else, something much bigger. Namjoon thought that the phrase that would be used to describe this conflict would be sure to mention the gutters being filled with corpses all over the capital before the infighting was solved and peace restored once more.

"Sounds like The Boy's head is going to roll," Youngjae said as he shifted in his chair to look at Daesu. Namjoon heard something in his tone that he thought sounded much too pleased by this fact, something that he didn't like at all but chose to ignore as he got out of his seat.

"Any clue about who it is?" he asked as moved over to Daesu's desk to check the photographs out. Across the office came the sound of the other chairs being pushed out, wheels squeaking against the linoleum.

"From what I can tell, I assume that it's Kim sympathisers. The Boy did go on a preacher's rant about wiping them all off the face of the earth by all accounts," Daesu explained. "Happened in Jung-gu, that district is known as Kim Jintae territory because he was born there. Naturally I assume it's also Kim Jinwoo territory now too."

"Don't get much trouble there," Sungah added as she stopped beside the desk, eyes quickly checking over the crime scene photographs. "You could be right about it being sympathisers. I'll contact Jung-gu's department; try and set up a connection with them in regards to the case, try and get more information from them just like we did with the Incheon homicides." She turned on her heel to cross the office again, clearly more interested in finding out facts than studying photographs.

"OK, I'll look around and try and identify the men," Hoseok said as he also went back over to his desk. "As soon as I'm done with this paperwork I'll see if we got a bunch of nobodies or a bunch of somebodies."

"Well, we definitely got bodies ," Daesu remarked rather dryly, getting eye rolls from everyone assembled and groans rather than laughs. Namjoon lingered by the desk for a moment just so he could look at the photographs. He wondered if Taehyung had had something to do with this or whether it was just another example of turf wars just like several of the other homicides over the last four days. Probably not, Taehyung was probably only involved in important murders. But he could very much have ordered such a thing he supposed, should The Boy be too busy to do so. After a minute of study he moved to sit back down at his own desk, uncertain about what exactly to do next. As luck would have it he didn't even have to think of something to do because a certain Youngjae decided to open his mouth and start speaking.

"I don't trust him," the older man said as he finished polishing his spectacles and slipped them back up his nose. "I don't think we can trust Kim anymore." At this Namjoon looked over at the other desk to see that Hoseok was no longer paying attention to his file. Instead he had cocked his head at the older man, expression hard to read. Between his fingers his pen almost bobbed, the nib hovering over the page but luckily not drawing blue lines all over it. It was an old habit of his that he had done often when trying to quit smoking, and it was therefore a habit that Namjoon associated with agitation.

"Do you actually have a reason, like a valid reason?" Hoseok asked as he carried on fiddling with his pen. "Or is it just personal, Choi?"

"I have a valid reason," the older man argued. "My valid reason is that Kim is too close to the top right now, that he has too much power. That's not something that he had counted on happening, at least not this fast. We don't really know how that's going to affect his actions. I think that betting it all on Kim is dangerous."

"It's not betting, it's called tactics," Hoseok disagreed. "It's called a strategic strike on The Boy and Haedogje Pa that we have been counting on happening from the start. Why else would the operation have been green-lighted if not for the very purpose of Tae achieving such power and position within the gang?"

"Can't get high-level information in a low-level position," Sungah agreed with a curt nod.

"Kim's basically a king right now," Daesu remarked as he fanned the pile of photographs our across his desk. "Just because he's working at the top doesn't mean that he's not going to crush everyone else below him and stop them from achieving power that could destroy the operation, Choi. If Kim's got that power, someone else hasn't. Would you prefer him or Bae, hmmm? I'm hoping that Kim is amassing the power solely for the purpose of stabbing The Boy in the back because I trust the kid."

"Taehyung knows chess," Namjoon announced with a soft smile. "I think he's finally taken the king position instead of the rook."

"Kim's just a queen pretending to be a king," Youngjae declared.

Sungah's guessing game had proved itself startlingly correct that day it would seem, and the office fell deathly silent at his words. Namjoon looked away from his computer screen to see that Daesu had stopped moving the photographs over his desk, no longer spreading them out but rather just hovering his fingers over the pile. The older man kept his gaze on the table but it was clear that he wasn't really looking and was instead listening intently. At the desk across the office Sungah had also stopped working, fingers no longer tapping at the speed of light on her keyboard. She was looking at Youngjae over the top of the monitor, expression as close to neutral as possible.

After a moment of silence Hoseok put his pen down and actually shifted to get to his feet rather than stay seated. The other man leaned forward, weight balanced on one wrist in a rather casual-looking position but Namjoon knew otherwise. One look at his face showed that he was pissed off because his lips had turned down at the corners in a rather obvious way that made him pout.

"Say that again," Hoseok instructed as he lifted one hand to cup around his ear. "Sorry, Choi, but I don't think that I heard you over all of that bullshit that you were talking just then."

At the back of his mind Namjoon could hear warning sirens playing loudly, telling him that this was something bad and that he should say something to stop it and yet he seemed incapable of doing so. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off Hoseok, at the rather mordant expression that he was giving the other man. It was clear from a single glance that he was raring for conflict, for an argument or even a fight, and it seemed that Youngjae was going to give him one judging from the other man's face.

"I think you heard what I said clearly, Jung," Youngjae retorted. "Kim's gotten a strong taste of the high life now, of depravity, and I don't think that he's going to want to give that up."

"Bullshit, complete bullshit, you-"

"Hoseok," Namjoon interrupted, "maybe you should-"

"you're talking complete bullshit, Choi," he carried on instead. "I thought a man working this department as long as you had would have some common sense and a little bit of fucking decency."

"At least I have more decency than Kim." It was at this point that Namjoon realised that this wasn't going to sort itself out. This was going to escalate very very quickly from heated words into something much worst. "I think it's perfectly valid to question the high chances that Kim is going to betray us for The Boy," Youngjae argued. "It won't be the first time such a thing has happened-"

"Taehyung's different," Namjoon interrupted. "He's not the same as everyone else and it's a mistake to assume that he is." Across the office he heard Sungah making a noise in agreement.

"Oh, he's different alright," Youngjae muttered under his breath. "Fucking queer is what he is."

"Don't call him a queer," Hoseok intoned as he lifted his hand and pointed right at the other man. "Stop calling him that right now."

"What? Would you prefer I call him something else like a-"

"Don't."

"Youngjae, don't," Sungah also warned but her words fell on deaf ears.

"A faggot?"

Namjoon barely had enough time to process the fact that Hoseok had moved before he was throwing himself at the other man. Daesu let out a surprised noise and then attempted to stop them whilst Namjoon got out of his own seat to rush over to them. No blows had been exchanged but they were both up in each other's faces, seconds away from making things physical. Hoseok had an inch or so on the other man so he was looking down his nose at him. Just as he got to them the first shove had happened and Namjoon had to grab hold of Hoseok's elbow and try and pull him away. Yet Hoseok had grabbed hold of the other man's tie and so in the resulting seconds all hell broke loose. Youngjae ended up getting a punch on the end of the chin, a rather hard one from what he could tell.

"Taehyung has done more for this department in his eleven months working here then you have in eleven fucking years!" Hoseok shouted over them, actually trying to push him away for a moment before Namjoon managed to get between them both. "Don't you dare say that he hasn't done anything, that he would fuck up the operation 'cos you have a problem with him and-"

"Jung, back off," Sungah instructed as she also got out of her seat.

Namjoon couldn't believe that he was having to break a fight up like this, like a teacher stopping squabbling children on a playground. His team was made up of adults and yet here they were, arguing and name-calling like the most brattiest of children. But sadly Namjoon also understood why this was happening. Tensions were currently running high and it was no wonder that Hoseok was feeling the pressure a lot more than the rest of them. Youngjae had just referred to their teammate in a degrading manner and it was rather obvious why he had gotten so upset. But physical blows were not excusable and that meant that Hoseok's actions were in no way acceptable.

"Taehyung has put his life in danger!" Hoseok carried on, at least no longer trying to fight back against him and instead allowing him to push him away. "He's risked his life from day one and what have you done, huh?! You've sat at your desk all day with your thumb up your goddamn ass!"

"I've been doing my job, Jung," Youngjae argued. "Just like you, and I thought the fact that you were stabbed would have made you wake up too!"

"Don't talk about what happened to me , only I can talk about what happened to me," Hoseok backed up again, reaching up to pull at his shirt collar. "I was doing my job and what happened happened, that's a risk that I decided to accept when I started working this desk, Choi."

"We were both doing our jobs, it's Kim that hasn't been doing his," Youngjae said as he reached up to rub at his no doubt stinging chin. "Unless acting like a pervert was a part of job description." At this Hoseok's lips turned down again, eyes squinting as he if he had tasted something bitter. Namjoon braced himself for another attempt at a fight but before he could the other man spoke.

"Maybe we all need to stop gossiping and instead focus on the important thing here, alright?" Daesu suggested as he lifted both arms up and gave a rather lackadaisical shrug. "The important matter here being that Jeon's been dead for over a week, almost two, and things are going haywire without him. Officer Kim? He's the last thing we should be thinking about right now when we've got casualties in the double figures all over this goddamn capital and the numbers are looking to increase in the next few days. Kim, he can take care of himself; been doing so for near four months now."

The office fell silent at his words and Namjoon let his breath out slowly. The tension was slowly starting to diffuse and it no longer felt like a bomb was about to go off. But just because the situation had been brought under control that didn't mean that it was solved; not even close.

"Less of the idle chitchat, more of the solving of the crimes, yes?" Daesu added as he finally dropped his gaze back to the photographs in front of him.

"Thank you," Namjoon said in a quiet voice as he looked at the other man. Since the news had broken about the pornography bust Daesu had avoided the topic of Taehyung explicitly, referring to the case on a whole instead. Just like Sungah had assumed. Whilst that wasn't a sign of acceptance it was at least not a sign of condemnation and Namjoon was willing to accept it. Better the matter be ignored completely then addressed negatively any day. "I think that Oh raised a very good point. We've got jobs to do, this is a police station not a classroom. So let's start acting like adults."

Hoseok held his gaze for a moment before shrugging hard, knocking his hand free from his arm. Before Namjoon could say anything to him the other man crossed the office floor to leave the room in a huff. They all turned their heads to track him and after a moment of silence he saw Sungah discreetly cocking her head in the direction of the doorway, asking him to step outside for a word. So Namjoon gave Youngjae a final look of disapproval before walking out of the office. She followed behind him and pulled the door shut behind her.

"Well, that was something," Namjoon muttered as he eyed the empty hallway, no sight of Hoseok at all. "I've never seen him get so riled up like that before. I'm actually surprised."

"Go check up on him, calm him down," Sungah suggested. "I'll keep the ball rolling with Daesu, look into some more of the reports and update the board so we have a clue about what's going on."

"Christ, I didn't think that this would happen," Namjoon said as he reached up to rub at his brow with a weary sigh. "I expected the occasional remark and dirty look but this? This level of immaturity and conflict? Clearly I set my hopes too high."

"Clearly," she agreed with a nod.

"I just didn't think that Hoseok would go off on him like that. I could sense that he was displeased with Youngjae but I didn't think that he would go that far."

"Jung's upset, he's frustrated because of the case and he's upset because Taehyung's a good friend to him. It's no wonder why Youngjae's words got to him, I mean I was biting down on my tongue to try and stop myself too," Sungah said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "We're a team and this is a workplace environment not a preacher's soapbox. Keep all of your personal shit at the door and leave it at that. I worked standard office work for three years before making this desk and I had to put up with some things that I didn't like, like being insulted for wearing a goddamn skirt when it was part of my uniform or the fact that I wasn't wearing makeup for the day. Do you know many times I heard jokes about me having a "rough night"?"

"Too many," Namjoon suggested.

"Yes, and did I complain? No, because sometimes you have to put up with the shit to get places. Sadly that means that Taehyung will have to too, he's going to have to deal with what I went through too. That means that Jung is also going to have to learn that he can't wage wars to protect his imaginary honour."

"Once upon a time, before all of this, Taehyung would never have defended himself," Namjoon remarked in a quiet voice. "He would have kept his head down and avoided conflict but now? If Youngjae said that shit to his face, Taehyung would knock his teeth out. He doesn't need anyone defending him now."

"Go on, go and get him," Sungah repeated as she cocked her head in the direction of the stairwell. So Namjoon turned on his heel and crossed the slight hallway to go down them, moving at a quick pace to get to the ground-floor. He glanced into the break room to see that it was empty and then he decided to check outside just in case he had left the building to cool down in the mild spring weather.

He found Hoseok sitting in the curb just a few feet away from the entrance, Polystyrene cup in hand that no doubt contained office coffee as thick as tar and as acidic as battery acid. His teammate was sitting with his legs cocked up in front of him, elbows balanced on his knees and cup hovering in front of his lips. He was leaning forward ever so slightly and as a result his trousers and shirt had bunched up into thick creases. Just one look at him showed that he was still in the same mood, mostly pissed off still but also upset. Namjoon considered leaving him alone but he knew that he should go over and speak to him instead. So he stepped off the slight step and moved over to hunker down beside him, knees drawn up and arms folded on them.

"Damn, brother, you really knocked Youngjae down a peg or three. Nearly knocked him on his ass too," Namjoon said as he turned his head to look at him. Hoseok wasn't drinking the coffee but rather nibbling on the side, teeth leaving little punctures in the Polystyrene. "You know that was a bad idea, right?"

"Mmm," Hoseok mumbled around the cup, eyes staring across the street rather than look back at him.

"He's got more years on you, he could file a complaint for assault and get you suspended for a few weeks," he explained in a quiet voice.

"Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe I need to get away from all of this shit?" his teammate suggested, but his tone didn't sound like he truly believed it. "It's fucking with my head too, just like Tae said it was fucking with him."

"...I'll talk to Youngjae, sort this all out," Namjoon said as he reached over and squeezed his shoulder firmly. "You won't get suspended. After all, I'm sure that I saw him shoving you first and initiating the physical contact. Add that together with the fact that three people witnessed him aggravating you and I think that the complaint would be dismissed."

Namjoon stopped talking for a moment, letting the air fall silent and allow the other man to think it all over. In his heated emotional state Hoseok had clearly not thought his actions over so he needed time to do so. Except he knew that the last thing on his mind currently was himself and the argument in the station. It was Taehyung and Taehyung only. It wasn't good for him at all to become so fixated on it but after their meeting with the younger man that day it was of no surprise that he couldn't stop thinking about it. The meeting had not went as planned, had deviated quite a lot from what they had both been expecting, and Namjoon himself had been thinking it over constantly.

The mental image of Taehyung pulling down his shirt to reveal that Jeon family crest tattoo on his breast and the hideous bullet wound in his flesh...that was something that he couldn't stop thinking about. What he had said to them, all of the talk about being in love and murdering men, about how he wasn't right in the head any more; it was worrying. But it was also something that he should have expected. Namjoon had sent him into this mess and Taehyung had done nothing more than adapt to survive it, like any true undercover officer would do. Like he had had to do in the past. After a minute of silence, punctuated only by the lazy roll of traffic, the other man finally broke the silence.

"You know what the worst part is? It's knowing that stupid Youngjae's right," Hoseok muttered as he pulled the cup away, a chunk of the Polystyrene stuck between his teeth that he spat out into the gutter. "He's right and that's why I got mad."

"Do you think he's right?" Namjoon asked as he watched him playing with the cup, pulling more chunks free with his fingers. A few little blobs fell into the remains of the coffee, rendering it now impossible to drink. "Do you really think that he's right about Taehyung?"

"Namjoon, you heard him, Tae, he said the word 'love' explicitly," Hoseok argued. "Multiple times in fact. Forgive me for having little faith but I find that rather worrying and I know that you do too; you're just better at hiding it. So yeah, I'm fucking terrified that Tae's gonna let that delusion get to him and that he'll fuck it all up on us."

Namjoon really didn't want to be having this conversation. He really wanted to be focusing on something else to take his mind off it all but that was proving rather difficult to do so at this current moment. How could he not worry when Hoseok had raised several strong points about the entire situation and two of his team had come to blows over it all?

"Yes...yes, I'm worried," Namjoon agreed after some thought. "Of course I'm worried, brother, we all are. That's only natural considering everything. It's not about having little faith in Taehyung, it's about being worried. That's all that this is."

"I kinda feel like I'm turning my back on him by thinking such things," Hoseok replied in a quiet voice. "'Cos I know, no matter what he says, Tae's a good guy and I'm scared that he's gonna get so much into this fabricated character of his that he's gonna lose sight of reality. He'll really start thinking that he's a bad guy, and bad guys...Haedogje Pa is just chock full of bad guys."

"So's the police," Namjoon muttered as he watched Hoseok pulling even more of the cup apart. When he ripped a particularly large piece free and risked spilling the contents all over his trousers he reached over to gently pull the coffee cup out of his hands and place it down on the curb instead. Hoseok didn't even stop him and instead just dropped his hands to his lap.

"That feeling of being bad, of no longer being the same person that he was, don't you think that Tae could start believing it? Like legit believing that he's Kim Taehyung: Haedogje Pa instead of Kim Taehyung: SMPA officer?"

"It could, I guess under enough duress Taehyung could start thinking such things, yes," Namjoon agreed honestly rather than lie to him.

"Namjoon, did you ever go through something like this, huh?" Hoseok asked in a quiet voice, edging just that little bit closer to him as he did. "Did you have this level of entanglement too? I don't need the details, I just wanna know if what Tae's going through is something that you understand intimately too."

How long had it been since he had thought about something like this? Since he had recalled all of the names and faces of the men and women of his past; the ones that had sometimes appeared in his nightmares and the ones that had been blurred so greatly from time that he couldn't seem to recall them fully beyond the most faintest hints or the faded sound of their voices.

"There was someone, yes," Namjoon replied in a soft voice. "I don't know about love but I did find that I enjoyed her company greatly, but I don't think that it's close to the same thing. I wasn't reliant on her, she was just someone that occasionally became part of my company. Taehyung isn't just casually meeting with The Boy and Jimin, he lives with them. Eats, sleeps - in both meanings of the word, and works with them. That's a completely different level of emotional investment opportunities." He paused for a moment before adding. "There was a man too, a young man that I guess became a friend for me. A brother in some ways, a younger brother that I wanted to look out for just like my sister."

"What were their names?" Hoseok asked in a soft voice.

"Jiao-long and Ting," he replied. "It's funny, Jiao-long kind of reminds of Taehyung. There's just something about him that made me think of him when he first stepped into that department office, kind of made me want to protect him but then..." Namjoon paused for a moment, dropping his eyes to stare at the road under their feet. He could feel Hoseok's gaze almost burning into his face as he waited for him to continue. "But then I sent him undercover in this operation and put him in so much danger."

"Hey, you had no choice," Hoseok argued, reaching over this time to slip an arm around his back rather than squeeze his shoulder. "Namjoon, our department was given the best opportunity at doing this and we had to take it. You had no choice, Tae was the only guy that could've done this and you picked right. Look at how far he's gotten already, in four months he's gotten so far."

"I know, I know he has but at what cost?"

"At the cost of destroying this empire once and for all and saving thousands of lives," Hoseok argued. "And maybe he won't see it that way right now, but that's the reason why Tae wanted to do this too. He wanted to clean up this goddamn capital and that's what he's gonna do. It's just...a little complicated right now." He stopped talking for a minute, seemingly collecting his thoughts before he continued again. "Do you really think what you said that day to him? When he said it was love and you told him that it wasn't?"

"I think that love is a dangerous word, brother," Namjoon replied in a soft voice. "It means a great many things but it's not always true. How many of us say that we love someone when we really just tolerate them? How many of us think that the relationship that we're in is 'the one' only to find out it was nothing more than a quick spark of excitement?" His teammate thought this over silently, eyes dropping to study the tarmac. "I think love is a word that is used much too casually and, as a result, it's often mistaken. So no, I don't think that Taehyung loves them both in the full meaning of the word. I think that Taehyung is so lost in his own satisfaction right now that he's assuming that what he feels is love."

"He's also got so much pressure on him to conform and shit," Hoseok added with a soft nod. "There's that constant sense of pleasing The Boy in all ways to get under his skin and be given protection. I imagine that all of that pressure, it's gotta start affecting you mentally, right? It's gotta have forced Tae to stop thinking about himself long enough to get that protection and then afterwards...afterwards it's hard to stop thinking that way."

"Especially not with sexual gratification involved."

"No, all of that pleasure could fuck him up too," the other man agreed. "Sex can be as addictive as any drug and- hey, Namjoon, I've been thinking this over a little, you know? And it's always got me thinking about Tae's...love life before all of this."

"He was single," Namjoon explained. "I don't think he's always been single but I do think that he's never been in a serious relationship before."

"With a face like that?" Hoseok raised his eyebrows. "God help the rest of us, huh?"

"I imagine it must be rather difficult finding a relationship for Taehyung, all things considered."

"Shit, Namjoon, this could be his first 'serious' relationship, and as far as relationships go this is pretty fucking serious." Namjoon could only laugh softly at the remark for it sounded like a major understatement. Yes, Taehyung was in a very serious situation relationship now, one of the most serious imaginable. "All of the reasons we just listed, they don't really matter, do they? If Tae thinks that he loves them then his judgement will be clouded, even if it's not the truth."

"...You can love someone and know that they're bad for you," Namjoon replied after a moment of thought. "So you leave them for your own sake, or conversely, you leave them so you can save them from themselves."

"If Tae doesn't bring The Boy down he's as good as dead," Hoseok said as he picked the cup up to start pulling at it again. "His own men are gonna murder him eventually 'cos they all fucking hate him. Isn't it better that...that Tae saves his life by destroying the empire?"

"You can love someone and destroy them too," Namjoon agreed in a quiet voice.

Taehyung found that he didn't like the methadone just looking at it. He had yet to sample the substance but quite simply looking at the liquid as Jimin placed the bottle down on the kitchen table made him almost snarl at it, the corners of his lips drooping severely. It was the colour that seemed to scream out to him that it was wrong, all wrong. That strange bright green colouring made it look like one of two things: toxic waste or antibiotics.

He supposed that it was technically both things for him: poison but also a cure. After all, the methadone was bad for him but it was going to help him fight a much worst addiction.

Jungkook was upstairs in his office, talking away on the phone just like always. Taehyung wondered if he had any idea that Jimin was doing this, and if he did what exactly he thought about it. He imagined that Jungkook would find the development good, just like Jimin did. If only he could find it good rather than be filled with a great sense of distrust just looking at the bottle. At least the morphine didn't look toxic. It was clear and pure, like water. Maybe if the methadone looked that way too it wouldn't seem so wrong to him? He didn't really know, he just knew that he greatly distrusted it and the sensation wouldn't go away.

In the adjacent seat Jimin was happily humming away under his breath as he uncapped the bottle and started what Taehyung was starting to think of as his new ritual. On the table beside his glass of orange juice and the remains of his rice porridge there were a variety of things. First there was the bottle of methadone, vivid green and unpleasant, and beside this was a plastic container with measurements on the side. To the side of these two things there was the tourniquet and a brand new syringe prepared with a needle head in it. If it wasn't for the strange new drug then the scene would be exactly the same, but sadly there was no morphine vial present. Taehyung could smell the mixture as he put the cap down on the table and it was unmistakably medicinal in nature. That just added to the distrust that he felt towards the substance. Was he shooting up methadone or antiseptic? He couldn't seem to tell the difference right now.

"Hopefully we can move you onto another form of this," Jimin explained as lifted the bottle and poured some of the liquid into the plastic container. "Maybe the drinkable solution, or even the pills. They would be so much better, you could keep them in a pill case and take them every few hours and it's so much more safer than the nasty morphine, right, Tae?"

Taehyung thought about the idea of swallowing pills just like he did with the Valium, of knocking back uncoated pills rather than feeling the familiar sting of the needle that gave him that raw rush of heat and he could barely keep his expression neutral. No, not pills. Anything but pills.

"I think it's much safer," Jimin said after he didn't reply. He still had that rather optimistic expression on his face and Taehyung wished that he could feel it too but it was just too hard to do so. "That's the best thing about methadone, we can slowly wean you off the morphine but we can almost remove the need to shoot up too. That's part of the addiction, Yoongi told me so."

Taehyung wondered what other kinds of shit Yoongi had told Jimin over the hours they had spent together. Did they gossip about him? Did they bitch about Jungkook whilst no one was there to hear them do so? Was his uncertain remark about them fucking to his teammates actually true or was it just his hungry mind starting to get irritated like always? Taehyung found himself gnawing on his lower lip as he watched Jimin screwing the cap on the bottle. God, this was taking too long, much too long. He just needed a hit right now not a fucking lecture.

"He said that a part of the addiction stems from the strong association with habits," Jimin continued, talking in a slow and pedantic manner. "So by breaking the habit, we can break the addiction, mmm?"

Taehyung wanted to break Yoongi's nose for giving Jimin the idea of replacing his morphine with methadone.

Jimin picked up the syringe and tourniquet, holding the band out for him to accept. Taehyung took it and proceeded to wrap it around his bare arm, snagging it in place and pulling it taut with his other hand. Whilst he did so Jimin stuck the needle into the container and pulled up most of the liquid. He saw it get to 60ml and then he pulled it free and tapped it so that a slight dribble escaped. Taehyung tried to not moan in anticipation as Jimin leaned over to grab hold of his arm and pricked his vein with the needle. He depressed the pusher and Taehyung watched the liquid depleting without taking a single breath. When Jimin pulled the needle free and gently wiped at the needle mark with his thumb he finally felt it.

The cravings had just...gone.

Taehyung lowered his head with a heavy sigh whilst Jimin as he started tidying the objects all away. He waited to see if that rush would hit him, that gorgeous heat that felt better than sex, but after a minute he felt nothing. There was no heat at all but the cravings had gone and that was something.

"What do you think, Tae?" Jimin asked him as he bundled the supplies up in the medical box. "Is it good?"

"Yuh...yeah, it's good," Taehyung agreed with a soft nod. "It's good, Jimin."

That was a fucking lie but did it really matter right now?

After another minute of waiting Taehyung got to his feet and he wandered over to the kitchen to get to the coffee machine. It had been brewing the entire time that Jimin had been preparing the drugs and he collected a mug from one of the cupboards.

"What? You're after a caffeine rush now too?" Jimin joked as he glanced over his shoulder at him.

"Coffee really doesn't do that much for me now," Taehyung replied as he slipped the mug under the dispenser and pressed the button so that the brewed liquid came out in a steaming stream. "I drank some a few days ago and didn't even get a buzz."

"That was probably the morphine numbing it," Jimin replied as he lifted his own glass and took a sip of orange juice. If it wasn't for the fact he had only ever seen him drink champagne Taehyung would have given him a rather biting retort about him drinking a screwdriver but he held his tongue.

"Probably," Taehyung mumbled as he left go of the button and scratched at his elbow. He added just the slightest splash of milk to the coffee, watching it starting to diffuse into the dark mixture, and then he lifted the mug and carried it across the floor. Jimin was still seated at the table and he didn't even glance up at him as he ascended the stairs and walked along the landing. Taehyung stopped beside the open doorway, not wanting to irritate Jungkook by blocking the view. So he stayed beside it and instead reached over to knock his knuckles against the open doorway.

"Jungkook, can I come in?"

"Hang on a moment - yes, you can," Jungkook called to him, and so Taehyung shifted to step into the office.

Somewhere in this room were those hard drives that Jimin had told him about; the ones he had never managed to lay his eyes on before. Taehyung tried to not study the room too much and rather just carried the mug of coffee over to his desk because he didn't want to look like he was looking for something. Flighty eyes might look rather suspicious, and the last thing that he needed was to arouse any suspicions right now. He lowered the heavy mug down onto the hard wood desk, the porcelain clunking rather loudly on it, and before he could pull his hand away Jungkook reached out to seize hold of his wrist. His grip wasn't tight but it caught him by surprise.

"Yes...yes, Bae, I believe that I can make it today," Jungkook said down the line. Taehyung looked up from the mug to see that he was staring right at him and he realised that the younger man wanted him to stay in the office for a moment. After he was finished on the phone he clearly wanted to talk to him too. So Taehyung stayed in place, fingers around his wrist and head held low as he waited. "Have men at the airport waiting for me, they can transport me to the location. Yong and Park, I will remember the names. Yes, I couldn't wait another minute never mind a day, Bae. I must get my hands on him right now."

Taehyung had a pretty strong idea who he was talking about and he felt a momentary confusion wash over him before he recalled what Jungkook had told him that day. Whilst he had been planning Kim Jintae's murder he had also been trying to catch his son, Jinwoo, and it seemed that he had managed to do so. The fact that he was talking to Bae was of no surprise to him. Taehyung actually felt a shiver run down his spine thinking of the other man and he was certain that Jungkook must have felt it through his fingers too.

Jungkook had Kim Jinwoo in his net right now and if he were to get rid of him then all hell would break loose,Taehyung was certain of it. His window of opportunity was shrinking much too quickly for his liking.

"Taehyung," Jungkook said as he ended the call and looked up at him. "Get ready, we have to go to China, Shanghai to be precise. I'll be booking the flight in a few minutes."

"Shanghai?" Taehyung asked as he shifted to sit on the very edge of the desk beside the mug. "What the fuck's going on in Shanghai?"

"Important business," the younger man retorted as he pulled the mug closer to him with one hand and grabbed the bottle of Adderall with the other. "The most important business that you will ever be involved in." Jungkook unscrewed the bottle with a sharp twist of the wrist, tapping out a single orange and white pill onto his palm and knocking it back with a hard dry swallow. "Tell Jimin that we should be back by tonight if everything goes as planned. He will only be alone for a few hours so he doesn't need to get upset."

"Does this have something to do with Jinwoo?" Taehyung asked as he watched him pick up the mug to take a sip of the coffee. Jungkook didn't reply but the corners of his lips went up in a soft curve around the rim and that was better than any answer. Taehyung was pretty certain that that was the first true smile that he had seen on his face for two weeks now. "I'll get dressed right away, Jungkook. Do I need to bring anything with me?"

"Mmm, just bring your gloves and a spare change of clothes," Jungkook replied as he took a sip of the coffee. "I have better plans for today than a gun."

Taehyung left the office room a moment later, going down the stairs to see that Jimin had finished putting the supplies away and was instead lying on the chaise lounge on his stomach, seemingly staring off into space. He grabbed one of the freshly pressed suits from the silk screen and tossed it onto the bed, proceeding to get dressed as fast as he could. When he shrugged his shirt on his shoulder protested at the movement, not in pain but because it was still very stiff. Was it ever going to feel loose and normal again? He wasn't at all certain but it seemed that the answer was a likely no.

"I've gotta go to China," he explained as he reached up to start buttoning up his shirt. "Jungkook needs me to go with him, he said that it was a day trip. Flights to Shanghai only take two or so hours so we should be back here before midnight if the plans are kept to."

"Do you know why you're going?" Jimin asked him as he shifted to sit upright. Taehyung shook his head at the question, fingers now steady so that he could work the buttons without any trouble. "Shanghai? I don't think that Kookie has ever been to Shanghai whilst I've been with him."

"That's probably 'cos it's prime Kim territory," Taehyung replied as he finished the last button. "Which is why I think we're going today. I think that Kim Jinwoo's gotten his dumb ass caught out."

"I'm surprised that he's not singing at the top of his lungs right now," Jimin declared with a laugh. "Kookie's been wanting this for months now, ever since he ran off and went underground to hide." Taehyung stepped into his trousers, awkwardly shoving the ends of his shirt down so that he could fasten them up. "I can't believe that you both have to run all the way to Shanghai and...wait, I need to prepare some methadone for you to take with you."

Taehyung looked up sharply at this as his fingers finished slipping the top trouser button in place. Jimin was going to get more of the drug prepared for him? How much of it would be need to take? He knew nothing about methadone and so he was incredibly confused by this fact. Jimin crossed the room to get to the bathroom and he disappeared inside of it, no doubt collecting the little medical box from its new home inside the room. He returned a minute later with it in hand, moving to sit down at the table again to open it up. Taehyung grabbed his suit jacket and he wandered over to watch him again, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Why'd you need to do that?"

"You'll need maybe two more doses before tonight and I can't give you them if you're not in the country, Tae. Kookie will have to monitor you for me and give you them instead. You might not even need two doses, but you will need at least one." Jimin pulled something else out of the kit that he hadn't seen him use earlier, a long and thin dropper with a rubberised head and a small resealable plastic container.

Taehyung watched him transferring some of the liquid into the container, not able to pour the bottle because it was much too small for that. He did so painstakingly slow, using the dropper and squeezing it so that the vivid green liquid squirted down into the thick plastic container. After he emptied it he proceeded to fill it up again, squeezing the rubber dropper head to pull up another dosage of methadone.

"Are you sure that I should-"

"Methadone needs more doses, Tae," Jimin explained as he once again emptied the dropper into the container. "You need this every six hours instead of every eight, a nice regular dosage to keep those horrible cravings away. There's nothing wrong with you taking it more often, yes? Because this will just get rid of the cravings for you so you don't get sick."

"It...it did, Jimin, but..." Taehyung watched Jimin placing the dropper aside so that he could grab the lid of the container and pop it back on with a loud plastic snapping sound. The other man looked up at him with curious eyes and he felt the most pressing urge to move his tongue around his dry mouth. "But it doesn't feel the same."

"No, you're just thinking that it feels different, Tae," Jimin argued, not angrily or firmly but rather attempting to be persuasive with him. "That's because you're still fixated on the morphine, but give it a day or two and you won't feel it so bad. You'll like this feeling instead, OK?"

Taehyung wanted to tell him that the drug didn't feel the same because there was no rush at all. Yoongi might just have told him that it felt the same but he was wrong, or lying to try and make him fall for it. Yoongi had marijuana to smoke in those moments when his brain and itching skin tried to make him crave and start thinking about whatever the fuck he had been hooked on. Taehyung knew that that was why he smoked the joints so often, a way of fighting the temptation to use again at the cost of his mental health. When Yoongi was stoned he wasn't craving something else, so he had traded a drug addiction in favour of a habitual compulsion. But the methadone just wasn't going to help him at all because it didn't do much more than numb the cravings.

There was no heat.

When Jimin had suppressed the pusher several minutes ago he hadn't felt that rush, that raw rush of heat that flooded his system and made him feel so full and content. There was nothing more than a feeling that he was no longer hungering for something; like a snack as opposed to a feast. Taehyung was glad of the feeling for at least the horrible symptoms disappeared and he was no longer left sweating and shaking, but it just wasn't the same.

"...OK," he replied in a quiet voice. At his agreement Jimin gave him a soft smile as he slipped the sealed container away into a plastic baggie and then put it inside the syringe case. "OK, you're probably right, Jimin."

"Because I'm so smart," Jimin replied as his smile turned into a wide grin, one that made the corners of his eyes crinkle at the corners. He closed the case over and Taehyung tried his very hardest to return the gesture. God, Jimin looked so fucking proud of himself right now and he knew that he should feel some of that pride too but he couldn't. Feeling proud over the fact he was shooting up a high-less drug to keep him from shitting himself was not something that Taehyung thought he should be proud of. It was something shameful, disgusting even. But mostly he was still pissed off about the fact he wasn't getting morphine rather than ashamed of himself. "Actually, Yoongi's the smart one not me. He told me about it, kind of talked me into trying it out."

Oh, he was so going to break that fucking asshole's nose now.

"I know that he probably doesn't wanna hear it but, uh, next time you see Min tell him thanks," Taehyung muttered, avoiding Jimin's gaze as he did.

"I will, of course I will," the other man said with a nod. "I'm sure that he already knows that you're thankful to him."

Yes, thankful. As if he wasn't imagining tackling him up against a wall and using his rib cage as a punching bag right now. Taehyung was very thankful indeed and the fact his fingers were rolled up into tight little fists at his side had nothing to do with it.

Taehyung packed some spare clothing away in a small travel bag just like he had been told and several minutes later Jungkook was making his way down the stairs, fixing his tie and carrying their passports in his other hand. There was a rush of excitement about him and he went over to the intercom system and hit the button with his thumb, instructing Dongjun to get Yang prepared outside for them. As soon as the order had been given he shoved the passports into his inner pocket and glanced over at the table to look at them both.

"Darling, I need you to keep hold of this for me," Jimin said as he held the case out to him. Jungkook's eyes latched onto it and he moved over to accept it, no doubt knowing exactly what it was. When he opened the case to look inside however he clearly saw something unexpected, for he pulled the baggie out a second later. He held it by the very corner, the baggie dangling from his fingers as if he didn't want to touch the substance.

"What is this?" Jungkook asked as he eyed the container inside, brow furrowing in confusion. Clearly he had been expecting to see a fresh vial of morphine instead and not this disgusting imitation.

"It's methadone," Jimin explained. "Yoongi gave me it, to help treat Tae with. I need you to keep hold of it and only give him a dosage exactly six hours from now, and then another six hours later if you're not home by then. 60ml. I measured it out exactly." Jungkook was staring at the green mixture with a hard to read expression and Taehyung greatly emphasised. "I can't give it to Tae so I need you to keep hold of it, just to stop him from giving in to temptation."

"Methadone?" Jungkook repeated slowly as he looked up at them both. After a moment of thought he slipped the baggie back into the case and closed it, putting it inside his pocket with the passports. "Of course, babe. I'll make sure he gets it." He bent down to plant a kiss on the corner of Jimin's mouth, making his lips curl up in a soft smile as he did. "Taehyung, come, the car is waiting for us."

In the ride down the apartment block Taehyung waited with bated breath to see if Jungkook would mention the methadone but he didn't. The younger man was uncharacteristically silent for once and he had a feeling it had something to do with the upcoming flight to Shanghai. Clearly he was much too preoccupied thinking about that to care about his drug addiction but a part of him so desperately wanted Jungkook to acknowledge it at least. After everything that had happened it would just seem right if he did, if he told him that it was good that he was trying to cleanse himself of the morphine. Taehyung knew that that was a little like a pet on the head, like he was a dog, but it really didn't matter anymore.

He had been Jungkook's pet for several months now. What difference would a little approval make?

Yet Jungkook remained silent during the carriage ride and when they climbed into the back of his Mitsubishi there was no mention of it either. Taehyung ended up spending the ride to the airport with his hands clasped tightly in his lap and his eyes staring out the window, unseeing and unfocused. He knew what was coming in Shanghai and yet the knowledge that there was going to be more slaughter didn't really unsettle him anymore. There was a sensation in the pit of his stomach but it wasn't fear, not even close. It was the strange stirrings of excitement and anticipation that he couldn't really understand right now. Because of the morphine Taehyung hadn't really been able to feel much for quite some time, constantly numb and apathetic under its toxic sway. But now he was pumped with methadone instead Taehyung could feel again.

He wondered what his team would think if they knew that the thought that he might just get to help murder Kim Jinwoo today excited him? It wasn't the same as the level of excitement that Jungkook was feeling of course but it was something. It was almost like the rush he had felt in the casino, pure adrenaline. Taehyung was looking forward to this much more than he should have.

It was probably a good thing that Jungkook traveled only on his private plane rather than any other variation. Taehyung was pretty certain that there was no way in hell they would have gotten through security checks with a container of methadone in his suit jacket pocket but of course, just like the trip to Singapore they were let through without the slightest fuss to board the plane. That made everything so much easier, even when Taehyung had seen quite a lot of queuing people staring at them from across the massive floor. Did they look at them and wonder if they were perhaps celebrities, people of great importance? Or did they look at them and know exactly what they were: mobsters. The answer was likely the second one for there were no bodyguards present, no legions of screaming fans following them around. Taehyung thought that Jungkook looked a thousand times better than any of those idols ever could. Those virginal and infantilised puppets that sold a strange pipe dream.

Nothing was pure in this fucking world, that much Taehyung had learnt. Love wasn't sweet like candy but it stung like salt. Once upon a time he might have bought into that saccharine promise but not any more. No, Taehyung knew what the real world was like and it was rotten straight through to the core. He was in love with one young man that got off on being called a slut and the other, the closest thing to a friend that he had, was a bitch with a history of sexual abuse and a chronic addiction to Valium.

It wasn't the kind of relationship that love songs would be penned about.

After some time of silence Taehyung decided to break it because he could barely stand it anymore. The idea of spending two hours on a plane staring at the front of the cabin was something that he could barely stand and so he had to break it, even if he just asked a few pointless questions for the sake of it.

"Jungkook, what happens tomorrow?" Taehyung shifted in his so look at him. "Y'know, after this, what happens exactly?"

Jungkook turned his head away from the window to hold his gaze, one arm cocked up on the armrest so that he could balance his seat in the palm of his hand. There was such a serene feeling coming off him that Taehyung wished he could feel it too but he couldn't. He was much too nervous to be anything close to calm.

"Tomorrow is...the dawning of a new age, " Jungkook replied as he folded one leg over the other in a sign of pure contentment. "What that will bring with it I'm uncertain but I do know this: I have wiped out the Kim clan single-handedly." His lips lifted up in a wide smile at this. "Therefore the biggest threat to the empire has been eradicated."

"The entire clan?" Taehyung asked in surprise.

"Yes, Jinwoo had a sister but she died in childhood," he explained. "She was hit by a car, I was present when it happened and it was because of that that I was banned from ever leaving the house unattended. I was seven at the time, Jisoo was four. There were no more Kim children born after that and there aren't any extended family either."

"D'you think that that might be why Jinwoo hates you so much? 'Cos you didn't stop her from getting hit by the car?"

"Maybe, maybe he thinks me responsible," Jungkook replied as he dropped his eyes to his lap, straightening out any creases in his trousers. "He would be right to do so, I did push her." Taehyung stared at him in dumb confusion and the younger man laughed softly. "It was an accident, Taehyung. It wasn't my intent to kill her, but I assure you that's not why he wants me dead." He didn't really believe this but he decided to not question it any further. "I don't regret it but sometimes I do wish that it had been him that I had pushed. It would have saved a lot of trouble, yes?"

"Yeah, that was a stroke of bad luck," Taehyung agreed and Jungkook reached over to place his hand on his thigh. He stroked his fingers along it slowly, caressing his thigh almost tenderly. He didn't know if he was hinting at anything but it was rather pointless if he was.

"Jinwoo will finally get to taste that bad luck too," Jungkook said with a soft smile.

"Jungkook, what's the reason that he wants you dead, huh?" he asked as he studied his face, feeling his fingers tracing around his knee slowly. Jungkook thought this over for a moment, expression contemplative, before giving him a reply.

"Because he knows that I will kill him first."

After getting off the plane and being allowed through several checkpoints without much more than a glance at their passports and a light bag check, they were both leaving the airport. Right outside against the curb there was a car, a model that Taehyung didn't recognise at all. It was a silver car rather than black but when one of the men climbed out it was clear that it was Haedogje Pa owned. The man was tall and broad, dressed in a suit with a curling wire stretching up into his ear.

"Name?" Jungkook asked as they walked along the sidewalk towards the vehicle.

"Yong, Park is inside," the man explained as he popped the back door open for them both and then held his hand out for the bag. Taehyung passed it to him and it went right into the boot. Jungkook climbed inside first without another word and so he climbed in after him. Yong slammed the door shut and went around the front of the car to climb into the passenger-seat. He pressed his finger against his earpiece whilst Park started the car again. "Master Jeon is present, we are proceeding to move to the location now, Sir." Taehyung knew that he was talking to Bae of course. He settled down in the seat, finding the seating rather tough and uncomfortable. With any hope they wouldn't be stuck inside the vehicle for too long.

It was after several minutes that he found that he needed to roll the window down and let some cooling air inside the vehicle. It was much hotter than he had expected it to be, still cooler than Singapore but a moderate warmth that made the mild weather in Seoul seem wintry cold. The scent that came in through the gap in the glass was a mixture of car fumes and the faded scent of the coast and it lightly played with his hair like Jimin's teasing fingers.

Shanghai was another grand city he quickly discovered. There was the constant view of towering skyscraper buildings: apartment blocks, radio towers and attractions. Every road that they traveled down was packed with cars and motorbikes, bicycles and rickshaws; giving a rather hectic air to the city. There were so many signs hanging overhead between the buildings, bright yellow with eye-catching red characters on them. He just knew when night fell the streets would be glowing and bustling just like Gangnam-gu. He wondered what it would be like to mingle out on the streets like all of those normal humans. Maybe one day he would get to feel that again but right now he found that sitting in the back of the car was so much more enjoyable.

It had been close to three hours since his dosage and he was starting to feel something, something that felt a little like cravings returning again. It wasn't a strong feeling but more like pangs telling him that he was starting to get hungry again. But he still had another three hours to wait until Jungkook could give him another hit and push them away again. Hopefully the pangs would linger for that time like they were now, that slight twinge in the pit of his stomach that made his fingers twitch and make him lick at his lips.

"Mmm, an interesting city," Jungkook remarked as he also glanced out of the window. "After all this is over, when this city has been cleansed, we will have to take Jimin here. I'm sure that he will love it. Maybe the streets here will be safe enough to actually venture out rather than stay in hotel suites?"

"I'm sure it will," Taehyung agreed as he glanced over at him. "So long as you gimme a gun." This joke made the younger man smirk at him.

"How far are we from the location, Park?"

"Half an hour, roughly," Park replied from the front seat. "He's being held in a harbour warehouse in Nanshin, one that Bae owns for exporting goods."

"What condition is he in? I'm hoping that he's whole, or as whole as possible," Jungkook looked away from the window as they slowly rolled past a street market packed with yelling people and honking horns. Taehyung could hear countless voices coming in through the gap in the window, a droning noise that he couldn't understand in the slightest. So Yong told him that Jinwoo was practically untouched, nothing more than a little bruising here or there. "Good."

Taehyung tried to not fiddle as he waited for the car to reach their destination, finding it hard to do so. The knowledge that Jungkook wanted Jinwoo in near perfect condition was a sign of what was to come. Clearly he had fabricated plans in his mind for how he wanted the other man to die and he wondered what that meant for him. Was he going to have to beat a man to death? Was there going to be dismemberment involved like Ahn or Nam or was he going to participate in torture just like that day with Lee? Whatever the case he knew that what Jungkook had planned would be a thousand times worse than all of them combined. When the car started to drive through areas that were less packed with people, more industrial, he actually found himself shifting on the seat.

"Excited?" Jungkook asked as he looked over at him.

"Yeah," Taehyung replied with a series of nods. "Yeah I'm actually excited, Jungkook."

"Craving a little more than peace now?"

"Oh yeah, I'm craving the thought of smashing his fucking teeth in and collecting 'em like poker chips."

The building that Jinwoo was being held in was a massive building that looked to be a warehouse, made from brick and metal shutters. In the lot there were several cars and that was a sign that there were multiple men inside the building. Taehyung glanced over the harbour to see that countless men were still working away in the other warehouses, pushing massive trolleys and hefting heavy crates and plastic boxes packed with goods. There were boats of all sizes across the stretch of harbour water and the sound of distant bells ringing and gulls squawking was almost lost under the crashing of the waves hitting the stone wall around the very edge of the promenade. He watched two men carrying a box off the back of a truck and then turned his head to catch sight of Jungkook heading in the direction of the entrance. So Taehyung hastily went around the car to follow along behind him.

Park lifted the shutter up to allow them both to step inside but he and Yong stayed outside, the other man once again reporting something to Bae through his headset. Taehyung was momentarily surprised by the sight of workers still inside the warehouse, men and women sorting out goods for exporting. The scent of grease and sawdust was thick in the air and he ran his eyes over the several long stretches of work tables that they were all standing around. None of the workers even looked up at them and he wasn't at all surprised because there were armed men watching over them, watching them pack away the unloaded guns and sealed up boxes of ammunition like worker ants in a hive. Jungkook crossed the room, sticking close to the wall to avoid having to mingle with them so Taehyung followed him across the sprawling warehouse in the direction of a door. It looked to lead into an office perhaps, a room that would contain no windows and be rather small in size. When they reached it Jungkook stopped in front of it, reaching inside to pull his gloves free and slip them on. Taehyung copied him and then the young man hand hovered his hand over the handle.

Finally he was going to see Kim Jinwoo with his own two eyes. The young man that had avoided him for so long now, that had almost had him murdered that night in Singapore. Taehyung wasn't at all surprised that his stomach felt all tight and cold right now, and his fingers were trembling at his side.

"Taehyung, today you are going to help me create history," Jungkook declared as he wrapped his gloved fingers around the handle. It should have sounded like a brag and yet Taehyung knew that it was true. Today, in this very warehouse, they were both going to do something that would change Haedogje Pa forever and that was a historical event. It might not go into history books but every single man and woman with connections to the empire would remember this day, would remember them.

Jungkook pushed the door open without another word and then they entered the other section of the building. Taehyung had expected to see the sight of Kim Jinwoo tied to a chair, or at least bound in some way to keep him trapped in place so that he couldn't move. Yet when he stepped into the room behind Jungkook he was shocked to see the sight of the other man seated in a chair as cool as could be. There were no leather straps around his wrists to keep him stuck to the chair, arms pinned down so he could do nothing more than wriggle against the restraints. There was no rope across the chest, no handcuffs, nothing at all. That was highly confusing and he actually stopped walking for a moment to just stare at him dumbly. Jinwoo was seated in a leather armchair and a few feet away from him there was a matching chair. Apart from these two items there were no more pieces of furniture inside and there were at least a dozen men present in the room, all of them armed with guns because their holsters were on clear display. That was all that was needed, no restraints necessary. No man would possibly attempt to do a thing with a dozen pistols pointed right at them.

"Leave," Jungkook instructed to the men. "Wait in the lot." At his words the men actually did move to leave the room so Taehyung stepped away from the door to allow them to do so. One of the men, a bald man, held something out to Jungkook, something sheathed in thick brown leather with a black handle. It looked to be a knife to Taehyung's eyes but it was so big, easily fifteen inches or so in length. Jungkook accepted it and as soon as the room was empty he moved to sit in the empty armchair. He placed the object down on his lap settled back comfortably.

"Good afternoon, Jinwoo," Jungkook said with a smile. It was the same predatory smile that Taehyung had come to memorise, the ones that froze up at the corners and didn't extend to his eyes in the slightest. "Long time, no see, as the saying goes."

"Unfortunately for me we're seeing each other right now," the other man retorted.

Taehyung took advantage of the moment to study him. Kim Jinwoo looked even more like the typical boy next door in reality than he did on the photographs that he had seen of him over his time working the department. There had always been something coming off him that made him seem friendly even when he was clearly not, and being able to see him in motion rather than still on a captured photograph, just heightened that impression. Kim Jinwoo had a soft face with soft features, nothing particularly striking about him at all. He was rather pale in comparison to him and Jungkook and he had large eyes and a rather small mouth that always had a puckered look to it. Like he was constantly disapproving of something, or as if he had something bitter on his tongue. His dark hair was neatly parted to the left rather than the right like Jungkook's, and Taehyung could see a blossoming bruise on his cheek where he had no doubt been struck by the back of a hand.

"So this is your choice of...partner?" Jinwoo remarked as he eyed him. Taehyung found that he did not like being the object of his attention in the slightest. Being observed by those large eyes of his was incredibly unsettling in a way that he couldn't seem to figure out. There was nothing on Jinwoo's face that outwardly screamed 'psychopath' to him like Jungkook and yet there was something there, that much he was aware of. "He looks the type."

Taehyung wasn't sure what he had meant by that. It could have been an attack on his morals, his mental state or his sexuality. He really didn't know and he didn't want to ask and find out. So he just kept silent as he moved to stand behind Jungkook's chair, hands clasped behind his back to not let it be known that his fingers were shaking so bad.

"Where's your partner- oh, wait," Jungkook paused dramatically before adding, "he's dead, silly me. I keep forgetting."

"Probably still cleaning the ceiling up in that house," Taehyung remarked. "There was a big fucking mess from what I saw." At this Jinwoo's lips did a sharp twist, that bitterness on his tongue no doubt getting acidic. Jungkook made an amused noise at this, shifting to look back at him. There was something on his face, a giddiness that was strangely sweet in its own way. Taehyung moved his hands from behind his back and instead placed them down on his shoulders, the leather rubbing against his suit jacket. "Yeah, I'm his partner. I'm the guy that killed most of your hitmen."

"Oh? So you're the one from the casino?" Jinwoo's gaze dropped to study his hands before lifting to look at him again, studying him rather intently. "I thought that there was something familiar about you, yes." The other man must have seen CCTV of some kind to recognise him like that. "Tell me, how's the injury? I imagine it must have hurt a lot."

"It did, but not as much as you'll be hurting when I get my hands on you," Taehyung retorted. This threat just made the other man laugh softly, seemingly unbothered by his words. Maybe he was used to threats, or maybe he was just stupid.

"He's good, Jungkook, he's very good. Here I was this whole time thinking that a human was the perfect partner but it seems that a guard dog is a much better choice." Jinwoo shifted in his seat to get more comfortable, folding his hands primly in his lap. "Clearly I was mistaken."

Taehyung felt a flare of annoyance at this, finding that he didn't like being called a guard dog in the slightest. But he was actually correct with his biting retort for he really was more pet than partner and the fact that Jungkook didn't have a comeback at all just further proved this point. Jinwoo looked surprisingly at ease, all things considered, and Taehyung found it irritated him that much more. He was going to die and yet he didn't seem to mind at all. Was it a lack of fear, or was Jinwoo actually thinking that he might just survive this when it was so very obvious that he wouldn't?

"Guard dogs have such sharp teeth," Jungkook remarked as he cocked his head at him. "If you're not careful then you might just find out how sharp his are, Jinwoo."

"I'm sure that I will."

"Are you afraid, Jinwoo?" the younger man asked, gloved fingers stroking across the leather sheath of the knife almost lovingly. "I must say I'm impressed with your lack of fear, I can barely detect it. By now I can usually scent a mixture of sweat and piss so I'm very impressed."

"No, I'm not afraid of death, Jungkook," Jinwoo replied in a rather flat tone. "My time on earth is clearly up because God had made it that way. It seems rather pointless trying to escape His design so I might as well accept it."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're fucking nuts?" Taehyung asked as he stared at the other man. Jinwoo didn't laugh at this, rather his expression turned sour again. He had figured out a way to touch his nerves, it seemed that guard dogs were rather keen too. "You're seriously a fucking lunatic, Kim."

"I guess that only a madman can really recognise one of his own," the other man remarked before looking between them both. "I don't think there's a hint of sanity in this room right now."

"We're all mad men," Jungkook agreed as leaned forward in his seat. There was a rather strange slithering sound and when Taehyung shifted to look down he saw that Jungkook had just pulled the knife from the sheath, the dry leather rubbing against the metal. "I suppose that you have to be mad to do what we do every single day, Jinwoo."

"As exciting as all of this talk of insanity is, I must admit that I thought I would be dead by now," the other man declared in a rather bored tone.

"You have no sense for fun," Jungkook sighed. "What about the teasing? What about the thrill of the hunt, hmm?"

"I was always told to not play with my food."

The room fell silent and Taehyung waited to see who would break it first. He had spent perhaps close to a quarter of an hour in Jinwoo's company and yet he found that he didn't really want to spend another minute longer if possible. There was something so fundamentally unsettling about him that he couldn't stand it. It was strange how similar he and Jungkook really were to one another but even with the similarities there was something about him that he found he hated. Taehyung supposed that it was because he was used to Jungkook's branch of instability, the kind that it was impossible to ignore. Jinwoo's however, was the kind that might just be hidden for most of the time and spring out on him like a trap: an uncertain and surprising insanity. It was only now, standing in the room with them both and being able to observe their every move did it hit Taehyung what this was.

Kim Jinwoo was not the big evil that he had thought that he was, a murderous monster out for blood or glory. Looking at Jinwoo he could see exactly why he had done what he had done: survival. All of his plotting, Jeon's death, that was his way of surviving because he knew that Jungkook would kill him no matter what. Jungkook had already eradicated his father in a storm of bullets and Jinwoo must have known that he was going to go down next. He had planned...but he had not planned fast enough. That was why he was stuck in this warehouse right now, knowing that he was going to die in this very room in a foreign country. Taehyung had thought that Jinwoo was another master, another ruler with a chunk of empire at his disposal, but he had been wrong. No, Jinwoo was seeking refuge in China because had he stayed in Korea he likely would have been long dead by now.

He was trapped, in other words, and he had been all along. Stuck in a corner, delaying the inevitable fact that Jungkook would track him down and murder him.

Jinwoo didn't want an empire, technically he didn't even want Jungkook dead...he just wanted to survive.

After several more minutes of silence Jungkook decided to break it, moving so that he could hold the knife out in front of him.

"I have the perfect method for you, one I think quite fitting. Just kneel in front of me in submission and," Jungkook twisted his wrist to point the knife blade at his own stomach, "plunge this right into your stomach. Be sure to follow these three steps though: you must pull down, then along and up again in a quick jerk, making a nice U-cut incision for it to work well."

"Ah yes, so I can spill all of my viscera on your shoes," Jinwoo agreed in an enthusiastic tone. "A nice incision indeed."

Jungkook had just asked Jinwoo to commit seppuku in front of him. Taehyung was rather stunned by this request, unable to much more than stare at the knife blade in his hand. The very act was one of agony and also incredibly insulting to a man like Jinwoo because of its roots, should he be as nationalistic as his father. Perhaps that was why Jungkook had suggested it but he didn't think that it was. No, seppuku was reserved for samurai, Taehyung knew that much. It was an honourable way to die to atone for sins, and it spoke volumes about how Jungkook viewed their relationship if he was offering Jinwoo the option of choosing it. It showed that there was a strange amount of respect between them even after everything that had happened. It was somewhat unusual that requesting the other man disembowel himself with the bowie knife was a sign of respect but Taehyung knew that that was the case.

"Oh, Jungkook," Jinwoo said in a rather amused fashion. Taehyung saw the way he cocked his head ever so slightly, the corners of his lips lifting to show him that he was indeed amused by what he had just said to him. The parting of his lips showed his teeth, white and straight, not a hint of slight buckteeth like Jungkook's. "Seppuku, really? Do you think me the kind to resort to such things as suicide?"

"I thought that I would give you the choice, Jinwoo," Jungkook retorted, head also cocked on a matching angle. "I thought that you deserved a choice even when you gave me none. Of all the ways I would like to die you got close, you picked a method in my top five so I'll accept the attempt." Taehyung could hear the smile because it was audible in his voice. "I didn't know your preferred method, hence why I thought I would be courteous and allow you to pick suicide or murder."

"Do you think me a coward?"

"Do you think that suicide is cowardly?" Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows at this and then shook his head softly with a sigh. "That's the thing, the difference between you and I, Jinwoo. You think that a man ending his life is cowardly, an escape from life that spits on the face of God. Whereas, how I see it, suicide is the only true way to die. You would rather let another man take pleasure from murdering you? You would rather be humiliated in the most disgusting of ways just to please your God? No, that's more cowardly to me."

"It is?" Jinwoo asked with a soft eyebrow raise.

"Yes, through suicide you can save yourself the pain and torment that another man's hands could inflict on you," Jungkook explained as he crossed one leg over the other and settled back in his chair. "You can die with a modicum of respect that death doesn't allow. You get to die like a man."

"I've heard suicide referred to as the 'woman's way out' in the past."

"Then women know how to die with respect," Jungkook retorted, "and they seem to have more balls than you, Jinwoo." The other man made an amused sound at this. "Suicide is the true way to die."

Taehyung wondered if he would find it true if he were to overdose on methadone before he could get his hands on him and play with his organs like he clearly wanted to with Jinwoo's. Was that dying with respect? Would it also be true if Jimin knocked back palmfuls of pills to escape him? Jungkook might think those things of his mortal enemies but would he think it of his loved ones? Would he had thought it of his father, had the man been given the choice to kill himself first?

"Well yes, I suppose it is," Jinwoo agreed after a moment of thought. "But it's not very Christian, is it?" At this remark Jungkook actually smirked at him, one corner of his lips lifting and a slight glint appearing in his eyes. "So, with that in mind I think I will politely decline your offer of suicide, Jungkook."

"...Taehyung, kneel for me."

Taehyung studied the back of his head for a few seconds, uncertain as to why he had requested this. He had just told Jinwoo to kneel in front of him and disembowel himself and now he was asking him to kneel instead. He supposed that he should find the request rather unusual and yet he found himself moving to kneel at his feet regardless of this fact. Perhaps that was unwise, but he trusted the younger man and so he got down on both knees and kept his head held low.

"Yes, Jungkook?"

"You know what this is don't you, Taehyung?"

At the younger man's voice he looked up sharply, the muscle at the back of his neck cricking from the sudden movement and making him wince. Jungkook was in the act of reaching inside of his suit jacket to collect something and he heard his leather gloves rustling against the cotton as he pulled something free. He noted that he had reached inside the other pocket to the one that he usually stored things in, therefore he didn't pull the syringe case out like he had been expecting. When he held his hand up he saw the sight of a very familiar vial in his hand, one that contained clear liquid that he recognized instantly.

There was a vial of morphine held between his gloved fingers.

Jungkook held it up to that he couldn't possibly mistake it, the cap between his thumb and forefinger so that even the label stuck to the vial was on display. Taehyung felt a strange sensation in his stomach much like a hiccup and all of the blood in his veins seemed to turn to ice and chill his flesh. The urge to moan was so great that he had to press his lips together tightly to trap it in his throat.

"It's morphine," Jungkook said because he hadn't given him a reply. To give him a reply meant being able to open his mouth and that was too difficult to do so currently. "The morphine I know that you've been craving for so long now."

"Juh-Jimin wants me to take the, uh, the methadone," Taehyung managed to stammer in response. It was disgusting how hard it suddenly was to look at him, to even speak because his mouth just seemed to stop working on him. The way that it flooded with saliva made it very hard to do anything other than swallow lest he dribble down his chin like a baby, or more aptly, a junkie. "He doesn't want muh-me taking that shit, Jungkook."

"Does the methadone feel good, Taehyung?"

"Nuh-no, it ain't the same it doesn't-"

"Doesn't what, Taehyung?"

"It doesn't get me high ," Taehyung almost whined at him, feeling the most pressing urge to start scratching at his inner elbow as he did. "It doesn't feel the same at all it just makes me feel empty instead of warm. I duh-don't like feeling empty." He had to look across the room rather than look at him, feeling waves of disgust washing over him. It was a relief that he was on his knees because his legs wouldn't have been able to keep him standing much longer.

"Does the morphine feel good, Taehyung?"

"Yuh-yeah, the morphine feels good, Jungkook. It feels fuh...fucking fantastic," he groaned as his fingers curling up into tight fists on his thighs.

"Remember what you said to me that morning, the day before daddy's funeral?" Jungkook asked him, turning his hand this way and that so that the liquid moved around the vial. At the mention of his father Jinwoo didn't do anything at all, didn't even move to show discomfort. "When you said that we should concentrate on the real men to blame rather than ourselves for letting it happen?"

"Yuh-yeah," he agreed with a nod, squeezing his eyes shut to not look at the vial of morphine.

"Do you remember what else you said to me?"

"I...uh," Taehyung opened his eyes to look at his feet for a moment, trying to recall what he might just have said to him. It was much too hard to remember but that might just have had something to do with the fact that the morphine vial was still in Jungkook's fingers demanding his attention. That certainly made it much harder to concentrate on the matter at hand and he kept finding his gaze trying to lift up and look at it. "I said that we, uh, we needed to find Kuh-Kim and get rid of him just like his duh-daddy, Jungkook."

"Yes, you called him a snake, remember? And then you promised to do something for me," Jungkook shifted in his seat to lean forward, assuming a position that was authoritative. He enclosed the vial behind his fingers, hiding it out of view, and Taehyung found that he could easily pay attention to him now. "You promised to cut his head off for me and toss it at my feet didn't you, Taehyung?"

Taehyung dropped his eyes to the knife on his lap, the unsheathed length of metal glinting in the overhead lighting. Jungkook was trying to persuade him to do this act so that he could get a hit of morphine. The younger man was trying to use his addiction as a weapon against Jinwoo and the worst part was that Taehyung could feel himself wanting to say yes. He wanted to pick up that knife and cut the other man's head off for a nice big shot of morphine because it really didn't matter at all. He was going to have to kill Jinwoo for him anyway, so why not do it and get something good from it all.

A reward, in other words.

But Taehyung found that when he looked at that vial of morphine he couldn't seem to stop thinking about Jimin. Jimin, who this morning had told him that he was going to break the habit and then break his addiction because they had something else instead of the morphine. They had the methadone, and with that he could get rid of the horrible cravings and try and clean himself up before he ended up killing himself.

Jimin believed in him, and he wanted to help him...

and Jungkook had just offered him poison with a smile on his lips.

"But Juh-Jimin told me that-that I can do it," Taehyung mumbled. "He thinks I can kick the huh-habit, Jungkook, and I think that I can too. I need to try , even when the muh...methadone doesn't feel so good and-"

"The methadone? Oh yes, you mean this?" Jungkook reached inside his other pocket to pull the case free and he popped it open to collect the baggie. He tore the plastic carelessly and got the container free, holding it up so that the green mixture sloshed around. Taehyung stared at it with wide eyes, unable to even blink as he watched it splash around. "You said that it's not the same, right?"

"...Yeah."

Jungkook unscrewed the cap from the container and he cocked his wrist so that the liquid spilled free. It hit the flooring with a series of liquid splashes and Taehyung dropped his gaze to look at the puddle. There it was, that carefully measured set of dosages that Jimin had so sweetly prepared this morning, now all over the floor and completely useless. He was so stunned by this that he couldn't seem to breathe.

"What methadone?" Taehyung dragged his eyes away to see a rather malicious smile on Jungkook's face. The younger man threw the container away and it bounced off the flooring with a series of soft clattering sounds. Then he rolled the torn baggie up into a ball and tossed it at his feet without a care before holding up the vial again. Taehyung felt a hard clench right under his ribs at the sight of it. "Do it for me and I'll give it to you, baby," Jungkook said in a rather seductive tone. "I know you want it, it will make you feel good."

Taehyung eyed the puddle just a few feet away from his knees. On the wooden flooring he could see the vivid green liquid and yet he found that he really didn't care about it at all. That shit didn't make him feel something, not like the morphine. That felt good, and right now Jungkook was promising him that wonderful heat and rush of pleasure instead of nothing. Cut Jinwoo's head off and get some morphine, or turn him down and murder him another way? Was there really any choice to pick from? Jungkook picked up the knife by the blade, holding out the handle to him so that he could accept the knife from him. So Taehyung took it from him and he held it up to study it.

The bowie knife was wickedly sharp, the blade double edged with a hooked tip on the end. It was almost as long as his forearm and he ran his eyes over it for a moment, watching the light playing off the edge of the metallic blade. This was the kind of weapon that could dismember a man. This knife could easily slice through flesh and muscle like paper and he could easily believe that it could remove limbs with enough effort. Taehyung ran his finger along the edge to find it almost sharp enough to cut the leather even when he hadn't applied any pressure at all.

"Jinwoo, you still have a choice," Jungkook offered him. "You can choose suicide or decapitation, so which one will you pick?"

"I told you, Jungkook, I'll accept my death as it comes to me rather than make my own," Jinwoo replied without the slightest hint of hesitation. Taehyung looked up at Jungkook for a moment, trying to read his expression as he did. From what he could see he was not going to break his promise. If he did this for him then he would get a hit and that was really all that he needed, so he got to his feet and shrugged his suit jacket off without a care. It landed on the floor with a soft rustling sound. Then he moved over to the other chair slowly, running his eyes up and down Jinwoo as he did. The man didn't get out of his seat, just held his gaze unblinkingly.

Taehyung could have pulled him out of the chair by his shirt, by his hair had he so wanted to. He could have demanded that he get on his knees and yet he didn't. Instead he moved until he was able to lean forward over him, placing his hands on the armrests. Jinwoo dropped his eyes to study the knife clutched tightly in his right and that was when Taehyung shoved hard and made the chair topple backwards. The other man made a surprised noise but didn't cry out, legs flailing as he fell back. The chair hit the floor with a loud thud and Jinwoo's head bounced off the hard wooden flooring too. He was still stuck in the chair, legs splayed open and Taehyung brought his heel down hard on his vulnerable crotch. The blow was crippling and ensured that the other man wouldn't even attempt to fight back for a minute or two.

In the other chair Jungkook was watching it all intently, nothing moving save for his eyes as he tracked every movement like a hawk.

Taehyung hunkered down to snag hold of Jinwoo's shirt collar and drag him out of the toppled over chair. He was still winded and weak from the kick to his groin and so the man made nothing more than pathetic wheezing sounds as he pulled him out and onto the floor roughly. He didn't need to do anything else other than get him into the right position and yet Taehyung found himself overcome with blind anger and he couldn't help but kick at him whilst he was weak and defenseless on the floor; a hard kick to the lower back, a stomp of his heel down on his ribs so that he felt the impact travel all of the way up to his back teeth.

This wasn't about mercy, not any more. Taehyung didn't give a single fuck about Kim Jinwoo because he was the reason why he was like this now. He was the reason why he had been shot and had gotten addicted to morphine, so it was only fitting that Jinwoo's death come about as a result of his ruination. That was why he was booting the other man like this, unleashing all of his hatred and anger, his pain and self-disgust, on his vulnerable body. That was why Taehyung was breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath because he just couldn't seem to stop kicking and stomping on him. Not even when he was certain that he felt a rib giving in under his weight and snapping like a toothpick.

"Still feeling brave now, Jinwoo?" Jungkook asked rather smugly. "Still think that suicide is the cowardly way out?" Jinwoo couldn't reply but the younger man clearly had not wanted answers; he was just teasing him. Taehyung stopped his assault and instead forced him into a kneeling position. Then he snagged hold of his hair, snaking his fingers through the front lengths so that he could wrench his head back hard. Jinwoo's head almost touched his shoulder blades and he saw him wincing. He stared down at him and surprisingly Jinwoo didn't look scared. Or at least not as scared as he expected him to look considering the circumstances. No, the other man just looked to be in pain and nothing more than that, a trickle of blood running down his chin from where he had presumably bitten down on his tongue during the beating.

"Any last words?" Taehyung asked him, just because it seemed like the right thing to do.

"I suppose I should say "congratulations" to you, Jungkook," Jinwoo said, voice strained from the severe angle of his neck. "You always used to beat me playing war so this really isn't a surprise, is it?"

"No, not even remotely," Jungkook agreed in a flat voice. "You never had the guts for it."

"Yes, your father told me that I had too much heart to win that game." At his words Taehyung saw Jungkook's lips pull in at the corners. It was hard figuring out if it was because his words had stung him or if he disliked hearing him mentioning his father after he had had him murdered. "I wonder what that says about you, Jungkook?"

"You can't rule an empire and have a heart, which is why I'm on top right now, Jinwoo. That's what it says about me."

Taehyung eyed Jinwoo, scanning him neck as he tried to figure out how exactly to do this. He might have been shown how to slit a man's throat by Jungkook but this was not the same. This was something much more difficult that simply slicing into the throat, it required great strength. Should he start from the left and try sawing through to the right? Should he start at the front and try to cut through to the back? Was it better to slit his throat first and then start the process of cutting? Taehyung really didn't know but he was certain that the knife wouldn't be enough to decapitate him with several hard blows to the back of the neck. It was going to require butcher-like levels of cutting. Which was exactly why Jungkook wanted him to do it of course. He was going to have to slice Jinwoo up like a fucking carcass.

"I hope that your empire is worth it, Jungkook," Jinwoo said in a quiet voice.

"Worth what?"

"Worth an eternity in hell."

"I'm already in hell," Jungkook retorted with a wide grin, "and I have been from the moment I started breathing, Jinwoo. This world is hell, living is fucking hell, but you don't need to worry about that any longer."

Taehyung took a deep breath and held it, moving his wrist to press the edge of the knife against Jinwoo's throat. The other man closed his eyes and though he didn't look up at him he just knew that Jungkook was on the edge of his seat in anticipation. It would be over in seconds for Jinwoo if he cut his artery quick enough he supposed, and though he didn't think that he deserved the mercy it would make the act much more easier. He let his breath back out again in a hard huff as he wrenched his head to the left and jerked his wrist. The knife bit into his neck, shredding flesh, muscle and vein with ease. In a mere second he had severed his carotid and a veritable spray of blood misted out into the air. Taehyung didn't stop however for that was nothing, that was just step one. As he started sawing his wrist back and forth the blood stopped spraying out and instead gushed out thickly to soak into his clothing and hit the floor with liquid splashing sounds. It might have just been the sound of air whistling through Jinwoo's ruined windpipe but he could hear rasping sounds coming from him.

It was that disgusting death rattle that Nam had made except so much worst because he was the one that had caused it.

Taehyung sawed as hard and as fast as he could, seeing the blade tearing straight through his neck by several inches. But as fast as it had cut through the blade almost came to a jarring stop just as he felt himself starting to get deep. It hadn't really registered with him that he had started crying at some point and that every time he gasped for air he was making rather reedy shrieking sounds. It was hard to register anything when the fucking knife was stuck and no amount of frantic jerking was going to pull it free. He was pretty certain that Jinwoo was dead by now, or at least he hoped that he was because Taehyung couldn't even imagine what this would feel like. After another moment of struggle he managed to wriggle the knife free and continue sawing and the blade managed to find a gristly gap between the vertebrae.

If Jungkook was in hell right now then Taehyung thought that there were no words to describe what he was currently trapped in.

The knife managed to get through the vertebrae with a series of hideous scraping sounds and then he was back to sawing through the thin and easy muscle. At this point he had cut through his neck so far that if he stopped then his head might just loll to the side, no longer fully detached. But he couldn't stop. Not now. Not until he was finished. Taehyung squeezed his jaw shut even when it meant that his teeth ground together horribly and after a momentary struggle he finally hacked through that last chunk of skin and muscle and the knife tore free again.

Just like that night with Nam he was holding another man's body part in his hand. Taehyung still had his fingers deeply tangled in his hair so it took him a moment to realise. The knife dropped out of his fingers with a twitch, hitting the floor with a metallic clanking sound. Jinwoo's body hadn't slumped over like he had expected rather he was still seated upright, on his knees with his hands squeezed tightly between his knees. So he lifted his leg up and kicked his back hard, knocking him forward. His body landed in the pool of blood that was all over the floor and only then did he realise that he too was covered in blood. With his black clothing it didn't show but he could feel the liquid against his skin, the heat rapidly fading to icy cold.

Taehyung lifted his arm up so that he could present Jinwoo's head to Jungkook like a trophy. Like a barbaric fetish a warrior would gift a King. He tried to not look at it but rather struggled to keep his gaze on Jungkook. The younger man was staring back at him with the most ecstatic expression that he had ever seen on his face. So he cocked his arm back and then jerked it forward hard, fingers loosening in Jinwoo's hair so that his head flew across the room. There was a series of disgusting meaty thumps as it bounced off the flooring and Taehyung saw thick smears of blood left behind until his head came to a rolling stop at Jungkook's feet.

Jungkook lifted his foot up and he planted it down hard on the crown on Jinwoo's head like it was a fucking foot stool.

"Taehyung?" Taehyung could only stare at him because he couldn't speak, tongue feeling as dead as Jinwoo currently was. "Was that as exciting as you had hoped it would be?"

Taehyung's heart was racing in his chest so fast that it hurt and he had to take rapid breaths. His skin was coated in sweat from both the effort and his fear. Yet he felt fucking exhilarated and he knew that Jungkook could feel it too. That raw and intangible sense of power. Taehyung had finally gotten his hands on Kim Jinwoo: the man that had almost had him and Jungkook murdered, the man that had killed Jeon and had left him with a scar on his shoulder and a crippling addiction to morphine. Taehyung had gotten his hands on him after so fucking long and excited seemed like an understatement.

He had just decapitated another man and Taehyung hadn't ever felt this good.

"It felt amazing, Jungkook," he agreed as the young man looked down at the trophy at his feet. Taehyung could see most of Jinwoo's face but luckily for him there was blood smeared on most of it to hide it from view. He could see hints of his features but mostly it was his glassy eyes that stared right back at him: wide and unseeing.

When Jungkook brought his foot down hard Taehyung heard that brittle crunching sound and under his heel. Jinwoo's nose had just snapped like a twig. But that wasn't enough for Jungkook, not by far. He got out of the chair and proceeded to carry on stomping on his head much like how he had beat him up a minute ago.

"Stupid fucking-" his foot connected with his jaw and there was another hideous crunching sound, "cunt! You thought you could kill me and-" Taehyung watched him stomping down hard like a child having a tantrum, "you failed! I won, again!"

Taehyung let the younger man vent all of his anger out on Jinwoo's head, kicking and stomping until he had left fractures in his wake and his head was starting to sag inward from the pressure like a piece of rotten fruit. When he was done Jungkook fixed his suit jacket and brushed his hair back off his brow to try and neaten it up. Then he slipped the morphine vial into the case and gestured for him to follow him out of the room so Taehyung collected his own jacket from the floor and did so. As they cut through the warehouse none of the workers looked their way, even when Taehyung had blood-soaked clothing and droplets smeared all over his face. He was escorted outside and into the back of the hired car and that was when he knew that he was getting his reward.

Taehyung could hardly stand waiting, wriggling on the seat whilst Jungkook did his favourite ritual. It was so much quicker than the methadone ritual and yet even then it took too long. He slipped the shirt sleeve up to reveal his inner elbow, the faded pink marks from this morning still in place. It had almost reached his six hour dosage time and yet here he was, shooting up morphine once again instead of the methadone. He briefly wondered what Jimin would think if he knew that he was doing this. Would be be upset? Disappointed? Or would he have expected this and therefore really not be surprised at all?

"I tuh-told you that I wouldn't break my promises to yuh-you, Jungkook," Taehyung moaned as Jungkook drew the liquid up into the syringe. "I promised his head so I guh-gave you his head."

"I knew that you would," the young man agreed without any hints of hesitation, "because you promised me."

Jungkook didn't inject him in the inner elbow like usual but instead told him that he knew another way, a better way. He pulled down on his open shirt collar and the needle pricked him right above his collar bone. When he depressed the pusher the liquid shot straight into his veins and his eyes rolled upwards in surprise as he slipped the needle back out again.

"Oh fuh...fuck," Taehyung cried out brokenly as he threw his head back against the padded headrest. "It feels so good, Jungkook, so fucking go-" the other man's mouth almost collided with his, cutting his words off for a moment, "good." Jungkook's tongue darted out to jab at the corner of his lips and then he was slipping it inside his mouth. Taehyung reached up with his still shaking hands to sink his fingers into his hair, just like he had with Jinwoo.

"Taehyung, I love you so much," Jungkook almost sighed against his lips, fingers tugging at his shirt buttons to try and undo them. "You understand it too."

"Muh-murder?"

"You understand how," he popped several of the buttons open and then dropped his face to nuzzle against his throat, right where he had just injected him, "how good it can feel now. You're not scared anymore-"

"Jungkook, I felt fuh-fantastic," Taehyung gasped as the younger man's head started to go down. "I wanted to do it so buh-bad. I wanted to hurt him."

"Daddy would be so proud of you." It was just as Jungkook's teeth snagged onto his nipple and he bit down that the rush of heat finally reached full strength and Taehyung felt his body going limp as he sagged against the car door.

Shit, it was so much better than that other junk. How had he ever believed Jimin when he had told him that the methadone would help him, that it would feel as good? Nothing could feel as good as this, he just knew that it was so. There was no heat better than the one the morphine caused deep inside of him because it felt healing and pure in a way that Taehyung just couldn't understand. He was so tangled up in his clothing that he couldn't really figure out what was going on. He just knew that Jungkook was wrenching down on his trousers and so he tried to wriggle around and help him even though he wasn't sure why. His shirt was in the way, flapping around his lower back and making it hard to move because his arms were trapped inside.

Jungkook made a series of frustrated noises as he wrenched down on his trousers, managing to get them his thighs before he decided that that was enough. Taehyung was rather unceremoniously wrenched onto his lap and only when he felt the unmistakable sensation of his head rubbing against him did he figure out what was actually going on. Luckily for him Jungkook had already leaked in his excitement so he was wet with precum, allowing him to slide down his cock with less friction. The sudden stretch was still a surprise but Taehyung didn't even feel the pain because of the drug rush.

Jungkook hooked his hands under his knees to bring them up higher, forcing his back against him so that Taehyung had to reach up and grab hold of the overhead handle. His shoes kicked the back of the driver-seat hard and so he planted them against it at in attempt of gaining purchase of some kind.

Bae's men were right there in the front of the fucking car and Taehyung was just too far gone to even care. His entire body was on fire from the morphine, coursing with heat and pleasure, and he just didn't care any more.

Jungkook didn't try and tease in the slightest, didn't try and build up any pleasure of any kind. He just used the angle to his advantage, controlling him and rolling his own hips upward off the seat to thrust into him harder. Taehyung tried to move in rhythm with him but he just really wanted to sink back against the seat and not move at all, so he just gave in and let Jungkook take control. He found that he hated the way that the car was filled with the sound of their skin slapping together, with the constant creak of the leather and their breathing. It sounded disgusting to his ears and he just wanted it to be over with so that he could sink into blackness.

"I feel like fuh-fucking God right now," Jungkook moaned, hips stuttering under him as he made a series of breathless noises.

Taehyung was being fucked by God apparently...and he felt nothing.

"You're so good, so fucking good," he continued and Taehyung moaned for effect, throwing his head back against his shoulder. Jungkook's lips brushed against his hair and then his cheek before finding his ear. "Are you high right now, baby?"

"So fuh...fucking high," Taehyung whined for him.

"You puh-promised me his head and I-" Jungkook grunted and his hips did another stuttering roll beneath him. "I promised to let you see huh-heaven, baby."

"...muh, I'm in heaven right now," he agreed, eyelids fluttering so that he saw the car ceiling one second and then the blackness of his eyelids the next. Jungkook let go of one thigh so that he could reach down and take him in hand, jerking him off in that hard fast rhythm even though it was rather useless. Taehyung just knew that he wouldn't be able to maintain arousal long enough because of the morphine. He didn't want to maintain it because the quicker that the other man finished the better.

Jungkook's breath was hot and rapid against his throat and after several minutes of frantic thrusting he orgasmed with a deep groan of pleasure as he threw his head back. Taehyung stayed in place for a moment on his lap, letting him ride it out inside of him, and then he used the overhead handle to lift his hips up and off of his cock. He felt his cum steadily dribbling free as he slumped off his lap to land on the seat beside him. His clothing was still a state, shirt not even on his body properly and trousers tangled around his legs, but he didn't care at all. He just needed to close his eyes and sink into the comforting warmth that the morphine had created. The last thing that he heard was before he managed to give in to that wonderful blackness was the sound of the car engine turning on.

For an entire week now Taehyung hadn't done much more than lie in bed and stare up at the ceiling mirror. It wasn't like he has much to do now that Haedogje Pa had come to a rather sudden standstill as a result of Jinwoo's death but that wasn't why he had nothing to do. It was because he couldn't physically do anything in his current state. Moving seemed much too hard for him because Jimin had started cutting down the methadone dosages and had forced him onto pills instead and he spent half of the day in agony and the other half feeling cold and empty. Taehyung felt like he was being tortured and that was rather fitting, all things considered. He thought that he deserved the punishment for his actions.

The methadone had made him stop sleeping, but maybe the nightmares might have been another factor in his now sudden bouts of insomnia. The ones that revolved around him holding Jinwoo's screaming decapitated head. Taehyung would drift off to sleep at 2am and be wide awake again by 4am, waking up coated in sweat and struggling to breathe. But that wasn't all, for he had found that he also couldn't stop smoking or eating. Unlike the morphine, which had destroyed his interest in food, the substitute drug had him craving junk constantly to the point in which he was binging himself and vomiting most of it back up again in the toilet less than an hour later. He had jumped from one extreme to the other in a matter of days and his body couldn't handle much more of this, he was certain.

Taehyung was sick, that was what the problem was. He was sick because of the drugs and he wasn't going to get better any time soon. No matter what Jimin told him he knew that it was the truth. Maybe if Jungkook hadn't have slipped him that extra hit then he wouldn't be feeling it so bad? All that he knew was that the methadone wasn't giving him the high that he wanted and even when it stopped the cravings he needed something more. But there was no morphine in the suite because he had checked, had ransacked the entire place whilst Jimin had watched him from the bed; throwing things across the room, checking every single drawer, crawling under furniture to just try and find something. Anything. There was nothing and Taehyung felt like he was going crazy in the hours between his double doses of pills.

Jimin had tried him on a single dose but that had not ended well. Taehyung managed to knock back six Valium whilst he had been busy and had fallen unconscious for nearly five hours according to the other man. Jimin had found him lying on the floor of the ground-floor bathroom with Wangbi curled up against his stomach and most of the bottle contents all over the tiles. That hadn't gotten him high in the slightest but had just made him feel like shit when he had come around to Jimin crying and holding his hand tightly between his own.

Taehyung knew that he was sick but knowing this fact didn't help him in the slightest.

Whilst he and Jimin went through what he liked to think of as his private week of torture Jungkook was once again working just like always. He was gone from the suite for most of the day but he returned in the evening hours to them both. Taehyung was glad of it for he found some solace in being able to lie in bed with the pair of them. At least then his cold skin managed to find some warmth. The young man was sure to praise him, to tell him that he was getting better and Taehyung knew that he was telling him the truth. He just wished that getting better didn't mean getting worse first.

It was on the seventh morning that he finally started to feel like his cravings were starting to get under control. In the dreadful hours between the two dosages he was still restless and found his hands shook too much but the stomach cramps were starting to lessen. He wasn't even sweating that badly anymore. His left elbow was red raw from him scratching and picking at it constantly and so Jimin had taken to covering it with a dressing for most of the day to stop him from hurting himself. Taehyung had instead taken to picking at the skin around the dressing edges to make that just as sore and pink. Jimin wasn't present in the suite when he shifted to sit upright in bed but he could hear that he was upstairs, voice echoing softly off the walls because he was talking to Wangbi. After a few minutes the other man appeared on the landing and he looked down at him from over the glass guardrail.

"Good morning, baby," Jimin called sweetly as he descended the stairs. Taehyung saw that he was fully dressed rather than wearing a bathrobe like usual; clad in fitted black trousers and a matching black pullover. His feet were bare but he knew that they wouldn't stay that way for long. "How are you feeling today?" he asked as he crossed the room to get to the bed. He thought his question over for a moment, trying to figure out a way to explain his thoughts.

"I don't feel so bad," Taehyung replied honestly, nails starting their first attempt at ribboning his skin. "I mean, I feel...alright."

"Alright?" Jimin repeated as he shifted to sit down on the edge of the bed. Just like always he reached over to grab hold of his hand and hold it between his own to stop him from scratching. "Tae, this is amazing. I think that we've finally broken the habit now, so next comes the addiction." Taehyung studied his face to see that he looked very pleased with him and he wondered if Jimin had any clue about his illicit hit the day that he had helped murder Jinwoo. Probably not, the other man had staunchly avoided talking about the topic of Jinwoo. "You're doing so well."

"How come you're all dressed up, huh?" Taehyung asked him as Jimin's thumb slowly caressed his knuckles in soft whorls.

"I was going to go out today, if you were feeling a little better," he replied and so he asked him where he had been planning on going. "Nowhere exciting, just to the department store to buy some new clothes. Kookie said that there was a gala coming up next weekend and he told me that I must find something to wear for it, and to order you another suit at Sharp of course." That was Hodong's tailors. Taehyung found it rather strange to think that it had been a few months since he had first visited the tailors, almost four in fact. "I already placed the order for your suit, I think it's going to be very nice."

"Oh yeah?" Taehyung asked, finding a sudden thought coming to mind at his words. Jimin was planning on leaving the suite to go out, meaning that he and Wangbi would be left all alone. Meaning that Jungkook's office would also be left unguarded and wide open, just asking for him to go in and have a look. He felt something travelling down his spine that was close to a shiver of anticipation.

"Mmm," Jimin gave him a soft smile. "It's a three-piece order, gold buttons and satin contrast lapel. All black of course, just to keep Kookie happy. But I like it, I think it looks really nice and that you'll look so handsome in it, Tae. Everyone that looks at you will know that you're important."

"Ain't you gonna get a suit?" Taehyung asked with a soft smile.

"No, I don't really do suits, Tae," he replied with a gentle head shake. "I'll find something else instead."

"Have fun shopping."

"...You should come with me," Jimin said after a moment of thought, the corners of his lips faltering ever so slightly before he pulled them up again. "Seriously, Tae, you should come out with me. Get some fresh air, stretch your legs again. It would be good for you."

"Oh...oh, Jimin, I dunno if I-"

"Come on, get cleaned up and have something to eat before I give you the pill," Jimin said as he reached over to gently take hold of his arm. "We can go out together and you'll feel so much better, I promise."

There was just something on Jimin's face that said that he wanted him to go with him. Perhaps it was because he didn't fully trust him to be left alone in the suite in case he took another palmful of pills and overdosed by accident in a desperate bid to get high. It might have been because there was a strong chance he might run off to the drugs den in Yongsan-gu to try and score more morphine off Yoongi through threats and attempts at sexual favours. Or maybe it just quite simply that Jimin wanted to spend more time with him now that he was starting to get better. Taehyung really didn't know but he knew one thing.

There went his plans of trying to locate the hard drives in Jungkook's office just to see if they really were real.

Taehyung allowed him to help him out of bed and into the bathroom, and whilst he got washed up for the day Jimin prepared him some food. He didn't really want to go out but he had been locked up in the suite for a week now and getting out was probably a good idea. The fresh air could help clear his head and the exercise might just help him sleep. When he was all cleaned up he got dressed in his usual casual day suits, wearing one of Jimin's white shirts just to please him. As he shrugged it on he checked his scar just like always, running his fingers over the bump of flesh and checking if he could feel them, which he never could. He forced himself to rotate his shoulder a few times too, to try and work the muscle. Maybe picking up a regular routine in the apartment gym would help him train the muscle back? Before slipping his jacket on he made sure to shrug his gun holster on because he knew that Jungkook would want him to wear it just in case. If Jimin wasn't going to have his usual armed escort then the responsibility lay on his shoulders instead.

When he stepped back into the main area he saw that Jimin had already left a plate of pre-made kimbap out for him as breakfast, likely the remains of one he and Jungkook has shared just two hours ago. Beside a mug of coffee there was a familiar white pill and he swallowed that first just to get rid of the usual shakes and sore muscles. Taehyung ate the kimbap and watched Jimin the entire time that he did, noting that there was a somewhat restless feeling coming off him as he cleaned up the kitchen. That was strange, very strange indeed. He hadn't seen him so unsettled in quite some time and he cheeked a mouthful of the snack to ask him if he was alright.

"I, well, I've been trying to cut down on the Valium too," Jimin explained as he reached up to push a stray lock of hair back behind his ear, dropping his hands back down to the table to tap his fingers on it in an offbeat rhythm. "Because of what you're going through I've tried only two a day but it's hard, I'm always anxious without the pills so-".

Taehyung reached over to take hold of his hand, just like he did when he started scratching at his elbow. The contact made the other man sigh heavily and close his eyes so he tightened his grip as he interlocked their fingers together.

"You're doing so well," he repeated back at him, tightening his grip on his fingers with a hard squeeze.

The drive to the department store didn't take long at all because it was in Gangnam-gu. As a result they only spent ten minutes in the back of one of the apartment cars before Taehyung was climbing out first to allow Jimin to step out behind him. It was the same one that they had went to all of those weeks back that now felt like an eternity ago. In reality it had been just a few months. Jimin reached over to hook his arm around his like a girlfriend would do, guiding him across the department store without a single care for the glances aimed their way. Taehyung just made sure to stay alert and not let his guard down.

The section of the store in particular that they ended up in was set up on the second floor, right at the very back and actually cut off from most of the open stores by walls and a door. The fact that the contents of the store was designer and luxury items meant that Taehyung wasn't all surprised that it was more of a booth than a counter. Less chances of the goods being stolen that way. The inside was dimly lit and the walls were a deep purple. The woman on the counter smiled widely at their arrival and she clearly knew Jimin judging from the genuine warmth in her greeting. He followed the other man around the store without much care, just carrying whatever he pulled off the racks until his hands were full of metal hooked hanger heads. If Jimin was to ask him for advice he would give it, but until that point he didn't see the point. After nearly half an hour of browsing Taehyung was being escorted into a private changing room across the store, one that actually had a reserved sign beside it telling regular customers that only staff were allowed inside.

Inside the special changing room he saw several items of furniture, benches on either side of the walls and a long leather settee with a low back close to the centre. On one wall there was a curtain hanging on a railing to serve as a screen to get changed behind and the other wall was practically entirely made of glass.

"Just put them down anywhere," Jimin remarked without a care, so he moved to dump the clothes onto the settee and then moved over to the mirrors. Taehyung ran his eyes over the wall and he found it both unsettling and interesting. He could see several versions of himself in the curved wall of glass and he studied his reflection to see that he was looking better now, looking much better. His skin was no longer pale and greyish in tone but almost back to his usual tan. There were still dark smears under his eyes, bruised marks to show that he hadn't gotten much sleep over the last few days, but at least his face was looking less gaunt now.

"There are no cameras in here," Jimin explained as he closed the changing room door over, the lock clicking in place a second later when he hit it with his thumb. "Kookie asked that they be removed because he occasionally comes here with me. Sometimes he helps me with the purchases but mostly he just likes watching me, his own private strip tease right here."

"I imagine that that's not allowed in here," Taehyung remarked with a smile. "It's a classy place."

"No, neither is sex but Kookie still has it here whenever he wants. Can't really stop him," Jimin replied as he crossed the room and eyed the pile of clothing. "Not when there's no cameras."

Taehyung got the feeling from Jimin that he really hadn't wanted to come here today to do some shopping but rather something else entirely. Yet what that something else was was impossible for him to figure out. He just watched him lifting up an item of clothing here and there to look at what was underneath it, moving aside attractive shirts with decorative collars to study a luxurious alpaca wool pullover. After a minute of silence Taehyung felt the most pressing urge to break it and so he did.

"Are you OK, Jimin?"

"Mmm?" The other man looked up sharply at this and then looked back at the clothes. "Yes, yes I'm perfectly fine, Tae." Taehyung saw the way that he played with the buttons of one of the shirts in a rather nervous way, almost as if he was going to remove it off the hanger. Was he nervous right now? Why would he be nervous in his company?

"You don't look fine you seem...nervous."

"There are no cameras here so I feel like this is the perfect place for us to talk, Tae," Jimin explained in a soft voice.

"Talk?" He furrowed his brow at this and then moved to step away from the mirror wall. The other man didn't look up from the pile of clothing and that sense of nervousness was coming off him in heavy waves now. "What'd you mean by 'talk'? And why is it a good thing that there's no cameras here?"

"I...I wanted to ask you something, something very important," he explained. "It's been right there in the back of my mind for so long now, and I tried to ignore it but I can't do it any longer. I can't, Tae, I swear that I can't just leave it alone."

"Jimin?"

Taehyung felt rather strange listening to him talking like that. There was something at the back of his mind too, something that sounded very much like a warbling warning siren telling him that he was in danger even though he wasn't sure why. Jimin just wanted to ask him a question, that was all. But there were so many questions that the other man should most certainly not ask and Taehyung was suddenly hit with the realisation that that was why he could hear that siren in his head.

Oh god no.

"Tae...are you a police officer?" Jimin asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Jesus fuck.

The changing room fell silent for what seemed like forever to Taehyung. All that he could do was stare at Jimin, unable to blink or even breathe. His mouth was open and he also lacked the ability to shut it too. Jimin tried to hold his gaze steadily but he could sense that doing so made him uncomfortable, made his slight shoulders go up and his fingers start tugging at the sleeves of his pullover. In that moment, staring at him, he recalled Yoongi that day in the den when he had attacked him, recalled how he had stood in front of him like this; so slight and terrified in his presence. It took him great strength to be able to react to his question and Taehyung just knew that his delayed response looked very bad on his end.

"Jimin, why the fuck would you think that, huh?" Taehyung asked with a forced laugh, shoulders rising and falling in a slumped fashion. It was a good attempt at acting but he knew that it fell flat, way too flat. It was about as believable as Jimin's old pornographic films.

"I'm not really sure but I've been thinking about it for awhile. I mean, ever since Yoongi told me he thought you were a bit strange I started wondering about something like that, you know? And I-"

"What? Fucking Min said something so you believe him over me?" Taehyung asked in disbelief. "You take a stoner's suspicions over what I'm telling you right now?"

"I'm...I'm not taking his suspicions over you, Tae," Jimin disagreed with a vigorous head shake, "It's my own suspicions and I've been thinking it over for some time now, and I just have this feeling that you are. That's why I asked you."

"It sounds like he's been planting all kinds of shit into your head," Taehyung said with a disgusted head shake. "Smoking all of that weed must've fucked your imagination up, Jimin.

"Tae, it's not like that, OK. The incident at the church with that man," he added. "The one that Kookie suh-shot in the head, he was your man. Lim. That was what made me start thinking about my suspicions of you being a police officer seriously. Kookie has been so blinded by his anger and his pain for this past month that he hasn't even thought that you could be a fucking rat like Lim, Tae. But you're living on borrowed time right now. He's not stupid, he will start thinking it too if I've already started thinking about the chances."

"What chances? Why're you talking about me like I am a police officer?"

"Because I really think that you are, Tae," Jimin replied without the slightest hint of hesitation. A quick study of his face showed something that he was not expecting. Jimin didn't look angry at him, didn't look disgusted or upset in the slightest. There was something there but he had yet to figure out what it was exactly.

"Lim was my man but he ain't me," Taehyung argued as he reached up to rub at his brow. Great, to top it all off his head was starting to hurt. There was an annoying throb right behind his eyes and he felt his fingers curling up into tight little fists as his jaw clenched. "I don't appreciate the fact that you're accusing me of- no, shut up," he spoke over him before Jimin could interrupt him, "you're accusing me of being a fucking cop. You can't just accuse me of that kinda shit, it's-"

"Tae, I don't care if you're a cop so please just listen to me!" Jimin raised his voice at him but it wasn't to shout at him in anger, rather just sheer exasperation. He was clearly tired of being interrupted and pushed aside and now he was letting it all out. Taehyung turned away from him, turned his back on him in fact so that he could stare at the wall behind him. He reached up with his left hand to feel for the well of his gun in the holster, fingers rubbing against his shirt until he felt a familiar strip of leather. Jimin was too distracted to even notice his roaming fingers. "I don't care if you're an officer but you have to stop this!"

"Stop what?" he asked, another hard throb settling behind his eyes and that made him grit his teeth together.

"The-the operation or whatever it is you're doing," Jimin explained. "You can't carry on with it, I can't let you carry on with it." As if he could even stop him, as if the other man could do a thing that could make him stop working for his team. "It's too dangerous for you!"

"Jimin, shut up." His fingers tightened around the well of the gun and he lightly started pulling it out of the holster.

"I want you to know that if you are you need to get out right now, I-"

"Jimin, stop talking, just stop fucking talking or-"

"think that you could get away if you did, before he found out and killed you," Jimin spoke over him in a rapid and breathless tone. He almost sounded like he was struggling to breathe, like he was going to start hyperventilating or maybe even cry. "If he finds out he will, Tae, I know that Kookie will kill you. Just like the others, just like he would to me so you need to get away right now. Leave, just go right now, I won't-"

Taehyung twisted on his heel and brought the gun up to press the muzzle against his brow, doing so so fast that Jimin barely even had time to blink. The movement was so fast that his hair rippled ever so slightly and only when the hard press of polymer touched him did the other man's eyes roll up to look. The muzzle of his Cz75 was pressed right dead centre above his eyes.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch."