¢нαρтєя 9
«ρυℓℓ тнє тяιggєя»
❦

as jimin tightly secured the belt on his waist, he looked at hoseok, through the reflection of the mirror in front of him, who was sleeping peacefully. his body partly immersed in the soft, silky duvet cover, hair scattered over the pillow and his face.
sometimes jimin wondered how far their relationship would go. they never established things... ever since that one day when jimin gave hoseok a blowjob, they started acting like a couple. well, at first it was just sex, but then they started going out on dates, calling each other lovey-dovey names, hoseok bought jimin presents... jimin even lived with hoseok, but hoseok never officially announced a relationship.

jimin didn't know what it meant... either everything is already obvious and no explanation is needed, or jimin is just a fling. after all, hoseok did say that work and love are two things to never be combined.

he went over to his sleeping lover and sat on the soft bed next to him. the sunlight escaping the window, cutting through the thick curtains, fell upon jimin's face, making him look ethereal. his hand gently removed a strand of hoseok's dark hair as his thumb slid across his cheek.
"hopefully one day I'll get the courage to ask you what we are... without the fear of getting heartbroken by you, hobi." jimin whispered so quiet, it was almost inaudible.

jimin had a mission today, so he stood up and started looking for his shirt. after countless unsuccessful attempts, jimin decided to borrow a shirt from hoseok's wardrobe.

hoseok slowly opened his eyes and watched jimin walk around the room, probably in search for his shirt. he saw jimin exhale loudly with annoyance as he stood in the middle of the room, his hand went through his hair and he closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.
hoseok smiled. he wished he could capture with his eyes the jimin he saw – shirtless, engulfed by frustration, bright sun rays seemed to hug his body from the back, saturating his silhouette.
his divinity was no joke.

jimin left the room and hoseok's smile faded. he closed his eyes and breathed out, letting his body sink in the duvet and bed sheets.

❦

taehyung's feet didn't listen to him today. in fact, he had no idea what was going on. on the day he was feeling horrible, he had to get a mission.
yoongi had stopped giving him missions ever since the jungkook incident, so tae took the opportunity despite his physical and mental state.
it was already the end of winter but it was terribly cold. taehyung didn't know whether it was a change of climate or the more days without jungkook passed, the colder taehyung became. he wanted to believe in the first option.

taehyung was supposed to steal a stack of important papers from some old dude. he thought the mission was lame as ever, so he decided to not even try too hard. tae grabbed the little bag with a drug inside from his pocket and frowned. these were leftovers from that same drug taehyung stole from jungkook back at the casino.

"decided to visit this place today... I heard choi shiwoo will be playing the european roulette here. wanted to try my luck out and have a game with him." taehyung said and took a sip of his champagne.

"brave of you." jungkook chuckled. "I love your new hair. suits you well."

taehyung got a little lost. he didnt expected to hear a compliment from jungkook.
"I thought you were too young to go to such places. what are you? sixteen?"

"I'm twenty one." jungkook lied while looking straight into taehyung's eyes. he didnt want the older to know his real age.

"oh, just like me? you definitely look like a young little boy."

"is that a compliment?"

"no."

"well, thanks anyways."

taehyung felt his eyes fill up with tears so he quickly shoved the bag back into his pocket and adjusted his tie. he looked at the huge mansion in front of him and the absurd amount of cameras all around. the absence of guards was relieving.

"hey, elevator boy!"
taehyung turned around to the unknown voice, only to see somebody oddly familiar. the man who was a little shorter than taehyung himself came up, walking in a slow pace.
'the malgeun pi gang dude...' taehyung thought as he looked at the topcoat the guy was wearing. he recognized it, he and some other man were in their gang building before.

"I have a name." taehyung mumbled.

"ah, right." jimin chuckled. "yah, kim taehyung, what are you doing here?"

taehyung stayed silent for a moment, trying to remember if he ever mentioned his name to this stranger before.
"how do you know me?"

"I don't think that should matter." jimin said in a low voice. "I asked you a question."

"am I supposed to answer it?" taehyung asked monotonously.

jimin rolled his eyes and came up closer to taehyung. he grabbed him by his collar and pulled him closer, giving the elder a death stare.
"get lost while you have the chance to do so."

taehyung wrapped his hands around jimin's throat. "who are you and how do you know my name?"

"you know, it's surprising that you don't know my name." jimin said in a raspy voice. "I'm from your rival gang – the malgeun pi gang, jungkook's friend."

"name."

"park jimin."

they both let go of each other at the same time. taehyung adjusted his collar and jimin rubbed his throat, trying to endure the pain.
for a moment jimin wondered if the geomeun gang knew of jungkook being alive. if minseok somehow found out, then wouldn't everyone else know? in any case minseok was suspicious as hell, so who knew what was going on.

"so it's you and that jung hoseok guy, who want peace between our gangs." taehyung let out a breathy chuckle. "what are you aiming for? yoongi will never sign that contract."

"oh he will." jimin smirked. "he just needs time."

"you think you're not being suspicious right now? you come here and-"

"listen, if we want peace between our gangs, that doesn't mean we have to like everyone that works there." jimin scoffed. "don't get your hopes high... not after what you've done."

taehyung bit the inside of his cheek to hold back the tears.
it killed him inside. there was nothing he could do... there's nothing you can do to a dead person...

jimin walked past him, bumping his shoulder on taehyung's on purpose.

"what mission do you have here? we don't have the same one, do we?" taehyung asked.

"in order for the peace contract to be signed, we promised to divide mission in a way that there would be no encounters between the two gangs." jimin answered quite calmly, his back still facing tae.

"I guess they did a pretty bad job."

"kind of... but I have some cash to steal and you need some papers, am I right?" jimin finally turned around and noticed that taehyung hadn't moved.

"how do you know?" taehyung waited for an answer but understood soon enough that jimin won't say anything, no matter what. he came up closer and stopped next to the younger.
"the things we are here for are different, but both of them are in the safe."

"so what do you suggest? we work together?" jimin arched a brow.

"maybe?"

"go fuck yourself." jimin responded and walked away.

"nice."

it turned out that both taehyung and jimin has similar plans, they signed up for a job interview at the mansion as the guards the old owner was desperate for. something went wrong though, and both were assigned to get there at the same time.
call it destiny or accident, but a fact remains a fact.

a few hours in, and the house became a mess. jimin was awfully impatient and disrupted the interview by pulling out his knife in the middle of it. taehyung must admit, he watched jimin in awe. the boy was hella talented with his knife, these were some years and years of hard practice.
deciding to take the trickier way, while jimin was fighting the guards, taehyung snuck into the little room in the office with the safe. he bent down to the safe, but before he could do anything he stopped, everything around him froze.

there were scattered articles of clothing everywhere. the closet door was opened and the unlocked safe was lying on the floor.
taehyung slowly walked over to the mess with confusion written all over his face.
who did this and how???

taehyung squatted down and observed the safe. it was completely empty, all the money was gone.
"jeon jungkook....."

taehyung wanted to scream and shout. why did everything have to remind him of jungkook, why?!
but then again, he did this to himself, it was all his fault.

suddenly he felt a strong grip on his shoulder, he got pulled back and thrown on the cold marble floor. taehyung grabbed his head which got hit in the process of falling, and scowled in pain. the tall and buff man placed his foot on taehyung's chest, making taehyung let out a cough. he aimed a gun at taehyung and smirked.

"just shoot me." tae looked at the man with tear-filled eyes and breathed loudly.
he closed his eyes, waiting for the shot... he heard the trigger being pulled, but felt no pain.
taehyung opened his eyes only to see the man who was about to shoot him, fall onto the floor with blood oozing from his skull.

"are you out of your mind?" jimin questioned with his hand still in the air, holding onto the gun tightly.

taehyung stared at the younger in confusion for some time and eventually fell back onto the floor.
"why did you save me?"

"a 'thank you' would've been a better response." jimin answered.

"why are you helping me?!?" taehyung shouted and covered his face with his hands, letting the salty tears roll down his cheeks.

after a moment of silence taehyung heard the nab of the gun and uncovered his face, dropping his gaze onto jimin.
"you're right..." jimin whispered. "why am I?"
he pointed the gun at taehyung, eyes locked on him.

❦