──  ❝ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑻𝑾𝑶」

❝ 真珠のネックレス ;
. PEARL NECKLACE ❞

FIVE YEARS AGO, YOONGI AND KARMA CROSSED PATHS FOR THE FIRST TIME. Yoongi had come walking into the club she danced at. Karma was on stage that night in hardly any clothing, seductively dancing before the crowd of drooling men before her. He found himself being one of those men, standing at the front of the stage looking up at her. It was him who caught her attention, the pretty man standing in front of the stage looking at her as if she were a goddess.

He paid for a room with her, most of that money Karma herself would never see.

T

hey never caught the other stealing from them. Ironic really, the thieves didn't know when they were being stolen from.

To be fair, they couldn't really be mad at each other for committing the same crime they just had. Yoongi gave her the necklace he had slipped from around her bruised throat back, now speculating that it may have been a stolen item that she decided to keep. Karma reluctantly returned his wallet to him after she had pulled it from his pocket and stuffed it between the cushions of the couch in her room.

With that, Yoongi offered to buy her dinner and that's how their friendship began.

Now, they live together in a shitty, old apartment on the outskirts of Daerim-dong. The rent was cheap and the landlord gave them not the time of day so they didn't complain. When they first moved in, they had scrubbed every inch of the apartment, exterminating any spiders and insects that may have been hiding away in the corners.

They repainted the walls and threw out the furniture that the previous owner had left after mysteriously going missing a few months prior. They tried to make the place not a shit hole.

It was a one-bedroom apartment so they opted to just share it. By that time they had already been friends for a year, Karma being 20 and Yoongi being 22. By that time, they had become each other's best friends, the only two people in the world who understood each other, the struggles and trials of life.

Karma kicked off her heels the moment she entered through the front door with a relieving sigh. "You wear the heels next time." She murmured, rushing to get off her feet which throbbed with exhaustion. Yoongi slipped his shoes off as well, kicking them to the side with her heels before making his way over to the couch where she sat. "I'll wear the heels if you wear the tight suit."

"Bet." Karma snatches the bag from him and grabs the box of dakgangjeong that she had been craving all night. Wooden chopsticks came with the food, Yoongi handed her one while taking his own, breaking the two sticks apart. He let the woman slip her legs up onto his lap, shuffling forward so that they could share.

"How much do you think we made tonight?" They had managed to steal 5 wallets, 3 watches, and a few rings Karma managed to swipe by the skin of her teeth. They sold the rings and jewelry at jewelry shops and online, maybe through Hoseok if they were really expensive. If the wallets were in good shape, they'd sell those as well.

Normally they'd be able to take more if they slept with the target, get them to fall asleep, and then take what they could, jewelry, money, bags, wallets, etc. It normally worked better for Karma, but Yoongi had gotten his fair share.

"Maybe 8 million?" Yoongi shrugged. That was being generous. Most people don't buy used items for their full retail price so they could already chip off maybe a thousand or so won. Plus Hoseok, so that was more money out of their pocket. "Eat, we'll find out later."

Karma sighed and picked up her chopsticks to eat in perfect silence with Yoongi, her best friend, the only man in the world that she would ever come to love. She didn't hate men, she's come to appreciate how simple they are because they're easy to decipher. Their motivations are in plain view.

For example, Yoongi liked grape soju. He likes mandarin oranges. He liked old 80-90s rap from America, like Tupac and Biggie. He liked things like rings and chains. He thought they made him look tougher. Karma thought they made him look hot.

Yoongi liked giving Karma things, playing it off like he just picked it up and couldn't sell it. That's how Karma got her favorite pearl necklace, he had come home late one night and handed her the delicate piece of jewelry. "Couldn't get rid of it." He murmured to her as he slipped out of his jacket and tossed it to the side.

He definitely could, with real, milky white pearls like that, he definitely could. But he didn't, he got his hands on it and immediately thought about Karma, pretty, delicate-looking (though he couldn't say the same for her personality), expensive. So he brought it home to her, gave it to her, and it always brought him joy when she wore it, her favorite necklace.

He got her rings as well, sometimes even heels if he managed to sleep with a girl who had her same shoe size.

He was a sweetheart really, a pompous asshole when he's not but that was all in light fun. Karma was always sure to put him in place and he was always sure not to cross any lines or break any boundaries.

"I call taking a shower first." Karma lifted her legs off of his lap and put her chopsticks back in the bag. Yoongi couldn't help but groan. "Fuck you. Don't use all the hot water. I won't be able to take a shower until tomorrow."

"So you want me to take a 2 minutes shower? How dirty do you think I am?" She scoffed, reaching to undo the strap of her harness top. Karma could hear Yoongi's low chuckle of amusement. "I don't know, you tell me."

He watched as Karma stood up and made her way through the hall to the bathroom to take her shower, leaving him sitting there on their old couch with one too many stains on it. He smiles to himself, a wide grin that places on his lips as he cleans up their mess. The likelihood of her using up all the hot water was high, so he figured he'd just take one in the morning. Anything that would get him out of this stupid suit faster.

He took off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt as he made his way back to their shared bedroom. Their queen-sized bed was left unmade as neither of them had the energy to fix it that morning.

He took off his clothes lethargically, feeling rather tired all of a sudden. He replaces the tights suit with his normal loose clothes, far too big for even him. A t-shirt and basketball shorts were what he slept in and most of the time Karma wore one of his shirts as well, proving that he wasn't the only one who found them comfortable.

His hair, once slicked and styled, was now messy and disheveled after handing his fingers run through them for so many hours. Yoongi shuffled over to the bed, a yawn breaking past his lips as he brings his left hand to scratch his other arm. Tattoos inked his skin permanently in black, well it was more like one continuous tattoo, one of a dragon that starts at his hand and wraps around his arm. The head of the dragon was inked onto the side of his neck, snarling fiercely, a symbol of power and strength.

Yoongi slid into his side of the bed, underneath the blankets that did the absolute worst job at keeping them warm in the winter, and buried his face into the pillows to finally fall asleep. The soft "shhha" of the shower filled the silence for a few long minutes before cutting off abruptly. He listened to the door open and the soft padding of feet against the hardwood floor as Karma makes her way into the bedroom.

Drawers open and close and Yoongi just keeps his face in the pillow, waiting to feel the bed dip under her weight to know she was in bed with him. He smiled when he felt her crawl into bed with him, shimmying her way under the blankets.

"Goodnight, Yoon," Karma whispered to him in the darkness. Yoongi turned his head to look at her. He could only see the simple silhouette of her frame but smiled anyways.

"Goodnight, Kar."

*.✧ Kᴀʏs Eɴᴅɪɴɢ Nᴏᴛᴇs

We won't be meeting Tae until a few chapters later so enjoy these Yoongi hours. It's mostly to build the relationship between Karma and Yoongi so we can see their dynamic. Then we'll toss the Taehyung wrench into it and everything will be great 👍

Thank you all for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed and I wish you all a wonderful day/night.

사랑해

~Kay (ʃƪ＾3＾）