In Retrospect - Jikook

Chapter Four: Wine and Dine

Infiltrating a random gang in Seoul was surprisingly easier and more boring than Jimin imagined it would be. Min Yoongi had swept Jimin right under his wing, glad to have found someone who already knew how to use a gun. Jimin quickly discovered that Seoul was a lot more trusting than Busan in that sense. There was no interrogation of him, no testing of loyalty or tattoo he needed to ink into his skin. Jimin's small ocean-town simply bred a higher desire for control.

The longer he stayed with The Jeons and the more 'strays' - as Yoongi liked to call the lost kids of Seoul - filtered through the training gym, the more Jimin began to understand. Most of them were desperate for a place to eat, their ribs showing through their stomachs, while others fought sloppily as a way to survival or combat their rage. Seoul wasn't like Busan where mafia families raised their kids into each rank; the city was far too large and the kids far more helpless.

Even so, the lax attitude put Jimin on edge. He couldn't understand why bring kids who flinched when they shot a gun or vomited at the sight of blood into the gang. Yoongi didn't seem to have much faith in them either, assigning the hopeless to Seokjin's intel teams or the drug labs or as runners instead of to his own. To Jimin, the whole thing seemed like a massive waste of resources, but Yoongi hadn't turned a single stray away yet. Never explained why, either, though Jimin also never bothered to ask.

Additionally, in the weeks he'd been with The Jeons, it shocked Jimin how casually people filtered in and out of their main building. It was a massive skyscraper in the heart of their territory. Yoongi's men guarded each elevator and the higher up the floors climbed the more armed the men got, but for the most part the muscle was just for show. Men and women with little ID cards dangling from lanyards easily walked in with suits and briefcases, working on drug deals or debt gathering or intel trade like it was a casual Tuesday at a major corporation. Everyone walked with a hurried pace, like storm clouds were casting overhead and they were waiting for the first drop of rain.

On the days that Yoongi didn't call for him, Jimin ran to the training gym on the other side of the Jeon territory. It was the one place that was almost always empty and the silence inside reminded him of Busan's ocean; he missed the salt and the waves and he even missed Taehyung.

Jimin hadn't mulled over his emotions from the last time he saw The Kim. In fact, Jimin had done nothing but push any thought of that argument away. Taehyung was Jimin's survival in Busan. The blood or pain was worth it because there was someone to soothe it all away at night. The longer Jimin spent away from Busan, the more his anger at Taehyung equally diluted. It was like he was forgetting why he had been so angry in the first place. Taehyung was familiar, The Kims were too, whereas this city and its people felt as foreign as a different country and the more Seoul shocked him, the more he longed for home.

The training helped clear his mind about Jungkook, too. The Jeon Don was a constant buzz in the back of Jimin's head since they first met a couple weeks back. A buzz Jimin was desperately trying to kill. Why had Jungkook been kind? He still couldn't understand it.

Today marked the first break of routine in the weeks Jimin had lived in Seoul. It had started out normally: Jimin checking his windows for any sign from the Kims and finding none. Yoongi took him to a shooting range and a long patrol after - apparently a group of Parks were missing after getting high on Drive and The Jeons were worried the addicts somehow snuck onto their territory searching for more. He'd come back to his apartment after the patrol was a bust only to find a fancy black car waiting for him at the front door.

Jimin's heart raced at the idea that it could be Hoseok or a Kim runner, but what happened next was somehow more bewildering. The driver walked out with a long blue suit cover. The clothing hanger was popping out from the top and he handed it wordlessly to Jimin. With a raised brow, Jimin had taken it inside and changed into a black suit that hugged his proportions perfectly.