Stigma (Taejinkook)

two

His first week living with Bangtan was more uneventful than he had expected. He thought that he would be thrown into the deep from the very first day, with more tests to come but nothing of the sort happened.

Instead, Brian informed him of everything necessary that he needed to know about their job as the lackeys and their daily routine when they weren't needed in a mission which was mostly working out and sparring against each other. He was even given a 'tour' around the mansion, taken only to the places he was allowed to.

Fortunately, he hadn't encountered the boss or anyone of higher rank than Brian, which allowed him to settle into the whole idea of living alongside these criminals without any complications. Although, he wasn't allowed to step outside and didn't know when he could, so he hadn't contacted his Director to give in a report.

Of course, he tried speaking with everyone in his squad, getting familiar with them and acting friendly. It was quite ridiculous how in a week most of them had spewed out a secret of theirs to him, talking to him nonstop and rumbling about what they felt towards the higher-ranked members of Bangtan.

Perhaps the fact that he was the newbie and acted like he was naïve convinced them that he would be too scared to act and snitch on them. It wasn't like the rest of his squad was extremely friendly with him, he did receive occasional death threats if he were to spill anything, but they were all just mindless pawns, so he wasn't concerned with them.

His target was much more dangerous.

Jin spent most of his time either at the gym or at the practice range. He always had to have his guard up and couldn't afford to lack strength in such a dangerous place. He could be taken advantage of at any second and there would be no one to rescue him.

As the second week rolled in, on Monday, the first thing he did early in the morning was to throw on whatever clothing he could find, which consisted of cargo pants and a tight grey shirt, and sneak out of his room, heading towards the gym.

Unfortunately, he had to make do with the clothes they provided him with, as he literally had no money and couldn't be able to step outside just yet.

When he arrived at the gym, he was relieved to see that it was empty except himself and immediately got to work. At first, he did a few stretching exercises, warming up and then moved to the first machine, which was the chest press machine.

Jin didn't know how much time passed, but he was in the middle of doing push-ups when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Your hands are placed too wide."

He almost choked on his own saliva and immediately stopped, turning over to stare up at the intruder.

Jeon Jungkook was leaning on a machine a few meters away from him, arms folded over his chest, staring down at him with a blank expression.

"Uh, sorry, sir, I don't—"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, cut the bullshit already and just call me Jungkook, I can feel you physically struggling to call me 'sir'," Jungkook interrupted, piercing eyes staring right into his own.

Seems like my little front won't work with him, he thought as he sighed and placed his hands on the floor on either side of his hips, leaning back.

"But how can a low-level, meaningless and puny man as me ever address such a powerful man as you with the first name?" he asserted, shaking his head.

Jin flashed him a smile as he saw Jungkook clench his jaw, eyes narrowing.

"Turn around and place yourself in the same position as before."

His heart skipped a beat as Jungkook pushed off the machine and slowly approached him.