DELIVERY! | JHS

ten

If Iseul is anything—she's true to her word.

Hoseok finds this out the hard way.

The following morning, Hoseok is awoken by Iseul with a cup of ice water to the face. He blinks groggily, gasping and confused until he finally comes to his senses. Iseul chuckles in the darkness of Hoseok and Jungkook's room, her features illuminated only by the light from the hallway. Her smirk is mischievous, and Hoseok can tell she's enjoying this way too much.

"What the f—" Hoseok begins, but she raises her finger to his lips.

"Shh. You'll wake Jungkook." She whispers, and Hoseok scowls at her, rubbing his tired eyes and wet face.

"You're evil." He whispers back, and she chokes down a laugh.

"C'mon, get dressed." Iseul says quietly, gesturing to Hoseok's bare chest. Upon realizing he's shirtless before her, he pulls the duvet up to his chest like a Victorian woman rushing to cover up her ankles and save her modesty. Iseul laughs full out this time, though under her breath. "Brave Training starts now." She says, and leaves the room.

"Brave Training. Pfft. Unbelievable." Hoseok mutters to himself, rolling out of bed and putting on the first clothes he can find. All of his clothes are a combination of hand-me-downs from the other men in the house, since Hoseok hadn't really packed a travel bag when delivering Chinese food that fateful day he met the Bangtan Blood. So, when he emerges from the dark cave of he and Jungkook's room into the living room, he's wearing Seokjin's pink sweats that are a size too big and a mustard yellow hoodie of Taehyung's. Iseul quirks her eyebrow at him, her infuriating smirk only widening.

"Is ugly in style these days?" She teases, and he shoots her a withering glare.

"Yeah, I like to call this look the 'My Mafia Boss Just Woke Me Up at the Ass Crack of Dawn and I Got Dressed In the Dark.'" He deadpans, and she snickers to herself.

"I was referring to your face, but go off, I guess." She fires back, and Hoseok has to choke back his laugh. He won't give her the satisfaction. "Here, eat." She pushes a bowl of cereal across the kitchen island to him. Hoseok nearly cries happy tears at the sight of a spoon nested happily among the Cheerios and milk. "I need to tell you about the Phoenixes before we do anything else." Obediently, Hoseok takes a seat in a stool and begins to eat, looking at her attentively.

"Well, as you've probably gathered by now, the Phoenixes are our rival gang." Iseul begins.

"Well, yeah, no shit. Why?" Hoseok asks through a mouthful of cereal. "Turf war? Or, oo, I know—they owe us money." He guesses, and Iseul squints at him.

"Hoseok, no—not even close. Do you even know what we do? The Blood?" She asks, and Hoseok opens his mouth to respond, before shutting it when he realizes he has no idea. "We're not like any gang you've ever heard about. We don't fight over territory, or money, or drugs, or any of that bullshit. That's all shit the Phoenixes do, and they do even worse. We have two purposes here: one, stop the Phoenixes; two, protect each other from the Phoenixes." She explains, and Hoseok nods in understanding.

"So, what you're saying is, the Blood is only a thing to be the means of counteracting the Phoenixes?" Hoseok clarifies.

"Exactly. They do some terrible, horrible things, Hoseok. And no one else dares hold them accountable; they're too powerful. They've got eyes and ears everywhere, favors owed by everyone. They've even got law enforcement under their thumb, you saw." Iseul says, and Hoseok stirs the remaining three cheerios in his bowl pensively.

"Why are they so powerful?"

"Money and numbers." Iseul answers with a sigh.

"How much money?" Hoseok wonders.

"Billions of dollars."

"Oh. And how many members?" He asks, taken aback.

"Thousands, growing every day." She says gravely.

"And how does that compare to us?" He asks. Us. He still isn't quite used to the idea that he's officially apart of the Blood yet. Standing, he washes out his bowl and puts it into the dish washer. Leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest, he retrains his eyes on Iseul.

"Well, Seokjin's parents were co-CEOs of Kim Enterprises, that tech support company. They left him a big inheritance when they passed away; ten million dollars." Iseul leans against the island opposite him. "The rest of us were broke when we joined. And, by the rest of us, I mean the other six." Iseul says. Hoseok's jaw nearly unhinges as it drops open in shock.

"So...seven people are responsible for taking down the hundreds of thousands of Phoenixes? You're shitting me." He says in disbelief.

"Eight." Iseul corrects him, stepping closer to him and tapping his chest lightly with her pointer finger. Featherlight, she drags it down the valley of his pectoral muscles before resting it on his forearm, still crossed over his chest. The action gives Hoseok chills, goosebumps erupting on his skin. What was that? He eyes her curiously, and her eyes stare back into his own, as confidently as usual. "You're with us now, Seok." She murmurs, eyes pools of molten amber. She's pretty, Hoseok can't deny it, even though she acts like she wants to kill him seventy percent of the time. But the vulnerability she's showing now, the warmth that has finally seeped into her cold and analytical eyes makes her even more beautiful. She trusts him now, wholeheartedly, and knowing how hard it is for her to trust at all, Hoseok feels honored.

Hoseok can see in her eyes that someone has given her reason to avoid trusting easily. Someone has hurt her, bad. The idea of someone as strong and fearless as Iseul hurting equally hurts Hoseok's empathetic heart. He can't even imagine her in pain, partly because he would hate to see her like that—

He can feel her breath on his face. The realization completely derails his train of thought? Wait, what? Why is she so close to him? Why is she getting closer? Panic strikes him then, and he awkwardly fills the silence by clearing his throat.

"W-Well, uh, eight is only, um, one more than seven. So. Yeah. I don't really know if I'll make any, y'know, difference." He stammers awkwardly, fighting the blush that threatens to color his cheeks. Stepping back, Iseul looks dazed, confused, even. As if she had lost track of what she was doing, controlled by the magnetic pull created by their eye contact, by her vulnerability.

"Whatever. Let's just go." She says, back to her stoic self as if nothing had ever happened.

"Go? Where?" Hoseok asks curiously.

"I told you, Brave Training starts today."