"You tampered with the clue."
It wasn't a question and they both knew it. Jin's dad simply shrugged, refusing to look up from his paper as he sipped his coffee, uncaring of the fact that he had all but sent six people to their deaths. Between the pinnacles and the other gang, Namjoon knew there was a very very slim chance of all of them making it out alive unscathed.
He didn't doubt their skills - but the odds were simply not in their favour and he wasn't enough of an optimist to watch the rest of the race with a smile on his face. He hoped, of course, but that hope was nestled very carefully under layers of rationality in the deepest recesses of his mind.
He would be more than happy if they just made it out.
A vampire bat swooped towards Hoseok and his heart plummeted a little.
"They prey on the weak," Kim Daehong commented casually, swivelling in his chair a bit to look outside at the city that stretched for miles, the sky an angry and ashy red. It was beautiful. Beautiful and completely unworthy of Daehong's eyes.
But he supposed it was a given for someone like him - just as illegitimate sons and dead lovers were.
"Showing emotions or depending on others isn't equal to weakness," Namjoon replied evenly, his eyes fixed on the screen mounted on one of the glass walls of the office located on the sixtieth floor of the building.
The other simply scoffed, finally dropping his newspaper in favour of focussing his attention on Namjoon, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward on them. There was an amused yet dangerous twinkle in his eye that sent shivers down his back. Namjoon straightened in his seat, the ropes chafing his wrists. He wasn't going to show discomfort - he wasn't going to let Daehong get to him like he had gotten to Jin.
"This," the other tapped his fingers on the table, "This is why you'll lose - why you won't make it back to your time."
And Namjoon couldn't even find it in himself to be surprised. Daehong probably knew everything about their lives. It wouldn't have even been hard. After all, they spent most of their time outside and it wasn't like they were exactly careful about what they spoke.
Though the why of it all. That was what he wanted to know.
That was why he had volunteered without a second's thought the moment he had seen the other as the special guest tasked with hiding them. That and maybe a sudden surge of irrationality - the need to protect the man he had fallen for. Hard. Jin had always made him irrational.
"For someone who claims to hate his son, you seem awfully interested in keeping him on your radar."
Deep baritone laughter startled Namjoon. He turned his head so fast from where he was watching Hoseok and Taehyung find their way back to the others to look at Daehong that he almost got whiplash.
The businessman was laughing like Namjoon had just cracked the joke of the century and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He had expected a lot of things - anger, denial, rage. Butthis?
Was Daehong insane like Yoongi had predicted?
The other brushed off a non-existent piece of lint from the lapels of his crisp blue suit before getting up and making his way over to the sofa situated by the opposite wall. "I never hated him, boy," he started, a gleam in his eyes. "It's always been purely business."
