Behind the Azalea Heist Series

Scene 3: Hongkong Heist

This scene takes place briefly after arriving in Hongkong. They all go out to experience the night life. I found the conversation between Jin and Namjoon to be too heavy, so a left it out, but it shows how Taehyung felt back at the end of An Azalea.

Namjoon focus

"Look at this!" Taehyung, who led their little group on, cheered when they entered a small alley with the neon signs that made Hongkong's back streets look so amazingly dystopic. The artist beamed with joy and seemed like he wanted to embrace the whole city with his shiny eyes and boxy grin. Namjoon found it hard not to smile at the endearing picture. "How did we not spend at least one night out yet? I want to photograph this," the redhead said and turned towards the smoking Yoongi as if the hacker would pull out a camera from nowhere.

Namjoon could hear Jin, who had been typing away on his phone, snicker behind him at the outburst of the thief and found himself relaxing into the scenery. It felt nice to walk with the colorful group. Or more specific, it was fun to analyze their group dynamics. Taehyung undeniably was the center of everything, their sun and spirit, the brain. And Suga was the body, the reassuring part that made everyone believe in their ideas and plans. As for the others it was not as easy as this, but Namjoon was sure he would figure it out over the evening.

"Well, well," the personal shopper, who suddenly popped up to his right, said, "I would have asked you earlier, but we never had quite the chance to meet. How're you holding up with your new life?" The cacao eyes looked honestly interested albeit the sarcasm was clear in his words.

"Given that you hid away in Hongkong after my arrest, that can't be blamed on me, can it? But thanks for asking: I'm good," he reassured the beauty, "though it was quite a nasty experience to have my wingman stealing my money."

The personal shopper snorted and smiled crookedly. "I never was your wingman, darling. I only wing with men who follow the codex."

"The codex?" Namjoon asked amused, "Like the codex for forgers and conman?"

"No," the beauty said quietly and looked him straight in the eye, "The codex of friendship where loyalty is the number one rule to go by."

"But I-" Namjoon wanted to defend himself that he had not been friends with them, but Jin would not let him.

"Don't try to argue," the personal shopper said with an unknown sharpness to his voice, "Had you stood behind and waited for your delivery like every other of my customers, I wouldn't say a word, but you tried to trick them into trusting you and accepting you as a friend. You played nice and amiable to betray them in the end. And you have no idea what that did to Taehyung." Seokjin spoke very quietly by now not to attract the others' attention, but his voice was as cold as ice, and his words cut into Namjoon's flesh like knifes. "I was there with him when he opened your safe to play you dirty, and he cried, Namjoon, he cried."

A thick lump formed in his throat and he looked shyly at the crimson, who was animatedly talking to Yoongi and Jungkook by now. Had it really been this much of a burden to the artist. Well, the redhead had definitely been extremely happy when they had gotten him out of jail, but he would never have thought that the younger had considered them this close.

"I'll make it up to him," he murmured and looked back at the beauty.

"I hope so," the personal shopper answered in a much softer tune than before. "I know you don't have much of a choice right now," he said with a brief look at Namjoon's ankle, "but promise me to just trust them. They're not bad people even if Yoongi can sometimes be a little over the top."

"He's just protective, I know," Namjoon replied and smiled softly. He had had more than a month to study the two thieves, and he was sure that the hacker would die for his friend.

"Where are we headed?" Jimin to his left called out for the three in front of them, hands casually resting in his dress pants' pockets.

"Out," was Taehyung clipped answer before he resumed talking with the two others.

Jimin sighed. "That's not very precise," the small man mumbled, barely loud enough for Namjoon to hear.

But Suga apparently had sensed the charmer's distress and turned around to them, Jeon's head following his. "This is Taehyung-code for 'We'll see what the night holds for us'," the hacker explained.

"I hope it holds a big meal," Jin called out desperately, and the last remains of the tensed atmosphere between him and Namjoon vanished. "A really big one. I missed lunch today. Did you hear me, Tae?"

"You were loud and clear," Jimin mumbled, "I bet the whole street knows by now."

Namjoon chuckled at the charmer's words and silently agreed. Kim Seokjin might look like a posh gentleman, but sometimes his real persona ruined the image quite brilliantly. Namjoon had been confused when he had experienced it the first time, which was even before he had met Taehyung and Suga, but over time he had grown accustomed to the slight crinkles in the personal shopper's façade. It made the handsome man sympathetic, back then more than now, because Namjoon had experienced the pressure of playing someone else as well and could relate on a certain level.

About fifteen minutes of silently listening to Tae's fawning over the beauty of nightlife, Jin's wish was granted when the redhead stopped in front of a restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet.

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