Still I Rise - BTS/OT7

5 - The Burdens We Carry

"I know," she said, trying to read the strange man. "How about you, got any good friends, Namjoon? Someone you can depend on?" she inquired, curious to hear his answer.

His smile widened, dimples making an appearance on his features as he stared at her. "Everyone in this house actually, especially Yoongi, since we've been through a lot together," he answered. "Well, dinner will be ready soon and it's never good to keep Jin waiting, so I will see you two downstairs," he said before leaving, making sure to close the door behind him.

~☾~

Everyone was finally seated for dinner, and it definitely felt strange for Jungkook and Charlie. Even when they lived in the foster home, they never really ate together. In fact, the Hellhounds rarely ever cooked, so Charlie would either end up making something for them or they would grab whatever they could find. The middle of the table was full of food, and both Jungkook and Charlie had to restrain themselves from grabbing everything. Once everyone had a chance to fill their plates, Namjoon, who was sitting across from Jungkook, spoke up.

"Let me officially introduce you to everyone and give you a rundown on the roles we all play in Bangtan." Namjoon started, gesturing towards the ringleader, who sat at the head of the table. "Yoongi, as you already know, is our boss. He tends to stay behind the scenes, so anyone outside of this group doesn't know that he's the one who pulls all the strings, but that doesn't mean that he isn't out on the field risking his ass. He's done many assignments before, only when it's something that he personally needs to handle though," he shared.

"Then, you have me. I'm the underboss, sort of like his right-hand man. I help Yoongi out with things and make sure that everything runs smoothly. If there's a problem, I take care of it, and I report back to Yoongi on any issues that we might have in our territory. Anything that I can't handle goes directly to him," Namjoon explained.

"Now, Bangtan stakes a claim in quite a few places in the city, and we have our small territory on the East side, but the main ones that we tend to focus on are the casino and the club. House of Cards, the place the two of you tried to rob, is run by Hoseok and Jin. Jin works on maintaining the legal side of things and making sure customers are satisfied with their experience at our lovely casino while Hoseok runs the underground operations in our hidden rooms, including gambling and... pharmaceuticals," he shared, gesturing towards the orange haired man who was taking a bite out of his food as he nodded in agreement.

"There are a few other establishments that help with storing and transporting our product, but the casino, as you may have figured, is our main source of revenue. Jin also works with experimenting on creating different kinds of, you could say, drugs, while Hoseok spends time on his days off from the casino perfecting our weapons, mainly playing around with making smoke bombs and explosives that we use on our missions," he shared, causing Charlie to glance at both Jin and Hoseok before returning her focus back to Namjoon.

"Now, Jimin runs Cliff Hangers, our... gentlemen's club," Namjoon said, pausing as he noticed Charlie's reaction. The girl's eyes flitted over to Jimin, who wore a playful smile before winking at her.

She scoffed at him, rolling her eyes. "Of course you would be in charge of a gentlemen's club, pervert," she muttered while Namjoon cleared his throat, hoping to continue explaining. Charlie apologized for interrupting, returning her focus to him as he spoke again.

"The club serves more as a place where we can gather intel. The girls there learn a lot through their interactions with customers and share what they discover with Jimin, which we then investigate further. And finally, as you already know, Taehyung deals with the tech side of things. He invents gadgets we use in our missions and makes sure we're safe. He monitors the base and all of our establishments and keeps track of all our intel. Am I forgetting anything?" he inquired, glancing at Yoongi who shook his head in response. "Any questions?" he asked, glancing at Charlie and Jungkook.