"Don't move, don't speak, don't fucking blink," Jungkook growled, pressing his knife against the Hooded man's throat before slowly leading him back behind a dumpster.
Jungkook watched the man trail and terrorize Ella for nearly a half-mile, and after watching the way she ran once he spoke to her at the crosswalk, Jungkook was ready to rip this man limb from limb.
The desire to press his blade a little harder into the man's throat was all too tempting, but he needed answers first.
"I wasn't gonna touch her, man. Just looking." The hooded man let out, his voice wavering.
Jungkook didn't hesitate as he pushed his blade further into his captive's flesh," What did I fucking say?" He gritted out, warm blood trickling around his hand. The man did his best to contain his cry of pain.
As they hid behind the nook of the dumpster, Jungkook heard the soft echo of footsteps as you came back down the alley. Jungkook pressed himself and Hoodie closer to the metal and watched through the crack as you looked around, your pepper spray raised and ready in front of you as if you were prepared to take someone in a fight.
At least she kept her shoes on.
Jungkook thought to himself begrudgingly as you slowly retreated back. He didn't want to consider what you had in mind that made you think it would be a good idea to face whoever was chasing you.
Jungkook reached up with his free hand, tugging the string of the man's Hoodie out of the hood. The man whimpered as he felt the fabric shift into his face. Once it was free, he reached up and roughly pushed on the man's shoulders. "Lay on the ground." He ordered, never pulling the knife away from the sensitive area of the man's already bleeding throat.
Once he was down, Jungkook placed a knee on his upper back, careful to keep just enough pressure to force him down as he secured the string from the Hoodie around the man's wrists. It was a pathetic attempt at restraining him. But the proper knot could make up for the lack-luster material. Luckily, the guy was compliant.
Jungkook left his new captive on the ground, his boot resting firmly on the man's lower back. He made a short phone call to Taehyung, which has him on route to come pick him and his cargo up from the alley and bring him back to the bakery for questioning.
Jungkook didn't plan for his evening to go this way.
He got out of his lecture early and drove to your apartment, hoping to catch you when you got off work. He bought Jeremy a new cat bed and scratching post, and he was excited to give it to you. You had texted him last night complaining about how the cat was getting too comfortable on your pillow at night and had made a mess of your kitchen wall.
Jungkook figured giving Jeremy a few things he could make his own would help the kitty adapt to his new home. Even animals felt pride in owning a few nice things.
When he pulled up to your complex, he saw you were already making your way down the road sporting rain boots, and a cute button-down denim dress with a black tee-shirt underneath. Your hair was straight and cascaded down your back, and the whole look was sickeningly innocent and adorable. Even though you tried to juxtapose it with a chain necklace and thick bracelets as accessories.
You liked to dress the way you made Jungkook feel, a walking contradiction, but being confused never felt so right.
He backed his car into the streets, hoping to catch up to you and offer a ride before the rain started, you must have been on your way to pick up dinner. But as he was slowing to a stop, you turned down an alleyway before he could catch your attention.
Jungkook debated at that moment, whether he should park and follow you or let you be.
As your friend, Jungkook wanted to respect your privacy and let you take care of your own business, even if he really wanted to hang out and spend time with you.
But as a member of BTS and a protector of the No Harm List, he, without a doubt, wanted to follow you. Jin typically had a spider lurking and following you during your school day and commute home. But the team concluded it would be a waste of resources/violation of privacy to have someone waiting outside your apartment.
School hours were routine for you, making it easy for someone to learn your schedule and grab you off-campus when you were most vulnerable. Because there was no direct reason for BTS to think you were in immediate danger, they couldn't validate round the clock surveillance.
They just took extra precautions, like Jungkook made a habit of texting you throughout the day, asking what you were up to, to get a feel of your whereabouts. To his knowledge, you were either at work, at home, or at the library. You have yet to show any variance.
But this evening seems to be the first time you're going out on your own. Probably to grab a quick bite to eat. He knew you were stressed about your upcoming test and were perhaps using the walk to clear your head.
With a short curse under his breath, Jungkook maneuvered to park his car in the first spot he saw, a whole block and a half away from the alley you turned down. Fumbling to fill his tab on the meter, he prayed he would be back before he got towed before he jogged down the sidewalk to catch up to you.
Jungkook was familiar with the network of alleyways that lined the 7th ward. They were the best way to get business done with as little notice as possible. The local authorities rarely bothered to patrol back here; having enough mercy to some of the homeless by turning a blind eye to those who seek refuge in the alleyways for a peaceful night's sleep.
Jungkook kept his pace quick as he retraced his steps and made to turn down the corridor he saw you slip through, there was a reasonable distance between you. Still, he could just see your figure make a turn by a dead end. Jungkook assumed you were heading towards 34th street. The popular road brought you near the edge of the 7th ward and into the university district.
As he turned down the path you made, a tight corridor between two buildings just big enough for their fire escapes, he saw that two of you were not alone anymore. Someone must have been lingering behind one of the buildings, and it was clear you caught their attention.
Tense, Jungkook watched as the hooded stranger began to follow you at a leisurely pace. You remained unaware of both men as you continued to quiz yourself with your flashcards.
Jungkook wanted to run and catch up with you to deter the man, but he worried that seeing him charge toward you would frighten you just as much. And he didn't know how to explain why he was following you without scaring you more. He decided he would give this guy a chance to back off on his own accord. Jungkook had a tendency to assume the worst, and he didn't want to give anyone an unnecessarily hard time.
As you reached the mouth of the alleyway, Jungkook watched you break your attention from your flashcards and take in your surroundings. He saw your body language change when you became aware of the hooded man behind you, setting a purposefully quick pace as you marched down the sidewalk and quickly crossed the street.
Jungkook regretted his decision to back off when the hooded man crossed behind you. He was clearly targeting you at that point, and Jungkook could see you struggle to discreetly chance looks over your shoulder as you made your way down the street.
He cursed as he stared impatiently at the red hand, lighting the pedestrian crossing sign, "Come on, come on," he hissed under his breath, urging it to go faster as cars trickled by.
He raced across the street as soon as the signal permitted him and kept a jogging pace through the crowded sidewalk as he saw the man approach you at the next crosswalk. Through the crowd, he watched the hooded man lean in to speak to you, and you clumsily J-walk across the road, nearly tripping over your own rain boots after the exchange. Jungkook gritted his teeth as he could only imagine what vile things the man could have whispered in your ear.
Jungkook broke out into a full run as he saw the man cross after you, b-lining to cut through the street and follow you both.
There was a loud honk, and Jungkook didn't have enough time to stop his momentum as a yellow taxi came to a halt in his direct line of travel. With a grunt, he pushed himself across the hood of the car, sliding over the vehicle as the driver cursed. His pace didn't falter as he yelled an empty apology over his shoulder and charged down the alleyway after you.
You were nearly running in your clunky rain boots at this point, and the Hooded man seemed to be taking his time as he saw the approaching dead end fenced off ahead. Luckily, there was a sliver of space between the fence and the flower shop, and Jungkook felt a rush of relief as you slipped through it to turn down the corner.
"Good girl," he encouraged under his breath like it would help you get out of sight faster.
At this point, Jungkook broke out into a sprint, his thundering steps catching the hooded man's attention. Hoodie peered over his shoulder just in time to see Jungkook grab hold of his jacket and pull him back. The change in momentum caused the man's sneakers to slip across the pavement with a loud scrape, before falling with a shout.
Jungkook was on him in a flash, pulling a knife from a pocket as he dragged the man to his unsteady feet. After a moment of fumbling past the man's resistance, Jungkook had one arm wrapped around his abdomen trap. The other pressing him against his chest. Trapping the man against his body with a knife pressed at his throat.
Jungkook let himself submit to the adrenalin and rage pounding through him as he felt the man tense in his arms, his body locking up in fear.
Losing himself in his anger, he barely remembered securing the man, and waiting for you to clear the area before calling Taehyung for backup, interrupting his meeting with a client.
Jungkook forgot he even made the call. By the time Taehyung's car pulled into the alleyway to pick them up, Hoodie was already sporting a split lip.
The man, they now know as Nox, was compliant until they had him secured to a chair in the kitchen at their bakery. Then, he seemed to get a second wind as soon as he realized who he was dealing with.
V watched Jungkook struggle to keep his cool as he led the interrogation on the man. They were 10 minutes into questioning him, and Jungkook had done nothing but ask the same question and rough the man up a bit.
"I'm going to give you one more chance, why were you following her?" Jungkook growled as he leaned over the grinning man, blood already staining his yellow teeth.
Nox was a notorious thief and smuggler who commonly roamed around Sylvia's crowd of lone wolves. Even though these men were unclaimed by a gang or 'family', they still managed to hold a reputation on the darker west side.
Nox only smirked, "I told you, I thought she was pretty, I just wanted to get a better look."
"I know what bastards like you do to pretty girls," Jungkook all but spat, tightening his grip on Nox's leg until his grimy smirk gave way to a wince. He groaned in pain, flailing in the seat he was bound to, desperate to escape Jungkook's punishing grasp.
"Give it a break, JK, give the guy some time, and he'll sweat it out on his own." V sighed in annoyance. Jungkook glared up at his brother, looking slightly dazed as if he had forgotten the man was even in the room with him.
The elder leaned passively against a nearby countertop that looked the least contaminated with flour out of all the others in the bakery's kitchen. He was still dressed pristinely in an all-black suit, his hair slightly ruffled after working with Jungkook to get Nox bound to his chair.
Jungkook knew V was annoyed that he had to cut his evening short. He always liked his deals with the upper class to be a bit more formal and extravagant. The ambiance allowed him to add a few extra hundred per mg of the fine white powder without the rich snobs catching on. V hated that he had to cut his arrangement short and rush the transaction so he could pick up Jungkook and his captive.
Especially since he went through the trouble of sending Ella home early. The dealer even resorted to selling the product for street value to hurry the process along. He made sure to tell Jungkook as much on their ride back to Sugar Daddy. Jungkook didn't really see the problem, it's not like it was a good batch anyways.
And Jungkook had little pity for interfering with Taehyung's deal because he wasn't thrilled to be here either.
"Why were you following her?" he asked again.
Taehyung rolled his eyes as he watched Jungkook break every rule in the book. Asking Nox the same question was like ordering a wall to move out the way. He needed a new approach.
But Jungkook was acting differently. The boy was on edge and handling this interrogation with the emotional control of a teenager. Taehyung didn't think, in his current state, the boy was capable of the critical thinking it took to handle an interrogation in this setting.
It was important to be sensitive to your captives every tick and tell. The change in their body language. Jungkook hitting Nox between every question had them going in nearly blind. He couldn't tell if Nox's eye was twitching from nerves or as a reaction to the purple bruise blooming across his cheek.
"I told you, I thought she was pretty, I wanted a better look." Nox snapped again, growing impatient.
"What were you going to do to her?" Jungkook demanded, his fist slamming into the man's gut.
Taehyng tilted his head in curiosity as he observed the man who helped mentor and teach him how to wrangle information out of people most effectively, break every rule in his own book.
Nox's doubled over as he groaned in pain, "Nothin' are you stupid? You don't just grab a girl off the street like that," he cried in defense, "Ya gotta trail them for a while, see if they have family that'll look for her."
Taehyung tensed as he realized this man trafficked more than just animals. He took a moment to leisurely step behind Nox's chair, not wanting the captive to notice his unease.
"You're disgusting," He watched as Jungkook raised his hand and smacked Nox across the face, he heard the sound of skin smarting skin echo in the kitchen as the man's head whipped to the side.
Taehyng stepped forward when he realized Jungkook had either lost control of himself or lost his mind.
"He needs to be able to talk," Taehyung growled, pushing the younger back.
"Yeah, you heard the man, treat your captives with respect," Nox huffed with a laugh. Nox really didn't bother to keep his mouth shut.
Taehyung scrambled to keep his grip on Jungkook and dragged him towards the entrance of the kitchen as he attempted to lung forward.
"What the hell are you doing?" Taehyung growled as he stepped away from Nox.
Jungkook huffed in defense, "You can't be okay with what he just said...".
"You were asking bad questions. You get bad answers. What did you expect?" Taehyung retorted impatiently. Jungkook looked away as a flush crawled up his neck.
"I'm taking over, you're getting sloppy," Taehyung insisted, pushing Jungkook back a few steps.
"I am not! This is my interrogation I-"
"You sound like a child," Taehyung snapped before walking back towards Nox, he walked past the man and circled around his chair before crouching down, whipping out his knife.
"You're letting him go?" Jungkook questioned in disbelief.
"Hush," was all V said in response as he fiddled with the sleeve of the man's jacket. He saw a flash of ink when Nox leaned forward earlier and just wanted to check his facts.
"I thought you were a lone wolf, Nox?" V prompted as he pulled the fabric away from his wrist. For the first time since they got him down, Jungkook watched as fear flashed over Nox's face.
"You wanna explain why you have a pretty new Black Tips tattoo?" V asked sweetly, although the intention was anything but.
A/N: I've peaked. I think the transition to this chapter is the funniest thing ill ever write in my life 😂 maybe not but I hope it made you smile a bit before reading about V and JK's darker sides.
Please vote and comment!!