danger

33: footage

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"Right there, stop!"

Jimin's thumb hit the pause button as the shrilling voice of Taehyung detonated into his ear, grimacing lightly before examining the screen. While in appalling quality and natural darkness, it displayed a character walking down the driveway with their poor Minjun slung over their shoulder.

"Look, there are more," Jimin pointed at his laptop, at the feet just noticeable in the obscurations. They stood by a couple of headlights, which twinkled on in the last few seconds of the footage. Minjun's abductor rounded the anonymous people before all of them turned and left.

Jungkook, kneeling beside his boyfriends, commanded Jimin to rewind some frames, then just as suddenly shooing him to halt it, "they're women, the heels." Each man narrowed their eyes on the dim screen, noises of realisation and astonishment dissolving into the air.

"Five women, then?"

"Seems like it," said Jimin, skimming through the video once more, "we'll have to tour the local stores and ask to see their CCTV footage in the morning, get a sense of where they headed." Their leader, Namjoon, nodded in confirmation of his plan as his eyes hindered over Jimin's laptop screen.

"Everyone get some sleep, we start early tomorrow."

"Jimin, while you're out, I will be checking footage from about a few weeks or so back, so can you get me in?" Namjoon cracked his knuckles anxiously behind his gang as he watched them put their shoes on by the entrance.

The hacker slid his laptop out of a bag and delivered it to their leader, "there's a programme synched to the cameras of P Nation, it's the only widget on my desktop so go into it, find the record for outside, and either browse for the dates and times, or you can type them in."

The elder nodded, eyes following as each member of Bangtan left on their trips. Hoseok and Seokjin would travel together, Yoongi and Jimin, and Taehyung with Jungkook. Each had selected their routes and acquired their best charisma, ready to rush every store's security room with authority. 

Namjoon took the laptop and made his way to one of the many common areas of the building. A library-type room with extensive, square seating in the centre of rows upon rows of books. He didn't take much notice of Dawn and Hyuna, who sat on one of the loveseats together, each reading a paperback of sorts.

Namjoon sat down, wasting no time in logging into his hacker's paradise. 

He, regrettably, didn't find much that was significant. The occasional stray cat and cyclist, rarely a passerby that would spare the smallest glimpse at the front of P Nation.

It wasn't until he laid the laptop on the table in front of him, still playing aimlessly while he took his shoes off, that something intriguing appeared. As soon as the movement began, he paused the feed and rewound it slightly.

It displayed a car stopping just a little ways up the street, a man wearing obscure clothing and a balaclava walking away from it with a few items in his hands. They were unknown, but Namjoon knew Jimin would be able to sharpen the image later. The man explored the few yards to P Nation's front gate, where he thoughtlessly intruded and moved over to the banks of grass on either side of the pathway.

His specific actions were unclear due to the timestamp being near two in the morning when the sun was so far around the globe that the camera was working solely on streetlamps.

"Take a look," Namjoon waved Hyuna and Dawn over. They instantly abandoned their novels, Dawn seating beside Namjoon and Hyuna standing over the back of the couch. The three of them watched the unidentified criminal stay kneeled over the grass patch for thirteen more minutes before they, likely a male by the build and stature, fled the scene.

Dawn sighed, "check the other days at the same time."

Somehow, thanks to Dawn's foreknowledge, Namjoon had hit the jackpot when it came to CCTV footage. Each day, for a week, the files showed the exact same performance. However, the man would visit an insignificantly different patch of the garden each time. The trio saw it as nothing but unnecessary loitering, entirely bizarre behaviour considering they hadn't seen blemishes in the grass outside to intimate damage.

"Think he has something to do with Minjun getting taken?" Hyuna rounded the couch and sat atop Dawn, his arm mechanically wrapping around her affectionately. Namjoon massaged his chin, a spiky notice that he had yet to shave his face that week.

He nibbled his cheek, "even if he doesn't, we need to know why he's loitering on the property."

"Sounds good," said Dawn.

"I'll have a team out to intercept him tonight when he arrives," Namjoon spoke, "and when my boys get back, I'll have Jimin sharpen and analyse the image, see if the cars are the same or something."

Bangtan returned with mediocre news, able to track the car as far as a bakery a few blocks away before it turned down a desolate side road. They were praised by their leader for their efforts, given a moment's break before being dragged back to work as Namjoon presented to them the footage.