Chasing Butterflies

Strike a Deal... Pay the Debt

He held his breath and hoped for the best even though he knew the chances of things going in his favor were slim at best. The man sitting in front of him, sporting a pair of dirty sweatpants and no shirt didn't exactly look like someone who could do any serious damage.

Eyes narrowing, the man leaned back in his armchair, he scrutinized the boy who sat rigid as stick in front of him and he smirked. Both of them knew who held the cards.  "Listen," he started, "You and your friends needed money, yes?" He watched his guest with hawk-like intensity, not letting one bead of sweat on the man's forehead go unnoticed.

"Yes," he didn't want to admit it. He hated this situation, absolutely loathed it, but they had been desperate.

"And I provided you with money, yes?" This conversation was headed down the toilet and fast.

He ground his teeth and hissed the word, "Yes."

"And all I asked was that you pay back the money, with interest, in a timely manner, yes?" They both knew who was winning this conversation, and it wasn't the boy with his fists clenched in his jacket pockets.

"Yes." That word was like acid on his tongue.

"And did you do that?" A wicked smirk creeped onto his face.

The man paused, his nails digging painfully into his palms. "No."

"Exactly. And we had an agreement, did we not? Either you and your friends pay back my money or you work for me until your debt is payed. I seem to remember you agreeing," the other man opened to his mouth to speak but he never got a word in. "And if you can't remember for yourself, maybe your signature on our contract will remind you. Do I need to get out the contract?"

Coming here was a bad idea. They should have known that. "No."

"Good," his tongue flicked across his teeth before he smirked. "So you keep dealing out the drugs and I will keep counting the profits. When your debt is payed you can go," he leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Are we clear Kim Namjoon?"

"Yes," he hissed the words, "We're clear."

"Good. Now go, I'm expecting someone who's a little easier on the eyes." Namjoon knew that he had a girlfriend but he just didn't understand what woman in her right mind would want anything to do with this crazy bastard.

Namjoon pulled himself out of the stiff wooden chair and forced his legs to move as quickly as they could possibly go. He didn't want to be stuck in the same room as this asshole any longer than necessary. He took several long strides through the apartment and he threw open the front door. He sped out of there as fast as he could without making it look like he was running away, because that would show weakness. And if there was one thing that Namjoon didn't want to show it was weakness.

He barreled down the stairwell, not stopping to apologize when he ran into a girl going the opposite direction. Going into this he had known that it was a bad idea to accept money from that guy, they all knew, but their breaking point was like being tossed head-first off a cliff. And at a certain point they couldn't go on living without a dollar to their names. As usual, Namjoon's thoughts consumed him as he walked down the dimly lit street. Only when a familiar sign came into view did he snap away from his worried thoughts. The railway station sign was dripping with fresh spray paint and Namjoon knew that the boys had gotten bored again and took to 'decorating' the station. Namjoon dragged his feet across the dusty cement floors of the railway. He hated that he had to give the guys bad news. They didn't deserve this. No one deserved this.

Just as he expected the boys were sitting around the dingy old couch they had dragged into the station, a small fire was burning in front of them, and they were laughing loudly. A tiny smile found its way onto Namjoon's face; at least they were still together. No matter what crap they were going through, they would always have each other to fall back on.

"Hey guys," he greeted over the sounds of their laughter and was met with a chorus of hellos.

"What happened?"

"Did he agree to let us go?"

"What did he say?"

They fired questions at him, all laughter suddenly seized. Namjoon sighed, he hated this.

He collapsed down on the old couch and let his head hang back, "He's not letting us go." The silence in the room was deafening.

"What?" The pain in Jimin's voice pierced through them like a rusty fork.

"Did you tell him that it was a mistake? That we don't want his money anymore?" Namjoon nodded at every question Jin asked.

"Yes. I told him that we had been desperate, that we didn't want his money anymore, that we wanted out," he heaved a sigh. "He doesn't care. He said that we have to pay back all the money with interest or we keep working for him." The boys were silent again.

"I should never have suggested going to him," Yoongi's voice was hardly louder than the crackling of the fire they sat in front of.  Six pairs of eyes snapped up to him. Yoongi's head hung low, elbows resting on his knees. "It's my fault that we're in this."

"No." Hoseok's normally happy expression was dead serious. "This is not your fault. We were broke. We needed money. You just did what you could to help and we all agreed to go to him. This isn't any of our faults. If you want to put blame on something, blame life," his statement was met with confused stares. "It's not as if we asked for life to dump us in a pile of crap but here we are. We didn't ask for any of this, but we do what we have to so we can stay alive," Hoseok dragged his hands down his face in frustration.

"Hobi's right," Taehyung admitted. "We didn't ask for this, but we're in it now. I guess we just have to keep dealing until we pay off the debt."

"And what if we never pay it off?" Jungkook's morbid question made them all freeze. "You guys know that he's just going to keep raising the interest. And at the rate that we're selling his supply we'll never be able to pay it off." They didn't want to admit that he was right, but they knew it was the truth.

"Then we can run." Six head snapped up to look at Jin with incredulous eyes.

"How the hell are we supposed to run?" Namjoon challenged. "We don't have money. We don't know where to get money. We live in a damn railway station. Face it, we can't run from this." Defeat hung thick in the air as the boys grew silent again.

Seven minds raced as they sat in that railway station. Each and every thought went to figuring a way out of the hell they had gotten themselves into. And every idea that arose was dismissed because everything they thought of required money. And money was something they didn't have.

"What if," Yoongi's head suddenly lifted, eyebrows furrowed. "What if we gambled?" The idea had them all confused

"You know he runs a gambling ring, right? He'd never let us into that. Not to mention that we would never be able to swing the buy-in price." Namjoon stated as if it was a no brainer.

"I know that we can't afford his games, I'm not an idiot. But there's nothing stopping us from playing small games. One of the guys I deal to keeps talking about how he and his buddies hold poker games," as Yoongi spoke the boys' hope began to grow. "I can convince him to let us in on a game. If we win we could come back with a couple hundred, maybe even a grand if we're lucky. I'm not saying that it's the holy grail of plans but it's something." He looked around at the boys. Jungkook's eyebrows were drawn together. Hoseok looked serious, not an expression he usually wore. Jin looked deep in thought. They were all thinking hard; thinking about how this plan would work out.

"What have we got to lose," the quiet words slipped from Namjoon's mouth.

The answer went unspoken but they all thought it. Nothing. They had nothing. Therefore they had nothing to lose.