Seoul City

Ch. 40 - Betrayal

"There's a traitor among us."

Before anyone had time to properly consider that possibility, Chaeyoung felt a strong arm grasp her neck and pull her forward. She tried to wriggle and kick her way out of his hold, but he fired a bullet through the ceiling – drawing everyone's attention. She felt the hot tip of the gun pressed against the right side of her head and grew completely still, her blood running cold with fear.

"Yoongi," Jimin said sternly, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Everyone drop your weapons," Yoongi – the man holding a gun to Chaeyoung's head – commanded, standing in front of the rest of their 'team'.

Everyone looked absolutely shocked at his words, freezing in place as they tried to make sense of what was happening. To make matters even worse, the gang of intruders walked through the door at that moment, standing behind Yoongi – fully armed and ready for battle.

"Just let Chaeyoung go and we can talk about this," Taehyung said calmly, but Chaeyoung knew he was trying to hold back his anger.

"Did I fucking stutter?" Yoongi snapped, shooting another bullet towards the roof and causing Chaeyoung to flinch, "Drop. Your. Fucking. Weapons. Or the girl dies."

Jungkook had never looked as furious as he did at that moment. When Yoongi tightened his hold along Chaeyoung's throat, causing her to gasp for air, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook collectively lunged forward. But, that only caused Yoongi to press the gun more firmly against her head.

"One more step, and I will shoot. All of you may love her, but I sure as hell don't," Yoongi warned, his voice low and threatening.

That caused all of them to stop in their tracks, each of them throwing Yoongi the most hateful looks Chaeyoung had ever seen from any of them. She tried to take a deep breath and calm down before meeting each of their eyes to communicate that she was okay.

"Why are you doing this?!" Jennie exclaimed, her gun still held firmly and aimed towards the large group of people in front of them.

"Once everyone drops their weapons, I'll tell you," Yoongi smirked at her.

Slowly, Jimin placed his gun on the ground and held his hands up, causing everyone else to reluctantly follow. In the end, there was only one man who hadn't surrendered.

Jungkook threw a confused glance over his shoulder at Hoseok who was still grasping his gun, "Hoseok, put the gun down."

When he didn't respond, Jungkook's voice became much more demanding, "Hoseok. I said, drop the fucking weapon."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Hoseok replied, turning the gun so it was pointing towards Jungkook and causing his eyes to grow wide in shock. The rest of the Phoenixes looked at him with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment, looking completely betrayed. He continued aiming the gun towards Jungkook while backing away from the Phoenixes and Griffins to stand beside Yoongi and their other men.

"You guys have been in on this together?" Jungkook asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Since day one," Hoseok replied with a cunning smile.

"Oh my God, that morning on the camping trip," Jennie gasped, "it wasn't just a coincidence that you two were walking and laughing together so early in the morning."

"And that entire trip, you two were practically attached at the hip," Jungkook nodded, realization starting to dawn on him, "I knew something was off, but I never would've expected this."