The Gadget Boy (JJK x KTH)

Chapter 19

"It was D.O."

Jungkook and Hoseok both gasped in unison, with Hoseok muttering, "The Boss?" and then suddenly: "Oh my God!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Seokjin just shook his head. "I couldn't. Because of what happened next."

The two boys motioned for him to continue.

"Back at school, everyone was miserable. Everyone. Except for Kyungsoo that is. He didn't show up after that for a while. Everyone excused it as grief but I knew better. Anyway, EXO pretty much disbanded and Krystal was a wreck. What I didn't know was that he had at some point managed to steal the CCTV footage from the street where he hit Kai and he'd seen me come out of hiding to help him afterwards. I found him waiting outside my house after school one day and he told me he knew I'd been there. I was petrified that he was going to kill me. But then he said something strange. He said: 'You were my protégé. And now you're going to help me start again'. By protégé he meant that I'd been the one he'd added to the second generation. He promised he'd let me and my grandparents live if I helped him move away and start his new business. I didn't understand then that he meant he was going to effectively kidnap me and bring me here."

"It makes sense now..." Jungkook nodded slowly, piecing the puzzle together. "Kyungsoo is D.O... He is the Boss."

Seokjin nodded and continued. "He made me write a note to my grandparents that I was running away to be with my best friend and he brought me here. I changed my last name from Han to Kim and he enrolled me at a school on the other side of the city. Then, as he gradually built up an employee network from the city's homeless and destitute, he made more money and moved to this side of Seoul. He made me live in a tiny room at his base with his new protection and enforcement squad. He made me a member of BAP."

Hoseok gasped loudly. "As in Yongguk's BAP?!"

Seokjin nodded again and frowned as he remembered what it was like. "God they were awful. The room had three bunk beds and no room to even walk by them without pressing hard against the wall. But there was seven of us so I was forced to share a bunk with a young Zelo. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the comments from the others and the tightness of the space. Zelo wasn't a bad kid. He was just an orphan who was grateful for a roof over his head and free food. But the others were well rounded thugs. They'd been living rough all their lives and were rather used to fighting, beating people up and giving verbal abuse.

I was with them when they'd beat up men who didn't pay rent on one of D.O's properties. One time I remember clearly when we were supposed to collect from a man in a really bad neighbourhood and when we went in, he was eating breakfast with his little boy. He could only have been about five, but when his father told us he couldn't find the money, Yongguk just grabbed the kid and kicked him in the stomach. I swear I was almost sick just watching. He warned the man that if he didn't have the money by evening, there would be more where that came from and then he just picked up the kid, handed him to Zelo and we all left. So whilst the gang were busy with women and Zelo was watching the boy at lunchtime, I took some money out of my savings and went to find his father. I gave him about a million won and told him to pay us later and then leave. He promised not to reveal I'd been there and later on when we handed his son back over, he paid and we never saw them again.

Anyway, after about three months with them, D.O pulled me out and told me that he had a new job for me. He wanted me to find and recruit a group of intelligent kids my age to become his gang of thieves. And I found BTS. We started school at Sejong and now here we are. Story told for the very first time. But what we've discussed stays with us, got it?" Seokjin sniffed, still calming himself after raking up his painful past.