In over my head (BTS)

10.

Over the next few days Nae-un occupied herself by doing light housework. She swept her room everyday, polished the mirror, organised all her books and handwritten notes and hand washed any laundry she could get her hands on. She had grown restless in her room and found that it was driving her insane trying to stay asleep for as long as possible. There was nothing else for her to do so in desperation she started to clean the hideout as a way to keep herself busy and to stay on the member's good side.

She was kneeling on the kitchen floor with a wooden washboard and a basin of warm soapy water when Jungkook walked in. "Two people from a gang we're allied with are here to talk business. They're in the main area so you should stay in here until they go, but if you do need to move around just be careful about what you say around them, aright?" Jungkook glanced at the basket filled with damp laundry beside Nae-un "I'll hang those out for you" it seemed a little unlike Jungkook to offer help with something as mundane as hanging out the laundry, Nae-un shot him a suspicious look. "I'd rather be out there hanging laundry than be in there listening to hyung negotiating business with another gang" he replied nonchalantly. Nae-un nodded and turned back to the washboard. She sorted carefully through the pile of dirty clothes. Shortly after she was taken, Taehyung had given her a bundle of the member's old clothes. The only clothes she had that fitted her were the jeans, long sleeved cotton shirt and the hoodie she had been wearing when Taehyung caught her. She always made sure not to get her clothes and everyone else's mixed up whenever she did the laundry.

While Nae-un was in the kitchen, the others were discussing business with an allied gang. They had just come to an agreement when one of them spoke "You know boys, word at the club is you've gotten yourselves a little live-in magician from the academy" there was something in her tone that sounded slightly accusatory and disgusted, which put them all on edge. "Really? Is that what people are saying?Where'd you hear something like that?" Namjoon responded calmly but he was in fact a little worried that people already suspected they had Nae-un. He knew that Magical people were sold off to other gangs to be used as weapons and that many human traffickers would go to great lengths to get their hands on even a weak magic user. "People at Square up seem to think you have that straight A magic student who went missing about three and a half weeks ago. So? Are they right?" None of them responded and could see the suspicion become even more visible on her face. Her partner spoke "You all should know better than to lie to Siyeon. She's not going to let this go until you prove her right" They looked at each other and silently agreed not to bother trying to hide Nae-un from their allies. Reluctantly Namjoon called out "Nae-un!"

Nae-un walked out of the kitchen with a basket of clean clothes that she was going to sort and fold in her room. She had forgotten about what Jungkook had told while she was working so as soon as her eyes fell on the two strangers sitting on the couch she began to think the worst.

// who are they? Oh god! Are they selling me!? What did I do wrong? How much are they getting for me? What's going to happen to me?//

"You called me" she said meekly as she set down the basket she had been holding at her hip. "Our visitors wanted to meet you" gulping, Nae-un hesitantly came closer to them. The two women looked at her, one of them was looking at her in a funny sort of way that made Nae-un feel as if she was staring right into her soul.

They were both gorgeous, the one with the piercing stare had long black hair, narrow, sharp features and high cheek bones. She sat with an elegant posture and her expression was a mixture of pity, curiosity and distaste. Her companion had dyed her hair a light brown. She had very pretty and youthful features, she held herself with an air of confidence as if this were her own hideout. She looked more bored than anything else. Without warning the one who had been staring at Nae-un reached up and ran her hand across Nae-un's slightly hollow cheek. "You're so small and skinny. Have they not been feeding you?" There was something about the way she spoke and they way she looked at her that made Nae-un feel very uncomfortable. She didn't flinch away from the woman's touch, worried that it may aggravate her. "Yaaah! Siyeon, she's their girl, not ours. It's none of our business" the other one spoke bluntly and without interest, not even turning to face her partner when she spoke. Siyeon drew her hand back with a look of annoyance towards her partner. "You're not my leader, Yoohyeon is. Don't talk down to me, Jennie!" Siyeon's words were calm and quiet but there was no mistaking the venom behind her collected demeanour, Jennie turned to Siyeon and icily replied "Dreamcatcher isn't an independent gang anymore, Yooyeon agreed to form an alliance. I'm as much your leader as Yoohyeon is Lisa's, Rosé's or Jisoo's." " Really? You've got some nerve to try tell me that the power balance in that arrangement is fair" The two of them stared each other down angrily and the room fell into a tense silence.

The silence was soon broken by Namjoon "Hey, knock it off you two. Save that argument for when you're both back in your own territory" begrudgingly the two women turned away from each other but exchanged poisonous side glares every few minutes from that point onwards. Siyeon asked Nae-un to stay with them for a while. They continued to discuss their business, Nae-un didn't fully understand what exactly they were talking about but from what she gathered Jennie and Siyeon's gang wanted help raiding another gang who had stolen their stockpile of rare, hallucinogenic drugs. In exchange they were offering a tenth of the drugs they managed to take back and would let them do business in their "territory" from then on. The way they all talked about shooting, poisoning and even cursing other people made Nae-un feel sick. Nae-un's face was blank and expressionless to hide her disgust at the plans they were making and to hide her discomfort with sitting next to Siyeon, who had been playing with a lock of Nae-un's hair the entire time. The action felt a little too intimate for a stranger to be doing so absent mindedly. On top of that Nae-un sensed something slightly off about Siyeon that she just couldn't quite put her finger on.

Eventually things were settled between them, Nae-un was going to track a member of the gang, to find their hideout. Once she had done that she was supposed to work with Siyeon and other members of her gang to make Magical weapons, poisons and self contained curses, which would be used during the raid. The idea of having to create a curse that would be used against another human being in a gang raid, disgusted Nae-un. What disgusted her even more, was that she was doing such a horrible thing to save her own skin. The others didn't seem to have similar issues with the idea. "One of their lot is a regular customer at Square up. We'll send someone over with something to track them with soon. Once your girl finds them, we can start working on a detailed plan." "Thanks Jennie. Square up is closer to their territory so we should do all the prep and planning from here just to be safe, we'll make sure to let everyone know that Black-catcher members are free to come and go from here, just to avoid trouble." "All of Bangtan will come to the raid, right?" "Of course, we have a bit of a score to settle with District as well."

Siyeon got up and left, ahead of Jennie. Just as she was making her way to the door, Jennie met Nae-un's eyes. She looked back to see she Siyeon walking away and made her way towards Nae-un. "You're going to have to work with Siyeon a lot pretty soon, so I guess I should tell you a few things about her in advance" Jennie paused, waiting for Nae-un to ask questions, object, something! But Nae-un stayed silent. "Siyeon is telepathic and one of the main Alchemists in our gang. I know she came off as a bit weird earlier, touching your face and playing with your hair, even though she just met you but she didn't mean anything by it. One of her gang members told me she's like that cuz growing up telepathic, kinda fucked up....." Jennie paused and corrected herself "I mean..... gave her a different way of looking at people so she's shorta...... inappropriate sometimes, without meaning to be. Just try not to be shocked next time you see her, alright?" Nae-un nodded "I understand, I used to know someone who was like that. People used to treat him so badly, back......back home" Jennie hadn't really expected Nae-un to be so understanding, she had never seen it herself but apparently before Dreamcatcher was one of the most feared drug suppliers in Seoul, the condition her telepathy had left her in, would get Siyeon into trouble on the streets quite often. Jennie nodded and then left without another word to Nae-un.

Nae-un went to retrieve the abandoned laundry basket from the floor and went to her room. She was planning on meticulously folding and sorting every intem in the basket to take her mind off what she would inevitably have to do, learn malicious magic to help in a gang raid. Anything that took her mind off that was welcome to her, even if it was a tedious, mundane task like folding clothes. However when she walked into her room she was surprised to find Yoongi there.