In Plain Sight {BTS | Namjin}

Witness Protection

We're starting off angsty, y'all.

~~~

Kim Seokjin had lived for a long time. And in that time, he had seen a lot. Mostly good things, but some terrible, awful things. But, none of those things could have prepared him for this.
He was faintly aware of the sound of police sirens, but he couldn't focus on anything but the scene in front of him. There was so much blood. More than he thought was possible for three people to produce.
"Jin, run!" His father's voice was barely audible, and Jin knew it was too late to help him. He couldn't follow his father's orders, though. Instead of running, he fell to his knees, wanting to get sick, but not being able to.
His mother and brother were already dead, he knew that by the way their bodies were laying still on the floor of their living room. Too still. And there was too much blood.
"R-Run." He looked back to his father, just as another shot rang throughout the apartment. The bullet met his father's head before Jin had a chance to close his eyes.
The hunter stalked towards him, cocking his gun, but Jin couldn't move. He had heard the shots as he approached their home that evening, but he had arrived far too late. How the hunter had found them, he had no idea, but he was skilled, having taken down three of them with what appeared to be little effort. And Jin was next.
Just as the hunter raised his gun, several sets of footsteps sounded behind him. "Drop your weapon!" The police. Someone else must have heard all the gunshots and called them.
The hunter turned and ran, a window shattering as he escaped through it.
"Are you alright?" Someone asked him.
"Get a medic in here!" Another shouted.
He watched, absently, as others checked his family's pulses. Even if they were alive, there wouldn't have been one, but Jin knew they were dead. All three had been shot in the head and the heart with wooden bullets.
"Can you walk? We should get you out of here."
He allowed himself to be brought to his feet and steered into another room.
"Did you see who did this?"
"Leave the boy alone for now," an older officer instructed. "He's been through a lot. Let's get him to the hospital, first."
He was led by more police to an ambulance waiting out front. When the medics came towards him, he finally snapped out of it.
"I'm fine. A hospital won't be necessary." It would only cause more problems if he allowed himself to be taken to a human hospital.
"Son, we should have you taken to the--"
"I am not going to the hospital," he snapped. "I wasn't hurt. You all arrived before he could touch me."
"That guy was a trained killer," he heard the older officer say from inside the house. "Those are clean, precise shots. These poor people wouldn't have even seen him coming. Whoever did this will probably be coming after the boy, too. He can't stay here."
"Sir," an officer in front of him said, "we should get you out of here. If you don't want to go to the hospital, we should at least go to the station."
He nodded, once again allowing himself to be steered by one of the officers into a car.
The rest of the night was a blur. He was allowed to use the changing rooms to shower and was given a clean track suit to wear. He was aware of the questions being asked, and of the answers he was giving them on autopilot, but he was too in shock to really process what had happened.
He had seen people die before. He had even killed a few. But nothing compared to seeing his entire family slaughtered. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He was going to find that damned hunter and rip him to pieces. As soon as these police officers released him, he was going to track that bastard down.
"Officer Kim will accompany you to the safehouse."
"The what?" His attention was brought back to the conversation happening in the chief's office.
"Whoever did this was a trained professional. Your entire family was his target, so we can't let you return home until he has been brought in. He'll really be after you, since you saw him."
"He had a mask on," Jin said, his voice a lot quieter than he would have liked.
"Even so," the chief said, "we need to keep you safe during the investigation. Officer Kim is our most talented witness protection agent, so you won't have to worry with him watching you."
"I don't need protection."
The chief exchanged glances with the other investigators before sighing. "Son, I know all of this is difficult; no one should have to go through what you have. But, we need to keep you safe from whoever did this. Taking you to a safehouse is the best way to do that."
"I understand your concern, but I don't need it. I'll be fine on my own."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kim, but this really isn't up for negotiation. You are a high-profile target. The media and everyone will be itching to get to you, on top of that hitman, so we need to keep you somewhere with a low-profile."
"I see now," he frowned. "It's because I'm Kim Seokjin that you're doing all of this. Had it been any other murdered family, you wouldn't be putting so much effort into making sure not even the media can get to me. I'm sure you're looking at a wonderful promotion if you can bring in the man who massacred the Kims."
"I--"
"If I weren't Kim Seokjin, you wouldn't be nearly as concerned with keeping me safe."
"Sir--"
"That's absolutely right." A low voice snapped from behind him. A tall man with silver hair entered the office, his dark eyes narrowed as he frowned at Jin. "If you weren't Kim Seokjin, we'd be able to ship you off to another part of the country and give you a new identity in order to get you away from this killer. But too many people have seen your face. We would never be able to find a place where no one knew who you were. So, this is our only option. You either go to the safehouse, or you die. The choice is yours."
"Officer Kim!" The chief gasped.
Jin got to his feet, glaring at this supposed best witness protection agent. "And you think you can stop a trained killer from putting a bullet in my head, too?"
"If he finds you, probably not. My job is to make sure you stay hidden, not jump in front of bullets."
"Officer Kim, there is no need for such hostility," the chief growled, grabbing the tall man's shirt and dragging him from the office. Jin could still clearly hear them talking, though.
"What do you think you're doing, Namjoon?"
"I'm trying to emphasize how important it is that he cooperates with us."
"Really? Because it sounded to me like you were just trying to piss him off! Kim Seokjin is part of the richest family in the country--is now the richest man in the country. If he is killed and the government takes over his assets and puts them up for bid, that could be disastrous."
"So, you don't care about Seokjin, you just care about him staying alive to maintain control over his father's company," the man named Namjoon scoffed.
"Of course I care about Seokjin. The poor boy just watched his entire family die, and now he has to live knowing there's a target on his head, too. But, I'm being realistic here. This hit was arranged by someone who wanted all of the Kims removed from the picture; that's most likely a rival company. If he's allowed to go back to his daily life before we can figure out who hired the hitman, simply finding the killer won't make him any more safe than he is now."
"I know that."
"Do you? Because you came in there like you were looking for a fight. We need to tread lightly here, Namjoon, so you have to get along with Seokjin. It's your job to keep him alive until we figure out this mess. Got it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Now, get back in there."
Jin returned to the sofa as the chief and Kim Namjoon came back into the office. Having heard their conversation, he knew they wouldn't let him leave the police station alone. For now, he would have to play along, pretending to be as fragile as the human protecting him.
Honestly, if he hadn't still been slightly in shock, he would have laughed at the irony of a human protecting a vampire from another human.
"I apologize for that," the chief told him. "Officer Kim has a bit of a short fuse, but he means well."
"It's alright. I know that you all are trying your best to help me. Whatever you need me to do, please tell me."
The chief smiled brightly. "I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure you're exhausted, so for now we will take you straight to the safe house. We'll have an officer pick up some essentials to get you through the morning."
"Thank you," he said, getting to his feet and bowing.
"Get some rest, son."
He nodded before following Namjoon out of the office. "Where is the safehouse?"
"The one we'll be staying in today isn't far. I'll move you to another one tonight."
"Why aren't we going to the other one first?"
"You're probably exhausted. The closer safehouse will be fine long enough for you to get some rest. We'll move after you've slept a while and gotten something to eat."
Eat. Shit, I forgot about that. How was he supposed to feed when he was being followed around by a human? Actually, how was he supposed to live with a human while he couldn't feed?
It seemed becoming collateral damage when the hunter came after Jin wasn't the only thing this Officer Kim was going to have to worry about. If Jin wasn't careful, he might be the one to kill him accidentally.
This just keeps getting more complicated.