House of Cards

Chapter 5

There were a pair of gloves in Jungkook's hand. He had pulled them out of the bottom drawer in the dresser beside the bed. On the list of things that he had done today checking the house had not been one of them. Taehyung had looked in the bathroom, had checked a few cupboards earlier when hungry to see if there was food inside the apartment room. As for the dresser drawers, the wardrobe, things like that, he hadn't even thought to check. Taehyung had assumed - wrongly so it would seem - that the place was empty. But now he knew otherwise. He had to admit that he had not seen it coming and he wondered if there were even weapons hidden away too. Then he recalled being searched before entering the block and he figured out that anything sharper than rather blunt cutlery was most certainly not allowed within the premises.

Jungkook was holding them out to him, his own pair on his hands. They were thick leather, the kind that made it look hard to bend the fingers whilst wearing. The other man's gloves looked well-cared for, oiled but mostly certainly worn. The care gone into them couldn't disguise the fact that they had been used often. He could see the slightest scuffs on the knuckles mostly, the black leather having faded slightly. It wasn't hard to imagine where the marks had come from. The knuckles had very few uses beyond punching someone right in the fucking mouth and he guessed that Jungkook had knocked a few sets of teeth out with them. That was what took him by surprise mostly, because he hadn't expected it.

Taehyung wasn't stupid. He knew that Jungkook, much like Jeon, had people murdered for him. Men mostly, it was seen as a bit pathetic to murder women for gang circumstances. Prostitutes notwithstanding of course, they weren't a part of the picture. Children were a likely victim too, that part he was unsure on. Like father like son, they both had victims to their names. But like his knowledge of Jeon he had assumed that Jungkook would simply organise and perhaps watch the murders. To participate in them? It was enough to make him feel a little numb. Why was he thinking about murder? Maybe this had nothing to do with murder? Maybe this was something else entirely and he was just assuming it to be the case.

But Jungkook had mentioned getting rid of Nam and now he was holding out a pair of gloves. If that didn't seem coincidental then Taehyung would call himself a bitch in front of his own father.

Taehyung couldn't seem to breathe. Behind him, still turned on and waiting for attention, was one of the computers. He just wanted to spin back around and carry on using it. He could just immerse himself back into the files, the words and photographs and shit, and forget about reality for several hours just like earlier. When he dived right into Haedogje Pa accounts he could ignore all of it, what was happening around him. The gang, the drugs and sex slaves being passed around like cigarettes behind the gym building in high school. Death and attempted rapes. Taehyung could shut it out, could pretend that nothing bad was happening at all. It was just like being back at the department minus Hoseok's shitty jokes and the pleasant scent of Sungah's perfume every morning.

It was like being safe but he knew that wasn't the case.

Taehyung reached up slowly to take the gloves off him. He eyed them and wondered if they would even fit. As he tried to fumble the first one on he asked Jungkook what he needed them for. The other man responded to this by grabbing his arm just above the elbow and firmly pulling him to his feet. Taehyung didn't even flinch at this because he was starting to figure out that Jungkook was a physical person. Probably came with his upbringing. He felt no need to be polite, grabbing an arm to make someone follow him was much more effective than word prompts.