PERSONA ✓

19.

"How could you miss the practice?" Kihyun asked Yoongi after the game. Which they won, of course, thanks to Yoongi raking in all those points.

"Something came up," said Yoongi, feeling only slightly ashamed. He had more important things to do than practice. He was now part of Team Persona — the team that helped Namjoon stop crime around the city. Yesterday, after showing up at Namjoon's house, they let Yoongi in on the plan.

The plan, which he had to execute tomorrow.

"Something came up?" Kihyun repeated. "Damn, Yoongi, I was going to make you team captain, but if you're gonna be unreliable like this..."

Yoongi frowned, grabbing his bag out of the gym locker and shutting the locker door with a slam. "Why would you give up your position?"

"You're the best player on our team. It's only right the best player gets to call all the shots, right?"

Yoongi scoffed, brushing past Kihyun and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Thanks for considering me for captain," he called over his shoulder, "but if you'd offered me the position, I would've said no. See you next week."

-

On Tuesday morning, Yoongi climbed through Namjoon's window.

"Yoongi, what the f—"

"What? You asked me come over and get the buzzer thing." Yoongi climbed into the bedroom and dusted off his pants, fixing his school uniform. "Where's Jungoo?"

"Jungkook," Namjoon corrected. "What's up with you and Taehyung not getting his name right?"

"Speak of the devil," said Yoongi when the bedroom door opened and the youngest walked in.

Jungkook paused, his half eaten banana halfway to his mouth. "How did you get inside?" he asked Yoongi.

"Window."

"You do realize I could've given you the Buzzer at school, right? No need to climb through our window like a creep."

"Just hand me the Buzzer, kid, and I'll be on my way."

Jungkook pulled the small contraption out of his pocket and put it in Yoongi's outstretched hand. "Remember, don't make him suspicious. Stick it on the cuff of his sleeve or something. I'll know once you've done it and I'll be able to control the device's frequency, so it'll only take a few hours if we're lucky."

"A few hours?" Namjoon asked. "I thought you said 24."

"I tweaked it a little bit," Jungkook said. He turned to Yoongi. "Be careful, Yoongi hyung."

Yoongi nodded at Jungkook and jokingly saluted Namjoon before climbing back out the window to catch a bus to school.

It was still hard for Yoongi to wrap his head around the idea that Namjoon, a boy only a year younger than him, was Seoul's treasured hero. But life was constantly coming up with surprises. Yoongi just had to get used to it.

He knew how he was going to execute the plan. Bump into Hoseok in the halls, stick the Buzzer on his backpack or jacket. It couldn't be that hard, right?

-

Wrong.

No matter how hard Yoongi attempted, he was never able to find himself in the same spot as Hoseok for more than 2 minutes at a time. The Buzzer was still in his hand, and he could feel it taunting him, saying, "It's not that hard, just get the job done, Min Yoongi!"

As he headed to the library, where he was told Team Persona met for lunch, he bumped into someone. They collided and both ended up on the floor.

Yoongi groaned. The person before him dusted their pants and stood up, offering a hand to Yoongi.

"Hey," said Hoseok, eyes apologetic. "I'm so sorry. You're not hurt, are you?"

With that soft tone, it was hard to believe he was Seoul's most dangerous villain.

Yoongi grabbed Hoseok's hand, attaching the Buzzer to the cuff of his sleeve before standing up.

"Thanks," Yoongi said gruffly. "Be careful, we don't want any more collisions today."

Hoseok smiled and nodded before apologizing once more and brushing past Yoongi and heading down the hall.

Yoongi waited until he was out of sight before dashing through the halls, heading to the library. He heard some teacher yell at him, but he didn't stop for anyone or anything.

-

Namjoon jumped when the door of the library was flung open. Yoongi, standing out of breath at the door, was lucky that the librarian had gone to the staff room, or he'd be in big trouble.

"It's done," he said, inhaling and exhaling harshly in a way that showed he ran to get here. "I got it on his jacket."

"I just got the notification," Jungkook pulled out his phone, tapping away. "There's a tracker on it, too. Ah, he's in the bathroom. I'll turn the buzzing up."

"Won't he, y'know, hear it?" Jimin asked.

"I suspect Jungkook made the Buzzer to vibrate at a frequency high enough that humans can't hear it," Taehyung said. "Right?"

Jungkook snapped his fingers and pointed at Taehyung. "Exactly, Tae! By the end of the day, Hoseok won't be in mind control anymore, and we'll be able to get the ring off of him, and then Seoul can say bye-bye to Shadow!"

Namjoon heard Yoongi mutter "genius", sounding genuinely surprised by Jungkook's skills.

"So, what happens now?" Seokjin asked. "Do we just wait it out?"

"I suppose so," Namjoon said. "But I guess now, nothing can go wrong, right?"

-

"Something went wrong," said Jungkook, as he stared at live footage of Shadow demolishing a bank and stealing money out of the vault. "I don't know, I quadruple checked it, I don't know what-"

"It's fine." Namjoon was already climbing out the window, transformed and ready. The others stood by, Taehyung watching the footage with all of his attention, Seokjin's eyes going from Jungkook to Namjoon. Jimin sat on the bottom bunk but was still alert, watching everything with wide eyes. And Yoongi seemed to be just confused, inexperienced when it came to being part of a superhero team.

Namjoon flew off in the direction of Shadow, but not before leaving a message for the others to hear through the comms.

"I'm ending Shadow's reign of terror today. Once and for all."