Stranger | Jikook/Kookmin

37 | Anything For You

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Jung Hoseok tampers with two big garbage bags, taking his usual turn around the coffee shop where trash cans are located. He swings the plastics into the baskets with a grunt, patting his hands on his apron as he turns around with the intention to go back to work.

It's not that easy, however, to mess with the baddest bitch in town and get back to work like that.

At the curb 7 pairs of crooked eyes stare him down, sunglasses propped at the bridges of their noses, postures awry and silhouettes threatening enough to have Hoseok stumble back a few steps.

There is no trace of clownery or banter pertaining to previous night on the barista's face, cornered to the dead end of the trail with nowhere to escape. This is how it feels, they want to him to understand, this is what helplessness truly means. Humor is lurking at the false front of their act, but they do want him to pay the pension of committing a fraud against The Mascot and His Gang.

"Do you know what happens to whistleblowers like you?" Jungkook leans in to whisper at the terrified man, his friends lurking from his shoulders with hooded expressions.

"I can explain," Hoseok swallows, using his shaky hands as barricade.

"Answer my question," Jungkook pushes, fear in the man's eyes helping him ease further into his gangster role. Shady repeats the monologue from the back but with a deeper voice, the others tilting their heads and biting their lips in crooked angles.

"I d-don't know," Hoseok breathes rapidly, shaking his head apologetically.

Jungkook sighs behind his smirk, rolling his shoulders. When his their eyes meet again, he makes sure to convey the i'm not playin' with ya tone good. 

He inches closer and closer until Hoseok is pressed against the wall, sweating and nailing the concrete in fear. 

"They don't charge coffee from their victims," Jungkook says seriously, the air between them stilling as Hoseok tries to process what he just said.

Suddenly the lights are back on, suspense music cut and all seven gangsters back to being college nerdouts who mess with double-crossers for a pastime.

"We'll pick a table," Jungkook turns around with a nudge of head, the others following him out.

Just like that the narrow street is back to placidness, flies buzzering over the trash cans and people passing by the road that connects. Hoseok is still slanted to the wall on his own, needing a few more minutes to gather himself.

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Inside the coffee shop where team members are sipping on free coffee and downing pastries, Hoseok is being held to an interrogation. Seated afore Shady who is obnoxiously tonguing at the whipped cream of his donut and all the others glazing him with dubious stares, Hoseok falls short of words. They look like a bunch of outcasts truth be told, however, Jungkook would guess the reason Hoseok is so intimidated by them to be his own wimpy nature.

So not fitting for someone who outed him to Gidae directory like he meant nothing more than a dust particle to him.

It sucks.

"I wouldn't have done it if you were to be harmed," Hoseok defends himself but it triggers Jungkook even more.

"How in the world could you possibly know that I wouldn't be harmed?!" he retorts, not in the mood for more lies. "You took a shot to get the scholarship and merit award. You didn't spare a second to think about how I'd suffer the consequences!"