Hooked | JJK | Eight

  Pair: UndergroundFighter!Jungkook x f!reader 

Summary: Walking away from your brother was never what you intended, you just wanted to run from the ghosts of your past. But now you’re back home and ready to pick things up from where you left off. If only things could be that easy, right? 

There’s a new guy living in your house, your brother’s best friend, someone you can’t help but grow close to. And the more you find out about him, the more you learn about yourself. An underground fight club, a newspaper competition, an overprotective brother and secrets you can’t seem to escape from. Did you make the right decision by coming back? Or did you just put yourself and those you love in danger? 

Genre: Series, fluff, smut, angst. All the aus: non-idol, underground fighter, brother’s best friend, roommates, rap-scene, chaebol. 

Chapter warning: Soft angst!!! And cute Bam.

WC: 3.6k

     You felt like a zombie. 

You probably looked like a zombie too, so you avoided looking at yourself on any reflective surfaces as you got out of bed and went into the bathroom to relieve yourself before leaving the dark cave you called your bedroom. 

You had no idea when you got home last night –this morning–, but you had the faint recollection of Jeongguk insisting you take a shower before going to sleep and the rejection of your invitation to join you in said shower. You were glad for both of those, as you would have hated to wake up sweaty and dirty after a rather eventful night out, and there was no way you could have stayed quiet if Jeongguk fucked you in the shower, in that high-as-a-kite state; so your brother would have most definitely heard you. 

You also didn’t bother changing out of the oversized t-shirt you wore as lazy day pajamas, since Yoongi had seen you in those before, Hoseok wouldn’t mind it, your brother had the audacity to walk around shirtless most of the time and Jeongguk– assuming he was already awake and with the boys, he had seen you in nothing at all. 

So you knew you wouldn’t be traumatizing anyone as you walked into the kitchen as the four men talked and ate. 

“Look who the cat dragged in.” Hoseok teased, too happy and chirpy for how dead you felt. 

“More like the truck.” you grumbled under your breath. “What are we having?” 

“Lack of manners, where’s my good morning?” the boy rebutted. 

You pretended to roll your eyes and complain, but walked to Hoseok to give him a half hearted hug while he squeezed you too tight for this hour in the day. 

Yoongi, Namjoon and a lively looking Jeongguk were already sitting at the table at the corner of the kitchen, all with plates full of delicious smelling noodles, so you only waved at them. Guk seemed to want to avoid looking at you for too long, while sneaking glances at your bare legs at the same time. 

“Would it kill you to put on some pants?” Namjoon still complained. 

“Would it kill you to put on a shirt?” you scoffed. 

“Children, let’s have a peaceful lunch.” Yoongi pleaded, more than used to you and Namjoon bickering. 

“Namjoonah is right, now we have a kid.” Hoseok cackled as he joined his friends at the table. 

You picked up a clean plate and walked to the stove to grab the rest of the noodles from the pan, so lazy you almost brought the pan itself with you. 

It took a few seconds, but Jeongguk’s offended wail came. Hoseok started laughing loud and high pitched and Namjoon and Yoongi chuckled a little more quietly. 

“I’m not a kid!” Guk defended himself. 

“Try saying that without a pout.” Hoseok teased the poor man, patting him on the back. 

“I’m sure he’s not offended, right, Gukkie?” you asked the boy as you joined them on the table. 

Jeongguk squinted his eyes at you, knowing you were playing with something dangerous, but shook his head and focused on shoving noodles into his mouth. 

You ate in silence as you listened to the three oldest talk about the set lists they were putting together for J-Fest and how they only had two weeks to make everything perfect. Jeongguk gave them ideas for the order of their songs and what kind of special effects they could pull off in such short notice, and even though they liked to tease Guk about being so much younger than them, they still took his tips to heart and listened to what they had to say. 

“I got us into the Lotte Hotel.” you told them after slurping on some of your noodles. “Well, Appa did, after I told him Eomma had gotten us reservations at the Mandarin Oriental.” 

“Nice! I knew you were the right person for the job.” Namjoon sent you finger guns and you held back a laugh. 

You didn’t feel particularly proud of how you knew how to manipulate your parents, but they made it too easy. You hadn’t even called your mother yet, when you told your father she was making reservations for you and your friends at the Mandarin. Just because you knew your father would move mountains to put you anywhere that was better and more expensive than wherever his ex-wife put you in. 

Just out of spite. 

Which meant you were all booked into the biggest five star hotel in the island, a fact the rappers very much liked, as they could feel like real celebrities traveling for their big festival debut. It’s not as if it would make a dent on your father’s bank account either, you were sure he called in a favor with one of his CEO friends. 

“So I think it would be cool if you came out after the second song–” 

Namjoon was telling Jeongguk, who was already nodding, when all four of them looked at you with all kinds of facial expressions. You were in the middle of putting your hair up in a bun, freezing as they stared as if they saw a ghost. 

Hoseok was the first to let out an awkward laugh, Yoongi’s lips formed a thin line, Namjoon’s jaw twitched, and Jeongguk looked one second away from passing out. 

“What?” you asked after your hair was up and away from your face. 

“What the fuck is that on your neck?” Namjoon asked and you frowned. 

“You have a, uh, little something–” Yoongi pointed at his own neck as he looked at yours. 

“A vampire attacked you or something?” Hoseok laughed again and your eyes widened. 

“Oh, shit–” you covered your neck with your hand, looking at Guk on instinct as you remembered the very fresh love bite he left there. 

All throughout lunch it had been hidden by your hair, but you just had to feel too hot and you just had to put your hair up. You were cursing yourself for forgetting it was there in the first place, you would have covered it in foundation before coming down for lunch. 

But now everyone was staring at the bruise on your skin. 

“Do you have a boyfriend I don’t know about?” at Namjoon’s question, Hoseok and Yoongi grabbed their empty plates to flee the scene, pulling Guk away with them in solidarity. 

“What– no.” you told your brother, which wasn’t a lie. 

“Bring him over, let me meet him.” Namjoon told you with hard eyes and a set jaw. 

You rolled your eyes, knowing this act. Leaving your brother to pout by himself, you got up from the table to bring your plate to the sink as you said:

“I’m not doing that, you’re gonna scare him away.” 

“I won’t scare him, why would I scare him?” Namjoon followed you, voice rising an octave higher as he pretended to be perfectly put together. 

“You look a little scary right now, Joon, poor Guk is terrified.” Hoseok mused and you looked at Jeongguk to see how pale he looked.

“Maybe because you scared every guy that ever tried to date me in high school?” you told your brother, trying to get the attention back on you if it meant it would be away from Jeongguk. 

“You were in high school, you weren’t supposed to be dating anyway.” your brother pointed out, letting Jeongguk take his plate from him with a lowered head. “Plus, you always like the weird ones.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” you gasped. 

“Didn’t you like that skinny kid once? The one with the fringe?” Hoseok added as you stared at him as a warning. 

“Oh yeah, the emo kid who didn’t talk to anyone. Damn he was weird.” Yoongi had his back to you as he washed the dishes, which is why he didn’t receive your glare.

“You guys suck, I hope you know that.” you huffed. 

“What’s this guy’s name?” Namjoon ignored everything in order to focus on the issue at hand. 

“I’m not telling you.” you crossed your arms to your chest.

“So there is a guy?” 

You huffed. “Well, I didn’t slip and bruise my neck.” 

“Bring him over.” 

You whined, holding back from stomping your foot like a child. “No, oppa. It’s not that serious yet.”

“Yet?” Hoseok asked, always the one to live for the Kim siblings drama. 

“Shut it, Seok.” you warned. 

For a while all you heard was the sound of dishes being washed by Yoongi and it made you happy to know Jimin had trained his boyfriend really well. You didn’t remember the oldest man being as domestic as this before you left. 

Jeongguk still looked like he was going to be sick, Namjoon was probably retracing in his head all of your latest steps in search of something out of place, so you had to give him something. 

“Okay, okay, just– There’s this guy, okay?” you started, and Namjoon cocked an eyebrow.  “I like him a lot. He’s nice, funny and he’s really sweet. He’s a good guy, that’s all you need to know for now.”

“Like hell it is.” Namjoon snorted.

“Yeah. Is he cute?” Hobi asked.

“He’s really cute.”

“And he likes you too?” Yoongi wanted to know, bringing a rosy color to your cheeks.  

“I think he does.”

“Is he respectful?” Namjoon was worried.

“Yes, I promise.”

“When am I meeting–” your brother tried, but you were already shaking your head. 

“Not now. You’ll meet him when I’m ready for you to meet him.” you said, and that would be the end of it. “For now I just need you to trust that I know what I’m doing, okay?”

“Dove.” the pet name came out as a sigh. 

You knew your brother had his reasons to be concerned, his role as the big bro, the guy that had to raise you from when you were seventeen and up because your parents divorced and stopped being your parents. This was all new to him too, you had never openly told him about a guy you actually liked and wanted to be serious with. 

“Please, oppa. You promised.” 

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Just… be careful?” Joon seemed to be fighting his every response instinct, but was willing to compromise. 

“I will.”

 It wasn’t the first time you went out on a walk with Guk and Bam, not by far. So when you passed by your brother and his two best friends in the living room, as they watched an American basketball game, no one batted an eye. 

The more the days passed with Jeongguk living under the same roof as you, the closer you two got -at least from the outsiders point of view-. You had a lot in common; from how affectionate you both were, a few common traces in your personalities, to how close you were in age. You already had the tendency to befriend your brother's friends, as it had happened to Hoseok and Yoongi, so you were hoping that your ever-growing friendship and fondness toward Guk would seem natural to everyone. 

At this point you were hoping that watching the two of you grow close in such a natural and genuine setting wouldn't raise any alarm bells in your brother's protective mind when he eventually found out about your relationship with the boy.

Were you expecting a Chandler, Monica and Ross situation? Maybe. But your brother liked that show so much that you had hopes he'd realize that you and Guk actually cared and were developing feelings towards each other, and this wasn't a case of fucking your best friend's little sister. 

Granted, the huge hickey on your neck wasn't the best start, but you’d make sure to lay low for a while. Try not to give your brother too much trouble.

The sun wasn’t as bright as you expected it to be, so you didn’t absolutely hate life –or Jeongguk– for taking you out of the house on that sunday afternoon. You had changed from your old shirt into a pair of shorts and t-shirt and Guk had done the same. You were walking side by side, both holding onto Bam’s leash together as an excuse to have your hands touching. Just in case. 

“So.” Jeongguk started, the tip of his finger dragging on the back of your hand. 

“Hm?”

“Heard the guy who did that on your neck is really cute?” the smile on his voice could be heard without you having to look at his face. 

“He is, yeah.” you admitted, thankful you remembered to cover the hickey this time. “I kept telling him not to mark me, but he wouldn't listen.”

“Maybe you’re just too hard to resist.” 

“Maybe he was just that high.”

Jeongguk scoffed as he pointed out: “I wasn’t so high, I think you got more than I did.”

“That explains why I’m still a mess and you’re a Greek god.” you eyed the man up and down; his skin was glowing, his hair was perfectly smooth and shiny, there were no bags under his eyes. 

“Nah, I think that’s good genes.” he shrugged and you groaned. 

“Why did I agree to this?”

“Because apparently you really like me.” he teased, using your words against you again. 

“Less and less at every passing moment.” you sighed with a shake of your head. 

“Sometimes I think you’re Yoongi hyung’s sister, not Joon’s.” Jeongguk laughed and it pulled a chuckle out of you.  

“We do have the same mood in the mornings.” you agreed.

“It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

“Time is a social construct.”

The two of you laughed together, hands grazing each other’s and you hated less and less that you were out of the house on a summer afternoon. The birds were chirping and flying back to their homes as you made it to the green neighborhood park. Children were running in the playground, men and women jogging in the track areas, old couples sitting near the small pond as they watched life go by, dogs of all kinds and breeds passing by. 

Bam was a little nervous next to other dogs, despite his friendly and curious nature, which meant he much preferred to stay near you and Guk and only really interacted with other dogs if they came to him. Just like his dad, he was a little shy at first. 

“So you liked emo guys?” Jeongguk asked, still about the earlier conversation he heard in the kitchen. 

“Don’t start, it’s too early for this shit.” you whined. 

“I’m just wondering what changed. If you liked the skinny guy, and how you like my muscles–”

“I mean, have you seen your muscles?” you let go of Bam’s leash to squeeze Jeongguk’s bicep, feeling as he flexed it. “But don’t worry, I didn’t date the emo kid.” 

“Did you ever date anyone?”

“Yeah, I had a couple of boyfriends growing up. Never too serious, they never met my brother.” you told him, walking a little slower as neither of you was really in a hurry. “Don’t think Joon even knew about them, actually. What about you?”

“I had my last girlfriend in seventh grade, back in Busan.” he told you, unhooking Bam’s leash so he could be a little more free to sniff around. “She met my parents and everything.” 

“Really?” 

“Mhm. Thought I was gonna marry her.”

That made you smile, surprisingly. Thinking of bowl cut, wide eyed, baby Guk being a pile of nerves while bringing his little girlfriend home to meet his parents, thinking he would spend the rest of his life with her. 

“Damn. So you go all in, huh?”

“I do.” Jeongguk nodded, tanned cheeks a little darker. 

“Did you think you were gonna marry Jennie?”

“No, she was just–” his neck cracked when he looked at you so fast it made you worry he would get a stiff muscle. “How do you–”

“It was kinda hard not to guess, she was basically sending me eye daggers all night.” you explained how you knew he and the girl had at least hooked up in the past.  

“There hasn’t been anything between us in months, I didn't think she’d still be hung up on that.” he told you honestly, scratching the back of his neck. 

“She is. Do I have to worry?” you weren’t worried, but you wanted to know Guk’s version of the story Lisa told you. 

“No, baby, of course not.” he assured you, reaching a hand to softly hold your wrist. “There was nothing really there, not on my part anyway. It was just convenient. She was always there.”

“That’s good to know.” you chuckled. 

“I’m not seeing her– I mean, I guess I am, we do see each other because we work together but that’s it.”

The mention of them working together at The Circle brought the subject to the front of your mind and made your stomach flip with anxiety. This was the perfect opening for you to tell Guk you would be working there too. You didn’t have a lot of time to break the news to him, your first night on the job would be tomorrow. 

Plus, it was better to tell him here, in a public setting, than at home, where your brother could overhear. But you were still nervous about his reaction.  

“Oh, speaking of.” you started, casually. “Lisa told me there’s an opening now that Sooya is moving away.” 

“Yeah, the girls are really annoyed about that.” he nodded, letting go of your wrist when you wished he would slip his fingers into yours. “It’s not the easiest thing to get substitutes.” 

Bam left the path to sniff deeper down the grass, so you and Guk were following the big dog as you said: “That’s why I offered myself for the position.”

“Right.” Jeongguk laughed, tonguing at his lip ring. 

“I really did.” you told him sheepishly. 

“No you didn’t.” he insisted as he stopped walking. 

“Swear on my life.”

“No.”

“Guk–”

“Nuh uh. Just… Hatter won’t hire you anyway.” Jeongguk looked serious for a second, concerned, and then shrugged and started walking again. 

“He kinda, already did?” you rushed after the man, almost bumping into his back as he stopped abruptly once more. “He said since I’m your girl I’m already one of you.”

“No, that’s not– Baby.” Jeongguk sounded exasperated as he turned around to face you, both hands holding your face. “Why are you doing this? Is it to piss me off? Or to punish me for fighting?” 

“It’s none of that, baby, I promise.” you assured him and he let go of your face, but stayed close.  

“Then why?” he sighed, a permanent frown between his brows. 

“I want to do something for myself. I don’t want to just waste my summer and rot inside that house.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie, but not the truth either. You felt really bad about lying to Guk, or feeding him a half truth. But if you told him you wanted to write an article about The Circle and you wanted to work there to get an insider look, he would be against it. Jeongguk would say you’re messing with dangerous and shady people. Which you knew you were. 

At this point you were not completely sure just how dangerous or shady The Circle was, so you were going to be careful. Keep your head down, only ask questions to people you trusted, and observe.

If you thought that was too much for you to handle, more than what you bargained for, you’d pull back, you’d scrape your article and pretend it never happened. 

But if there was a chance of this leading to something interesting, the article you needed to spark your inspiration and your hunger for something, for a different future than what had been planned for you, then it was worth it. 

“Then pick up a hobby! Learn to knit! I don’t know! That’s not–” Jeongguk tried, voice raising a little as he got heated, but he wasn’t yelling at you. You didn’t think he ever could. 

“Do not say that’s not a place for me.” you warned. 

“Ugh, you’re being impossible.”

“You’re being unreasonable.” 

“If you want a job so much, come work for Bangtan again. I’m sure Jin hyung will find you something to do.” he tried, bending down when Bam nosed at his legs, but his gaze stayed on you. 

“You’re barely getting customers, Jin is struggling to keep the business open, you think he’ll want to hire someone extra?” you added.  

“Can’t you work at a coffee shop or something?”

“I’m not asking for your permission, Guk.” you told him with a light touch to his arm when he stood tall again.  “Nothing will happen to me, I promise. Lisa told me there are hidden security guys everywhere, and she assured me no one touches them.”

“I still don’t like this at all.” Jeongguk looked tired all of the sudden, eyes downcast, lines on his forehead. 

“I know, baby, but I can take care of myself. And you’ll be there, right?” your fingers were dancing on his arm, crawling to his shoulder as you walked just a little closer to him. “On the nights you don’t fight, you can just hang out by the bar. Keep an eye out for your girl.” 

“Don’t do that.” 

“What?” you blinked innocently. 

“Don’t try to seduce me.” ge groaned, gaze falling to your lips as you licked them. 

“Is it working?”

“Yeah.”

You smiled softly, knowing you had won. “I promise I’ll be okay.”

“You keep saying that.” Jeongguk sighed and touched the side of your face again. 

“Then believe me.” you insisted. 

“What will you tell Namjoon hyung?” he tried another route. “You can’t possibly tell him you have a new job without expecting him to want to go there and check it out.”

“No, but maybe I can tell him something else.” you shrugged. “Like… he thinks I have a boyfriend already, maybe I’ll tell oppa I’m with him.”

“Jesus, Yn.”

“It will be fine, I promise.”