Hooked | JJK | Five

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: Well well well, what do we have here? 

WC: 7.6

   JUNE 22ND | 17:26

“Yeah, yeah, if you guys are down, I'm game.” Namjoon had his phone stuck to his ear as he walked into the front door of the house, kicking his shoes off his feet. Upon noticing you laying on the couch in the living room, he nodded and said: “Hey, dove. Akai said hi.”

“Tell him I miss him!” you chirped back, sitting up a little straighter. 

“She said she doesn't remember you, sorry dude.”

You scoffed as your brother got back to his call, jumping two steps at a time to rush upstairs like an excited kid that just wanted to get to his bedroom after a school day. Taehyung was walking in right behind him, closing the door after himself. As your brother didn’t drive, it was common that your friend gave him a ride home and stayed over to hang out or make you cook for him. 

“What is up with that?” you giggled, head nodding towards the stairs, in case Taehyung had any more information than what you saw. 

“Didn’t know hyung had other friends.” Tae mused, walking to the living room but not sitting down. 

“Yeah, he's got his nerdy group. Akai was his best friend, but he moved to Japan when they were twenty.” you explained. “Didn’t Guk come home with you?”

“No, he has a night client. Said he'd be back late.” 

That wasn’t a rare occurrence, as a lot of clients could only go to the tattoo shop after a certain hour, or sometimes the piece was big enough that it would take so long to finish it was normal that the session stretched out through the night. And with businesses being as slow as they were, you guessed none of the artists would be denying clients. 

“Can we go to your room?” Taehyung was looking over his shoulder, making you frown. 

“Everything okay?” 

“You're gonna love me.”

You knew that sparkle in his eyes, that little smile that told you he was up to no good. A second later the TV was off and the two of you were rushing up the stairs much like your brother had done not five minutes before you. 

Once inside your room, Taehyung gently closed the door and you both sat on your bed. 

“I got something I think you’ll be interested in.” he said, holding his backpack between his legs as he searched for something. “Don’t ask how I got this, but–”

From the very bottom of his backpack, Taehyung pulled out a black business card. It looked expensive, with a soft matte finish, and what looked like a melting sun in shiny hot stamping in the middle. The symbol looked familiar to you, but you were positive you had never seen this card before. When you flipped it over, there was only one word written at the back: 

Python. 

You had no idea what this was supposed to mean, until it clicked. Your eyes were wide as you stared at your friend, who was still smiling, clearly proud of himself.

“Is this really–” 

“The password for The Circle website.” Taehyung nodded with a huge grin. 

“How the fuck did you get this?!” you flipped the card over again, tracing the embossed golden circle at the front, the same one you had seen on the password-protected site. 

“All you need to know is Eun-ah knows a lot of people.” 

“Wait, you asked your dealer?” you stared at him, more surprised that the inconspicuous looking girl knew anything about this at all. 

“Like I said, she knows a lot of people.” he continued. “She heard I was looking for The Circle and moved some things around for me–”

“Wait, she heard you were asking about it? How many people did you talk to about this?!” 

“Not that many– I swear I was smart about this, I didn’t stop people in the street okay?” he defended himself and you weren’t completely convinced, but you were also too curious about this card to really worry about the details. 

Taehyung was always someone who had a lot of friends, from all walks of life. Back in school he was the kind of kid that knew someone from every group, which allowed him to mingle with all of them. It shouldn’t surprise you his contacts ended up leading him to this business card. 

Your only hope was that he didn’t draw too much attention to himself while searching, especially since you had no idea what this was about. 

“Do you want to unlock the website or not?” Taehyung pressed for a change of subject. 

“Yeah, okay.” 

The two of you moved in sync; you sat on the chair of your computer desk and Tae took the edge of your bed, leaning closer so he could see what you were doing. You opened up a browser and–

“Wait, are you pulling up a porn website?” Taehyung chided with furrowed brows. 

“Oh my god, porn is not the only thing you can use an incognito tab for.” you rolled your eyes, searching for the website you had bookmarked. “This way we’ll leave less traces.” 

“Clever girl.” 

“You and the Jurassic Park references–” 

“I missed you, okay?!” 

The soft banter between the two of you was cut short as you waited for the website to open. You didn’t understand why it took so long to load when the design was really simple and it didn’t appear to have any graphics that would slow down the process. 

“Okay, this is it.” you said as you turned the business card on top of the desk to make sure you typed the password correctly. 

“Here goes nothing.” Taehyung said. You were tense, but he started giggling. When you looked at him over your shoulder, he said: “I always wanted to say that. Like in the movies?” 

You pressed Enter and, this time, the website loaded so smoothly you would have missed the transition if you blinked. Again, there wasn’t much on your screen besides the dark background. The only difference was that, instead of the password box inside the circle there were numbers. 

06.22.2300.37.126

“Still don’t think this is a secret society?” Taehyung whispered, as if scared someone behind the screen would hear him. “What the hell is that? Coordinates?” 

“There are too many numbers for it to be coordinates.” you were frowning as you looked at the screen. “Eun-ah didn’t tell you anything else about this?” 

“No, she was very secretive about it.” he scratched the back of his neck and his knee threatened to start shaking. “You didn’t get this from me kind of shit.” 

Every inch of your body was telling you to run. To close the website, turn the computer off and go order dinner instead. This was getting too creepy, too weird. You had seen enough TV shows to know when to recognize the aesthetic for trouble. For all you knew, this could be a copycat trying to create his version of Squid Game, with real life players. 

You should be scared shitless, but this was the most exciting thing that had happened to you in a while. Besides the whole thing with Jeongguk, of course, but it was a completely different kind of excitement. The investigative journalist in you had been dormant for years, but maybe it was time to wake her up. 

“Oh my god.” you gasped, pulling a block of post-its and a pen, copying down the number that was on the screen. “I think I know what it means.” 

“Of course you do, you big brain!” Taehyung laughed, jumping up and down excitedly as he tried to look over your shoulder. 

“0622, that’s a date. June twenty second. I’m guessing 2300 is military time for eleven pm.” you were scribbling on the paper as you made your guesses. “The second part is the location. Do you remember when we learned the Seoul districts for that geography project in second year?” 

“Of course not.” 

“37 is Itaewon.” you clarified. “I think 126 is the address number.” 

“So…” 

“Something is happening in Itaewon tonight.” 

You were both quiet for a while, basking in your discovery. You went over the numbers again, just in case you were missing something, but you didn’t find another explanation for them. It was quite obvious what they were now that you were looking at them again. 

“Okay, I’ll tell Joon I’m sleeping at your place tonight and–”

“Wait, am I driving you to this?!” Taehyung’s voice became an octave higher. 

“You’re going there with me!”

“Sais who?!”

“You did!” you whisper shouted. 

“When?!” he gasped. 

“That whole I’m your partner in crime shit! That means this too!” 

Taehyung looked like he was about to protest, put up a fight about it, but the small knock on your door made you both shut up. You clicked to close the website from your screen and called Joon into the bedroom. 

“I’m heading out.” your brother made it halfway past your door; you could see he had showered and changed clothes. “Akai is in town, we’re getting a bunch of the old squad together for a D&D round at Hae-joon’s. So I’m probably gonna crash there.”

“Alright, you nerds have fun.” you playfully scoffed as a plan formed in your mind. 

“You're not going anywhere, right?” Namjoon looked at the two of you; especially Tae as he wheezed. 

“No, oppa, just gonna watch a movie or something.” you shrugged. 

“Kay, I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, hyung!”

Taehyung waved awkwardly as your brother nodded with a dimpled smile and closed the bedroom door again.

“I hate how good you are at that.” Taehyung spoke under his breath.

“At what?”

“Lying to him.” he said and you swallowed down the guilt. 

“I had a good teacher.” you said with a sad little smile that you knew he’d understand. 

“I know, that's what worries me.”

You sighed. “Would you rather I tell him where we're going? He'd never let us.” 

Lying to your brother was at the top of the list of things you hated to do, but sometimes you had no choice. You were a firm believer that what you can’t see can’t hurt you. Namjoon would be out with his nerdy friends, play a round of Dungeons & Dragons that would last the whole night, then he would pass out on Hae-joon’s couch and most likely go straight into work the next morning. 

That gave you and Tae plenty of time to drive to Itaewon, see what’s up with this whole secret society thing, and then you’d be back in your bed and no harm would be done. 

“Are you sure you want to go to this thing?” Taehyung sighed.

“Positive.” 

“Why?”

“Because I'm curious.” you turned your chair around so you could face your best friend. 

“That’s not a good reason–”

“Call it an investigative desire then.” you held him with hands on his shoulders. “Are you telling me this doesn't intrigue you?”

“Yeah, but, what if it's like.... an organ trafficking ring?” he whined. 

“In the middle of Itaewon?!”

“Who knows!” Taehyung groaned and let his back fall against your mattress, staring at the ceiling as his life flashed through his eyes. 

You got up from the desk, walking to your wardrobe and pulling it open to look for what to wear tonight. Taehyung was watching you with a pout on his lips and concern on his face. 

“Listen if you're scared or uncomfortable, you don't have to come with me. Just stay here and cover for me if Joon comes back early.”

“Yeah, yeah, if something happens to you, I'll never forgive myself, so.” he rolled his eyes, picking one of your pillows to cover his face with it. With a muffled voice, he said: “But you’re buying me dinner before we walk into a death trap.”

 JUNE 22ND | 22:31

Bribing Taehyung with food always worked. All it took was many slices of pizza and a piece of strawberry and cream cake and he was happily following you down the street as you searched for number 126. 

Finding the location was easy, the number was right there, in bold, blinking letters, stuck to the wall. But it made no sense. Number 126 was a communal laundry place. 

The store had bright lights and a glass front window that let you see part of the inside; the many washing machines side by side and on top of each other, as bored looking people waited for their loads to be done. You tried looking around, but to the right of the laundry place was a café and on the left was a furniture store that had already closed down for the night. 

“What did I miss?” you were mumbling to yourself, arms crossed as you and Tae stood a few meters away from the store, but you were still paying attention to it. 

“At least we came, we tried, now we can rest easy knowing it was nothing.” your friend tried, placing an arm around your shoulders. 

“Or I got the code wrong.”

“You're smart, I don't think you got it wrong.” he tapped your head affectionately, but you were pouting. “Maybe The Circle is a laundry club. Like, the wash cycle.”

“Sure, Tae. Just.” that made you laugh as you tried to think a little harder. Something wasn’t right here.

First of all, you didn’t think you decoded the numbers wrong, and you didn’t think The Circle was about a washing machine fetish club either. Second of all, there were more people going into the laundromat than coming out. 

“Don't you think that's a bit weird?” you spoke quietly, gently nodding to a man in suit going into the laundry place and walking to the back, where a wall of washing machines stopped you from seeing further down the store. 

“A man coming into a laundry shop? Men do laundry too, you know?”

“He looked like someone who pays to have his clothes washed and ironed.” you pointed out, pulling your phone from your bag to check the time. “Besides, he had no laundry bag with him.”

“I suppose... but maybe he's meeting with someone? Maybe his mistress?” Taehyung added, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“Are they meeting with someone too?”

Your friend followed your line of sight to where three girls impeccably dressed for a night out were giggling and walking into the laundry place. Neither of them had clothes to be washed either, so maybe this wasn’t the wrong spot after all. 

You pulled Taehyung by the wrist as you went after the girls, staying a few steps ahead so they wouldn’t feel followed, but close enough that you wouldn’t miss them. The smell of washing powder hurt your nose, mixed in all kinds of fabric softeners was a bit off putting.

“I’m so excited for tonight.” one of the girls said to her friends.

“You think Mr. X will be back?” the girl in the middle asked.  

“Ugh, I hope so, he's so fucking hot.” the last one, agreed. 

Going after the three of them, you saw when they walked past a blue curtain with the drawing of bubbles. You guessed the guy in the suit went into the same place as you couldn’t see him anywhere else in the shop. 

“Maybe they came here to use the bathroom before going to a club?” Taehyung tried to justify it, a little more nervous than he was when you were standing outside. 

“I guess we’ll find out.” 

You linked your arm through Taehyung’s, pretending you weren’t anxious when you walked behind the curtain. Maybe you were expecting to be met with people with hoods and pitchforks, but all you saw were stairs leading downwards. 

“Of course.” Taehyung scoffed. “An underground cult would have their meeting point in an underground second location.” 

“We might not have cell service down there, so let’s try and stick together, yeah?” you ignored him. 

“You’re the one with the habit of going off without waiting for people.” 

You knew better than to try and say that wasn’t true, and went ahead. The set of stairs seemed to go on forever as it kept turning. There wasn’t much to see, as on both sides of you were mirrors and above the red neon lights cast a crimson shadow over you. 

“You two.” a tall man in an all black suit and tie was waiting at the bottom of the final set of stairs, turning on a flashlight and shining it in your faces. “Are you lost?”

You were blinded for a second, almost losing your balance and tripping on a step if it wasn’t for Taehyung’s firm hand on your arm. 

“Does it look like we're lost?” your friend’s voice was as firm as his hold on you as he pulled the business card from the back pocket of your pants and showed it to the man. 

He turned the flashlight off after seeing the card, and you and Taehyung were able to walk down the last three steps without any risks. The man was obviously a bouncer, checking the two of you out. 

You couldn’t blame him for being suspicious, as neither of you were dressed like the people coming in before you. But when you didn’t know what to expect when venturing here tonight, you didn’t know the dress code was nightlife chic and business formal. You felt highly underdressed in sneakers, dark pants and a hoodie. 

Taehyung was a little more put together than you, but he could pull off the undercover spies look as if he was fresh out of fashion week. 

“Newcomers?” the bouncer looked amused, but didn’t give you any more trouble as there were new steps and laughs coming from up the stairs. “Very well. Enjoy the show.”

The guy pulled the curtain for the two of you and you were met with yet another small hallway, leading to another curtain, as heavy and dark as the one you just walked through. 

“That was cool.” you whispered to your friend. 

“You might have the brains, but I have the acting skills.” he gloated, placing a hand at the small of your back as you walked ahead. 

The second partition curtain you had to pull away yourself, as no other guard seemed to be on look out. You ended up in a room full of people, all dressed impeccably, women wearing heels, men wearing suits and designer clothes. Most already had drinks in their hands as they talked animatedly, clearly excited to be here; young people and old people all the same. The space was a big circle, which you found ironic. 

The more you looked around, the more red flags you noticed. 

All of the walls that surrounded the room were made of a black mirror, dark enough to give it an elegant look, but you wondered if there were people behind those walls, watching you as you couldn’t see them. The second red flag was the fact that all of the workers inside the room seemed to be young women. All of legal age –as far as you could tell–, but women nonetheless, all pretty, with heavy makeup and tiny clothes. 

Right ahead of you, to the left, was a bar lined up with expensive looking bottles and four girls tending to the guests, serving each one with angelic smiles and polite bows.

“I think there’s another floor downstairs.” Taehyung’s arm was tight around you, his words were hushed against the side of your temple. 

As people mingled and walked around, groups spread open and you could see more of the surroundings. And Taehyung was right; right in the middle of the room was a big circle surrounded by balcony style railings that allowed you to look at the extra floor just below yours. 

You walked closer to the railings for a better look, noticing how there wasn’t anyone downstairs. If anything, you couldn’t even see any passageways that would lead you there in the first place. You couldn’t find any emergency exits either. 

“What do you think that is?” you asked as you looked down. 

“No idea. Looks like water.” 

All you could see was darkness, but the white lights above you were reflecting on the shiny surface in the middle of the opening, making you think of a lake on a winter’s day. Whatever was going on tonight, was happening downstairs, there was no doubt in your mind as more and more guests were finding their spots all around the railing. 

“Can I get you anything to drink?” a sweet girl that you had seen behind the bar just moments before was standing next to you and Taehyung. Her hair was as dark as the water downstairs, barely touching her shoulders, neat bangs covering her forehead, blue contact lenses on her eyes and a perfectly white smile on her gloss covered lips. “You’re new here, aren’t you?” 

“Is it that obvious?” you chuckled and Taehyung was tense next to you. 

“Well, you don’t have your wristbands yet.” the girl giggled, eyes crinkling. As she noticed you had no idea what it meant, she explained: “Over there at the booth. You can see the lineup for tonight and after placing your bets, you’ll be given your wristbands. Then all you drink is on the house.” 

“Oh, that’s good to know, we’ll be doing that.” Taehyung said, not moving. “Just, I’m sorry, we’re still a bit lost… Place our bets on what?”

The girl looked around, perfect smile never faltering. She took a tiny step closer to you and said: “On the fights.” her eyes were trying to tell you more, but you didn’t think you could ask what you really wanted to know, not with the way she seemed to be concerned about who could be around to listen. “We’ll have three tonight, and one of the crowd’s favorites is fighting. You came on a good night.”

“Thank you.” you smiled back at her and she bowed her head. 

“My name is Lisa, if you need anything, look for me.” 

Lisa bowed again and took a few steps back before walking to another client and offering to take their drink order. You and Taehyung exchanged glances as more and more pieces of the puzzle fell into place, but this wasn’t the time to discuss them. 

The Circle was a fight club. 

An underground fight club that was obviously catered to the rich, where they could bet huge amounts on fighters, drink “for free” and look at pretty girls wearing almost nothing. Out of all of the possibilities you had imagined, this was quite the tame one. You didn’t think anyone was at risk of losing a kidney tonight, or being converted into a religious cult. 

A horn going off made you jump, the white lights turning red as loud music started to play. It must be the warning sign that the fights were about to start as more and more people took their place near the railings to get an unobstructed view. Some of the black mirrored walls lit up with what looked like TV screens, so even the people at the back of the circle could watch the fights happening downstairs. 

With the push and pull, Taehyung stood behind you, with both arms on the railing so you’d be stuck between the black metal and his body. He was tall enough to be able to watch over your shoulder and also wide enough so that no one could get too close to you. 

“Oh my god, that’s where they will fight?” Tae gasped behind you. 

The music was turned down and the cheers and whistles started as man walked to the middle of the water filled fight ring. The level of the water was up to his ankle, as far as you could see, not really deep, but you couldn’t imagine it being practical during a fight. But it definitely made it more interesting to those watching and spending money, as it would slow down the fighter’s movements. 

When the man reached the middle of the fight ring, a vintage looking microphone came down from the ceiling, toward the man’s stretched hand. 

“Welcome to The Circle, ladies and gentleman!” the man announced in a boisterous way and everyone around him started yelling excitedly. “I’m the Hatter, and I’m your host!”

“He’s… creepy.” you whispered to your friend, not that the Hatter guy really hear you above all of the cheers. 

The Hatter was barefoot as he stood in the water, with tight skinny jeans and a black and white, leopard print, button shirt. His hair was long, up in a half ponytail so it was away from his face. His eyes had so much eyeliner you could see all the way from up here. 

“I know you’re not here for me, so I’ll go over the rules and be out of your way.” Hatter had a bit of a pizzazz to him as he spoke and moved, kinda reminding you or Captain Jack Sparrow in a way. “We don’t have many of those, but to make sure no one dies here, the fighters aren’t allowed to use weapons, only their bodies, but no biting and no head kicking.” he said, slowly turning as he spoke so that everyone could get a good look at him. “Now your rules, our lovely audience… Remember the most important rule: no pictures and no recording. Don’t throw anything into the ring, only your cheers and your support. Let’s not be sore losers, alright? If your fighter doesn’t win tonight, don’t forget there’s always the next fight.” 

“We wanna see Taemin!” a girl was yelling from somewhere in the room and you wondered if it was one of those you followed into the laundromat. 

“Yah, is my face not pretty enough for you?” Hatter said with a manic laugh, pulling chuckles from other watchers. “Alright, alright, let’s get this going.” 

Everyone clapped as the Hatter bowed profusely in all directions of the circle, making waves on the water as he ran out of the ring. The lights dimmed and your heart was on your throat. You didn’t know what to expect from the fights, really. You watched five minutes of a UFC match one time, as Namjoon and Yoongi stayed up until the late hours of the night to catch an American fighter on the TV, but that was it. 

You didn’t really understand the gratification that fighters got from beating each other up and getting hurt like this. It was easier to understand why people liked to watch; it was the excusable violence, the primal excitement to see others at risk, the drama involved in matches. From the Gladiators in ancient Rome, people enjoyed watching events like this. 

“First match!” a hard, deep voice announced through the speakers, causing buzz between those watching. “TAEMIN versus JAEBUM.”

“This is kind of exciting.” Taehyung was buzzing behind you, pushing you forward so he could see better. 

“Of course you’d like something like this–” you huffed, holding onto the railings as you said: “Careful, you’re about to spoon me at any second.” 

“Sorry.” he giggled, one arm coming over your shoulders as he found a way to squeeze beside you so you could both stay at the front. “Much better.” 

In between applause and screams of ‘break his face!’, ‘go Taemin oppa!’ and ‘Jae got my money, look at him!’ the fighters made it into the ring. There was no referee, maybe you expected Hatter to oversee the match; but all both men did was bow to each other and quickly touch hands before the robotic voice counted them off. 

“THREE. TWO. ONE. AND BEGIN!” 

You kept flinching as people started screaming and the two young men got moving. Taemin was apparently the blonde guy, while Jaebum had long and messy black hair. Neither of them were dressed like you would expect fighters to be during a match. It almost felt like they were performing on a stage, instead of lunging for each other in a fighting ring. 

Both were wearing pants that were too tight to be made for any kind of sports, and their tops had fringes (in Taemin’s case) and little stones that reflected the light (in Jaebum’s). The more you watched, the more you realized this was absolutely for show. 

Everything seemed to be catered for the looks; the watchers clearly enjoyed having something pretty to look at. 

You didn’t think this crowd would be into the kind of underground fight club you saw in movies either; in the back alley of a rough neighborhood, hidden in the shadows, with nothing but a line drawn in the earth to limit the fighting space. 

This was big, shiny, expensive. 

Your heart was racing, which could be mistaken for excitement, as the energy of the situation got to you; but you knew how to tell the difference between enjoying what you were seeing and the anxiety brought by so many new things, the stimulation that was coming from every side. 

From the blinking lights and the music, to the clearly handsome men grabbing for each other right below. 

Both men seemed to be close in height and their body proportions weren’t so different, from where you were watching, and both of them were fast. The water at their feet was splashing as they moved back and forth, throwing punches at each other. 

“You’re not even watching them!” Taehyung said next to you, already having picked a side when he yelled: “Go Jae something! Make my money worth!” 

“You didn’t even bet on anything!” you scoffed at your friend, who had a big boxy grin. 

“They don’t know that!” he said while clapping when Jaebum got Taemin down in the water. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually enjoying this.” 

Down in the ring, things moved fast. For all you knew the fighters were in the second round of the match and Taemin had won the first one. Jaebum didn’t let his opponent get up on his feet again, however, as they were tangled on each other in a mess of limbs where you didn’t know when one ended and the other started. 

The harder the hits, the louder the yells. 

Taemin managed to flip them around, grabbing onto Jaebum’s back and pressing him against the floor. Jaebum kept delivering hits to the blonde man’s ribs with his elbow, as his legs were locked in place and he couldn’t move. 

“Oh shit.” Taehyung said next to you and even he had started clapping. 

“Can he even breathe?!” you bent over the railings to try and see better, but Tae held you back. 

Taemin’s fingers were tangled on the other man’s hair, holding Jaebum’s head down. Holding his face under water. You could see bubbles and little waves next to the dark haired man’s face, as he fought to be let go of, growing more desperate each second that he couldn’t breathe. 

No one else seemed to be worried about either of them, yelling as if this was a normal situation. At the corner of your eye, you saw Hatter approaching the ring, with a serious expression in his face, worried, almost. As if ready to intervene at any moment, he took his leather shoes off; just in case he needed to step into the water. 

But he looked up at the crowd, studying the excited men and women who were having the time of their lives while watching the fighter groan and trash around; fighting for his life. And a happy crowd meant more money coming in. 

Your knuckles were white as you grabbed onto the railings, holding onto your breath. The digital clock counting the minutes of the fight were marking the last ten seconds of the match, but Jaebum’s movements were getting slower and the bubbles next to his face were scarce. 

You watched, panicked, as Jaebum’s arm reached out and tapped Taemin’s thigh. Instantly, the blonde man pulled his face out of the water, letting the hold he had on Jaebum’s off completely. Both fighters were breathless, but Jaebum was having a really hard time coughing and trying to get his bearings. 

The robotic voice was back as it announced: “MATCH ENDED. TAEMIN WINS!” 

“Fuck, why did he need to throw the match like that?!” a man to your write was groaning in annoyance. “There were only ten seconds left–”

“He was going to drown!” you bit back, eyes wide. 

The man stared at you with a disgusted expression, rolled his eyes and walked away huffing and puffing like a child that didn’t get the toy they wanted. 

“Alright, I really need you to not pick a fight here.” Taehyung warned you. “Unlike those dudes, I can’t throw a punch to save my life, so.” 

“I could kick his ass myself.” you told your friend, scrunching your nose. “When can we leave?” 

“You wanna go already?” 

“Don’t you?!” you turned sideways to look at your friend, not really interested in the movement downstairs anymore. “We came, we found out what The Circle is–”

“SECOND MATCH: Mingyu versus JUNG KOOK.” 

Your lips parted slightly as surprise and alarm flashed through Taehyung’s eyes. You both looked at the ring again, as two new fighters approached the middle to bow and touch hands. One of them was shirtless and completely ripped, full of muscles and wearing gold and black pants that were so flashy he didn’t need a shirt on in the first place. 

The second fighter… Was Jeongguk. 

“Am I seeing this right?” you muttered, heart racing as you tried to make sense of it. “Is that–”

“Maybe he has a twin? He doesn’t have any of Guk’s piercings–” 

“Be real, what would the chances of that be?” you sounded more snippy than you intended, but you didn’t know what to make of Jeongguk being in the middle of the ring. 

“THREE. TWO. ONE. AND BEGIN!” 

You crossed your arms to your chest in what you knew was a subconscious attempt of self soothing. You didn’t want to watch Jeongguk fight! You absolutely didn’t want to watch him get hurt. 

But you also couldn’t take your eyes off of him. 

Just like the other fighters, his clothes looked more like a costume than anything else. And he looked fucking hot, a fact you really hated right now. 

Black leather pants that were not appropriate for moving quickly at all, but that made him look slippery in the water, a black shirt that hugged his body tightly and only had sleeves on the right arm, covering his tattoos. His left hand had a fingerless glove on, and his torso was covered in a harness with many buckles and straps. 

For this fight, Taehyung wasn’t celebrating or yelling with the others in the audience. You were both quiet, wide eyed, and worried. 

The ten minute fight never moved so fast, even if, realistically speaking, the match before this one didn’t even make it to the third round. Jeongguk won the first round, lost the second one, and was really close to winning the whole thing as the clock marked the last 60s. 

Mingyu delivered harder punches, but he wasn’t as quick on his feet, so Jeongguk was able to dodge most of them. But not all. 

His opponent used a moment of distraction when Jeongguk eyed the clock to hit him on the left shoulder and Jeongguk hissed in pain; you knew that’s where his stab wound was located, which was still healing, making you wonder if the man knew it too and hit him there on purpose. 

Jeongguk stumbled backwards, holding his shoulder and shaking his head. Mingyu shrugged as they had a silent conversation that you weren’t sure you’d even like to understand. They were both in a position to attack, bent knees and curved backs. Mingyu moved first, but Jeongguk moved faster, ducking down and hugging the man by his waist, using his leg to drop the man to the floor and hold him there. 

“Ouch, that gotta hurt–” Taehyung hissed behind you and all you could do was nod. 

Mingyu was on his back, which was a relief, not that you thought Jeongguk would hold his head under water like Taemin had done to the other guy in the previous fight. Jeongguk was punching the man’s sides, a little lower than the ribs, clearly not wanting to damage anything as the shirtless man tried to fight back. 

“TEN. NINE. EIGHT.” 

Both men stared at each other as the final countdown began. You saw desperation in Mingyu's eyes as he tried to get one last punch in, aimed at Jeongguk’s face. Jeongguk blocked it with his left hand and pinned it to the other man’s chest with a twist, making Mingyu scream in pain. 

Chorus of ooh!s and ah!s filled the room as the man on the floor trashed, throwing water everywhere. 

“SEVEN. SIX. FIVE.” 

Tap. 

Mingyu tapped Jeongguk with his free hand, tapping out the fight, making the crowd split between celebrations and complaints from those who lost their bets. Jeongguk let go of the man instantly and his forearm was red and swollen from where Jeongguk had twisted it. 

“MATCH ENDED. JUNG KOOK WINS!” 

Jeongguk got up first and held Mingyu by the armpits to pull him up to his feet. For what you could see, the two of them were talking and smiling now that the match was over. Guk was massaging his shoulder and shaking his head while Mingyu laughed and said something about his arm. 

“Let’s go?” Taehyung was the one asking this time, pulling you away from the railing. 

“Yeah, let me just–” 

“Yn!” 

You let go of your friend to sneak past a few groups of watchers that waited for the last fight of the night to begin, reaching for the bar as a worried Taehyung yelled for you to stop running off. 

“Hey, Lisa!” you waved at the girl from before, waiting for her to finish pouring liquor to an older woman. “Do you know where I can go to meet the fighters?” 

“Uh, well, I can’t take you backstage, but if you go back up from the way you came, you can go around the block. The staff’s door is in the back street. It’s close to a bus stop, you can’t miss it.” she explained, looking at you with an amused smile. “Then you just wait for whoever you want to see to come out.” 

“That helps, thanks!”

You turned around and bumped into a wide chest. Taehyung held you by your arms and gave you a hard look. You pulled your best puppy eyes and he shook his head. Not saying anything, Taehyung let you lead the way and followed you out of the room and up the stairs. 

Neither of you really talked as you left the laundry place. Both you and Tae would need some time to let everything simmer; from the underground fight club for the rich and the fact one of your good friends was apparently part of said fight club. 

“Can you slow down?” Taehyung was in a sour mood, that much you could tell. 

“No, I can’t. I’m trying to get to the back door before Jeongguk leaves.” you said, throwing a look over your shoulder to see him several feet behind you. “Can you hurry up?” 

“How do you know Jeongguk is even leaving right now? Maybe he’s celebrating his win with his fighter friends.” he said with a groan. “Maybe he’s fucking a groupie as we speak–”

“What?” that made you stop and turn around. 

“I mean– I’m just saying.” Tae shrugged, catching up to you. “Those girls we followed… Don’t you think Guk has some of those after him too?” 

“Does that matter?” 

“Not to me, but it should matter to you.” he insisted. “Jeongguk has a whole double life going on for all we know.” 

“Doesn’t mean he’s fucking people while we’re hooking up.” you turned your back on your friend and started walking again, a lot more determined to reach the back street. 

You wouldn’t lie and say that Taehyung’s words didn’t plant a small seed of doubt in your mind. If you were surprised about this, who knew what else Jeongguk wasn’t telling you? But even if he was hooking up with other girls, he wasn’t your boyfriend. You never talked about being exclusive, you didn’t even go on a date yet. 

All you did was kiss. 

But, damn, you hoped he wasn’t sleeping with anybody else. 

You should have guessed that the bus stop Lisa referred to was the same one where you picked Jeongguk up a couple of weeks back, making the connection pretty fast of just how he got hurt in the first place. But if weapons weren’t allowed during the fights, how did he get stabbed? 

A small group of people, younger men and women, were waiting at the staff door, probably hoping to see the fighters just as you were. Some of them had notebooks and pens in their hands, hoping for an autograph. 

Your phone started buzzing in your bag and you really hoped it wasn’t your brother asking why you weren’t home. 

 Not even five minutes after your last text, a lost looking Jeongguk was leaving through the back door of the laundry place. People tried to talk to him, congratulating him for the fight, a girl tried holding his arm, but he excused himself while looking for you. Taehyung stayed where he was even when you took a couple rushed steps towards Jeongguk. Guk had already changed from the leather and harness outfit, wearing a blue baseball cap, white t-shirt and gray sweatpants. The familiar duffle bag fell on the floor with a thump as he saw you. 

He was clearly worried, searching for your reaction, so you hugged him. Your body hit his with a little bit of force, with how fast you tried to get to him. Jeongguk winced when your arm hit his shoulder as it circled his neck, but he pulled you back into him when you tried to take a step back. 

“What are you doing here?” Jeongguk’s voice was muffled by your neck as his face hid there. “When I saw you up there, watching the fight– You just looked so scared.”

“Can we talk at home?” you offered, pulling away to kiss his cheek, just so he knew you weren’t mad. “You’re okay, right?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay. Mingyu is my friend, that wasn’t a real fight.” he said, letting you look him over to make sure he was alright. 

“It looked pretty real to me.” you pouted. 

“Let’s go home?” Jeongguk kissed the top of your head. 

“Absolutely not.” Taehyung finally approached the two of you and Jeongguk’s shoulders slumped. “I’m driving her home and you can follow.” 

You were about to protest, not really needing Tae to go out of his way to drive when you and Guk were obviously heading to the same place. But your friend wouldn’t take no for an answer as he pulled you away by a firm hand on your bicep. 

“It’s okay, I have to take my bag with me, so the fit would be tight on the bike anyway.” Jeongguk told you, avoiding his friend’s stare. “I’ll be right behind you.”

You agreed –not that you had a lot of choice– and followed Taehyung away from Jeongguk. Once you were both inside his car, you couldn’t hold your tongue anymore:

“Why are you being weird?”

“Why aren't you being weird? Did you not see him down there?” Taehyung hissed as he started driving, not looking at you either. “I'm sure I heard bones crack.”

“That's Jeongguk, Tae, he's your good friend, not some kind of violent man.” you defended.

“What we saw was violent.”

“Don't pretend you weren't enjoying the fights before he came in.” you scoffed, staring at his side profile. 

“Maybe that's true, but I'm worried.” 

“I'm worried too, I hope he’s okay.” you sighed, giving up staring daggers at his face and turning around to try and see Jeongguk on his bike. 

“No, Yn. Worried about you.” he said, shaking his head. “For getting involved with someone like that.”

“Someone like– Tae, stop.” you whined, reaching a hand to touch Tae’s forearm as you stopped at a red light. “That's Guk. You know him.”

“I thought I did, yeah. I had no idea he was doing shit like this, though.” Taehyung was being unreasonable, and you were used to being the stubborn one between the two of you. 

“I’m sure he has his reasons for it.” you tried to persuade him.  

“If he does, why didn't tell us about it?”

“That's an easy answer, look at the way you're reacting.” 

Taehyung pressed the steering wheel of his car so hard that his knuckles turned white. “That's how you should be reacting too! Who knows what else we don't know about him?”

You could understand why Tae was reacting like this, to an extent. He didn’t know about the stabbing episode, didn’t know there were things regarding Jeongguk you still didn’t know about. It was too much of a surprise to see him in the fighting ring tonight, so you didn’t blame him for being shocked. 

But he wasn’t even giving Guk the chance to explain. 

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” you said when Tae parked in front of your house. “I hope you come to your senses and you talk to him. I'm sure he'll have a good explanation. You're not coming in?”

Your friend shook his head and you sighed. 

“Tae, don't be mad.”

“I'm not mad, just... maybe he'll open up if it's just you.” Taehyung told you and you could see the inner turmoil behind his stare. 

“And promise you'll talk to him later? And that you won’t tell anyone?” you wanted to make sure he wouldn’t run to Jimin, who would tell Yoongi, who would tell Hobi– 

“Yeah, yeah, go on.”