Chapter 14

“We were threatened.”

Silence echoed through the room.

Neither Jackson, nor Key knew what to say. Were they allowed to ask who threatened them? Did they even have the right to ask who got threatened?

Can they dare ask the Bloodbacks for help rescue Taemin. Key was busy thinking of all the different possibilities and debating in his mind on which one to take. Which option would place them in the least amount of risk?

Jackson on the other hand, simply went blank. The Bloodbacks got threatened by someone to harm them. He knew the Bloodbacks well enough to know that they would not usually give in to such threats. They are his friends after all. This meant that there was someone who is very dangerous involved in this business and the only thoughts going through his head was that someone was going to die.

“Can you explain what happened?” Key asked, looking slightly resigned.

Mark hesitated for a bit, but also figured there was no point in hiding it.

“About a month ago Junior was approached by some guy. He asked him which group he belonged to, but of course Junior didn't trust the man and refused to answer, but the man pointed a gun at him and demanded to see our leader. He asked us to join, but of course BamBam refused. We didn't want to join the war. But at the time he already had three other groups under his command and he stated that if we refused, he would just find another gang and that ours would become the first victim. We have some pretty strong fighters, but when faced with numbers and weapons…” Mark trailed off, “Anyways, so we were given weapons and about a month to work together and formulate a plan to get Lee Taemin. We found it strange how he knew his full name because we all know how mysterious the Zutters can be.”

Key was also sort of shocked at the full name. The members of the Zutters were mysteries, even to themselves.

“The man said he would offer you a trade. Kwon Jiyong in exchange for Lee Taemin.”

Key’s eyes widened, no matter how he looked at it, it was not a fair trade. Jackson looked surprised, “Mark, how do you know Jiyong hyung and Taemin hyung’s real names?”

“You knew it too right?” Mark asked.

“No I didn't,” Jackson whined, “That's so unfair!”

Jiyong and Taemin had always been the most mysterious among the Zutters and Key did not expect the first clue to finding out about their past was something like this. The man who wanted Taemin and Jiyong knew them from before the whole gang business. Key was sure of it because he knew there was no way he would know their full name after they became the Zutters.

“Do you know who the guy is?” Key asked, knowing that Mark would know that he was asking about the man who threatened him.

“I don't know his real name, but I know he goes by the name Iron,” Mark replied.

Key nodded. At least he got a name.

"I know someone who can help you," Mark stated as he handed a sketch portrait, "I don't know his name, but he's an informant."

Jongin swiped at his phone aimlessly. They figured out that Jiyong was the leader. But that was it. They did not know if Taemin was kidnapped because of gang rivalry or personal reasons. He wanted to help them yet he didn't know what to do. Basically, he felt as if he was useless.

It was so ironic that his whole group of friends used to think they could do anything as long as they had money. Money was power. Now, they had so much money yet still felt powerless.

He heard chattering noises and saw Jonghyun walk towards him. Confused, he looked around and only then did he realize that he was still in class and that the class had just ended.

Jonghyun sat down at the desk next to Jongin but his whole body was still facing Jongin. He casually leant his arm on the desk.

“How are you?” He asked.

Jongin knew that a ‘I'm fine’ is probably not what Jonghyun wanted. They just saw each other yesterday, figured out who the leader of the Zutters were and developed more questions that needed answers.

“I don't know,” Jongin replied with a sigh.

“Do you want to come over today?” Jonghyun asked.

“I can't,” responded Jongin, “My parents are having guests over and they want me to be there.”

Jonghyun looked at Jongin curiously. “That's unfortunate,” Jonghyun sympathized, “Your cousin also had one of those just the day before.”

“Oh really? I didn't know that. Junmyoon didn't tell me,” Jongin commented. Jongin knew that Junmyoon hated having to interact with their parents’ friends, in fact not just Junmyoon, but all of them did. They used each other's children as comparisons of their success. Many were business friends or sometimes even business rivals. And even if it was not business related, there were many friends that had ulterior motives- like the one visiting today. Jongin knew that he was quite good at judging people's character and he knew that Mr. Kang did not give him any good vibes. And even though he did not really trust the man, he had no choice but to obey his parents.

Taemin was left with a random lackey who was there to make sure he did not escape. Knowing that he would have the chance to escape a bit later, he decided to do some thinking. He thought about the man he just met. He knew him, the man used to come over to his house quite often when Taemin’s parents were still alive. Taemin was still quite young back then so he did not remember the exact relationship dynamics between them and his parents, but he remember that they were friends. Other than that, he did not really recall ever really interacting with the stranger.

The strange thing about it was that whenever the man came over, he remembered that his mom would always try to hide him. Usually, she would tell Taemin to go to his room or ask her niece to take him somewhere to play. Thinking about the past sparked up even more questions for Taemin. If the man was friends with his father, what was the man doing here? It does not make sense for him to even associate with local youngster gangs which most just considered as a bunch of delinquents by the rest of society. Especially if the man was of wealthy status. Then again, there was also a bunch of idiots who thought it would be interesting to do some school project on such and Taemin could not help but roll his eyes at that. If that thought did not linger in his mind for so long, he would have wondered what happened to his cousin that always took him out to play. This cousin was almost like an older sister to Taemin. She stayed together in the same house as him and his parents and she often took care of him.

Taemin looked at the person who was in the room with him. He looked a bit insecure- which was good in Taemin's opinion. The guy looked quite inexperienced which made Taemin's life so much easier.

“Hey,” Taemin called out to the guy.

“What do you want?” The boy asked hesitantly.

“Can you help me out of this?” Taemin tried asking while tugging at the chain.

The boy looked around hesitantly before saying a soft ‘no’.

“Who is that guy gonna hand me over to?”

“It's not you he wants, it's your leader,” the boy whispered. Taemin heard him but decided not to question further, he figured they probably wanted

Jiyong instead of him since the beginning. People always wanted the leader. He needed to escape, or else Jiyong would be in danger.

“What's your name?” Taemin asked and then added, “I'm Taemin.”

“Jinwoo,” the boy replied. Jinwoo then inwardly scold himself after realising that he probably should not talk to the captive.

Taemin smiled when he saw the boy having some sort of inner conflict. “That's cool, nice to meet you.”

The boy then gave a small smile before his face showed guilt for being caught smiling. ‘Seriously, this guy’s thoughts are written all over his face’, Taemin thought to himself.

Taemin also wondered how such an innocent looking person ended up here doing this sort of thing. He did not look like he belonged in such an environment but he knew that some things were not that simple. People were complex and have different circumstances. When he was younger, he wanted to be a dancer, if you asked that seven year old child back then, he would never have answered become a gang member. Or even more specifically, be one of the founding members of the most feared gangs in the area.

Taemin thought about his own circumstances… How he met Jiyong who had lost his parents just like he had, how he and Jiyong decided to form a gang in order to survive in the streets and Seunghyun decided to join and help.

They started with a small number of people, even now, they were a small group, but it was smaller back then. They took in people who had nowhere to go. They built a reputation for themselves so that they could protect the people in their group. Jiyong had said that the Zutters were family. Small gangs were easily picked on or incorporated into larger gangs when they realized they could not win, but Jiyong did not give up. After almost 4 years, they finally did it. People feared them. Their name was enough to prevent others from picking fights. This is how Jiyong protected all of them. This was how they protected their family from getting injured.

To Taemin, the only thing that was important was the Zutters. He only trusted them and no one else. So, to him, everyone was suspicious no matter how innocent the person may seem or if the person was his parent’s friend. Then suddenly, an image floated into his head followed by Jongin’s comforting voice.

“I'll never hurt you. I know you don't trust my friends, but please… Trust me”

Trust me.

That line replayed itself in Taemin’s head. He remembered the feeling of Jongin hugging him, that feeling of being safe. Taemin shook his head in an attempt to forget about the whole thing, but he struggled to.

Trust.

Did he trust Jongin? He didn't know.

Does he want to trust Jongin?

That answer would probably be yes. But why? Why would he trust Jongin who he barely knew?

The simple thought gave Taemin a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest. Taemin shook his head again in an attempt to distract himself from such thoughts.

Realistically speaking, he and Jongin do not belong together. Their worlds are far too different, the things they see are not the same. Jongin would never survive in their cruel world, just like how Taemin knows he would be slaughtered with judgement if he dared to step into the rich. They both had their niche and that was where they belong.