Yoon Jeonghan huh?

His name started floating around in Jisoo’s head and now knowing his captor’s name made Jisoo a bit more at ease. Well of course he was still at the hands of this man but it calmed him down how nice his name sounded when he whispered it softly. Jisoo thought the name had a gentle ring to it but brushed it aside when he remembered how brutal Jeonghan had been so far. Jisoo stared at the intruders who had entered the room and held his breath, they looked just as intimidating as Jeonghan and his men. But he had to admit; between the two groups, Shownu’s came with more firepower and more men. They outnumbered Jeonghan’s group 7 to 4 and now that the situation with Seungkwan is unknown they were technically just 3 against 7.

“W-what the hell why are you here” Jeonghan stuttered while rubbing his forehead lighly.

“What happened to Seungkwan?” Worry was evident on Minghao’s face but he tried to look tough while aiming his revolver at Shownu’s head.

“Hmm we received a call that trouble was brewing around here” Shownu said thoughtfully and folded his arms. “We’ll take it from here honey” he winked at Jeonghan and received a scoff from the latter. “And as for Boo Seungkwan-ssi,” he paused. “He’s just dozing off in the van it’d be trouble if that kid came in here to interfere with our job”

Jeonghan and Minghao were ready to pounce but Jun held both of them back. “I don’t know what reason you had to knock one of our men out but you didn’t have to come here and help us, we have everything under control”. Jun chimed in while holding Jeonghan and Minghao back.

“Help you?” Shownu knit his brows in mock confusion. “Help YOU??” He raised his voice a little and he chuckled along with the rest of his men.

“More like we came to apprehend you” Jooheon, one of the other men, spoke up

Jeonghan looked genuinely confused. “For what?”

“Hello??? Man bleeding to death here” Minwoo called out impatiently while waving a hand to catch the new group’s attention.

“A-ah right sorry sir” Shownu’s tough aura faded just a bit when he looked at his injured boss. “Monsta X tend to Minwoo-ssi, perform first aid immediately” He ordered his men around and in a flurry they all rushed to Minwoo side and brought out tourniquets and bandages to wrap quickly around Minwoo’s wounds.

At that moment, Jeonghan’s jaw dropped as he watched the rest of Monsta X gathered around Minwoo and continued to tend to him. “You” Jeonghan said slowly “Serve this rat?” he raised his voice in disbelief as he pointed at Minwoo. “You never mentioned having any connections to the likes of him-“

“Minwoo-ssi and the rest of his men running this apartment complex are underground arms dealers” Shownu lectured on. “They may not be professional but the weapons that they provide very much suits our tastes, right boys?” At that, all his men nodded in agreement.

“Arms dealers?!” Jisoo whispered loudly to his landlord who just smirked in response.

Unfortunately, Jisoo wasn’t as quiet as he thought since Shownu turned around to look at him.

“And who are you?” Shownu looked Jisoo up and down.

Jisoo froze.

“That’s Hong Jisoo, my right hand man” Minwoo butted in and winked at Jisoo. “He’s our newest informant that gets us in touch with good weapons manufacturers.”

Once again, Jisoo felt everyone’s eyes on him as the room again fell silent after yet another notorious lie from his landlord. Of course, only Minwoo and Jisoo knew this was a lie and Jisoo knew it was pointless to protest against it because he spent most of the night trying to defend himself and get out of this mess but with no luck. So he just kept quiet, but inside he was frustrated and angry. But most of all he was scared, he didn’t want to be thought of as his landlord’s right hand man and newest informant. Jisoo knew nothing about guns or weapons; heck, he can’t even touch one without having shivers run down his spine.

“In that case” Shownu smiled. “We’ll let you off the hook” he then proceeded to untie Jisoo who shifted nervously in his seat.

“Just how much about yourself are you actually hiding huh Hong Jisoo?” Jeonghan was quietly seething but strangely didn’t bother to stop Shownu from untying Jisoo.

After being untied, Jisoo stretched his arms and legs because of how long he’s been tied up and was mildly satisfied when he heard a few bones pop. He then awkwardly scooted to the side and stood there awkwardly as Monsta X set Minwoo down easy on the now-vacant chair because Jisoo was now free. Jisoo looked over at his landlord and all his wounds covered but winced nonetheless when he saw how utterly beat up he looked.

Minwoo saw Jisoo staring and grabbed him by the collar. “You’ll make it through this in one piece if you just play along alright?”He whispered calmly in Jisoo’s ear. “These guys are gonna protect us and drive Jeonghan and his men away so just wait a little longer, we’ll make sure you make it to that meeting with your teacher tomorrow” he let go of Jisoo and winced as Shownu’s men continued to treat his wounds.

Now Jisoo had found a newfound resentment for his landlord all in one night because he had dragged him into all this mischief and lies. But then again, telling Shownu and the rest that he was his right hand man saved Jisoo from falling into the hands of another intimidating mafia boss like Shownu. Jisoo knew it was wrong to feel at least a little bit thankful towards his landlord for saying that lie but at least he didn’t have to worry about another mafia boss on his tail unlike Yoon Jeonghan. Well, the reason why Yoon Jeonghan was on his tail was because of Minwoo anyway but it’s not like Jisoo had the courage to drive everyone away. All Jisoo could do now was depend on his landlord to get them out of this situation and he hated it. Jisoo looked around his room once again and well, he knew that it was a mess in the first place but what with Monsta X breaking down his door and all his room was now an absolute disaster. Not that anyone minded anymore but him.

“Well now that everything’s been said and done” Shownu locked his eyes on Jeonghan and his men. “I have to ask you all to stop interfering with this apartment’s business, so if you would kindly follow us-“

“I can’t believe you’re actually protecting these people don’t you know what these people really are?!” Jeonghan protested. “They stole money from our clients and they’re hiding it around here somewhere!!”

“Oh?” Shownu teased “And whose money are you accusing Minwoo-ssi of stealing from”

At that Jeonghan picked up one of the AKMU gun shop flyers, stomped towards Shownu and shoved it in his face.

“Ah” Shownu replied completely unfazed by Jeonghan’s action. “Isn’t this that one shop that’s almost out of business?” he said as he got the flyer and looked at it carefully.

“Yeah I wonder why” Jeonghan hissed and glared daggers at both Minwoo and Jisoo.

“Look, just because this AKMU gun shop is losing money doesn’t mean that Minwoo-ssi stole from them” Jooheon retorted. “Maybe this shop just isn’t doing well on their own”

“For your information” Jeonghan objected “The AKMU gun shop may be just a small nook on the other side of this city but I’m sure that their services and goods are much more efficient than these low-life pigs” he didn’t even bother to hide his disgusted tone when he referred to Minwoo and Jisoo as pigs.

“Huh so first you call me a rat and now I’m a pig? What else are you gonna call me?” Minwoo jested

“Dead meat” Jeonghan growled.

“Woah there no need to be so hostile” Jooheon cautioned as he slowly made his way towards Jeonghan. “Look there’s no evidence that they stole from that AKMU gun shop so just give it up-“

“We personally spoke with Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun who run the shop and they said that Minwoo-ssi has been showing up at their shop for the past few months and asking the owners about the possibility of a partnership between them as rising arms dealers” Jeonghan interjected, taking out a picture of the said owners in front of their shop from inside his jacket/coat and handing it to Jooheon. “The owners kindly rejected Minwoo’s offer, simply because they felt like they needed to manage and maintain the shop on their own before going agreeing to any partnerships”

“Just a few weeks after that encounter. They noticed that the money that they have been earning from their shop has been slowly disappearing” Jun continued and put a hand on his boss’ shoulder. “They had no idea who was taking their money so they decided to call us over to investigate”

“It was kind of difficult to figure out who the thieves were since they didn’t have any security cameras, not that we blame them” Jeonghan added. “But we did find this” He took out a small slip of paper which had Minwoo’s name and phone number on it. “Minwoo and his men were obviously the ones who stole Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun’s money after they rejected his partnership offer, and when we asked people around the area they said that an unfamiliar white vehicle kept coming around the area more often every night at around midnight and leaving with mysterious cargo and I recall seeing that same white van behind this building”

“Hold up hold up” Jooheon butted in impatiently and grabbed the small slip of paper “First off, just because this slip of paper was left inside the shop doesn’t mean that Minwoo-ssi is the culprit. And how did those bystanders know that that was Minwoo-ssi and the others huh?? It could’ve been someone else y’know and besides is there proof that it was actually them??”

“Unfortunately that area also had no security cameras around to fully confirm it was them” Minghao grumbled quietly and scratched the back of his neck.

“So how can you really say that it was them-“ Shownu started.

“However” Minghao’s voice was unnaturally high and a bit awkward. “When we were searching the streets outside the AKMU gun shop I came across this small packet of that was just lying around on the street and decided to check it out” He took out the said from inside his suit jacket and shook the contents. “Usually I’d leave this alone but there was something hidden within the ” He then reached inside and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“Oh ” Minwoo cursed under his breath.

Jeonghan took the paper and unfolded it to reveal a hidden route underground leading to this very apartment complex. The note also had this written in it.

Don’t let the AKMU brats see you. Unload the goods at the back of the St. Mary apartment complex. I’ll meet you out back at midnight just like before.

-Minwoo

“Yah Minghao why didn’t you tell us about this piece of evidence until now?” Jeonghan waved the paper in Minghao’s face.

“You were really busy trying to piece together other evidences that you found that you wouldn’t hear me out before” Minghao whined quietly and crossed his arms.

“Well well well” Jun clapped his hands together. “Minwoo-ssi what do you have to say about this?” he smiled at Minwoo who bit his lip. Minwoo was about to speak but one of Shownu’s men next to him whispered something into his ear and Minwoo simply nodded. After that the mafia member was making his way out of the room until he was called out by Shownu.

“Hyungwon where are you going?” Shownu caught his underling’s arm in which he calmly shrugged off.

“Minwoo-ssi has some work for me to do” Hyungwon replied with a small smirk and made it out of the room.

There was something off about that Hyungwon guy that Jisoo couldn’t really place. He was always smiling. Well, not that it’s a bad thing but throughout the night he was not as interested at helping out Minwoo or his fellow mafia members and just watched everyone from afar, leaning back on the wall with a lazy smile.

Jisoo was really itching to just escape from the tension in the room and asked his landlord if he could step out of the building to call his teacher about tomorrow’s consultation since the signal was stronger outside. Minwoo just shrugged and accepted the request.

“It’s not like you’ll be able to escape the situation anyway” Minwoo grinned at him before turning his attention back towards the bickering mafia bosses.

Jisoo felt a slight wave of relief as he stepped out of his room now full of people he didn’t know and didn’t trust. He was glad that no one’s eyes were on him anymore and that he could freely roam about until this whole catastrophe was over and everything would be back to normal. Jisoo’s pace down the hallway slowed down a bit as guilt dawned on him. For the duration of his time here at this apartment he was aware of the wrongdoings that his landlord had been doing for a long time, but chose to keep quiet about it to prevent trouble and he wasn’t really one for confrontations and just focused on his studies. The guilt deepened as he realized that he was unconsciously relying on Jeonghan to sort everything out and apprehend his landlord for his latest crime.

While making his way down the stairs he thought about the AKMU gun shop robbery and listened to the evidence presented by Jeonghan and his men and noticed how his landlord was sweating more than usual and after Minghao presented evidence he found himself near the scene of the crime, Minwoo looked ready to bail out any minute now. Of course, Shownu and Jooheon stood up for him which made Minwoo feel more at ease. But those subtle actions were enough to convince Jisoo that his landlord really did steal from the shop owners. He thought about Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun, he wished that he could do something to help them. He quickened his pace and made it outside as the cool evening breeze greeted him. He quickly brought his phone out his phone and waited for it to catch signal before he dialled a number. Not to his teacher though, but to the local police instead.

He waited for a few seconds the call to get connected but was only answered with a monotonous “The number you have dialled cannot be reached. Please try again later.” And after the beep Jisoo just sighed heavily and stuffed his phone back in his pocket. Jisoo wondered why the police’s landline can’t be reached but then again, he wasn’t really surprised at how unreliable the police in this area are. During the early days of him living here, he had tried countless times to rat out his landlord for gambling and for possessing illegal drugs but the police never believed him, not even once. Not even when Jisoo snatched a small packet of from his landlord’s pocket and presented it to the police, they even accused him of being the one committing the felonies which greatly frustrated Jisoo so he gave up. But still he wished that the police would come through just this once to apprehend Minwoo and the others, but Jisoo knew the police probably didn’t care anymore and just let everything be.

Suddenly Jisoo was snapped out of his thoughts by an invading realization.

What happened to Seungkwan?

He began searching around for the boy when he heard a loud groaning sound coming from a black van across the street and Jisoo quickly jogged over and peeked inside since the van door was open. Seungkwan was sprawled out on the seat and looked very disoriented when he sat up again and Jisoo noticed that he had a new bruise on his cheek among the other cuts on his face.

“What the actual hell” Seungkwan’s voice was groggy with a tinge of annoyance as he started dabbing his cheeks again with the handkerchief Jisoo had given him before. “They didn’t have to hit me that hard god”

“Seungkwan are you-“ Jisoo paused when Seungkwan shot him a glare. “Of course you’re not alright” he muttered sheepishly.

“…You’re not really one of Minwoo-ssi’s men right?” Seungkwan asked accusingly eyeing Jisoo carefully. “Because if you are…” he faltered. “Then doesn’t that make us enemies?” He then began slowly reaching for his pocket where he held the handle of his pocket knife.

Here we go again.

“Seungkwan please” Jisoo held his hands up in defense. “I’m just a guy trying to pursue my dream in music I literally did not care about what my landlord was doing until now” Jisoo cringed after he said the lamest words ever to prove his innocence but glanced at Seungkwan who slowly loosened his grip on the knife and sighed.

“Oh, so you only care now that you’re involved with it huh” Seungkwan scoffed with both hands on his hips. “Anyway I believe you, you look too weak and faint-hearted to be involved with illegal business”

Jisoo wanted to say something but only bit his lower lip in response. He already knew that he was incapable of standing up for himself and bringing his landlord to justice. He wanted to tell Seungkwan that he at least tried to rat out his landlord before but the look on Seungkwan’s face made Jisoo keep his mouth shut.

“What are you waiting for don’t give me that look” Seungkwan flicked Jisoo’s forehead and brought the latter back into reality. “We have to go help our boss and settle this case once and for all” He swiftly began marching back into the building when Jisoo got a hold of his arm.

“W-woah hold on I think you should let your team handle this one and uh I think I need to brief you on what happened inside the apartment so far”

At that, Seungkwan sat down immediately at the edge of the curb and patted the space next to him for Jisoo to sit as well. “Tell me everything”

Jisoo sat down as well and sighed. “Okay since your boss was shocked at this I guess you should know that those Monsta X guys are actually working for my landlord, Minwoo-ssi”

“What the are you serious or” Seungkwan cursed and stared at Jisoo wild-eyed

Jisoo was taken aback by the sudden profanity he heard from the younger but continued on with telling Seungkwan everything he had missed. “Apparently they work for him because my landlord’s an underground arms dealer and Monsta X decided to offer protection to Minwoo in exchange for the weapons he’s dealing”

“Wow um this is a lot to take in why would Monsta X-sunbaenim associate themselves with your scheming landlord I mean it’s not like the weapons he deals are as good right?”

“Well, Shownu-ssi said that the quality of the weapons were similar to that of professionally-made ones I think?? Well you know something like that and uh your team was presenting their evidence; which really made Minwoo-ssi nervous there was one guy from Monsta X named Hyungwon who stepped out and said that he had some work to do which I find kind of suspicious but-“

“Then that settles it” Seungkwan clapped his hands together and stood up. “Let’s see what he’s up to Jisoo-ssi” he held out a hand for Jisoo to take and smiled weakly down at him.

“W-wait but he might be dangerous I think we should get more help um do you have more men on your team or we could call reliable authorities because the ones in this area don’t care about what goes on around here-“ Jisoo stammered out, he had no idea what this Hyungwon guy was capable of and would rather put Seungkwan and himself out of harm’s way as best as possible besides, Seungkwan was beat up enough.

“Jisoo-ssi I’m sure we can handle Hyungwon-ssi on our own” Seungkwan took it upon himself to drag Jisoo’s off the curb and proceeded to push a very hesitant Jisoo back towards the apartment.

Jisoo was pretty amazed at how strong the latter was since he managed to force Jisoo to take a few steps forward while Jisoo was fighting to stay in place. Jisoo suddenly stopped resisting which caused both of them to tumble over because Seungkwan exerted too much force on the older.

Jisoo calmly shushed Seungkwan’s whining while listening to the low hum of a distant motorcycle that could be heard from a block away and was getting louder as it seemed to be approaching the street him and Seungkwan were on.

“Do you think your boss called over a reinforcement?” Jisoo squinted trying to see the driver of the motorcycle.

“Huh I don’t know maybe it’s-“ Seungkwan suddenly gasped and covered his mouth.

“What is it?”

“Oh crap it’s him”

“Who??”

“Oh man he’s gonna kill me when he sees me here” Seungkwan panicked and proceeded to bite his nails while shaking Jisoo’s arm. “Okay I think we need to get inside before he sees us”

“Who is he?!” Jisoo was getting a bit impatient now. When Jisoo looked closer he realized that the motorcyclist was not alone, there were two other people with him. One sitting behind the motorcyclist, and one sitting in the motorcycle’s sidecar. They were now just a few meters away “Well there are three of them in total so are they really reinforcements or-“

“That doesn’t matter we can handle this ourselves let’s go inside quickly-“ Seungkwan harshly grabbed Jisoo’s wrist and rushed to the front door of the apartment and was about to open the door when the hum of the motorcycle finally came to a stop right behind them.

“Uh oh” Seungkwan mumbled quietly.

Jisoo turned to face the newcomers that got off their ride and made their way towards him and Seungkwan. The younger of the duo squeezed Jisoo’s wrist even tighter.

“I’ve got this” Seungkwan quickly whispered into Jisoo’s ear.

The motorcyclist was wearing a suit similar to Seungkwan’s, and still had his helmet on as he just crossed his arms.“Seungkwannie what did I tell you about sneaking out to go on late night hustles hm?” his voice was low and muffled by his helmet, but nonetheless reminded Jisoo of a mother nagging her child.

“A-ah well you see hyung I thought the boss needed some help so I-“ Seungkwan gulped and tried to reason with the man in front of him and earned a forehead flick from the motorcyclist.

“Ow!” Seungkwan exclaimed and rubbed his forehead.

Hyung? Jisoo thought. So they must be close.

He looked over at the two other people who seemed to be hiding behind the man in the helmet. A young man and woman around the same height were staring at Jisoo like lost children as they clung onto the suit of the motorcyclist. Jisoo recognized them immediately as Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun, the owners of the AKMU gun shop.

“Hello there” Jisoo greeted the sibling duo with his gentle voice and gave them a little nod.

Both Chanhyuk and Soohyun shifted uncomfortably but Jisoo’s voice seemed to soothe them since they both bowed respectively towards him. Jisoo couldn’t believe that his landlord had to mess with these two, they honestly looked timid and afraid, much like Jisoo himself.

“Is this guy with you?” The motorcyclist asked and pointed towards Jisoo.

“Yes hyung he’s on our side” Seungkwan answered curtly, bringing Jisoo closer to him. “His landlord however is Minwoo-ssi, the conniving leader of this apartment but Jisoo-ssi here is gonna help us bring his landlord to justice once and for all isn’t that right?”

Jisoo just nodded awkwardly in return, guess there really wasn’t a way to get out of this.

“Oh in that case” the motorcyclist started to take off his helmet and ruffled his hair a bit and without looking back tossed the helmet over his head and shooting it perfectly into the sidecar of his motorcycle. After Jisoo’s jaw was wide open due to the small stunt, the motorcyclist held out a hand to Jisoo and flashed him a wide grin. “I’m Seokmin, let’s get along well for the night okay?” 

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Hello~~ I'm sorry if I don't have a regular schedule to follow when updating omg um I hope to actually finish the situation with the apartment and AKMU by the next chapter so please bear with me haha and i'll start writing from Jeonghan's pov soon. Thank you for liking the story so far <3