Jungkook startled awake. The fabric of his pajama was clammy, sticking on his sweaty skin, heavy blanket almost suffocating him. Spots of red, orange and white were dancing around in the dimly lit room. Jungkook squeezed his eyes shut and let himself fall back down. As the numb feeling in his head had subsidued a bit, he opened his eyes again but the lights were still dancing around, flaring up, disappearing and reappearing somewhere else. He rubbed his fingers against his nose bridge and exhaled sharply. Oh, how much did he hate it to be in such a state, to be so... vulnerable. Weak. His mind was working so slow, he had difficulties to grasp proper thoughts let alone form normal sentences. Jungkook tried to resume his last job. Analyzing his work often helped to stay sane during the agonizing aftermath. During the time the taken life had to settle in.

So there had been that woman. Young, not extraordinary good-looking, naive, careless. It had taken him two weeks to get the job done. Because as carefree and trusting she had been, the woman hadn't been up to a one-night stand or making out with a stranger. They had met four times, going to the cinema, eating at a fancy restaurant and doing all the cheesy stuff couples do. Sometimes, Jungkook had been dangerously close to puking. It had been gross. But the woman hadn't noticed anything, he was a pro at hiding his feelings and acting the way the situation required it afterall. The strange woman had been telling him more or less her whole life in these two weeks. She had been very, very talkative. God, Jungkook had been so annoyed! Yoongi too voicing his dismay about being unable to do anything but follow the both of them around until he could finally take care of the corpse.

After using his Blessing Jungkook had stumbled back to the headquarter and was knocked out by the powers raging inside of him. His second in command had taken the dead woman back to her home and set up everything to let it look like she had strangled herself, including a gloomy letter written by Hoseok, their forger. As the work was done and nobody would suspect murder anymore, Yoongi had taken a marble out of the woman's purse and cut off a strand of her long hair. He had returned to the headquarter, delivered his report then handed marble and strand to Jungkook. Who sent it to his client as proof for the accomplished murder together with a note saying 'I miss you'. They had aggreed for this to be their code for 'task completed, murder successful' as nobody would find it suspicious in the case the letter got opened by somebody else. The marble he knew, had been very dear to the woman and she would've never been giving it away. It had been a childhood present from her best friend and she had treasured it ever since.

As soon as everything had been done, Jungkook had fallen into darkness. He couldn't tell how long he had been knocked out. But it was clear that the state he was in wouldn't get better anytime soon. The young man groaned. Great! He had work to do. Had to stay strong and not letting show any weakness to his enemies, the rivaling gangs and the government. But here he was, Jeon Jungkook, one of the most powerful Takers in town, unable to get up even, sweating buckets and suffering a throbbing headache from too much thinking. How utterly pathetic.

The door burst open with the force of three rhinos running against it, banging loudly against the wall. Jungkook almost fell out of his bed. Frozen in shock, he sat there, squinting against the light and tried to process what the hell was going on. Were they being under attack? Sh*t, he didn´t have any weapons hidden as he never needed one. Maybe if he could get to the wardrobe...

"GOOD MORNING!!!", Hoseok screamed from the bottom of his lungs, arms spread wide and smiling from one ear to the other. "It's a beautiful day! The client paid, the news reported some suicide, yummy breakfast is waiting for you and there is work to do! Fighting!!!"

Jungkook fell back to the mattress and hid his head under a giant pillow. "Hoseok, are you ing serious?! Do you have any death wish here?", he growled from under the pillow. He was so done with his hyung right now.

The redhead's smile faltered a bit. "Errm, not in particular, but Yoongi-shi said you wanted one day off and that day is over now and you are the boss, you have to chose the next client before we can do anything, so..." He shrugged apologetically. "There are already a few people waiting for an audience with you, wanting to personally ask you to uhm... take care of somebody."

The raven-haired winced. He wasn't in the condition to deal with any of this. "Ugh... okay, please ask Yoongi-hyung to cancel everything on my schedule for today and tomorrow aswell. I will pick up work in two days. Send the visitors away and tell them to come back in two days."

"But-"

"Hoseok."

Hoseok gulped at the demanding tone. "Y-Yes?"

"What did I just tell you?"

"To ask Yoongi-sshi to cancel your schedule for today and tomorrow and to send everybody away."

"So what will you do right now?", Jungkook asked with raised eyebrow.

"Go to Yoongi-hyung and ask him to cancel your schedule for today and tomorrow and send everybody away", Hoseok relucantly muttered.

Jungkook forced a smile in his face. "Good. That's what I wanted to hear, thank you."

At those words, the elder happily beamed at him and then excused himself, still wearing an impossilby huge grin. This is not a place for somebody as bright as him, Jungkook admitted, but tossed the rediculous thought aside at the same second. Bullsh*t! He is part of our gang, so of course he belongs here.

After some moments, the informations Hoseok had given him settled in. The client had paid. Meaning his letter had arrived savely and convinced his client of the finished task. Alright. With the money received, they were fluent again. Of course they always were. The government paid well for every registered Blessed. Each month, Jungkook got a fixed sum of money, enough to be able to live from it for another month. But Jungkook personally didn´t want to rely on that payment only. Because who could tell if the money would keep coming forever? He was a criminal afterall, although without having a choice. And which government would pay for mass murderers to have an easy and cozy life? No, he was convinced that somewhen, they would chase after him. That was the reason he took assassination jobs. So he and his closest gang members, Yoongi and Hoseok, could stay alive without the government's help. And if the military or the police started to search for him, to hunt him down, he would be ready. So for now, he kept himself independant from their money. With the previous job closed, they would have enough money for at least two months. That was okay. Jungkook himself was bad at calculating but watching the financial stuff and managing everything was Yoongi's task anyway. Jungkook tried to do some maths just for fun and failed, like always.

Then another wave of heat and pain hit him. He curled to a ball, gripping the sheets so strong his knuckles went wide.

Are there any rules after which the whole coping-to-the-new-energy process is more or less intense? Like, if the person I kiss clings very much to life I have to suffer more? Or is it related to the amount of time I spend with said person before I take the life away? Or something else? Six years of cold murdering and Jungkook still couldn't tell.

While thinking about it hard and trying to figure things out, his thoughts grew messy and uncoordinated again until once more he drifted away, not the slightest feeling better.

"Yes, as I said earlier, I need an appointment with Mr. Kim Seokjin", Jungkook repeated. Gosh, he just wanted to get a ing appointment with the civil servant responsible for him. How difficult could that be?

"I am very sorry but this is not my responsibility. I will connect you with my colleague, please excuse the trouble", the stranger said. Then it went silent shortly before some bubbly, happy, exciting kids music began to play and an automatic voice asked for patience.

"How can I help you?", stranger number two asked.

"Hello, my name is Jeon Jungkook, Blessed number 174083UDHJK. I want to make an appointment with Mr.-"

"Ah, there is a mistake, I am not responsible for the reports. Please wait a moment, I will connect you with somebody else", number two said and the freaky music was back. Two minutes passed, then five, seven, ten...

"Good afternoon, what can I do for you?", a cheery voice shirped.

"Hello, my name is Jeon Jungkook, Blessed number 174083UDHJK-", Jungkook began and again, was cut off before he could finish the sentence.

"I see, I see, you are calling because of the reports, Sir, yes?"

He let out a breath. Maybe this was going somewhere. "Yes, I want to make an appointment."

"Yes, I thought so much. Sadly this is the wrong department. I'm affraid I have to connect you with another colleague. We are currently restructuring everything here so it is a bit difficult to get the right contact at once. Have a nice day, bye." And once more the annoying music started. Jungkook took deep breaths. In and out, in and out, slowly, keep calm...

"H-hello? Who is there?", a frightened girl's voice asked.

"Good afternoon, my name is Jeon Jungkook. I am recorded as Blessed number 174083UDHJK and would like to make an appointment with Mr. Kim Seokjin."

The girl shrieked. "I-I am so incredibly sorry, mister, I am new here and don't know whom I should you connect with...", number four stuttered.

"With Mr. Kim Seokjin please, from the department of the Blessed's state recording"

"Uh, I-I will connect you with my superior..."

"But... wait!" Then there was that god-damned music again. Jungkook bumped his head on the table. This had to be a bad joke.

Time went by and he contemplated throwing his cellphone against the wall.

"Department of Blessed's state recording", a new voice sneered.

"Jeon Jungkook", he answered not less unfriendly.

"What do you want?"

"An appointment with Mr. Kim Seokjin."

"He is not available right now and his assistant is in an important meeting."

"What?!" Jungkook was very close to freak out. "Listen, lady. I've been on hold and gotten connected with several wrong people for more than two and a half hours by now. I just want to make a random appointment!"

Number five snorted. "Well, this won't be possible for some more time. But if you are that bored I can connect you with somebody else on hold. Have a nice day and go to hell for all I care."

"Wha- no!!!" Then, silence. "Are you ing kidding me?! Is this your understanding of service? Answer me, you daughter of a ***"

"...uhm... hello? Who are you?"

Wow. That was quite a shock. Jungkook hadn´t even known it was technically possible to connect two people on hold. Well, now he knew and it was awkward as hell. The silence got more and more uncomfortable and Jungkook wrecked his mind what to say.

He settled with "Honestly, I don't feel comfortable telling random strangers my name so please bear with it. So uh, who are you?"

The other laughed whole-heartedly before he responded "I'm Kim Taehyung." It was then that Jungkook noticed the rather deep voice. It was a bit distorted through the phone nevertheless he felt at ease listening to the full sound. And he got curious.

"Alright Kim Taehyung, may I ask how old you are? Just to know how I should address you." Of course with such a deep voice he had to be older than himself but still.

"I´m born in 1995", the other freely offered the requested information.

"No way! With that voice?" Jungkook indeed was surprised.

Taehyung chuckled. "Yes, I know, I know. But believe me it's true. So, what about you? Are you younger than me?"

"Ah, yes. I am born in 1997."

"Heh, then you can call me hyung, hm?", the other cheered. "Anyway, why have you been so upset just now?"

Jungkook groaned at the mere memory. "Aish, I only wanted to make an appointment for the monthly report of my Blessing but it seem they chose today for some restructuring stuff and I got connected with so many different idiots and was kept on hold for almost three hours. I am not very patient though. And then there was this music you hear while being on hold. After a while it began to really creep me out. It sounded like some broken wonderland circus horror psycho thingy. Jeez."

"Oh, that sounds really annoying. I feel you there. But honestly? In my opinion the music wasn't that bad. I kinda like it to be honest."

"You what?!" Jungkook gasped.

"Hey, don't be like that", Taehyung defended himself. "I like unique and different things, yeah? By the way, it's okay to have a different taste than others. Would be boring if everybody liked the same things, right?"

"...If you say so..."

"Yah!"

Jungkook rolled his eyes. "Alright alright, I'm sorry and I won't hold it against you..."

Although the other didn't say anything he could literally hear Taehyung grin. And he had to say that he rather enjoyed their conversation. So he kept going with it. "So, why did you call? Do you need to make an appointment too? Are you also a Blessed?"

"Yes, no. I am calling for my friend. He doesn't feel well and I am worried about him", the older explained. And after a few seconds added "So you are a Blessed, huh?"

Sh*t! Jungkook gulped. That had been stupid. "Uhm... well..."

"Wah, that's so cool! What are you, Giver, Taker, Vague? Can you, like, fly around or something? How I wish I could fly... my friend is a Vague, you know. But I think I've met very few Blessed so far. Wow, how exciting! Or are you super strong? Like superman? Oh, I know! You can reproduce, like Naruto! No? Or do you have some kind of power as in One Piece? Blessing works like the power of a devil´s fruit to some extent, don't you aggree? That's so freaking awesome!!!", he rambled without taking a breath inbetween.

Jungkook felt his headache return so he cut him off there.

"Actually, I don´t like talking about my Blessing." It was true, but he let it sound as if his Blessing was something embarassing rather than disgusted and looked down at by society. Like... pooping jelly beans every five minutes. Yes, that was a thing. He had known a kid at primary school with that ability. And he surely had not been jealous.

"Oh." Taehyung sounded rather disappointed as he calmed down. "Then what do you want to talk about?"

The younger was so relieved the other didn't dig further that he came up short what to answer. "Uh, dunno, like... uhm... well... what's your favourite color, hyung?"

"Really now?", the older sniggered but went with it. "Okay, let's talk about favourite colors..."

And they talked. And talked. About anything and nothing. Jungkook made sure not to reveal any sensitive information. He had fun speaking with the stranger. Actually he couldn't even tell when he last had been this much at ease. It must've been before he had went underground and started his career as a feared criminal. Maybe he could befriend with that Taehyung? Jungkook usually didn't do the friend thing anymore but maybe just this once... the other really seemed to be a nice person.

As they kept talking, Jungkook absentmindly skimmed the files in front of him. 50 different tasks from clients asking him to murder whoever they wanted to erase from this world. A politician, a lord betraying his jealous wife, a dealer not paying his depts to his superior, an author writing about the wrong things with optional collateral victim, generous payment- Jungkook's breath hitched. Wait, what?!

He couldn't hear the endless stream of words coming out of his phone anymore. With twitching palms, the raven-head took the last file and read it thoroughly.

Subject: Park Jimin, author. Born in 1997. Blonde, droopy eyes. Average. Living in flat in xxx street together with friend.

Reason: holds sensitive, endangering informations and is about to publish them. Has already done that before.

Payment: 13.000.000 Won; 5.000.000 at once, 8.000.000 after completion

Deadline: in two months

Comments: if necessary, friend can be taken care of as collateral. 5.000.000 Won will be added in that case afterwards.

Wow. That was a lot of money. And how difficult could it be to get rid of some nerd? It was decided, this would be his next job, then. Jungkook came back to his senses again and listened to Taehyung talking about the beautiful metamorphosis of dandelions. Suddenly he felt bad for contemplaining to befriend with him. They had nothing in common and Jungkook knew he would endanger the other's life and heighten the risk of himself getting discovered at the same time. He made a decision before the situation got out of hand.

"Hyung, I'm sure you are a nice person and all but I think we should stop this now. I don't want to get to know you better and you certainly don't want to get to know me too. It will be the best if you forget this conversation. There wouldn't be anything good coming out of knowing me anyway. It's best this way. Farewell, stranger."

And he hung up. The god-damned appointment could be made tomorrow. For now, he had new work to do. He got up to make first plans with Yoongi and start his research on Park Jimin. But for some reason, there was an uneasiness settling in his chest he couldn't explain.

Whatever. Jungkook strode off, ignoring the strange feelings as he always did.