When she isn’t taken to an empty parking lot and beaten to death Jennie feels quite lucky.

Instead, she is lead down a corridor that smells like mildew, perfume, and cigarette smoke. The walls are lined in damask wallpaper that makes her feel like she’s traveled in time. The furniture is all velvet and leather in a strange attempt to emulate a belle époque brothel.

The man she has now decided she hates a little bit, otherwise known as Hoseok, grips tightly onto her arm. She feels uncomfortable walking through the bar, but it’s still early enough in the evening that there aren’t any customers.

As Hoseok tugs her down the hallway, curious faces peek through plush quilted doors. She recognizes the girls she’s met at Jisoo’s place, but only barely. She thought they wore heavy makeup while eating noodles but it’s nothing compared to their thick eyelashes and brightly painted lips.

Jin walks slowly behind them, unnerving Jennie more than the man dragging her around like a ragdoll.

(Hoseok is a bullet to the head, a punch to the face, but Jin is something more… A plague. )

A stunningly beautiful woman emerges from a door at the end of the hall. She walks past Jennie and her handler as if they’re made of air and greets Jin with a kiss on the cheek.

“Have you brought another new girl? Rose has just started adjusting.”

“No, this is just a friend I need to have a chat with.” Jin smiles warmly, causing Jennie’s skin to tingle. Somehow she felt more terrified seeing his lips curve up so naturally.

Jennie is guided into the room where she sits rigidly in a leather bench. She tries very hard not to imagine what kind of DNA this bench has seen.

The woman, who Jin refers to as Irene, returns to the room with a tray of drinks. She elegantly floats through the room as she pours for Jennie and the two men before sitting at the end of the table beside Jin.

She’s not like the other hostesses Jennie has encountered. She radiates confidence, as if it drips from her every pore. (If she has pores at all, Jennie wonders.)

Irene has more control, more grace. She almost reminds Jennie of a gisaeng, with her soft smile and hardened eyes.

“It’s my understanding you work in the restaurant across the street.” Jin speaks suddenly, pulling back her attention. “What is your relationship with that cop?”

He doesn’t know yet, Jennie figures. About Namjoon, about her connection with Taehyung and Seulgi. If he had known then he would have picked her up closer to her house, instead he seemed to have scooped her up almost randomly.

“He’s arrested me before so he keeps an eye on me since we live in the neighborhood.” Jennie answers honestly, twirling her glass to watch the ice clink around.

Jin settles back further in his seat, his arm resting around Irene’s shoulders. Jennie has decided he scares her more in this relaxed state.

He has also, of course, kidnapped her. That ever pressing little fact also adds to her increased apprehension.

“I was unhappy to hear my colleague had been taken to the police station, you see.” He tells her, his expression back to its usual tabula rasa. “But my wife tells me you’re trustworthy.”