You were walking through the hall quickly, eager to get to your destination. You spot Joshua  in front of you, sitting on a chair next to the lounge doors, “Hey, what’s going on?” you ask.

He gets up from sitting, “I don’t really know much myself other than Seungkwan asked for everyone to gather up for a meeting.” Joshua grabs the handle of the door holding it open for you.

“Thank you.” Joshua smiles following your lead through the door. The door quietly close behind you and you look around the room full of familiar people. You see that most of the seats are filled with the other members of your syndicate, with your Boss at the head of the table.

You and Joshua take the closest available seats and sit in, the seats closest to the door.

You glance in front of you, taking notice of the man sitting across from you. Seungcheol sat in the chair, bandages and bruises still covering his face. His left arm was crossing over his right as he tries to hide his sling. His movements are stiff and he’s unable to move without wincing in pain. He tries hard to conceal the pain he was experiencing, but he failed most of the time as you watched as his chin would clench whenever he would ajust in his seat. He takes notices of your stare and makes a small smile at you, mouthing ‘I’m Okay,’ before you could ask how he was doing your Boss stands from his chair immediately calling for silence and attention.

“Since we are still waiting for Seungkwan and Vernon. I would like to discuss about the outcome of our last match.” He places his hands on the table palms faced down, “I’m sure you can seen by his condition, Seungcheol suffered greatly.” His eyes meet Seungcheol’s, guilt reflecting in his eyes. “Meaning he will not be able to participate for a few months and we might have to forfeit what we have acquired to keep the peace. I do not want things to revert back to how they were before.”

“Please Sir, just give me a few weeks and I’ll be back in there,” Seungcheol said, his voice desperate. His own guilt and determination fueling his words.

Knowing that waiting for Seungcheol to heal was out of the question your Boss answered with a quick and firm “No.”

The high tension in the room was evident to those who filled the room. Everyone wanted a solution, but no one was really prepared to make a reasonable one. No one was given the chance to speak as the double doors burst open, revealing Seungkwan, Vernon, and a man you had never seen.

You couldn’t help but move your eyes to and from the familiar boys, trying to figure out what they were doing.

“Seungkwan who is that?” you spoke first, asking the question that was on everybody’s mind.  Seungkwan looks between you and the man in question, a confident smile on his face,“He is the solution to our problem.”

The lounge erupts, it was a rule that no outsiders were to be brought to the family estate without prior permission.

“You brought someone here. To the estate!” Jihoon, our intelligence documentor, says sharply, his voice couldn’t hide the disapproval he felt for the youngsters actions.

“Seungkwan you know better!” Seungcheol, exclaims.

In a quick attempt to gain the rooms understanding he says, “I was only trying to help. You sent us to the Dongdaemun-gu and we saw Jun.”

“Who’s Jun?” Jeonghan, the medic, asks, finally getting to the question you first asked.

“Him!” Seungkwan points through the door, “We saw him take down two of Gong’s goons. And he said he would help.”

Your Boss raises his hand and the lounge quiets down immediately,“It’s fine.” Your boss’s eyes meet your own,“Y/N, Joshua take care of things. As for now this meeting is over.”

You and Joshua stand at your boss’s instructions, getting up from the chairs to leave. Your heart aches a little as you see Seungkwan looking sad. Knowing that his heart was in the right place, you attempt to comfort him, placing a reassuring hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder. At your touch he looks at you, eyes sincere,  as he says, “I was just trying to help.”

You reply, offering a small smile, “I know.”

You and Joshua open the door to a startled Vernon. He was there with two other people, one of which you presumed was Jun.

Joshua puts on one of his gentlemen smiles leading the way to their destination, “Follow me please.”

————–

Following beside Joshua and Jun, you notice that Jun keeps his eyes on you, clearly trying to figure you out. As you approach your destination, you leave behind Vernon and, Jun’s close friend, Minghao.

You arrive in front of a room, opening the door for Jun “You can take a seat in there.” Without any words, Jun nods, going into the room.

Before you make a move to follow Jun into the room, Joshua grabs your wrist keeping you in place.

“Do you want me to go in with you?” Joshua asks.

You look in the room finding Jun sitting in a chair like you asked, you shake your head,“I think I’ll be okay.”

Joshua nods his head “Ok, I’ll wait here. Come get me if he causes any trouble, kay?”

“Thanks Josh.”

Joshua nods, you catch a glimpse of a reassuring smile, as the door closes behind you.

You approach the table that Jun is seated at, taking a seat across from him. He nervously looks, avoiding your gaze by around the room. The only noise you can hear at the moment is the drumming of his hands on the table.You take a minute to observe him. His dark hair was unkempt and windswept, obviously due to the scuffle with Gong’s men. His eyes are dark and, almost, innocent, but the fatigue was clearly there masking his features. You turn your eyes to his ever moving hands, taking notice of the scuffs and cuts on his knuckles.

You look back up to his face looking for any wounds and take notice of the scuffs on his face, the bruise darkening on his cheeks, as well as the cut on his bottom lip.

You pull out your phone messaging Seungkwan to get you an ice pack.

The drumming stops, taking notice immediately at the absence of noise, you raise your eyes from your phone.

He smiles nervously at you.

‘Well,’ you think, ‘It’s now or never.’

“Can you tell me what happened tonight?” you ask, getting the interview started.

He gives you his account of the events that took place, from the moment he arrived at Minghao’s workplace to when they crossed paths with Seungkwan and Vernon.

“Can I ask you another thing?” You ask.

Jun nods as he locks eyes with you, anticipating the question.

“Why do you want to join? This is not something you can leave easily, once you are in, you are in for life.” You ask. You believed that his reasoning was important, and he needed to know what, exactly, he should expect. This life was not easy, and if you could help it, you would keep the numbers of good people getting involved as small as possible.

He looked down at the table in front of him for a second, gathering his thoughts before looking up at you, “To be honest I don’t really understand what’s going on, but there are people in Dongdaemun-gu that I care about. They attacked Minghao and if I didn’t show up, I don’t know what could of happened to him.” He pulled his hands in front of him, clasping them together as he continued “When I moved here, I left my family and everyone I cared for behind. In the time that I have lived here the list of people I care for has only grown. At the market, Mrs Jung and Mrs.Yoon said that your group can be trusted. I respect their opinions enough to believe that your group protects those I have grown to care about. I want to protect them to. This is the only way that I can think of right now, In a way that they need now.”

You were stunned by his honesty. You looked at him, shocked to see that someone could wear their heart on their sleeve. This discovery made you want to protect him, push him out the door and tell him to never come back. He was too good. On the other hand, you didn’t want to be the one to tell him he couldn’t help protect the people he cared about. His goodness can make a good guardian.

You hear knocking on the door and see Joshua peeking in, “Hey y/n can you come here for a sec.”

You step outside and see Jihoon beside Joshua, “I ran a background check on him and he’s clean.”

Jihoon hands you the information and you flip through it trying to absorb everything.

“What do you think?” Joshua asks, curious about what you really thought.

You continue to look through the file, hoping that there be a reason for not letting him join, you sigh, honestly saying, “I don’t know.”

You look down the hallway a little way to see Vernon with Minghao nearby. Minghao was sat in a chair with Jeonghan positioned in front of him, patching him up. Minghao’s eyes meet yours, the concern he held for his friend reminded you of your group. You hear hurried footsteps and turn to see Seungkwan approaching with an ice pack in hand, “Here’s the ice pack you wanted.”

You give Seungkwan a small smile,“Thank you.”

You walk back into the room, your mind still telling you to refuse his help.

“Here, this is for that bruise on your cheek.” Jun is surprised but takes it with a quiet thank you placing the ice pack over his cheek.

“I’m still unsure about this whole situation and I’m not sure if you are fit for this but we can’t exactly let you guys walk out the door.”

Jun looks up to you, saying, “If you are worried about me and Minghao telling other gangs about you guys…”

You cut him off at that thought, telling him, “I’m more worried about what could happen to the both of you. Mister Gong is the type to put a hit on anyone that does him wrong.”

He looks down, resembling a scolded child, saying a quite, “Oh.”

You glance at the clock seeing that it’s late, way past what is ‘normal bedtime’, “Plus, it’s late you guys should just stay the night.”

Jun relaxes visibly, leaning back into the seat.

You open the door, propping it as wide as you could and say, “I’ll call Jeonghan in to patch you up and have him show you to one of the extra rooms.”

You turn to leave out the door, but feel a hand grab your own. You look at the large hand gripping your own, making your appeare smaller than you thought. You move your eyes to the pair of eyes trained on your own, “Thank you.” He says simply and sincerely.

You didn’t deserve his thanks, at least that is what you think. If he joins he won’t be thanking you for long, he deserved a normal life. Not a life filled with the never ending war that those in the mafia experience.

You leave out the door to see Joshua, Jihoon, and Minghao waiting on the hall.

You turn to Minghao and look away,“You can go in there.”

You look to Joshua and Jihoon, “Can you tell the Boss that we need more time before we can make a decision.”

With that you walk down the hall toward your room, a sleepless night with thoughts awaiting you in your room.

—————

Minghao enters the room where Jun is waiting,“What happened?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Jun looks at Minghao, “We are staying here for tonight but I’m not sure what’s going to happen after that.”

There’s a quick knock on the door opens up without receiving a reply.

A man pokes his head in, “Someone needed a medic?”

Minghao points at Jun having already received treatment, at the same time, Jun slowly raises his hand.

Jeonghan pulls out one of the chairs and sits in front of Jun.

He places his medical kit on the table and opens it before taking a look at the injured man.

“Ah that’s a nasty one,” Jeonghan proceeds to go through his kit.

Bringing a cotton swab to Jun’s cheek, “I’m Jeonghan by the way.”

Jun flinched back from the pain of the disinfectant.

Jeonghan continues with fixing Jun up. “I hear that y/n is being difficult. What did you do to them?”

Jun shrugged his shoulders bring the ice pack over his lip “I’m not sure…”

Jeonghan nods his head, “Well I’m sure they’ll have things figured out in the morning.”

“Alright, you good to go.” Placing the final bandage over his cheek. Jeonghan puts his supplies back in his kit and gets up. “I’ll take you guys to your room”

Jeonghan leads Jun and Minghao through the estate arriving at a room that was at the end of the hall.

“Unfortunately this room is the only one available” Jeonghan opens the door, to a rather plain room. It unuse was clear as there was some dust on the furniture. There was one large bed in the center of the room with a large ceiling light, brightening the room, “So you guys are going to have to share.” Jeonghan pointed at the large roll in the chair, “I had Vernon grab a mat since there’s only one bed here at the moment.”

“Thank you.” Jun and Minghao said with a bow.

“Oh and y/n is just next door, so if you need anything just ask them. Night.” Jeonghan says as he turns to leaves.

Minghao and Jun are left in the room, silent as they take in the situation.

“You can take the bed,” Jun says as he grabs the mat and starts to roll it out.

“Thanks.” Minghao groans in pain getting into bed.

Jun is sore as well, but Minghao got the worst of it.

“Night” he calls quietly.

————

You awoke to soft knocks on the other side of your door.

You look to your phone seeing that it’s earlier than what you set your alarm to.

Groaning while rubbing your eyes, you lift yourself out of your bed, dragging your feet to your door.

You open the door catching Jun with his knuckles in the air, mid-knock.

“Hi, i didn’t know you were still sleeping… uhm… Jeonghan told me this was your room…and he didn’t tell me where everyone else was at…”

You just stayed silent, your body leaning against the door frame with your eyebrow raised trying to figure out what he was going on about.

“And he said if we needed anything we could ask you.”

You cursed inwardly at Jeonghan, “He did now.”

Jun just nodded,

Yawning with a small stretch, “What do you need?”

“Do you guys have a kitchen?” he simply asked.

Tilting your head curiously you answer, “Yes…”

“Well… after what happened last night, we didn’t eat so…” Jun trails off, not finishing his sentence.

“So you’re hungry?”You ask, feeling your own hunger.

Jun just nods again

“Give me a sec,” you say, you need to make yourself more presentable.

You open the door, ready to head to the kitchens.

“Thank you” Jun asks, a new kind of life in his eyes.

“Its no problem, it’s my day to make breakfast anyway.” you answer.

Jun quietly follows your lead to the kitchen, eager for food.

—————

“Is there anything that you like.” You ask, wanting his opinion.

“I can eat anything,”came his reply.

You walk to the fridge grabbing the eggs and bacon,“Ok, can you get the bread in the top right cupboard and a couple of frying pans in the that bottom cupboard.” You watch him being the pans to the stove and the bread on the counter, waiting for your next task.

You start on the bacon and eggs, Jun gets closer, watching you.

“Can you make the toast?” You ask, trying to give him a job because his watchfulness was making you nervous.

Jun nods and turns on the stove, placing a few slices of bread on the frying pan.

“Oh you are making breakfast already.” A new voice says and you turn to see Mingyu walking into the kitchen taking a seat by the counter

“You lucked out today Mingyu. But can you wake up the others, Chan was suppose to be up already.” You called to the tall boy before he had a chance to sit down.

Groaning, Mingyu gets up, heading out of the kitchen to do what you asked him to do, leaving you and Jun in the kitchen again.

“How much should I make?” Jun asks opening the second loaf.

“We’re going to have to make enough for fourteen people now.”

“Fourteen!?” He exclaimed, shocked by what was normal to you.

You nod your head to answer, turning back and continuing making breakfast.

Slowly everyone starts piling into the kitchen and dining area with their breakfast.

With every body that entered the kitchen, the noise volume of the room gradually increased.

Jun takes a seat between you and Minghao around the counter area as he tries to name each person that occupies the room, “So it’s you, Seungkwan, Vernon, Joshua, and Jeonghan,” he points to each person as he names them.

He quietly eyes the other people in the room, waiting for someone to speak, and you stepped in,“There’s Mingyu who you saw earlier, then Wonwoo” pointing to the two near the end of the table.“Then it goes Jihoon, Soonyoung, and Chan in the center.” You continue naming everyone“Seokmin is next to Seungkwan.” And lastly, “And then there’s Seungcheol.”

After pointing at the fighter, you turn to face Jun and poke his chest, “You’re supposed to be his replacement.”

You turn to see Chan smiling beside you, you frown, “But it hasn’t been decided yet and Chan you’re not old enough to be involved in the business yet.”

Chan pouts as he washed his plate.

“So when is it going to be decided then?” Jihoon asks. “We need someone or we are going to have to forfeit what territory we have.”

All eyes turn to you waiting for your input.

You feel the frustration inside you and pinch the bridge of your nose,“Look I’ve been thinking about this throughout the night and I am still unsure about dragging some outsider into this.”

“Other than Chan, we were all outsiders at one point in time.” Soonyoung says, reminding you of some of the members origins.

You take in Soonyoung’s words and you look at Jun “But I’m willing to give him a chance. I’ll show him how we do things and what he’s up against.” You turn your gaze away from Jun and look at the others, “If he sticks around, he’s in.”

“Minghao too?” Jun asks, always concerned with everyone else.

A small smile appears on your face as you nod “Yea, Minghao can stay too. We’ll find him something to do.”