It was a cult.

If Namjoon had not labeled this New Life Initiative organization as a cult in his file, the term probably wouldn’t have occurred to Taehyung because he, as many other people, falsely assumed that cults were just religious groups formed around a bearded man who claimed to be in touch with God or aliens and who claimed to have visions about the world ending and about how to redeem mankind.

As Taehyung read through Namjoon’s file, through the printed materials and online articles, and as he watched videos that were either subtle or blatant propaganda, he felt, at first glance at least, as if New Life Initiative was like a combination between a communist party and a hippie movement, with some doomsday overtones, lifestyle alternatives and implicit guarantees of happiness and sense of purpose.

Initially, Taehyung was in disbelief about such a smart and down-to-earth guy like Namjoon joining a cult. Then he remembered that Namjoon was doing this just to find Seokjin. Turns out that Namjoon also wondered how a smart and highly-independent person like Seokjin, who also had a strong bull radar, could buy into a cult’s propaganda and join it, but then Namjoon realized the error in his thoughts. Seokjin had been at a low point and a crossroads in his life, he was vulnerable and lost about what to do and he was bitter about the economic and social macro-context that had led him to that point and didn’t favor any decent forward movement. Besides this, the cult’s ideas were specifically tailored to appeal to people in such and similar situations.

Consumerism led to overproduction and manufacturers resorting to planned obsolescence and advertising to manipulate consumer spending. Vanity, greed and gluttony fuel consumerism on the consumers’ side as well as on the manufacturers’ side. Increased spending leads to increased needs and desires to make money, attempts in which people often sacrifice their time and interpersonal relationships, thereby leading to even more spending on healthcare and alternative solutions for comfort and confidence. Governments have failed their people by allowing rampant consumerism.

Rampant consumerism and related factors had led to economic disruptions, such as the current economic crisis, depletion of resources, increased pollution and a myriad of sources for unhappiness for the average person. But, worst of all, rampant consumerism along with the current economic disruptions and its effects will snowball into a major economic collapse, predicted to happen within the next 3-4 years, in which current forms of currency will lose all their value and millions of people will be left without access to food and housing. This will lead mankind to regress to a primitive state, in which people will fight each other for resources and the only law and order will be survival of the fittest.

T: “Why do I feel like I would lead a better life if that happened…” Taehyung absentmindedly wondered when he read that prediction.

The sense of urgency and the appeal to fear within this prediction were what Namjoon identified as the doomsday overtones of the organization’s ideology, what would confirm or instill worldviews that the world is going to hell and what would trigger people to act in order to assure their own survival.

T: “Makes sense. Thanks for laying out all the elements so explicitly for someone who still can’t handle math equations…”

Of course, New Life Initiative wouldn’t just plant these things inside people’s minds and trigger them into acting urgently without providing guidelines on how to act accordingly.

New Life Initiative proposed limiting spending and waste, discarding necessities that weren’t actual necessities, like cars, gadgets, a variety of clothes, beauty products, comfort food, addictions etc., discarding vanity, greed and gluttony along with those, learning to produce things yourself instead of buying them and so on. For those interested, New Life Initiative organized nature retreats in which participants would learn how to grow crops and raise animals, then how to effectively manage the results of this labor, like preserving the vegetables or turning milk into cheese.

As a last step, New Life Initiative offered people the option of completely discarding their old lives and joining communes managed by the organization and located in places with natural barriers, such as mountains, which will protect them from being robbed of their resources. Such communes will evolve into completely self-sustainable entities, living independently and with only what they produce themselves, without being affected by the imminent economic collapse and its effects.

T: “So, basically, they want us to be Amish, but even more isolated from the world and more fearful of it… Glad there’s no god or bible involved so far…”

Taehyung was absolutely disgusted with the idea of having to milk a cow, but he completely understood how an organization with these types of messages and these types of solutions offered could flourish in the economic context of the last few years. If someone had approached him back when he lost his previous job at the salon that closed down and presented all of this as a work + housing opportunity, he might have also taken the bait. But even if he wouldn’t take this kind of bait now, there was an unimaginable number of people who would.

The economic crisis resulted in businesses closing down, people becoming unemployed or having a very hard time finding any kind of job, colleges losing students because many professions now had way fewer positions opened on the market, people becoming discouraged, anxious, pessimistic about the future and so on. There was a large pool of people who were ready to jump on this seemingly god-sent solution to all their problems, even without the fear of an impending and total economic collapse, so recruiters in or near unemployment offices and debt consulting firms, on college campuses and online, could leisurely carry out fishing.

T: “Oh, boy…”

Taehyung felt overwhelmed, but the main thing he felt was relief. If Namjoon was inside this cult, the chances of finding him alive were significantly higher than Taehyung first thought when he saw Namjoon’s apartment.

In the file, Namjoon explained how he reached the conclusion that Seokjin had most likely joined this cult. Then Namjoon explained in great detail what happened when he went to the New Life Initiative seminars, what happened when he went in the nature retreat and how he discarded his old life to go through the process of joining New Life Initiative and going to live in one of their communes.

T: “Guess I’m gonna have to do what I always should’ve done, Joonie, which is follow in your steps…”

But, before Taehyung would go through the process Namjoon went through, he felt the need to check something else – Jungkook.

A couple of days before Namjoon went to his first New Life Initiative seminar, he stumbled upon Jungkook near a college campus. Namjoon wrote all the details he remembered about that event, as it had troubled him at that point.

---

N: September 24 – Today, while going from the clinic to the hospital, I passed by the campus of the Engineering and Electrotechnics University. There, I spotted Jungkook further down the sidewalk. He was with an unfamiliar woman, who seemed at least 5 years older than him, and their arms were interlocked. I called out to Jungkook, managing to get his attention, then I went over to him. I might have seen wrongly from a distance, but for the first few moments after noticing me, I saw panic in Jungkook’s eyes.

The woman tugged on his arm, asked something to which Jungkook nodded and she said something more to him before I got close enough to hear it. Then her face turned into the friendliest of expressions a person could pull while Jungkook regained his composure.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked him, not sure how to start the conversation.

“Oh, just… visiting my alma mater.” Jungkook answered smiling, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Can I talk to you privately for a bit?” I asked Jungkook.

“Uh…” Jungkook let out, unsure of what to do, before the woman intervened and asked:

“Are you two close friends?”

“Acquaintances.” Jungkook immediately deadpanned before I had the chance to say anything.

“Then would you mind making it brief? Since we’re kinda in a hurry.” the woman said to me, still holding onto Jungkook’s arm and making it subtle but clear that we can’t talk privately.

“I’ve been tracing Jin’s steps before he went missing and I learned that he went to some seminars held by an organization called the New Life Initiative. I tried contacting you several times to…”

“Oh, those seminars are life-changing! You should definitely attend one. The name is very fitting.” the woman said with enthusiasm while cutting me off. “I’ve been to a few of them myself and it helped me overcome all my struggles. Truly life-changing! They…”

Right then, sudden sounds of car honks and breaks being hit could be heard a little further down the street. It grabbed our attention, since it sounded like an accident had taken place, and the woman turned her head towards the source of the sounds. During this brief moment, Jungkook looked at me with pleading eyes while slightly shaking his head and inaudibly mouthing “Don’t go”. The woman turned her head back and caught Jungkook while shaking his head, so Jungkook just continued to shake his head but with a look of disapproval for the accident that nearly happened and commenting “Cities can be so dangerous…”

“Indeed. And cars are an atrocious invention. For a bit of unnecessary comfort, we sacrifice our environment, air quality, safety, money and some of the Earth’s resources. The world would be a better place overall without cars. Anyway, we should get going. Bye. Be sure to attend the seminars. You can easily find information online.”

As the woman pulled on Jungkook’s arm and they started walking away, I shouted “Wait! How can I contact you?” after Jungkook and he turned and said “I’ll call you when I can.” before he left.

In hindsight, I probably could’ve handled that much better. But, through this interaction, I became convinced that the New Life Initiative seminars are a valid breadcrumb trail. Jungkook must have also followed this trail and ended up in what seemed to me as a hostage-like situation. I am worried. For Seokjin and now also for Jungkook. My hopes of the New Life Initiative being a relatively harmless cult are weakening. Jungkook seemed to not be able to act freely. Furthermore, he warned me not to go to the seminars. Of course, I have tried calling him again 3 hours after our meeting, but he didn’t answer. I shall refrain from continuing to attempt contacting him for fear that I may be causing him trouble.

But what should I do? All arrows are pointing me towards those seminars and, if there’s any chance of seeing Seokjin and, apparently, also Jungkook again, I have to go to them. Objectively speaking, it’s not likely to get kidnapped at such a seminar and, if I can stay aware of manipulation techniques and how susceptible I am to them, I should be able to continue judging things in an objective manner.

The seminar I have already confirmed my participation for is in 2 days. I will ignore Jungkook’s warning and go.

---

Namjoon had hoped to meet at least Jungkook at the seminars, but he didn’t and there was no other mention in the file of Namjoon seeing Jungkook again.

T: “You’re really suspicious, Mr. Jeon-Kim Jungkook… According to Namjoon, you’ve also resigned from your workplace and sold your apartment, you deactivated your social media accounts, but unlike Seokjin and Joon, you didn’t quite vanish into thin air and your phone number is still in service. Joon tried calling you several times and you didn’t answer. So your phone number’s not out of service, you’re just selective in how you’re using it or you’re not the one using it anymore… How should I find you…”

If Jungkook’s social media accounts hadn’t been deactivated, Taehyung could’ve probably found him fast. But, as things were currently, he had no idea where to start. All he knew about Jungkook from Namjoon’s file was about his relationship with Seokjin, where he used to work as an engineer, where he used to live and what was, to Namjoon’s knowledge, Jungkook’s participation in the events following Seokjin going missing.

Since he didn’t have any better idea, Taehyung looked for the social media accounts of guys in that city by the names of Hoseok, Yoongi and Jimin. He thought that Seokjin’s friends might be well acquainted with Jungkook if the latter and Seokjin were as close as Namjoon said they were. When the profile picture of such accounts matched what was in Taehyung’s memory of what those guys looked like, Taehyung wrote them a message in which he stated that he was looking for Namjoon and he thought Jungkook might have helpful information, then asked them if they had any helpful information on how to find Jungkook, like pictures of him, contact details or anything like that.

Yoongi said that he didn’t have any such information, since he had barely ever met the guy, but Jimin and Hoseok were convinced into helping Taehyung out. Both of them gave Taehyung Jungkook’s phone number, mentioning that it was pretty much useless, since he hadn’t been answering his phone for months, and all other methods of contacting him were now unavailable. Both of them also sent Taehyung a picture featuring Jungkook and Taehyung nearly fell on his when he saw the first one.

T: “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Taehyung shouted at the picture. “What the hell is with the baby-face the cute- smile and the fuzzy aura?! This is not how a potentially villainous character looks like, Jeon-Kim Jungkook, get your damn act together!”

When Taehyung got the second picture depicting the same kind of Jungkook, Taehyung got mad enough to almost throw his phone against a wall instead of replying to Jimin and Hoseok, thanking them for their help.

Taehyung was still mad at how innocent and friendly Jungkook looked like for several hours after that. In his mind, he had already branded Jungkook as suspicious at the very least for a few reasons:

1. It felt like he waited too long to report Seokjin as missing and, when he supposedly realized Seokjin might be missing, he went straight to the police instead of contacting Seokjin’s friends whom he was also acquainted with, which would have been a more natural approach.
2. He was getting different treatment compared to Seokjin and Namjoon after joining the cult.
3. Who’s to say he wasn’t already in the cult before Seokjin even went to the seminars and Jungkook didn’t orchestrate some elaborate scheme to get his cousin/brother into the cult without seeming like he was behind it.
4. If Jungkook had answered his goddamned phone when Namjoon called, maybe Namjoon wouldn’t be in this mess.

On a whim, even though it was late into the evening, Taehyung dialed Jungkook’s number and waited to see if it would actually ring or if he would now get the “out of service” message. However –

J: “Hello?”

Taehyung panicked and ended the call with lighting speed and frantically looked around his room like he was searching for an answer as to how that could’ve happened. He did not, not even one bit, expect Jungkook to answer his phone.

T: “What? Why?... What?”

Taehyung was in so much disbelief that he just stared at his phone for several minutes with the same question going in circles in his mind – Why did Jungkook answer his phone? Then –

T: “Wait… How can I be sure that was Jungkook?”

For a moment he considered calling again, but whether or not that was Jungkook, Taehyung realized he had absolutely no clue what to say to whoever answered the call. He spent all evening thinking about it, right up until he fell asleep, but he couldn’t come up with a strategy.

The next day at work, he thought of testing out a theory. So he asked for a coworker’s phone and called Jungkook’s number with it. Again Jungkook, or whoever was using his number, answered with a simple “Hello?” and again Taehyung ended the call immediately after. Later on, Taehyung tried the same thing again with a different coworker’s phone. Again the same answer. This pretty much confirmed Taehyung’s theory – Jungkook, or whoever was using his number, answered unknown numbers, but didn’t answer calls from some or all numbers already saved in his phone under contact names. Namjoon, Hoseok and Jimin were relatively close to Jungkook, so he likely had their numbers saved, but all three of these people admitted to having tried calling Jungkook repeatedly and never having their calls answered.

But what could this mean? Is this Jungkook just cutting ties with his former life or is there something more behind this? Is his phone monitored and he can’t talk freely on the phone?

Taehyung didn’t know what to think about all of this, so he postponed all issues regarding Jungkook for the time being. That evening, he went online and confirmed his participation to the New Life Initiative seminar that was going to take place next week. This had not been an easy process and it had been even harder for Namjoon.

Participation in the seminar was at the price of an average pack of cigarettes, but the sign-up form was so lengthy that Taehyung felt he might as well have sent in an essay about his life. After submitting your answers in the sign-up form, you’d have to wait for the organizers to contact you and let you know which seminar was recommended for you based on your answers in the sign-up form and when that would take place, then you’d have to click a link in an email they sent you to confirm your participation and choose whether to pay the participation fee online and right then or cash at the event’s entrance.

Apparently, when they contacted Namjoon, they asked him why he was interested in their seminars because, from what they could tell, he had never interacted with their Facebook page and, from his answers, it didn’t seem like he was in any sort of crisis or in need of change. So Namjoon had to quickly make up the explanation of having seen too much of everything while working as a doctor, that he believed the mass-produced food that we eat and the stress of contemporary life were behind many illnesses that didn’t used to exist in the past and that he was very curious about ways in which people could lead better lives. The organizers said they would contact him and they did the following day, recommending him the “Alternatives for a better life” seminar.

Namjoon inferred that this façade of asking for information from a potential participant to recommend the best seminars for his or her needs actually served the following purposes:

1. Exposing potential recruits to the messages and ideas they were most likely to resonate with and buy into.
2. Controlling access to the seminars, filtering out journalists, politicians and even people who are likely to not resonate with their messages and ideas and voice their opinion at the seminar.
3. Having information about the potential recruits that they could use later on for various goals.
4. Framing the organization as an exclusivist group (it’s not for everybody), getting the potential recruit to invest a lot upfront by filling in a lengthy sign-up form with honest answers (thereby filtering out those not willing to invest and commencing conditioning for those willing to invest) and rewarding the potential recruit for his or her investment by granting access to the seminar.

For Taehyung, things had been easier. Since he had read Namjoon’s file beforehand, he went and liked the organization’s Facebook page and left positive comments under certain posts a few days prior to filling out the sign-up form. It didn’t take long for a friendly-sounding female to contact him and recommend him the “Escape the economic crisis” seminar.

Taehyung mentioned in his answers in the sign-up form that he had lost a job because of the economic crisis and he was struggling financially with the pay from his current job. He also mentioned his education was limited to his high school diploma and his hairstyling course diploma, as well as the fact that he had no close personal relationships. Taehyung figured the process had entailed less friction for him because Taehyung was very much in their target audience, aside from the fact that he didn’t have anything to sell besides his laptop and smartphone for the money to go into the organization’s bank account when he would join the cult’s commune.

After confirming his participation and paying the entrance fee online, Taehyung re-read everything Namjoon wrote in the file about the seminar and put in effort to memorize all the details more than he did for all the tests he took in high school put together.

The next morning, while on the bus on his way to work, he didn’t sleep in standing position like he normally would. Instead, he mentally recited the things he had read the evening before to make sure the information was still in his mind.

T: Any attempt at manifesting opposition will be shut down by the participant being ignored. Statements that sustain what they’re trying to convince you about will be met with a lot of approval. To get you to agree with their ideas, they’ll try to get you to agree to them out loud and in public because it’s more likely to work and the public commitment effect will keep you from backing out later on. To get you to agree with their ideas, they’ll have you agree with the premises and then you’re automatically more likely to agree with the conclusion, even if the conclusion doesn’t really logically derive from the premises… Wait… What was a premise again?

Taehyung looked out the bus window like someone was going to display the dictionary definition of “premise” on it. The definition was not there, he couldn’t find it in his memories of what he had read, so he sighed before wondering if he should pull out his phone and google the word right then or continue reciting things in his head and search it later.

Then, unexpectedly, he saw Jungkook on the sidewalk.

There was too much left to go till the next bus stop so, without a care for who and how he was inconveniencing, Taehyung pressed the emergency stop button and the bus abruptly halted and opened all doors. Taehyung dashed out of the bus and in the direction he had seen Jungkook going while the rest of the passengers were still wondering what had happened.

He ran around, trying to find Jungkook again and finally caught a glimpse of the latter’s back as he was making another right turn. Taehyung dashed to that corner and peeked from behind the building to see where Jungkook was going. Jungkook entered another side street and Taehyung subtly followed after him, forgetting that he had to be at the salon and start work within half an hour.

Jungkook finally stopped and leaned against a wall while facing the entrance gate to a penitentiary.

Taehyung dialed Jungkook’s number and waited to see if the person he was watching, who looked exactly like the Jungkook in the pictures he had received, but without the cute- smile and the fuzzy aura, and also without the baby-face even though his facial features were the same, was indeed Jungkook.

J: “Hello?”

Taehyung hung up immediately after. That was Jungkook and Jungkook was still using his number. Jungkook didn’t even look fazed that the same number had called him 3 times already only to hang up right after and at least 2 other numbers had done the same in the last couple of days. He just put his phone back in his pocket and continued watching the gate to the penitentiary while Taehyung tried thinking of what he should say or do now.

A few minutes later, a prisoner was released from the penitentiary while the guards were mockingly telling him to stay out of trouble from now on. Jungkook waited for the gates to close, the guards to leave and the ex-prisoner to aimlessly look around while wondering what he should do now. Then Jungkook casually walked up to him and addressed him:

J: “Hello. Are you happy to finally have freedom again?”

P: “Who are you?”

J: “Jungkook.” he said, extending his hand with a confident smile. “I help people in your situation find a community they can integrate into.”

The ex-prisoner hesitatingly shook Jungkook’s hand and told him his name before Jungkook continued:

J: “Was it a long sentence?”

P: “6 and a half years.”

J: “What were you in for?”

P: “Assault.”

J: “ual?”

P: “Uh, yeah…”

J: “Minors.”

P: “No.”

J: “I see… Well, while you were serving your sentence, you may or may not have heard that an economic crisis hit this country and neighboring countries 3 years ago and, as a result, many businesses have closed down and unemployment rates have reached an all-time record. Even young people with college educations are struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. In this kind of context, and since you also have a criminal record and are publicly registered as a offender, it may prove to be very difficult to find a job. However, the organization I’m part of helps people in your situation integrate into a community and, if the integration process will be successful, you will likely have work that’s simple to carry out and also free housing. So, if the outside world isn’t as friendly as you’d like, give me a call.”

Jungkook handed the man a business card, shook his hand again and maintained his perfect business smile until after he turned and walked away.

Taehyung subtly followed after him while almost skipping out of joy and thinking:

T: Yes! I knew it! I knew you’re suspicious, Jeon-Kim Jungkook! So you’re a recruiter, huh? I’m so glad… I’m so glad you’re a villain cause now I can just find an opportunity to somehow knock you out, drag you to my place and torture you till you spill your guts and tell me everything I wanna know about Joon.

Jungkook turned into a narrow and empty alley and Taehyung followed after him, quietly getting closer and closer as he realized he could use the straps of his backpack to choke Jungkook from behind until he lost consciousness. However, right when Taehyung was about to take his backpack off his back, his phone rang loudly in his pocket, making Jungkook turn and see him.

Taehyung panicked for less than a second, before he took out his phone and answered the call naturally, as if he just happened to be on the same path as Jungkook.

B: “Where are you, you little ?” Taehyung’s boss yelled at him through the phone. “Your was supposed to be here half an hour ago. There’s a client waiting for you for over 15 minutes and she looks hella annoyed. If she leaves before you get here, I’m cutting your paycheck.”

T: “I’m sick. I barely got out of bed, but I’m going there now. Give her some coffee on the house and keep her there till I arrive. I’ll handle it afterwards.”

B: “You better.” his boss said before hanging up.

That conversation annoyed Taehyung and that put the wheels of his brain in motion. He could use this.

T: “ing hell! I get paid peanuts and I get treated like .” Taehyung said as he casually walked past Jungkook and addressed him like it just happened for Jungkook to be a witness to his problem. “Don’t you sometimes just wanna leave everything behind, go somewhere far away and lead a simpler life?”

T: There’s the perfect bait for you. Take it and try recruiting me like you did with that ex-prisoner. Let’s see you in action from up close. I’ll then get you to come to my place on your own 2 feet.

J: “You should appreciate the fact that you have a job in the first place, cause it could always be worse. Hang in there.” Jungkook said, tapping Taehyung’s shoulder at the end, then walking away.

Taehyung was in too much shock to move. That was a perfect opportunity for Jungkook to try recruiting Taehyung. But he didn’t. Why?