A moment of last-minute weakness, of desperation, for the ex-model turned into something so much greater than he originally planned. Things had gone down hill only a few months ago, when he finally lost his job - something he’d been expecting for some time now. A few work parties, sleeping around, and offers to go into some more risque work gone bad… it was inevitable. He was going to lose his ty little apartment, just like he’d lost all his ty little friends, and his ty little family. He had nothing to lose. And not much to gain either.

But there he was. Pressing the muzzle of the illegally-obtained gun roughly to the temple of the cute store clerk, speaking harsh whispers into his ear that if he moved he was dead, that he should already be dead for pressing that damned emergency button. All he had wanted was the couple hundred in the  register for rent. Thats all, that’s really it, he promised. Over and over again, he promised and he apologized into the store clerk’s ear. Minhyuk, from his name tag.

Within minutes, police had the dingy little gas station surrounded. Jaehyo, not knowing what else to do, forced the clerk to lock them them into the back office where they’d be out of site. Given the situation, Minhyuk was far more calm than would have been expected, which was unsettling for Jaehyo - whose nerves were already on fire, heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

Oh God, he’s ed up big time.

He didn’t know how much time had passed with the police outside the door, trying to talk him into coming out and surrendering his weapon. Or how much time was spent with Minhyuk just staring at him. Oh God, stop staring.

“Swap outfits with me,” the clerk eventually said with a too-even, too-soft voice.

“What?!”

“Switch outfits with me, leave the money, and I’ll let you out the back way from here.”

The would-be thief just stared back at him in disbelief before he snapped and grabbed at the front of Minhyuk’s uniform shirt with his free hand, “And why in the hell would I do that!? If there’s really a way out, you'd better show it to me right now or you’re gonna be decorating the walls!”

Minhyuk swallowed hard, but there was no other indication of nervousness. It only served to further upset Jaehyo, who struck him hard against the side of the head with the of the gun. “Tell me!!”

In response, Minhyuk spat right in Jaehyo’s face and kicked him in the kneecap to send him to the floor with a howl. The clerk hastily grabbed the gun and aimed it right at Jaehyo with a far more steady hand. “You’ve really ed up and you know it. Do what I say --” he turned the gun on himself “-- or I get you for murder.”

“Are you out of your mind?!!” he shouted, but froze up when the gun cocked. “Oh God, fine! Fine!!” Jaehyo gave in with an almost pleading voice, hastily starting to undress. Minhyuk lowered the gun slightly.

It only took a few minutes for them to switch their outfits. The money Jaehyo obtained had been moved by Minhyuk to the far side of the office, still gripping the gun in a way that spoke experience. He ignored all of Jaehyo’s demands to know why he was doing this, only offering that the security cameras were blurry enough to not be able to distinguish their faces too clearly. That if Jaehyo just kept his head down and disappeared, he’d get away. They’d never find him, even if they did manage the figure out the switch.

When he was forcibly sent through the back exit, gun pressed into the small of his back, Jaehyo felt Minhyuk slip a piece of paper into his back pocket. A paper that he didn’t look at until several weeks after dropping off the map. All it read was an address to an obscure part of the city and then the phrase ‘referred to Block B by BBomb’, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. Jaehyo had the feeling it was something that could explain what happened back then with the mysterious store clerk. And that maybe there were some bigger, darker forces at work in the city than he would have otherwise anticipated.