Min Yoongi

"Jeong Hyunwoo. This is the place." As Hoseok read out the name, I scanned the apartment complex before us. It was an old building, the exterior a drab gray with brittle bricks chipped in multiple areas.

Hoseok punched in the access code, and we carefully entered the building. The interior was no different, with the monotone wallpaper aged and peeling, the room lit with a dim ceiling light. The dreary environment left me feeling uncertain about the place.

"Let's go. His apartment's on the second floor," Hoseok said. I followed closely behind him, the events leading up to this moment still a bit hazy.

I had woken up this morning expecting the same old routine: accompanying Soomi and Misa to the hospital like I had the last few days. But instead, the day began with Hoseok barging into the house with the forensics report. The news quickly woke me up, and I soon found myself skimming the pages of information.

But before I could really absorb the findings, Hoseok was dragging me out of the house and over to the man's last known residence.

Still, one thing from the report did stick with me: a photo of a tattoo on the man's chest, a tattoo that resembled smoke and wings.

"Hello? Earth to Yoongi?" Hoseok's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I found myself in front of a worn-out, wooden door.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"Get your head in the game. We can't miss anything important." He promptly unlocked the apartment door.

"Well, then you might wanna give me a breakdown of the guy, so I know what we're dealing with," I suggested, still feeling out of the loop. We entered the cramped space as he turned to me.

"Yeah, fine, but start looking around. No time to waste." Hoseok pulled on his gloves as he said this, and I followed suit before navigating over to the right side of the room.

"Hyunwoo had been charged for multiple accounts of assault and most recently fraudulent activity. Prosecutor Park was responsible for putting him behind bars and having him registered as a sex offender," Hoseok explained. "He must've had problems finding work after getting released."

"So his main motivation would be money. But how's he gaining that from going after Prosecutor Park and his family like this?" I wondered out loud as I rummaged through some random things on his shelf.

"Not too sure."

"Maybe he's just a hitman, hired by someone else to do this? Someone else who has an actual motive."

"Perhaps. Or maybe he's given up, looking to go after Prosecutor Park for how his life's in shambles," Hoseok suggested. I still felt reluctant to believe Hyunwoo had a strong enough motive for all the events that had unfolded. "I'm taking a look in the kitchen. There's nothing on this side of the living room."

"I'm moving on from here. Can't find anything either," I grumbled before getting up from my kneeled position and heading to the bedroom. The room was no different than the living room: unkempt, yet nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I deeply sighed before making my way to the closet.

I raked my fingers through the sparsely hung garments of clothes, thoroughly checking the pockets before looking around for any hidden compartments or suspicious items. But there was nothing.

Room after room, shelf after shelf. Nothing.

I groaned in frustration, knocking over the bottles I was rummaging through in the bathroom.

"Take it easy, Yoongi! Try not to leave too big a mess," Hoseok shouted from the other room.

"Why bother? The place is a shithole already. A shithole with no goddamn information."

"Just keep looking. Something will come up."

I sighed, wondering if all of this was pointless, if there really was nothing to discover, and it would all be in vain. I closed my eyes to think, to concentrate. But a single image kept flashing through my mind.

Her lips curled into a smile so faint, yet the subtle expression held so much warmth. Her eyes carried months of restless nights, yet in that moment, they pooled with hope and just the tiniest drop of happiness.

I thought back to that moment in the hospital, that moment when Hoseok told us this could all be over soon, and I saw the weight of the world lift from Soomi's shoulders. I latched on to the thought of bringing her reassurance and comfort once more.

I backed up to the bedroom, scanning for anything I could've missed.

Come on. I just need to find one thing, anything out of the ordinary.

A closed door in the corner of the room caught my attention, and I narrowed my eyes in curiosity. I walked over to the door and shook the knob, only to find it locked.

Strange. No other room in the apartment was locked.

"Hoseok, I think I found something! But the door's locked!"

"Wait, I think I might be able to fix that," he shouted back. I peeked out of the room, puzzled by what he meant. But all my questions were answered as soon as he strolled into the room, twirling a key on his finger. "Look what I found stashed inside the fake cookie jar."

"Nice find, if it's the right key" I skeptically stepped aside to let him at the lock. To my surprise, it fit perfectly into the hole, and the door clicked open. He turned back to me with a smirk.

"Well, what you waiting for? Age before beauty."

I rolled my eyes before shoving past him, but that irritation quickly became insignificant as the entire room came into view.

"Holy shit." Hoseok took the words right out of my mouth as I stared at the cluttered walls, covered with photos of the Park family, similar to the ones sent in the death threats. "Seems like we hit the jackpot. Start looking around."

Particular photos quickly caught my eye: the location, the angle from which they were taken. I easily identified them to be from the day Soomi had gone out with Taehyung.

First day bodyguard spotted. I read the words scribbled beside the image, and my eyes proceeded to skim the remaining notes scattered across the wall.

My wandering gaze halted as I came across my name. I peeled the sticky note off the surface to get a closer look.

Min Yoongi. Skilled combat fighter. Has previous security experience. 24/7 bodyguard of Park's daughter. Seems attached to the girl.

What? Attached to the girl? To Soomi?

"Well, would you look at that?" Hoseok lifted a box of burner phones in one hand and a laptop in the other. "I'll take these for examination. See if we can access messages sent and any other activity to confirm Hyunwoo was behind all the threats. But it seems we might've just cracked this case right open."

"How could we be sure?" I argued, staring doubtfully at his triumphant grin. "It's not like the guy's around to get a definitive answer. For all we know, there could be someone still out there."

Hoseok paused, giving a nonchalant shrug before turning to me.

"Well, there's always a way to figure that one out. We could fake going off the case. Send Soomi out alone. Bait out anyone else who may be involved."

"What, are you crazy? What kind of stupid, dangerous plan is that?" I asked, bewildered that he would even propose such a thing.

"It's your plan. I'm just taking a strategy from one of your books." I tiled my head in confusion at Hoseok's words. "What, you don't think I read up on yours and Jungkook's past cases? Summer of 2017. Last time you took on a security mission. You sent your client out alone into a sea of suspects and lurked nearby, just to bait out the real culprit. Dangerous? Sure, but it worked like a charm."

Hoseok seemed to enjoy my silent hesitation, his stupid grin trying to provoke some kind of reaction.

"That was a different situation. We can't do that this time around, b-because—"

"Because it's Soomi?"

"W-what?" My mouth gaped open, shocked by his unexpected remark.

"Oh, come on, don't have to play dumb with me, Yoongi." The sticky note in my hand caught his attention, and he swiftly grabbed it from me. He read the note with a laugh. "If he could see it, there's no hiding it from me at this point."

"I don't need to discuss these matters with you," I muttered, snatching the sticky note and crumpling it.

"But you're not denying it—"

"Well, what do you want me to say, huh?" I lashed back, throwing the paper ball at him. "What am I supposed to do? This is my job. It's supposed to be work. Just work."

He smiled as if satisfied by my reaction.

"Sure. Keep using that excuse," he taunted, stepping closer. "But we both know that the job really isn't a problem at all, is it? Because even without it, at the end of the day, you're just a wuss. You act like such a tough guy, but how much of that is actually real, right?"

I was speechless. His words hit a nerve that enabled so many insults and comebacks to formulate in my head. They bounced around angrily in my mind, increasing in pressure to the point of an eruption. But nothing would pour out, and it seemed that Hoseok knew I couldn't say anything. He simply smiled before carrying the box of evidence.

"Grab anything of importance, would you? Let's get out of this dump." He proceeded to stroll out the room as if nothing happened, and all I could do was stare at his back dumbfounded.

Why couldn't I say something? Anything? I never had a problem arguing back with Hoseok, so what was different now?

And though I truly wanted to believe it was a mystery, the answer to that question lingered annoyingly at the back of my mind, a truth I didn't want to admit to.

Maybe, just maybe, Hoseok had a point.

——
{a/n}
Finally back, and I hope you enjoyed! The new school semester has already been kicking my ass, so no promises for a new chapter next week, but I will try my best!

Also, MIB won its second win at the Moonchild Awards! Big thanks to the host Bts4lifeuwho and my judge AgustDs_Shadow for giving my book a chance to get some recognition!