House Of Cards (BTS EDITION)

Think Of It Like An Army pt.2

Taehyung took another bite out of the burger as he hit the call button and rapidly dialed the number that Namjoon had forced him to remember. Not the department number, not even a personal number. No, his fellow officer also had a disposable on him for this very purpose. One that wasn’t changed but rather tapped to record every piece of dialogue they had. He lifted the phone to his ear, chewing the mouthful as he ran his eyes along the sidewalk. It took perhaps three seconds of wait before there was a static burst on the line and he swallowed hard.

“Speak to me.” Namjoon’s tone was brusque but not rude. Direct. He wanted answers and he knew that neither of them had a great amount of time to speak. So that meant that Taehyung had to be precise too.

“I’m in,” he replied, watching a car lazily roll down the street in front of him.

“You’re in? Talk to me, Taehyung. Give me facts here.”

“I mean I’m Haedogje Pa. Nam wanted me, he wanted me under his orders pretty badly but he didn’t get his way thank f**k. No, I think I’ve got a new owner now.”

“Who?”

“The Boy.”

“The…shit, Taehyung, I need you to repeat that one more time. Did you just say The Boy?” He confirmed it with a soft noise and a nod, even when his fellow officer couldn’t see it. Taehyung could almost feel the man’s thoughts racing at this, as he tried to process it all. “The Boy picked you to…to what, be his own lackey?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he picked me. Look, Namjoon, I know how crazy it sounds, I can hardly f*****g believe it myself. I was standing out in some f*****g courtyard freezing my ass off and I heard all kinds of mumbling and when I turned my head there he was.”

Taehyung paused for a moment to try and sort his words out before continuing. He couldn’t really explain the feeling that he had felt seeing Jungkook standing so close to him. Breathing the same air, looking right at him and no longer just a photograph. Almost his height and not at all giving off the same presence that he had felt upon studying the shots that day on the office, Jungkook had had a weight to his presence, an almost detectable energy coming off him in waves. Cold waves, as icy as the winter chill had been. But that smirk on his face had not been cold, not at all. No it had been warm, hot even. Welcoming. Coupled with the glint in his eyes it had been something even more but Taehyung wasn’t thinking about that right now.

“He came up to me, asked a couple of questions about me. Didn’t know Lim, didn’t seem to care.”

“We must have blindsided him with Lim. He’s important enough to have got you in, but not enough to be known by the big boys.”

“I dunno why The Boy picked me outta the recruits. I wasn’t the tough guy. I was smoking and shivering yet he picked me. When he asked about his men taking an interest in me I told him about Nam and he…he looked displeased and said that Nam couldn’t have me.”

“Signs of possible discontent?” Namjoon asked, pen nib scratching against paper down the line. Taehyung explained that he didn’t think so, that Jungkook had shown more hostility towards other men. “OK, report if there’s any changes. Continue.”

“One minute I was out in the cold freezing to death and the next I was sitting in some meeting with local heads it was…shit, Namjoon, it was f*****g terrifying. He straight up had a man murdered in front of me: Do Seunghoon. Guy owned shitty night clubs flooded with drugs from Park Myungsoo. Had previous convictions for assault and attempted r**e. He’s off our hands now permanently.”

“I know that it will be terrifying but you’re talking to me right now. That means you’re doing great, Taehyung. I told you you were made for this, didn’t I?”

“Christ, Namjoon, barely. I don’t even know how I’m still talking to you. I thought I was gonna drop dead right there in the middle of the meeting. The Boy he’s-” Taehyung stopped talking, biting down on his lower lip as he did. What exactly was he trying to say to Namjoon? He himself wasn’t even aware. He was…intimidating? He was…a psychopath? He was…flirtatious? After a few seconds of silence he settled on a word of choice. “He’s f*****g ruthless. All I’ve got to report right now is that there’s a purge going on, just like you said. The Boy’s meeting beneficiaries of Jeon’s empire and if he decides that they’re not loyal enough he’s fixing ‘em up. Sanctions mostly, but he’s pitting ‘em against one another too. He wants to separate the chaff from the wheat.”

“In his favour or Jeon’s favour?”

“Right now? Looks to be a bit of both. Most of Jeon’s loyalest men are allied to him too, but time will show if they’re true. Local dealers and s**t mightn’t seem like the most important thing right now but The Boy’s smart. He knows if the masses are his then the masters are too. His closest can’t order their own men around if said men are already at the whim of him.”

“Explain that a little more clearly for me, Taehyung. You know you know this s**t better than the rest of us.”

“It’s, uh, think of it like an army,” Taehyung explained, shifting on the curb as he did. His ass had went rather numb from the cold hard concrete. “A fascist army. At the top, the dictator, that’s Jeon. His heir to the throne is The Boy. Now below ‘em is the second seat of power. That’s Jeon’s men, the generals. One or two for each district. The generals have leftenants. That’s men like Nam, like Lim, those kinda men. The leftenants control the army of pimps and dealers and all the other crooks out of the streets. Men like me.”

“Right, I’m following.”

“If The Boy controls the leftenants, he controls the armies. He takes over the generals, they don’t mean s**t anymore. Right now Jeon’s men are losing their own followers, and only the ones that The Boy trusts will get ‘em back. The ones he doesn’t…they get cut out permanently.”

“A systematic purge, The Boy’s really cleaning up. Smart maybe, but I doubt that the transition will be a smooth one,” Namjoon said, and down the line Taehyung heard more pen scratching. “The Boy’s playing a risky game.”

“He’s the king on the board right now. He might only have a small share but he’s amassing more power.”

“I didn’t peg you as a chess player, Taehyung.”

“Blame my father, or thank him perhaps,” Taehyung retorted as he looked down the street. “Hey, I’m gonna go back into the fray yeah? I’ll call you when I get information. I can’t risk daily calls, even with disposables. Not yet anyway, maybe after I’ve gained trust I can but I can’t take too many chances.”

“If you can’t call remember. Cyber cafés. Use the address we gave you and delete the cache after use.”

“Sure, sure I’ll do that. Tell the others I’m gonna gather more Intel, yeah?”

“Stay safe, brother. We’ll keep an eye on the streets, you concentrate on staying alive and undercover.”

Taehyung ended the call and he let out his pent-up breath as he lowered the phone. He stared at the screen, the small green rectangle set into the chunk of black plastic. It was an ugly cheap device but it would do the job fine, just like the countless other phones he would need to buy. He took another bite out of the burger, almost finished now, and tried to figure out what happened next. Well, he guessed that he needed to go back to the boarding house now. That would be a smart idea because he didn’t want to be gone too long. He didn’t know who would show or when. What if he was sitting around like an i***t on a street corner and The Boy showed up? That would ruin his chances of getting his attention, which he knew he was very much going to have to do. Granted, the first time had been an accident but he was aiming to make it purposeful for the future. Whatever reason Jungkook had had an interest in him for, Taehyung needed to take advantage of. It would greatly help him ease his way into Haedogje Pa if the heir wanted him by his side.