The clanging of pots and pans woke Izzy from a very fitful sleep. She hadn't been able to get the memory of last night out of her head and it provided for several hours of tossing around and smiling like an idiot. They had both admitted last night that they liked each other, and the conversation faded off after that. Jimin had gone to his room and Izzy laid awake on the couch, wondering if he was also awake all night thinking about it.

"Don't use that! Use a pan for the eggs," Jin's voice nagged at someone as Izzy pried her bleary eyes open.

"Somebody just make some coffee," Yoongi mumbled tiredly from somewhere near the kitchen.

Izzy sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before swinging her legs off the couch. Her dress from last night lay in a heap on the floor as she'd been too lazy to make it all the way to the bathroom just to change clothes, and the oversized t-shirt and pajama shorts she now wore were infinitely more comfortable. She stood from the couch and stretched, hearing the satisfying crack of her spine. Izzy stepped over to the kitchen and took a seat down on the stool next to a sleeping Yoongi. He sat with his head resting on his arms, hair an absolute mess, and mouth open as he snored lightly. Izzy reached over and gently moved a stand of mint-green hair out of his eyes. She jumped a bit when he made a quiet groaning sound in the back his throat.

"Thanks," he mumbled, making that groaning sound again. Izzy smiled down at him, turns out he wasn't sleeping.

"Wake up!" A very bouncy Hoseok pounced onto Yoongi's back, but the boy didn't even flinch.

"Alright guys, breakfast is served," Jin set out eight cups of coffee while Taehyung put out plates of scrambled eggs for everyone. Jungkook and Namjoon stumbled into the kitchen, looking half asleep as they leant on each other to keep from falling over. Jimin was right behind them, looking marginally more awake. His eyes locked with Izzy's and he smiled when she blushed and quickly looked away from him. He walked over to the last empty stool and sat down beside her at the counter.

"Morning," he said to her while his eyes were locked on the counter.
"Hi," she whispered back, not daring to look up from her plate of eggs. Yoongi pried one eye open, watching their awkward interaction. Out of everyone in their group, Izzy was closest to Jimin, so this shy behavior was not like them at all. But Yoongi didn't say anything about it, he simply watched the awkwardness unfold with an amused smirk.

Izzy didn't know what to do. After last night something had changed and she didn't know how to react to it. So she did what she always did and ignored it, deciding to start a conversation on a different topic. 

"So um," the boys looked up at her with sleepy eyes, "Last night I mentioned my ex-boyfriend, Youngkyun," their chewing abruptly stopped and she knew there was something they weren't telling her. "Do you guys know him or something?"

"Izzy," Namjoon struggled to swallow down the lump in his throat. "We've told you that we made mistakes in the past," he began, setting his cup of coffee down. Izzy nodded to show him that she was listening.

He sighed, "About three years ago we were struggling pretty badly. We didn't have any money, or any way to get it, we were living in the railway station." Izzy's breath caught, she never knew that and she hated the fact that these wonderful boys had to struggle the way they did.

"And then I ran into this guy I knew back in school and we talked a bit," Yoongi jumped in, "It was Lee Youngkyun. I told him about how we were struggling. And he offered to make a deal with us."

"He gave us money but in return we had to do some work for him. He made us deal for him—"

"Deal as in drugs?" Izzy's question interrupted Namjoon's sentence and he nodded in answer. Izzy didn't say anything else.

"So he had us dealing for a while, and we used the money he gave us to get this apartment. It's not much but it was all we could afford at the time." Izzy nodded silently, wanting to hear the rest of their story.

"But we got tired of it. We all hated doing it. I hated selling drugs to people who clearly needed help, because a long time ago I was one of them, and I hated enabling others to go down the same road I'd once been on," Namjoon's voice broke and he hid his face in his hands.

Izzy saw the way his shoulders began to shake and in a split second she was out of her seat and kneeling down beside the couch where Namjoon sat. Her hand made comforting circles on his shaking shoulders; she knew what addiction was like but she didn't know what Namjoon had been through, and she hated to see him like this.

"It's alright, Joon. It's in the past, you're okay," she wrapped her arms around him and he buried his face in her neck. It seemed impossible that such a strong and capable man could be brought to tears but the evidence was dripping onto her shoulder.

"We wanted out of his business," Jin took over the story. "And Namjoon met with Youngkyun to tell him that. But he wouldn't let us go unless all the money he gave us was payed back. Well we didn't have that much money. We didn't have any money," Jin admitted. "So we had to find a way to make money. We started gambling." Izzy paled.

"We knew that Youngkyun ran a gambling ring for the rich guys in town, and we knew that there was no way we could ever swing the buy-in for one of his games."

"But one of the guys I dealt to always talked about how he played underground poker games, so I asked if we could join in," Yoongi took a swig from his coffee cup.

Jin nodded and continued on, "We started with the small games, saving as much money as we could—"

"But it wasn't enough," Namjoon's head lifted from Izzy's shoulder, his tears had stopped falling but his eyes were red. "We knew we could never make enough money to pay our debt not to mention the interest. And finally we'd had enough of it, so we ran." Namjoon took a deep breath as Izzy wiped a few stray tears from his puffy cheeks.
"For two years we entered every game and tournament we could buy into. And we were good, even though we cheated sometimes. We made more money than we could ever spend and we still play. Listening to drunk businessmen is a pretty efficient way to get information on whatever the hell goes on in Dongdae. And since Youngkyun is the one who sets up every game in this city, there's always some kind of news on him."

Izzy's mind felt fried. It was strange enough finding out that Youngkyun gambled, but knowing that he was behind an entire gambling ring was mind numbing. But it explained why he always had money but never went to work; he didn't need to work when he had thousands of dollars falling into his pocket with every game.

"So that's where you guys went when you were all dressed up?" Izzy recalled the first night she'd spent in their apartment and how they'd gone out in tailor made, Italian suits. The guys nodded, confirming her theory. No wonder Jungkook hadn't wanted to tell her what they did for work.
"Okay."

"So," Jungkook spoke for the first time that morning, "Can we trust you to not tell anyone what we do?" He asked, "It's not exactly 'legal'".

Izzy's eyebrows scrunched, "I don't really have anyone to tell," she mumbled. "And even if I did, I never would," she glanced around at all the boys, "You guys trusted me enough to tell me that, and you can trust me to keep your secret safe." They nodded in understanding and Namjoon squeezed one of her hands, giving her a small smile, which she gladly returned.

Their heavy conversation wound down into silence. The faint sound of rain splashing down on the ground outside drifted through the walls. None of them was quite sure how to veer away from such a serious topic.

"So," Hoseok broke the tension with a massive smile, "Should we put her bed together now?" Laughter filled the apartment as all eyes went to the massive box still taking up half of the living room.

"Yeah, let's get to it," Yoongi rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie and opened the pamphlet of instructions, a crease immediately formed between his eyebrows as he read the pages.

Izzy laughed a bit as the younger boys jumped up and tore open the box, any trace of seriousness gone from their features.

"I'll do the dishes," she rose from the couch but was jerked back when Namjoon's hand tightened around hers.

His grip on her hand never loosened as she turned back to look into his red eyes. Namjoon squeezed her fingers gently and pulled her back down to the couch beside him. His mouth opened as if to say something but no words came out as he stared at their joined hands. Izzy's head tilted and she stuck her face under his hanging head so she could look at him; he smiled. Hair hung limply in his red eyes and his skin was too pale; it was so strange for Izzy to see him like this. He was so strong, so capable, seeing him so broken stung like a knife to the heart.

"Thank you." He whispered the words. And when he looked up into her eyes she didn't have to ask what he was thanking her for; it was written in his eyes.

Thank you for being there.

Izzy observed him with gentle eyes for a moment before placing her index finger at the corner of his chapped lips and pulling his mouth up into a small, lopsided grin. He let out a chuckle and she squeezed his hand; he heard her silent answer loud and clear.

Any time.

Their hands slid apart and Izzy headed into the kitchen, collecting empty plates and coffee cups along the way. She set the dirty dishes in the sink and turned on the tap, the boys made breakfast so it was only fair that she do the dishes.

"So," Izzy began, "Who am I gonna be rooming with?" She spoke loud so the boys could hear her over the rushing water and clanging dishes. The answer came in one simple word and was followed by a dropped plate and dishwater all over her shirt.

"Jimin."