Reluctantly, the three boys left the room by Taehyung's request and went outside where they were sitting before. "What is going to happen with Kang and Wang?" Hoseok asked.

"Well, that depends on us," Namjoon said, confusing the other two with his words.

"What does that mean?" Jimin questioned with creased brows.

"It means that they will do anything to prove they're innocent. But we know the truth, and if we confess, they will go to jail. Now the thing is, if they go to jail, we will too. Taehyung will go because he was the one selling the drugs and we will go because we were working with him and knew about it."

"That's so messed up," Hoseok said, frustrated about everything.

"Personally, I will do anything Taehyung wants to do," Jimin uttered, and once he saw the baffled look on their faces, he continued. "I mean, if he wants to confess and stop all this once and for all, I will do the same. The money is good, but it's not worth it if he gets beaten every now and then."

"Of course we'll do the same," Namjoon said. "But it'll be hard for him to avoid jail. He needs to prove that Kang was the one making the drugs and he was also the one making a profit out of it, even though Taehyung was distributing them. Does he have any evidence? Because we certainly don't."

Silence took over them as they stared at the ground, void of any idea about what to do. "We need to talk to him," Hoseok said.

"Let him rest for now. He's already hurting enough. He doesn't need to think about that—" Namjoon's phone ringing cut his words, and he frowned as he glanced at the unfamiliar number. "Hello?"

"Is this Kim Namjoon?"

"Yes."

"I'm detective Ong Seongwu. I'm handling the cases of aggravated assault and sexual assault from today."

"Oh, hello."

"We would like to talk to you about the cases because no one of the people we arrested today is talking and we can't proceed like this. We need statements from you and the victims, but given their state, we can't talk to them yet."

"Um, yes, uh." Namjoon panicked as he didn't know what to do. "Can I come in an hour or something?"

"Come as soon as possible."

"Okay, bye." He hung up and ran a hand through his hair. "Guys, we have to talk to Taehyung now. They want to question me and I don't know what the fuck to say."

"Okay, let's go then," Hoseok said, and they headed back to his room. He knocked and opened the door a beat later. "Tae, we need to talk to you."

"Can't you just leave me alone?"

"It's important. The police called me. They want me to give a statement about what happened and I don't know what to say. I don't know what you want me to say."

Taehyung opened his tired eyes and glanced at Namjoon. "What do you mean?"

"They arrested Kang and Wang, but they aren't talking. We have the opportunity to send them to jail if we confess everything we know. But that will get us in trouble too and especially you."

"How can you even ask that? Of course I will tell them everything I know. And you guys don't need to get involved. You can just say that you don't know anything."

"What? Taehyung, no. We won't let you go through this alone. We're a part of this too," Hoseok spoke this time.

"Besides, if more people testify against Kang and Wang, they will go to jail for sure. We won't pretend that we don't know anything. We can't do this to you." Jimin set a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he smiled.

"But the problem now is, do you have any evidence that Kang was the one making the drugs and making a profit out of them?" Namjoon asked.

"Don't worry about that. Did you go to my house today?"

"I did. Why do you have so much money hidden in your bedroom?"

"Over the years I've been working for Kang, I always hid an amount of money from my payment. I quit, anyway, and that means he can take everything I have, but now that he's in jail, I don't know what will happen."

"That's smart," Hoseok said with a small snort. "Should we go to the police station?"

"No. Call someone to come here. I need to talk to them first, and then you guys can back me up."

"Okay." Namjoon called back the detective and asked him to send someone there, but Seongwu said he would come himself.

Maybe a month ago making this decision wouldn't be so easy, but since Jeongguk came into Taehyung's life, everything changed. And especially since Taehyung let him get hurt and couldn't protect him. He had to do everything he could to take his pain away.

Taehyung had already picked Kang over him once, and he would never make that mistake again. Although he couldn't realize it before, now he knew; nothing was and nothing would ever be as important as Jeongguk, the boy he loved the most, and the boy who gave his life meaning.

Once the detective arrived, he introduced himself, and they did the same. He then took a chair and placed it in front of Taehyung's bed. Namjoon readjusted the bed with a controller so Taehyung could sit up and look at the detective properly.

Seongwu took a recorder and a notebook out of his bag and laid his eyes on Taehyung. "Everything that will be said here is going to be recorded. Also, I would like to talk to all of you one by one, so can the three of you leave for now?"

The three boys bowed and left the room as the detective wrote down Taehyung's full name. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

"Your parents?"

"I never met my father, and I left home at a young age. After a few months of staying in the streets, Kang found me."

The detective kept personal notes despite that the conversation was being recorded. "We know Kang well. We know who he is and what he does, but we don't have evidence to put him in jail. Can you help with that?"

"I'm the only one who can help with that."

"Good. So you've been working for him, correct?"

"Yes. But before I tell you everything I know, can you promise to help me not to go to jail?"

"Well." Seongwu chuckled. "That depends on what you have done."

"Despite that. Can you at least promise to try to help me? I can't go to jail. I have someone I need to take care of."

"Who do you have to take care of? You don't have any family as you said."

"There's one person who's very important to me and I have to be there for him."

The detective sighed as he nodded. "I promise I'll try if you help me put that man in jail."

Taehyung drew in a puff of calming air and vacated his lungs at a slow pace. "Do you know a club called Hayan Night?"

"Yes, it's one of Kang's clubs."

"Correct. Do you know there's a VIP section there?"

Seongwu's brows bumped together in a frown. "My team searched that place months ago and they didn't say anything about it."

"It figures because it's impossible to find. The door to the VIP section is a part of the wall. Only I can open it by placing my hand on a certain spot. Anyway, people come to the VIP section to try Kang's cocaine. And if they like it, I'm the one selling it to them."

Seongwu stopped writing and glanced at him with raised brows. "How do you expect not to go to jail if you're a drug dealer?"

"Just listen first." Taehyung sighed heavily as he was worried he couldn't be there for Jeongguk. "I sell them cocaine, but I don't make any profit out of it. Think of me as the middleman. The clients buy cocaine from me, I leave the money in a safe in my office, and the next day, Kang's sidekicks come and take it. I don't even have a share of these earnings. Kang gives me a paycheck for running the club, not for drugs."

Seongwu continued writing at a fast rhythm, and once he finished, he shot him a dubious glance. "Why is that, though? Why didn't you demand to take half of the earnings or something? That's what most of them do."

"I don't want to live like this. I don't care about being ridiculously rich. I only care about having enough money to live. And the paycheck Kang was giving me was more than enough."

"Okay, but do you have evidence of everything you just said?"

"I do. There's another secret place at Hayan Night where I hide the drugs Kang sends me. Also, did you know that Kang makes the drugs himself? He has people to do that for him, actually. I don't know where he makes the drugs, but with every package, he sends a note with the exact ingredients and how strong it is. You see, he had told me to give the best quality the first time the clients try his cocaine and then sell them a cheaper one. Also, I give high-quality cocaine only to a few people who buy big amounts."

"And what, are your clients so stupid they can't tell if you gave them cheaper cocaine?"

"Most of them yes, they are, but the main difference is that the effect of the drug wears off faster, so most of them don't realize it. And to those who do and question me about it, I give them high-quality cocaine again."

"I see. But the cocaine is in the club you're running, Taehyung. With what I have until now, you are going down for this, not Kang."

"Yes, but the club is under Kang's name. Everything has Kang's name on it. I told you, I'm just the middleman and I never even used drugs before. I don't have a criminal record. I've never even been to a police station before. I only work for him because I didn't have a place to stay. I was going to die if I didn't accept his deal. I still have all the contracts he made me sign over the years. And there are mentions of drugs in there. Also, he had put his sidekicks to beat me up countless times. He told them to beat me to death today, and he beat me too. Can't you prove this?"

The detective finished writing and thought about everything he heard. "How can I prove that he beat you if he doesn't confess?"

"What about the sidekicks who beat me up? What did they say?"

"They aren't talking, but they are going to jail, anyway, since we caught them beating you. The point is if they will admit that Kang was the one who ordered them. And why did they beat you?"

"Kang is always putting his sidekicks to beat me up whenever I do something wrong or something he doesn't like. This time, I ignored his call, ran away when his sidekicks came to take me, and beat them up later because they wanted to get Jeongguk, the victim of the sexual assault. I couldn't just let them take him. Also, I told him I quit."

"So I guess you pissed him off real good." Seongwu snorted. "Good job." He gave him a thumbs up, making Taehyung crack a tiny smile.

"What about Wang? Is he going to jail?"

"What do you know about him?"

"Wang is our client too. He buys cocaine from us and sells it. He has an obsession with the boy he abused today. Can you make sure that he'll rot in jail?"

"We need a statement from the victim first. We've been informed that he isn't talking."

"Do you know what Wang did to him before you found him?" Taehyung felt a lump form in his throat, but swallowed it.

"He was in the bed without pants on and Wang was above him. He didn't get to do anything from what we saw."

Taehyung slammed his eyes shut as his fingers dug into his palms. "Jeongguk is a minor."

"Really?"

"He's twenty. He assaulted a minor and he needs to rot in jail. You can't just let him go with a fine. You can't—You can't do that." His breathing sped up as tears pooled in his eyes.

"It's okay. I'll do everything I can to put him to jail too. Take some deep breaths now. And I'm sorry, Taehyung, but I have to arrest you once you'll be able to leave the hospital. You are involved in this too even if you weren't making a profit out of it."

"Can you let me see one person before this? I have to talk to someone first. I have to be there for him."

"Is it Jeongguk, the victim of the sexual assault?"

"Yes. He—He's everything to me." Taehyung dabbed at his cheeks with his sleeves to wipe the tears that unwittingly fell from his eyes.

"He can come to see you."

"No! He isn't talking at all. He isn't doing anything else than crying. He won't come to me. I have to go to him."

Seongwu closed his notebook and stopped the recorder. "Maybe we can drop by his house before taking you to the police station." He offered him a comforting smile. "But don't tell anyone."

"Thank you," Taehyung whispered, feeling a wave of palliation travel through his chest at his words.

"You should rest for now. You know, confessing and cooperating with the police can reduce your sentence. You did the right thing." Seongwu nodded as a goodbye and exited the room to talk to the other boys.

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I know these kinds of things don't happen in real life (the officer letting Taehyung see Jeongguk) but this is a fanfic so roll with it if you want them to meet😂🌹