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Make It Right [BTS Mafia!AU]
Plot: “It’s always darkest before the dawn…” It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Seoul, South Korea. One has to dwell in the shadows in order to reach for the light. What are you willing to sacrifice in order to feel the sunlight on your face? What will it take to drag you back into darkness? How long will the journey be to make it right?
Rating: NC-17 // NSFW
Genre: Series | Mafia!AU | Crime!AU | Angst | Romance/Fluff
Pairings: Jin x OC | Taehyung/Hoseok x OC | Yoongi/Jungkook x OC
Warnings: Graphic Violence, Heavy Language, Angst, Slow Burn, Smut
Previous Chapters: Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || Admin E’s AO3 || Admin E’s WP || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]
Word Count: 2,513
Chapter 23: Best Of Me
“So take my hand right now. I can’t believe myself.”
© thebiasrekkers (Admin E). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.
“Whoa, hold up,” Anastasia said, placing her hands into a “T” symbol, “timeout. You’re telling me that Jungkook, my ex, was staying with you for the last few days?” She stared into Eden’s face, watching her friend shamelessly down the shot of bourbon. The other woman brushed her hand through her blonde hair, readjusting her glasses. “Wow, small world.”
Eden slammed the shot glass onto the table. “Too fuckin’ small,” she snapped, pouring herself another glass.
Anastasia hummed, milling around the kitchen. She washed a few dishes, getting them ready for the dinner she was preparing, and her mind wandered back to the time when Seokjin had kindly done the same for her. Her face screwed up into a pout as she felt her face grow warm, flicking the water from her hands and then rubbing them on the front of her apron. Pivoting on her heels, she looked back at her friend and sighed when she saw her pouring yet another shot of bourbon.
“You’re not gonna have room for dinner,” she chastised, to which the mixed girl snorted while giving her a sidelong glance.
“I’ll make room, don’t worry,” Eden replied while waving her hand back and forth in a dismissive motion.
The buzzer rang out in the apartment and Anastasia quickly made her way to the door. She checked the camera and smiled, opening it wide to reveal Raelyn on the other side. The other woman smiled, looking a little tired but still happy to be there. She hugged her taller friend and ushered her inside, already taking her coat and purse from her so she could slip into a pair of house shoes.
Raelyn took a deep breath, giving a satisfied hum. “Mm, girl, it smells good in here, Ana.”
Anastasia laughed, motioning for Raelyn to join Eden at the kitchen bar counter. “I just hope it tastes as good.”
“Yes,” Eden piped up, already reaching for a glass to pour Raelyn a drink, “we shall see, won’t we?”
The two women clinked their glasses together and Anastasia pouted, soon dissolving into a small fit of laughter with her friends. Anastasia poured herself a glass of bourbon as well and they made small “cheers” as they did their best to do as much catching up as they possibly could. There was clearly a lot that needed to be discussed between them.
Out of the three of them, Anastasia was the last to have been transplanted in South Korea. As luck would have it, she was lost in Myeongdong while trying to make her way to Gangnam and it was Eden who stumbled across her. Believing it was going to be a moment where she would have been dumped off once she’d been helped, Anastasia offered to maintain contact with the mixed woman. Eden had no real reason to say no, so they continued to talk. It must have been a relief for Eden as well, seeing as Anastasia was also an American citizen trying to get by in a foreign country.
In time, Eden introduced her to Raelyn. The two of them were friends longer, but Anastasia didn’t feel left out in the slightest. In fact, she felt more included in the group thanks to Raelyn. Eden didn’t seem like the social type, at least in settings that involved large crowds of strangers. Being a nurse, Raelyn was used to being kind to strangers, lending the warmth and empathy necessary in order to make people comfortable. It seemed she continued to harness this ability outside of hospital walls.
None of them worked in the same field, but Anastasia could safely say that these two women were her very best friends.
She never had to feel ashamed for not knowing something and she knew she could come to them with anything. When she dated Jungkook for the short amount of time she had, neither women seemed to judge her when she explained that he had ties to a well-known mafia in their district. Imagine her surprise when she found out that Raelyn was the ex-girlfriend of the Golden Jackal’s boss.
The ties that bind, indeed.
Her own business aside, it seemed that Raelyn was just as shocked as she was to find out about what was happening with Eden. Her ex, Min Yoongi, was apparently the very same Min Yoongi that both Raelyn and she knew. Shocker, of course, but what was more surprising was that he’d kept his ties with the Golden Jackals a secret from her for the entirety of their relationship, including the last two years when they weren’t together anymore. There were moments when Eden looked like she was going to cry from anger, but she kept it together as best she could. Anastasia held her friend’s hand as Raelyn rubbed Eden’s back.
“I’m sorry, Ana,” Eden said suddenly, causing both Raelyn and her to blink, “for getting mixed up with Jungkook like this. I didn’t know.”
Anastasia raspberried at her friend, eliciting a snicker from Raelyn. “Girl, stop. Chicks before dicks, remember? And besides,” she said, making her way back to the stove, “Jungkook and I ended things mutually. We just didn’t… mesh, I guess is the right word? We’re still friends and hang out and shit, but no, there were no feelings lost when we ended things.”
Raelyn leaned in toward Eden, a devious look on her face. “Why’re you apologizing, huh, Eden?” She nudged her playfully. “You catchin’ feelings now after giving him the cold shoulder?”
Eden opened her mouth, raging silently at the other woman, before she grabbed the neck of the bourbon bottle and drank straight from the lip. Raelyn laughed, trying to wrench the bottle from her – succeeding but at Eden’s expense as a dribble of liquor spilled from her mouth. Both Anastasia and Raelyn laughed as they watched their friend wipe childishly at her face.
“Shut-up, both of you!” Eden looked like she was going to smack Raelyn, but stopped – her eyes noticing something which, in turn, drew Anastasia’s eyes. “Wait, what is that?”
Anastasia looked closer and saw the silver pendant hanging from Raelyn’s neck. It was a crescent moon with a few engravings carved into the surface of it. It certainly wasn’t new. In fact, it looked well-worn. But she hadn’t seen her wearing jewelry like that and from the reaction that Eden gave, it was clear that she didn’t see her wearing much either.
“That’s pretty,” she said, reaching out with a hand to lift the pendant up from her neck, “is this new?”
Raelyn swallowed hard, pulling back and then hiding the pendant under her scrub top. “No, it’s not.”
Eden smirked, pouring herself a drink properly this time – in a glass. “Did Taehyung give that to you?”
Anastasia gasped; her eyes wide as she looked at Raelyn. “Is that boy still chasing after you, Unnie?” She wiggled her brows at her, and she laughed when Raelyn snapped her fingers at them both. “So, did he give that to you?”
“No,” she said, turning away from them to nurse her drink, “he didn’t.”
“Did the boss man give that to you?”
Eden’s words were so matter of fact that it had clearly caught Raelyn off guard, the woman spraying alcohol before whirling around in her chair to stare at them. Her mouth was agape, and Anastasia would have laughed if the prospect hadn’t been so outrageous. But her friend’s reaction held way too much truth in it and she furrowed her brows with concern.
“Rae,” she said, watching Raelyn look up at her, “did Hoseok really give that to you?”
Even though Raelyn said nothing, her silence spoke volumes. It was no secret between the three of them, not anymore. She’d laid it all out there for them to poke at and analyze and they all agreed that she’d done the right thing. Raelyn was a nurse and dealing with that sort of business was messy. Being the boss’s girl only made her job harder and from what she told them, the struggle was too real back in those days – before she really even knew either of them. Anastasia remembered a night when Raelyn confessed that had she been friends with them back then, she may have been able to handle the stress of that life – of the responsibilities of being a “Hyungsoo-nim”.
The pocket of her apron vibrated, and she fished out her phone, spying the screen and seeing that it was a message from Seokjin.
Seokjin: Thanks for all your help this week. It’s a shame I couldn’t take you out to celebrate tonight. I hope you’re having a good time with your friends. I’ll see you in the morning.
She smiled, thinking on what to say back to him in response.
“So, are you two back together or what?”
Anastasia sighed as she looked at Eden, dropping her phone back into her apron pocket. Whatever she was about to say was knocked from her brain at the suddenness of the question, even though it wasn’t even directed toward her. “Eden Unnie…”
She just shrugged, draining her glass. “What? It’s a legitimate question.”
“No, we’re not.” Raelyn pressed a hand to her forehead. “We can’t. I can’t.” Her hand pressed against her top where the pendant was hidden beneath. “I don’t even know why he left this with me.”
Eden snorted. “Who knows what those fuckin’ jackasses are up to?” Her eyes narrowed. “Part of me doesn’t even want to know.”
Again, Anastasia only sighed as she turned back to the kitchen counter to stir the rice in the cooker. The roast she had in the oven was about to finish, according to the timer she’d set earlier, and she was already slipping her hands into a pair of oven mittens. None of the women said anything and she knew she had to be the one to break the silence. Especially since there was an aspect of that world that neither woman seemed to know about. Not yet, anyway.
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you guys this,” she began, leaning forward to open up the oven and pull out the dish, “but the boys are going straight.”
She rested the dish on the counter to let it cool, taking the mittens off and shoving them into the front pocket of her apron. When she turned around, however, she was shocked to see the unbothered expressions on both Raelyn and Eden’s faces. For a moment, she couldn’t say anything and neither did they. Finally, Anastasia couldn’t take it anymore.
“What? Why are you both lookin’ at me like that?”
Raelyn was the first to speak.
“Do you know how many years they’ve been sayin’ that shit?”
Eden rolled her eyes.
“That’s what they all say. It’s all a bunch of bullshit in the end.”
She blinked, not sure if she was more shocked by their disbelief in what she was telling them or how they seemed almost indifferent.
“Guys, I’m serious.” They gave her another look, as if they weren’t about to indulge her on whatever whim she was attempting to have. Anastasia pouted. “I work for one of their companies now. I was in Busan earlier this week helping Seokjin manage their accounts after they consolidated a lot of their assets.”
This time, they gave her a curious look, looked at each other, and then looked back at her.
“Wait, hold up,” Raelyn finally said, holding a hand in front of her as if she were stopping someone from continuing further, “do what now?”
“You’re managing mafia accounts, Ana?” Eden’s voice rose an octave, her body rising from the chair in tandem, “like some kinda fuckin’ bookie? Are you crazy, woman?!”
She waved her hand back and forth while shaking her head. “Nononono! That’s what I meant, though.” Anastasia leaned forward, her friends doing the same as their faces were inches apart from each other. “They’re forreal goin’ straight. Like, the money’s clean and they’ve been liquidating assets they have from so many different areas. Not just here in Korea, either. They apparently have deals they’ve had set up in the States, too. Contracts and shit. I’m not playing.”
Eden’s eyes narrowed as something appeared to cross her mind. She leaned back, folding her arms across her chest. “So that’s what he was up to…”
Both Raelyn and she gave their friend a look. “What who was up to?”
“…nothin’. Don’t worry about it.” Anastasia blinked when Eden lifted her gaze to meet hers. “It looks pretty solid?” She nodded and saw the mixed girl cast a sidelong glance to Raelyn. “And what are you plannin’ to do, Unnie?”
Raelyn face twisted into one of confusion. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“What are you gonna do if it’s true? If they go straight, then that means you wouldn’t have to sacrifice your freedom anymore.” Eden narrowed her eyes slightly. “That was the whole reason why you ended things with Hoseok, isn’t it? Why do you keep pushing Taehyung away from you?”
Anastasia watched Raelyn stammer, like she was scrambling to grasp the words that were fluttering away from her and into the sky.
“W-Well, what about you?!”
“What about me?” Scoffing, Eden shrugged. “I didn’t even know one was involved with the mafia for nearly five years and the other told me outright that he was a gangpae. Straight, crooked. Doesn’t make a goddamn difference to me, apparently. What is there to fuckin’ talk about?”
Anastasia seemed to understand what Raelyn was trying to say and she sighed, moving through the kitchen to fetch plates and utensils. “She’s talking about what you’re gonna do about Yoongi and Jungkook…”
“I still don’t know what you’re gettin’ at.”
“Do you still have feelings for Yoongi and does knowing he’s trying to go straight make a difference?”
Raelyn nodded as Anastasia set their plates in front of them. “And what about Jungkook? …you let him stay with you for a couple of days. Is something there? Does knowing he and Yoongi are brothers, so to speak, affect that at all?”
For a moment, Eden looked between them and then she angrily downed her drink. “When did this start being about me? Mind your own goddamn business, you fuckin’ busybodies!”
Anastasia laughed and Raelyn followed suit. It was clear they’d riled Eden up to the point of her lashing out now and while they knew not to take her barbarous words to heart, they knew when to let off the gas and pump the brakes. They all agreed that they would cross those bridges when they came to it, promising to stick together when shit inadvertently hit the fan.
Because they all knew that it would.
There was a lingering concern in the back of Anastasia’s mind, however. Something she couldn’t quite shake. For every choice that was made, there was always a consequence. Cause and effect. It was both scientific and human nature to react in response to an action.
Her brows furrowed.
…how big will the butterfly effect be this time?