[Super]Hot À† Minsung 22 ; Swan Feathers .ᐟˎˊ

I’m ngl 22-24 is JUST Seungjin lore content and stuff to support the seungjin lore content. Let’s goo!!!

Forewarning: Violence in the second half of the chapter

There were some days after school, that Jisung didn’t want to return home immediately.

Whether it was because his classes had been tougher to teach that day, or the students were more rowdy than they typically liked to be, maybe it was due to the other teachers he worked with giving him shit for doing something fairly inconsequential despite it being everything to the student he did it for, probably a touch of the cloudy weather and coming midterms that set everyone against one another. Regardless of what the reason truly was, he dreaded having to go back home with a bitter attitude about him. It would be days such as this that he would stay later on the school campus, or he would wander in circles around the side streets until he was level-headed once more. Sometimes he would go to Chan’s beef bowl shop to vent at the poor Chef (Who tolerated way too much from way too many people, all things considering).

Or, like today, he would shuffle along the concrete pathways in the nearby park. With his clenched hands stuffed as fists into his slack pockets, the brisk autumn breeze threatening to cut through the topmost layers of the sweater he slipped over his professional button-up, and one earbud in his lodged into his ear lowly humming songs from his playlist to occupy himself from his swarming thoughts. With the afternoon sunlight attempting to cut through the dense cloud-layer above his head, the world was particularly grey in his eyes that day. Dulled, monotonous, these shades of black and white that met in the middle of greys. Even the other people passing by him, others out to enjoy the atmosphere of the park, jogging by, playing with their dogs, the children roaming together, they seemed to have lost their color long ago.

Either way, he didn’t care too much of it. Only sinking into the rhythms of the song droning in his eardrum, allowing their sound to pool in his mind while his gazes wandered over the public park. The pond in the center only kept separated from those who played catch with one another by a wooden fence, the concrete picnic tables and benches scattered around that he and Minho had sat on together before now occupied by school students conglomerating together, the ducks that waddled by quacking at everyone they saw. Was it going to rain today? The clouds seemed to darken the world. There must’ve been a rainstorm on the way. That’s a shame. He didn’t have his umbrella with him. Maybe he should check the weather app…

His thoughts were interrupted when he head something barreling toward him from the gassy patches of the park.

He quickly took his earbud out, and turned to face the source. Only to see… A… A dog? Coming to him? A pure white, fluffy dog that was charging at him. It’s floppy ears darted forward, the tail behind the animal wagging happily, it’s tongue flopping out of its opened mouth; The dog didn’t seem to be threatening in any shape or form, only coming to him to plant it’s moist nose onto his shoes and start sniffing away

“Hi?” Jisung puzzled, trying to greet the unknown dog as he pulled his hands from his pockets and placed his hand between them. Attempting to avoid continuously having his shoes be sniffed as he stepped back. Trying to avoid the nose flaring, sniffing up and down his sneakers as if the dog was digging for gold and had finally struck a vein. Still the white dog kept at it, even while he tried to step away from it to get it to leave him alone and return to it’s owner, wherever the hell the owner was. What was taking them so long to notice their dog was harassing a stranger on the sidewalk? Where did they go!?

What’s with this dog?

As he kept trying to walk away, the dog just chased after and kept sniffing him. Tail wagging at almost supersonic speed. The nose planted on his sneakers moving up to his calves, then his hands.

Seriously, leave me alone!

“Skoll, no! Hier!”

The dog finally perked it’s head up and turned around, trotting away to meet the man hustling to them. A kid, is more like it. He looked young. Younger than Jisung but, still an adult, a university kid at the most? His deadened hair was bleached snowy white; A set of silver loop piercings hugging his lips on either side like snake bites, a oversized white hoodie with emerald green letting across it that dwarfed his body underneath and black jeans that hugged comfortably around his legs. The back of his hands were littered with tattoos, none of which Jisung could see too clearly as the young man immediately grabbed onto the dog’s collar and pulled her to sit properly between his legs. Clutching onto the powerful animal as he nearly bowled a full ninety degrees to Jisung, “I’m so sorry, Sir! I’m still training her, she’s usually not like thisー”

I think I’ve seen his face before.

Jisung glanced him over again. Taking in the man’s tattooed hands, as much as he was able to examine of them; One seemed to be a depiction of a single rose, with shattering patterns around it as if his skin was made of broken glass; The other hand he wasn’t able to see, too buried into the dog’s collar and the fuzzy white fur for Jisung to get a clear look at. That wasn’t beginning to mention the kid himself, the painfully angular features constructing his face, had he seen that face before? He must’ve, but only if he had seen it somewhere dark, somewhere where he was only given a glimpse before he passed Jisung by.

I can’t remember. Probably, it’s not that important then.

He backed up from them both. Keeping his hands out of his pockets as he gazed both the young man and the white dog over, “It’s fine.”

“I’m sorry, again, I shouldn’t have taken my eye off of her,” The young man bowed low to him again in some sort of an apology, head nearly ramming into the top of the dog’s skull. though his hands were still wound up tight in the collar, the fluffy white dog spun her head around. Leaning back to gaze up at him while her tongue flopped out of her huffing mouth again. In response, the man simply loosened one of his hands and started to scrub her neck, “She didn’t mean any harm to you, she’s a friendly dog, and she never runs off like this, I don’t know whyー”

“She’s beautiful. Her name is Skoll?” Jisung cut in, before the poor man could spiral too far into his apology for the dog’s behavior. But, truthfully, both of them seemed harmless; The white dog was more than glad to be with her owner, continuously trying to lick and sniff him while her tail smacked back and forth between his ankles, the weird grunts of happiness the dog let out as he vigorously scrubbed away at her thick neck fuzz; Aside from the initial appearance of the university kid, typical punk rock fashion now that Jisung glanced him over again, his apology seemed earnest enough. Plus, the young man’s eyes crinkled up with a smile whenever his dog looked up at him. If nothing else, he seemed to have a love for her.

“Yeah. Her name is Skoll, like the Norse wolves. She’s, um, she’s a white German Shepherd, she’s mine,” The young man’s clasp on the collar relaxed the connection ever so slightly, giving the dog slightly more leeway to move. Her owner ran his hand marked with his rose tattoo through his hair, a sort of lift to his chin and steady gaze now that Jisung had asked about her. Pride? He was prideful of his dog, more than that, with the sudden crinkle from his gummy smile and the puff in his chest, he seemed more than eager to talk more about his dogs, “She has a brother too! A pure black shepherd, he’s not with me but his name is Hati. He’s a bit more calm, not as much energy as Skoll has. I had an easier time with training him, but siblings are always different, aren’t they?”

The teacher nodded in agreement, a weak smile tugging his lips up because he had to agree. He couldn’t begin to list the times he had taught siblings one after the other and everything about them was the opposite of one another. Who knew dogs would be like that too? Training dogs, too, he had to wonder if the young man did it as a hobby or if there was another factor to it beyond simply training them to sit and lie down. Either way, with how fuzzy the shepherd was, with how violently she had been whipping her tail around in excitement, with the big black eyes like tapioca pearls in a boba drink, he had to wonder, “Is it alright if I pet her?”

“Yes! Yes, of course! She’s very friendly!” The young man laughed softly, allowing his grip on the collar to loosen fully. Though keeping wide and attentive eyes glued onto the dog as she pressed her ears flat against her head and stood up to greet Jisung once more, “Maybe too friendly, I guess.”

“Thank you,” Jisung flashed him one last weak smile before he turned his attention to the shepherd. Loosely presenting both of his hands for her to sniff at, and eventually to lick away at, he then softly stroked away at the top of the dogs head, “You sure are pretty, Skoll. It’s nice to meet you.”

The young man bowed his head for a third time, “I’m sorry, againー”

“Again, don’t worry about it. I like dogs,” The teacher crouched down a bit, making sure not to get too close to the shepherd’s face as he moved his hands to keep petting away at the thick coat of fur. Such a happy dog too. Happy dog with a big, fluffy lush coat, cleaned ears, a cool and moist nose, bright eyes. All in all, there wasn’t anything strange or odd about the dog or the young man. The only thing he could conclude, as Skoll laid down and wormed over for him to pat her belly was,

Your owner must spend a lot of his time caring for you.

He chatted a while longer with the kid while he was busy petting Skoll, learning a few different things. He had bought both the dogs from a breeder his friend recommended him to, and had raised both of them together since they were puppies, not entirely interested in dogs or dog training before them, but the young man said they were too high-energy and intelligent to let them become couch potatoes. He wasn’t in university, telling Jisung that he had went straight into the workforce, that he was working as a manager now, though he didn’t mention what he was a manager of. His rose tattoo, he was more than glad to show off to Jisung, but he kept his other in the pocket of his hoodie, keeping his hand out of Jisung’s sight. Maybe his initial impression of him was wrong. He didn’t seem normal. Not entirely. He didn’t seem threatening either, though.

He didn’t get the young man’s name either.

As they parted ways, the young man bidding Jisung an apology for a fourth time before taking Skoll, the teacher split off to the opposite way. Finally, feeling fulfilled and level-headed enough to return back to his home.

Or so he though, until his burner phone buzzed inside of his backpack.

L. Minho
Hey baby
hru😏
I miss you haha 😫😫
5:13 pm

Okay, now that I see you’re reading this
I think I found Seungmin’s guy
I’m deleting this in two minutes
5:14 pm

L. Minho has sent a photo.
L. Minho has sent a file.
L. Minho has sent a location.

L. Minho
This him?
5:14pm

👍
Thanks
5:15pm

L. Minho
Anything for you Firecracker
Bang bang 💥🧨!!
5:16 pm

L. Minho has deleted one (1) or more messages

Seungmin murmured, gazed locked on elsewhere, “Your man works pretty fast, doesn’t he?”

“I was shocked too,” Jisung nodded, “But that’s his job. Hunting…”

He’s not sure why he’s here. He knew he passed the information Minho managed to dig up from some unknown grave underneath the city on to Seungmin, who proceeded to call Jisung as he was running out of his apartment’s door to catch the man’s location before he vanished again. Somehow, he ended up on the other end of the call listening to Seungmin yap on and on, then he found himself on the trains to meet up with his boss (For some unexplainable reason to him), met his boss where Seungmin obnoxiously parked his sleek black car, and proceeded to… Stalk the man he had been looking for. Tracking his location down based off the general living area Minho provided with them to sesrch for him in. Places he normally went to, times, and worse comes to worse, Minho was friendly enough to provide them a home address too.

Luckily, it hadn’t gone that far yet. With the promise from Seungmin that he didn’t need his taser or his rifle with him (According to his boss, he didn’t have anything on his person himself, but Jisung somehow had the inkling of a thought that was bullshit), they had managed to track the guy down to a specific bar in a shopping street. Located tucked away in the seedy streets and thrift shops opened by older aunties in the area, the bar was a hole-in-the-wall type dive that didn’t seem all too interesting after all. The type that locals knew and no one else. Aside from the man they were currently watching, A fairly uninteresting, bland type of businessman sitting at the bar, sipping away at a beer or two to polish his day off.

“Should we take him outside?” Jisung uttered under his breath, busying himself with stirring his glass of lemonade around in circles with the plastic straw provided. Lame to be drinking anything other than alcohol in a bar, right? As he mentioned. He was a lightweight. Drinking any sort of alcohol in these circumstances would likely end poorly for everyone involved for one reason or another.

On the other hand, as Jisung had mentioned before, Seungmin was a slight alcoholic these days. Seungmin didn’t care. Seungmin didn’t give two shits and was currently pounding a rum and coke down his throat. Taking almost unhealthily massive gulps from his glass as he was glaring daggers into the man’s back. Almost obnoxiously so. Obviously so. If by only some grace of some weird As if he had completely forgotten they were supposed to be observing the man for a while instead of climbing into his business as soon as they laid eyes on him, “I just want to watch him for a bit. Juuussssttt wanna see what he’s up to.”

Knowing that decision wouldn’t last for long, Jisung pulled his wallet from his pocket. He pressed some cash onto the table for their drinks.

Cygne. “Swan” in French. A symbol of purity, elegance, and the rebirth of one’s self.

As he thought. Seungmin’s decision to stay back and observe the potential loan shark lasted all of two more minutes. Until the informant finished his rum and coke off, and the man they were watching had stood up from his bar stool. Leaving the main space of the bar to the restrooms tucked away. His boss passed a fast nod to him. Seungmin standing up as well. Hand hesitating in his jacket pocket, he silently followed the man, and Jisung regretfully followed after him. Already knowing where this was about to go the man rounded the corner to enter the restroom. Jisung checked no one was nearby to hear or witness. It was too busy, too dark, and too loud inside of the bar for anyone to notice anyway.

“Hey, man, wait a second!” Seungmin’s voice charmed against his eardrums as he passed by the corner too, turning into the narrow and secluded hallway into the restrooms as his boss casually walked up to the oblivious man, “I think you dropped this back there.”

If you know anything about Swans, you’ll know they only look elegant.

The loan shark stopped, turning around.

Seungmin ripped something out of his suit jacket’s pocket and smashed it into the side of the man’s head.

As he grunted in pain, scrunching up to hold where he was attacked, his boss just boxed him again with a… was that a flashlight…?

Then shoved him through the restroom door, following after with a scoff, “Oh stop whining, I didn’t hit you that hard.”

But swans are just aggressive, overprotective assholes.

Knowing there wasn’t much else he could do, Jisung simply checked over their shoulder again to double check no one had played observer to his boss’ fairly stupid decision (There wasn’t anyone, nor were there any cameras, but he couldn’t be too paranoid in these environments). Once clearing their surroundings, Jisung chased after them into the men’s restroom, too. Slipping inside and leaning himself against the door, keeping the space temporarily isolated; Seungmin was busied with pressing the stalls open to find no one inside, leaving the man to writhe and grip at his bloody head on the tile floor.

If they were fast enough, this wouldn’t be a problem. If Seungmin had thought about his actions more and made a decent plan before attacking the loan shark, that would have been preferable, but as it was, Jisung just kept the door blocked. No entrance, no escape either. Still, he had to furrow his eyebrows at the flashlight Seungmin had with him.

“Handy little tool, right? Sure, it’s a flashlight, and it will help me see in the dark if I need it; but this little buddy is more handy than even a gun or a knife,” His boss finished checking the stalls, instead, strolling back to both Jisung and the recoiling man as he showed the metal flashlight off. Almost flaunting the small tool, as if he was holding a machete or axe instead, “They’re surprisingly sturdy; Inconspicuous, if a cop ever stopped to pat me down; A nice distraction if ever needed; Easy to transport, about as easy as a phone or a wallet; They can bust locks, break windows if they have the ridges like this one; It can be a blunt weapon, a baton, or I can give it a fast shine and kill your eyesight; Not to mention, a psychological attack, since you must feel like a pussy being beaten up by a guy who only has a flashlight on him.”

Seungmin’s polished work shoes stepped on the nape of the man’s neck,  keeping him down. He gave another swift glance to Jisung, before threatening the man with a charming scowl, “Most importantly? This little tool can knock your teeth out. Cooperate. First, we’re mugging you. What’s your phone password?”

Already knowing the subtext written between Seungmin’s words, Jisung kept quiet and hurriedly stretched over to the man. Feeling through his pockets and his jacket until he found both the man’s wallet and his phone. While the loan shark mumbled out some broken string of numbers, Jisung powered the device on and typed in the number. Slumping his spine against the door once more, he observed what he could on the device; The pitch black of a lock screen and a home screen, uninteresting layout and uninteresting arrangement of apps, there wasn’t much to note about this man, or his phone. He was entirely plain. Entirely uninteresting. Still, with the light pulse of adrenaline pumping through his veins, Jisung thumbed through the phone.

While Jisung became enraptured with trying to find the information Seungmin wanted on the man’s phone (Mainly contacts or names that would stand out to either him or Jisung, suspicious texts, or suspicious notes kept on his notepad), the loan shark tried to thrash himself free from Seungmin’s step, “Who do you think you are, threatening me like this!?”

“Someone you will never  touch,” His boss answered plainly, stepping harder on the man to keep him down,  “Do you know the name Hwang Hyunjin?”

“I don’t know him!”

“Him? Hyunjin is more commonly a woman’s name.”

At that, the loan shark stopped thrashing. Pressing his lips thin.

Keeping a heavy step on the man, Seungmin leaned toward him. He, who was writhing with blood seeping from the top of his eyebrow, like a spider crushed beneath the step of a giant. He angled the end of the flashlight toward the loan shark as if the lens was a sharpened blade of a knife, “I have eyes in every corner of the city. You might as well call me a fucking oracle. I’ll know anything you say and do. Don’t lie again.”

“I met him at a nightclub, once. A group of us went out, and he was there celebrating with his group.”

“And a debt?”

“I don’t know anything about any debt,” The shark tried to shake his head. His cheek shoved into the grimy tile floor of the man’s bathroom; he couldn’t do more than wince in response to Seungmin’s question, “I only saw him onceー I swear it. I saw him, I greeted him, and I left. There’s photos, from May.”

“Most of these contacts are Lobos names. Are you working under them as a loan shark?” Jisung continued to thumb through the man’s texts. His contacts. His messaging apps. Snapping pictures of the phone screen with his burner phone, evidence to send to Seungmin later in case he needed it.  He switched to the phone’s gallery next, scrolling through what he saw to find the section for May, “You have some interesting photos on here too. Blackmail?”

“I was only following orders,” The loan shark shook his head again.

Jisung scoffed at him softly.

Seungmin’s going to love that.

As he thought, his boss’s scowl hardened down at the man. Though his knuckles turned white around the metal flashlight, Seungmin stepped off the man. Instead of trying to hit him again, he simply stepped back. Winding up his leg, he swung a strong kick into the man’s side, “That’s why idiots like you need to be taught philosophy in school! Take some responsibility for your actions, for fuck’s sake! Free will? Condemned to freedom, consequences of your choices? Locke? Sartre? Ever heard of it? Enlighten yourself, you piece of shit.”

With one final kick to the man’s ribs, Seungmin spat at the ground before him. A hundred degrees too heated, likely: Jisung scrambled away from the door, allowing his boss to toss the door open and leave the bathroom behind. The hitman passed the loan shark on the ground one last glance, before he clutched the phone in his hand and took off after Seungmin. Trailing behind his boss’s step. Keeping quiet, he watched the shoulder blades moving calmly underneath his suit jacket, like the wings of a swan that peel and breeze with angel feathers. He pocketed the bloody flashlight into his suit and left through the bar’s emergency exit. Escaping into the alleyway behind the bar before they could be spotted.

This is a lot of trouble for one person you might be interested in. Or is it a principle of morality for you, Seungmin?

While they walked along the back alleys, leaving the bar further behind for the filth build up between the cracks of buildings sprouted around them, Jisung wordlessly buried his attention onto the loan shark’s phone. His wallet was heavy in the hitman’s pocket too. Did Seungmin want his ID’s for later? It wasn’t his business either way. His business, his trouble, was continuing to snap photos of the blackmail on the man’s phone as they marched along. Continuing with his task until he reached the date the loan shark mentioned. May, of this year. Where photos of a group partying at a nightclub included a familiar face kept to himself in the corner.

“This is such a pain,” Seungmin sighed, deflating in his shoulders as he glanced at Jisung. The hitman offered the man’s phone, as well as the photos he was examining over to his boss. A gesture the other gingerly reciprocated, plucking the device from him and coming to bury his nose into the screen as well. Glancing through the screens, passing over, and zooming into a few of the pictures they ‘stumbled upon’. There didn’t seem to be any connection to Hyunjin aside from those photos, not that Jisung himself saw, but Seungmin seemed involved enough with glancing them over, “Did he ever mention what group he or Hyunjin was with? I wonder if he’s connected to Lobos…

The hitman nodded, “The man you knocked out? I took pictures of his contacts, I’ll send them to you later, but a few were names from Lobos. So, he wasー”

“No. Hyunjin. I wonder if Hyunjin is involved with Lobos,” Seungmin corrected him. Halting within his own step as Jisung furrowed his eyebrows together with a puzzled look; Hyunjin being involved with Lobos? Didn’t they seem a bit too farfetched considering his nervous disposition? Belonging to a crime syndicate seemed a bit too intense for someone like him, even if he was beaten and bruised a while ago. Either way, underneath the shadows that crawled along the floor of the alleyway keeping them concealed from the city bustling beyond, Seungmin turned his attention back to the phone screen, “It’s just, I recognize some of these faces that are with him. Some of them have the tattoo in visible places too. These are Lobos members. I’ll have to cut ties with him, won’t I? If he is.”

Seungmin powered the phone off. Pocketing it into his jacket as they headed for the light of the evening again.

“Are you hungry, Han? I’ll treat you to dinner.”

The hitman trailed after.

“Youre only offering because your heart is disappointed again.”

“I know.”

“If you pay, I want sushi, then. Real sushi.”

“I know.”

▄︻デ ══━一ᝰ.ᐟˎˊ