Welcome to Your Last Race (Street Racers #3)

24.1. Taehyung

The moment we walk into Yoongi's inviolable hideout, the same one I was sure I'd never step foot in again, Jungkook's fist is on Park Jimin's face. Then Yeeun's, also in his face.

She shakes her hand off. "That's for trying to force me to work for you."

"And for everything else," Jungkook adds.

Yoongi sits back, laughing. "I told you you're gonna get punched at least twice when they come here."

Jimin, massaging his jaw, looks at me. "Anyone else?"

"I'm good," I say. "I had my share already."

"Yes, I remember," Jimin says. "That was a good one, by the way."

I can't help but chuckle. What the fuck is even going on?

He looks almost the same he did back then. Fancy black boots, skinny jeans, a t-shirt tucked in. All in black. The difference is his hair – now blonde. And bolder eye-liner.

"Sit down," Yoongi says, pointing at the table we know. Now with five chairs. "I'll explain."

"You have to," Yeeun says. "You hated him two years ago."

Park Jimin sits with us. Before Yoongi starts speaking, Jimin turns to him, pointing over his shoulder at Jungkook. "Can he stop glaring at me like that?"

"I'm afraid he doesn't like you all that much," Yoongi says. "And I have no power over him."

Jimin sighs, gluing his eyes to the middle of the table.

"Back when we worked together," Yoongi says, "Hyoshin was working with our enemies, getting paid to take us down. I didn't know it was Hyoshin until I dug into it again. Of course he didn't succeed, and then... things happened and we let it be. That's why he's here now," he says, standing beside Jimin, hand on his shoulder. He's behaving way too friendly for someone who was betrayed by this guy.

"More, Yoongi," Yeeun says. "We want to know why he's even out of jail."

Jimin and Yoongi exchange glances. Yoongi chuckles and says, "He's repenting for his sins."

"He wouldn't succeed with a job without me," Jimin says. "So we made a deal."

"A deal?" I ask.

"I get him out of jail, and he never comes close to the four of you."

"All it took was this?" Jungkook asks.

"Have you ever been in jail?" Jimin asks. "Wait, no. I know you haven't. You've been arrested, but you haven't been in jail. It's... traumatizing. I was desperate to get out of there."

"But," Yeeun says, "if I remember well, you've said something along the lines of if I can't have her, no one will. And now you agreed to just leave us alone?"

"I don't care about you anymore," Jimin says. "I don't do what I used to do."

"What does it mean?" Wooshik asks.

"He's not playing god anymore." Yoongi chuckles. "Let's say we're business partners again."

"So you trust him?" Yeeun asks.

I add, "You're acting strangely friendly."

"I have yet to trust him," Yoongi says. "But... let's say we've worked out this and that."

I lift my eyebrows.

Yoongi stares back at me. "Don't give me that look. You are best friends with the same guy you've fought with for twenty years."

"He's never betrayed me," I say.

Yoongi sighs. "Look, we have a complicated history. But you don't have to worry about him. Or me. It's fine. You do your thing."