Bounty List 

“MATVEI!” Jinsu threw a pillow at her sleeping friend. “You stupid piece of shit, I can’t even believe we are friends!” Matt groggily sat up and blinked slowly while watching her have a mental breakdown before him. 

“Morning” was all he had to say for himself which drove Jinsu crazy. 

“Wanna tell me why the Russian MOB is knocking at my door? Fuck! Why is Chernyshevsky of all people here, what the hell have you done?” she grabbed him by the shirt and shook him violently. 

“Puke, I’m gonna puke” he announced nauseatingly. Tae Min had already laid out a bucket for him to throw up in, which Jinsu grabbed and shoved into his face. 

“You have five fucking seconds to get up before your step-daddy’s right-hand-man comes up here and breaks down my door looking for you” she warned which really got his ass in gear after puking out last nights contents into the bucket. The moment he stood up there was a knock on the door.

“Miss Song, it’s Lukyan Chernyshevsky, please open the door” she heard the boorish man’s voice boom outside her homespace. 

“Shower. Now” she hissed viciously at him before disappearing into the hallway to open the door. 

“Good morning Mr Chernyshevsky, Mattvei is currently in the shower so in the meantime please take a seat, I’ll have Tae Min make you some coffee or perhaps some tea?” Jinsu was like a scared mouse, nervously trying to calm down the lion that hungrily stood, towering before her. 

“That would be nice thank you Miss Song but we really must hurry, Mattvei is going to be late for his meeting with the boss so this will just be a short visit” Chernyshevsky’s accent was still rather heavy despite having lived here all his life. Matt had jokingly said that he was faking his Russian accent to make himself sound more intimidating and it was clearly working. Jinsu stepped aside and motioned for Tae Min to go into the kitchen and make something that this two metre tall man would want. 

“I’m sorry about the mess, Mattvei was sleeping on the big couch last night so please take a seat on the armchair over there, it’s one of my favourites, I often sit and read there” and by read she meant  smut on her phone. Chernyshevsky carried his hulking mass over to the large armchair that looked not so large once it contained his titanic man. Jinsu knocked furiously on the bathroom door. “Hurry up please! You don’t want to make Mr. Chernyshevsky wait for you now, do you?” Her voice was shrill and filled with passive aggressiveness. She turned back to her guest and sat opposite him. “It’s been a long time since I last saw you sir, how have you been doing? I heard you were injured a few months back when you received the latest shipment. Did you ever find out who ratted you out to the government dogs?” She was nervously making conversation with the known cold blooded killer. 

“It was nothing serious, just two gunshots to the chest, barely even left a scar. Ah, and we fed the rat to Mr. Popov’s sharks, you should see them, they’ve eaten a lot more since you last saw them” he chuckled heartily. “Very big now.” Jinsu shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“Yeah, what kind of sharks were they again?” she immediately regretted asking about the man-eaters that mad old cook Mr. Popov had raised. 

“Bull sharks, the most aggressive kind of course.” Jinsu laughed stiffly.

“Of course…” To Jinsu’s relief Matt came out of the bathroom but to her dismay he was completely naked. Is this what it’s like for other people to deal with me? 

“I put your clothes in the wash last night and left them on the washing machine this morning for you to change into, so please… change into them.” Tae Min almost pleaded with the rebellious Russian boy to get dressed. Chernyshevsky stood up.

“You are being rude Mattvei! How can you show yourself like that in front of Miss Song!” He then began lecturing Matt in Russian and had him go back into the bathroom to change. 

“Pretty sure Jinjoo’s seen more cock than me and I even have one.” Jinsu had never wanted to punch him so badly as she did now. Chernyshevsky slapped him across the head and cussed him out in Russian once more before closing the door on him. 

“I apologise on his behalf, he grew up without a father, it was too late for him when he came to meet Mr. Popov.” Jinsu told him that it was alright and she didn’t mind him, she’d become desensitized to his antics a long ago. 

“By the way why have you come all the way here for Matvei, usually Mr. Popov just has one of his lackeys pick him up. Is he in some kind of trouble?” She decided that now that he was here she might as well fish for information. 

“Last night Mrs. Popov received a picture of Miss Dorotea; who was at the time at a friend's place for a sleepover, with a threatening message attached to it, we are investigating this matter but I was ordered to find Matvei as Mrs. Popov was understandably worried. Of course I called you first but you weren’t answering, so I called Daehee who told me you were under lockdown. But I see now that he was in no immediate danger and managed to get here safely. I must thank you again for taking him in.” Jinsu felt really awkward having a hulk of a man bowing to her apologetically. 

“It’s alright, really! He’s my friend so of course I’ll look out for him” she replied, this whole situation was stressing her out. 

“Is there any breakfast?” Matvei asked as soon as he’d gotten dressed. 

“No time, we are leaving so go get your things,” Chernyshevsky sternly informed his client’s step-son. After gathering his few scattered belongings and realising that he must have dropped his wallet but apparently Tae Min had just taken it out of his pants pocket before putting it in the washer and handed it back to him. “Later Jinjoo'' Matt waved before leaving through the front door. Why is this my life? 

“I’m going back to sleep” she dragged her tired legs back to her room and the moment she closed the door behind her she was greeted by a familiar masked man hanging outside of her window. “Fuck me…” 

“So, why was Popov’s right-hand man visiting Shin-Guk’s youngest daughter?” Wolf asked as he was let into her room. 

“He was here for Matt” she curtly replied before flopping into her bed. 

“Who even is Matt to have the one of the Vodianoi* brothers at his beck and call?” He sat down on her bed beside her. 

“Nobody really, he’s just the kid of one of Chernyshevsky’s subordinates, he was probably asked by him as a favour to come pick his son up since he gets into a lot of trouble” Jinsu used the pre-disposed lie about Matt’s background. 

“Must be a great subordinate to be able to get that monster to run an errand” Wolf didn’t fully believe her lie but wasn’t going to push her further for details. 

“Maybe a  lover of his, fuck if I know” she joked as she turned around to face away from Wolf. 

“About Matt, does he usually bust a nut to beat-up men?” he asked, half-changing the subject. 

“No, that’s a first for me too but he does have more than just a few screws loose in that head of his, can’t blame him though…” she trailed off sleepily. 

“While you are a walking calamity he’s more of a hellraiser, you make a good pair. Ever screw?” his real motive behind asking this was to find out if she was even into guys in the first place. 

“Yeah, several times. Mostly for foursomes.” Wolf had to do a double take on what she just said. 

“Foursomes and not threesomes?” was the question he decided to go with. 

“Well, we often go out partying together and we tend to bring people home, usually my place so it’s not uncommon for us to share the person or people we bring back with us. Don’t even make a communist joke because I’ve heard it all before.” Wolf held his hands up in defeat.

“I wasn’t going to make any such joke. What kind of people do you usually bring home?” Jinsu turned her head to look at him. 

“People that I won’t get attached to and whose faces I’ve seen” she was clearly calling him out. 

“So if I show you my face you’ll do me too? Or do you care about me too much?” he bantered flirtily. 

“Do I look like the type to mix business with pleasure?” she leaned in close to his face, barely grazing her lips against his mask. Wolf’s breathing changed and his heart jumped with anticipation as Jinsu moved in on him. “Because I’m not” she curtly responded and pushed him off the bed, telling him to get out so she could get some extra sleep. 

“Tease” he retorted as he got himself off the floor. “But I did come here for a reason.” Wolf held out his phone to show her his screen. 

“Oh shit.”

• Vodianoi: A malevolent water spirit from Slavic mythology that drowns its victims. This is also Chernyshevsky’s alias. 

Jinsu picked up her phone and called. She was met with a tired and overworked Taeyun on the other end. “Hyung, I’m sending you a message, you need to look at it right now” she told him as she pressed send. 

“Jinsu, if this is another meme video I am not in the mood for it” he warned her grumpily. 

“Hey! There is no mood that isn’t right for meme videos! But that’s not why I called, there’s a kidnapping bounty list, you, me and Jisuk-hyung are on it along with the kids of the main players. For the record both of you are worth over a billion so this is pretty serious. This was sent to all the small gangs, it seems like someone is trying to take a bite out of the main crews’ influence.” She heard Taeyun slam his hand on the table and yell at Daehee to call their father.

 “Jinsu don’t you dare leave home, after I’ve talked to father I will send you more security personnel. Fuck, I have to call Jisuk as well…” Jinsu interjected and assured him she’d call Subin since she was more likely to answer her phone than he was. 

“I’ll even do you a big favour and let the others on the list know about the bounty. There’s no point in keeping this information to ourselves is there?” Taeyun agreed and allowed her to make the calls. 

“For the record this message was sent out en-mass about an hour ago so we’ve caught it pretty early on but my attempted kidnapping and the threatening message sent to Mrs. Popov are most likely related. My informant told me that I was made a target for Downtown Animals three days prior to this list coming out. It’s possible that part of the list was leaked earlier to a few select groups but now it’s out there for everyone to see.” Taeyun decided to stop her there for now, he really needed to inform their father about the situation but he thanked her for the input and would keep it in mind as they proceeded.

Jinsu’s first action against the assault against the major crews was to send the list to all of the targets as a mass text along with a message explaining the context of the bounties. The first person to read the message was Daniel Chang, the son of Mr. Chang of the Chinese mafia, Qīnglóng. She immediately called up Subin who answered after only a few rings. “What? It’s early… too early, what do you want?” she asked groggily. 

“Are you with hyung right now? If not I need you to go to him right now there’s a bit of a situation going on. I sent you a message with the details” before Jinsu could explain a bit more she received another call. “Just read the text, I have to answer this call, it’s important, Taeyun-hyung’s orders” she added the last part to ensure that Subin understood that this wasn’t some flimsy crisis. “Guess you haven’t been kidnapped just yet” she made sure to sound disappointed when answering the new incoming call. 

“Jinsu, this isn’t a very funny prank.” It was Pyotr, Mattvei’s older step-brother whom neither he nor Jinsu got along with. 

“Damn, I was hoping you were tied up in a car trunk, a real shame. But it’s not a prank, Shin-Guk is taking the threat seriously and so should you, I’m sure either my brother or father will reach out to you or daddy Popov so until then please exercise extreme recklessness and get yourself kidnapped, bye now!” she chimed before hanging up and taking the next incoming call which was from Daniel Chang. 

“Explain this message, where did you obtain this information and how serious is this?” he demanded.

“I can’t reveal my sources but this info is legit so don’t take it lightly.” Again she was interrupted by another incoming call. “For fucks sake, Pyotr keeps calling back.” She denied the call and proceeded to discuss the situation with him. “Clearly it’s an influential group that can afford that amount of money, there is also the possibility that the government is switching up their methods to regain control of the city but it would be odd for cops to go after the kids rather than the bosses or closest associates. The more likely theory is that it’s another group who is trying to gain more power by using us as ransom in order to gain more influence, while neither the Cardinale family or Sato Inc. have children to be kidnapped it is odd that the Mongolian Riders’ boss’ kids aren’t on this list.” Daniel had always been quick on the uptake and inferring things with limited information available.

 “That is either to throw suspicion on them since relations have always been strained or the simpler answer is that they’re the ones behind it which I highly doubt.” Jinsu agreed with this, the Mongolian Riders are an MC who acted more like nomads than a criminal organisation.

• MC Gang: Motorcycle Club, in this instance it's referring to one that commits crimes.

"I doubt this is Sato Inc. since they never mess with minors. I’d place my bets on the Cardinale family, they recently had a change in leadership after usurping the former don, it’s possible that they’re simply power hungry after getting a taste but as far as I know there is no way that they have the money to commit to these bounties. Or of course in order to fly under the radar there is the possibility that one of the groups put their own kid in the line of fire to thwart suspicion but that would be risky.” Daniel was really getting into the role of a detective right now and Jinsu really wanted to make some kind of Sherlock joke but she doubted that he'd find it amusing. 

“What if it’s about getting our groups to focus our resources on the protection of their kids leaving their true target unguarded. I should tell my father not to lend me any of his bodyguards… There will probably be a meeting about this, nobody has come after the big crews like this in a long time.” Jinsu interjected with the fact that it might be a bad idea to have all the major players gather in one place like this since this could be what the enemy’s true goal is to take them all out. It’s easier to focus one's attack on one front than spread out. 

“I highly doubt that anyone would be capable of doing that, every one of our groups has at least one person who can teleport or defend against even a nuclear attack.” This was true, in Shin-Guk her own father had the ability to phase through objects and Jin Sato didn’t even have to attend the meeting and simply send his immortal bodyguard; Blake Ambrosi, in his place.

Tae Min knocked on her door, interrupting her conversation with Daniel Chang to inquire about breakfast, he must have heard her awake since he knows better than to try and disturb her this early in the morning when she’s asleep. Jinsu was going to chase him away but she felt how her stomach grumbled in protest to her brain’s wishes. “We’ll talk more later when we have more information. Take care” she wished him well and hung up. Jinsu was glad that she’d made Wolf leave, she didn’t want him to know that she had the numbers of all the targets and she wasn’t even sure if he was still going to be siding with her after this new development, he’d even said so himself before leaving. Wolf was being called to a meeting with the other big shots of DTAs but had swung by to give her this information in person. It was a smart move on his part, regardless of if he was going to stay loyal or double-cross her. “Just a smoothie, you know I can’t eat anything in the mornings, all the ingredients are in the freezer. Oh, and you need to check this out,” she handed Tae Min her phone to look at the bounty list while she went to the bathroom but not before she caught his gaze and after last night it had become even more unnerving than before. By the time she was done peeing she found Tae Min on his phone, contacting the security team in the building to; in his words, “wake the hell up!”