Jungkook sat on the chair in the familiar office, his eyes scanning the room. It looked almost exactly the same as it had the last time he was here. The dark wood-paneled walls, the soft amber lighting, and the faint scent of cigars and leather—all of it was too familiar. He’d hoped that his last visit would have been just that: the last. But fate, or perhaps his own decisions, had brought him back here.

He exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening as he glanced across the desk at Marco Hale.

The way Marco sat—calm, almost casual, with his legs crossed and one hand resting lightly on the edge of the desk—might have made this meeting seem ordinary to an outsider. But Jungkook knew better. There was nothing normal about this.

And yet, he didn’t care. He wasn’t here to analyze Marco’s movements or play his games. He was here to get this over with as quickly as possible. 

Marco leaned forward slightly and slid a stack of documents across the desk toward him, the movement left a faint echoing of papers as they landed in front of Jungkook. “So?” Marco prompted.

Jungkook’s jaw tensed as he stared at the documents. He didn’t need to open them to know what they contained. He’d seen these documents before, years ago, though he hadn’t wanted to be involved even then. But he had agreed, back then, for reasons he wasn’t entirely proud of—whether it was a favour to Marco, a failure to understand the depth of what he was getting into, or something he wanted in return, it hardly mattered now.