"Korean," Namjoon repeated dumbly. For being the one that had a reputation for always talking, he wasn't always eloquent in his words.

Seokjin pursed his lips. Korean, the word echoed in his head. Korean. No, not possible. "You're wrong," he snapped, slamming the closet door shut. "Taehyung, he, she, whatever, can't be Korean. What made you even think of that?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes and grabbed Seokjin's sweater sleeve, pulling him towards the oldest boy's room. Usually, Seokjin didn't allow anyone in his personal space, but at the moment he honestly didn't care. He would also usually never allow one of the younger boys to literally drag him, but it was Yoongi, so he was willing to let it slide.

The group entered Seokjin's room in all its mauve and violet glory. The eldest sat down on his bed and was soon handed his laptop by Yoongi. "Sign into the main account," the boy ordered. Seokjin did as he was told, and within a second of a picture of the Sea of Japan being shown as a wallpaper a chat message popped up. He touched the screen with his index finger and was amazed to see that there were several hundred unopened messages from a user not found in the contacts list.

"Wow," he commented. "Doesn't this kid have anything better to do?"

"Hmpf," Yoongi muttered as he sat down on the bed next to Seokjin. The rest of the boys settled on the carpeted floor.

"Read them, Jin," Jimin said quietly. "Aloud. What do they say?"

Reading all those things wasn't something Seokjin was exactly looking forward to, but anything to keep the others (namely Namjoon) shut up and quiet.

And so he starts reading the messages, which mostly consisted of panicked ramblings. He notices the cursor on the side of the screen continuously getting smaller, meaning that this Taehyung was still sending messages. Seokjin resisted the urge to type a message saying something along the lines of 'shut the hell up'.

"So to sum it up," Hoseok cut in at one point, "he's freaked out and thinks he knows us for some reason. And he uses a word that I have never heard of before a lot."

"Yeah," Seokjin sighed. "The word 'hyung'. Anybody know what that means?" He looked at Namjoon and Jeongguk. They both shook their heads.

"Never heard it before in my life," Namjoon said. Quickly, Seokjin mentally added. Namjoon talking quickly meant he was nervous. The oldest then looked at the other boys, mentally gauging them. Hoseok had gone back to lightly scratching his arms, Jimin was fidgety, and Jeongguk seemed almost out of it. So they were all nervous. Great.

"Holy Angels of the Universe," Yoongi breathed sarcastically, bringing Seokjin's attention back to the present. "Namjoon Hashimoto doesn't know the meaning of the word. Sound the alarm bells, write it on the skyline."

Seokjin hit his arm. "Shut up and look up the damn word, Yoongi."

The younger boy snorted and pulled out his phone. He pulled his smartphone out of his jacket pocket, typed a few words, and everyone waited for the page to load. Yoongi's eyes skimmed the lines before he sighed. "It's sorta the Korean version of 'senpai'." At the word 'Korean' everyone in the room sighed in disappointment.

After a second, Namjoon jumped to his feet. "Nope, no, fuck this, I am out," he declared, throwing his arms up in a symbol of defeat.

"Joon-" Seokjin sighed.

"What if Taehyung needs our help?!" Jimin squeaked, even though it looked like he wanted to also leave, judging from his eyes glancing between the boys and the suddenly ominous-appearing exit.

Namjoon stepped over the other boys on the floor, approaching the door. "Then you guys can help him. I'm leaving."

"But-"

"No, Jimin!" Namjoon shouted, suddenly spinning around to face them, a complex mixture of emotion written in his eyes. "I can't! I'm on practically every international crime watchlist because of what someone else did. You're talking about a Korean! You do realize our country is set to go to war with Korea soon?!"

Everyone flinched. It was, scarily enough, the first time they had heard those words spoken aloud, but the world had felt them floating the air around them for some time. It was no secret that the mysterious nation of Korea was a landmine waiting in a field. The Koreans had entirely cut off communications between them and the rest of the world. (Except maybe not entirely, if this Taehyung was able to break through.) Spies reported that they were building a weapons arsenal the likes of which hadn't been seen for decades.

No, Namjoon wasn't wrong. There was absolutely no way a group of boys from Japan should be speaking to a stranger from Korea.

But then why did Seokjin want to know about this boy?