5 Speculation

"What do you want me to do now?" Taehyung wanted to know.

RM looked over at him and was silent for a moment before speaking.

"There is something that would be interesting to know. I just don't know how to get hold of the information…" his voice trailed off.

"I'll do my best," Taehyung promised earnestly.

He needed to help them out in whatever way he could. It didn't matter how hard it was, he would do it for his real family.

"Shouldn't he stay as he is just in case the copying of the files was noticed?" Suga asked critically with a glance at Taehyung.

RM nodded.

"Actually, that's valid. V, I don't require anything from you except your presence at the meeting in two days time. You need to appear as innocent as possible."

***

"What do you want to know?" Yoongi asked out of interest after Taehyung had left.

Namjoon looked around at the remaining members of his team. Jungkook and Jimin were doing their best to not look like they were going to listen into their conversation. Seokjin and Hoseok were occupied with yet another card game.

"About the frequency of matches and births in the past five years."

Yoongi crossed his arms and frowned.

"We must be thinking along the same lines. There haven't been any in our district for a while. Gossip usually travels fast so I can be sure of that."

"Interesting…" Namjoon said.

"Do you think we've finally found it?" Yoongi asked with a perfect poker face. "The key to ending the system?"

Namjoon allowed himself to feel hopeful for a brief moment. Could they succeed where everyone else hadn't? It could happen.

"Maybe," was the answer he settled for. He didn't want to get Yoongi and Seokjin's hopes up.

"Bingo!" Hoseok said loudly from the other end of the table and interrupted the tense conversation.

"It's snap not bingo," Seokjin corrected him irritably.

"That's not even the first time you've made that mistake," Jimin observed from seat next to them.

"You still love me," Hoseok retorted to Seokjin.

Namjoon smiled at their camaraderie. He was beginning to feel like they were a true family. Then he frowned, did that mean he was the father?

"No, I'm not the oldest," he said out loud.

"...I'm the oldest," Seokjin corrected with a confused expression.

"You are," Namjoon agreed. "You can be the father of our family."

He could tell none of them were expecting that answer. Jungkook's open mouth and Jimin's blank face was a hint. Yoongi was even staring at him oddly. It appeared that none of them had considered their familial roles.

"No way, I'm not the father. I'm the cool older brother," Seokjin argued.

Namjoon shrugged and returned to writing in his notebook. The notes were always written in a unique code that he had devised in case of it falling into the wrong hands. The downside of using such a code was that it took a long time to document anything.

"Do you ever think they're strange?" he overhead Jungkook ask Jimin.

"All the time," Jimin whispered back.

Namjoon smiled when he heard that. The six of them were the light in his life and he wanted them to have the best in life. He had to come up with something to overthrow the government.

***

"What could he want to know?" Taehyung asked out loud.

He was supposed to be doing his homework in his bedroom, but his mind kept wandering. It wasn't that he wanted to go out and find it- he knew that he needed to be careful at the moment, he just wanted to know what information RM was after.

RM now had the death registration. Maybe he wanted births and marriages?

That might be it. If the aim was to have a new ABO the matches of people would have to be controlled to produce the new ABO. RM had to be after the records of matches for Type ABs.

Or maybe he wanted laboratory data.

Or to know who was living at SKY Castle.

There were a range of possibilities. He would like to help out their group with this, but he didn't have any idea how to get ahold of all of that information.

His father might have access to the hospital records for births. He would have to give it a go.

Taehyung frowned.

He had returned the storage drive to RM so he would have to guess his stepfather's password himself and copy it onto one of his own storage drives that might leave a trace.

What should he do?

Taehyung rested his head on his hands and exhaled heavily. One of the promises he had made along with the other six was that none of them would take action alone without approval.

He had to lay low.

***

His stepbrother Taemin ended up doing his job for him. They were in the middle of a mostly silent five course dinner when Taemin became very talkative.

"Father, how many Type AB births have there been in the past few years?" Taemin asked. "I was having a debate at school with someone and I told them you would know the answer."

Their stepfather put down his knife and fork to give Taemin his fullest attention.

"I don't exactly work for that department, but I do see things. There has been a lot in the past two years. We might have to provide a child soon as well."

Taehyung glance across the table at his stepmother and she shuddered disdainfully.

"I don't want to give birth."

"It's for the future of our world," his stepfather reminded her sternly. "We all have to do our bit."

Taehyung's stepmother was still fairly young and it didn't feel right for him to imagine her having a baby. It would be a baby that would be taken away from her at birth, but she would still have nine months of pregnancy first.

"Didn't we do our bit by taking on those three?" she asked with a nod in his direction.

Taemin cleared his throat to clear that air. He was always that one that would be the most uncomfortable in awkward conversations.

"How does the birth rate compare to the less superior districts?"

Taemin was doing his work for him. He had new feelings of admiration for his stepbrother.

"That's a very good question. They haven't approved any in the Type O district for a few years. There are a few for the other two, but it's nothing compared to us."

"Shouldn't they want less of us and more of the commoners?" his stepmother asked. "You aren't in the elite if most of the population is the same as you."

That was an interesting point of note. Taehyung knew that was important somewhere in the theory they were building. He needed time alone to digest it.

"Look," Dr. Kim said rudely. "We should not question it, we have to do what the government tells us or we will get in trouble. If I lose my job, who will provide for your spending habits?"

Taehyung's mouth dropped open at his stepfather's words. He had never spoken like that before. On his right Taemin was looking highly uncomfortable and even Taeyeon was giving their foster parents her closest attention.

His stepmother flushed an angry red.

"Fine!" She huffed. "Let me know when I have to provide a child."

Taehyung couldn't help but feel a little sorry for his stepmother. Being told to provide a child for the government that you didn't want couldn't be easy. Having matches couldn't be the nicest thing either. He hadn't considered that angle before.

"Um, I'm sorry about asking about the births..." Taemin said with a pitiful look.

"I'll class it as wanting to have bragging power," his stepfather said with a more normal tone. "Please don't repeat what I have said."

Taehyung was willing to guess that Taemin would still tell his friends about it. He knew his stepbrother well enough. Taeyeon was the one he was less sure about. Did she even have friends? He took a glance at her and saw she had returned to eating her way through smoked duck and new potatoes.

Taemin had done his work for him. Now he had to tell RM.

***

As usual Taehyung spent the evening sat at his desk. This time he was debating a few things instead of doing his homework. He wasn't due to meet with the others for another two days.

Should he wait until then to tell RM?

But what if RM planned something in the meantime?

It would be wasting resistance resources. The other members would get annoyed with him if he waited to let them know. Well, Suga would at least and Taehyung wanted to earn his respect.

He should let them now. Taehyung took his false ID out its hiding place behind a photo frame which displayed a family photo.

The journey to the apartment block was easy enough. Now he had to get in and he had a major problem there.His AB ID card wouldn't work and be detected as an anomaly and the curfew was in place so he couldn't follow anyone in through the front door. He was completely stuck.

Then he saw someone he knew walk into view. He waved madly and Jimin rushed over to open the door. Jimin was carrying a bag of clothes and Taehyung knew he had been lucky to see Jimin on his way to the apartment block laundrette. He had no idea Jimin and RM lived in the same apartment block.

"V? What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to RM about something important," Taehyung answered.

"I'll take you there," Jimin said and led him up the stairs until they came to the right apartment.

The door was opened by a man unfamiliar to Taehyung and then he remembered that RM's foster family would be around as it wasn't a meeting. RM's stepfather squinted at him in confusion and then his face became clearer when he spotted Jimin.

"Namjoon, it's for you," the man said and RM came to the door.

Taehyung was aware of RM's real name so it wasn't a shock. RM had given him some personal information in return for knowing Taehyung's name.

"V? Why are you here?" his leader asked. "Are you all right?"

"I found some things out for you," he replied and glanced back at Jimin who was still there.

RM looked down the empty corridor and seemed to come to a decision. RM's stepfather withdrew himself discreetly in the meantime.

"We'll go to my bedroom," he said.

The air in the apartment smelled like tomato soup this time. It always smelled like soup. Maybe that was what people in other districts lived on. Taehyung really didn't have much of an idea.

The leader's bedroom was much like the rest of the apartment, dark and cramped. It had more character than Taehyung's more expansive room with hand drawn posters and polaroids pasted on the wall. Jimin threw himself on the bed, still holding his laundry whilst RM leaned against the wall.

"What did you find out?" Jimin asked eagerly. "It must be important for you to come all the way here."

"There's been no matches or births in the Type O district in the past two years, a few in A and B and many in the AB. I don't have records to prove it, but my father said he had observed a few things at the hospital."

RM stroked his chin and frowned.

"Have you worked something out?" Jimin asked.

"I think they're trying to get phase out the three lower class districts. The government seem to only want ABs around for some reason."

"There must be something in our blood that they need more than anything else," Taehyung said. "But I can't think why."

"Maybe the government are vampires," Jimin suggested. "Maybe they can only drink Type AB blood."