“You’re making a huge mistake,”

Kyuhyun spun around to his blonde friend, leaning against a tree with a stick of cigarette on his lips. He eyed Kyuhyun carefully and then chuckled at Kyuhyun’s surprised reaction at finding out that Donghae had been eavesdropping to his conversation while he was on the phone with Changmin… Or whoever the hell that person was.

“Changmin is dangerous, Kyuhyun.” Donghae warned seriously, “He’s not someone you should even be talking to.”

“Who is he?” Kyuhyun questioned, looking around to ensure that Ryeowook was not anywhere near them. “Hae, I have to do this. This is the only way I’ll bring justice to my parent’s death… This is the only way I can think of for… For letting them rest in the peace that they deserve.”

“Changmin’s the leader of one of the most violent and ruthless gangs in the world.” Donghae simply answered, “If you go and meet him now, you won’t be coming back.”

“I’m not interested in joining a gang, Hae. I just want to-”

“Changmin’s interested in you!" Donghae cut Kyuhyun, “He doesn’t just reaches out to someone out of kindness.”

“He’ll help you find those guys who killed you parents, Kyu. You bet he will. He’ll make you kill them yourself with your bare hands and once you’ve killed them, if you don’t agree to join his gang, he’ll put a bullet through your skull. That’s the kind of person he is.”

“Leaving your comfort zone just for revenge, leaving your family, your friends and your lover, … All of this is part of Changmin’s test to see if you’re really someone worth of a spot on his gang.”

Kyuhyun took a deep breath looking into the windows of the house to Ryeowook who was taking pictures of a cake with his phone. His smile was wide as he took them and his eyes… Those eyes shone so beautifully, so happily, so lovingly… Kyuhyun wanted to stay, he wanted to. But it was complicated. If he stayed, then it would mean that he would miss his chance to catch the people who killed his parents. If he stayed, he would live the rest of his life feeling guilty over not bringing justice for his parents, not giving them the peace they deserve, not giving them the love and gratitude they deserve.

“Think about Ryeowook, Kyu.” Donghae urged, “If you walk away now, think of what will happen to him.”

Kyuhyun clenched his fist. He knew what he was doing and he knew Ryeowook longer than Donghae ever did. “You don’t know anything about him.”

Donghae chuckled, “I know he’s ing in love with you. And that if you walk away now, you’re going to break his heart.”

“I won’t break his heart,” Kyuhyun quietly spoke, “You said it yourself. Ryeowook’s in love with me. I’ll… I’ll be back before he finds a way to ever fall out of love with me.”

“I won’t let Changmin make me join his gang and after I bring justice to my parent’s death, everything will be fine. I’ll come back to Ryeowook and he’ll forgive me.”

Donghae stared at Kyuhyun like he was out of his mind and then responded, “Changmin is unstoppable, Kyu.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Kyuhyun assured Donghae and then glanced down at his phone. He was running out of time. “I need to go now.”

Donghae looked hesitant, unsure of what he should do or say to keep Kyuhyun from walking away. Before Kyuhyun could leave, Donghae called after him and then whispered softly, “A week.”

When Kyuhyun tilted his head in confusion, Donghae continued. “I’ll give you a week. If you don’t come back within a week, I’ll leave and bring Ryeowook with me to anywhere I want. I’ll make him fall out of love with you and fall in love with me.”

Kyuhyun stilled at this, his heart rapidly beating as the thought of Ryeowook and Donghae being together filled his mind, “Ryeowook’s mine, Donghae.”

Donghae’s eyes stared at Kyuhyun challengingly as he warned, “He won’t be if you don’t come back in a week, Kyuhyun.”

“Good luck.”

***

“PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!”

Brows snapped together, jaws dropping slack and maroon thick liquid oozed down the knife that had just been shoved into the fifty-three year old’s man abdomen. The man dropped onto his knees, his body trembling in pain as his hands desperately attempted to grab something, anything, to endure the burning pain in his body. But of course, this was just the beginning.

He knew better.

The man felt his body being dragged by his collars up and then the sharp object being shoved right back into his wounded body and at the moment, it didn’t matter if he shouted or begged or whined or even died, nothing would stop this hell torture. One simple mistake, all it took was one simple mistake and this was how he would be ending his life.

The man squeezed his eyes shut as he heard a low bitter chuckle in his ears, “A mistake.”

“How many times must I tell you that NO ING ONE is allowed to make any mistakes in this team?” The man wanted to defend himself, he wanted to apologize, yell to his leader that he was sorry for not being alert, he was sorry for being distracted, for being scared, for being human. But all that came out was a violent cough, accompanied with blood splatters.

“K… Kyu…”

“Shut the up!” The red-faced man snapped, stalking towards the old man and then plunging the knife into his thighs again and again and again.

Again. And again. And again.

And when the old man’s vision blurred, all the warm blood rushing out of his open wounds, he felt his body being violently shook and then thrown onto the ground. “I want you to remember these last few words before you die. Listen to me and remember them forever.”

“You will never rest in peace.” The menacing voice warned him, voice cold and heartless. “He died because of you. You’re a coward, you’re worthless, you’re foolish and you’re going to forever regret that you weren’t the one who died instead of him.”

“And I’m going to make sure that I’ll be the one reminding you of that. Forever.”

Those emotionless eyes glared back at the old man struggling to breathe to catch his breath. He spat on him and then turned around, snapping his fingers to his followers who were watching the brutal scene quietly.

“Bring him out.” The leader demanded, “Do whatever you please to him BUT I want him alive.”

“A-Alive?” One of his followers repeated, looking confused. “Wh-Why?”

“Death is easy. Careless ers like him do not deserve anything easy in life.” He responded and then waved his hands, gesturing for the bloodied body to be carried out and for the rest of them to be dismissed.

A moment later, a raven haired man stepped into the room, shaking his head as he eyed the pool of blood on the floor. He kicked the pool of the blood nonchalantly saying, “I can’t believe this happened. Changmin’s really gone.”

The other one balled up his fist, unable to find the right words to let out.

“So what are we going to do now?”

Huge intimidating eyes bored into the newcomer, sending chills up his spine. “We do what Changmin would do.”

“And that is?”

“You never learn don’t you, Minho?”

Choi Minho clicked his tongue, “Don’t talk as if you’re one of the oldest leaders around here, Kyuhyun. You owe Changmin and I your life.”

“I know.” Cho Kyuhyun nodded, “And that is why I know just what to do.”

Minho crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, “This better be good. We’re the only two leaders left now that the food-freak’s probably rotting in hell.”

Minho’s usual cocky smile slowly faded however as he said that. Despite him being the most playful and sly one amongst the three, losing a friend, a brother, created a dent in his steal heart.

“Do you remember?” Kyuhyun questioned, out of the blue, “The first thing the both of you said to me when I agreed to join you?”

Minho smirked and recounted those words he had once uttered to the young Kyuhyun eight years ago, “An eye for an eye. We never let anyone who hurt members get away.”

“Right.”

“So what do you want to do, kill Leeteuk? Kyu, Leeteuk was careless but he didn’t kill Changmin.” Minho pointed out, “It was the stupid cop. He shot Changmin when Leeteuk was trying to hide the drugs and Leeteuk ran away. , just talking about it makes me mad. We should have gone with them during that exchange.”

Kyuhyun grabbed the stick of cigarette from Minho’s mouth, bringing it to his lips. He it, long and hard, and then released the puff of smoke into Minho’s face, repeating quietly, “An eye for an eye, Minho.”

“What about a dead Changmin? A dead Changmin for a dead Leeteuk then?”

“Leeteuk was careless and he deserved to be punished. But you said it yourself, he didn’t kill Changmin.” Kyuhyun raised his brows provokingly at his friend. “A cop did.”

Kyuhyun then walked back to a table and pulled out a file. He handed it to Minho and the raven-haired man flipped through it, looking confused. He stopped flipping the pages when his eyes found a picture what looked like it was taken from a CCTV footage. It was in an empty car park and in the middle of it was Changmin’s dead bloodied body. And a cop touching his neck, probably checking to see if he was still alive or not. The cop’s face was out of view since he had his head bowed down. But Kyuhyun squinted his eyes and there it was, the first name of the cop and he chuckled darkly.

That was all that was needed truthfully.

“A dead Changmin,” Kyuhyun paused and his eyes flashed dangerously before he continued, “For a dead cop.”

Minho grinned, tapping onto the picture of the policeman with his middle finger. He nodded and confirmed,

“A dead Changmin for a very dead General Lee.”

***

“Why did you do it?”

Donghae tilted his head in confusion, shifting to sit up straight on the couch at a red-eyed and exhausted-looking Ryeowook who was standing in front of him with his hands on his hips. Something Ryeowook was holding onto caught his attention and Donghae swallowed in guilt.

Ryeowook then shook his head and sighed in defeat as he threw himself onto the couch, next to Donghae. He ran a hand over his face and Donghae caught the little guy’s eyes swimming with tears as he tried to control them. “You didn’t have to do this, Donghae.”

“I’m sorry,” Donghae apologized quietly, “I just thought that.. That you deserved an explanation.”

Ryeowook sadly let out a broken chuckle as he unfolded the piece of paper in his hands, “Did you really think that I wouldn’t know that this is your handwriting?”

“I didn’t think about it.”

Ryeowook shook his head and traced the letters with the tips of his finger, “So, you talked to him before he… Left?”

“I did.” Donghae admitted and then reached out to squeeze Ryeowook’s shoulder, “I should have stopped him from walking away.”

“I’m sure you tried.” Ryeowook softly replied, “But it wouldn’t matter. Even if I tried to stop him… Kyuhyun is the kind of person that always get what he wants.”

“And all he wants right now is justice for his parents. All he wants is revenge for his parent’s death.” Ryeowook released a shaky breath, “I should have known. Kyuhyun had a very close relationship with his parents. He loves them so much, anyone could tell just by the way he speaks about them. The death of his parents must have been a huge shock to him and it must have damaged him. It left a negative impact on him and I should have known that Kyuhyun was not doing well. I should have known.”

“It’s not your fault, Wookie.”

Ryeowook refused to say anything, his whole body just felt so exhausted from all the crying all day. Previously, after finding the letter, he was heartbroken, upset and he had never felt so betrayed in his whole life. But after so long of crying, he felt like his feelings had grown numb. Rather than feeling saddened by his boyfriend leaving, Ryeowook wanted to know why, why had Kyuhyun changed so much, why did he really needed to seek revenge? The police were working on it, why couldn’t Kyuhyun just wait? Ryeowook imagined himself as Kyuhyun and he figured, he would be mad and he would want answers. Ryeowook knew Kyuhyun too well anyway. Kyuhyun was always the type that took matters into his own hands. He probably got tired and fed up with the police not providing him enough information about the bastards that killed his parents and it was time Kyuhyun took action. Slowly, Ryeowook started to reason out why Kyuhyun had to leave.

Ryeowook knew Kyuhyun too well to be mad at him. As a friend, he understood why Kyuhyun had to do what he did. As a lover, all Ryeowook hoped for right now was that Kyuhyun would be safe, wherever he was and that if what he wrote down in the letter was true, then he would be back in his arms before Ryeowook even knew it. But after reading the letter again, Ryeowook noticed that the handwriting was unlike Kyuhyun’s at all. He had seen this handwriting previously before though and of course, it was obvious who it could be from. This terrified Ryeowook because if Donghae had written this letter then did that meant… That Kyuhyun wouldn’t be coming back?

“Kyuhyun will be back, Ryeowook.” Donghae promised with sincere eyes, as if he had read Ryeowook’s chaotic mind. “I know he will.”

Ryeowook’s glossy eyes gleamed with a new found hope as Donghae continued, “He loves you and he told me he would come back no matter what,

just for you.”

***

“Sir, we got the husband.”

The corners of Kyuhyun’s mouth quirked up into a devil-like smirk. He nodded, signalling the boys to bring the victim in. Minho who was leaning against the wall however raised his hand and shook his head, chuckling as he demanded the boys to,

“Make him bleed a little first and then dump him in the basement,”

The boys nodded their heads and headed out of the door and Kyuhyun laughed, crossing his arms in amusement. “For once, I’m liking your plan - Kidnapping the cop’s lover and blackmailing him into meeting us and then killing the poor little guy when the cop arrives - You’re really thinking just like Changmin.”

“Love is only for the weak,” Minho pursed his lips, “When you give a part of your heart to someone else, you’re being absolutely foolish.”

At this, Kyuhyun remained silent. Because for a long time now… His heart…

“Changmin would always say that,” Minho reminded Kyuhyun and then observed him with an intense stare, “I hope you remember that, Kyuhyun. People like us, we’re strong and nothing and no one can get in our way.”

Feeling uncomfortable with Minho’s sudden shift in behaviour, Kyuhyun raised his brows, “Why are you telling me this, man?”

 “You’ll find out soon enough, Kyuhyun.” Minho grinned as he walked to Kyuhyun and patted his chest, whispering into Kyuhyun’s ears,

“It’s amazing isn’t it, how small the w