| III. (not so) wise choices |

Junmyeon sighs as he stares at the ceiling.

His eyes trail over to the digital clock besides his bed (9:56, the numbers read). He was planning on going to bed early for once in his busy life, since he actually did all the things that he needed to do a few hours after he'd gotten home. His body clock was probably used to going to sleep way past 2 am, so of course he couldn't fall asleep when he wanted to the most. He exhales deeply before grabbing his phone off the nightstand. 

As Junmyeon scrolls through the café's reviews (smiling to himself when he sees many positive ones) a pop-up appears on the phone's screen. Junmyeon squints to read the text, seeing that it's from Jongdae. The text reads: gramps, u awake? Junmyeon (sighing dejectedly at the nickname) opens the message and scrolls to the bottom, where the three dots were signifying that Jongdae was still typing. hey wake up wake up wake up

Slightly disgruntled, Junmyeon types a reply. I'm awake.

oh good. so we're at the nightclub right now, do you want to join us? Jongdae asks.

Junmyeon doesn't really want to go, because nightclubs make him a bit uncomfortable—with all the people dancing, singing, yelling/screaming, small fights breaking out now and then, loud (not to mention horrible) music that Junmyeon will have stuck in his head the next day, and couples making out in public with their hands roaming around each other's bodies. He shivers at the thought.

It's not the first time Jongdae's invited him to go, and it certainly won't be the last. But Junmyeon really doesn't feel like partying tonight, not with all the things that he has to take care of tomorrow. Saturday is one of the busiest days in the café, and it's when Junmyeon wants to make sure that he actually knows what he's doing. If he shows up an hour late the next day with a massive hangover, his and the café's reputation will be destroyed. Guaranteed.

Maybe next time. Junmyeon replies, feeling a little guilty because it's also not the first time that Junmyeon has rejected Jongdae's offer. Even though Jongdae works for him, he has it a little bit easier since he's just a barista. Junmyeon also gave Jongdae a three day weekend earlier (although Jongdae can be pretty annoying, he is also pretty good at his job), so he doesn't have to worry about bustling orders and having splitting headaches in the middle of the day. 

A few seconds later, Jongdae replies: aw, okay. kris is here, and luhan is here too. i'll tell them u said hi then, that's okay right? 

The thing that Junmyeon likes most about Jongdae though is that he's actually a pretty nice guy and he won't really push you into doing something that you don't want to do (he will sometimes try, but he won't cross the line). Junmyeon appreciates that side of his personality the most, liking it more than Jongdae's mischevious and noisy persona.

Yeah, that's fine. Thanks! Junmyeon sends back.

When Jongdae leaves him on read, that's when Junmyeon knows that the conversation is over. He puts his phone back on the nightstand and lays on his back, staring at the ceiling for a few more minutes before realizing that damn, he really can't go to sleep. Junmyeon climbs out of bed (slipping on a cardigan) before walking to the kitchen and pouring himself a glass of milk. 

He takes the glass and opens his door, poking his head out to see if anyone else was out during this time. As expected, he was the only one in the hallway. This feels nice, Junmyeon thinks as he leans against the doorframe, sipping the milk from the glass. He always goes outside when he can't sleep at night, it's relaxing to him for some reason. A few more moments of silence pass before Junmyeon hears the sound of a door opening and then closing. 

He looks to his left, where his neighbor's door is a few feet down—and is a little more than surprised to see said neighbor outside, one hand stuffed in his pocket and the other carefully locking the door. Junmyeon only ever sees his neighbor during late hours of the evening (he doesn't know what he does for a living but he's always coming back home pretty late) and he's never really talked to him throughout the years he's lived here. 

All that Junmyeon knows about him is that his name is Zhang Yixing. Whenever Junmyeon saw him, Yixing was always wearing some kind of dress shirt and dark skinny jeans—which made Junmyeon think that he worked in some fancy place in the late hours of the evening or something. 

Yixing also always looked pretty tired when Junmyeon sees him, his eyes slightly unfocused and his lips usually secured in a frown, dimple appearing when he did so. Junmyeon has never seen the guy smile at all, but Junmyeon assumed that he did when he was around his own group of friends. He wouldn't know, of course. The two barely saw each other, if they did they would nod and that would be it.

Tonight, Yixing's wearing a gray long-sleeved dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The shirt's tucked neatly into a pair of black jeans, and a black bowtie is located in the middle of his collar. He's still watching him when Yixing then turns around, causing the two of them make eye contact for a few moments. 

"Hi." Junmyeon then blurts out.

Yixing looks mildly startled, and Junmyeon feels his cheeks reddening slightly in embarrassment. He couldn't blame Yixing for being surprised, in fact Junmyeon had shocked himself when he said a greeting—not even sure why he did so. Junmyeon kind of regrets saying a hello (Yixing's taking a little too long to reply) before he answers back quietly, much to Junmyeon's surprise. "Good evening."

Junmyeon's not really sure what to say next, so he awkwardly stares at the glass of milk that he's still holding.

"Can't sleep?" Yixing's soft voice brings him back to reality. Junmyeon's taken aback, surprised to see that the taller male still somehow wants to keep this conversation going. Junmyeon wasn't really expecting him to say anything back at all, so he pauses for a bit before answering hesitantly.

He looks up at Yixing, who's expression is unreadable. "I guess you can say that."

"I see." Yixing muses quietly, as he pulls out his phone and stares at it for a moment. It's silent as Yixing bites his bottom lip and he taps the screen a few times, probably texting someone. Afterwards he throws a glance over his shoulder before addressing Junmyeon again, who's glancing at him without knowing what to say. "Well... I have to go."

"Goodbye, then."

"Bye," Yixing says, before finally turning around and walking away.

Junmyeon watches Yixing's retreating back and sighs. 

He found it hard to believe that this was the first time they've talked after five years of living next to each other.

---

Yixing's five minutes late when he finally enters the nightclub.

He hurries in, almost forgetting to show his ID at the guard standing outside, but when he does he weaves through dancing teenagers and almost gags when he nearly runs into a couple who is kind of doing things that they shouldn't really be doing in public. The loud music is enough to give him a headache already, and the air is uncomfortably stuffy. Feeling a little sick, he finally makes his way to behind the bar (grabbing his apron and tying it quickly around his waist) where he recognized the backs of three people who were already seated there.

The three adults—Jongdae, Luhan, and Kris—were frequent visitors, coming at least three days a week. When Yixing first saw them a few months back, he didn't really know what to think of them (Jongdae and Luhan were extremely loud, Kris wasn't but he had cracked a lot of stupid jokes). Over time he found himself unexpectedly warming up to them, and now they're all friends. He's grateful for them keeping him company.

"There you are, Lay. I got your text." Jongdae says first, his lips forming into a cheeky grin. "What's up?"

'Lay' was an old nickname of Yixing's. He used to use it as his stage name back in high school and college, when he participated in dance competitions. He was planning on not using it anymore when he left college and started to pursue an actual career, but when he became a bartender his boss suggested that it'd probably be best to put another name on his nametag since some people might not be able to pronounce his real one. 

Jongdae, Luhan, and Kris do know his real name by the way, but it doesn't stop them from calling him Lay every now and then.

"Nothing much." Yixing answers as he pins his nametag to his shirt. "What do you guys want tonight?"

"Beer's fine for all of us." Luhan says cheerily, as he holds out the payment for him. Yixing takes it from him (stuffing it inside his apron's pockets) and complies, taking three glasses and putting one each in front of them neatly. He scoops a small amount of ice and puts some in each glass before giving the three of them their own individual beer bottle, a small smile forming on his lips as he did so.

"Thanks, Yixing. You're the best." Kris says as he raises his half-empty glass at him.

Luhan sniffs. "I thought you told me that I was the best."

"When did I tell you that?" 

Jongdae snorts from besides Luhan, and shakes his head as he downs his drink right away. Luhan looks amused as he watches Jongdae pour himself another one, and on Luhan's other side, Kris finishes his first glass. Yixing smiles to himself before some other customer (one he's not familiar with) gets his attention by calling his name, and he instantly walks over to take the guy's order.

It's always very busy on Friday nights, especially when the nightclub he works serves people 24 hours a day. Yixing's usually busy with pouring drinks and giving his best smiles to customers (giving the occassional joke and subtle flirt every now and then), but he always has to double his efforts on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, there's not as many adults around since a lot of them have to go to work the following day.

When Yixing walks back to over where his friends are sitting a while later, they're talking about things that happened to them at their own workplaces. Yixing busies himself with wiping a glass clean as he listens in to their conversation. "Oh yeah, you weren't here earlier this morning when this police officer walked in. Seems like he knew Kyungsoo or something, the two were looking at each other so intensely that I felt like I was intruding in something private." Luhan was saying.

Yixing isn't acquainted with Kyungsoo, and he's never met him either. He normally just hears about him through stories from Luhan and Jongdae. Luhan gave him a vague description of Kyungsoo before—black hair, wide eyes, heart shaped lips. He wonders how Kyungsoo's able to cope with two of the noisiest people that Yixing knows daily, so he respects him for that.

"Haha, you probably were." Jongdae jokes as he sips more of his beer (his face is slightly red now but he's still pretty far from being drunk), but when he sees Luhan's serious expression he raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "Wait really?"

"Really." Luhan confirms.

"By any chance was his name Kim Jongin?" Kris interrupts, tapping a finger on his glass. "Because early this morning he was asking me where is the best place to buy flowers, and I dunno, I think he has a girlfriend or something. I wouldn't be surprised if he had one, he's pretty popular. I know a lot of people who want to get into that guy's pants... Anyway, I told him to go somewhere but I blanked out on the name of your guys' store. Sorry about that." 

"Wow, thanks. It's We Are One. It's not hard to forget unless you're stupid."

"Hey—"

"—I forgot his name, but that was most likely him." Luhan continues, talking over Kris. He grins widely as he sees the police chief's eyebrows furrow in unamusement. "He was wearing a police uniform. He was also pretty cute though, not gonna lie."

Jongdae smirks. "Well, we finally found one thing we could bother Kyungsoo about."

"I know right? It's perfect."

Kris sighs and shakes his head, putting a hand on his glass before he freezes and pats his pockets. He pulls out his buzzing phone and frowns at the caller ID, as he stood up and walked away to a more quieter place. Yixing then taps the edge of the bar absentmindedly, drumming his fingers on the counter as he keeps an eye on the activity around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees some teenage girls huddled together, staring at him and whispering to one another before bursting into giggles—making him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Someone's popular." Jongdae notes casually, and when Yixing looks up he's met with the other adult giving him a sly grin. 

Yixing shrugs, brushing his uneasiness off as he continues to drum his fingers on the counter. When he looks over to the small group of girls and stares, four of them turn a deep shade of red under his gaze. He lets out a deep sigh before turning back to his friends. "It always happens."

"Always?" Luhan lets out a loud laugh. "Yixing's got game."

Yixing shakes his head with a small smile, as he wipes the glass in his hand with a towel. "Funny. I'm not interested though."

At that moment Kris comes back looking a little exasperated. He sits back down before saying, "Sorry about that. It was Junmyeon by the way," he stops and swivels around to look at Jongdae pointedly as Yixing wonders where he's heard that name before. "he called and told me to make sure that you weren't drinking excessive amounts of beer. I suggest you follow his advice because you drove Luhan here and if you get drunk and you drive, I can arrest you for drunk driving. He also said, 'Hi Luhan.'"

"That's nice of him." Luhan notes.

"Kris you . I'm not even drunk." Jongdae mumbles (yet, Yixing thinks). "But oh, that reminds me. I was supposed to tell you earlier that he said hi but I forgot." 

"Are you guys talking about Kim Junmyeon?" Yixing then asks hesitantly, having a strange feeling that they might be talking about his next door neighbor. He never really knew much about Junmyeon, mainly because he never really had the time to talk to him at all due to Yixing's very late shift and his tendency to sleep almost half of the day. Kris, Jongdae, and Luhan look mildly surprised at Yixing's question, they all look at each other before responding.

"Yep, he's the manager of the café I work at." Jongdae pipes up.

Kris bobs his head to the music absentmindedly. "We were roommates back in college."

"He's pretty close to Kyungsoo, so I know Junmyeon through him." Luhan adds, and then addresses Yixing. "But you know him too?"

Yixing blinks. "We're neighbors."

"Really?" Kris says. "That's weird." 

"... Exactly what's weird about us being neighbors?"

"Nothing." Kris grins as he places his hands behind his head. "I just didn't know that you knew him too." 

They continue talking for the next few hours, Yixing leaving the conversations every now and then (he's still on his shift so he still has to take care of people's orders). The group of girls that were previously staring at him had left luckily, they were nowhere to be seen and Yixing was silently grateful for that. It's almost twelve midnight now, but the nightclub is still as busy as ever. Yixing manages to not forget people's orders and gives drinks to customers with a tired smile on his face. 

There's this small event in the nightclub where it's karaoke hour on Saturdays (it starts 12 and goes until 1 o' clock), giving an opportunity for people to get a chance to sing. Pretty soon the DJ turns the loud music down (Yixing is also very grateful for this) as some people start singing into the microphones to the beat of some of the most recent hit songs.

He's taking a pill to help him stay awake when Jongdae's voice brings him back to reality. "I'm going to sing." The shorter adult grins cheekily, his words slurring slightly. Yixing has always been amazed on how well Jongdae was able to hold his liquor. He may be a little drunk now, but Yixing was sure that his friend's thoughts were still at least pretty clear.

"He's lucky he's good at it." Luhan points out, as he watches Jongdae start giggling at nothing. Luhan wasn't wrong though—Jongdae was still a pretty good singer, drunk or not. He's sang karaoke when he was really hammered this one time, and although Yixing wasn't able to make out some of the words it still sounded pretty good. Jongdae's vocals were quite impressive, honestly.

Jongdae's eyes then light up as he turns to Yixing. "You should dance."

"That is a really bad idea." Yixing tells him. "I haven't danced in a while. Maybe next time." That was sort of a lie. He dropped his old stage name, but he still found time to practice every now and then even though he was a little rusty. He didn't really feel like dancing though, he was exhausted and he was having quite a hard time staying awake.

"Aw, okay." Jongdae then says. "What about you, Kris?"

"No thanks." Kris says curtly. 

"You guys are no fun," Jongdae huffs before walking over to the area. He talks to some of the people in the crowd animatedly before taking a microphone off one of the tables. He taps it to see if it was on, and goes over to punch the numbers of the song he wants to sing on some kind of board. The beat flows through the large speakers, and after a while Jongdae opens his mouth and begins to sing. 

Yixing takes a few more orders from customers as Jongdae sings, Luhan sitting with his back to Yixing and Kris slowly bobbing his head to the beat. When the song ends a few minutes later, loud cheers and whoops erupt from the nightclub (Luhan's screaming THAT'S MY BEST FRIEND RIGHT THERE) and when Yixing looks up, Jongdae's grinning brightly in the middle of the crowd.

"You sounded great." Yixing smiles.

"Thanks, man." Jongdae says as he sits back down. He looks at his half empty glass in front of him and hums thoughtfully. "I don't know if I told you this already, I might have... but anyway I've been told that I tend to sing a lot in the café."

"Is that so?"

"Yep. Some people find it annoying, but Junmyeon always compliments my voice. Though, he does get annoyed by it sometimes." Jongdae muses, as another person begins to sing. Yixing finds himself thinking about how he never really realized that Junmyeon was a café manager. He's always thought that he was a teacher or something. "I just do it when I'm bored. Do you know what's funny, though?"

"What?"

"I already knew the fact that you and Junmyeon know each other." Jongdae says as he looks from his glass to Yixing's face, amusement clear in his tone. He hiccups before continuing. "Did you know that he sometimes mentions you at work? 'I don't know what my neighbor does but I'd like to befriend him.' I think he said that once, I dunno."

Yixing stares at him blankly. "I... Really?"

"I guess you didn't know," Jongdae smirks.

---

Kris, Luhan, and Jongdae end up leaving a little before 3 am after Jongdae falls asleep on the counter.

"This was not part of the original plan." Luhan sighs dejectedly as he bites his bottom lip in worry. He carefully reaches inside Jongdae's pocket and takes the other adult's car keys out before poking the sleeping adult's cheek with a finger. "Hey, Jongdae. I'm taking you home. You owe me one."

Jongdae mumbles in his sleep, and Luhan sighs again before he takes Jongdae off the bar stool and drapes him across his back. Yixing watches the scene, amused, as Kris rolls his eyes next to him. "Thanks for everything, Yixing. Bye Kris." Luhan gives them each a large grin before walking off. Yixing waves, and Kris mutters something under his breath before he crosses his arms. Then, Kris's phone starts buzzing again.

"Damn." Kris grumbles after he finishes answering the call, and Yixing looks at him expectantly. "I've got to go." 

"Work?" Yixing asks. The police chief nods hastily, and Yixing wonders how Kris doesn't even look that exhausted. He assumes that Kris is just used to staying up late hours of the day because of his job. Yixing wishes he was able to stay awake throughout the night, and although he's been doing his job for almost four years now he's still having a little trouble staying up past one.

"See you Lay-ter." Kris grins at his own joke as Yixing looks at him, unamused. 

"Remind me how you got your job again."

"Bye." Kris just replies, turning around and walking off towards the nightclub's exit. Yixing lets out a deep sigh as he finishes the cocktail he's making, placing a lime on it before handing it to the person who was asking for one earlier. He takes empty glasses left on the counter, washing them and leaving them in a good place to dry up. He rests his head in his hands and sighs to himself. Fifteen more minutes. Fifteen more minutes. 

When it finally turns three, Yixing's beyond exhausted and his mind is just focused on one thing: sleep. He always feels a little bad for the person who comes in after his shift, and soon enough said person walks in, yawning and stretching. Yixing gives an encouraging smile at the guy before patting his back and walks off to pin his own nametag back where the others are located.

He finally leaves the nightclub and greets the cool air hitting his face happily, glad that he was no longer stuck in a stuffy and cramped area. As he walks back to his apartment building, his mind wanders to the thing that Jongdae told him about earlier—how Junmyeon sometimes mentioned him at work. The thought of it made Yixing curious, because there wasn't really anything about himself that was even worth mentioning. 

Maybe Jongdae was messing with him again. He had been a little drunk when he said that after all. 

He makes it back to the building in ten minutes, when he enters he greets the sleepy-looking receptionist with a small smile before taking the elevator up to the 17th floor.  Yixing fights his exhaustion (telling himself not to fall asleep because it would be a bit troublesome if someone saw him snoring on the floor of the elevator later that morning) and exhales when the doors finally open with a small ding.

Yixing's mind is clouded with exhaustion when he walks down the hallway. He looks left at Junmyeon's along the way, and finds that it's no longer open. Makes sense, it was already very late and mostly everyone should be asleep already. When he finally gets to his door he fumbles for the keys in his pockets and places it inside the keyhole to unlock it. After a while he twists the doorknob and pushes against the door to prop it open—but to his dismay it doesn't budge. 

"What the hell." He says, exasperated. 

He tries locking the door again and then unlocking it shortly after, twisting the knob and trying to push the door open—but nothing's working. Being locked out of his apartment was the last thing he wanted to happen, especially when he was super tired. "Ugh." He groans as he headbutts his door lightly. He pulls out his phone and checks the time (it's 3:26 am) before sighing in defeat and sinking to the floor.

Maybe he should just sleep here instead... Yixing's too tired to move anyways.

His eyes are about to close when he hears a door creak open slightly. The bartender raises an eyebrow before looking over and he thinks he sees Junmyeon's head poking through a space in his door. Half-asleep, Yixing blinks wearily at the sight (he's probably dreaming or something) and rests his head against his apartment door before closing his eyes. It's silent before he hears his name being called.

"Uh... Yixing?"

Yixing wrinkles his nose. 

"Yixing."

"What." Yixing mumbles sleepily, eyes still closed.

He hears light footsteps, stopping where Yixing was. He still doesn't open his eyes, but he has a strange feeling that maybe he's not dreaming after all. Someone's shaking his shoulders lightly, and the voice is getting clearer and clearer in Yixing's head. Groggily, Yixing's eyes flutter open and he turns his head to see a concerned Junmyeon staring right back at him.

Yixing jumps, startled. Oh .

"What are you doing?" Junmyeon asks incredulously. 

"Um, sleeping." Yixing answers, and Junmyeon sighs in exasperation.

"I know that, but why are you sleeping here?"

"I can't get into... my apartment."

"Don't you have your keys?"

"I do, but it's just..." Yixing forgets what he was trying to say and trails off. "Just."

Junmyeon glances at him again, frowning, and then looks back at his own door which is still slightly open. He sighs before standing up, and holding out a hand to Yixing. "You can stay with me then, in the meantime." Yixing stares at Junmyeon, and then back at his outstretched hand before taking it and standing up. Yixing lets go when he's standing upright, looking down at the shorter guy in front of him.

Jongdae's words are still clear in Yixing's mind. Did you know that he sometimes mentions you at work? Yixing looks at the shorter male for a while, studying him for a bit—seeing the confusion and worry in Junmyeon's eyes. The bartender ends up tearing his gaze away first and focuses on his own feet instead, feeling a weird sensation bubbling inside of him.

The two then enter Junmyeon's apartment, and Junmyeon shuts the door after Yixing walks in and removes his shoes. 

"Sorry." Junmyeon then speaks up from behind him. "It's a little messy."

"That's okay." Yixing says, his eyes already adjusting to the darkness. He follows Junmyeon to a room where a queen sized bed was located. The other pieces of furniture in the room was the large, brown cabinet on the other corner diagonal to the bed, a medium-sized nightstand next to the bed, and a small lamp on the nightstand. It didn't look like Junmyeon used the room often, so Yixing just assumed that it was just there for guests like him to stay in.

Yixing carefully sits on the bed as Junmyeon leans against the bedroom's doorframe. He looks pretty tired too, Yixing notices, brown eyes drooping slightly, hair disheveled. "I'm really sorry." Yixing then says nervously, breaking the previous silence that had fallen between the two of them.

"For what?" 

"For... bothering you."

Junmyeon gives him a reassuring smile, and it almost seems motherly. "It's okay, I don't mind." He says, as he steps out of the doorframe and puts a hand on the knob. "Just come into my room and tell me if you need anything else." Junmyeon adds, and Yixing wonders why they've never talked in all the years that they've lived next to each other. Junmyeon's about to close the door when Yixing stands up slowly. 

"Thank you." Yixing whispers and then smiles. 

Junmyeon stares at him for a while (was he blushing?) before nodding and shutting the door quietly.

---

Luhan sighs to himself as he exits Jongdae's apartment building. 

He was tired, but at the same time he wasn't.

Jongdae lived about fifteen minutes away from the nightclub, and Luhan had to drive the barista's sorry back home because he was out cold. It didn't even seem like he passed out because of the beer at all either, Jongdae was pretty tired before he got to the nightclub. Luhan was originally planning to crash on Jongdae's couch in the living room (he didn't want to go back home because he lived about 35 mins away), which he did, and woke up four hours later around seven thirty. 

Maybe he could take Jongdae's car and drive himself home, but said male would probably kill him if he woke up to see it gone.

He decides to go outside, because 1) he can't go back to sleep, 2) he likes the morning air, and 3) there was nothing else better to do. There's a nearby park close to where Jongdae lives so Luhan heads there and ends up going around to walk the rest of his exhaustion off. He stays there for a while—feeling the cold wind hit his face as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. There are currently a few people here too, exercising, walking dogs, doing all of that fun stuff. 

As he walks to the other side of the park where less people were around, he gets a strange feeling that he's being followed. 

Luhan trusts his instincts, so he chances a glance behind him and starts to feel even more uneasy when he sees two figures standing a few feet away. They looked like normal people, but had had stopped walking when Luhan had turned his head, looking around and glancing in the other direction. Weird. He does this a few more times before realizing that they probably are stalking him.

Now more than a little suspicious (as well a little panicked), the brunet starts walking a little faster and quickly turns a corner leading into an alleyway—hearing their footsteps grow quicker and quicker.  

He lets out an extremely loud yell (silently praying that someone would hear him) before a rough hand covers his mouth, feeling cool metal being lightly pressed against his neck. A gruff and quiet voice whispers in his ear. "Hey, kid. You make one more little noise, and you're dead." Luhan draws in a sharp breath and gulps at this, instantly regretting the decision to leave the comforts of Jongdae's apartment.

The other thug quickly reaches into Luhan's jacket pocket, successfully pulling out his wallet as well as the spare keys to Jongdae's apartment. Luhan stares quietly as the thug in front of him instantly toss the keys on the ground. The florist's neck was starting to ache a little because of the angle it was in. He could only watch as one of the thugs rifled through his wallet, taking out all of his bills and credit card (Luhan internally cries when he did, the card had $231.89) before pocketing them.

"That's everything." He then murmurs to the guy holding Luhan. "What do we do with him now?"

"I say kill him and destroy the evidence. If we let him go, I'm sure he'll tell someone and we'll have the ing police on our tail like we did last time." He shakes his head as if he was remembering a painful memory. "I do not want that to happen again. We'll have to get rid of him somehow."

There's a slight pause, the only sound that Luhan was able to hear was his own slow breathing and the occasional cars in the background. He was really, really, really against this idea of him being killed. He was not planning on dying today at all. He still had to go to work later and oh —he never got the chance to say goodbye to his friends. Damn. He still wanted to do so many things, go on adventures...  and he hasn't even managed to find his significant other yet.

"Where would we even put the body?" The other thug sounds uncertain.

His friend thinks before responding. "Somewhere where no one would find him that easily..."

As the two thugs argue, Luhan's in the middle of thinking about how the hell he deserves this (his neck is really starting to ache now) when he begins to hear loud sirens coming towards their direction. Out of the corner of his eyes, Luhan is able to see two police cars coming at an abrupt stop at the ends of the alleyway they were in—blocking both of the exits. He hears the thug holding him curse violently, while the other dropped the now empty wallet in surprise.

The car doors of each vehicle open simultaneously as two police officers come out from opposite ends, both holding up their guns. 

"Let him go." One of them says. "Now."

---

A/N: and... we are done!
i'm so sorry for uploading this pretty late, i was so unexpectedly busy the past few days 
i'm so tired honestly & i start school pretty soon... eternal crying
thanks so much for the subscribers & the comment !!!! they both made me really very happy

let me know what you think in the comments! 

-seokminz