Word Count: 4,285

Note: I can't believe it's been months since I last wrote anyhting! I don't really have intentions of starting new stories, but since "Promise" is one that I've been planning on writing for years, I couldn't help but finish it! Not to mention, I really want to get back in the habit of writing regularly. I don't know how this chapter is, but please let me know, especially since it has been a long time, haha <3

~~

Sultry laughter and the clinking of glasses of alcohol against polished tables echo through the room when Baekhyun reluctantly pushes open the heavy doors to a familiar office. One hand runs through his styled hair while the other runs over the slight crease in his crisp, black suit as he enters the room with stifling lights. His men wait obediently at the open doors as Baekhyun walks forward to see two figures against an expensive leather couch.

Baekhyun maintains a steady glower, a storm brewing in his dark pupils as the male sitting across from him peels away from the voluptuous woman on his lap, her dress too short and so tight that Baekhyun feels as if he’s the one suffocating. The man is slender and almost ghastly, a scar stitched across the pale skin of the left side of his neck. He is older than Baekhyun but still quite young, and Baekhyun assumes him to be in his early or mid-thirties.

“It's been a while,” the man says with a menacing smile, as if he's a young child who has just found someone to play a game with.

But his games are never innocent and nowhere near childlike.

“Don't act like we're friends, Jungmin,” Baekhyun hisses, taking a seat across from the male.

The man named Jungmin has what seems to be a smile playing on his lips. His once curious hands push away the young girl with the tight dress and smeared makeup, shooing her away as if she is nothing but a disturbance. Baekhyun’s lips flatten into a countenance of disgust and disdain.

“I see you’re still playing around with young women at your age,” Baekhyun says.

“They’re good for nothing else,” Jungmin sighs. “And you shouldn’t be acting as if you’re the righteous one, Byun Baekhyun. Do I even need to remind you of your early days?”

Images of cigarette smoke and lustful nights spent with women with vague faces flash through Baekhyun’s mind in an uncertain blur, but his tumultuous thoughts and emotions are settled when he’s reminded of the new life he is living.

Baekhyun tells himself that he’s different from Jungmin.

He’s not the same man that he was seven years ago.

“I’m not like you, Jungmin,” Baekhyun growls, hatred causing his fingers to become tense and his teeth to clench. “I may have made stupid mistakes when I was young, but at least I’m not deranged like you are.”

Jungmin laughs, but Baekhyun doesn’t feel joy. Rather, he feels a chilling sense of danger.

The laughing subsides to low chuckling, until the male clears his throat and slurs, “Would you like to talk over a drink? How about some brandy?”

“I’m not here to drink with you and talk about old times,” Baekhyun nearly shouts. “Don’t give me any of your bull. You know why I’m here.”

Jungmin is so calm that it makes Baekhyun wants to smack that confident smirk off his pallid face.

“Is anything wrong?” Jungmin asks.

Baekhyun digs his fingers into the tough leather of the couch, as he barks, “Why the hell do you keep sending your lackeys after my men? And why the hell are your men in my territory?”

“I don’t see what’s wrong with that,” Jungmin says, his smile slowly morphing into a crooked frown. His eyes bore into Baekhyun’s gaze, as he drawls, “In the world we live in, only the best survive. There’s no such thing as rules and peace. If you want to have control over your territory, you’re going to have to protect it from bastards like me.”

“Being powerful or being the best is different from keeping order,” Baekhyun says. “Your men are not allowed to sell drugs and kill people where I’m in control.”

“You’re naive, aren’t you? Hoping that I’ll keep order and not bother you.”

“You’re an and a psychopath, Jungmin. You disgust me, and I don’t want to be seeing you or any of your men around my men.”

“You honestly think you’re any better than me?” Jungmin remarks. “If we consider what you do legally, you could be shut down for tax evasion, illegal loans, racketeering, blackmailing, and physical assault.”

“But at least I don’t deal with drugs and ion like you.”

“Does that make a difference? No matter what you say,” Jungmin breathes, the pungent scent of alcohol making Baekhyun wince, “you will be a criminal and mobster, just like me. You don’t deal with drugs and you don’t sleep around, but in the end, you’re only pretending to be a businessman. You may give people chances and spare their lives, but you’re deceiving yourself. You and I both know that you’re a coward. You being rude and acting cold is just to hide your insecurities and loneliness.”

“Shut the up,” Baekhyun shouts, rising from his seat, his knuckles white as his fists tremble with anger. “Don’t talk as if you know everything about my life. I’m different from you. I do what I do to provide myself and my men with a living. But you enjoy hurting others and getting what you want through corrupt means.”

Heavy silence fills the air, and Baekhyun turns away from Jungmin, the anger leaving his tense body when he sees Sehun and some of his other men at the door with pleading eyes.

Baekhyun reminds himself not to get in trouble with Jungmin.

“Anyways, I’m warning you one last time,” Baekhyun mumbles, desperately wanting to be back at the office with a cigarette between his fingers, “stay away from my men and my territory. I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but I will not be afraid to face you.”

Baekhyun hears nothing but the sloshing of the alcohol that Jungmin twirls in his glass. It’s before Baekhyun even takes one step towards the door that he hears Jungmin exclaim, “Before you go, I want to clear up something. I heard a few rumors that you’re associated with Oh Moontaek of Oh Corporations. Is that right?”

A few moments of silence pass before Baekhyun murmurs, “Who I am associated with is none of your business. I didn’t think you were one to believe baseless rumors.”

Jungmin laughs, “That answer is just what I would expect from you. Maybe you aren’t involved with Oh Moontaek, but I know for a fact that my men have spotted your men with his daughter. Oh Hwayoung is her name, correct?”

Hwayoung.

Just hearing her name spilling from Jungmin’s repulsive mouth has anger flaring through Baekhyun’s body.

“There was a complication and her father came to owe me,” Baekhyun explains, an image of the young girl fading into view. “I am simply not letting her go anywhere until the debt her father left her is paid.”

“I see,” Jungmin mumbles. Baekhyun steps quickly toward the door, but he doesn’t need to turn around to envision the menacing grin painted over Jungmin’s ghastly face as the male calls, “Until next time.”

Baekhyun quickly motions for his men to follow him out the building, and it’s only when he’s resting in the passenger seat of the car with Yixing at the wheel and Chanyeol in the backseat that he lets out a heavy sigh.

“Cigarettes,” Baekhyun grumbles with his hand open and his fingers slightly twitching. He feels Chanyeol slap a new pack into his palm, and he has one hand rolling down the window while the other is searching through his pockets for a lighter.

“Maybe we just should’ve killed him,” Chanyeol sighs. “We could get rid of him once and for all.”

“You know it doesn’t work like that,” Baekhyun sighs. “Besides, if we killed him, we’d have others on our tail trying to eliminate all of us.”

Chanyeol doesn’t say anything else about Jungmin when he catches a glimpse of Baekhyun’s tired eyes through the mirror. When the cigarette is finally lighted, Baekhyun closes his eyes and puffs out pungent smoke. The car ride back to the Exo Credit Union building is a long one, and a quiet one at that.

It’s nearly evening when Baekhyun steps out of the car, and he sees the wavering faces of his men as they swarm out from the row of cars lined neatly behind his.

“We’re done for today,” Baekhyun tells his men. “Don’t worry about that back there. Nothing’s going to change, and we’re going to be alright, just like always.”

Gaunt faces nod with expectation before scattering.

Baekhyun scans the crowd of men until his eyes rest on Jongdae’s figure running towards his car.

“Jongdae, where the hell are you going?”

“I have to pick up Hwayoung,” Jongdae answers. “She’s been at the school library this whole time.”

“Go home,” Baekhyun shouts in response.

“What?”

“I said go home,” Baekhyun repeats. “I’ll go pick her up today.”

Jongdae is usually one to tease Baekhyun about his affection for Hwayoung, but there’s something different about the boss today. He seems more tired, and the shadows under his eyes seem darker than ever.

Baekhyun digs into the pocket of his coat to find the keys to his car.

He doesn’t have any problems with Jongdae watching over Hwayoung.

But after meeting Jungmin and knowing that Jungmin is aware of Baekhyun’s association with Hwayoung, Baekhyun wants to see for himself that she’s safe.

~~

Hwayoung has always been studious and is never one to be distracted from her books. However, even for a student like her, there reaches a certain point where her patience is stretched thin and her final string of sanity snaps.

Right now is a good example of one of those moments.

Jongdae had told her in the morning that he would be late, and she had no problem with that. However, she wishes that the male would have told her that he might be five hours late. Meaning Hwayoung had been trapped in the school library for five hours attempting to study though she desperately wants to return to her apartment and sleep. And she knows, leaving isn’t an option, unless she wants to deal with Baekhyun scolding her and yelling his off about how she shouldn’t be wandering off alone.

It’s when the time reads 6:42 that Hwayoung slings her bag over her shoulder and leaves the library, angrily storming through the gradually darkening streets and grumbling under her breath. She’s thinking of catching a bus, until she sees a familiar face leaning against a building, a lighter held to the cigarette between his teeth and the small fire castling a warm glow against his hardened fe