Areum was surprised to see Luhan that evening. He entered her room with a scowl on his face. Holding a tray of sandwiches, he approached the girl.

“I can’t believe what Kris said,” he growled. He set the tray on the bed and sat down next to it. He turned his head to glare at the girl. “It doesn’t make sense, yet it does.” He looked both angry and confused. “And the Underground World’s news warehouse doesn’t lie.”

“I… I don’t understand any of this,” Areum mumbled. Her chin was resting on her folded hands.

Luhan narrowed his eyes. “Of course you don’t. You were only dragged into this mess because of your brother.” He spat out the word “brother.”

Areum gave him a warning look. “Don’t speak badly about Joonmyeon Oppa.”

The boy rolled his eyes. “He and his gang may have misdirected their anger, but it still left us to deal with a load of a mess.”

Furrowing her brow, Areum stared curiously at Luhan. “You know, it’s the first time you’ve ever spoke so much to me without being too mean.”

“Being too mean?” Luhan repeated. He gaped at her.

Areum nodded furiously. “If you don’t scowl as much, you look pretty nice. I mean, it doesn’t seem like you’re a bad guy on the inside, and if you start smiling, you’ll leave a better impression on people.”

That prompted a scowl from the boy. “I’m a gangster. I don’t need to leave good impressions.” He shoved the sandwiches towards the girl. “Eat. We’re not good cooks, so we end up buying sandwiches all the time,” he mumbled.

“Thank you. See, you’re a nice person.” Areum smiled at him.

Luhan’s jaw dropped. What was with this girl? Feeling confused, he stood up abruptly and left the room.

“Is she safe?” Kris rolled his eyes at the Exo-K leader’s first words. The two gangs had met in one of the peace treaty rooms of the Underground World, which was a place gangs gathered to create collaborations. Exo-K had received Kris’s call and the Exo-M leader had briefly explained to them the situation, which Exo-K now had a hint of. The very next morning, they had met to discuss what to do next.                                                                                    

“Of course. Do you take us as heartless brutes who enjoy hurting children?” Luhan snarled. Although he had heard from Kris about the misunderstandings, he was still wary with the Exo-K members. Sehun glared at him and tensed himself, as if getting ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“It’s a peace treaty,” Chanyeol snapped as he pulled Sehun back. He had seen the angry glint in the younger boy’s eyes. “Behave yourself.”

“Where is she?” Joonmyeon demanded.

Kris sighed. “I can’t just lead you to our secret hide-out. I’ll bring her after we have a little conversation.”

The other leader glared at him, but then he promptly sat down. “Then let’s hurry.”

“It seems like you’ve heard of Beast’s plan to make us enemies, yes?” Kris asked as soon as he sat down in front of Joonmyeon.

“We’re sorry,” Joonmyeon said. He looked somewhat embarrassed. “We should’ve checked the sender of the texts. We’ve caused you trouble when you guys had nothing to do with those incidents.”

“It’s fine,” Kris said. “What you guys did were just minor pains. What pisses me off the most is that we were pawns in a game.”

“Well, your gang has been deluding the whole Underground World, too. On the outside, you guys looked like drug deliverers. We never suspected that you’d be handling deals mainly by Beast and gaining inside information,” Chanyeol spoke out. Kris had mentioned it in his phone call.

Xiumin frowned. “But since it was obvious Beast was playing with us two gangs, they at least had a suspicion that Exo-M was up to something. That’s why they were probably hoping we’d be so busy trying to kill each other off that we wouldn’t look at the big picture.”

“But how did you guys find this out? Kris used his connections to enter the news warehouse. Since you guys cut off all ties with dangerous gangs, I doubt you got information from there,” Chen commented.

Joonmyeon grimaced. “We actually Bartered… with BAP.” He hid a wince. It had taken all his pride to contact Yongguk.

Chen wrinkled his nose. “With that good-for-nothing gang? They backstab not only their so-called allies, but also every single gang they connect with in some way. They have a horrible reputation. At least they don’t lie during Bartering – that would banish them from the Underground World for sure. But I have to admit, the one thing they’re useful for is eavesdropping important information.”

“How did you guys get the hint that Beast was playing with us?” Tao spoke out.

D.O. promptly showed Exo-M the knife. Joonmyeon explained in a tense voice what had happened to Areum that night when Beast had sent men to scare her.

Kris grimaced. “If Beast finds out that one of their disposable men lost that knife, they wouldn’t be just angry – they’d be downright furious. Now they’ll know that we’re on their trails. We need to tread with caution or we’ll be eliminated.”

“We’ve stepped into dangerous territory,” Joonmyeon agreed.

Kris extended a hand. Joonmyeon raised his eyebrows at it. “Since gangs collaborate from time to time, we’re able to do so too, no?” Kris said as he arched an eyebrow. “We were both fools tricked by the same gang. We both have a grudge against that gang. We both are targeting the same gang, but we lack resources and numbers. What better way to achieve our interests than to work together? Of course, it would be temporary, but it’s better than trying to attack Beast from different sides.” The cold boy tilted his head. “Do you not agree?”

Joonmyeon glanced at the rest of s. They were nodding. He turned back to Kris and shook his hand firmly. “Agreed.”