“Okay,” Joonmyeon sighed. “We have no choice, correct?”

“BAP better have a real good clue or I’ll personally make sure they never step out from their rabbit hole,” Kris snarled. He cracked his knuckles. “Or stab us in the back. Then I’ll really get mad.”

“I’ll take Chanyeol and D.O. I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to ask some of the rookie gangs to take on such a project – they have already done more than enough for now. They should rest for the big battle to come,” Joonmyeon said.

Kris nodded. “But shouldn’t you stay here with Areum? I’ll go instead.”

Joonmyeon shook his head. “I’ve bartered with BAP before. I know quite some things about them. It’ll be better for you to stay instead.”

The other leader didn’t bother to argue. “Then I’ll send Tao, Xiumin, and Chen.”

“Okay. Baekhyun will be in charge of Exo-K while I’m gone. Chanyeol will be letting him know of everything that happens, so he’ll be sure to alert you if anything goes wrong.”

With a small smirk, Kris extended a hand. “Who knew that one day we would work like real partners?”

“Umm…” Joonmyeon had told Sehun not to tell Areum where he was going, but Sehun wondered if it was good idea.

“What is it, Sehun?” Areum was still pale, but some color had appeared on her cheeks.

“Your brother,” Sehun finally let out. “I mean, Joonmyeon Hyung. He went on a mission.”

All traces of color disappeared from Areum’s face, making the boy regret his decision of not keeping silent. “What? Oppa did what?”

Oppa. That word did not miss Sehun’s ears. He knew that deep inside, Areum still thought Joonmyeon as her brother.

“He’ll be alright.” Sehun said this not only to reassure the young girl, but also himself. “Don’t worry.”

Chanyeol patted the pocket of his jacket, making sure it was still there. He had borrowed Baekhyun’s knife. After that incident where he almost was dispatched by one of Beast’s men in the factory because he didn’t have the time to reload his beloved pistol, he decided that both weapons were quite useful.

He had been teamed with Zelo of BAP and Tao. The two maknaes. He had mentally slapped himself when the BAP leader and his leader chose his teammates. Zelo looked like he hadn’t even graduated middle school and Tao always had those dark circles under his eyes, making Chanyeol wonder if the Exo-M member even slept. Although he himself slept only a few hours every night, no one could be in top condition without any sleep. Also, the fact that Tao collected stuffed pandas didn’t really fit with the gangster image, making him even more worried.

With a deep sigh, Chanyeol prepared himself. In his hand was the walkie-talkie given to him by Daehyun of BAP, the gang’s communicator. He hoped that this device wasn’t as shady as the gang Exo-K and Exo-M were currently collaborating with. He personally thought it was a huge mistake.

The walkie-talkie buzzed to life. “Joonmyeon here.” Joonmyeon had been teamed up with Himchan and Jongup of BAP and Chen. They were the team with the bomb to blow up the warehouse. “Team Chanyeol, proceed. Over.”

“Chanyeol here. We will do so immediately. Over and out.” Chanyeol stuffed the device in his jacket pocket and motioned to the younger boys with a hand. They promptly began to scale the brick wall. Their goal was the windows.

Chanyeol elbowed Kihyun of Monsta X in the nose. He doubled over with a howl. Chanyeol was pretty sure some cartilage had broken. He followed it up with a swift and powerful kick to the left leg. The boy’s legs fell from under him, resulting him in collapsing to the floor.

“Cleanly done,” Zelo commented. Chanyeol ignored him and broke out into a jog towards the stairs.

His clothes were drenched in sweat and he was panting as if he had run ten miles. Handling so many men – the three had met at least ten when they first entered, including two members of the actual gang – with little help from one of the members had been taxing. Tao had been quite talented at fighting, with his quick uppercuts, but Zelo had mostly watched from the side. It annoyed the heck out of Chanyeol – he wanted nothing more than to slap the no-good BAP kid. It was also really suspicious, as if Zelo was saving his energy for something else.

“I didn’t know that Monsta X had henchmen doing some of their dirty work,” Tao grunted. Chanyeol hadn’t either. He wished BAP had told them that little fact in advance.

“You better help, kindergartener,” Tao spat out. Chanyeol rolled his eyes gratefully. It was exactly what he wanted to say to the BAP maknae.

Suddenly, Tao pointed to somewhere behind Chanyeol. “Watch out!” he cried out.

Chanyeol turned around, but he was too slow due to his exhaustion. Shownu was standing at the end of the hallway with a pistol pointed to him. He saw the Monsta X leader pull the trigger without hesitation.

Something tackled him from the left. He fell to the floor with a heavy weight on top of him. When Chanyeol focused his gaze, he saw a familiar baby-like face inches away from his. It was Zelo.

“Someone in this team needed to conserve his energy for an emergency like this,” the young boy scowled.

Chanyeol pulled himself up. It was somewhat painful – maybe he twisted a wrist or something. He turned his head to where Shownu had been moments before. Tao had launched himself at the leader and had him under him. He was beating Shownu continuously with his fists. The maknae’s face was dark with anger.

“I haven’t seen you this mad before,” Chanyeol commented when Tao got up. “When you fight, you seem calm and collected. Almost expressionless.”

“You almost died,” Tao snapped. “You… almost died,” he repeated quietly.

Chanyeol’s round eyes became even bigger. “I…” ‘…didn’t know you cared about me so much,’ he wanted to finish. He felt touched – an emotion a gangster didn’t easily feel. It was as if Exo-K and Exo-M had become one.

“Oh, how sweet,” Zelo said in a fake squeaky voice. Chanyeol glared at him, tempted to slap him again.

IT'S BEEN WAY TOO LONG!!! I've missed you all so much! Please comment~! I would love to hear your voices again, precious readers!!!!!!!! :'D