CHAPTER 22: THE AFTERMATH

The time we spent hiding in the alley felt deadly long, it was like we were crouching in the dark for hours. In reality, it probably wasn’t even an hour later when the last police car drove off from the scene. Every time we saw the lights approaching us as the cars drove past the alley, it seemed like we were getting smaller, trying to become invisible. Every time I could see people sitting in the car’s back seat. It almost made my heart ache. They were arresting the people I had considered my gang my whole life. The people I trusted and fought for. But the most important thing was that both of my units were safe and with me.

I looked at the people I had escaped with. Chanmi was drooping half-asleep in Minhyuk’s arms. She looked so small I was sure she was freezing. It was the end of February but it wasn’t exactly warm to be out in the night, injured and without warm clothes. Minhyuk was probably the least injured out of the boys. He hadn’t fought a lot, only against Eunwoo in Yikyung’s office, and then beaten up Sanha later. He had a bruise at the corner of his mouth and his nose had been bleeding, but otherwise he seemed fine. Sanha’s face, then again, was all bloodied up because of the beating he had gotten from Minhyuk. Eunwoo and Bin had been beating each other up for a good time, enough for them to have smeared blood on their faces as well. Jinwoo and Myungjun had clearly been the most hesitant to fight with power, wanting to prevent unnecessary injuries. The wise leaders. Miyeon looked almost weird in the middle of all the bloody faced people as she had arrived just at the end.

“I can’t believe you left me behind”, she stated, sitting next to Myungjun. “I’m a girl, yeah, but you took Aeri with you too.”

So she had been left behind on purpose. I turned to look at the girl. She looked offended. She had wanted to fight, to get into the action for once. And she had been left home. I could feel what she must’ve felt like. I’d be offended too. But my presence in the tunnels was necessary. I was the one who knew the tunnels. I was the one who was able to enter the tunnels without getting beaten up right away.

“I thought it’d be good to have someone as a backup later”, Myungjun sighed. “You kind of saved the situation.”

Miyeon flashed the boy a smile. “As expected of me.”

“So”, I heard Jinwoo opening his mouth. “What are we going to do now? We have no place to go to.”

Myungjun looked up at Jinwoo who had gotten on his feet. “Are you willing to cooperate? Our gangs did unite, in a way, after all.”

Jinwoo snorted. “I thought you already understood my point when I shoot my chief.”

“Alright”, Myungjun said, nodding. “Our corporation has some so called “safe houses” around Seoul. There should be one in this neighbourhood too.”

I got up. “So should we go there for the night?”

Myungjun nodded at me and got up too. “I think that’s the best option. We can’t go back looking like this, no taxi or bus would accept us in. Besides, the ride to Gangnam would be long. Hospital is out of question too. We’ll go to the safe house.”

After checking the area around the alley time after time, multiple times, we finally decided it was safe to leave. This time Myungjun took the lead, knowing the location of the house. Minhyuk, carrying Chanmi, and Miyeon were walking right behind him. Jinwoo followed them, Eunwoo and Sanha joining him. I stayed behind for a moment, feeling exhausted. Suddenly I felt Bin putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

I nodded, trying to smile a little bit. “No broken bones. I think that’s the most important thing.”

He smiled. “Good. Shall we go, then?”

After about an hour, we had found the safe house and settled in. It was a smallish apartment, not as modern or shiny as the one we lived in the corporation’s building. But it was more than enough for us. The silence in the house was almost deadly, suffocating me. Minhyuk had taken Chanmi to one of the apartment’s bedrooms and put her down on the bed. She had woken up the moment I had started wiping her face with a wet towel to cleanse the dirt and blood off.

“Did I make it?” she whispered. “Where am I?”

I smiled softly at her. “You made it, we all did. We’re safe now.”

“Yikyung?” she said the woman’s name, a questioning look in her eyes.

I sighed. “She’s dead.”

For a short moment, Chanmi was silent. Then she smiled. “We’re free.”

“Yes”, I chuckled. “Yes, we are.”

The girl replied to me with a very quiet chuckle before closing her eyes. Finally, she could just rest. She was probably in horrible pain and the wet towel most probably stung like hell. As I gently wiped her skin over and over again, she started to look like my sister again. There weren’t as much wounds as I had thought – they had just bled a lot. There was a long wound at the outer corner of her eye, two smaller ones on her cheek, and a bunch of bruises here and there. At some point she started breathing very deeply and I knew she had fallen asleep. She must’ve been so exhausted after days of torture. I smiled softly one last time before putting the blanket over her tiny body and left the bedroom.

In the living room, Miyeon was dressing Myungjun’s wounds. She was laughing from time to time as Myungjun kept on grimacing and groaning. He was making it too dramatic, he wasn’t even that badly injured. I didn’t even want to see my reflection from a mirror – I was coated in dried blood.

Bin got up from the sofa and took a few steps towards the direction of the door.

“Where are you going?” Eunwoo asked in a demanding tone.

The younger boy turned around to glare at Eunwoo. “Bathroom. Why?”

“Well, one can never know”, Eunwoo snorted. “You could just leave and alarm your gang here, getting us killed.”

“Am I the one to betray people?” Bin asked, eyes narrowing. “I thought it was you.”

“ you!” Eunwoo hissed as he shot up from the sofa, preparing to rush at the other boy.

I, anyhow, was faster to rush in between the boys. “Enough! This has to end! You two, follow me.”

Grabbing Bin from the collar of his shirt, I pulled him out of the room, to the small, glazed balcony of the apartment. Eunwoo followed us, frowning at both me and Bin. In the end he was the one to shut the door behind us, anyway. I let go of Bin and glared at both of the boys. Bin was the one looking angrier, as Eunwoo’s expression had become blank.

“I have no idea why you two hate each other”, I stated. “It’s fine, you don’t have to like each other. But for everyone’s sake, just stop fighting all the time. I’m tired of it. Sort out your feud. Now.”

Bin crossed his arms against his chest, Eunwoo looked down. Both of them seemed to not like the idea. I shook my head and cleared my throat with a demanding tone. My eyes didn’t leave the two boys until they hesitantly, unwillingly, turned to look at each other.

“You do realize this is all your fault, right?” Eunwoo asked with narrow eyes.

“Me? You should stop always blaming me!” Bin shouted at the other boy.

It was like there were laser beams between the two boy’s eyes, that’s how poisonous the glares looked. I couldn’t help but to sigh as I stepped back a little bit. Would this ever work out?

“Why do you keep messing up my life?” Eunwoo hissed. “I was living so well before the whole contract happened.”

“You’re the one who messed up my life!” Bin yelled. “You’re the one who betrayed me!”

Eunwoo didn’t respond. He just glared at the boy. I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable since the fight was getting deeper, to the personal level. I felt like I was intruding. But then again, I was the one who brought them to this situation so I had the right to be there. Besides, I had been listening to this fight for weeks, I wanted to know what it all was about.

“Imagine going to the graduation alone, beaten up and betrayed” Bin continued. I noticed his eyes were getting teary. “You didn’t have to turn your back to me even if we were in different gangs. We didn’t have to be enemies!”

Eunwoo frowned. “I’m the one who felt betrayed. You could’ve told me earlier!”

“You were betrayed?” Bin repeated, squinting his eyes in disbelief. “You revealed my biggest secrets. How do you think I felt when random guys come running at me, calling me gay and beating me up? I felt pretty betrayed at that point.”

I blinked my eyes. Oh. The situation was clearing in front of my eyes. Bin was gay. They were best friends and only Eunwoo knew the fact. Then they realized they were in different gangs, basically enemies. Eunwoo got shocked and revealed his secret. Bin got beaten up. And from that day they hated each other. Eunwoo had been taught to hate other gang’s members, just as I had been. Being friends with an “enemy” would’ve not been an option for him. I sighed. What a mess.

“It took me months to get over it”, Bin yelled. The first tear fell down his cheek. He was close to a breakdown.

“You’re not the only one!” Eunwoo shouted – or, it was more of a scream. “I lost my best friend. I was so angry, I still am.”

At this point the tears were already flowing down Bin’s cheeks. “But we didn’t have to become enemies.”

I glanced at Eunwoo. He had started looking a little bit uncomfortable. Like he was fighting back tears too, not knowing what to say anymore. I frowned a little bit. I just wished the situation would end soon. It wasn’t like I could just leave the balcony.

“Say something”, Bin sobbed through his tears.

I noticed the corner of Eunwoo’s mouth curving downwards. He really was fighting his tears. I sighed and looked down.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, voice cracking a little bit.

“Anything”, Bin cried out. “Let’s just not fight anymore. I’m tired.”

I glanced up at the boys. Was the tension toning down a little bit? I turned to look at Eunwoo, and for my surprise, he let one lonely tear fall down his cheek. My eyes widened. I had never seen Eunwoo cry before and I had known him since we were children.

“I’m sorry.”

The words broke the tension, the silence, everything. Bin sniffed and took a step towards his old – possibly reunited – friend. “So am I”, he sobbed quietly.

“I’m so sorry”, Eunwoo repeated his words, this time more loudly, and he looked into the eyes of the younger boy.

Bin rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the older boy, pulling him into a tight hug, sobbing loudly. That was the last spike for Eunwoo, and he broke down in tears as well. I stood at the door of the balcony awkwardly, looking at the two boys hugging each other, crying and repeating apologies. It was sweet, but I strongly felt like I was not very necessary in this moment. I slowly approached the door, pulling the handle. The sound alerted the boys who awkwardly broke the hug and glanced at me, embarrassed. I smiled a little bit and opened the door, going in first. The boys followed behind me pretty quickly. Myungjun and Jinwoo were glancing at the boys curiously, surprised to see them actually reunited.

I headed to the bathroom, gathering my courage to actually look at my reflection from the mirror. As I finally opened my eyes, I couldn’t stop myself from gasping breathily. I could only see small spots of my skin here and there, everything else was covered in blood. I knew it all wasn’t from me, but also from Yikyung and Myungjun, Chanmi even. But the sight still shocked me. I quickly let the water flow and rinsed my skin as much as I could – gently enough so it wouldn’t sting or hurt too much. The water that was going down from the drain was completely red.

After a while of rinsing, I could finally see my skin again. I had a bruise around my eye, small cuts over my left cheek, and my nose had been bleeding. It did still hurt, but it wasn’t broken, fortunately. The biggest injury was, anyhow, my chin that had opened when Yikyung had pushed me down. There was a crust covering the wound but I still frowned looking at it. I sighed as I glanced at my arms. They were all bruised. It would take weeks for all of my injuries to heal completely. I’d need a lot of makeup before going out to the public.

As I headed out of the bathroom, all of the tension in the living room seemed to have lapsed. Everybody was sitting down, not glaring around, not making threats or doubting others. The silence, anyhow, was still very awkward. I just needed to break it.

“So”, I started quietly as I sat down to the sofa, next to Minhyuk. “What now?”

I glanced at Jinwoo who was shrugging his shoulders, looking like he was at loss. He had no idea what to do now. His home would probably be permanently closed by the police, everyone in the tunnels was probably arrested already, and he had no chief to serve. The same applied for Eunwoo and Sanha too. They were basically homeless, they weren’t educated, they couldn’t get jobs…

“Maybe…”, Minhyuk said. “Maybe we could ask if Mr. Kim would help them. Let them stay for a while or something.”

I tilted my head. The man was so extremely sweet and kind I didn’t hesitate to believe that even for one second. He probably thought of my previous unit as “victims”, like he thought of me as well. He’d grow fond of them and take them under his wing. The scenario looked pretty good on my mind. Why wouldn’t that work?

“I’m not sure”, Eunwoo opened his mouth, looking a little bit hesitant. “Yikyung said a lot of things about them.”

Jinwoo cleared his throat. “She probably lied about a lot of things. You saw her. She had lost her mind. And since Aeri seems to live quite happily with these people… maybe we could try asking if we could too.”

I flashed the boy a small smile and nodded. He had gotten the point. Good. I turned to look at Eunwoo, who was still looking a little bit puzzled, but Bin poked him with his elbow, frowning at the older a little bit. It was like Bin was reminding him that the younger boy was part of “them”.  Eunwoo looked at the boy for a short moment before sighing at nodding at Jinwoo. It was almost amusing to see that Eunwoo had become the closest subordinate for Jinwoo after I had left. Jinwoo had always listened to my opinion before making decisions. Now he was doing the exact same with Eunwoo.

“Alright then”, Myungjun said. “I think we should sleep. It’s late.”

His words got people getting up, stretching and preparing to go to bed. I noticed Minhyuk eyeing Sanha curiously. The boy had been sitting alone in an armchair in the corner of the living room, not saying one word. He had clearly been shocked deeply about Yikyung’s death. Of course, the boy wasn’t there to see the woman’s worst doings, he didn’t know she had killed the former chief, he didn’t think of her as badly as the rest of us did. And he probably hadn’t ever seen a person die before.

“Hey”, Minhyuk said and poked the boy’s shoulder.

Sanha looked up at the other boy, frowning a little bit. “What?”

“You’re Sanha, right?” Minhyuk asked. “Try to cheer up a little bit.”

The boy looked away, letting out a sigh. Minhyuk snorted and tilted his head. “Are you going to sleep in the chair? You’re going to be stiff in the morning.”

Sanha didn’t respond, kept on looking at the other direction. For a moment, Minhyuk stood in front of him, waiting if he’d open his mouth or move, but in the end, the boy gave up and with a sigh, walked away. I stood at the door of the living room, looking at the young boy. I pitied him. He was so young, barely graduated middle school. He was not an experienced fighter, his missions had probably never even included violence. Besides, he had been part of the unit only for a few weeks. And he had already witnessed his chief dying. I let out a sigh and looked down. Then the sound of the boy getting up from the chair got me out of my thoughts and I smiled a little bit as the boy lied down again, this time on the sofa.

“Aeri.”

I got startled at the sudden sound and turned around quickly. Myungjun was standing there, looking better than before. He had washed himself too, so there was no blood on his skin. The wound on his neck was disinfected and there was a big bandage put over it. To think that without me this whole situation wouldn’t have occurred. None of my friends would have suffered.

“Can we talk?” Myungjun asked.

I didn’t say anything, but the boy took my silence as a yes and gently grabbed my wrist, taking me into one of the apartment’s bedrooms. He closed the door behind us and crossed his arms on his chest, tilting his head a little bit. For a second, I didn’t understand why he looked at me like that, but then I realized. I had been avoiding the boy like plague earlier. We had basically had a silent fight before I had left for the underground. We had never made up.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Myungjun asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I flashed him an awkward smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“So, are you going to tell me what was wrong earlier?” he asked, taking a step closer to me.

I looked down. “Well, I… I just felt insecure…”

“Of what?” the boy asked again, raising his eyebrows and taking another step towards me.

“Of everything”, I sighed. “I was feeling happy after a while but it felt so wrong. My sister was kept as a prisoner and tortured and there was an attack coming… all because of me.”

Myungjun tilted his head, looking at me softly. His eyes were half-lidded and he put his hand on my shoulder, patting it gently. I swallowed, trying to not make it obvious I was feeling guilty.

“Aeri”, the boy started. “I’m more than happy that I was able to help both your sister and your friends. You shouldn’t feel bad about that.”

I looked the boy in his eyes. He was right. I knew it, but why did I still feel so troubled? Was liking someone always this complicated? I wouldn’t know. Eunwoo had turned his back on me right away after I realized I like him too, so I automatically felt bad. I had never shared mutual feelings with someone. Maybe that was the thing that scared me.

“Don’t feel so bad”, Myungjun said. “I’m not going to abandon you. I love you.”

The words got my heart skipping a beat and I felt butterflies flying in my stomach. With wide eyes I stared at the boy, I was completely unsure of what I should say. “I… me too.”

As I cursed myself in my head, for being such an awkward person, Myungjun laughed and pulled me into a hug, carefully, as we both were bruised all over. I felt like I could’ve melted into his arms. The hug felt so good, so comfortable, after hours of fighting, hours of pain and suffering – and fear.

“Everything will be okay now.”

With those words been said, Myungjun gently held my face in his hands and leaned closer, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead before going for my lips. The kiss started off as very sweet and slow, Myungjun was careful to not hurt me or himself, but slowly the kiss got more passionate. I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled him closer. I started feeling slight aching on the bruise on the corner of my mouth but I easily ignored it. I was too immersed in the heady feeling of Myungjun’s lips on mine.

I must’ve accidentally bit the boy’s lip as he suddenly groaned into the kiss, slowly opening his eyes and backing away. I had forgotten he had hurt his mouth while fighting with Jinwoo. I smiled at him, embarrassed, and then hugged him again, burying my face in his chest. Right that moment, I felt very good about my short height. Even if Myungjun wasn’t very tall, he was just the ideal hugging height for me.

“Now we can forget the underground”, Myungjun whispered. “We’ll be happy.”

I smiled against his chest. He was right. Happiness.

That sounded good.