[CONTENTID1]hey[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Chapter Thirty Five[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

Baekhyun sighed for what had to be the fifth time in as many minutes.

He was bored.

It was the first and last time he would let his aunt set him up with a girl. She was pretty, well-mannered, and seemed to be very much into him. She’d graduated early with a degree in early childhood education and was currently student teaching in a kindergarten not too far from the restaurant where they were having lunch. She was perfect.

Just not for him.

“Be honest. Do you like me?”

Her question threw him for a loop. He hadn’t been paying much attention to whatever she was saying, but she had caught his attention with that.

“Not really,” he replied bluntly. He didn’t offer a smile or anything, but that seemed to be alright with the girl as she just shrugged and took another bite of her spaghetti. “That doesn’t bother you?”

“Seeing as I have a girlfriend, no,” his date chuckled. “The only reason I agreed to this was because I wanted free food. Also, my cousin is a waiter here and is supposed to keep an eye out to make sure I actually stuck around for the whole date. No one wants to believe I’m a lesbian.”

Well if her earlier question was surprising, this made him actually sit back in seat in shock.

“Don’t look so surprised. It’s obvious you don’t want to be here either,” she said. “Somebody else on your mind?”

“Always,” he muttered. He took his napkin from his lap and placed it on the table. “My aunt has been trying to get me to do this for years. I did it just to get her off my back.” He turned his attention to gaze out the window, looking at all the people hustling by.

He missed Jakyung. He was angry at her for leaving like she did. At this point, it had already been six months, and he wasn’t expecting her to come back. He wished she would, be he knew how stubborn she was, how annoyingly persistent she could be when she wanted. It was one of the things he loved so much about her.

“Well, I better get going,” his date suddenly said. “I had fun, Byun Baekhyun. Thanks for the food!” Before he could so much as grunt in response, she had left the table, leaving him alone and wistful.

Outside the window, faces and bodies blurred by, the people a rush of unknowns. There was a woman hurrying her toddler along as she tried to stuff the child’s toy into her handbag. There was an older man strolling rather unperturbed, hands in his pockets and smile on his face. A couple wearing matching bumblebee-striped sweaters were whispering to each other. A middle-schooler on a lollipop, nose deep into the pages of a comic book. It was all so utterly normal to Baekhyun, to the point where for a moment, he feared that this was where his life was headed.

Sure, he was part of a notorious gang that was now cooperatively managing the Seoul Underground, but he got scared. He was scared that he would find a girl and like her and settle down. Settle. He didn’t want to settle, he wanted excitement. He wanted adrenaline and fire and passion and-

He wanted Jakyung.

He wanted her sass and her intelligence and her ability to curse and compliment him all in one breath. He wanted to dance with her until their feet hurt and drink with her until she was too silly to stand straight. He wanted to sing with her in his arms and feel her heart beat in time with his. The women he met with in clubs, the ones at the parties they threw; nothing would compare to her. The women his Aunt tried to set him up, the women on the street, the women-

He blinked.

A flash of movement on the edge of the crowd stole his attention. A woman, standing at the corner, her head down as if she were looking at her cell phone. Her hand came up and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. The corner of lifted up in a smirk. She wasn’t fully facing him, but that didn’t matter to Baekhyun. He knew.

Slapping whatever money he had in his wallet down on the table, he rushed out of the restaurant.

He’d found her.

+++

“I swear on everything that I love that I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

The man was blubbering, scooting backwards as much as his restraints would allow him to. The wall was at his back much sooner than he would have liked, and he knew there was no chance to run.

“Everything you love? Isn’t that a tad overdoing it?” Chen asked, twirling the knife between his fingers. He glanced back at Kyungsoo who was standing calmly near the door. “Don’t you think so, Soo?”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “I don’t know, seems like a heartless bastard that would murder a child in cold blood and ship the body to her parents. Not sure a person like that would have the capacity to love, much less swear on it.” Chen turned back to the man, who was now shaking uncontrollably.

“You hear that?” Chen chirped, his voice too happy, too carefree. His eyes though, those cat-like eyes that tracked the man’s every movement, those eyes were hard and unforgiving. “A heartless man. A heartless crime. Pretty difficult to swear on what you love if there’s no heart in the first place.”

The knife was at his neck the captive’s neck in an instant. There was just enough light in the room such that it glinted off the smooth surface of the metal. The man didn’t dare swallow his own spit for fear that Chen’s hand would “slip” and, oh look, no more head for him.

“I suggest you rethink your strategy, Yongchul,” Chen warned, his voice dropping to a whisper. “My friend over there has very little patience compared to me, and if I can’t get the answers out of you, then it’s his turn to try. You wouldn’t want that would you?”

“I told you I don’t know anything!” Yongchul whimpered, his eyes darting between Chen’s face and the knife at his neck. “Why would I know anything about some little girl getting slaughtered.” The man must have realized his mistake when Chen’s grin turned positively gleeful and he took a step back, removing the knife.

“Now, how would have known that the child was female if you didn’t know anything? I don’t like being deceived, Yongchul,” Chen said. He continued to back towards the door. “Kyungsoo? I think it’s your time to shine. Keep it relatively clean though; I don’t want Luhan to have a fit when he comes down here to clean. It’s his turn and you know how much of a germaphobe he is.”

Chen closed the door behind him as he heard the first pleas of mercy from Yongchul. He had no sympathy for liars.

He made his way over to his car and slid inside. It was a warm day for January, he thought, but the inside of the warehouse had been cold and he wished he had a coffee or something to warm him up. Kyungsoo would take his time with Yongchul, this he knew, so he didn’t mind leaving the other man and his car there. A short drive later and he was out on the main road, heading back into the city. As he drove, he let his mind wander.

The semester was about to start and it was bittersweet for him. He knew that it was his last one, but he had some apprehension about what to do after. It was no question that if he chose to do it, he would have a spot at the family company. But that would have been the easy way out. He didn’t spend the last four years studying music just to take the easy way out. He could open a music store, he supposed; that wouldn’t be too hard, and would be a good day job while he ran around doing gang-related business at night.

He pulled into the parking lot of a café and killed the engine. Why did it feel like no matter what he thought about his future, it always seemed like there was something missing? He thumped his head against the steering wheel. Jakyung needed to come back already. She would probably have a few choice words for him about all his fretting, but he knew that if she were there, she’d tell him he was going to be alright in the end.

He knew that she could never love him in the same way he loved her. He was okay with that, or at least, he was starting to be. He knew that falling hard and fast for her was his fault; he never was good at keeping his feelings in check. What he did know was that she loved him in her own way, like she loved all of them in her own way. It was rare that she showed it, but he knew it anyway. He just wished he knew why she left, and when she was coming back.

+++

Jakyung wasn’t a normally fidgety person. Under most circumstances, she could keep still, but she did not like the way the stylist was looking at her while holding that pair of scissors.

“I’m just going to cut a little off the ends,” the woman said in heavily accented English.

“That’s what they always say,” Jakyung murmured.

“Did you say something?” The woman asked, glancing down as she fastened the barber’s smock around Jakyung’s neck. When Jakyung shook her head meekly, the woman let out a sigh. “Such a shame to cut such beautiful hair, but if it’s what you want, then I will do it for you.”

Three hours and a several washes later, Jakyung was surprised to see that she didn’t mind at all what the hairdresser had done. The woman had kept to her word. She had indeed only taken an inch or two off the ends. But more than that, Jakyung was now blonde. A rich, ginger blonde that complimented her skin tone. She had to hand it to the woman; when Jakyung had asked her to surprise her, she certainly did.

After paying and leaving, Jakyung made her way back to her car. She had a lot to prepare for, and was not looking forward to it.

+++

“Here’s your drink,” the bartender said to Xiumin as she slid the highball glass over to him. He didn’t see the wink she gave him, or the frown when she realized he didn’t see it. He was too concentrated on getting drunk to pay attention to the woman.

It had been a month since he’d returned from New York. A month since she told him she was better off in New York.

A month since he had his heartbroken.

“I love you all,” she’d said