Ah, trade unions.

Associates of workers and even employers with the main objective to regulate relations between the management and their workmen. Being able to promote quality relations between these two parties are every trade union’s aim. Well, almost all of theirs.

You see, not all countries are fond of unions; because in some areas, unions started as underground syndicates. While their main intention is to assist employees who are poorly mistreated, these unions would even be willing to threaten affected companies with the information they’ve received at hand; in exchange for a lump sum of course.

Although with the above being said, both Sangria (Zaffre’s previous prime associates and collaborators) and Zaffre were none of the mentioned. At least not until 20 years ago, when one of the leaders thought that it would bring them more profits if they were to threaten to expose the companies whose employees have come to lodge their complaints.

This created a rift between the two leaders and their own unions. With differing values and visions, their disagreements unfortunately lead to a physical fight; involving gunshots that nobody thought they would open, especially towards allies they’ve worked with for more than 2 decades.

~”~

Kris had his eyes narrowed when his sister came into the room without warning. Well, not entirely. The alarm system did go off when Luna removed her palm from the baited brick. But even if they managed to find out from the surveillance cameras that the so called ‘intruders’ were only his sister and girlfriend, they wouldn’t have been able to stop the tragedy from happening in time.

When the door slid open again, Kris didn’t have to look away from his grim sister to know who just entered.

“Chanyeol, could you get Sehun’s wound treated—”

“I’m fine.” She stressed through gritted teeth. Despite her back throbbing insanely in pain and her arms burning with all the minor scars and bleeding that happened because of the calamity, the displeasure and anger that Sehun felt in her was far more drastic than the physical pain she felt. “I don’t wish to stay here longer than I’m supposed to.”

Kris jerked his chin towards the door, and one by one the men in the room left; except Chanyeol. And that was when Sehun knew the meeting was already wrapped. When all of them were gone, Kris got off his seat and went to the lined shelves at the back of the room. Chanyeol then turned his head towards the chair opposite of Sehun, signalling to Luna to take her seat.

“We’ve run out of antiseptic spray Chanyeol,” Kris mumbled, bringing the whole box of first aid onto the table. “Could you get new ones; two levels down?”

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“I told you not to come.”

Sehun’s eyes narrowed in confusion, not understanding where her brother was coming from. But it didn’t take her more than two seconds to realise that he was referring to Luna.

“You don’t know how to go about the aisle.”

Sehun scoffed in bewilderment, “What do you mean, she doesn’t know?”

As far as she’s concerned, Luna was always the one who clung onto Kris almost every minute ever since they got together two years ago. And with full transparency, Sehun never had anything against the 32-year-old for dating her brother. She was sweet and selfless, and sometimes even cooks for the two of them every other day. The only thing was, she didn’t know how to defend herself; and Sehun didn’t think that this would benefit the team in any way, especially if she could be a possible weak point of target for their rivals to get to Kris.

None of them said anything afterwards as Kris applied lotion on Sehun’s minor scars. But as she thought on, Sehun realised that her claiming that Luna clung on to her brother almost every time wasn’t an exaggeration. She’s always with Kris except when they get into heated disagreements with their clients. And by heated, she meant physical.

“You’ve never come to this place without Kris, have you?”

A hiss escaped Sehun’s lips when Kris unintentionally pressed the damped cotton ball onto her cut a tad bit too harshly. Her eyes shot and glared upwards towards him, but the latter simply heaved a sigh, discarding the stained cotton away in the bin.

“He doesn’t trust me.” Luna finally let out, her voice tight but she looked as if she was going to burst into tears any minute now. “I never know what to touch or what not to touch because he’d blindfold me and—”

“Enough.” Kris’ voice was low, reverberating against the cold walls. “I never said that I didn’t trust you.”

The door opened and Chanyeol came in with the sprays and creams at hand. But instead of handing them over to Kris, he simply placed them onto the table by Sehun’s side, knowing that Kris probably made do with whatever that was inside the first aid already.

“Luna, let’s go.”

Sehun looked to Chanyeol when he called the short-haired woman, to which the latter didn’t refuse to follow. She got off the seat, eyes already glassy and red as she held back her tears. Luna gave one last look to Kris who was seated again, but Sehun’s brother only gave a sharp look towards her for a brief second; and that was enough for Luna to stomp off with Chanyeol following close behind her.

Of course, not trusting Luna wasn’t a real reason as to why Kris refused to show her how the aisle worked. If anything, he was only taking precautions. Like Sehun’s always believed, Luna wasn’t only her brother’s weak point; but she was the union’s handicap as well. Seeing how Luna could be a possible tool for their underground rivals, holding her captive and asking her to expose their secrets would be an effortless task. Particularly since she’s still learning how to defend herself. Then again, Sehun couldn’t deny that the woman has improved her defences tremendously over these wo years.

“Why didn’t you want her here,” Sehun asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she laid against the chair. “What have you discussed?”

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“I’m planning to attack Sangria.” Kris boldly shared, “I want to end them, just like how their previous leader ended our parents.”

Sehun blinked. She parted her lips, but no words came out.

The younger sibling took a deep breath and let out a long breath, “You’ve found them?” Her voice was no more than a whisper, eyes searching her brother’s face for any trace of deception; but he looked dead serious. “You’ve found them…”

Sehun unfolded her arms, face unreadable as she got off the chair. She looked around the room, with a long table in the middle; the place looked like a replica of a dining room. She wondered what the team thought about Kris’ revelation. Sehun went to the trail of cupboards behind Kris, where he took the first aid from, resting her palms onto the table as she leaned her upper body weight on the rows.

She pulled back her lips as she hung her head.

She didn’t know how to react

“When?”          

Kris got off his seat and pulled her nearer towards him. He wasn’t sure he liked her lack of enthusiasm, when the whole team seemed to be eager to pull Sangria apart earlier; Sehun didn’t seem to show enough expression. He brought Sehun’s palms into his, “A few months back, slightly more than half a year ago.”

Sehun’s forehead creased, brows almost meeting as she met dead straight into her brother’s eyes. “And you’re telling me only now?”

“Trust me, the rest waited this long too—”

“So, you’re implying that I’m just like the rest huh?”

Kris cracked a smile on his lips. He didn’t mean to keep things from Sehun, but with her wedding coming up around the corner and the discovery still being debatable, he didn’t want to bother her until his search on Sangria would turn stable. Of course, he didn’t begin the search alone, he made Chanyeol promise to keep things from Sehun until the time was ripe.

20 years have passed since Kris’ 14^th birthday.

20 years have passed since their parents’ death.

And 20 years have passed since his search for Sangria.

He wanted things to be smooth. And so far, things were already going as planned even before the initial start.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Kris ruffled his sister’s hair, earning a tut from the younger. “So, what do you think?”

Sehun’s mouth opened, but again— no words escaped her lips. She looked away, letting out a sigh from her lips. She barely had any memories of her parents, seeing how they were taken away from her when she was barely five years of age.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Sehun looked up to her brother, unconsciously wrapping her arms around his torso as she rested her head on his chest. “I don’t… know…” Kris held onto his sister’s shoulders, still confused at her reaction. He thought she’d be elated – if not exhilarated – to hear that he’s finally found them.

“I just feel as if, our parents wouldn’t have wanted this; would they?” Sehun mumbled mostly to herself. She knew how much Kris was bent on tracking the other union down, it seemed to be his goal after his tragic 14^th. “I mean, it has been twenty years and—”

“And you think our parents would’ve wanted to be killed, undignified, just like that?”

Sehun gasped when Kris pushed and pried her away from him almost aggressively. He glared down at her with an accusing stare, narrowing his eyes as he shook his head. “And I thought you, out of all people, would understand.” He turned his heels even before Sehun could utter a syllable.

“Wait!”

“No Sehun, I guess you’re really not like the rest.” He stopped by the door and grimly spoke under his breath, loud enough for Sehun to hear from the other end of the room. “None of them hesitated like how you had.”

***