keep in mind the words in grey are flashbacks

(Myungsoo’s POV)

I sat back on the pillow to let the information sink in. I couldn’t believe it, how could Sungyeol do something like that for me and how could I not remember anything? The last thing I did remember was being dragged out of my house, feeling nausea as ever and thrown back into the boot of a car. And then darkness.

That was the last bit I remember before I found myself on this hospital bed, head bandaged and arm fractured.

“Why would he do that? I mean, is he stupid or anything?”  I asked to Sunggyu hyung who was still sitting by the couch on the corner of my ward. He looked at Woohyun and I noticed the glances they gave each other. They were keeping something from me. I knew it.

“The truth is, we had been receiving death threats for these few months. All of us. After we escaped from the agency last summer, they had been trying to track us.”

“I didn’t get any threats,” I said. I really didn’t.                          

“That’s because Sungyeol hide it from you. He didn’t want you to know about it since your uncle owned the agency.”

I ran my gaze to my lap. Talking about my uncle gave me the creeps. He had raised me up after my parents died and then turned me into this. A killer. An assassin for his own benefit. At first I thought I was on the right side, the side of justice. How couldn’t I. I was raised in this life; I never went out of the agency and trained all day. I was never exposed to the world and everything in it. I didn’t know about crimes and punishments and just did my mission when I was told to.

I repeated the same thing every day of my life, until I saw him being dragged into the agency by a dozen men, hands tied and head bleeding. He was Lee Sungyeol.

“Release me you ing s!” he screamed. Even with a dozen men holding him, the boy was still dominating. A few times, he would struggle so hard that they fell on the floor then got back up and held him again. At first I thought he was Japanese from his hairstyle that matched him. And he looked a bit like a Japanese actor.

But hearing his fluent Hangeul, I knew he was Korean. They went passed me and I saw the look he gave me. It wasn’t anything special and I didn’t really care about boys like him. I saw people dragged in the agency every day. My uncle told me they were criminals, and I believed him, which soon I found out that he was wrong.

But there was something about the boy that caught my attention. The look he gave me was like a calling. Like he was asking for help. And I thought, funny, why would a criminal asked for my help?

So during my training afterwards, I went to see my uncle at his office.

“I saw a boy dragged here this morning uncle. Who is he?” I asked as I stood in front of him with my hands on my back. It was my show of respect towards him. Family relation or not, I still had to do that in front of him like the others of his subordinates.

“That’s probably Lee Sungyeol. He’s a criminal.” He said casually, not even raising his head from the paper he was skimming.

“He’s so young.”

“Boys nowadays have no future, Myungsoo. You should be thankful that you have a future here, that you have me. Anyway, we’ll execute him tomorrow.”

“Execute?” I cringed at the thoughts of killing a young boy like him.

“Yes.”

I left the office after that. On my way back to my door with the rest of my training friends, I couldn’t keep my mind of him. What crime that he did that he had to be executed? I mean, he couldn’t kill people right? I mean, I kill people but only the bad ones.

So I went to the place where they kept the criminals. The guards there recognized me as the nephew of the boss and didn’t hesitate to lead me in. That was one of my specialties. I asked them about the boy named Lee Sungyeol and they told me about his room number.

Walking along the corridor of the place scared the hell out of me. On my right and left were rooms with bars for the criminals. The last time I walked there was last week and there were a lot more criminals. Seeing the lack in number, I figured they must have executed a lot of them. Then I saw his room number and stopped in front of it.

I carefully stood in front of the room with a metre length from the bars. I learned the hard way that criminals could actually grab someone when they reached long enough between the bars. I saw him, sitting on the dark corner of the room. He raised his head when he saw me and his eyes glinted from the corridor’s lamp.

I stood rooted the ground as he stood up and approached the bars.

“You came,” he suddenly said.

“You waited for me?” I asked.

“Yes, Kim Myungsoo.”

That was how we became friends, a day before his execution.

“Then who got him now?” I asked.

“We don’t know. I think it’s the agency... Your uncle.”

“!” I cursed under my breath. “Can you trace him, Sunggyu hyung. Your technologies got it all. And where is Hoya hyung and Dongwoo hyung?”

“I tried but there are barriers. I can’t get through to him but I can try. But it’ll take a few hours. Hoya and Dongwoo had been tracing one of the assassins for a few days now. I don’t know about them. I don’t think they know about Sungyeol too.” He answered and looked at Woohyun for confirmation. Woohyun nodded.

“We have to do something,” I said and pushed the covers from my legs. I held on the side table to support my body as I put my legs on the cold floor. I was barefoot and it felt so chilling cold because of the thin hospital clothes.

“Hyung, you’re still sick!” Sungjong yelled as he held me by my arm. “You need to lie down!”

“No! Sungyeol is probably dying somewhere. I can’t just lie down like nothing happened. Sungjong, get my clothes, now!” I demanded. Sungjong shook his head.

“You need your rest! We found you half dead in your house with blood all over. You don’t even remember what happened and you want to look for him? Hyung, you know better than that to be this immature. You’ll worsen your condition and better yet, make us worry!”

I hissed at the youngest. I really hate it when he was making sense. His body size really didn’t fit his strong words. It often left an impact to all of us.

“But Sungyeol...”

Suddenly the door of my room half opened from the outside and everyone cautiously turned to it. Sungjong immediately pushed me behind him and I cringed at the abruptness. Woohyun and Sunggyu, being the experts they were, quickly pulled out their weapons. Sunggyu with his usual butterfly knife and Woohyun with his favourite handgun.

We waited for the company to enter. I saw a bleeding hand first on the knob, long slender fingers that I recognized. Then my eyes lingered to the face of the man and I quickly pushed past Sungjong with staggered steps and held onto the man.

It was Sungyeol, drenched in blood.

“L...” he whispered before collapsing into my arms.