“You’re getting blood all over my bed!”

Yuri blew a stream of air through her lips, her burgundy bangs ruffling as she looked up at him. Jinki recognized the look but it wasn’t like he was lying! “Onew. Priorities. This isn’t my ing job so I can either be nice and delicate and save your sheets–even though they are so last season and you should do better–or I can patch up the hole in your arm.” She sat back, eyeing him. “You have five seconds to decide.”

Jinki glowered. Give it to an enforcer to use the words “nice and delicate” when she was jabbing a needle through his goddamn skin. He was probably only acting this way because he was the only person on the planet that got cranky instead of blitzed out when on narcotics. Plus, he was irritated and annoyed and that wasn’t speaking of the seven different types of rage he was keeping down.

While he was thinking, Yuri must have made an executive decision because he bit back a yelp when she tugged on the stitching needle, pulling the last of his chop-suey’ed skin together to form a neat line. “All done, you big baby.”

Yuri instinctively moved out of the way when Jonghyun followed up with a glass of something dark–he couldn’t tell if it was bourbon or whiskey. Didn’t ing matter. He snatched it off the tray and drank it down in one gulp. It was brandy. He sighed. Narcotics made him cranky. Brandy? He sighed again. His favorite girl.

His favorite boy, on the other hand, would need more than some aged liquor to take the edge off. Right now, Minho couldn’t decide if he wanted to be scared, sad, or angry. It played out in a ridiculous fashion, one that if Jinki were in a better mood, he’d laugh. Minho had taken some kind of alternative-facts bizarro world bodyguard position, jutting his head to look out of the window every few seconds, holding a small 9mm Luger–who the hell gave him that gun? It didn’t even work!–pistol, very wrongly, and aiming it at an angle that could only mean it was trained on someone down below on the street. They were 50 floors up. His eyes were red, so somewhere in between the anger, something had him down. Jinki wasn’t foolish enough to think these reactions were because of him or his injury. He could pretend, though.

“Minho. It wasn’t a pigeon who shot me, so I don’t know why you’re bothering them with your…antics.”

Minho glared at him. “You,” he said, “you shut up.”

Jinki pouted, his voice pitching into a high child-like voice. “You should be nicer to me, Min-min! I’ve got a boo boo!”

“And who’s fault is that!” the man screamed, waving the pistol around. Key must have decided he had enough because he walked over to Minho and snatched the gun out of his hand.

“When you join this family, I’ll make sure to enroll you in some gun safety classes, you nut.”

Minho laughed-sniffled, which was a strange sight in addition to the absolute rage in his eyes. “I’m not joining this ing family! You’re all crazy! And he,” he said, pointing really hard at Jinki,” is the craziest! I ALMOST DIED SHUFFLING THROUGH PROM SUITS!”

“But you didn’t,” Jinki added, looking at Minho like he was forgetting details on purpose. “That’s important.”

“I’m sure I told you to shut up!”

Jinki regarded him dourly before he sat up. He attempted to shrug his shirt back on but that seemed ridiculous. There was a hole in it. Might as well throw it away. Plus, that was entirely unimportant. “Taemin.”

His younger cousin looked up from whatever game he was playing on his phone, his brows perked towards his hairline.

“Go pick up our bad egg.”

Taemin’s face screamed “yikes” but he did as he was told, stuffing his phone in his back pocket, pulling his hat over his head and exiting the room.

“Everyone else, out. I need to speak to Minho.”

Minho scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Belatedly, he realized he was standing in front of the window and had been for some time, and scrambled to get away from it.

When they were alone, Jinki peered at him sideways. They could either talk about what had just happened–and Jinki incur the rest of Minho’s rage–or they could do something useful…like make out. He thought about it. It sounded like a really good idea. It was a bad one but it sounded good.

“Can you help me to the shower?” he said, instead. Minho looked aghast and Jinki rolled his eyes. “I’m covered in blood and I still need to have this meeting in,” he glanced at the clock, “four hours. I would at least like to not look like I’m half dying.”

Minho shook his head. “I’ll–I’ll go get Key…or Chanyeol.”

“Or you can go turn the shower on. Look, I don’t need you to sponge me down. I need you just to make sure that if I do fall, I don’t crack my skull wide open. You seem really squeamish about blood. This is for your sake more than mine.”

Minho looked confused, rightly so–because what he said didn’t make any damn sense– but begrudgingly made his way to Jinki’s bathroom. Jinki had one of those showers that shot out water from all sides. None of that was conducive for a gunshot wound, so Jinki had Minho program half the jets to shoot down instead of out. Minho patiently set Jinki’s washcloth and wash within arm’s reach so he didn’t have to move too much and stood out of the way.

“Can you help me with my pants?”

Minho, indignant and a few different shades of red, whirled on him, mouth open to berate him, Jinki was sure of it, but Jinki was already . He just liked ing with Minho. He was pleasantly surprised when Minho’s mouth stayed parked open, his eyes glued to Jinki’s . Smirking, Jinki made it jump a little. That broke Minho out of his trance with a sputter. Jinki shrugged when Minho glared at him. “He likes you, you know that.”

“Unbelievable. How can you even joke at a moment like this?! Aren’t you even a little bit scared? Or as worried as I am?”

“To answer your questions….Minho, seriously. I don’t deliver newspapers to front lawns in the morning. I don’t drop off milk and I don’t bake bread. I’m a criminal.”

“Don’t–don’t say that,” Minho said, looking away.

Jinki frowned. “Don’t say what?”

“Criminal all easy like that!”

“I am. One, get used to it. There isn’t anything evil about being a criminal, Minho. They set up these laws, without asking any of us if we agree to them, if they’ll be beneficial to our lives or not, and they expect us to follow them without question. I’ve never lived my life like that and I’m not going to start. There isn’t anything shameful about what I do. Just the consequences of living in a society that tells me I’m wrong. I’m not. Two. Of course I’m scared, and of course I’m worried. But not for me.”

“You were shot, Jinki! Why not?” Minho all but screamed.

“Because I have no problem taking a bullet for you. I’m glad to.”

Minho rubbed his face, and Jinki thought he’d never seen the younger man so tired looking. “Why?” he whispered. “You’ve known me for a few days. Am I so important to your empire that you would risk dying? I don’t want that.”

“You’re important to me. I remember telling you that and I hope one day you believe me. And,” Jinki paused before stepping into the shower. “I’m glad you don’t want me to die on your behalf.” He shut the shower door.

Jinki might have been imagining things because heat, liquor and pain meds aren’t good for head clarity, but just as Minho took a seat on the bench next to the shower door, he was sure he heard him mutter, “I don’t want you to die, period, idiot.”

Light-headed or not, Jinki would take that.

Hours later at the meeting, postponed after Yuri yelled at everyone for not canceling it outright, Jinki sat before a legion of foot soldiers, Taemin’s errand contingency, and his North and South underbosses, Yixing and Wufan.

Minho sat in a chair in the corner, farthest away from the door, and with Chanyeol by his side. He’d originally had his suspicions but after Sooyoung, his trust was waning. Maybe there was more than Changsun who was spreading bull. Maybe it was one of his own? He didn’t have proof–that would be coming; very, very soon–so he conducted business as usual, but with Minho under tight guard.

“I expect two things to happen now that I’ve announced ownership of CRUISE control.” He heard Minho scoffing in the corner and did a poor job of keeping the reaction off his face. “A syndicate war…or a syndicate war. That’s if I leave things as they are. I, of course, am not, because syndicate wars are ing ridiculous and costly. With the loans I’ve handed out in the past, the amount of information I have on individuals across the five give me more than enough leverage to attempt what I’m about to attempt. However, before I implement this plan, I have to test out a theory.”

Yixing’s brows raised. “Test out?”

Jinki nodded. “The key word being “test.” It won’t take long.” With just about everyone he’d trusted in the room with him, Jinki stood, being very careful of his injured arm, and raised his good one to whistle. Silence. Moments later, there was a muted yelp of pain when the door banged open.

Yuri entered the room, a bored look on her face. Jinki heard Minho gasp when it was revealed why she’d barged into the room. Behind her, being tugged along by a piece of rope wrapped around her wrist, was Sooyoung. She looked disheveled and one of her shoes was missing. Her hair was all over her head, she looked like she’d been crying for hours. Other than that, the only thing that looked bad was her busted lip. That was actually kind of Yuri. Jinki had seen her do worse.

Yuri yanked her to a seat that had been set halfway from Jinki’s conference table and halfway from where his men sat. Jinki watched, carefully, very, very carefully, for any reactions on their face. Yixing maintained his raised brow and pursed lips, which was a constant look for the Changsha Prince. Wufan, looked slightly confused, but that was probably because Wufan never checked his damn grapevine (their secret line of communication) and was always two steps behind current events. He quickly ruled them out, but he hadn’t suspected them much anyways.

Jinki rose from his seat and approached his crying cousin, who was on the verge of dry-heaving if she kept the nonsense up. “You know why you are here?” he said, eventually after staring at her for a long, hard moment. She crashed and burned as soon as the question left his mouth.

“I didn’t mean it, Jinki, I swear,” she sobbed, her hands coming up to plead with him, grabbing his shirt in her fisted hands. “They–they said he was going to betray you!”

Jinki tilted his head and did a quick glance around the room. “Who?” he asked patiently, although he pulled her hands from him now wrinkled shirt.

“Min–Minho! They–they said he was using you! That you were a fool for him and was risking everything! They–they said that if I got rid of him, I would be saving you!”

Amazingly, Jinki felt Minho’s aura bristle at the perceived implications.

“Who are “they” Sooyoung?”

His younger cousin opened , then closed it. “I…” she eventually said. “They…”

Jinki sighed. “You don’t know who, but you believed them enough to betray me? You believed them enough to almost get me killed?” he tsked. “That was very unwise, Sooyoung. You know better than that.”

“I didn’t mean it, Jinki, I swear! Tell them!” She turned towards the Jinki’s men.

Jinki didn’t move. He just listened and watched.

“Tell them what they said! Tell them what they said, Ducky!”

Everyone’s head snapped to “Ducky” whose real name was Dongwoon and who was in fact not dead. He may be very soon, though, if he didn’t quickly explain.

Not-zombie Dongwoon brows furrowed before realization hit and he laughed. “Oh, you’re stupid, girl!” He turned to Jinki, not impressed at all by Sooyoung’s reveal. “Remember the gambit we ran on Changsun? Yeah, I thought was she sleep while I set that up. She stays over my house to “get away” sometimes.  She must have heard Changsun’s ranting on and on about it, trying to make me get rid of Minho so he wouldn’t have to.” Dongwoon gave her a look. “You almost got him killed over miscommunication, Soo.”

Her face showed every bit of horror she must have been feeling. Jinki sighed wearily. She really was a stupid girl. He motioned towards Yuri for the keys.

Dongwoon spoke up again just as the keys hit his hands. “The question is, who were you talking to after you overheard that because you damn sure didn’t come to me.”

The room stilled. Jinki slowly looked down at Sooyoung. Something in her demeanor had changed. Before she’d been crazed with remorse and fear. Now she looked nervous, her eyes jutting left and right. He couldn’t be seeing this right. Sooyoung was stupid and young and he was willing to account this folly of hers towards her naivety because Sooyoung would never actually betray him. He wanted to use her to weed out the possibility of a mole but…

“Yuri. Where is her phone?”

The enforcer shook her head. “She didn’t have it on her. I think it was damaged in the gunfight.”

Jinki’s brows dipped. Then a thought hit him. “Minho.” He turned towards the younger man. “This is a very serious request I’m asking of you. I…” he stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I want to believe Sooyoung.” His hand was shaking before he stuffed it in a pocket to hide the tremor but not fast enough for Minho not to notice it. “You can clear her. I’m–I’m sure her phone records will clear her. She’s stupid but–but…”

Minho peered at him for a moment, his gaze alternating between Jinki’s face and Jinki’s hand. Eventually, he nodded and headed to the computer one of Jinki’s assistants was using to record the meeting. It was all in code, so he was sure Minho wouldn’t be able to decipher it, but that wasn’t important. “What’s her phone number,” he asked.

Sooyoung retained her stony silence until Minho asked that one question. As Jinki called it out, she reacted in the worst possible way. She started screaming, her handcuffed hands going to her hair as if she was going to rip it out.

“Yuri! Get her under control!”

Yuri went to the girl. At the same time, Minho grabbed his attention. “Here.” He stepped aside as Jinki, Key, and Jonghyun approached the computer.

For a moment, the only sounds were the sounds of struggle as Yuri tried to keep Sooyoung from doing whatever the hell she was trying to do. Then…

“Holy ,” Jinki breathed. The records showed she’d been in constant, consistent contact with Utada…granddaughter of Boss Han of the Han family.

Jinki’s gun was out of its holster before he could stop himself. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to stop himself. He yanked Sooyoung out of her chair and placed the gun against her temple. “Explain Lee Sooyoung. Explain right now or I swear to God.”

Sooyoung looked at the gun with the same energy one would look at a spatula. She shook her head erratically and her hair, now ever wilder all over her head, fell over into her face. “I was trying to free her. She…she doesn’t deserve what her grandfather is doing to her. Everything that happens wrong in that family, he blames his son and punishes her for that. Right now? The very idea of you controlling their finances is somehow Han Taesang’s fault. For that, Utada is on the street to ease her sick of a grandfather’s anger. Minho,” she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, “was going to help you permanently ruin her life. I love her…I wanted to free her. If that meant betraying you…making sure he died…I was ready to do that.”

Jinki’s rage was something to behold. Because Jinki was calm, cool, and calculated. He really didn’t know what to do with rage. True rage. And that’s what he felt. And someone had to pay for his rage. “That was a mistake, Sooyoung,” he gritted through clenched teeth. His thumb slid against the safety with an audible click. He threw her to the floor. “You know there are rules.”

Sooyoung didn’t look up for the floor. “I do. Just…please. Help her, Jinki.”

Jinki didn’t hear anything she said. He aimed. His father had taught him that nothing meant more than loyalty, not even family. And Sooyoung’s actions meant more than just betrayal. Her actions meant she didn’t trust him, even though he trusted her. Her actions meant that she was willing to betray him without asking for his help. Without acknowledging he had the power to help. She was willing to throw everything away.

His finger was squeezing the trigger when he felt a hand jerk his elbow. He was smart enough to release it before his arm was jerked away.

“What the are you doing?”

It was Minho. It was always Minho and that was enough to pop the last thread of patience he had. “Sit the down,” he snapped, shoving him away from him.

Minho stuttered back, almost slipping but remained tall and sure. Angry, but sure. “ you! I’m not going to sit back and watch you kill someone! Not your own cousin!”

Jinki rounded on Minho, his nose flaring, his body shaking. “She almost got you killed!”

“Did you even listen to why she did it? Or were you too busy imagining the bullet hole in her head.”

Jinki recognized the palpable silence in the wake of that question. Not because anyone particularly cared how Jinki dealt out punishment, but it was because Jinki was allowing someone to argue with his authority to deal out punishment. This was going to do wonders for the rumor that Minho was turning him into a soft fool.

He turned everyone else. “Everyone out,” he growled. “Yuri, take her to the basement. I’ll deal with her later.”

No one argued, no one hesitated. Everyone moved, followed commands, followed orders. Exactly how it should be. Because he was in charge. He was the boss. This was his world. Now it was time to make Minho understand that.

He spun, slowly, willing all of his emotions to calm. When he noticed Minho’s incredulous face, it failed. He got up in Minho’s face, snarling, anger pouring out of him. “This…is my family. This is my house. These are my people. They follow my rules. They know those rules. They know the consequences of breaking them. It doesn’t matter why, Minho. It matters that it happened.”

“It’s really ing nice your world is so black and white. So that’s how you deal with things. Just get rid of them.”

“I HAVE TO! Because if I don’t, it will destroy everything I’ve ever held dear. Like you.”

Minho scoffed. “You don’t know me! You don’t know me enough for this ! I’m not worth your cousin’s life!”

“This isn’t only about you! The moment I seem soft, they will get rid of me like I had to get rid of my father,” he snarled.

That brought the argument to a pause. “You…” Minho’s face was unreadable. “You are really ed up.”

That was without question. “Yes,” he answered. “But being this ed up has kept me alive. Me being this ed up kept you alive.”

“I’m trying to keep you from making a horrible decision, Jinki. Exile her, keep her under lock and key, demote her! You have other options!”

“You don’t give me commands,” Jinki said, low and raw.

“I’m not giving you . Do what you want. I don’t care!” Minho raged, his voice hitching, threatening to break apart. Tears collected along his bottom lash. He was full of emotion and passion, his voice and body shaking.” But if you kill her I will walk and I don’t care how lonely and miserable I’ll be. I will leave. You can come after me all you want, but I will not watch you do this. I will not watch you destroy yourself!” Tears were now streaming down his face.

Jinki stared hard and long, anger still in his chest. Then he deflated. “Okay,” he said simply, powerless in the face of Minho’s words and his tears. “Okay, okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” He gathered Minho in his arms, trying to quell his sobs. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll handle it another way.”

Minho’s voice hitched when he said, “I don’t–don’t believe you! Please don’t make me leave. I–I don’t want to.”

Jinki cupped his hands around Minho’s face, using his thumbs to brush away his tears. “I’m not. I won’t, okay. Please stop crying. I’m sorry. I’ll find a way.”

Minho nodded, his head landing on Jinki’s shoulder. Jinki rocked him slowly, almost as if Minho were a baby, a small child not used to the horrors of the world, and most definitely not the horrors of his. He didn’t know if he would ever find a way to make Minho understand. Minho was innocent, sheltered, soft, unlike Jinki.

He kissed his cheek when Minho’s crying quieted to soft sniffles. “I’m sorry today was so rough for you,” he said quietly. “I said I would protect you and…I’m doing a horrible, horrible job.”

“Yeah,” Minho replied, soft laughter in his voice. “You are.”

Jinki laughed too, happy that Minho was feeling better. “Come on,” he said, taking Minho’s hand. “Let’s get you to bed.”

Minho nodded again, and let Jinki guide him to the elevator. They rode up to Jinki’s condo quietly, but not once did Minho pull his hand away or pull away from Jinki as he shuffled closer. Instead, he put his head on Jinki’s shoulder. Jinki felt like Minho belonged there, even while he warred with the idea that Minho may not belong in his life. No. No. He took that back. Maybe he didn’t belong in Minho’s life.

Minho fell into Jinki’s bed without any fuss, not bothering to take his clothes off. He did let Jinki remove his shoes, lay him down and pull the covers to his chin. “Sleep tight. I’ll be right outside. , I’ll even let you sleep in tomorrow.”

Minho chuckled a bit, snuggling deeper in the covers.

He leaned down, kissed Minho on the forehead, and headed towards the door.

“Stay…”

Jinki paused at the threshold of the door, his hand against the frame.

“Please? I’m scared. You may not be scared but I am and…I keep thinking about what would have happened if that bullet had been a few inches to the left. I…I’m…I don’t…”

Jinki came back to the bed, shushing him all the while. He crawled into his bed, making sure to lay on top of the covers Minho was tucked under.

Minho turned towards him. “I’m sorry your life is so hard, Jinki. You have all these nice things and all these people by your side but it comes at such a heavy cost.”

“Sometimes I get really nice things,” he said, brushing his thumb across Minho’s cheek. “Things that make me feel normal. Things that make me feel…” he swallowed hard, groping for words. “Things that make me feel needed. Not because of all of this stuff I own or what I can do for people. Things that make me feel like a guy…who can stop and appreciate…things.”

“Are you saying I am making you soft? Like…like what Sooyoung said? Am I making things hard for you?” Minho narrowed his eyes a moment later. “Not that kind of hard.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Jinki protested. He’d been thinking it, but Minho wasn’t a mind reader. “You are making this hard for me.” He paused. “But it’s worth it. I’ll deal with all of the talking and politics. You…just be you…because you make me happy and that makes all of this bull worth it.”

“You really just met me, you know that right?”

Jinki shrugged and it jostled the bed a bit. “I know enough to know what I want, Minho. It’s gotten me this far in life, so I trust it.”

“Goopy hearted gangster.” Minho raised his head so he could place it on the same pillow as Jinki.

“Nerd,” Jinki retorted.

They shared a few breaths, quiet, peaceful, so unlike Jinki’s life has ever been, so unlike what Minho’s life had become. They shared them, the silence filled with meaning, until Minho leaned closer and brushed his lips across Jinki’s. When he pulled back, the look in his eyes was soft. “You keep saying you’ll protect me, but know…I’m here now, and I’ll protect you, too. From yourself…from the world.”

Jinki kissed him back, soft, slow, angry at himself for letting Minho’s this close, this fast, but elated because it had been so long…

“I’d like that.”

And like that, they fell asleep.