POV from Yunho

This is it! It is time to bring the cold war between me and ice queen to an end. I know very well that “cold wars” are his expertise… since he is the ice queen after all… but this useless “let’s ignore one another” has to stop! We need to communicate more! I am determined to have to heart-to-heart talk with him before I can turn in!

With a good intention in mind, I stomped into his room… just to find his bed nicely done… and it is only 4 am in the morning!! …  Where could he be?! He should be in bed!! Even Changmin is still in bed… !

“Min ah! Where is the ice queen?” I asked softly as I shook Minnie at his bicep… causing him to stir.

“Hyung… what time is it?” He replied me with a yawn and continued stretching, rubbing at his eyes.

“Eh? 4 in the morning… Aish! Where is he?” I asked again while pointing at the empty bed adjacent to his, feeling all guilty about rousing him at such a bad time.

“Uhmmm… Hyung… Jae hyung said he will be back tomorrow or so…” Minnie replied sheepishly. “Please don’t kick up a fuss! He made me promise not to tell.” He added with a pitiful puppy eyes.

“What the!? You are in cahoots with him now?” I shouted at Minnie as he looks away guiltily, rubbing off the saliva I had accidentally spat onto his face.

“Hyung… Jae hyung wanted to hasten the process… he can’t stand sitting around and wait for you to take your time you know…” Minnie is actually reprimanding me now… He knows that WE ALL know that the ice queen is desperate, and he knows that I actually care about the ice queen being in a hurry. But he does not know my reasons for taking my time… I have actually delayed the search because I wanted ice queen to have a good rest before we wage a war!!! AISH! Why do I even care!?

“Jae hyung is running out of time hyung… we all know that the longer we drag, the more likely his baby brother is dead right?” Minnie spoke with the usual matured and logical manner. I know! I know how he feels as well! I know he is passionate about looking for his baby brother and all… but he needs to care a little for himself as well!! He will die young at this rate he is going… and I don’t want that!!!

I wish I can care for him more openly… and be the man… but I still am too concerned about my reputation. I know he would reject him for sure… and I do not want to be a desperado… trying to win him over every single day… I will wait… for the right time!! Smart right?

Anyways, my ego is abused enough by the irritating Siwon that always poke fun at me about my little crush on ice queen. Damn his mind reading ability… really! He did however, promise me never to tell. This friend of mine might be a nosy parker, but when he swears by secrecy, he would abide by it… strictly. No one knows I like the ice queen except Siwon and Minnie…

“Brrrrrr… Brrrrrr….” Minnie’s phone started to vibrate beside his pillow before I could start talking again. That must be ice queen calling!! “What are you waiting for?! Pick it up!! Ask him where he is!!!” I sounded a little too enthusiastic… urging Minnie to answer the call.

“Jae hyung… are you done? Coming back soon? …… oh… okay… wait for me… I will bring Yunho hyung along… he knows… see you.” Minnie finally hung up and looked at me… as if expecting me to know what he wants to say. “What did he say?!” I don’t happen to have mind reading abilities.

“Hyung… call Siwon hyung along… we need to go somewhere.” He frowned at me cutely.

Half an hour later…

SO… here we are… in front of a dilapidated building. This place seriously looks like squatters haven! I am not surprised to find the runaway guy residing here… but I AM fuming mad right now!! Does that brainless ice statue not have any idea how dangerous this type of place is for him?! He has no concept of safety at all! To think that I have constantly drilled the rules into him every day!! Since he first joined me!! And yet he still insists on doing whatever he wants!! Incorrigible!!

What exactly is teamwork to him?! I know he is a considerably good team player… always looking out for our backs and all, but he gets too far ahead by himself sometimes!! We are having a hard time catching up with his insane pace!! It’s almost as if he lives solely for the purpose of searching for his baby brother…

I know how hard it is for him to take a step back from the search… and I see him constantly struggling to stay with us while we are wasting his precious time with “bonding” with each other… but it’s all for his own good! He is really too desperate!! … He is obsessed!

The worst case scenarios are times like this, where he would sneak out for his own little mission. I feel bad for having to say this, but even though he gets the job done for us, we can’t feel grateful… at all! We have enjoyed a fair amount of free time at the expense of his… but that’s not what we want!! I know he does not do this for the sake of earning our gratitude… but isn’t that what makes things worse?! I really have to make a dig at him later… I have no choice… he had pushed it too far this time!

I trusted him to stay true to his promise to comply… but it’s a trust misplaced! I will have to keep a close watch on him from today onwards!

I was building up the steam and “cultivating” the correct atmosphere when Minnie had sped ahead of me… as if afraid I will hit ice queen… well… even if I did… there is nothing he can do. Siwon was chuckling as he walked behind me… damn him! He thinks reading my thoughts is fun… always doing that when I am angry at ice queen!

Damn the stairs as well! So steep! Why does the stupid lift have to break down at this stupid hour?! We had to climb ten stories just to get to our destination!

Minnie only knocked on the door politely while I just kicked at it, not bothering to be the least restrained. Then the door opened slightly and I saw ice queen looking at us apologetically… he should be!!

“Min ah… Siwon hyung… I apologise for waking both of you up at this time… but I really needed your help.” He said softly… gently. However, he is missing me out from the picture!!! WHAT THE HELL! Little prick!!!

“Joongie ah… you know it’s dangerous for you to do things alone right? That guy might be the bait from c0dest you know…” Siwon spoke up before I could start my ranting and ravings… damn! Why should he be so polite!? I would be snapping at ice queen already!?

“Sorry… I was in a hurry… I didn’t think too much… and I can’t help it.” He apologized to Minnie and Siwon AGAIN… but he did not even glance at me or give an indication that he is aware of my presence. THAT’S IT!!!

“YAH! KIM JAEJOONG!” I hollered at him, causing him to finally snap his head towards my direction and look at me coldly. His expressionless stares even sent chills running down my spine. The way he looked at me so stoically… “You and I are having a private tea session when we return later! Reflect while we are at it.” I toned down a little instead… Aish…

He did not reply at all, choosing to turn away and lead us into the room where a man is stuck to an armchair… bounded by thick metal wires and ice. Hmmm… Nobody messes with the ice queen after all… Then Siwon proceeded to read the guy’s mind briefly before turning around and looking at us… the look on his face reflected extreme sadness… It’s as though he had just watched a sad movie… titanic?

“His memory is still pretty vivid… Let’s go, I know where sector 1 is…” Siwon had finally said… despondent and disturbed.

“Hey… why the sad face?” I asked him… I know it’s a very “duh” question to ask, but I need to know what he saw. I want to know to what extend is c0dest’s cruelty.

“Bastards…” Siwon just mumbled instead of answering my question, and simply looked out of the window. Ignoring me like ice queen did… they are getting really defiant nowadays! Minnie is driving while ice queen sat beside him… dozing off. He is finally sleeping! I have never seen him waking up later than me… and never seen him turning in before me either! This is a good sign!

“We will bring them down.” I said with the darkest tone I can summon… my anger is stirring within me… and the hate within me is growing as well. I saw how much scars were on that poor guy from earlier, and pitied him… so I even offered him a place in my gang. But he did refuse me all the way… saying that he feels better alone. I heard Siwon saying something about that the guy being locked up for more than 7 years… the hell?!

I took a long look at the ice queen, and tried to imagine what is going through his mind when he was with the guy. He must have thought a lot about his baby brother while staring at that guy… I do wonder about how his baby brother is faring... if he is even alive… but I won’t mention about the kid in front of ice queen… it’s a sensitive topic.

An hour later… (Past midnight)

“We are here!” Minnie exclaimed suddenly amidst the eerie silence, startling me… and pulling my wandering mind back…

Minnie had slowed down the car for a brief moment while I lower my side of the window and stared at the well hidden infrastructure in front of me, allowing my mouth to gape open. The rest had joined me in “marveling” at the tall building. The place is HUGE! How come no one actually noticed its existence before? …  Must be the thick trees and high walls… how many experiment subjects are inside anyways? God…

We cannot just get off the car and invade though… so Siwon suggested we create some fireworks as a notice, let them know that we found them and are determined to bring them down. We quickly agreed to the plan and parked our car in a distance from the building, before making our way there. It’s safer to have a backup plan… since we can’t exactly drive into their car park right? We could… but we will have to end up buying a new car…

“Bam!” Ice queen “threw” a huge piece of concrete he had “selected” from the nearby construction site, right into the tall metal doors. Then we retreated into the rubbles nearby and waited for them to raise their alarm. Actually… that was also my idea of a “safety net” plan… at least we do not need to clash head on with them when they are all armed and ready to fight to the death.

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!” The security alarm sounded causing the entire place to burst into life within a split second. From where we are hidden, we can see all the uniformed figures dashing around in all directions… crowding around the entrance like ants bustling around a piece of candy.

“Jae hyung! Give me a hand!” Minnie said as he set a few pieces of stones ablaze and threw it in the direction of the building.  Ice queen had made them fly straight into the windows. The scene seemed similar to one that is raining blazing hailstones… onto the guard houses… then I have decided to chip in as well.

The place was burning up and smoke was pouring out through the broken windows by the time we are done having fun. I actually kind of regretted getting so carried away… What if there are experiments inside as well? … We did specifically aim only at the guard houses… hopefully it does not affect the cells…

“I pick… you… come here.” Ice queen whispered to himself as he suddenly “dragged” one of the “stray” guards into the torn down building we were hiding in. Fortunately, none of the other guards had noticed their comrade’s disappearance. Good! Ice queen is still ice queen after all… no one trifles with him when he is on fight mode… only he can make a man fly that far.

“AHHHH! Help me!” the guard was screaming at the top of his lungs while ice queen “pulled” him in and threw him into a corner. Then he proceeded to get another one while I “play” with the prey. The predator is now the prey. Our roles are switched! And I’m loving it!

I sauntered over to the guy while he edge away, and torched his surroundings, setting everything in his path ablaze. I like to use this tactic against the c0dest dogs that we have caught… either the heat will make them talk… or the fear of getting burnt alive will.

The second guard had joined him in the ring of fire shortly. Now we have two minds to tap on… We need to know what they know. If we can actually get any useful information on their boss… we can totally nip their damn organization in the bud.

“Care to do an introduction of your organization?” I asked them “politely” as I squatted down next to the fire. I love being near fire… or anything hot… nothing can burn or affect me, but the heat is really making them sweat. Good! I will add on more flames.

“We don’t know! Please let us off!!” both of them had answered in unison while I turned the orange flame around them a nice deep blue.

“Siwon ah! Run a check on them.” I ignored them and called Siwon to assist me in sifting through their memory… just to save myself some time. Plus, I know ice queen can’t wait to rip them apart limb from limb… I better not procrastinate! Things will get really ugly… and dirty… when he loses his composure.

“Yoochun… Park Yoochun… this is the only name I get from sector 3… from that guy.” Siwon pointed to the shorter guy.

“Care to tell me who is this… Yoochun guy?” I asked the trembling man menacingly. I could see ice queen fidgeting around from the corner of my eye. He is probably getting really impatient… I better stop playing around with them… it was fun though…

“I don’t know anybody by that name!” That short guy seemed to have toughened up a little as he retorted… I will show him what happens to enemies who are of no use to me…

“Whoosh!” I set the second guy, beside him, on fire and incinerated him to ashes in a split second… the guy wouldn’t feel any pain. Lucky him. The shorter guy on the other hand, will die painfully if he does not cooperate. He seems to have gotten my message and was screaming hysterically…

“Sir Yoochun is from sector 3! I don’t know him personally! Please!” He shouted as he saw my hand lit up.

“Where can I find your scientists?” I asked him one last question… but he just continued begging… tch… I have no use for him anymore.

“They stay in the north wing! Please don’t kill me!!” He begged again… but I incinerated him as well, without hesitating. There is no need to show them any mercy… they deserve to die anyways. Plus, I can’t risk keeping them alive.

“We go to the north wing now… get as many scientist as we can… squeeze as much information out of them as possible… then we get out of there… understood?” I instructed the 3 of them… but ice queen simply refuses to give me an indication that he had understood what I just said. TSK!

“Yah! Kim Jaejoong!” I shouted at him and he glared back at me.

“He understands babo! Stop shouting!” Siwon had answered for him… is he really so bent on continuing our cold war?

TBC

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