Doyoung breathed an exasperated, weary breathe, allowing his slim frame to collaspe to the ground as he lay motionless, head spinning out of control as he silently pleaded for the universe to stop spinning for a moment so he may regain some stability. He slowly glided his head to face Johnny, feeling every muscle strain as he did so. Johnny had never been met with such a fierce eyes, seething with rage and ill intent. 

"Tell me... why... it was necessary... for me... to keep up... with your long legs... every... damn... morning... for the past two months!" Doyoung panted with a gruff, harsh tone as he struggled immensely to steal as much as oxygen he could and greedily stuff it down his lungs. Along with all the physical training, Johnny insisted Doyoung should start hiking with with him to build his endurance. Doyoung had no idea this meant grogily rising every morning at 6am sharp to sprint up a never-ending, up- hill treacherous path which would surely be the death of Doyoung one day very soon. At this point Doyoung was convinced that Johnny was a maniac, no sane person would torture themselves this way every. Damn. Morning and consider it "fun". 

"Because Doyoung", Johnny spoke effortlessly while he stretched his arms, highlighting just how toned he was. It was as though he had been crafted especially to make others jealous with his immaculate features and just enough confidence to make sure he annoyed those he impressed. He continued, "Although you obviously excell in fighting and you have just enough brain cells to keep you alive, I have never met someone as terrible at running as you are." Johnny said with a sickeningly sweet, patronizing tone as he knelt down to place his big hand on Doyoung's head, knowing he was too weak to slap it away. 

"You're... supposed to love me despite all my flaws... toddler lungs and all..." Doyoung breathed as he wearily swatted at the air. 

"Sorry, buddy this isn't something I can look past. Hey, another 6 months of this and you'll be free." Johnny said confidently, as if 6 months wasnt a ridiculously long time to put your body through such extreme torture.

Doyoung could do nothing but respond with pleading puppy eyes. This wasn't the plan... I had planned to go out in a blaze of glory, surrounded by raging flames, battle cries and riding a dragon of some sort but death by fatigue seems like the more plausible option now. 

"That's enough for today, though. There's someone new you need to meet today."Johnny said as he slung Doyoung's arm around his neck and helped him walk back.

Johnny suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He hated keeping things from Doyoung but he knew it was best to try keep his emotions out of it, it was only a matter of time anyway before Doyoung would have to officially become part of the gang. Still, it wasn't easy sending his best friend into definite danger. 

After going home to get showered and ready for whatever mystery meeting Johnny had planned for him, Doyoung set off promptly to return back to Johnny's house but when he opened his apartment door he was met with disappointment and frustration. 

He found an expectant Jaehyun waiting at his door positioned gracefully on one knee with a cream coloured flower with glossy green leaves in one hand, pointed towards Doyoung.

Doyoung had spent many evenings listening to Taeil gush about all the gifts he had been presented by Johnny when he thought he was being subtle about his crush. Taeil often recieved gardenia, a flower given when you want to express your deepest love and devotion towards someone but can't quite find the words to say it. Taeil confided that he often cringed when he would open his door to find one of these flowers resting on his doorstep and out of the corner of his eye would see Johnny sprinting at full speed around the corner. Doyoung immediately recognized this flower and scoffed.

"A gardenia, really?" Doyoung said with a sarcastic tone, shaking his head as he attempted to close the door in Jaehyun's face, pondering how difficult it would be to crawl out his window to escape the demented soul waiting eagerly at his doorstep.

Jaehyun's reflexes kicked in as he quickly slid his foot into the door to prevent his love being completely rejected. Jaehyun paused momentarily before shaking away his confusion. "Wait, how do you know what this is?" Jaehyun questioned, still holding up his proclamation, unwilling to let his hand fall even slightly. 

"When you're friends with Taeil you get to hear all Johnny's lame attempts trying to confess to Taeil. I assume he told you about it and thats why you're wasting your time and money with these stupid pranks". Doyoung flatly said with confidence. This had become a daily occurance for Doyoung. Everyday at some point, no matter how late Jaehyun would visit Doyoung and present him with a flower, each day a different elaborate pose. One time it was 11:59pm and Doyoung was silently thanking whatever higher being had blessed him by taking away Jaehyun's presence until he heard rapid knocking at his door. Doyoung begrudgingly answered the door and was met with a proudly shirtless Jaehyun with a rose resting between his teeth. Doyoung didn't think this visit even dignified a response and simply slammed the door in the others grinning face. 

Jaehyun gave Doyoung a puzzled look. "I'm sorry, Johnny did what?" Jaehyun said through muffled laughs. It hit Doyoung that Jaehyun had no idea what he was talking about but before any thoughts of Jaehyuns true feelings for Doyoung could creep up and intrude his thoughts, he quickly shoved them down and decided that speedily snatching the flower from Jaehyuns hand and throwing it behind him into his apartment was the best course of action. 

The two stood staring at eachother for what felt like an hour, both trapped in a state of pure awe, unable to process exactly what had happened. Doyoung noticed Jaehyun's infectous grin beginning to spread rapidly on his face and his irresistible dimples poking out. In a panick Doyoung quickly locked his door and set off down the hall, his feet carrying him into a high speed power walk. Huh, Johnny's training actually was paying off, he unlocked the skill of out-walking Jaehyun when his fake flirting got out of control... yeah, it's definitely fake... how could anyone ever like someone like me? 

Jaehyun had to jog to keep up with Doyoung, and yet he still seemed to do effortlessly. Doyoung wondered if he was cursed to be caught in a perpetual state of looking like an awkward miniature giraffe who also happened to be clumsy and have just about every undesirable quality to scare off any cute guy who might just so happen to glance in his direction. Except this incredibly cute guy was now practically chasing him and here Doyoung was, concentrating with all his might not to trip over the air demon which seemed to follow him at every corner, ready to trip him up at the most inconvenient of times. What's wrong with this guy? Can't he see that I'm not the type of guy you even bother looking twice at? Let alone chase down a corridor. 

"Hey, Doyoung, wanna slow down a bit?" Jaehyun pleaded.

Doyoung continued to stare forward and rappidly shake his head in response. "Can't. Have to get to Johnny's. Can't be late. Sorry" Doyoung responded roboticly as he kept his head fixed forward. If I look at his dimples it's all over.

Doyoung noticed that Jaehyun's scent was stronger lately. Johnny mentioned to him that with his abilities he might find that his other senses are stronger too. Doyoung didn't know this meant being able to creepily identify his friends with just a sniff. Jaehyun's fragrence was the worst as it was the most pleasant to Doyoung. He had become infatuated with his scent and therefore made it his mission to stay as far away from Jaehyun as possible. Unfortunately, this meant running from him when the time called for it. 

"Oh yeah, Johnny probably wants you to meet Kun today", Jaehyun nodded knowingly. This made Doyoung stop in his tracks.

"Wait, who's Kun?". 

Doyoung was shocked (and slightly disturbed) when he approached Johnny and Taeil's door and was robbed of the opportunity to even have a second to think about knocking when it was swung open. Johnny and Taeil had always been a... peculiar couple to say the least but Doyoung had never witnessed them be so sheepish yet on high alert, their arms comfortably fixed around eachother yet with a strict military stance. Not to mention the terrifyingly creepy chesire cat-like smiles they had carved into their faces. 

In an instant Doyoung was having rapid small talk thrown at him, each 'How was the traffic getting here?', or 'You been working out, buddy?', taking a direct hit at Doyoung's patience and respect for his friends. While all this was occuring Taeil had taken the role of the aggressively welcoming host, using his hidden strength to rob him of his coat while Doyoung attempted to bat away his hands. Johnny on the other hand adopted the role of the psycho serial killer was now calmly luring his friend down to his basement with a hand firmly placed on his back. Doyoung turned back and gave pleading eyes to Jaehyun, along with a pained expression that read, 'please don't let them eat me' but Jaehyun quickly averted his gaze to the floor and scuffed his shoes as he followed closely behind. Doyoung figured Johnny and Taeil had likely placed him there to capture Doyoung if he managed to escape Johnny's and Taeil's claws. 

Doyoung decided to simply close his eyes and let death take him, he had lived long enough and was satisfied with his accomplishments. Although the next time he opened his eyes he was met with an unfamiliar yet welcoming face of a guy who looked to be about around the same age as him. A calm, almost angelic face looked up at Doyoung from the desk he sat at and beamed a sincere, large smile at him. 

"Hi, I'm Kun! I don't suppose Johnny and Taeil mentioned me. Well, I guess people don't tend to mention when they kidnap someone and keep them hostage in their basement for a year. Wait- I'm making them sound like monsters! They let me out sometimes, you know for a little fresh air. And if I don't scream they give me food so as you can see I've got a pretty sweet deal here-" Kun paused his monologue when he noticed Doyoung's expression slowly creasing into one of pure horror.

"Sorry, sorry, just kidding! I don't get out much so I forget you can't joke about being kidnapped to strangers- my bad. Let's start again: Hey, my name's Kun. Nice to meet you!" 

Kun made a move to stick out his hand but then quickly retracted it and replaced it with a knowing nod which Doyoung returned gratefully. 

Doyoung was only now able to take in the place he had just been led into- what he always assumed to be a basement filled with boring storage turned out to be a wide, furnished and well-kept space equipt with a bed, sofa and fully stocked mini fridge. All the furniture was modern and stylish but looked very used. Kun wasn't lying about having been down here for a while but why the hell did his friends have a literal person in their basement and keep it a secret?

Doyoung then looked closer at the highlight of the room- the long, large desk filled with monitors, neatly arranged cables and essentially an over whelming amount of technological equiptment. Doyoung had no idea what he was looking at and turned back to his friends with an expectant expression for an explanation. 

"Uh, yeah I'm sure you're pretty confused right now. We have no idea what any of that stuff does either but Kun is kind of a genius with computers. He's been working with us for a while now, but a lot of his job entails hacking and most of that is illegal so that's why you haven't met him yet. He's sort of like a ghost, a genius ghost who has pissed off a lot of other gangs by helping us take them down so it's better if his identity isn't known by many people. He used to be out on the field with us but when we noticed all the gun shots were 99% being aimed at Kun, we thought it best to keep him on the sidelines." Johnny explained with a guilty expression, unable to maintain eye contact with Doyoung. Johnny was clearly hiding something from Doyoung and it was beginning to really wear on his patience. 

"Johnny. Come on, out with it. Why are you introducing Kun to me now?" Doyoung questioned with crossed arms as he impatiently tapped his foot. 

Johnny stuttered for a moment but in the end couldn't bring himself to tell Doyoung what was about to happen. "This is something I really wanted to avoid" Johnny mumbled as he pressed his hands into his forehead. 

Doyoung's head perked up as he quickly uncrossed his arms and turned his body sharply towards Taeil's direction. "Someone better tell me what the hell is going on!" Doyoung barked. Taeil and Jaehyun, sharing in Johnny's guilt simply hung their heads in response. 

Kun rose from his chair. "Look, Doyoung, right?", Kun spoke with a reasurring tone as he slowly approached the agitated Doyoung.

"We wouldn't be including you in this if we had any other option and this was my idea that I insisted on so don't blame any of your friends, okay?". Kun had an aura about him that made Doyoung immediately know that this is someone who has his best interest at heart, someone he can trust. He chose to relax his tensed fist and allow Kun to fill him in. 

Kun continued, "You've heard of Exo, right? One of the biggest drug gangs in Seoul. Well, with my genius investigating I found out they've been into some pretty shady stuff lately- turning kids into drug dealers and kidnapping their families to keep them working for them. A lot of the time the kids try to escape or make a mistake and... they don't make it. Obviously we've got to put a stop to this guy and fast because he's planning on expanding his gang worldwide and we can't let that happen."

"Wait, so what does any of this have to do with me?" Doyoung questioned. He was a lot more calm talking to Kun but he felt an anxiety creeping up on him and knew he wouldn't like the answer to his question. 

Kun sighed as he began to speak, "Okay so, our gangs have been at war for a while. They don't like that we try keep everything under control. Honestly, I think they've always been jealous of our name and I can't blame them, 127 sounds way cooler than Exo. I mean, what does Exo even mean?" Kun paused and cleared his throat.

"Sorry, touchy issue for me. Anyway, their recruiter Kai is gonna be at a club tonight and this is basically our last chance to catch him before he goes abraod to expand their business. But unfortunately, they've seen all our faces, there would be no way to get Kai by himself without attracting a lot of attention. And... that's where you come in I'm afraid." Kun now began to adopt the same guilty expression as everyone else in the room. 

Doyoung rubbed the nape of his neck is frustration. He knew that one of these days he would have to take part in a mission, but that didn't stop the wave of anxiety shooting through him. Doyoung thought about throwing his hand up into the air and screaming at all of them,  he thought of dropping to his knees and begging that they find someone else- anyone else. But he knew that they wouldn't have asked if Doyoung wasn't the only one they could trust enough to do the job. Thoughts of his brother's final words attempted to crawl their way to the surface but Doyoung promptly pushed them down. He wanted to honour his brother but with the Gods chasing him he knew he would end up involved at some point or another, it was something he couldn't avoid. 

Doyoung sighed and looked to his now boss who simply stared back at him with sad, defeated eyes. "Alright, Johnny. I'll help you guys out". 

Doyoung had asked to step outside momentarily so he could gather his thoughts and feel a little more grounded before he was about to be thrown into whatever would be facing him that night. He stood in Johnny and Taeil's garden, taking in the sun gleaming on his face to cheer himself up. He felt a presence join him and a hand on his shoulder. He was pleasantly surprised to find Jaehyun by his side.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jaehyun asked with his soft, smooth voice. He seemed genuinely interested in wanting to know about Doyoung's well-being.

Honestly? Doyoung was on the verge of tears. He felt like he was betraying his brother, he felt wrong, disgusting even. His one dying wish and I can't even keep that? Doyoung felt his eyes b with tears that would stop at nothing to rapidly flow down his face and provide him with some cathartic relief but wouldn't fix the intense shame he felt washing over him, threatening to take over his entire being. 

Doyoung turned to face Jaehyun and couldn't help but inhale his comforting scent. It seemed to actually help him but it couldn't stop the tears streaming. 

Jaehyun immediately gave Doyoung a hurt, concerned expression, as if seeing Doyoung cry physically pained him. He began, "Hey, it's gonna be okay-"

"Look, don't question this" Doyoung interrupted with a brittle, shakey tone of voice as he pulled Jaehyun in to embrace him. Jaehyun, without hesitation wrapped his strong, gentle arms around Doyoung and held him close, carressing his hair softly as if this was the most natural action for him. The two had never felt so at peace, so comfortable. The world around them seemingly appeared to melt along with any other thought or worry the two were having. Without any words from Jaehyun, Doyoung immediately felt supported, loved and cared for. These feelings engulfed Doyoung, he never wanted this warmth to end. He couldn't put it into words but he knew this feeling was all he looked for in life, all he craved. And both of them were so glad they had finally found it.