“You have been a great alliance to me, Jonghun,” Jiyong started, pacing back and forth inside his office with a tobacco. Accompanying him were Durus and at least five guards, and then more outside the door and the most standing in front of his gates. Sitting in a chair in front of his table was Kim Jonghun, sweating and shaking like how he usually was whenever he was in the same room as the mayor.

“T-Thank you, sir,” he stuttered.

Jiyong smiled. “Yes, a great alliance you are,” he said, “but not a loyal one.”

Jonghun kept his arms folded in front of him, fighting the urge to fumble with his fingers. “W-What?”

“You see, I have a lot of eyes wandering around the city and they told me something about you that I’m not entirely happy about.”

Jonghun looked around the room nervously. “What is it?” he dared to ask.

Jiyong took a puff and stopped in front of his table, looking grand with his hair slicked back and his suit all crisp and clean. He placed a hand inside his pocket as he took another puff of smoke. “You told those kids about us, didn’t you?”

Jonghun’s eyes widened. “I-”

Jiyong raised a brow.

“I…” He sighed, giving up. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Why, that’s not true!” Jiyong said, grinning. “Everybody has a choice, and you chose to tell them the truth. How do you think Hyerin managed to do this to me?”

Jonghun slowly lifted his head up, only to see Jiyong pointing at his face and showing the big scar running diagonally from his temple down to his jaw.

“This scar will be here forever.”

“I-I’m so sorry!” Jonghun exclaimed. “I’m so sorry! It won’t happen again!”

“I can’t accept your apology, Mr. Kim. I’m afraid I'll have to punish you,” he said in a pity voice. “You remember, don’t you?”

Jonghun’s eyes rounded. “What!? No! No, please not Kai! Please don’t hurt him! I want to spend my remaining days with my son!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I can’t live without him!”

“You can’t live without him?” Jiyong asked in mockery. “Why, of course you can! I’ll show you, you’ll see.”

“W-What?” Jonghun asked, unsure of what he meant.

“I didn’t say anything about killing Kai, Mr. Kim,” Jiyong said a matter-of-factly. “Unlike you, I stay true to my word.”

Jonghun held his breath for a second before releasing a sigh. “O-Oh.”

“But I didn’t say I couldn’t kill you.”

“Wha-”

Bang.

Gunshot.

---

“Are they coming?” Suho asked, glancing at his wristwatch before tapping his foot nervously and looking around M-LX’s parking lot.

“They should be,” Luhan said, standing in between Agent Zero and Agent M who were also waiting for the others to arrive.

“Patience, kids,” Agent M said. “Our agents at the airport already confirmed their arrival an hour ago and they’ll be here sooner or later.”

“That’s one long hour,” Hyerin sighed, sharing a worried look with Sehun.

“Like I said – patience,” Agent M repeated.

Hyerin looked up to glare at her dad, though was not able to when he gave her a small smile, the apologetic kind. After that night he told her the truth, he hadn’t properly spoken to her and she hadn’t properly apologized to him either. Hyerin was about to do just that when a black van emerged from the gates.

“I think that’s them!” Chanyeol exclaimed, waving his arms in the air as the van drove towards them.

When it finally stopped, the doors opened and revealed the five members from Hong Kong, shortly followed by Tao who was unconscious and weak that he was needed to be put in a wheel chair. He was rushed to the emergency room immediately, while the others went to greet the others standing and watching from the sidelines.

They greeted each other enthusiastically, hugging and high-fiving each other while Agent M and Zero patted their heads and gave words of comfort. Everyone was happy and relieved to be together again, though shortly after, they walked inside the building to talk about their current situation and how to fix it.

They headed over to their usual office and sat themselves in their original seats. As Agent M and Zero started to talk about plans and all the necessary things, Hyerin looked over the others, extremely happy to see that everyone was safe.

After giving each one of her fellow agents a good look, her eyes landed on the single empty chair right beside Lay. Her small smile turned into a frown, secretly imagining Baekhyun sitting there with his facial expression either bright or just downright pissed.

She chuckled a little. “Things would’ve been different if he was here.”

“Pardon?”

Hyerin’s head snapped up to see Agent Zero staring at her, as well as the others. Did she just say that out loud?

“I’m sorry.” She smiled apologetically. “I’m kind of out of it right now. Can you please excuse me? I need to go to the bathroom.”

Agent Zero gave her a concerned look before nodding. “Yes, you may.”

Meanwhile at the far end of the table, Kai watched Hyerin step out of the room. He had been watching her closely since they finally reunited at the parking lot, and he didn’t know why he was doing it.

Just as the door slammed shut, a jolt of sharp pain struck his head down to his spine, and the same green luminescent color passed his eyes. Some kind of cool sensation took over him and spiraled to his head, making him feel dazed and confused for a second, before finally shutting down his body and then building a new entirety within him.

That was the moment Kai knew he wasn’t being himself.

Slowly, he got up from his seat, startling the others.

“Kai…?” Agent M worriedly mumbled.

“May I also be excused?”

Agent M and Zero shared a look before nodding. “Yes.”

With that, Kai walked towards the door and stepped out of the room, immediately catching sight of Hyerin about to turn to a corner.

Something was incredibly wrong with him. He didn’t even need to go anywhere, but his legs seem to have a mind of its own. His heart was beating extremely fast and his hands were itchy to crush something, to kill something. What scared him most, though, is that he wanted to kill Hyerin.

His mind had no control of his actions, as when he finally caught up to Hyerin he whipped her around harshly, shocking the girl. But as he stared at her startled face, the anger immediately disappeared and then came a painful yet pleasing sensation in his chest.

Love. That’s what it was.

Although it made him extremely confused how he could switch from being angry to being in love that quickly, he did not speak of it. Not because he didn’t want to, he just couldn’t. He was not in control of his actions.

“Hyerin,” he whispered.

“K-Kai,” she muttered. “What are you doing here?”

“I-” he stammered, blinking furiously. “I was just…I just wanted to check up on you.”

“Me?” Her brows furrowed. “Why? I was just going to the bathroom, that’s all.”

“Listen,” Kai started. What was this? What were the words coming out of his mouth? “Listen I-”

“If this is about the other time when you,” She scratched her head, “When you kissed me and told me you loved me well…I don’t know if I can answer that right now.”

“What do you mean?” Kai swore by his life that these words were definitely not his.

“You see, I’ve never really gotten a guy to confess to me like that, and you can say I don’t really know how to react,” Hyerin said quietly. “But I am sure of one thing, Kai. I like you, I really do, but…not in the way you think. Like, not romantically or anything like that.”

It was silent for a while. Hyerin was just staring up at him with nervousness while he tried to speak, but surprise, surprise, he couldn’t.

“This is about Baekhyun, isn’t it?” , that wasn’t him talking.

“W-What?”

“You won’t accept my feelings because you really do still love Baekhyun.”

“No! Are you kidding me? Why does every little thing always have to do with Baekhyun? These feelings are my own and Baekhyun has nothing to do with that!” she said, pissed. “Do I really need a reason!?”

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “I’m in love with you, Hyerin, I’ve been in love with you! And I just don’t understand why you won’t notice me. Why won’t you notice me!?”

“But I do notice you-”

“No! No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be acting so ing in love with Baekhyun every damned time he’s around when you know full well I’m there. If you did notice me, you would be thinking about me and not Baekhyun,” he said, eyes slowly welling up with tears. “So don’t say you notice me because every single time, all I do is watch you watching him.”

“I didn’t…I didn’t-” she stuttered. “Kai, I–what do you want me to do? Please, just tell me what the problem is.”

“That’s it! That’s the problem, Hyerin. I’m too ing into you,” he hissed, shaking his head, “...too ing into you."

Kai could do nothing but let these words sputter out of his mouth, not knowing how all that managed to slip out so carelessly. Now, he understood. This thing that was controlling him was TOP’s doing; his power that managed to take over him because of that stupid brief eye contact with him before leaving. All these baffling actions was that white-haired man’s doing, but the words that he was uttering – that was all him.

These were the words of truth that Kai had been keeping to himself, words that had been kept hidden in the back of his mind. TOP’s power was so strong that even that managed to slip out of his tongue, yet Kai couldn’t do anything because, once again, he was not in control of his body, and also because it was the truth.

The desperate, undeniable truth.

Kai watched as Hyerin’s eyes lowered down to her feet. It hurt him because she ran out of words to say, and if she did have any kind of feelings for him she would have an endless supply of things to tell him. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.

That was the last thing he saw; Hyerin with her head hung low, not wanting to make eye contact with him for fear of saying the wrong things. That was the last thing he saw before his body completely shut down and came alive again, though this time Kai’s rationality was nowhere to be found and instead, a passionate sensation took over him. It was clouding his mind; that hot, burning passionate sensation.

With his strong iron grip, he held her shoulders tightly and forced her to look up at him. Words were once again carelessly sputtering out of his mouth, and they must have been outrageous because now, Hyerin was starting to look anxious.

She was trying to calm him down, telling him, “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, but it’s just not going to happen” before suddenly getting mad at him because he was becoming irrational, which he really was. Kai, at this rate, was yelling at her, as well as she. If it weren’t for the others rushing out of the meeting room to stop them, he would’ve done something much worse than to just yell at her.

Hyerin walked out with a very red, very angry face, while Kyungsoo gave Kai the scariest glare he’d ever seen from him before running to catch up with Hyerin. There was so much shouting and yelling and before Kai could see it coming, a fist came flying towards his face.

It was Chanyeol. He was glowering at him so hard that he couldn’t even recognize it was Chanyeol anymore. He hit him once more, and the burning passion Kai was feeling earlier now turned into plain anger and resentment. It was what gave him the strength to get back up to his feet and shove Chanyeol against the wall and punch him across the face.

All that happened in the span of two minutes, though those two minutes were literally in slow motion in Kai’s perspective. He was helplessly watching. This was TOP’s power hurting Chanyeol, not him.

“Stop fighting!” Kris growled, pushing both of them away from each other but to no avail.

“You little !” Chanyeol yelled, pushing the boy some more. “What the did you say to Hyerin!?”

“Nothing! Nothing but the truth!” Kai yelled back, shoving the boy’s face away. “She’s selfish and insensitive to the feelings of others and only thinks about herself! About Baekhyun!”

Chanyeol gave him one last punch before the others finally succeeded in breaking them off.

“You ungrateful bastard! You’re the selfish one because you’re so damned focus on your own feelings that you don’t notice her doing so much for you. For us!” he exclaimed. “You don’t know how much she cares about us. Did you know that she was planning to go on a mission by herself to save us the trouble? Did you know that, you stupid ing idiot!?”

“You’re the stupid idiot!” Kai bit back. “Here you are defending her when you were straight out rejected by her! What? Are you trying to stay on her good side so by any chance, she would actually have any feelings for you?”

“Kai, stop it now,” Suho warned.

 “Shut up, Kai. I stayed silent in the sidelines and it was all for her. I wanted her to be happy.”

“Yeah, and what the hell happened after that? She chose Baekhyun! Not you! Instead of fighting for her you stood in the sidelines and let her slip away. You’re a coward!”

That was the last straw for Chanyeol. With a clenched jaw, he started advancing towards Kai again, with only the boys keeping them away from each other.

“ you, you worthless piece of ! Just  you!” Chanyeol yelled at top of his lungs, eyes flickering with both anger and hurt. “How dare you say I’m a coward!? Honestly, I would have tried! I would have tried if only I was selfish enough! But no, I thought rationally for once. Chanyeol, who was the childish dumb ing idiot, thought rationally for once!” he practically screamed. “I realized that it would be useless, I realized that, so don’t you ever say that I’m a coward because I accepted the painful truth that even if I do fight for her, I’ll still be the one to lose!”

With that, Chanyeol gave him one last glare before he too, walked out.

“Chanyeol,” Suho mumbled worriedly.

“ this,” Kai said wearily, wiping the blood gushing out of his nose. “I knew it from the start that this wasn’t the place for me. I don’t belong here and I hate you all!” he exclaimed. “Screw this. None of you are my family.”

Suho opened his mouth to speak, but instead made eye contact with Kai. He did not fail to notice the brief flash of green in the younger boy’s eyes before he disappeared into smoke and teleported to God knows where.

For a moment, everyone stayed rooted to where they stood, not knowing what course of action they should take. If it weren’t for Kris – who seemed to be the only one who had the capability to think straight right now – telling them to move along, they would all just be standing there, thoroughly shocked by the turn of events.

“Everybody leave,” Kris commanded. “We’ll split into groups. Some will go look for Kai and the others will go with Hyerin to meet up with the Noxius brothers.”

“Understood,” they chorused.

“Keep your phones with you,” he added. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.”

---

“Kim Hyerin, there better be a good explanation for all this.”

Hyerin turned around to face Hyeseul, releasing an exasperated sigh. “Hyeseul, you know what’s going on. I already told you about my ‘condition’ remember?”

She continued to glare at her. “And what does your ‘condition’ have to do with me and Jjong leaving the city with a bunch of people we don’t even know?”

Hyerin gave her a scolding look before glancing over to the Noxius brothers in deep conversation with the EXO agents that came with her today to drop off Jonghyun and Hyeseul in the said brothers’ home. After talking to them about it, Key finally agreed to take the couple with them as thanks for what the young agents had done for them. They were to leave that afternoon, making the agents drive there and bid their farewells.

Hyerin turned back to Hyeseul, the girl looking so anxious that Hyerin couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “Unless you want to die soon then go ahead and stay.”

“I left a letter for my parents,” she said, sighing after. “I told them I was running away and to not look for me. I’m sure they’re very worried right now.”

“Don’t worry,” Hyerin said, meaning it. “I’ll make sure to keep them safe. We’re all going to keep our families safe.”

“Okay,” Hyeseul mumbled, biting her lower lip and looking down on her shoes.

“Hey,” Hyerin mumbled, comfortingly patting her shoulders. “It’s going to be alright.”

Her eyes were reddening from the oncoming tears. “I know.”

“The Noxius brothers and Jonghyun will protect you. I’ll kick their asses if they don’t,” Hyerin said. “It’s going to be okay, alright?”

Hyeseul nodded as Hyerin gave her a small smile before Minho signaled for them to come out.

“It’s time to go,” Hyerin said, pulling Hyeseul with her. Outside, the car they were going to use to leave the city was all ready.

“Make sure to take the 605 freeway. It’s faster,” Hyerin told Minho.

His eyebrows furrowed together. "Are you okay? You look tired.”

"It's nothing. Something just...happened back at M-LX earlier." Hyerin shrugged, dismissing the issue.

 Minho nodded before asking, “You guys sure you’ll be alright here?”

“Of course. We still have a lot to do,” Lay said, helping Kris with Jonghyun’s luggage.

Minho nodded. “Right.”

“Well,” Key started, glancing at his wristwatch as he climbed down the steps of his home. “It’s time to leave. It won’t be too long ‘till the sun sets.”

“Let’s get going then.” Myungsoo walked over to the driver’s side and stepped in the car.

“It’s been fun while it lasted,” Key said, turning to EXO and nodding in respect.

“Be careful,” Hyerin reminded.

“Of course,” Key mumbled, taking her hand and kissing it. Behind her, Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “We shall take our leave now.”

EXO and the Noxius brothers shook hands and bid each other a safe trip, along with Jonghyun and Hyeseul who were rather emotional about the goodbyes. The others assured them everything will be alright, and that was enough for them to finally enter the vehicle in peace.

As the car drove away, Hyerin gave Jonghyun one last wave before turning away and composing herself. She was in front of her fellow agents, she would rather die than show them how weak she was when it came to goodbyes.

“I hate this,” she said to Kyungsoo as she watched the car drive away.

“Are you going to cry now?”

“No, you .”

“What?” Kyungsoo asked in his defense. “You seem to cry pretty easily.”

“I do not.”

“Yeah you do.”

“I do not!”

“Yes you do-”

“Guys,” Lay interjected, gathering everyone’s attention. “Bad news.”

Kyungsoo’s brows furrowed. “What is it?”

“Agent Zero just called me and he said that,” Lay paused for a moment before continuing, “that someone left a dead body in front of the headquarters.”

Hyerin and Kris shared a look before Kris asked, “Well? Who is it?”

Lay sighed. “It’s Kim Jonghun, Kai’s dad.”

---

9:34 PM, nighttime finally came, but Kai was still nowhere to be found. The members spent hours looking for him around the city since the afternoon, but the teleporting boy was still missing.

“This is Agent Suho just checking your whereabouts. Where are you?” Suho whispered, pressing on his earpiece as he walked along an unfamiliar street with Xiumin.

“Chungmuro with Chen,” Sehun answered, passing a group of high school girls in the streets.

“I’m in Dongdaemun market with Chanyeol,” Hyerin said, walking along with the tall boy as they scanned the busy vicinity.

“Okay.” Suho nodded. “What about the others?”

“I’m with D.O. and Luhan in Myeongdong,” Lay said. “Kris is alone, I think.”

“I am,” Kris answered through his hands-free device. “I’m at Nambu and Jongdo, if I’m not mistaken.”

 “Awesome. Let me know if something co-”

“Hello?” Hyerin called out, sharing a quizzical look with Chanyeol as they slowed to a stop. “Hello, prez?”

“Everything alright there?” Lay asked.

“Do you guys hear that?” Suho asked, finally talking.

“Huh?” Chanyeol frowned. “Hear what?”

“Shh.”

Everyone kept silent and stopped walking to listen to whatever Suho was talking about. For a moment all they heard was the conflicting sounds of people talking and the bustling activity that came along with it, but as they listened past that and focused more intently, they made out a low, barely hearable rumbling noise that made the ground shake subtly every time it came, growing in intensity as the sound became louder and louder.

“What is tha-”

“Shh! Wait,” Hyerin shushed.

The sound became so loud that the locals stopped what they were doing to listen to it as well. It was maybe around thirty seconds when the rumbling stopped, making everyone think it was nothing, though they spoke too soon.

A loud, crackling boom resounded in the air, and it really was loud because all the agents that were currently in their destinations heard it nice and clearly. People started to panic, thinking that that loud noise was somewhere within their area.

“What the was that!?” Xiumin exclaimed.

“Was that an explosion?”

“I don’t know!”

“Look!” Hyerin pointed to the sky. Their guesses were right as a big mountain of black smoke was to be seen a couple of miles away from where they stood, too big and too thick for it just to be a fire.

“We can see it,” Chen said. “It’s to our west. I don’t know what that’s about but it’s best if we go check it out.”

“Understood. Everyone head to the explosion right now!” Suho ordered, making everyone get back to their cars and drive towards the mystery explosion.

---

Everything was in chaos.

The explosion was in the middle of Gangnam, the busiest street of all within the district. An apartment building just right after an intersecting road was bursting into flames, cars were stuck in the middle of the streets and too many people were crowding around the area to see what just happened.

Kyungsoo, Luhan, and Lay ran to where the commotion was, horrified to see the burning building and the crashed cars.

“I have a terribly bad feeling about this,” Luhan said, struggling to catch his breath. “We have to get these people out of here. We have to get these people out of here right now! Spread out and take everyone away!”

With that, the three split up and pushed the people surrounding the area away.

“Everyone leave right now!” Kyungsoo yelled, pushing people back. “Turn the other way and leave!”

“What’s your problem!?” one man in a suit asked.

“There’s not much time! You need to leave before-”

Another explosion interrupted Kyungsoo. This time, it was a taller building just across the street. Everyone, by now, was screaming and in panic.

Luhan put his arm around a random person to avoid them getting hit by the bits and pieces of debris flying everywhere. He pushed them back and screamed as loudly as he could. “Go now! Run!”

And finally, everyone did. Unfortunately, they should have run sooner because before they could even go any further away from the commotion, at least twenty men in all-black with masks covering their mouths and noses jumped out of nowhere, blocking the people’s way. They were the same ones that EXO had encountered before during one of their missions.

“Oh ,” Lay cursed. “! They’re Xinths!”

“Now, now everyone.”

On top of two crashed cars in the middle of the intersection, Blue stood in all smiles, hands on his waist, hair slicked back and sporting a bright yellow neon suit. Around him were the black-clad Xinths holding blades as long as their legs, while on his right was Suzy dressed in a tight, all-black latex suit. Meanwhile on his left, Durus had his arms folded against his chest looking intimidating as ever, and then TOP in his usual Fedora, slacks, and suspenders. Lastly, Baekhyun stood behind Suzy, also in an all black get-up.

The citizens seemed to be stuck in panic mode that Blue had to make his voice a pitch louder. “Everyone calm down!” he exclaimed, veins practically popping out of his temples.

Once everyone was silent, he smiled. “It’s a lovely evening isn’t it?”

“Who are you!?” one person among the crowd asked.

“We are your new leaders,” Blue said, stepping down from the hood of the car.

“You’re terrorists!”

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Careful now,” Blue warned, wagging a finger. “You humans may be amusing but that is no reason for you all to cross the line,” he said. “Now if you all will cooperate, I promise each and every one of you a quick and easy death. Okay? Okay!” He clapped his hands. “Let the party begin!”

All at once, more Xinths came jumping into the crowd and started killing random people. By now, everyone was screaming as they ran away in hopes of saving their own lives.

Luhan marched towards the enemies, all the while gathering his strength. With a big pushing motion of his hands, the Xinths in front of him were lifted and suspended in the air. Luhan dropped them back down to the ground as hard as he could, crushing their skulls against the cement. The other two busied themselves with fighting more of the enemies.

After a while, at least five police cars finally arrived, though they did not have the time to ask what was going on and just immediately shot at the men who were attempting to kill the citizens.

At the same time, the EXO agents came as well, followed by at least fifty other agents from M-LX.

“Lay!” Suho yelled.

Lay was holding a sword belonging to the Xinth he just killed when he turned around and ran towards Suho.

“Where are the others?” Lay asked breathlessly.

“I don’t know but I need you to stay here and get rid of them before they kill more people. Tell the others too. I’ll be right back!”

---

“Sehun, I spot TOP approximately a hundred and fifty feet away from you,” Hyerin said through her mic, crouched low on top of a rooftop just a building away from the burning structure. “Your 6 o’clock.”

“Got it,” Sehun whispered before handling the white-haired enigma.

 Hyerin sighed as she hid behind the wall again, anxious to go out and fight but at the same time nervous. The others told her to stay back and let them handle everything because according to Chen’s own words: “They’ll take you in a heartbeat once they find the opportunity to do so!”

Hyerin sat back against the wall and tried to stabilize her heartbeat. It was finally happening. The chaos that they had been dreading was already here, when they were most unprepared. When their team, EXO, was in its breaking point. She should have seen it coming, but there was no time to dwell on that now. Regret was not going to bring back the lives of those who died.

“For once, you’re not joining in the fun.”

Hyerin lifted her head up, hands automatically reaching out to her gun as Suzy sauntered her way towards her, looking slick and flexible in her latex suit.

Hyerin scoffed and stood up on her feet. “Can you even move in that thing?”

“It’s been a long time, Hyerin,” Suzy said, ignoring her question.

“It surely has been a long time. How’s the traitor life? Satisfying?”

“You have no idea.” She grinned, placing her hands on her hips and making no attempt to advance towards her.

“So are you going to take me now? Kidnap me and give me to your insane employer?”

“No, not really.”

“What are you some kind of poser that’s only in on this to act as the pretty one in the group?” Hyerin sneered. “What’re you doing here if you’re not going to take me?”

“I’m a killer, Hyerin. I’m not the one taking you,” She shrugged, “that’s someone else’s job.”

Suzy gave her a lazy smirk before jumping off the building; so quick that it was too late when Hyerin took out her gun.

“,” she hissed, about to run after the girl, when a cold, solid thing pressed against the back of her head.

“Don’t move.”

Hyerin froze on the spot, not because a gun was pointed to her head, but because she knew exactly who it was.

Hyerin shook her head. “You can’t kill me.”

Baekhyun turned off the safety. “Try me.”

She closed her eyes shut. “Baekhyun, please.”

“No. Just put your hands up or I’ll-”

Hyerin didn’t give him the chance to finish whatever he was saying and turned around, twisting his arm in the process and making him let go of the firearm. She kicked it away to the edge of the rooftop and kneed Baekhyun in the stomach.

“You get distracted easily,” she said. “That’s no good for someone like you.”

Baekhyun glared at her and pushed her away before charging towards her, all the while throwing a couple of punches here and there that Hyerin tried to dodge.

“Baekhyun,” she said, avoiding a kick. “Baekhyun, listen to me.”

“Shut up!”

“Baekhyun, wait-”

“I said shut up or I’ll kill you!” he growled, successfully landing a punch on her left cheek.

Hyerin stumbled back down to the ground while Baekhyun made his way to the edge of the rooftop to get his weapon. She ran after him and jumped on his back, refraining him from getting any closer to the gun.

They fought some more. They kicked, scratched and punched each other as if their lives depended on it, which it did obviously. They were fighting because of one reason, and it was because they didn’t have a choice. It was the only thing to do.

“Just give it up, Hyerin,” Baekhyun wheezed, spitting blood for the umpteenth time and preparing to attack her once again.

“No. I’m not doing that,” she huffed, wiping the blood trickling down the side of her face.

“I’m serious, Hyerin.”

“As well as I.”

“Do you seriously want to die!?” Baekhyun yelled impatiently.

“You know me, Baekhyun. Giving up is not an option.”

“Just stop!”

“But you promised!” Hyerin’s eyes pooled with tears. “You promised me you’ll be there for me no matter what. But where are you now, Baekhyun? Where the are you now!?”

Baekhyun blinked a couple of times before looking away. “,” he whispered harshly to himself.

“I opened up to you, trusted you, yet here we are, trying to murder each other in the middle of a war we’ve been trying so hard to stop. I’m staring at a stranger right now, Baekhyun,” she continued. “This is not you.”

“But this is me!” he snapped. “This is me and you can’t do anything about it! This is where I belong and if I choose to go against you then I will. If I was ordered to kill you right here, right now, I would.”

“No, you won’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

“No.” Hyerin shook her head, giving him a sad look. “If you did, you would have killed me with your power from the moment we started fighting.”

Baekhyun turned his head to look at her, speechless.

“Baekhyun, I-” she hesitated, wearily running a hand through her long hair, “just…please come back. Your place is with us, not with them.”

“She’s right.” Behind Hyerin, Kyungsoo emerged from the dark, dirty and bloody from fighting below. “Just tell us why you did it and we’ll help you fix things. We need you, Baekhyun.”

“No you don’t,” he mumbled, bowing his head to avoid eye contact.

“Don’t try to persuade him.” Out of nowhere, TOP appeared in front of Baekhyun. “It was his own decision. If he wants to be with us, then he stays with us."

“You brainwashed him,” Kyungsoo hissed through gritted teeth, avoiding eye contact with the white-haired man.

“Like I said, he chose to be with us. And you can’t do anything about it.”

“Yes we can.” Hyerin took a step forward.

“This will all end sooner or later and by then you’ll be dead. If not, you’ll be locked up in a ing cell and everyday you’ll remember what kind of horrible thing you’ve done to this city,” Kyungsoo sneered. “Surely you’ll remember that.”

 TOP continued to stare at him, though Kyungsoo refused to look up. He gestured for Baekhyun to leave and in return, the boy did as he was told.

“That would be a pleasure,” TOP said.

“Oh, yeah?” Kyungsoo challenged, secretly gesturing for Hyerin to leave using his hands behind his back.

“Yes. It would be a great achievement to be remembered as someone who made such a big impact on this city.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo growled. “For all the wrong ing reasons.”

With that, Kyungsoo pushed TOP as hard as he can, sending the man flying to the edge of the rooftop. As the man landed on his back, his body rolled so far to the edge that he was only holding on to the railing, the rest of him dangling from the building.

Kyungsoo stomped his way towards him and took out his knife. With one swift, unhesitating motion, he buried the knife into TOP’s hand. The latter yelped out in pain, but did no action of letting go.

 “Surely that will be remembered,” Kyungsoo sneered.

“Yes, it will.” TOP gritted his teeth, struggling to hold on. “But don’t think I’m not giving you something as well.”

As quick as a snap, TOP managed to grab Kyungsoo’s right arm, almost pulling him down with him if it weren’t for Kyungsoo’s fast reflexes. By now, Kyungsoo’s arm was the only thing TOP was holding on to.

“What are you doing!?” Kyungsoo exclaimed.

“Giving you something to remember me by,” TOP growled, taking out his own large knife from his pocket with his wounded hand.

Before Kyungsoo could even react, TOP had already swung his weapon in the air for momentum before slicing through Kyungsoo’s wrist and chopping off the boy’s hand.

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A/N: You need a hand there, TOP? LOL GET IT??? NEED A HAND LMFAO

/please don't kill me/