Ever since the confession, Xiumin had been keeping a closer eye on Chen. A couple of days passed without their father attempting to do anything, but to Xiumin, that didn’t mean anything. A couple of days of not doing anything could mean a lifetime of him attempting to find Chen and Xiumin wasn’t going to let that happen.

            “Hyung, I’m sure I can take care of myself. I’m a big boy,” Chen attempted to reason with Xiumin, but Xiumin only shook his head.

            “You don’t know what he can do, Chen, you don’t know anything.”

            “You keep telling me that,” Chen said as he looked at his older brother, “but what does it mean if you don’t tell me anything?”

            “Chen…”

            “Stop doing that.”

            “Doing what?” Xiumin asked.

            “Can you stop trying to pull that on me? I think I’m old enough to know things, to know what our father is capable of. I’ve grown up thinking that our father was just a no one that didn’t even care about us.”

            “And he is.”

            “But I want to know who he is and determine that for myself.”

            “It’s dangerous waters, though,” Xiumin said. “It’s dangerous to know about him.”

            “Which is why I want to know about him.”

            “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

            “By this point…I don’t care,” Chen said as he looked Xiumin in the eyes. “By this point, in my mind, everything has already happened and things couldn’t possibly get worse, so what would be the difference?”

            “I guess you’re right,” Xiumin sighed.

Time passed and Chen was able to be released from the hospital and for the first time in his life, he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do, he was conflicted. On one side he wanted to go visit his father and find out things about him, but then on the other hand he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to actually see what his father did for a living.

            It wasn’t like Chen already had an image of his father in his mind. In reality, Chen never really made one. He just always assumed that his father would never be in the picture, and thus just grew up without one. However, now learning that his father is part of an illegal underground business, it makes Chen wonder whether or not he should take Xiumin’s advice and just stay out of it. Then again, like Xiumin advised, their father would eventually find Chen. Chen figured that it’s good to grab the bull by its horns, right?

            “Let’s go home,” Xiumin said with a smile.

            “Where is home?” Chen muttered under his breath, a comment that Xiumin heard, but decided to ignore. “And what about noona?”

            “Hmm, she got release before you,” Xiumin began to explain. “She’s already at home with Minhyuk.”

            “Minhyuk?” Chen asked as his ears perked up upon hearing that name. It sounded like it had been so long since he last saw his nephew. “He’s alright? Where did you find him?”

            “That girl found him. What was her name… Ellie?”

            “You’re saying that Ellie found Minhyuk?” Chen asked in surprise. It had been a long time since he last saw Ellie and wondered if he would be able to thank her for finding Minhyuk and taking care of him. Even if Chen were to go to her house, though, would she even want to see him?

            “Yeah, they say that he just found his way to their doorstep,” Xiumin said as he attempted to recall the story. “I don’t know how, but he just found his way there. He’s been at home with Minyoon for a little bit now, but he won’t talk about what happened.”

            “Oh,” Chen quietly said. “Um, hyung, do you think you could take me to Ellie’s house?”

            “Okay, are you sure you don’t want to rest?”

            “No, I’m fine.”

            “Alright then,” Xiumin said as he started the car and started driving to Ellie’s house.

Before long, they were there at the doorstep. “I’ll call you when I want to get picked up,” Chen said.

            “Okay, but don’t stay too long. You just got released from the hospital, you should get some rest.”

            “I understand,” Chen said with a nod of his head as Xiumin drove away.

            Nervously, Chen approached the front door. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to see Ellie. In actuality, he had no idea if she was home or not. Taking a deep breath, Chen nervously rang the doorbell and waited on the front step for someone to come. After what seemed like forever, the door slowly opened and Ellie slowly revealed herself.

            “Chen?” she asked in surprise as she saw him standing there.

            “Ah, Ellie, long time no see,” Chen said with a chuckle.

            “Why are you here? Do you want to come in?” Ellie asked as she opened the door wider.

            “Um…sure,” Chen said as he stepped into the house behind Ellie.

            “Why are you here? When did you get released?” Ellie asked. There were a bunch of questions in her mind since she hadn’t seen Chen for a while, but she didn’t want to overwhelm him and herself with them.

            “I got released today, actually,” Chen said. “But I wanted to thank you for finding Minhyuk and taking care of him.”

            “It’s no problem,” Ellie said giving him a smile. “I know how important family is.”

            “Hmm, thanks.”

            “No problem, but Chen, is that the only reason why you came here?”

            “Well that and…I just wanted to see you,” Chen slowly admitted. “I kind of missed you coming around to the hospital and visiting me. And I guess I was curious about your relationship with Lay-hyung.”

            “Oh, we aren’t in a relationship,” Ellie said. She had already forgotten about the pretend relationship with her and Lay in the hospital room.

            “Really?” Chen asked in surprise.

            “Really,” Ellie said with a chuckle. “But you missed me?”

            “You could say that.”

            “Well I kind of missed checking up on you,” Ellie said as she looked at Chen. “I mean…never mind.”

            “What?” Chen curiously asked.

            “You liked me, right?” Ellie asked figuring that the best way to get past this stage would be to just to say things straightforwardly.

            “Wha-what would make you say that?” Chen asked as he stuttered a bit.

            “You kissed me,” Ellie said. She still remembered that memory as though it happened yesterday. “You kissed me and it simply wasn’t a kiss goodbye. It was more like a kiss of longing, like a kiss of not wanting to depart.”

            “I-I don’t remember.”

            “You’re stuttering.”

            “Ellie…”

            “Chen, just tell me,” Ellie said interrupting Chen from continuing his sentence. “You missed me visiting you and you kissed me. Just tell me whether you like me or not so I can straighten out my own feelings.”

            “Straighten out your own feelings?” Chen wondered. “What does that mean? Ellie,” he said as he curiously eyed Ellie, “do you like me?”

            “I think I do,” Ellie said as she looked Chen straight in the eyes. “Ever since that kiss, or maybe before that, I think that I might like you. You’ve always been on my mind and I don’t know what to do. That’s what I want a straightforward answer, Chen. Do you like me or not?”

            “Maybe yes or maybe no,” Chen slowly said as he slowly turned his head to look at Ellie. “But mostly it’s leaning towards yes.”

            “Hmm, I figured,” Ellie said with a chuckle.

“We’ve been planning and preparing, it’s tonight,” Lay said as he looked at Kris. “We’ve gotten informants that are in his gang and people that know his whereabouts. We already set up a stakeout location for some and some getaway spots just in case we get stuck, but I think we’re going to do good, Kris.”

            “Yeah,” Kris muttered as he looked at the map. It was the night that they were going to infiltrate Kim Changwoon’s headquarters, the night that they were going to make sure that he was caught and stopped before doing anything else.

            “You know, this isn’t only to protect everyone else in the world, but it’s also to protect my younger brother,” Lay said as he looked at the map with Kris. “It’s to save Chen from having to live his life like this, to live it always searching for the father that never cared, that’s involved doing illegal stuff and ruining people’s lives.”

            “So we’re going to go through here,” Kris said as he pointed on the map. “And then our backup will come in here and then we’ll take him down.”

            “Yeah,” Lay said with a nod of his head.

            “Alright, let’s go,” Kris said.

            The two of them began heading out into the night as they started heading towards Kim Changwoon’s underground headquarters. According to their informants, tonight was a calm night. They weren’t going to really go out and do anything such as kill anyone. They were simply going to do all of the easy dealings that night and not do anything crazy. That meant that all night they were going to be at the headquarters, meaning that there was a high chance of being able to catch him.

            As the night passed on, Kris and Lay finally arrived at their destination, more ready than ever to take him on. They weren’t afraid, they were doing it for good causes. Kim Changwoon was a man that was wanted anyway, they would be doing everyone favor.

            “Ready?” Kris asked as he took one last look at Lay who nodded his head in response. “Okay, let’s go.”

            Swiftly, the two entered the premises of the building and began silently taking the guards out through their sneak attacks and teamwork. As the minutes passed by, the two were getting close to the underground main room where Changwoon would be sitting and ultimately where he would come to his demise.

            Much to their surprise, though, Kris and Lay were able to get to the doors much faster than they had anticipated. It didn’t seem like there was much of a fight put up. “Something’s fishy,” Lay whispered to Kris.

            “I know, it wouldn’t be this easy to do it,” Kris said as he attempted to figure out what was going on. “But we can’t give up now, we have to keep going.”

            “I know, but I can’t help but feel like something horrible is going to happen.”

            Kris sighed as he nodded his head. “But let’s go forward with it, who knows when we’ll get another chance.”

            “Okay,” Lay said with a nod of his head as the two suddenly ambushed the room, which was dark and empty catching them both off guard.

            “Huh?” Kris asked as he stood up and looked around the room. “What’s going on?”

            “Are you looking for me?” Changwoon asked as his voice echoed throughout the room. Lay and Kris couldn’t see his figure anywhere. “Hit the lights!”

            Suddenly, the room became bright and both Kris and Lay gasped at the sight that was in front of them. “What are you doing?” Lay demanded.

            “I’m only doing what’s right,” Changwoon said with a shrug of his shoulders.

            “Let him go, he has nothing to do with this.”

            “But he has everything to do with it. This is the induction ceremony into the gang, of course.”

            “Chen doesn’t want to be in this gang, he doesn’t want this lifestyle,” Lay attempted to reason.

            “Hmm, but he doesn’t really have a choice now, does he. He’s my heir and nothing is going to change that. Alright boys, fire!” Changwoon yelled before the bright flash.

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What happened to Chen? What will happen to Lay and Kris? Will Ellie and Chen's relationship go anywhere?

Here's Chapter 29. Hope you enjoyed :D

There will probably be 3 more chapters until the end? I'm not entirely sure, I'm only giving an estimate, haha.

But how do you think the end is going to play out?