-Part One- Chapter One
Sin S(e)oul {discontinued}
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PART ONE
Chapter 1
One year ago "How was your day, Kyuhyun?" Kim Jonghyun asked the man beside him who was leaning against the counter of the small bar area of his private gamble club. Many of his customers there were friends, mainly because the club was private, for a reason, and because he wanted to keep track of every movement inside his place. "Oh, I've had better days, to be honest." Kyuhyun, his long-time friend, was always visiting his club for a game or just for a talk. Jonghyun didn't mind talking with his friends there, but he preferred to be in the monitor room, checking out every single table. Luckily, he had hired some trusted people to do that while he was busy 'being nice.' "You should go and play then, maybe it's your lucky day." Jonghyun turned towards the bar, leaning against it. He didn't have to even open his mouth because the bartender, a beautiful slim Korean girl from USA who went by the name of Jessica, was already serving him his usual, Gin and Tonic. "Thanks Jess." He gave her his usual charming smile, before pointing, with his head, towards Kyuhyun. "Please, serve him the same. Our compatibility is only related to drinks apparently." The taller dark haired man laughed at Jonghyun, gladly accepting his drink. "I thought our friendship was deeper than that," Kyuhyun replied with a playful tone. "Don't worry, it's deep just fine." Jonghyun smirked. "Now, let's drink!" They drank in silence. For some very weird reason, Jonghyun stopped talking when he drank. It was odd because Jonghyun was a talking machine and at times, a very annoying one. Jonghyun was on his second drink when Kyuhyun decided to give gambling a go and walked away to one of the tables where a go-stop game was about to start. Bored, Jonghyun went to look for his partner-in-crime and he found him smoking in the office upstairs. "Yah, what the hell are you doing here?" Choi Minho was the sulkiest person Jonghyun had ever met in his life. There was probably a reason as to why he was hiding in their office where no one could disturb him, except Jonghyun. "I'm smoking. What do you think I'm doing?" Minho raised his eyebrows and his cigarette to emphasize his answer. His eyes however, were just too damn honest for Jonghyun to not notice that something was wrong. "You know, you at lying. If you don't want me to find things out, you should be hiding somewhere else instead of this office," Jonghyun replied, a heavy hint of sarcasm in his voice. He took one of the chairs in front of the desk, and sat on it, still looking at Minho. "It's not like I wouldn't tell you, so why bother hiding somewhere else?" Minho replied, avoiding his partner's eyes. Minho had always had a very sulky mood when bad things happened to him. Jonghyun couldn't blame him, but he always tried to make the best out of them and to be positive that everything was going to turn out just fine. "Well, you’re right." He leaned more towards the taller man, now even more curious about what was going on in Minho's mind. "So, what happened?" ----- A tiny drop of alcohol slid down Minho's muscular strong jaw and throat, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gulped most of his glass of beer. Once he finished it all, he put the glass down with a strong thud and sighed in satisfaction. He needed that cold beer oh so ing bad. "That's the Minho I know! I'm gonna get ya another one, so don't go anywhere." Jonghyun seemed as happy as him for making him drink that beer. He patted Minho's shoulder and went towards the counter. After Jonghyun had made him talk about his worries and had reassured him, he had dragged Minho downstairs and put in front of him that big glass of beer that he had eagerly gulped down just a few moments ago. The truth was, Minho was never reassured about anything. He had been affected by this heavy paranoia ever since he started the business with Jonghyun two years ago, and now one of his most plaguing fears has almost come true. Even if their gambling house was placed in a not-so-nice area of Seoul, known to host a lot of bad guys, there were rules that everyone had to respect. One of the most fragile rules in the gambling world was about cheating: if you cheat and you are caught doing it you have to pay the price. Truthfully, Minho was in serious trouble. Years ago when he was still in high school he had been abandoned by his parents with a little brother and a large amount of debt. He thought he had escaped the loan sharks by fleeing to Seoul, but somehow they had managed to find him, even if he had changed his and his brother's family names to Choi. Finding Jonghyun was the best thing that had happened to him; they had got along and they had started a business in the gambling area, even if Minho was still underage. During the years, they had been making a large sum of money but it still wasn't enough for Minho to cover the debt that had increased during those years. Minho was good at gambling, very good. But being good was not enough to make money. You have to cheat to gain the real money. So lately, Minho had been to another gambling house placed in another part of Seoul, and had started playing dirty thinking that no one would notice him. Minho knew a trick or two but he figured it was enough to fool those people. Not only had he lost a lot of money, but he barely managed to escape without getting hurt. But everyone knew who he was, and what he did. And Minho knew they weren't going to stay put and leave the issue as if nothing happened. The worst part of it was that he had lied to Jonghyun. In the office earlier he had said some of the neighbors were after him because he was caught cheating; but both Minho and Jonghyun knew them and Jonghyun had reassured him there was nothing to worry about, that everything would be solved with a fist or two. And Minho could do nothing but nod. His mind was currently spinning in hell. "Here you go, alien!" Jonghyun came back with a comforting smile on his face. When he looked at Minho, he still had a worried expression on his face and he sighed. "Minho-ah…you need to stop worrying so much, or your face will get smaller and smaller until it disappears." Jonghyun’s almost serious expression made Minho laugh so much that he spilled his beer and started coughing. Jonghyun laughed with him. "What? I wasn't joking, you know!" They kept laughing at Jonghyun's stupid joke like some drunken people. Not that they were that far from getting drunk. Right when he was trying to make a joke about Jonghyun's very proportioned height that Jonghyun always loved so much, his eyes focused on the house's opening door. There stood the blond-haired man that Minho knew oh-so-well already, and it was almost impossible to not know him if you were a regular customer in their house. Kim Kibum walked inside as if he was at some kind of fashion show; even the red carpet made it look like one. Minho swore his eyes couldn't roll any further. The sight made him literally exasperated. It was almost impossible to not notice Kim Kibum’s entrance at any place, and Minho was surprised that Jonghyun hadn't noticed him yet. Jonghyun actually seemed lost in thought. Minho elbowed Jonghyun’s ribs slightly and when the older boy looked up at him, Minho silently pointed with his head at the entry doors, where Kim Kibum was already looking right at Jonghyun, a smile painted on his illegally pretty face. Minho saw Jonghyun smile back at Kibum and the blonde walked towards them ignoring everything else around him. When he almost reached their table, Minho decided to take a walk somewhere else very far from Kim Kibum. They were the same age, however Kibum was older by a few months and he never failed to point that out to Minho. It was not a secret that Kibum and Minho couldn't stand each other's sight. "Well, here he comes." Minho stood up, taking his glass of beer with him. "I'll go kidnap someone to share this beer with, or maybe I'll go play at some table." He turned to walk away but Jonghyun's hand held his arm, stopping him. His partner stood up too and his mouth got closer to Minho's ear. "Minho, just try not to worry too much, you know I'll never let you deal with things by yourself, you got it man?" Jonghyun whispered and tried to make eye contact with Minho, a deadly serious expression on his face. Minho smiled at him and nodded. "Yes hyung, I got it." He glanced briefly at Kibum who had already reached their table. "Kibum, nice to see you tonight." The blonde man recognized him with a courtesy smile and a nod. Minho then was ready to leave. "I'll see you later hyung," he said as he walked away towards the go-stop playing tables. ----- Kibum watched Minho’s back retreating away from them and raised his eyebrows. "He's not in the fighting mood tonight?" he asked Jonghyun with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Not much…something happened," Jonghyun replied, sighing. He then looked at Kibum who was just about ready to ask about it. "I'm not going to tell you anything, Kibum," he said to the younger man with a serious tone. "Oh, c'mon Jjong. It's not like I don't know anything about you or Minho. I know more than the both of you combined!" Kibum replied with a whiny voice. "Besides, if I'm hanging around here I need to know if I have to be careful or not." "That's why you should stop coming here," Jonghyun answered with a harsh tone. Kibum straightened on the high bar chair and de-crossed his legs, a hurt expression across his face. He avoided looking at Jonghyun. Jonghyun glanced at him with a sigh, his serious expression replaced by a worried one. "Kibum, you know that this place, this area, is dangerous right? You can't keep coming here alone, it's dark and anything can happen to you." Kibum still avoided Jonghyun's eyes, and he was also trying hard to ignore his words too. He started drinking Jonghyun's beer but Jonghyun stopped him placing a hand on Kibum's wrist. "Kibum, please look at me." Jonghyun's tone was a mix of worry, fear and love. Kibum stopped his movements and got lost in the older man's eyes. Jonghyun's other hand moved to Kibum's cheek and the blonde suddenly felt very hot. He wished time could stop dead at that exact moment. Everyone knew that Jonghyun was the type to like skinship. He loved touching people, making them feel close. Kibum suspected Jonghyun had never received loving touches when he was a child and when he grew up the older man started craving for them. Kibum didn't know about Jonghyun's past because he never asked and Jonghyun never told him. He didn't mind it at all when Jonghyun started to get touchy with him though. In fact, Kibum loved it. Kibum felt that this particular touch was more than just skinship. He could feel it, he could feel Jonghyun's heat like he never felt with anyone else. Saying that Jonghyun's touches made him feel aroused was an understatement. Jonghyun's touch made Kibum feel his most intimate feelings. "I…I don't want to stop coming here," Kibum said, still affected by Jonghyun's warm hand on his cheek. He wasn't sure what his expression was at the moment because Jonghyun smiled at him reassuringly and the blonde felt the urge to smile back, and he did. "I know, just…" Jonghyun removed his hand from the blonde's cheek and Kibum suddenly felt icy. "Just try to be careful. I don't know what I'm going to do if something happenened to you." Jonghyun's words, however, made him feel hot again, even hotter than before. Kibum's eyes looked down at his wrist and he noticed the older man hadn't removed his hand from there yet. "Besides, I'm not sure if Minho has told me everything about it yet. So even I don't know what's wrong with him…" Both of them looked at the table where a happy, smiling, cheerful Minho won that go-stop round. ----- It was 3 am when Kibum decided it was finally time to go home (well, it was actually Jonghyun who decided it since they were closing earlier anyway) and he was walking home alone in the dark streets of downtown Seoul. It was not the first nor the last time he walked home alone. Although Jonghyun always offered to walk him home, Kibum always refused because he knew he could handle things by himself, even if those 'things' included people trying to take advantage of him. Jonghyun was never happy about his 'no' but he couldn't help it so he always let Kibum go home alone. Tonight though, something was worrying Kibum. He thought about what Jonghyun had said about Minho probably lying to him. Kibum couldn't stand the sight of Minho but he knew him very well and Minho was not a liar. So if he had decided to omit something (if Jonghyun was right, and Kibum believed it more than Minho anyway) there must have been some reasons. Kibum was anxious and the number one rule for the 'guys who walk home alone at 3 am' is to never ever show you are afraid to be walking alone in the dark. Kibum wasn't worried about it but his nervousness was clear like water, and the 'bad guys' had this seventh sense to feel it. So when Kibum stopped dead because he heard a distinct noise of steps right behind him, he started feeling seriously afraid. He had two options, to turn and tell whoever was behind him to off, or to run. Kibum wasn't a running type, he preferred dealing with things straight away but he was really considering the second option. When the noise got nearer he acted by instinct and ran. He turned his head to look behind but the street was totally empty, not that he could see much anyway. The stalker was probably hiding somewhere in the shadow. Still running and panting, his eyes were locked looking behind when he suddenly bumped into something, or better, someone. He fell on the floor, his expression completely scared and his panting was louder. He looked up and when he recognized the dark brown hair and the small face belonging to Choi Minho, Kibum sighed relieved. "Thank God it's you," he said with a low voice, getting up from the floor (not waiting for Minho to help him cause Kibum would have waited an eternity…) and cleaning his back with his hands. His mouth formed a pout when he noticed his pants got dirty. He looked again at where he came from and of course there was no one. "I didn't know you liked to run at 3 in the morning wearing impossibly skinny jeans," Minho said, the sarcasm in his voice evident. Kibum glared at him, and ignored the provocation. Minho then looked at the street, and then Kibum. "What?" Kibum snapped. Why, out of all the people in Seoul, did he have to bump into Choi Minho? Suspicion arose in him. Kibum's eyes got smaller when he glared at Minho. "You know what I think? That you are stalking me trying to kidnap me and me." Kibum was totally serious when he accused Minho but when the younger man started laughing, Kibum thanked God again that Minho couldn't see him blushing in the dark. What the hell! The blonde, clearly irritated, walked past Minho mentally sending him to hell. "Kibum-ah, as much as I can't stand you…I don't do your kind of asses," Minho said, even if Kibum couldn't see him, he could see Minho's mocking smile painting his alien face. So, fight it is. "What kind of asses?" the blonde replied, his arms crossed on his chest and his expression annoyed. He wanted to make it look like Minho was making him lose his precious time, which he was anyway. Minho smirked, he was happy because Kibum totally fell for his hook. "Diva boy asses." He laughed and Kibum wanted to hit him so bad but he preferred words over fists and he couldn't fight the younger man even if he wanted to. "Oh I know I’m not your type, Minho." Kibum smiled evilly. "I think you go for the badass type," the smirk was evident now. "And why is that?" Minho seemed curious about it, and it made Kibum wonder if he was right. Minho was good at hooking him, but he never won a word battle against the blonde. Kibum sometimes wondered if the younger man was affected by some kind of masochism. "Because it seems like you live to bring troubles," Kibum replied coldly, and he mentally high fived himself for totally winning this competition, once again. " you, Kibum!" Minho walked fast past him leaving him behind. They couldn't be separated that much, ‘cause they were neighbors and lived very close to each other. Kibum liked to start and end the day with a fight when the younger man moved to his apartment three years ago. Slowly, they had got tired of each other's presence so much that they tried to avoid fighting now. "I thought I wasn't your type!" Kibum yelled after him, a completely satisfied smile forming on his face. Suddenly, he heard another suspicious noise and he quickly walked behind Minho at the right distance as to not make it look like he was scared to walk alone in the darkness (because Minho would make fun of him all the time if he knew). |
Hi guys :) Chapter 13 of Sin S(e)jul is currently being written! I'm sorry for not updating for months, I hope the new chapter will make up for it!
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