When...
I Can be Tough
TOP POV
"What the hell are you implying?"
"I'm not implying anything, Yoseob, i'm saying that maybe while you weren't watching-"
"What!?"
Slap.
"No, Doojoon, there is no while i wasn't watching. I did what you ing asked meto do, I've been following her for days."
Slap.
"I have been stalking one of my best friends for days. I followed her into every single building, train, restaurant, everywhere."
Slap.
" Unless she has one of the ministry of magic's transport toilets or she can ing apparate, there is no way in hell Hyuna got away from me."
Slap. Junhyung reorganizes his cards into two neat stacks, just to mash them together again in a blur of paper and sharp slaps. Yoseob advances towards Doojoon with every word and a vein pops out in the older boys jaw. Junhyung starts setting his card out in neat rows, alternating between putting them face up and face down.
"Why are you getting so pissy? I'm not attacking you, Yoseob, i'm just saying that you might have made a mistake. You're not ing perfect, despite what you think-" Yoseob's face twitches in outrage but Doojoon plunges forward "- My boys are hurt and people have died. We need to know why."
On the backs of Junhyung's cards, there are different colored dragons, each drawn by hand with careful dedication.
"You think you're doing this all by yourself? That you're the only one who cares?! you're the one whose so ing full of himself! Maybe you're the one who let something slip or you just weren't careful enough! How are you so sure that your conference didn't have any unwanted listeners? Maybe you should get your ing together before running around blaming other people!"
I wonder if he drew them on, or if someone else did it for him.
"Yang Yoseob! Who the hell do you think you are?! You know perfectly well how hard I try to take care of my family, you know I wouldn't make a mistake like that!"
God knows Gi Kwang couldn't have done it. That kid can't draw for . Junhyung puts the last card face up and takes out his phone, messing with the screen quickly before flashing it at me. I can't help but be a little surprised as he raises his eyebrows questioningly at me. I shrug in response, signaling that he should do what he wants. He shrugs back and pressess call, putting the phone on loud speaker. Yoseob and Doojoon are so into their argument they don't notice the ringing and freeze in shock and confusion when a sleepy voice fills the room.
"Junhyung? What do you want? It's late."
"Hey man, sorry. I just needed to ask you something."
"Hmmkay."
"You remember the meeting? About the exchange that went bad?"
"Mmhmm. Wait... The private one or the breefing?"
"Private."
"Yeah."
"Did you talk about anything we said then with anyone before the breifing? Mention anything to anyone?"
There's a long pause as Hyunseung stirs on the other side and Doojoon's fists are clenched, his arms strethced into taught arcs curving behind his back, like a bird straining to take flight.
"No... No I definately didn't. Why? Did you guys find out anything else about the breach? Did Doo find the rat?"
"Nah, just grasping after some leads. Thanks kid."
"Hmm call me if I can dmph-"
"Go to sleeeeep!"
Both Doojoon and Yoseob flinch with guilt at the sound of Hyuna's irritated voice, fuzzy with sleep. There's noises like sheets rustling and a thud like a pillow hitting skin, before the line cuts. The room is quiet and i lean back into the chair.
"So, now that that's solved. Anyone else got a lead?"
"Can someone please tell me why Hyuna was a lead in the first place?"
"Don't be that way. You know it made sense. She belonged to RED, she has close ties to higher ups. You were suspicious too."
There's still venom in their voices and I wonder how many sleepless nights they've spent over this. Not as many as me, i'm sure.The game stops being fun when the other team knows your moves. A game impossible to win isn't worth playing, after all. Doojoon crosses his arms and continues talking, porpusfully turning his back to Yoseob.
"If it wasn't Hyuna, then Hyunseung is no longer a viable lead. We can safely say that nothing leaked through him. That leaves Jun and myself... Unless..."
Guilty eyes slither in my direction and Doojoon tenses.
"Top, you got the info before the rest of BLUE. I didn't think of you earlier, because what I gave you was pretty vague before the official briefing. I sent you a report with the location and an estimate of the number of men you should contribute. No time, merchandise listing, or names. Not enough information to plan a full scale attack like that. But..."
" But enough information to be dangerous. I understand your concern."
I lean back against the chair, thinking about the night I got the folder. Junhyung had brought it to me personally, so it's not possible that anyone who wasn't meant to could have seen the information it contained. I read it with Junhyung still in the room, memorized the sparse information quickly, and then we burned it, making sure it turned into ash. Then Taeyang had come in and Junhyung had gone back to BLACK house. I didn't say anything about the envolope to anyone, just told Taeyang that Doojoon was in control of the transactions with the Thai's. That was the night I met Jiyong.
"I didn't tell anyone about what I saw in the folder, not even Taeyang. Junhyung and I read it together, then burned it. Sorry Doo, that's all I got."
The BLACk leader nods slowly. His skin has taken on the yellow papery quality of a corpse. Maybe he is sleeping as much as I am. I think of thin, pale fingers pulling through my hair, offering breif moments of relief, and wonder if Doojoon could possibly be sleeping even less.
"Well, like I said, none of my boys knew anything until the night before."
Three sets of eyes wonder to Junhyung as he begins to slide each row into an individul pile. Somehow, he managed to arrange it so that a yellow dragon stares up from all four rows. The air feels thick and heavy, pushing the top of my cranium to press against my brain. It hurts.
"I didn't talk to anyone about anything. I took the folder with the infromation straight from Doojoon's hands to Seunghyun's, and I personlly did not open it. There was no moment where that folder was left unattended. I'm not the leak either."
Doojoon opens his mouth to say something, but Junhyung's hard eyes are on him, left side of his mouth pulling back into a snarl, causing the white scar to move like a snake across his flesh.
"And I especially don't talk about gang affairs with Gi Kwang."
Yoseob bristles and glares at Doojoon. GI Kwang is one of those people it's easy to feel protective of, despite knowing he's perfectly capable of handling himself. Doojoon ignores both their looks and rubs dry hands over his tired face. When he pulls them away, he stares at his fingers as if looking for the exhaustion exhuding from his entire body. It would break my heart to tell him that it's still all there, despite his efforts to wipe it away.
"Obviously, this isn't a problem we're gonna solve tonight. We have no leads, and none of the people who knew beforehand leaked. I hate to say this Doo, but right now, it looks like it was someone in BLACK. If the rat relayed the message the night you gave it out, then Do..." My lips go dry and Doojoon twitches slightly, "Seven might have had time to plan everything. We can start by interrogating the six BLACK members that were part of the exchange, and see if they leaked out."
I find myself mimicking Doojoon as I clear my throat, and run my hand over my face, trying to rub too many hours of anxiety away.
"Just in case, i'll aslo get Taeyang to indirectly investigate the three BLUE boys who were there. We want to do this as discreetly as possible. If it gets out that we're on the hunt, things could get messy and the rat could slip out. We'll have to figure out a new system for all relay of information. Tomorrow, Seungri was supposed to go out to meet Jiaheng and his boys about the shipment of opiates, but i'm closing it. No, don't worry, the deal will go through one way or another. We've already been payed by Pueblo Negro for the shipment. I've already spoken to Jiaheng and we'll find a way to reschedule. The last thing we want to do is piss off the Mexican Mafia. But right now we can't do . Go home, try and sleep. Drug yourself out if you have to, there's nothing more dangerous than being off gaurd, especially right now."
Doojoon doesn't respond, just keeps staring at his hands, looking for answers he isn't going to find. Yoseob seems to lose some of his anger as he looks at his leader. He slides off his seat in the corner of the room and pats Doojoon on the back. The older boy leaves without looking at anyone, closely followed by Yoseob. Junhyung smacks his cards against the table one more time, then puts them into his back pocket. Junhyung has a way of moving like a predator, his back arching and strechting, leading the rest of his body into motion. He isn't particularily big or well muscled, but sometimes-
"I'll make sure he sleeps. You just take care of yourself. You look like ."
His heavy hand squeezes my shoulder once before slinking out of the room. Everything about this situation has me on edge. I told Doojoon to sleep, but i'll probably be the one unable to rest.... Again. Seven... Dong-Wook, I wish you would stop playing this game. You always knew how to trick me into giving up. Or maybe it was the innocent me who never wanted to defeat you? The heavy weight that has been sitting precariously on top of my skull suddenly crashes down so hard my knees buckle and my chest collapses around my lungs. The overwhelming need to go home, to sleep, is suffocating. Yet the fear of intense dark eyes watching me from under a curtain of black hair, inescapable in the realms of my nightmares, keeps me more awake than the daily stress of everything going on. But as the thought of black eyes and blonde hair infest my mind, I remember that I have my own special drug to help me get to sleep. It's funny, in a terrifying way, how just the thought of that boy can remind my lungs how to breathe. Jiyong probably can't leave his house tonight, but all I need is to hear his voice to calm down. I'll give him a quick call when I get back to my apartment. That'll help, too, sleeping in my own bed again. There's something about sleeping at BLUE house that makes it impossible for me to relax. It just doesn't feel like home, not like-
My phone rings loudly, startling me out of my thoughts as I slip into my car. Taeyang's face stares somberly up at me from the screen.
"Yoboseyo? Taeyang?"
"Shadow is looking for him. I ran into him with Daesung."
Why is the world so desperate to collapse around me?
Taeyang POV
Kim Jonghyun was a ghost for a long time. A shadow that didn't exist beyond a pair of murderous eyes above a black mask. He appeared out of nowhere one day, more than a year after the Break. Four BLUE middlemen had been walking to the House after finishing busuiness with some CEO's wife that wanted something beyond the usual overpriced champain and tacky party favors to offer her guests. Two of them suddenly dropped dead, without making a sound. No gunshots, no running, no screams. Just two identical slim daggers lodged right above the top knob of their spines. One of the boys to die was Dara's younger brother, Thunder. The other two middlemen ran home to report what had happened. Wether it was YELLOW, RED, or a random attack by some nomad, no one knew... That is until the next week when two BLUEs and six BLACKs were killed in the span of three days, all in the same way, daggers lodged in the base of their necks. Dara went crazy. She picked up her guns again and would go out any chance she got. She even started working as a middle man again, though she hated being near the drugs. Seungri was her faithful follower, replacing Thunder in any way he could, but Dara's vision was clouded by blood and grief. She wouldn't talk to anyone back then, not even Bom. Despite her best efforts, the spontaneous killing of BLUE's and BLACKs went on for three months before anyone saw the culprit. Dara had gotten into the dark habit of taking bait, calling them 'helpers'. Seunghyun probably knew what she was really doing, but he was still young and bitter back then, so he let her do as she liked. I was there too, that day, scared of what Dara was becoming. So I saw it happen. Saw the dagger fly out of nowhere, bury itself deep in the back of Dongwoon's skull. Saw the pure hate in Dara's face as her gun fired. We heard the sound of he bullet penatrating flesh and a boy staggerd out of the shadows, belt around his waist lined with daggers, bottom half of his face covered by a black flue mask. Maybe it was shock at how small he looked, curled into a ball over his injured leg, or maybe the boy was justv too quick, curling forward into a body roll and launching himself into the busy road, bloody leg and all, but Dara didn't shoot at him again. It wasn't long after this that the rumor that BLACK's Hyunseung was keeping a RED e started to spread. Dara, who had been in a trance ever since her encounter with the kid we had started calling Shadow, went crazy and dragged Seungri all the way back to BLACK house, banging on Doojoon's door and screeching like a banchee. She stayed there for weeks, refusing to leave until she spoke with the RED girl. Hyuna, who it turned out to be, felt sympathy for Dara when Hyunseung told her about Thunder, and she went out to personally talk to the older girl. That's how we learned about the Kim family. Nickhun, who used to live in the Big House, had taken in the daughter of a Chinese nomad and her two younger brothers. Hyuna said that Shadow was probably the younger of the two, Jonghyun, who had shown a bloody temper since the beginning.
"Did he recognize you?"
Seunghyun's voice snaps me out of my reverie.
"I... I don't know. At first, it looked like he might have, but he didn't do anything. He just talked to Jinki for a bit and left after saying a formal goodbye to all of us. He didn't really give me any reason to believe that he knew wo I was. But, still..."
"Jinki?"
"Daesung's friend."
"Someone who could be used against you?"
The tesnion in Seunghyun's voice made me want to answer immediately, dispell and of his worries. But the thought of Jinki's innocent smile, so similar to Daesung's...
"No. He has no meaning to me beyond Daesung's friend." A lie but Top sighs with relief so...
"Did he get a good look at Dae?"
"Yes, it... It looks like he's been to the flower shop before."
It's quiet on the other end for a moment, muffled road sounds telling me he's in the car. It's almost three in the morning, when was he last home?
"We probably have all we need from him anyway. I wish you would've called earlier. Why didn't you? No, it doesn't matter now. Doojoon probably hasn't made it home yet. I'll call him in the morning, that guy's half dead anyway. What to do with the body then... We'll figure something out tomorrow."
The exhaustionin his voice makes me hesitant to ask, but the memory of wide eyes and awkward smiles moves my lips for me.
"Nickhun has to die, then."
It doesn't come out like a question and the answering laugh is staticky and emotionless.
"Did you expect anything else? Go home for now. And you might want to tell Daesung to stay away from that shop. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
As the line goes dead, i'm left with an illuminated image of Daesung, eyes dissapearing above a wide smile. I wonder, would he be in danger if I wasn't near him? Or would all of this happen, even if we had never met? I can't help but selfeshly think that given the choice, I would meet him again, even if it meant we both had to suffer.
No POV
Zelo likes playing cards. He likes the smell of paper left behind on his hands, likes to see the colored tips of his opponents swaety fingers, likes to catch on the tiny expressions that betray a losers despair. And in the end that's what it all comes down to, isn't it? Winners and losers. When the tall boy with black hair and angry eyes approached him, he didn't have to think twice before accepting the outstretched hand. A new game with more payers, that's all it was to him. The fact that he quite liked his new team mates was just a bonus. Baro, with his shaved head and multiple hats, was the most amusing. His lips always gave him away, the way they would pucker out whenever he was dealt a bad hand. He didn't even think about hiding, his anger explosive as things got worse for him. Then there was Zico and Hoya, quieter and more careful. It had taken Zico a while to figure out their sneaky communiaction, made up of twicthes of the eye and tiny movements of their hairlines. Dongho is harder. His round face is difficult to decipher, permanantly emulating innocence. A difficult opponent, if you don't know what to look for. But after three months of playing in the smoke-filled room, poising on black leather couches surrounding a rounded oak wood Zelo has learned exactly what to look for. When Dongho is winning, his right eyebrow dipped, slightly and just for a second. And when he was losing, his eyes drifted his left rist and stayed there. reluctant to reveal any form of surrender. But the leader.... Zelo watched Yong-guk lean nonchalantly against the couch, unlit cigarette held between susrprisingly plump lips. His brow is completely relaxed, hands held perfectly still, as those same black eyes that invited Zelo into this world scan the cards before him. Everyone else has long since folded, the game now held between the youngest and oldest of the group. Zelo feels the skin tens across his back, swaet pooling in the crooks of his elbows, arms aching with the strain of holding the cards so close to his face. But if there's one thing the boy takes pride in, it's his poker face, and he remains completely still, even as Baro leans into his older friend and grins with glee at the sight of his cards. It's over, he's lost the game, Yong-Guk has the win-
"I fold."
Zelo blinks in surprise, watching the cards spread out on the table in front of him. Yon-Guk leans back against the couch, empty fingers spread out wide and smiling around his cig as Baro bursts into laughter next to him. The family members that had been passing through YELLOW's living space barely spare them a smirk. Evryone's grown used to the regular card games that monopolize the 'family room' ever since the pink haired boy joined.
"Alright, kid. You win again! let's play Black Jack now, i'm good at that one."
"What the hell are you talking about? That game's all about luck, you don't need to have any skills!"
"Luck is a skill, ."
Hoya roles his eyes at Baro's comment and gets up to leave, taking Dongho with him, probably hoping to sleep before their job later. Middlemen are the most active in YELLOW, that's why Yong-Guk makes it a point to look for attractive people. Zico is on his feet now and Zelo decides to intrrupt before they get into a fist fight like last time. He doesn't feel like ending his games just yet.
"Hey, we have four people now, right? So let's play The Joker! I'll teach you the rules if you don't know how to play."
Out of all the players in his new game, these three are the ones Zelo has spent the most time with, quietly learning their habits, memorizing their facial features, anything and everything necessary to keep him on top. He thought he had them all pinned but the look that suddenly passes over Yong-Guk's face takes him off gaurd. It's the face someone might make if they've just been asked a question they don't quite like. A subtly twist of the lips, a slight furrowing of the brows. Zico, who had been picking at his nails, looks stops for a moment, his eyes flicking toward Baro. But Baro doesn't even flinch as he leans in, pulling the cap lower over his face.
"All raaaaaiight! Bring it on, i'll show you all the true power of luck! Teach us, kid!"
Yong-Guk shifts the cig to the other side of his mouth and Zico pulls off his hang nail with a victorious scoff, both eyeing the cards in the youngest's hands with interest.
"Yeah, kid, show us how it's done."
At the leader's encouraging words, Zelo shrugged and returned to shuffling his cards. He didn't notice the way Baro's eyes moved in Zico's direction under his hat, searching for somone that wasn't there.
A/N: Gone all this time and this is all i give you... excuse me while i hang myself in the bathroom.
Mianhe cuties, but school has been a and i've had some personal drama going on that i'm still figuring out. You know things are bad when being sick is a relief so u don't have to interact with ur friends... ^^'
But guess what duckies? Summer break is on it's way!! and i'll do my best to give more time to this story! I hope you guys are still enjoying it.... And i should probably tell you now that yes, there will be some character deaths.....
GUYS!! the new chapter is CHAPTER 14!! the chptrs were posted backwards by mistake. GO READ CHPTR 14 IF U HAVEN'T!!
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