Wiping his mouth with a wad of toilet paper and throwing it into the toilet bowl, Jinhwan flushed the toilet. Turning to face his reflection in the mirror, he let the water run so it could warm up before splashing his face with it. He always got queasy on D-day. It was something all the other guys loved teasing him about, but he didn’t care. It became so predictable that it was almost like a ritual he had to do right before they robbed a bank. But today was different. Today his stomach turned and knotted up like usual, but he failed to throw up anything of substance. Instead he sat on the tiled floor in front of the toilet bowl on the verge of sticking his finger down his throat just so he could throw up something for the sake of continuity.

“.” He hissed, when the hot water burned his skin. He apparently had forgotten to check the tap before he decided to splash his face with the water. Seriously? What is hell wrong with me today? Being the superstitious person he was prone to be, he began to feel a different feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something telling him that maybe they shouldn’t go out today. That maybe they shouldn’t pick today of all days to finally go through with the plan that had spent the past three months envisioning.

“Yo, Jinhwan. You okay in there?” Teddy called out, a flurry of snickering followed while the other two men couldn’t contain their amusement over their friend’s lack of control over his digestive system.

Pulling the bathroom door opened Jinhwan shuffled out, glaring at the two men seated comfortably on the couch still laughing their asses off. “Yeah.”

“What’s wrong? You don’t look okay?” Baek Kyoung asked, quickly overcoming his fit of laughter once he saw the blank expression on his friend’s face.

Jinhwan wondered if he should tell them of his doubt, but decided against it knowing that it would just cause another eruption of laughter and more teasing at his expense. “It’s nothing. Everything ready?”

“Yeah.” Danny answered, getting up from the couch walking over to take a seat at the dining table. “We just need to suit up and we’re good to go, Spike”

“Spike?” Jinhwan questioned. “Damnit, why do I have to be Spike? I thought I got to be Tom this time?”

“You lost the bet remember?” Teddy pushed passed him, placing two metal briefcases onto the table in front of Danny. “So, I get to be Tom this time. Sorry, Spike.”

Jinhwan plopped onto the couch, feeling defeated and the day hadn’t even started officially. Code names, as insignificant as it may seem to the other guys were rather important to Jinhwan. He was the oldest; he had a right to be called Tom. But not one to be petty he decided to let it go and turned his head to the window watching as the sun began to peak over the horizon.

Placing two more metal cases onto the table, Baek Kyoung opened the first one revealing a shiny AK-47 that had been cleaned and polished daily for the past three months just for this very moment. “Ah, Eleanor, how I’ve missed you.”

“I swear that should be illegal.” Danny laughed as he watched the male glide his fingers gently over the metal of the assault rifle. Eleanor was his baby, his precious rifle that Baek Kyoung had taken with him on almost every bank robbery the group of friends had completed in the past three years. Eleanor was to him as puking in the toilet on D-day was for Jinhwan. “You’ve never even shot it.”

“Just because I don’t use her doesn’t mean she can’t look her best, okay?” Baek Kyoung countered. “I could say the same thing to you. Why do you insist on doing your hair when we wear ski-masks anyways?” He had him there, and the other two men couldn’t contain their laughter.

“Okay, okay. I’ll back off.” Danny conceded, lifting his hands up in universal sign of his accepting defeat in the matter. “But how about we get started, huh? It’s almost 6am.”

The four men began their ritual of scrubbing their bodies down, trying to rid themselves of any dead skin – anything that would later link the crime they were about to commit to them. It had been a long and arduous three months of planning, practicing and now was the moment of execution. Each male had their own mindset, their own groove they had to get into while they prepared. Teddy pulled his Beats headphones up over his ears, raised the volume on his ipod and bobbed his head to the rhythm of the bass as it reverberated against his eardrums while he looked over the blueprint of the bank one last time. Baek Kyoung spoke sweet nothings to Eleanor while he wiped her down with a microfiber cloth, his mind replaying the play by play he had practiced endlessly to complete his given tasks. Staring at his reflection in the mirror, Danny scooped a small amount of clear gel into his hands and ran them through his hair, making sure each strand of hair was fixed in place. Jihwan sat back in the couch, his attention moving away from the window to watching the other three men as they moved around. At least they have some degree of normalcy.

The four men had lived in numerous cities over the past three years but this one held a special meaning to Jinhwan. He had grown attached to the city, its people and more importantly the abandoned building they now inhabited. It was a lot like them. Rough around the edges, but beautiful once you got a real good look at it. The abandoned building, once a highly esteemed motel on that side of town, was fifteen minutes away from Downtown, and the windows on the third floor had the best view money could ever buy. It held a perfect view of the city and the small river that separated those that were wealthy enough to live in it from those lacking in luxury and instead lived in a place commonly referred to as the “slums.”  If Jinhwan could have it his way, he would have preferred to continue living in the motel, in the hidden gem among diamonds they found, after the deed was completed, but things never went Jinhwan’s way.

Taking one last look out the window, his window, Jinhwan let out a shaky breath and walked through the doorway. Teddy did one last sweep of the vacant room to ensure that nothing was left behind and walked out of the room following Danny. Walking down the three flights of stairs, the four men piled into the metallic-gray SUV parked outside and began their journey into the city. The fifteen minute trek look longer than normal as their car easily meshed with the 9am rush of cars trying to get into the city, but they had already anticipated the morning traffic and thought nothing of it.

“Out of all the places we lived in, I have to admit that was the best place.” Baek Kyoung spoke up breaking the silence in the car as Danny drove toward their destination.

“It actually had hot water.” Danny added, smiling into the rear view mirror when his eyes met Jinhwan’s in gratitude for actually finding a place that was worth living in. The last few places they stayed at, all courtesy of Teddy and his “connections,” barely had plumbing that worked, and as close as they were as friends, living in a small place for long periods of time without water wasn’t the greatest of environments to be living in. Teddy ignored the dig and instead leaned back into the seat and shut his eyes.

Jinhwan looked out the back window of the SUV as they drove away from the building, nostalgia and longing already hitting him. He dreaded leaving the city and they hadn’t even officially left yet. Baek Kyoung looked over to see Jinhwan turn his head back around and divert his attention out the window next to him as the car drove up the bridge. He knew how attached the elder was to this city and just how much he wanted to stay, in fact all the men knew. Jinhwan was the first of them to move to the city to scope out HKG Bank and its potential to be successfully infiltrated, it was only natural that he would get attached. “You okay, Jinhwan?” The male asked. “We can always swing by and visit later.”

Before Jinhwan could even respond, Teddy replied. “That won’t happen.” He said sternly, his eyes still shut as he continued to lean back into the front passenger’s seat. “You know the rules.” Jinhwan turned to face Baek Kyoung and faintly smiled back at him for the effort his friend made to ease his sadness about having to leave the city he had grown attached to.

The moment the SUV crossed the bridge and began navigating through the narrow streets of Downtown, the aura within the car changed. Everyone’s body tensed up and a sense of seriousness and urgency filled the air. It was game time. Pulling the SUV up to the edge of the curb in front of the bank, Danny asked. “Ready?” Puling their ski masks down to cover their faces, the four men bolted out of the car and ran into the front doors of the bank leaving their car stranded in the street. They didn’t care about the car, it was only a means of transporting them to their destination but played no part in helping them get out. At least not yet.

Each man carrying two large black duffle bags pushed their way into the bank, their footsteps swift and quiet. The four men walked in flabbergasted by the fact that no one seemed to take notice to them and only continued with their tasks at hand. Even the security guard, whose job it was to guard, was seen chatting it up with one of the bank tellers. Snapping handcuffs on each arm of the door, Baek Kyoung locked the front door of the bank before pulling Eleanor, his AK-47, out of the duffle bag. The lack of attention irked Danny as he dropped his bags onto the marble floor with a loud bang and pulled his gun out from underneath his black utility jacket, firing one shot into the air. “May I have your attention please. The lovely people of HKG Bank, you are now being robbed.”

word count: 1791

thank you for being so patient!

and thank you for reading and giving it a chance!