Kibum remained standing on the school roof-top for the next two hours, blankly looking out onto the azure horizon. He ignored the continuous ring of his phone and pulled the battery out of the back, watching as the bright LED flickered off.

‘Either stay like this and die,’

Kibum held his breath.

‘Or work for me…’

The answer was immediate for the ex-jojic.

‘No ing way.’

Taemin’s composed face wavered in anger at the direct refusal. ‘I would be very careful if I were you Key.’

‘No.’ Kibum shot him a cold glare. ‘I don’t have to be careful; there’s nothing to lose now.’

Taemin narrowed his eyes, but his expression softened at the familiar phrase. ‘Then let me reword that offer…’ He paused and studied Kibum’s passive face. ‘Come back home…’

Kibum wavered, and his mind was filled with the mad frenzy of memories and emotions he had locked away deeply inside his heart. He gritted his teeth and dug his nails into his palms, feeling his skin split at the impact. Droplets of blood gathered at the end of his clenched fingers when he managed to choke out his answer. ‘…Anything’s better than going back.’

Taemin’s eyes showed a hint of emotion at the sentence, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, and his tone turned icy instantly. ‘You have changed… I’m disappointed’

‘…’

‘… I always thought you enjoyed your stay… Apparently not.’

No, he was wrong; Kibum had loved every moment of his stay with the mafia…

‘…Until I loved you.’ He murmured quietly. ‘Until I loved you, bastard.’

He could still remember the first time he had set his eyes on the president’s adopted son. In the shady streets of Daegoo, where he was getting beaten up by a small group of thugs for the small amounts of money he had. The little Kibum had refused continuously to hand it over, silently taking the kicks and punches while clutching the coins tightly. It may have been an amusing amount of money for the thugs, but it was an amount he depended on to survive.

He remembered the memory with a nostalgic smile; the blood and the blinding pain, but his resolve unwavering even to the moment he felt his vision turning black. And of course, the small thin figure that walked silently into the blocked alleyway, with his raven tousled hair, and his pair of charcoal black eyes glittering in the streetlights.

Kibum chuckled. True, Taemin had been tiny – much smaller then the Kibum then; but even the adult thugs could not ignore the gun pointing straight at them.

Taemin had held the solid object with easy confidence, his small form radiating authority. His voice slit the tense atmosphere like a hot knife through soft butter, its luxurious tone highlighted with an intense, commanding aura.

‘Stop.’

The single word he said first.

And the laugh from the thug.

And then the bang, and the short, gurgled scream.

Taemin ignored the dead body and had approached him cautiously, his razor sharp eyes suddenly softening at the little shaking figure in front of him.

‘…Get up.’

Kibum cringed away from the offered hand and shook his head vigorously. ‘…No.’

Whether Taemin couldn't hear him, or he had been solely ignored, Kibum still didn’t know, but he could remember that regardless of his futile attempts to refuse Taemin, he had lead – more like carried – him back to the casino.

On Taemin’s soft, wide bed, and when Kibum was so tired that his eyes were closing automatically at the warmth, Taemin had whispered softly in his ear; and Kibum still remembered every word of that gently spoken phrase.

‘You’re mine now Kibum; you’re in my dept – remember my name: Lee Taemin; your new master...’

So frickin unhappy with that absolutely disgusting chapter =_= really, REALLY, unhappy with how it turned out..... How crappy can I actually get?