Fshhhhh

As my cigarette caught the flame from the burning match, I swept my gaze around the warehouse we were standing in.

"Good job, Howon-hyungnim! You were amazing as always!" The little pipsqueak I was supposed to show the ropes, squealed in my ear.

"What did I say about the voice, Kevin?" I said, the vein in my forehead starting to throb.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Hyung-nim." He said in the bassiest voice I've ever heard him use. Hmm, he'd been practicing. "That one is good for threats. Keep it." I said, without looking his way.

As I took another puff from the cigarette in my hand, I started walking out of the warehouse. "Call the cleanup crew." I threw over my shoulder, kicking one of the dead bodies out of my way.

I stood near the car, waiting for the pipsqueak to finish reporting the massacre that I'd just committed in that warehouse. He came running, probably thinking I had already gone back to HQ without him. The look of relief on his face when he saw me still there was proof enough of that.

"Thanks for waiting for me Hyung-nim!"

I just looked at him then threw my half-done cigarette to the ground. Stomping on it, I walked to the driver's seat and opened it to get in.

"Hyung-nim, I've never seen you smoke before. Why today?" He said, as he opened his own door.

"I only smoke when I kill people." I said in an emotionless voice.

He froze. "W… Wait! There are dead bodies in there? I thought you didn't kill!" He said, all evidence of the polite language he'd been using with me dying from the shock.

"I don't kill unless I'm specifically told to." I said, looking him in the eye.

His eyes widened, and I could almost hear his heart starting to beat frantically.

I hadn't killed anyone in front of him before. Only lethally injured, but not outright killed.

"What did you expect you were getting into kid? This isn't going to be rainbows and flowers everywhere. You get your orders, you obey them. Even if you were told to swallow your own bullets." I said, a tiny hint of bitterness creeping into my voice as I remembered what had happened to my mentor.

He gulped, looked down then got into the car. I felt sorry for him, even if it was for just one second.

When we arrived back at HQ I was summoned to the Gang Leaders' presence.

"Howon, it's very nice to have someone like you who doesn't flinch at our orders." The Head of the gang said.

"Yes, extremely beneficial. That was a job well done in that warehouse." His second-in-command said.

"Thank you." I said, bowing my head slightly.

"We've been thinking it was time to give you a proper position within the gang. It's true that the other members give you the respect you're due, but a title to go with the respect would be more than welcome, don't you think?" The Head said. I stayed silent, knowing they weren't really expecting an answer. "As you know, my Advisor has gotten old and is about to – unexpectedly of course – kick the bucket. You shall be promoted to his position."

"Of course, you have to do one more job for us to let you have the title." The second-in-command said. "Find the man with the face mask from the One Moon clan, and kill him."

"As you command, sir." I said, bowed my head again, and left.

The man with the mask, huh? He's killed his fair share of our numbers the last two months. No one knew where he came from, or how he killed. The bodies were burned, but what we knew for sure was that they were already dead before that happened.

No one knew what he exactly looked like either; all we knew was the rumor that he always kept his mask on, unless he was aiming for your death.

The leaders thought that he would be impossible to find. What they didn't know, was that I had already located where he spent most of his time two days ago. Surprisingly, it wasn't the One Moon clan's HQ.

As I descended the stairs leading to the night club, I started thinking of a way to lure him out of there. The music blasting in the place got louder, the beat shook my bones with the vibrations it sent through the air, and I longed to the carefree days, where I could have just jumped into the jumble of people on the dance floor, and swayed my body to the rhythm. I held back the urge to do just that, but I couldn't help moving two of the fingers on my left hand to the beat. It was an addiction of mine, one I hadn't indulged in in two years.

I let my eyes scan the place, the pulsating lights making it hard to actually see people's faces. I spotted his mask among a group of gyrating girls, all clinging to him, eager to please him.

I don't know how it happened, how he sensed me, but his masked face turned my way, and I could feel his eyes boring into mine. He untangled himself from the arms glued around him, and made his way to me in a straight line, everybody moving out of his way, whether they were conscious of it or not, I didn't know.

He stopped in front of me, his eyes, invisible behind the mask, still burning holes through mine. "So, you've finally found me." He said. I was surprised by his voice, it was jubilant, as if he was a four year old who won a game in the fair. "I was getting tired of waiting for you, throwing you clues all over the place that only you would understand. They were hard to come up with; I can finally rest my weary brain."

I was left speechless. He had wanted me to find him? Why would he do such a thing?

"Come. The girls are waiting. The dance floor is burning. Let's dance!" He said. I shook my head. "I know you want to. You can barely hold yourself. Look at you hand!" He said.

"No." I said. "I came here to fight you."

"Where's the fun in that when you can dance all night long with y girls who are yearning for some action?" He asked, incredulous.

"I'm not here to play." I said, my voice rough.

"Hmmm… Ok, I'll fight you. If you win, you're free to do what you want. If I win, you come here and dance the night off with me. I'm getting bored without any guys who share my passion for dance to talk to."

"Fine." I said, confident in my ability to beat the crap out of him.

"We have a deal! Meet me tomorrow at midnight at harbor sixty-four. It'll be empty, with no one to interrupt us." He said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I nodded, then turned around and nearly ran out of that club.

What the hell was he doing to me? My mind was reeling. I couldn't take his words out of my thoughts. That night I tossed and turned, but couldn't get any sleep.

***

I arrived early at the harbor the next day. I wanted to get it over with. I wanted him out of my life.

I wonder what his face looks like.

I punched myself in the head for that last thought.

"Easy there champ, don't want you giving yourself a concussion and giving me the advantage." He called from behind me.

I turned around, ready to receive an attack that didn't come.

He was standing just out of my arm's reach. I hadn't felt him approaching me.

"So… What's this fight about?" He asked, his mask gleaming in the moonlight.

"Your death." I said.

He whistled. "Really? Now why would you want that?"

"My boss asked me to kill you."

"Your boss sent you on a suicide mission."

"I already know that that's what he thinks. I'm planning on proving him, and you, wrong."

He laughed at that. "You can't kill me, Lee Howon."

"Why are you so confident about that?"

"'Cause I'm already dead." He said.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it indicates."

I shook my head. "Take your mask off."

"And why would I do that?"

"I'm planning on killing you. I like to remember the facial expressions of the people I kill."

"That's your own way of redemption, isn't it? Remembering their expressions. You like tormenting yourself too much."

"Shut up and take it off!" A thread of anger in my voice.

"You know what they say about me. I don't take my mask off unless I'm planning to kill. And I don't want to kill you."

"I don't care what you want or don't want; just take the damned thing off!"

"Nope." He said, making a popping sound with the p. I felt the vein in my forehead starting to throb.

"I'll make you then." I said, and lunged at him.

"It's not good if you lose your temper in a fight." He said tauntingly as he avoided my attacks.

I ignored him and focused on trying to find an opening to hit him square on, but he was moving too fast.

"Gotcha." He said, and I went flying. "This is the first fight I see you lose control like that. Your movements are wider than that ship's length!"

I sat up, huffing, trying to catch my breath. Staring at him, I noticed how relaxed his posture was. He wasn't taking this fight seriously, which angered me even more.

Calm down, I thought to myself. Remember what you were taught.

I took a deep breath and let all emotion drain out of me as I let it out. I got up and walked closer to him.

"That's more like it." He said, his smirk evident in the way he spoke. "That's the Howon I know."

We fought hard after that. He had finally taken the fight seriously, even if he kept his mask on. But try as I might, he was better than me. He was faster, stronger. And every hit I took from him felt like a dozen. Eventually, my power failed me, and I fell to my knees, wheezing.

"Does that mean I win?" He asked, taking a step back.

I nodded hesitantly, unable to answer properly for lack of breath.

"YES!" He screamed, jumping in the air and punching his fist up.

Finally having caught my breath I asked, "What the hell are you so excited about?"

"I finally have a friend I can spend the night clubbing with. You have no idea how boring it is to go clubbing with those good-for-nothing-but-killing pieces of the gang has." He whined, and I couldn't help my smile at his petulant tone.

"Ooooooooooh, he smiles~." He teased.

"Shut up."

He snickered. "I don't think you're in any shape to dance tonight. Meet me at the club tomorrow." I nodded, and we parted ways for the night.

***

I was walking out of HQ's door when Kevin tapped my shoulder. I looked at him questioningly.

"Can I come with you?" He asked.

"Not tonight, Kev."

"Please? You don't really have to stay with me all night, but I need to get out of here! The boredom is killing me, and you know I can't leave if I don't have someone with me, since they still don't trust where my loyalties lie." He said pleadingly.

I sighed. "Alright, but as soon as we're out of sight of HQ, you're on your own."

"Thank you, Hyung-nim!" He grinned.

We walked out the door and headed in the general direction of the harbors. "Hey, Hyung-nim, can I show you something?" Kevin asked.

"If it won't take too long, sure. I have somewhere I need to be."

"It won't, I promise." He beamed.

He led me to a dark corner in the harbor, and told me to look in the water over there, said something about the effect of the moon light on the water and the rocks under it.

I shrugged, and looked down at the water.

"I'm sorry, Hyung-nim." Kevin said in a pained voice; as I felt something sharp penetrating my back and piercing a hole through my lung, then withdraw again. "It was an order from the boss." He whispered, as I fell face down into the ice cold water.

I don't know how long I stayed there, my wound burning with the salt in the water, my lungs yearning to catch some air, and my body refusing to cooperate with me in order to swim back to the surface. But as my vision turned black, I felt a harsh pull on my collar and finally I was able to breathe again. One breath, then water came harshly up from my mouth and prevented me from breathing for the next few seconds, and I out.

I came to with the feeling of concrete behind my back, and blood seeping freely from the wound there. "Damn it!" A familiar voice cursed. I blinked up to see the masked man looking down at me. "You won't make it, even if I got you to a hospital this instant." He said desperately. "Do you want to live?" He asked. Weakly, I nodded. It's not that I was afraid of death, but I had been looking forward to tonight, to finally freeing myself again.

I watched, my vision blurring as he took off his mask. "This'll hurt a bit." He said, as he lifted my limp body off the ground, and sank his teeth in my neck. I felt him swallow once, then he lifted his face, tore through his own wrist, then pressed it to my mouth and told me to drink. I obeyed out of sheer reflex to the ordering tone. Then he bent down and sank his teeth in my neck again, gulping down my blood, as I continued to drink his. When he eventually looked up again and removed his wrist from my mouth, I was so weak I passed out immediately.

***

I woke up with arms restraining me as I struggled to be let go, I wanted to tear through something, feel something warm trickling down my throat to ease the burn that was threatening to consume me.

"Damn it, Dongwoo! I leave you for two months – two friggin' months, a blip in a vampire's life – and what do you do? You go join a friggin' gang! Didn't I tell you to lie low, for God's sake?!" A man shouted – someone I didn't know.

"Ugh! Yea… Listen, could you – damn! Stop struggling! – Could you stop nagging and –UGH! DAMN IT! That hurt! – help me out with this thrashing newbie?!" The masked man's voice rang in my ear.

"He's your responsibility, you made him, you deal with him!" The other man said, annoyed.

"Um, maybe we should help? I mean, it does look like he's going to lose his grip on him sometime soon." A third voice said.

"Thanks… Um, who are you again?" The masked man said through his teeth.

"We're not helping you! Your mess, deal with it!" The first man said in a final tone.

"Ugh, you're just punishing me for not staying in the house like any other vampire who got ordered by his sire to do so would. Don't you think that's a bit childish of a vamp more than two thousand years old?! Oh I've had it already! I didn't wanna hurt you, but you don't seem like you mind hurting me!"

I felt myself being thrown in the air then pinned to the ground, a hand pressed to my throat and another grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at the man on top of me. "Enough!" He said, as his eyes met mine, and I felt my body go limp. Surprise flitted through his eyes. "Um, Sunggyu? Is this intense reaction to my order normal?" He asked.

Another man came into my field of vision, and tilting his head to the side asked, "How much blood did you give him?"

"I… I don't know. I sort of lost myself in the power of turning him." The masked man said in a guilty voice. What did that first man call him? Dongwoo? Referring to him as the masked man when he had none on seemed wrong.

The first man – Sunggyu? – looked down at him, annoyed. "I knew you were too young to turn someone." He grumbled. "You probably gave him too much of your blood, he'll be your pet for the first few years of his vampire life. Congrats, you always wanted a puppy anyway."

"Hey! I didn't mean for this to happen! I just couldn't let him die like that!"

Sunggyu rubbed his forehead and sighed. "I know, I know. Sorry. We'd better get him some blood. I'll go get some, in the meantime, keep him calm. And for future reference, if you don’t want him unthinkingly doing something you tell him to do, try to phrase what you want as a request, not an order."

Dongwoo sighed. "Okay." He said getting off of me. "Hey Howon, you wanna get up?"

I nodded and sat up on the ground, my eyes going around the room in a quick scan, then returning to him. "Ugh, this is creepy." He muttered under his breath with a shudder.

The third man in the room came into view and held his arm out to Dongwoo. "I realize this isn't the best time for introductions, but I have a feeling we won't get around to them if we wait longer, so… Hi, I'm Nam Woohyun, nice to meet you, Dongwoo." He said with a smile.

Dongwoo stared at him for a couple of seconds, then took his hand and shook it. "Hey." Was all he said. Then turned around and sat on a couch. He looked at me and started explaining what I was now and how I was supposed to live from then on. As he finished, a cup of red liquid was pressed to my hand and Sunggyu told me to drink. I took a sip and the burn in my throat eased.

"Hoya." I said.

"What?" Dongwoo asked.

"Call me Hoya. It's what my mentor used to call me."