It was pouring rain that morning as Leeteuk conveniently found himself under the shade of a quaint, little café just a few blocks from his apartment. The weather didn’t look like it was about to let down anytime soon, so Leeteuk decided to make himself comfortable with a warm cup of coffee and an a novel that Heechul had given him for his last birthday.

When he informed Sungmin of his whereabouts, the blonde insisted he buy him a cup of joe as well. And after much arguing over texts and numerous rolls of the eyes at Sungmin’s (rarely-seen) childishness, Leeteuk finally succumbed.

“Can I get another cup of coffee?” he said to the man with his back turned behind the counter. “To go, please.”

Said man turned around, a bright grin etched upon his chiseled face, “Certainly, Jungsoo.”

Leeteuk stared back at him with wide eyes and a slightly open jaw, completely dumbfounded. “…I didn’t know you were back in town.”

“What can I say? I missed Seoul.” He shrugged as he wrote down Leeteuk’s order. “Out of curiosity, are you buying this for Sungmin? Or is it for that drunk of yours—Kyuhyun, was it?”

“What are you doing here, Siwon?” he asked, his tone dark.

“You always see right through me, Jungsoo.” He chuckled softly, seemingly to himself. “Quite frankly, I’m in town for business-related matters; none that I’m going to bore you with. So how’s your comedy team coming along?”

“They’re a team of assassins.” He corrected.

“Are they?” he scoffed. “They must not be a very competent one then.”

“At least they get the job done,” he defended.

“Not how I remember it.” He smiled again, a gesture which seemed to taunt Leeteuk more and more by the minute. “So, how’s the wife, my dear friend?”

At that precise moment, Leeteuk lost all the rationality he had left and promptly pulled his gun out on him, not caring about the countless pair of eyes staring at him with terror. “You’re a despicable bastard.”

Siwon smirked as he took his gun out as well and pointed it right at the other’s forehead, “Guilty as charged.”

The two stayed in their positions for a while, both waiting for the other to make a move. But neither did. That was, until Siwon caught the store manager phoning the police in the corner of his eye. It didn’t take him more than a second to mercilessly shoot the man dead, and Leeteuk grabbed the chance of catching him off guard.

However, Siwon was still too agile and quickly dodged the bullet fired at him. He retaliated with a shot from his own gun, but Leeteuk had ducked under the counter before it could even graze him. Siwon jumped across the counter, ready to kill his former friend, until he realized that he had already escaped through the fire escape right beside him.

Siwon, unconcerned about the people frozen with fear behind him, tucked his gun back in his belt holster and chuckled darkly, “You always were a coward, Jungsoo.”

“Where’s my coffee?”

“Here,” Leeteuk crossly shoved a paper cup in the blonde’s face, who accepted it with disgust on his face.

“This looks like mud,” Sungmin grimaced. “And it smells like it too.”

“It is mud.” Kyuhyun informed him upon observing the thick content of the cup.

“That must’ve been one crappy café you went to, Jungsoo.” Heechul quipped without taking his eyes off his—as Sungmin referred to it—girly magazine. “What took you so long anyway?”

“Choi Siwon did, that’s what,” he spat out bitterly.

Heechul shot up, eyes wide with something that resembled fear. Fortunately for him, nobody had noticed the change in his expression.

“You mean he’s back?” Sungmin asked, eyebrows scrunching together.

“Yes, which means that this is our chance to kill him once and for all,” Leeteuk declared. “I don’t care how you do it, just do it by the end of the day.”

“Consider it done,” Kyuhyun said. “We’ll be onto him like a moth to a flame.”

“The only problem is, how do we know where to find him?” Sungmin asked. “That guy’s everywhere.”

“Tell me about it,” Leeteuk agreed. “Say, Heechul, you’ve been awfully quiet. You may not be familiar with Choi Siwon, but—”

“I think I’ve heard of him once or twice,” he shrugged. “Word has it he has a place in Gangnam. People say he and his mob usually meet there.”

“Then let’s start there,” Leeteuk said. “Everybody, gear up.”

“You guys go on ahead,” Heechul stood up and cleared his throat. “I have a lunch date with my mother and she, as old as she is, still throws tantrums whenever I cancel on her. I’ll catch up with you guys if I can.”

“Alright then,” Leeteuk nodded, although he seemed a bit suspicious of Heechul’s excuse. “I guess it’ll just be the three of us tonight.”

“Have fun murdering people,” Heechul called before casually making his way out of the room.

“You didn’t tell me you were back,” Heechul’s voice was fragile; he sounded hurt, crushed, broken.

“Why, hello, Chullie.” Siwon turned around, two glasses of wine in his hands, as if he was expecting a visitor. “Care to join me for some wine?”

“No thanks,” he said, dropping his gaze to the carpeted floor.

“Oh, come now, don’t sound so sour.” Siwon waved him over, and Heechul found himself walking closer towards him, sort of like a magnetic pull. “It’s been quite a while since we shared a drink.”

“Leeteuk and his team are looking for you.” He revealed after a moment of hesitance.

“I know,” he said, his smile unwavering. “And it’s recently come to my knowledge that you have since become part of that team. I never realized that you had the guts to betray me, Chul.”

“I didn’t betray anyone,” he said defensively. “I needed the money.”

“You could’ve asked me for some.” Siwon said, putting a hand on the back of his neck. “Did you tell them where I am?”

Heechul shook his head, “Though they’re probably raiding your house in Gangnam right about now.”

Siwon guffawed, “Nice to know that I’ve rubbed off on you.”

“Where did you go?” he blurted out.

“Excuse me?”

“That morning, I woke up to find that you had left. I tried to call you and you never answered.” He swallowed before continuing, trying to hold back his tears. “How could you leave me behind?”

“I had to, Chullie,” Siwon cupped his face, forcing the other to look him in the eye. “You know I wouldn’t do such a thing like that without good reason.”

“Then why?”

Siwon sighed as he ran a hand through Heechul’s hair. “My father threatened to have you tortured and killed unless we split up. Apparently, he refused to tolerate our homoual tendencies, as he put it.”

“I missed you,” Heechul said in barely a whisper.

“I missed you too,” Siwon kissed his lips, a sensation that Heechul hasn’t felt in such a long time. “You planning to stay the night? You know my door’s always open.”

“I can’t, I have to—” Siwon interrupted him with yet another kiss, this time a deeper and more passionate one. Heechul was struggling to catch his breath when they finally pulled away, “S-sure.”

“Well, that was useless,” Leeteuk groaned in frustration as he shut his eyes and leaned against the headrest in the driver’s seat.

The trio had been up all night raiding Siwon’s apartment, looking for any traces he might have left behind. But they had evidently underestimated Siwon’s capabilities; if they hadn’t known beforehand who lived there, they would’ve never put together that a mob boss owned it.

Plus, Heechul never caught up to them either.

“I’m famished,” Kyuhyun said, leaning his head on Sungmin’s shoulder. “Can’t we get something to eat?”

“I haven’t an appetite for anything.” Leeteuk admitted. “But there’s a diner a few feet away. You two should go and buy yourselves some food; I’ll stay here and wait until you’re finished.”

As the two stepped out of the car, Sungmin stopped short of going any farther, as he told Kyuhyun to go ahead without him.

“Are you sure?” Kyuhyun asked.

“Yeah,” Sungmin kissed him on the forehead before sending him off. “Just go get me a beer or something. It’s been a long night.”

He watched as Kyuhyun disappeared around the block before getting back inside the car with Leeteuk. “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on or not?”

“What’s going on is that Siwon is slipping out of our hands again.” Leeteuk ran his fingers through his hair, only to mess it up again afterwards—a classic sign of frustration. “I want him dead, Sungmin. I want him so dead that even you would want to throw after seeing his mutilated body.”

“Geez, what’d the guy do to you anyway?” he inquired.

He sighed, “Did I ever tell you about my high school girlfriend?”

“Once or twice, yes.”

“Did I ever tell you I married her?”

“You were married?” Sungmin lifted one eyebrow in confusion. “What happened?”

“He killed her, Min,” he shut his eyes, as if to try and shake off the painful memory. “Siwon and I were friends. We had this big falling-out and…he killed her.”

“I’m…sorry.” Sungmin answered awkwardly. “That must have been—”

“Yes, it was,” he confirmed without even letting him finish. “Two months we were married. It was a hasty decision and everybody thought we were moving too fast, but we didn’t care. I loved her. And the thing with Siwon is—he doesn’t go after you; he goes after the people you care about, because that hurts more.”

“The guy’s a jerkass, Teuk—”

“If I were you, I’d be worrying about Kyuhyun,” Leeteuk warned, shooting him a somber look.

“I do enough of that already.” Sungmin chuckled slightly. “It’s weird, actually. Before Kyuhyun came along, the only life I worried about was mine. Now it’s like I’m a completely different person.”

“I did notice you’ve become nicer and a little less grouchy.” He remarked. “And happier too.”

There was a genuine smile across Sungmin’s face, “Well, for some reason, that makes me happy.”

“I’m glad you found love, Ming,” he said, “especially since I’ve stopped looking for it myself.”

“Aren’t you the one who always tells me not to give up?”

“…No.”

“Oh,” he said. “Must have been someone else then.”

“Must be,” Leeteuk agreed, his voice trailing off.

The silence that followed was only broken by a loud tapping on the window. The two turned to the sound of the direction and saw Kyuhyun standing outside.

Sungmin rolled his window down, “That was quick.”

“It only just occurred to me that I don’t have my wallet.” Kyuhyun revealed. “You mind footing the bill?”

“Don’t I always?” Sungmin rolled his eyes before getting out of the car. “Teuk, you sure you don’t want to come?”

“I’m really not hungry.” He reiterated. “Plus, I don’t want to get in the way of your guys’ upcoming PDA.”

Sungmin bit his lip, “I’ll bring you back a soda.”

Leeteuk cracked a sad smile, “Thanks.”

A sigh escaped Heechul’s lips as he stared at the ceiling above him, “Jungsoo’s my friend, you know.”

“He’s your boss,” Siwon said as he played with Heechul’s bangs.

“I like him. And I like my job.” He continued. “It’s fun.”

“Killing people? You can do that even without them.” He pointed out. “My God, Chullie. Have you actually grown attached to those people?”

“It’s kind of hard not to,” he said, bringing the blanket closer to his bare chest. “I mean, there was this guy before me and they talk so much about him that I already feel like I know him. The team…they’re like a family, you know?”

“You have a family,” he said, his fingers caressing Heechul’s cheek. “And you have me.”

“I don’t talk to them anymore. It’s not like they want me to.” Heechul in his cheeks. “And when you left, I didn’t know what to do anymore. Hongki wrecked the car you gave me…and I killed him.”

“Good,” he approved. “That Audi cost me a lot. But there’s no reason why I can’t buy you another one.”

Heechul shook his head, “That wasn’t my point.”

“Then what is it?” he asked, sitting up with his elbows supporting his weight.

“I…I don’t know,” Heechul turned away to the other side of the bed. “Never mind.”

“It’s a beautiful morning, Chul,” Siwon planted a spider-like kiss on Heechul’s shoulder. “Don’t ruin it.”

“Yes, sir,” he said obediently, just as he had a thousand times before in the past.

“Jungsoo was my friend too, Chul,” he stated as scanned the floor of his bedroom for his boxers. “But sometimes you have to cut some people out in order to get somewhere in life.”

Heechul stayed silent, clutching the cover of the pillow as tightly as he could.

“You want anything specific for breakfast?” he asked as he stood up to stretch his limbs. “I can make pancakes.”

Heechul hesitated to answer. But when he did, his voice sounded weak and forced, “Pancakes sound nice.”

“Well, good morning, stranger,” Leeteuk greeted as one of his assassins showed up. “Where were you last night?”

“Um, dad insisted I stay longer.” Heechul fibbed clumsily. “Apparently, he had a lot to talk to me about.”

“Yesterday, you said you were meeting your mom.” He said. “And it occurred to me late last night that you cut off all contact with your family after going into college. So what gives?”

“Oh, yeah, it was my mom. And she just, uh…needed some cash.” He shrugged.

“And you lent her some?”

“Some, not a lot.”

“Oh,” Leeteuk stood up and took a whiff of the familiar scent on Heechul’s neck. “You’re wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday. And you smell different.”

“I hooked up with someone,” he shrugged, secretly feeling afraid that Leeteuk will figure him out.

“I can see that,” he chuckled. “Actually, I can smell that. Your bed mate’s cologne smells familiar.”

“Maybe it’s just your imagination,” Heechul immediately moved away from him. “Besides, lots of people wear cologne.”

“I guess,” Leeteuk followed him, still quite interested in the recognizable scent. “Wait a minute…you smell like…Siwon.”

“W-who?” he stuttered.

“You were with Siwon last night?” he demanded crossly. “While we were off on a wild goose chase?”

“Jungsoo, I can explain—”

“Are you working for him? Working with him?” he asked question after question. “You’re in cahoots with him, aren’t you?”

“No, it’s not like that,” he insisted. “Siwon would never let me work. He says I’m too delicate for this kind of stuff.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Leeteuk asked, one eyebrow raised quizzically.

“Jungsoo, I’m not in cahoots with Siwon.” He stated firmly. “It’s—it’s—”

“What?”

“I’m in love with him.”