September 2008

Everyone has family stories. Some stories are bad and some are good.

There are people who have more sad stories, than happy ones.

He never wanted to talk about his stories.

I didn’t either.

“I didn’t know Luhan hyung stayed at the school dorms.”

“They’re nice and clean.”

“Yours is messy, though.” He had a lot of mangas and a small tv, even though it was hard to see it, because the whole place was full of unwashed clothes and old textbooks.

“Don’t sit on my bed, brat.” And always so touchy about his bed.

“Why didn’t you come to Seoul with your parents?”

“They have business in Shanghai.”

“And you came here alone?” It was not my place to ask and I should have known better than to keep going, after his eyes darkened like that.

“I did.”

“Why would you do that?”

He paused for a long while.

“Actually, brat, my grandma used to say that if a tree has no roots, it falls. Even if the wind is not strong, a tree without roots, will always fall.”

“Aish, a poem again?”

“It’s a Chinese proverb.”

“Hyung, you’re sixteen, now, you’re not supposed to say weird things.”

“But I learn a lot from these saying. So I want to share them with you. What’s wrong with that?”  This was probably his only intention. To show me what is right, what is good and beautiful in life.

“Ok, fine. Tell me then, what does this proverb mean?”

“It means that no matter how strong you are, if you don’t have support, you will fall.”

“What kind of support?”

“Hm… Something like a family?” He laid on his bed, forcing me to sit and listen.

“So, hyung is the tree and his parents are the roots?”

“Ah, no… I’m not like that. I must be one of those trees which fall. If I keep on going like this, definitely, I will fall.”

“What?”

“I worry some times, that your tree will fall too, brat.”

“Now, I’m the tree?!”

“That’s why I decided to be roots instead.  I want to be Sehun’s roots.” He rarely called me by my name. It was always, ‘brat this’ and ‘brat that’. Only this one time, I remember him calling me by my real name.

“Like I’d need roots like you...”

I guess it was back then that he decided to look after me, like an idiot.

We both had our stories.

And I never wanted to speak about my stories, just like he didn’t want to speak about his.

But, I think, it was at this moment, that my stories started becoming his stories and his, mine.

***

March 2013

Everyone from the gang has stories.

Baekhyun, I’m sure, knows at least a couple of them, since he’s good at digging up .

But the rest of us never ask and never talk about them.

 “How is Kai?” I ask over a cup of iced coffee that’s too bitter for my tastes.

“He’s better. Sleeping.” Kyungsoo smiles faintly.

“I think we should have a word about this ‘M’ gang.” Suho sits up and calls after Chanyeol and Baekhyun who are playing with their phones.

“Right.”

“I asked around about them.” Baekhyun starts. “Apparently, they’re a new group. One day, six months ago, they just crushed a dozen bars and host clubs in Daejo-dong and claimed them as their territory. Then, they went against 24K and beat them in one go. After them, EXID, BIGSTAR, SeeYa and even A-JAX.”

“They defeated all these gangs?!” Kyungsoo’s big eyes go wider.

“Not only that, but they also stole their territories.”

“Wait a second, Miseong, Daehak, Jowon, Sinsa and Nanhyung; if they have taken over these neighborhoods then… doesn’t that mean..?” I raise an eyebrow at Suho’s suggestion.

“Are we mobbed by this gang?” Unbelievable…

“I think so, Hun-ah.” Baekhyun crosses his arms.

“We’re trapped then. Surrounded. What do we do now?” The tall idiot looks around alarmed.

“Take it easy, Chanyeol-ah. Seowon is our territory. We’ve lived here all our lives and we’re not going to let them take it.” The leader encourages. Which is all he’s capable of doing, what with him refusing to fight and all.

“Exactly. We know these streets the best. Whereas they’ve only been here for six months. Plus we’re not weak ourselves. If our Head wanted to take over other districts, we wouldn’t have a problem doing it.”

“So we’ve decided that we’re fighting them?” I ask, excitement sipping through me. Finally, something better than punching petty thieves and threatening drug dealers away.

“They hurt Jongin. So, I’m not sitting still.” Kyungsoo hisses, forgetting, again, that he’s not supposed to call Kai by that name.

“I vote to fight.” I raise a hand and slowly, Chanyeol and Baekhyun nod in agreement.

“Alright. It can’t be helped… since we’ve been provoked.” Suho finally agrees. “Well, tell us more about them, Baekhyun-ah.”

“I’d like to, but we don’t know much. Apparently, they’re Chinese, or at least most of them are. Rumors say their leader has connections with the Chinese mafia and they have tons of money.”

I roll my eyes. “Isn’t that just a lie?”

“Maybe the part about the mafia, but they definitely have money. I mean, this guy who beat Kai up, is called Tao and he’s some martial arts master. And this other guy, Xiumin I think his name was, knows fencing and judo.  Now, poor people don’t learn stuff like that.” Baekhyun states matter-of-factly.

“Also, I heard they have one member who’s a doctor. Practices some sort of ancient Chinese healing techniques, according to Maru.”

“Who’s ‘Maru’, Baekhyun?” I furrow my eyebrows.

“Someone I know. And don’t call me ‘Baekhyun’ casually. I’m your hyung!”

“I don’t like you, so I can’t call you ‘hyung’.” I bite back angrily.

“Hun-ah, stop it.” The leader nudges me with a warning glance. Like I’m the kid here. “And Baekhyun, focus on telling us about ‘M’, ok?”

“Well, they’re strong, like Kai said. And they seem to be taking over territories in some order. However, I can’t figure out what this pattern means yet. They have five members-”

“Actually, we’re six.”

What the hell?

I snap my head towards the window where a new voice comes from.

On the sill, there’s a dark-haired guy, dressed in black with a red bandana tied around his neck. He’s sitting Indian style, smirking with the most cat-like expression I have ever seen.

“Who the hell are you?” Chanyeol points at him and grimaces.

“Hm… I expected your friend here,” he points at Baekhyun, “to already know that.”

We all turn to Baekhyun.

“…Chen?” Baekhyun says the name slowly, looking uncertain about it.

“Bingo! Good job, Byun Baekhyun.” 

“Chen?!” Suho repeats, surprised.

“People call me Chen and I’m the spy from ‘M’. Nice to see you again, K’s mystery leader, Kim Junmyun.” He replies on his own, like it’s no big deal that he’s sitting on our rooftop’s windowsill, eavesdropping on us.

“H-How do you know my r-real name?” The leader looks seriously shocked at this.

“At least I didn’t need to ask Maru about it…” The spy shrugs. “By the way we beat C-CLOWN this morning. So your friend won’t be able to talk to you for a little while.”

This guy’s eyes are dangerous. Sharp and bright and utterly dangerous.

His gang just hurt a lot of innocent people, but he’s still excited.

I might have hated the guy, If I weren’t the same…

“Bastard!” Meanwhile, Kyungsoo launches forward furiously. “Your gang hurt Jongin, I’m going to kill you!”

“Yah! Yah, Kyungsoo!  Calm down.” Suho grabs the smaller guy’s arm and drags him back, even though we could have easily finished this ‘Chen’ person right here, right now.

Too bad.

“Wow, take it easy, man. We didn’t kill him, did we?” Chen laughs sardonically.

“Do you usually kill your opponents?” Suho steps up towards the spy and even though I can’t really see his face, I have this vague idea that he’s no longer the calm and peaceful guy I’ve known.

Chen looks just a tad taken aback, but he plays along. “What if we do?”

Aish, he has some nerve provoking us in our own territory, even though he’s all alone.

“In that case, just come and take Seowon.” Our leader blurts out.

That’s it. He’s gone insane.

“What?!” Even the spy cannot believe it.

“I won’t risk my members’ lives. If you’re going to pull out guns, come and take our territory already. We won’t fight back. Take out your guns and-” Suho has that cool air around him and I expected him to say something brave, or impressive.

But he’s just surrendering to them. Pathetically, like this.

“Wait, truth is…we-we don’t have-…” Chen looks around at us, unsure of what to say.

Then, it seems like he just he figured something out, because he starts laughing loudly for a good ten seconds, before smiling back at Suho.

“You’re still the same manipulative smartass that you used to be, hyung.” And maybe it’s because he calls him ‘hyung’, or because he’s still laughing a bit, but I can hear fondness in the spy’s voice.

“You have no guns, have you now?” Baekhyun catches up on the leader’s plan first.

“We don’t. I wasn’t supposed to spill that out, so good job for making me say it.”

“Why are you here?” Chanyeol asks, accusingly, while Kyungsoo is still trying to contain his anger.

“To spy on you. You seem to know a lot about our group. That’s why I came here to learn about you people.”  In other words, he does what Baekhyun is doing in our gang…

“And you expect us to just tell you?” I scoff.

“No, actually, I already heard enough. There’s your spy, Byun Baekhyun. The overprotective uppercut master, Do Kyungsoo. The childish kick expert, Park Chanyeol. And of course the mysterious leader, Kim Junmyun who never shows his skills.” He counts with his fingers. “Then we have the two younger members, Kai, with the killer hooks and this antisocial idiot, who, from the looks of it, likes throwing jabs.”

He got everything right. About every single one of us.

Even the jabs, that were my secret weapon, got discovered with one look from this guy. Three years of training from Suho and he saw right through it.

“If you got all the information that you wanted, aren’t you leaving?” Suho hasn’t moved from his position in front if the spy. If only he raised his hand he could easily grab the guy and have his way with him for beating up Jongin.

Yet, Suho doesn’t work like that.

The spy stares at our leader seriously, making up his mind, or simply thinking about how crazy the Head of ‘K’ is.

“You’re inches away from me and you’re making no move to catch me.” Chen voices my thoughts, yet they sound different from his mouth. “You haven’t changed at all, hyung.”

There’s definitely fondness in his voice this time.

And with that, the member of ‘M’ lurches backwards from our window, much like the feline that he looks like and disappears.

Uproar follows, as the members start talking, animatedly, about the spy and his crazy skills.

“Do you know this guy, Suho?” I move to close the window and notice the leader spacing out.

“He’s M’s spy.”

“I meant, do you know him personally. From before.”

The ‘before’ was something we didn’t talk about. As if a mutual agreement was formed when the gang was made, each person’s ‘before’ was never mentioned.

Still, I felt like asking.

“No. I don’t know him.” Suho shakes his head absentmindedly.

I had thought I was the only one who had erased the past after entering the gang.

I was wrong, though.

From time to time, everyone in ‘K’ would get that blank look on their face; the look of memories passing before your very eyes.

The one Junmyun has on, right now.

 A/N: I know this is confusing, but HEY middle of the week update!

And a big kiss to subscribers and commentors. THANK YOU GUYS. 

Do you like the new poster? It was made by my awesome daughter, ing!

Again let me remind you that it is Sehun POV and the text in italics is his memories. OH! And how was the slight Suchen?