D.O. turned silently on his bed, careful not to wake his younger siblings. The sun was just starting to come up, and seeing as he was already awake it was pointless to stay in bed – there was no way he was going to fall back asleep anyways. The floor was too cold for his liking, so the first thing he did was put on socks, only after that continuing with the business of washing up and getting dressed. The alarm went off right as he was leaving the room, a smirk crossing his lips as a choir of unhappy groans and whines erupted behind him.

Every morning was the same; he would be up first, get dressed first, finish breakfast first, and be out the door before the others had even washed their faces. Today was no different, and he shouted out a carefree ‘bye’ before dragging himself outside. The sun blinded him, but the air was… well, not so nice either. The apartment building in itself was alright, slightly run down maybe and the rooms might be a bit on the narrow side, but the neighborhood was probably the worst part. He scrunched his nose as he went down the stairs tiredly, glared at the stray cat that was always hiding by the dumpsters. His bat was waiting for him where he always left it when he got home – there was this small space between two low walls where a leafy bush concealed it perfectly from whoever would need to go out and steal a no-brand stick.

His way to school usually took him about half an hour’s walk, but would’ve taken quite a bit longer if it wasn’t for all the short cuts he’d learned about throughout the months of going there. The upside was that his endurance had improved a bit what with all the jumping and climbing, not to mention that he would always be wide awake when he arrived.

People were moving away faster than usual when he walked through the first-year corridor; apparently it’d been a good move on his part to go ahead and declare war against the third-years. His home classroom was conveniently empty, and he sauntered over to his favorite seat in the back corner, right next to the window. Maybe he could actually listen a bit to what the teacher was saying today, now that all the disturbingly loud morons were out of the way. It wasn’t that he was a serious student, but he did have his reasons for wanting to go up to the next grade and eventually graduate, and he was sure he wasn’t the only one. Some days he was even grateful that the teachers didn’t stop him from beating up students who were interfering with the learning environment… so to speak. Frankly the teachers weren’t that good at teaching in the first place, and he’d never even considered asking them about things he didn’t understand, but he at least wanted to be able to skim through the books in peace.

This was exactly what he was planning to do this morning, grabbing a random textbook and starting at page one just as one of the doors rattled open. The atmosphere tensed up as though an electric shock had gone through everyone in the room, and D.O. glared darkly at the boy who walked inside. He couldn’t remember ever having seen him before, but he had a feeling they were going to have a… pleasant, chat right then and there. He wasn’t disappointed, as the tanned guy approached him with a slight smile. Did he even know who he was bothering?

“D.O., right?”

“What do you want?” He snapped, letting his eyes drop to the textbook again. Damn, he’d picked the wrong one; English was never one of his stronger subjects. “Well?” He urged grouchily as the stranger just stared at him curiously.

“Tao sent me to get you.” D.O. could feel his eyes widen, and was quick to clear his throat. It all clicked then, and the face of the boy was suddenly very familiar – wasn’t it the person from two nights ago who took that big fellow away? The second thing he understood was that this was the guy from the rumors who’d supposedly gotten away from the assassin’s clutches. He refused to admit it fully, but he might’ve become a bit curious right after that thought crossed his mind.

“And what does he want with me? Better yet, let the er come talk to me himself; I don’t have any reason to go to him in the first place.” He responded stubbornly. If the sent some new kid to get him it couldn’t be that important in the first place, could it?

“Ah, he would’ve but I told him I’d do it.” The other grinned, to which D.O. couldn’t help but give a laugh of disbelief. Was this person a total idiot? Who would volunteer for that? At the same time however, he felt his anger build up – the fact that Tao had let the other guy go wasn’t just a bit irritating; it was proof that the guy was looking down on him. He slammed the textbook shut and placed it on the desk, grabbing his bat as he stood from his seat.

“Where is he?” He asked sharply, the other flinching at his tone, but then flashing this ridiculously simpering smile that made D.O. want to knock the guy’s teeth out.

“Sorry, I can’t tell you, but-“

“I’m only going to ask you once more before I remodel your face with Billy here;” He waved his bat for emphasis before forcing the last words out through gritted teeth. “Where. Is. He?” The other his lips a bit nervously.

“Uh… um…” D.O. clicked his tongue at the lack of words coming out of the boy’s mouth, to his amusement making the stranger flinch again. The answer to his question came out as a low whisper, and he had to actually concentrate to make sense of the fragments of words he could make out.

“Behind the gym?” He repeated with a cocked brow – he’d never heard of Tao hanging around the gymnasium in the first place, so it seemed a bit strange. But he couldn’t imagine the moron in front of him lying to his face, and so accepted the answer with a huff.

“So… uh…”

“Yeah yeah, just give me a sec.” He grumbled, pretending to stretch his arms as he gave the errand boy the once over, a sneer showing itself as he did so; he wouldn’t even need to use the bat on this one. The moment the guy looked back at him D.O. sent a punch square to his jaw, watching with a snicker as the other fell over with a groan. “No one says a thing about this or I will hunt you down and paint the sidewalk with what little amount of brains you have.” He threatened the few people in the classroom, making sure he had their faces memorized. His narrowed eyes dropped to the person on the floor again, and without another word he crouched and heaved the guy onto his shoulder, taking a few seconds to find his balance again as he stood. With a last glare at his remaining classmates he forced the window open and painstakingly clambered outside.

Only once on the way towards the gym did he question his decision to knock the messenger out, mostly since he was a lot heavier than he’d appeared, though he quickly dismissed the thought – if this was a trap he’d at least have one less person to deal with. As he was about half-way past the side of the gym he had to stop and throw a third-year that had spotted him a nasty glare.

“Don’t you dare tell.” He mouthed before continuing on his way. He could hear the quiet mumbling of the first-year ‘king’ before he was even around the corner, to which he rolled his eyes, dumping his luggage the second he stepped in behind the building. It wasn’t much of a surprise that the guy just groaned and rolled onto his side on the dry grass, hands to his face – D.O. knew he had a heavy punch, and he was damn proud of it too.

“I considered welcoming him here, but figured he wasn’t one for pleasantries. From how they’d arrived I could tell that letting Kai go wasn’t a very good decision, but it also proved my guess of his strength right – he wouldn’t be of much help in a fight no matter how you looked at him. I was starting to wonder why he’d even come to this place.”

“Hey.” He spat, to get the attention of the rambling guy in front of him. Did people really fear this guy? “What’s this about?” He involuntarily took half a step back as the other’s sharp gaze fell on him.

“I considered my options for a few seconds, but was fairly sure that a straight approach would be the best option in this situation. ‘I want us to form an alliance’ I told him,” D.O. furrowed his brows at this. “But he didn’t seem entirely clear on what I meant. Maybe I should explain it to him?”

“Oh, please do.” His sarcasm was very obvious, but it didn’t seem to nettle the other at all.

“I didn’t know if he remembered Chanyeol-hyung whom he helped two days back, but it might be worth it to let him know who convinced me to do this. After all, I was hardly in the mood to go to war against people who already left me alone, but this time was an exception. Whether it was a good thing that D.O. decided to pick a fight with them at the same time was still uncertain, but it would definitely be easier to handle their big groups if the three of us – four if we count the useless transfer student – worked together. I was hoping D.O. would see the logic in it as well, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to convince him to join us.” D.O. could only blink at this. The situation was just so… weird. Not to mention completely unexpected.

He thought about it for a few minutes, ignoring Tao’s silent muttering as best he could. Three people against those big groups didn’t seem impossible, not when he thought back on last semester’s events – they’d managed to do quite well just the two of them until the had knocked him out. His fists clenched just thinking about it. Could this be a trap to get rid of him altogether? But that guy who got beat up sure as hell didn’t seem like he’d been faking it, and the errand boy looked too clueless to be able to pull off a scheme like that.

“Are you telling me you have a plan or would this be like last time where I can just swing my bat and hope the tards show up?” He grumbled finally, casting a grumpy glance in the assassin’s direction, who frowned at the question.

“I wasn’t sure what to tell him, but it sounded as though he was accepting our proposal. If anyone had a plan it would be Chanyeol-hyung but considering his condition last night it wasn’t very probable… and I sure as hell hadn’t thought of anything myself. I glanced down at Kai where he was rolling around on the ground, but had to look away because of a sudden urge to grab him by the collar and toss him over the wall behind me – I just couldn’t stand people whining about a little pain.” The boy on the ground didn’t seem to have any problems with his hearing at least, as he immediately sat up with one last groan, to D.O.’s amusement rubbing his reddened cheek. Ah, the joy of seeing one’s own handiwork – this might last him a while.

“What the- Kai, what the did you do?” All of their heads turned in the direction of the opposite side of the building, where a familiar character had stepped out from behind the corner. D.O. smirked impishly at the blonde boy, remembering their past encounter.

“If it isn’t…” He had intended to say the guy’s name but suddenly found that he couldn’t remember it – he’d beat up too many people the past six months to memorize all of their names in any case, but since the person standing in front of him had put up quite a fight for a weakling he’d expected the name to still be somewhere in the back of his head. “Sorry, your name seems to have slipped my mind. How’re your ribs by the way?”

“Fine thank you.” The blonde responded grouchily, to which D.O. could hardly hold back a snicker. It didn’t seem as if the other was in on all this, judging by his reaction at the little meeting they’d been having, but he had a gut feeling that they’d end up on the same… team, for whatever reason.

“So, do you two happen to know each other?” He asked this Kai fellow as he squatted to even the eye level – he’d learned that steady eye contact was a very effective way of intimidating people. The tanned boy nodded nervously with a faint smile, but apparently didn’t feel like speaking. “And is he in on all this?” This time the boy shook his head once, smile fading completely at the shadow that now loomed over them.

“Like hell I am, now tell me what the is going on or get out of here.”

“Uh, well…”

“I felt like this was as good a time as any for me to interject; I recognized this person that showed up, and if he knew Kai it might be a good idea to let him in on things. I waited for all three of them to listen properly,” The assassin paused for a few seconds until all of their stares turned to glares before continuing. “Although I’d planned to explain it all it just struck me that there wasn’t much to say. Sure, we were forming an alliance against Kris and Yongguk, but that was all the hard facts I had. Maybe calling Chanyeol-hyung up was a better idea, but I really didn’t want to use the phone-“

“You’re all teaming up against the kings? Are you serious?”

“I wouldn’t be here if this was some sort of sick joke, would I?” D.O. snapped at the blonde, standing quite abruptly.

“Uh, Sehun, this… I didn’t invite them here or anything; Tao just showed up this morning and, uh…” So the guy’s name was Sehun? He had to admit that it had a familiar ring to it. The person in question was glowering at the boy who’d spoken, and ran a hand through his hair before responding.

“So, how many of you are there?” D.O. scoffed at the question.

“Four, if we count this pushover.” He answered, poking Kai’s side with his foot and earning a small yelp. “Are you sure this guy’s even gonna live through it Tao?”

“I’ll do fine.” The boy snapped himself with a pout. A pout. With a grimace D.O. hit the kid in the back of the head, hard, grinning evilly when the other rolled onto his side on the ground, rubbing the spot that was hit carefully. “What the hell was that for?”

“Nothing much, I’m just a compulsive sadist who likes to see other people writhe in pain.” He almost fooled himself by the way he said it, and could literally see the hair at the back of the other’s neck stand up.

“Although I hadn’t suspected his nature to be quite so cruel, I could hardly claim that I was surprised by the revelation. But when I looked to Kai I could’ve sworn I almost felt a sting of compassion. Deciding to shrug it off I turned to the newcomer, whose name was supposedly Sehun, planning to welcome him to join us if he wished and threaten him not to tell anyone if he didn’t.” D.O. felt something slightly similar to gratitude at Tao’s interference – he was getting the sudden urge to pummel the weakling at his feet just for the hell of it, and that might not be the best idea if they were going to work together, no matter how tempting it was and how little use he believed the guy would be once things got heated.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of telling.” The blonde muttered, but there was a bit of sarcasm there. He ignored it as the boy continued; it wouldn’t really be aproblem to him if the guy snitched in the first place. “Is it just Kris and Yongguk you’re messing with or are you going after the entire structure? Because there are quite a few jerks on their side that I can’t say I get along with.”

“Does that mean you’re in?” Kai asked, perky again as he practically jumped off the ground. Well now… maybe the guy had a thick head, because his own punch sure as hell hadn’t lost any power.

“I guess. Can’t say I’m too comfortable around you guys either but I recon it’ll be more fun to go against the powerhouses…”

“And we’re not as strong, is that what you’re saying? Huh?” D.O. growled and gripped his bat, twirling it once. To his great annoyance he noted that the other seemed completely unfazed and was simply staring back at him placidly. “Just wait ‘til I crack your ribs again you-“ His grumbling was interrupted by an insanely obnoxious ringtone. “Is someone skinning a live cat with a guitar or something?” He questioned with a disgusted frown. He did not expect Tao to pull out his phone.

“I made a mental note to teach D.O. about metal sometime in the near future, but right now it was more important to answer the call from Chanyeol-hyung. The second I picked up he started throwing questions at me, and I grimaced at the way the phone distorted his voice. Those were a lot of questions, and I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d be able to, not to mention want to, answer all of them over the stupid mechanic device that tended to malfunction whenever I really needed it.”

“Oh for ’s sake.” D.O. spat, taking the few steps needed to reach the taller boy, and ripping the phone out of his hand. “This is D.O., Tao just sent a kid to recruit me by what seems to be your order, and I’m warning you now that if you don’t have a plan when we get to wherever you’re holed up I will take my bat and shove it up your-“ His last words were muffled by the assassins hand as said boy took his phone back and hung up.

“I knew D.O. had a bad temper, but that was something we’d have to deal with in due time unless we wanted him to kill us all in our sleep… the thought reminded me that it might be a good idea to put up some y traps around my room just to be on the safe side; he wasn’t the only one I wasn’t on very good terms with. I let him go after he bit my finger, noticing that it was actually bleeding…” After that the assassin switched to Chinese, and D.O. spat once to rid his mouth of the unpleasant taste of iron.

“Let’s go.” He huffed, cracking his neck and stretching his shoulders. The freaky Tao wouldn’t answer any questions properly, but he was of no mind to fully enter the so-called alliance without being sure of what it really meant. With a click of his tongue he grabbed the tall boy’s arm and pulled him along.

“Hey, wait up! Where are you going?!” He recognized the voice as Kai’s and he turned his head with a sneer as he walked, somewhat pleased as he saw the two following behind them quickly.

“To this Chanyeol of course.”

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A/N: Hey peeps~! Hurr, I did not intend to take such a long break... what was it, three or four days? And this chapter didn't end up quite the way I wanted despite that, but I suppose it'll do~

Things are starting to pick up, in my mind at least, and trouble's on the horizon~ UnlessyoucountthesevenchaptersI'llbeaddinguntiltheyallmeetupforthefirsttime. Yeah. Think about that. *twirls inexistent moustache*

No but really - I will create opportunities for all the otps within a couple of chapters! Sorry if you feel I've been taking too long~ *cries* But hey, at least there was something resembling kaisoo here... right? Right?! Please tell me I wasn't the only one who noticed the hints I put in there?! Puhleeeaasseee! *cough* Sorry about that. Obvious hints may possibly be a full-blown lie. *blinks* Alright then, moving on.

Thank you all my dear subscribers and commentists~ *still struggling to find a proper word for everyone who's awesome enough to leave a comment* Lots of love and kissies and hugsies and bornies and hot cocoa to you all~! <3<3<3<333 

Will try to produce a proper upgrade within the near future~ T3T Have faith~! <3 Patience is a virtue~! Am I the only one who thinks both of those sound very... holy? Hm. How troublesome. 

~Fi