Hit

     “What exactly is the plan?” Chanyeol asks in curiosity, his eyes wide, eager to hear his leader’s commands.

     “Devil’s Down.” Kai bounces a tennis ball back and forth against the wall of their warehouse, Zaikai in its entirety present and accounted for. “You all remember the street race from a few months back? Our last big dispute.”

     “How could we forget?” Sehun cracked, his right hand overlapping his abdomen as his voice cackled. “Half of Clear Carnage’s bikes were totaled and the other half destroyed by Carnage’s old man, right?”

     “No amount of money or mechanical engineering was getting those bikes back after he got involved in it.” Luhan’s laugh cut in Sehun’s as if they were made to harmonize. “Much less any new ones.”

     “Exactly.” Kai caught the ball in his hands and kept it there, looking back at the rest of s, watching their eyes on him as his hands lowered behind his back, his left hand wraps around his right wrist. As he paces the length of their hangout area, he watches ’s faces, knowing they were waiting for a master plan; a leader to impel them to victory. And this time… he knew he had the advantage. Just the thought of it tickled at the edges of his lips, begging them to give into that familiar arch before the plan was even administered.

     “They’re on foot. If Himchan isn’t chauffeuring, they’re always on foot.” Kai continues, stressing the importance of ‘always.’

     “So you’re saying we’ve got the advantage, right?” Kris asks. A hinted ‘you better be right’ could be heard clearly in his words.

     “Exactly. We’ve got our bikes. Us against them on foot?”  Kai scoffs. “There’s no chance. We’ll only need one of our members. Two just to be sure. They’ll be cornered. They can’t escape.”

     “And what happens if they do?” Kyungsoo asks, his voice not as sure as the other members. He knew what CC were capable of. He’d been there to watch Kai get knocked down and rise back up again. Time after time after time. Kyungsoo was so tempted to just let well enough be and give into the part of him that wanted so badly for them to succeed. Just like the rest. But he couldn’t help but think of their feasible downfall. “What if they run? We may have our bikes, yeah. But a Suzuki can’t hop a fence.”

     Kai’s expression falters at Kyungsoo’s doubt. Kai knew what he was getting at. He did have a point. But this time… this time, things would be different. Kai turns to the wall, twirling the tennis ball between his thumb and his fingers.

     “They won’t have the chance.” Kai’s voice is so sure, as if he’d thought about this for days on end. “As soon as we spot them, we’ll strike. They’ll be immobilized.”

     Kai’s hand reaches down to his waist. As he pulls out his knife, his eyes stay focused on the tennis ball in his hands, the edges of his lips giving into his satisfaction and his smile is finally where it should be. Kai hurls the ball at the wall, tossing his knife in the same instant, the knife piercing the tennis ball against the wall, precisely pinning it into place.

     “Like this...” Kai boasts, looking back at s, paying special attention to Kyungsoo. “Just like this. They won’t bounce back.”

     “Lift the lid.” Daehyun gives a nod towards the dealer to add to his words. Once he lifts the lid Daehyun reaches for his phone, calling s to drive in the bikes.

     As Clear Carnage rides in, the sound of motorbikes roar throughout the abandoned building. They each bring in one at a time, the dealer standing guard and counting to make sure the bikes add up to thirty.

     “Well?” Daehyun demands, looking back at the gritty looking grease monkey. He was taller than any of them, bigger too. But if he tried something funny, it was over.

     The guy eyes the bikes one last time before switching his gaze back at Daehyun. Daehyun stood straight, his shoulders back and his expression still and confident. He had done this so many times, he couldn’t be played. He wasn’t even worried about it.

     “You drove them all here one by one?”

     “Couldn’t just strap them to the back of my ing Lamborghini now, could I, Mike?” Himchan his head to the side as he speaks.

     “Watch it.” Mike waves his finger at Himchan. “I may have history with Bang, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just ing stand here and take disrespectful before I take a ing bullet to the back of my god damn skull.”

     Mike’s vocabulary was a sailor’s. But the boys weren’t intimidated by it. As many deals as they’d done with Mike, they’d gotten to know him a bit to know he was more bark than bite.

     “Ah, not worth it. My old man’s only about bullets when they’re in the possession of his son.” Yongguk joins at Daehyun’s side. “And I don’t feel like getting my hands dirty with familiar blood.”

     Mike gives the boys a quick once over, a ‘humph’ following the slight grin on his face before he slid the case of money over to their side.

     “Do we need to count this?” Daehyun asks; cheekiness plastered on his face.

     “Do I have to shove my foot up your ?”

     The rest of C.C. go off in a laugh in front of Mike, causing him to join in with the shake of his head. It was like this every time.

     “You know, you boys are alright.”

     “We’re men now, didn’t you know?” Zelo teases, his hand waving over his head. Mike shakes his head again, this time in complete disagreement.

     “No, no, no, you may be getting taller, but you still need to grow a couple centimeters to reach me, kid.”

     “Yeah? If I do, then you’ll give me one of your bikes, right?”

     Mike scoffs, his belly shaking as his laugh escapes from his core. “Hell, I’ll give you one now! One for each of you!”

     At first Yongguk thinks he’s only teasing and laughs along with the joke. But when the members say he doesn’t really mean it, he stops them, telling them that he was sincere. They could each pick whatever bikes they wanted.

     Naturally, they chose the shiniest ones of the bunch they’d brought in but when they started to chose, Mike stops them.

     “Hold on, hold on.” He says, causing them all to avert their eyes from the bikes. “Not these ones.”

     “But you said we could pick whichever ones we wanted.” Jongup’s left eyebrow rises with confusion as he’s forced to let go of his dream of having a bike again; freedom again. To Jongup, losing their bikes was the worst thing that’d ever happened to Clear Carnage. And that’s above their parents pressuring them into things that could get them killed on the daily.

     “This is fresh inventory. You guys know that.” Mike starts dialing the number for the rest of his crew to come and load the bikes up into his truck. “But next week, I’ve got a big shipment. Suzuki, Subaru, Harley, Ducati…”

     “Ducati!” Himchan shouts in the middle of his sentence, his suddenly excited eyes begging enough for the entire crew.

     “Ducati for sure.” Yongguk adds. “Black, if you have it. Red if you can’t get all black.”

     “Consider it already done.” Mike says with a smile. “But of course I’ll have to ask Bang first.”

     Yongguk nods. Of course. Everything had to be run by his father. That was considered law in this business. In this town. Unless the head approves, then it’s a no go. Always.

     The walk home was even more tiring than it was on the way there. Thoughts of their future bikes messed with their will to carry themselves on foot. Half of them wished they had left Himchan to bring back his car but they knew they needed all they could get to drive that many bikes to where they needed to go.

     “It’s too ing dark for this .” Youngjae complains as he kicks a rock in front of him.

     “There’re streetlights.” Daehyun says once again never holding back a smart remark. Youngjae quickly glared his way before going back to his natural silence.

     “You heard Mike.” Yongguk felt he needed to reassure his crew. He knew they’d been suffering once again thanks to his father. If he cuts someone’s supply to something, no money is getting it back. “Next week. Just one week, alright?”

     The gang becomes silent in agreement. Youngjae continues to kick rocks as they walk the alleyway. Jongup and Zelo walk almost in synchronization, their yawns so loud that they could probably be heard in the west coast.

     “Hold up.” Himchan stops dead in his tracks, everyone else pausing with him. Youngjae is the first to notice Himchan’s obvious concern, his head turning slowly in several directions to try to pinpoint the source.

     “What?” Zelo asks, obviously clueless. Yongguk stops and listens to what he’d thought was complete silence besides the crickets in the bushes on the other side of the alleyway fences.

     “The rest of you really don’t hear it?” Himchan coaxes. They all stop to tilt their heads, listening intently. Yongguk is the first one to notice exactly what’s going on and his eyes immediately go wide.

     But before he could get a single word out, a bike comes flailing their way, a confident Sehun tucking and rolling off of it to leave it rogue as a weapon against his rivals.

     Before they could run, the bike rams into the side of a huge metal dumpster and it tips it over, the bike running directly into Jongup. Jongup’s knocked over, a deep and loud groan heard as he falls to the ground. The bike hadn’t missed most of the others either, its mirror cutting the side of Youngjae’s arm and its back wheel hitting Zelo’s stomach directly, knocking him down right with Jongup.

     And if that weren’t enough, when it finally crashed into the wall, another rogue bike comes at it just as fast, abandoned by Zaikai’s Luhan, it crashes into the first bike and explodes with a bang, knocking Daehyun back hard enough for him to scrape his back against the gravel, the bike throwing shards of glass into the skin of his chest and his arms. But compared to Himchan and Yongguk, that was nothing.

     Right as the dumpster had fallen, Yongguk and Himchan happened to be close enough for it to fall onto them, catching Himchan’s arm but Yongguk wasn’t so lucky. Yongguk’s entire body from his chest down was being pinned to the ground by the heavy container, forcing him to stay in place with no shield as the blast from the bike went off.

     He shuts his eyes as tight as he can, but shards of glass and tiny bits of metal still fly back and etches different parts of his face and his neck. It all had happens so fast, but by time it was over, there wasn’t a single member who wasn’t injured.

     “Carnage!” Himchan shouts after the blast but Yongguk can barely wriggle his body underneath the heavy metal and Himchan wasn’t getting his arm out anytime soon.

     “Can you… move the bin…?” Yongguk’s words were breathless. It was obvious that he was injured badly.

     Himchan shakes his head, nodding down to his arm. Blood trickled down the edges of the triceps in his right arm. It hadn’t been broken, but the pressure from the bin’s edge had cut into his skin.

     “Trapped.” Himchan looks back at the other members sprawled out onto the ground. Jongup and Zelo were doubled over in pain.

     “You can’t ing run forever!” Zelo screams at the empty presence that he knew was Zaikai. “We won’t—“ Zelo tries to finish but instead starts violently coughing, blood spewing out from the pressure he was putting on his stomach.

     “Zelo!” Yongguk calls out for him, but he doesn’t stop coughing. Yongguk’s thoughts are filled with the scorn of his actions. He regretted not pushing for their bikes now, not pushing for his father to let down his locks on their lives. He could take away what was Yongguk’s, it was fine. But he regretted standing back and letting anyone be the cause of his crew’s downfall.

     And what kind of leader was he to be stuck under a ing garbage can? It shouldn’t matter if the can was metal or iron or ing diamond… he should be able to escape it. Himchan was underneath it and s were hurt behind him. He needed to be there to help them up.

     His mind races with guilt but mostly anger that he he’d let this happen. That he was underneath this heavy piece of . He could get out, he knew he could get out. After all he’d done? Surely he could lift a ing trashcan.

     And just as he thinks it, he repositions his hands. They move slowly, his wrists twisting so his palms were placed against the can and finally, he pushes. Nothing happens at first, but the sound of Zelo’s coughing and Jongup groaning in pain pushes him to the limit he needed to reach.

     He pushes and struggles and finally, the bin starts to move. Himchan looks over at Yongguk, completely shocked that he had this kind of power in him. As soon as Himchan’s arm was free, he gets up and starts lifting the bin too.

     They push as hard as they can manage, the veins in their necks visible from the strain on their bodies. Then finally, Yongguk was free.

     He rolls from underneath the can and as soon as he's clear, Himchan drops the can back down with a loud thud. They both stop for a moment, glancing at each other before looking back at the emptiness Zelo had been so furious with. They both knew that the members of their rival gang were long gone.

     After Himchan and Yongguk are free, they help the others up off of their feet. No matter how much they lift them, Zelo always doubles back over in a coughing fit.

     “The hospital.” Yongguk demands but Zelo only shakes his head disapprovingly.

     “That’ll only get back to Bang. You know that.”

     Yongguk’s lips form a thin line and his face turns into a scowl.

     “You’re hurt.”

     “Will I be any less hurt if he gets involved?”

     Zelo’s voice is stern, his mind obviously already made up on the matter. Yongguk eyes him in anger as Zelo wipes the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, spitting the rest onto the ground underneath him. But Yongguk doesn’t say another word. He knows he's right and he hates that he is. But Daehyun’s mom was a doctor and she’d know what to do. There was only the matter of them walking all the way to the closest pharmacy to get the small things they needed to patch them up long enough for one of them to call for a ride back to Daehyun’s house.

     If they thought the walk from their job was hard, then this was hell. Most of the gang tried their hardest to carry on, a limp in each of their walks. The main ones who weren’t limping were Daehyun and Himchan, only flesh wounds to be found on them. Himchan held his arm as he walked but overall, Youngjae had gotten it easiest. Only a few cuts from the blast of the bikes and a road-burn-esque scrape on his arm from his fall.

     After what felt like hours of walking, they’d finally reached the pharmacy. The boys fell to the ground, leaning up against the wall as soon as they'd gotten there, wincing in pain. But Yongguk and Himchan remained standing, not even a single limp to be found in Yongguk's steps the entire way there.

     “You guys stay out here.” Yongguk urges. “Daehyun, call your mom and get her to send over a driver. Himchan and I’ll go inside and get what we need.” Daehyun nods in agreement, sending Yongguk and Himchan on their way.

     “Should we buy Band-Aids or patches?” Himchan asks Yongguk as they scan the isle for something to cover up their wounds.

     “Depends. Are we paying with cash or credit? Patches might look...” Yongguk stops himself as he spots a familiar face across the store, talking to a pharmacist.

     “Suspicious?” Himchan finishes for Yongguk and his eyes immediately avert their attention.

     “What?”

     “That’s the word you were looking for, right?” Himchan reads the back of the label before placing the patches back on the shelves, moving his fingers over the titles of the Band-Aids as he searches for the best ones to buy. “Yeah, I agree. We’ll pay with cash anyway, but just to be safe, we better go with Band-Aids.”

     Yongguk gives a single nod and his eyes go straight back to the girl. It was Hana. What was she doing here? She’d already stopped talking to the pharmacist by time he looked her way again and was headed for the exit.

     “I’ll be back.” Yongguk excuses himself, leaving Himchan to pick out the bandages.

     As soon as he catches up to Hana, he places himself between her and the exit. Hana looks up to find him dirty and bruised, her face going from neutral to slightly aggravated.

     “Are you following me?”

     “What?” If she wasn’t aggravated before, she was now.

     “Did your boyfriend tell you to come find out if we were at the hospital? Well you can tell him that—“

     “Kai is not my boyfriend. And it’s none of your business.”

      There she went again. This 'none of your business' thing was really getting on the last of Yongguk's nerve. As soon as she spits her fire, she walks around him as if to say to him that he had some damn nerve to try to block her off when she hadn’t said a word out of the way to him. But Yongguk only followed her out of the door and into the front of the store.

     “Boyfriend, friend, ing pal, leader… I don’t care what you wanna call him. But tell him he’s got a beating coming to his crew. Soon.”

     Hana sighs and the remaining members of Clear Carnage that sat against the wall of the building eye their direction, paying special attention to their conversation.

     “Look, Yongguk.” Yongguk’s eyebrows arch up as she calls him by his name, something that he just hasn’t gotten used to. “I don’t know why you think I’m following you… or whatever… but Kai isn’t someone I spend my precious time with because I want to. I run errands for him; favors for something that has nothing to do with you. I don’t know what exactly it is that you want from me but I have other things to do. Things that don’t include talking to immature kids who have too much money on their hands to know what to do with, so they start going around causing trouble in second rate gangs. I have things to take care of. Places to be. And none of them require me being here.”

     Yongguk stands still, his forehead scrunched and his eyes glaring as Hana walked away once again.

     “Watch your mouth before I find a selfish use for it.” Yongguk declares brashly before walking back into the pharmacy to catch up with Himchan. Hana jerks her head back, her expression covered in anger but Yongguk had already left.

     She didn’t know why she always had to get caught up with people she wanted nothing to do with. So instead of arguing about it all, she just shakes it off and keeps walking, despite the rest of C.C. snickering at her as she walks by.

     As Himchan checks out, Yongguk finally appears at his side. Himchan gives him a quick side glance but doesn’t question him. As Yongguk reaches into his pocket to pull out his bills, the cashier looks them up and down in shock.

     “You boys sure look like you’ve had a rough night.” She says as she scans their items. Himchan chuckles to himself and Yongguk smirks in her direction.

     As Yongguk hands the bills over to her and takes the bags, she laughs along with Himchan.

     “We fell.” Yongguk says simply, a smile still on his face.

     As they walk out of the store, Daehyun’s car his mom had sent over was already there. Relieved, the members finally get their ride back to his house where his mom could treat their wounds well enough for them to get their revenge. Zaikai had it coming.