GAME PT.2

        It’s been an hour since Kyungsoo has been hospitalized. The doctors have stopped the bleeding and given him stitches but his consciousness is still lost behind heavy eyelids. Kai waits with him in a large and empty room, set with dimmed lights and a half-moon wandering its way through the slightly open curtains to find an open spot amongst Kyungsoo’s face.

        Kai’s mind is at war with his eyes. It tells him to evade his gaze from the injured boy but he can’t find the control. Somewhere within his veins, a storm is beginning its boil, his thoughts obsessing over toxic schemes, every idea that managed to dart its way to the forefront of his mind. And in those countless moments he waits while watching the life he’d put in danger came many, many ideas; every death he could insure, every blood curdling scream he could bring forth, every single possible way he could tear down one of Clear Carnage’s member’s but he only curses himself when he can’t think of even a single weak member to take advantage of. Not the way they’d done with Zaikai.

        As Kai festers to himself, his fingers digging into his steadily fidgeting leg, Chanyeol is the first to open the door. Awe immediately strikes his face; the sight of Kyungsoo’s ankle wrapped in a lift and him completely unconscious, hooked up to this and that, managing to hit him where it truly hurts.

       The rest of the members follow as they all walk in, the same expression duplicating throughout the room like a house of mirrors in a rundown theme park that you were never sure about in the first place. Baekhyun is the first to ask who it was who did this to Kyungsoo but Kai’s only answer is ‘who do you think?’

        No one asked again. It was obvious.

        Kai does his best to wipe away the enmity that he couldn’t help but feel so that he could at least attempt to be the leader he wanted to be and talk to his gang. They needed a plan, and with the way things were going, there wasn’t any time to waste.

       “What are we supposed to do? Isn’t the point of all of this to take them down? Your father’s company—“

       “His father’s company will have its time. Don’t bring it up now.” Tao interrupts right in the middle of Kris’ sudden questioning. Knowing what he has to say already, Tao doesn’t let him get any further with it, his words flat, along the same level as his eyes as soon as he opens his mouth.

       “I’m just saying… if Kai’s father finds out about what happened today…” Kris stops himself as soon as he sees the glare in Tao’s eyes. He doesn’t want to cause any more trouble tonight. But more importantly, he doesn’t want to rip a bigger gap into the hole that’d become of his and Tao’s friendship.

       “No need to give him that look, Tao, he’s only trying to help.” Sehun retaliates, sure that the tension in the room was only between Tao and Kris.

       “And what kind of help is stressing each other out more than what’s already been done?” The pitch in Tao’s voice rises along with the volume, catching Sehun by surprise. Tao had never raised his voice at him unless they were joking around with each other.

       “Oh, what, so now you’re gonna attack me too?”

        “No one’s attacking anyone.” Kai takes charge, the presence of his voice in the conversation causing those involved in the argument to immediately step down; all besides one.

       “No one’s being attacked?” A sorrowful scoff is found between Kris’ words. “Then what is one of our own doing on a ing hospital bed?!”

       Kris’ composure has been lost as he yells, completely uncaring that they were in a hospital with other patients. He stands to his feet as his words spew out, his hand gesturing to Kyungsoo who seems to flinch at the power of his voice. “We keep getting attacked and you know it’s because of you.”

        “Kris…” Chanyeol joins at his side along with Sehun in attempts to calm him down but Kris only shakes his hand away as soon as he makes the gesture to rest it against Kris’ shoulder.

        “No!” Chanyeol flinches away, his hand fleeting away at Kris’ reaction. Chanyeol was upset too. His mind was flowing with things he could say to Kai, but in the end, he trusted that his leader would come up with a better way of doing things.

        “No…” Kris’ voice is calmer the second time around, his breaths becoming slower as he takes a break between his words, aware of how out of line he is and honestly not wanting to step any further. “I just need to know what he has to say.”

       Kai’s voice is nowhere to be found. His eyes which were once locked on the members he was supposed to be leading were now glued to the floor. The lump in his throat springs as he gulps down his inferiority, knowing that the words Kris is saying are only brought out by his own mistakes and after a long bridge of silence, he begins to find his words.

        “I know…” He barely whispers, his eyes shutting softly as the words come out. “I know.” The ten other conscious members in the room seem to be in shock. Was their leader admitting to his own mistake? The years have brought many things to Zaikai, but Kai’s admittance when he was wrong was never one of them.

        “I ed up. I did. I know. I know. It wasn’t any of the eleven of you. Not you, Kris...” Kris’ eyes seem to rest at the mention of his name. “And not Kyungsoo… but me. Things should’ve been handled differently… I left him at the hideout by himself and—“

        “You left him alone? In the hideout?” Minseok’s eyes widen, his words almost becoming caught in his throat as he makes the decision to join in the conversation instead of staring until someone else said what he was thinking. Minseok knew that Kai made mistakes… but that was the one rule that none of them broke. Ever.

        “I know, Minseok. I know.” Kai exasperates repeated words, beginning to grow even sorrier for what he’d caused as Minseok’s eyes radiate the pure, blue disappointment that he had for his leader. “I trusted that he’d be out of there in a few minutes and home safely. That was my mistake… that was one of many.”

        Kai pauses his explanation, his eyes drifting from one boy to the next, looking into their souls with remorseful form. There was no way he could be too clear to them on how wrong he truly was. He wanted them to not only hear it, but to see the regret that crawled its way from inside of his dark, revengeful core and scattered its existence amongst every inch of his face. From his brow to his lips, he needed them to feel what he was trying to convey.

        “I’m sorry.” The words Chanyeol, Sehun and so many of the others were waiting to hear caused their anger to fly out the window and fade away with the stars. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I’ve been a selfish leader. I’ve attacked mercilessly without much thought as if I was invincible.” Kai pauses, his eyes wandering over to Kyungsoo in his hospital bed. “As if we were invincible… but I’ve come to reality… now. Kris, you’re only right. My father’s business isn’t going to get anywhere with me retaliating like I’ve mentally gone back to kindergarten where if someone kicked dirt in our face, we kicked them back. Clear Carnage needs to step down from their spot. No… they need to be knocked down. And if we want them gone, we need to think big.”

        A few nods spread across the room, Tao and Kris nodding to each other specifically as if to apologize for the out of hand arguing. As the silent peace replaces the once violent mood of the room, Kyungsoo finds the strength speaks out.

        “He says he won’t stop.” His voice is so quiet that if they’d still been arguing, they’d might not of even noticed that he’d wakened up. “He won’t quit. Until we realize our place.”

        Everyone’s eyes are now on Kyungsoo, unknowing of the words to say for the member they felt so sorry for, wishing they’d been in his place at the time instead of him.

        “Carnage… He said he’d kill me if we didn’t…” He continues; his voice shaky and unsettled. “And if that didn’t work… he’d keep killing. Until we backed down, he’d kill more of us. He’d kill all of us.”

        Faces of anger, a few expressions of fear and angst appear on each of the boys faces across the room.

       Kai, opens and closes his eyes haltingly. The boys may have been angry, but as the leader, Kai was beyond it. Despite the new leaf he’d promised to turn over, he still couldn’t help but feel the revenge bubble its way up into his slow forming grin, his lips parting and spreading upwards with his cheeks. He knew what their next move needed to be; what would prove to the others that he was the leader that they needed.

        “Well …” His tone is back from sorrow, to poise. “We won’t even give them the chance.”

       What he had in mind would be elaborate; it would be precarious and possibly end inept… but if he planned this right, it would put his gang, his family and himself on the top of the pedestal where he knew they belonged. And not only was he willing to take one last risk, but everything he’d ever strived towards depended on it.

        “I’m only saying, if a rabbit was being chased by a fox, the rabbit would jump down a hole if one presented itself.”

        Hana found herself irritated in new ways as she sat through yet another round of Yongguk’s excessive arguing. Every day was like this. He’d show up at school, on her way home, in her no-longer-safe diner and he’d press her buttons until she overloaded.

        “What does this even have to do with anything?” She retorts, her patience with the boy growing thin.

        “What doesn’t it have to with it?”

        Hana sighs and gives in as she turns her body around to face Yongguk’s desk.

        “The question is ‘in the story, where does the fox chase the hare?’ Did you read the story, Yongguk? It’s a trick question. There is no hole. He doesn’t chase the rabbit anywhere. He kills it.”

        “Ah,” Yongguk’s arms slang over his shoulders and his head rests against his clasped together palms with leisure. “But the rabbit would’ve jumped down a hole if it had presented itself.”

        Hana was about to argue with him even more. Something about how he always said things that didn’t make any sense and never spoke clearly. But before she could get out anymore words, the classroom door slangs open with a heavy bang and a non-uninformed Kai storms in, not even hesitating to snatch up the front of Yongguk’s shirt and grip it between his fingers only long enough to catch the sturdy grip he needed to toss the dark-haired leader to the ground.

        As Yongguk flies backwards and into the far wall of the room half of the class’ occupants immediately scurry outside of the door to watch from a safe distance. The other half are somehow brave enough to stand their ground, observing as Yongguk rises from the spot Kai had left him in with a deep, slow chuckle and a idle hand brushing away at his uniform.

        “You show up at the end of the school day, after days might I add,” Yongguk jerks his head to the side, rolling his neck and his shoulders move with it as he loosens the muscles that’d been stirred up one too many times. “just to push me inside of a classroom?”

        Kai’s smile is just a prominent as Yongguk’s in the moment. “Thought you’d come and surprise me? You know, rattle my composure?” Yongguk shakes his hand back and forth comically at the word ‘rattle’ as if Kai was just some dog he was here to call off so he could go back to doing superior things.

        “I’ll do more than rattle your ing composure after what you did to Kyungsoo.” Kai’s words are rushed and out of breath, his state not doing much for his apparent desperation for intimidation.

        Yongguk doesn’t even hesitate to walk up to him, Kai not backing away, grab the back of his neck with one hand and his arm with the other as he slams his head down onto a desk so ferociously that its corner causes his right eye to start bruising on spot.

        “And what do you plan to do exactly?” Yongguk scoffs. “You can’t even move.”

        “I’m sick of this ing bull, Carnage!” Kai’s throat surrenders resentment, the class being overcome with short gasps and tiny whispers. “I’m sick of this! What, you can stab a member of my crew but I can’t touch you? What kind of bull is that?! Play fair, you ing bastard!”

        Yongguk begins in a laugh louder than he even expected. It was ridiculous; really it was something to laugh about. Yongguk was half amused and at this point, the class should’ve been laughing along.

        “Play fair? Play fair?” Yongguk scoffs before his smile gradually fades from his face in that ‘No Longer Yongguk, But Carnage’ kind of way. “What, you thought this was some kind of a ing game? Are you really a god damn kitten after all?” Yongguk leans down lower into Kai’s ear range, Kai squirming to get lose the same way Kyungsoo had when he’d pinned him down.

        “If you’re sick of it, then you better switch schools.” Hands are pressed harder and Kai’s bones start to feel like they’re coming out between his skin and the desk he was being forced against. “Better yet, switch cities. Switch ing lives because, Clearwater? It’s run by me for a reason. If you’ve got a problem, leave, Kai. Because I’m not giving it up. So leave. That’s all there for you. Just run away.”

       The last of his words flow out smoothly and Yongguk lifts Kai’s head up by his dark bistre hair, tossing him away onto the floor and finding his smile again before turning away from his subject to check to see if Hana was watching, but his smile only falters when he realizes she’s already left the room.

        The whole classroom — out and in— gasps in terror as Kai lunges at Yongguk, trying to slam him against something like he’d done at his house before but Yongguk sees it coming this time, dodging out of the way with quick rebound and immediately dashing into the hallway, a cocky smirk on his lips as he looks back towards his enemy.

        As Kai follows Yongguk out of the doorway, ready to try to attack again, a teacher sees and intervenes asking what the problem was. They remain silent between each other, Kai breathing heavy, his face angry before he grits his teeth, turning around and walking away as Yongguk calls after him in hushed tones.

        “That’s right. Run away.”

        Kai stops for a moment but keeps walking anyway, his free hand forming a balled up fist at his side.

        Yongguk continues the opposite way, right past the teacher, giving him a sincere looking smile before heading towards the exit.