Seunghyun woke to a blank ceiling, a killer migraine, and an intense stabbing sensation in his side. Must have been one hell of a party last night, he thought as he painstakingly attempted to sit up. A rattle jarred his newfound consciousness. He tugged on his left hand, causing a grating metal screech when the handcuff scraped against the bedpost. Wincing, Seunghyun scrubbed his face with his free hand, pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to mitigate the ringing in his skull.

    Seunghyun flopped back onto his back, vaguely noting that YG had pulled no stops furnishing its prisons. The thread count was probably double that of his measly cot back in the SM barracks, and ahahaha he was pretty thoroughly ed wasn’t he? Simple recon mission-turn-ambush could always be counted on to make his week. A pair of painfully familiar eyes and a truly revolting haircut were certainly highlights as well. 

    A muted click brought Seunghyun out of his reverie. What looked like a metal cat flap swung open to reveal Luhan’s grinning face. 

    “T.O.P-hyung,” he beamed, “you’re awake!”

    “Unfortunately,” Seunghyun sighed, a pit forming in his stomach.

    Luhan’s face disappeared from view momentarily, before the door opened. Luhan slipped through, carrying a tray of food. 

    “I brought you dinner,” he said cheerfully.

    “If dinner doesn’t contain some serious narcotics…” Seunghyun groaned, trailing off. His mental faculties weren’t sharp enough yet to finish the threat. Luhan put the tray on his lap. It contained a steak, a salad, a donut, and what looked like two pills of Tylenol. Tylenol, Jesus Christ. However, he chose for the time being to ignore it.

    “Really?” he asked, looking pointedly at the donut and raising an eyebrow at Luhan.

    “Well, they are your favorite and you have just been kidnapped by a traitorous enemy spy,” Luhan replied. “Figured you could use a pick-me-up.”

    Seunghyun didn’t lower his eyebrow.

    “Traitorous enemy spy is me, in case you haven’t noticed.” Luhan delivered this line with an almost anxious gleam in his eyes. Huh, Seunghyun thought, guess the kid still has some modicum of respect for my opinion of him. 

    “Don’t insult my intelligence,” Seunghyun sighed. “That much was obvious. And if you really wanted to give me a pick-me-up, you wouldn’t have given me Tylenol.”

    Luhan looked away and didn’t respond. 

    “Why are you so calm about this?” he asked quietly. “Your training group was just jumped on the border, half of EXO has been captured, and you’re being held behind enemy lines. All thanks to me. Why aren’t you completely pissed off at me?”

    “Don’t be ridiculous, you haven’t done it all on your own. You were in cahoots with YG the entire time, weren’t you? The original kid who defected, he must have put you in contact right?” Seunghyun prodded his memory to review the demise of their mission. “And Xiumin was involved as well, wasn’t he?”

    Luhan looked surprised, then nodded jerkily.    

    “Now I’m stuck in a cot, my head’s killing me, I’ve got, what are these, ing stitches in my side? And I get. ing. Tylenol. Then, you have the gall to walk in front of me, all high and mighty, mock my dietary proclivities, then rub it in my face that you’ve succeeded at the one thing I’d have given anything to do you smug little bastard, who do you think you are?” Seunghyun lost coherency proportionally to his mounting rage. “TEN YEARS IN PRISON YOU LITTLE AND NOW YOU JUST GET TO WALK AFTER A FEW MONTHS, DON’T ING KID ME, YOU SLIMY LITTLE WORM!” 

    He hurled his tray at Luhan’s head. Unfortunately, Luhan managed to dodge most of it, but the two offending Tylenols did manage to bounce satisfyingly off his forehead. Luhan was saying something, but Seunghyun couldn’t hear past the rushing in his ears. He lunged at Luhan, clipping his shoulder with a foot, but landed on the floor in a heap, hand straining against its metal cuff.

    “Your delayed-reaction temper is as truly a sight to behold, my friend,” a voice said from the doorway. 

    “I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND,” screamed Seunghyun as the owner of that voice stepped into sight. There was a yellowing bruise on his cheek. “YOU LOST ANY PRIVILEGE TO CALL ME YOUR FRIEND OVER A DECADE AGO, YOU FILTHY, LYING, TRAITOR!” Seunghyun wished his voice would stop cracking so he could sound more imposing. Distantly, he wondered why he was reacting so badly. He had eleven years to get over it, why was he wigging out now? 

    “Luhan, get out,” the man snapped as he crossed the room. Seunghyun felt his breaths come faster and faster. His arms started to tingle with excess oxygen.

    “Get away from me,” he said quietly, looking away from the man. “I don’t have anything to say to you, Kwon Jiyong.”

    “Wouldn’t have been able to guess with your passionate screaming thirty seconds ago,” Jiyong said, seating himself on the floor. “Don’t cry, Seunghyunnie. I’m sorry.”

    Was he crying? A quick wipe to the face came away wet. 

    “You’re a bastard.” Seunghyun grabbed Jiyong’s neck, below that stupid, bouncy mop of poodle hair and pulled him into a hug. He heard a click and felt the metal ring fall away from his wrist. He wrapped his freed arm around Jiyong’s back.

    “If you tell me you’ve gotten married or some in the past ten years,” he muttered, “I actually will kill you.” 

    “Not a chance,” Jiyong laughed, gently running his fingers through Seunghyun’s hair. “I told you I’d come back, didn’t I?”

    “Yes, very prompt about it, too,” Seunghyun huffed, his breaths coming out slower, more regulated. 

    Jiyong winced.  

    “I tried, Seunghyunnie, I really did,” he said softly. “Prison heist was a bit beyond our capabilities, so we decided to wait it out.”

    Seunghyun almost laughed. 

    “So you’re saying this entire set-up with the double-crossing and training was entirely meant to get at me? Don’t be ridiculous Ji, that’s a bit overboard.”

    “Well, I had to word it a bit differently in my proposal, to get the mission through. Had a lot more stuff about gathering SM intel and converting inside players, but my endgame was still to get you over. And we did it, Seunghyun. I always keep my promises.” 

    “Yeah.” Seunghyun looked at Jiyong, eyes softening slightly. “You sure did.”