A/N: Thank you and sorry for the wait! ^^ Here's Sungmin and his gang in the eyes of Kibum. We will revert back to Sungmin/Kyuhyun's point of view mostly after this chapter.

Slowly making his way down the hallway, Kibum noticed that there was a small gap at Kil’s door. He was about to knock when he heard a groan. Pushing the door lightly to make a wider gap, Kibum peeped in to see Kil standing in front of the mirror, trying to apply antiseptic cream on a long wound on his back. There was more than one wound and Kibum recognised them as whip wounds. 

Kil groaned in pain again as he stretched his hand to the back, reaching out for a part of the wound where the blood has dried. It must have bled when Joker pushed him against the wall and slapped his back. Kibum stepped into the room, closing the gap at the door with a light push using his leg. He pulled off his leather gloves, stuffed them into his pocket, and grabbed Kil’s hand that was holding a cotton bud.

Kil widened his eyes at him in the mirror.

“Let me help you.” Kibum said. He put down the file on the table and took the bottle of disinfectant, cleaning the blood.

After disinfecting, Kibum applied the cream over the wounds, working fast with his fingers. He was after all experienced from treating his own wounds. He slowed down to be more careful when he caught Kil wincing in the mirror.

“Don’t put on your shirt yet. Let the antiseptic settle for a while.” Kibum advised as he threw the used cotton buds into the small plastic bag and recapped the tube of antiseptic cream. 

“Thank you…”

He stopped when he caught Kil staring at the tattoo on his right hand. It was the TriSatan logo, but below it was the letter ‘J’.

Kibum could feel the pity shooting out of Kil’s eyes when their gazes met. He reached out for his gloves quickly, putting them on to hide the tattoo.

“I’m sorry for what I said in the meeting room. I assumed and overreacted.” Kil said. Kibum could still feel his gaze on him.

“It’s fine.” Kibum looked up at Kil and he realized that tears were b in the latter’s eyes.

“Sorry.” Kil wiped his tears quickly before they fell. “I was under Joker and Chopper before. They abused me physically, but not in a ual way… What the hell did he do to you…”

No, it wasn’t pity. Kil was feeling the pain for him. Kibum softened at the guy. The people here cared for others.

“Things I want to forget. I would erase the tattoo if I could, but it made no difference. He marked me every single time.” Kibum bitterly smiled, as if it would lighten things up. But it hurt. A lot.

He gasped when Kil pulled him in for a tight hug. He wanted to pull away.

“It’s not your fault, it will be okay, don’t cry.”

That’s when he realized tears were wetting his face.

“Let’s forget the past. You are now an important part of us now. We won’t let anyone trample on you, so don’t trample on yourself.”

“I—I…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay… You’re safe now.” Kil rubbed circles in his back lightly.

Safe. The word broke his emotional lock, triggering his vulnerability to surface. Kibum sobbed. He felt like he could really start a new life now, like what Asphalt said. Kil’s embrace was so warm he found himself unable to pull away. He was tired of being pushed around and pushing people away to protect himself. He wanted to lean on others too.

When Kibum's sobs soften, Kil finally pulled away, wiping his tears off with a piece of tissue. Kibum took the tissue and wiped his face on his own.

Kibum looked at the guy, realizing that his shirt had smudged the medication on the wound on Kil’s front torso.

“Sorry, your wound…” Kibum reached out for the antiseptic cream.

“No, it’s okay.” Kil stopped Kibum.

Staring at Kil’s wounds, he couldn’t stop himself from asking. “How did these… Did Daunt—” He hated to think that the blond superior who stood up for him punished his underlings like that.

“No no, Dauntless hyung didn’t do this. He hardly punishes and the punishments aren’t this kind, more of chores and exercise and weird things.” Kil smiled, seeming to remember a funny punishment or something. Then he turned serious, gesturing for Kibum to sit down on his bed with him. Kibum followed.

“I’m telling you since you are part of us now. But this stays within our division.” Kibum wondered what big secret it was.

“Dauntless hyung was dumped by his ex ten years ago, but his ex returned to Korea recently after these ten years. The problem is, he is a CID officer and he had been harassing hyung no matter how hyung pushes him away or avoid him. They were overheard by one of Joker’s underlings and the Archs got to know of their relationship. They sent hyung to a disciplinary session.”

Kibum’s expression turned into one of shock. Although he was locked up in Arch-J, he had heard about such sessions from the other underlings and how they tortured the targets. The targets for discipline either ended up killed or severely injured.

“But… how did you…”

“Haven’t you heard of how Dauntless hyung is like?” Kil raised an eyebrow.

“No… I was locked up at Arch-J and I hardly hear about people outside the house…” Kibum answered.

“Ah…” Kil responded. “You see, Dauntless hyung is known for standing up for his own underlings. He is very protective of us and Joker’s gang knew that. They used us to threaten him.”

Now Kibum understood why Kil was so protective of Dauntless. It was mutual.

“But my wounds are nothing compared to hyung’s. He took half the for me and they… cut his thigh.” Kil frowned.

“Cut his thigh?”

“Yeah… I was already passed out by then, but Hunter said they stabbed a knife into his left thigh and dragged it down while questioning him. The cut was quite deep, but hyung insisted on discharging from the hospital so that other people won’t suspect anything.”

“Why?”

“Because reality is harsh. People, even the other two factions, would target us if they know hyung is this badly injured. Especially since Asphalt hyungnim is ruling TriSatan unofficially. So hyung tries to hide it, even from us so that we won’t worry.”

He was injured? That explains his reaction and what Joker did.

“But why?” Kibum voiced out. He was confused.

Kil gave him a questioning look.

“Why did he stand up for me? He knew Ma—Joker would hurt him, didn’t he?” Kibum mentally slapped himself for almost calling Joker his master. He needed to change that – Joker was just a bastard he shouldn’t be afraid of now.

“He knew, but that’s Dauntless hyung. It seemed he knew about your story then already and wanted to protect you.” Kil explained.

“But he doesn’t know me…”

“He knew you were going to be his family, our family.” Kil smiled.

But Kibum couldn’t accept it. He didn’t believe there was someone as selfless in a gang.

“You will get to know him, Kibum-ssi.” Kil added when Kibum kept quiet.

Pushing the confusion to the back of his mind, Kibum turned to Kil. “Kibum, just Kibum. Thank you…”

“I should be the one saying thank you.” Kil grinned widely. “I’m Ryeowook, but you can just call me Kil.”

~---~

Sungmin hissed in pain as Y pulled the soaked bandage off his thigh. Y had already treated his whip wounds before moving on to his thigh. The stitches were still in place, but all the walking and pressure on his wound had caused whatever healing to tear apart. It was all red and part of the blood was still wet.

He cursed at Joker in his mind for being such a bastard – doing those things to Kibum and deliberately attacking his wound.

“I told you to stay home, hyung. Look at what happened!” Y’s nagging started.

“Asphalt hyung asked for me there, how could I stay home…” Sungmin retorted weakly. The pain throughout the day wore off all his energy.

“Still, you shouldn’t have spoken up against Joker-nim. You just like to ask for beatings hur, hyung.”

Blood mixed with solution stained the towel Sungmin held under his thigh as Y cleaned his wound. The disinfectant solution stung at his cut, but it was nothing Sungmin couldn’t handle.

“I couldn’t just let him bully Kibum like that. I heard his story.”

“So you would have known he had been through worse, isn’t it? He won’t die from getting touched a few more moments.” Carefully, Y dabbed the wound area dry before dressing the wound with a new bandage.

Sungmin knew Y held nothing against Kibum and was just concerned about him. Maybe there was another way around, but he just felt the need to defend Kibum then.

“I’m sorry, Y. Keep this a secret from the rest, okay?”

“Why