Having been left alone in a stark silence, Hoya thumbed the edge of the city map angrily. Woohyun had stormed out in the midst of the heated argument to get some fresh air. Hoya grumbled to himself as he glared down at the large table in front of him. Why couldn't Woohyun just do things his way for once and stop being difficult?

But he knew the answer; he knew the answer too well. Woohyun just simply had more authority than him and whatever he said was the law around this place. Sometimes he listened to Hoya, but most times he didn't and his word was always the most important.

Hoya frowned to himself as he clenched his fist and gripped the edge of the table. He should have been the leader; not yellow-bellied cowards like Woohyun. He would give up so many things just to be in charge of this rebellion.

"Don't look at me like that," he growled.

A snort came from behind him and Dongwoo lifted up an eyebrow. "Look at you like what?" he asked. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "I'm not looking at you in any specific way."

Hoya whipped around and snapped, "Don't give me any bull, Dongwoo, I know you're looking at me like I'm some control obsessed freak."

Dongwoo narrowed his eyes at Hoya, not moving from his position at the doorway. “Why? Are you finally acknowledging that you are one?”

Glaring at him, Hoya hissed, “I am not.”

“Well, you’re not doing a great job of convincing me that you aren’t.”

Hoya scoffed and turned around, his eyes focusing back on the city map with a glare. “I don’t care about convincing you.”

“You used to.”

“Well, times like that are over now,” Hoya bit out. “You have made that clear.”

Dongwoo frowned and bit the inside of his cheek. “Have I though? Obviously, I haven’t made myself clear enough.”

Hoya snorted. “I couldn’t care less.”

“Fine,” Dongwoo said, his voice firm and unwavering. “If you don’t care about me then start showing some for Woohyun.”

“And why should I start caring for Woohyun, of all people?” Hoya asked with disdain. “I can barely tolerate him as is.”

“Then start tolerating him. He’s our leader, Hoya, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. No matter what kind of blame you try to pin on him, it won’t work because Woohyun always has this group’s best interests at heart.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Hoya sniffed, turning to face the other. “Why do you think I put up with him? He always has this group as his top priority. I don’t agree with the way he runs it but even I have some respect for his passion.”

“Then why do you challenge him so often?!” Dongwoo burst, looking conflicted and angry. “Why do you feel the need to hate him?!”

With a scoff, Hoya turned around with eyes full of disregard. “You wouldn’t get it,” he said. “You never got it to begin with.”

Dongwoo rolled his eyes as he turned away to leave. “Just cut the kid some slack, will you? Woohyun doesn’t enjoy it anymore than you do.”

Hoya scoffed. “Stop defending him. Just because he hasn’t betrayed us yet doesn’t mean he won’t eventually.”

“You just have no faith in him, do you?” Dongwoo asked incredulously. “It’s unbelievable.”

“Please, it takes a fool to not realize that Woohyun isn’t completely loyal.”

“Hoya!”

“Even now!” Hoya continued, ignoring Dongwoo’s outburst. “He’s left the base again. He always leaves at night and doesn’t come back till morning! Isn’t that a little suspicious to you?”

“Woohyun has a house, Hoya – where do you think he goes?”

“But he always comes back before morning. So that can’t mean he goes back home. Why would he come back otherwise?”

Dongwoo narrowed his eyes. “I can’t believe you’re suspicious of your own colleague.”

“You can’t blame me for not trusting him,” Hoya defended sharply. “He’s–”

The man was suddenly cut off when the sound of screaming and yelling filled the air faintly. The sounds grew louder and suddenly someone burst into their door.

“Get Sungjong quick – our men are back from their recon mission.”

“Back?!” Dongwoo exclaimed. “The sun isn’t even close to rising yet, why would they be–”

“The night patrol caught them. And… and they opened fire.”

Myungsoo woke up alone.

It wasn’t that strange. It was a feeling he was used to most normal mornings. Perhaps he wouldn’t have cared that he had woken up alone if it were not the fact that he had fallen asleep with Sungyeol in his arms the night before. But now the other was nowhere in sight. In fact, the whole room seemed completely empty.

He sat up swiftly, trying to make sense of the situation even with his groggy mind. All the surrounding futons were empty but seemed as if they had been rushed out of. Pillows were scattered and blankets were crumpled and flung everywhere. Had a small hurricane come in and sweep everyone away while he had been sleeping? He shook his head; no – that was impossible. The only way to know what happened was to get up and look around.

Standing up with a small wobble, he headed towards the door and opened it with a large swing.

“Holy–”

He stepped backwards quickly to avoid the people running down the corridor. He stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, opting to follow the direction the entire base seemed to be heading in. There was shouting, yelling and a lot of items and objects falling from people’s arms. Myungsoo bent down to pick up a roll of gauze that someone had dropped.

Gauze could only mean that someone was hurt.

Myungsoo rushed down the hall, navigating his way through the maze of people. It was nearly three in the morning – who could have gotten hurt? Bearing the thought in mind with a bit of panic, he ran down to the infirmary.

The infirmary was actually one of the biggest rooms in the entire base complex. With such a dangerous way of life, a mini hospital was a necessity.

He burst through the door, looking around frantically for his boyfriend amongst the loud chatter and the cries coming from the corner of the room. There, he saw his boyfriend next to Sungjong – the lead medic. They were kneeling down next to a man whose legs and arms were bleeding badly, as well as his side. Sungyeol was speaking to him firmly, forcing him to focus on his eyes rather than his wounds while Sungjong worked to clean up the blood.

“Sungyeol!” he exclaimed.

Sungyeol looked up and gave him a weary half-smile while beckoning him over. Myungsoo ran over immediately and kneeled down. “What happened?” he asked, looking down at the face of the wounded man.

It had been Joon from the rooftops. The man who had been perfectly healthy and unscathed was now in his state.

“What…?”

“Night patrol caught him,” Sungyeol told him quietly. “They spotted him and immediately opened fire.”

Myungsoo’s eyebrows furrowed. “They’re not allowed to do that! They’re only supposed to detain you until the morning. Then they would beat you in the middle of the city,” he said with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Well, that’s clearly not something they do anymore,” Sungyeol replied gruffly. Joon let out a strangled scream and Sungyeol squeezed his hand. “You’re okay, Joon, you’re fine. Focus on my voice, okay? You’re going to be fine.”

Myungsoo looked down at his legs and swallowed at the sight of Sungjong’s bloodied hands reaching in with clamps to pull out the bullet from his leg. He looked back to Sungyeol.

“Is Joon the only one?”

“No – three others were shot also. One was worse than Joon. We don’t know if Seungho will be able to make it through the night,” he said grimly. “If Woohyun didn’t bring them in… Joon might not be alive.”

Joon screamed once again, his chest heaving into the air painfully. His pants were loud and strained and his eyes were focused solely on the ceiling as he gripped Sungyeol’s fingers.

“Sungyeol.” Sungjong turned to the other, his hands trying to hold Joon’s leg. “I need your help.”

“Okay.” Sungyeol nodded. “Myungsoo, would you mind keeping Joon’s thoughts occupied for us?”

“Of course,” Myungsoo replied quickly, taking Joon’s hand from Sungyeol. “Whatever I can do to help.”

Sungyeol shifted towards Sungjong, asking him what was the matter.

“I need you to bandage his leg. I took out the bullet already so just wrap it tightly.” As Sungyeol was doing so, Sungjong kept talking. “Okay, once you’re done I need you to bandage up his left arm. Just leave the bullet in - it won’t do anything to him. If anything it’s stopping him from bleeding to death. While you do that I’m going to have to look at his chest. If we don’t hurry up on that his lung could collapse.”

“I understand,” Sungyeol said, tying the wrap around his leg tightly.

“But Sungyeol,” Sungjong muttered worriedly, “we’re out of anesthesia.”

Sungyeol paused, his eyes wide. “What?”

“The others have already used most of it on Seungho. He’s all bandaged up, but we don’t know if his vitals will be okay. But now we don’t have enough anesthesias for Joon. We weren’t stocked up on it because we didn’t realize this would happen anytime soon. That, and apparently someone dropped a bottle all on their own.”

“Well, what do we do now?” Sungyeol whispered back fiercely. He winced as Joon let out another horrible cry, followed by Myungsoo’s hushes. “If we don’t inject him anesthesias he’s-”

“He’ll live,” Sungjong told him. “It’ll just hurt like a . So we should hurry and try to do as much as we can before his current anesthesia wears off.”

“I think it has already worn off,” Sungyeol replied gruffly. “He’s been in pain for the last ten minutes.”

Sungjong shook his head. “It’s only going to get worse from here. After you bandage his arm, block his vision and then get him to talk, sing – anything. Just distract him.”

Sungyeol nodded and diligently set off to bandage Joon’s arm. Sungjong waited for him to finish tightly binding it before signalling that he was going to start working on Joon’s open chest wound.

“Okay, Joon, I need you to listen to me,” Sungyeol said firmly as Sungjong began working. “I need you to talk to me, okay? Look straight at me and nowhere else. Do you understand?”

Joon nodded, the beaded sweat on his forehead dripping profusely. “Okay,” he forced out hoarsely. “I-I understand.”

“Tell me, um… tell me what happened,” Sungyeol responded quickly, making sure to obstruct Joon’s view. He tugged on Myungsoo’s arm. “Babe, do me a favor and get me warm, wet towels for Joon, okay?”

Myungsoo nodded and shot off in a hurry as Sungyeol kept occupying Joon.

“So what happened?” he asked again. “Who did this to you? Who did this to Seungho.”

Joon opened his mouth to speak only to let out a strangled scream that came scratching out of his throat. He panted in panic, the fear in his eyes prominent. “Holy ,” he breathed. “Holy–”

Sungyeol squeezed his hand roughly. “Joon, I need you to talk to me. Focus on me right now – don’t look away from my eyes. Tell me what happened.”

“We… we were scouting like always,” he began with difficulty. “No one noticed us at all. Then Seungho and I… we decided to get off the rooftops and listen closer to this conversation the night patrol were having.” He his lips and swallowed thickly, but his eyes stayed in laser focus. Sungyeol was proud.

Myungsoo came back with the towels at that moment and Sungyeol took them gratefully. He began to dab the sweat on Joon’s forehead and wipe the dried blood off his temples. Grabbing the other damp towel, he left it on Joon’s forehead to soothe him while he left the other on his neck, making sure to tuck it right beneath his chin.

“Okay, so then what?” Sungyeol prompted. “What happened after you got down from the rooftops?”

“The guards were drinking,” Joon began slowly, his eyes struggling to stay open. “They… they talked about something – the government. The president.”

Beside him, Myungsoo scoffed. “He can’t call himself a president unless he’s running a democracy. Which, if I remember correctly, he isn’t.”

Joon let out a parched chuckle. “Damn right he isn’t. I still haven’t been able to vote.” His eyes screwed shut has he let out a blood-curdling shriek that turned heads and made Sungyeol panic.

“Hold down his legs,” he ordered to Myungsoo briskly. Myungsoo was obedient and did as he was told immediately. Sungyeol pinned down Joon’s arms and chest. “Keep going, Joon. Open your eyes – look at me and tell me what those guards were saying about the president.”

“Something,” Joon groaned in pain, “about – agh! – a new law. A-A new bill of some sort.” His screech filled the air once again.

“You’re okay, Joon – you’re okay. What else did they say, hm? What about this new law?”

“I-I don’t remember,” he heaved. “I just – AH!” he screamed out, the veins in his neck bulging as Sungyeol pinned him down from moving. Joon’s pants echoed around them profusely, the sheer sound of pain in his voice giving Sungyeol chills.

“Keep going,” Sungyeol encouraged breathlessly. “Go on, Joon. Keep going.” He stole a glance behind him, seeing Myungsoo grimace as he tried to keep his eyes off Sungjong’s handiwork. Sungyeol could only hope that the medic was close to finishing.

With his jaw clenched, Joon continued with difficulty. “Then he… he found us,” he seethed, his eyes struggling to stay open. “He saw us and y-yelled at us – called us worthless scum. And then lit us up,” he breathed sharply. His eyes were full of fire and a passion to kill – a passion for revenge. “That son of a – AH!” he shrieked again.

“Tell him I’m nearly done,” Sungjong muttered from behind. “I’m nearly done.”

“Focus, Joon – Sungjong is almost done. You can do this. Tell me who the person who shot you was and this will all be over.”

Joon let out one last final screech as Sungjong finished up. After being reduced to nothing but sweats and pants, Joon said, “The captain of the guard. It was the damn captain of the guard who shot us.”

“Well, that was exciting,” Myungsoo chuckled humorlessly.

Sungyeol tried smiling as he bent over the dirty sink, rinsing his hands of the blood and sweat. “Exciting might just be an understatement,” he replied softly. “Terrifying is more like it.”

Myungsoo sighed as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Sungyeol warmly. “At the very least, he’s in a stable condition now and is on a path to full recovery. He’ll be fine.”

“That’s not the problem though,” Sungyeol stated, reaching for the soap. “The problem is that these guards are getting more militant – without permission or prior notification – and it’s getting more dangerous for us as a cause.”

Burying his face into Sungyeol’s shoulder, Myungsoo muttered, “Well, we can only get stronger in response, right? That always seems to be the answer here.”

“The captain of these guards should not be permitting this. He should be controlling and enforcing the rules on them.” Sungyeol rinsed the bloodstained suds off his hands and watched them swirl down the drain.

“Maybe he broke the rules first,” the younger commented. “Maybe he’s the bad guy.”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes as he turned around, his lower back resting against the edge of the sink. “If he is, then I would like to have a serious chat with him. If we’re going to be run like prisoners then the warden should at least be fair.”

Myungsoo chuckled as he placed a peck on the tip of Sungyeol’s nose. “Calm down, baby. You’ve got plenty of time to formulate some plan of revenge against this monster warden, as you call it.”

Sungyeol raised his eyebrow. “I didn’t call him a monster.”

“No – I added that,” Myungsoo said cheekily, giggling as Sungyeol kissed his lips quickly. “Warden or not – he’s still a monstrosity.”

“I agree with that completely. We’ll get a chance to kill this monster sooner or later though.”

Myungsoo grinned at him as he rubbed his back affectionately. “Until then, we should probably get ready to go. The sun’s going to rise in an hour and the night patrol will disappear. We need to get you home to your family. I’m sure they’re worried sick.”

With a snort, Sungyeol pushed the other off and sauntered away casually. “Oh please – they probably didn’t even bat an eyelash.”

“No, because they thought you were safe,” Myungsoo said, catching up and grasping his boyfriend’s hand as they walked down the corridor together. “But take a second, Yeol. What if the captain had found us instead of Joon and the others? Remember how close we were? We would be road kill by now.”

Sungyeol frowned and stared at the floor. “Yeah. Yeah, we would. We would have been long gone.” A shiver ran down his spine. “It’s a good thing Woohyun happened to be nearby to find them before they could bleed to death on the streets,” he stated. “It’s a really good thing.”

“What was Woohyun doing back in the city at that time anyways?”

“Who knows? Maybe he was just walking around and getting some fresh air.”

Woohyun took a deep breath through his nostrils, the stagnant night air smelling of rust and gunpowder. He had been there earlier – nearly two hours ago. It was here that he found Mir struggling to hold up Joon and Seungho in his arms; here, that they nearly bled to their deaths.

He had helped transport them back to the base where he dropped them off and dashed away. The smell of blood had always made his head hurt sharply, after all. And the entire base would reek of blood until dawn, so he couldn’t stay.

So now here he was, back in the city. The sky was still dark, but the horizon was lightening up just a little bit. Dawn wouldn’t be for another hour. So long as he didn’t get caught, he would be okay. Everything would be fine as he didn’t get caught – didn’t get shot for that matter. He wondered briefly which guard had lodged bullets into his friends, but he didn’t dwell on the thought for long. The stench in the air already had his nose burning.

He slipped through a few more dank alleyways, hoping that he was still stealthy enough from the last time he had done a scouting mission. It had been a while since he had done so – ever since he was appointed the leader. He had been immensely busy since then and it was a shame that he couldn’t lurk around the city at night much anymore.

He poked his head out of an alley opening, the adrenaline pumping madly in his system.

Suddenly, a rough hand clamped down on his shoulder and turned him around sharply. Woohyun bit back a scream – if anything it would be easier to fight off one person rather than three.

But as soon as he was turned around a gun was levelled straight at his forehead, the man’s finger already on the trigger. Woohyun looked over to stare the captain of the guard in the eye through his tinted mask.

Slowly but surely, the gun was lowered and the captain lifted his mask slowly. “Woo… Woohyun?”

Woohyun broke into a grin as he jumped into the other man’s arms and landed a kiss on his mouth. “I haven’t seen you in a long time! I missed you, Sunggyu-hyung.”

( A/N ) ;

ohoho this drama tho

and it's only chapter 2 lmao

no worries, everything will resolve itself ( i hope lol )

meanwhile, if you're still interested, then go ahead and subscribe and leave a lovely comment down below /winks at you real smooth like/ and if you're real pleased, then leave an upvote :D ( but that's never ever required lmaoooo )

but really that's it for now so till next time then lol

-- quinnie --